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HYDERABAD, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 17, 2019; PAGES 12 `3

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan'ssudden Delhi visit has createda sensation among politicalcircles as the visit left politicosguessing on what could be thepurpose of the visit, agenda andwhom the Power Star is goingto meet in nation's capital.

Jana Sena leaders, who arealso ignorant of the purpose ofthe visit, would say that PowerStar is going to meet someelders in Delhi. In the samebreath, some of the leaders dis-miss it as a private visit.

However, some others begto differ. They suspect thatthere is more than what meetsthe eye. Pawan Kalyan, who isfighting pitched battles againstthe government, took person-

al attacks on him very seri-ously.

It may be recalled thatPawan had already gone onrecord stating that he wouldlodge a complaint with theCentre, if necessary, on thecondition of the constructionworkers in the State, the state-of-affairs of construction ofnew state capital in Amarvatiand personal vilification cam-paign against him.

Continued on Page 2

PNS n HYDERABAD

Stepping up their stir, the strik-ing employees of TelanganaState Road TransportCorporation (TSRTC) organ-ised a bus roko at variousplaces in the state on Saturdayand a leader of the workmenbegan an indefinite fast in sup-port of their demands.

The employees, who begantheir strike on October 5,stopped buses from plying aspart of the bus roko protest.

The RTC workmen and alsoopposition activists continuedrallies, sit-ins and other formsof protest.

The leader of the strikingemployees unions AswathamaReddy claimed he was notallowed to undertake his fast atthe unions office in the city andthat he was confined to homeby the police.

Reddy said he began anindefinite fast at his home.

Appealing to the workmennot to lose heart and not resortto extreme steps like commit-ting suicides in view of the pro-longed nature of the strike, hesaid the government shouldinvite the unions for talks toresolve the issue.

The bus roko was peacefuland no major issue croppedanywhere, a senior police offi-cial said. Asked if any leaders

were put under house arrestand on allegations of leadersthat they were not allowed toundertake fast, he said somewere advised and counselledwith regard to the protests.

The Hyderabad city policeimposed prohibitory ordersunder Section 144 of CrPCaround 500 metres of each ofthe bus depot and at BusBhavan in the city on Saturday.

No gathering of more thanfour people would be permit-ted at those places with theintention of organising busroko, the city police said onFriday.

Continued on Page 4

RTC employees stage‘bus roko’; Aswathamabegins indefinite fast

BEIJING: Social video appTikTok has reached 1.5 bil-lion downloads worldwide onthe App Store as well asGoogle Play and India leadsthe chart with 466.8 millionor about 31 per cent of allunique installs.

In 2019, the app accumu-lated 614 million downloads-- six per cent more than ithad last year, reported mobileintelligence firm SensorTower.

India has been a fast adop-tor in 2019, driving up 277.6million downloads so far thisyear, or roughly 45 per centof all global installs.

China generated the sec-ond largest amount of down-loads with 45.5 million, or 7.4percent, while the US is No3 with 37.6 million installs, orabout 6 per cent, this year.

TikTok hits 1.5bn downloads,India tops list

HYDERABAD: The MMTSloco pilot who had been hos-pitalised with multiple injurespost Monday's train mishapat the Kacheguda RailwayStation succumbed whileundergoing treatment lateon Friday night.

The loco pilot, LChandrashekar, who wasbadly injured in the train col-lision, breathed his last at 9:30pm on Friday night due tointernal sepsis, kidney failure,and subsequent cardiacarrest, hospital authoritiessaid.

Chandrasekhar wastrapped in the driver's cabinafter the MMTS service hewas steering rammed into theKurnool City-SecunderabadHundry Intercity Express.National Disaster ResponseForce personnel had to useelectric cutters to removefour layers of heavy metal andextricate him, almost eighthours after the mishap.

Loco pilotsuccumbs to injuries

SANSOL: Union MinisterBabul Supriyo on Saturdaycalled AIMIM chiefAsaduddin Owaisi "secondZakir Naik" over the Ayodhyaissue that was recently decid-ed by the Supreme Court.

"Asaduddin Owaisi isbecoming the second ZakirNaik. If he speaks more thanrequired, then we do have lawand order problem in ourcountry," Mr Supriyo toldreporters in Asansol in WestBengal. Zakir Naik is a con-troversial Islamic preacher,whose extradition fromMalaysia is being sought byIndia on charges of moneylaundering and hate speech.

‘Owaisi 2nd

Zakir Naik’:Babul Supriyo

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Modi government isset to push for the passage ofthe contentious Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, a keyBJP plank which is aimed atgranting nationality to non-Muslim immigrants fromneighbouring countries, inParliament's Winter Sessionstarting from Monday.

The government has list-ed the bill in its items ofbusiness for the session,official sources told newsagency Press Trust of India.

The BJP-led NDA gov-ernment had introduced thebill in its previous tenure aswell but could not push itthrough due to vehementprotests by opposition par-ties, which criticised the billas discriminatory on reli-gious grounds.

The bill had lapsed fol-lowing the dissolution ofthe last Lok Sabha.

The legislation seeks togrant Indian citizenship toHindus, Jains, Christians,Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsisfrom Bangladesh, Pakistanand Afghanistan if they havefled their respective countrydue to religious persecu-tion.

There has been opposi-tion to the bill in Assam andother northeastern states.

Citizenship billin Govt agendafor wintersession

PNS n HYDERABAD

The in-charge ManagingDirector of TSRTC SunilSharma on Saturday filed anadditional affidavit before theTelangana High Court. In hisaffidavit, he alleged that lead-ers of the corporation'sunions, with the connivanceof opposition parties, have aclear motive of destabilisingthe state government by theirongoing strike. He also saidthat these union leaders weretrying to send the entire cor-poration into further losses toprotect their vested interests.

Referring to the decision ofthese union leaders to droptheir main demand --mergerof the corporation with thestate government -- "for now",he said that there was scopefor the unions to raise thesame demand at any time inthe future and possibly desta-bilise the state government .

Continued on Page 2

Declare strikeillegal: Govt filesaffidavit in HC

12

SMALL TOWNBOY WHO

BROKE ALLSHACKLES

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

The ruling parties of Telanganaand Andhra Pradesh made abomb when it comes to financesfor the year 2018-19.

According to the 'AnnualAudit Report for the FinancialYear 2018-19' filed with theElection Commission inOctober, both the partiesreceived funds totaling overRs181 crore. In fact, a majorchunk of the money came toboth of them through electoralbonds. TRS party received Rs182.67 crore through donationsand contributions, includingRs 141.5 crore in the form ofelectoral bonds. Likewise,YSRCP received Rs 181 crorethrough donations and contri-butions, including Rs 99 crore inthe form of electoral bonds.

The donations to TRS are sig-nificant, considering that lastyear the pink party only got Rs3.3crore in donations. In theprevious financial year, TRSparty had no electoral bonds ortrusts. About Rs 16.5 crorecame from electoral trusts.Donations to TRS from com-

panies increased to Rs 14.81crore, as against Rs 2 crore lastyear.

The YSRCP said that itreceived Rs 36.08 crore as dona-tions from non-corporate enti-ties, compared to Rs 11.7 crorein the previous financial year.Corporate entities donated Rs18.15 crore compared to Rs 2.53crore last year.

YSRCP paid Rs 37.57 crore topolitical consultancy IndianPolitical Action Committee (I-

PAC), founded by PrashantKishor, as part of servicesextended for the recentLegislative Assembly and LokSabha elections held in thestate.

When it comes to electionexpenditure, TRS said it spentRs 26.97 crore on advertise-ments and towards campaign-ing and public meeting expens-es. YSRCP revealed in its'Election Expenditure Statement'that as on date of the announce-

ment of the election, the partyhad a bank balance of Rs 74.3lakh.

By the time the electionswere completed, the partyreceived a staggering Rs 221crore in the form of donations.Out of this, YSRCP spent Rs85.65 crore, which included Rs9.72 crore on star campaignersand Rs 36.4 crore for advertise-ments in the media.Coincidentally, most of themoney spent on advertisements,around Rs 24.67 crore, wasgiven to Jagathi Publications,which is run by Jagan MohanReddy's family.

Another 1.03 crore was spenton publicity material, includingposters, banners, badges, stick-ers, arches, cut-outs, hoardings,flags etc.

After its expenditure, theYSRCP said, it had a bank bal-ance of Rs 138 crore. TRS hasa bank balance of Rs 158.9 crore.

Meanwhile, the oppositionTelugu Desam Party (TDP),which also filed its electionexpenditure report, said that itspent a total of Rs 77 crore,including Rs 49 crore on adver-tisements in the media.

TRS, YSRCP made a bombthrough electoral bonds

ELECTION EXPENDITURE STATEMENT

Politicians’ hand in land disputes iscausing headache to TRS leadershipPNS n HYDERABAD

The palpable involvement ofseveral politicians belonging tothe pink party in land disputeshas becoming a thorn in theflesh of TRS leadership.

Well aware of the never-end-ing land disputes across thestate, Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao had set outto overhaul the RevenueDepartment by "purifying"land records and bringing anew revenue act to inter alia ridthe department of graft.

Nonetheless, some leaders ofthe pink party have notflinched from settling or clear-ing land disputes by pickingsides. Given that more andmore names of TRS leaders are

surfacing in land disputes andalarmed at the spate of inci-dents involving revenue offi-cials, the Chief Minister hasreportedly asked all the MLAsof his party to stay away fromland disputes.

Involvement of TRS leadersin land disputes is becoming apain for the government.

Following the murder ofAbdullapurmet tahsildar K.Vijaya Reddy, several otherland deals of questionable

authenticity have surfaced inwhich TRS leaders' name fig-ure.

The name of TRSIbrahimpatnam MLAManchireddy Kishan Reddyfigured in the land issues thatresulted in Vijaya Reddy's mur-der. So, Chief Minister hasinformed the MLAs that inseveral parts of Telangana thereare multiple claimants overthe same chunk of land andtherefore party leaders shouldnot take sides.

Following KCR's instruc-tion, MA&UD Minister K TRama Rao on Saturday askedthe Warangal Police to resolvea land dispute in which hisname was dropped.

Continued on Page 2

Centre halts inter-state swapamong TS and AP

PNS n SABARIMALA

At least ten young womenfrom Andhra Pradesh, whoarrived at Pamba on Saturdayto offer prayers at the LordAyyappa temple here, weresent back, police said.

The women, in the 10-50age group, were part of a 30-member group fromVijayswada.

"After they reached Pamba,police checked their identitycards and found that they

were in the barred age groupand informed them about thecurrent situation inSabarimala. They did not pro-ceed further," police said.

The Pamba base camp is atthe foothills of Sabarimala,about 5 km from the shrine.

The Lord Ayyappa templeopened this evening for thetwo month long Mandala-Makaravillakku pilgrimageseason. The state and templeprecincts had witnessedprotests by right wing outfitsand BJP workers last year afterthe LDF government decidedto implement the Supremecourt's verdict of September28, 2018 allowing women of allage groups to offer prayers atthe shrine.

Continued on Page 3

DoPT no longer entertaining deputation pleas PNS n HYDERABAD

For about five years after bifur-cation, the Telugu-speakingstates had a free run withregard to inter-state swappingof IAS and IPS officers. In fact,ignoring the Pratyush SinhaCommittee's guidelines andthe Centre's known position;Telangana and AndhraPradesh have been exchangingofficers at will.

It seems those days are over.As per sources, the Uniongovernment is against theswapping of cadre of G

Anantha Ramu from AndhraPradesh to Telangana.

Raising an objection to thewhims and fancies of the statesover exchange of officials, theGovernment of India hasreportedly made it clear thatthe Department of Personneland Training (DoPT) wouldhave the final say in the allo-

cation of state. The Centre had to step in

the present case because someoverenthusiastic babus hadincorrectly shown senior IASofficer JR Anand as an 'out-sider' to AP, despite him beinga native of Rajahmundry, whileAnantha Ramu was assignedto AP state. The AndhraPradesh state government hadconsidered the contention ofAnantha Ramu and evenagreed to relieve him, but theTelangana governmentreferred the case to DoPT.

Continued on Page 4

DOST DOST NA RAHA …

End of bonhomie betweenAP and Telangana? K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

The much tom-tommed bon-homie between TelanganaChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao andAndhra Pradesh ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy seems to have ended,with AP submitting a counteraffidavit in the Supreme Courtseeking a directive to theCentre to reject the proposal ofTS to accord 'national project'status to the Rs 80,000 croreKaleswaram project.

That the relations betweenthe two Telugu states hadsoured became clear sometime back when AndhraPradesh decided to take up theriver linking project betweenGodavari and Penna rivers onits own land from Polavaramproject to Penna River. Inwhat was seen as tit for tat, theTelangana state decided totake up the river linking pro-ject on its own land fromSeetharama project to Dindiproject.

KCR, taken aback at AP'slatest stance on Kaleswaram,has asked officials to prepare astrong counter for submissionto the Supreme Court, it isunderstood. He is likely to alsoconvene a high-level meeting

with top irrigation officialsnext week to review the statusof the project works and to findways of clearing legal obstaclesin speedy execution of his petproject.

The Telangana ChiefMinister may implead certainstates, including Odisha, asthose affected by thePolavaram project.

KCR, who had described theattendance of Jagan at theinaugural of Kaleswaram as"historical development in therelations between two Telugu

states", was shocked by AP'saffidavit on the Kaleswaramproject by none other thanJagan. The AP Chief Ministerhad attended the Kaleswaramproject inaugural programmealong with his IrrigationMinister Anil Kumar Yadavand higher officials. ThenMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis also par-ticipated in the programme.

What beats TS administra-tion is the nature of objectionsraised by AP.

Continued on Page 4

Both states start fighting again

KCR, taken aback at AP's latest stance onKaleswaram, has asked officials to prepare astrong counter for submission to the SupremeCourt, it is understood

The employees, whobegan their strike onOctober 5, stoppedbuses from plying aspart of the bus rokoprotest10 young women from AP

not allowed to Sabarimala

Pawan's Delhi visit keepspoliticos guessing

China armylands in Hong KongPNS n BEIJING

China on Saturday deployedits troops in Hong Kong forthe first time since theunprecedented pro-democ-racy protests began in the for-mer British colony more thanfive months ago over a pro-posed extradition law, withsoldiers in plain clothes clear-ing the roadblocks. Soldiersfrom the Hong Kong Garrisonof People's Liberation Army(PLA) -- the world's largestmilitary -- have been deployedfor the first time in more thanfive months of civil unrest inHong Kong, as dozensmarched from their Kowloongarrison to help clear road-blocks.

Sunil Sharma

‘BOND' WITH THE BEST…TRS and YSRCP got more than Rs 180 cr through donations

PARTY DONATIONS ELECTORAL BONDS BANK BALANCE

TRS Rs 182.67crore Rs 141.5crore Rs 158.9croreYSRCP Rs 181 crore Rs 99 crore Rs 138 cror

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated November 16, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANAC TODAY

Month & Paksham:Kartik& Krishna PakshaPanchangamTithi : Panchami: 06.22 pmNakshatram: Punarvasu 10:59 pmTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 04:12 pm – 05:36 pmYamagandam: 12:00 pm – 01:24 pm

Varjyam: 11-08 am - 12:43 pm

Gulika: 02:48 pm - 04:12 pmGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 08:37 pm - 10:12 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:38 am - 12:23 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: ClearTemp: 31/19Humidity: 73%Sunrise: 06.22Sunset: 05.39

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HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019 hyderabad 02

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(IN HYDERABAD)

‘Buddhavanam willbe opened soon’PNS n HYDERABAD

The Buddhavanam Project,coming up at Nagarjunasagarwill be opened to public in acouple of months, saidTourism Minister V SrinivasGoud.

Spread over 274 acres, theBuddhist theme park has thebiggest dome in Asia com-prising of a stupa. It would bethe most important destina-tion in the Buddhist touristcircuit, he said. Addressing theinaugural session of"Telangana Bouddha Sangiti2019" international seminar onBuddhist Archaeology at theMCR HRD Institute here onSaturday, the Minister saidapart from construction ofSiriparvata Arama, theBuddhist theme park atNagarjunasagar, efforts wereon to document Buddhist his-tory and Archaeology in close

association with theDepartment of Heritage.

Delegates from 17 countriesare participating in the semi-nar. The Minister later inau-gurated a special photo exhi-bition on Buddhist excavationsin Telangana and other places.Buddhavanam Project SpecialOfficer M. Laxmaiah said theobjective behind organisingthe seminar was to discussBuddhist archaeology, signif-icance of Telangana and tolearn measures for preserva-tion and development ofBuddhist sites.

Spread over 274acres, the Buddhisttheme park has the

biggest dome in Asiacomprising a stupa

—V SRINIVASTourism Minister

Sub-treasury officer in ACB netPNS n WARANGAL

The Anti Corruption Bureauofficials have caught a subtreasury officer and a seniorauditor red handed whileaccepting bribe from a retiredemployee in Wardhannapettown of Warangal rural districton Saturday.

The officials raided the Subtreasury office inWardhannapet responding toa complaint of retiredExtension officer ofPanchayath Raj DepartmentSriramulu on Saturday morn-ing and caught the STO

Vikram and the auditorNaseha red handed whileaccepting Rs 15,000 as bribe.

The complainant accusedthat the STO demanded bribefor according permission tohis pension for the past fewdays and was delaying thesanction of the pension.

Apparently, perturbedretired man went to the ACBand complained that he wasthoroughly harassed by theSub Treasury officer for bribeand went along with the sleuthsto pay the bribe amount. TheSTO and auditor were takeninto the custody.

TS schemes changedfarmers’ lives: JagadishPNS n SURYAPET

The State government hassucceeded in making the farm-ers to go for cultivation withconfidence by providinginvestment support, fertilizersand seeds in time, said Ministerfor Power G Jagadish Reddyhere on Saturday.

He was speaking after dis-tributing the cheques ofKalyana Lakshmi and ShaadiMubarak to the beneficiaries atNagaram in the district.Speaking on the occasion, theMinister said that RythuBandhu and Rythu Bhima,introduced by the state gov-ernment, have changed thelives of the farmers and theirfamilies in the state.

Neither the farmer hadexpected such schemes fromthe state government nordemanded by them. The ChiefMinister, who was familiar withthe problems of the farmers,had designed Rythu Bandhu,which was being implementingin only Telangana state in thecountry, he said.

He reminded that farmers ofUttar Pradesh, Rajasthan andHaryana states were launchingagitations for decades to savethem from indebtedness andextend support to the agricul-

ture sector. The political par-ties in these states have madepre-poll promises on theirdemands, but forgot after com-ing to power, he added.

Reminding that the TRSgovernment has fulfilled its

pre-poll promises of waiver ofcrop loans, Reddy said that theChief Minister had come outwith several schemes with thesole aim of helping farmers sothat they should not take loansto meet the expenditure of the

cultivation.Investment support scheme

Rythu Bandhu and supply offertilizers and seeds to thefarmers at the beginning of thecrop season were a few of theinitiatives of the state govern-ment in this regard, he main-tained. The Chief Ministerhad a strong feeling that wel-fare of the farmers was majorresponsibility of the govern-ment, he maintained.

Stating that irrigation facil-ity was key for agriculture, hesaid that the Chief Ministerwas also working with a mis-sion to utilise the potential ofwater availability of Krishnaand Godavari rivers whosewater was going waste intoocean. The Chief Minister hashimself designed irrigationprojects for the purpose andcreated history by spending Rs80,000 crore for KaleshwaramProject in the last four years, headded. He said that the stategovernment has also fulfilledits promise to bring Godavariwater to Suryapet districtthrough SRSP by Octobercanal and provide irrigationfacility to the farmers.Thungathurthy MLA GadariKishore and Joint CollectorSanjeeva Reddy also attendedthe programme.

Reminding that the TRS governmenthas fulfilled its pre-poll promises ofwaiver of crop loans, Reddy said thatthe Chief Minister had come out withseveral schemes with the sole aim ofhelping farmers

12,223 Indians diedabroad in 2018-2019: RTIPNS n HYDERABAD

A whopping 12,223 Indiannationals have died in variousforeign countries in 17 monthsbetween January 2018 andMay 2019, according to an RTIreply given by the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA). Thiscomes to a shocking average of719 Indians per month or 23-24 per day, who have lost theirlives in distant lands during theperiod under review, saidMumbai-based RTI activistJatin Desai.

Desai said that he had actu-ally filed a query with theMinistry of Home Affairs inOctober seeking the details ofIndian nationals who havedied in foreign prisons, andforeigners who have died inIndian jails during the 18-month period between January2018 and June 2019.

However, the query wastransferred to the Ministry ofExternal Affairs from where T.Ajungla Jamir, Director (CPV)and CPIO, sent a reply toDesai last week mentioning the

number of Indians who losttheir lives abroad betweenJanuary 2018 and May 2019.

"Surprisingly, the MEA hasno information on how manyIndian prisoners have died injails abroad in the said period.The MEA also does not havedetails of the number of for-eigners perishing in Indian

prisons during that period,"Desai said.

Desai said that he now plansto file fresh RTI queries seek-ing the details of causes ofdeaths, whether the deceasedwere tourists, NRIs, businesstravellers or belonged to othercategories, and if required fol-low up with other measures."We also need to know inwhich countries they havedied and whether they losttheir lives due to some ill-nesses, accidents, attacks inforeign lands or sheer lack ofmedicare, and whether theywere adequately insured or ifthey were granted compensa-tion in case of unnatural deathswhen their bodies werereturned, etc.," Desai said.

Surprisingly, the MEA has no information on howmany Indian prisoners have died in jails abroad inthe said period. The MEA also does not have details

of the number of foreigners perishing in Indian prisonsduring that period

—JATIN DESAI, Mumbai-based RTI activist

Officials told to fast-trackworks on laying roadsPNS n HYDERABAD

Minister for Forests,Environment andEndowments IndrakaranReddy exhorted the officials ofRoads and Buildings andForests Departments to workwith greater coordination tolay roads to remote villages.He was reviewing with officialson development of roads inChennur and BellampalliAssembly constituencies at hischambers in Aranya Bhavanhere on Saturday.

MLAs of Chennur andBellampalli explained the con-dition of roads in the two con-stituencies. They brought tothe notice of the Minister howthe forest officials have beenobjecting to widening of exist-ing roads at many places.

The Minister stressed onextending laying of roads at afaster pace to all villages with-

out violating any laws. Theroad communications fosterrelations of people living inremote habitats with the out-side world. Therefore, thereshould not be any delay in lay-ing of roads to remote villageslinking the existing road net-work.

He said the government iscommitted to laying of roadsto villages which have no roadcommunication facilities. Hewanted the R&B, PanchayatRaj and Forest department'sofficials to inspect the roads toensure that they cause noharm to forests. He wanted theofficials to conduct a compre-

hensive survey on those roadswhich are likely to receiveobjections from the ForestDepartments and preparemaps with all technical detailsand bring them to the noticeof the higher authorities.

Chief Conservator of ForestsVinod Kumar, divisional forestofficers of Mancherial andChennur Nagabushanam andRaja Rao and panchayat Rajofficialsand others took part inthe review meeting. MLAsBalka Suman and DurgamChinnayya, Principal ChiefConservatorof Forests R Sobhaand others took part in themeeting.

Minister Indrakaran Reddy at a review meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday

Minister Srinivas Goud addressing the inaugural session of "Telangana BouddhaSangiti 2019" in Hyderabad on Saturday

Road communications foster relations of people livingin remote habitats with the outside world. Therefore,there should not be any delay in laying of roads to

remote villages — INDRAKARAN REDDY, MMiinniisstteerr ffoorr FFoorreessttss

PNS n NEW YORK

A ketogenic diet, whichincludes meat, fish, poultryand non-starchy vegetables,may help combat the flu virus,suggests new research. Thisdiet regimen activates a subsetof T cells in the lungs not pre-viously associated with theimmune system's response toinfluenza, enhancing mucusproduction from airway cellsthat can effectively trap thevirus, said the study publishedin the journal ScienceImmunology.

"This was a totally unex-pected finding," said co-seniorauthor Akiko Iwasaki,Professor at Yale University inthe US. The researchers foundthat mice fed a ketogenic dietwere better able to combat the

flu virus than mice fed foodhigh in carbohydrates.

Specifically, the researchersfound that the ketogenic diet

triggered the release of gammadelta T cells, immune systemcells that produce mucus in thecell linings of the lung -- while

the high-carbohydrate diet didnot. When mice were bredwithout the gene that codes forgamma delta T cells, the keto-

genic diet provided no protec-tion against the influenza virus.

"This study shows that theway the body burns fat to pro-duce ketone bodies from thefood we eat can fuel theimmune system to fight fluinfection," said co-seniorauthor Visha Deep Dixit,Professor at Yale University.

Declare strike illegal...Keto diet may help you fight the flu

G Jagadish Reddy

This diet regimenactivates a subsetof T cells in thelungs notpreviouslyassociated withthe immunesystem's responseto influenza

Continued from Page 1

Reiterating that the ongoingstrike was illegal, he pointed outto the court that no notice of sixweeks, as mandated under theIndustrial Disputes Act-1847,was served upon the manage-ment by the unions of the cor-poration. He said that the non-service of the mandatory strikenotice on the managementwould render the ongoing strikeof the unions illegal as per the

same Act and did not warranta formal declaration.

He also made it clear that thecorporation was not in a positionto fulfil the demands of theworkers. He added that theywould also not hold any kind oftalks now with the employeesunions. He urged the court topass appropriate orders expedi-tiously to restore peace and har-mony in the state. The case willcome up for hearing next weekbefore a division bench of the HC.

Stage set forrevival ofBeechupallyoil millPNS n HYDERABAD

Agriculture Minister SNiranjan Reddy will plant oilpalm plants on the premisesof the Beechupalli oil millpremises on Monday as partof the state government'sefforts to revive the oil millfor the benefit of the oilpalm growing farmers ofTelangana.

Disclosing this here onSaturday, the Minister saidthat the stage has been set forreviving the oil mill whichwas closed in 2003. TheNational Dairy DevelopmentCorporation facilitated set-ting up of 200-ton oil milland 100-ton solvent oil millsand 100-ton edible oil refin-ery. The Telangana State Oilfed owned Rs 26.03 crore, butreached a one-time settle-ment to pay Rs 8.44 crore, hesaid and as per the settlementterms the Oil Fed paid thefirst installment of Rs 4.22crore. The oil mill atBeechupalli started opera-tions in 1990, but was closeddown in June 2003 due tofinancial difficulties, he saidrecalling how he protestedagainst the closure of the millas the TRS leader. He saidwith the blessings of ChiefMinister the stage has been setfor revival of the oil mill.

Arterial roadsby Dec end:KamalakarPNS n KARIMNAGAR

BC Welfare and CivilSupplies Minister GangulaKamalakar stated that layingof all main roads inKarimnagar town would becompleted by this year end.The Minister inspected theroad works near Markfed,Padmanagar on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion,Kamalakar said works of 14.5km stretch road taken upwith Rs 115 crore hadreached final stage. The highquality material which wouldbe used for laying of nation-al highways has been used forthe arterial roads of the town,he stated.

The works of final coatingof the roads are underprogress. Besides zebra cross-ings, yellow and white lineswill be laid after one week, hesaid who asked the people toremove footpath encroach-ments.

After completion of themain arterial road of thetown, collector or distributorroads sanctioned by the ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao will be taken up with Rs350 crore, said the Ministerstating that Smart City workswere under progress and thefoundation for tower circledevelopment works wouldbe laid very soon.

Pawan's Delhi visit keeps politicos...Continued from Page 1

Party sources dub his visitas an attempt to bring to thenotice of Delhi the suicides ofconstruction workers.

However, the party sourcesare maintaining stoic silencewhose appointment PawanKalyan has sought in Delhi.But, they are quick to say thatsome crucial negotiations willtake place in Delhi.

Meanwhile speculations arerife that he is likely to meet

Home Minister Amit Shah andPrime Minister Narendra Modi.He is also likely to meet BJPworking president JP Naddaand one or two other leaders.

It may be recalled that Pawanhad called on Narendra Modiin Ahmedabad prior to 2014elections. Afterwards, he didnot meet Modi except duringthe course of election campaignand some other occasions.

But, Pawan claims to haveaffection for Modi, who, hesays, reciprocates the same.

For quite some time, PawanKalyan has been trying tosecure Narendra Modi'sappointment.

Meanwhile, the propagandagained ground that Pawan leftfor Delhi as the PMO con-firmed his appointment.

The party leaders are read-ing too much from the visit asthey suspect that there will beunexpected changes in theState's political scenario soonafter the return of PawanKalyan from Delhi.

Politicians’ hand in landdisputes is causing...Continued from Page 1

In Warangal, about 30 menattacked a farmer P VijenderReddy, who has been admittedto a hospital with a fracturedrib and other injuries. Thefarmer's son, P. AmarnathReddy, tweeted to the TRSworking president whosename figured, because "theattackers said they knew KTR

and several bigwigs in thegovernment, includingbureaucrats and police offi-cials".

incidents involving namesof TRS leaders are grist to themill of opposition parties. So,KCR is particular that evenfamily members of politiciansbelonging to the pink partyshould stay clear of land dis-putes of any kind.

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019 hyderabad 03

Works on Durgam Cheruvu Cable Bridge progressing at brisk pace. On Saturday, the project team lifted 2 segments within a span of 2.5 hrs with 1 barge

NEARING CCOMPLETION

RIME ORNERC

MOSQUITO MENACE

To spite GHMC, Cong offers free fogging servicesPNS n HYDERABAD

In a bid to control the mosquitomenace, the Hyderabad CityCongress Committee (HCCC)Minorities DepartmentChairman Sameer Waliullahinformed that free fogging ser-vices would be provided in thetwin cities of Hyderabad andSecunderabad.

Sameer Waliullah, in a mediastatement on Saturday, saidthat the Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation hasfailed to control the mosquitomenace, which consequentlyresulted in outbreak of Dengue,Malaria and other vector bornediseases.

He said despite alarmingrise in cases of Dengue andMalaria, the GHMC did nottake up fogging operationsacross Hyderabad at a largescale. Therefore, he said it hasbeen decided to conduct fog-

ging operations in affectedareas at private level.

The Congress leader saidthat a helpline number hasbeen started where people cancall if they wish to conduct fog-ging in their neighbourhood.He said people can call on theMobile No. 9100109111 andtheir request would be listed

and the fogging machine, alongwith operators, would be sent.People can also send requestthrough Twitter @sameerwal-iullah.

He also informed that anti-larval treatment would also beundertaken at sources of stag-nated water like tanks in indi-vidual residences. He said med-

ical camps would be organisedin different areas to providefree check up and medicinesfor Dengue and other viral dis-eases.

Sameer Waliullah said thatthe health conditions inHyderabad have turned frombad to worse during this mon-soon. The GHMC officialshave been making tall claims ofhaving taken up fogging andanti-larval operations in theirlimits. However, the number ofvector-borne diseases reportedin public and private hospitalshave exposed that the civicauthorities were either lying ordid not do their job properly.

He said that the GHMC con-ducted fogging and anti-larvaloperations in a symbolic man-ner while neglecting the inten-sity of the situation.

He said that the GHMCshould have been in activemode in view of extendedmonsoon season. Althoughthere are no rains in the citysince a few days, several casesof Dengue, Malaria and otherviral diseases are still beingreported. Therefore, he saidanti-Dengue campaign shouldbe taken up on mission modeand every citizen must beinvolved to control the menace.

The Congress leader said

that the Dengue and otherdisease reported in the last 3-4 months had a huge impacton common man. Whilemany lives were lost, commonpeople, cumulatively, havespent crores of rupees ondiagnosis and treatment inprivate hospitals. TRSGovernment took no mea-sures to regulate pricing inprivate hospitals and theyextorted huge amounts whiletaking advantage of fear psy-chosis. Since the GHMCauthorities appeared in nomood to help the people, hesaid it has been decided tohire fogging machines in pri-vate capacity to engage in thebattle against Dengue andother vector-borne disease.Sameer Waliullah has soughtthe cooperation of all theworkers of Congress partyand urged them to activelyparticipate in the campaign.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has failedto control the mosquito menace, which consequentlyresulted in outbreak of Dengue, Malaria and other

vector borne diseases.— SAMEER WALIULLAH , CCoonnggrreessss LLeeaaddeerr

Three held forselling alcoholillegally

The Habeeb Nagar policearrested three persons for

illegally selling liquor andseized 209 bottles from theirpossession on Saturday. Thearrested were identified asRacharla Sai Baba (42), MBalamani (55) and MBalakrishna (30). Police saidthat Sai Baba was illegallyselling liquor at his residencenear Katta Maisamma Temple,Aghapura without any validlicence. He confessed tobuying alcohol bottles fromBhavani Wines, which is nearBhoiguda Kaman and thensells each bottle by chargingRs 30 extra on the MRP.Officials seized 14 MCDowell'sbottles (90ml), 14 Officerschoice bottles (180 ml) and 12Downtown Bottles (180 ml)from his possession. Balamaniand M Balakrishna were alsoillegally selling liquor at theirresidence at SD Nagar inDarussalam without any validlicence. Balakrishna confessedto bringing bottles fromBhavani Wines, which is nearDarussalam, and charges Rs20 extra on the MRP of everybottle he sells.

TSRTC driverattemptssuicide

ATSRTC bus driverattempted suicide at

Musheerabad depot onSaturday. According to thepolice, the driver wasidentified as Saidulu.According to eyewitness,Saidulu had come to the busdepot along with theprotesting workers. Hebrought petrol in a bottlealong with him and dousedhimself in it. When he wasabout to set himself ablaze,the employees foiled the bid.

Three burglarsfrom Bihardetained

The Rachakonda policearrested three members of

a seven-member burglarygang from Bihar here onSaturday for burgling ajewellery shop. The detainedhave been identified as 33-year-old Mohammed Shabaz,28-year-old MohammedShahid and 25-year-oldMohammed Manzoor Alam.Police said that the gangmembers hail from Arariadistrict in Bihar. The primeaccused, Mohammed Shabaz,was arrested by the Arariapolice for thefts and illegalpossession of arms. He wasarrested and released on bailin 2015. "After being releasedfrom jail, he, along withMohammed Shahid,Mohammed Manzoor Alam,Mohammed Kasim, Azam,Aftab Alam and MehandiAzeem, came to Hyderabadand formed a gang andhatched a plan to burgle ajewellery shop. According totheir plan, the gang committedthree burglaries each in thelimits of Kushaiguda, Keesaraand Jawaharnagar PoliceStation limits. All theburglaries were committed ina span of 15 days," saidMahesh Bhagwat, CP,Rachakonda. With a view toprevent them from committingillegal activities and topreserve public order, the PDorders were invoked againstthree of them.

SK Joshi launchesPara-sportsacademy in cityPNS n HYDERABAD

Aditya Mehta Foundation(AMF), a non-profit organi-sation, that aids people withdisabilities to pursue sportswhile providing self-suste-nance, launched the state-of-the-art, 'Infinity Para-SportsAcademy & Rehab Center', afirst-of-its-kind charitableNational para-sports reha-bilitation and training acad-emy in Asia, on Saturday atShreeji Mehta Apartments,Begumpet. The facility wasinaugurated by the ChiefGuest Dr SK Joshi in thepresence of Aditya Mehta,founder of the Aditya MehtaFoundation.

The Academy situated atBegumpet in the heart ofHyderabad, on a 5,000 squareyard area, provided by AMFJoint Managing Trustee, JKMehta, is equipped with mostof the infrastructure neededfor each para-sport. TheAcademy is a charitable trustand will initially extend reha-bilitation service followed

by screening for the para-sports for persons with dis-ability. Subsequently it willprovide accommodation andfood along with the basics toprofessional para-sportstraining at the boardingAcademy.

"To help my own extend-ed family of para-athletes, Ialways wanted to establish anacademy and rehabilitationcentre so that people withdisabilities have a future insports. Finally this dreamhas come true" says AdityaMehta, the founder of theAditya Mehta Foundation.

The foundation will betraining Divyaangans fromacross the nation.

GHMC special cell to issue e-challans for civic offencesPNS n HYDERABAD

GHMC's Enforcement, Vigilanceand Disaster Management(EV&DM) wing has created aportal Central Emergency Cell(CEC), where e- challans will begenerated to impose penalties orfines to the offenders like throw-ing C&D waste, garbage, openurination etc.

The e-challan will have pre-filled form with categories ofoffence, and fine is levied auto-matically based on the natureof offence. The e-challan sys-tem will have details of viola-tion with photos / videos andhas many features like, contactless, foolproof, cannot be edit-ed or deleted and cash lesstransaction. Once the challan isgenerated the copy is served tothe offender and he/she has topay the challan fee in the officeor on line. Mayor, BonthuRammohan said, "as part ofproviding clean environment tothe citizens one of the exerciseis to check littering garbage,C&D waste, wall writing, wallposter, banner. GHMC hastaken steps to levy fine to theoffenders, through e- challan".

For each case, one QR code/ Unique code is allotted, if the

fee is paid, the system remindsthe back log payments byblinking on the non-paymentcase after stipulated time allot-ted to that particular case.

Presently, the staff ofEV&DM have access to thisportal and by December, otherGHMC officials can access.Efforts are being made to makeit available to the citizenswhere they can upload thecomplaint.

Further elaborating on the e-challans, Director EV&DMVishwajit Kampati said, "thesystem is developed in such away that once e-challan is gen-

erated there is no scope to any-one to alter or edit or delete.Every precaution is taken insuch a way that there is noscope for any type of allegationor discrepancies it also showthe nature of violation, andarea with latitudinal and lon-gitudinal".

In a span of 30 days afterintroduction, 1,084 e- challanswere served and till now 15%of served notices have paidpenalties and GHMC collect-ed to the tune of Rs 1.5 crore.

On enforcement subject, theDirector informed that tillnow 1,823 notices were issued

on safety measures to complyfire safety measures to theHospitals, schools, hostels etc.even after if they did not com-ply the billing counter andadministrative department willbe seized, he added. A total of370 clinics and nursing homesare there according to the listfurnished by the Healthdepartment.

A special drive will be con-ducted to remove all banners,flexis after that penalty will belevied to the un-authorisedbanners and flexis. EVDM hasa total of 24 teams and it willincreased to 65 in near future.

n Move to check littering garbage, C&D waste, wall writing and wall poster

n Team of engineers visit Delhi tounderstand road maintenancepractices in NDMC areaPNS n HYDERABAD

Engineers of the GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation headed to Delhito understand the good prac-tices followed for maintenanceof roads in New DelhiMunicipal Council (NDMC)area.

Based on the Instructionsfrom MA&UD Minister KTRama Rao and PrincipalSecretary Arvind Kumar, theGHMC engineers on Saturdayinteracted with NDMC Chiefengineer and other engineersto understand road mainte-nance practices in NDMCarea under the chairmanshipof Dr. Gaurav Uppal, ResidentCommissioner in the confer-ence hall, Telangana Bhavan,New Delhi.

The interaction had sharingof good practices on mainte-nance of roads in NDMCarea. There was presentation ofthe procedures and strategiesimplemented by the NDMCon quality assurance, mainte-nance by in-house staff, man-agement of service centers,management of transporta-tion of men and material for

repairs and fixation andresponding to the stagnationof water, defects if any.

The team learnt about thecriteria and procedures fol-lowed by the NDMC in per-mitting for cutting road toattend drainage, sewerage,electricity and communicationlines. Accountability forrestoration of road cutting isstrictly followed. The NDMCis self-sufficient unit, the teamof engineers from GHMCenquired on the sources ofincome and budget manage-ment to meet the citizens ser-vices. The team has also dis-cussed the maintenance ofcolony roads, signage onroads, speed control mecha-nism, toilets, sanitary, opengyms, bus shelters.

The GHMC engineers havelater visited the NDMCmaintained undergroundtunnel which is used for con-necting various cables andpipeline for sewerage andthe procedure for drainingstorm water, public conve-nience center with free toilets,nominally paid medical cen-ter and water bottle automa-tion.

The e-challanwill have pre-filled form withcategories ofoffence, andfine is leviedautomaticallybased on thenature ofoffence

GHMC takes cuefrom NDMC

PS to checkpower pilferage PNS n HYDERABAD

The energy department hascreated a special 'anti-powertheft police station' in Siddipetdistrict. The police stationwould take care of power pil-ferage cases booked underthe purview of Siddipet dis-trict. A DSP-level police offi-cer with 148-strong staff underhis jurisdiction would super-vise it. These police officialswould work under the TSGenco limits. They wouldreport to the Genco CMD andChairman while dischargingtheir duties.

The principal secretary togovernment K. RamakrishnaRao issued orders to this effect."The government after carefulexamination of the proposal,hereby accords sanction forcreation of one post ofInspector of police (civil) forAnti Theft Squad police sta-tion at Siddipet", says theorder. All the 148 posts creat-ed for the purpose would bedeputed from the policedepartment.

The post shall be filled ondeputation basis drawing per-sonnel from the concernedlocal cadre of the HomeDepartment. Apart from theDSP, the staff includes tenassistant commandant rankofficers to be drawn from

Armed reserve and TelanganaState Special police units, aInspector(civil), 11Inspectors(reserve), one sub-inspector-Reserve(RSI), 13sub-inspectors(civil), 36 headconstables, 31 constables and44 women constables, whowill be deputed from civiland armed reserve wings ofTelangana police.

Hotel booked forovercharging PNS n HYDERABAD

Officials of Legal MetrologyDepartment slapped a caseagainst Hotel Miner vaGrand at Kondapur inHyderabad after an IT pro-fessional accused it of charg-ing him a higher MRP forsoft drink.

Acting on an online com-plaint lodged by Ram Biradar,the Legal MetrologyDepartment inspected thebusiness hotel and booked iton the charges of unfair tradepractices. ComplainantBiradar, 27, said he discov-ered the alleged malpracticewhen he visited GrandMinerva with colleagues forlunch.

"We ordered four Cokebottles and in the bill itwas ment ioned Rs 45excluding GST, while theMRP on the bottle was Rs25."When I questioned thestaff they said this is howthey have been charging,"said Biradar, who lives inUppal.

Under the Legal MetrologyAct, 2009, a seller cannottamper with the MRP (max-imum retail price) of a prod-uct. First-time violators facea maximum fine of Rs 25,000.For the second or subse-quent offence, they can bejailed up to six months alongwith fine.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A conference on 'Wikipediainformation availability andcommunity development' wasconducted at the IIIT-Hyderabad under the aegis ofITE& C Department andWikipedia on the measures tobe taken to increase Teluguinformation on Wikipedia.The discussion was based onthe steps that should be takenup in five categories:Community development,information availability, train-ing and awareness, technologyand research.

Kick-starting the discus-sion, IIIT Prof VasudevaVerma said, "People rely onWikipedia for quality and reli-able information, so around8,000 visit Wikipedia everysecond." Eight Indian lan-guages are among the 25 mostspoken languages worldwide,

but only about 0.5 to 2 per centof them are in English, accord-ing to Wikipedia. He suggest-ed that like Sweden, peopleshould contribute to the devel-opment of Telugu informationon Wikipedia.

"Information from manydifferent fields of TelanganaState is available and after theformation of the State, theDepartment of Language andCulture has published many

books and allowed them to beincluded in the Wikipedia(free copy)", said MamidiHarikrishna, Director,Department of Language andCulture. He added that theDepartment of Language andCulture is cooperating toensure Telugu information isavailable on Wikipedia.

Telangana IT Department isworking to increase Teluguusage in digital media plat-forms said Digital MediaDirector Dileep Konatham.Telangana IT Department willbe a partner in all the activi-ties that are going on to devel-op Telugu Wikipedia. TeluguWikipedia administrators saidthat they are ready to conducttraining seminars to createawareness on the need tofocus on not only on thezodiac, but also on the infor-mation following the rules ofWikipedia.

Telugu Wikipedia to be developed

A DSP-levelpolice officerwith 148-strongstaff under hisjurisdictionwould superviseit. These policeofficials wouldwork under theTS Genco limits

A charitable body, it will initially extendrehabilitation servicefollowed by screeningfor the para-sports forpersons with disability

Ten youngwomen fromAP not allowedto SabarimalaContinued from page 1

However, this year, eventhough the top court had notstayed its verdict on entry ofyoung women into the shrinewhile posting various peti-tions on the matter to a larg-er bench, the governmentwas exercising caution.

Devaswom MinisterKadakampally Surendran hasmade it clear that Sabarimalawas not a place for activists todisplay their activism andsaid the government wouldnot encourage such womenwho want to visit the shrinefor publicity. The Sabarimalatemple opened on Saturdayfor a two-month MandalaPuja, amid tight security.

GHMC engineers with the NDMC officials in New Delhi

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019 hyderabad 04

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress senior leader VHanumantha Rao has saidthat the country's GDP felldown drastically due to thepolicies of BJP-led NDA gov-ernment. He alleged thatBJP's Demonetisation, GSTand other economic policiesthrown the nation's economyinto doldrums, which wasgood during UPA regime.

In a statement, VH allegedthat the BJP-led NDA gov-ernment is trying to divertthe public attention from theeconomic crisis. He said thatas per requirement and willof BJP and RSS, all theYoutube channels are show-ing comparision of Indianeconomy with that ofPakistan's economy, whichinfact should not even havebeen done, he said.

BJP divertingattention fromeconomiccrisis: VH

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress senior leader andformer Minister PonnalaLaxmaiah questioned ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao, who describedKaleswaram project as a med-icine for all diseases, to tell asto why he was not respondingon the affidavit submitted bythe Andhra Pradesh state inSupreme Court urging theCourt not to accord nationalstatus to Kaleswaram project.

Ponnala stated that ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao and his counterpart YSJagan Mohan Reddy knew thatthe Kaleswaram project is anillegal one. KCR had spent Rs1lakh crore on Kaleswaramproject, which was supposed tobe completed in Rs 35,000crore. However, not a singledrop came to the fields fromKaleswaram project even afterspending huge amounts, hepointed out.

Ponnala, on Saturday at hisresidence, said that the KCR isstating that he will divert theGodavari water to Krishna andNagarjunasagar and from thereto Andhra Pradesh. This effortis nothing but an effort to lootthe public exchequer, he alleged.

"KCR spent Rs 20,000 croreon Palamuru-Ranareddy pro-ject. But not a single drop ofwater has flown to the fields. Heslammed KCR, who earlierstated that he will not give waterto Andhra Pradesh state, sayingthe same KCR is stating that hewill give water to Andhra

Pradesh state. "KCR is sayingthat he will give water toAndhra only to loot the publicexchequer", he alleged.

Ponnala questioned theChief Minister to tell as to howthe Central government willaccord national status to theKaleswaram project as itredesigned the Pranahitha-Chevella project.

"KCR is confined to farmhouse, Pragathi Bhavan andpublic meetings and leavingpublic issues to the wind asa dictator," he said. He saidthat the history will not for-give KCR. "The Congresshas thrown a challenge sev-eral times at KCR for anopen debate on projects,"he said.

KALESHWARAM LIFT IRRIGATION SCHEME

Ponnala questions CM's‘silence' on AP's affidavit

Andhra tipplers make a beeline to TS villages PNS n HYDERABAD

Sale of liquor in villages ofTelangana bordering AndhraPradesh have registered a three-fold increase as many fromacross the border cross over toTelangana to get tipsy. Thisphenomenon has been noticedin Suryapet and Khammamdistricts, which borders withthe Andhra Pradesh.

Tipplers from villages bor-dering Andhra Pradesh withneighbouring Telangana aremaking a beeline to bars andwine shops in Telangana asliquor is costlier in AP com-pared to Telangana. Moreover,liquor shops remain shut sharpat 8 am, while those inTelangana remain opened forlong hours.

The prices of brands, whichare hot favourites of middleclasses and the poor are cost-lier in AP, compared to pricesin Telangana, by at least

Rs 40 per bottle. A quarterbottle of Mansion House brandliquor sells at Rs 110 inTelangana as against Rs 150 inAP. A full bottle of liquor costsRs 450 in Telangana as against

Rs 610 in AP. A quarter bottleof Morpheus brandy is beingsold at Rs 220 in Telangana, asagainst Rs 250 in AP. A full bot-tle of the same brand sells at Rs820 in Telangana as against Rs1,040 in AP. Cheap liquor sellsbetween Rs 65-80 a bottle inTelangana as against Rs 100-120 in AP. Tipplers fromPeddapuram, Jayanti, Alluruand Gudem Madhavaram ofVeerulapadu mandal ofKrishna district make a beelineto wine shops and bars inYerrupalem and Meenavolu toget tipsy. Similarly, thosebelonging to Veerulapadu vil-

lage, Doddadevarapadu, VAnnavaram, Pallempalli,Konatalapalli and Vellanki vil-lages journey to Dendukuru toconsume alcohol.

Further, those belonging toKakarayi, Kambhampadu,Machinenipalem, Talluru vil-lages in Vatsavai mandal andfrom Sivapuram, Muchchintalaand Anigandlapadu inPenuganchiprolu, andJonnalagadda andRamireddypalli in Nandigamamandal visit wine shopsandbars in Madupalli on the out-skirts of Madhira inKhammam district.

Though there are two wineshops in Vatsavai, many travelto Bonakallu, just five km away.Some of them were found to beselling liquor bottles, bought inTelangana, in AP. The exciseofficials, in a raid, recovered203 bottles on Friday and tookone M Pati Malleswar ofChandarlapadu and KopalliPrakash Rao of Nawabpet. Theexcise officials have warnedthem against starting belt shopsin villages.

Tipplers fromvillages borderingAndhra Pradeshwith neighbouringTelangana aremaking beeline to bars and wineshops inTelangana asliquor is costlier in AP compared to Telangana

Palla to be chief of Farmers'Coordination Committee PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao hasdecided to appoint MLC, TRSstate general secretary PalleRajeshwar Reddy as presidentof State Farmers' CoordinationCommittee. The ChiefMinister on Saturday hasinstructed officials concernedto take up the appointmentprocess of Rajeshwar Reddy aspresident of Farmers'Coordination Committee.

The Chief Minister hasasked the officials to release theappointment letter at the ear-liest. He also disclosed thatmembers of the FarmersCoordination Committee willalso be appointed shortly. TheChief Minister has decidedthat by coming June, theFarmers CoordinationCommittees will be strength-ened from village-level to theState-level and farmers in thestate will become a formidableforce.

The Chief Minister alsoinstructed the officials con-cerned to complete theFarmers Dias cluster-wise.KCR is of the firm view thatthe Farmers CoordinationCommittees should be madeinto an organisation, whichwill help farmers from sowingthe seeds to getting the mini-mum support price for theirproduce.

Meanwhile, Palla RajeshwarReddy met the Chief Ministerat Pragathi Bhavan andthanked the latter for taking adecision to appoint him asFarmers CoordinationCommittee president. On theoccasion, the Chief Ministercongratulated Palla and askedthe latter to maintain FarmersCoordination Committeesfrom village level to state levelefficiently in a manner that theCommittees have to stand bythe farmers in all aspects.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao with TRS state general secretary PalleRajeshwar Reddy at Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Saturday

KCR FAST-TRACKS FILLINGOF NOMINATED POSTS The process of filling nominated posts has increased hopes among the

TRS party leaders as the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announcedMLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy as the president of Farmers CoordinationCommittee on Saturday. The leaders are making all efforts to grab nominated posts. Some MLAs,who expected Minister berths kept all their hopes on the nominated posts.According to sources, KCR will fill the vacant nominated posts in a phasedmanner, as 90 per cent of the nominated posts were vacant. It is learnt thatthe Chief Minister is in thoughts that he will fill the nominated posts onlyafter completion of Municipal elections. However, the Chief Minister hadchanged his idea and started filling the nominated posts selecting theleaders for suitable positions. Meanwhile, Chief Minister has put thespeculations to rest by announcing Palla Rajeshwar Reddy's name forFarmers Coordination Committee. Earlier, speculations are rife thatNizamabad rural MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan will be given the post ofFarmers Coordination Committee chairman. One of the party leaders statedthat Bajireddy Goverdhan may be given another suitable position. Thesame party leader opined that loyalty to the party will be honored in givingnominated positions. He said that the Chief Minister will do justice to theloyal leaders by giving suitable positions. The announcement of PallaRajeshwar Reddy's name as Farmers Coordination Committee presidentopened the gates for the enthusiastic leaders to put their efforts to achieveone nominated post. The Chief Minister already announced that he will dojustice to the leaders participated in the Telangana movement. PadmaDevender Reddy, S Madhusudhana Chary, Jupally Krishna Rao and KadiumSrihari and several others names were in the priority list.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress Loyalists Forum hasconcluded that the party highcommand has to give TPCCpresident position to the partyloyalist, if present TPCC chiefN Uttam Kumar Reddy ten-ders resignation or the partyremoves him from the posi-tion.

The leaders also opined thatthe party senior leadersbrought flying colors to theparty in Maharashtra andHaryana and hence the partyhigh command should nottake the age as a barrier inselecting the next TPCC Chief,it is learnt.

Congress Loyalist Forumleaders - Marri ShashidharReddy, SambaniChandrasekhar, M KodandaReddy, VHanumanth Rao, BKamalakar Rao, G Niranjan, A

Shyam Mohan attended themeeting. According to theseniors, they reviewed the pre-sent political situation in thecontext of expected changes inthe state party organisation.

It may be recalled that GNiranjan opined before theAICC general secretary GulamNabi Azad asked the partyhigh command to makechanges in Telangana Congressas frigidity prevailed on it,when he came to Hyderabadon 5 November.

On the other hand, severalleaders from TelanganaCongress are trying their levelbest to grab the TPCC chiefposition. Leaders like - K JanaReddy, V Hanumantha Rao,Ponnala Laxmaiah, ShabbirAli, Damodara Raja Narsimha,Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka,Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, ARevanth Reddy, T Jagga Reddy,D Sridhar Babu, SA SampathKumar and others expressedtheir willingness to take up thekey position.

CLF wants only ‘loyalist'to hold TPCC chief post

Congress senior leaders K Jana Reddy, V Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Laxmaiah, Shabbir Ali, Damodara Raja Narsimha and others at a meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday

The leaders also opined that the partysenior leaders brought flying colors to theparty in Maharashtra and Haryana andhence the party high command shouldnot take the age as a barrier in selectingthe next TPCC Chief, it is learnt

KCR is confined tofarm house, PragathiBhavan and public

meetings and is leaving public issues to the wind as a dictator

— PONNALA LAXMAIAHFormer Minister

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Andhra University Vice-Chanellor Prof Prasad Reddyand president of AU alumniassociation Prof BeelaSatyanarayana on Saturdayannounced that Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy willgrace the Alumni associationmeeting to be held onDecember 13.

Besides him, Tech MahindraCEO CP Gurnani will alsograce the occasion.

The venue for the eventwould be the AU ConventionCenter on beach road and allpast students of AU have beeninvited to take part in the event.He asked them to register theirnames through the AU website.They said that the AU alumniassociation will emerge as thebiggest association in the coun-try with a membership of over80 lakh students who obtaineddegrees from the varsity.

They said that the alumni

association would hereafterfunction as a charitable trustand former DGPSambasivaRao has been drafted into thetrust. Because of the Alumniassociation, examination resultsdeclaration time has been dras-tically reduced to 25 days fromtheearlier six to seven months.

Founder president of theassociation GrandhiMallikarjuna Rao of the GMRgroup came forward to build aspecial hostel with 45 rooms,they said adding that the uni-versity has been striving toaugment infrastructural ameni-ties with the help of charitablepublic and donations from thepast students.

Jagan to grace Dec 13 AUalumni association meet

‘SADAK BANDH ON NOV 19'

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MLA fromSangareddy T Jagga Reddyhas announced that he willtake up Sangareddy-MumbaiHighway 'Sadak Bandh' tomake the RTC JAC's 'SadakBandh' programme onNovember 19 a huge success.

It may be recalled that theRTC JAC has announced thatit will blockade Hyderabad toKodada Highway onNovember 19. However, JaggaReddy said that he will stageSangareddy-Mumbai highwayroad blockade following thedirections of the TPCC chief NUttam Kumar Reddy andsenior leader V HanumanthaRao.

Speaking to the media atAssembly Media Hall here onSaturday, Jagga Reddy allegedthat the state government isintentionally complicating theRTC strike, which has entered43rd day on Saturday.However, the state govern-ment is intentionally adoptingdelaying tactics in regard toRTC strike. The people wouldface troubles if the corporationis privatised. The ticket priceswill be affordable for the peo-

ple, if the corporation is underpublic sector. The peopleshould not to think that theRTC issue only belongs toRTC employees. The peopleare facing lot of troubles in thestates where the public trans-port system was privatised.

"The people of the statewould face hell troubles ifRTC is privatised here as pri-

vate operators run the busesexpecting only benefits. Thepoor and the people who haveno money cannot travel inRTC buses," he said asking thepeople to understand the RTCissue in this angle. He urgedthe people to extend theirsupport to the RTC strike.Stating that he will blockadethe Sangareddy-Mumbai high-way on November 19, JaggaReddy warned the govern-ment to solve the RTC issueimmediately.He said that hewill go to Delhi afterNovember 20 to urge the partyhigh command for the PCCChief position. "I already post-ed my bio-data to the highcommand. I will work fulltime for the party if given PCCChief position. I will not con-test 2023 elections if givenPCC Chief position,” he said.

Jagga Reddy plans to blockSangareddy-Mumbai highway

State government is intentionallycomplicating the RTC strike. Thepeople of the state would facetroubles if RTC is privatised asorivate players would run the busesexpecting only profits, he said

Kodali Nanislams NaiduPNS n AMARAVATI

Minister for Civil SuppliesKodali Nani on Saturdaybreathed fire on TDP nation-al president N ChandrababuNaidu and warned himagainst shooting his tongueagainst CM YS JaganmohanReddy. He threatened toexpose Chandrababu if hespeaks nonsense about theCM. The people would slapNaidu by storming into hishouse if he were to continuehis tirade against Jagan in thisfashion, he said.

He said that the YSRCPwould not keep mum if TDPwere to criticise YS JaganmohanReddy. The TDP would bestripped of its Opposition sta-tus and lodged in the storeroom of the YSRCP, at the snap-ping of fingers by JaganmohanReddy. CM JaganmohanReddy has certain principalsand hence Naidu is allowed toenjoy the of Opposition leaderstatus, he said.

Centre halts inter-state swap among TS and APContinued from Page 1

About fortnight back, DoPTcleared the air over swappingstate by rejecting the plea ofAnantha Ramu as it wouldapparently affect the entire allo-cation process.

Irrespective of CentralAdministrative Tribunal's(CAT) and state's decision,DoPT is no longer entertainingsuch pleas.

With the Centre making itsstance clear, the Andhra PradeshState government last weekposted 1990-batch IAS officer GAnantha Ramu as the head ofthe newly-created Departmentof Skills Development andTraining for the implementationof the AP Employment of Local

Candidates in theIndustries/Factories Act, 2019.

According to sources, in lightof Anantha Ramu's case, theCentre is coming down heavi-ly on states over inter-statechange of IAS officers. Sourcespointed out that Telangana hadnever raised an objection whenthe allocations were in theirfavour.

Still, whenever a state raisesan objection or the Centre'sapproval is needed, the alloca-tion decision lies in a limbo.Similar was the case with IASofficer Y SriLakshmi andStephen Ravindra who wantedto switch to AP from Telangana.The Centre allegedly did notrespond in favour of swappingthe state, after which the IPS

officer had to resume duty asIGP West Zone. The inter-statedeputations of All India Servicesofficers have to be cleared by theACC, which is chaired by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

A couple of years ago, theHyderabad bench of the CentralAdministrative Tribunal (CAT)quashed the allotment ofSomesh Kumar to AP state andsuggested that he be treated asa TS state officer. Following thisdecision, the Centre asked theHyderabad High Court toreverse the CAT order and sendback IAS officers Ronald Ross,S.S. Ravat, Amrapali Kata,Karuna Vakati, A Vani Prasadand Mallela Prasanthi toAndhra Pradesh, including G.Anantha Ramu.

Continued from Page 1

It is understood that theAndhra Pradesh governmenthas placed before the court:"Telangana is going ahead withthe construction of theKaleshwaram project, which isprejudicial to the interests ofinhabitants and farmers underthe lower riparian projects ofAndhra Pradesh and henceKaleshwaram cannot be con-sidered for declaration as nation-

al project. Telangana has takenup Kaleshwaram in the name ofre-engineering. It has also com-municated to the Central WaterCommission its strong objec-tions on the considerations ofKaleshwaram project in June2018. Telangana is indiscrimi-nately constructing new projectssuch as Palamuru-Ranga Reddy,Dindi, Baktha Ramadasu liftscheme with a total utilisation ofmore than 180 tmcft of water inKrishna basin and also projects

like Kaleshwaram, Seetharamalift irrigation scheme,Thupakulagudem with an util-isation of 450 tmcft of water,which will severely affect down-stream farmers and inhabitantsunder the existing projects inAP". It may be recalled that in2016, when N ChandrababuNaidu was the chief minister, aresolution was passed in theAssembly seeking Centre's inter-vention in irrigation projectsbeing taken up by Telangana on

Godavari and Krishna rivers.Naidu then accused Telanganaof violating the provisions of theAP Reorganisation Act by con-structing new projects on thetwo rivers flowing through theTelugu-speaking states.

Subsequently, ChandrababuNaidu and YS Jagan made com-ments on the Kaleswaram pro-ject in the Assembly session inJuly 2019. However, at that time,Jagan showered praises on KCRfor being magnanimous towards

Andhra Pradesh in agreeing toshare Godavari water that wouldhelp stabilize huge ayacut underthe Krishna River.

The sudden change in thestance of Andhra Pradesh statewith regard to the Kaleswaramproject is just the beginning ofa fresh round of fights betweenthe two states, say analysts.They point out that the twoTelugu states have yet to settleseveral issues linked to the APReorganisation Act.

End of bonhomie between AP and Telangana?

A couple of years ago, the Hyderabadbench of the Central AdministrativeTribunal (CAT) quashed the allotmentof Somesh Kumar to AP state andsuggested that he be treated as a TS state officer

Continued from Page 1

CPI MP from Kerala BinoyViswam, who arrived here tohave first hand information onthe RTC strike, told reportersthat he called on Raji Reddy,a RTC employees leader, at acity police station where thelatter was taken.

Reiterating his partys sup-port to the RTC employees,Viswam said he would raisethe issue in Parliament.

In a barbarian way, they(TRS government) are tryingto suppress the strike, he said.

The TRS governmentshowed absolute disregard forthe peoples rights, democra-tic norms and principles ofConstitution, he alleged.

RTC employeesstage ‘bus roko’...

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019 nation 05

SHORT READS

Bhopal to get sexsorted semenproduction centreBHOPAL: A sex sorted semenproduction centre will come upin Bhopal in Madhya Pradeshto enhance possibility of birthof female calves by 90 percent, state Animal HusbandryMinister Lakhan Singh Yadavsaid on Saturday. The ministersaid the Central SemenInstitute of the MP StateLivestock and PoultryDevelopment Corporation,located at Bhadbhada inBhopal, will set up this centreunder the Rashtriya GokulMission. The centre willprovide female embryos forfree to increase the number ofcattle of advanced breeds, hesaid. "This technology willincrease by 90 per centchances of the birth of afemale calf. It will be set up ata cost of Rs 47.50 crore. TheCentre would provide 60 percent funding while the stategovernment would put in therest," Yadav said.

2 school-going sistersdie as lorry hits bike

Dalit woman gangraped, thrashed inUP's ShamliMUZAFFARNAGAR (UP): A 30-year-old Dalit woman wasallegedly gang raped andbeaten up by four men at AhataGos Garh village in Shamlidistrict here, police said onSaturday. The incident tookplace on Thursday when thewoman had gone to the fieldsto relieve herself. The mendragged her to a sugarcanefield and took turns to rape her,they said, adding that thevictim was also beaten upwhen she tried to resist. Threeof the accused have beenidentified as Sachin, Sosingand Rohit while the third manis yet to be identified, saidSandeep Balyan, SHO,Thanabhawan police station,adding that all accused areabsconding. A case has beenregistered under relevantstatutory sections following acomplaint by the victim'shusband, he said. The victimhas been sent for a medicalexamination, police said.

COIMBATORE: Two sisterswere killed on the spot whenthe two-wheeler on which theywere being taken to school bytheir father was involved in ahead-on collision with a lorryhere on Saturday, police said.Venkatesan was taking Gayathri(9), Keerthana (7) and his son(10) on his bike to school,when the collision occurred,the police said. Under theimpact, the girls fell on theroad, resulting in theirinstantaneous death, they said.While Venkatesan and his son,who were injured, wereadmitted to a nearby privatehospital, the bodies of the girlswere sent to the governmenthospital for a post-mortem,they said.

Pattnaik becomes first Indianto win prestigious Italian awardPNS n NEW DELHI

Acclaimed Indian sand artistSudarsan Pattnaik has beenconferred the Italian GoldenSand Art Award, 2019 at a cer-emony in Rome, becomingthe first Indian to win the pres-tigious award for his contri-bution to sand art.Representing India at theInternational Scorrano SandNativity event held in Leccefrom November 13 to 17,Pattnaik created a 10-foot highsand sculpture of Mahatma

Gandhi along with Russianartist Pavel Minilkov. "I havereceived the award on Fridayfrom Vito Maraschio, thePresident of PromuoviInternational Scorrano SandNativity at a ceremony inRome. Neeharika Singh,Deputy Chief of Mission of theIndian Embassy, was also pre-sent at the award ceremony,"Patnaik wrote on twitter.

There were eight sculptorsfrom different countries whoparticipated in this festival.

"I feel very glad and hon-

oured to receive this presti-gious award," said Pattnaik,who is also a Padma Shriawardee. Till now, Pattnaikhas participated in more than60 international sand art fes-tivals and championshipsaround the world and wonmany prizes for India. OnFriday evening, he called onIndian Ambassador in ItalyReenat Sandhu who congrat-ulated him on his achieve-ments. The event was heldunder the patronage of thePuglia Region in South Italy.

Press is critical partnerin democracy: Kiran BediPNS n PUDUCHERRY

Puducherr y LieutenantGovernor Kiran Bedi onSaturday said press is criticaland an integral partner indemocracy and helps enhancethe image of the administra-tion. Addressing the ‘NationalPress Day’ celebration organ-ised at Raj Nivas, she said theadministration was meant toserve the people who shouldalso work with it.

Media acts as a bridgebetween the people and theadministration and the mediareports act as a vital input forthe government to address thewoes of the people, she said.

At the same time, she said,the press should carry onlycorrect reports without derail-ing facts. Referring to theCentral Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) settingup a branch in the UnionTerritory as a major develop-ment, Bedi said the Centralgovernment was serious aboutcurbing corruption.

"Corruption will comedown considerably and betterservice will be available to thecommon man in Puducherry,"she said. She said her officehad brought out a bookletentitled 'Good Practices' high-lighting the implementationof schemes earmarked by theCentre for the UnionTerritory.

"Our work in Raj Nivasbegins every day with theperusal of the reports in theday`s newspapers and basedon the issues in the reports,action was initiated by thedepartments concerned," shesaid. "An amazing changewas already seen taking placebecause of follow-up action inthe wake of media reports,"

she said and added that ‘theUnion Home Minister hadalready called for presentationby the administrator or LtGovernor of Union Territorieson ‘Good Practices’ on Fridaynext. National Press Day is avigilance day and is also a dayof communication andaccountability, the former IPSofficer said and recalled howshe felt the importance ofpress reports even from herschool days.

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

Facing widespread criticismover an official booklet describ-ing Mahatma Gandhi's death asan "accident", the Odisha gov-ernment on Saturday said it wasan inadvertent mistake andthere was no intention to feedwrong information to the chil-dren or twist the sequence ofevents.

School and Mass EducationMinister Samir Ranjan Dashcame out with the governmentresponse to the controversy inthe state Assembly following adirection from Speaker S NPatro in this regard on Friday.

Dash said the governmenthas already withdrawn thebooklet.

An official has been disen-gaged and two others havebeen asked to give explanationabout the error, he added.

A two-page governmentbooklet "Aama Bapuji: EkaJhalaka" (Our Bapuji: AGlimpse) -- published on theoccasion of 150th birth anniver-sary of Mahatma Gandhi -- pre-sented a brief account of histeachings, works and links withOdisha, while also stating thathe "died due to accidental rea-sons in a sudden sequence of

events on January 30, 1948 atDelhi's Birla House".

The matter triggered a rowwith political leaders andactivists demanding an apolo-gy from Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik and immediate mea-sures to correct the "blunder".

The issue had created hueand cry in the assembly onFriday. Members cutting acrossparty lines had expressed con-cern over the misleading factson the Father of the Nation.

"There is no intention togive wrong information andmislead the children or twist thesequence of events. It was (mis-take) unintentional," Dash said.

Necessary correction will bemade in the booklet, it will bere-printed and circulated amongthe students within a month, theminister told the house.

Legislators of all the partieshad on Friday felt sorry over theepisode.

Congress Legislature Partyleader Narasingha Mishra haddemanded an apology fromthe chief minister. The CLPleader also questioned the stategovernment's motive behindthe "misleading" information.

"I doubt the motive behindthis misleading information onGandhiji is because of thechanged relationship betweenthe (ruling) BJD and BJP. A sec-tion of BJP leaders are wor-shiping Nathuram Godse, whohad killed Gandhiji," he had saidin assembly on Friday.

"It appears that BJD has total-ly surrendered before BJP.Therefore this booklet could bepart of the BJD-BJP secretalliance," Mishra said.

GANDHIJI BOOKLET ROW

Odisha government terms it ‘an inadvertent mistake’

14 of a familysuffer fromfood poisoningin AhmednagarPNS n PUNE

At least 14 members of a fam-ily in Maharashtra'sAhmednagar district fell illafter consuming rotis madeof spoilt millets, police saidon Saturday.

The incident took place inDehre village on Friday after-noon, when 14 members ofthe Mali family suffered asevere case of food poisoningafter consuming rotis madeof old and spoilt pearl millet(bajra) flour, an official fromMIDC police station said.

"The victims experiencedvomiting and nausea, andwere admitted to a civil hos-pital where their conditionhas been stabilised," he said.

Samples of the food havebeen sent for testing to ascer-tain the exact cause for foodpoisoning, he added.

PNS n HJAMMU

A two-day conference on'replication of good gover-nance practices in UnionTerritories of Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh' con-cluded here on Saturday witha pledge to develop the tworegions as models of adminis-trative excellence.

The conference, which wasparticipated by officials from19 states and four UTs,resolved to make sustainedefforts to create a transparent,accountable and people-centricadministration in the UTs ofJammu and Kashmir, andLadakh.

The unanimously adopted'Sushasan Sankalp' (good gov-ernance oath) resolved to repli-

cate the innovations and bestpractices in successful nation-al governance initiatives,

including digital governanceand citizen-centric grievanceredressal. The conference wasinaugurated by Union MinisterJitendra Singh here on Fridayin the presence of LieutenantGovernor of Jammu andKashmir G C Murmu,Department of AdministrativeReforms and Public

Grievances secretary CChandramouli, J&K ChiefSecretary B V RSubrahmanyam and others.

During the valedictory ses-sion, the conference unani-mously adopted the 'SushasanSankalp' after intensive delib-erations during the sessionsheld over two days, an official

spokesman said. He said theconference resolved that theCentre and the participatingstate governments and theUnion Territories of Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh wouldcollaborate to develop the newUTs as models of administra-tive excellence using digitaltechnologies in the imple-mentation of welfare pro-grammes.

The conference also resolvedto promote capacity buildingand personnel administrationby formulating mid-careertraining programmes and spe-cific need-based training pro-grammes for officials, thespokesman said.

GOOD GOVERNANCE MEET

J-K, Ladakh to be models of administrative excellenceThe conference, in which officials from 19states and four UTs participated, resolved tomake sustained efforts to create atransparent, accountable and people-centricadministration in the UTs of Jammu andKashmir, and Ladakh

PNS n NEW DELHI

A new Indo-French exhibitionhere opens a historical windowinto the lives of 12 Indianrulers and their French-speak-ing officers from 1750-1850.

Drawing from the archivesof the Bibliothèque Nationale inParis and the National Museumhere, the collaborative exhibi-tion, "Rajas, Nawabs andFirangees, Treasures from theFrench and the Indian archives(1750-1850),"opened on Friday.

The exhibition has put onshowcase unseen manuscripts,paintings and artefacts thatoffer glimpses of the Indiancourt life, through the eyes ofFrench-speaking officers - fewof which acquired high militarypositions and were endowedwith jagirs.

Organised by Alliancefrançaise de Delhi, the UnitedService Institution of India,and the National Museum, theexhibits, curated by SamuelBerthet, are contextualizedwithin the rise of British EastIndia Company over the sub-

continent, and the successivedefeats of the army of theFrench East India Company atits hands. Portraits of 12 duosof French officers and theirIndian rulers from erstwhilecourts in present day Kerala,Punjab, Bengal, Awadh, Delhi,Rajasthan, Poona, Hyderabadand Madurai mark the first sec-tion of the exhibition.

The second part shows aselection of the wide collectionof Indian sacred texts pre-served in the BibliothèqueNationale, the French NationalLibrary. Apart from variousaspects of Hinduism, the col-lection holds manuscripts relat-ed to Islam, Buddhism,Tantrism, Jainism and also theancient religion of the Parsis.

The exhibition's third sectionexplores the rich and complextheme of Firangee paintings inthe light of the French experi-ence, and answers how for-eigners projected themselvesduring their sojourn in the East,and how were they represent-ed by indigenous miniatureartists.

PNS n CHENNAI

The CPI in Tamil Nadu onSaturday urged the state gov-ernment to hold talks withfarmers opposed to setting upelectricity transmission tow-ers over farm lands.

Farmers have been stoutlyopposing proposals to erectHigh Tension (HT) powerdistribution towers over farmlands in regions includingwestern Tamil Nadu, CPIState Secretary R Mutharasansaid.

Ryots have been demandingthat such electricity infra-structure be installed in spaces

other than agricultural lands,he said in a statement here.

They have announced thatthey would be holding peace-ful protests in over 50 loca-tions on November 18 inTamil Nadu to urge the Stateand Central governments toresolve the issue and the CPIwould take part in the demon-strations.

While the Tamil Nadu gov-ernment should intervene andresolve the issue, it is a mat-ter of anguish that ElectricityMinister P Thangamani has"levelled allegations againstopposition parties to divertpeople's attention."

Govt should talk tofarmers opposingelectricity towers: CPI

Exhibition showcasesIndo-French ties of18th century

Bengal to set up two detentioncentres for arrested foreigners

PNS nRISHIKESH

A man-eater tiger, which hadkilled three forest guards in theCorbett Tiger Reserve arearecently, was captured onSaturday from the forests of TunBhuji, close to the Dhikalazone of the reserve.

The tiger had killed twoguards in Tun Bhuji and anoth-

er in Khinanauli forests close tothe reserve in recent months.The latest incident hadoccurred on August 16. The bigcat was caged on Friday afterbeing tranquillised, chiefwildlife warden Rajiv Bhartarisaid. Corbett authorities are yetto decide whether the tigershould be released into thewild or kept in a zoo.

Man-eater tiger capturedin Corbett Reserve

Maha equationschange, Rauttweets about‘naya mausam'PNS n MUMBAI

Amid the current politicalstalemate in Maharashtra,Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Rauton Saturday cryptically saidadvent of "new weather" isletting him forget "old pain".

Politics in Maharashtratook an unexpected turnafter the Shiv Sena walkedaway from its longtime allyBJP over sharing the chiefministerial post afterAssembly results weredeclared on October 24. Thetwo parties fell out after hav-ing contested the October 21Assembly polls in alliancecoming up with 161 seatstogether in the 288-memberHouse.

At present, the Shiv Senais in the process of workingout a new equation witherstwhile rivals, NCP andCongress, as it tries to formgovernment in the state.

"Yyaaron naye mausam neye ahsaan kiya hai. Yaadmujhe dard purane nahi aate(the new weather has done afavour, friends. I do notremember the old painnow)," Raut tweeted the linesof noted Urdu poet BashirBadr, without naming any-one or any party.

PNS n KOLKATA

The West Bengal governmentwill soon set up two detentioncentres to house foreign nation-als arrested on various criminalcharges, and this move has"absolutely no connection" withthe NRC, a state minister saidon Saturday. The MamataBanerjee-led state governmenthas already finalised a piece ofland in New Town area, WestBengal Correctional ServicesMinister Ujjwal Biswas said.

The process of scouting forland in Bongaon in North 24Parganas district for the seconddetention centre is also under-way, Biswas said.

He said an existing govern-ment building in Bongaon

could be converted as the sec-ond camp to temporarily housethe foreign nationals, till thepiece of land is identified.

"These detention camps arebeing constructed adhering toSupreme Court directives,according to which foreignnationals under trial and thoseconvicted should not be keptwith local inmates," he said.

"This has absolutely no con-

nection with the NRC. Pleasedon't link it to NRC," the min-ister added. Biswas also cited a2014 directive of the centralgovernment, which asked allstates to set up at least onedetention centre for illegalimmigrants and foreign nation-als awaiting deportation aftercompletion of their sentence.

Most of these foreign nation-als belong to African countries,sources in the correctionaldepartment said. "Till now, theforeign nationals arrested forcriminal activities are housedalong with local inmates. But,we have observed that this cre-ates problems due to differentcultures and languages, and thesituation becomes quite difficultfor us to handle," Biswas said.

Our work in RajNivas beginsevery day with the

perusal of the reports inthe day`s newspapersand based on the issuesin the reports, action wasinitiated by thedepartments concerned

— KIRAN BEDI, PPuudduucchheerrrryyLLiieeuutteennaanntt GGoovveerrnnoorr

CAPSULE

Protests erupt inIran after petrolprice hikeTEHRAN: Sporadic protestserupted in cities across Iran,state news agency IRNA saidon Saturday, a day after thegovernment announced asurprise decision to rationpetrol and hike its price. Thedemonstrations on Fridaynight were "severe" in Sirjan incentral Iran as "peopleattacked a fuel storagewarehouse in the city and triedto set fire to it," the newsagency reported. But policeintervened to prevent them.IRNA said "scattered" protestsalso broke out in other citiesincluding Mashhad, Birjand,Ahvaz, Gachsaran, Abadan,Khoramshahr, Mahshahr,Shiraz and Bandar Abbas.They were mostly limited toblocking traffic and were overby midnight, it added. Iranimposed petrol rationing andraised pump prices by at least50 percent on Friday, sayingthe move was aimed athelping citizens in need withcash handouts.

Anil resigns asdirector of RelianceCommunicationsNEW DELHI: Anil Ambani hasresigned as director ofReliance Communications, thedebt-ridden company said in afiling on Saturday. Accordingto the filing, Ambani alongwith Chhaya Virani, RynaKarani, Manjari Kacker, SureshRangachar have resigned asdirectors of RCom. "Your goodoffice may also note that ShriManikantan V., has alsotendered his resignation as adirector and Chief FinancialOfficer of the Company earlier.The aforementionedresignations shall be put up tothe committee of creditors ofthe Company for theirconsideration," the filingadded. RCom, which iscurrently going throughinsolvency process, hasposted a consolidated loss ofRs 30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due toprovisioning for liabilities afterthe Supreme Court ruling onstatutory dues.

Rajasthanconstitutes exportpromotion councilJAIPUR: The Rajasthangovernment has constitutedexport promotion andcoordination councils toaddress bottlenecks and boostshipments from the state. TheIndustries Department onFriday issued a notification forthe formation of the RajasthanExport PromotionCoordination Council. It willcoordinate between variousindustrial organisations,exporters and respectivedepartments of the stategovernment to remove thebottlenecks in exports. Inaddition, a notification hasalso been issued to constitutethe Rajasthan ExportPromotion Council as arepresentative body ofexporters, export-relatedpersons, companies,institutions and industrialorganisations. With theformation of these twocouncils, the export of variouscommodities, handicrafts,gems, jewelery andagricultural products fromRajasthan and tourismbusiness will get newmomentum. According to anofficial statement, the statechief secretary will head the19-member Export PromotionCoordination Council.

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019 money 06

NCAER: Q2GDP growth maydecline to 4.9%PNS n NEW DELHI

The country's GDP growth islikely to decline to 4.9 per centin the second quarter of thisfiscal due to sustained slow-down in virtually all the sec-tors, economic think-tankNCAER said on Saturday.

India's economy grew at 5per cent in the first quarter of2019-20 — the slowest pace inover six years. For the full fis-cal 2019-20, the Delhi-basedNational Council of AppliedEconomic Research(NCAER) has pegged GDPgrowth at 4.9 per cent asagainst 6.8 per cent in 2018-19. Going forward, NCAERsaid the monetary policy mea-sures are unlikely to revivegrowth at this juncture andsuggested providing fiscalstimulus, which too can bechallenging unless it can befinanced through better rev-enue generation.

"Whether the growthdeceleration may be bottom-ing out or not, we will knowin next two weeks based onthe Q2 growth figures of thegovernment. However, thecurrent poor growth is main-ly due to a demand problem.It can be addressed throughfiscal measures," NCAERDistinguished Fellow SudiptoMundle told PTI on the side-lines of its event on 'Mid-yearreview of the economy'.

Emphasising that the focusshould be on fiscal measures,Mundle said there is a need topump up expenditure withoutpushing up the fiscal deficit.

There are ways of doing it,he said, adding, "We have a

bold leader. There is a hugefiscal space which has notbeen used. It is myth thatsome say there is no fiscalspace."

Mundle said that revenueforegone is 5 per cent of thecountry's GDP and about 1.5per cent of GDP is locked upas excess appropriation of thebudget which has not beenspent. Even the government isnot paying the bills, he said.

"So, there is a lot of fiscalspace, but you need taketough measures. First of all, weneed to reduce exemptions onindirect tax custom duties.There was no need to reducecorporate tax. Are companiesinvesting after that? Thismakes the position worse," headded.

World Bank submitsplan for Kolkata logisticsPNS n KOLKATA

West Bengal Finance MinisterAmit Mitra on Saturday saidthe World Bank has preparedand submitted a conceptualmaster plan for development oflogistics infrastructure withinthe city metropolitan area.

He said that the proposedmaster plan would entail aproject cost of around USD 300million to be funded by theWorld Bank. Speaking toreporters on the sidelines of CIILogistics Colloquium here,Mitra said, "World Bank hassubmitted a master plan to thestate on logistics infrastructurein and around Kolkata metro-politan area."

A meeting will take placesoon, he said, adding that theWorld Bank has also "expressedits interest for a review ofindustrial parks, logistics hubsand SEZs encompassing WestBengal with the aim of improv-ing logistics competitiveness,employment generation andease of doing business".

The infrastructure spend-ing has been increased five

times after the MamataBanerjee-led government cameto power in the state in 2011.

"From Rs 1,758 crore in2011, the (state) government'sspending on infrastructure hasbeen increased to Rs 9,553crore in 2018", he said.

Mitra said the increasedspending on infrastructure hadhelped the state to register "aSGDP growth of 12.58 percent in 2018-19 against thenational growth of around 5.5per cent". The minister said theprivate sector is expected togenerate employment foraround 1.26 lakh people byinvesting in logistics infra-structure in the state.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government is consideringproposals on raising insurancecover on bank deposits fromthe current Rs. 1 lakh and reg-ulating multi-state cooperativebanks, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said onFriday. The new legislations inthis regard will be broughtduring the winter session ofParliament starting Monday,she added. At present, bankdepositors get an insurancecover of Rs. 1 lakh on theiramount by the DepositInsurance And CreditGuarantee Corporation.

“I will be going to Cabinet toincrease the insurance limitfrom current Rs. 1 lakh ondeposit in banks and if theCabinet approves it, we willmove it in the upcoming win-ter session of Parliament", MsSitharaman said at a mediainteraction.

Ms Sitharaman, however,did not mention what the newinsurance limit would be.

Deposit insurance is a pro-tection cover against lossesaccruing to bank deposits.

In 1993, the cover was raisedfrom Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1 lakh.

In September this year, thecentral bank imposed restric-

tions on the Punjab &Maharashtra Co-operative(PMC) Bank citing majorfinancial irregularities.

Putting the co-operativebank under its lens, the RBIbarred PMC Bank from renew-ing or granting any loans, ormaking investments without itsprior approval.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's exports contracted forthe third month in a row inOctober by 1.11 per cent to USD26.38 billion mainly on accountof a significant dip in shipmentsof petroleum, carpet, leatherproducts, rice and tea.

Imports too declined by 16.31per cent -- the steepest fall inmore than three years -- to USD37.39 billion in October, nar-rowing the trade deficit to USD11 billion, according to the gov-ernment data released on Friday.

This is the steepest decline inimports since July 2016 whenthe inward shipments haddeclined by 19 per cent.

Gold imports increased byabout 5 per cent to USD 1.84billion in the month.

The trade deficit stood atUSD 18 billion in October 2018.

Out of the 30 key sectors, asmany as 18 segments showednegative growth in exports dur-

ing the month under review.Shipments of petroleum

goods, carpet, leather products,rice and tea contracted by 14.6per cent, 17 per cent, 7.6 percent, 29.5 per cent and 6.16 percent respectively.

The country's outbound ship-ments have remained subduedso far this year. It may have abearing on the overall econom-ic growth, which fell to over six-year low of 5 per cent in the first

quarter of the current fiscal.Industrial output declined by 4.3per cent in September due topoor performance by manufac-turing, power generation andmining sectors.

The outbound shipmentscontracted by 6 per cent inAugust and 6.57 per cent inSeptember.

In October, oil importsdeclined by 31.74 per cent toUSD 9.63 billion, and non-oil

imports fell by 9.19 per cent toUSD 27.76 billion.

Cumulatively, during April-October 2019, exports weredown 2.21 per cent to USD185.95 billion while importscontracted by 8.37 per cent toUSD 280.67 billion.

Trade deficit during the peri-od narrowed to USD 94.72 bil-lion as against USD 116.15 bil-lion in April-October 2018-19.

Meanwhile, an RBI releaseshowed that services export forOctober 2019 stood at USD17.22 billion while imports wereat USD 10.92 billion.

Services exports in September2019 were USD 17.54 billion (Rs1,25,090.78 crore) registering a

positive growth of 7.05 per centin dollar terms, vis-à-visSeptember 2018.

Services imports inSeptember 2019 were USD11.10 billion (Rs 79,151.87crore) registering a positivegrowth of 11.56 per cent in dol-lar terms, vis-à-vis September2018. Ludhiana-based exporterS C Ralhan called for the imme-diate release of foreign trade pol-icy by the government to arrestthe downfall.

"Government should imme-diately announce foreign tradepolicy. If it will be delayed, thegovernment would not be ableto control the damage," Ralhansaid.

Exports decline 1.11%; trade at US $ 18 bn

Flexible workplace demand to jump 5-times

OVERCOME ISSUES, GET INDIAINTO RCEP: SINGAPORE MINISTERPNS n SINGAPORE

A senior Singapore ministerhas expressed hope that out-standing issues with India can beovercome by other countries toget the large South Asian mar-ket into the RegionalComprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP).

"We hope that India and theother 15 countries can overcomethe outstanding issues so thatIndia can come on board even-tually. We look forward to theregion, including India, movingahead together as one,"Singapore's Senior Minister andCoordinating Minister forNational Security, Teo CheeHean, said on Saturday.

During the recent ASEANmeeting in Bangkok, India didnot reach an agreement onnegotiations to sign the multi-lateral free trade agreementRCEP, while 15 countries —China, Japan, South Korea, NewZealand, Australia and ASEANmembers -- agreed to ink the

pact. India remains concernedthat the China-dominatedRCEP would be disadvanta-

geous to its farmers andMSMEs. Addressing the fourthedition of the South Asian

Diaspora Convention, Teo elab-orated on India and ASEANtrade pacts, pointing out, "Wealready have the ASEAN-IndiaFree Trade Area (AIFTA), whichcame into effect in 2010. Butthere is more potential."

Teo added that India andSingapore are also exploringlinking "our national single win-dow platforms to facilitate cross-border exchange of trade infor-mation digitally". He cited the

example of India's RuPay andSingapore's NETS, a tie-uplaunched last year to facilitatecross-border payments.

Among other cooperationbetween the two countries, Teonoted Singapore's SembcorpMarine Rigs and Floaters hav-ing recently collaborated withShapoorji Pallonji of India andMalaysia's Bumi Armada toconvert a very large crude car-rier (VLCC) into a floating pro-duction, storage and offloading(FPSO) unit. To be deployed onthe east coast of India, the pro-ject will produce up to 90,000barrels of oil per day and helpmeet India's significant energyneeds. While these exampleswere listed for furthering SouthAsian-Singapore ties, Teo calledfor further strengthening ofconnectivity. One key area isinfrastructure, which providesthe sinews for development andgrowth — power, water, sanita-tion, telecommunications, roads,railways, ports and airports, hesaid.

United joins Southwest,American in new 737 MAX delayAFP n NEW YORK

United Airlines said Friday itpushed back its expected datefor Boeing's 737 MAX aircraftto return to service, followingsimilar announcements by rivalsSouthwest and AmericanAirlines.

The US air carrier now saysit expects flights to resume onMarch 4, 2020, two months laterthan a previous estimate, imply-ing the cancellation of thou-sands of scheduled flights.

The top-selling Boeing jetshave been grounded sinceMarch of this year following thesecond of two crashes which left346 people dead.

Boeing has faced stumblingblocks in its efforts to win glob-al regulators' approval for pro-posed fixes to the aircraft andget the planes flying again.

In statement, United said itwas working to minimize dis-ruptions for the flying public,rescheduling flights or makingother offers.

"We have cooperated fullywith the FAA's independentreview of the MAX aircraft, andwe won't put our customers andemployees on that plane untilregulators make their own inde-pendent assessment that it issafe to do so," it said. Boeing says

it hopes to get regulatoryapproval for a return to servicebefore the end of this year buthas delayed its estimate for theresumption of commercialflights until January, to allow forchanges to pilot training.

Southwest, the world's biggestbuyer of 737 MAX jets, with 34of them in its fleet at the timeof the grounding in March, said

earlier this month it nowexpects a return to service onMarch 6, 2020.

American Airlines, whichpurchased 24 of the jets, said itexpected its 737 MAX jets to flyagain on March 5.

The Southwest pilots unionon Wednesday denounced whatit said was Boeing's pressure onregulators to speed up autho-rization for the 737 MAX'sreturn to service.

"Boeing is increasingly pub-licizing that they may have toshut down their productionline due to running out ofroom to store completed MAXaircraft," the statement said.

"There is some concern thatthis is simply another tactic" tospeed up the return to serviceand push some costs back on tooperators, it added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Demand for flexible work-space in India is estimated tojump five times by 2025 to 130-140 million sq ft, accountingfor one-third of global cowork-ing inventory, according to areport by property consultantCushman & Wakefield(C&W).

The global real estate con-sultant released its report'Redefining future workplaces”at Workplace Trend Conclaveheld here on Friday.

"The phenomenon ofcoworking has been theproverbial storm in the teacupfor commercial real estate inIndia," the report said.

India is one of the largestflexible workplace markets inthe world, the NYSE-listedconsultant said.

"The rise of millennials has

led to the existence of a strongstart-up and entrepreneurialculture. They need a workplacethat inspires innovation andideas, offers flexibility in terms

of timings and location, whilebeing integrated with technol-ogy for communication andcollaboration," said AnshulJain, Country Head &Managing Director-India,C&W.

The consultant has estimat-ed the global flexible work-space inventory at about 125million sq ft, of which nearly 27million sq ft is located in India.

There are 1,000 operationalcoworking centres, with acapacity of over 4 lakh seats,across top six cities -- Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai,Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.

The number of flexible spaceoperators has risen from singledigits to about 350 over the last3-4 years.

"Flex space is likely to growto 130-140 million sq ft by2025, with India accounting fornearly one third of the globalcoworking inventory," thereport said.

Centre to push MSMEexports: GadkariPNS n NAGPUR

The government is working ontwo policies to increase MSMEexports and bring downimports by encouraging localproduction, Union MSME andRoad Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari said onSaturday.

While address-ing the gatheringat Small MicroEnterprise (SME)conference atNagpur, Gadkarimentioned that theMSME sector has 29per cent contribution incountry's growth and 48 percent of export is done throughMSMEs. Similarly, about 10-11crore jobs have been created inMSMEs. "The government isworking on two policies.Firstly

on the industries which are intoexport business - how to sup-port and increase their export,"the minister said. The leatherindustry has a total turnover ofRs 1,40,000 crore of which Rs80,000 crore to Rs 90,000 crore

is domestic and aroundRs 45,000-50,000

crore is fromexport.

"I have sug-gested them onworking onmodernisation,

u p g r a d a t i o n ,product designing

and how to reducethe cost of production

and improve quality, so that ourshare increases in the interna-tional market. We are workingon a policy on how to strenght-en export business," Gadkarisaid.

Finance Minister Amit Mitra

There are 1,000operational coworkingcentres, with acapacity of over 4 lakhseats, across top sixcities — Delhi-NCR,Bengaluru, Mumbai,Pune, Hyderabad andChennai

In statement, United said it wasworking to minimizedisruptions for theflying public,rescheduling flightsor making otheroffers

Shipments of petroleum goods, carpet, leather products, rice and teacontracted by 14.6%, 17%, 7.6%, 29.5per cent and 6.16% respectively

Nirmala Sitharaman

Insurance cover on Bankdeposits may go up

During the recent ASEAN meeting in Bangkok,India did not reach an agreement onnegotiations to sign the multi-lateral free tradeagreement RCEP, while 15 countries — China,Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australiaand ASEAN members -- agreed to ink the pact

Emphasising thatthe focus shouldbe on fiscalmeasures, Mundlesaid there is aneed to pump upexpenditurewithout pushing upthe fiscal deficit

I will be going toCabinet to increasethe insurance limit

from current Rs. 1 lakh ondeposit in banks and if theCabinet approves it, we willmove it in the upcoming wintersession of Parliament

— SITHARAMANFinance Minister

special 07HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019

He was in Class VI and wouldwatch as his parents exploit-ed the Wular Lake inBandipora district in J&Kfor whatever that the lake

was able to give — fish and water chest-nuts. It was then that Baba decided thatwhen he was old enough, he would doeverything that was possible to give backwhat his parents had taken from the lakethat is the lifeline for the people living inthe area.

Baba, who has been awarded theInspire award by RBS Earth HeroesAwards for his commitment to film-making in environment, water, climatechange, livelihood, forests and glacierstells you that he is from a villageBandipora which standard on the banksof the Wular Lake, the largest fresh waterlake in Asia with an area of 272 sq km.

“I was born on the banks of this riverwith bounties of this lake like water chest-nuts, nadru (lotus root), fish and some-times even sand extraction. The Wularwater run in my blood. It was always inmy mind to give it back to the motherwhich nurtured me. This pulled metowards Nature. I started small. I wouldgo on my own to collect trash that wouldcollect on the banks. Sometimes, I wouldpull my friends as well. My activism wasa reaction to what I had seen my parentsdo to the lake,” Baba explains.

He tells you that the lake feeds eightlakh people. “Yet, they don’t understandthe importance of what it means to haveclean fresh water,” Baba says who is alsoa guest faculty and trainer at mediadepartments, schools, colleges and uni-versities across the country.

He conducts science and green film-making workshops, lectures, hands-ontraining and screenings. He has won morethan 19 national and international awardsfrom India, the US, China, Australia,France, Spain and Bangladesh, besidesofficial acknowledgements, nominationsand citations across the country. His flairfor storytelling has empaneled him as ascience communicator and resource per-son with Vigyan Prasar, Department ofScience and Technology.

“To begin with, I would tell stories,tell the fishermen how necessary the lakeis for the people of the region. I wouldwrite articles and hold debates on how wewere poisoning the waters. I told peoplewhat to and what not to do. There are 42

other water bodies around this lake thatfeed the locals. I would tell people notthrow waste and faecal matter into thelake because this water is then recycled,cleaned and finds its way into our taps forus to drink. Then there is the fish, nadruand even water chestnut. The fish eatwhat we throw in the waters and we inturn eat that fish. We eat nadru and waterchestnuts too. We are not only damagingthe environment, what we are eating isdamaging our bodies as well. But I found

that the impact that I was hoping fornever came. That is when I decided toturn towards digital medium and armedmyself with a camera to tell my story,”Baba recalls.

His film on what the Wular meansto the locals is as dramatic as it can get.It is told from the eyes of a 13-year-oldrag picker, Bilal Ahmad Dar who lives onits banks and what the lake means to him.The reason he has to eke out a livelihoodis because he lost his father to cancerwhen he was six. And the reason for can-cer? The toxic Wular lake. I made a heroof this boy. I targeted school children, Ifind that they are most open to ideas, yetour environment is at its worst today. Thismeans that we are doing somethingwrong in our education system,” the 47-year-old tells you.

He has been conferred with theInspire Award for his work as an indi-vidual (journalist/filmmaker/artist) orinstitution who has influenced thoughtor inspired action on wildlife conserva-tion, natural resource management, andenvironmental protection through theircreative expression.

“We are not teaching the importanceof what the ecology and environmentmeans to us. I show my films. I sometimesscare them by telling them the story ofDar. They understand the importance ofWular today,” Baba says.

The reason why Wular is dying? Thelake is at the large part of the Valley —North. “Even the affluence from SouthKashmir is emptied into the lake. Thelake starts from Shehnag travels toLider which meets Jhelum. This watercarrying silt as well. Through Jhelum, theaffluence and silt empties into Wularwhich is like a river and a lake. The lakebecomes a reservoir. All the more rea-son why there is need to protect it andnot throw trash into it. The lake attractsthousands of migratory birds. The areacan become an eco-tourism spot besideswhat is already being done. It can pro-vide an alternative means to earning forthe locals. But the exploitation over theyears has had a devastating effect on thebiodiversity. Some of it is still left. Thereis time. Kashmir is dependent onNature. We don’t have industries; wedon’t have railways. We only have watersand lakes. If we lose Wular, we will loseeverything including the Dal Lake inSrinagar,” Baba says.

He was all of 12 when hewould spend his days chasingbirds at Keoladeo GhanaNational Park at Bharatpur.His father was a chef at one

of the resort’s where ornithologists andbirdwatcher would come and visit fromtime to time. One such person whopiqued Bhola’s interest was Dr Salim Aliwho used to frequent the park to ring thebirds. Bholu attributes much of his love andknowledge of birds to this man.

“Dr Ali used to come to the park often.Once I met him. He asked me if I wouldbe interested in helping me. I was 12, hadlot of energy and free time since I wasn’tgoing to school. I would spend hours chas-ing birds and looking for them. He was theone who taught me the names and how toidentify them. Those which I couldn’t iden-tify, I would look at it with care and come-back and describe the bird in detail. Dr Aliwould then tell me the name. I would gopatrolling with the staff even as a kid. I

would go to count nests and help ring thebirds,” the 65-year-old who retired as for-est ranger with the park, recalls.

However, Dr Ali had a strict rule. Theonly way that Bholu could help was thathe had to compulsorily go to school. Theyoung Bholu had no option but to com-ply. Unfortunately, he could not completehis graduation. In 1976, family pressureforced him to get married. “Those days onesimply followed what the family said. I wasin second year and sitting in the exam hallwhen I had to leave. The baarat was at thedoorstep. I got caught up with married lifeand never had the opportunity to go backto complete it,” Bholu recounts who hadjoined the park as a forester.

But it didn’t deter him from workingwith the birds. He got a job with the park,learnt how to conduct bird census campsand to handle birds’ safely. He monitoredthe park daily and reported issues aroundencroachment, poaching, animal diseasesand unruly visitors who would disturb the

birds. His thorough knowledge meant thatguides would come to him to takes lessonson how to identify a particular bird –whether it was migratory, a resident birdor a resident migratory. He has taught MScstudent who came to learn about the birds.He has taught young forest officers whowould be posted at the park. He has taughtschool students who would visit the parkby showing them a presentation, thepeculiarities of a bird and how to spot themin the wild.

He regales you with stories. He tellsyou how he was the one who had spotteda hissing cat. Something that was unheardof in the park. “Once, as a kid I spotted acat. But I didn’t know its name. But I stud-ied the way it looked. I ran back andinformed the office. When they saw theanimal, they were surprised to see a hiss-ing cat. Nobody knew that it was in thepark,” Bholu tells you.

He tells you how back in the 80s and90s people would throng the park to see

the Siberian crane. Unfortunately, thefighting in Afghanistan in the 90s provedto be fatal to this majestic bird that wouldrest in Afghanistan. He tells you how ram-pant killing of this exotic looking birdmeant that Keoladeo lost one of its prizedpossessions. But he tells you that back in

1985, a Russian had ringed a baby Siberianbird. The bird was spotted in the park in1986 with its parents after flying for8,000 km.

“The then park director called the per-son who had tagged the bird. It was thenthat there are three kinds of population aneach has a different destination. The cen-tral population that comes to Bharatpur,the western population that goes to Iranand eastern population that goes to Chinawhere their numbers are large.

There were other challenges as well.Water is a big issue. The Gambhir river thatused to feed the Bharatpur wetland, nolonger is an option since the constructionof the dam. “There was a time when thou-sands of birds used to come to the park.There was plenty of food back then. Butafter the dam was built, the part lost itssupply of water. The option was to feed thepark from the Chambal river. The waterfrom this river that feeds the city is col-lected some 17 km away in a flood con-

trol drain. But this water lacks natural food.There is bound to be a decline in the birdpopulation. But during good monsoons,there is plenty of food and the bird pop-ulation thrives,” Bholu tells you.

He opines that there is need to ensurethat Bhartpur remain a wetland to attractbirds. “The town has no other industry.The entire population is depended ontourist who come here. If the water dis-appears, the birds disappear, the touristswill as well. At present, the park in a worldheritage site. But the park can lose its sta-tus. What will we do then? TheGovernment is doing its best and park offi-cials are doing their best to deal with thesituation since there is so much moreawareness about wildlife today,” Bholu says.

He tells you his life started with thebird and will end among the birds. His chil-dren too are wildlife photographers. “I tooam a photographer. Many of my photoshave found way into many magazines,”Bholu tells you.

SSathish is a forest rangeofficer at Gulf of MannarMarine National Park,Tamil Nadu. This is thefirst Marine National Park

in South-east Asia. After com-pleting his BSc in Forestry andthen doing EnvironmentalScience, Sathish is now pursuinghis doctorate in Marine Biology.His interest in Nature and pre-serving the species took root afterhe had completed his one-and-a-half years of training inHyderabad, Telangana. He tellsyou that his posting in Gulf ofMunnar was more like a punish-ment.

“Most forest rangers consid-er a posting here as a punishmentbecause the working style inMarine National Park is very dif-ferent from what one would do orfind in a Tiger reserve. Nobodywants to work in a marine envi-ronment. People who come in thisjob have a different view of whatthe job entails. Working withmarine animals is different as thenature and style of working hereis different. One has to love the seain order to love the work thatcomes with the territory. Once youfall in love with marine life, thereis no walking away from this,”Sathish says.

The lack of awareness when itcomes to dealing with marine lifeis what deters young forest rangersto work in this area. “We don’thave much information aboutmarine animals. I studied Forestryfor four years in BSc, two years ofEnvironmental Science and one-and-a-half years of training andyet before I joined the NationalPark at Gulf of Munnar, I too did-n’t have much knowledge. Thisfield is kind of nightmare since itis new for everyone. Then there isthe fact that the park borders SriLanka. Working here was an eye-opener for me,” Sathish tells you.

Even though the NationalPark has a rich wildlife, what is anunexplored world is marine lifeand there is so much that the seahas to offer. “There are sea cucum-bers, sharks, whales, sea horses

and beautiful corals. Since the parkis at the border, sea cucumber andsea horses are tradable items.People eat them but luckily not inIndia. The challenge was to stoptrade in these marine animals.Over 100 people were appre-hended. I even targeted kingpins,”Sathish says.

Going after such peoplemeant that Sathish and his wife’slife is always under threat. He tellsyou that since he has been post-ed there, not a single day has goneby when the two of them roamedthe area freely. His wife doesn’tallow him to go alone anywhere.Recalling a recent incident, he tellsyou how his driver was beatenblack and blue just because he dri-ves Sathish around. They wantedSathish to slow down in his work.Fake cases of Human Rights vio-lation are filed against him regu-larly. But this has not slowed himdown.

Once Sathish joined, his firstpriority was to think of things thatcould be taken up on a prioritybasis. “What we have under thesea is just as important for the eco-system. Sea cow or dugong and seaturtles are endangered here.Dugong was being hunted for itsmeat. Its meat is a delicacy andsells for `1,000 per kg. When Itook over, there were only 150dugongs left in Gulf of Munnar,”Sathish says.

He tells you that there 56marine animals in the Gulf his pri-mary work in with sea cucumbers.For this, the Forest Departmentbought scuba equipment after heand his team members learnthow to scuba dive. In fact, he andhis eight-team are the only teamin the Department who know howto scuba dive.

“There was a reason why welearnt how to scuba dive. There are10,000 boats that ply in thisregion. There is so much plasticthat is thrown in the sea. Thesesettle at the bottom and cover thecoral reef they would suffocate anddie. This in turn would affect othermarine animals living in the coralreefs. One a week we dive and col-

lect all the plastic settled at the bot-tom,” Sathish explains.

This is no the only work thatSathish is known for in the areawhen he took over the NationalPark back in 2016. He regularlygives talks to school childrentelling them about the importanceof marine life in general and seaturtles, dugong and sea cucumberin particular. And it was his com-mitment to the conservation of seacucumber, in the coastal stretch ofMandapam and Ramnad WildlifeRange, that Sathish was awardedthe Save the Species award by RBSEarth Heroes Awards.

“I tell the fishermen that theirlivelihood is dependent on whatthe sea gives them. If they abusethe sea, soon there won’t be any-thing left for them to sell and eat.I tell them that these endangeredspecies are important for theother fish to survive. If sea cucum-ber disappears, their income willalso disappear. Sea cucumbercleans the sea bed. This is some-thing that the fishermen under-stand since the area has seen adrop in the amount of the fishcoming in. The impact is thattoday, even if a dugong getscaught in the nets, it is set free.This has led to an increase in theirnumber. As for sea turtles, if theywould get caught in the net, theirflippers would be cut off and tur-tle would be thrown back. Buttoday, people protect them afterthey have understood the role eachmarine animal plays,” Sathishsays.

His work related to dugong isjust as innovative. An app has beencreated — Save the Dugong. “Thefisherman, with the help of thisapp needs to click the picture; itwill give us the GPS sighting andhelp us track the movement. Inreturn we pay 10,000. While themoney is nowhere near the moneythey would earn if they killed theanimal, the idea of seeing adugong has caught on and thespecies number is on the rise. Weare now in the process of trying tobring this area as dugong conser-vation area,” Sathish says.

BHOLU ABRAR KHAN, Bharatpur, Award Category: Green Warrior

JALAL-UD-DIN BABA, J&K, Award Category: Inspire S SATHISH, Tamil Nadu, Award Category: Save The Species

SHALINI SAKSENA met up with saviours of Nature at the recent Earth Hero Awards held inDelhi, to bring you stories of inspiration and good work that they are doing to leave a betterworld for future generations

The Wular lakeattracts thousandsof migratory birds.The area canbecome aneco-tourism spotand provide analternative meansfor earning. But theexploitation overthe years has had adevastating effecton the biodiversity

What we haveunder the sea isjust as importantfor theeco-system. Dugongand sea turtles areendangered here.Dugong was beinghunted for its meat.Its meat is adelicacy and sellsfor `1,000 per kg

CHAMPIONSOF EARTHCHAMPIONSOF EARTHCHAMPIONSOF EARTH

sundaymagazine

11

Hyderabad, November 17, 2019

09Mystic pillars of a great king

Don’t take yourself tooseriously. Know when to

laugh at yourself, and find away to laugh at obstacles

that inevitably presentthemselves

— Halle Berry

Guru Nanak's spiritual beliefs andpractices were transformational andcut across the lines of religion

Leading a virtuous life

If professional chefs run restaurants today,history has come a full circle. In medievalIndia, the moneyed nobility employed thehighest-paid chefs and not the bazaarchefs who cooked the common man’s

chaat, kebabs and breads. Several accounts ofLucknow, including the early 20th-centuryGuzishta Lucknow by Abdul Halim Sharar, talkof highly paid rikabdars, or professional cooks,who specialised in unique dishes that left theirdiners amazed.

Shaikh Fida Ali was a rikabdar during thereign of Wajid Ali Shah, the last nawab ofAwadh. He once placed a transparent lampshadeon a table before a British dignitary. He placed alit candle inside the lampshade, then blew it out,broke what appeared to be the glass of the shadeand started eating it. ‘It was later learnt that theentire lampshade was made out of sugar candy,’wrote Aslam Mahmud, an old Lucknauwallahand bureaucrat, in his superbly researchedAwadh Symphony, which talks about life underthe nawabs. Centuries before molecular gastron-omy began to beguile us with its presentations,the rikabdars were already practising food as anart form.

Restaurant cooks, on the other hand, tradi-tionally didn’t know how to cook these nuanceddishes, and restaurant cooking has thereforealways been distinct from home cooking inIndia. This fact is crucial to any understandingof the country’s food- and restaurant-scape. Forthe first time, really, in the history of food retailin India, we are at a point where at least somerestaurant food cooked by chefs is being consid-ered more evolved and more desirable thanhome food. Experience-led dining that was con-fined to moneyed homes (as opposed to restau-rants that were more functional and catered tomass needs) has only relatively recently shiftedout of that private zone and into a public, socialone.

After the British assumed power in Indiaand Mughal might was lost, cooks who had tillthen laboured in the kitchens of aristocratsfound themselves out of work. Some of themfound work with new employers but discoveredthat these new sahibs and brown sahibs of theRaj did not understand the elite art. ChefMujeeb-ur-Rehman, a well- known chef fromLucknow popular for his high-end weddingcatering, tells me this delicious story behind thepopular Lucknow idiom, ‘Yeh moonh aurmasoor ki dal’, used to be dismissive aboutsomeone.

According to him, a chef who foundemployment after having served a nawab for along time asked his new employer what hewould like to eat that day. The employer toldhim to make something simple like masoor dal.The chef in turn handed the employer a long listof ingredients to be bought for the preparation,looking at which the employer’s face fell and hecomplained of the expense. The cook walkedout, scoffing, ‘Yeh moonh aur masoor ki dal’(loosely translated as ‘How can you, with thisface, appreciate my masoor dal’).

Used to a lavish, no-expense-spared way ofcooking, the talented cooks must have been at aloose end. Some of them and their descendantsset up small restaurants where they refashionedthe elaborate and exquisite foods of their formermasters as bites for common men. Qormas(hitherto cooked only within homes, niharibeing the street dish), dal and pulaos were thustweaked to become part of Mughlai menus at afew restaurants in cities such as Delhi, Calcutta,Lahore and Lucknow.

We find an example of this kind of shift inthe story of Karim’s, the iconic Mughlai restau-rant in Delhi. According to his descendants’retelling of their restaurant’s history, in 1913,Haji Karimuddin set up Karim Hotel in GaliKababian near Jama Masjid, contending he wasserving the ‘food of royals to the common man’.Haji Karimuddin traced his ancestry to a familyof Mughal cooks in Shahjahanabad that had toflee the capital after the last Mughal emperor,Bahadur Shah Zafar II, was exiled. The familyrelocated to Meerut. However, when India cameunder the British crown and the Delhi Durbarwas being held in 1911, Karimuddin movedback to the city with the idea of opening a smallrestaurant to take advantage of the crowd thatwould be descending on the city for the durbar.Karim Hotel in the beginning served just aloogosht, a home-style gravy of meat and potatoes,and dal to its patrons. The food was meant to bea substitute for home food.

In Calcutta, another cosmopolitan meltingpot, dishes of Mughal origin were reinvented bysmall restaurants to cater to the needs of workersand daily-wage earners. Anadi Cabin onEsplanade is reputed to be almost a hundredyears old. It has been around most certainly sincebefore Partition, and remains unchanged tilltoday, including in its use of the same iron tawaon which the cook shallow-fries Mughlai porotas(the Bengali term for paranthas), a belovedCalcutta street snack and Anadi’s signature dish.

The tiny restaurant turns out 400 porotasfrom 20 kg of four daily in a kitchen visible toall. The porotas could be covered in duck egg(which were considered vegetarian by tradi-tional meat-eating Hindu Bengalis who did notprefer chicken) or chicken egg, filled withkeema, folded and shallow- fried. These keemaporotas are an innovation often credited to thisrestaurant. Mughlai paranthas almost certainlyexisted in Lucknowi and Awadhi homes beforeWajid Ali’s exile to Calcutta along with cookswho brought Nawabi dishes to the City of Joy.The simple egg-coated Mughlai parantha ofAwadh, made with many layers or parat,underwent a metamorphosis to become thekeema-filled substantial snack of Calcutta,which could be picked up easily and eaten onthe go by daily-wage earners in the new city.

Many of these early restaurants thus cameup as businesses that were seeking not to pro-vide recreation but instead to cater to a need forcheap, filling meals as people moved from vil-lages and smaller towns to the cities to work fortheir colonial masters. However, colonialism inIndia brought with it more upscale restaurantand leisured experiences, catering to the elite.

The first passenger train in India startedrunning between Bombay and Thane in April1853, pulled by three steam engines Sahib,Sindh and Sultan on a 34 km broad-gauge line.As British India’s rail network grew and therailways began to cover longer distances(Bombay to the capital in Calcutta was a muchpublicised route for first-class tourists), therewas need for refreshments and restaurants enroute.

Several British or Anglo-Indian travellers’accounts speak of impeccable crockery, tur-baned waiters and formal service, and food thatwas fairly similar all across the railways — thicksoups, cutlets and bread and butter. It was, how-ever, only Europeans or Anglo-Indian travellerswho were entitled to travel in first-class car-riages, and who could enjoy the catering in thedining cars. Conditions in the third class, inwhich the bulk of Indians travelled, were terri-ble. A 1929 Times of India report said that theGreat Indian Peninsular Railways was trying outa separate dining car for Indians: ‘It would prob-ably not have allowed the third class passengerswho made up the bulk of travellers, and whohad to either eat food they had brought or buyat station halts on the way.’

Since the catering was primarily forEuropeans, European- inspired dishes started

appearing on the menus in these restaurantsalong the rail network — things like chops, cut-lets, omelettes, tea and custard. These disheswould eventually get absorbed as restaurant andclub food in India, and we continue to eat someof this ‘continental’ food even today. The crock-ery and cutlery used were of the highest qualityand the service by liveried waiters was impecca-ble, in keeping with the expectations of thesahibs of the Raj. Even after India became inde-pendent, upscale dining would imitate this pat-tern of deferential service.

While the dining cars were available only tofirst-class European travellers, from 1901, sepa-rate refreshment rooms for Indians startedappearing at a few stations. This resulted in theemergence of other dishes that are now part ofold-fashioned or nostalgic restaurant food cen-tred around the Raj — for instance, the railwaymutton curry (which clearly was never a singlerecipe) or the egg curry.

Till much after Independence, railwayrefreshment rooms were thought to be fairlyhigh-standard restaurants, and railway cateringwould be relied upon for banqueting needswhen dignitaries visited. My grandfather, whowas in the catering division of the NorthernRailways for some time in the 1970s, had amus-ing stories of catering to the Nehru-Gandhis —delicious anecdotes that we savoured as allrestaurateuring tales must be.

But not all history is appetizing. The historyof restaurants in India is fraught with caste andreligious segregation — one reason that mayhave prevented a food retail boom earlier in thecountry’s history. Once they started catering toIndians, railway refreshment rooms were segre-gated not just as those meant only for Europeansbut also as those meant for Hindus versusMuslims. Even water from taps in the railwaystations was marked Hindu or Muslim in BritishIndia. There were ‘pure’ Hindu meals cooked bybrahmins, and those offering Muslim food likeqorma, kebab and pulao.

In the south, similarly, vegetarian brahminhotels and ‘military hotels’ serving meat (withthe suffix ‘Hindu’ added to signify that no beefor pork was served, though mutton was) cameup as well as Udupi restaurants serving ‘pureveg’ food run by brahmins from the region, tocater to students and officers who worked in theMadras Presidency.

The two pillars with edicts near Bihar-Nepal border tell the tale of Ashoka and

his conquest through Buddhism

>> p9

What do millennials want from restaurants in India? Do they appreciate quality, instead of chatpata, “buzzing”flavours? The answers lie in the history of restaurant retail in India and cultural habits of how people eatdifferent foods at home and in restaurants, writes ANOOTHI VISHAL in her book, Business on a Platter:What Makes Restaurants Sizzle or Fizzle Out. But first, a taste of history... An edited excerpt:

SOCIALS

KEHWAKHANASFROM THE

TOTHE

MANY OF THESE EARLYRESTAURANTS THUS

CAME UP ASBUSINESSES

THAT WERE SEEKINGNOT TO PROVIDERECREATION BUT

INSTEAD TOCATER TO A NEED FORCHEAP, FILLING MEALS

AS PEOPLE MOVEDFROM

VILLAGES ANDSMALLER TOWNS TOTHE CITIES TO WORK

FOR THEIRCOLONIAL MASTERS

F R O M T H E I N S I D E

sundaymagazine

heritage 09Hyderabad, November 17, 2019

ASHOKA' SOURCE OFINSPIRATION COULD BE:ACHAEMENID COLUMN

WITH LOTUS CAPITAL ANDANIMALS, PERSEPOLIS,

6TH-4TH C. BCE

Restaurants like The NewWoodland Hotel came up inthe Madras Presidency, and

can be credited as popularising theUdupi-style food that continues tothrive today. Woodland, as it waspopularly called, was set up in 1938by K. Krishna Rao, a man from apoor family of priests from nearMangalore. Its customers then wereprimarily brahmins who worked forthe government, or upper-castereligious travellers who were vege-tarians. As we can see, for so muchof their history, restaurants in Indiawere not the inclusive businesses wesee them as today.

Partition changed much of that.It rent India’s social fabric in moreways than we can imagine. Itunleashed bloody, religious vio-lence, but with the old order beingtorn apart, space for the new wascreated. For the first time, as Iargued in a 2017 article, we goteateries that catered newly invent-ed restaurant food to all manners ofpeople — rich and poor, Hindu andMuslim. Butter chicken, dalmakhani and naan became thefirst restaurant foods to escape the

tag of religious identity.Refugees from Punjab had

arrived with less than nothing inDelhi. They brought with them ahardy spirit of survival and enter-prise, but also one very importanttool — the tandoor. A clay ovenused to bake bread in villages, thetandoor made its foray into Delhiwith refugees carrying memories ofthe sanjha chulha (the common vil-lage oven used to bake breads for allhouseholds) into this new harsh citywhere they had to fashion lifeafresh.

In 1947, an enterprising refugeefrom Peshawar, Kundan Lal Gujral,opened a restaurant called MotiMahal in Delhi’s Daryaganj area, ina building that had suffered badlyduring the rioting. Here, he set upa tandoor, in which the restaurantbaked naan, a bread popular in oldPeshawar eateries, and eventuallychicken. The fowl was not a meat

that Delhi was familiar with or fondof. ‘Neither Hindus nor Muslims ateit, and initially there was some resis-tance to tandoori chicken,’ saysAnil Chandra, one of Moti Mahal’searly patrons.

As food historian K.T. Achayanotes in his authoritative IndianFood: A Historical Companion, thechicken, as a scavenger, wasthought to be ‘unclean’, and sincethe oldest of times, there has beenresistance among brahmins andother upper-caste Hindus to eatingits meat. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh’scomposite culture meant that thesebiases were ingrained in upper-class Muslim culinary cultures too.

Goat meat was prized andMughlai dishes like shabdegh,silken qormas, gola and dil (heart)ke kebab, that required much dex-terity, were made of goat meat with-in homes by specialist cooks forweddings and special functions.

Specialist cooks like Hakim in oldDelhi, whom old-timers told meabout for my article for the Wire,and restaurants like Flora cookedthese and catered to shaukeen,gastronomically indulgentDilliwallahs, both Muslims andmeat-eating Hindus like theKayasths. This courtly culture,however, waned after Partition asthe Muslim elite moved away andrefugees poured in.

The new tandoori chicken wasIndia’s original fast food. Simplydone and fresh. Moti Mahal alsotakes the credit for inventing but-ter chicken: tandoori chicken piecesdunked in a tomato, yoghurt andbutter laden sauce, and perhapsIndia’s most famous restaurant cre-ation.

The advent of this new kind offood served by Punjabi restaura-teurs was to have a big impact onrestaurant food everywhere in the

country. In Delhi, restaurants suchas Kwality, which had come uparound the time of World War IIand served ice cream and simplecontinental eats to American sol-diers posted in Delhi, graduallyincorporated this new Punjabifood into their menus. Other sim-ilar restaurants came up, also runby migrants, serving bold Punjabiflavours with tomato and cream,dishes that had been concoctedwithin restaurants, and dishes suchas pindi chana (a style of drychickpeas popular in Rawalpindi)that came to Delhi and have beenpart of the city’s most famousstreet dish since then — cholebhature.

Excerpted with permissionfrom Business on a Platter: What

Makes Restaurants Sizzle or FizzleOut, Anoothi Vishal, Hachette

India, `550

From the Kehwa Khanas to the Socials

THE MYSTIC PILLARS THATUNVEILED A GREAT KING

Amajor unpardonable pitfall ofIndia’s pre-islamic era was itsapathy of recording politicalchronology in a systematic way.On top of that, non-stop

destruction of its monuments, architecture,literature and centre of cultures thereafterin the hands of Islamic invaders from 12thcentury, a major part of Indian history wasonce deleted, fragmented, obscured andfinally fictionalised with legend and folklore.

From 18th century onward, whenEuropean traders started exploring thecountry, they were astonished to see sever-al archaeological ruins prevailing under mas-sive dilapidation in isolated places, attract-ing no attention from common people.

India of that time was a country withlittle sense of heritage of its pre-islamic era,though the country’s civilization dates back5000 years. This was a matter of great per-plexity to Europeans who were clearlyexcited to find amazing archaeologicalrelics, one after another, with mind blow-ing engineering marvel and excellent crafts-manship. However, none of those seemedto connect with any ready reference of writ-ten history.

For instance, in 1616, an Englishmannamed Thomas Coryat found an eccentricmonolithic stone pillar at Delhi’s Firoz ShahKotla. The pillar had some mystic inscrip-tion written in an unknown language. Thethrill of this discovery was extended whenon July 30, 1670, inside a pestilential jun-gle frequented by wild animals in Bihar nearthe Nepal border, John Marshal (not to beconfused by famous John Marshal of ASI)found a similar circular sand stone pillarwith mysterious edicts on its body.The pil-lar had a beautiful stone lion seated on anabacus crowned on its top as capital.

From the local people, John came tounderstand that this amazing engineeringmarvel was called “Bhim ka lathi” or thewalking stick of Bhima, a character of Hinduepic Mahabharata. The place, where this pil-lar was found, was 23 km from Bettiah town.

The place was then known as Mathia andtoday is known as Lauriya Nandangarh.Lauriya in local language means stick.

The two major victories against twoIndian rulers — one in 1757 in Bengal andanother in 1799 in Mysore — cemented theposition on East India Company in politi-cal theatre of India. They become the rulerin almost every sense over a vast geography.This attracted many Europeans to India inthe next 200 years. Many of them were ordi-nary office bearers and yet they proved tobe extra ordinary researchers with an acuteinterest in India’s history. In next 100 yearsor so, some of them gave Indian history anew insight with their exceptional hard workand outstanding academic brilliance.

By the end of 18th century, many suchmysterious stone pillars and rock stones withedict written on them in an unknown lan-guage were found from Peshawar to Mysore.European officials working in India, andhaving keen interest in oriental history, wereexcited to discover a new light of wisdomin these mystic pillars. Groping in the dark,many of them speculated these as conquestsof some victorious king, or boundary pil-lars of dominions, or edicts of religiousnature. The widest speculation was that thesewere secret codes of Greek treasures onceowned by Alexander. However, these weresoon discarded with the logic that the pil-lars were found in places like Delhi,Allahabad and Bihar, where Greek nevercould invade.

In November of 1780, Charles Wilkinssent a report to the Asiatic Society of Bengalabout a finding of another mysteriousdecapitated pillar with similar alphabetscarved on its surface at Buddal in northBihar. This place was 28 km from Bettiahtown, now known as Lauriya Araraj. Thispillar, though not found with a capital, cre-ated more excitement as its edicts were moreprominent and bold.

In 1783, Thomas Law, collector of Gayadistrict drew sketches of both the pillars andsent a report to William Jones in Calcutta.

The report heading read: “A short Accountof Two Pillars to the North of Patna”. InMarch 1814, while marching with 34thRegiment of East India Company to takepart in Anglo-Nepal war, Lieutenant JHorris saw Lauriya Araraj pillar and drewsome important sketches.

Now two stone pillars — one with a lioncapital on top and another broken at top,found in north Bihar near Nepal border withmysterious inscriptions on them — startedto rouse curiosity of the antiquarians. Suchinscriptions on similar kind of pillars foundin Delhi and Allahabad were already beingdiscussed. More people started exploring theplaces with an objective to decode the lan-guage. It was clear that the mystery wouldonly be unfolded once the edicts weredecoded.

At the beginning of 19th century,James Prinsep, a young man came toCalcutta to join Calcutta mint. Out of sheerpassion, he started serving Asiatic Societyof Bengal as journal editor. The journal wasa class by itself and very popular across theworld. Soon Prinsep built a fantastic networkwith people across India who started shar-ing information and documents with himon every single archaeological findings.Prinsep was confident enough to think thata new chapter of history would be uncov-ered if the edicts written on the pillar couldbe decoded.

After years of hard work, in 1837,

Prinsep managed to decode the script of theedict and opened the doors of knowledgeto India’s glorious past that remained hid-den for so long.

In 1820, Brian Hodgson, a British res-ident in the royal court of Kathmandu, senta copy of the inscription on LauriyaNandangarh pillar edict to Calcutta. Thisdocument was reported lost. Prinsep andHodgson started frequent correspondenceand soon became good friends, though it isassumed that they never met. Hodgsonagain sent him the copy of the inscriptionthat he once found in Lauriya Nandangarhand in October 1834, he sent him an eyecopy of Lauriya Araraj pillar edict.

Now armed with the information per-taining to all the four edicts, Prinsep man-aged to decode a name — “DevanamapiyaPiyadasi” — that seemed to appear in alledicts. Meanwhile, a discovery of an ancientbook by someone in Sri Lanka at almost thesame time revealed that “DevanamapiyaPiyadasi” meant — “The beloved to the Godand his name was Ashoka”. Overnight, Indiagot a colossal king whose transformation toa humanist after accepting Buddhism wasknown and the name Ashoka became a cultchapter of history.

Once the language was decoded, it waseasy to understand that these pillars werenot victory monuments, but a new and effec-tive way of communication. Much to theirastonishment, it was found that these werea public declaration of a king to come for-ward in acceptance of Buddhism and histransformation.

Discovery of the existence of Ashoka,the emperor, and his gargantuan contribu-tion to spread Buddhism across the worlddelivered a master stroke. The languagedecoded by Prinsep was Prakrit, written inBramhi script. This newly found script wasnamed as Ashoka Bramhi. This was the firstand biggest tangible evidence of Ashoka,India’s greatest king ever.

Out of these two pillars, the crown-lesspillar of Lauriya Araraj, erected in 349 BC

is a marvelous piece of art. Known as“Stambha Dharma”, the pillar is well pol-ished and 37.9 feet in height. The diameterof the base is 41.8 inches and weighs near-ly 34 to 40 tonnes.

The pillar at Lauriya Nandangarh ismajestic and perhaps the second best spec-imen of Mauryan architecture with animalcapital after Rampurva’s grounded pillars.

The pillar at Lauriya Nandangarh is asingle block polished sandstone with anexcellent lion capital built in black stone. Thelion built in a seated position on a circularabacus of arched bell is covered with lotuspetals.

The circular abacus of LauriyaNandangarh lion is again decorated withimage of geese. The face of the lion is bro-ken due to vandalism. In design, it is verysimilar to that of the lion capital which waslater found in Rampurva in 1876 by ArchieCarllyle, inside the deep forest of Tarai.Rampurva lion capital is now preserved inIndian Museum of Calcutta.

The six edicts in a single block foundon the pillar of Lauriya Araraj, revealedAshoka the beloved of the God’s declarationof Buddhist teachings of morality throughkindness shown to all subjects and animals.It also talks about the restriction of animalslaughter. However, in both the pillarsfound in Bihar, nowhere do the edicts talkabout Ashoka’s conquest of Kalinga and hisrepent. This is very interesting to note.

The lion capital found on Ashoka pil-lar of Lauriya Nandangarh is one of the old-est samples of Indian stone sculptures, influ-enced by Persian archaeology, whereas thediscovery of Ashoka Bramhi is the first tan-gible evidence of Buddhism that finallycemented the existence of ShakyamaniBuddha as a human being and discarded thetheory of him being a mythological figureas per many Hindu legends.

Two kilometres from NandangarhAshoka pillar, another archaeological won-der was discovered in 1862 by AlexanderCunningham — a huge mound of 15 stu-

pas made of mud, yellow clay and brick inthree levels in the shape of polygonal withthree flights of stairs. The 26 metre highstructure has a circumference of 460 metresand the dome is missing. It is imagined thatwhen intact, this would be one of the biggeststupa of India built in 300 BC.

Cunningham did very little excavationand later, Henry Garrick did a great job ofexcavating more mounds. In 1905, T Blockdid further excavation and found a gold leaf,a female statue and a small deposit of burnthuman bones with charcoal. These findingsare common with Buddhist stupa wherebone remains of Buddha are said to befound. However, till now, no solid evidencehas been found that tells us who theseremains belonged to. Many think that thiswas a pre-Mauryan structure and may be avedic burial ground. Nani Gopal Majumdarand Amalendu Ghosh, who excavated thesite from 1935 to 1939, are of an opinion thatthis stupa is very similar to the Buddhiststupa found at Piprahakot on UP-Nepal bor-der.

Cut to present, it is sad to note that twohundred years ago, when this site layundiscovered inside a dense forest with nohuman habitation around, a group ofEuropeans risked their lives to uncover thehidden treasures of India, uncovering a glo-rious part of our history, our present gen-eration attaches no value to these findings.

Today, Bettiah is a dusty, over populat-ed and unplanned town, situated veryclose to the Nepal border. The locals holdno pride in India’s rich history. Marks of van-dalism are clear on the pillars and unrestrict-ed entry is palpable. Bettiah now hasAmericanised pizza restaurants, which getover crowded every evening, whereas it’s astruggle to get the auto drivers to take you,or for that matter even seek directions, toLauriya Nandangarh or Araraj.

It is sad indeed that we never knew ourheritage back then two centuries ago, andand today, it seems we still haven’t learnt thelesson to protect it.

Lauriya Nandangarh and Araraj Ashoka:

F R O M P A G E 08

The decoding of the two Ashokan pillars with edicts near Bihar-Nepal border in the 18th century tells the tale of how India first came to know of the existence of Ashoka and his conquest through Buddhism, writes SOMEN SENGUPTA

sundaymagazine

food 10Hyderabad, November 17, 2019

COOKING IS LIKE PAINTING OR WRITING A SONG.JUST AS THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY NOTES OR COLORS,

THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY FLAVORS - IT'S HOW YOUCOMBINE THEM THAT SETS YOUAPART. — WOLFGANG PUCK

WWHHOOLLEESSOOMMEE

Rotis/chapattisandparathas areone of themost popularitemsconsumedacross thecountry that aremade out ofwhole wheat flour.The use of wholewheat flour is notlimited to bread orsnacks. It can betransformed into lip-smacking desserts. We bring to you threedesserts that can be madewith whole wheat flour

AATTTTAACCHHUURRMMAA

INGREDIENTS QUANTITYATTA 250 GMGHEE 500 GMSUGAR 200 GMGREEN CARDAMOM 1 TSPSAFFRON ½ GMALMOND 10 GMPISTACHIO 10 GMCASHEW NUT 10 GM

METHOD:mTake atta in a clean mixing

bowl, add water and kneadwell to from a dough,cover with a clean wetcloth and rest of 20 min

mPortion the dough intosmall balls (20 gm)

mHeat ghee in a frying pan(not very hot) and deep frythe balls on low heat tilllight brown.

mAllow to cool and thenbreak into pieces

mCoarsely grind the piecesin a grinder and then addpowdered sugar, sliceddry fruits, saffron andghee on top of themixture.

mMix it well and servechurma with ghee

WWHHEEAATT HHAALLWWAA

INGREDIENTS QUANTITYATTA 2 CUPSSUGAR 1.25 CUPSCASHEW POWDER 2 TBSP

RAISINS 1 TBSPCARDAMOM 1/2 TSPGHEE 1.5 CUPS

PREPARATION METHOD:m In a heated saucepan add one

cup of gheemTo this add attamStir with a spoon till the atta and

ghee mix wellmAdd the remaining half a cup of

ghee to this mixturemRoast on low heat and keep

mixing till the texture is smoothand not crumbly

mNow add the sugar along withthe water

mContinue to stir the mixture onlow heat till the colour of themixture turns from light to adarker shade of brown

mAdd the cardamom powderfollowed by cashew nuts andraisins

mMix till there are no lumps andthe dried fruits are uniformlyspread across the halwa

mServe it hot in a bowl andgarnish it with some crushedpistachios

BOBBATLU

INGREDIENTS QUANTITYATTA 200 GMGHEE 50 GMCHANA DAL 250 GMJAGGERY 250 GMGHEE 250 GMSAFFRON ½ GMGREEN CARDAMOM 2 GM

PREPARATION METHOD: STUFFING:mBoil chana dal/ Bengal gram until fully

cooked without making mushy. Drain offthe excess water.

mMash thoroughly and make a paste of themixture. m Heat ghee in frying panadd thegram paste to it, cook till light brown onslow flame, allow to cool.

mAdd jaggery, cardamom powder & saffronto the dal mixture. m Cook until mixture isthick and forms a mass.

DOUGH:m Take Atta in a clean mixing bowl,add water & knead well to from dough, coverwith a clean wet cloth and rest of 20 minmPortion the dough into small roundels

(20gm) and roll the ball into purimStuff the puri with the mixture and roll the puri

to get the desired size m Heat a pan and toastit on both sides until you see golden spots

mSmear ghee over the hot bobbatu and serve hot

RAKESH GHAIEXECUTIVE CHEF

ITC KAKATIYA

BERRY BERRY all the wayHyderabad is never idle when it comes to food. The

heavy feasts of the main course are alwayscomplemented by the relaxing light heartedness of

desserts made from fresh fruit. Bomberry Café is onesuch place, reports ARUN DANIEL YELLAMATY

f you love mulberriesand strawberries andhave been looking foran exclusive café whichserves fresh food andbeverages made out of

these fruits, then your searchmust end at the newly openedBomberry Café, a place whichmakes a great effort to bring a bitof Mahabaleshwar to Hyderabad.

This new café located at JublieeHills is a tiny cozy space withcolourful interiors that willbrighten you up as soon as youenter the berry land. Speakingabout why he decided to bringthis Bombay-based joint toHyderabad, Nishanth, the store’sfounder, says, “I never likedstrawberries until the day I visitedthe Bombay store. I loved whatthey did with the strawberriesand this concept is new to

Hyderabad and I wanted to bringit to our people.”

Sharing on some of the must-have items at the café, he says,“Starting from seasonal creams,the must-try is the ‘BomberryStrawberry Cream’, this is servedin a long glass and divided intothree unique layers — the firstlayer is cream, then comes thestrawberry ice cream, and thefinal layer is fresh cream with alot of strawberry pieces.” Thecreameries turn out to be tallglasses of fruit, fresh cream, andice cream. The fruit and icecream hit the spot. They also haveit made with strawberries, mul-berries, gooseberries, and rasp-berries brought fresh from afarm.

Bomberry Café does not justserve the sweet tooth. Next up isan Exotic Veg Pesto Panini, toast-

ed with zucchini mushrooms,peppers, and basil. The multi-grain bread is delicious and madeexclusively for the café. The caféhas a good collection of sand-wiches too, a must-try being theNutella and strawberry sandwichfor which you will surely visit thisplace again.

Bomberry is most appealing asan unlikely health café, but thesmoothie bowls topped with oatsand goji berries are a thing ofbeauty. The café also serves thickshakes, frankies, fritters andhealthy smoothy bowls and more.Overall the café is a great addi-tion to the list of food joints wehave; the highlight being itsaffordable prices especially con-sidering that they placed inJubilee Hills Road No. 36. A mealfor two would cost anywherearound Rs 400.

I

It is advisable to start the week with a resolution to livea healthy and enjoyable life. This is possible throughregularising your routine and disciplining your senses.Yoga, exercise, and nutritious diet will be important foryou. Your career shows a good indication this weekand you will experience a sudden financial gain out ofthe blue. The change is positive, the business will growand those with jobs can expect promotions, incrementor the desired transfer. Some of you may travel abroadfor project work. Relationship wise, some of you mayreceive a message of love or a marriage proposal.Singles, chances of finding someone special isindicated for you. Married couples may go on apleasure trip and their bonding will become stronger.

Lucky number 39Lucky colour RedLucky day Wednesday

ARIES March 21-April 19

Healthwise, this week is good. You will feel an abundantflow of energy and creativity. A female influence, eitheryour mother or spouse, will help you meet the needs ofyour health and be the motivating factor to maintain abalance between physical and mental levels. You mayslow down in your career as you are under the constantscrutiny of competitors and rivals. You will feel restricted.Your addiction to alcohol, overspending or unhealthyrelationship may become a hurdle in the path of success.Shield yourself from all these negativities. In love, youneed to accept and surrender to your presentcircumstances. It is advisable to leave instant temptationof gratification for the higher cause. Singles wait forsome time before committing to a relationship.

Lucky number 18Lucky colour IndigoLucky day Friday

TAURUS April 20-May 20

In order to maintain good health, you need to derivepositive energy from the five elements. You will feelhighly ignited and need to adopt a balanced approachto life. Control your cravings and keep your anger incheck. At work, you are meticulous and hard-working.You are willing to learn new skills, and techniques. Yourdedication and focus will work in your favour.Financially, there is a need to bring change in yourlifestyle to increase overall gratification. The best part isthat you are committed to getting those changes done.You will be lucky in love and have a high level ofemotional contentment. You will see the perfection allaround you and experience the emotionally fulfillingsituation. Joy and happiness are within your reach.

Lucky number 21Lucky colour GreyLucky day Saturday

GEMINI May 21-June 20

This week, it is important that you look after yourhealth. A visit to a doctor is a must. Be open anddiscuss all matters because appropriate medical adviceand treatment is the need of the hour. Yourspiritualism and faith in God is good and will help youhave a peaceful personality. You have good newswaiting on the career front. This can either be apromotion or a salary hike. Due to a sudden change,you may get transferred to a desired place. Yourperseverance and hard work will pay you well. In love,you may be deceived or feel disheartened. You areforced to sacrifice or surrender to be with your partner.This is not the right time to start a relationship or havehigh expectations from an existing relationship.

Lucky number 28Lucky colour PeachLucky day Saturday

CANCER June 21-July 22

This week you are full of energy, creativity and positiveenergy. Your health will be good. You need to utilise thisenergy in constructive pursuits. Make sure you maintainbalance within yourself. On the career front, you willprove to be a genuine leader. You will win hearts withyour kind and honest nature. Support from someonefrom opposite sex will help you achieve your desiredgoals. Those who are appearing for an interview orcompetitive exams this week, success is assured. Inmatters of love, you have to be a little careful. You shouldrespect and understand the feelings of your partner. Youcan achieve success in a relationship by showinggenerosity. Presenting a gift to your partner may createthe magic and strengthen your love.

Lucky number 11Lucky colour OrangeLucky day Tuesday

VIRGO Aug 23-Sep 22

This week you will enjoy good health, vigour and stamina.You will not only be able to care for yourself but for yourfamily as well. You will take a rock-solid resolution for ahealthy family, and will leave no stone unturned to achieveyour goal. On the career front, you must maintain apractical approach and need to take some importantdecisions in regards to your work. There are high chancesof you being emotionally blackmailed at the workplace. Afemale counterpart may play a significant role in enhancingyour career. You will experience one-sided love. Have a lotof patience and strength. Otherwise, you will lose yourmental peace. Those in a committed relationship may haveto stay apart on account of important responsibilities.Married couples, you will have a mutual understanding.

Lucky number 13Lucky colour Navy BlueLucky day Tuesday

LIBRA Sep 23-Oct 22

In the matters of health, the change is for good. Yourpositive outlook will bring further improvement. Mentaltension and fatigue due to the fast moving life will goaway and you will feel relaxed. Physical exercise andbeing with nature will be best for you. In your career, youare likely to find new job opportunities with betterprospects. Those who have appeared for competitiveexams, success is assured. A good news in terms ofpromotion or salary hike is on the cards. Your hardworking and goal oriented attitude will pay you well.Friendship with juniors will bring you benefits. In love,your orthodox nature will lead to separation and leaveyou disheartened. Leave the old school thinking and forma modern outlook towards your partner.

Lucky number 19Lucky colour WhiteLucky day Friday

SCORPIO Oct 23-Nov 21

This week you will be surrounded by anxiety andtension. You are extremely worried about the future.This will cause tension. Health issues like headache,insomnia, or BP may trouble you. You should not allownegative emotions like fear, frustration and uncertaintyto immobilise you. Focus on your present. On thecareer front, stay away from flatterers as you may bedeceived by inaccurate information. You may facefrequent mood swings and insecurity. Hidden forces atplay may unravel your success. The good part is thatyou are positive and know how to control the situation.In your love life, you will feel strong and established.You are balanced and caring towards your partner.Love relations may turn into a marriage.

Lucky number 31Lucky colour TurquoiseLucky day Thursday

AQUARIUS Jan 20-Feb 18

This week you will be moody and irritated. This maycause concern for your physical health. You need tocontrol the wild aspect of your mind and trust yourinstincts. Walk the path of enlightenment and stayfocused. In career, you need to take action towardsdeveloping your greater good. You will be able to confrontany unfinished business in your life, clear up anymisunderstanding. Extra hard work is needed before yousee results. Give your best efforts, the rewards areassured. The abundance of happiness is in store for youin terms of a relationship. Balance and stability in love areon the cards. Unmarried people may get marriageproposals. You will be soulful, passionate, and romanticand will leave no stone to make your partner happy.

Lucky number 29Lucky colour Sky BlueLucky day Tuesday

PISCES Feb 19-March 20

This week you are filled with positive energy. Recoveryfrom illness and leading a healthy life are indicated. Anemotional issue concerning the care or treatment ofsomeone close will be discussed. Follow a healthyroutine like physical exercise and a balanced diet to stayfit. Career-wise, this is the best week. You will get anopportunity to change your destiny. You need to bepositive and spontaneous. You will win the trust of yourseniors. Promotion is likely. There could be a newbeginning such as a new job, or a new residence. Interms of love life, a manifestation of desire, good fortune,and contentment are on the cards. Some of you mightplan for a date or a romantic trip. Married couples mayhave a mutual understanding.

Lucky number 14Lucky colour Pastel GreenLucky day Friday

CAPRICORN Dec 22-Jan 19

You will do anything to achieve good health. You shoulddecide whether you want to follow your mind or yourheart. The first approach would be to scrutinise yourinnermost needs and expectations. Your career may be ata standstill and you may feel stagnated. This is the time tomake cordial relations with your senior authorities. Yourpositive outlook towards life will keep you motivated andopen doors to new opportunities. In terms of wealth, theresult will be discouraging. Hard earned money will bespent on expenses and you will be left with no money inhand. Relationship wise, you are trustworthy and reliable.Singles will get a message of love. Romance with adesired partner is on the cards. Your commitment andloyalty will strengthen your relationship.

Lucky number 12Lucky colour BlackLucky day Tuesday

LEO July 23-Aug 22

You need to find a positive environment where you canrelax. You are likely to encounter mental conflict andnervousness that may cause your BP to fluctuate. Focuson balancing your untamed energy. A disciplined lifestyle,balanced diet, regular medical checkup and exercise areunavoidable. Stay away from arguments and aggression.In career, you will prove yourself trustworthy. Those whohave their own business will enjoy financial gains. Forthose in a job, favour of a senior will boost theirconfidence. Your amicable behaviour and communicationwill work in your favour. In the matters of love andemotions, you may feel blessed. People will like you foryour affectionate and romantic nature. You will beconcerned about the feelings of others around you.

Lucky number 17Lucky colour GoldenLucky day Sunday

SAGITTARIUS Nov 22-Dec 21

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AHEADMADHU KOTIYA

sundaymagazine

tarot 11THE REAL SPIRITUAL PROGRESS OFTHE ASPIRANT IS MEASURED BY THE

EXTENT TO WHICH HE ACHIEVESINNER TRANQUILITY

— SWAMI SIVANANDA Hyderabad, November 17, 2019

Guru Nanak divides our spiritualpath into five distinct stages:moral living and rightful actions,

search for divine knowledge, spiritualunfoldment, divine grace, and the finalentry into the realm of Eternal Truth.Each stage is unique and vital. Thesestages appear as part of a sequence, and itis not possible for us to bypass any ofthese steps. For example, moral living is aprecondition for the search of divineknowledge. A person who leads a morallydecadent life will inevitably see no needto search for experiences of any kind, letalone spiritual knowledge. Also, our spiritcannot unfold unless we have accumulat-ed sufficient spiritual energy during thefirst two stages. Any movement from thispoint onward is possible only when wereceive divine grace, which is not ourright but a ‘reward’ for good deeds.Leading a virtuous life is the very founda-tion of our spiritual quest. To go any fur-ther on the spiritual path, we need tomake truthful and moral living an essen-tial part of our life. It is only through suchliving that we make ourselves worthy ofGod’s compassion and grace.

Growing up in a world where moneycan buy more comforts than it was possi-ble at any other time in human history,how can we agree on a set of values andbehaviours that would provide a reliableguide to a virtuous life? We need toacknowledge that there are some thingswhich are moral, ethical, doable, andright under any circumstances. We mayhave a difference of opinion on whether itis moral to charge interest. But thereshould be no controversy on things likeviolence, falsehood, and exploitation ofthe poor and helpless. We need to identi-fy some core values based on themes thatcut across societal and cultural bound-aries. The seven core values, based onGuru Nanak’s teachings, are:

Non-violence Avoiding violence thathurts the innocent, kills, or insults (in theform of rape or other degrading actions)the victim, mass killings of innocent peo-ple in a war or a political conflict.

Truth Letting reality appear in itspurest form, separating facts from opin-ions, not using falsehood of any kind todeceive other people, treating honest liv-ing as a sacred obligation.

LoveShowing sympa-thy and compas-sion for a victimof oppression,having a sense ofjustice, keeping acharitable spirit,sharing one’swealth and goodfortune with thepoor and theneedy.

Virtue The pursuit of highest person-al morality in one’s daily life, respectingthe honour and integrity of one’s partner,taking responsibility for one’s children,catering to their material, emotional, andintellectual needs, caring for the needs ofelders in the family.

Communitarianism Being a goodcitizen, participating in electoral process-es, raising voice against misdeeds of thosein authority, using public office for publicgood, protecting the natural environ-ment, giving one’s employer a fair shareof one’s time, talent, and ability.

Equality Treating all people as equal

despite differences of colour, race, gender,or ethnic origins, respecting cultural andspiritual traditions of other people.

Theism Having faith in theunbounded love, mercy, and compassionof the Creator for all things and allbeings. It is not an attempt to define anew morality. It has not been easy formoral philosophers, who have struggledwith these issues over the ages.

We can look at various opinions, orwhat our belief system has to say aboutthese matters, but, in the end, we need tohave an objective look at how we are cop-ing with difficult moral and ethical choic-es in our life. This freedom for self-evalu-ation is not a blank cheque, meaningwhatever serves our needs or purposes isacceptable. We need to cultivate, in thewords of Albert Einstein, a moral attitudein and towards life based on the totalityof our being-body, mind, and soul. Notdoing this selfevaluation in a seriouslymindful way would indicate our reluc-tance to follow a spiritual path.

A Gift of Grace: The Essence of Guru Nanak’sSpirituality, written by Daler Aashna Deol is published

by Niyogi Books

Madhu Kotiya is a tarot card reader, spiritual healer, and Founder, MShezaim Institute of Tarot and Divination. Contact details: madhu@indiatarot.com, www.indiatarot.com, M: 9873283331

Guru Nanak’s guide to leading a virtuous life

TEAM AGENDA DESK > NAVNEET MENDIRATTA, CONSULTING EDITOR | H LAYOUT AND DESIGN > SATISH CHANDRA JAKHMOLA, SENIOR EDITOR (CREATIVE)

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Guru Nanak’s spiritual beliefs and practices were profoundly transformational and cut across the lines of religion, writes DALER AASHNADEOL in her book, A Gift of Grace. The world celebrated the 550th birth anniversary of the first Sikh guru on November 12. An excerpt:

FAVORITE MOVIE – DDLJDREAM JOB- A job where self actualisation happens.WHO DO YOU ADMIRE MOST – JRD TataFAVORITE HOBBY – Love reading booksBIGGEST ADDICTION- ThinkingFAVORITE SPOT IN TELANGANA – My village where I spent mychildhoodFAVORITE GETAWAY – NainitalFAVORITE FOOD – BiryaniWHICH TV SERIES YOU WATCH – None, no time for NetflixFAVORITE BOOK AS CHILD – Chacha Chowdary and AynRand’s Atlas Shrugged as a college studentFAVORITE BEVERAGE – Hyderabad Irani chaiDO YOU HAVE PETS – No my wife doesn’t allow. We have asmall pond with a school of fishes, that’s the highest level weare allowed to haveSONGS YOU HEAR – Kishore Kumarsongs in college. Not particularlyplaying anythingLANGUAGES YOU SPEAK– Hindi, Telugu, EnglishLAST FILM – DearComradeWHAT MAKES YOUSAD – Unproductiveday.THING YOU COULDCHANGE ABOUTYOURSELF – I shouldbe able to acceptpeople who are not likeme.

QUICK BITES Mechanic at homewas born in a farming family inTadpakal in Nizamabad and havean elder brother. As a child I wasfascinated by the magic of electric-ity and would unscrew and screwtape-recorders to see how things

worked. I was known for screwing andunscrewing things and relatives would callme a mechanic. I used to dismantle bikesand bicycles too. My elder cousin giftedme a small electronic kit when I was inClass VIII, which had a soldering gun anda few screw drivers. That way my familyand cousins encouraged me. I did newthings like making a doll stand on a speak-er and would then call it a dancing dollas the speaker would vibrate and the dollwould move.

Never knew IIT existedI was born on August 15, 1980 and my

mother wanted me to do something for thecountry. As my parents wanted me to go toan English medium school, they put me ina hostel during kindergarten itself as my vil-lage only had Telugu medium schools. FromClass II, I was staying with my uncle inNirmal and later did high school inHyderabad. I studied my Intermediate in

Vignan and reallyloved my collegedays. My mathgot so strongbecause I hadgreat mathteacher. I wasin the first sec-tion where wegot reallygood teachers.I was the statetopper inIntermediateand got intoBITS Pilani. Ihad no idea ofthe existence ofIIT and didn’tknow that onemust write anexam for it.Ragginghelped metake upphoto-graphy

I was the firstfrom my familyto get into Bitsand my familyand relatives wereso happy. One ofmy cousins gaveme a used Nike orReebok sportsshoe as it wouldhelp me fit in, incollege. Once asenior picked meup during raggingand asked‘Branded shoe

pehenke style maar rahe ho’ (Are you wear-ing branded shoes to make a style state-ment?). Incidentally, he was fromNizamabad and was part of theDepartment of Photography. He got meinto this extra-curricular activity and I washappy that ragging happened and I tookup photography. It almost defined my lifeat BITS.Bengaluru became home

After I completed my engineering, I gottwo offers from Noida and Hyderabad. Thecompany was taking care of employees welland had a five-day week policy. But I wasvery enthusiastic to get a chip out. I spoketo my classmates who were working in ITand designing chips. I too was tempted tojoin IT, so I shifted to Bengaluru and start-ed working there. Since 2004, I callBengaluru my home.

Uncle had to approve redBusRedBus was a side project I launched

while working after I couldn’t book ticketsduring Diwali. One advantage for me wasthat I didn’t have to send my salary backhome as nobody was dependent on it.Some of my friends hurried into buy-ing homes and were burdened withEMIs. To start redBus, I didn’t takea rupee from parents and it startedout as a not-for-profit. It didn’t mat-ter to my family as I was working.Later, I told my mom about redBus.She had no clue and asked me tocheck with my uncle. My uncle whotook care of me during school, wasthe most educated. He was entrepre-neurial too and let me do it. Takingpositive decisions like joining Bits hadhelped my family trust me.

In-laws thought I was intoillegal business

The company started when I was 25 andI got married at 29. Ten years ago, there wasno startup culture. There were apprehen-sions over the business I was doing. We wereselling bus tickets, that too for private oper-ators. There was hesitation and my wife’sfamily even thought that it was an illegal

business. My father-in-law is a self-madeperson, so he has a lot of respect for peo-ple who work hard and do something ontheir own. He had a different outlook andinstantly gave his daughter Saarika to me.I now have two kids —daughter Ziva andson Neev.

redBus could’ve gone down in one day

There are several ups and downs in busi-ness. An unfortunate incident occurred inDiwali 2012 when one private bus burnt toashes due to fire crackers. About 50 passen-gers died of which 50 per cent were redBuscustomers. The government was cuttingdown on private operators and cancelledmany buses. They wanted this to stop com-pletely which meant that our business wouldgo down in a single day. It was a very dif-ficult situation. There was a lot of chaos andI didn’tknow

w h a twas happen-ing. Sometimes the office in Chennaiwould get ransacked and money would bestolen. Sometimes some bus operatorswould point a gun at us. I would classifythem as funny incidents because I don’tthink they threatened our lives.

Taking a 5-year break One thing I wanted to do after leaving

redBus, was take take a 5-year break anddo things that I did not get the opportuni-ty to do. My break started in 2014 and endedin 2019. I did a course in theater about threeyears back. I wanted to expose myself to dif-ferent things as innovation happens whendifferent things intersect. It will add to mydiversity. Even the Chief Innovation Officerrole is something like that. It was still mybreak period and the CIO role was proba-bly something I will not get to do later. Theonly way to work for the government wasto write IAS exams or be a politician and Icould do neither.

Wearing same clothes fornine years

During my break I did four fellowshipsand the first one was about sustainabilityin Sweden. I would take a metro or publictransport as sustainable environments haveinfluenced me since childhood. Even in col-lege or government meetings, I will be thelast one to come out of the room and switchoff all the lights. I still wear clothes that areover 9-years-old. I have cousins who giveme their clothes. That’s the only complaintmy wife has. I feel this is sustainable. Mostof my clothes are altered as I’ve grown. Mywife says it’s ugly, but I say it is sustainable.When you buy new clothes, there is somuch of wastage involved. I don’t have anego and I want to tell everyone that it is agood thing to do for Mother Nature. I don’tshop at all.

Hyderabad needs biz mafiaHyderabad needs a business mafia like

what Chennai and Bengaluru got throughFlipkart, redBus or Zoho. Mafia was coinedby a journalist when many people came outof Paypal and started large companies thathelped each other. They were called Paypalmafia. If you were part of the growth story,you will feel you are similar and start a com-pany. They all go and start companies andthe whole eco-system starts building.

Even in Hyderabad, we have this phar-ma ecosystem through IDPL. Everypharma company founder can betraced back to IDPL or Dr Reddys.We need a flagship company inHyderabad to create a mafia.

Want to die emptyI am currently influenced by the

book Die Empty. The gist of it is thatwhen you die, you should not let

your ideas die with you. In my five-year break I got many ideas and decid-

ed that I will not look at the market sizeor profitability, but just proceed with ideas

that make sense. I explored various things– like getting back to entrepreneurship,becoming an investor or VC, making asocial impact by forming a foundation, con-tinue working for the government, do myPhD and so on. In the end I started a char-itable foundation called Kakatiya Sandboxalong with Raju Reddy in Nizamabad. Itruns 14 programmes and employs 80 peo-ple. It has been running well for the last 5-6 years.

In a free-wheeling interview, Phanindra Sama —Chief Innovation Officer of Telangana — talks toNAVEENA GHANATE about his journey, frombecoming an entrepreneur to an investor, and nowfrom CIO to entrepreneur again. From unscrewingtape-recorder in his childhood to setting up redBus.inas a side project, he shares his passion and bucketlist, while recalling how KTR had to convince him tobe the Chief Innovation Officer, among many others

Givingexcuses to KTR

Though I was in a mood to try out different things,the CIO role was an absolute no-no as logistically it

won’t work out. My whole social life like family, houseand friends circle was in Bengaluru and I couldn’t move to

Hyderabad. I explained to KTR garu the reason I couldn’t takeit up, with the main hindrance being location. But he said ‘It’sokay. Nowadays you don’t have to be present physically and

can work from anywhere’. Whatever excuse I gave wasstruck down by him. At the end of it all I felt guilty for

wasting his time. One impressive thing about KTR garuis that he used to come to Bengaluru and ask both

big and small companies to come toTelangana. He also asked me to launch

my next startup in Telangana.

IWith wife Saarika, daughter Ziva and son Neev

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | NOVEMBER 17, 2019 hyderabad 12

Five Indian students winners in Oxford Big Read's Asian segment

Indian students struck itbig in the Asian seg-ment of the Oxford BigRead (OBR), claiming

five of the nine awards at stake,the organisers announced hereon Saturday.

The Indian students claimedtop honours in all the three cat-egories the competition wasconducted in.

Four of the five Indian stu-dents are from Nagpur and onefrom Madurai. Two studentsfrom China and one each fromMalaysia and Pakistan wereamong other winners.

The reading competition forprimary and secondary schoolstudents that aims to motivatethem to improve their Englishreading skills, creativity andoriginal thinking, saw6,000 submissionsfrom the fourc o u n t r i e s ,including 300from 20 schoolsacross India.

"Oxford BigRead is uniquefrom other readingcompetitions as itrequires students to participate

in activities based on theirage. The activities include

designing book jack-ets, creative story writ-ing and writing bookreviews," an OUPstatement said.

Commenting onthe competition, M.

Gnana Sundari,Principal, Sri Aurobindo

Mira Universal School,

Madurai, said: "The Oxford BigRead is an excellent contest forstudents and creates in them alove for reading. Writing bookreviews help students engagemore deeply with what they arereading and also it is a great wayto develop their vocabulary."

The Oxford Big Read com-petition will be organized forschools across India, and stu-dents can participate in three

categories - Level 1 (classes 1 to3), Level 2 (classes 4-6) andLevel 3 (classes 7-9). The Asialeg of the competition willhave students from countriessuch as Pakistan, China, Hong-Kong and Malaysia."

Speaking about the compe-tition, SivaramakrishnanVenkateswaran, ManagingDirector, OUP India said: "Weare delighted to see growing

participation and engagementin Oxford Big Read Asia. Thiscompetition provides studentswith an opportunity to aug-ment the ambit of their read-ing and also demonstrate theirliterary and creative skills. Headded "we believe that early ageinterest in reading and writingis fundamental to ensuringbetter learning outcomes inyoung learners."

ILevel 1 (classes 1 to 3): B.R.Nimeesha, Sri Aurobindo MiraUniversal School, Madurai(Winner).Level 2 (classes 4-6): AnanyaSheorey, The CDS School,Nagpur (Winner); Saara Sen,Centre Point School, WardhamanNagar, Nagpur (First Runner Up).Level 3 (classes 7-9): NehaChhajed, Bhavan's BP VidyaMandir, Nagpur (Winner); SamaS. Jahagirdar, Bhavan's BP VidyaMandir, Nagpur(First Runner Up).

The other students cited:Level 1: Chen Wellin, JiangGuangnai Memorial PrimarySschool, Liwan District,Guangzhou, (China) (First RunnerUp); Li Yijan, Vanke Kindergarten,(China) (Special Commendation).Level 2: Faith Liang, EaglesGrammar International School,Subang Jaya, Selangor(Malayasia) (SpecialCommendation).Level 3: Adil Hasan, SiddeeqPublic School, Islamabad (SpecialCommendation).

The Indian students cited are:ew Delhi, The one-dayInkpot India Conclavewill take place onNovember 18 at the Taj

Ambassador Hotel in thenational capital.The event willwitness sessions gettingflagged off with Shobha Detalking about the evolving lit-erary landscape with SanjoyRoy.

Designers Ritu Kumar andRohit Bal will dwell on art anddesign, while Jaya Jaitly andRitu Beri will talk about brand-ing India. Senior Congressleader Shashi Tharoor willpreside over the valedictorysession as the chief guest.

The inaugural session will fea-ture Prahlad Singh Patel,Minister of State, Ministry ofCulture (independent charge);Jitendra Singh, Minister of Statefor PMO; Delhi BJP chief;Shyam Jaju, National VicePresident, BJP; Akhilesh Mishra,Director General, ICCR; andSachidanand Joshi, MS, IGNCA.

The conclave will also witnessbelly dancer Eshan Hilal andillusionist Karan Singh in actionapart from forums like IshqUrdu.

"Inkpot is an ideology. The

deep roots of India's culture liein its traditions, art, food, sci-ence, lifestyles and architec-ture. This is what we strive to

celebrate and cherish," saidauthor Simar Malhotra,Founder, Inkpot IndiaConclave.

N

Inkpot India Conclaveon November 18

Inkpot is an ideology. The deep roots of India's culture lie inits traditions, art, food, science, lifestyles and architecture.This is what we strive to celebrate and cherish

SIMAR MALHOTRA, Founder, Inkpot India Conclave