KCR to lead TRS 'Maha Dharna' for rabi paddy ... - Daily Pioneer

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

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INDIAN SCIENTISTS DISCOVER STAR-PLANET BIGGER THAN JUPITER

The exoplanet search and study group at the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), hasdiscovered a new exoplanet orbiting too close to an

evolved or aging star with a mass of 1.5 times that of Sun andlocated 725 light years away, according to Indian SpaceResearch Organisation. This discovery was made using PRLAdvanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search (PARAS) opticalfiber-fed spectrograph, the first of its kind in India, on the 1.2metre Telescope of PRL at its Mt. Abu Observatory, theBengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement.

INDIAN RAILWAYS GETS FIRST PODHOTEL AT MUMBAI CENTRAL STATION

Passengers of Indian Railways and even common peoplecan now avail of modern resting facilities at comparativelycheaper rates thanks to the first-of-its-kind pod hotel

which has come up at the Mumbai Central station. Accordingto a senior Western Railway (WR) official, one has to pay Rs999 for 12 hours and Rs 1,999 for 24 hours for staying in thispod hotel where facilities like WiFi, TV, a small locker,adjustable mirror, and reading lights etc will be provided. Apod hotel has several small bed-sized capsules and providesaffordable overnight accommodation.

BIDs FOR HALF A DOZEN CPSES TO BEINVITED IN DECEMBER-JAN: DIPAM

The government will invite financial bids for privatising asmany as many as six CPSEs, including BPCL, BEML andShipping Corp, by January, a top government official said.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary in the Department of Investme-nt and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), also invited privateplayers to bid for the CPSEs, which are up for privatisation,along with transfer of management control. After 19 years, wewill see 5-6 privatisation this year. BPCL is in the due diligencestage. BEML, Shipping Corp, Pawan Hans, Central Electronics,NINL bids can take place in December-January,” he said.

GOVT EXTENDS TENURE OF EDDIRECTOR S K MISHRA BY A YEAR

The government on Wednesday extended the tenure of EDDirector Sanjay Kumar Mishra by a year till November 18,2022, days after the Centre brought ordinances to allow

ED and CBI directors to occupy the office for up to five years.The already extended tenure of Mishra, a 1984-batch IndianRevenue Service (IRS) officer of the Income Tax Departmentcadre, was to end on Thursday. The order said the "Presidentof India is pleased to extend the tenure of Shri Sanjay KumarMishra, IRS as Director of Enforcement for a period of oneyear or until further orders, whichever is earlier."

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ANALYSIS 7THE BIG FAT ELECTIONS IN

UTTAR PRADESH

MONEY 8INDIA TO PITCH FOR PERMANENT SOLUTION FOR FOOD SECURITY

SPORTS 12INDIA LIMIT NZ TO 164

HYDERABAD, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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PNS n HYDERABAD

For the first time after the forma-tion of Telangana State, ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Rao willparticipate in the TRS ‘MahaDharna’ at the famous DharnaChowk near Indira Park onThursday.

This would be a marked depar-ture from his earlier stand of ban-ning protests at the site that has hada history of dharnas, so much sothat it has come to be called‘Dharna Chowk’.

On Thursday, the Chief Ministerwill lead his Cabinet colleagues,party MLAs, MLCs, MPs and otherelected representatives at the protestto step up pressure on the Centreto procure Yasangi paddy fromTelangana.

According to well-placed TRSsources, KCR believes that a ChiefMinister of a State participating ina dharna would amp up the pres-

sure on the Union governmentwhich has adopted a stoic silencefor the last 50 days on the issue.

With the Centre continuing itssilence, despite the dharnas stagedin all Assembly constituencies inTelangana last week, the CMdecided it’s time that he himselfleads the protest, the TRS sourcessaid.

When KCR banned dharnasat the historic site at IndiraPark, he had faced immensecriticism from all quartersand accused of displaying‘dictatorial’ tendencies.

Now with the ChiefMinister himself headedtowards the DharnaChowk, he risks beingaccused of politicalhypocrisy, despite theobvious political paradox indemocracy being at play.

Seeking an immediate end to the prevailing uncertainty overpaddy procurement by the Centre for the Yasangi season

of 2021-22 , Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao onWednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urginghim to direct the Food Corporation of India to confirm the

target of procurement of rice from Telangana State duringensuing Rabi/Yasangi season. He also requested the

Prime Minister to direct the FCI to complete theprocurement of the remaining five lakh tonnes of

rice produced last year in Rabi- 2020-21. KCRmade another request to enhance the targetbeyond 40 lakh tonnes for procurement of riceduring the ongoing Kharif 2021-22 to 90 percentof the production as done in Punjab State. TheChief Minister had during his press conferenceon Tuesday said that having waited for about 50days for clarity from the Union Minister for Food

and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal afterpersonally apprising him of the situation, decided to

write directly to the Prime Minister seeking hisintervention.

KCR to lead TRS ‘Maha Dharna’for rabi paddy at Dharna Chowk

End uncertainty of farmers: KCR to Modi

TS seeks time to study ‘handing-over’ note

2 from Tirupati among 7 arrested by CBI in child porn case PNS n NEW DELHI

The CBI has arrested seven personsin connection with its operationagainst alleged peddling of onlinechild sexual exploitation material,officials said Wednesday.

Ram Gautam, Satender Mittal andPurushottam were taken into cus-tody from Delhi, Surendra KumarNayak from Dhenkanal in Odisha,Nishant Jain from Noida, JitenderKumar from Jhansi and T MohanKrishna from Tirupati, they said.

The CBI will produce the accused

from Delhi before a competentcourt on Wednesday while for therest it will seek a transit remand forbringing them to Delhi for furtherinvestigation, they said.

More arrests are likely as investi-gation progresses, they said.

"It was alleged that various syndi-cates of individuals based in differ-ent parts of India and foreign coun-tries were indulging in circulating,storing and viewing Child SexualExploitation Material (CSEM)through various social media plat-forms/groups. It was also alleged that

persons were disseminating CSEMby way of sharing links, videos, pic-tures, texts, posts and hosting of suchcontent on social media groups/plat-forms and third party storage/host-ing platforms," CBI spokesperson RCJoshi had said.

The agency had launched a mas-sive operation on Children's Day onNovember 14, registering 23 FIRsagainst 83 accused which continuedtill next day.

The CBI action was based oninputs of its special unit 'OnlineChild Sexual Abuse and Exploitation

Prevention/ Investigation (OCSAE)'which tracks and monitors posting,circulation and downloads of childsexual exploitation material on theinternet.

The operation targeted over 50social media groups having morethan 5,000 alleged offenders shar-ing child sexual abuse materialwith some accused based in coun-tries like Pakistan, Canada,Bangladesh, Nigeria, Indonesia,Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka, the US,Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, theUK, Belgium and Ghana.

YSRCP storms Naidu’sstronghold KuppamSNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

In major embarrassment to formerchief minister N ChandrababuNaidu, the ruling YSRCP baggeda majority of the wards in Kuppammunicipality Chittoor district, con-sidered the bastion of the TDP su-premo for over three decades.

Expectedly, upbeat YSRCPcadres said they have dismantledNaidu’s ‘Kuppam Fort’

Elections were held for 24 of the25 wards as polling for one wasunanimous. Counting of votestook place on Wednesday.

Of the 24 wards that went forpolls, YSRCP candidates won 18and TDP candidates won six.

With the unanimous election ofone ward, YSRCP numbers in Ku-ppam municipality went up to 19.

Not only Kuppam, the YSRCPswept Nellore MunicipalCorporation where it bagged allthe wards while the TDP none.However, the TDP managed tosave some face in the municipali-ties of Darsi in Prakasam districtand Kondapall in Krishna district.

The victory march of the YSRCPhad begun in 2019 and it has con-tinued unchallenged in the recentBadvel by-poll, both urban, rurallocal body polls, by-poll to TirupatiLok Sabha seat and polls to ZPTCsand MPTCs and now, the pendingpolls for 12 municipalities.

CBI arrests Sankar Reddyin Viveka murder casePNS n HYDERABAD

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has arrestedDevireddy Siva Sankar Reddyfrom Hyderabad in connectionwith the murder of former minis-ter YS Vivekananda Reddy.

A suspect in the case, ShaikDastagiri, had mentioned his namein his confessional statement.

Siva Sankar Reddy is a closeassociate of YSRCP MP AvinashReddy. His name is in the list of 15suspects mentioned by Dr SunithaReddy, the daughter ofVivekananda Reddy, in the reportsubmitted to High Court.

Already, the CBI has filed acharge sheet in the VivekanandaReddy murder case. The formerMinister was killed on March 15,2019, just before the GeneralElections at his home inPulivendula.

The CBI has listed four persons

as accused in this case – T GangiReddy, Yadati Sunil Yadav, GajjalaUmashankar Reddy and ShaikDasthagiri. They were named asaccused in the charge sheet filed bythe CBI in court.

Shaik Dasthagiri, who was adriver of YS Vivekananda Reddy,had filed a confessional statementin court in August 2021.

Akbaruddin Owaisiacquitted in ‘hate’speech casePNS n HYDERABAD

A Special Court here has acquittedAIMIM leader and MLAAkbaruddin Owaisi in a "hate"speech case registered against himin 2004. The Special Sessions Courtfor trial of MPs/MLAs on Tuesdayfound Owaisi not guilty of theoffences/allegations against himand acquitted him.

A case was registered under rel-evant IPC sections against him ona complaint from a police official,who alleged that theChandrayangutta legislator made aninflammatory speech at a publicmeeting here during election cam-paigning in March 2004 and triedto instigate the public. Subsequentlya charge-sheet was filed by policeafter getting the government's nodto prosecute Owaisi.

TV debates causing more pollution, says SCPNS n NEW DELHI

Debates on TV news channels arecausing more pollution than any-body with statements made in thecourt being taken out of context,the Supreme Court said onWednesday.

A bench headed by Chief JusticeNV Ramana said everyone hastheir own agenda and statementsare taken out of context in thesedebates.

"You want to use some issue,make us observe and then make itcontroversial, and then only blamegames will remain..," observed thebench also comprising Justices D YChandrachud and Surya Kant.

"Debates on TV are creating

more pollution than anybody. Theydon't understand what is happen-ing and what is the issue. Statementsare taken out of context. Everyonehas their own agenda. Wecan't help and we can'tcontrol. We arefocussing on work-ing out the solu-tion," it said.

The apexcourt's obser-vations camewhile hearinga plearelating toair pollutionin Delhi anda d j o i n i n gareas.

The oral remarks came inresponse to the submission of sen-ior advocate Abhishek ManuSinghvi, appearing for the Delhigovernment, that stubble burningwas one of the contributors of the

air pollution which needs to beaddressed and referred to theCentre's figures on the issue.

Solicitor General TusharMehta referred to the tel-evision debates and saidthey claimed that he had

misled the topcourt on thecontribution ofstubble burn-ing to air pol-lution.

" I

watched some irresponsible andnasty utterances on TV mediaagainst me that I misled the courton the question of stubble burningby showing that its contribution isonly 4 to 7 per cent. Let me clari-fy," SG said.

The top court, however, said:"We were not misled at all. You said10 per cent but it was pointed outin the affidavit that it was 30 to 40per cent. This type of criticism isbound to happen when we areholding public offices. We areclear, our conscience is clear, for-get about all this. These kinds ofcriticisms keep happening. Ourconscience is clear and we work forthe betterment of society," thebench said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

With the threat of the Covid-19third wave continuing to loomlarge over the horizon and beingwell aware that hospitalisationmeans expenses running into lakhsof rupees, more and more peoplein Telangana are buying or renew-ing health insurance.

This is hardly surprising sincemany families have either experi-enced the horrors of Covid-19from close quarters or at least sec-ond-hand and believe these uncer-tain times call for prudent meas-ures. This may be worrisome for

citizens and a strain on the familybudget, but it is good news for thehealth insurance companies whoare clocking tremendous growth.

Hyderabad, Secunderabad,Rangareddy are the fastest-growingmarkets in Telangana for healthinsurance companies and a major-ity of customers choose to pay pre-miums monthly.

For Instance, Navi Health Insur-ance has clocked 283 percent month-ly growth in Telangana since June,2021 while nationally, the firm’sbusiness grew by 165 percent everymonth since May, 2021.

Third wave fears ensurehealth insurance thrives

Call centre racket busted,16 held for Rs 3 crore fraud PNS n HYDERABAD

Cyber Crime Police ofCyberabad police unearthed acall centre racket operatingfrom Uttam Nagar in Delhi andalso raided a hotel in Ujjain,Madhya Pradesh, followingwhich 16 members were arrest-ed for their involvement in 34cases in CyberabadCommissionerate and 166 casesall over India.

They pretended to be RBLbank employees and have cheat-ed citizens to the tune of Rs 3crores, police said.

Officials froze Rs 15 lakhs in

a bank account, seized threecars, one bike, 865 fake Aadharcards, voter and PAN cardsalong with 1000 SIM cards, 37cheque books, 34 mobiles etc.

The accused were identifiedas Deepak Chaudhary, VishalKumar, Krishan Kumar, KaranKumar, Gourav Sharma,Akash Sharma, DhananjayKhudania, Durgesh KumarJha, Ashutosh Kumar Jha,Aman, Deepu Manvani, RaviBhati, Rahul Nagpal, RajindraKumar, Kunal Kapoor andChetan Nagpal, said the police.

Hyd man goesmissing fromAsaram’s ashramPNS n AHMEDABAD

A 27-year-old man fromHyderabad has gone missingfrom jailed godman AsaramBapu's ashram in Motera area ofGujarat's Ahmedabad city afterattending a "shivir" (camp)between November 3 and 11,police said on Wednesday.

A missing person's complaintwas registered at Chandkhedapolice station in this regard,inspector RS Thakar said.

Vijay Yadav last spoke to hisparents on November 9, afterwhich he went untraceable, as hisphone has been switched off,said his brother Sanjay Yadav, whohas come to the city fromHyderabad with other relatives.

Ashram authorities have in-formed the police that Vijay hadsent an email on Tuesday statingthat he is alright and will returnafter some days, said Thakar, ad-ding that the email was sentfrom Vijay's ID to the ashram'semail ID.

"In the email, Vijay had pur-portedly said that he has gone toa place voluntarily and will comeback soon,” the inspector said.

Mumbai ex-top copan ‘absconder’ : CourtPNS n MUMBAI

A magistrate's court here onWednesday declared formerMumbai police commissionerParam Bir Singh a "proclaimedoffender" in an extortion case reg-istered against him and someother police officers in the city.

Singh had last attended office inMay after which he went on leave.The police had told the BombayHigh Court last month that hiswhereabouts were not known.

The crime branch of MumbaiPolice, which is probing the extor-tion case, sought the proclamationagainst him, saying that Singhcould not be traced even after theissuance of a non-bailable warrant.

Under section 82 of the Codeof Criminal Procedure, a court canpublish a proclamation requiringan accused to appear if a warrantissued against him or her cannotbe executed.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State governmenthas sought more time to study thenote issued by the Godavari RiverManagement Board on handing overof projects in line with the gazettenotification issued by the Centre onfixing the jurisdiction of the Board.

In a meeting with members ofthe GRMB subcommittee here onWednesday, Telangana officials

protested against the note seekinghanding over of certain projects asthe GRMB visited the sites with-out involving the subcommitteemembers.

The correctness of the handing-over note needed to be assessedwith the Irrigation Secretary,Engineer in Chief, General andProject Engineers, they said.

KTR sends youthshurt in accidentin convoy vehiclePNS n HYDERABAD

IT Minister KT Rama Rao onWednesday endeared himself tothe people by sending victims of aroad accident at Hakimpet to thehospital in a vehicle from his con-voy.

The accident involved twoyouths from Miyapur who fell offtheir bike near Hakimpet.

The Minister,who was travel-ling on thesame route,noticed theinjured per-sons on theroad. He imme-diately asked hisdriver to stop the vehicle and gotoff.

KTR then directed his securitypersonnel to act swiftly and helpthe injured youth. He sent them inhis convoy vehicle to the hospitalfor treatment. The Minister's acthas received appreciation frompeople on social media.

PROJECTS ON GODAVARI

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021

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HYDERABAD 443

VIJAYAWADA 382

VISAKHAPATNAM 402

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀44..4433

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(IN HYDERABAD)

40k Tamil Brahmins search for brides in UP, Bihar PNS n NEW DELHI

As more than 40,000 youngTamil Brahmin men are find-ing it difficult to find brideswithin the state, the TamilNadu based association forBrahmins has launched a spe-cial drive to look for suitablematches belonging to the samecommunity in Uttar Pradeshand Bihar.

"We have launched a specialmovement on behalf of ourSangam," said ThamizhnaduBrahmin Association(Thambraas) president NNarayanan in an open letterpublished in the association'smonthly Tamil magazine'sNovember issue.

Quoting rough estimates,Narayanan said more than40,000 Tamil Brahmin men, inthe age group of 30-40, could

not get married as they areunable to find brides fromwithin Tamil Nadu.

Giving a ballpark figure, hesaid, "if there are 10 Brahminboys in the marriageable agegroup, only six girls are avail-able in the marriageable agegroup in Tamil Nadu." Theassociation chief, in his lettersaid coordinators would be

appointed in Delhi, Lucknowand Patna to take forward theinitiative.

Asked on the move,Narayanan said a person whocan read, write and speak inHindi would be appointed at theassociation's headquarters here toperform the coordination role.

The Thambraas chief toldPTI that he is in touch with

people in Lucknow and Patnaadding the initiative is practi-cable. "I have commenced workin this regard," he said.

While several Brahmin peo-ple welcomed the move, therewere also other views fromwithin the community.

An educationist, MParameswaran said, "thoughenough number of TamilBrahmin girls are not availablein the marriageable age group,that is not the one and only rea-son for boys not being able tofind brides." He wondered whyparents of prospective bride-grooms expect 'pomp andshow' in weddings.

"Why parents of boys wantmarriages to be held in swankymarriage halls? What stopsthem from conducting marriagein a simple fashion? Why not ina temple or at home,? he asked.

The 'Mahaperiyava'preached simplicity in everywalk of life and advised peopleto not use silk cloth,Parameswaran said.

Mahaperiyava, Mahaswamiand Paramacharya are reveren-tial references to lateShankaracharya, SriC h a n d r a s e k h a r e n d r aSaraswathi (1894-1994), the68th pontiff of KanchiKamakoti Peetam, also knownas Shankara Math.

Parameswaran said the girl'sfamily has to bear the entireexpenditure of conducting thewedding and it is the bane of theTamil Brahmin community.

"Big, fat weddings havebecome a status symbol and itis very unfortunate. The com-munity must choose progres-sion and reject retrogression."he said.

In power or not, we are onthe side of people: Harish ML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

Most of the top leaders andcadres of the TRS were busyon Wednesday, preparing forwhat is certain to be a show-down between their party andthe opposition BJP over thepaddy procurement issue atthe Indira Park on Thursday.

Ministers Harish Rao andTalasani Srinivas Yadav whoreviewed the arrangments for the‘Maha Dharna’ announced byTRS supremo K ChandrasekharRao, made it clear that it was toexert pressure on the Centre onbehalf of farmers.

“Whether we are in poweror in opposition, we willalways be on the side of peo-ple. At the time of State bifur-cation, seven mandals ofTelangana State were mergedinto Andhra Pradesh. As aresult, Telangana is incurring

a loss of Rs 1,000 crore peryear. We expressed our resent-ment then itself by calling fora bandh. We staged a protestin the early days of TRS com-ing to power against the atti-tude of Centre. Even today, we

decided to stage dharna onbehalf of lakhs of farmers toprotest against the stubbornattitude of Centre,” HarishRao told media persons.

He demanded a uniformpolicy for all the States in the

country. “While Centre buysevery grain from Punjab, whydoes it not promise to do thesame in Telangana?” he soughtto know.

Deploring the system ofdifferent policy for differentStates, Harish Rao said thatthis would tantamount toCentre absolving itself from itsresponsibilities. “It is theresponsibility of the Centre toprocure paddy,” he said.

Along with Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao,Ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs,ZP Chairmen, DCCBChairmen, DCMS Chairmen,Market Committee Chairmen,TRS cadre would participatein the “Maha Dharna” andexpress their protest on behalfof farmers. The dharna will bestaged peacefully and in themost democratic way to exertpressure on the Centre, HarishRao made it clear.

Health Minister T Harish Rao inspects the arrangements for Thursday’s MahaDharna at Dharna Chowk, Indira Park in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

AkbaruddinOwaisi acquittedin ‘hate’ speechcasePNS n HYDERABAD

A Special Court here has acquit-ted AIMIM leader and MLAAkbaruddin Owaisi in a "hate"speech case registered againsthim in 2004. The SpecialSessions Court for trial ofMPs/MLAs on Tuesday foundOwaisi not guilty of theoffences/allegations against himand acquitted him.

A case was registered under rel-evant IPC sections against him ona complaint from a police official,who alleged that theChandrayangutta legislator madean inflammatory speech at a pub-lic meeting here during electioncampaigning in March 2004 andtried to instigate the public.Subsequently a charge-sheet wasfiled by police after getting the gov-ernment's nod to prosecute Owaisi.After hearing arguments andcounter arguments, the courtacquitted Owaisi for lack of evi-dence as no independent witnesssupported the case.

Owaisicomplains...Continued from page 1

Rizvi's statements are also tar-geted at creating a feeling ofenmity against Muslims ofIndia, the Hyderabad MPpointed out.

Owaisi urged the PoliceCommissioner to take actionagainst Rizvi and his associ-ates on the charge of promot-ing enmity between differentgroups on grounds of religionand others and doing actsprejudicial to maintenance ofharmony.

End uncertainty of farmers...Continued from page 1

TRS legislators headed by theChief Minister in the meetingheld on Tuesday said that itwas also decided to stage dhar-na at Indira Park on Thursdayto exert pressure on the Centreto end to uncertainty overpaddy procurement by statingclearly whether they wouldprocure boiled rice in theensuing Yasangi or not so thatthe State government coulddirect the farmers to go foralternative crops.

The State government alsoresented the dual standards ofCentre in procuring foodgrains from Punjab andTelangana. By choosing towrite to the PM a day beforethe proposed dharna, KCRDapparently wanted Modi tounderstand the situation in theState had worsened due to thecontradictory statements byState and Central BJP leadersand ask him to take measuresto resolve it.

In his letter to Modi, KCRexplained that Telangana, dueto priority given to developirrigation facilities after the for-mation of the State, hadbecome a huge grain-surplusState. The farmers of Telanganawere now able to produce forthe rest of the country, hewrote.

The FCI, which has themandate of ensuring foodsecurity for the people of thecountry by maintaining bufferstocks and supplying rice and

wheat through the public dis-tribution system, has been fol-lowing certain policies whichare creating confusion in theminds of farmers as well as theState governments, the ChiefMinister said.

He pointed out that the tar-get of procurement is not fixedfor the entire year in one goand the procurement is notkeeping pace though the pro-duction is increasing year byyear.

As a result, it was becomingdifficult for the States to planan appropriate cropping pat-tern and explain the same tofarmers.

During Kharif 2020-21, theproduction of rice in Telanganawas 55.75 lakh tonnes but theprocurement was only 32.66lakh tonnes which was 59 per-

cent of the production. Thiswas less than the 78 percentprocured in Kharif 2019-20.Such wide variations in pro-curement levels would notallow the State to implement arational cropping pattern, KCRpointed out in his letter.

KCR brought to the noticeof the Prime Minister that hehad met Piyush Goyal for twodays on September 25 and 26this year and requested him tofix the annual target for pro-curement immediately. “Yetno policy decision was takenand communicated to the Stateeven after 50 days,” the ChiefMinister wrote, adding thatthus, he wanted theGovernment of India to givedirection to FCI to address theconcerns raised by theTelangana State.

KCR to lead TRS ‘Maha Dharna’...Continued from page 1

It may be mentioned here that when the Telangana statehoodmovement gathered momentum, protests were a commonoccurrence. Dharna Chowk was earmarked for protests in 2005,when the then Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court GSSinghvi was caught in a traffic jam. The then CJ asked the thenHyderabad Police Commissioner Dinesh Reddy why the citycouldn’t have a designated place for public demonstrations likethe Jantar Mantar in Delhi. Thus Dharna Chowk came into beingand represents what Jantar Mantar is to the National Capital Delhi.It may be mentioned here that KCR has set the deadline ofNovember 18 for the BJP-led government at the Centre to makeits stand clear whether it will purchase paddy from Telangana ornot in the Yasangi season.

Call centre racket busted,16 held for Rs 3 crore fraudContinued from page 1

The police said that Latha,Muskan, Vishal Kumar, MohitKumar, Rajini Choudhary andKomal Choudhary wereabsconding.

“The arrests were made fol-lowing a complaint from a vic-tim here, who said that thescammers identified herselfas a representative from RBLbank and asked whether theCredit Card of the victim wasdelivered or not. Upon inform-ing that only the card wasreceived without a PIN, thefraudster asked to providePAN card details and alsoasked to send a code which hewill receive on deactivating theinsurance amount of Rs.24,000. The complainantshared the code immediatelyand he received a messagefrom the bank that an amountof Rs 97,996 got deductedfrom his RBL Credit card,”explained the CyberabadPolice Commissioner, StephenRaveendra.

Explaining their modusoperandi, the official said thatthe fraudsters have vast expe-rience in the banking field andthey collect RBL customersdata, especially the card detailslike name, mobile number,type of card, partial card num-ber and date of birth etc. fromthe bank employee. “Theythen established 5 to 6 call cen-

ters in Mohan garden andUttam Nagar in Delhi andthen contacted the victimsusing spoofing calling applica-tions (MoSIP and SilverDialer) who received newcredit cards by posing as bankemployees. Then they collect-ed OTPs and made transac-tions on their websites usingthe credit card details of thevictims. They have registered6 websites and three individ-ual merchants linked themwith payment gateways andused them for collecting theswindled amount into theirbank accounts,” said the police.

Based on the evidence col-lected during the investigation,a six-member team fromCyberabad was sent to Delhi,who tracked down an officewhich is running the websitesand portals for the fraudstersin Dwarka of National Capital

Region and apprehended sixaccused persons. Interrogationof apprehended personsrevealed information about acall center being run by theaccused in UttamNagar ofNew Delhi and from there wehave apprehended three morepersons. The team returned toHyderabad and interrogatedthe accused persons and foundthat the main gang leader wasabsconding and started track-ing him. On information, onemore team consisting of 5members were sent to Ujjain,Madhya Pradesh and appre-hended seven accused per-sons.

The Cyberabad Policeadvised the public not tobelieve in the calls claiming tobe from RBL bank or anyother bank and not to shareOTP and card details to any-one.

CBI arrests...Continued from page 1

In the confessional state-ment, he had detailed the cir-cumstances regardingVivekananda Reddy’s murder,the persons involved andthose involved in the murderconspiracy.

He had mentioned thename of Devireddy SivaSankar Reddy along withMP Avinash Reddy and thebrother of YS RajasekharReddy, Bhaskar Reddy, asthey helped the mainaccused, Gangireddy, tomanage the situation and thecase subsequently.

The CBI arrestedDevireddy Siva SankarReddy based on the confes-sional statement of ShaikDasthagiri.

Third wavefears ensure...Continued from page 1

According to GeneralInsurance Council Dashboard,in Q3 in Telangana as many as22,704 health insurance claimswere reported. This is compa-rable to 26,717 health insur-ance claims in Q2 and 10,686claims, amounting to 2,77,102,being reported in Q1 of 2020-2021.

According to a Navispokesperson, “The responsefrom Telangana for NaviHealth Insurance has beenextremely heartening. Ourobjective is to radically simpli-fy health insurance for individ-uals and families. We do thisby actively leveraging technol-ogy and data as well as cus-tomer feedback to constantlyimplement new features andimprove our offering to cus-tomers.”

Hyd man goesmissing fromAsaram’s ashramContinued from page 1

He added: “We are trying toget the exact location usingthe IP address of the com-puter from which the mailwas sent. We have alsosought call records of hisphone number."

Vijay had come to theashram from Hyderabadwith nine other men toattend a shivir betweenNovember 3 and 11, he said.

While his fr iendsreturned to their homesafter the camp, Vijay stayedback saying he wanted totake part in some ritual toattain inner peace, and can-celled his train ticket, theofficial said.

When his relativesreached the ashram toinquire about Vijay onTuesday, they were told thathe was not in the ashram.When the police went to theashram for preliminaryinvestigation, they did notfind any record of Vijay'sentry into the premises,Thakar said.

According to SanjayYadav, his brother last spoketo his mother on November9 and his phone gotswitched off a day after.

The family was unhappyas Vijay had started visitingthe Asaram ashram inHyderabad more frequentlyin the recent times, he said.

YSRCP storms...Continued from page 1

After bagging 80 percent ofpanchayats, the YSJaganmohan Reddy-ledYSRCP had swept the civicbody polls registering a land-slide victory by winning 74out of 75 municipalities and11 out of 12 MunicipalCorporations that went forpolls in March. The TDPfailed to secure even a singleMunicipal Corporation.

Polls were put on hold for12 municipalities and NelloreMunicipal Corporation due tovarious reasons and werefinally conducted onNovember 15.

Naturally, all eyes were onmaiden polls for Kuppammunicipality.

Even before the votes werecast, ground reports suggest-ed that it was never going tobe an easy task for the TDP towin the municipality in theChittoor district that comesunder Naidu’s home con-

stituency Kuppam, which hehas been winning withoutbreak since 1989.

On its part, the YSRCPfocussed all its resources towin Kuppam municipality atany cost and embarrass Naidu.

The TDP shifted its ener-gies on Kuppam municipali-ty; Naidu himself leading thecharge by holding road showsfor two days. His son NaraLokesh also campaigned inKuppam and both father andson were far more aggressivethan ever before in attackingthe YSRCP supremo andChief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy.

They accused Jagan of try-ing to turn the peaceful Kup-pam region into ‘Pulivendula’,which is infamous for faction-ridden politics.

Naidu and his team alsoalleged that YSRCP haddeployed bogus voters in largenumbers and that the policealso supported the rulingparty.

Mumbai ex-top cop an ‘absconder’: CourtContinued from page 1

As per section 83, after issu-ing such a proclamation thecourt can also order attach-ment of the proclaimedoffender's properties.

Former assistant policeinspector Sachin Waze isalso an accused in the case,registered at the Goregaonpolice station in the city.

Besides Param Bir Singh,co-accused Vinay Singh andRiyaz Bhatti were also

declared as proclaimedoffenders by additional chiefmetropolitan magistrate S BBhajipale on Wednesday.

Bimal Agrawal, a real estatedeveloper and hotelier, hadalleged that the accusedextorted Rs 9 lakh from himfor not conducting raid ontwo bars and restaurantswhich he ran in partnership,and also forced him to buytwo smartphones wortharound Rs 2.92 lakh for them.

The incidents occurred

between January 2020 andMarch 2021, he had claimed.

Following his complaint, acase was filed under IndianPenal Code sections 384 and385 (both pertaining toextortion) and 34 (commonintention) against sixaccused.

Singh is facing an extor-tion case in Thane too.

The IPS officer was shunt-ed out from the post ofMumbai police commission-er in March 2021 after Waze

was arrested in the case of theSUV with explosives foundnear industrialist MukeshAmbani's south Mumbai res-idence `Antilia' and the sub-sequent death of Thane busi-nessman Mansukh Hiran.

Singh was then appointedas Director General, HomeGuards, following which heaccused then Maharashtrahome minister AnilDeshmukh of corruption, acharge the latter denied.

Deshmukh later stepped

down as minister and the CBIregistered a case against himbased on Singh's allegations.

Singh was last seen inpublic on April 7, when heappeared before the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)here to record statement inthe Antilia bomb scare case.The CBI also recorded hisstatement in the Deshmukhcase. He last attended officeon May 4, following which hewent on leave citing healthissues, a senior official said.

TS seeks time to...Continued from page 1

GRMB officials agreed to deferthe discussion and asked theChief Engineers of both theStates to finalise the date of thenext meeting.

Telangana officials did notagree to the suggestion ofGRMB to hand over GLISintake pump house atGangaram and GeesugondaCross Regulator on Kakatiyacanal as the GRMB visited thesites without involving thesubcommittee members.

They said that they did notreceive orders from the Stategovernment with respect toprojects of Telangana otherthan Peddavagu medium irri-gation project for sharing infor-mation under various clauses ofgazette notification ie sanc-tioned posts, plant machinery,equipment, office premises ,furniture, vehicles, detailed pro-ject reports, records maintainedsince inception etc.,

They said they would takeaction as per government’sdirections and could not giveany commitment on the hand-ing-over note. They also point-ed out that as per Clause 4 of

Godavari Water DisputeTribunal, States are at libertyto transfer any part of theirshare to any other basin.

GLIS and SRSP were sanc-tioned and grounded by thegovernment of undividedAndhra Pradesh. At that timethe government did not objectto transfer of water fromGodavari basin to provideirrigation facilities to areas inKrishna basin, they said.

But after bifurcation, APwas objecting to the transferbut it was not acceptable toTelangana State and it wasagainst the GWDT award.

Telangana officials SridharRao Deshpande, OSD to ChiefMinister, Koteswar Rao, SE,Inter-state and SubramanyaPrasad, Executive Engineer,Inter-State attended the meet-ing chaired by MemberSecretary, GRMB.

It may be recalled that theTelangana officials expressedtheir objections recently to theGRMB for not forwardingDPRs of Telangana projects inGodavari basin to the CentralWater Commission and raisingqueries that was delaying theprocess.

Two held fortrying to enterRashtrapatiBhavanPNS n NEW DELHI

Two people were arrested forallegedly trying to enter theRashtrapati Bhavan, policesaid on Wednesday.

The incident took placearound 11.30 pm onMonday, they said.

They were identified asShivam Sharma and KusumRajput. They were underthe influence of alcohol wh-en they tried to force theirway into Rashtrapati Bhav-an, the police said, addingthat an FIR was registeredagainst the duo.

Both of them work at asalon, the police said.

The case was filed againstthem under Sections of tres-pass, Prevention of Damageto Public Property Act andthe Motor Vehicles Act on thecomplaint of an ACP rankofficer at the South Avenuepolice station, the FIR stated.

The duo was sent to 14days' judicial custody.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021 hyderabad 03

PNS n HYDERABAD

A 50-year-old man died afterfalling from the terrace of amulti-storied building atKPHB on Wednesday.

Kamala Raj Mehra, 50,was a government employeeworking for GHMC. He wasstaying along with his wife atRoad Number 2 of KPHBColony, the police said.

Raj’s wife, Haritha, saidthat her husband had gone tothe third floor at around 9am. She heard a loud soundafter 20 minutes, and whenshe rushed outside, she sawthat her husband had fallenfrom the third floor on to theground and was lying in apool of blood, police said.

An ambulance was calledand the paramedics declaredRaj dead.

Based on a complaint byhis wife, the KPHB Policeregistered a suspicious deathcase and are investigating.

Raj’s wife ruled out foulplay, saying that her husbandmight have slipped and fall-en from the third floor.

PNS n HYDERABAD

In a bid to improve sportsfacilities in the city, theGHMC has taken up work on19 sports complexes andswimming pools at an esti-mated cost of Rs 86.61 crore.

Of these 19 works, as manyas seven works worth Rs 22.11crore have been completed.Officials said that work onremaining facilities is inprogress. Considering thatsporting activities have start-ed returning to a semblance ofnormalcy after the pandemic,the GHMC authorities areworking towards completingthe projects expeditiously.

As per the official commu-nication from GHMC, “Inorder to improve physical fit-ness of the citizens, GHMC isworking hard to providesports facilities and swim-

ming pools for adults. Thisapart, to ensure that childrendevelop an interest in sports,as well as to enable local ath-letes to master modern gamesin addition to traditional

games, these facilities arebeing upgraded.”

It may be mentioned herethat the GHMC owns 12sports complexes, sevenswimming pools, 521 play-

grounds among other sport-ing facilities. Nearly 1,800coaches, some of themOlympians, coach at GHMCfacilities.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The KPHB Police arrested aman on Wednesday who hadallegedly cheated many peoplepromising jobs, and had takenRs 25 lakh from them.

Kambadura Ravi Kumar,30, hails from Amalapuram inAP. He was working in a com-pany at ECIL and was stayingat Kamala Nagar in Vanasth-alipuram. Police said a com-plaint was received from a res-ident of KPHB who had paidseveral lakhs to Ravi Kumar.

“After seeing an advertise-ment about job openings, thecomplainant contacted themobile number mentioned in

the advertisement. The fraud-ster said that there were con-tract jobs in a company atECIL and that hiring was on.After asking the victim abouthis qualifications, the fraudstertold him that he could get a jobfor him if he paid Rs 6 lakh.The fraudster also asked the

victim to keep the matter asecret and to inform only hisclose friends as he could getjobs for them too,” saidInspector S. Laxmi Narayana.

The complainant then toldfive others about the same andthe six decided to pay RaviKumar to get a job.

On July 16, 2020, the sixwent to ECIL to meet RaviKumar and pay the money.After collecting Rs 25 lakhfrom the six as advance RaviKumar avoided them.

When the victims grew sus-picious and asked Ravi to givetheir money back, he beganthreatening them and refusedto pay.

GHMC earmarks Rs 86.61 crto improve city’s sports infra

GHMC stafferfalls to deathfrom third floor

Man cheats six of Rs 25 lakh, held Infant falls todeath from fifth

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Secunderabad RailwayPolice arrested two womenon Wednesday, and seized120 kg of marijuana fromthem at the SecunderabadRailway Station.

The arrested persons areAmbika Nahak, 36, and Mal-ati Sahu, 52, both from theGanjam district of Odisha.

The two were transportingdry ganja from Bhubaneswarand Berhampur in Odisha toMumbai.

Police said that on Monday,they went to Bhubaneswarand Berhampur, brought thesubstance and then boardedthe Konark Express from

Bhubaneswar to Mumbai.“When the train reached

Secunderabad RailwayStation, the two, who weretravelling in different coach-es, tried to hide from thepolice. But the police nabbedthem with the help of theRPF. Four bags with 80 kg ofmarijuana were seized fromAmbika and three bags with40 kg of marijuana wereseized from Malati,” theRailway Police said.

The market value of theseized marijuana is around Rs24 lakh. A case under theNDPS Act was registeredagainst the two women andthey were remanded to judi-cial custody.

Two women held with120 kg marijuana

G. RAVI KIRAN

n HYDERABAD

A businessperson, stayingat Azamabad, has lost Rs 21lakh to cyber crooks. Policesaid he had got a link onhis mobile phone toSQ.com which offered himhuge profits provided heinvested with them.

The complainant invest-ed Rs 21 lakh and afterthat, the app disappeared.The mobile phone of theconcerned person also wasswitched off. He then com-plained to the Cyber Crimewing of Hyderabad policeon Tuesday.

A month back, the com-

plainant got a link toSQ.com through aWhatsApp message. In thatmessage, the senders men-

tioned that if he invests, hewill get 10 times the moneyinvested.

The complainant regis-

tered with the app andsent Rs 2,000 as trial. Byevening he got Rs 4,000 inthe accounts section of theapp.

A person called him onhis mobile phone andencouraged him to investmore money.

The complainantincreased his investmentgradually. As the accountsection of that app showedprofits, he invested Rs 21lakh on different dates.The account finally showedRs 50 lakh as his balance.

On Monday, he tried towithdraw the amount, buthe could not. Then he triedto contact the person, who

had called him earlier, invain. Immediately the appalso disappeared from hismobile phone.

The complainant tried tolocate the app on hismobile phone and onGoogle.com, but it couldnot be found, police said.

The complainant thenrealised that he had beencheated by cybercriminalsand complained to theCyber Crime wing ofHyderabad PoliceCommissionerate as perthe suggestion of theMusheerabad Police.

The police have regis-tered a case and are inves-tigating.

Cyber crooks cheat man of Rs 21 lakh

Man dies infire mishap at homePNS n HYDERABAD

A 33-year-old resident ofUppal died after he gottrapped in his burning houseon Wednesday.

The deceased man, identi-fied as one Palle Anil KumarGoud, 33, was a resident ofthe Green Hills Colony ofMallapur in Uppal.

Police said Anil was run-ning a waste oil businessfrom his house.

On Wednesday, while Anilwas working in a room, sud-denly a fire erupted and thicksmoke engulfed the room.Unable to come out, he criedfor help.

Soon after, he began inhal-ing the smoke and began tolose consciousness due tolack of oxygen.

His wife and neighbourstried to save him but theywere unable to do so andcalled the fire service.

Fire service officials rushedto the spot, doused the flamesand then declared Anil ‘dead’

Officials suspect that hedied due to burns and inhal-ing the smoke

Based on a complaint fromhis wife, the Nacharam Policeregistered a case.

The police have ruled outany foul play in the case,according to sources.

Saplings planted ineight rows around thePeddampet toShamshabad stretchof the Outer RingRoad begin to give theappearance of a forest.Special teamsmaintain the greeneryalong the 158-kmlength of the ORR.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Eleven people were arrested bythe SOT team of Madhapur ondrug charges.

The police seized 50 gramsof Methylenedioxymeth-amphetamine (MDMA), 45kg of ganja, cash and othermaterials from the suspects, theCyberabad police said.

The police teams initiallynabbed Mohammed Bin Has-san Kolani and Kondla Rakesh,with three grams of MDMA infront of a star hotel atMadhapur and came to knowthat three major drug peddlerswho supplied them drugs fromMumbai were absconding.

The police team learnt thatthe suspect, Yasin Khan, had

bought the drug from anunknown person in Mumbaiand it was transported to Hyd-erabad through Raheed Ali.

On Tuesday, the SOT teamarrested Raheed Ali, YasinKhan and Ifthekhar Ahmed atthe Hitech city railway stationand seized 42 grams of MDMAfrom them.

“After interrogation ofRaheed Ali Nihal Ahmad it

was found that he had receivedMDMA from Yasin Khan andhe had brought the same fromone Raju Bhai. Subsequently, itwas found that MohammedBin Hassan Kolani frequentlyvisits Mumbai and purchasesdrugs from Ifthekar Ahmedalong with another drug ped-dler, Salman, from Hyderabad,who were earlier arrested bythe Nampally police in

February 2021 and wasreleased in May 2021. Another45 grams of MDMA was seizedfrom them,” the police said.

Meanwhile, the BalanagarSOT apprehended three men,Jude Jeevan, Algoy Bhavani Sh-ankar and Chilukoti Shivaram,with two grams of MDMAfrom a hotel in Madhapur, afterthey caught Mareedu Srinivas,a software engineer, who hadthree grams of MDMA.

The Madhapur team alsoarrested Pittala Kupender, No-or Mohammed Abdul SalamPatel and Govinda RavindarBavishwal, 33, for transportingganja from Vizag to Mumbai.

“Their organiser receivesorders through personal con-tacts,” the police said.

SOT nabs 11 peddlers with MDMA, marijuana

G. RAVI KIRAN

n HYDERABADA one-year-old baby died on Wednesday atMallepally in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The baby, Akshara, fell from a building anddied while being treated at Niloufer Hospital.She fell from the fifth floor of a building, policesaid.

Akshara was playing at her home on the fifthfloor on Wednesday morning. There was agrilled wall on the balcony. But the grill had agap between its steel bars. The baby fell downthrough that gap and was injured seriously,police said.

Akshara was taken to Niloufer Hospitalimmediately. She died while getting treated,police said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana on Wednesdaylogged 148 new Covid-19cases, pushing the tally to6,74,037, while the toll rose to3,977 with one more fatality.

The GHMC accounted formost number of cases with52, followed by WarangalUrban (13) and MedchalMalkajgiri (10) , a state gov-ernment bulletin said, pro-viding details as of 5.30 PMon Wednesday.

The number of recoveries(172) outnumbered freshcases, taking the cumulativenumber till date to 6,66,348,the bulletin said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Wednesday empha-sised the need to ensure afford-able and accessible healthcarefor all and suggested that mod-ern multi-specialty hospitalsalso start satellite centres inrural areas.

Inaugurating Yoda Life LineDiagnostics Pvt Ltd here, hepraised the Central govern-ment's decision to set up atleast one medical college in

each district, an official releasesaid.

He further suggested thatgovernments envision onemedical college in each rev-enue sub-division, whichwould not only address theshortage of trained manpow-er in the medical profession,but also increase people'saccess to quality healthcare.

Appreciating theGovernments' efforts in mak-ing healthcare accessible to all,he further called for redou-

bling the efforts in providinginfrastructure support formedical centres across thecountry.

Talking about Covid-19pandemic, Venkaiah Naidupraised the frontline Covidwarriors for their dedicationand hard work.

Lauding Indian scientistsand researchers for coming outwith a vaccine against Covid-19 in record time, he urgedeveryone to come forward andget vaccinated.

V-P calls for making healthcareaffordable and accessible to all

Telangana logs148 new Covidcases, one death

PNS n HYDERABAD

A 55-year-old man died ofburn injuries after his sonallegedly set him ablaze bydousing him with kerosene attheir house here, police saidon Wednesday.

The accused, in his mid-30s, picked up quarrel withhis father over some issue onTuesday, poured keroseneand set him on fire, leadingto him sustaining burninjuries, they said.

Though the man was shift-ed to a hospital, he succu-mbed to injuries while under-going treatment, police said.

Man dies afterson sets him on fire

Telangana Home Minister Md Mahmood Ali receives Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on his arrival to the city at BegumpetAirport in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

04HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021

PNS n PEDDAPALLY

In order to bring out inher-ent artistic among the chil-dren, a big opportunityawaits them. Children of theState are getting a chance toparticipate and paint theirvision of an energy-efficientworld. As part of EnergyConser vat ion Mission,NTPC Southern RegionHeadquarters in associationwith the Bureau of EnergyEfficiency, Ministry of Power(Govt. of India) is organizingTelangana State LevelPainting Competition duringDecember 01 - 10, 2021 atHyderabad and one of thedistricts of Telangana.

The competition is openfor all Government andPrivate school students ofClass 5, 6 & 7 (Group 'A')and 8, 9, 10 (Group ‘B’).There is no registration fee

and the last date for registra-tion is November 30, 2021.

The competition will beheld at two-level: State andNational. The state-levelcompetition will be com-pleted by December 10, 2021.Interested schools and stu-dents are requested to regis-ter by logging in at www.bee-students award.in

The Topics for State LevelPainting are 1. Energ yEff icient India, and 2.Cleaner Plant. The best 13 ineach group i.e. ‘A’ & ‘B’ atState Level will be givenawards amounting to Rs. 3.5lakh and the same will be for-warded for selection atNational Level. Further, allthe participants at State Levelwil l receive Digita lParticipation Certificatefrom the Ministry of Poweras well as two mementosfrom NTPC & BEE.

Painting competition forchildren on energy

PNS n NAGAR KURNOOL.

The District Collector P UdayKumar has urged the teachersto take educational initiativesfor the children in Chenchuareas and added that theyshould work committedly forimproving their educationalstandards.

While inspecting Appapurtribal residential school and abridge school in Mallapur onWednesday, he said that “Theteachers, who are supposed toeducate children and inculcatediscipline in them, should notneglect their noble responsibil-ity. They should be punctual totheir duties and never skiptimely attendance”. He madethe comment seeing that onlyone teacher was present in theschool even after 10-30 in themorning.

He came to know that fiveteachers are working inAppapur residential schooland on inquiry, it was revealedthat the remaining four teach-ers come only after 11 am. Heimmediately conducted a spotmeeting in the same premisesand as he was informed theprincipal Ramlal anotherteacher Shankaraiah came after

11 am. Not stopping himself at that,

the collector observed the atten-dance register and to his shock,it was found that two teachershad been absent for the last somany days and Shankaraiah didnot even sign on the register.“You are working as a contractresidential teacher.

It is your responsibility topresent in time and teach thechildren and you are not at alldoing your duty duly” the col-lector asked Sankaraiah and ashe did not answer ordered theofficials to take action againsthim. Expressing his dissatisfac-tion at the attitude of theteachers the collector advisedthem “If you are not interest-ed in duties.. you had better

quit your jobs” and at thesame time he warned themthat if educational standards ofthe students were notimproved action would betaken on those who areresponsible.

After that Collector, UdayKumar visited Mallapur Bridgeschool and spent some timetalking to the children and healso made them to write alpha-bets.

Improving the educationalstandards of the children in theChenchu areas will be helpfulto them a lot and it will alsolead to social developmentalso, the Collector said even ashe advised the teachers thatthey should not derelict theirduties in this regard.

‘Don’t neglect your responsibility’Collector angry at teachers absence in school

PNS n KAMAREDDY

District Collector Jitesh VPatil on Wednesday urgedbankers to give crop loans tofarmers in tune with the settargets and asked them tosensitize farmers on crop loansat Rytu Vadikas Addressingparticipants of the districtconsultative committee, heasked the farmers to renewtheir crop loans within thestipulated time.

He asked the bankers toadvance bank-linkage loans tothe women of self- helpgroups. Similarly, the bankerswere urged to advance home

loans and educational loans asper the targets.

Jitesh released potentiallylinked credit plan books on theoccasion. Additional collectorin-charge Venkata MadhavaRao, district agriculture officerBhagyalakshmi, district SChostel warden Rajita, SCCorporation ExecutiveDirector Dayanand, districtveterinary officer Jaga nnad-ham, LDM Rajender Reddy,Nabard deputy director MNagesh, RBI AGM Rahaman,Canara Bank AGM SrinivasaRao, SBI AGM Pallamrajuand other bank officials tookpart in the event.

PNS n NIZAMABAD

The political pressures mayhave been the reason for thecandidates not coming for-ward to file nominations ifthe Nizamabad situation isany indication. For the sec-ond day today, no MLC nom-inations filed yet. It may bementioned here that the noti-fication for Filing of nomina-tions to the biennial electionsto the Telangana StateLegislative Council fromNizamabad LocalAuthorities Constituency wasissued on 16 November. Itsreported that the list of nom-inations for the biennial elec-tions to the NizamabadMLC Constituency as perForm - 3 which contained 9Columns stands NIL until by3 PM even after the secondday from theCommencement of theNotification said theReturning Officer and theDistrict Collector NarayanaReddy reported.

PNS n MEDAK

Resurvey of the lands, allegedto be grabbed by MLA EatalaRajender, commenced onTuesday and continued onWednesday.

The re-survey will continueon Thursday too. It may berecalled that Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao recentlyordered a survey of lands heldby the former minister andpresent Huzurabad MLAEatala Rajender on a complaintby some farmers that Eatalahad encroached lands belong-ing to Dalits and the poor inAtchampet and Hakimpet inMasaipet mandal.

Earlier, a preliminary surveywas conducted by revenueauthorities and submitted a

report to the government thatJamuna Hatcheries, owned byEatala’s spouse Jamuna,

encroached 66.01 acres ofassigned and ceiling lands.The district collector had sub-

mitted a report in this regardto the state government.

Following this, Eatalaapproached the court con-tending that the survey wasnot done properly and soughtjustice to him.

Then, the high courtordered resurvey of the saidlands. In fact, the re-surveywould have to be held in Junethis year but was put off onaccount of Covid-19. In arecent development, revenueauthorities served notices onJamuna Hatcheries onNovember 8.

They commenced a re-sur-vey of the said lands onTuesday. The authorities sur-veyed 18.35 acres under sur-vey no.130 in Atchampet vil-lage of Masaipet and fixed

boundaries of the lands. RDO Shyam Prakash,

Tahsildar Malati, divisionalsurveyor Lakshmi Sujata aresupervising the land survey.The survey was done in thepresence of farmers who hadcomplained to KCR aboutland encroachment by Eataly,20 local villagers. The policehave beefed up security in theregion.

On Wednesday, a re-surveyof lands was done under sur-vey numbers 77, 78, 79, 80, 81,and 82. On Thursday, lands inHakimpet under survey num-ber 97 would be surveyed.

Toopran RDO ShyamPrasad said that a comprehen-sive report would be submit-ted to the government onNovember 18.

Re-survey of Eatala's lands underway

Advance loans as perset targets, Bankers told

PNS n WARANGAL

Travel on national highwaynumber 563, especially on thestretch of road from Torrur toMaripeda Bangalow you feel itas a virtual hell. The stretch ofthe road is full of ditches andtravel on this stretch is highlyrisky and sometimes causesroad accidents. Thanks to theofficials who have convenient-ly forgotten to undertakerepairs to the stretch of theroad.

Hundreds of vehicles usingthis stretch of the road are get-ting broken down en route.Buses take hours instead ofminutes to cross the stretch,according to vehicle drivers. Asif it is not enough, heavy-loadcarrying granite lorries havebeen commuting along theroad to distant places likeVisakhapatnam causing fur-ther damage to the road.People are apprehensive touse this road. Due to allegedlack of control, hundreds oflorries carrying a heavy load ofgranite are using the road.

Elected people’s representa-tives and officials are urged to

take urgent steps to get theroad repaired.

The stretch of road fromWarangal to Khammam inthe Dornakal Assembly con-stituency has become worseand almost unfit for travel.People are worried about thelurking danger of accidents.

People allege negligence byauthorities and elected people’srepresentatives in undertakingrepairs to the road. Besidesundertaking repairs to thisroad, people demand author-ities to repair the roads dam-aged during the recent heavyrains.

PNS n WARANGAL

Stressing the importance ofblood donation, the Principal,staff & students of the KITSWfamily proved their socialresponsibility by donatingblood during the pandemic.

It was organized on theoccasion of the 83rd birthdayof the Rajyasabha MP andKITSW Secretary andCorrespondent Capt. V.Lakshmikantha Rao.

It was jointly inaugurated bythe chief guest IRCS Warangalchairman Dr. P. VijaychanderReddy, KITSW managementmembers Dr. V. Pavan Kumar,A. Satyanarayana Raju, V.Chandrashekar Rao, coordina-tor NSS, and Lions club mem-bers. The KITSW PrincipalProf. K. Ashoka Reddy hasdonated blood first and he hasproved practically the impor-tance of blood and his socialresponsibility during this pan-

demic.On this occasion, the chief

guest IRCS Warangal chair-man Dr. P. Vijaychander Reddysaid that by donating bloodtwice a year one can protecttheir health especially stu-dents and youth. “Blood dona-tion is the greatest service fornation-building and it reflectsthe need for selfless service andit is proved that KITSWarangal is the paternity of thepeople of the society not onlyin the development of technol-

ogy but also in the social ser-vice to save the lives of thehuman being during thisCOVID SEASON,” he said.The Principal advised that theslogan is donating blood andsave the life and our studentshave been giving more impor-tance to social service to incul-cate social responsibilitytowards the common man.He also highlighted that donat-ing blood means a few minutesto you but it is a lifetime forsomeone else.

Blood donation,a gift of life to othersKITSH principle,staff and students donate blood

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

Asking the medical and healthauthorities, the DistrictCollector S Venkata Rao to actcollectively to ensure thatthere is zero infant and mater-nal mortality in the district.

He asked them to take pre-cautions to ensure zero infantand maternal mortality rates.If anyone were to be foundnegligent in this regard, hethreatened them to take sternaction against them.Reviewing the activities of themedical and health depart-ments with officials in hischambers here on Wednesday,he asked them to pay no neg-ligence in the care of expectantmothers and take necessaryprecautions since he conceivedthe baby.

He wanted them to conductall diagnostic tests on her andadvised her nutritious food tobe taken and other precau-tions.

Besides the expectant moth-er, medical and health author-ities should share all informa-tion with her spouse and par-ents.

Her health condition shouldbe monitored constantly. Hewanted the medical officer,ANM, and other personnel toremain alert on the issue. Heasked the authorities toencourage bereaved familymembers to apply for financialassistance of Rs 50,000 if anyfamily member dies due toCovid-19.

PNS n SIDDIPET

Sangareddy district collec-tor Hanumantha Rao onWednesday took additionalcharge as Siddipet district col-lector in place of VenkatramReddy who opted for VRS tocontest MLC elections. Priorto assuming the charge asSiddipet district collector,Hanumantha Rao performedspecial puja in the GoddessSaraswati temple in Vargas.Additional CollectorMuzamil Khan, district rev-enue official B Channaih andpolice officials greeted thenew collector with bouquets.

Addressing the employ-ees, Hanumantha Raodescribed Siddipet as a dis-trict that has scope for a lotof development.

It is a lurking danger of accidents!

PNS n JAYASHANKAR

BHUPALA PALLY.

Former minister andManthani MLA DSreedharbabu alleged here thatthe ruling parties at the Centreand in the State have beenignoring the actual welfare ofthe farmers and only resortingto dharnas for political gains.He demanded that both thegovernments should come for-ward and purchase paddyfrom the farmers uncondition-ally.

On this occasion, he ques-tioned the governments as towho would purchase paddy

from the farmers if they refuseto do. He termed the attitudeof the governments towardsthe farmers as very disturbing.“ It is very shocking to see thatthe governments are not com-ing to the rescue of the farm-ers at the same time andresorting to dharnas blamingeach other”, Sridharbabu talk-ing to reporters. He alsoaccused the ruling parties ofhand in glove with each otherand only for public consump-tion blaming each other on thepaddy issue and added that theparties were only interested intheir political gains not work-ing for the welfare of thefarmers.

Dharnas only forpolitical gains CongSreedharbabu slams ruling parties

No MLCnominationeven on thesecond day!

PNS n PATANCHERU

Residents of Lakdaram villagein Patancheru Mandal ofSangareddy district onWednesday told the officials ata meeting held to gather pub-lic opinion in the village onestablishing rough stone androad metal gravel mining byone G Nageswara Rao. Airingtheir unanimous decision, theyexpressed concern overincreased water pollution in thevillage due to the crushersoperating in the village. Theyexpressed concern over roadsin the village getting damageddue to thousands of lorriespassing through the village.They said that the stone crush-ers would be dangerous toposterity. They told the author-ities not to set up crushers inthe village. The agricultureoperations have come down inthe village on account of thestone crushers. AdditionalCollector Veera Reddy and TSPollution Control Board officerSuresh were present at the pro-

gramme. They said that thecrushers have been posinghardships not only to humansbut also to animals and birds.When villagers demand doingaway with the existing quarries,what is the rationale behind theauthorities conducting a pub-lic opinion gathering meetingon establishing another crush-

er? The villagers told that theyare completely against estab-lishing a new quarry in the vil-lage. In a dramatic develop-ment, some persons claiming tobe representatives of an NGOsupported the establishment ofquarry in the village. Everyonewas surprised at the NGO rep-resentatives running after the

crusher owner at the end of themeeting. Additional CollectorVeera Reddy said that the exer-cise to mobilize public opinionwas through. He said that pub-lic opinion would be conveyedto the government. DSP BheemReddy beefed up security forthe event to rule out any unto-wardincidents.

Gather public opinion, please!Villagers on second stone crusher in Lakdaram

Ensure zero mortality rate,Collector advises authorities

PNS n NALGONDA

As the date for the MLCelections is fast approach-ing and as part of inspect-ing the arrangements forthe poll, District CollectorPrashanth Jeevan Patil vis-ited the N.G.College forsetting up of Local BodiesMLC Counting Center onWednesday.

The District Collectordiscussed with the offi-cials about setting up areception center, strongroom, and counting centerfor counting of votes tostore the polling materialreceived from the pollingstations.

District Collector wasaccompanied by DROJagadishwar Reddy, DSPVenkateshwar Reddy,Tahs i ldar Nagar juna ,Collector Office SupervisorKr ishna Mur thy, andElection DT Vijay.

MLC poll:Collectorvisits NG collegecenter

PNS n PEDDAPALLY

General Manager ofRamagundam Area-I coal minesK Narayana on Wednesdayasked the mines officials, over-men, supervisors, employees,and other mining staff to imple-ment safe operating practices inview of the frequent accidents incoal mines.

In view of the accident in theSrirampur coal mine, he asked

all workers, coal miners in RamaGundam Area-1 to pay specialattention to safety to preventrecurrence of mining accidents.He asked the officers to constant-ly monitor the safety practices incoal mines.

Area safety officer KV Rao,agent Srinadh, mines managerRamesh Babu, safety officerSrinivas Rao, welfare officerHanumantha Rao and otherstook part.

‘Follow mine safety norms’

PNS n MULUG

Announcing that there havebeen a big number of applica-tions seeking rights over Podulands, District CollectorKrishna Aditya urged the offi-cials to scrutinize the applica-tions in a transparent manner.He said that from the 9 man-dals of the district 10,420came from STs and 9868 fromothers. In order to solve thePodu land issue and also tosave forests from encroach-ments, the government hastaken steps to give title deedsto those who have been under-taking Podu cultivation, theCollector said in a statement.

Peruse Poduapplicationstransparently

Urgent repairs needed for Torrur-Maripeda stretch

HanumanthaRao assumesadditionalcharge

nation 05HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021

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R Naxals free Chhattisgarh govt sub-engineer in Bijapur district

Asub-engineer was on Wednesday released by Naxals nearly five days after he wasabducted while surveying an under-construction road in insurgency-hit Bijapur districtof Chhattisgarh, police said. Sub-engineer Roshan Lakra (35) of Pradhan Mantri

Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY), who was abducted by the ultras on November 11, wasreleased at Gangloor Road in the afternoon, a senior police officer said. However, it is stillnot clear whether Lakra was assaulted or threatened by the ultras, he said, adding that thesub-engineer will be subjected to medicalexamination once he reaches the districtheadquarters. Lakra and his department'speon Lakshman Partagiri (24) went missingon November 11 when they had gone toconduct a survey of a road being built on a15-km stretch between Bijapur town andGorna-Mankeli. As the duo did not return toBijapur district headquarter the next day, asearch was launched and later, the policeconfirmed that they had been abducted byNaxals from Kanhaiguda village.

Heroin worth Rs 12 cr seized in Assam, drug trafficker shot at

Police seized heroin valued at Rs 12 crore from two persons in Assam's Karbi Anglongdistrict on Wednesday and fired at one of them injuring him when he tried to flee, asenior officer said. Acting on a tip-off, a team of police personnel launched a search oper-

ation in Khotkhoti area and stopped the two travelling on a motorcycle. The police team recov-ered 1.77 kg of heroin, concealed in 150 soap boxes, from their possession and the drug traf-fickers had planned to supply the contraband to agents in Sarupathar in Golaghat district,Bokajan Sub-divisional Police OfficerJohn Das said. "The police opened firewhen one of the two accused drug traf-fickers tried to escape from the spotwhen they were taken to our vehicle. Hewas injured and admitted to a local hos-pital," Das said. Assam has been wit-nessing a series of encounters since thesecond BJP-led government assumedpower in May, and 26 accused werekilled and 44 others injured in shootoutsby the force in the last few months.

Cabinet clears proposal for mobileservices in 7,287 uncovered villages

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared utilisation of the Universal Service ObligationFund (USOF) for provision of mobile connectivity in 7,287 uncovered villages acrossfive states at an estimated cost of Rs 6,466 crore. Briefing media on the Cabinet

decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said these uncoveredvillages of 44 aspirational districtsacross five states of Andhra Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtraand Odisha will get 4G-based mobileservices. "So, a total 7,287 uncoveredvillages will get telecom towers andservices, and lakhs of people will getconnectivity," Thakur said. The estimatedcost of implementation of Rs 6,466crore includes operational expenses forfive years. The project would be fundedby the USOF, and would be completedwithin 18 months of signing of theagreement, an official release said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court onWednesday directed theTripura police not to take anycoercive action against thethree civil society members,including a journalist, in con-nection with an FIR lodgedunder the harsh UAPA provi-sions against them for alleged-ly bringing facts through socialmedia posts about targetedviolence against the minoritycommunity in the state.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice N V Ramana andJustices D Y Chandrachud andSurya Kant also issued a noticeto the Agartala police on theplea filed by advocates, Mukeshand Ansarul Haq, and journal-ist Shyam Meera Singh againstlodging of the FIR.

The three persons, who werepart of a fact finding commit-tee, have also challenged theConstitutional validity of someprovisions of the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act,1967 on the grounds that thedefinition of unlawful activitiesis vague and wide; moreover,

the statute makes grant of bailto accused very difficult.

The FIR took note of atweet of one of the members ofthe civil society which had stat-ed that "Tripura is burning".

Recently, the north-easternstate witnessed incidents ofarson, looting and violenceafter reports emerged fromBangladesh that the Hinduminorities there had beenattacked during Durga Puja' onallegations of blasphemy.

On November 11, the topcourt had taken note of thesubmissions of advocatePrashant Bhushan and agreedto hear the plea seeking quash-

ing of the FIR lodged againstthe three civil society members.

Bhushan had said that thetwo lawyers and the scribe havebeen proceeded against by theTripura police under the UAPAfor their social media posts andan FIR has been lodged and anotice under the CrPC hasbeen issued to them.

The plea alleged targetedpolitical violence againstMuslim minorities in Tripurain October as also the subse-quent efforts by the state tomonopolise the flow of infor-mation and facts emanatingfrom the affected areas byinvoking UAPA provisions

against members of civil soci-ety including advocates andjournalists who have made theeffort to bring facts in relationto the targeted violence in thepublic domain.

The three persons have beenaccused in the FIR lodged atthe West Agartala PoliceStation under the IPC and theUAPA provisions for alleged-ly disseminating informationabout communal violence inthe state.

If the state is allowed tocriminalise the very act of factfinding and reporting -- andthat too under the stringentprovisions of the UAPA inwhich anticipatory bail isbarred and the idea of bail is aremote possibility -- then theonly facts that will come in thepublic domain are those thatare convenient to the state dueto the chilling effect' on thefreedom of speech and expres-sion of members of civil soci-ety. If the quest for truth andreporting thereof itself is crim-inalised then the victim in theprocess is the idea of justice,the plea said.

SC bars coercive steps againstthree booked under UAPA

PNS n NEW DELHI

Police complaints were filedagainst stand-up comic VirDas in Mumbai and Delhi asthe sharp debate on his videoI come from two Indias onWednesday mirrored thepolarity of the monologueitself with celebs, politiciansand a host of others speakingout.

The well-known satirist,who has issued a statementsaying his comments weren'tintended to insult the country,found backing from TMCmember Mahua Moitra aswell as Congress leaders KapilSibal and Shashi Tharoor.However, their fellow politi-cian Abhishek Manu Singhvicriticised him for "vilifying thenation" and actor KanganaRanaut stepped in too todemand strict action againstthe comedian.

And moving from justpolemics, Delhi BJP vice pres-ident Aditya Jha from Delhiand Mumbai lawyer AshutoshJ Dubey went to the policewith their complaints. WhileJha alleged that Das made"derogatory" statements at aninternational platform withan intention to malign thecountry's image, Dubey also

held him responsible fordefaming & spoiling the imageof India in the USA, which isinflammatory . No FIRs havebeen filed as yet.

Das, who is in the US rightnow, on Monday uploaded asix-minute video on YouTubetitled "I come from twoIndias". It is part of his recentperformance at the John FKennedy Centre inWashington DC.

The Mumbai-based artiste,who has also dabbled in cin-ema, touched on various top-ics in the clip, including thefarm protests, the battleagainst Covid, the duality inresponse to women, particu-larly rape, and the crackdownon comedians.

As the issue gathered steam,

senior Congress leader Sibalon Wednesday tweeted thatnone can doubt that there aretwo Indias. Just that we don'twant an Indian to tell theworld about it. We are intoler-ant and hypocritical," hetweeted.

Tharoor praised Das as astand-up comedian whoknows that the real meaning ofthe term "stand up" is notphysical but moral.

Das spoke for millions inthe six-minute take on the'Two Indias' he hails fromand stands up for, he said onTwitter Tuesday night.

Tagging a tweet by a personwho said he has filed a com-plaint against Das withMumbai police, Tharoor said,"We know which India thiscomes from."

TMC MP Moitra alsobacked the comedian, thank-ing him for speaking truthabout "Two Indias".

"Reactions also from 2Indias - one having a laugh &other filing complaints withpolice!" she tweeted.

There were also some voic-es of support from the Hindifilm industry with filmmakerHansal Mehta and actor-pro-ducer Pooja Bhatt hailing thecomedian for his courage.

Vir Das’ ‘two Indias’ monologuesparks sharp debate, complaints

PNS n GHAZIPUR

Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav on Wednesdaysaid he sensed a "wave ofchange" in Uttar Pradesh thatwill "wipe out" the BJP in the2022 Assembly polls as heheld a 'Vijay Rath Yatra' on thePurvanchal Expressway inau-gurated a day ago by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

He claimed the 341-km-long expressway was initiatedby the Samajwadi Party whenit was in power in the state. Healso alleged that thePurvanchal Expressway is still"incomplete".

In a dig at Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath, theSamajwadi Party president

claimed that it was "bulls andbulldozers that were movingaround in the state" and askedthe people would not they"wipe out bulls and bulldozers".

Yadav was referring to theproblem of stray cattle in thestate and the chief minister'sclaim of bulldozers demolish-ing unauthorised properties.

"I see a wave of change in thestate... the BJP will be wipedout. I can assure you that in thecoming days, Uttar Pradeshwill see a change and that willbe for peace. There will defi-nitely be a change in 2022(assembly polls)."

"It was the Samajwadi Party'sdream of building the

Purvanchal Expressway toreduce travelling time betweenLucknow and Delhi. It was tobe an expressway of prosperi-ty."

Attacking the BJP govern-ment in Uttar Pradesh, he saidthat petrol and diesel havebecome costlier under the cur-rent dispensation. "These arethe very people who had saidthat poor with slippers willtravel by air. But the way theprices of diesel and petrol havegone up, riding a motorcyclehas become difficult."

Referring to the promises theBJP made to the people, Yadavsaid, "Unemployed youthswaited for jobs for five years.Where are the jobs? Will theyouth not bring a change? All

sections of the society, be itfarmers, labourers and youths,are ready to bring a change inthe state."

Buoyed by the surgingcrowd, the Samajwadi Partychief said, "This is the begin-ning, the BJP will be wiped out.A historical rally will be heldhere soon."

Referring to the differentshades of flags of his alliancepartners in the crowds, Yadavsaid, "I can see red, yellow,green and blue. It is a rainbowof all colours. The SamajwadiParty takes all the coloursalong." He took a dig at the rul-ing party, accusing it of being"of one hue and they cannottake the state on the path ofprosperity."

‘See wave of change in UP that will wipe out BJP’

Seeking legal view onKangana’s remarks:Maha Congress

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will formally hand overindigenously designed anddeveloped defence equipmentto the three chiefs of armedforces in Jhansi on November19 in a major push to"Aatmanirbhar Bharat" pro-gramme in the defence sector.

At the ceremony, the primeminister will formally givelight combat aircraft designedand developed by HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL) tothe Air Force chief, drones andUAVs built by Indian startupsto the Army chief, and theDRDO-designed and BharatElectronics Limited-manufac-tured advanced electronic war-fare suite for naval ships to theNavy chief.

The LCH incorporatesadvanced technologies andstealth features for effectivecombat roles, the statementsaid, adding the deployment ofIndian UAVs by armed forcesis also a proof of the growingmaturity of the Indian droneindustry ecosystem.

The advanced EW suite willbe used in different navalships including destroyers andfrigates.

Modi will also lay the foun-dation stone of the Rs 400-crore project at the Jhansinode of Uttar Pradesh DefenceIndustrial Corridor. The pro-

ject is being executed byBharat Dynamics Ltd for set-ting up a plant to producepropulsion systems for anti-tank guided missiles.

He will launch the NCCAlumni Association with theobjective to provide a formalplatform to enable NCC alum-ni to reconnect with theorganisation.

The association will furtherthe aims of NCC and assist innation-building.

"It will witness enrollingthe prime minister, a formerNCC cadet, as the first mem-ber of the association, thestatement said.

He will launch the nation-al programme of simulationtraining for NCC cadets withthe aim to scale up these facil-ities for all the three wings ofNCC.

He will also dedicate to thenation augmented reality pow-ered electronic kiosks at theNational War Memorial whichwill enable visitors to pay flo-ral homage to martyrs throughthe simple click of the button.

PM to hand over desi defence equipment

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will visit Mahoba andJhansi districts in UttarPradesh on Friday andlaunch multiple developmentprojects worth over Rs 6250crore.

The PM will visit Mahobaat around 2.45 pm and inau-gurate multiple projectsaimed at alleviating issues ofwater shortage for farmers inthe region, the PrimeMinister's Office (PMO) saidin a statement.

The projects include ArjunSahayak Project, Ratauli WeirProject, Bhaoni Dam Project,and Majhgaon-Chilli

Sprinkler Project.The cumulative cost of

these projects is more than Rs3250 crore and once fullyoperating, they will help irri-gate around 65,000 hectaresof land in the districts ofMahoba, Hamirpur, Bandaand Lalitpur, benefittinglakhs of farmers, the PMOsaid.

These projects will alsoprovide potable drinkingwater to people in the region,it said.

On the same day around5.15 pm, Modi will lay thefoundation stone of a 600megawatt Ultra Mega SolarPower Park in Garautha,Jhansi.

TRIPURA VIOLENCE

PNS n KOLKATA

A privilege motion wasmoved against two officials ofthe CBI and ED in WestBengal Assembly onWednesday for allegedly low-ering the dignity of theSpeaker's chair while arrest-ing three TMC MLAs in con-nection with the Narada stingcase without intimating him.

Moving the motion, TMCMLA and minister Tapas Roysaid that three ruling partylegislators -- Firhad Hakim,Madan Mitra and SubrataMukherjee -- were arrested bythe Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) earlierthis year in connection withthe Narada case but neitherwas permission sought fromSpeaker Biman Banerjee norwas he intimated.

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) had alsofiled the chargesheet againstthe trio. Roy said this actionby both the CBI and ED hadlowered the dignity of theSpeaker's chair and subse-quently moved breach ofprivileges against SatyendraSingh, Deputy SP of CBI, andRathin Biswas, AssistantDirector of ED.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Senior IPS officers Vidya JayantKulkarni, GhanshyamUpadhyay and Nawal Bajaj wereon Wednesday appointed asthe Joint Directors in the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI), aPersonnel Ministry order said.

Kulkarni, a 1998-batch IPSofficer of Tamil Nadu cadre, hasbeen appointed for a period offive years on a deputation basis,it said. Upadhyay, a 1999-batchIPS officer of Odisha cadre, willhave his tenure till June 29, 2026,the order said.

Bajaj, who is from a 1995-batch and belongs to theMaharashtra cadre, will have acombined tenure of five years,i.e. up to June 6, 2026, it said.

Privilege motionmoved againstCBI, ED officialsin Bengal House

PNS n MUMBAI

The Congress is seeking alegal opinion on recent com-ments made by KanganaRanaut and a party leaderhad already requested thepolice to register a complaintagainst her, Maharashtra partyunit president Nana Patolesaid on Wednesday anddubbed theBollywood actor'sremarks "anti-national".

Speaking toreporters here,Patole saidCongress will takea firm stand againstsuch "coordinated"attacks.

Days after her India's inde-pendence in 1947 was "bheek"remarks triggered a row,Ranaut on Tuesday claimedSubhas Chandra Bose andBhagat Singh got no supportfrom Mahatma Gandhi andwent on to mock his mantra ofahimsa by saying that offeringanother cheek gets you "bheek"not freedom.

She had described India's

Independence as "bheek", oralms, and declared that free-dom came in 2014 when theNarendra Modi-led govern-ment came to power.

In a series of posts onInstagram, Ranaut this timetargeted Mahatma Gandhiand said "choose your heroeswisely".

"There are some Hindifilm actors who are

given some awardsand being used todistort the histor-ical facts. We areseeking a legalopinion on the

matter. Once wearrive at a decision,

the party will take itsnext firm stand regarding

such coordinated attacks,"Patole said when asked aboutcomments made by Ranaut.

He said Congress leaderNaseem Khan, a former min-ister, has already requested thepolice to file a complaintagainst Ranaut. Patole saidsuch distortion of facts is an"anti-national act" but the rul-ing dispensation is encourag-ing such comments.

Modi to launch projects worthover Rs 6,250 crore in UP

SC appoints RakeshJain ex-judge ofPunjab & Haryana HCPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme CourtWednesday appointed JusticeRakesh Kumar Jain, formerjudge of the Punjab andHaryana High Court, tosupervise on day-to-day basisthe Uttar Pradesh SIT's probeinto the Lakhimpur Kheriviolence in which eight peopleincluding four farmers werekilled on October 3.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice N V Ramana andJustices Surya Kant and HimaKohli also took note of thenames of the IPS officers pro-vided by the state govern-ment, and appointed threeofficials as part of the state SIT.

Now we have verified andcontacted the concerned judgewe had thought of. This isJustice Rakesh Kumar Jain, aformer judge of the Punjaband Haryana High Court andhe will monitor the ongoinginvestigation so as to ensuretransparency and fairness, thebench said.

The apex court further saidthat the UP SIT will have to bere-constituted to accommo-date the three IPS officersincluding the IG rank policeofficer Padmaja Chauhan.

The investigation will becontinued by the SIT underthe supervision of the formerhigh court judge and the mat-ter will be listed again after thecharge sheet and the statusreport filed by the learnedjudge, the bench said.

The CJI said that a detailedorder will be passed shortly.

The UP government on

November 15 had agreed tothe apex court's suggestionthat a former judge of itschoice may be appointed tosupervise the state SIT's probe.

Prior to this, the apex courthad said it had no confidenceand did not want the one-member judicial commissionappointed by the UP govern-ment to continue the probeinto the Lakhimpur Kheriviolence case.

Retired Allahabad HighCourt judge Justice PradeepKumar Srivastava was namedby the state government ear-lier to enquire into the erup-tion of violence on Tikonia-Banbirpur road in LakhimpurKheri district.

We are inclined to appointa former judge of a differenthigh court to monitor theinvestigation on a day-to-daybasis and then see how theseparate charge sheets areeventually prepared, the benchhad said.

Speaking for the bench,Justice Surya Kant had sug-gested the names of justicesRanjit Singh and JusticeRakesh Kumar Jain, bothformer judges of the Punjaband Haryana High Courtand said that they are expe-rienced in the field of crim-inal law and would overseethe probe of the SIT till fil-ing of the charge sheets inthe cases. The police haveso far arrested 13 accused,including Union Ministerof State for Home AjayMis h r a ' s s on Ash i s hMishra, in connection withthe case.

SUPERVISING LAKHIMPUR VIOLENCE PROBE

CBI gets 3 newJoint Directors

Kerala’s Thrissur city, and hisefforts to get a Padma awardformed the plot of the hilari-ous film. Pranchiyettan handsover `1.5 crore to a conmanwho promises him a PadmaShri. Needless to say thatPranchiyettan did not make itto the list and the conman dida vanishing act with themoney. It is said that the storywas based on a real-life inci-dent in which an expatriatefrom Thrissur paid ̀ 4.5 croreto get a Padma award.

The Padma honours comewith a lot of dos and don’ts.The awardees are not allowedto display the titles on their let-ter pads or visiting cards.There is no cash incentive ofany kind with the Padmas. Theawardees do not stand anychance in getting a railwayreservation ticket confirmed orpreference of any kind in pub-lic dealings.

The only honour awaitingthe awardees comes after theypass away. The StateGovernment is bound to givethem full honours when thelast rites of the awardees areperformed. The policemenwould offer a gun salute as theband plays The Last Post.While the award winner’s bodyis consumed by fire or lowered

in the soil, the police would firea volley of shots which official-ly marks the conclusion of the“eventful” lives of these “greatsons and daughters”.

Bobby Chemmanur, abusiness baron in Kerala’sThrissur, was heard telling atelevision interviewer that hewas offered the Padma Shri by“persons in high places”. Hesaid: “But when I was asked topay `50 lakh to meet the ini-tial expenses, I said no. I amhappy with the kind of recog-nition and adulation peoplegive me.” He took people bysurprise when he brought toThrissur the iconicArgentinian footballer DiegoMaradona.

Since 2015, the selection ofPadma awardees is based onthe votes/nominations theyreceive on the Government ofIndia website. Any member ofthe public can nominate theperson of their choice for thecivilian honours and there isno need to wait for the ‘kind-ness’ of the State Government.Those bagging the maximumnumber of nominations standthe chance to win the Padmaawards. It is not knownwhether the process is fool-proof or not. But there hasbeen a noteworthy change

since 2016. A female tribalphysician, another femaleKalaripayattu exponent, a folk-lore artist, a visually impairedprimary school teacher and aHarijan Gandhian (who wereall unsung, unheard of) havemade it to the list of thePadma awardees.

Interestingly, there is aretired top bureaucrat whoplayed a major role for years inhandpicking the awardees.Pejawar Murari, former secre-tary to the President who wasinstrumental in organising theswearing-in ceremonies ofthree Prime Ministers (VPSingh, Chandra Shekhar andPV Narasimha Rao) and whowas the last word in selectingthe Padma awardees, stays inhis Chennai home surround-ed by his favourite books andtaken care of by his wife, Sita.In his eighties, Murari stillretains the old charm as wellas the ‘stiff upper lip’. He burstsout laughing when asked: “Sir,don’t you aspire for a Padmahonour?” That is PMurari…He doesn’t care ahoot for honours of any kind.

(The writer is a seniorjournalist working as a SpecialCorrespondent with ThePioneer. The views expressedare personal.)

BLAMING FARMERS WON'T DO Sir — Air pollution has been troubling usfor decades, but this year it is alarminglyhigh and Delhi-NCR is on the top of thisscourge. It is a serious health emergencyand people are suffering. Hospitals are fullof patients with breathing problems.Pollution is all around us in different formsbut we always put the onus on others. Thefarmers alone should not be blamed forair pollution. Air and other types of pol-lution are caused by several man-madeactivities like industrial smoke, use of coalfor electricity, vehicular emissions etc.

The Government must come up withsome innovative pollution control strate-gies. People too will have to sacrifice theircomforts for pollution control. We mustencourage electric vehicles and cycles, gen-erate electricity through solar energyrather than coal-firing thermal power sta-tions and replace stubble burning by sus-tainable means. Stubble can be collectedand transported to factories and used asraw material for a variety of things.Startups can be encouraged in this regard.The Supreme Court had asked the Centreto call for an emergency meeting to takemeasures to curb toxicity in the air but noconcrete measures have been taken yet.

Shashank Patil | Ujjain

HAS KANGANA RANAUT LOST IT?Sir — Actor Kangana Ranaut has defend-ed her rant that Britain “gave”Independence to India in 1947 as a“bheek” or alms, mocking MahatmaGandhi’s mantra of Ahimsa (non-violence),that offering the other cheek gets you“bheek” but not freedom. In the ‘indepen-dent' India of her vision, where she is patro-nised, Kangana Ranaut enjoys the unbri-dled freedom to demean the freedomstruggle, freedom fighters and the freedomobtained from the colonial rulers itself,unabashedly. However, Kangana Ranautshould read what Albert Einstein had saidof Mahatma Gandhi, “Generations tocome will scarcely believe that such a oneas this ever in flesh and blood walked uponthis earth.” But no one will be surprised,if she chose to rubbish Einstein’s words, too.

It would be foolish if one thought that

the ruling BJP Government will classifyKangana Ranaut’s sacrilegious com-ments as sedition. Centre has alwayslooked the other way when Gandhi’skillers were repeatedly lionised, indepen-dent India’s first Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru was relentlessly vilifiedand Muslims were demonised in virulenthate speeches. Kangana sees NarendraModi’s assumption of power in May 2014as the dawn of the independent ‘HinduRashtra’. It was not surprising that PadmaShri Kangana Ranaut thought to pooh-pooh India’s freedom struggle.

Haridasan Rajan | Kozhikode

TALK IT OUT WITH AFGHANISTAN Sir — After the violence and chaos follow-ing the Taliban’s annexation of Kabul inAugust, things seemed to be falling in placein Afghanistan. However, it will require along, long time before the Taliban caninfuse some sort of hope, if any, in peo-ple of the country. Domestic Talibanengagement is only one side of the story.

Interrelated are the widespread repercus-sions of the Taliban rule far and across thecountry's borders. Dangerous radicalisa-tion, mindless extremism and cross bor-der infiltration are grave issues that needto be addressed on a war-footing. Goingby the background of the militant outfit,one cannot blame the countries of theregion for feeling threatened by the pres-ence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Terror breeds on opportunities andconvenience. Not only countries likeTajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan,which share land borders withAfghanistan, but other countries of thesensitive region of Asia cannot waver aninch on terror. That precisely is why thecentral Asian countries should shed pastanimosities and go on an interactive modewith regards to Afghanistan, though it isbetter said than done.

Ganapathi Bhat | Akola

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

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06

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Consumed by the craving for recognition, people are said to have bid crores tosecure a Padma award. But the process has become transparent since 2015

THE ONLY HONOURAWAITING THE

AWARDEES COMESAFTER THEY PASSAWAY. THE STATEGOVERNMENT ISBOUND TO GIVE

THEM FULLHONOURS WHEN

THE LAST RITES OFTHE AWARDEES

ARE PERFORMED

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

KUMAR CHELLAPPAN

The demise of Babasaheb (Balwant)Moreshwar Purandare, popularly knownas Babasaheb Purandare, is an immense

loss to the world of culture in the country and,in particular, Maharashtra. He was a versa-tile personality, a great historian, eminentwriter and theatre personality. He had metic-ulously tracked the history of the MarathaEmpire, visited hundreds of forts that ShivajiMaharaj had conquered and visited each andevery place where Shivaji Maharaj hadgone. He preserved everything he found in

these places for future generations. Heremained fully immersed in the life ofShivaji Maharaj till the end, thus very few his-torians can match his dedication.

Babasaheb Purandare's most populartwo-part 900-page magnum opus on ShivajiMaharaj in Marathi which was first publishedin the 1950s, is a staple in most Marathihouseholds in Maharashtra and beyond.Many eminent personalities paid their trib-ute to Babasaheb Purandare including PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and MaharashtraChief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. NotedHistorian Babasaheb Purandare received sev-eral awards for his exceptional work on ShivajiMaharaj including the Padma Vibhushan,India's second-highest civilian award andMaharashtra Bhushan, the highest civilianaward of Maharashtra. His demise has lefta hard-to-fill void in the cultural, literary andartistic heritage of the nation and, in partic-ular, Maharashtra.

Ramesh G Jethwani | Bengaluru

The man who lived for a cause

Whose Padmais it, anyway?

As the COVID-19 pan-demic subsides, a newtype of fever hasgripped Kerala and

Tamil Nadu. It is the Padma fever!The craving for civilian honours— the Padma Shri, PadmaBhushan and Padma Vibhushan,which would be declared on theeve of the Republic Day — knowsno bounds in these States. It isonly in Kerala and Tamil Naduthat one comes across peoplewith a passion for honorific titles,such as a Doctor or Padma win-ner. Though former ChiefMinister, late M Karunanidhi,was a school dropout, he want-ed people to address him as ‘DrKalaignar’.

The fancy for recognitionplays a major role in the passionfor these awards. Mostly thenouveau riche chase these awards,which do not carry any cash prizeor material benefits. The Padmaawardees get importance in war-rant of protocols in public func-tions.

The Padma awards seek torecognise achievements in allfields where an element of pub-lic service is involved. “The rec-ommendations for the BharatRatna are made by the PrimeMinister to the President ofIndia. No formal recommenda-tions for the Bharat Ratna arenecessary. The Padma Awards areconferred on the recommenda-tions made by the Padma AwardsCommittee, which is constitutedby the Prime Minister everyyear. The nomination process isopen to the public. Even self-nomination can be made,” statesthe Government of India notifi-cation in this regard.

Since 2015, the UnionGovernment has changed therules/procedures for selectingthe awardees. Earlier, the StateGovernments were asked to senda list of names, from which theCentre picked the persons for thePadma honours. But this was notat all a transparent process. AMalayalam feature film,Pranchiyettan And The Saint(2010), directed by Ranjit, aCPI(M) fellow traveller, por-trayed vividly the nuances of get-ting a Padma award.

Pranchiyettan, a self-madebut uneducated entrepreneur in

SOUNDBITEThose labellingfarmers as villainsfor air pollution due to stubble burning must apologise to farmers.

BKU spokesperson—Rakesh Tikait

Some people in the US intend to ‘use Taiwan tocontrol China'.This trend is very

dangerous and is like playingwith fire.

Chinese President—Xi Jinping

We should

encourage children

to donate things to

the poor to make

them understand

the importance of humanity.

RSS chief

—Mohan Bhagwat

The fans in Indiahave always beenthere for me and it is for them thatyou play. We play

to entertain.

Australia batsman—David Warner

As the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election inches closer, the major players in theState — the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress,to an extent — have amped up their electoral game as they seek to make last-

ditch efforts to occupy voters’ mind space. The cacophony emerging from the Oppositioncamp that the BJP is focusing only on its Hindutva agenda and tom-tomming vari-ous projects with a definitive tilt towards Hindu votes, has forced the ruling party tosit back and take notice. Concerned that such statements, if made repeatedly in onevoice and with conviction by the Opposition parties that are seemingly bitter rivals inthis arena, could alienate voters from other castes, communities and religions, the

BJP is consciously making a slight course correc-tion and is now going fast and loose talking about“vikas” and underlining its vision for the develop-ment agenda for the State. All available signals inthe party’s ongoing journey towards winning the bat-tle for the ballot indicate that the launch of thePurvanchal Expressway would certainly not be theBJP’s last gift to Uttar Pradesh this election season.

There are already reports in the media that PMModi could lay the foundation stone of two more infra-structure projects and inaugurate at least three pro-jects next month. He is likely to be in Greater Noida

on November 25 to lay the foundation stone of the Noida International Airport projectand hold a public rally there. Chief Minister Yogi had said the work on the 594-km-long Ganga Expressway will “start in a few days” and the work on 296-km-longBundelkhand Expressway was going on at a fast pace. Two other key projects, set tobe unveiled in the Gorakhpur region by the PM, will be a fertiliser plant and an All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Gorakhpur, which is scheduled tentatively forDecember 5. However, putting the proverbial cog in the wheels of the ruling party’sgame plan are ever-growing shrill voices that the BJP is on this “development spree”involving only the projects that had been envisioned and planned by the erstwhile StateGovernments. “The BJP Governments are only inaugurating projects started by theAkhilesh Yadav Government,” an SP functionary was quoted as saying. Be that as itmay, the only thing clear right now is that it would take a lot more than Hindu-wooingand credit-stealing for the BJP to emerge the favourites at the hustings.

Nobody killed Jessica. Nobody is responsible for the insufferable, terrible, hazardousair pollution over Delhi and the National Capital Region either. The weathermansays pollution levels could worsen because a drop in wind speed and tempera-

tures is predicted. The smog and haze that blanket the national Capital will not disperseeasily in the absence of wind and lower temperatures. The air quality has plunged tothe “severe category”, leaving people gasping for fresh air. Respiratory infections amongchildren and the infirm have grown in a fortnight. Pollution levels are now posing a crit-ical risk even to healthy individuals. Scientists say the air quality index in the city wasat 499 on Tuesday. The Supreme Court, the Union and State Governments, the IMDand various pollution monitoring bodies are involved in trying to find a way out of thismess. However, in reality, there is no way out of it. Like the rain gods used to come to

the rescue of Team India in cricket once upon a time,we, with scientific and official might at our disposal,now depend on nature to help the people out of theirmisery. A steady and strong air current wafting throughDelhi and its environs for a week or so can dispersethe pollution and lift the haze and everything will beforgotten till next time.

The Supreme Court passed strict orders about thekind of crackers to be burst on Diwali. However, noattempt was made to identify genuine green crackerbrands. Policing was conspicuous by its absence.Crackers were sold, bought and used with impunity

because a certain political ideology decided the law cannot come in the way of religionand tradition. The people burst crackers with a vengeance after a lull last year becauseof the fear of COVID-19 and the lockdown. Visibility was near zero on the morning afterDiwali but it was nobody’s bother. Issuing orders that cannot be implemented does nothelp either democracy or health. The Supreme Court and the Governments confabulat-ed a lot about stubble burning by the farmers of Punjab, Haryana and western UttarPradesh. The Governments are still ‘politically’ debating if stubble burning adds to pol-lution at all. Of course, they pollute. To quote official sources, on Tuesday, 1,820 fireswere reported from Punjab and Haryana and they contributed to eight per cent of Delhi’sPM 2.5 levels. The Commission for Air Quality Management stopped the entry of trucksand shut down offices and schools. However, it managed to take a politically correctdecision of exempting construction activity of “national importance” as if these activi-ties do not generate dust and pollute the air. Now, we face a new threat. With droppingtemperatures, the burning of local biomass in the suburban and rural areas will increasethe presence of smog. The gigantic machinery of the Executive already appears to havefallen back on air picking up speed some day and stubble fires declining on their own.

Nobody’s children

Power playAs the BJP shifts gears in UP, the Opposition

parties seek to portray it as opportunist

PICTALK

Hot-air balloons take off from Domri at the launch of the International Balloon Festival, in Varanasi PTI

The smog over Delhi is no Govt’s liability; we look to nature to ameliorate conditions

Dharma Productionsis all set toannounce its first-ever action film. Stay tuned, bigannouncement coming up.

Filmmaker—Karan Johar

The big fat electionsin Uttar Pradesh

THE BJP PRESIDENT SAID THERE IS LAWLESSNESS

IN BENGAL. LOOK AT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN

UP, GUJARAT, TRIPURA AND ASSAM.

—WEST BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER

MAMATA BANERJEE

THE NAME OF WEST BENGAL HAS BECOME

SYNONYMOUS WITH CORRUPTION, BLOODSHED

AND ANARCHY UNDER THE TMC.

—BJP NATIONAL PRESIDENT

JP NADDA

Mayawati enjoys unquestionable support among Dalits. It will be erroneous to

write off the BSP as the party has a committed vote bank of over 20 per cent

India is in the process of celebrating the 75th year of independence.Many events are being held. The purpose however should also beto strengthen the Indian sense of identity while flagging the signif-

icant achievements which the Independence enabled. Typically, theyrange from achievements in space to near elimination of polio. It isnecessary to recognise that there continue to be many and significantareas of potential improvement. Not to think of them and not to attemptto tackle them would be naïve.The objective here is not to create abalance sheet but to flag some of the distinctive concepts and man-ifestations of Indian identity and how it makes India a truly unique expe-rience. Consider the proposition that India probably is among the fewlands in the world where maun (silence) is celebrated and idolised.There are many amongst us who observe silence for a given day orparts of the day. Some choose when they want to keep quiet and willonly communicate in writing. This is often seen and experienced, amongother things, as a path of mental peace and coming to terms with one-self. It is well known that spoken words are like arrows that once shotcannot be taken back. Unthinking utterances can sometimes cause

more damage and pain than perhaps even broken bones. Yet com-munication is such a basic urge that people talk even when the otherperson is not listening. Give a mike to a speaker and the chances arehe will exceed the time in the fond notion that even if many people arenot listening, he needs to say what he has to say. A recognition of thesignificance of maun and its projection as a trait would be a worthycontribution to the seminal components of Indian identity.

Consider the brother-sister relationship. India is probably the onlyculture where a man-woman relationship has been sublimated to anasexual level. It is not only its sublimation but its ritualization that is amatter of further significance. Relationships have been created acrossknown human hurdles by the sending of a rakhi by a lady to a gen-tleman with whom she would seek a connect. The reciprocation ofthat gesture of sending rakhi is celebrated with much social approval.Some stories about this circulate and many still practise it symboli-cally. This component of Indian identity needs to be projected with farmore vigour to the edification of all who may be interested. Other exam-ples of Indian uniqueness abound. The listing of the type attemptedabove can have spaces as a constraint. In an era full of climate talkand resetting of developmental objectives, the approach would be incom-plete without a look at the uniqueness of Indianness in an ecological-ly-related context or indeed the non-human world. In India we haverecognised life in a unique way amongst animals, trees, plants andmore. Two examples would help illustrate the point. In India, even beyondthe symbolic value of an elephant, the reference to a hathi (elephant)can evoke images of the Airavat. In other words, the celestial elephantwith many divine virtues. The rest of the Airavat lore is another story.Coming to the trees, the concept is thereof a heavenly tree called theKalpavriksh. Belief has it that wishes come true under the shade ofthis Kalpavriksh. How can then, one practice thoughtless felling of thetrees? The targets of climate change, be they of 2030 or of 2070 wouldqualitatively improve if the prism of looking at the issues is modified.The road to rediscovering Indian identity is clearly arduous and needsa sharpened ability to think. It is worth while.

(The writer is a well-known management consultant of international repute. The views expressed are personal.)

Any kind of progress is amiracle, not of thedivine kind, but of a

very much human variety. Infact, it can be said that onlyhumans can work miracles!For a God, any remarkableevent would be a straightfor-ward capability, and so notreally an odds-defying miracle.

Indeed, so much ofastounding progress seems afluke; a matter of pure luck.How many governments hada program running to discov-er a better alternative to lampsand candles? Yet, a self-taughttinkerer succeeds on his ownwhim and motivation. Andelectrifies the world with hisbulb, made correctly afterseveral hundred attempts!

There is so much zig-zagin human affairs, both at anindividual as well as collective

level, that it leaves us oftenwondering if there is actual-ly a direction. Though educa-tion, life expectancy andaccess to opportunity areimproving for more and morepeople, humankind isnonetheless not on a steadymarch but in an irregularlurch towards progress. Howwell can a novel written inmid-1970s America conveythis?

When it's by Alice Walkerof 'The Color Purple' fame,her name on the cover isenough to compel one topick it up. "Meridian" is thename of a young woman;Meridian Hill, who grows upin the South around the mid-dle of the 20th century. Shehas some academic aptitudethough she comes from alabourer family. She gets lucky

with a second chance at agood education by going on ascholarship to a reputed col-lege. She'd been expelled acouple of years earlier fromhigh school for getting preg-nant.

On campus, she hasfriends who are active minds,enquiring into social inequal-ity, history and law. Over aperiod of time, she becomesa Civil Rights picketer, and an

activist supporter for blackrights. Drafting petitions,cooking, typing, nursing, can-vassing, protesting...she is inthe thick of it all.

The middle of the book isabout the personal vicissitudesin these young lives as they tryto earn money, help theirfriends, cope with their ownemotions, and continue theirpolitical activity.

The rights campaignersare greeted with cynicismand derision, seen as deludeddreamers, and there are manycommunity members whocling to comforts — the bot-tle, the weed, their local pas-tor, or vices that occupy theirtime. Most have no education.The few beliefs they have arereligious ones learnt fromtheir family and local commu-nity. Nothing in their lives or

their grandparents' lives couldinspire any optimism regard-ing society.

Still, social change is tak-ing place. Individuals withupward mobility are taking upcareers in the church, thelegal profession, and in teach-ing.

White America is brutalon the activists, using violenceagainst non-violent protesters.Through Meridian, we see itall — the community that hasto be mobilized, the momen-tum of the Civil Rightsmarchers, the turmoil in per-sonal lives compounded withthe unrest around them -and we see how people changeexpectations over time.

It's simplistic to categorizeindividuals into conservativesand radicals, because there arepeople like Meridian's moth-

er who's a generous, extreme-ly hard-working person butdoesn't set store by politicalchange. Her devoutness hasalready equipped her to for-bear her lot and consider itstill to be morally better thanthat of any exploiter.

The last quarter of thebook is powerful. It haspoignant scenes like thecrowds milling into thechurch for a glimpse ofMartin Luther King Jr. duringthe funeral service for him.

Much older now, and theMovement in a differentphase, Meridian happens tostep into a church, and hearsthe preacher speak in thevery style and language ofMartin Luther King to thecongregation. She feels a dif-ference in the body languageof the attendees. She senses

that the civil rights movementnow has the majority of thecommunity with it.

"...she actually felt as if therich and racist of the worldshould stand in fear of her,because she - though appar-ently weak and penniless, a lit-tle crazy and without power -was yet of a resolute and rel-atively fearless character,which, sufficient in its calmacceptance of its own pur-pose, could bring the might-iest country to its knees."

The takeaway is thatsocial reform requires streettactics, diplomacy, the spreadof its message, legal petitions,the support of communityelders, the backing of youth,and the hope of success tomake headway. Perhaps today,the use of digital platforms isa contributing factor too.

Humankind is not on a steady march but in an irregular lurch towards progress. How well can a novel written in mid-1970s America convey this?

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMNPERCEPTIVENESS OF INDIANNESS

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Chance — an ever-dependable factor in society

BALAKRISHNAN SATYAM

(The writer is a creative director,advertising faculty,

and an amateur epistemologist.The views expressed

are personal.)

VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

BISWAJEET BANERJEE

The road to rediscovering Indian identity isarduous and needs a sharpened ability to think

The election scenario in UttarPradesh is hotting up. Leaders ofmajor political parties are outwooing the voters. Akhilesh

Yadav has started his Vijay Yatra claimingthat people have already written a requiemfor the BJP and that the return of theSamajwadi Party is inevitable. PriyankaGandhi is on a whirlwind tour of UttarPradesh, meeting people, exhorting partyworkers to unite and project Congress asthe only alternative BJP in UP as well asat the national level.

On the other hand, BJP leaders, led byPrime Minister Narendra Modi andHome Minister Amit Shah are holdingmeetings, inaugurating projects, andstressing the importance of double-enginegovernment. Chief Minister YogiAdityanath is injecting the dose ofHindutva with freebies. The scheme of freeration among the poor has been extend-ed till March 2022 (by the time electionswill be over) and also released money tothe accounts for parents of school-goingchildren to purchase uniforms. This way,every parent whose ward is studying in astate-run or government-aided school willget Rs 1,100.

The aggressiveness in the electioncampaign shows the desperation amongthe parties to do well in this politically sen-sitive state. This is clear that the future ofthese parties is at stake and the UttarPradesh elections will decide the role ofthese parties in national politics.

The BJP leadership has accepted thisstark reality as Amit Shah during hisrecent rally said that if you want to bringModi back to power in 2024 vote for Yogiin Uttar Pradesh in 2022. Though he gavethis statement in Varanasi, Modi's parlia-mentary constituency, it shows how muchthe future of BJP hinges on the result ofthe Uttar Pradesh elections. The Modigovernment is bound to lose the politicalcommand if BJP loses Uttar Pradesh. Thebarbs would be more stringent and everydecision of the Prime Minister would beput under the microscope. TheOpposition is already questioning BJP'slosses in Himachal Pradesh and Karnatakabye-elections and a further loss in UttarPradesh would enthuse the opposition andgive them hope that they can topple BJPin the 2024 general elections.

The scenario would not be differentfor Priyanka Gandhi and Congress. Theleadership quotient of the sister-brotherduo is at stake in Uttar Pradesh. The defeatof the party in the last decade and a halfhas led to erosion of the party's base.Dalits, Muslims, and upper castes whowere the quintessential support group ofCongress till the mid-80s gradually shift-ed to the Bahujan Samaj Party, SamajwadiParty, and BJP, respectively. Despite theCongress-led UPA government rulingIndia for 10 years till 2014, the party'sreliance on the Samajwadi Party andBahujan Samaj Party to run theManmohan Singh government at the

IT WILL BE AHERCULEAN TASK

FOR PRIYANKAGANDHI TOREVIVE THE

PARTY. IN THELAST ASSEMBLY

ELECTIONS,CONGRESS HAD

WON JUST SEVENSEATS IN THE403-MEMBER

ASSEMBLY BUTNOW IT IS LEFT

WITH ONLY FIVEMEMBERS. IN THE PRESENT

SCENARIO, EVENWINNING TWODOZEN SEATSWOULD BE A

GREAT VICTORYFOR THE PARTY

Centre allowed these parties to gainin Uttar Pradesh at the expense ofCongress. In the passage of time,Congress lost mass support, whichit once enjoyed in Uttar Pradesh.

In this scenario, it will be aHerculean task for Priyanka Gandhito revive the party. In the last assem-bly elections, Congress had won justseven seats in the 403-memberassembly but now is left with onlyfive members. In the present sce-nario, even winning two dozenseats would be a great victory forthe party. This is an onerous taskand if Priyanka fails to achieve theresult, questions would be raisedabout her leadership quality. Thevoice of discontent would start ema-nating within the party demandinga change in leadership.

Similar is the case withSamajwadi Party. Akhilesh knowsthat a loss in this assembly electionwould further push him to obliv-ion and questions would be raisedover his leadership. The SamajwadiParty had lost the 2014 and 2019Lok Sabha elections and 2017assembly elections which it contest-ed under Akhilesh's leadership. In2017 the SP had forged an alliancewith Congress and in 2019 theparty contested as an ally with BSP.The experiment failed and this timeAkhilesh has decided to go withsmall parties instead of allying withbig political players.

The silhouette of Akhilesh'splan was visible in a rally inAmbedkar nagar where two seniorBSP leaders - Ram Achal Rajbharand Lalji Verma - joined theSamajwadi Party. In that rally,

Akhilesh gave a call to merge B RAmbedkar and Ram ManoharLohia. The subtle declarationshows an attempt of the SamajwadiParty to turn a new leaf in caste-based identity politics with a des-perate attempt to forge a Dalit-backward social coalition.

This is not the first time thatsuch an experiment has been triedin Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, it wasBSP's patriarch Kashi Ram whocarved out a larger Dalit-Bahujancoalition of Scheduled Castes andOBCs. The experiment yieldedresults in 1993 when the SamajwadiParty and BSP came together todefeat BJP at the peak of the RamTemple movement to form a coali-tion government. 'Mile MulayamKanshi Ram, hawameinudgaye JaiShri Ram' was the common refrainat that time. In 2007, through herfocus on Sarva Samaj, Mayawatisucceeded in enlisting the supportof sections of the extremely back-ward castes and won a clear major-ity on her own. The political pun-dits called it the magic of socialengineering where the Dalitsstitched an alliance with backwardand upper castes.

In this election, Akhilesh Yadavwants to revive the same magic andhas given a call for the comingtogether of the followers of Dr. BRAmbedkar and Ram ManoharLohia to protect the honour of theDalits and OBCs and ensuringtheir due representation in thepower structure. This declarationis made with a design becauseOther Backward Castes (OBCs) arebound to play an important role as

they played in the 2019 generalelections and 2017 assembly elec-tions. BJP came to power onlybecause it was able to garner goodsupport of OBC because it stitchedeffective alliances with small butcaste-based parties. SamajwadiParty has thrived largely on aYadav-Muslim core base. Whennon-Yadav OBCs supported M-Ysocial equation, Akhilesh came topower in the 2012 assembly elec-tions. Since the 2014 Lok Sabhaelections, the non-Yadav OBCshave veered around to the BJP andAkhilesh's slogan is an attempt tobring this OBC vote bank back tothe SP umbrella.

In this edition of the election,Akhilesh has already forged analliance with small parties likeSuheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party(SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar. Itis also in alliance with Mahan Dalled by Keshav Prasad Maurya andin western UP it has declared itsalliance with Rashtriya Lok Dal.

About BSP, no one questionsthe support Mayawati enjoysamong Dalits. It will be erroneousto write off the Bahujan SamajParty as the party has committeda vote bank of over 20 per cent. Theparty has successfully carried outBrahmin Sammelans across thestate but the way senior partyleaders, including legislators, haveleft BSP and joined SamajwadiParty reflects the eroding base.Mayawati is yet to start the cam-paign, once she starts movingfrom one district to another thegroundswell in her support cannotbe ruled out.

(The writer is PoliticalEditor, The Pioneer,Lucknow. The views

expressed are personal.)

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021 Money 08

oney atters

NMDC workers hold protestagainst Nagarnar Steel Plant

NMDC workers on Wednesday staged a dharna at JantarMantar here against the demerger of Nagarnar Steel Plant

and government stake sale in thecompany."We will protest tomorrow also.We will be giving a representation to theLabour Minister regarding this," SantRam Sethia, Nagarnar Steel PlantWorkers' Union President, said.Rajesh Sandhu, Secretary of NMDCSanyukt Khadaan Mazdoor Sangh, whichrepresents workers at the NMDC

operated mines, said over 200 employees of the company havegathered in the national capital for the two-day protest.

K&L Wellness Technologyraises Rs 30 cr from Angel

Healthtech firm K&L Wellness Technology on Wednesdayraised a seed round of Rs 30 crore from angel investorsVimal Kedia and Surendra Kedia of

Manjushree Ventures as well asNarendra Firodia of Sohamm Group.The funds will be invested to launch andscale its healthtech platform to redefinethe lifestyle transformation of the worldof wellness through science-ledpersonalised solutions, the companysaid in a statement.K&L WellnessTechnology provides therapeutic-based health solutions to lifestylediseases using natural, sustainable and traditional methods ofyoga and meditation.

Gold futures gain on spotdemand

Gold prices on Wednesday rose by Rs 55 to Rs 49,093 per 10gram in futures trade as speculators created fresh positions

amid firming spot demand.On the MultiCommodity Exchange, goldcontracts for Decemberdelivery traded higher by Rs55, or 0.11 per cent, to Rs49,093 per 10 gram in abusiness turnover of 6,412lots.Fresh positions built up byparticipants led to the rise ingold prices, analysts said.However, gold prices traded

0.26 per cent lower at USD 1,859 per ounce in New York.

RBI ex DG highlights says centralbank's concerns on crypto

Former RBI Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan on Wednesdaysaid money laundering and lack of clarity on valuations are theprimary concerns of central banks in being circumspect about the

introduction of cryptocurrencies. If the government goes ahead andallows cryptocurrencies, bankers need tobe wary and not confuse persons'wealth with the amount of cryptoassets they hold even if they donot use it as collateral for lending,Vishwanathan said. Thecomments come amid a heateddebate over whether to allowprivate cryptocurrencies into thecountry, which has seen the RBIbeing vocal about its concerns, while thegovernment seems to be more amenable. RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas had on Tuesday reiterated his concerns over cryptocurrencies,saying there are 'far deeper issues' involved in virtual currencies thatcould pose a threat to the country's economic and financial stability.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India will pitch for finding apermanent solution to theissue of public stock holdingfor food security purposes inthe forthcoming meeting of theWorld Trade Organisation(WTO) at Geneva, startingfrom November 30, an officialsaid.

The official expressed hopethat "something may come" upon public stockholding anddomestic support, which arepart of negotiations on theagriculture sector, in the 12thministerial conference, whichis the highest decision makingbody of the 164-memberWTO.

The four-day ministerialconference will begin fromNovember 30.

"Now that the 12th meetingis approaching, a number ofsubmissions are being made atthe WTO for advancing nego-tiations in agriculture. Indiaalong with the G33 (group ofnations) has been engaging in

achieving a permanent solu-tion to the public stockholdingissue," the government officialsaid.

The official added that thepublic stockholding (PSH) ismust for India because it has amandate, which goes back along period of time and Indiawill pitch for that.

Finding a permanent solu-tion to the public food stock-pile issue is linked to the sur-vival of 800 million hungrypeople across the globe.

Under the global trade

norms, a WTO member's foodsubsidy bill should not breachthe limit of 10 per cent of thevalue of production based onthe reference price of 1986-88.Apprehending that full imple-mentation of the food securi-ty programme may result inbreach of the WTO cap, Indiahas been seeking amendmentsin the formula to calculate thefood subsidy cap.

As an interim measure, theWTO members at the Baliministerial meeting inDecember 2013 had agreed to

put in place a mechanism pop-ularly called the Peace Clauseand committed to negotiatingan agreement for permanentsolution at the 11th minister-ial meeting at Buenos Aires.

Under the Peace Clause,WTO members agreed torefrain from challenging anybreach in the prescribed ceil-ing by a developing nation atthe dispute settlement forum ofthe WTO. This clause will bethere till a permanent solutionis found to the food stockpil-ing issue.

India has invoked the clausein 2018-19 (13 per cent) and2019-20 (11 per cent) as itbreached the subsidy cap forrice.

The current discourse inagriculture negotiations at theWTO includes developedmembers seeking developingcountries to take on addition-al commitments in terms ofenhanced market access,reduction in policy spacethrough reduced domestic sup-port.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India is seeking duty free mar-ket access for its leather goodsin countries, including UAE,UK and Australia, with whichit is negotiating Free TradeAgreements (FTAs) to boostmanufacturing and exports,Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal said onWednesday.

He also expressed hope thattalks for a similar agreementwith the GCC (GulfCooperation Council) groupwill be launched sometime inJanuary or February next year.

Member countries of GCCare Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,Qatar, Saudi Arabia, andUnited Arab Emirates (UAE).

"We are trying to get marketaccess duty free for our leatherindustry and that is one of ourprime asks when we are talk-ing to the UAE, UK andAustralia... I do hope thatIsrael can also open their doorsfor our leather products.

"All of these countries we arelooking at, and talking to themfor better market access andbetter opportunities for yoursector," Goyal said at the

National Export ExcellenceAwards function here.

The event was organised bythe Council for LeatherExports (CLE).

The minister asked theindustry to work on scale andquality to make India a majorhub for global brands.

The industry should notwait for government supportmeasures and work on itsstrengths to boost growth, headded.

Speaking at the event, CLEChairman Sanjay Leekha saidthe industry has set an export

target of USD 5.89 billion forthe current year and it is aim-ing to reach USD 10 billion by2025.

"Besides, we are aiming atreaching a domestic leatherproducts and footwearturnover of USD 20 billion by2025 from the present turnoverof USD 12 billion," he said.

He also urged the govern-ment to extend the benefits ofthe Production-LinkedIncentive (PLI) scheme to thesector as it would help inboosting manufacturing, cre-ating jobs and increasingexports.

India to pitch for permanentsolution for food securityPNS n NEW DELHI

Traders' body CAIT onWednesday said it hasapproached the NarcoticsControl Bureau seeking a probeinto the alleged use of e-com-merce major Amazon's plat-form for sourcing marijuana.

When contacted, AmazonIndia said it is currently investi-gating the issue. "The issue wasnotified to us and we are current-ly investigating it whether thereis any non-compliance on part ofthe seller. We assure full co-oper-ation and support required toInvestigating Authorities andLaw Enforcement agencies withongoing investigations andensure full compliance to applic-able laws, an Amazon IndiaSpokesperson said.

On Saturday, an online mar-ijuana sale racket was busted byBhind police in MadhyaPradesh, leading to the arrest oftwo persons and seizure of 20kilograms of the contraband,according to an official. Theaccused were operating theracket through a leading e-commerce firm, which receivedtwo-thirds of the profits gener-ated, as per the official.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Mahindra & MahindraFinancial Services (MahindraFinance) on Wednesdayannounced the launch of lease-based vehicle subscriptionbusiness for the urban centres,eyeing a business of Rs 10,000crore in the next 3-5 years.

Under a brand christened'Quiklyz', the non-bankingfinancial company (NBFC)said it will be the first-of-its-kind digital journey on vehicleusership aimed at catering toboth the retail customers andcorporates.

Under the new-age vehicleleasing and subscription busi-ness 'Quiklyz', the companywill offer multi-brand vehicleleasing and subscription, tar-geting to reach as many as 30cities within a year and garnera book size of Rs 10,000 crorein 3-5 years, Mahindra Financesaid while announcing Quiklyzvirtually.

Mahindra Finance sees thisas a great opportunity to cre-ate value for its stakeholderswith a profitable business

model and build a strong bal-ance sheet out of emergingopportunities in this adjacentbusiness vertical, it said.

Quiklyz is the first-of-its-kind digital journey on carusership with which the cus-tomer can access a brand newcar without all the hassles ofcar ownership.

It will take care of registra-tion, insurance, scheduled andunscheduled maintenance, androadside assistance, amongothers.

"Car leasing and subscrip-tion is a lucrative and fast-growing business in India. Weaim to achieve a book size of

Rs 10,000 crore in 3-5 years.

"Leasing is seeing significanttraction in the last-mile mobil-ity space especially with EVs(electric vehicles), somethingour business module will alsofocus on," Ramesh Iyer, vice-chairman and managing direc-tor of Mahindra Finance, said.

The company sees it as a bigopportunity to serve the urbanmarket, especially the retailcustomers.

Besides, it will also allow thecompany to design productsthat are suitable to the needs ofthe customers, Iyer toldreporters.

Mahindra Finance launches lease-based vehicle subscription biz

PNS n NEW DELHI

State-owned CIL onWednesday said its efforts tocurb environmental pollutionthrough the implementation ofmechanised coal transporta-tion and loading through coal-handling plants resulted in asignificant reduction of carbondioxide (CO2) emissions andother air pollutants.

This was revealed in a first-of-its-kind pilot study spon-sored by Coal India Ltd (CIL)in two of its opencast mines.

At a time when the countryunder COP 26 commitmenthas pledged the reduction ofCO2 emissions towards net-zero march, CIL's efforts in thisregard will help the nationalcause.

To reduce emissions for acleaner environment, CIL in amajor step is switching over tomechanised transportation ofcoal through conveyor beltsand loading by CHP/ silosunder its first-mile connectiv-ity (FMC) initiative.

In addition to 151 milliontonnes (MT) of coal currentlytransported through thismeans, CIL has identified 35coal mining projects whereadditionally 415 million tonnes(MT) of coal will be loadedthrough environment-friendlyCHP/ silos by 2023-24.

To come up at an investmentof around Rs 10,500 crore,FMC projects will lift the totalmechanised loading quantity to566 MT.

CIL is dovetailing FMC pro-

jects with main rail lines,strengthening the rail connec-tivity at an investment of aboutRs 2,335 crore. The company isalso investing Rs 3,750 crore in21 new rail sidings. Evacuationof coal is more challenging. Siloloading compared to prevalentloading through sidings alsoleads to productivity gain onquality and quantity fronts.

CIL has engaged the servicesof the National EnvironmentalEngineering Research Institute,a unit of the Council of

Scientific Industrial Research,to evaluate potential environ-mental advantages of loadingcoal through CHP/ silos inLingaraj and Gevra opencastprojects of MCL and SECL,respectively, as a dipstick sur-vey.

"The result of the study isencouraging. Mechanised load-ing offers a bouquet of environ-mental benefits like reducedCO2 emissions, other air pol-lutants and ambient noise lev-els.

"Reliability in coal despatch-es also increases, especiallyduring monsoon, as silo load-ing avoids road transport," thecompany said.

With Lingaraj OpencastProject (OCP) having 16 MTCHP/ silo loading capacity perannum, the pilot study estab-lished an annual reduction of10,288 tonnes CO2 emissions.This indicates an overall 54 percent drop in emissions com-pared to despatch through railsidings. Reduction in particu-late matter and other gaseous

emissions was around 73 percent, which translates into abetter quality of life.

In the case of Gevra, whichhas 10 MT CHP/ silo capaci-ty, the reduction in CO2 emis-sions was 1,658 tonnes per yearfor loading through silos,around 21 per cent fall againstloading through sidings.

There was a reduction ofaround 84 per cent in particu-late matter and other gaseousemissions.

Though CIL has construct-ed bypass roads for trucks,mechanised loading leads toreduced density on the roadnetwork enhancing better roadsafety and lowering accidents.

Another offshoot of mecha-nised loading is savings thataccrue out of a decrease indiesel consumption and roadtransportation costs. A totalsaving of 58.38 lakh litres ofdiesel from payloaders andtippers was indicated inLingaraj OCP entailing a ben-efit of Rs 105 crore, includingtransportation costs.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Adani Green Energy andAdani Transmission havescored 66 points and 63 points,respectively, in the corporatesustainability assessment(CSA) survey 2021 conductedby DJSI-S&P Global, which ishigher than the average worldelectric utility sector score of 38points.

"Adani Green Energy Ltd(AGEL), the world's largestsolar power developer, scored66 points in the corporate sus-tainability assessment (CSA)survey 2021 conducted by DJSI- S&P Global. This is signifi-cantly higher than the average

world electric utility sectorscore of 38," the company saidin a statement.

Adani Transmission Ltd(ATL) in its statement said ithas scored 63 points in the2021 corporate sustainabilityassessment (CSA) survey con-ducted by DJSI-S&P Global.

"This is significantly higherthan the average world electricutility sector score of 38," itadded.

AGEL Chief SustainabilityOfficer Santosh Kumar Singhsaid, "This achievement is amanifestation of the Adanivision to steer India towards acleaner, greener future."

With an industry-specificapproach, the S&P Global ESGscore provides multiple layersof ESG intelligence with threeunderlying environments,social and governance, as wellas economic dimension scores.

AGEL initially interactedwith DJSI-S&P Global for ESGbenchmarking and received a

score of 51 in April 2021,which has now increased to 66,representing a massive 15-point improvement.

Following the initial score,AGEL aligned its ESG report-ing standards with the GRI(Global Reporting Initiative),and increased public disclo-sures in the company's annu-al report, sustainability report,management systems and busi-ness excellence initiatives.

"This remarkable improve-ment in our ESG score withinjust a few months testifies tothe robustness of ATL'sapproach and strategy onESG," said Anil Sardana, MDand CEO of ATL.

Corporate sustainability: Adani firms scoremore than average points in survey

India seeks duty -free accessfor leather goods under FTAs

PNS n NEW DELHI

Billionaire Anil Agarwal'sVedanta Ltd on Wednesdaysaid it is mulling a grouprestructuring that may includedemerger and listing of the alu-minium, iron & steel, and oiland gas businesses as stand-alone entities. In a stockexchange filing, the firm saidits board has constituted acommittee of directors to eval-uate and recommend optionsto restructure the group.

"The Board of Directors ofthe Company has decided that,considering the scale, nature,and potential opportunitiesfor various business verticals ofthe company, the companyshould undertake a compre-hensive review of the corporatestructure and evaluate a fullrange of options and alterna-tives (including demerger(s),spin-off(s), strategic partner-ships etc.) for unlocking valueand simplification of corporatestructure," it said.

CAIT for probe intouse of Amazon forsourcing drugs

Vedanta mullsgrouprestructuring

PNS n NEW DELHI

The power of collaborationbetween the government,industry and stakeholdersneeds to be systematicallyharnessed for realizing thevision of a new resurgentIndia, Union MinisterJitendra Singh said.

Addressing the second edi-tion of 'The SMARTecInitiative India 2021', theminister of state for scienceand technology highlightedvarious initiatives taken bythe government to promotescience and technology forstartups.

Singh said India is emerg-ing as among the world's topleaders in the area of scienceand technology and recentlyit entered the list of top 50innovative countries reachingthe 46th position in theGlobal Innovation Index2021.

Jitendra Singhbats for jointeffort of govt

PNS n MUMBAI

Key stock indices Sensex andNifty declined by more thanhalf a per cent for a secondstraight day on Wednesdaydue to profit booking in bank-ing, oil & gas and pharmastocks amid lingering worriesover inflation.

The 30-share index ended314.04 points or 0.52 per centlower at 60,008.33 as 20 of itscomponents ended with loss-es. The index moved betweena high of 60,426.61 and a lowof 59,944.77 during the day.

The broader Nifty of theNational Stock Exchangedeclined by 100.55 points or0.56 per cent to close at

17,898.65.Axis Bank was the top loser

in the Sensex pack, sheddingaround 2 per cent. RelianceIndustries declined by 1.91 percent, Kotak Bank by 1.51 percent, Bharti Airtel by 1.39 percent and Titan by 1.2 percent. Among others, HDFCBank, HDFC, Dr Reddy's, SunPharma, TCS, and HCL Techalso declined.

On the other hand, Marutiremained the top gaineramong Sensex scrips for a sec-ond day, rising by 2.77 percent. Asian Paints andPowerGrid rose more than 2percent. NTPC, ITC, IndusIndand Tech Mahindra alsoadvanced.

Sensex, Nifty fall for 2nd day onprofit taking in RIL, HDFC twins

PNS n MUMBAI

Ace investor RakeshJhunjhunwala-backed AkasaAir on Wednesday announcedsigning an agreement to pur-chase CFM LEAP-1B enginesto power its Boeing 737 MAXairplanes and the overall dealis estimated to be worth USD4.5 billion.

The announcement comesa day after the upcoming ultralow cost carrier said it wouldbuy 72 Boeing 737 MAXplanes from Boeing Co.

With this purchase and ser-vices agreement, Akasa Airwill have from day one of itsoperations an innovative and

comprehensive maintenanceprogramme delivered byCFM, the airline said in astatement.

The pact was signed withCFM at the ongoing DubaiAirshow. The deal, whichincludes spare engines andlong-term service agreement,is estimated to be worth USD4.5 billion at list price.

At current exchange rate,the amount translates to morethan Rs 33,000 crore

"We are pleased to partnerwith CFM International aswe embark on an excitingjourney to launch the green-est, most affordable and mostdependable airline in India.

Akasa Air inks pactto buy CFM engines

WTO MEET AT GENEVA

CIL efforts to curb pollution pay off

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ThursdayNovember 18, 2021

very year,November ismarked as theNationalPrematurityAwareness

Month. Every year, 15 mil-lion babies are born prema-turely — that’s more than 1in 10 of all babies aroundthe world. A pregnancy nor-mally lasts for about 40weeks, but pre-term labourstarts 3-4 weeks earlier.Some risk factors for prema-ture birth include having aprevious premature birthand being pregnant withmultiples. Complicationsassociated with prematurebirth include immaturelungs, difficulty regulatingbody temperature, poorfeeding, and slow weightgain.

Prematurity has also beenassociated with a behavioralphenotype and personalityprofile that includes beingtimid, socially withdrawn,over-controlling, and disin-clined towards risk-taking orfun-seeking. Prematurebirth can also affect thepituitary-gonadal axis inovaries or testicles, whichcan lead to reproductiveinsufficiency.

Preterm labour is labourthat starts before 37 weeksof pregnancy. Going intopreterm labour does notautomatically mean that awoman will have a pretermbirth. Diagnosis of pretermlabour is by signs and symp-toms that the patient shows.These include:

n Mild abdominal cramps,with or without diarrhea

n A change in the type ofvaginal discharge—watery, bloody, or withmucus

n An increase in theamount of discharge

n Pelvic or lower abdominalpressure

n Constant, low, dullbackache

n Regular or frequentcontractions or uterinetightening, oftenpainless

n Ruptured membranes(your water breaks witha gush or a trickle offluid)

n Only in 3 in 10 womenpreterm labor stops onits own; the remainingneed early detection andtreatment

Preterm labour can hap-pen to anyone withoutwarning. But there aresome factors that canincrease the risk of pretermlabour, including:

n Preterm birth in a pastpregnancy

n Having a short cervixearly in pregnancy

n Past gynecologic

conditions or surgeriesn Current pregnancy

complicationsn Lifestyle factors

Tests to be done to diag-nose preterm labour arepelvic examination to assessthe status of the cervix,ultrasound, and vaginalswab to test for fetalfibronectin presence.

How to manage:Management depends

mainly upon the gestationalage of the pregnancy. If thefetus would benefit from adelay in delivery, medica-tions may be given to:

n Help the fetal lungs tomature more quickly

n Reduce the risk of certaincomplications

n Attempt to delay deliveryfor a short time

Medications that help pre-pare a fetus for preterm birthinclude corticosteroids, mag-nesium sulfate, and tocolyt-

ics. Corticosteroids can helpspeed up the development ofthe fetus’s lungs, brain, anddigestive organs. A singlecourse of corticosteroids maybe recommended between 24and 34 weeks of pregnancyfor women who are at risk ofdelivery within 7 days,including for women withruptured membranes andthose carrying more thanone fetus. When given beforepreterm birth of fewer than32 weeks and intended deliv-ery in 24 hours, magnesiumsulfate may reduce the risk ofcerebral palsy and problemswith physical movement.Tocolytics are medicationsused to delay delivery, some-times for up to 48 hours.

Prevention of pretermbirth can be done by fre-quent and close monitoringof pregnancy, progesteronesupport, and cervical cer-clage in indicated cases.

(The author Dr. MNiharika is the Consultant

Fertility Specialist atKamineni Fertility Centre)

hat is your role??

I play Lucky who is very frus-trated by the errands that hisseniors in the police keep giv-ing him and he just wants to

grow out of it and change the system. Hewants to end corruption in his depart-ment. He is always ready to do anythingand is a very sharp cop who just wantsto do his job loyally. For him, everythingis either black or white, there is no greyshade in between.

Tell us about your journey as a model?I did model for a year in Delhi and wonMister India 2016 there. Post that myjourney started in the modelling world.We always heard that modelling is astepping stone towards Bollywood, so Idid that too but I didn’t get that kickfrom modelling. At the back of my head,I always knew I wanted to act. I was alsodoing LLB from Punjab so I couldn’tmove to Mumbai permanently at thattime, so moving to Delhi was easier andeven my father agreed to that, which wasa big thing.

You have also been part of Punjabi musicvideos. Tell us about your experience?

This happened even before MisterPunjab. People approached me since Ihad a good face and height. I did onemusic video before the pageant, andafter Mister Punjab I got a lot of offers as

my fan following had increased not justin Punjab but also overseas in Canadaand UK. From that experience, I got alittle more camera friendly but after apoint of time I consciously decided tostop doing the music videos as I felt itwas time for me to take the next step.

You were a lead actor in Zee TVs showKaleerein. What would you like to tellabout the show?

Kaleerein just happened to me. I feelthat you should never stop and just keepworking hard. It always bears fruit. Inever settled and when Kaleerein cameto me, it was a big deal as I was the mainantagonist in the series and theserenowned faces like Arjit Taneja andAditi Sharma were my co-stars. It was avery different experience and the fan fol-lowing I got from it was much more.Even my character’s journey clicked withthe audience and when it turned nega-tive people even abused me and I foundit fascinating. After that, I got work atirregular intervals but when I actuallyfelt that I was ready for the industry,that’s when Tabbar happened to me.

How did acting happen?Acting just happened. It was never a

set plan but circumstances became soand opportunities kept coming. I didn’tleave them and just grabbed them all. Incollege, there was a fashion show takingplace. I was 6’2 so one of my designer

friends asked me to walk for him on theramp. I did that and surprisingly evenwon a title. Post that, I participated inMister Punjab 2015, shifted to Delhi anddid some fashion assignments. In Delhi,I also got that push and validation thathelped me make a transition to acting.People there told me that I have more ofa commercial face than a model one, so Ishould go to Mumbai as I would have abetter scope there. So, I did.

Your instagram bio says ‘LawGraduate’. Are you practicing? If yes,how do you manage to juggle betweenwork?

I am a law graduate but I don’t prac-tise it. My father is a lawyer himself andhe told me that the line that I was choosing isn’t secure, so I should have aback-up plan and he suggested LLB forthat.

I had planned to go abroad to studyafter my BBA but my father’s mindchanged and he didn’t want to send meaway and wanted me to pursue LLBhere, so I put this condition in front ofhim that I want to go to Mumbai afterLLB. I told him that if it wouldn’t workout, I would come back, but I needed togive it a shot. While doing LLB my inter-est grew in that. Above that, by doingLLB I gave joy to my father and thatmakes me happy too. I am very connect-ed to my family and our happiness isinterlinked.

W

e

Diagnose pre-term labour FROM LAW TO MODELINGTO ACTINGPARAMVIR SINGH CHEEMA, WHO

PLAYS LUCKY, A COP IN SONYLIV’S

TABBAR, SPEAKS WITH THE PIONEER

ABOUT HIS ROLE, HIS JOURNEY AS A

MODEL, AND HOW ACTING HAPPENED

DANCE OF LIBERATIONSHIKHA DUGGAL

ith centuriespassing by,Dance hasbecome one ofthe important

tools for recreation, enter-tainment, health, preservingsocial interactions, religiousceremonies, and also in cel-ebrating events, etc. Overyears, you must have heardof various dance formsincluding acro, ballet, musi-cal, contemporary, amongmany others. Dancing witha unique twist are twograceful and professionallytrained dancers — HarshaMaheshwari aka KOMETand Faria Abdullah, who isfamously known as ‘Chitti’.They gave birth to an annu-al dance festival ‘CampCeliberate’ to bring thedance of liberation to theforefront. This festival notonly hosts several work-shops, dance fitness, dancebattles, from across thecountry, but also holdspanel discussions to let peo-ple know the careerprospects in dancing, long

hours of cyphers, and more. An artist, a lover of life,

and a strong believer ofenergies, Harsha is thedirector of Happy HoursDance Place through whichshe conducts national andinternational workshops,jams, and uplifting pro-grammes for the privilegedand underprivileged peopleof the city with#DanceNahikiyaTohKyaKiya.A regular visitor ofHyderabad’s undergrounddance set up, Faria alsoorganises workshops,events, and jams. But whatis the dance of liberation?Well, the powerful combi-nation of movement therapyrooted in ancient shamanictradition that clears block-ages in the body, mind,heart, and spirit is what thedance of liberation is.Integrating the seven foun-dations as a spiritual map,the experience allowsdancers and non-dancersalike to explore their rela-tionship to pain and theshadow, and learn how towork with the body torelease them and get intouch with lost parts of the

self. Healing modality iswhat the dancer-turned-Tollywood actress mentionsto us.

As we move further inthe exclusive ‘communitywise’ interview, we couldfeel how a community ofdanseuses from acrossthe country is comingtogether in Hyderabadand engaging in dance!If there is nationalbelly dancer MeherMalik on board, sothere is Ryan Martyr,the Bollywood choreo-grapher too along withothers. This manifesta-tion of liberating dance ishuge! “Both of us realisedthe power and impact of anart form like dance in ourpersonal lives, we wanted totake this art form forwardin the form of healingmodality now, in theHyderabad city. We havegreat dancers, despite thatHyderabad is not seen asthe destination for greatdancing talent in the coun-try. We want to putHyderabad on the map andwe are successfully doingso,” tells Faria Abdullah. At

the same time, Harsha takesthe conversation ahead andsays, “It’s a great way of cel-ebrating lifepri-

marily!The ‘dance’ is liberating usjust by bringing two pas-sionate souls together, awayfrom all the hassles oflife. The first time weorganised ‘CampCeliberate’ was ata bar in the city,and post the ses-sion was over wecould see ‘ek alag sismile’ on the faces of

attendees. That gave bothFaria and me an encourag-ing encounter to follow up.”

Recalling one of theknown performances fromthe dance movement by

Tapash, the organisercalls it to be a personal

moment of liberation!Asked why, she says,“The 13-year-oldhad down syn-drome, yet he hadmastered fourforms of dance. In2018, Tapashalso set a

record fornon-stop

dancingfor 40

minutesand

found a place in the GeniusBook of Records. There wasa shift in vibe during hisperformance at our camp,he taught us to let go of ourfears.” Adding to that theJathi Ratnalu actress calls‘Camp Celiberate’ to be adancing space free of judg-ment!

Of course, the title seemsquite catchy,there’s a

presence of word-play there.Touching a little upon that,we asked KOMET, why isthat and she resounds, “It’smy way of showcasing thecombination of celebrationand liberation. This year’stheme is revolving around‘Heal and not Hate’ — therewill be seven communitiescoming on board with thesole aim of not looking at

them with pity butrather compassion.

That’s one phaseof ‘Camp

Celiberate’ followed by twoother phases.”

Faria lets us know herrelationship with HarshaMaheshwari, and she had allgood things to say aboutthis stunning collaboration!“She’s my mentor, I used tolook up to her and suddenlyshe was one of my closestfriends that I have todayhere in Hyderabad. Both ofus are constantly evolvingand dance will alwaysremain that common factorbetween us. With myselfturning into a Tollywoodcelebrity, it has got ‘CampCeliberate’ a lot of positiveinfluence! We have so manyeyes on us now, so muchmore exposure. More peo-ple are understanding the

importance of movement,art, and therapies and

another aim of ‘CampCeliberate’ is to also

normalise this.”

W

10

Hyderabad Thursday November 18, 2021

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

FUN

what’s brewing?l

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aaz

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abee

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Mas

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kank

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lM

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Birds of India

& new-found

lands

To take forward itslegacy of collabo-rations with stellar

institutions such as TheWallace Collection(London), the NationalGallery of Modern Art(Mumbai), The NehruMemorial Museum andLibrary (New Delhi),Punjab Lalit KalaAkademi (Chandigarh),and Jawahar KalaKendra (Jaipur), and fol-lowing the resoundingsuccess of Birds of India:Company Paintings c.1800 to 1835, and NewFound Lands: TheIndian Landscape fromEmpire to Freedom,DAG announces theopening of these twohistorical exhibitions atDr Bhau Daji LadMumbai City Museumin Mumbai this month.

Curated by Dr GilesTillotson, Senior Vice-

President, Exhibitionsand Publications,

both exhi-

bitionscollec-tivelyshowcaseart fromthe

DAGcollection

across 17th, 18thand 19th centuries.

Premiering on 27November 2021, theexhibitions will wel-come visitors atMumbai’s oldest muse-um, an institution dedi-cated to excellence incultural educationthrough exhibitions andunique visual and intel-lectual media, until 16February 2022 embark-ing a fresh public-pri-vate dialogue in theworld of art.

While Birds of India,the first-ever exhibitionin the country dedicatedto an extraordinary selec-tion of CompanyPaintings of Indian birds,combines the delicacyand details of Mughalatelier-trained artists withthe refinement and ratio-nalization of Europeanart featuring works thatsignify a hybrid Indianart of rare and exception-al beauty, a style uniqueto the Indian subconti-nent whose patronagewas almost entirelyBritish, New FoundLands explores landscape

painting in India over aperiod of two

hundred years,from 1780 to

1980, unfolding a visu-al story that moves froman imposed colonial gaze,

through Indian accom-modation and adjust-ment, to rejection, andthe profusion of newforms of imagery,

rooted in theland.

— IANS

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CONVOCATION CALLING

PSabitha Indra Reddy, Minister forEducation, Prof R. Limbadri, chairman ofTelangana State Council of Higher

Education, Hephsiba R Korlapati, IAS, and MDof KUIDFC, Prof B Srinagesh, COE and Prof DRavinder, Vice-Chancellor of OsmaniaUniversity, were present at the 16thconvocation event of Koti University College forWomen on Wednesday.

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oung and promisinghero VijayDeverakonda anddirector PuriJagannadh’s maiden

Pan India project Liger marksLegend Mike Tyson’s debut inIndian cinema. In fact, themovie’s craze increased byleaps and bounds, after MikeTyson came on board to playthe mighty role. The boxinglegend started shooting forthe film in the USA schedulethat commenced on Tuesday.

During the shootin the US, a

speciallunch

was

organised for Mike, his wifeKiki, and the team, as Mikeloves to have Indian food.

According to sources, Mikefell in love with Indian delica-cies such as garlic naan, butterchicken, tandoori chicken,fish tikka masala, and muttonbiryani, which he had in hislunch. He specially asked foraloo gobi, palak paneer,samosa, and kebabs. The teamwas staggered to see his crav-ing for Indian cuisine. Theyhave served the food with loveand affection and Tyson toowas delighted with the hospi-tality.

In association with Puriconnects, Liger is being pro-duced jointly by Bollywood’sleading production houseDharma Productions. PuriJagannadh, Charmme Kaur,Karan Johar, and ApoorvaMehta together arebankrolling the film.

Ramya Krishnan and RonitRoy play prominent roles inLiger, which is being made inHindi, Telugu, Tamil,Kannada, and Malayalam lan-

guages.Liger is in the lastleg of shooting

and the makersare planning

to releasethe moviein the firsthalf of2022.

PNS n HYDERABAD

issing, SriniJosyula’s thrilleris gearing upfor its releaselater thismonth.

Produced by BhaskarJosyula and Seshagiri RaoNarra, the film starsHarsha Narra, Nikkesha,and Misha Narang in leadroles. Harsha Narra ismaking his debut inTollywood with this crimethriller. Leading up to therelease, the debutanteactor talks about how hecame about the movie andmore. “Becoming an actorhas been my childhooddream and I’ve been con-stantly working towards it.Because I didn’t have anybackground in the filmindustry, I was told to pri-oritize my studies. I fin-ished my studies, and inmy trials in the movieindustry, I met SriniJyosula who was lookingfor an actor — and that’show Missing came to me.”

The actor, who was pre-viously seen in short filmsand web series likeMuddapappu Avakai, andPelli Gola 3, says that hefelt that his first step intothe film industry shouldbe strong.

“I didn't want to makeany movies that I wouldn’tpersonally watch with myfamily. The first time I

heard the story of Missing,I felt that it was my luckthat I would be playingthe role of such a layeredcharacter.”

He explains that heplays the role of Gauthamin the movie and that fol-lowing a car accident,Gautham’s wife, who wasin the passenger seat, goesmissing. The mystery sur-rounding the details of herdisappearance is whatforms the crux of the story.

“The director has clarityabout the movie. Thereare many moving parts,but it doesn’t get confus-ing. There are movieswith the same plotline,but this is new and some-thing is never seenbefore,” he shares.

He says that for athriller, background musicis the soul of the movie.“Ajay Arasada is a gift tothe movie. The music isgripping and very welldesigned with the movie.Misha and Nikkesha wereamazing as well. They’rededicated actors, anddespite not knowing thelanguage — they would sitand study their dialoguesto seamlessly work withthe director.”

Harsha shares thatthere is a lot of nervous-ness that comes before thefilm’s release onNovember 19. “I have ahope on the Telugu audi-ence, that they’ll prioritise

the script before look-ing at who the actoror director is,” hesays. Since theystarted the shootingbefore the pandemicstarted, he sharesthat the movie hasbeen made for thetheatre.

“Going forward, I’malways up for scripts thatgive my role the dueimportance to the story. Idon’t want to confinemyself to any particu-lar kind of roles,”concludes thenew-bee.

11

Hyderabad Thursday November 18, 2021

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tollywood‘FEEL LUCKY TO PLAY

a layered character in debut film'

PushpakaVimanamto be remade in Hindi soon

ushpakaVimanam star-ring AnandDevarakonda,Saanve Meghanahit theatres last

week. The film, afamily drama infusedwith comedy, openedto positive responsesfrom audiences andcritics alike.

According to thelatest buzz, threeleading productioncompanies fromBollywood are vyingfor the remake rightsof PushpakaVimanam. The story

of PushpakaVimanam, a new-agedrama, was told in aunique way withloads of comedy andemotions and it issaid that these ele-ments are attractingBollywood toremake the film inHindi.

One of the pro-ducers of the filmAnurag Parvataneni,announced that hewill reveal details ofthe company thatwill remakePushpaka Vimanamin Hindi, very soon.

P

owdy Boys, aromantic dramafilm, writtenand directed bySree HarshaKonuganti of

Husharu fame, starringAshish Reddy, the nephewof Dil Raju and AnupamaParameswaran has post-poned its release,announced the makers ofthe film on Wednesday.

The film has a screen-play by ChiranjeeviMakwana. Bankrolled byDil Raju and Sireesh underthe banner of SriVenkateswara Creations,Rowdy Boys has alreadygenerated good buzzamong movie lovers. Thefilm was supposed to hitbig screens on November19.

“#RowdyBoys will be

releasing at a later date.Get ready to relive yourcollege days very soon...#Ashish @anupamahere@HarshaKonuganti@ThisisDSP @Madhie1@SVC_official @aditya-music #sahidevvikram#karthikrathnam #tejkura-pati @komaleeprasad,(sic)” tweeted the makers.

Sources close to AshishReddy revealed that the

actor underwentgrueling acting,fight, and danceworkshops underthe supervision ofstar-makerSatyanand, choreo-grapher Sekhar,and stunt masterVenkat. Devi SriPrasad is render-ing the tunes inthe film.

Rowdy Boys postponed

R

Mike Tyson’s lovefor Indian cuisine

T’wood biggiesmeet to discussSankranthirelease clashes

ith big-ticketmovies like RRR,Radhe Shyam,and BheemlaNayak in the raceduring

Sankranthi season, thetraders of Tollywood areconfused about a fewthings.

Andhra Pradesh’s ticketprices issue on one handand the huge competitionamong the biggies, on theother hand, have become aheadache for the producers,distributors, theater owners,and other movie traders.

Ram Charan and NTR-starrer RRR, Prabhas andPooja Hegde-starrer RadheShyam, Pawan Kalyan, RanaDaggubati-starrer BheemlaNayak and one more biggieare on the list of the movieswhich are set to hit thescreens during Sankranthi.

With all the biggies inthis competition, there is nopossibility of theaters beingavailable for all the moviesin the Telugu states. And, ifnegative talk creeps outabout any of these moviesafter the release, the distrib-utors will face heavy lossesand will have to give awaytheatres. Keeping all the fac-

tors in mind, the big shotsof the industry havearranged a meeting to dis-cuss resolutions.

It is reported that therewould be major changes inthe release dates of theabove-listed movies, along

with other business-relatedresolutions.

Makers of Mahesh Babu’sSarkaru Vaari Paata realisedthe risk factors earlier, andhence averted the box-officeclash, postponing the movieto April 1.

W

AP n SAO PAULO

Argentina secured a place innext year’s World Cup after a

0-0 draw against Brazil, givingLionel Messi his fifth and possiblyfinal shot at winning the onlymajor trophy missing in his career.

Second-place Argentina qual-ified after Chile lost 2-0 at hometo third-place Ecuador. With 29points and four qualifiers remain-ing, Lionel Scaloni’s Argentinasquad cannot be overtaken bymore than two rivals.

Competition-leading Brazilhad already secured the first ofSouth America’s four direct entriesto Qatar 2022. The fifth-placeteam goes into an intercontinen-tal playoff for a spot in Qatar.

Brazil has 35 points, six aheadof Argentina. Both teams havecompleted 13 games, one fewerthan scheduled because theirencounter in September was sus-pended after seven minutes whenBrazilian officials belatedlyenforced COVID-19 restrictions.FIFA is yet to decide what to dowith that match.

Ecuador has 23 points and iswell established in the third posi-

tion. And then, except for last-placeVenezuela, there’s a crush of can-didates to qualify.

Colombia and Peru have 17points and Chile is sixth with 16points, narrowly ahead of Uruguayon goal difference. Bolivia is sur-prisingly competitive with 15points in eighth position. Paraguaycan’t be ruled out with 13 points.

Few opportunities were avail-able for Argentina and Brazil in atense match marked by Messi’s lowkey performance and Neymar’sabsence due to injury. GoalkeepersEmiliano Martinez and Alissonwere just about spectators most ofthe match.

Messi, who played the entirematch after recovering from aknee injury, said he felt well on thepitch. He played for only 15 min-utes in Argentina’s 1-0 win overUruguay last week so he couldrecover to face Brazil.

Dutch head back to World CupThe Netherlands will be back

at the World Cup after an eight-year gap, forcing Norway starErling Haaland to wait until at least2026 to make his debut on thebiggest stage.

The Dutch did just enoughTuesday with late goals in a 2-0 winin Rotterdam that eliminated theNorwegians who were missingHaaland, their injured 21-year-oldforward. Turkey overtook Norwayinto second place in Group G, win-

ning 2-1 in Montenegro to enterthe European playoffs in March.

Ukraine also won away, 2-0 atBosnia-Herzegovina, to joinTurkey as unseeded teams who willbe on the road again in the play-offs semifinals.

The unbeaten Ukrainians,who drew six of their eight GroupD games, rose into second placeabove Finland, which was eliminat-ed by losing 2-0 at home to table-

topping France.Kylian Mbappe set up Karim

Benzema to score in the 66thbefore getting the second himself10 minutes later after a speedy solorun down the left flank.

Wales and the Czech Republicstarted their Group E gamesTuesday knowing both were head-ing to the playoffs, with leaderBelgium already having claimedthe direct qualification spot to thefinals tournament in Qatar.

Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon in WC playoffs

Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeriaand Tunisia took their last chancesand qualified for the World Cupplayoffs in Africa, but Ivory Coastdidn’t seize the day and is the con-tinent’s biggest team so far to missout on next year’s tournament inQatar.

African champion Algeria andNigeria scraped through to the 10-team playoffs in March after bothwere held to home draws but

clinched the point they needed toprogress on the final day of thegroup stage.

Tunisia was more convincing,beating Zambia 3-1 to take the topspot and the playoff place inGroup B, snuffing out Zambia’shopes.

Cameroon ended Ivory Coast’scampaign with a 1-0 win in theirmuch-hyped West African show-down in Cameroon. Karl TokoEkambi’s first-half goal settled thetense Group D decider as IvoryCoast lost the game and the leadof the group right at the end.

Ivory Coast, a two-timeAfrican champion, will miss its sec-ond straight World Cup after alsofailing to make it to Russia in 2018.

Only the 10 group winnersprogressed to the playoffs andAlgeria, Cameroon, Nigeria andTunisia took the last four spots.They joined Mali, Egypt, Ghana,Senegal, Morocco and Congo,which had already advanced,although there are two appealsbrewing that may still have a sayon who actually plays in the two-leg playoff ties to decide the finalfive African teams to go to theWorld Cup.

sport 12HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2021

FEDERER WON’T PLAY AUSTRALIAN OPENGeneva: Roger Federer does not expect toreturn from his latest knee surgery in time forWimbledon next June, the tennis great said inan interview published Wednesday by Swissmedia.”The truth is that I’d be incrediblysurprised to play Wimbledon,” the 40-year-oldFederer told the Tribune de Geneve daily.

ATK MOHUN BAGAN NAMED CAPTAINSKolkata: Indian Super League heavyweightsATK Mohun Bagan head coach Antonio LopezHabas on Wednesday announced threecaptains, including Fijian ace striker RoyKrishna, for the season beginning on Friday.Reiterating the need for joint leadership to keepthe team’s unity intact, the Spanish gaffer chosetwo local star players Pritam Kotal andSubhasish Bose along with the Fijian as theskippers. The announcement came two daysahead of the team’s opening match againstKerala Blasters on Friday at Margao. Elated atthe new responsibility, Subhasish said:

NHMD CONCLUDED MEMORABLE TRIPManali: The Nazir Hoosein Memorial Driveculminated on Saturday in Manali,after a five-day journey passing through Lansdowne,Mussoorie, Kufri, driving through the JaloriPass and to Koksar via the Atal tunnel. On thefinal day of the drive, participants were alloweda free run to Koksar via the Atal tunnel, towardsSisu, to take in the sight of snow-clad mountainsand serene mountain scenery. Lunch in thevalley was followed by a farewell dinner inManali. Speaking after the completion of theevent, Rajan Syal expressed his gratitudetowards everyone who participated in the event

INDIA ENTER SECOND ROUND OF INDO MASTER Bali: Indian shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and HSPrannoy notched up contrasting wins to make apositive start to their men’s singles campaign atthe Indonesia Masters Super 750 badmintontournament here on Wednesday. WhileSrikanth staved off a stiff challenge from worldno 71 France’s Christo Popov 21-18 15-21 21-16in an hour and 15 minutes, former world no 10Prannoy saw off Malaysia’s Liew Daren 22-2021-19 in the opening round. Former world no 1Srikanth, who had claimed the Indonesia OpenSuper Series premier in 2017 at Jakarta, will faceIndonesia’s sixth seed Jonatan Christie next.

MIXED DAY FOR INDIAN ARCHERSDhaka: India’s men’s compound team won abronze medal but the women team lost its play-off as the country had a mixed day at the 22ndAsian Archery Championships, here onWednesday. The men’s team of Rishabh Yadav,Abhishek Verma and Aman Saini outplayedlocal challengers Bangladesh 235-223, while thewomen’s team was let down by theirinexperience. It went down 208-220 toKazakhstan in the bronze playoff.

SBI SIGNS PACT WITH JAMSHEDPUR FCJamshedpur: Tata Steel on Tuesday said StateBank of India has entered into a strategicpartnership with Jamshedpur FC, the footballclub owned by it, with an aim to support andpromote Indian football. Making SBI’s firstmajor endeavour in the game, the lender signedan agreement with JFC and became one of theprincipal sponsors of the club.

SINGLES

AP n PARIS

Mercedes has asked for a reviewof the overtaking incident

involving world champion LewisHamilton and title rival MaxVerstappen during the BrazilianGrand Prix, the Formula One teamsaid. Verstappen was leading the raceon Lap 48 when the Red Bull driverdefended an attack from Hamiltonon Turn 4 and appeared to push theMercedes star wide off track.

Both were able to continue andHamilton overtook Verstappen forgood on Lap 59 at Interlagos to winand slash the Dutchman’s overall leadto 14 points, despite starting lastSunday’s race from 10th place on the

grid. Race stewards noted the inci-dent at the time but quickly conclud-ed no further action was necessaryas they considered it a racing inci-dent.

“I think it was a good battle,”Verstappen said after the race.

“I mean we both of course triedto be ahead into the corner so I

braked a bit late to get that position.I was on the edge of grip.

That’s why I think I was alreadyon the apex and it’s a safer way ofrunning a bit wide there. In a way, Iwas happy stewards decided wecould keep on racing.”

Hamilton appeared to shrug it offin his post-race press conference.

“I didn’t think too much of it andobviously I’ll have to watch thereplay, but it’s hard battling andwouldn’t expect anything less really,”the British driver said.

“We didn’t touch wheels, whichis good.” But now Mercedes said it isappealing “on the basis of new evi-dence unavailable to the stewards atthe time of their decision.”

PTI n NEW DELHI

Eighty-eight premier domesticcricketers will battle out in

hazardous Delhi air when the fourquarterfinals of the Syed MushtaqAli tournament kicks off at thenational capital here on Thursday.

A toxic haze has envelopedDelhi ever since Diwali withauthories in the NCR region mak-ing desperate efforts to contain thespiralling air pollution levels.

Despite the toxic air, the pre-quarter finals of the coveteddomestic T20 championship wereheld at the Arun Jaitley stadiumand the Airforce ground in Palamwithout any fuss.

The quarterfinals are alsoscheduled in Delhi with the twovenues hosting two games each,one in the morning and one in theafternoon.

On cricketing front, an unbeat-en and fancied Rajasthan will faceits toughest opponent when theytake on Vidarbha.

For Vidarbha, opener AtharvaTaide and skipper Akshay Wadkarare among runs and the duo wouldlike to take on a strong Rajasthanattack, comprising the likes of

pacer Tanveer-ul-Haq and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

The role of middle-order bat-ters Shubham Dubey and JiteshSharma, who played a cameoagainst Maharashtra, would bevital, if the side has to chase or setup a big total.

In the bowling department,

left-arm orthodox bowler AkshayKarnewar and seasoned off-spin-ner Akshay Wakhare, would be keyto their success and their eightovers could decide the match’sfate.

Young right-arm pacer YashThakur’s confidence would be bol-stered by his three-wicket haul inthe pre-quarters, but he wouldneed support from DarshanNalkande. For Rajasthan, DeepakHooda, who shifted from Baroda,has been their batting mainstay andhas delivered on every occasion.

But he would need assistancefrom skipper Ashok Maneria,Mahipal Lomror and others. Theirbowlers will also need to bowl inright areas to stop maraudingVidarbha batters.

In another clash, defendingchampion Tamil Nadu face Keralain a ‘southern derby’.

AP n GUADALAJARA (MEXICO)

Muguruza dominatedPaula Badosa in a 6-3, 6-

3 victory and will play AnettKontaveit for the title at theWTA Finals. Eighth-seededKontaveit beat Maria Sakkari 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to advance, ensur-ing two first-time finalists at thewomen’s season-ending cham-pionship. Kontaveit lost toMuguruza in the last match ofthe round-robin stage, and hasa 2-3 career record against thetwo-time major winner.

The sixth-seededMuguruza, a losing semifinal-

ist in 2015, is the first Spanishwoman to reach the singlesfinal since 1993, when ArantxaSanchez-Vicario was runner-up to Steffi Graff.

“I’m very happy with myperformance. It was the bestmatch I played here in

Guadalajara,” Muguruza said. “It’s the first time we

encountered each other. I’mvery proud of Paula, she start-ed the year back in the rank-ings and made all the way tothe top 10.” The 28-year-oldMuguruza now has a 13-2record in Mexico, where shewon back-to-back titles inMonterrey in 2018 and ‘19.

She opened this year’sWTA Finals with a loss tothird-seeded Karolina Pliskovabut bounced back with victo-ries over second-seededBarbora Krejcikova, Kontaveitand Badosa.

PTI n JAIPUR

Calling the Tests against India a keypriority, New Zealand head coach

Gary Stead has said that the all formatplayers will be given rest during thepreceding T20 series against the hosts.

Stead also confirmed that pacerLockie Ferguson, who had suffered acalf injury at the start of the T20 WorldCup in the UAE, has regained full fit-ness and is available for the series open-er here on Wednesday.

All format players like skipperKane Williamson and pacer KyleJamieson have been rested for the T20s,while the other players who are in bothsquads are Glenn Phillips, DarylMitchell, Mitchell Santer and TimSouthee, who will be the stand in cap-tain.

“You’ll definitely see that the wholesquad (T20) will get match time overhere. Again, it’s about us

managing the workload of the players.And especially with the Test matchescoming up, which will be a real key pri-ority for us as we work through thisnext week,” Stead told NZC’s mediateam.

New Zealand arrived here less than24 hours after losing the World Cupfinal to Australia, raising questionsabout the scheduling of the series inIndia. The Test squad including thelikes of Ross Taylor and Tom Lathamhad arrived here last week.

“We’ve decided through talkingwith Kane and Kyle that they won’t playin the T20 series so they’re both goingto get ready for the Test matches.

“And I think you’ll probably findthere’ll be other guys involved in theTest matches who won’t play the entireseries either. So it’s a bit of a balancingact at the moment and with three T20games and five days, plus travel to threedifferent cities. It’s a it’s a very, very busytime.”

The two-Test series is part of thenew World Test Championship cycle.

Ferguson regaining fitness for theT20s is a big boost for the team, saidStead.

PTI n DUBAI

BCCI president SouravGanguly has been appoint-

ed as the Chairman of the ICCmen’s Cricket Committee, thegame’s governing body saidon Wednesday. Ganguly willreplace fellow Indian AnilKumble, who stepped downafter serving a maximum ofthree, three-year terms.

“I am delighted to welcomeSourav to the position of Chairof the ICC Men’s CricketCommittee,” ICC Chair GregBarclay said in a release. “Hisexperience as one of the world’s

best players and latterly as anadministrator will help usshape our cricketing decisionsmoving forward.

“I would also like to thankAnil for his outstanding leader-ship over the last nine yearswhich has included improvingthe international game throughmore regular and consistentapplication of DRS and a robustprocess for addressing suspectbowling actions.” The Boardalso approved that first-classstatus and list A classificationwill be applied to women’s crick-et to align with the men’s gameand applied retrospectively.

PTI n MACKA

Smriti Mandhanaon Wednesday

became the firstIndian to hit a cen-tur y in theWomen’s Big BashLeague with arecord-equalling114 not out buther splendid effortwent in vain asher side SydneyThunders lostthe match.

Ironically, Mandhana could not pull offa winning six in the last ball off India T20

captain Harmanpreet Kaur as MelbourneRenegades won the match by four runsto send Sydney Thunder out of reckon-ing of the final.

Mandhana, who faced 64 balls, pun-ished the bowlers with 14 fours and three

sixes, equalling Australian batter AshleighGardner’s highest individual score in

WBBL history. The left-hander took the Thunder

within one six of pulling off aremarkable victory against theRenegades, but she was unable tohit the maximum required from

Harmanpreet’s final delivery as her team finishedon 171/2.

The defending champions needed an upsetwin to keep their slim finals hopes alive, and theyhad a less-than ideal start with Sammy-Jo Johnson(12) and Phoebe Litchfield (1) dismissed insidethe powerplay.

Finding a stable partner in Tahlia Wilson (38not out from 39 balls), Mandhana posted her thirdfifty of the season from 33 balls. But the askingrate was climbing with 63 runs needed from thelast five overs.

Mandhana shifted gears as she took 24 runsoff Holly Ferling in the 18th over. She then broughtup her century in 57 balls but there was still workto do as 22 runs were needed from the final two

overs. Renegades skipper Sophie Molineux con-ceded just nine runs from the 19th over andMandhana was left to face the off-spin of hernational skipper Harmanpreet.

Mandhana, who was the beneficiary of twofielding errors, ultimately failed to hit the last-ballsix required to complete what would have beena famous victory.

Earlier, Harmanpreet top-scored for theRenegades, who were asked to bat first, with a 55-ball 81 not out with the help of 11 fours and twosixes.

She shared a 91-run stand for the third wick-et with English batter Eve Jones (42 off 33 balls).Another Indian, opener Jemimah Rodrigues wasout for 2 in the first over.

Ganguly replaces Kumble asICC Committee chairman

Players to battle out in Mushtaq Ali quarters in ‘hazardous’ DelhiJamieson rested from T20s as India Tests key priority

Mandhana hits WBBL record-equalling 114 not out in WBBL

Muguruza, Kontaveit to play for

title at year-end WTA inals

Mercedes wants to review Hamilton-Verstappen overtake move

Argentina draw against Brazil

PTI n JAIPUR

Martin Guptill and MarkChapman’s entertain-ing half-centuries took

New Zealand to 164 for sixagainst India in the opening T20International here onWednesday.

Guptill (70 off 42) andChapman (63 off 50) ensuredNew Zealand were well placedfor a 180 plus total on a battingbeauty but RavichandranAshwin’s double strike in oneover put the brakes on thescoring rate.

Ashwin was the pick of thebowlers for India, taking two for23 in four overs while seniorpacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar(2/24 in four overs) too got hisswing back.

Expecting heavy dew laterin the evening, Rohit opted tofield. Venkatesh Iyer was expect-edly handed a debut while NewZealand made four changes tothe playing eleven that playedthe T20 World Cup final on

Sunday as part of workloadmanagement.

Bhuvneshwar, who lookedfar from his best in the T20World Cup, got his trademarkswing in the very first over of thematch.

After a couple that shapedaway from Guptill, he bowled abeautiful outswinger fromlength to breach Daryl Mitchell’sdefence.

New Zealand reached 41for one in the powerplay after a15-run over from DeepakChahar, who was guilty of bowl-ing too short or too full.

The Hong Kong-bornChapman, who began hisinnings with an aerial coverdrive, whipped and pulledChahar for a four and six in the6th over to give the inningsmuch needed momentum.

India had the run rateunder control until 10 overswith New Zealand reaching 65for one.

Three big overs followedwith Chapman and Guptill

putting their foot on the pedal.Chapman collected a four

and six off Axar Patel in anoth-er 15-run over to bring up his

first fifty for New Zealand, hav-ing played earlier for Hong

Kong.Guptill too looked in omi-

nous touch at the other end ashe deposited a slower one fromSiraj over long-off.

Ashwin was brought backinto the attack in the 14th andhe struck twice at a timelyjuncture for his team with NewZealand getting to 123 for threein 15 overs. He found thestumps of Chapman with atossed up off-spinner whileGlenn Phillips had no clueabout his carrom ball.

However, Guptill was goingstrong at the other end and thebest shot of his entertainingknock came in the 16th overwhen dispatched Bhuvneshwarfor a flat six over deep extracover, indicating that surfacewas really good for batting.

With Guptill in full flow,even 200 seemed on the cardbut the opener was caught in thedeep in the 18th over.

India did well in the last fiveovers to concede 41 runsbesides taking three wickets.

IINNDDIIAA LLIIMMIITT NNZZ TTOO 116644