killed, transport disrupted as rains

wreak havoc in Maha

Mumbai, Oct 15 (UNI) At least 10 persons were killed on Thursday, several towns and villages inundated, and road and rail traffic hit as the retreating rains wreaked havoc in several districts of western Maharashtra and Marathwada, and parts of Mumbai and coastal Konkan region since Wednesday night, officials said. The worst-hit were Solapur, Kolh-paur, Sangli, Pune, and Satara in western Maharashtra and Latur, Osmanabad and Beed in Marathwada. Six persons were killed in a wall crash in the pilgrim town of Pandhar-pur in Solapur district early this morning after heavy overnight rains lashed the region. A car carrying three persons was washed away in the flood waters in Solapur of whom two were rescued and the third is believed to have drowned, while three others drowned in a flooded area of Pune district. With a grim weather forecast for the next two-three days, Chief Min-ister Uddhav Thackeray said that all disaster relief agen-cies, police, fire brigades, and medical services have been deployed to render as-sistance to the people. “The NDRF teams have been de-ployed in Osmanabad, at Pandharpur and Solapur, and Baramati in Pune, while the army, navy and air force have been kept on high alert to help out in any emergen-cies,” he said. Compounding the rain’s havoc were floods in several big and small rivers like Chandrabhaga (Solapur), Panchganga (Kolhapur), Ter-na (Latur & Osmanabad) and rivers in Pune.

Man set on fire following dispute in

Goa, dies

Panaji, Oct 15 (UNI) The North District police in Goa on Thursday filed a case of murder, after a middle-aged man who was set ablaze by unknown persons near Por-viorim, a Panaji suburb, suc-cumbed to burn injuries at a government hospital. The Opposition has now demand-ed the prompt arrest of the culprits, even as Chief Minis-ter Pramod Sawant has urged the police to swiftly investi-gate the crime. Police say that the victim had been identified as Vilas Methar, a resident of a village near Porvorim, who had been at loggerheads with a real estate developer. “The victim was travelling in a car on Wednesday, when un-known persons stopped him, poured petrol on him and set Methar on fire. We are trying to track down the accused,” a Goa Police spokesperson said. Methar was admitted to a local government hospital where he was being treated for severe burn injuries.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMESENGLISH DAILYENGLISH DAILY

VOL NO. XII ISSUE NO. 53 PAGES. 8+8 VOL NO. XII ISSUE NO. 53 PAGES. 8+8 /- 4/- 4`

PUBLISHED FROM: HYDERABAD, CHENNAI & BANGALORE EDITOR IN CHIEF: BUCHI BABU VUPPALA16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020 www.thesouthindiatimes.com /facebook/thesouthindiatimes.yahoo.in / thesouthindiatimes.yahoo.in ////////////////////

RUSSIAN, CHINESE THREATS TO UK GROWING IN SEVERITY: MI5 CHIEF

RAIN HAVOC: YEDIYURAPPA TO HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING OF ALL DCS

PUNJAB CM ASKS VILLAGE HEADS TO COUNTER COVID

PROPAGANDA

SHORT TAKES Telangana suffered Rs 5000 crore loss due to fl oods

Hyderabad, Oct 14 (UNI): Several residential areas in Hyderabad and sub-urbs remained inundated on Wednesday as unprec-edented rainfall has left at least 15 people dead.

Hyderabad has been lashed by rains since Tuesday evening. The rains abated early Wednesday, but dozens of colonies both in the city

and suburbs remained under water while water logging and fallen trees af-fected the vehicular traffi c within the city and also on the national highways to Vijayawada and Ben-galuru. The heavy rains under the impact of deep depression wrecked hav-oc in the Telangana capi-tal as overfl owing lakes and open nalas fl ooded

roads and colonies. Au-thorities on Wednesday opened 13 of the 17 gates of Himayat Sagar reservoir on the outskirts of Hyder-abad to let excess water into the Musi river which fl ows through the city. Hy-derabad Metro Water Sup-ply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) opened the gates of Himayat Sagar as the water level touched its

Full Reservoir level (FRL) of 1,763.500 feet.In view of the unprec-edented rains for the last 12 hours and as per the direction of Chief Minis-ter K Chandrashekar Rao, Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar reviewed the fl ood situation on Wednesday and declared a public holiday to all Gov-ernment offi ces including

all private institutions in GHMC area today and to-morrow. In a release here, the Chief Secretary also advised GHMC offi cials and District Collectors to arrange relief camps and shift the people residing in low lying and inundated areas. Kumar also advised the people not to come out from their houses unless there is a serious necessity.

TELANGANA SEEKS IMMEDIATE RELIEF OF RS 1,350 CRORE FROM CENTRE

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) The Su-preme Court on Thursday dis-missed a writ petition fi led by Re-public TV channel to quash the summon issued by the Mumbai Po-lice to the offi cials of the channel in connection with the TRP case and asked the petitioner to approach the Bombay High Court.

"We must have faith in the High Court. Encroaching upon its juris-diction sends a bad message," Jus-tice D Y Chandrachud stated. Jus-tice Chandrachud underlined that the case was registered in Mumbai (Worli) and it would be better if the concerned party approaches the High Court.

The bench advised the peti-tioner, represented by the senior advocate Harish Salve, to knock the doors of the HC under Article 226 of the Constitution. The said Article empowers the High Court to issue

orders, directions or writs to any person, government or authority. When Salve bated for Article 32. , under which an individual can ap-proach the Supreme Court for the violation of its fundamental rights, Justice Indu Malhotra, another judge of the bench, said the scope of Article 226 is wider than Article 32. The court allowed the petitioner to withdraw the petition.

TRP case: SC quashes Republic TV plea against Mumbai police summon

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) President Ram Nath Kovind spoke to his Turkmenistan counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov over the phone on Thursday and dis-cussed bilateral ties between the two countries. The two leaders acknowledged the warm and cordial relations between the two countries underpinned by historical and civilizational links. They noted with satisfaction the sustained momentum of co-operation in diverse areas.

“The leaders agreed on the immense potential that exists in trade and economic spheres and noted the suc-cess of joint collaboration between Indian and Turk-men companies, particularly in the pharmaceutical sec-tor,” said a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The total trade between the two countries as per of-ficial data for the year 2018-

19 stood at $66.27 million of which exports from India stood at $45.64 million and imports by India at $20.63 million registering a surplus of $25.01 million in India’s favour. Turkmenistan’s ma-jor items of import from In-dia include electronic and electrical items, machinery and woven apparel and pharmaceuticals, frozen meat and tyres. Exports to

India comprise of fertilizers, cotton, raw hides and inor-ganic chemicals (like Sul-pher, Iodine). India provides training for Turkmen na-tionals under the ITEC pro-gramme. In 2018-19, 30 ITEC slots were offered to Turk-menistan. In all, since the inception of the programme for Turkmenistan in 1994, over 400 Turkmen nationals have been trained in various courses. In addition, India provides ICCR Scholarships to students from Turkmeni-stan to pursue graduation , post-graduation and Ph.D every year. There are over 300 students from Turk-menistan pursuing higher education in India in various reputed universities.

Kovind thanked the Presi-dent of Turkmenistan for his telephone call and for his personal commitment to strengthening bilateral rela-tions with India.

Prez Kovind holds discussions with Turkmenistan President

Rahul to launch Punjab’s Smart

Village Campaign

Chandigarh, Oct 15 (UNI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will flag off Phase-II of Pun-jab’s Smart Village Campaign virtually on Saturday to pave the way for the next phase of the holistic development of the 13,000 plus villages across the state. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will join Gan-dhi in the virtual launch of the campaign, which will be launched simultaneously from 1,500 rural locations in the state. The programme will be attended by all state cabinet ministers, the Assembly Speaker and Deputy Speaker, state party President Sunil Jakhar, and key officials, including Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, from vari-ous locations through video conferenc-ing. All Congress MLAs from Punjab will also participate in the programme, in ad-dition to some select sarpanches from the nearby districts of Patiala.

Chandigarh, Oct 15 (UNI) Less than 24 hours after the talks between the Cen-tre and representatives of farmer unions ended on a stormy note, farmers be-long to 29 organisations on Thursday declared they would intensify their non-violent stir and announced state-wide protests in Pun-jab on October 17 against the three farm laws passed by Parliament.

The groups announced they would stage sit-in pro-tests outside the residences

of the state BJP leaders, be-sides deciding to continue with the suspension of trains and blocking of road

networks near toll plazas.“There will be state-wide

protest in Punjab on Octo-ber 17. Our ‘rail roko’ agi-

tation and ‘gherao’ of toll plazas in the state would be intensified and effigies of Prime Minister (Naren-dra) Modi will be burnt,” a spokesperson for the farm-ers’ unions told the media here. The BJP leaders rang-ing from district presidents to MPs to MLAs, both present and former, would be held captive in their residences as they were involved in “provocation”, he said. Also, businesses owned by two large corpo-rate houses.

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Sou-mya Swaminathan on Thursday said that young and healthy peo-ple may have to wait till 2022 to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Swaminathan also stressed that health workers and those at highest risks should be prioritised.

She indicated that, despite the many vac-cine trials being un-dertaken, speedy, mass shots were unlikely, and organising who would given access first in the

event of a safe vaccine being discovered was still being worked on.

“Most people agree, it’s starting with health-care workers, and frontline workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are at highest risk, and then the elderly, and so on,” Swaminathan was quoted as saying to The

Guardian.“There will be a lot of

guidance coming out, but I think an average person, a healthy young person might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine,” she added.

Swaminathan hoped there would be at least one effective vaccine by 2021 but it would be available only in “limit-ed quantities”. Swami-nathan also warned against complacency about the virus death rate, saying with the increasing number of cases, mortality would also rise.

Punjab farmers to hold state-wide protests on Oct 17

Jaipur, Oct 15 (UNI) Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday asked people to cooperate in the fight against the Covid-19 pan-demic and look after their families, as the virus has been continuously mu-tating itself and there is no treatment or vaccine for this virus till date.

“None of the doctors are aware of its treatment, neither is there any vaccine or medicine available for it. Many companies are simply spend-ing millions to bring out its medicine. Doctors in Rajasthan say that if everyone starts wearing masks, then Covid-19 spread can be checked,”

Gehlot said, as he urged people to wear masks whenever they step out of their homes. The Chief Minister also said that there are many patients who have turned negative but are facing other challenges after recovering.

Corona changing its mood, no doctor knows

its treatment: Gehlot

Kejriwal launches ‘Red Light On,

Gaadi Off’ campaign

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) As soon as the traffic signal turns red on the roads of Delhi, drivers should switch off their engines. By doing so, the Capitals pollution can go down drastically. Switching off the engine at a traffic junction can reduce the harmful PM10 particles in Delhis air by as much as 1.5 lakh tonnes, Chief Min-ister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday. Kejriwal says pol-lution is increasing in Delhi. Like every year, stubble has started burning in neigh-bouring states these days. “We cannot do anything about the pollution from the smoke of stubble burning. Still, Delhi is trying to com-bat pollution. For this, we have launched a new cam-paign from Thursday called Red light On, Gaadi off,” an-nounced the Chief Minister.

Young, healthy people may not get Covid vax until 2022: WHO

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) The Union Health Ministry on Thursday said the country's dou-bling time of Covid-19 cases has sharply increased to 70.4 days from 25.5 days in mid-August, which is nearly thrice the time being taken earlier.

"This indicates a substantial fall in the daily new cases and the con-sequent increase in time taken to

double the total cases," the Min-istry tweeted as India recorded a spike of 67,708 coronavirus cases and 680 deaths in 24 hours, as the tally mounted to 73,07,097 cases.

A graph along with the Minis-try's tweet showed India's dou-bling rate was 27.7 days on August 18; 32 on August 30; 35.6 on Sep-tember 17; 51.4 on October 2; and 70.4 on October 14.

India's Covid cases doubling in over days

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Two of the biggest takeaways from the Quad security dialogue were that US confrontation with China over Taiwan has the potential of serious escalation and that Washington blames Beijing for not only the global pandemic but also for the economic hit on the American economy on the eve of Presidential elections. While India is legitimately worried about the on-going military stand-off with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in East Ladakh, the three other Quad powers were far more concerned about China’s bellicose moves on Taiwan. With US Navy super carriers and destroyers patrolling the South China Sea, there is serious military friction over Beijing’s bullying of Taiwan. Indo-US interlocution and diplomatic feedback from the Indo-Pacifi c indicates that Beijing’s “One China” mantra may come under question if US President Donald Trump returns to power, although the Biden campaign has signaled that it too will take the hard line on China. The legislation introduced in Capitol Hill over Tibet and Xinjiang, and the military moves over Taiwan and South China Sea are clear indicators that the “One China” policy could be called out by Washington — although some experts believe that the Trump administration is also applying the squeeze on China in the hope that a potential international incident could help the incumbent President in an election where he is trailing his opponent. While China wants the world to recognise “One China” policy as a matter of its right, it evidently has no respect for sovereignty of others including India, Japan (Senkaku Islands) and Russia (Vladivostok). China does not recognise Ladakh but wants India to recognise its occupation of Tibet, Xinjiang and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) construction in Occupied Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. And of course, it can always be sanctimonious over Jammu and Kashmir, more so when politically desperate Valley politic are apparently asking Beijing to intercede on their behalf. China watchers in New Delhi believe that the PLA aggression in Ladakh is directly linked to the security of the CPEC in PoK and Northern Areas. The PLA has made out a case that the new Ladakh map published after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019 indicates that India will put pressure on CPEC in Gilgit-Baltistan. This is also the reason that Beijing convinced Pakistan to declare Gilgit-Baltistan as the fi fth province — even though this compromised Rawalpindi’s decades-old Kashmir agenda. At a subterranean level, Beijing has involved both Nepal and Pakistan for abrogating the Buddhist cultural plank from India by highlighting the place of birth of Prince Siddharth (in Nepal) and the prominent Gandhara school that fl ourished (in Pakistan) before Islam swept through the Af-Pak region. The world of Buddhism will be further complicated by China in the coming years over the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama. While the exiled leader continues to be popular with a Buddhist temple dedicated to him being built in Tuva in Russian Siberia, Bejing’s Sinicization of Tibet will put very serious pressure on the very institution of Dalai Lama itself in coming years. However, Beijing is least bothered about global statements. Its expansion plans have picked up steam after a weak global response to Beijing’s introduction of security laws in Hong Kong and the near-absolute silence of ASEAN countries over events in Taiwan and the South China Sea due to the massive economic clout of the middle kingdom. Beijing has refused to be part of any arms control negotiations despite rapidly growing nuclear arsenal and delivery platforms. The PLA’s cyber offensive capabilities now match the best in the world but it has no intentions of joining the proposed US-Russia cyber talks. The time has come to call out China for the global bully it is before it becomes the hegemon it wants to be.

PUSHBACK TO CHINA’S POLICY IN QUAD DIALOGUE

2EDIT16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

JAWHAR SIRCAR

Pandora appears to have been waiting for the public state-

ment made recently by the police commissioner of Mumbai to open her dainty box and let out confusion, wrapped in highly-charged emotions.

The claim that some television channels were caught red-handed brib-ing households to raise their television rating points (TRP) was met with howls of approval from the rest of the media and an exasperated public and, of course, equally cacophonous protests from those accused of manipulation. Interest-ingly, almost the entire TV news industry appears to have united as never be-fore against this reported malpractice. In this bed-lam, major issues are, however, getting mixed up and while scores are being settled, the un-precedented nationwide interest, alarm and angst should call for some posi-tive course-correction.

After all, the matter involves not only the Rs 27,000 crore of rev-enue that TV channels garner from advertis-ers and product sellers, it also affects the more critical phenomenon of agenda-based television controlling public tastes and views. The exagger-ated sensation that some channels whipped up in the last few weeks to transform an otherwise simple case of a star’s death by suicide and his alleged use of drugs and anti-depressants that held audiences in almost hypnotic control is very

worrisome. It also re-vealed an extraordinary level of both toxicity and a dangerously unbalanced spirit of revenge.

A constant criticism against BARC is that 44,000 meters can hardly claim to represent the views of nearly 20 crore television households. True, very true, though all sample surveys have simi-lar limitations. BARC had been tasked by the gov-ernment to instal 55,000 meters by 2021 while the Telecom Regulatory Au-thority of India (TRAI) had recommended that the sample size be increased to 60,000 by now and to 100,000 by the end of 2022. One may still argue that a few thousand ad-ditional meters may not make much of a differ-ence as the sampling size still remains small when compared to the mam-moth ‘universe’. But then, sampling is all about get-ting the right feel from rel-atively smaller numbers based on sound statistical principles and honest ex-ecution.

BARC is mandated to

follow quite strict profes-sional standards that are monitored by industry representatives from TV channels (with all their rivalries), advertising agencies, big advertisers and established statis-tic . Besides, one-third of selected households are changed every year to avoid vested interests from accruing.

This is all about the safeguards in position but despite all this, even the best of systems have been tampered with in the past. The weakest links in the chain appear to be the outsourced agencies that BARC employs to physi-cally install the meters in selected households. This is the ‘human factor’ that has a ce rtain element of malleability at all times. Though absolute secrecy is maintained and infor-mation is so sliced up that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, human craftiness can and has beaten many foolproof systems in the past. The Mumbai Police is saying exactly this – that former employees of the

agency that set up the bar-o-meters in house-holds on behalf of BARC played foul at this ‘last mile human interface’ level. They were appar-ently caught paying some households (we don’t fully know how many) to turn their meters on so that some channels were falsely given higher view-ership or TRP ratings. It thus appears that some delivery boys messed it all up at the doorstep – for petty gains, despite checks and balances. So far, there is no pointer in the public domain that BARC’s core system has been penetrated but it is too early to say whether others were involved and how deep the termites bit their way in.

Where an accused high-profi le TV channel is concerned, it is only the ‘English news’ genre that we need to look at. It may surprise many to learn that English news constitutes a very mi-nuscule audience – only 0.02% of all the 80 crore or so television viewers of India. The last estimate

is that English news TV received some 1.2 crore impressions, which is ac-tually 0.03% of the total TV impressions but it cor-nered 1.2% of television revenues, because this segment has greater pur-chasing power. To com-pare numbers, we fi nd that Hindi fi lm channels scoop 10% of TV revenues and Hindi news channels get some 6%.

The poison on the sil-ver screen, Two distinct issues emerge out of this. The fi rst is that the law on media needs to be re-examined, while the second is about how we can check increasing toxicity in the media. In fact, many people who are protesting against the TRP scam may actually be more bothered about poi-son on the silver screen.

But we need to be cau-tious about the law cover-ing broadcasting in India, if not the law for the en-tire media, even though it is screaming for atten-tion. The reason is that we are in a dangerous phase where democracy and rights are concerned, and

all twists and turns are being utilised by a genet-ically-domineering and partly-paranoid regime to increase its stranglehold over every aspect of the life of its citizens.

In a recent case when the Supreme Court want-ed the government to reg-ulate hate programmes on television, the infor-mation and broadcast-ing ministry turned it all around and proposed that regulation should begin with digital media. It was not only desirous of controlling this largely unregulated area, but online journals that now represent the last line of defence of an embattled and bruised liberal de-mocracy were surely in the regime’s mind as next targets – when it sought to twist the court’s advisory to suit its hegemonic ad-vances.

The other problem of controlling malevolent television programmes also requires careful han-dling, even though it has fi nally and mercifully evoked a public outcry after the Mumbai police started this case. It was surely convenient to dis-tract people’s attention away from the devastat-ing and unprecedented economic mis-manage-ment, the Centre’s un-satisfactory COVID-19 control measures and the reported incursions made by China at Ladakh. But genufl ecting before a re-gime certainly does not warrant poisoning the television viewing popu-lation at large. While the law on media surely re-quires a serious overhaul, we should.

NAGA SRAVAN KILARU

In a recent outburst, Andhra’s mercurial Civil Supplies Minis-

ter Kodali Nani remarked that his government does not have to heed a party with vote-share lower than NOTA. He advised the Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP to fi rst focus on increasing its vote share from 1 percent to 1.5 per-cent. He was quickly si-lenced and was nowhere to be seen defending the government or talking to the media in the three weeks since these re-marks. This is a peculiar reaction from the ruling party boasting of an un-precedented mandate, winning 86 percent of the Assembly constitu-encies and 50 percent of the vote share in the 2019 elections.

Elsewhere, Jana Sena’s founder and movie-star Pawan Kalyan an-nounced an uncondi-tional alliance with BJP in January 2020. He stopped supporting NDA in 2018 on the issue of Special Category Status (SCS). The Centre repeatedly made its stand clear that AP will not get SCS. With 7 percent vote share in the 2019 elections and fun-damental differences in

ideology, why Jana Sena allied with BJP indicates the latter’s infl uence in Andhra. Each of Andhra’s important parties, in-cluding Telugu Desam Party (TDP), wants to woo the BJP despite its complete rejection by the people.

How did a party with vote-share below 1 per-cent become the fa-voured political ally for Andhra’s major regional parties? Unpacking Andhra politics indicates a prioritising of survival over the mandate of the people.

Why YSR Congress (YCP) strives to be on good terms with BJP is linked to long-running cases of ED and CBI against Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy. For years now, these institutions have been politicised and used as instruments of power rather than justice. Ja-gan is fi ghting cases of disproportionate assets and quid pro quo in-vestments. It is widely perceived that he wants these cases diluted or quashed in return for his support to BJP’s par-liamentary and policy moves. Before 2019, TDP and YCP outdid each oth-

er in fi ghting for SCS, on the Centre’s injustice to AP, and its disregard for Amaravati.

Jagan Reddy made his 5 Lok Sabha MPs resign. Put in a corner, the TDP government broke its al-liance with the BJP, intro-duced a no-confi dence motion and gave fi ery speeches, one of its MPs even speaking extempore in Hindi. Its MPs regu-larly protested and fasted outside the Parliament, went on fasts and con-ducted mass events. The powerful narrative of the Centre’s injustice meant that the BJP candidates lost deposits in ALL of Andhra’s 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha con-stituencies. Now, both parties are conspicuously silent on these issues, evi-dent in the kind of ques-tions and debates NOT raised by any of the 25 Andhra MPs.

Only a single question was raised on SCS. TDP stuck to raising this in de-bates. Despite being Lol Sabha’s 5th biggest party, YCP did not send any representation, hold any meetings with Central of-fi cials or strongly demand SCS. Until 2018, the then TDP government actively supported the NDA’s

much-maligned moves like demonetisation and complicated GST frame-work. Likewise, the Cen-tre actively backed the then CM Chandrababu’s ambitious greenfi eld capital at Amaravati. With Jagan forcing the is-sue of Special Category, TDP embarked on a war-path against BJP.

But the debacle in 2019 convinced its leadership that their fortunes are best served allying with the BJP, whatever be the costs. All along his gruel-ling 3648-km padayatra between 2017-19, Jagan promised to fi ght against Delhi for Andhra rights if he was given a mas-sive mandate. On cue, 151 MLAs (and 22 MPs) were elected from YCP in what has been among the biggest mandates in Indian electoral his-tory. It also has 6 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. These numbers were crucial in electing NDA’s candidate as Vice Chairman and passing the controver-sial Farm Bills in Rajya Sabha. These numbers are potential bargaining chips to lobby for state interests, pending BRGF allocations, and Special Category Status on multi-ple occasions. But there’s

little on-ground change.TDP and YCP competed

to support controversial legislations on Jammu & Kashmir, citizenship, and recent farm bills. TDP voted for the for-mer bills despite found-ing ideals of secularism and federalism. Pawan Kalyan spoke in support of NRC-CAA when allying with the BJP. YCP’s sup-port is surprising given its solid vote base among Muslims and Christ . December 2019 saw mas-sive anti-CAA protests across AP with TDP MPs participating in some of these events. TDP specif-ically rejected the com-bined implementation of CAA-NRC. Eventually, the Jagan government passed the resolutions against NRC and NPR in June 2020. Right now, the oft-heard questions in AP are – will BJP infl uence Jagan’s cases to convict him? Is it allowing him to pursue vindictive politics against the Opposition to capture the TDP vote bank? People don’t trust that BJP will work for Andhra Pradesh’s inter-ests but believe its abso-lute power at the Centre gives it levers to manipu-late regional parties.

The 17th Lok Sabha

began in June 2019 with 4 TDP MPs in the Rajya Sabha switching to the BJP. But TDP has been consistent in appreciat-ing Modi’s efforts, begin-ning from ‘integrating Kashmir’ with India upto his actions controlling the COVID pandemic. Its 4 MPs (one in Rajya Sab-ha and 3 in Lok Sabha) seldom voted against any Bills, only pointing out is-sues in each. TDP looks to force a situation wherein Jagan is convicted lead-ing to a power vacuum.

Chandrababu Naidu has been urging his cadre to prepare for simultane-ous elections in 2022.

Overlapping Vote Banks Of TDP & BJP – Im-plications This brings us to the overlapping vote-banks of TDP and BJP. YSR Congress’ coalition of dominant communi-ties (Reddys, sections of Kapus) and oppressed castes (Dalits, EBCs) re-mained undented during 2014 and 2019 elections – a ‘sandwich alliance’ uniting the extremes of Andhra’s power hierar-chy. TDP’s vote base isn’t so durable. Both TDP and BJP’s ideologies stress good governance, tech-nocratic solutions, pro-business reforms.

TRP MANIPULATION AND TV CHANNELS PROPAGATING HATE ARE DIFFERENT PROBLEMS

BJP BECAME MOST FAVOURED ALLY IN ANDHRA FOR REGIONAL PARTIES

3NATION16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

New Delhi, Oct 15: With a massive spike in air pollu-tion in Delhi and its sur-rounding regions, experts believe that the country needs to incentivise public transport, disincentivise personal vehicular trans-port and have a basket of cleaner fuels in a bid to mitigate the pollution em-anating from the automo-bile sector.

Road transport consti-tutes a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. In India, the transport sector is the third-most greenhouse gas emitting

sector, with the major contribution coming from road transport.

Speaking to , Suyash Gupta, Director General of Indian Auto LPG Coalition, stressed on the need to in-vest in a wide range of alter-native options to power the transport sector. "Much like DTC buses in Delhi shifted to cleaner CNG twenty years back, pri-vate vehicles need to shift to cleaner alternatives." He said that the country must ensure that over the next decade, it manages to phase out a signifi cant por-

tion of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles, includ-ing two-wheelers, in favour

of cleaner and cheaper gaseous fuels such as Auto LPG.

Auto LPG, a mix of pro-pane and butane, is a cleaner automotive trans-

port fuel than traditional fuels. The environmental-ly-friendly and economi-cally-viable fuel can help in better mobility while minimising the impact of transport on human health and the environment. Un-fortunately, despite signifi -cant price advantage over petrol and diesel and prac-tical benefi ts, Auto LPG has achieved only marginal success in India, he said. According to Gupta, anoth-er way to reduce the pollu-tion is to switch to electric vehicles but it has several ifs and buts.

Chandigarh, Oct 15 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has written to all the sarpanches in the state, urging them to aggressively counter the false propaganda being spread about Co-vid-19 by certain mali-cious people.

Amarinder Singh, in his communication, asked the sarpanches to work among the people to ensure that they are not misled by the misinformation and blatant lies, and to strength-en the government’s hands in fi ghting the pandemic, especially in the upcoming festival season.

Though the various measures taken by his government had led to im-provement in the Covid-19 situation, the state cannot afford to be complacent. “We cannot afford to let

our guard down, especial-ly considering the fact that the paddy harvesting is on, as also the government procurement,” he said. Reminding the sarpanch-es of their moral duty as heads of villages, the Chief Minister asked them to maintain strict vigil on the health situation and en-courage anyone showing Covid-19 symptoms to un-

dergo testing. He further asked them to ensure that the patients infl icted with virus, as well as their con-tacts, are identifi ed and kept in isolation, for which elaborate arrangements should be made. Special focus must on ensuring that such people are not discriminated against in any manner whatsoever, he stressed.

PUNJAB CM ASKS VILLAGE HEADS TO COUNTER COVID PROPAGANDA

'EVs distant dream, India needs cleaner fuels to combat pollution' Itanagar, Oct 15 (UNI)

Arunachal Pradesh gov-ernment has appointed 22 MLAs as advisors to 11 ministers, offi cials said on Thursday. An offi cial of the Chief Minister's secretariat said that the advisors, in-cluding three women legis-lators, would assist the min-isters and the government in expediting its functioning and monitoring the ongoing projects.

An offi cial statement said: "Chief Minister Pema Khan-du said these appointments have no fi nancial implica-tion whatsoever to the state exchequer. They (advisors) shall not be entitled to any

emoluments, remuneration, perks and facilities."

"The Chief Minister said that these appointments were necessitated to instil the sense of responsibil-ity among the elected rep-resentatives and uphold the spirit of teamwork so that the work culture in the government improves and the works undertaken are expedited and completed timely," the release added. In a separate notifi cation, the Chief Minister has allo-cated additional charges of Tax and Excise, State Lotter-ies, Economic and Statistics to Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein.

ARUNACHAL GOVT APPOINTS MLAS AS ADVISORS TO MINISTERS

Patna, Oct 15 (UNI) A day after allegations against Tej Pratap Yadav, Bihar Deputy Chief Min-ister Sushil Kumar Modi levelled cheating and money laundering charg-es against his brother and Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav. Modi re-ferred to an affi davit sub-mitted by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav while fi ling his nomination to contest the Assembly election from Raghopur constituency in Vaishali.

“As per his 2015 affi da-vits, Tejashwi reveals that he had given a loan of Rs 1.07 crore to an Indian company. Now, in 2020, he has given a loan of Rs 4.10 crore to a private fi rm. How does he man-age to earn over Rs 3 crore in 5 years. I want to know the source of his earnings especially since he is just

a class 9 dropout and has no job or ancestral prop-erty. He does not play in the IPL. What kind of business does he have?” Modi asked.

“I also want to point out that the properties gifted by late Raghunath Jha and Kanti Singh at Gopalganj and Patna respectively were mentioned as pur-chased properties. These two properties were gifted by them in 2005 in a bid to buy berths in the RJD cabinet,” Modi alleged.

“The current age of Te-jashwi Yadav is around 31 years and as he is claim-ing that these two prop-erties were purchased in 2005, when he was just a 15 or 16 year old minor boy, how could he have purchased those expen-sive properties? At pres-ent, Tejashwi Yadav owns 52 properties in different states including in Delhi,”

Modi said.“As these look dubious,

investigating agencies like the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax should take cognisance of this matter. I will also lodge a complaint with the Election Commis-sion,” Modi added.

“As we know, some of his properties like Delite Marketing Ltd, AK Info-sis, AB Exports located at New Friends Colony in Delhi are being seized by the Enforcement Direc-torate,” Modi said. “Like his father Lalu Prasad and mother Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav is also chargesheeted in the IRCTC scam. The trial of this case get delayed due to the lockdown. I expect that the trial will start soon,” the Deputy Chief Minister said. At present, Lalu Prasad, Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav.

Bihar Dy CM levels money laundering charges against Tejashwi Yadav

After HC warning, Rajini pays property tax

Chennai, Oct 15 (UNI) A day after the Madras High Court warned him for wasting its time by fi ling a case seeking property tax relief of Rs 6.5 lakh for his marriage hall, actor Rajinikanth on Thurs-day paid the amount after posting a tweet that the mistake could have been avoided.

A day after the court's warning, the actor on Thurs-day paid a sum of Rs 6,56,000 towards property tax for the six month period April to September this year for his Raghavendra Marriage Hall in the city and a receipt for it issued by the Greater Chennai Corporation was widely circulated in the social media.

Rajini paid the amount after he drew the ire of the netizens

on social media for approaching the court seeking property tax relief for Rs 6.5 lakh during the pandemic when millions of Ind have lost their jobs and their livelihoods.

Responding to it, Rajini took to twit-ter and said ''lesson from experience''. He wrote, he could have avoided the mistake (of going to the court). “We should have ap-pealed to the Corpo-ration. We could have avoided this mistake,” he said with a hashtag that said ‘Lesson from experience’.

Srinagar, Oct 15 (UNI) The all-party meet of the signatories of the Gup-kar declaration held at the residence of National Conference President Farooq Abdullah here on Thursday. The meeting was convened after for-mer Chief Ministers Fa-rooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah met with PDP President Mehbooba Mufti at her residence on Thursday, a day after she was released from deten-tion. The signatories of the Gupkar deceleration, including Mehbooba Mufti and People's Con-ference Chairman Sa-jad Lone, have reached

the residence of Farooq Abdullah to take part in the meeting. We have named this alliance as

People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. Our battle is a constitutional battle, we want the gov-

ernment of India to re-turn to the people of the State the rights they held before 5th Aug 2019” - Dr

Farooq Abdullah said. The Gupkar declaration was passed by the mainstream parties a day before the revocation of Article 370 in August last year to de-fend the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Mainstream parties, in-cluding National Confer-ence, PDP, Congress, CPI-M, People's Conference, People's Movement and Awami National Confer-ence were originally the signatories of the Gupkar deceleration. On August 22 this year, these parties had issued a joint state-ment reiterating their commitment for the Gup-kar deceleration.

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to Centre and internet giants Google, Facebook, Amazon and WhatsApp over a petition challenging the safety of data of Indian citizens col-lected by these companies for online payments.

The petition fi led by Com-munist Party of India MP Binoy Viswam sought pro-tection of data of millions of Indian users who are using Unifi ed Payments Interface (UPI). The petitioner alleged that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Pay-ments Corporation of India (NPCI), which regulate the UPI system, have failed as they have given permission

to foreign entities for fi nan-cial transactions.

It also alleged that data of Indian users will be at a high risk of being misused as these giants are US based and had violated laws and regulations several times.

The petitioner also brought to the court's no-tice that all foreign compa-nies have failed to follow the RBI's previous order of storing the data only in

India. Despite missing the October 2018 deadline set by the RBI, they are still operating in India as it is, the plea mentioned. It also said that RBI and the NCPI have failed to take any ac-tion against the companies, thus "jeopardising the secu-rity of data of Indian users." "We will issue the notices," a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde stated.

"An entire regulatory framework should be put in place," the bench un-derscored. It also rejected the objection from the re-spondents that notice will prevent them from oper-ating and could be seen as a "stay".

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) Urging the people to ad-here to the Preamble to the country's Constitu-tion, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has called for working towards elimi-nation of disparities in the society.

Addressing the Datto-pant Thengdi Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, Bhagwat said: "Some

people are engaged in creating differences in or-der to gain political mile-age. One has to be careful of them. It's the responsi-bility of those who work towards promoting har-mony in the society to ensure its unity." "We all are one but because of our selfi shness, we have created a distance from

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) After a meeting with representatives of 29 Farmer Unions from Punjab which were as-sociated with agitations in the state during the last few days, the Centre asserted that it is always "open for discussions". "Agriculture is always a top priority for the Union

Government," asserted the Centre after the meet-ing.

The Government reiter-ated that it is committed to "protect the interests of farmers and is always open for discussions".

The meeting with the Secretary (AC&FW) was attended by the represen-tatives of the aforesaid

farmers unions of Punjab.In the meeting, issues

related to farmers' wel-fare were discussed for about two hours.

At the end of this meeting, two memoran-dums on behalf of the Farmers' Unions were given to the Secretary (AC&FW).

Meanwhile,Shiromani

Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday came down heavily against the "gross betrayal of the farmers and their organisations by the BJP government in Delhi" on the pretext of the so-called talks between the representatives of both the sides.

Mulayam, wife test Covid-

positiveLucknow, Oct 15 (UNI) After testing positive for the novel corona-virus, Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his wife Sadhana, were now "stable", a family source said on Thursday. The couple had tested positive on Wednesday. "Both of them were asymptomatic but have been admitted to the Medanta.

'PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE FOR GUPKAR DECLARATION' DEMANDS RESTORATION OF ARTICLE 370

SC ISSUES NOTICES TO GOVT, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, AMAZON, WHATSAPP OVER DATA SAFETY

RSS chief calls for eliminating social disparities

'Open for discussions', says Centre after farmer-govt meeting

ALL-PARTY LEADERS ADDRESSING THE MEDIA OUTSIDE FAROOQ ABDULLAH'S RESIDENCE IN SRINAGAR.

4SOUTH16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

Karnataka’s mobile fever clinic wins national award

Bypolls: K’taka BJP candidate declares Rs

51.91 cr assetsBengaluru, Oct 15 (IANS) The mobile fe-ver clinic and the ‘sthree toilet’ of the state-run KSRTC have won the national award under the ‘CSR for social development’ category amid the coronavirus pandemic, an official said on Wednesday.

“As our staff is committed to be co-rona warriors in the pandemic situation, I dedicate the national public undertak-ings award to it, especially to those who lost their life to the infection,” Shivayogi Kalasad, Managing Director, Karna-taka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), said on the occasion.

Kalasad received the award in a vir-tual ceremony held in Mumbai earlier in the day. “The award is the result of our diligent work although the corporation is going through a difficult situation due to Covid-induced restrictions on move-ment of people to maintain social dis-tancing and contain the virus spread,”

said Kalasad in a statement here. Chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa had flagged off the mobile fever clinic on May 11 in this tech hub to combat the state’s ef-forts in its fight against Covid-19.

The makeshift clinic was set up in an old bus remodelled to collect and test swab samples for Covid or other dis-eases.

“The award will encourage our em-ployees to work more towards social commitment,” Kalasad noted.

The ‘sthree toilets’, rolled out in the city on August 27, were built by convert-ing the transporter’s old buses which had been withdrawn from service.

Operated on solar power, the toilet-bus has been stationed at the central bus stand in the city centre (Majestic area). They have Indian and western toilets, sensor lights and diaper changing areas for babies.

Bengaluru, Oct 15 (IANS) The BJP candidate for the Ra-jarajeshwari Nagara Assem-bly bypolls, Muniratna, has declared self-acquired assets worth Rs 51.91 crore, while his spouse owns Rs 10.51 crore worth assets.

Interestingly, Muniratna owns more gold than his spouse. He owns 3930.45 gm gold, 40.94 kg silver and 111.27 cts diamond, all worth about Rs 1.23 crore. His wife owns just 360 gm gold worth about Rs 4.4 lakh, his declaration stated.

In his 70-page assets and li-abilities declaration submitted to the returning officer here, he

stated that his liability is worth Rs 42.03 crore while his spouse has Rs 4.38 crore.

He owns agriculture land in 29 prominent places across the state, besides owning non-agriculture land in 32 places in and around Bengaluru. Most of these land parcels range from 12 guntas to more than two acres.

He also owns commercial buildings measuring 37,500 sq ft and 4,025 sq ft, besides own-ing seven residential buildings across the city.

Besides this, he has also lent Rs 21.37 crore to various indi-viduals and firms.

Kerala gold smuggling case accused linked to Dawood: NIA probe

Kochi, Oct 15 (IANS) In a major development in the Kerala gold smuggling case, the NIA has found links be-tween one of the accused and India’s most wanted under-world don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and his gang.

The National Investigation Agency probe has revealed that as one of the accused visited Tanzania, where the 1993 Mumbai accused has vast networks, to launch his diamond business and to smuggle firearms.

The submissions were made by the anti-terror probe agency in a Special NIA court here on Wednesday.

“K.T. Ramees and M. Sharafuddin visited Tanzania on several occasions and met one of Dawood’s close aide Feroze ‘Oasis’ and discussed ways to smuggle firearms into the country,” an NIA of-ficial related to the probe told IANS. The official said that

Ramees visited Tanzania first in 2016 to start a diamond business there. He then also smuggled one kilo gold from Tanzania to the UAE in 2017.

Ramees was caught with 13 smuggled revolvers at the Kozhikode airport in No-vember 2019 while returning from Dubai, he added.

Ramees had brought the guns for the Palakkad rifle club, it was alleged, however, the charge was denied by the rifle club.

Another NIA official said that they are checking all the details of Ramees, as he has been linked to gold smug-gling as well as firearms smuggling.

The gold smuggling case first surfaced when P.S. Sarith, a former employee of the UAE Consulate here, was arrested by the Customs Department on July 5 when he was allegedly facilitat-ing the smuggling of 30 kg

gold in a diplomatic bag-gage from Dubai to Thiruva-nanthapuram. The case be-came murkier when Swapna Suresh, a former employee of the UAE Consulate and later employed with the Kerala IT Department, came to light. Her links stretched to the Chief Minister as she had links to M. Sivasankar, Ker-ala’s senior IAS official and secretary to Pinarayi Vijayan. She later revealed that Siva-sankar was her mentor.

After his links with Swapna surfaced, Vijayan first re-moved Sivasankar from the

post of his secretary and also the State IT secretary and later suspended him from service.

While Suresh and her ac-complice Sandip Nair, were arrested from their hideout in Bengaluru five days later. A multi-agency team started probing the case and 30 peo-ple have been arrested so far.

Besides the NIA, ED, DRI, Customs and Income Tax are also part of the investigation. The ED has questioned Kera-la Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel in connection with alleged import of holy books and dry dates.

Three weeks after receiving Jnanpith, Akkitham passes away

K’taka issues guidelines to firecracker sellers ahead of Deepavali

Two arrested for raping minor girl for 22 days

in Odisha

‘Step out with precautions, eat in restaurants to save jobs’

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 15 (IANS) Three weeks after eminent Malayalam poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri was conferred with the Jnanpith award, the hugely popular writer often referred to as Akkitham, passed away at a hospital in Thrissur on Thursday morn-ing, said family sources. He was unwell for a few days.

He breathed his last around 8.10 a.m.

The funeral will be held according to the Covid pro-tocols and will take place at his hometown in Patambi in Palakkad district, later in the day.

The 93-year-old literary icon was given the Jnanpith at his residence ‘Devayanam’ by Kerala Culture Minister

A.K. Balan on September 24.Seated in an armchair at his

home, Akkitham received the award and became the sixth Keralite to be conferred with the prestigious literary award. Akkitham’s work includes “Irupatham Noottantinte Ithihasam”, “Balidarasha-nam” and “Dharma Sooryan” among over 45 works of po-ems, plays and short stories.

Bengaluru, Oct 15 (IANS) The Karnataka govern-ment on Wednesday is-sued Deepavali guidelines for sale of crackers, which makes it mandatory for the firecracker sellers to sani-tise their shops on a daily basis.

Besides, as per the Co-vid-19 protocols, both sell-ers and buyers must wear masks compulsorily and it must be strictly enforced by the sellers during Deep-avali.

The guidelines also man-date that the seller should

not allow the people to gather around their shops in large numbers.

Deepavali is celebrated for as many as 17-days in the state beginning from November 1 to 17.

These guidelines were issued by the Chief Sec-retary T. M Vijay Bhaskar, directed Deputy Commis-sioners (DCs) and Super-intendent of Police (SPs) of all districts, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner and Bruhat Bengaluru Ma-hanagara Palike (BBMP) to enforce these guidelines.

As per these guidelines, only authorised dealers will be allowed to sell fire-crackers and would be per-mitted to sell between No-vember 1 and 17 only.

The firecracker sellers must ensure to follow Co-vid-19 protocols (SOPs) such as maintaining social distance.

The firecracker shops should be operated only in open places and not in crowded places and these shops must have adequate ventilation facility.

Agartala, Oct 15 (IANS) Aspart of their month-long agitations, journalists in Tripura held a sit-in dem-onstration here on Thurs-day to protest against Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Debs reported “threats to the me-dia” last month and attacks on seven reporters in less than a month.

The agitations are being spearheaded by the Tripu-ra Assembly of Journalists (TAJ).

Journalists from different media houses wearing plac-ards took part in Thursday’s

sit-in demonstration that lasted for nearly two hours.

On October 2, scribes in Tripura had sported black badges to protest against Deb’s reported “threats to the media” in an official function at Sabroom in southern Tripura on Sep-tember 11, and attacks on more than seven mediaper-sons in less than a month.

Demanding withdrawal of the Chief Minister’s alleged “threats to the media”, rep-resentatives of TAJ, a body comprising editors and working journalists, recent-

ly met Governor Ramesh Bais seeking his interven-tion.

A delegation of TAJ also met the acting Director Gen-eral of Police Rajiv Singh on Tuesday and requested him to take actions against the offenders who attacked the journalists.

TAJ Chairman and veteran editor Subal Kumar Dey said that after the Chief Minis-ter’s alleged “threat”, more than seven journalists were attacked in different parts of Tripura, but the police did not take any action against

the attackers whereas the Chief Minister remained si-lent. Demanding withdrawal of the comments made by the Chief Minister, Dey said that they would send a detailed memorandum to the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Information and Broadcast-ing Minister, Press Council of India and various other rights bodies, both in the country and abroad.

“We would continue our agitations until the Chief Minister publicly seeks apology for the threat to the media,” Dey added.

Bengaluru, Oct 15 (IANS) Karnataka’s Covid tally increased to 7,35,371, with 9,265 new cases in the last 24 hours, rais-ing active cases to 1,13,987 till Tuesday.

“With 8,662 discharged during the last 24 hours, 6,11,167 recovered from across the state, while 75 succumbed to the in-fection, taking the death toll to 10,198 till date,” said the state health bulletin on Wednesday night.

Bengaluru registered 4,574 fresh cas-es, taking its tally to 2,93,405, including 65,045 active cases, while 2,24,942 re-covered so far, with 3,291 discharged in

the last 24 hours. With 27 dying of the vi-rus on Tuesday, the city’s death toll rose to 3,451 till date.

Of the 925 patients in the intensive care units (ICUs) across the southern state, 351 are in Bengaluru, followed by Dharwad 87, Ballari 75, Hassan 50, Chamarajanagar 40 and Kalaburagi 38.

Of the tests conducted on Tuesday, 39,111 were through the rapid antigen de-tection and 74,660 through RT-PCR. “The state’s positivity rate declined to 8.14 per cent, while case fatality rate stood at 0.81 per cent,” the bulletin added.

Panaji, Oct 15 (IANS) Amid a slowdown in the state economy on account of the Covid-19 pan-demic, Confederation of Indian Industries (Goa) president Manoj Caculo, on Thursday, said peo-ple should venture out by taking safety precautions and patronise businesses to prevent job losses.

Speaking to reporters, after meeting Chief Minister Pramod Sawant with a delegation of CII and other trade bodies, Caculo also said that health is of little consequence if households have no income due to job losses and the economic slowdown.

“People are coming out. People coming to Goa, staying in ho-

tels. Restaurants have started.... I think it is important that people should also try and come out to help the economy. Because if you do not go out and eat in a restau-rant, somebody’s job is not safe,” Caculo told reporters at the state secretariat.

“So we have to take care of our jobs. Otherwise restaurants will close, businesses will close and people will lose their jobs. By tak-ing care of your health, venture out, take care of the lives and live-lihoods of every one in Goa,” Ca-culo also said.

“Health is important. But the economy has to run, because if there is no economy, there is no

income for households, (then) what is the use of your health? Taking proper care of health, all these activities have to start,” he also said.

The delegation had met Sawant to discuss ways and means to im-prove the ‘ease of business’ in the coastal state, which has slipped down from 19 to 24 in the recent ranking announced by the Central government.

Caculo also said that the del-egation had demanded that the businesses and traders should not be burdened with more taxes, like the recent demands made by the municipalities in the state, which have sought full payment of trade

licence fees and other municipal taxes, at a time when most busi-nesses were shut on account of the pandemic.

“Municipalities are demanding full year’s charges for sanitation tax, house tax, trade licences, etc. Besides, we have also sought re-lief from the municipal taxes, ex-cise taxes and a rebate on excise for bar licences. Bars were closed for most part of the year,” Caculo also said.

The number of total Covid-19 positive cases has reached 39,438 in the state, with the number of active cases being 4,188. A total of 519 persons have died due to Cov-id-19 infections in the state so far.

Bhubaneswar, Oct 15 (IANS) The Odisha Police have arrested two persons in the alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Cut-tack, said an official on Thurs-day. The accused have been identified as Santosh Behera and Rakesh Rout.

The two were apprehended within 24 hours of reporting of the offence, said Police Com-missioner Sudhanshu Sarangi.

“Investigation will be com-pleted early for both accused to stand trial and justice done,” he said.

The 15-year-old girl was al-legedly gang-raped in captivity inside a poultry farm for 22 days in Cuttack.

The survivor was rescued on the night of October 13 by the Commissionerate Police from Gatirout Patana area of Cuttack. The statement of the minor girl has been recorded in the POCSO court.

According to police, the vic-tim, a class-IX girl hailing from Tirtol area of Jagatsinghpur dis-trict, had left her house follow-ing a quarrel with her father.

She reached her elder sister’s house at Professorpada in Cut-tack. She stayed there for a few days.

However, her sister and brother-in-law started quar-relling over her stay. Her sister asked the minor girl to return to her home.

When the girl was waiting for a bus at the OMP Square to re-turn home, accused Santosh Be-hera offered her a lift. However, Behera took the girl to his friend Rakesh’s poultry farm where both forcibly confined her and raped her repeatedly.

The accused also recorded the video of the incident on a mo-bile phone and threatened her not to disclose the matter before anyone

Karnataka Covid tally spikes to 7.35 lakh with 9,265 new cases

Tripura scribes protest against attacks on media

TSIT Staff Reporter :Gangirala SreedharKhammam, October-14 : A rare mouse deer which was spotted in the forests at Sathupalli in Khammam has been shifted to Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary in Kothagudem. Sathupalli Forest Range Officer (FRO) A Venkateswaralu said that the Indian spotted Chevrotain (Moschiola Indica) also known as Indian mouse-deer was spotted by locals. On receiving information from locals, the forest officials took possession of the mammal, which was about three months old and shifted it to a Mouse-Deer Park at Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary.Steps would be taken

to trace out the remaining family members of the mouse-deer which was found in Kommepalli forests near the SCCL’s JVR opencast mine and to protect their habitat, Venkateswaralu said. Though the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed the mouse-deer in the ‘least concern’ category, the animal was rare in the State and its distribution was not wide in Telangana, he added.

Thirupathur district collector Sivanarul inspected covid care centre at kunichi PH, Deputy director( Health )

Dr.Suresh also in picStatutory inspection for opening of newly laid double line Section

between Dharwadto Unkal (17 Km) part of the Hubballi

– Dharwad section was done by Commissioner of

Railway Safety on 14.10.2020. Shri A K Rai, Commissioner of Railway

Safety, SouthernEastern Region inspected the section

along with Shri K C Swami, CAO/CN/SWR, Shri

Arvind Malkhede, DRM/UBL & Shri P K Kshatriya, CPM/RVNL, Smt

Madhavi,GGM,S&T/RVNL and Shri Srinivasalu, Dy.CRS. Now the doubling apart from the ghat

section in Karnataka, from Hosapeet to Tinaighat has been completed

except for a smallpatch between Hubballi to Unkal (4 km) for which work is in full swing

and targeted to becompleted shortly. This work is

being executed by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd.

The inspection commenced from Dharwad at 09:00 hrs and en-route,

the track,level crossing gates (manned non-

interlocked traffic gates) , track curves, bridges, Road

over and Under bridges in the section were inspected. During the

inspection, all passengeramenities, Foot over bridges and

station buildings at Dharwad station, Navalur Station and

Unkal were also inspected. At Navalur, goods depot has been

developed with 9 tracksfacilitating it as a major goods depot

and also a C&W checking depot. CRS will give his

authorization, after which the double line will be opened for traffic.

Non-interlocking work inthe section will also be taken up after

CRS authorization.

TSIT BUREAU :Warangal, October-14 : Heavy rains accompanied with gusty winds that lashed since Monday night due to a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal caused havoc and flood like situations here in the erstwhile Warangal district.Lakes and ponds were overflowing with torrential rains throughout for two days Tuesday and Wednesday.District Collector Rajiv Gandhi Hanumanthu inspected the Sriramulapalli village of Kamalapur mandal which was badly hit due to

heavy rains on Wednesday and ordered the officials

concerned to shift the people to safe places and to take up

repairing works immediately.He said that around eight houses were totally damaged while 30 houses were partially damaged due to the heavy downpour in the district. By shifting that family to the rehabilitation centres necessary requirements are provided to them. Around 80 members from low lying areas of NTR Nagar and Ramannapet present under Warangal corporation limits are shifted to safer places.Two days ago, a control room was set up at the headquarters of the GWMC.

Officials advised the citizens to provide information to the special toll free number 1800 425 1980 and WhatsApp number 7997100300.Staff were assigned to work 24 hours a day in three shifts. Special Disaster Response Force personnel were alerted.Meanwhile, City Mayor Gunda Prakash Rao and Municipal Commissioner Pamela Satpathy, have issued orders to cancel the leave of GWMC employees to make them available all the time.

Rare mouse deer spotted in Khammam

COMMISSIONER OF RAILWAY, SAFETY INSPECTS DOUBLING WORKSBETWEEN

UNKAL AND DHARWAD (17 KM) OF HUBBALLI DIVISION OF SWR

Warangal collector told officials to be on high alert

Bengaluru, Oct 15 (UNI) Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa will hold a videoconference with Deputy Com-missioners of rain-affected districts on Friday to take stock of the situation and measures to be taken,

official sources said on Thursday. Accord-ing to the sources,

directions have been issued to all the Dep-uty Commissioners particularly in North Karnataka to take stock of the situation and all urgent relief measures. The Chief Minister will collect the latest informa-tion from the Deputy

Commissioners of Ut-tara Kannada, Coastal Karnataka, Kalyana-Karnataka and Mal-and regions.

Besides, Mr Yedi-yurappa will ask concerned District In-charge Ministers to visit the affected place.

Rain havoc: Yediyurappa to hold emergency meeting of all DCs

5OP-ED16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

By Doyle McManusThe US president was infected by

a virus his administration failed to tame, had to spent three days in the hospital earlier this month for CO-VID-19.

More than 216,000 Americans have died in the pandemic, and the virus is still spreading. Millions more are out of work, with shops and businesses shut-tered in every state.

Wildfires have burnt more than 4 million acres in California, fuelled by the fast-warming climate. Protests and spasms of violence have erupted in doz-ens of cities over police abuses and sys-temic racism.

But the stakes on Nov. 3 are higher. In some ways, the future of American de-mocracy is on the ballot.

Trailing in the polls, President Donald Trump has refused to say he will com-mit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. No previous US president has threatened not to honour the integrity of a national election.

An accidental presidentRepublicans accuse Democrats, with-

out evidence, of trying to steal or manu-facture votes with mail-in ballots. Dem-ocrats accuse Republicans of seeking to suppress votes, with evidence in some states that lies in plain view.

When Trump won the White House four years ago, he was something of an accidental president. He lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, but won the electoral vote thanks to some 80,000

votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Penn-sylvania.

one-term Trump presidency, if it ends in January, may be remembered as little more than a fluke of history, a brief de-tour into conservative populism after eight years of President Barack Obama.

if the president wins a second term with a renewed or stronger mandate, the picture will be very different. Eight years would be an era _ an opportunity for Trump to place his stamp even more deeply on the nation’s institutions and policies.

He will pass more legislation, appoint more federal judges, cement his con-trol of the Republican Party and deepen his purges of the federal bureaucracy, a process an aide once called “the decon-struction of the administrative state.”

A second term could make the Trump Revolution permanent _ or, at least, more durable.

A win by Joe Biden, on the other hand, would represent a decision by most vot-ers that four years of Trumpism was enough.

A Biden win?Depending on Biden’s margin of vic-

tory and whether his party takes con-trol of the Senate as well as the House, it could provide a mandate for a wave of ambitious Democratic legislation _ although not the “socialist agenda” that Trump has ludicrously accused the chal-lenger of secretly harbouring.

almost every presidential campaign, the candidates solemnly tell voters that

this will be the most important election of their lives. This time, the claim may well be true.

“At no time before have voters faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies or two agen-das,” Trump said at the Republican Na-tional Convention in August.

He’s right; rarely in the postwar period have two candidates been so far apart on major issues from taxes and health care to immigration, climate change and for-eign policy.

For all that, the two candidates are alike in some ways.

Both in their 70s, both hark back to the past. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” suggests a return to the white- and male-dominated America of the 1950s. Biden campaigns to restore and expand the progressive policies of the Obama era.

Trump has spent much of the last four years undoing regulations put in place by the Obama administration. If he succeeds in putting federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court, which seems likely, he may get another wish: overturning or gutting the Afford-able Care Act.

Environment, immigration and labour regulation

Similarly, a Biden administration would set about undoing much of what Trump has done _ some of it, the candi-date brags, on his first day in office, with executive orders on the environment, immigration and labour regulation.

More broadly, Biden would seek to re-vive a traditional Democratic agenda of federal activism in domestic affairs.

One of his first acts, Biden says, would be to federalise the nation’s response to the coronavirus _ now fragmented among the states _ by establishing a pandemic testing board and a medical supply task force in the White House.

After that would come a wave of leg-islation if Democrats win a majority in the Senate: bills to eliminate Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for individuals making more than $400,000 a year, modify and expand Obamacare to ensure it survives in the Supreme Court, provide “a road map to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants, and more.

So the fundamental choice voters face is between a thoroughly Trumpist future and a return to the pre-Trump world _ those parts that Biden and his allies can restore.

To many on both sides, the stakes ap-pear existential _ a threat to the future of the republic as they see it. Even allowing for the excesses of campaign rhetoric, the contrast is stark.

Demolish our cherished destiny“This election will decide whether we

save the American dream or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny,” Trump declared in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

Gulf News

America has never faced an election like this

By Ruqayya AlblooshiIf humanity has learnt anything from

the past ten months, it would be both the importance of multilateralism and the detrimental effects that national-ism can have on the inner workings of a modern world. The pandemic revealed the many manifestations of nationalism, and how an isolated approach among nations has harmful consequences such

as limiting the exchange of people and goods, the disruption of key industries such as tourism, as well as the collapse of the global supply chain.

According to the Pew Research Cen-ter, 91 per cent of the world’s population now lives in countries that restrict the arrival of passengers from other coun-tries. Similarly, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and De-

velopment (UNCTAD), there will be a 27 per cent decline in global trade in the second quarter of 2020, marking a signif-icant downturn from the previous three months. As each country locks its border to fight the virus, a resurgence in nation-alism is leading us toward an uncertain social, economic, and political future. Any gains made before the pandemic have radically plateaued or disappeared. Generally, it feels like we are stumbling in the dark.

We cannot address multilateralism with-out mentioning the United Nations, which marked its 75th anniversary just this past September. Seven decades have passed since a Charter signed by Britain, China and the United States established the United Nations in June of 1945. The United Nations rose from the ashes of the Second World War to establish world peace and se-curity as its guiding principles.

Today, with 193 member nations tak-ing part in this global organisation, it has achieved its purpose in stopping war and preventing other world powers from pounding the war drum. However, in the face of the swift-moving COVID-19 virus, the United Nations must reinvent itself, adjusting its purpose and principles to be relevant in a post-pandemic world. It must aspire to both establish global se-curity and find new ways to protect the environment, an unequivocal necessity and a burgeoning interest of many world leaders.

Do everything in our powerWorld leaders expressed their con-

cerns at the 75th General Assembly high-level meeting, which was unique as all convened via pre-recorded videos addressing the wider international com-munity as well as domestic audiences. One of the more profound remarks was made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who stressed “The United Na-tions can be only as effective as its mem-bers are united.” She urged renewed efforts on the part of leaders “to do ev-erything in our power” to find common responses.

Another call to action was made by the President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, who highlighted alarming issues such as climate change that know no borders. He elaborated “I assure you that the smallest, poorest and weakest of nations can contribute ideas as innovative ... as the biggest, wealthiest and most power-ful countries.”

As the United Nations faced reconfig-uration, seeking to embed agile and in-novative systems, we must acknowledge the following:

First, the world is unprepared to not have the United Nations as one of the leading and prominent interna-tional organisations in modern his-tory. It has been a leading platform to provide help to the most vulnerable, almost 60 million worldwide, by ad-dressing climate change issues and

displaced populations. We must ad-mit the success of the Non-Prolifer-ation Treaty, which prevented many countries from obtaining deadly nu-clear weapons.

Second, some may say that the United Nation remains stuck in 1945, especially with France and the UK remaining per-manent members of the Security Coun-cil, while there is only one permanent representative from Asia (China) and no permanent representative from the Mid-dle East (considered to be an unstable region) and Latin America.

Lastly, and most importantly, is the budget contribution by all state mem-bers. Countries with a higher percentage of budget contribution can determine and influence aid based upon their na-tional interests. This will be more chal-lenging in the post-COVID world, as most countries are reducing their bud-gets, which will pose an alarming obsta-cle for the United Nations to continue its operations.

The United Nations has 75 years of robust experience dealing with global challenges such as poverty, hunger, and environmental disaster, all while navi-gating conflicts across regions from Af-rica to Asia, to the Middle East. The Unit-ed Nations is at a critical turning point and will likely face a shortage of breath when it comes times to blowing out its 76 candles.

Gulf News

A critical turning point for the UN at 75

By Fawaz TurkiWill we ever, any time real soon

be able to wash our hands of the Daesh and just go about our busi-ness, now that the group has ef-fectively been dead and buried in our region for close to two years? Not by a long shot.

The extradition from Iraq to the US last week of two Daesh desperados, accused of behead-ing American journalists and aid workers on camera six years ear-lier, came as a jolt, for it reminded us — at a time when we thought we had banished the memory of the group’s savageries from our collective conscience — that the Daesh saga had indeed been for real. Those actors in it were not, after all, characters we had been watching in a horror movie scripted by Marquis de Sade, the 19th century French sicko whose perversions gave rise to the term “sadism”.

At their arraignment last Friday, where as indigents they were as-signed public defendants, the two bearded, scruffy-looking sus-pects, Alexanda Kotey, who was born in London, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who had moved there from Sudan with his family as a child, were bewildered but, one suspects, also relieved, for had they remained in Iraq, they knew

that they most likely would’ve been given a summary trial and executed within the week — no questions asked, no explanations given.

Alas, now and for months to come, as the two get to have their day in court, memories of those Daesh savageries, like flashbacks, will be reignited in our minds, much in the manner that fraught memories are reignited in the minds of post-traumatic stress disorder victims.

In the five short years it was able to strut with arrogant swag-ger across the Levant, where in its heyday it held significant swaths of urban, rural and desert terri-tory that stretched across a third of Syria in the east and close to half of Iraq in the northwest — in all territory reportedly the size of Britain, that contained an esti-mated 12 million people — Daesh, staked for itself a legitimate claim as one of the most unhinged, the most nihilistic and the most cut-throat movements in Arab his-tory.

No one had seen anything like it since the Hashashin — the Assas-sins, in Western history books — who lived in fortified hilltop cas-tles in Syria and the mountains of Persia between 1090 and 1275 and for decades terrorised the Middle

East by stealthily murdering, usually in knife-wielding teams, Muslim as well as Christian lead-ers considered enemies of their homeland. Not since that time, that is, had anyone seen anything resembling the campaign of ter-ror that Daesh had launched in our region, which included geno-cide on an unprecedented scale, wanton destruction of cultural heritage sites, the kidnapping and rape of ethnic minorities and, well, yes, videotaped beheadings of innocent journalists and work-ers.

Germ of preordained failureBut, at the end of the day, given

its bleak vision, one that effective-ly sought to restore in man what there had been of beast, Daesh carried within itself the germ of preordained failure, for by 2018 it would be curtains for the group. Its hubris, you see, would finally do it in. (To be sure, its artless mendacities had not helped ei-ther. The group, you may recall, claimed Stephen Paddock, the 64-year-old perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, as one of its own militants!)

By December that year, after months of enduring more than 12,000 air strikes by US bombers, Daesh had lost its entire terri-tory, its foot-soldiers were killed,

captured or on the run, with rem-nants of the latter holed up in the small town of Baghuz, which sits on the western bank of the Eu-phrates River, near the Iraqi-Syr-ian border, where three months later, mercilessly assaulted on the ground and bombed from the air, they were left for dead or made to raise the white flag.

Kitschy vision of liberationhistorians chronicle the rise and

fall of civilisations, polities and movements, they need a beginning and an end. While the ignominious

end of Daesh took place in a dusty, backwater town in rural Syria in March 2019, its cocksure beginning had taken place in June 2014, when its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi — who for years had been obsessed with marrying his kitschy vision of liberation to the lofty glories of our Islamic past — declared, from the pulpit of a mosque in Mosul, Iraq, the establishment of a worldwide caliphate (which elicited ridicule from Muslim theologians), whose caliphniks would, in time, “march on Rome” (which elicited guf-

faws all around). Everyone at the time thought it was all a spoof. Of course, we were to learn later, it was anything but. Now it’s going to take two jerks (what else would you call them?) extradited from Iraq to the US, whose case will take months to adjudicate, to remind us, once again, that Daesh odyssey is truly an epic stain on our modern his-tory, a stain that no proverbial de-tergent will in the near future rinse from our collective conscience. Damn the beast.

Gulf News

Daesh is truly a stain on our modern history

OWNER PUBLISHER PRINTED BY BUCHI BABU, VUPPALA, PRINTED BY. THANMAYEE PRINTERS #17-1-469/A/42/23, ADARSH NAGAR, SAIDABAD, HYDERABAD-59, PUBLISHED FROM:#17-1-469/OWNER PUBLISHER PRINTED BY BUCHI BABU, VUPPALA, PRINTED BY. THANMAYEE PRINTERS #17-1-469/A/42/23, ADARSH NAGAR, SAIDABAD, HYDERABAD-59, PUBLISHED FROM:#17-1-469/A/42/23,ADARSH NAGAR, NEAR UNIQUE GRAMMER SCHOOL, SAIDABAD, HYDERABAD-59, T.S.EDITOR. BUCHI BABU VUPPALA. RNI.NO.APENG/29225/2009. E-MAIL: THESOUTHINDIATIMES@YAHOO.INA/42/23,ADARSH NAGAR, NEAR UNIQUE GRAMMER SCHOOL, SAIDABAD, HYDERABAD-59, T.S.EDITOR. BUCHI BABU VUPPALA. RNI.NO.APENG/29225/2009. E-MAIL: THESOUTHINDIATIMES@YAHOO.IN

6INTERNATIONAL16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

Washington, Oct 15 (UNI) US President Donald Trump will participate in an NBC News town hall event in Miami on Thurs-day, the same day his Dem-ocratic rival Joe Biden is scheduled to attend a sep-arate town hall hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia. Trump and Biden were supposed to hold their sec-ond debate on Thursday night, but the President pulled out after organiz-ers announced it was go-ing to be conducted virtu-ally following his Covid-19 diagnosis. After Trump's pull out, the Commission on Presidential Debates cancelled the October 15 showdown altogether. The last presidential debate has been scheduled for next October 22.

In an announcement on Wednesday, NBC News said that it decided to hold the town hall after Trump produced a Covid-19 test showing he was not conta-gious. During the one-hour town hall, NBC anchor Sa-vannah Guthrie will mod-erate the conversation be-tween Trump and a group of Florida voters.

It will take place outdoors at the Perez Art Museum in accordance with guide-lines set forth by health of-ficials and consistent with

all government regula-tions. But NBC News's de-cision has received wide-spread criticism on social media, with critics argu-ing that it should not have been scheduled up against Biden's town hall which will also air at the same time on ABC News, The Hill news website reported. "Having dueling town halls is bad for democracy," for-mer NBC "Today" show star Katie Couric tweeted on Wednesday.

"Voters should be able to watch both and I don't think many will. This will be good for Trump because people like to watch his un-predictability. This is a bad decision." Political analyst Jeff Greenfield slammed the decision, saying that it was "indefensible".

Trump to participate in town hall 'Indian-Americans unlikely to be swayed by Biden-Harris, Trump-Modi ties'

Washington, Oct 15 (UNI) A new poll has revealed that Indian-American voters were unlikely to be swayed by either Demo-crat presidential nominee Joe Biden's selection of In-dian-origin Kamala Harris as his running mate or the relationship between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi.

The 2020 Indian Ameri-can Attitudes Survey (IAAS) has also revealed that significant attention is also being paid to the community because of an emerging narrative that Trump-Modi friendship, "compounded by con-cerns over how a Biden administration might

manage US-India ties, will push Indian-Americans to abandon the Demo-cratic Party in droves", the American Bazaar reported on Wednesday. Present-ly, the Indian-American community makes up for less than 1 per cent of all registered voters in the US.

The data further showed that Indian-Americans continue to be strongly at-tached to the Democratic Party, with little indica-tion of a shift towards the Republican Party.

In addition, Indian-Americans view US-India relations as a low prior-

ity issue in this electoral cycle, and focusing more on national issues such as healthcare and economy.

According to the poll, 72 per cent of registered Indi-an-American voters plan to vote for Biden and 22 per cent for Trump in the November 3 election. The survey has also found that 64 per cent of respondents who identify as Indepen-dents (about one-eighth of all Indian-American voters) will back Biden, while 22 per cent intend to vote for Trump. Mean-while, a smaller percent-age of Indian-Americans who voted for Trump in 2016 (68 per cent) plan to support him again in 2020, the American Bazaar

reported.According to the poll,

four demographics stand out in the Indian-Amer-icans' presidential vote choice -- first, there was no linear relationship be-tween age and vote choice.

Seventy-five per cent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 intend to vote for Biden. Second, Ind of all religious faiths prefer Biden to Trump. Third, support for Biden is greater among US-born citizens (71 per cent) than naturalized citizens (66 per cent), and fourth, the community's attitude does not exhibit a strong gender gap, in contrast to the US population as a whole.

London, Oct 15 (UNI) The new chief of the MI5, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, has said that spy threats posed by Rus-sia and China against the country were "growing in severity and complexity", while the terror threats from the Islamic State (IS) and the far right "persists at scale".

In his first speech since he was announced as the new MI5 Director General at the end of March, Ken McCallum focused on risks from hostile states, includ-ing undermining "the in-tegrity of UK research" on a Covid-19 vaccine.

McCallum said the UK faced threats "up to and

including assassinations, as the (Russian opposi-tion figure) Alexei Navalny poisoning reminds us; threats to our economy, our academic research, our infrastructure and, much discussed, threats to our democracy".

He directly specified "the differing national security challenges presented by Russian, Chinese, Iranian and other actors" were "growing in severity and in complexity – while terrorist threats persist at scale".

The intelligence agen-cy, whose work has been dominated by counter-terrorism in the past two decades, said in its last up-date that it had thwarted 27 terrorist plots in the past four years, including eight from the far right.

McCallum said the threat posed by the far right was "sadly rising" and that the agency was concerned about young people be-ing attracted to far-right thinking "which does tend to suggest this threat will be with us for some years to come". But the MI5 boss said that, unlike with Islamist terrorism, the far right remained fragment-ed.

"We're not yet seeing

a coherent global move-ment, we don't see the same kind of thing we've previously seen with Al Qa-eda or IS," he added.

, although the agency remained alive to the pos-sibility the far right could become "more structured and coherent". However, some in Westminster have argued that the agency needs to refocus on coun-tering Russia and China.

Over the summer, par-liament's watchdog intel-ligence and security com-mittee accused the spy agencies of "taking their eye off the ball" when it came to Russian activities in the UK. In July, Security Minister James Broken-shire had said.

Russian, Chinese threats to UK growing in severity: MI5 Chief

Canberra, Oct 15 (UNI) Australian Health Minis-ter Greg Hunt has issued a renewed call for Covid-19 restrictions to be eased in the state of Victoria.

As of Thursday after-noon there had been 27,362 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Australia, with 23 new cases detect-ed in the last 24 hours, ac-cording to the latest data from the federal health ministry. Victoria, the hardest-hit state by the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, reported six new cases on Thursday, Xinhua news agency re-ported. New South Wales, Australia's most populous

state, confirmed another 11 cases, five of which were recently returned travellers in hotel quar-

antine and two of which have remained under in-vestigation.

The national death toll remained unchanged at 904. Hunt said on Wednesday that Victoria had recorded an average of fewer than the thresh-old of 10 new Covid-19 cases for re-opening.

"We have a Common-wealth definition in terms of hotspots, and that's a rolling average of less than 10 cases. Victoria is below that rolling aver-age," Hunt told reporters in Canberra. "Victoria has reached the Common-wealth standard to go to the next stage," he said.

Aussie Health Minister renews call for easing Covid curbs

HK reports new Covid- cases

Hong Kong, Oct 15 (UNI) Hong Kong's Center for Health Protec-tion (CHP) reported 12 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, including two local cases of unknown origin. The newly-reported cases included eight imported cases and four local infections, bringing Hong Kong's total tally to 5,213, Xinhua news agency reported. The two untraceable local cases involved a 73-year-old businessman and a 35-year-old musician from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Or-chestra. A total of 58 cases were reported between October 8 and Wednesday, among which 64 per-cent were local ones. There was 9 per cent of local cases with un-known sources of infection, Un-der Secretary for Food and Health of the Hong Kong Special Admin-istrative Region.

Washington, Oct 15 (UNI) US Treasury Secretary Ste-ven Mnuchin said that it would be difficult for the White House and House Democrats to reach a deal on a comprehensive Cov-id-19 relief package before the November 3 presiden-tial election.

"I'd say at this point getting something done before the election and ex-ecuting on that would be difficult, just given where we are," Xinhua news agency quoted Mnuchin as saying at a virtual confer-ence hosted by the Milken Institute on Wednesday.

He noted that the two sides were still far apart on certain issues. Asked whether the Democrats were unwilling to make a deal, Mnuchin said: "I think that definitely is part of the reality. That's defi-

nitely an issue. "But the President is very focused on when he wins we will need to do more. So that's part of the reason to con-tinue to work on this. The clock will not stop."

Mnuchin's remarks came after an hour-long phone discussion with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday morning. "In response to proposals sent over the weekend, the two spent

time seeking clarifica-tion on language, which was productive," Drew Hammill, spokesman and deputy chief of staff for the House speaker, said on Twitter. "One major area of disagreement continues to be that the White House lacks an understanding of the need for a national strategic testing plan," Hammill said, adding staff will continue to exchange paper and the two prin-

cipals will speak again on Thursday. On October 9, President Donald Trump's administration made a new $1.8 trillion coronavi-rus relief package offer.

The $1.8 trillion figure is up from a $1.6 trillion of-fer from earlier this week, although it remains below the $2.2 trillion in the bill passed by the House Dem-ocrats last week, CNN said in a report.

In addition, the package also increased the amount of money it was willing to give to state and local gov-ernments from $250 bil-lion to $300 billion and in-creased the amount of the direct payment per child from $500 to $1,000. But in a letter to Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, Pe-losi said the White House's latest relief proposal "falls significantly short .

Difficult to reach Covid- relief deal before polls: Mnuchin

Seoul, Oct 15 (UNI) North Ko-rean state-media reported on Thursday that the country's leader Kim Jong-un again visited a typhoon-hit region and urged officials to further boost recovery efforts.

According to the re-port by the Korean Cen-tral News Agency (KCNA), Kim visited Sinpo city and Hongwon county in South Hamgyong province. The report however, did not mention the day of the visit, reports Yonhap News Agency. The KCNA said that "Kim pointed out that

he will deal strictly with cases of violation in the re-construction efforts".

North Korea's eastern province was one of the coun-try's most damaged areas, hit by back-to-back typhoons in

recent months.The North Korean lead-

er had earlier visited the typhoon-hit mining town of Komdok, also in South Hamgyong province and reviewed recovery ef-

forts, state-media said on Wednesday.

The latest trip came days af-ter Kim held a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers' Party to discuss recovery efforts in the typhoon-affected regions and dispatched soldiers to help with recovery work, re-ports Yonhap News Agency. He has also launched an "80-day campaign" last week to recover from flood damage and make as much progress as possible in the country's eco-nomic development project by the end of this year.

KIM JONG-UN VISITS TYPHOON RECOVERY AREA AGAIN

New Delhi/Washington, Oct 15 (UNI) A day after President Xi Jinping called on Chinese troops to prepare for war, the United States appointed a se-nior official as its special co-ordinator for Tibetan issues. Tibet, which has been under Chinese occupation since 1950, remains a sensitive issue

for Beijing diplomatically. The Chinese Communist Party re-gime has persistently refused to engage with the US coordi-nator on the Tibet issue.

The Tibetan government in exile, established in India, is headed by the Dalai Lama.

Since the beginning of Pres-ident Donald Trump's term in

2017, the position for the US special coordinator for Tibet-an issues was vacant.

On Wednesday, US Secre-tary of State Mike Pompeo an-nounced that Robert Destro, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, would assume the ad-ditional charge.

"Destro will lead US ef-forts to promote dialogue be-tween the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives; protect the unique religious, cultural, and linguistic identity of Ti-betans; and press for their hu-man rights to be respected," Pompeo said in a statement.

He added that the US remains concerned with the PRC's "repression of the Tibetan community." The Trump ad-ministration in the past has threatened to restrict visas for the Chinese officials respon-sible for human rights abuses in Tibet and blocking diplo-matic access to the region. A

US APPOINTS SPECIAL OFFICER FOR TIBET AFTER XI ASKS TROOPS TO PREPARE FOR WAR

day before the US announced special coordinator for Tibet, Xi while visiting the People's Liberation Army Marine Corps in Chaozhou city, asked the troops to "put all their minds and energy on preparing for war" and "maintain a state of high alert." The statement as-sumes significance in view of the India-China tense face-off along the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC) in Ladakh since May this year and the US pushback against China's aggressive stand on South China Sea. China has been facing stiff

resistance from India, the US and several other nations over its expansionist policies. The US government's appointment of a special coordinator for Tibetan issues, has potential to further escalate the crisis between the two superpow-ers which are already warring over the terms of their bilateral trade, China's curbing of free-doms in Hong Kong, threats against democratic island of Taiwan, abuse of human rights of Uighurs in Xinjiang and mis-handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

7SPORTS16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

Kidambi Srikanth enters second round of Denmark

Open Copenhagen, Oct 14 (IANS) Ace Indian shuttler Kid-

ambi Srikanth came out with a commanding perfor-mance as he registered a straight-games win over Eng-land’s Toby Penty in his opening round match at the Denmark Open.

Srikanth, the former world number one, defeated Penty 21-12, 21-18 in 37 minutes at the Super 750 event, which has marked the resumption of international bad-minton after seven months. He will next face either fel-low Indian Subhankar Dey or Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue.

Lakshya Sen has already reached the pre-quarters with a straight-games win over Christo Popov on Tues-day. Sen, who held a 3-1 head to head record against Popov, had defeated the Frenchman 21-9, 21-15 in just 36 minutes to make it to the next round of the Super 750 event. He will face Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus of Denmark for a place in the quarterfinals.

The Denmark Open has marked the resumption of the BWF calendar which has been on a halt since March fol-lowing the outbreak of novel coronavirus.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) had earlier intended the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup team events to mark the restart of the badminton calendar, but the tournaments were cancelled after several countries pulled out due to safety concerns arising out of the Co-vid-19 pandemic. The BWF also cancelled the Denmark Masters, which was set to start two days after the end of the Denmark Open.

.

Neymar goes past Ronaldo to become 2nd highest goal-

scorer for Brazil

Lima, Oct 14 (IANS) Neymar has surpassed Ronaldo to become the second-highest goal scorer for Brazil.

Neymar scored hat-trick against Peru in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifier which helped Brazil register a 4-2 win on Tuesday evening. He has now taken his inter-national tally to 64 in 104 games, two more than Ron-aldo who had scored 62 goals in 98 matches for Brazil. Legendary striker Pele leads the chart with 77 goals for Brazil.

In August, legendary Brazil goalkeeper Tafarrel had termed Neymar as a superstar. In an interview to FIFA.com, he had said of the Paris Saint Germain striker: “A great player. He plays the game in a beautiful way. He’s an incredible dribbler, sets up goals, scores fantastic goals.”

“He’s very important for us. We really hope he can be at his best and help Brazil win another World Cup. He’s a superstar,” Tafarrel added.

DC still striving to put a show for full 40 overs, says Carey

Delhi’s mean streets & badminton creates India’s

Karate Kid

Kamran Akmal becomes world’s first w-k to effect 100 T20 stumpings

Misbah steps down as

Pakistan’s chief selector

Dhoni fan paints his home yellow, Thala’s portrait on wall

Dubai, Oct 14 (IANS) Austra-lian wicketkeeper batsman Alex Carey believes it is time for the Delhi Capitals to ‘almost start the tournament again’ as they play the second round of IPL 2020 matches starting Wednes-day evening when they take on the Rajasthan Royals.

Speaking ahead of the match, Carey on Tuesday said his team is definitely gutted due to the injuries in their camp, but are also looking forward to putting it behind them and peaking at the right time.

“We have seen a fair few inju-ries in the short amount of time we have been here, so I don’t know what that is down to - maybe the lack of matches in the past six months. So yes, its disap-pointing news coming out of our

camp but (we know we have) two great people (Amit Mishra & Ishant Sharma) who continue to cheer us on,” said Carey.

“But yeah, it’s exciting now - we’re halfway through the tour-nament, we’ve played everyone once and we had a really good result against Rajasthan last time. They’ll have Ben Stokes in their side, which will strength-en them but I also think we’ve played some outstanding crick-et,” added the wicketkeeper.

Commenting on his oppo-nents, the left-handed bats-man said, “It’s an outstanding line-up - like any other team here. They’ve all got dangerous players and you know they’ve got (Jos) Buttler, Steve Smith, Stokes, Jofra (Archer) as the in-ternationals likely to play.” “So,

a real rounded group - two leg spinners - (Rahul) Tewatia is of course playing really well. So it’s exciting - you’ve got two really good teams coming up against each other tomorrow night, we’ve got full confidence in our players to get the job done and play some exciting cricket,” he added.

The 29-year-old said that the team wants to bounce back from the five-wicket defeat they suffered against Mumbai Indi-ans last Sunday.

Analysing his team’s per-formances at the mid-season mark, Carey said his side has shown glimpses of outstand-ing cricket, but want to ensure complete performances going forward. “I think it’s nice to get wins under the belt early on in

the tournament. I think now is the time to start to probably settle your team and have a run into the finals - playing your better cricket,” he said.

“You don’t want to peak too early in the tournament - I think we’ve seen glimpses of outstanding cricket, but to put a show for full 40 overs is something we’re still striving to do. And our players have at times scored runs, taken wick-ets, so we’re all in good form and its now about putting it together for the last seven games leading into the final. So it’s an exciting period in the tournament, we’ve had a look at everyone, played at all the three grounds, so it’s going to be a good opportunity starting again,” he added.

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) It’s all thanks to badminton that to-day Amritpal Kaur is India’s best known young face in karate. And it was Delhi’s streets that pushed her to attend her first martial-arts class.

Even as her story has been optioned for a film by Sujay Jai-raj, who also secured the rights for a movie on former world number one badminton player Saina Nehwal, and has started a funding campaign for the karate player on Ketto; Kaur, who won the Gold Medal in Commonwealth Karate Cham-pionship (2015) and has been walking away with the top slot

at South Asian Championships for the last three consecutive years recalls that as a 13-years-old, travelling alone in Delhi’s to the badminton court from her house near Tilak Nagar was a nightmare for obvious reasons. “Self-defence was the only rea-son that I wanted to learn ka-rate. However, there was some-thing about the sport that made me fall in love with it instantly,” smiles the 23-year-old.

Training in a park near her place for the first two years and losing most of matches, the young player soon understood that there was something amiss.She then decided to save her

pocket money and raid cyber cafes to watch videos of karate champion Rafael Aghayev from Azerbaijani.

“That is when I realised that what was being taught to me was something very basic. It also meant that I had to work hard on myself and devote more time to self-training.”

Of course, like most Indian parents obsessed with academ-ics, the idea of long hours of training did not really go well with her parents. But Kaur, a topper and through-out schol-arship holder during her school years managed to convince her mother of a fine balance

between the two. By the time she enrolled in the English Honours course at the capital’s Janki Devi Memorial College, the young player had already proved her mettle at the state and national levels, thanks to which the Delhi government granted her a scholarship. “And that is how I could afford my training, travelling and gear,” she says. But with no support from the government when

it came to training (“where is the infrastructure”) and flying to international destinations for qualifying matches, things suddenly started looking bleak. “Once a Sikh organisation fund-ed me to train in Turkey. Going for qualifying matches means flight tickets, accommodating, gear, training and food....it is never easy,” this black belt in Sito Tyo Seiko Kai (a style in Ka-rate) laments.

Lahore, Oct 14 (IANS) Vet-eran Pakistani wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal on Tuesday be-came the world’s first wicket-keeper to effect 100 stumpings in T20 cricket, the shortest for-mat of the game.

Kamran, 38, achieved the feat while playing for Central Pun-jab during the National T20 Cup fixture against Southern Punjab on Tuesday.

“The first wicket-keeper to record 100 stumpings in T20 cricket, congratulations Ka-mran Akmal on a wonderful achievement!” tweeted the official handle of Pakistan Cricket.

Former India skipper Ma-hendra Singh Dhoni is second in the list with 84 stumpings in T20 cricket. Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara is at the third spot with 60 stump-ings and is followed by Dinesh

Karthik (59) and Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad (52). In T20 Internationals, Dhoni leads the chart with 34 stump-ings in 98 matches. He is fol-lowed by Akmal who has 32 stumpings to his name in 58 games for Pakistan. Next in line are Mushfiqur Rahim of Ban-gladesh (29), Shahzad (28) and Sangakkara (20).

Overall, in international cricket -- including all the Test, ODIs and T20Is -- Dhoni is the numero uno with 123 stump-ings. He is followed by Sangak-kara (99), R.S. Kaluwitharana (75), Moin Khan (73) and Adam Gilchrist (55).

Chennai, Oct 14 (IANS) A hard-core fan of former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district has painted his house yellow -- the colour of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Not only the outer walls are painted yellow, but they also sport the CSK logo, “the lion”, the tag-line “whistle podu” and a portrait of Dhoni.

Gopikrishnan, the fan, has also loudly proclaimed that he is an ar-dent Dhoni fan by painting in bold letters ‘#HOME OF DHONI FAN’ above the entrance of the house.

“It took me about two-and-a-half days to complete the art work - Dhoni’s portrait, lion logo and the tagline. The building was painted by others,” P. Selvarasu, an artist who is also a part-time art teacher, told IANS.

“I also like Dhoni. First, I had a look at the building. The client gave me some pictures of Dho-ni and the most suitable for the building was selected,” Selvarasu added. According to him, it was re-

ally fun doing that work and there was no difficulty in completing the assignment.

Selvarasu said a mix of colours - white, yellow, orange and red - were used to do the art work.

Lahore, Oct 14 (IANS) Misbah-ul-Haq on Wednesday resigned from his post as chief selector of the Pakistan men’s cricket team. Misbah said that he wants to focus on his role as head coach of the team, a position he had held jointly with the chief selector’s post.

“Coaching is my passion and my ultimate objective remains to con-tribute to the development of play-ers and help the side achieve bigger successes. When I was appointed last year, I was offered the coaching role first and then given the option to also head the selection committee, which I had graciously accepted,” Misbah said in a press conference.

“With the new Cricket Association system in full flow, the chief selector has to be able to watch as much do-mestic cricket as possible. With a big 24 months now coming up, we have mutually agreed that there is a need for me now to be fully focused on one role.”

PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said that the board “wholeheartedly respects” Misbah’s decision. “When he took on the national head coach role, we also required him to take on the chief selector’s role due to cir-cumstances at that point in time,” he was quoted as saying in the PCB’s press release.

“Pakistan has three global events, including two Asia Cups and the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, as well as 10 Fu-ture Tour Programme commitments over the next 24 years. As head coach of the national side, he has reassessed his priorities and believes he has a better chance of producing the de-sired results by focusing solely on the coaching side. We are very happy to support his thinking on this.”

(UNI)

(UNI) (UNI)

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New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) Delhi Capi-tals (DC) coach Ricky Ponting's virtual carte blanche encouraged fast bowler Anrich Nortje to go all out and bowl the fastest delivery in the Indian Premier League his-tory (IPL), revealed Vi-jay Dahiya, head talent scout of the franchise, on Thursday. South African Nortje clocked three of the fastest de-liveries in IPL history, the fastest being 156.2 kmph, against Rajast-han Royals (RR) at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednes-day.

"The word float-ing around within our team is freedom. You give people freedom to go out there and be confident about it," former India wicket-keeper Dahiya told from the United Arab Emirates.

"From day one, Ponting has been emphasising with ev-eryone that we give batsmen and bowl-ers that freedom to express themselves. By nature, Nortje is someone who goes out and bowls fast. There are no instruc-tions to bowl fast. You cannot ask ev-eryone to bowl fast. If you have genuine pace then obviously, you'd like to give that," said the former Delhi captain. That is what Nortje, playing

in his first IPL sea-son, is doing. Nortje came into Delhi Capi-tals squad after Chris Woakes pulled out of the league in August 2020. The speedster was bought by Kol-kata Knight Riders last year for Rs.20 lakh but couldn't play due to a shoulder injury.

"There are a few things when you seek a replacement. Speed is one thing but you know he is an interna-tional cricketer as well. The management was keeping a good eye on him. Everyone knew he had pace. When you are looking for pace, you look for an out and out fast bowler," Da-hiya said.

The fact that his opening bowling part-ner at Delhi Capitals, Kagiso Rabada, also plays for South Africa is working well. "Having Rabada from the same team also helps. It is a great understanding between the two; both are helping each other out," he points.

Nortje made his in-ternational debut in all three formats only last year. Although he has been play-ing first-class cricket since 2013, he burst onto the firmament and got noticed in his home country only in 2018 while represent-ing Cape Town Blitz in the well-televised Mzansi Super League (MSL).

Speedster Nortje goes all out, thanks to Ponting's

license to freedom

8ENTERTAINMENRT16 FRIDAY, OCTOBER, 2020

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

BHUMI PEDNEKAR: turns vegetarian

PULKIT SAMRAT OPENS UP ON HIS LOOKS IN ‘TAISH’

Bollywood actress and environmental-ist Bhumi Pednekar

tells you of a life choice that she made during lockdown.

She became a vegetar-

ian during the period. "I was never heavy on non-vegetarian diet but I took a call during lockdown. It

was actually something that happened organically. It's

been six months and I'm good, guilt free and I feel

physically strong as well," she said. "For many years I had the want to go vegetar-ian but breaking habits are

the toughest thing to do. My journey with Climate Warrior taught me a lot of things and I just didn't feel like eating meat anymore," added Bhumi, who will next

be seen in "Durgavati" on December 11, realised she wanted to turn vegetarian during lockdown. Directed

by Ashok, "Durgavati" is the offi cial Hindi remake

Actor Pulkit Samrat is excited about his new avatar in the up-coming revenge drama, Taish. He sports tattoos on his biceps in the fi lm. “The character Sun-ny is very fl amboyant, wears his heart on his sleeve kind of a guy,

fun-loving, he lives life by the moment, very impulsive,” said Pulkit about his role in the Bejoy Nambiar release. “So Bejoy and I both wanted these characteris-tics to be seen physically as well; like you look at the character and

you should be able to under-stand what he is like. The tattoo team came on board, we fi gured it out and zeroed in on certain amount of tattoos and what kind of tattoos we can have,” he add-ed. Pulkit says he worked on his

physique for the role. “My trainer started working on the physique aspect of it because there were supposed to be two different looks in the fi lm. In the fi rst half, Sunny was supposed to be very fl amboyant, full of life; in the sec-

ond half Sunny ages through the fi lm, so that age is supposed to be seen physically, the muscle is not supposed to be that ripped,” he shared. “Taish” will release on Zee5 on October 29 as a fi lm as well as a six-part series.

PREITY ZINTA IS AGING LIKE

FINE WINE, HERE IS THE

PROOF!

On Wednesday, singer Neha Kakkar posted a picture where she is seen posing with rumoured boyfriend Rohan Preet. The image seems to be a poster of a new song. "NehuDaVyah by #NehaKakkar... featuring my Rohu @rohanpreetsingh. 21st October," Neha cap-tioned the post. However, fans and colleagues are con-fused. Reacting to it, singer and "Indian Idol" co-judge Vishal Dadlani commented: "I am confused again. Is this a wedding or a new song/

fi lm? Saaf Saaf batao, kapde silwane hai ya download/stream/share karna hai (be clear, should I get clothes stitched for your wedding or should I download/stream/share)?" "What's happening ? Are you really getting mar-ried?," a user wrote. Howev-er, the post didn't go down well with a section of social media users. "Itna drama ek song ke liye (So much of drama for a song)?" an Insta-gram user commented. "Too much promotion," another felt. Neha and Rohan Preet,

Neha Kakkar's 'marriage': Is it publicity stunt for new song?

The 14th season of Bigg Boss is only a few episodes old, and the controversial reality show has already found an early star in season 13 winner Sidharth Shukla, who is in the house for the initial weeks as a senior. If the key to stardom on the show is being manipu-lative and wicked in front of the camera, Sidharth surely outshines the season 14 housemates with his schem-ing deals.

Sidharth along with two oth-er former contestants, Gaua-har Khan and Hina Khan, are "Toofani Seniors", to guide the freshers. However, going by what happened during the fi rst eviction, it seems he is there to infl uence everyone and guide the show towards specifi c directions, to keep the masala quotient intact.The fi rst eviction that hap-pened was of Punjabi singer Sara Gurpal. The three se-

'BIGG BOSS 14' RUNNING HIGH ON SIDDHARTH SHUKLA'S BRAINWORK

Bigg Boss 's Pavitra Punia should be named Apavitra:

Ex-boyfriend Paras ChhabraActor and Bigg Boss

13 contestant Paras Chhabra says his ex-girlfriend Pavitra Punia, who is a housemate on the reality show this season, should be named as Apavitra (impure) because of her nature. Paras claimed that Pavitra was married when they briefl y dated and she hid the fact from him, adding that he ended his relation-ship with her because she was cheating on him. Paras' comments came as a reaction to Pavitra's recent state-ment, in which she said that if he had any self-respect he wouldn't join her in the Bigg Boss house this season.

In reaction, alleging that Pavitra had lied in their relationship, Pa-ras added that he found out she was married only when her husband sent him a message. He added that he subse-quently came to know of more "shocking" details about her. "I

got to know that before entering the Bigg Boss house Pavitra said very distasteful things about me. Firstly, I think her name Pavitra (pure) is wrong. She should be named as Apavi-tra (impure) because of her nature. Before the show, she told everyone that I am a cheater and a liar but on the fi rst day of the show, she confessed that she was double-dating me. What kind of a girl is she? I never revealed the reason for the break-up but she was double-dating, and

niors were given a special power by Bigg Boss to elimi-nate any one of the house-mates. Initially, Hina picked singer Rahul Vaidya and Gau-ahar suggested model-TV ac-tor Nishant Singh Malkani be evicted. However, Sidharth had his way in the end and ensured it was Sara who got evicted. The outcome drew heavy criticism on social media. The season is barely 11 days old and Sidharth has

KANGANA RANAUT ON MISSION

TO GET BACK IN SHAPE

Actress Kangana Ranaut put on 20 kilos for her

role as late Tamil poli-tician J. Jayalalithaa in the biopic, Thalaivi, and is now working at returning to her earlier size, agility, metabo-lism and fl exibility. Tweeting a photo from her workout session, Kangana wrote: "I had gained 20kgs for Thalaivi, now that we are very close to com-pleting it, need to go back to my earlier size,

agility, metabolism and fl exibility. Waking up early and going for a jog/walk... who all are with me?"

The actress had recently shared that she has completed the latest schedule of the upcoming biopic. "With the blessings of Jaya Ma we completed one more schedule of Thalaivi -- the revolu-tionary leader. After corona many things are different but between action and before cut

With a cute smile, dim-ples and adorable beauty, Preity Zinta

is an actor we all love for more than one reason.

Whether it is about portray-ing the role of a teenage single mother in 'Kya Kehna' (2000) or winning several accolades in the career span of 22 years, the Preity always attracts ev-eryone's attention through her social media posts.

Amid the Coronavirus pan-demic, the actress is living with her family in Los Angeles with her husband Gene Good-enough.Recently, Preity Zinta

shared a series of pictures on Instagram in which she looks drop-dead gorgeous even at the age of 45. Within 24 hours she has posted four back to back snaps of herself.

In September 2006, the UK magazine Eastern Eye ranked her among 'Asia's Sexiest Women' and in 2010, Time magazine selected her as one of the candidates for its list of the world's 100 most influen-tial people.

Well, on the work front, she was last seen in Neeraj Pathak's 'Bhaiaji Superhit' op-posite Sunny Deol, which was

AJAY DEVGN SHARES A COMPILATION VIDEO OF HIS

FAVOURITE FAN ARTS!

RAFTAAR BACKS

UPCOMING MUSIC

ARTISTE YUNAN

Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn enjoys a massive fan following, and his fans

time and again have proved their love by various gestures.Over the years Ajay has received various gifts and collectibles from fans as a token of love and even the actor has shown his gratitude by acknowledging them.

On Tuesday, Ajay took to so-cial media and expressed his love and gratitude to his fans by sharing a montage of his favou-rite fans arts. The short video clip has artworks of some of his famous characters. Ajay posted a compiled video of fan arts and wrote, "Thank you guys @manjari128 @manjari.arts @

avi_vinay @lovely_guru_02 @rohit.unknown.Ajay has been very active on social media and has been sharing updates with his fans and followers. On the work front, Ajay was last seen in 'Tanhaji:The Unsung Warrior',

Rap star Raftaar says the music of upcoming music artiste Yunan re-

minds him of the soundscape of pop star Justin Bieber, and feels he is the next young tal-ent to watch out for."Yunan's trajectory as an artiste has beautifully evolved since our initial days of spending time together in the studio. It's such a gratifying feeling to watch a talent you have nurtured from scratch to grow by leaps

and bounds. Yunan's music reminds me a lot of Justin Bieber's soundscape. He's the next kid on the block to watch out for in the pop mu-sic space," Raftaar said.Yunan, who is supported by Raftaar through his Kalamkaar label, has released his song "Saath", which is around the idea of liv-ing and loving in the moment.Talking about how Covid-19 inspired the track, Yunan said: "The unprecedented crisis has

URVASHI RAUTELA'S INSTAGRAM FAMILY GROWS TO MILLION

Actress Urvashi Rautela now has a fan follow-ing of 30 million on

Instagram. She has posted a thank-you note and a video collage to celebrate the mile-stone.

"30 million love thank you @instagram, love you guys! Thank you for being most the important part of my story. Thank you for com-ing into my life and giving me happiness, thank you for loving me and accepting my

love in return. Thank you for the memories I will adore forever," she wrote."Thanks for giv-ing me joys and smiles. Thanks for sharing my trouble's pile. Thanks for wiping the tears of my eye.

Thanks for showing me the glad view of sky. Thanks for lending me your shoulders to lean."

"Thanks for giving my words a proper mean.

Thanks for telling me the value of life."Thanks for showing me the rules to survive. Thanks for lending me the sym-pathetic ears.Thanks for showing how much you care.""From all this what I mean in the end Is thanks for being my 30 million @instagram family thank you so much @priyangshu_sv you're killer @nishal_nick

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMESGreater Hyderabad

16 Friday, OctOber, 2020 Pages-8

Governor urges IRCS volunteers to take rescue and relief measures in flood hit areas

The SouTh IndIa TImeS BuReau

SpecIal coRReSpondenT

Hyderabad, October 14: Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan exhorted the Red Cross function-aries and volunteers all over the State to take ac-tive part in the rescue and relief measures in rain-hit areas. Concerned over the loss of lives, dam-age to the property and heavy inundation due to downpour in Hyderabad city and other parts of the State, the Governor on Wednesday evening convened a virtual meet-ing with all the district units of the Red Cross, and instructed them to be constantly associated

with the district adminis-tration and support their rescue and rehabilitation services. “We must rise to the occasion and be in the forefront to help the

needy and other affected people,” she added. The Governor also reviewed with each of the district units of the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) and

asked them to be con-stantly on vigil and attend to all the calls so as to en-sure that no needy person goes without getting help. Tamilisai termed the situ-

ation very sad and added that it was heart-rending to see the loss of lives and damage to the property and many people going without shelter due to the incessant rains and heavy flooding. The Gov-ernor told the Red Cross volunteers to contact the Raj Bhavan for any help and required intervention and added that there are 4,000 to 5,000 notebooks are available with the Raj Bhavan to distribute to the students. She appreci-ated the efforts of the Red Cross volunteers in the food distribution, shelter provision, medicines and clothes distribution and the provision of ambu-lance services.

This Hyderabadi woman has a lucky escape

Hyderabad, Oct 15: A woman had a narrow escape when a dilapidated structure abut-ting the famous Akanna Madanna temple in the old city of Hyderabad collapsed. The woman’s narrow escape was captured on CCTV and the video went viral on social media.According to police, no one was killed or injured in the incident as the old house on Hari Bowli road near Moghal-pura was abandoned. The video, recorded Wednesday evening, shows a burka-clad woman walking in a hurry in front of the temple. As she was passing by the old struc-ture, it suddenly collapsed.

'Most Livable City' Hyderabad turned into the 'Most Dreaded City', under KCR's ruleTRS Govt's unpreparedness and neglect led to the deluge of Hyder-abad and more than 100 deaths Devastated people are left to fend for themselves, Where are shame-less TRS Ministers, MLAs and Cor-porators hiding? Why is KTR fearing to visit flooded areas and interact with people without security? Hyderabad has contributed Rs 7 lakh crore revenue to state exchequer. Where has all that money gone? Why is the TRS government not cracking down on illegal structures on na-las and encroachers of lakes? Hyderabad, October 15: While Congress party shaped Hyderabad city into 'The Most Livable City' and a global destination during

its rule, Chief Minister K Chan-drashekar Rao has turned it into the most dreaded city in his seven year rule, fired AICC spokesper-son Dr Dasoju Sravan. Expressing severe ire over the utter neglect of TRS Government in dealing with the heavy rains in Hyderabad, Dr Dasoju Sravan questioned, "Hy-derabad city has contributed Rs 7 lakh crore to state exchequer in the past seven years but the city's infrastructure has been com-pletely debilitated. Where has all that money gone. People are com-pletely devastated and do not even have essential commodities and food to eat. Why is CM KCR still not reviewing the relief measures or announcing compensation?

What is the Municipal Minister KTR doing? Why is he fearing to visit the flood areas without secu-rity and oversee relief measures?" "This is not the first time Hyder-abad has received heavy rains. Though the Meteorological de-partment warned of heavy rains, the Government did not take any

preventive steps or set up a con-trol room to monitor the situ-ation. While the city was being washed away, CM KCR reviewed the 'Haritha Haram' on Wednesday and only after extensive devasta-tion, did CM hold a review on rains on Thursday afternoon. Even this was done, after the Prime Minister

and The President inquired about the situation. Municipal Affairs Minister KT Rama Rao who makes tall claims about Hyderabad's de-velopment was nowhere seen in relief operations. Only after the damage was done, he visited se-lected areas, that too flanked by DGP under tight security? Why is

he fearing to interact with people who are devastated with floods? TRS Government has turned the global city Hyderabad which is considered as 'Most Livable city' into the dreaded city" said Dr Da-soju Sravan speaking at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Thursday. "Hyderabad contributed about Rs 7 lakh crore to state exchequer in the past seven years. Municipal Affairs Minister KTR claims that Rs 67,000 Crore were spent on Hyderabad's development. Where has all that money gone? Did that money go into the pockets of KTR? Because there are about 12821 illegal struc-tures on nalas in Greater Hyder-abad and Rs 12,000 Crore is needed to erase them.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 216 Friday, OctOber, 2020

INAUGURATED DISTRICT LEVEL BATUKAMMA SAREE DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM :--

RAMANTHAPUR CORPORATOR GANDHAM JYOTHSNA NAGESHWAR

RAO VISITED FLOOD AFFECTED AREAS AND ASSURED THEM OF IMMEDIATE RELIEF MEASURES

Nizamabad Oct 15 ; Z. P Chairman Vittal Rao, who was the chief guest at the district-level Batukamma saree distribution function at the local Rajiv Gandhi Auditorium on Thursday (15/10/2020) , was inaugu-rated by District Collector C Narayana Reddy as the Speaker of the House. The chief guest on the occasion

wished Dussehra and Batu-kamma. Erura Batukamma festival in Telangana said that it was their government that brought to light the traditions of Telangana. Chief Minister KCR in Ramzan iftar along with dinner, clothes and sa-rees , for Christmas were be-ing distributed to every single woman sister over the age of 18 in ration shops for people

of all castes, adding that there was a delay in our district due to the MLC by-election. He said sarees would be distrib-uted in the district today, in zones tomorrow and in vil-lages, to maintain distance as per Covid rules and to give door-to-door delivery to those above 60 years of age. He said the state roads and buildings ministers were

supposed to participate in the saree distribution program and went back to Hyderabad as there was a review by CM . District Collector C Narayana Reddy wished the women sisters a happy Batu-kamma festival. He said the authorities have been directed to make arrangements for dis-tribution in mandals and gram panchayats tomorrow.

BANNALA PRAVVEEN DISTRIBUTED BLANKETS

TO THE NEEDY

TSIT BUREAU TRS division presidents Bannala Praveen Mudiraj with other leaders distributed to the blankets to the needy at chilkanagar Bannala Praveen and TRS senior leaders Kondal Reddy, Kompally Ravinder, Ravinder Reddy, Venkatesh, Raj Kumar, Kaukonda Jagan, Sadananda Chari, Abbo Bhai, Usha, Sarita Kanakatara Sri Giri Colony President Indrasena Reddy and oth-ers were present and blankets were given to every family , Ban-nala Praveen speaking said during this pandamic situation the floods hit worstly many people lost everything expecially many areas in chilkanagar worstly effected many people lost their livelihood to help them distributed essentials and blankets.

TSIT BUREAU RAMANTHAPUR CORPORATOR, GHMC STANDING COMMITTEE MEMBER GANDHAM JYOTHSNA NAGESHWAR RAO VISITED FLOOD AFFECTED AR-EAS AND ASSURED THEM OF IM-MEDIATE RELIEF MEASURES in Ramantapur Division Due to record rain-fall over the last three days, trees fell in var-ious places in Ramantapur division, rains inundated many colonies, road blockage and flooding of roads. Divisional Corpo-

rator and Standing Committee member Gandham Jotsna Nageswarao directed the authorities to look into the matter and take appropriate action, she spoke to the local citizens and assured them of immediate relief measures.She is monitoring the situ-ation and coordinate the relief measures at flood effected areas , and supplied food packets to the people who were worstly ef-fected , she asked them not to panic , she assured the division people the relief mea-sures will be speeden up.

TSIT bureau Hyderabad oct15::Telangana Pradesh congress commitee (TPCC) secretary Bandulal Jamalpur condemns the criminal negligence of TRS Government and GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) officials, which has led to around 30 deaths and disrupted thousands in the wake of incessant rains in the city of Hyderabad and acrossTelangana state. He said in Hyderabad which were impacted by rains since two days, while the TRS corporators, MLA’s and Ministers are conspicuously invisible in this dire situation severely impacting the urban middle class and poor citizens. The TPCC secretary said conduct of KCR’s Government is so reprehensible that the administration chose to brazenly violate all the protocols for a center inspecting the damage due to rains in the city. Bandulal openly rebuking

the utter neglect of GHMC Commissioner not sending the concerned officers to the locations He urges the citizens of GHMC area to teach a befitting lesson to the TRS party

and its corporators in the upcoming GHMC elections for their un preparedness, criminal neglect and brazen irresponsibility in dealing with the rains and its aftermath.

Bandulal condemns the criminal negligence of TRS Government and GHMC officials

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 316 Friday, OctOber, 2020

NEW NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY IS DANGEROUS FOR ICDS ANGANWADI CHIEF SECRETARY

Nizamabad Oct 15 ; The Anganwadi District Online Public Meeting was held this evening under the chairmanship of District President K Dev Gangu through Facebook. Addressing the public meeting, Telangana Anganwadi Teachers and Helpers Union CITU state general secretary Vijayalakshmi said the new national education policy introduced by the central government posed a threat to the ICDS system and job security for Anganwadi workers. She said ICDS was started with the idea that pregnant women in the country could not grow up healthy by giving birth to low birth weight babies due to malnutrition and malnutrition in the country. Whether ICDS centers can be useful in providing nutritious food as well as instilling a passion for education in children. In the same way, she said that the Central and

State Governments are using them for the implementation of various welfare schemes but for the implementation of minimum wages for

Anganwadi workers, for the implementation of retirement benefits, for not trying to increase facilities and for not giving them the lowest wages.

Nizamabad Oct 15 ; Nizamabad distroct Col-lector held a review meet-ing at Pragati Bhavan with Civil Supplies, Agriculture, Cooperative, Mepma, Rice Millers, Traders on pro-curement of rainfed crop grain for the year 2020-21 at the conference hall. On this occasion, the Col-lector said that the support price of Grade A type 1888 / - and general type 1868 / - has been fixed for the quintals so that the farm-ers can benefit from it. Humidity should be 17 percent. He said the Telangana government had set an ideal for the country by bringing in an online system without any involvement of intermedi-aries in the purchase and payment of grain. The money is being bought from farmers at the mini-mum support price and deposited directly into the farmer’s account on-line. They want to have Aadhaar card details, bank account passbook Xerox, farmer mobile number. Legal metrology is going to work very well. Want to check every way bridge. Tarpaulin and humid-ity meters should be kept ready. The grain is sup-posed to be as per the cen-tral government regula-

tions. The Department of Revenue and Agriculture wants to create aware-ness among farmers. Traders and millers will be supported. A total of 445 purchasing centers (IKP 37 Primary Agricul-tural Cooperative Societ-ies 367, IDCMS 19, Mep-ma 7, Haka 1, Marketing Department 14) are be-ing set up. Awareness on grain purchasing posters, mobile app launched. He said there should be no problem of vehicles for

grain transport. The grain that came to the rice mill was going to be unloaded immediately. Covid pre-cautions should be taken near every shopping cen-ter. He said the grain would reach the centers for 45 days from Octo-ber to November and all necessary arrangements should be made for that. The meeting was attended by Additional Collector Chandrasekhar, RDO’s Ravi, Srinivas, Rajeshwar and officials.

TARGET OF PROCURING ABOUT 7 LAKH METRIC TONNES OF GRAIN

FROM THE MONSOON CROP

YadadRI, ocT 15: YadadRI BhuvanagIRI dISTRIcT collecToR anITa RamachandRan naRRowlY eScaped a Road accIdenT on The ouTSkIRTS of anajIpuRam vIllage In BhuvanagIRI zone. The accIdenT Took place whIle The dISTRIcT collecToR waS ReTuRnIng fRom a fIeld InSpecTIon In flood hIT vIllageS. loRRY TRavellIng fRom oppoSITe dIRecTIon hIT oncomIng caR wITh col-lecToR’S caR In Same TRack. polIce SaId ThaT The loRRY dRIveR waS dRIvIng undeR The Influ-ence of alcohol. a caSe haS Been RegISTeRed agaInST The loRRY dRIveR.

SEXUALLY ASSAULTED GIRL IN THE NAME OF EXORCISM , SHOULD SEVERELY

PUNISHED CITU DEMANDS

Nizamabad Oct 15 ; A press meet was organized today under the auspices of working women CITU , at the CITU office in Nizam-abad district center. On the occasion, CITU district general secretary NoorJahan said that Pothu Sivaprasad had been sexu-ally abusing a girl since three months under the name of ‘Meditation Center’ in Nizambad district center under the name of ‘exor-

cism’. Government confis-cates Shivprasad’s assets. The accused, should be se-verely punished, demanded with the government to take steps to provide financial assistance to all the women who have been deceived. Every day after the BJP government came to power, women we re left without protection. Delhi Incident Asifa Incident Hatras Mani-sha Incident Not to men-tion the names of several

incidents where a woman is being raped and murdered while the BJP government pays homage to the ac-cused by the Central and State Governments. The CITU district committee demanded that the law be enforced as an armory that the perpetrators be severely punished The event was attended by P, Swarna. Chapa Krishna, Lalita CH Nurse, Pushpa, Nagmani, etc.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 416 Friday, OctOber, 2020

Mogulla gathered large scale Of cadre for Dubbaka bye election

Nomination

TSIT bureauHyderabad Oct 15::Village in-charge Dubbaka bye elections Mo-gullu Rajireddy from Makkaraj Peta village in Chegunta mandal of Dubbaka constituency, village Congress party leaders and activ-ists who came in large scale numbers for the nomination function of Congress candidate Cheruku Srinivas Reddy under the auspices of TPCC spokesperson Mogulla Raji Reddyin Telangana there was a tradition of giving unanimously to their family members when a leader dies. When PJR died, KCR broke that tradition. He said TPCC Spokesperson asked CM KCR Ramalingareddy is so great that even though he has won four times, he has not been given a ministerial post. He Urged the people if you want the development of Telangana, if you want to implement the guaran-tees, teach the mind blowing lesson to TRS in Dubbaka He blamed that BJP TRS is the same boat BJP gave land to TRS office in the Delhi He appealed the people cast the vote for dearer Leader son of Muthyam Reddy

TSIT bureauHyderabad, Oct 15: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Thursday inspected the rain ravaged areas as the heavy rains triggered flood like situation and wide-spread destruction.

Kishen Reddy visited Begumpet, Ramgopalpet, Seethaphal Mandi, Boud-ha Nagar, Tarnaka, Red Hills, Mallepalli, Shaikpet, Himayath Nagar, Khaira-tabad and Somajiguda ar-eas of the Secunderabad Parliamentary Constituen-cy. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana Unit said the conduct of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) gov-ernment is so reprehen-sible as the administration brazenly violated all the protocols to be provided for a Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy when he in-

spected the rain ravaged areas in the city. The party

condemned the criminal negligence of TRS Govern-

ment and GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Cor-poration) officials, which has led to around 30 deaths and disrupted thousands in the wake of incessant rains in Hyderabad and Telan-gana, Party State Chief Spokesperson K.Krishna Saagar Rao said in a release here.Reddy was visiting all the localities in Hyder-abad which were impacted by rains since the last two days, while the TRS corpo-rators, MLA’s and Ministers are conspicuously invisible in this dire situation se-verely impacting the urban middle class and poor citi-zens, he alleged. Despite the Union Minister openly rebuking the utter neglect of GHMC Commissioner not sending the concerned officers to the locations he was visiting, the Commis-sioner did nothing to be duty bound, Saagar said.

MOS KiSHaN ReDDy iNSpeCTS RaiN affeCTeD aReaS

admn BRazenlY vIolaTed pRoTocol duRIng InSpecTIon

Hyderabad, Oct 15 (UNI) The Indian Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Wednesday joined rescue and relief work in the flood-affected areas of Hyderabad. On the request of the state government, the Army took up rescue and relief works in Bandlaguda, one of the worst-af-fected areas in the old city of Hyder-abad.

Army personnel were seen evacuat-ing people from inundated areas. Ac-cording to a statement from the De-fence Ministry, many stranded people have been evacuated and showing humanitarian values, the Army also distributed a large number of food packets to people affected by the floods. Army medical teams accom-panying the columns are providing essential first-aid and medical relief to the stranded people, the statement added. NDRF teams were also actively involved in rescue and relief works. They rescued 72 people from flood-hit Meerpet area on the city outskirts.

Heavy rains on Tuesday night trig-gered unprecedented floods in the city and suburbs, claiming at least 15 lives in separate rain related incidents. While nine people died in house col-lapse, six others were washed away in flood water. An estimated 1,500 colonies were submerged due to ex-

tremely heavy rainfall. Boats were deployed to rescue people from some inundated areas such as Nadeem Colony in Toli Chowki. Roads turned into lakes, bringing vehicular traffic to a halt. Vehicles were also stranded on highways to Vijayawada, Benga-luru, Nagpur, Warangal and Srisailam.

Scary visuals emerged from flooded areas showing floating cars, streets turning into streams and people on rooftops waiting for help. Overflowing lakes, nalas and even drainages led to severe waterlogging. Hundreds of ve-hicles were damaged as water filled the cellars of buildings in affected areas. For a second consecutive night, many areas in the city and suburbs remained without electricity. Longer power outages disrupted mobile and Internet connectivity.

, causing severe inconveniences to citizens. The Greater Hyderabad Mu-nicipal Corporation (GHMC) said 1.5 lakh food packets were provided to people in flood-hit areas. According to the GHMC statement, six people died in the floods while 121 localities and 20,540 homes were inundated.

GHMC deployed members of 360 its Disaster Response Force (DRF) and opened 61 relief camps where 684 people have taken shelter. State ministers K. T. Rama Rao and T. Srini-

vas Yadav, Greater Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Rammohan, Deputy Mayor Baba Fasihuddin, Hyderabad MP Asa-duddin Owaisi, city MLAs and corpo-rators visited various affected areas to supervise rescue and relief work.

Earlier, Rama Rao told the State Legislative Council that despite issu-ing notices people were not vacating dilapidated houses, leading to inci-dents of house collapse. He said the municipal authorities would resort to forcible eviction, if necessary, with the help of police. The minister also held an emergency meeting with officials from Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and other departments to take stock of the situation. He re-quested DGP Mahender Reddy and all Police Commissioners of Hyder-abad, Cyberabad, and Rachakonda to proactively monitor inundated areas/roads and ensure appropriate traffic diversions are in place. He asked the officials to ensure food, water, and other essentials are available .

Army, NDRF join rescue, relief work in flood-hit Hyderabad

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 516 Friday, OctOber, 2020

Hyderabad, Oct.15 (UNI): Telan-gana Pradesh Congress Commit-tee (TPCC) President & MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao should visit flood-hit areas of Hyderabad and take immediate measures to help the affected families. He also ac-cused the TRS Government of hid-ing the number of deaths due to floods across the Telangana State.

Speaking to media persons af-ter visiting B.S. Makhta and other flood-hit areas of Khairtabad con-stituency, Uttam Kumar Reddy said at least 30 people were feared killed, thousands of families have lost their property and valuables worth crores of rupees and hun-dreds of people are forced to abandon their submerged houses and live in relief camp or at their relatives’ houses. However, the

devastation has not changed the behaviour and attitude of CM KCR. Instead of holding a review on the flood situation, CM KCR had a re-view meeting on horticulture. He asked whether the subject of hor-ticulture was more important than the lives and properties of citizens of Hyderabad. He compared KCR with the Roman emperor Nero

who was playing the flute when Rome was burning. Just like Nero, KCR did not show any concern to-wards the sufferings of common people both due to his ineffective-ness and insensitive attitude.

Uttam said that the devastation caused due to floods was not only due to unprecedented rainfall, but it was primarily due to the failure

of TRS Government in managing the civic infrastructure, especially the storm water drains. “Minister KTR’s claim of TRS Govt spending Rs. 67,000 crore on Hyderabad’s development in the last six years is ridiculous. Nothing has been done to repair, maintain or upgrade the storm water drains. The Monsoon Action Plan has just remained on paper. Almost all roads turned into pools whenever it rained for a few hours. Many localities got submerged for several times in the last two months during rains. But nothing was done to find a permanent solution. Instead, peo-ple were cheated with the wrong claims of Hyderabad turning into a global city,” he alleged. The TPCC Chief claimed that more than 100 people were killed due to rain-re-lated incidents across Telangana in the last two days. However,

he alleged that the State Govern-ment was hiding the real figures of deaths as it did with deaths due to Covid-19. He also alleged that sev-eral localities in Hyderabad and its outskirts were submerged for the last two days and no assistance, in-cluding food or drinking water has been provided to them. He asked CM KCR not to take the situation lightly as affected people might vent out their anger soon.

Earlier, Reddy interacted with the affected people and also dis-tributed relief. He assured that that he would pressurise the govern-ment for quick relief measures. He appealed to all Congress leaders to actively participate in the re-lief measures and help people in distress. He also spoke to the con-cerned officials over phone and demanded relief measures on war footing.

Hyderabad Floods: Uttam asks CM KCR to take immediate measures

Telangana brings down number of Covid tests

Hyderabad, Oct 15 (UNI) Telangana has slashed the number of daily Covid-19 tests in the last few days which has resulted in fewer cases being reported. During the last 24 hours ending 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the authorities conducted 38,895 tests against daily average 55,000 to 60,000 samples test-ed over the last couple of months. There was no official word for conducting fewer tests.

As a result of the drop in the number of tests, the state is consistently reporting a daily count of less than 2,000 cases. On Thursday, the state reported 1,432 positive cases. The previous day, 40,056 tests were conducted. Only 30,000 tests were conduct-ed on Saturday-Sunday. The latest infections rose the cumulative tally to 2,17,670. Of this 23, 203 are active including 19,084 who are in home isolation.

The state continues to see more recover-ies from Covid-19 than the new infections. As many as 1,949 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,93,218. The state’s recovery rate climbed further to 88.76 per cent against the national average of 87.3 per cent.

Eight more people succumbed to the vi-rus during the period, pushing the death toll to 1,249. The fatality rate remains at 0.57 per cent against the national average of 1.5 per cent. Officials said the percentage of deaths due to Covid-19 was 44.96 while the remain-ing 55.04 had co-morbidities. Of 38,895

samples tested, 17,113 were primary and 4,667 secondary. According to a media bul-letin from the office of the director of public health and family welfare, 36,362 tests were conducted in government-run laboratories and 2,533 in private.

Seventeen government-run laboratories, 44 private laboratories and 1076 Rapid An-tigen test centres are conducting the tests. Samples tested per million population ratio rose further to 99,490. The daily test-ing target for the state is 5,600 per day as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark of 140 per million per day. Out of 2,17,670 total positive cases so far, 70 per cent (1,52,369) were asymptomatic while the remaining 30 per cent (65,301) were symptomatic. Of the new cases registered during the last 24 hours, Greater Hyderabad accounted for 244 cases. Medchal Malkajgiri district recorded second highest number of cases at 115 followed by Bhadradri Kothagu-dem (99), Khammam (91), Rangareddy (88), Karimnagar (74), ,Nalgonda (74), Kham-mam (52) and Suryapet (53). The data shows that 63.9 per cent of those tested positive so far are in the age group of 21-50 years while 22.91 are above 51 years of age. Those below 20 years are 13.18 per cent. Officials said 64.64 per cent of those tested positive.

were male while the remaining 38.37 per cent were female. The data also shows most of the beds in government and private hos-pitals treating Covid patients are vacant.

kTR holds review meeting on floods

Hyderabad, Oct.15 (UNI): State Minister for Municipal Administra-tion and Urban Develop-ment K T Ramarao along with Chief Secretary So-mesh Kumar held a meet-ing with the officials and reviewed the flood situa-tion in the city. The Min-ister urged the officials to take up all necessary measures to tackle the aftermath of the deluge even as the waters have started receding in most parts of Greater Hyder-abad.

He said that as there is a likelihood of sud-den outbreak of epidem-ics and spread of water borne diseases, medical camps should be set up in the city. 104 ambu-lance service equipped with doctors and medi-cines should also be ar-ranged at all the places. Medical officers should sensitize the public that they should drink only

hot water for a couple of days, he noted. He also wanted to take up spray-ing at all places where water is stagnant. He said that around 44 thousand people were put up in 64 relief camps and 45 thou-sand food packets were provided to the needy. He also asked the officials to provide blankets to all the destitute and shelter less people as there is

every likelihood of severe cold wave conditions to happen this season. He instructed the officials to evacuate people from the dilapidated buildings and other construction sites to prevent any damage. He said that wherever necessary the people may be forcefully evacuated with the help of the po-lice. The damaged roads in the city should be re-

stored immediately.The Principal Secretary

of Transport and R&B de-partment Sunil Sharma, the Secretary Health and Family Welfare Rizvi, Secretary Disaster Man-agement Rahul Bojja, Special Secretary Ron-ald Ross, the Secretary Women and Child Wel-fare Smt Divya and other senior officials attended the meeting.

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 616 Friday, OctOber, 2020

Hyderabad: Almost all the irrigation proj-ects in the State are receiving heavy inflows due to the incessant and heavy rains lash-ing the State and the catchment areas of major rivers Krishna and Godavari in the past few days. The quantum of flood water flowing into reservoirs was such that the bund of Musi project in Suryapet district had to be breached to lessen pressure on the project which saw inflows of over 2 lakh cusecs during the wee hours of Wednesday after almost a decade.For the first time, Musi river found men-

tion in the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) daily flood forecast that helps States to plan lifting of crest gates of projects to help reduce inundation of residential ar-eas on the banks of rivers. All the gates and emergency exits of the Musi reservoir were lifted and 1.73 lakh cusecs of flood water was released downstream. The CWC said that Musi project which had recorded water level of 196.185 metres on Wednes-day could receive a flood of 4,000 cumecs

by Thursday. Officials breach Musi project bund to control heavy inflow of water On Godavari, Lakshmi (Medigadda) barrage

was expected to receive 5,500 cumecs, Sri-pada Yellampalli was to receive 3,500 cu-mecs, Sri Ram Sagar Project with the pres-

ent water level of over 332.384 meters was to receive flood of 2,800 cumecs and Srisail-am on river Krishna was to receive 10,000 cumecs and Pulichintala was to receive a massive inflow of flood water to an extent of 15,000 cumecs by Thursday.

On the other hand the inflows and dis-charges from other important irrigation projects in the State confirm the con-tinuing trend of heavy floods dumping huge amounts of water into the projects. In the upper region of Karnataka, the Almatti and Narayanpur projects were discharging 69,613 cusecs and 1, 05,525 cusecs of Krishna water respectively down the stream. The Priyadarshini Ju-rala Project was receiving 1, 86,997 cu-secs and discharging 1, 91,013 cusecs on Wednesday evening. Inflow at Srisailam was 3,52,595 and outflow was 3,49,115, inflow at Nagarjuna Sagar was 3,03,556 cusecs and outflow was 3,03,556. Pu-lichintala was receiving 1,86,997 cusecs and discharging 1,91,013 cusecs.

Inflows into projects in Telangana continue

Hyderabad, Oct.15 (UNI): Dr G R Reddy, , Advisor to Government of Telangana (Finance) and BP Acharya, DG of the Institute & Speciall Chief Secretary inau-gurated “Bathukamma Sarovar”, a restored water body, abutting the Institute and Soft-ware Technology Park of India.

G R Reddy, congratu-lated the Institute on taking up this eco-friendly initiative and said that the restored Bathukamma Sarovar will further add to the bio-diversity on the campus. “A green belt added around the Tank has further enriched the natural beauty of the Institute”, he add-ed. B P Acharya, said that the Batukamma Tank, which was earlier a cesspool and a breed-ing place of mosqui-toes, has been restored through the HMDA, as a fresh water body

with a cost of Rs.28 lakhs. “The storage ca-pacity of the tank has been increased from a mere two lakh litres to 26 lakh litres, that is, about one lakh cubic feet”.

Acharya, said that a fountain is also in-stalled at the middle of the tank. “Its throw of water, up to a height of 30 feet and a diameter of 20 feet, accompa-nied by the colourful lighting, will be a grand treat for the enthusi-asts of natural beauty”, he stated.

The Tank is regularly used for Bathukam-ma festivities during Dasara.

This initiative of re-storing the Batukam-ma Tank is one of the steps towards ensur-ing that the Institute is eco-responsible with the least possible car-bon footprints. Over one lakh saplings have been planted during

the last three years on the campus as a part of the Institute’s com-mitment to maintain clean and green envi-ronment. The planting of trees and the green cover are the contribu-tions of the Institute towards the efforts of the Government and NGOs towards finding enduring solutions to problems relating to ecological imbalance.

Another eco-friendly initiative is a shift to solar power in a big way, which involved an expenditure of Rs. 3. 81crores. As a result, the electricity gener-ated from the Rooftop Solar Power System of 855 KWp capacity not only resulted in a sav-ing of a whopping Rs 9 lakhs per month in the electricity bill of the Institute but also made it the top-most solar power generating gov-ernment institution in the State.

Dr MCR HRD Institute Restores a Water Body-- “Bathukamma

Sarovar Inaugurated”

Hyderabad, Oct 15 (UNI) Many colonies in Hyderabad and sub-urbs remained under water on Thursday while Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel continued res-cue and relief work in the flood-hit areas.

Clear skies provided respite to the city battered by heavy rains in the intervening night of October 13-14 but the areas abutting over-flowing lakes and nalas remained inundated while traffic on dam-aged highways is yet to be restored.

Personnel of Army, NDRF and Disaster Response Force (DRF) of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation continued rescue and relief works in the worst-affected areas. People trapped in marooned houses were being shifted to safe places through boats. One of the worst floods in the city’s history has so far claimed 19 lives while five others are missing. Colonies in Chan-drayangutta in the old city of Hy-derabad, Chaderghat and Moo-sarambagh on the banks of Musi river, Uppal and Vanasthalipuram on the city outskirts are still un-

der the flood waters. Following release of surplus water from Hi-mayat Sagar upstream, Musi river was flowing dangerously at Moo-sarambagh, flooding adjacent areas. Officials were working to save Palle Cheru lake from breach at Mailardevpally. Sand bags were arranged to strengthen the em-bankment. Ranga Reddy district collector Amoy Kumar and Cy-berabad Police Commissioner V. C. Sajjanar were supervising the efforts.

People living in areas surround-ing the lake were alerted to move to safe places. A part of the bund

had breached following heavy rains on Tuesday night, inundat-ing Ali Nagar area. Eight members of a family were washed away while trying to wade through flood water in Ali Nagar on Wednesday. Bodies of three people were found while the search was on for oth-ers.Some colonies in Manikonda area were also inundated due to an overflowing Firangi nala. With cellars of the buildings completely submerged, residents of the apart-ments were waiting for help. Sev-eral colonies in Uppal, Boduppal, Ramanthapur, Peerzadiguda and Ghatkesar also remained.

many colonies in rain battered hyderabad remain underwater

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 716 Friday, OctOber, 2020

65% Delhi-NCR households have 1 or more individuals with pollution-related ailments

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) About 65 per cent households of Delhi have one or more individuals who have already started experiencing pollution-related ailments, a sur-vey has revealed.

Forty-seven per cent are facing cold, cough or sore throat issues, while 26 per cent are witness-ing burning eyes, and 30 per cent are facing breathing difficulties, the survey results on Thursday showed.

Capital city’s air quality index stood at 323 at 1 p.m., which falls in the ‘very poor’ category. The air pollution reaches a crescendo in Delhi and surrounding regions every winter, when pollution from stubble burning combines with the suspended water droplets in the lower atmosphere to form a thick blanket of noxious smog.

Many doctors and hospitals in the city have also started reporting higher number of cases of patients with breathing difficulties. People with pre-existing respiratory or pulmonary conditions, when ex-posed to poor air quality are more likely to develop complications that could make them more vul-nerable to infectious diseases like coronavirus.

To get a first-hand understand-ing of what people have started experiencing since late last week, what their plan is to cope with and efforts of the government to re-duce pollution, ‘LocalCircles’ con-ducted the survey which received over 15,500 responses from people residing in Delhi, Gurugram, Noi-da, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.

The first question, citizens were asked was with Delhi-NCR air quality having deteriorated by

400 per cent in last four weeks and AQIs now in the 250-350 range, what they and their family were experiencing.

About 29 per cent said one or more members at home was al-ready having cough, cold, sore throat, 6 per cent said one or more members at home already having burning eyes, 12 per cent said one or more members at home already having difficulty breathing, while 18 per cent said all of the above. Thirty-five per cent said all mem-bers of the family are doing fine so far. This clearly shows that 65 per cent households of Delhi have one or more individuals who have started experiencing pollution re-lated ailments.

Citizens were then asked with Delhi-NCR AQIs in the 250-350

range and likely to deteriorate fur-ther in the next in next 3-4 weeks by at least 3X, what were their plan of preparation.

In response, six per cent said they are planning to travel out for some or most of this period, 21 per cent said they will stay indoors, increase intake of immunity foods and drinks and bear it, 12 per cent said they will use air purifiers along with the immunity boosting nutrition, while 24 per cent said they will carry on routine activity and wear mask when outdoors.

Over 25 per cent said they will carry on routine activity and wear mask when outdoors, increase in-take of immunity foods or drinks, while 9 per cent said they will not do any of the above and just live with it.

The results of this survey show that only 12 per cent citizens of Delhi-NCR will use air purifiers to reduce the impact of pollution; a large majority will just live with it and increase the intake of im-munity foods and drinks. Increas-ing intake of warm fluids, adding black pepper, turmeric and other spices or ayurvedic remedies is something that many people do during this time of the year -- an age-old concoction called ‘kadha’.

This year, the Delhi government has also launched an anti-air pol-lution campaign called “Yuddh Pradushan Ke Viruddh’ under the direct leadership of Chief Minister and Environment Minister. The Central Government in its list of initiatives in last six years to reduce Delhi-NCR pollution counts con-

struction of Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways, introduc-tion of BS-VI vehicles, shutdown of Badarpur plant and providing stubble cutting machines worth Rs 1400 crores to Punjab farmers.

When citizens of Delhi-NCR were asked about what they think of the initiatives undertaken by the Central and State Governments on the issue of pollution in the last 12 months, only 4 per cent said they have done a lot of work and this year should be significantly better.

About 7 per cent said they have done a lot of work and this year should be somewhat better, 11 per cent said they have done a few things and this year should be somewhat better, 11 per cent said they have done a few things but not enough for this year to be any better, 18 per cent said they have done a few things but nothing of significance; however this year will be better due to Covid, and 42 per cent said they have literally done nothing and this year will likely be the same as last year.

This means only 22 per cent citi-zens of Delhi NCR believe that the Central and State Governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have done worked to curb pollution related issues in the last 12 months which will lead to lower pollution this year. Last year sever-al measures were discussed among citizens, including ensuring timely electricity and hence water supply to farmers in the different states, enabling stubble pick up service, making seeders available at com-munity or panchayat level, etc. The Delhi Government has also announced the implementation of Graded Response Action.

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Niketa Baldevbhai Dave, Director of Pentium Infotech Ltd. and Hirak Biotech Ltd. in connec-tion with Ahmedabad’s People’s Cooperative Bank Ltd. money laundering case.

The ED said that Dave was ar-rested under the sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering

Act (PMLA) in a case relating to fraud in the cooperative bank. A local court sent her to four-days ED custody.

The ED filed a case on the basis of a case registered by the CID-Crime in Gandhinagar in May 2009. The Gujarat Police in its FIR alleged that Dave, Pratik R. Shah (also a director) and others com-mitted fraud of Rs 25.25 crore with

the APCBL.“During investigation it was

revealed that Shah and Dave be-ing the Directors of Pentium In-fotech Ltd. and Hirak Biotech Ltd. opened FDOD (overdraft accounts against fixed deposits) loan accounts in APCBL and these companies defaulted on payment causing loss of Rs 25.25 crore to the bank.

ED arrests director of Gujarat firm in bank fraud case

THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES 25 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 2020 816 Friday, OctOber, 2020

'Most Livable City' Hyderabad turned into the 'Most Dreaded City', under KCR's ruleTRS Govt's unpreparedness and neglect led to the deluge of Hyder-abad and more than 100 deaths Devastated people are left to fend for themselves, Where are shame-less TRS Ministers, MLAs and Cor-porators hiding? Why is KTR fearing to visit flooded areas and interact with people without security? Hyderabad has contributed Rs 7 lakh crore revenue to state exchequer. Where has all that money gone? Why is the TRS government not cracking down on illegal structures on na-las and encroachers of lakes? Hyderabad, October 15: While Congress party shaped Hyderabad city into 'The Most Livable City' and a global destination during its rule, Chief Minister K Chan-drashekar Rao has turned it into the most dreaded city in his seven year rule, fired AICC spokesper-son Dr Dasoju Sravan. Expressing severe ire over the utter neglect of TRS Government in dealing with the heavy rains in Hyderabad, Dr Dasoju Sravan questioned, "Hy-derabad city has contributed Rs 7 lakh crore to state exchequer in the past seven years but the city's infrastructure has been com-pletely debilitated. Where has all

that money gone. People are com-pletely devastated and do not even have essential commodities and food to eat. Why is CM KCR still not reviewing the relief measures or announcing compensation? What is the Municipal Minister KTR doing? Why is he fearing to visit the flood areas without secu-rity and oversee relief measures?" "This is not the first time Hyder-abad has received heavy rains. Though the Meteorological de-partment warned of heavy rains, the Government did not take any preventive steps or set up a con-trol room to monitor the situ-ation. While the city was being washed away, CM KCR reviewed the 'Haritha Haram' on Wednesday and only after extensive devasta-tion, did CM hold a review on rains on Thursday afternoon. Even this was done, after the Prime Minister and The President inquired about the situation. Municipal Affairs Minister KT Rama Rao who makes tall claims about Hyderabad's de-velopment was nowhere seen in relief operations. Only after the damage was done, he visited se-lected areas, that too flanked by DGP under tight security? Why is he fearing to interact with people

who are devastated with floods? TRS Government has turned the global city Hyderabad which is considered as 'Most Livable city' into the dreaded city" said Dr Da-soju Sravan speaking at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Thursday. "Hyderabad contributed about Rs 7 lakh crore to state exchequer in the past seven years. Municipal Affairs Minister KTR claims that Rs 67,000 Crore were spent on Hyderabad's development. Where has all that

money gone? Did that money go into the pockets of KTR? Because there are about 12821 illegal struc-tures on nalas in Greater Hyder-abad and Rs 12,000 Crore is needed to erase them. How many illegal structures did the TRS Govt demolish? There are 185 lakes in the GHMC area, which have been encroached. There are 3,132 lakes in HMDA limits which have been encroached. Did the TRS Govt reclaim at least one inch

from encroachments? While we need 5000 kms-long drainage we have just 1500 kms. There are just 2 lakh manholes while we need 4.2 lakh manholes. These facts prove that TRS Govt has completely messed up Hyderabad. This Govt does not even have an 'urban de-velopment policy'. Though people are left to fend for themselves no TRS MLA or Corporator is on the field to help them. Congress party demands CM KCR to immediately

announce ex-gratias to the de-ceased and compensation for the lakhs of affected families," said Dr Dasoju Srava, coming down heav-ily on TRS Government's inaction and incompetence in monitor-ing floods, which wreaked havoc with the lives of Hyderabadis. Dr Dasoju Sravan urges Con-gress cadres to help Hyderabadis: Dr Dasoju Sravan visited flood af-fected areas in Khairatabad and other areas early in the morning. Moved by the plight of residents for low lying areas in several ar-eas, he urged Congress cadres to participate in relief measures. "Residents across the city are suf-fering severely due to rains and floods. Neither TRS corporators nor AIMIM corporators are vis-ible. Even TRS MLAs are nowhere to be seen. Congress cadres across the city should come forward and participate in relief measures and help residents in their locality in whichever way possible. In many localities people do not even have food to eat as there is no power and all essential commodities have been washed away. Rahul Gandhiji also inquired about the situation in Hyderabad and directed Congress cadres to take up relief activities.

Government will resolve inundation problem permanently: Satyavathi Rathod

Warangal Urban Oct 15: Minister for Women, Child and Tribal Welfare Satyavathi Rathod said that the State government would resolve the problem of inundation of the low-lying areas permanently by taking up suitable measures. She along with Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) Mayor Gunda Prakash Rao and Commissioner Pamela Satpathy visited the flood affected areas including NTR Nagar, Brindavan Colony, Amaravathi Nagar and others in the city on Thursday and interacted with the residents. She also spoke to the people at a relief centre at Santhoshimatha Garden where about 100 people are taking shelter. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that Rs 50 crore would be spent to improve the storm water drain system and construct new structures to avoid inundation under Smart City Mission, while Rs 25 crore special funds would be spent by the State government. “We will chalk out a comprehensive plan to resolve the issue of inun-dation of the low-lying areas. Removal of the encroachments.

Amaravati, Oct 15 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Ja-gan Mohan Reddy on Wednes-day directed the concerned offi-cials to prepare an action plan as to how well the floodwaters can be utilised for the benefit of the state without wasting them.

He emphasised that floodwa-ters should be used to fill all the reservoirs, which can further be used downstream to irrigate the fields. Citing the irony of Chit-toor district, Reddy highlighted that the district received 40 per cent excess rainfall but only 30 per cent tanks in it were filled with water. He advised the offi-cials to change such a situation. Reddy reviewed the aftermath of the torrential downpour caused by a deep depression pounding Andhra Pradesh in the past few days. He held a video confer-ence with the district collectors to take stock of the situation. Instructing the officials to sup-

ply safe drinking water to the people, the Chief Minister also told them to take all precautions to prevent the spread of dis-eases. Reddy directed officials to be on high alert and provide all help and relief to the people taking refuge in the relief camps as he announced an immediate monetary aid of Rs 500 to such people. “Be vigilant in the wake of the flood situation, more so in Krishna and Guntur districts as the inflows into the Prakasam barrage are expected to reach 7.5 lakh cusecs due to inces-

sant rains in Telangana region,” he said. According to Reddy, 4 lakh cusecs of water will be released from the Srisailam res-ervoir, which will find its way towards the Prakasam barrage. He also instructed the officials to arrange accommodation for those who have been evacuated from flood prone areas as well as ensure that the emergency ser-vices are not disrupted. Restor-ing power supply and repairing damaged roads on a warfooting should be the priority for the next 4-5 months, Reddy said. As

10 people have died due to rain related incidents in the southern state, the CM directed the offi-cials to pay ex-gratia to their kin.

Likewise, all primary health centres have been instructed to stock up medicines to provide emergency health services.

The officials informed the Chief Minister that drink-ing water is being supplied through tankers to the af-fected people, while sanita-tion measures are also being undertaken in all the rural ar-eas. Once normalcy returns, agriculture and horticulture experts from the varsities will guide the farmers in salvag-ing the crops and minimising losses.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned Red-dy to enquire about the situation after the rains. Reddy apprised Modi of the prevailing condition in the wake of the deluge.

Andhra CM directs harvesting floodwaters for state’s benefit