TDP offices in AP attacked - Daily Pioneer

VIJAYAWADA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The ruling YSR Congress Partycadre on Tuesday allegedly ran-sacked the Telugu Desam Party’s(TDP) headquarters atMangalagiri, near here, offices atVisakhapatnam and other places,blaming that a spokesperson ofthe opposition party made objec-tionable comments against ChiefMinister YS Jagan Mohan Reddyin a press conference.

TDP spokesperson K PttabhiRam earlier in the morning,objecting to police notices toformer minister Nakka AnandaBabu, made caustic remarksagainst Jagan Mohan Reddy.

"Telugu Desam Party stronglycondemned the attacks by YSRCPgoons on the party's headquartersand office in Visakhapatnam andon the residences of the partyleaders. We don't understandwhether we are living in a dem-ocratic country or a fascist coun-try. Chief Minister and DGPshould take the responsibility(for these attacks)," AP TDPpresident Atchannaidu said.

He demanded that the ChiefMinister should resign for failingto keep law and order under con-trol.

Unidentified persons attackedPattabhi's residence inVijayawada, family members said.

Director General of PoliceGautam Sawang said there were"sporadic reactions" across thestate objecting to Pattabhi's com-ments.

Appealing to people not to cre-ate law and order problems, hesaid leaders should refrain them-selves from making derogatoryremarks.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Both BJP and Jana Senacondemned the attacks on theTDP offices across the Stateincluding its central office inMangalagiri. Jana Senasupremo Pawan Kalyan hadreleased a video condemningthe attack. In the video, hesaid that it's unfortunate thatTDP's central office wasattacked by mobs and suchattacks on party offices nevertook place in the past. He alsosaid that if such attacks arenot prevented or continued,Andhra Pradesh will become

an address for anarchism andlawlessness sooner or later.

BJP state Chief SomuVeerraju took to twitter tocondemn the attack. He said

these attacks are the height ofChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy's anarchic rule prevail-ing in the State in the last twoyears.

TDP offices in AP attackedTDP calls for APbandh todayPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Describing the allegedattacks on Telugu DesamParty offices as "state-sponsored terrorism", partysupremo N ChandrababuNadiu on Tuesday called fora state-wide bandh inAndhra Pradesh onWednesday protesting theincidents.

Speaking to reporters, hesaid he apprised theGovernor Biswa BhusanHarichandan of thesituation even as the DGPGautam Sawang did notrespond to his phone calls.

"Police and governmentcolluded and attackedoffices at several places.These are organised attacks.I appeal to the people, wecall for a state-wide bandh...Why should we hesitate toask for the implementationof Article 365 what else weneed to show the failure oflaw and order in the state, hesaid at a press conference.

The DGP is not fit for thepost, he alleged.

He said there should be athorough inquiry on theattacks.

The TDP chief alleged thestate has become a home forganja cultivation and drugmafia.

Ruling YSR CongressParty cadre on Tuesdayallegedly ransacked TeluguDesam Party's headquartersat Mangalagiri near here,offices at Visakhapatnamand other places, blamingthat a spokesperson of theopposition party madeobjectionable commentsagainst the Chief MinisterYS Jagan Mohan Reddy in apress conference.

Pawan, Veerraju condemn violence

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP spokesperson K PattabhiRam's residence was reportedlyattacked by the YSRCP cadre onTuesday. The moment Pattabhileft his home in Vijayawada, amob of 10 people attacked thehouse with sticks and rods andbroke the windshield of the caras well as damaged a bike andfurniture inside the house. Themob broke the cell phone ofPattabhi Ram in the process ofransacking, resulting in minor

injuries.Pattabhi said that they would

not take the attack lightly andsaid that stern action should be

taken on the people involved inthe attack. He said that if thepolice do not respond quicklyand nab the attackers they wouldpay for it.

Leader of the OppositionChandrababu Naidu visited theresidence of Pattabhi Ram inVijayawada in Bharathi Nagar.Naidu wondered how an attackcan be carried out in such a posharea where VIPs, including aHigh Court Judge and a few IASofficers, live.

Pattabhi's house vandalised

SNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

Engineers working in the powersector suspected black-marketingby private Independent PowerProducers (IPP) as the price ofpower in the open market had goneas high as Rs 20 per unit for a fewdays in the first two weeks ofOctober.

Though the price per unit sta-bilised now at Rs 3.35 per unit onTuesday, many states across thecountry that had faced coal supplydisruptions due to varied reasonsthat had impacted local powergeneration had to spend exorbitantprice of Rs 20 per unit for an aver-age of a week to 10 days from theopen market energy exchange.

For instance, as per the dataaccessed from Union PowerMinistry-run Vidyut Pravah, due tocoal shortage, Andhra Pradesh hadpurchased at least 70 MW onMonday and 336 MW on Tuesday.

In the last few days, AndhraPradesh had purchased almost onthe same lines at Rs 20 per unituntil price stabilised at Rs 3.35 per

unit from Sunday.While 100 MW for 24 hours is

2.4 MU Andhra Pradesh had toshell out a few hundreds of croresof rupees to purchase on an aver-age 1 MU in a day.

"It has been observed that undercoal shortage conditions the deficitstates are buying power fromexchanges at the rate of up to ? 20per unit. This implies that the sell-er entity IPP or generator is mak-

ing huge profit while the buyerDiscom would incur huge lossdue to import of high cost power.However, such practice goes againstthe letter and spirit of ElectricityAct 2003 Section 61 (d) which spec-ifies the principle," said All IndiaPower Engineers Federation(AIPEF) Chairman ShailendraDubey, who wrote a letter to UnionPower Minister R K Singh.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a boost to the power sector,the State government has direct-ed the APGenco to take steps forinstalling reversible pumps in theSileru system and integrate themwith solar and wind power forgrid stabilisation which will pro-vide round-the-clock power toconsumers and to meet futureenergy demand in the State.

Energy Secretary SrikantNagulapalli said that the Stategovernment had given an, inprinciple approval, permittingAPGenco to execute Upper Silerupumped storage hydroelectricproject by exploring the mosttechno-economic feasible option.

The objective of the project isto generate 1,350 MW of powerduring peak hours by utilising1.70 TMC of water f romGuntawada Reservoir (Upper)at Upper Sileru and pump 1.70TMC of water from Donkarayireser voir ( lower) back toGuntawada reservoir during theoff peak hours by utilising thesurplus off peak low-cost poweravailable in the grid. The project

would also help to maintain gridstability due to sudden fluctua-tions.

APGenco Managing Director,B Sreedhar, explained that theproject capacity is 1,350 MW(9x150 MW) for which around410 hectares of land will berequired to install the project.Topographical survey and hydro-graphic survey, 76.9 percent ofgeotechnical investigations werecompleted. The balance worksare in progress.

The prestigious upper silerupumped storage hydro project isconsidered to be the biggest inthe state after Srisailam andPolavaram hydro projects, hesaid.

The Government of Indiaundertaking WAPCOS Ltd wasentrusted with the responsibili-ty of preparing Detailed ProjectReport (DPR) including obtain-ing all clearances for establish-ment of pumped storage projectat Upper Si leru inVisakhapatnam District, MDGENCO said.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

DGP Gautam D Sawang, in a statementon Tuesday, said that strict action wouldbe taken against those responsible for theattacks on the TDP office. The DGPappealed to the people to exerciserestraint in maintaining law and order.He said that people should not makeprovocative statements and comments.

The DGP said that stern action willbe taken against those who makeprovocative comments and appealed tothe people not to take law into theirhands. Additional forces have beendeployed across the State, said the DGP.

Security has been beefed up at theYSRCP headquarters in Tadepalli in thewake of attacks on TDP offices and res-idences of party leaders.

Security arrangements were made bydeploying Special Party police. Securitywas beefed up at TDP headquarters andabout 200 policemen were deployed.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

As the protest against the Centralgovernment's move to divest itsstake in the Visakhapatnam SteelPlant entered the 250th day onTuesday, the plant protectioncommittee representatives andtrade union leaders embarked ona 25-hour hunger strike.

Around 250 persons gathered atthe plant's Kummanapalem Gatearound 8 a.m. to participate in thestrike. The move is aimed atcommunicating the employees'sentiments to the union govern-

ment.The Centre's move has been

opposed by employees as well aspolitical parties in the state. Thestate government had passed aresolution opposing it in theAssembly.

The anti-privatisation protestby employees and trade unionswas launched in February, and hasbeen continuing ever since.Representatives of the steel plantprotection committee have statedthat they will continue the agita-tion till the government with-draws the privatisation plans.

Govt nod for UpperSileru pumpedstorage hydro project

‘IPPs took huge advantage of coal crisis’Regulators' meetdemandedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

All India Power EngineersFederation (AIPEF) ChairmanShailendra Dubey has demandedan immediate meeting of theForum of Regulators to stop whathe calls it black-marketing in ener-gy exchange by private operatorsduring the crisis and also anexpert committee needed to fixresponsibility for the coal crisis.

Shailendra Dubey, in his letterto Union Power Minister R KSingh, has urged that the subjectof putting a cap on profiteering byIPPs may be discussed andfinalised in the Forum ofRegulators in the letter and spiritof sec 62(1)a of Electricity Act 2003immediately at top most priorityto stop black marketing in energyexchange mostly by private oper-ators during crisis.

VSP workers on hunger strike

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DGP warns of sternaction against culprits

YSRCP deniesrole in attacksPNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSRCP MLA Malladi Vishnuobjected to the use of unparlia-mentary usage of of languageby TDP leader Pattabhiram. Hesaid that YSRCP was notbehind the attacks on the TDPoffices. He said that YSRCleaders and activists were notinvolved in the attacks.Meanwhile, YSRC lodged acomplaint with the AP DGPGautam Sawang againstPattabhiram for using objec-tionable cuss words and pro-voking people.

22

EX-BJP, NOW TRINAMOOL LEADERBABUL SUPRIYO RESIGNS AS MP

Former BJP leader Babul Supriyo formally resigned as aMember of Parliament or MP today, a month after he quitthe party to join the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool

Congress.Supriyo thanked the BJP leadership for theconfidence they had shown in him. The development comesafter the two-term MP from West Bengal's Asansol had onSeptember 20 - two days after joining the state's rulingTrinamool Congress party - written to Lok Sabha Speaker OmBirla, seeking a "brief" appointment with him to formally resignas a member of the House.

INDIAN BANKS FACE RISE IN BADLOANS TO 8-9% OF LENDING -CRISIL

Indian banks are likely to see a rise in gross non-performingassets (NPA) to 8-9% of total lending at the end of this fiscal yearfrom 7.5% last year, rating agency CRISIL said in a report on

Tuesday. The rises will be led by retail clients and the micro, smalland medium (MSME) segments, said Krishnan Sitaraman, seniordirector and deputy chief ratings officer, noting they represent 40%of total bank credit. "Stressed assets in these segments are seenrising to 4-5% and 17-18%, respectively, by this fiscal year-end.The numbers would have trended even higher but for write-offs,primarily in the unsecured segment," Sitaraman said.

AMARINDER TO FORM PARTY, OPEN TOSEAT PACT WITH BJP IN PUNJAB POLLS

Punjab's former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh todaydeclared that he will form a new political party andprovided the farmers' protest is resolved, will

consider an alliance with the BJP and breakaway Akaligroups ahead of next year's assembly elections in thestate. Mr Singh had brushed off the possibility of joiningforces with the BJP last month after his meeting withUnion minister Amit Shah set off a huge buzz, claimingthey discussed the farmers' protest.

SUMMONING OF OFFICERS DISCHARGINGPUBLIC DUTIES TO COURT NOT OK: SC

The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the AllahabadHigh Court summoning Chairman and Regional Manager of abank saying summoning of the officers discharging public

duties is unwarranted. The top court was hearing an appeal filedby Prathama UP Gramin Bank and others challenging an orderpassed by the High Court through which it summoned theChairman of the bank to apprise him of how the officers of theBank are working. The high court had also directed the RegionalManager of the Bank to appear in person and to file an affidavitstating the number of persons working in the Bank as daily wager.

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

Chief Minister ofTelangana K.Chandrasekhar

Rao is moving forwardcautiously with whatseems to be a perfectpolitical strategy totackle any situation thatmay emerge against hisinterests ahead of the nextGeneral Election, which isslated to be held in 2023.

After seeing the successfulcompletion of 20 years ofTelangana Rashtra Samiti, heseems to be drawing a newpolitical graph for securingthe future of his party. Withthe TRS emerging as a viablepolitical force in the newstate of Telangana, KCR'sstature has grown substan-tially at the national level.

The Bharatiya Janata Party,while expanding its massbase across the country, hasbeen playing hide and seekwith regional political forces,leaving its own cadre con-fused. During Atal BehariVajpayee's regime, the BJPhad given freedom to its APunit to fight against theTelugu Desam Party for thepurpose of strengthening thestate unit. But during theelections of 1999, to every-

body's surprise, BJPsought support of TDPin the form of seat-sharing agreement forfurthering the BJP's

numbers game tograb power at the Centre.

Expectedly both partieswere in a comfortable posi-tion during that particularterm. But this arrangementdamaged BJP's reputation asthe TDP shelved the issue ofseparate Telangana State forthe purpose of getting power.

The TRS, during its 20-year journey, has seen upsand downs. KCR now fore-sees no further spell of pos-itive wave for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in the 2024General Election.

The Telangana Assemblyelections will be held aheadof the General Elections i.e.in 2023.

There has been talk insome quarters that, like in thecase of the previousAssembly elections, the TRScould advance the Assemblypolls so as to hold thembefore the General Election,given the party's brightchances to register a thirdconsecutive victor y inTelangana State since the

formation of the new state. However, KCR has just

ruled out early polls to T-Assembly this time.

He had cleverly advancedpolls for T-Assembly aheadof the General Election in2018 with a view to avoidpositive wave for Modi acrossthe country.

For the General Election,the focus of attention of theelectorate might be onnational political forces, withthe regional forces not get-ting ample attention of peo-ple.

BJP surprisingly baggedfour Lok Sabha constituen-cies in Telangana on its ownstrength. Going by thoseresults, BJP missed thechances of winning as many

as 28 Assembly seats -- morethan enough to get the statusof principal opposition inthe state legislative Assembly.

The TRS, within a fewmonths of its inception, hadparticipated in the local bod-ies' polls of 2001 and gotnearly 100 ZPTCs, includingthat of Nizamabad, pavingway for expansion of theparty.

TRS had taken birth on27April, 2001 on the premis-es of 'Jaladrushyam', which isthe residence of former min-ister Konda LakshmanBapuji, a stalwart among thetorch-bearers of Telanganaagitation of 1969.

KCR then literally threwinto the air his letters of res-ignation from the posts of

Deputy Speaker of APAssembly and Member ofLegislative Assembly as wellas the membership of TeluguDesam Party from the dais atthe historic meeting that wit-nessed the birth of TRS forachieving a separate state forTelangana people.

This columnist was amongthe journalists who coveredthe inaugural event of TRS at'Jaladrushyam' on that partic-ular day.

Noticeably, most of theleaders who were presentthere on the formation day ofthe party are not in the partynow. None of the members of

KCR's cabinet, except one ortwo like T.Harish Rao, wereat his side on that day.

KCR's son and IT andMunicipal MinisterK.T.Rama Rao was inAmerica then. He joined theparty six years after its incep-tion.

KCR chose to leave TDP inprotest against the treatmentmeted out to him at thehands of then chief ministerChandrababu Naidu.Chandrababu decided toaccommodate formerDirector of CBI K.VijayaramaRao, who defeated Congressgiant P.Janardhan Reddy(PJR) in the Khairatabadconstituency, in place of KCRas both leaders belongs to thesame caste Velama.

Naidu ostensibly imple-mented the policy of allottingone cabinet post for onecaste. But he chose to relaxthat norm in the case ofBojjala Gopalakrishna Reddyof Chittoor district as he wasalso kept aside on the lines ofKCR.

Interestingly both Bojjalaand KCR were very goodfriends and colleagues inTDP. This idea of 'one cabi-net post for one caste' per-

haps cropped in the mind ofNaidu as Vijayarama Raowas his good friend.

Vijayarama Rao hadhelped Chandrababu Naidu alot during the former's tenureas Police Commissioner ofHyderabad in avoiding thearrest for inviting the wrathof the Legislative Councilfor objectionable writingsagainst the Upper House atthe state level.

KCR's alleged adamantattitude had caused heavyloss of as many as 16 MLAsout of 26 it had in the APAssembly as they desertedthe party at the behest of thenchief ministerDr.Y.S.Rajasekara Reddy.Challenges and counter chal-lenges levelled against eachother between KCR andCongress leaders led to thebye-elect ion in theKarimnagar Lok Sabha con-stituency. He resigned fromthat seat in response to achallenge thrown at him bythen minister in YSR's cabi-net M.Satyanarayana Rao.Nobody expected then thatKCR would respond positive-ly to such challenge.

KCR's dwindling popular-ity got a boost in that bypoll

with his thumping victory. Inother words, TRS was givena new lease of life by theCongress minister's chal-lenge. Otherwise, TRS wouldnot have grown in populari-ty during the tenure of YSR.

KCR has since becomepowerful in the party.

But the promises he hadmade, including those ofmaking a Dalit the chiefminister and allocation of 3acres of land for the poor, areliterally haunting him per-sonally. Nobody in TRSwould dare to question himregarding the same, but theprincipal opposition has ini-tiated a tirade against KCR inthis regard.

The Congress has receiveddeath blows from KCR in thetwo successive elections of2014 and 2018, though it wasthe Congress that grantedTelangana State.

It will be interesting to seehow KCR will handle thenext Assembly elections. Willthere be a magic like that ofNitish Kumar (Bihar) andShivraj Singh Chowhan(Madhya Pradesh), whograbbed opportunity for thethird time in a row, for himto rule the state of Telangana?

M D RATNA KUMAR

Senior Journalist

Naidu ostensibly implemented the

policy of allotting one cabinet post for

one caste. But he chose to relax that

norm in the case of Bojjala

Gopalakrishna Reddy of Chittoor

district as he was also kept aside on

the lines of KCR.

PIN

POINT

Two-decade-long journey of Telangana's political musafir

PNS n HYDERABAD

The auspicious date for re-opening of the Yadadri templehas been fixed by Sri RamaujaTridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamyas March 28, 2022 with 'MahaKumbha Samprokshana' mark-ing the event.

Announcing this at a mediaconference at Yadadri onTuesday evening, ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raosaid that it would be precededby 'Ankurarpana' ritual onMarch 21.

The Chief Ministerannounced the auspicious timeon Tuesday evening after hehanded over the hand-written'Muhurat' patram of Sri ChinnaJeeyar Swamy to the TempleExecutive Officer Geeta to beplaced at the feet of the deityfirst.

Earlier in the day, KCRundertook an aerial surveyand then a field inspection ofthe ongoing works in the tem-ple and temple premises thatlasted several hours. He wasaccompanied by MinistersJagadeeshwar Reddy,Indrakaran Reddy and MLASuneetha Mahender Reddy,among others.

Sharing the genesis of thereconstruction work taken upat Yadadri temple, being devel-oped as a great religious andspiritual centre on the lines ofTirumala, KCR said the templereconstruction was taken up asper the advice, and under thesupervision, of Chinna JeeyarSwamy, who in turn had con-

sulted several Agama punditsand Vasthu experts.

The developmental works ofthe Yadadri temple town wouldcontinue after the re-openingof the temple. Some of theongoing temple-related workswould be speeded up. About10,000 ritviks from variousPeethams and temples fromacross the country would beinvited to performSudharshana Yagam under thesupervision of Chinna JeeyarSwamy to mark the re-openingof the temple in the'Uttarayana' period.

It was decided to do gold-plating of 'Vimana Gopuram' ofthe temple on the lines of theTirumala temple and it wouldrequire 125 kg of gold, estimat-ed to cost about Rs.65 crore.The gold would be boughtfrom the RBI. Many devotees,people's representatives hadoffered to donate money forbuying the gold, ranging fromone kg onwards.

The Chief Minister, as thefirst donor, announced thatpersonally he, on behalf of his

family, would donate money tobuy one kg and 16 tolas of goldand he would hand over thecheque to the temple authori-ties. Many Ministers, MLAs,MPs suggested that people inevery constituency be given anopportunity to donate as pertheir capacity, starting withRs.11 for the sacred cause, hesaid.

"Many devotees are comingforward to offer their dona-tions. We would like to encour-age people to contribute toinculcate a sense of participa-tion and a feeling that this tem-ple and the State is theirs," hesaid.

KCR disclosed that MinsterMalla Reddy offered to donateone kg of gold, NagarkurnoolMLA Janardhan Reddy willgive two kg, Kaveri BhaskarRao of Kaveri seeds will giveone kg and many MLCs, MLAsalso announced their contribu-tion from their families andfrom people in their con-stituencies. Sri Chinna JeeyarSwamy offered one kg goldfrom his Peetham.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced that it had beenproposed to construct 250 cot-tages. Each cottage would havefour suites and overall 1,000families could be accommodat-ed in the 250 cottages. Eachhigh-end cottage would beconstructed with the best ofamenities at a cost of Rs.2 croreand for this too some persons,including Ministers and MLAscame forward to donate.Minister Malla Reddy and oth-ers came forward to contributefor one cottage each.

Already the Temple city wasbeing developed with allamenities and these 250 cot-tages would also be construct-ed as per the same standards,he said.

Outlining other amenitiesfor the temple town, he said abus stand costing Rs. 6.9 crorehad been sanctioned and freebus services would be operat-ed to the hill for the conve-nience of devotees by March28. Basaveswar reservoir(Nrusimha Sagar), secondbiggest reservoir to be filledwith Godavari water underthe Kaleswaram after MallannaSagar, would serve the deity.

"Nrusimha Sagar has twohills on either side with 100acres each. It is close to theinternational airport. The gov-ernment will hand over 450acres of government land nearthe Basaveswar reservoir, alongwith another 200 acres, to theTourism DevelopmentCorporation to build beautiful,world-class convention cen-

tres, water bodies, and parks.The picturesque place oncedeveloped could become aplace for destination weddingsand a tourist centre. Peoplewho visit Hyderabad couldcome to the temple town andalso enjoy the beautiful sceniclocales," he said.

KCR said as in Tirumala,where devotees would goround the temple town afterdarshan at the temple, Yadadriwould also be developed withspiritual and religious ambi-ence to bring peace and calmto devotees.

Stating that many morebeautiful constructions wouldcome up in Yadadri, he said theHyderabad Metropolitan WaterSupply and Sewerage Boardofficials would take up under-ground drainage, storm waterdrainage systems, along withSTPs, to provide good infra-structure to the temple town,which will become a great reli-gious place attracting lakhs ofdevotees from within and out-side the country.

KCR said that the Telanganagovernment had already sanc-tioned PRC scales to templestaff. House sites would also besanctioned to them soon. Healso said house sites would besanctioned for local journalistsand Yadadri Journalist Colonywould be developed with allamenities. He sought theircooperation to write about thesignificance of Yadadri templeand spread the word in therun-up to the re-opening cer-emony.

Telangana to buy 125 kg goldfrom RBI for Yadadri temple

TDP chief Naidu wants castedata to be included in censusPNS n AMARAVATI

Telugu Desam Party (TDP)supremo N. ChandrababuNaidu on Tuesday shot off aletter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi seeking theinclusion of caste data in thecensus.

In his letter, the formerAndhra Pradesh ChiefMinister noted that such acensus is essential for theprogress of the BackwardCastes (BCs).

The BCs comprise themajority of India's populationbut are not receiving benefitsproportional to their num-bers, he said.

The first BC commission,in 1953, and subsequentlyseveral other national andstate BC commissions hadrecommended enumerationof BCs in the national census,he noted.

"There is speculation that acaste census would furtherdeepen the social divisions

and promote discrimination.However, the exclusion ofcaste data can be as unjust ascaste-based discrimination.Lack of data will only result ininefficient policies and weakimplementation of schemesmeant for the welfare anddevelopment of BCs," he said.

Naidu said that BCs remainin poverty due to lack of suf-ficient data, although severalgovernment policies havebeen formulated for their wel-fare.

Pattabhi's house...Continued from Page 1

He alleged that Pattabhi Ramwas targeted for questioningthe government and CM'sbusiness like Bharati Cementshe was targeted.

City police commissionerB Srinivasulu said that asearch is on to nab the cul-prits and yet to identify them.He informed that Pattabhi isyet to lodge a complaint withthe police on the mob attackon his house.

Continued from Page 1

"Some of the rank and file ofYSRCP are objecting to thecomments made by some lead-ers. There were some spo-radic reactions. Everything isnow under control. Some peo-ple must have been taken intocustody," the DGP said.

A press release from theDGP's office said additionalforces have been deployedacross the state and alsorequested the people not to getprovocative. Stern action willbe taken against people whomake provocative remarks, headded.

Pattabhi said TDP supremoN Chandrababu Naidu hastaken the issue to the notice ofthe centre and also spoke tothe Union Home MinisterAmit Shah to take note of theconditions prevailing in thestate.

"The Centre should iniitiatesteps to save democracy andtake stern action against Ganjamafia (in the state)," the TDPleader said.

Refuting the YSRCP cadres'involvement in the attacks,party's senior legislatorMalladi Vishnu said Pattabhishould not have used objec-tionable words on the CM.

Vishnu alleged that Pattabhiwas always making provoca-tive comments and used abu-sive words against the YSRCPgovernment.

"What relation the YSRCongress will have with theseattacks? They are trying todrag our party to malign ourimage in the public.Everybody knows aboutChandrababu Naidu's wickedplans," Vishnu told a TV chan-

nel.After hearing the news of

attacks, Naidu reached theparty office at Mangalagiriand enquired about the inci-dent. The functionaries in theTDP office informed Naduthat some people attackedwith beer bottles.

In a series of tweets, NaraLokesh, TDP's General secre-tary and son of Naidu, con-demned the attacks on theparty's offices.

TV reports indicate thatmild tension prevailed at TDPoffices at many of the citieswith police dispersing gather-ings.

TDP offices in AP attacked...

Govt nod for UpperSileru pumped...Continued from Page 1

The Energy Secretary saidthat the Chief Minister Y SJaganMohan Reddy haddirected the energy depart-ment to fully focus on longterm measures as well tostrengthen the power sectorand enhance energy securityin the state.

"The prime objective of thestate government is to provideuninterrupted and qualitypower supply to all categoriesof consumers. The govern-ment never compromises onthe welfare of consumers anddevelopment of the state.

On the other hand, thegovernment is also consider-ing electricity as a drivingforce for the development ofthe state and is strongly com-mitted to the development ofthe power sector. It is takingall necessary steps to strength-en the sector," the officialssaid.

The State government hassuccessfully overcome the pre-sent coal shortage relatedissues and is supplying poweron a 24x7 basis to the con-sumers. At the same time, theChief Minister has asked offi-cials to coordinate withSingareni, Coal India etc forprocuring coal to improvecoal supplies to the APGenco's thermal power plantsto improve power generationin the state. He also directedto explore all ways for bettertransportation of coal to theState and coordinate with theUnion government to trans-port coal through ShippingCorporation of India.

The officials said that thepower utilities were taking allserious steps to avoid inter-ruptions if any in power sup-ply due to the technical rea-sons and rectifying it imme-diately on war footing toensure quality power supply tothe consumers.YSRCP

denies role...Continued from Page 1

The complaint stated that ina press meet held at 11 am onTuesday, Pattabhiram, insult-ed the Constitutional postusing derogatory words onpolice stating “AP Police KiSiggu Vundali”, “AP Police isacting as said by TadepalliPalace Paleru Gadu”,“Tadepalli PalaceDaddamma and Sanyasi”,“Bhosdike NeekiDammunvunte give notice toother state police' ' ,“ B h o s d i k e ,Daddamma,Chavata” andothers. The complaint fur-ther stated that all the wordsare insulting the officers andChief Minister who is sittingat Tadepalli CMO. The YSRCsought to take criminalaction against Pattabhiramand others who were associ-ated with the crime andsought removal of videofrom Youtube.

‘IPPs took hugeadvantage of coal...Continued from Page 1

He said that in Indiathe present case of coals h o r t a g e l e a d i n g t ospike in energy rates, itwas necessary for stateregu l ators a s we l l a sCERC to intervene andimp os e pr ice caps toprevent excessive profi-teering by IPPs and alsoto ensure that unbear-able burden is not puto n c o n s u m e r s o fDiscoms.

D i s c o m s a r e c o n -s t r a i n e d t o p u r c h a s eh i g h - c o s t p o w e r i norder to limit the powercuts. "This leads to adeterioration of Discomf i n a n c e s w h i c h a r e

already stressed. Fromthis angle a lso, pr icecaps on merchant powerplants are required andthe present instances ofexploiting shortage byraising the rate to therange of Rs 20 per unitin energy exchange mustnot be allowed. As perS e c t i o n 6 2 ( 1 ) , i tbecomes the duty of theR e g u l a t o r t o i m p o s eprice caps. Since coalshortage is recognised asa major factor causing ahike in power rates, thePower Mini s t r y muststress on ending futurecoal shortages otherwiset h e r e s u l t s o f 2 0 2 1would repeat," he added.

Regulators'meetdemandedContinued from Page 1

AIPEF also demanded thatone expert committee witha CEA member should beconstituted immediately toenquire about the coal short-age resulting in power crisisso that the reason for thepresent crisis is technicallyanalysed and accordinglystern action is taken againstthose responsible for thecrisis.

He had also expressedconcern on closure of ultramega power plants of Tataand Adani at Mundra whichare run by imported coaland have nothing to do withthe present coal crisis in thecountry and also heavybacking down of IPP's in

PNS n HYDERABAD

Sleuths of the Commissio-ner's Task Force, North Zone,Hyderabad and AfzalgunjPolice apprehended a notori-ous inter-state ganja peddlernear the Central Bus Stationon Tuesday.

The arrested identified asV Naga Sai, belongs toNarsipatnam in Visakhapat-nam. He was carrying ganjaand was waiting to deliver itto traders in Hyderabad. Thepolice also seized 40 kg of dryganja worth about Rs 4 lakhand a cell phone from him.

Sai, who used to run acatering business establishedcontact with ganja suppliersand started supplying it toagents. He used to purchaseganja for Rs 1,500 a kg fromcultivators and local agentsand was selling it to traders forRs 5,000 to 10,000 dependingon demand. It was noticedthat he had contacts withganja traders in and aroundTS, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UPand other states.

Inter-state drug peddler nabbed

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2021

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Former AP chief secretary andBJP leader IYR Krishna Raohas alleged that former CMChandrababu Naidu and CMYS Jaganmohan Reddy haveleft the State debt-ridden witha huge sum of Rs 5 lakh crore.He expressed concern overthe financial situation of theState during the current times.He pointed out that if crores ofrupees are being distributed forpersonal gain and image noth-ing will be left over for thefuture.

He said that there is nothingwrong with spending on wel-fare schemes for the poorhowever the governmentshould ensure that the amountspent on welfare schemesshould not exceed 10 percentof the budget as followed bythe central government. Hesaid that the government mustrealize that it does not have themagic wand or Allauddin mir-acle lamp to fulfill all thepromises made.

The BJP leader Krishna Raostated that the state's econom-ic situation does not tend topromote the central govern-ment's development schemes.If the states’ budget is spent onfreebies, what will be spent on

the infrastructural develop-ment, he questioned? Hepointed out that 35 percent ofthe state budget is spent onsalaries, pensions, and interestfor the loans. The pathetic roadcondition in the state and lackof minimum amenities in thehospitals reflects the financialsituation of the state, he said.

Krishna Rao feared that ifthis situation continues itwould be very difficult to pay

monthly salaries to employees.He said that the governmentofficials were already asking fora loan on cement and steel forthe construction of houses forthe poor.

Krishna Rao said that thepeople should take a note andthink of the financial situationin the state and further saidthat if this financial situationcontinues, the state will sufferirreparable damage.

‘Govt does not have magicwand to fulfil all promises’

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The teacher unions’ fromacross the State staged a dhar-na demanding that theirissues be resolved here atDharna Chowk on Tuesday.Andhra Pradesh TeachersFederation (APTF) leadersand teachers fromSrikakulam, Vizianagaram,Guntur and Krishna districttook part in the four- daydharna against the State gov-ernment demanding toresolve their long- pending

issues.Speaking on the occasion,

North Andhra MLC M RaghuVarma said that they demandthe State government to solvethe problems of teachers andthe issues in the educationsystem. They demanded thatthe CPS be cancelled andrelease PRC and DAs, regu-larise the contract employeesas promised by the CMJaganmohan Reddy.

Nayeem Ahmed APTFvice-president Vijayawada(Urban) said that 11th PRC

was pending since 2018 anddemanded that the State gov-ernment implement the PRCimmediately. He further men-tioned that 5 DAs had beenpending for a long time likenever before. The other mainissue that should be recalledis that CM YS JaganmohanReddy assured the teachersworking under CPS that theywill be taken into Old PensionScheme within one week aftercoming to power and till datethe issue was pending.

Nayeem further demanded

the government not to disturbelementary school educationthat is scheduled to be takenup from November as per theNew Education Policy. Hefurther said that the aidedteachers who were beingabsorbed into the govern-ment fold should be absorbedas per the sanctioned posts.

About 500 APTF leadersand teachers took part in theprotest from 10 am to 1 pmfrom Srikakulam,Vizianagaram, Guntur andKrishna district.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP Rajya Sabha MP KanakamedalaRavindra Kumar on Tuesday slammedthe Jaganmohan Reddy governmentfor telling lies to the peoplethat it was bringingmassive multi-croreloans for implementingwelfare programmesfor them. RavindraKumar said that thegovernment wastrying to hide its hugefinancial lapses and thenblame the previous TDPregime for the State's debts.Over Rs 3 lakh crore of loanswere brought in the past two and halfyears but only Rs 1.30 lakh crore wasspent for welfare. It was obvious thatthe ruling YSRCP diverted most of theloans for its scams and frauds.Addressing a press conference here,the TDP MP said that the Jaganregime was mismanaging the Stateeconomy so much that it was hiding

facts and correct figures even from theComptroller and Auditor General(CAG) of India. The previous TDPbrought 1.80 lakh crore of loansduring its five-year term. But the

YSRCP rule brought Rs 2.87lakh crore of loans in just

two and half years. Therewere no accounts onwhere they had spentall these loans.Ravindra Kumardeplored that therewas a huge mismatch

between the massiveloans being brought and

the accounts being shown bythe AP Government. The officials

were also scared to provide correctdetails and they were simply playingsecond fiddle to their irresponsiblepolitical bosses. Public funds werebeing changed between accountswithout any transparency. TheGovernment was making grievousmistakes and it was trying to make thepeople believe them as correct.

YSRCP using loans for scams: Kanakamedala

APTF demands solution to teachers’ problems

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu onTuesday complained toUnion Home Minister AmitShah and to the APGovernor about the rulingYSRCP mobs' vandalism atthe main and district officesof the Telugu Desam Party(TDP) in Andhra Pradesh.Several party workers wereinjured in the attacks.

Naidu urged Shah to pro-vide security and protectionto the TDP offices and partycadre in the wake of pre-meditated and politicallymotivated attacks. Hedeplored that the rulingYSRCP gangs and mobsresorted to unprovoked riot-ing at the TDP offices andphysically injured the oppo-sition cadre during the ram-page.

Chandrababu Naidu nar-rated to the Union Ministerhow law and order col-lapsed totally in the Stateunder the present regime.The Union Ministerpromised to look into thematter and asked for mak-ing a formal police com-

plaint about the attacks. Healso assured to ensureCentral agencies' securitycover to the TDP offices andleaders.

The TDP chief spoke tothe Governor on the tele-phone and informed howthe ruling party carried outreprehensible attacks. TheYSRCP gangs came armedwith sticks and rods, beatingup the TDP activists at itsMangalagiri office. The fur-niture and the windowpanes were damaged. Theyhave attacked a media per-son, kicked him in his sides,and snatched away hisphone.

TDP national general sec-retary and MLC NaraLokesh condemned the

attacks and accused theChief Minister of perpe-trating an oppressive andsadistic rule on the people.By continuing such intoler-ant attacks, the CM waspaving the way brick bybrick for the collapse of hisown party and power.

TDP State president KAtchannaidu described theYSRCP attacks as 'fascistacts' that would pose a bigthreat to democracy. Hesaid that hordes of armedYSRCP mobs ran riot gate-crashed into the TDP mainand district offices. CMJaganmohan Reddy shouldresign from his post. TheTDP leaders demanded theresignation of the DGPowing to moral responsibil-ity and for his failure toensure law and order in theState.

The TDP Mangalagirimain office was locatedbeside the AP DGP Office.Nobody at the DGP Officeresponded when the TDPtried to complain about theYSRCP attack. The YSRCPwas running a 'Jungle Raj'with the active support ofsome sections of the police.

Naidu urges Governor, Shah to provide security at TDP offices

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

True-up charges levied by theState government should betotally cancelled and such apractice should be completelyruled out in the future byamending the law.

The true-up charges shouldbe borne by the State govern-ment, demanded Ch Babu Rao,CPM State ExecutiveCommittee member at anonline meeting conducted bythe AP Electricity RegulatoryCommission (APERC) onTuesday. He sought the conductof public hearing in physicalform to receive suggestionsand objections.Babu Rao saidthat various sections of thesociety were largely affected dueto the Coronavirus crisis for thepast two years. He wanted the

government to reduce taxes togive relief to people during theCorona pandemic times.

The government was impos-ing Rs 3,699 crore true-upcharges on power consumers

which is severely objectionable.The CPM leader alleged

that the Discoms were tryingto rob the public in these dif-ficult times in the name oftrue-up charges.

TDP dares AP police to give notices to Telangana copsPNS n AMARAVATI

TDP national spokesman K.Pattabhi Ram on Tuesday said theAP police were showing sinceri-ty and efficiency only in harass-ing the opposition TDP leadersbut not to nab the ganja and drugsmuggling gangs in AndhraPradesh.

Pattabhi strongly objected tothe manner in which theNarsipatnam police arrived inGuntur within a short time andserved a midnight notice to for-mer Minister Nakka Anand Babufor just supporting the cause of APyouth. It was evident the policewere acting at the behest ofTadepalli palace. If they werereally sincere, the AP Policeshould issue similar notices to thecops of Telangana, Tamil Nadu,Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka fortheir statements on AP ganjagangs.

Addressing a press conferencehere, the TDP leader said that theJaganmohan Reddy governmentwas not at all bothered thoughreports came from all over thecountry on seizure of Andhraganja. But, they were misusing thepolice to harass the TDP leadersjust for demanding action againstthe drug mafia. The Narsipatnampolice had no time to raid and nabganja gangs in their scheduledareas but they came at a lightningspeed to serve notice on the ex-Minister within hours after hispress conference yesterday.

Pattabhi Ram demanded thatthe AP Police give explanation onthe raids being conducted by thecops of other States. TheTelangana police came underattack by the emboldened ganjagangs who were armed with axesand stones. How would theNarsipatnam police explain this?In another incident, the Tamil

Nadu police had to cross over intoTada area in Nellore district ofAndhra Pradesh in hot pursuit ofganja gangs. But, the gangstersattacked the TN police withbombs.

The TDP leader said that theBangalore police also seizedAndhra ganja and arrested smug-glers. They announced that theseized ganja came fromVisakhapatnam drug mafia gangs.The Uttar Pradesh police also

seized a huge quantity of ganjaand announced that it belongedto Andhra. Guntur Urban SP alsospoke about liquid ganja fromVizag being transported toGujarat. Why was notice servicedon this SP?

Pattabhi Ram said that theAdivasi leaders themselves open-ly made a statement that the rul-ing YSRCP leaders were involvedin the ganja and drug mafia. Theirstatements appeared in thenational media as well. There werereports about Rs. 8,000 Cr ganjabeing cultivated in Visakhaagency. For spending Rs. 1 lakhper acre of ganja cultivation, theywere getting Rs. 10 lakh profits.But the AP Police were not tak-ing any action for reasons bestknown to themselves.

The TDP leader described thelatest notice served on AnandBabu as an attack on the Dalits inthe State. Ever since coming to

power, the Jaganmohan Reddyregime was making non-stopattacks on the weaker sections.The TDP would not be coweddown by such intimidatory tacticsand it would further intensify theiragitation against the YSRCP-backed drug mafia. The erringpolice officers would face seriousconsequences since the TDPwould initiate legal action againstthem.

Pattabhi said that whileChandrababu Naidu srove hard toattract investments and jobs forAP youth, Jagan Reddy was hellbent on destroying the lives andgolden future of a whole genera-tion. The police officials shouldstop coming in khaki uniformsduring midnight hours like rob-bers to harass the TDP leaders. Itbecame a routine for the police totake orders from Tadepalli palaceand go like postmen to servenotices on the opposition leaders.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSRCP MLA TJS SudhakarBabu lambasted Oppositionleader N Chandrababu Naiduand his son Nara Lokesh forventing their frustration on theState government by using abu-sive language against the ChiefMinister.

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Tuesday, the MLAsaid that Chandrababu Naidu isashamed of his son for beingincompetent and was unable todigest his party’s defeat, so he isentertaining his men to speak illof the Chief Minister.

While Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy has madean indelible impression in thehearts of the people as a greatleader with his transparent gov-ernance, Nara Lokesh is left asan incompetent politician whocouldn’t even win as MLA.

He said that people will teachhim a lesson if the same sce-nario continues and daredLokesh to speak after winningwith people’s mandate.

The MLA said that YSRCP islooking for a strong opposition,who pushes the government todo more for the public and workfor the weaker sections. Hestated that TDP has utterlyfailed to be a responsible oppo-sition party and there is no

match to compete with thegovernment.

In the current government,welfare schemes are being pro-vided to all sections without anymiddlemen or agents and stoodby the people without holdingback the welfare even during thecorona crisis. It is crystal clearthat TDP leaders are spreadingfalse propaganda on Statefinances to defame the govern-ment.

PNS n GUNTUR

Telugu Desam Party (TDP)leader and former ministerNakka Ananda Babu refused totake notice from the police forhis remarks on the ganja smug-gling.

A team of police fromVisakhapatnam went to hisresidence here at midnight onMonday to issue him a noticeunder CRPC 91 asking him tofurnish evidence on his ganjasmuggling remarks. The for-mer minister took strongexception to the police comingto his residence at midnight toserve him notice. The policemade it clear that they wouldpaste the notice on the wall ofhis residence if he did not takeit.

The police again went to hisresidence in the morning onTuesday and recorded his state-ment on his ganja remarks.

Talking to the media,Ananda Babu said that he hadnever seen such incidents ofmuzzling of voices of the oppo-

sition leaders in his three-decade political life. He saidthat as a former minister hehad the freedom to speak onthe ganja smuggling from AP.The police asked him mean-ingless questions and record-ed the same, he said.

Meanwhile, talking to themedia, Circle InspectorSrinivas informed that NakkaAnanda Babu said whileaddressing a press meet, thatthe Nalgonda police fired on

the Visakhapatnam agency onthe ganja smugglers, withoutany evidence.

The police recorded the for-mer minister's statement. Aresponsible leader should giveevidence for his remarks, theCI said.

The police fromVisakhapatnam went to NakkaAnanda Babu’s house to givehim notice under CRPC 91 thismorning but he did not takethe notice.

TDP leaders Alapati Raja,Tenali Shravan Kumar, NazirAhmad, KovelamuduRavindra, and Pilli ManikyaRao condemned the policeteam that went to AnandaBabu’s house at midnight toserve him notice. Former MLAG V Anjaneyulu alleged thatthe police failed to conduct acomprehensive inquiry intothe ganja and drug mafia gangsin the State but served noticesto the TDP leaders.

Ananda Babu refuses to take police notice

Cancellation of true-upcharges demanded

PNS n KADAPA

YSR Telangana Party president YS Sharmila and her mother Y SVijaya Lakshmi offered specialprayers at YSR ghat atIdupulapaya on Tuesday.

Y S Sharmala offered prayersat the tomb of her father and for-mer Chief Minister late Y SRajasekhar Reddy a day beforelaunching her marathon paday-atra in Telangana state.

Talking to the media on theoccasion, she said that YSR wel-fare means providing free elec-tricity to all farmers, constructionof projects under Jalayagnam,agriculture loan waiver, provid-ing free education to the childrenof the poor and free medicaltreatment to all. “There is no YSRwelfare rule in Telangana state,and this is not my opinion, butthe opinion of people ofTelangana state. My aim is tobring the YSR welfare rule inTelangana state”, she said.

Ms. Sharmila informed thatshe would launch padayatra fromChevella in Rangareddy districtin Telangana state on Wednesday.“I will visit every village and inter-act with the people to know theirproblems personally. I, alongwith the people, fight against themisrule. We will stand by peo-ple”, she made clear.

It may be mentioned herethat Y S Sharmala is launching a4000 KMs marathon padayatracovering 90 Assembly constituen-cies in Telangana state in 400days. Sources said that she wouldaddress a public meeting inChevella before launching herwalkathon.

Sharmila, Vijayalakshmi offer prayers at YSR ghat

YSRCP MLA lambasts TDP

MLC M Raghu Varma addressing the teachers at Dharna Chowk in Vijayawada on Tuesday

YSR welfare meansproviding free power to all farmers andconstruction of projectsunder Jalayagnam

Krishna Rao pointed out that 35% of the state budget is spent on salaries,pensions, and interest for the loans. The pathetic road condition in the state and lack of minimum amenities in the hospitals reflects the financialsituation of the state

04VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2021

Envious of fame, group attacks viral youngster

HYDERABAD: A youngster fromRamgopalpet was attacked by a group ofpersons, following a tiff between them onMonday. The victim, identified as Sharath,had his moment in the limelight after he hadrecreated the tea advertisement ‘Ayyayyo

Vaddamma… Sukhibhava'. According to the police, a complaint wasfiled by Sharath, who claimed that a group of persons had beaten himup as they were envious of his newfound fame. The Police began aninvestigation, during which they learnt that in September, Sharath hadbeaten up two persons, identified as Naga Sai and Hari, brothers fromLothkunta over an issue for which a case was registered against him atthe Alwal Police station. During the recently concluded Durga puja cele-brations, the two brothers had come down to Ramgopalpet and werediscussing hiring of a band in which Sharath's group was also interest-ed. Soon the heated discussions escalated to a fist fight, in whichSharath received bleeding injuries. Police suspect that the fight was pre-meditated as retaliation to September's fight. Sharath then approachedthe Ramgopalpet Police, who lodged a complaint against the groupunder section 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons ormeans) of the IPC and are investigating the incident.

One more arrested in Telugu Akademi FD caseHYDERABAD: Another suspect was arrested in connection with theTelugu Akademi FDRs diversion scam. The total number of arrestsmade in this case is 16 now. Krishna Reddy, who had played a key rolein the scam along with Sai Kumar, was arrested by CCS police here onTuesday. He is prime accused in the AP Seeds Corporation and APWarehousing Corpora-tion deposits diversion scam. Krishna Reddy,from Proddatur in Kadapa is residing at Nizampet. The cops found himand arrested him. He has admitted that he had taken Rs 3.5 crore inthis case from Sai Kumar. But, the police said that he had taken Rs 6crore. The custody of the eight accused as per court orders ended onTuesday and they were sent back to Chanchalguda jail. The accusedKrishna Reddy was also sent to Chanchalguda central prison.

Gold worth Rs 2.97 cr seized at Hyd airport

HYDERABAD: The officials of CustomsDepartment at the Rajiv GandhiInternational Airport (RGIA), Shamshabadseized smuggled gold worth around Rs

2.97 crore from two passengers on Tuesday. According to the officials,the two passengers, who landed from Dubai, were detained at theinternational terminal and gold weighing over 6 kilos was seized fromthem. "The smuggled yellow metal was concealed in an electric charge-able light. We have detained them for questioning," said the Hyderabadcustoms officials. The case is under investigation.

3 nabbed for threatening SPP handling sensational murder caseHYDERABAD: Three people, who threatened the special publicprosecutor, were arrested on Tuesday in Hyderabad. The publicprosecutor is handling the murder case of Dr Chigurupati Jayaram, thefounder of the Express News Channel. The three suspects are associatesof prime accused Rakesh Reddy. They are Akbar Ali, 35, a male nurse atthe Chanchalguda Jail and a resident of Yakutpura, Mangaiah Guptha,58, a resident of Madhapur and Srinivas, 38, a civil contractor and aresident of Bhimavaram in East Godavari District, AP. The three hadthreatened the SPP as per the direction of Rakesh. Rakesh, who isinvolved in the sensational murder case of Dr Chigurupati Jayaram wasremanded and sent to Chanchalguda prison on February 11, 2019. Atpresent the trial of the above case is going on at the Nampally court.Rakesh hatched a plan to threaten public prosecutors and witnesses toget out of the case. Accordingly, Rakesh influenced Akbar who isworking as a male nurse at the Central Prison, Chanchalguda, and hisfriends Guptha and Srinivas by offering them huge amounts.They agreedto cooperate with him and as per his plan, the accused persons sentsome letters containing threats to the SPP and witnesses.

PNS n GUNTUR

Telugu Desam party activists ledby former MLA G VAnjaneyulu staged a novelprotest at Remidicherla village inBollapalli mandal demandingthe government reduce thepower tariff.

The TDP activists put thenoose of the rope around theirnecks and tied the other end ofthe rope to ceiling fans to regis-ter their protest against thesteep hike in power tariff in thedarna which was organised infront of the 33/11 KV electricsub-station.

Addressing the gatheringNarasaraopet Parliamentaryparty president and formerMLA Anjaneyulu said they wereorganising protest darnas at thevillage level against the powertariff hike. The former MLA saidthat they held a novel protest byputting the noose around theneck and tied the other end of

the rope to ceiling fans symbol-ically to highlight that people arescared to switch on ceiling fansdue to high electricity charges.

The YSRCP government hadhiked the power tariff six timesduring the last two and half yearsputting Rs 36,803 crore addition-al burdens on the people of thestate, he charged.

Common men used to get Rs350 power tariff bill for a monthwhich has gone up to Rs 1,000now. The TDP demands toreduce the power charges and doaway with true up charges. Thegovernment should not buypower at a high price and itshould enhance power genera-tion in accordance with theincreasing consumption, hedemanded.

TDP leaders PemmasaniNageswara Rao and ThippeshittiVenkateswarulu, DasariKoteswara Rao and GovindNaik were among those whoparticipated in the darna.

PNS n ONGOLE

Prakasham districtSuperintendent of PoliceMalika Garg informed thatthe complainants in the districtcan also lodge Spandana com-plaints at their nearest policestations, circle offices andSDPO offices.

The SP assured that shewould also look into thosecomplaints directly. She saidthat the problems of the com-plainants would be investigat-ed and resolved within thestipulated time hence the far-off people of the district shouldutilise this opportunity. The SPinformed that the com-

plainants should avail thisopportunity without havingto travel to the districtHeadquarters with hassles andcosts.

The SP directed the officersof police stations, circle officesand SDPO offices in the dis-trict to immediately receiveand resolve the Spandana com-plaints without any delay. TheSP said that the police officersshould receive the complaintsof the victims having seriousgrievances with a smile sothat they can not only get ridof the negative attitude theyhave towards the police depart-ment but also complain bold-ly about any problem.

Malika Garg warned thatdepartmental action would betaken against the officers foundnegligent in acceptingSpandana complaints.

PNS n BHIMAVARAM

Start-up house founder andCEO Dr.P Vinod Kumar saidthat the Start-up creates a lotof opportunities for youngand budding engineers to dis-play their talent. A programmewas organised at SRKR engi-neering college here onTuesday.

Several IT and computerengineering students saidthat cyber security systemsin the IT sector would playa significant role in the com-ing days. The budding engi-neers evinced interest tocarry out research to inventinnovative cyber securitysystems.

College CEO SRK Nishant

exhorted engineering studentsto avail the opportunities tolaunch start-ups. College cor-respondent Sagi Vithal RangaRaju, principal Dr.M JagapathiRaju and college placement celldean KR Satyanarayan,Dr.BHVN Lakshmi, Start-uphouse executive M Venugopalwere among those who attend-ed the programme.

TDP demands reduction of power tariff

‘Start-up is a platform foryoung engineers to prove talent’

SP Garg assures speedyjustice to complainants PNS n GUNTUR

Minister for HousingCherukuvada SriranganadhaRaju reiterated that the Y SJagan Mohan Reddy headedgovernment had aimed at thewelfare of women and makingthem financially self-reliant.

The minister, along withMLA Undavalli Sridevi andCollector Vivek Yadav, partici-pated at a programme organisedto disburse benefits under thesecond tranche of YSR Aasarascheme in the BSSB collegecampus in Tadikonda onTuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, theminister said that Rs 6,500crore had been disbursed to theself-help group women acrossthe state under the secondtranche of YSR Aasara scheme.

He said that Guntur district hadgot Rs 620 crore under thescheme. Collector Vivek Yadavasked the self-help groupwomen to start petty businesswith the money and enhancetheir financial position.

He said that 31 lakh housesites were distributed and 3 lakhhouses were being constructedto the eligible poor.

MLA Undavalli Sridevi saidthat 4,333 self-help groupwomen had got Rs 67.26 croreunder the YSR Aasara schemein Undavalli Assembly con-stituency. MLCs S LakshmanaRao, T Kalpalata, LIDCAPchairman KakumanuRajasekhar and former MLAModugula Venugopal Reddyalso spoke.

Meanwhile, Collector VivekYadav said that the development

works at the SattemmaThallivari temple would betaken up soon at Madipadu vil-lage in Achampet mandal.

The Collector held a meetingwith the MLA NamburuShankar Rao and DFORamachandra Rao on the devel-opment and providing facilitiesto the devotees at the temple.

Speaking on the occasion, theMLA said that the goddess inthe temple is self-manifested.Large number of devotees fromthe state and from theTelangana state come to thetemple every day.

Over 5000 devotees come onSunday, Tuesday and holidays tohave darshan of the deity. The

MLA proposed to develop the6.5 KM road leading to the tem-ple and provide drinking water,toilet and parking facilities tothe devotees at the temple.Since the temple is located in theforest area, the developmentworks would be started as soonas environmental permissionwas received from the forestdepartment, the Collector said.

Collector Vivek Yadav saidthat proposals for the develop-ment works were sent to thegovernment. The works wouldbe taken up through the Ecopark. DFO Ramachandra Raosaid that to provide basic ameni-ties at the temple proposals ofRs 1.30 crore worth develop-ment works were sent to thegovernment. The works wouldbe completed by March, 2022,the DFO said.

Govt committed to women’s welfare: Minister

ML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

TRS working president K T Rama Raohas predicted that the TRS candidate willwin hands down in the Huzurabad bye-election as people are bound to showtheir anger towards the BJP, which hasbeen fleecing people, by defeating itscandidate Eatala Rajender.

Asserting that the Congress had col-luded with the BJP in Huzurabad "not100 per cent, but 1,000 per cent", KTRsaid it was evident from the fielding ofa dummy candidate by the Congress tohelp Eatala Rajender. After one or onea half years, the Congress would inviteRajender into their party fold, he said.There were rumours that BJP leaderVivek also would follow suit. KTR saidhe was making these statements in allseriousness. Even during the Lok Sabhaelections in the past in Karimnagar andNizamabad, the BJP and the Congresshad an understanding, and the Congresshad helped BJP candidates sail through.

The two parties were back to thesame game in Huzurabad. "We are nowsmarter and have more clarity to seethrough their game," he said.

In a chat with media persons atTelangana Bhavan here on Tuesday,KTR was forthright while respondingto queries on many issues, ranging fromstrengthening of the party's organiza-tional structure, upcoming election ofparty president and the Huzurabad bye-election.

Justifying his allegation that theCongress and the BJP were on the samepage in Huzurabad, KTR sought toknow whether the Congress party had

a presence in Huzurabad and what rolethe PCC president had been playingthere.

"Let his (Revanth Reddy's) party can-didate retain deposit in Huzurabadbefore indulging in guessing gameabout early elections and KCR's politi-cal plans," he quipped.

Dismissing the challenges thrown atthe TRS by opposition leaders, KTR saidlet the Congress PCC chief prove hisstrength first. "There may be a varietyof paper tigers and those created bymedia. TRS president and ChiefMinister KCR is a visionary and othersare 'tele-visionaries," confined to TVshows, he said, taking a dig at someopposition leaders. "Everyone thinksthey can compete with KCR, but it is notthat easy. Setting up and strengtheninga party, sustaining it, withstanding sev-eral challenges, and winning electionafter election is not easy at all," hereminded them.

Everyone knew the kind of effortKCR would put into every election,small or big. Even in the NagarjunaSagar bypoll, people were boasting buta veteran leader, nine-time MLA and

former Minister Jana Reddy was defeat-ed with a margin of over 18,000 votesby a political novice and young manNomula Bhagath from TRS. That wasbecause of people's faith in KCR."When Jana Reddy himself had to tastedefeat, Eatala Rajender certainly is nota bigger leader than Jana Reddy," he said.

Replying to a query if suspendingDalit Bandhu would impact TRS, hesaid Dalit Bandhu as a scheme and pro-gramme would not stop. Only yester-day Rs.250 crore was released for theDalit Bandhu scheme in four mandals.If anyone thought by stopping thescheme in Huzurabad for 10 days, itwould help them politically, it was theirfoolishness, KTR said.

KTR said Eatala till date had notexplained why he had resigned fromTRS and how people would benefit ifthey voted for him. In his election cam-paign, he did not own BJP; nor did theBJP own him. He was even afraid ofinvoking Modi's name lest peoplewould be reminded of spiralling pricesof petrol, diesel and LPG cylinderunder his regime or the controversialfarm laws which once Eatala himself haddenounced as black laws.

Eatala enjoyed many posts and posi-tions for 17 years in TRS and, whilecontinuing as Minister, he had belit-tled the state government's welfareschemes. Yet, KCR showed patienceand did not say anything. It was timeEatala told people before asking forvotes what he would do for people:bring down prices of fuel or a bringRs.2,000 crore package to Huzurabador would he get BC Bandhu by con-vincing the Centre.

Cong and BJP colluded in Huz’bad;yet, TRS will win hands down: KTR

o 'Revanth would do well to stop speculating about KCR's future plans and focus on helping Cong candidate retain his deposit'

o KCR is a visionary and opposition leaders are 'tele-visionaries' confined to TV shows

Bureaucrats have to clear RTIresponse in Telangana State

SHORT TAKES

PNS n HYDERABAD

A day after The ElectionCommission of India halted theDirect Benefit Transfer to the ben-eficiaries of Telangana's DalitBandhu scheme in Huzurabad,TRS activists took to social mediato amplify the issue.

The ‘AntiDalitBJP’ across Indiaon Twitter on Tuesday with near-ly 4,743 tweets.

Krishank Manne, TRS leader,said, "ECI has stopped implemen-tation of the Dalit Bandhu Schemeafter the BJP complained about it.We wanted to send a message tothe nation and grab their attention

so that people know about thescheme and how BJP obstructedthe scheme that can change thelives of Dalits".

TRS social media convenorJagan Patimeedi said, 70 yearsback, Dalits used to be abused,scolded, slapped and led a life ofslavery. To wipe that mark KCRlaunched ‘dalitbandhu scheme touplift the dalit community but notfor huzurabad bypolls temporari-ly. ‘AntiDalitBJP”.

Soon Telangana BJP retorted tothe trend with KCRBetrayedTelanganaDalits. Former MLC NRamchander Rao participated inthe trend. Sagar Goud of BJP said,

"If not in Huzurabad, who is stop-ping him in the adjoining con-stituency? How many more dayswill this bankrupt politics do??How many more times will Dalitsbe deceived.KCRBetrayedTelanganaDalits".

A Dinesh Vaswani said,"Although the Naya Nizam ofTelangana had approximately 4months on hand to implement theDalitha Bandhu scheme, he delib-erately wasted time until theModel Code of Conduct wasimplemented. KCR thinks he can fool Dalits too, like he fooled TRS sheep.KCRBetrayedTelanganaDalits".

TRS trends ‘anti-Dalit BJP’ to send a ‘message to nation'

PNS n HYDERABAD

After putting a stop to uploading of gov-ernment orders on the website, ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar, in his lat-est move, has issued a note thatall those responding to RTIqueries must seek infor-mation from SpecialSecretaries and HoDs.

The note, issued on 13October, reads: "All theSpecial Chief Secretaries/ P r i n c i p a lSecretaries/Secretaries to theGovernment are requested toinstruct the Public Information Officersdesignated/appointed in their office toobtain orders of SpI. Chief Secretaries/Principal Secretaries/Secretaries to theGovernment/Head of the Department,before furnishing the information to theapplicant under the Right to Information

Act 2005". This order was issued becausesome of the "State Public InformationOfficers designated or appointed underthe Right to Information Act, 2005 in cer-

tain administrative units or officesare furnishing information to

the applicants in a routinemanner without properverification of the recordswith reference to the infor-mation sought for by theapplication". Activists took

to Twitter to condemn thismove, stating that it was

against the core values of RTI. Advocate Seshagiri B.V, who

first raised the issue in a tweet, said thatthis is an attempt to dilute RTI Act.Anti-corruption cctivist Vijay Gopal,said, "An extremely dangerous propo-sition, to weaken and delay the RTIreplies, so whims and fancies of babus'can prevail".

nation 05VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2021

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The Delhi government has withdrawn its order asking FPS to remain open all sevendays of the week and in a new directive allowed a weekly off for such shops owners

in the city, officials said on Tuesday. The move comes following the high courtdirections to allow such ration distribution shop owners to take an off once a week. TheDelhi High Court on September 23 in its ordersaid that owners of fair price shops in the citywill be permitted by the government to have aweekly off to enable them to function efficiently.The Department of Food Supplies and ConsumerAffairs of the Delhi government on Mondayissued an order to implement the high courtdirectives. “The HC in its order dated 23/9/2021has modified its earlier order dated 27/04/2021to the extent that Fair Price Shop owners will bepermitted to have a weekly off, to enable themfunction efficiently. "Accordingly, in complianceof the latest directions of the High Court of Delhi, the instructions of the departmentissued wide order dated 05/05/2020 on distribution of food grains to beneficiaries on allseven days of the week are hereby withdrawn,” the Food and Supply department said.

Delhi government allows weekly off for ration shop owners

India's Global Hunger Index 2021 ranking at 101st position "unfortunately" reflects thereality of the country where hunger has accentuated since the COVID-19 pandemic

outbreak, Oxfam India said. India slipped to 101st position in the Global Hunger Index(GHI) of 116 countries, from its 2020 position of 94th, and is behind its neighboursPakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Reactingsharply to the report, the Ministry of Women andChild Development had said it was "shocking" tofind that the Global Hunger Report 2021 haslowered the rank of India on the basis of FAOestimate on proportion of undernourishedpopulation, which is found to be "devoid ofground reality and facts and suffers from seriousmethodological issues''. Oxfam India said theGHI data which states that India dropped to thehunger-level ranks by seven spots to the 101stspot "unfortunately reflects the reality of thecountry where hunger accentuated since the COVID-19 pandemic”. “This trend ofundernutrition in India is unfortunately not new, and is actually based on thegovernment's own National Family Health Survey (NHFS) data.

Global Hunger Index 2021 reflectsIndia's reality where hunger is up

The Central Board of Secondary Education's new format for first term board exams forclasses 10 and 12, including 90 minutes long objective type tests, has been hailed by

several school principals who believe the decision will help enhance critical thinking ofstudents. Bifurcating the academic session, holding two term-end exams and rationalisingthe syllabus were part of the special assessmentscheme for class 10 and 12 CBSE board examsfor 2021-22, which were announced in July inview of the Covid pandemic. The first term examswill begin from November 30 for major subjects,while the schedule for minor subjects will be sentto schools separately. "This will be exactly aftertwo years that the CBSE would be conductingphysical exams on such a large scale. The newobjective format has a five-minute increasedreading time, which is quite thoughtful and wouldhelp the students to read the questions and theoptions carefully before selecting the right answers. The idea of 90-minute tests in the firstterm board exams is excellent as during the times of lockdown, the mode of teaching,learning and grasping has undergone a massive change," Pallavi Upadhyaya said.

School principals hail CBSE's reducedexam duration, objective questions

PNS n LUCKNOW

The Congress will give 40 percents of its tickets to womencandidates in the 2022 UttarPradesh assembly elections,party's general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra said onTuesday.

Gandhi told a news confer-ence here that the decision isaimed at making women,roughly constituting half thevoters, a "full-fledged partner inpower".

While announcing the party'sdecision, Gandhi, also theparty's Uttar Pradesh affairsin-charge, however, remainednon-committal on contestingthe UP polls herself.

The Congress' decision tofield 40 per cent of woman can-didates in UP, however, did not

go down well with its opponentsBJP and BSP both terming themove a pure election drama .

Tasked with regaining theparty's lost ground in the polit-ically crucial state, PriyankaGandhi, said, It's the partypromise to give 40 per cent tick-ets to women in the comingelections.

Had I had my way, I would

have given 50 per cent tickets tothem, she said, adding the deci-sion to field more and morecandidates would be taken for-ward in the 2024 polls

"There is no hidden meaningto it. We want women in poli-tics to become full-fledged part-ners in power, she said.

Gandhi's announcement wasgreeted with the bursting of fire-crackers and slogan-shouting bywomen workers who werewatching the press conferenceon a large screen elsewhere inthe party office.

Congress had won only sevenseats, including two by women,in the 403-member UP house in2017 polls.

Asked if she will also contestthe assembly elections, PriyankaGandhi said, It has not yetbeen decided.

Congress to give 40%of tickets to women

UP ASSEMBLY POLLS

Man sans limbs undergoes rare bilateral hand transplantPNS n MUMBAI

A rare bilateral hand transplantsurgery was conducted success-fully at a hospital here on a 22-year-old man who had lostboth his hands and feet in atragic accident.

According to a statementissued by the hospital, the manfrom Rajasthan recently under-went a complex bilateral handtransplant surgery that lastedfor nearly 13 hours.

“It is a very rare case inwhich a quadruple amputee (a

person without hands and feet)had been reabulated with thebilateral hand transplant pro-cedure. Another case compli-cation was the disfunction ofboth the arms; one hand cutwas in below elbow and anoth-er one was above elbow whichmade it much more challeng-ing,” said Dr Nilesh Satbhai,senior consultant, Plastic, Handand Reconstructive surgery.

The patient had sufferedelectrical burns (after comingin contact with a high-tensionwire) a year and a half ago.

“The case was very challeng-ing and complicated. A bilater-

al transplant surgery was con-ducted wherein we had to

work on two hands of therecipient and the two hands ofthe donor to prepare the partsand join them successfully.Hence the surgery took 13hours to complete,” Dr Satbhaisaid.

He said it was the first-of-its-kind surgery performed inMumbai at Global Hospitalshere. The surgery was complet-ed successfully and the patientis in a stable condition, headded.

Dr Satbhai said the recipientwill have to take immuno-

separation medication andmaintain good hygiene toguard against any infectionpost-discharge.

"The recovery of hand willtake a time of three to fourmonths with constant physio-therapy sessions for at least ayear,” said the doctor.

Dr Satbhai had performedthe first such surgery onMonika More, a young girlfrom Mumbai who had lostboth of her hands in a trainaccident in 2014. She under-went the transplant in 2020.

Video of CongMLA, husbandcreating ruckusat PS goes viralPNS n JODHPUR

A Congress MLA and herHusband have been caughton camera allegedly creatinga ruckus at a police stationhere after her nephew wasbooked for drunken drivingand his vehicle impounded.A video of the ShergarhMLA Meera Kanwar andher husband Ummed Singh,a PCC member, purported-ly showing the duo sitting onthe floor of the police stationand arguing with policementhat all children drink and abit of drinking does noharm, went viral on Mondaynight.

“Sabke bacche peete hain.Kya hua jo thodi bahut le li?,”the MLA is heard tellingofficials at the Ratanadapolice station while demand-ing the immediate release ofher nephew and his vehicle.

Guj: Portuguese bankrefunds Rs 31 L lost byVadodara businessman PNS n VADODARA

A Portuguese bank hasrefunded around Rs 31 lakhbelonging to a businessman inGujarat's Vadodara city, whowas allegedly dupedby cyber fraudstersinto depositing thesum, police saidon Tuesday.

According to thepolice, the com-plainant RameshShah had depositedRs 31 lakh in an accountof the bank Caixa Geral deDepósitos Braga's Lisbonbranch, and the sum wasreturned after the city cybercrime officials approached thebank and Lisbon cyber policewith a request.

"A team was formed toinvestigate the case. Working incoordination with the SBI, weapproached Portuguese bankCaixa Geral de Depósitos at its

Lisbon and Mumbai branches,and the SBI's branch inFrankfurt, Germany. We alsowrote to the cyber crime policein Lisbon and requested arefund," the cyber police said

in a release.Shah had pur-

chased raw materialsfor borosilicate glasstubes from aGerman companyand was about to

deposit the paymentinto its official account,

when he received an emailfrom an address that closelyresembled that of the Germanfirm, it was stated.

In the email, cyber fraud-sters misled Shah into believ-ing that because of a change inglobal strategy, he could nolonger deposit the money intothe regular German bankaccount, and he was insteadasked to make a deposit in aPortuguese bank, it said.

Buddha relics from Lanka to beaccorded state guest-like statusPNS n NEW DELHI

Protocols reserved for stateguests will be followed to wel-come Buddha relics from SriLanka during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's October 20visit to Kushinagar to inauguratean international airport, CultureMinistry sources said onTuesday.

A seat will be assigned for therelics on a SriLankan Airlinesflight, an official said. A team of123 Sri Lankan delegates,including a 12-member HolyRelic entourage led by the cur-rent mahanayaka of theWaskaduwa Temple, willaccompany the relics.

The delegation will also com-prise anunayakas (deputyheads) of all four Nikatas

(orders) -- Asgiriya, Amarapura,Ramanya, Malwatta -- ofBuddhism in Sri Lanka, as wellas five ministers of the country'sgovernment led by cabinet min-ister Namal Rajapakshe.

"The relics will have a sepa-rate seat on a SriLankan Airlinesflight. The Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister (Yogi Adityanath) willreceive the relics. All protocolassociated with state guest willbe followed. The relics will bewelcomed by 'Mahayana monksat the venue," the official said.

Prime Minister NarendraModi will on Wednesday inau-gurate the KushinagarInternational Airport, which isan endeavour to connectBuddhist pilgrimage sitesaround the world and launchvarious development projects

there during his visit to poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

The PMO said he will alsoparticipate in an event markingAbhidhamma Day at theMahaparinirvana Temple inKushinagar before attending apublic function to inaugurateand lay the foundation stone ofvarious development projects.

The inauguration of theKushinagar InternationalAirport will be marked by thelanding of the inaugural flightat the airport from Colombo, SriLanka, carrying the Sri Lankandelegation.

"The highlight of the event isthe Exposition of Holy BuddhaRelic being brought fromWaskaduwa Sri SubuddhiRajvihara Temple, Sri Lanka, bythe Mahanayake of the temple.”

PM VISIT TO KUSHINAGAR

3 bank staffers among 12 arrested for bid to cheat NRIPNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi Police Cyber Cellhas arrested 12 people, includ-ing three HDFC Bank employ-ees, for allegedly trying towithdraw money from theaccount of an NRI, officialssaid on Tuesday.

The bank had filed a com-plaint after noticing severalunauthorised attempts to

access a Non-Resident Indian(NRI) account using internetbanking services and to with-draw cash it using a fraudulent-ly obtained cheque book, thepolice said.

The miscreants also tried toreplace a US-based mobilephone number associated withthe bank account with an iden-tical Indian number, they said.

HDFC Bank alleged that 66

attempts were made to accessthe internet banking services ofthe account, a senior policeofficer said.

During investigation, thepolice conducted raids on 20locations across Delhi,Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,and arrested 12 people, includ-ing three employees of thebank who were involved inissuing the cheque book,

updating the mobile phonenumber and removing thedebt freeze of the account,Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Cyber Cell) K P SMalhotra said. The miscre-ants had come to know some-how that the account was dor-mant and had huge funds,and they began gatheringinformation about it, the policesaid.

Strike to protest BJPyouth leader's killingdisrupts normal life PNS n RAIGANJ (WB)

Roads wore a deserted lookand shops remained closedsince Tuesday morning inWest Bengal's Uttar Dinajpur,due to a general strike calledby the BJP after a youthleader of the saffron partywas shot dead at his home.

The BJP had given a callfor an eight-hour bandh from6 am in Uttar Dinajpur.

Mithun Ghosh, the 37-year-old Bharatiya JanataYuva Morcha (BJYM) leader,was gunned down around9.30 pm on Sunday in Itahararea. One person has beenarrested in this connection,an official said.

Maha: Naxal carrying Rs 2 lakhbounty held in Gadchiroli districtPNS n MUMBAI

A Naxal, carrying a reward ofRs 2 lakh on his head andinvolved in anti-police activi-ties and killings, was arrestedon Tuesday from a forest areain Gadchiroli district ofMaharashtra, police said.

The ultra, identified Magaru

Kataku Madavi, is a member ofthe action team of the PermiliLOS group and also a seniorcadre of the DAKMS, an offi-cial said. Madavi was nabbedduring the search operationconducted by the GadchiroliPolice in the early hours ofTuesday in the Perimili forestarea under the Aheri sub-

division of Gadchiroli, nearly922 km from Mumbai, hesaid.

"Madavi, a resident ofBhamragad in the Gadchirolidistrict in east Maharashtra,was serving as a member of theaction team of the PermiliLOS group and as a seniorcadre of the DAKMS," he said.

Covid: India’s R-valuebelow 1 since SeptPNS n MUMBAI

India's R-value, which reflectshow rapidly the coronaviruspandemic is spreading, hasremained below 1 sinceSeptember, suggesting that theinfection rate is declining,according to a study.

The Reproduction numberor R refers to how many peo-ple an infected person infectson an average. In other words,it tells how 'efficiently' a virusis spreading.

An R-value smaller than 1

means the disease is spreadingslowly. Conversely, if R is greaterthan 1, the number of infectedpeople is increasing in eachround - technically, this is whatis called the epidemic phase.

The bigger the number than1, the faster the rate of spread-ing of the disease in the popu-lation. According to figurescalculated by researchers ofthe Chennai-based Institute ofMathematical Sciences, the R-value of top 10 states with mostnumber of active cases wasbelow 1 till October 18.

PNS n HYDERABAD

AIMIM President AsaduddinOwaisi on Tuesday slammedthe Narendra Modi govern-ment for allowing the Indiancricket team to play a T20match with Pakistan at a timewhen "our soldiers are beingkilled in Kashmir".

India is scheduled to playthe first match of T20 WorldCup against Pakistan in Dubaion October 24.

Addressing a public meetingon the eve of Eid Milad-un-Nabi at AIMIM headquartersDarussalam, he said: "Pakistanis playing T20 with Indian livesin Kashmir. How can we playa match against them amidregular terror attacks there?"

He recalled how PrimeMinister Modi had criticisedthen Prime MinisterManmohan Singh "for sharingbiryani with the Pakistan PMwhen Indian jawans werebeing killed on the borders".

Owaisi also alleged that thetargetted killings in Kashmirwere a result of lack of policyof terrorism by the Modi gov-ernment, and questioned thegovernment's claim that prob-lems in Kashmir have endedwith the repeal of Article 370.

Referring to the death oflabourers from Bihar inKashmir, he wondered whatthe intelligence agencies andHome Minister Amit Shahwere doing.

The AIMIM leader also

lashed out at PM Modi for hissilence on petrol and dieselprices.

"He is silent on skyrocketingfuel prices. The cost of petroland diesel have hit the centu-ry mark, yet he has not com-mented on it."

Owaisi also questioned thePrime Minister on his silenceover Chinese Army enteringand occupying the Indian ter-ritory. "Why is he afraid ofeven taking the name ofChina," he asked.

The AIMIM also voicedconcern over the situationfaced by Muslims in the coun-try.

Quoting a 27-year-oldlawyer to describe the currentsituation, he said: "A Muslimis living under the threat ofsomeone attacking his shop ora mob lynching him. He feelshelpless. They (the govern-ment) have criminalised tripletalaq, they have criminalised

religious conversions and theyare trying to bring CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA)through backdoor. If I protest,they book me under UAPA orNSA."

At the press meet, he alsodiscussed how there are lack ofopportunities and no inter-mobility among Muslims.According to him, because ofHindutva, his Hindu friendsand business partners havedistanced themselves fromhim.

Owaisi, however, advisedMuslims not to lose hope. Hesaid they should keep theirspirits up and face the situationwith courage.

He also urged the youth toself-introspect and keep them-selves away from all societalevils by offering prayers, build-ing character, desisting fromtaking dowry and helping thepoor and needy, irrespective oftheir community.

Owaisi slams Modi govt over Pakistan playing T-20 in J&K

PNS n NEW DELHI

Developed by the IITM, Pune,a Decision Support System(DSS) that extends the abilityof the existing AQEWS tohave decision-making capabil-ity for air quality managementin Delhi-NCR was launched

on Tuesday.The website for the DSS

(https://ews.tropmet.res.in/dss/) is designed to help theCommission for Air QualityManagement for NCR andAdjoining Areas (CAQM) bydelivering quantitative infor-mation about the contribution

of emissions from Delhi andits 19 surrounding districts;the contribution of emissionsfrom eight different sectors inDelhi; and the contributionfrom biomass-burning activ-ities in the neighbouringstates.

Recently, the Commission

reviewed the progress made byIITM and had in principleapproved the current version ofDSS for air quality manage-ment in the Delhi-NCR. TheIITM has also developed a newwebsite for DSS with the entiresystem made operational, therelease said.

DSS for air quality management in Delhi launched

PNS n GUWAHATI

No COVID-19 death wasreported in Assam onTuesday, the first suchinstance since the secondwave of the pandemic hit thestate in April this year, while354 new cases raised the tallyto 6,07,119, a bulletin by theNational Health Mission said.

The toll remainedunchanged at 5,957, the bul-letin stated. At least 1,347COVID-19 patients in thestate have died to other rea-sons. The state for the firsttime in ten days recordedover 300 single-day cases.

Of the 354 new cases, 152were from KamrupMetropolitan, 30 fromBarpeta and 28 from Jorhat.

Altogether 229 recoveredpatients were dischargedfrom different hospitals dur-ing the day, taking the num-ber of those cured of the dis-ease to 5,97,577.

Assam currently has 2,238active cases, the bulletin said.

The positivity rate stood at0.89 per cent and the recov-ery rate at 98.43 per cent.

As many as 39, 654 sampletests were conducted duringthe day. According to the bul-letin, 2,65,40,174 people havebeen administered COVID-19 vaccines thus far --67,64,725 of them havingtaken both the doses.

No Covid deathin Assam forfirst time sincesecond wave

obtaining air superiority andassistance of Mukti Bahini aresome conditions that cannot berecreated. Neither can the polit-ical cover provided by USSRthrough its use of veto whichbrought India time to ensurethe war did not end in cessationof hostilities as Pakistan wishedbut ended on Indian terms ofa full and complete surrender.The talking point of the warwas whether Dacca was nom-inated as the final objective ofthe war. It is clear from studyof various historical accountsthat Dacca was initially not theultimate objective but a lessambitious mission was assignedto the Eastern Army.Improvisation and innovationby both sides played a big partin the war. Maj Gen NazirHusain Shah, GOC 16 PakistanInfantry Division and an alum-ni of Fort Leavenworth USA,used to split a single battalioninto two even as portraying abroad front was also practisedby Indian forces.

I would like to see duringcommemoration events greateremphasis on recalling Infantry-led epic battles of Pirgunj,Hilli, Sylhet and Akhaura toname a few. The roadblock atPirgunj by 2/5 Gorkha Rifles(FF), for example, turned theflank of Pakistan 16 InfantryDivision fighting fortressdefence at Hilli by crossing the

Karatoya river. It was the firstturning movement southtowards Bogra and Dacca anddivided Pakistan’s 16 InfantryDivision. Similarly, 4/5 GorkhaRifles (FF) conducted India’sfirst heliborne operations andwhile reduced to half a battal-ion in combat, took the surren-der of two Pakistani Brigadeson 15 December, one clear dayin advance of the Dacca surren-der. They had earlier carriedout the first silent ‘khukuri’attack at Atgram though theBritish Gurkhas claimed thehonour earlier in Indonesia.These short and sharp battleshastened the termination ofwar confirming Infantry asthe queen of battle. It would bemore useful to invite officerswho took part in these actionsrather than have the post-1971war generation of officers topontificate on lessons anddialectics of deterrence.

India must cherish the1971 victory against Pakistanbut focus on small-unit actionsthat will be relevant to futureexternal wars. The limitedwar in Kargil was anotherclassic demonstration ofInfantry-led small unit battlesthat evicted intrudingPakistani forces across theLoC. It is a pity that war his-tories on 1962 and IPKF SriLanka, though chronicled,have not been released for

political reasons. The Indianmilitary’s bad habit of notfully and faithfully recordingwar diaries has providedopportunity to individual par-ticipants in wars to fiddle withand fabricate events toenhance their personal hero-ics. The media in general andsocial media in particular,without verifying factuals, havecontributed to this.

Biographies and autobi-ographies are especially culpa-ble as they embellish the recordof units and individuals beyondwhat is recorded in regimentalhistory. And where there is noofficial regimental history,some writers have gone totown enhancing their stature.All write-ups about past warsmust be vetted by MoD histor-ical section and a certificationobtained from the authors thatthey have not used materialwhich is not in official records.The Government has fudgedevents in East Ladakh, pretend-ing the PLA intrusions have notaltered the LAC. Even so, the1971 success on the battlefieldis India’s big redeemer andgreatest victory.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander,IPKF South, Sri Lanka, andfounder member of the DefencePlanning Staff, currently theIntegrated Defence Staff. Theviews expressed are personal.)

THE MONSOON’S MOOD SWINGSSir — The Indian monsoon is nature's giftto us. It is what gives us sustenance; it isinseparable from Indian civilisation. Stillover the last few years, it has become errat-ic to the extent of venting nature’s fury andcausing widespread devastation. Its onset,occurrence and withdrawal have come toacquire a frightening dimension. Visualshave shown how this year’s southwest mon-soon has taken the shape of a ‘natural’ dis-aster. The stunning collapse of a house inone unbroken piece into flood water hasbecome the defining image of the destruc-tion caused by the deluge in Kerala andother parts of the country.

The floods recurring year after yearadd a new urgency to the restoration of themonsoon to what it was before it assumedthe proportions of a ‘natural’ disaster. Theprotection of mountains that serve as nat-ural life givers in its wider sense will morethan halve the problem. Deforestation,mining, construction and cultivation ofcash crops that are ecologically unsustain-able and explain much of the change in themonsoons must end; political parties andgovernments must free themselves fromthe hold of lobbies of various kindstowards this end. The governments shoulddiscontinue the practice of relaxing rulespertaining to environmental clearance inthe name of ease of doing business. It is abasic fact that economic growth at the costof ecology spells disaster.

G David Milton | Maruthancode

FINDING FENI IN GOA’S MUSEUMSir — India’s first museum dedicated toalcohol has opened its doors to spirit enthu-siasts in Goa. The museum, All AboutAlcohol is a place to rejoice in North Goa’sCandolim village. The museum houseshundreds of artefacts linked to Feni —Goa’s very own and a popular alcoholicdrink — including large, traditional glassvats in which the local cashew-based alco-hol used to be stored centuries ago. Theidea behind the museum was to make theworld aware of Goa’s rich heritage, espe-cially the story of Feni. The answer towhether there is another alcohol museumin the world is absolutely no.

If you go to Scotland, they are veryhappy about their water, about theirdrinks, etc. Similarly, in Russia, people feelhappy to show the drinks they have. Whenwe come to India, we project alcohol dif-ferently. For Goans, consumption of alco-hol is a symbol of hospitality. It is a partand parcel of the system in Goa. Theamount of information preserved here isamazing. Feni lovers are awestruck with theplace. The amount of information theyhave kept here for visitors to see is superamazing. Sip on a glass of Feni as Goa dis-plays the right trademark for its tradition-al drink. An indigenous alcoholic drinksynonymous with Goa, Feni will now beon display in the museum.

CK Subramaniam | Mumbai

100 CRORE JABS, FINALLY Sir — India has finally achieved the mile-stone of 100 crore vaccinations. Festive sea-son will see yet another celebration soonwith tricolour hoisted at Red Fort, flagraised at North and South Block in Delhiwith announcements at railway stations,

aeroplanes, ships at the moment Indiabreach the 100 crores mark in administer-ing cumulative number of COVID-19doses. Additionally, the efforts of frontlineand healthcare workers in remote areas,have been chronicled in the newly-launched book 'Sentinels of the Soil', thatencapsulates stories of hardship faced byhealthcare workers from various states whotravelled to help propel India’s vaccinationdrive.

Thanks to the combined efforts of theGovernment, doctors, scientists and to allthe people of the country who got vacci-nated and helped the Government achievethis mark. There are plans of 80,000 vac-cination centres to be activated to furtherspeed up the vaccination drive and be pre-pared for any uncertainties.Congratulations to every single personwho has contributed his effort in thisachievement.

Somya Agrawal | Ujjain

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

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The Indian military’s habit of not fully recording war diaries hasprovided opportunity to individuals to fiddle with and fabricate events

INDIA MUSTCHERISH THE 1971VICTORY AGAINST

PAKISTAN BUTFOCUS ON

SMALL-UNITACTIONS THAT

WILL BE RELEVANTTO FUTURE

EXTERNAL WARS

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

ASHOK K MEHTA

Once a ‘girl Friday’ of the former TamilNadu Chief Minister, VK Sasikala Natrajanis back on the political scene after hav-

ing spent four years behind bars following adisproportionate assets case against her in2017. Implicit in her recent overtures is hercherished will of becoming an 'all in all' of theAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazaghum(AIADMK), she even unveiled a stone plaquenaming her as the general secretary of theparty at the memorial of MG Ramachandran,the founder of the AIADMK. But to the cha-

grin of Edappadi K Palaniswami and UtakarraThevar Panneerselvam, whose eyebrowswere raised while asserting that no one wouldbe elevated to the numero uno post of gen-eral secretary once held by 'Amma', who stillhappens to be the incumbent despite beingno more.

Moreover, it is the people of Tamil Naduwho are at the receiving end of the confusionobfuscating the answer as to who among theOPS-EPS-Sasikala trilogy, is the right choice.Simultaneously, the TN Chief Minister MKStalin cannot afford to look forward to a newchallenger more, with the grand old partykeeping a low profile and the BJP thinking ofsiding with the ruling DMK in the State. At theend of the day, with the OPS-EPS togethereyeing a much more significant aspect of thecircumstances, whether or not VK Sasikalawill succeed in putting herself in Jayalalitha'sshoes remains a burning question.

Azhar A Khan | Rampu

Can Sasikala fill the gaps?

More in our historythan the 1971 war

Fifty years of the 1971India-Pakistan war isbeing commemoratedwith great verve and gusto

by recalling the geostrategy, tac-tics and heroics of the greatIndian victory — one in 1000years where the gains on the bat-tlefield were frittered away acrossthe negotiating table. The warcorrected the geographical incon-gruity of Pakistan split into twoentities separated by 1000 miles.The late politician and writer,Jaswant Singh, called the victorygeography’s revenge over history– when use of force resulted inthe birth of a new countryBangladesh, formerly EastPakistan. It was the 20th centu-ry’s last decisive war though itcould not settle the root cause ofIndia-Pakistan enmity – not J&Kbut inimical behaviour of thePakistan Army.

In the previous century, exceptfor the World Wars, there is noclear example of a decisive inter-state war. But intra-state conflictsproduced outcomes. The stamp-ing out of Khalistan movementwas a rare success for India. So wasthe Taliban’s first take-over ofAfghanistan. Peaceful separationof Czechoslovakia into CzechRepublic and Slovakia was aunique event. In the 21st centuryalso, a number of internal conflictswere resolved by use of force –defeat of LTTE in Sri Lanka andthe recent re-conquest ofAfghanistan by the Taliban.Another genre of military successwithout the use of military forcewas ‘fait accompli operations’ likethe Russian occupation of Crimea,Chinese seizure of islands in theSouth China Sea and the Chineseintrusions into East Ladakh. In thespace between war and no-peaceis grey-zone operations, (HERE ISTHE CHANGE) which is thedefender's dilemma. And now,with the advent of cyber war andartificial intelligence, thinkers andpractitioners of war and conflicthave much to mull over. While thenature and character of war havechanged, the principles of war aremore or less the same, technolo-gy being the consistent key driverof shaping their outcomes .

Past wars and internal con-flicts are not replicable. Take thewar for Bangladesh. The tenmonths available for preparation,

SOUNDBITETejashwi Yadav violated the coalitionpact. He denied ourdemand of one seatof our strongholdKusheshwar Asthan.

Congress Bihar in-charge — Bhakta Charan Das

The US valuesGeorgia as a strategic partnerand our support for Georgia's

sovereignty and territorialintegrity is unwavering.

US Defence Secretary — Lloyd Austin

I believe Dhaakadis Bollywood's firstwoman-centred spythriller. I am reallyhappy about this.

Actor— Kangana Ranaut

The friendshipbetween India andBangladesh is veryold. Fundamentalistor any other forcesshould not be allowed todestroy these relations.

Tripura Chief Minister — Biplab Kumar Deb

Ravindra Jadeja’sbatting has comeout in leaps andbounds. So you cantreat him as one of

the top-order batsmen.

Former India bowler

— Ajit Agarkar

The flame of the 2022 Winter Olympics reaches Beijing in a day or two but Chinahas more cause for concern than celebration. A swarm of protests follows theflame, lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southern Greece on Monday,

calling for a global boycott of the Games on account of alleged human rights viola-tions by the Chinese Government. The ceremony of lighting the torch in Greece was

marred by protests, as three activists managed tosneak into the venue holding a Tibetan flag and a ban-ner reading ‘No genocide games’. The protests weregrowing in tenor all through the year. Human rightswatch groups in the US and Europe launched a cam-paign to boycott the games because China allegedlycontinues to harass Tibetans, strip Uighur Muslimsin Xinjiang of their religious and cultural identities, pun-ish pro-democracy agitators in Hong Kong, and intim-idate Taiwan. The possibility of the US boycotting thegames is remote but efforts are on to at least have adiplomatic boycott by that country.

This is not the first time that China is facing flak in the run-up to an internationalsporting event. It lost the bid for the 2000 Olympic games in 1993 because of thebloody crackdown on student agitators in Tiananmen Square in 1989. China had hopedto resurrect its international image by hosting the games but that was not to be. Itnever faced a worse insult globally. It subsequently bid for the 2008 games. To showa democratic face to the world, China came up with several concessions to impressthe Olympic committee. They included extending press freedom for foreign journal-ists in China, allowing them to travel across the country without having to apply forpermission. However, the protests continued as China refused to acknowledge anywrong-doing. The Communist Party of China, which routinely ignores all human rightscharges, would do well to realise turning a deaf ear would not make the problem goaway. Evidence of Chinese high-handedness in Tibet and Xinjiang keeps leaking outof the two regions despite State censorship. Those who manage to escape from themainland bring sordid tales with them. It comes as a small relief for China that theInternational Olympic Committee is not interested in taking up the boycott call onlybecause it feels the games are neutral and should not be politicised.

The results of the third serosurvey conducted in Haryana are comforting.Antibodies against SARSCoV-2 were found among 76.3 per cent of the State’spopulation. This is a steep rise from a mere 14.8 per cent in October 2020

and eight per cent last August. A sero-positivity of 81.6 per cent was found in vac-cinated people and 75.5 per cent in non-vaccinated. In urban Haryana, antibod-ies were found in 78.1 per cent of the people; in the rural areas the percentage is75.1. The best news, however, relates to children. The survey found a sero-pos-itivity rate of 69.8 per cent in children aged 6-9 years and 73.2 per cent in ado-lescents aged 10-17 years. This is the first time when children were included inthe survey. It is also established for the first time that over 70 per cent of non-vaccinated children have COVID-19 antibodies. The news comes as a relief when

children remain the only segment of the popula-tion who have not been vaccinated even thoughthe country is close to giving nearly 100 crore jabs.The vaccines for children are still undergoinghuman trials. The decision to re-open schools aftera gap of a year hinges on this very issue and someStates have reluctantly agreed to re-open schoolsin stages. There still is a hesitancy among parentsto send their wards to school. A few other Statesare planning to begin classes in November.School managements are ensuring that the teach-ing and non-teaching staff are fully vaccinated and

safety protocols are in place to minimise the risk of infection. Recent surveys from abroad have justified the fears of infection among children.

A study by teams from hospitals in MIT and Harvard has conclusively proved thatinfants, children and adolescents are equally capable of replicating the COVID-19virus. Examining COVID-19 positive children, they found that the levels of infectionare highest early in the illness in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Overall,the viral load did not correlate with the severity of the disease in the kids even thoughthey could infect other people. However, several studies have stated that very fewchildren have symptoms and they are at low risk of contracting the illness. In thiscontext, the Haryana serosurvey on children is a reassuring one. Based on the Haryanasurvey results, it can safely be assumed that one can go slow with the vaccinationof healthy children and instead focus on fully covering the vulnerable population —the elderly, and adults and children with co-morbidities. Even though a couple of vac-cines have received the emergency use authorisation (EUA), it is unclear when thevaccines for children below 18 will be available in the country. The chief of the nation-al COVID-19 task force, VK Paul, has said that a final decision will depend on thescientific rationale for vaccinating kids and the availability of sufficient doses for them.

Sigh of relief

Blood sport?The International Olympic Committee does not

heed protests against the Beijing Olympics

PICTALK

Snow-covered mountains after fresh snowfall, in Shimla PTI

A majority of unvaccinated children developingCOVID-19 antibodies comes as hope

Setting up ‘badbanks’ for the good

BY MAKING THE GIRLS WEAR TURBANS

RESEMBLING COLOURS OF THE BJP SYMBOL,

THE CM HAS POLITICISED KANYA PUJAN.

—CONGRESS SPOKESPERSON

NARENDRA SALUJA

CONGRESS LEADERS ARE OPPOSING KANYA

PUJAN DONE BY ME. THEN WHAT SHALL I DO,

PERFORM CONGRESS PUJAN?

—MADHYA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER

SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN

India’s first-ever government-spon-sored “Bad Bank” is now closer toreality. Following the FinanceMinister’s announcement in the

Union Budget earlier this year, a NationalAsset Reconstruction Company(NARCL) has been set up to acquire fullyprovisioned stressed assets worth about`2 lakh crore from various commercialbanks in different phases, about a quar-ter of the total.

Another entity called India DebtResolution Company Ltd (IDRCL) willthen sell these stressed assets in the mar-ket to pay back to the banks. Public SectorBanks (PSBs) will have almost half thetotal shares of both (51 and 49 percentrespectively), in which the private sectorwill also be stakeholders. The initialinvestment would be around `6,000crore.

NARCL will buy the buy distressedassets at a discount from the banks bypaying 15 percent cash; for the balance85 percent, they will issue securityreceipts like debentures, bonds, etc., to thebanks. Last month the government hadcleared the proposal to provide `30,600crore to the NARCL as a guarantee for thesecurity receipts to be invoked in case thesale results in a loss to cover the same, butthe guarantee will not be valid beyond fiveyears to build in some incentive to accel-erate the process of resolution; the guar-antee fee to be paid by NARCL will alsoincrease gradually. Since guarantees con-stitute contingent liability for the govern-ment, there would be no immediate fis-cal impact or cash outgo for the Centre.

Inherited as a legacy from the past,partly as a fallout of the economic melt-down of 2008 and partly because of cronycapitalism which forced many PSBs togive loans without proper assessment ofprofitability of the relevant project pro-posals due to which many of these pro-jects either could not materialise or wereunable to generate enough income to payback the loans, the NPAs started mount-ing. Since 2016, when the RBI tightenedthe controls on banks and forced them toclean their balance sheets, the NPAs hadto be written off or recognised in their bal-ance sheets. This eroded their capital basemaking them unable to lend afresh, andtheir profitability was seriously affected.

To keep such banks — mostly PSBs— in business, the government had torecapitalise them from time to time withpublic finds. Things took a turn for theworse when since 2017 when the econ-omy had started slowing, and the pan-demic then delivered the death blow. Asper S&P Global Ratings estimate, stressedassets of Indian banks including restruc-tured loans will reach 11-12 percent in2021-22, up from 8.7 percent at the endof the last fiscal, one of the highest in theworld, comparable to Russia or Greece.By taking over the stressed assets and pay-ing the banks which will provide themfresh capital, the bad bank will help the

In India, Government-sponsored bad bank has never been tried, thoughthere are several asset reconstruction companies functioning sub-optimally

IN 2018, JUSTTWO OUT OF 21PUBLIC SECTOR

BANKS WEREPROFITABLE. BUT

IN 2021, ONLYTWO BANKS

(PUNJAB & SINDBANK AND

CENTRAL BANK)REPORTED

LOSSES. AS PART OF THE

REFORMS, THEGOVERNMENTHAS MERGED

MANY SMALLERPUBLIC SECTOR

BANKS WITHLARGER ONES

AND NOW THEIRTOTAL NUMBER

STANDS AT 12

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of journalism, oftendubbed as a race with the machine, is getting eventually apparent.Recently, certain international news media organizations have tapped

the power of AI to cover and report on the recent blast at a mosque inKandahar city of Afghanistan that killed 37 people. AI tools are used tomeasure and report that the nation is grappling with insecurity and unrest.These news media organizations have been actively engaged in automat-ing tasks essential for journalistic production. AI has come in handy todetect, extract and verify data essential for news stories and graphics.Such tools are being used for sorting, selecting and prioritizing the fil-ters in the journalistic process of news stories. The use of AI is com-paratively new. Its efficacy in reporting and disseminating conflicting newsstories is established. It has the ability to build and update data visual-izations in real time. The tools can be beneficial for the reporters in con-flict zones in which the machine makes easy to source through footagefrom war zones. Human rights activists have started resorting to sourcethe footage required for documenting human rights violations. Hence,AI tools are intensifying the level of activism in real time. During the timeof the pandemic, AI tools provided potential aids for journalists in dis-seminating useful information to the citizens. When thousands of jour-

nalists were infected with the virus, the importance of AI tools in gath-ering, sorting, verifying and disseminating information went up substan-tially. AI tools are systematically programmed to identify fake news, help-ing journalists file correct and unbiased news stories. It can also debunkfake news flooded in social media platforms. AI thus protects the spir-it of news values and ethical responsibility of journalists. The field ofjournalism has witnessed sea changes because of technological adop-tions from time to time. All these raise the pros and cons of using AItools in journalism. Augmenting reporting has become a major area ofjournalism. AI in journalism has brought numerous benefits. These toolshave comparatively made easy for investigative journalists to save timeand money. This has further strengthened the process and format ofstorytelling. Automation has facilitated reporting from local to interna-tional stories. Data journalism is transforming to the next level. AI robotsare turning into news reporters. All these are becoming viable becauseof algorithms, databases and machine learning. There are fair chancesfor errors and biases to creep into the newsrooms. A small or a hyper-local media organization which might not be equipped with minimumresources to adopt AI tools may see newspersons falling prey to themachines. Journalists need to be trained and transformed for the bestutilization of technologies.The fear of machine replacing the human isstill there. However, any technology including AI is not going to replacejournalists; however, this new technology can be a friendly assistant ora buddy. With the advent of new technological tools, all from reportersto editors will be re-oriented to deliver more credible and value-addedcontents to their target audience. Moreover, the issue of digital divide innewsrooms is there across the globe. Newsrooms in western countriesare better positioned than the rest of the world in exploiting the AI toolsin storytelling. The emergence of innovation and adoption of newer tech-nologies in any profession has become obligatory. The profession ofjournalism is no exception to it. The production, distribution and con-sumption of news will be considerably driven by AI tools in the days tocome. Digital literacy is the need of the hour on the part of the journal-ists across the competitive globe.

(Kulkarni is an Associate Director of the Institute of ArtificialIntelligence, MIT World Peace University, Pune. Biswal teaches atSymbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Symbiosis International(Deemed University), Pune. The views expressed are personal.)

The Gandhi family hasestablished its claimover the Congress party

this week as seen by SoniaGandhi’s assertive speech atSaturday’s WorkingCommittee meeting. Her mes-sage to the Party in simplewords is that “we are theGandhis, and we rule as longas we want; challenge us now.”As expected, not even a whim-per was heard from the Groupof 23 rebels that made muchnoise in the media for monthson the need for full-time lead-ership and organisational elec-tions. As expected, the CWCunanimously expressed confi-dence in the Gandhi family.The CWC meeting went off asper Gandhi’s script.

Indeed, she shut them bygiving a road map for elec-tions, but it will take place only

next after the crucial electionsto some States taken place.

The loyalists who num-bered many also raised a cho-rus for Rahul Gandhi to takeover the party. He has conde-scended to consider the issuekeeping his options open.Meanwhile, he will continue tomake decisions with his sisterPriyanka Gandhi and imposetheir favorites on the Party inpowerful positions as theyhave done with Punjab leaderNavjot Sidhu and elsewhere.They will also have a free handin distributing tickets in theupcoming elections.

Sonia has announcedthat she is a ‘full-time andhands-on’ president, but thiswill be tougher than it was forher in 1998 or 2004. Then, shewas much younger and hadreasonably good political

advisers. There was a mystiquearound her. Those leaders, likeArjun Singh, ML Fotedar,Ahmed Patel, and AK Antony,were experienced and shrewdpoliticians. Today, she has torun the Party through her chil-dren while taking flak fortheir immature decisions.

Sonia Gandhi fights wellwhen there are challenges, asshe has had shown since 1998.She took over the reins of theParty when it was sinking

under Sitaram Kesri’s leader-ship and a surging BJP. No oneexpected the UPA to win in2004. The real coup was whenshe chose to do back-seat dri-ving rather than become thePrime Minister and she‘appointed’ Dr ManmohanSingh to the post. She ran theParty and the Government forthe next ten years fromremote. A Gandhi familymember at the helm is certain-ly a comforting feeling forCongress persons, not withstanding the opinion of voters.

When Rahul resignedowning moral responsibilityfor the Party’s poor show in2019, the Party could notlook beyond the Gandhis.Rahul got what he wanted —an unassailable decision-mak-ing power without responsibil-ity. By now, his sister Priyanka

Gandhi has joined her broth-er in taking decisions fromafar.

Sonia’s first challenge nowis to check the continuous ero-sion in the Party. Leaders likeJyotiraditya Scindia, JitinPrasada, now AmarenderSingh and former Goa ChiefMinister Luizinho Faleiro havequit the Party for greenerpastures. More are likely to fol-low.

The second challenge is towin some States in the upcom-ing Assembly polls. UttarPradesh is crucial though theParty has not tasted powerthere since 1989. It was in aposition to win Punjab, but theGandhi siblings spoilt it bychoosing an undeservingSidhu as PCC chief.

The third is reviving theorganisation’s machinery. The

general secretaries in charge ofpoll-bound States shouldspend more time on theground. The selection of can-didates is vital. Sonia needs toenthuse the organisation. Sheshould set up booth commit-tees that play a crucial role atthe time of elections.

The fourth is to choosevital issues for exposing theModi Government. There aremany such issues like petrolprice hike, inflation, farmer’sagitation, COVID handlingand many more. Sonia needsfoot soldiers to do the propa-ganda.

The fifth is uniting theOpposition. Many of them likeMamata Banerjee and SharadPawar are making efforts tojoin the resistance. Otherwise,Modi has the advantage evenin 2024. Fortunately, Sonia has

got adequate respect and com-mand from the oppositionleaders.

But before everything, shemust address the grievances ofthe Group of 23 rebels andbring them back to her side.They cannot be suppressed asleaders like Ghulam NabiAzad, Anand Sharma, ShashiTharoor, Kapil Sibal, andManish Tiwari are articulate.As Sonia herself said in themeeting, unity and disciplinein the Party are very impor-tant.

Saturday’s CWC provedthat the Party is stuck with theGandhis and the Gandhis arestuck with the Party. Both haveto change their attitudes andwalk in step with the voters;the electorate has changedand has become more aspira-tional and impatient.

As expected, not even a whimper was heard from the G23 that made much noise in media for months on the need for full-time leadership

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMNTHE NEXT BIG THING

IN JOURNALISM

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

(The author is formerDirector General,

Comptroller & AuditorGeneral of India and

currently a professor atArun Jaitley NationalInstitute of Financial

Management. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

Party stuck with Gandhis; Gandhis with the party

KALYANI SHANKAR

(The writer is a senior journalist. The views

expressed are personal.)

ANAND J KULKARNI SANTOSH K BISWAL

commercial banks to recover a partof their bad loans.

This is a most welcome and along overdue proposal to resolvethe stressed asset problem ofbanks, private as well as public.The existing acts, viz., theInsolvency and Bankruptcy Code(IBC) 2016 and Reconstruction ofFinancial Assets and Securitisationand Enforcement of SecurityInterest (SARFAESI) Act 2002,have proved inadequate for insol-vency resolution and to address theproblem of NPAs of banks. TheSARFAESI Act which enables reg-istration and regulation of AssetReconstruction Companies(ARCs) by the RBI allows thebanks to auction the residentialand commercial properties of bor-rowers to recover outstandingdues. It applies where the borrow-ing entity is left with neither anyrevenue source nor an opportuni-ty to resurrect the business, andwhere no substantial assets are alsolying with the guarantors, while aresolution plan under the IBC isintended to put the debtor back onits feet, not simply for recoveringthe dues of its creditors.As theSupreme Court had said in a case,“the primary focus of the legisla-tion (IBC) is to ensure revival andcontinuance of the corporatedebtor by protecting the corporatedebtor from its own managementand from a corporate death by liq-uidation.”

About 4,541 corporates have sofar been admitted into theCorporate Insolvency ResolutionProcess (CIRP), only 1,745 CIRPs

have completed the process, eitheryielding resolution plans or end-ing up with liquidation. IBC, nowfive years old and which was sus-pended during the Covid crisis, isdue for an overhaul, including pre-pack for the MSMEs which couldlater be extended to other compa-nies, allowing a debt resolutionmechanism outside the IBC. Theexisting processes need addition-al support from other mecha-nisms, and this is where the bandbank fits in.

Bad bank is not a new idea —they have been in existence sincethe 1980s, but the East Asian cur-rency crisis and the 2008 subprimecrisis made many countries to setup bad banks, including the US,Sweden, Finland, Belgium,Malaysia, South Korea, China orIndonesia, but in India the idea ofgovernment sponsored bad bankhas never been tried earlier, thoughthere are several private AssetReconstruction Companies whichare functioning sub-optimally.

This is another major institu-tional reform and the Governmentmust be given the credit for it.Whether it will work or not, onlytime can tell. While it has met withsuccess in many countries, inChina they have been struggling,and the collapse of Evergrande islikely to worsen the situation fur-ther. In any case, ARCs cannot bea permanent mechanism, indeedit has a sunset clause allowing it tobe wound up within five to eightyears.

Banking reform has been onemajor focus area of the govern-

ment which came up with a 4-Rstrategy - recognition, resolution,recapitalisation and reforms. Afterrecognition, quantification ofNPAs started in a planned mannerand banks slowly started recover-ing their dues. In 2018, just two outof 21 public sector banks wereprofitable. But in 2021, only twobanks (Punjab & Sind Bank andCentral Bank) reported losses. Aspart of the reforms, the govern-ment has merged many smallerPSBs with larger ones, and nowtheir total number is stands at 12.

There are several problems,apart from finding potential buy-ers from the stressed assets ofbanks. Valuation of the assets isone, which will determine theloss. In fact, there has been somecriticism that the government isactually guaranteeing the losses ofprivate enterprises and that thePSBs, being shareholders of bothNARCL and IDRCL, will in effectbe buying their own stressedassets. So far, the Indian experiencehas preferred resolution via IBCover the private ARCs, whichhave a low capital requirement ofonly `100 crore.

The regulatory environmentfor the ARCs which has remainedpractically static ever since theyhad emerged in the 2000s alsoneeds an overhaul. Stressed assetswill not disappear anytime soon,and we need to enable such insti-tutions to help absorb the stressedassets. Economy cannot growwithout an adequate supply ofcredit and creating a level play-ing field for all.

GOVINDBHATTACHARJEE

Journalism has seen a sea change becauseof technological adoptions over time

PNS n MUMBAI

Snapping their seven-sessionrising streak, equity bench-marks Sensex and Nifty endedwith marginal losses onTuesday as investors bookedprofits at record levels.

After touching its lifetimehigh of 62,245.43 during thesession, the 30-share BSESensex settled 49.54 points or0.08 per cent lower at61,716.05.

Similarly, the Nifty shed58.30 points or 0.32 per centto close at 18,418.75. Ittouched a new intra-dayrecord of 18,604.45 in earlydeals.

ITC was the top laggard inthe Sensex pack, tanking over6 per cent, followed by HUL,Titan, Tata Steel, UltraTechCement and PowerGrid.

On the other hand, TechMahindra, L&T, Infosys, BajajFinserv, Kotak Bank andHDFC Bank were among thegainers.

"Indices met with profittaking even as the IT Index

stood tall through the daywhich indeed had severalbouts of volatility," said SRanganathan, Head ofResearch at LKP Securities.

Market breadth too wasweak with declines outpacingadvances led by the big namesof the FMCG sector as thestreet awaits a

slew of primary market offer-ings in the near term, henoted, adding that the broad-er markets clearly witnessedprofit booking in several topperforming midcap names.

Elsewhere inA s i a ,

bourses in Hong Kong,Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyoended with gains.

Stock exchanges in Europewere largely trading on a pos-

itive note in the after-noon session.

Internationaloil benchmarkBrent cruderose 0.66 percent to USD 84.89per barrel.

The domesticcurrency marketwas closed onaccount of‘Id-E-Milad'holiday.

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2021 Money 08

oney atters

P&G India launches Rs 500 crfund to accelerate growth F

MCG major Procter and Gamble (P&G) India on Tuesdayannounced a fund worth Rs 500 crore through which it aims to

accelerate growth in rural areas bycollaborating with external partners oninnovations tailored for consumers andretailers for such markets. The 'P&GRural Growth Fund' will provide externalpartners an opportunity to collaboratewith P&G on business solutionscustomised for meeting the needs of ruralconsumers, the company said. This new

fund is a part of P&G India's 'vGROW' program that focuses onidentifying and collaborating with start-ups and small businesses.

HUL Quarter 2 net rises10.7% to Rs 2,185 crore F

MCG major Hindustan Unilever on Tuesday reported a 10.69 percent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,185 crore for the second

quarter ended September 30. Thecompany had posted a net profit of Rs1,974 crore in the July-September quarterof the previous fiscal. Its revenue fromsales during the quarter under reviewstood at Rs 12,812 crore, up 11.31 percent, against Rs 11,510 crore a year ago,Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) said in aregulatory filing. HUL's total expenseswere at Rs 10,129 crore in Q2 FY2021-22 compared to Rs 9,054crore in the year-ago period.

PB Fintech gets Sebi's nod toraise over Rs 6K-cr via IPOP

B Fintech Ltd, which operates online insurance platformPolicybazaar and credit comparison portal Paisabazaar, has

received capital markets regulator Sebi'sapproval to raise Rs 6,017.50 crorethrough an initial share-sale. The initialpublic offer (IPO) comprises a fresh issueof Rs 3,750 crore worth of equity sharesand an offer for sale of Rs 2,267.50 croreby existing shareholders, according todraft red herring prospectus (DRHP). Aspart of the OFS, SVF Python II will sell

shares worth Rs 1,875 crore, Yashish Dahiya will sell shares worth Rs250 crore and some other selling shareholders will also offer shares.

Gold rallies Rs 256; silverjumps Rs 188G

old in the national capital on Tuesday rallied by Rs 256 to Rs46,580 per 10 gram in line with a jump in international precious

metal prices, according to HDFCSecurities. In the previous trade, theprecious metal had settled at Rs 46,324per 10 gram. Silver also jumped Rs 188 toRs 62,328 per kilogram from Rs 62,140per kilogram in the previous trade. In theinternational market, gold was tradinghigher at USD 1,782 per ounce and silverwas flat at USD 23.72 per ounce. "Goldprices traded higher where spot gold prices at COMEX rose by morethan 1 per cent to USD 1,782 per ounce on Tuesday.

MarketWolf raises $5.5million in fundingM

arketWolf, an intra-day options only trading app, on Tuesday saidit has raised USD 5.5 million (about Rs 41.2 crore) in seed

funding from a clutch of high profileindividual investors. Some of theseinvestors include Anil Thadani, AshutoshSinha, Roy van Leeuwen (Head of Beneluxregion at Auto1), Tomas Urbanec (formerCEO of Prudential Assurance Singapore),Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma(Livspace co-founders), a statement said.MarketWolf had raised USD 1.7 million

during its angel round, and has mopped up a total of USD 7.2 millionto date, it added.

Market snaps 7-day winning run onprofit-booking; ITC tanks over 6 pc

After touchingits lifetime highof 62,245.43during thesession, the30-share BSESensex settled49.54 points or0.08 % lower at61,716.05.

Similarly, theNifty shed58.30 points or0.32 % to closeat 18,418.75. Ittouched a newintra-day recordof 18,604.45 inearly deals.

Gross NPAs of banks to riseto 8-9% this fiscal: ReportPNS n MUMBAI

Gross non-performing assets(NPAs) of banks are expectedto increase to 8-9 per cent inthe current financial year, cred-it rating agency Crisil said ina report.

This will be well below thepeak of 11.2 per cent seen atthe end of fiscal 2018.

According to the agency, theCovid-19 relief measures suchas the restructuring dispensa-tion, and the EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS) will help limit the risein banks gross NPAs.

With around 2 per cent ofbank credit expected underrestructuring by the end of thisfiscal, stressed assets?compris-ing gross NPAs and loan bookunder restructuring?shouldtouch 10-11 per cent this fis-cal, it said.

"The retail and MSME seg-ments, which together formclose to 40 per cent of bankcredit, are expected to seehigher accretion of NPAs andstressed assets this timearound," the agency's senior

director and deputy chief rat-ings officer KrishnanSitaraman said in the report.

Stressed assets in these twosegments are seen rising to 4-5 per cent and 17-18 per cent,respectively, by this fiscal end,he said.

The agency said opera-tionalisation of the NationalAsset ReconstructionCompany Ltd (NARCL) by theend of this fiscal and theexpected first-round sale of Rs90,000 crore NPAs could leadto lower reported gross NPAs.

The report expects the cor-porate segment to be far moreresilient. A large part of thestress in the corporate portfo-lio had already been recog-nised during the asset qualityreview initiated five years ago.

"That, coupled with the sec-ular deleveraging trend, hasstrengthened the balancesheets of corporates, andenabled them to tide over thepandemic relatively unscathedcompared with retail andMSME borrowers," it said.

This is evident from restruc-turing of only around 1 per

cent in the segment, the reportsaid.

It expects corporate stressedassets to remain range-boundat 9-10 per cent this fiscal.

The rural segment, whichwas hit harder during the sec-ond wave of the pandemic, hasalso seen a strong recoveryand, therefore, stressed assetsin the agriculture segment areexpected to remain relativelystable.

The agency's director SubhaSri Narayanan said while theperformance of the restruc-tured portfolio will definitelyneed close monitoring, theslippages from the restruc-tured book are expected to belower this time.

These estimates are predi-cated on a base-case scenarioof 9.5 per cent GDP growththis fiscal and continuedimprovement in corporatecredit quality, the rating agencysaid.

A virulent third wave andsignificant deceleration indemand growth could posesignificant downside risks tothese estimates, it said.

Economy on brink, Taliban chase former technocratsPNS n KABUL

When the Taliban swept intopower, they foundAfghanistan's economy fastapproaching the brink andwere faced with harrowingpredictions of growing pover-ty and hunger. So they orderedthe financial managers of thecollapsed former governmentback to work, with an urgentdirective: Do your jobs,because we can't.

In the 20 years since theTaliban last ruled, Afghanistanevolved from an economy deal-ing mostly in illicit enterpriseto a sophisticated, multi-bil-lion-dollar system fueled bydonor aid and international

trade. The Taliban, a move-ment borne out of the ruralclergy, struggled to grasp theextent of the transformation.

Four employees from finan-cial institutions told TheAssociated Press how theTaliban commanded bureau-crats from the previous govern-ment's Finance Ministry, cen-tral bank and other state-owned banks to return to work.Their accounts were confirmedby three Taliban officials.

“They told us, We are notexperts, you know what is bet-ter for the country, how we cansurvive under these chal-lenges'," recalled one state bankofficial, who like others spokeon condition of anonymity

because he was not authorisedto speak on record.

They told him, “Do whatyou must,” but warned, “God is

watching you, and you will beaccountable for what you do onJudgment Day'."

Quietly, these technocrats

are advising the Taliban lead-ership in the running of thecrippled financial sector. Theytell them what to do and howto do it. But, as seasonedexperts, they see no way out ofAfghanistan's economic quag-mire: With billions in interna-tional funds frozen, the bestthey can muster in domesticrevenues is $500 million to$700 million, not enough topay public salaries or providebasic goods and services.

The Taliban are buttressingrelations with local business-men to keep them operating,while the leadership makes itscase for international recogni-tion in meetings with foreignofficials.

ConveGeniusraises $5 mnto launchconversationalAI platformPNS n NEW DELHI

IT startup ConveGenius hasraised USD 5 million (aboutRs 37 crore) in venture cap-ital funding to launch itsconversational AI platformConveGenius AI in Indiaand global markets, thecompany said on Tuesday.

The pre-seed round wasled by new investors, BAceCapital, Heritas Capital and3Lines Venture Capital.Existing investors Michaeland Susan Dell Foundationalso participated in thefunding round. The compa-ny at present operates in Indiaand aims to expand its prod-ucts on the Whatsapp ecosys-tem and other ConversationalAI-based channels horizontal-ly to service more customersacross different verticals andallow developers to launchtheir solutions on the platform.

"We are excited to launchConveGenius AI for democ-ratising digital access to bil-lions of users globally andmake knowledge and contentaccessible with one-clickexperiences," CEO JairajBhattacharya said.

Apple lines upnew MacBookpro, musicvoice planPNS n NEW DELHI

Apple will soon bring its lat-est lineup of MacBook Promodels along with HomePodmini, AirPods and a newmusic experience underApple Music Voice Plan forIndian consumers.

Apple's new M1 Pro andM1 Max, available in 14 and16-inch models, deliversgroundbreaking processing,graphics and machine learn-ing (ML) performance.

The new MacBook Prorange with M1 Pro and M1Max are available to order viaApple's online store and willbegin arriving to customersand its authorised resellersfrom October 26. “We set outto create the world's best pronotebook, and today we'reexcited to introduce the all-new MacBook Pro with M1Pro and M1 Max -- a game-changing combination ofphenomenal performance,unrivalled battery life, andgroundbreaking features,”Apple senior vice president ofWorldwide Marketing GregJoswiak said.

Volvo launches S90, XC60 withpetrol mild-hybrid powertrainsPNS n NEW DELHI

Volvo Car India on Tuesdaylaunched two models -- S90and XC 60 -- with petrol-mildhybrid powertrains as part of itsplans to shift to the petrol-onlyportfolio by this year-end.

The new S90 B5 Inscriptionsedan and XC60 B5 InscriptionSUV now feature a 1,969 ccpetrol engine paired with a 48-volt battery.

Both the models are pricedat Rs 61.9 lakh (ex-showroom).

"We have had a good threequarters this year, which are areflection of customer confi-dence. This has given us a goodfooting as we commence into2022 with new cars.

“These models come power-packed with new feature offer-ings, which I am confident will

increase the luxury mobility ofour customers," Volvo CarIndia MD Jyoti Malhotra said.

With the introduction ofthese new models and theupcoming XC90, the automak-er would complete its transitionto the petrol portfolio, headded.

"After shifting to petrol, weplan to start the shift towardselectric. The first battery-elec-tric car would be launched in2022 as per our plans to be afully electric car company by2030," Malhotra said whileunveiling the new models.

Features like digital servicesgiving access to Google apps,other apps and services, whichoffer hands-free help withGoogle Assistant, navigationthrough Google Maps are avail-able in both the models.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Dr Reddy's Laboratories onTuesday said it has receivedapproval from the US healthregulator to marketLenalidomide capsules, usedto treat multiple myelomaand myelodysplastic syn-dromes.

The company has receivedfinal approval of its abbreviat-ed new drug application(ANDA) for Lenalidomidecapsules in 2.5 mg and 20 mgstrengths, and tentativeapproval for 5 mg, 10 mg, 15mg, and 25 mg strengths fromthe US Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA), the

Hyderabad-based drug majorsaid in a regulatory filing.

The company's product isthe generic version ofRevlimid (lenalidomide) cap-sules. With the approval, DrReddy's is eligible for 180days of generic drug exclusiv-ity for Lenalidomide capsules,2.5 mg and 20 mg, the drug-

maker said.In September 2020, the com-

pany had announced a settle-ment agreement of their litiga-tion with Celgene, the maker ofRevlimid capsules and awholly-owned subsidiaryof Bristol MyersSquibb, relating topatents for the

b r a n d e ddrug.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Automaker Jeep India onTuesday said it is recalling 39fully imported units of JeepWrangler in order to inspectand replace fuel supply lineconnector.

The company said it isrecalling the SUV units man-ufactured between January24, 2020 and March 17, 2020.

As part of the regular vehi-cle audit process, quality con-

trol identifiedthe potential toreplace the fuel supply lineconnector, which may have apropensity to crack, resultingin a leak from the fuel lines,which may cause a fire hazard,Jeep India said in a statement.

As a safety precaution, the39 Jeep Wrangler units will bevoluntarily recalled in order toeliminate any risk to the vehi-cle occupants, the vehicle itselfand the people who might be

in closerange of the vehi-

cle at any given time, it added.The locally-assembled Jeep

Wrangler is unaffected by thisrecall, the automaker stated.

“Customer safety and thequality of our vehicles are thetopmost priorities for us.Thanks to our continuous andstringent quality controlprocesses this issue was iden-tified early.”

Jeep India recalls 39 JeepWrangler units to fix fuel supply part

Digital transformation to aid Indiabecome US$ 5-trillion economyPNS n NEW DELHI

Digital transformation willhelp India become aUSD 5-trillion econ-omy and achieve theA a t m a n i r b h a rBharat (self-reliantIndia) target, saidSchneider ElectricIndia CEO AnilChaudhry on Tuesday.

Schneider Electric, aleader in the digital transforma-tion of energy management

and automation, kicked off theInnovation Summit India 2021

on Tuesday.On the first day of thevirtual summit, the

company broughttogether key policy-makers, industryleaders, customersand partners who

shared criticalinsights on the role of

disruptive technology toaccelerate the digital transfor-mation towards 'building a sus-

tainable and resilient future,with an Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

In a session of the summit,Anil Chaudhry said, "India isone of the fastest-growingeconomies in the world anddigital transformation wouldhelp India become a USD 5-tril-lion economy and achieveAatmanirbharta (self-reliance)."

He is of the view that digiti-sation is crucial in makingIndia a manufacturing hub inorder to realise the i4i and i4wdream.

Gati ramps up networkcapacity by 20-25 pc PNS n MUMBAI

Express distribution firm Gatihas ramped up its networkcapacity by 20-25 per cent byadding 100 line haul trucks toits flexi network to connect thedemand locations besides scal-ing up workforce by at least 15per cent, a release said onTuesday

The move is aimed at cut-ting down the dwell time fur-ther view of the huge spike indemand during the festival

season, which is considered astress-test time for supplychain players, it said.

Moreover, to cater to thefestive demand more effi-ciently, Gati Air has bolsteredits network by partneringwith leading airlines provid-ing direct connections to 28commercial airports in India.This is third direct airlineengagement this year,strengthening network con-nectivity to 34 commercialairports, the company said.

Dr Reddy’s lab receives USFDA approval to market Lenalidomide capsule

n an interesting newsupdate, Kanye West haslegally changed his name toYe, something he hasdesired for a long time.

A judge of Los AngelesSuperior Court approved his namechange request Monday after the rap-per filed a petition last month to offi-cially go by his famous nickname.

Ye, who has no middle or last name,cited personal reasons behind his deci-sion to change his name in his peti-tion.

The rapper has been using themoniker as a nickname for severalyears now. Infact, he named his eighthalbum after the nickname in 2018 andeven goes by the abbreviated title onTwitter.

That year, in a radio interview,Kanye said, “I believe ‘ye’ is the mostcommonly used word in the Bible, andin the Bible it means you. So it’s I’myou, I’m us, it’s us. It went from beingKanye, which means the only one, tojust Ye being a reflection of our good,our bad, our confused, our every-thing.”Last, in August, Ye released atwo-hour, 27-track album Donda,which dropped after weeks of delayand several stadium-filled public lis-tening sessions.

I

9

what’s brewing?

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

Vijayawada | Wednesday October 20, 2021

Kanye West officiallychanges his name to Ye

Kangana shares herfour looks from spy

thriller Dhaakadhalaivi is still alivein public memoryand expectationsare high fromTejas, KanganaRanaut’s upcom-

ing film on a woman pilotin the Indian Air Force, butthere’s no stopping theactress.

She has announced onsocial media that heraction-packed spy thriller,Dhaakad, is releasing onApril 8, 2022.

Fans have been eagerlyawaiting the film since lastJanuary, when the firstposters from it surfaced

online. To announce Dhaakad,

Kangana took to Instagramto share a symmetrical col-lage of her four looks fromthe film as she gave a sneakpeek into the world ofDhaakad'and what to expectfrom the action flick.

Kangana captioned theimage with this descriptionof her character: “She isfierce, feisty and fearless.#AgentAgni is all geared upto set the big screen on fire.Bringing to you the actionspy thriller #Dhaakad thatwill hit theatres on April 8,2022!

Manike Mage Hithe singer to singHindi version for Thank God

ri Lankan singerYohani, who becamea YouTube sensationwith her popularsong Manike MageHithe, will be singing

the Bollywood version of theviral song in Indra Kumar’sThank God. The film stars AjayDevgn, Sidharth Malhotra, andRakul Preet Singh in pivotalroles. Yohani will be singing a

Hindi version of Manike MageHithe, which will be composedby Tanishk Bagchi. The lyrics ofthe Hindi song are penned byRashmi Virag.

Confirming the same, direc-tor Indra Kumar said, “Yohani’ssong has become a super sensa-tion and I am extremely thank-ful to Bhushanji for giving methis blockbuster track to be partof Thank God. We are all veryexcited for this version and willbegin shooting soon for thetrack.”

Yohani too, is elated to get theopportunity to sing a Hindisong for a Bollywood film. Shesaid, “I have received tremen-dous love and support fromIndia and am extremely gratefulto Bhushan Kumar, IndraKumar and the entire team ofThank God for presenting theHindi version of my track in thefilm. I am looking forward tovisiting India soon.”

chitt’s Creek star SarahLevy secretly marriedactor-producer GrahamOuterbridge over theweekend.

The 35-year-old actorconfirmed the news of her weddingon Instagram on Monday.

“Bells are ringing,” Sarah cap-tioned a photo of her and Graham,39, inside the photo booth at thereception.

According to Page Six, the cere-mony was held on Saturday at theSunset Tower Hotel in WestHollywood, California in the pres-

ence of close friends and family.Sarah’s co-star and older brother,

Dan Levy, also shared the news onhis Instagram page with a photo ofthe siblings rocking the dance floor.

“My sister got married this week-end. This is absolutely not a photoof us screaming the lyrics to S ClubParty on the dance floor. Love you,@sarahlevy,” Dan, 38, wrote in thecaption.

While Sarah and Graham neverconfirmed their engagement, theymade their relationship Instagramofficial in May 2018 while vacation-ing in Bermuda.

Sarah Levy ties the knotwith Graham Outerbridge

ctor John Abraham onMonday announced hisupcoming productionTara Vs Bilal has begunfilming in London.

Directed bySamar Iqbal, the film featuresactors Harshvardhan Raneand Sonia Rathee. It isreportedly a slice-of-lifestory.

Abraham took toTwitter and shared apicture of the clap-board, writing,“#TaraVsBilal begins.Day 1. Directed by#SamarIqbal”.

The 48-year-old actor haspreviously backed films likeVicky Donor, Madras Cafe,Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran,Batla House and this year’s Netflixdrama Sardar Ka Grandson.

The film is produced by T-Series, Abraham’s JAEntertainment and TVB FilmsProduction.

The actor will be next seen inthe action movie Attack.

John Abraham-backed Tara Vs Bilal goes on floors

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S

A

hen you become amother, you tendto forget aboutyour own needsbecause you are sofocused on your

child. With the baby keepingyou busy all day and night,your skincare takes a back-seat.

It’s not always changes inskin texture and looks post-pregnancy are a bad thing,but not taking care of yourskin may lead to acne, melas-ma, stretch marks, puffy eyes,and even dark circles.

Syed Nazim,Dermatologist, Aesthetic andHair Transplant Surgeon,Royal Lush Skin Clinic Saket,New Delhi, shares simple andeasy tips for you to follow, toget a glowing post-pregnan-cy.Cleansing: As you sleep,your skin goes through arenewal cycle, by dispensingtoxins and debris. So youonly need a light-texturedcleanser to wash your facewith a face wash that is suit-able for your skin type.Steam: Take steam for 2-3days a week, it will help youto open up your cloggedpores.Scrub & face pack: Use aface scrub, to remove thedead skin cells, scrub yourface for like 5 minutes andwash it with normal tapwater. It will help you tomake your skin softer andradiant, leave the mask untilit dries off.Toner & moisturiser: Applytoner to your face, look forclarifying toners that rebal-ance your pH to maintain the

pH value of your skin. In theend, you only have to mois-turize your face, to givehydration.Steal baby products: Babyproducts are always mild innature so that the baby’s sen-sitive skin doesn’t have tocompromise. They are creat-ed to lock moisture in babiesskin. So, you can also usethem. Whether it’s a body oil,lotion or cream, apply someon your skin every timeyou’re applying them on yourbaby. If you do this, you canflaunt your skin, this way,you don’t have to dedicate aspecific time every day foryour skincare.Keep all skincare needs inone place: Organise all yourskincare products in oneplace, this organization willhelp you way much betterthan anything. Make use ofyour “me time” and devote itproperly to pamper yourself.Streaming your routine:Make a proper timetable, foryour week how many daysyou are going to deep cleanseyour skin in a week.

If we talk about the babyskincare routine this isimportant too. As the baby’sskin is too sensitive and theyare interacting with such aharsh environment — pollu-tion, high temperature etc.

Don’t worry there are somesimple and easy enough tips.Here, what you should know,with regards to bath, diaper-ing, selecting items and that’sjust the beginning.Bath time: Babies need twoto three baths a week inwarm, not hot water to stayclean. The initial step to an

extraordinary child shower isto track down the ideal tem-perature. Tip: Fill the bathwithout any more than 2 to 3creeps of water. To keep yourchild from getting cold whileyou wash them, routinelypour cupfuls of water overtheir shoulders.Diaper basics: There are a lotof things you’ll have to do foryour little one when they’rean infant, like changing yourbaby’s diaper regularly, clean-ing tenderly however com-pletely each time with childwipes. Make the surface satu-rated yet dry simultaneouslyas well.

There are countless mythsaround diaper rashes that it iscaused because of the usageof diapers. But no, it is due toa lack of attention andknowledge about the correcttime to change the diaper.Else it will get worse for yourchild.Awareness of products:Always read the product labelbefore purchasing productsfor your infant. It's ideal toavoid chemical and alcohol-based products. Use productsthat are made explicitly forinfants.

Newborn babies are so del-icate, requiring a lot of careand attention. A single mis-take or slip of mind canmake things worse. Keepyour infant’s skin saturated,as well, so consistently have astockpile of moisturisersaround. But excessive oil cancause cradle caps, and dry-ness can create painful sce-narios. If your child is facingsuch issues you need to con-sult a certified dermatologist.

Skincare tips for newmothers and their babies

W

SHIKHA DUGGAL

t’s going tophysically hurtto say good-byeas finally, themuch-lovedromantic series

Little Things Season 4 onNetflix, comes to an end.The show has indeedended however, it may notend for the couples whohave found love and famethrough it, they learnthow to battle hardships ina relationship from thevery realistic web seriesbased. ‘Dhruv’ and ‘Kavya’will always live rent-freein our hearts!

Dhruv Sehgal is allemotional, given that he

created the show — it’slike his own baby. It feelsas if he’s graduating fromcollege. Teaching us sim-plicity in a relationship,the friendship it comeswith, how to build the lev-els of comfort, and howone is better when togeth-er — Dhruv’s Little ThingsSeason 4 taught us somuch. Did he ever thinkthat it would eventuallybecome this big a hit?“No, we never thought itwould grow to be this big.If we had started out say-ing, ‘Yeh karenge, wohkarenge’, it would have feltvery artificial. Thankfully,we didn’t think about allof that,” he shares.Perfection is not every-thing, acceptance and

companionship arebeyond this sham of per-fection is another lessonDhruv’s character taughtus. He continues, “It’sabout overcoming the hic-cups, how they’re now oneunit. They have stoppedquestioning the idea oflove. It shouldn’t get to bea point where everyone isbored of it. Right now, it isall wholesome. So we’reending it on a high note.”

Dhruv is currentlyworking on two shows.Writing is where he con-nects with the characters,with the world, and withhimself. It puts him in agood space, he tells us.“The genre was not newand path-breaking, but theidea of it being life-like

and real, was. We wantedto see love through thelens of slice-of-life and notthrough dramatic events.To us, that was excitingand challenging. And itresonated with the audi-ence,” the 31-year-oldactor adds.

Making the audiencesexperience love, warmthand tears, all at the sametime — the actor andwriter always wants towrite his characters withempathy and honesty. Thegrammar of screenwritinghas changed, but the basicessence is the same forhim! We ask him how hecoped with the pandemic,and he has an answer:“Both, the show andeveryday little things like

making dal chawal arehow I was dealing withpandemic anxiety. I wasfocused on the small wins,and that helped. Oh, alsomy cat. She was myfavourite therapist. Shetook care of me!”

Little Things undoubt-edly showed how one canbe perfect even with themany flaws, how one cangrow individually in arelationship, and thatevery problem can besolved with a cup of ‘chai’!It was a show that wasconversational, matureand, one that openlytalked about relationshipsof the urban youth —‘Momo’ & ‘BiryaniMonster’ will always stayin our hearts.

HOW DHRUV DEFINED TOGETHERNESS

THROUGH LITTLE THINGS

I

n 2021, technologyand adaptation havebecome intrinsic tohaving a higherquality of life. Seniorcitizens can now

upload prescriptions, speak todoctors, and stay in touch withfamily and friends at the touchof a button. However, thesesmall adaptations are onlybeginning to scratch the sur-face of what technology can dofor senior living.

This may sound dramatic,but it’s not an overstatement —senior citizens as a whole com-munity have been among theslowest to adopt new technolo-gy, and unlike other branchesof the industry, senior living oreldercare as it is referred to inIndia has not historically beenpushed by its customer base toadopt a better tech, largely dueto the small user base and alargely fragmented serviceoffered by players, most ofthem with simple band-aidsolutions to existing pain

points. That’s a problem.Senior-care providers can onlydeliver on wellness to theextent that they’re able to get acomplete view of their clientsto make decisions based on thewhole person.

But the tides are turning. Astech companies recognise thehuge potential to transform the$740 billion senior-care marketand tech-savvy boomersenter retirement ingrowing numbers,the stage is set fora total industryrevamp.

The bighurdlemosttech-nologiesthat canmake adiffer-encetoseniorlivingfacenow isunifyingtheirmanysiloed sys-tems. Whilewe are cap-turing datafrom multipledevices, these tech-nologies aren’t talkingto each other — EHRs, forexample, that don’t take to acalendar system or medicalrecords systems. More impor-tantly where is all this datagoing? The need for a robustdata analytics platform that istraining an AI /ML engine tocreate patterns and detect

anomalies is critical.IOT will play a big role in

creating meaningful solutionsto later life living — devicesthat can detect sleep patterns,resting and variable heart ratesthrough embedded chips inmattresses to co-relate it withday-time data, that is being

non-

intru-

sively being captured, can helpclinicians and care companiesmake better decisions andimprove overall health. Devicesthat help with navigation for

those affected with diabetesrelated partial or completeblindness, equipped withembedded triple layer chipdesigns with gyros and sensors,can change the quality of lifedramatically.

Since the start of the pan-demic, there has been a 20 percent increase in falls for seniorsliving in unsupervised condi-

tions. With social distancingguidelines in effect and a

limit on visitors,seniors are spending

more time aloneand unsuper-

vised in theirhomes. This

is especiallyproblemat-ic forseniorswithneurodegener-ativecondi-tions,whowere

alreadyfalling

twice asoften as

seniors with-out dementia.As we look

ahead to 2022, fallprevention will con-

tinue to be a top concernin senior living. More often

than not, this is a sentinel eventthat changes the course of life.To help solve this challenge, anAI-enabled sensor and beaconsystem to detect falls of indi-viduals with dementia is set up.It will result in up to 40 percent fewer falls and up to a 80

per cent reduction in fall-relat-ed ER visits.

What is often lost in the inthis maze of technology inno-vation is the need to developand implement tech that makesan actual difference in daily liv-ing, whether it’s improving thequality in performing activitiesof daily living (ADL’s) orrestoring the dignity to seniorsin the entire caregiver-carereceiver interaction. This issomething that not muchattention has been given to sofar. A big issue with the pre-baby boomer generation is thereluctance or inability to techadoption. Trying to force adop-tion through wearable healthdevices, trackers, and so on,seldom achieve the desired out-comes. Technology will have tobe seamlessly woven into theirlives to make a credible differ-ence; another important casecan be seen in the instance ofadult incontinence. This affectsnearly 51 per cent of seniorsaged 65 and older, and the onlyexisting solution has been inva-sive surgeries or adult diapersto navigate daily living. If wecould create a sensor-basedpatch that can record and com-municate, in advance, that anindividual’s bladder or bowelsare full, it would restore agencyto both the individual and theircaregiver.

Hence, it is vital to developnon-intrusive tech that candramatically improve the quali-ty of life and restore dignity inlater life living, monitor clienthealth, and deliver better care.

(The author is the founderand CEO of Welldercare,lifestyle as service retirementmodel for senior living.)

DEVICES THAT HELP WITH NAVIGATION FOR THOSE

AFFECTED WITH DIABETES RELATED PARTIAL OR

COMPLETE BLINDNESS, EQUIPPED WITH EMBEDDED

CHIP DESIGNS WITH GYROS AND SENSORS,

CAN CHANGE THE QUALITY OF LIFE

DRAMATICALLY.

fter making amark inIndia’s mostpopular series,actorChandan Roy

Sanyal hits the digitalscene as a maniacal vil-lain in Vipul AmrutlalShah & Zee Studios’Sanak — Hope UnderSeige. The versatile pow-erhouse garners an out-pour of positive reviewsfor his terror-evokingperformance in the filmdirected by KanishkVarma, starring VidyutJammwal, RukminiMaitra, and NehaDhupia also.

Establishing his com-mand on his craft, the

Aashram actor has posi-tioned himself as a credi-ble performer with hisportrayal as Saju, a mer-ciless and diabolicalhostage-taker who mas-terminds a siege over ahospital. The commonthread in the unanimousappreciation rained onChandan was the way hedug into the villain’smental space. The actorsat in the makeup chairfor over an hour as hislook required elaboratemakeup and prosthetics.He also trained for amonth under the guid-ance of an Americanaction director andlearned rifle handling forthe hostage drama. If the

reviews are anything togo by, the actor’s hardwork has paid off.

Trade expert AmulMohan says, “Chandan’sterror-evoking perfor-mance in Sanak speaksto his versatility. As anactor, he’s as natural asthey come. The film cap-tures his finesse as anantagonist that had beenunexplored until now.”Another trade expert,Ramesh Bala said,“Chandan Roy Sanyalplays his ace as a bank-able actor in Sanak. Heholds his own andappears a merciless vil-lain who makes the audi-ence anxious about thenext ghastly thing he’sgoing to do. His presenceand mannerisms areeffortlessly convincing.”

Grateful to have beenappreciated for the role,he says, “I’m honouredthat so much apprecia-tion has come by forSanak. It feels great andrewarding to be reviewedpositively by the best inthe business. RajuSolanki’s role allowed meto go to the dark sideand I thank the produc-ers for giving me theopportunity to exploremy craft with such alarge-hearted film.”Chandan’s upcomingprojects include AshramSeason 2 and a few unan-nounced ventures.

I

A

Chandan Sanyalsoars with Sanak

Making seniors tech-savvyThe seniorliving industryis on thebrink of atechnologicalrevolution,says KanishkaAcharya

WednesdayOctober 20, 2021

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PTI n AL AMERAT (OMAN),

Richie Berrington slammed a stroke-filled 70 while Josh Davey snappedfour wickets as Scotland inched

closer to the Super 12s with a comfort-able 17-run win over Papua New Guineain their Group B match of the ICC T20World Cup on Tuesday.

Scotland grabbed the top position inGroup B with two wins having shockedBangladesh in their opening game.Berrington put on 92 runs off 65 ballswith Matthew Cross (45) before adding

another 33 with Calum MacLeod (10)as Scotland posted a challenging 165for 9 after opting to bat.

Kyle Coetzer’s men then produceda splendid bowling effort to skittle outPNG for 148 in 19.3 overs withDavey (4/18) emerging as the stand-out bowler.

PNG thus made an early exit totheir maiden campaign at the T20World Cup following the second suc-cessive loss. They had lost to Oman by10 wickets in their tournamentopener.

Chasing 166 to win, PNG neededtheir batters to fire but they couldn’t getany momentum and were soon reducedto 35 for 5 in 6 overs.

Norman Vanua (47) and KiplinDoriga (18) then fought back

adding 53 off 29 balls toraise hopes but Watt

broke the partner-ship dismissingthe latter in the

17th over.Davey then

returned to removeVanua to dash PNG’s

slim hopes of amaiden victory

in its first global appearance.Earlier, Berrington slammed three

sixes along with six hits to the fence dur-ing his 49-ball stay to set the foundationfor a big score but PNG put brakes in thelast three overs, conceding only 19 runsand taking six wickets in the process.

Kabua Morea (4/31) and Chad Soper(3/24) were the most successful bowlersfor PNG.

Goerge Munsey smashed three foursto give Scotland a flying start but Moreacastled skipper Coetzer at the other endin the third over to deal the first blow.

Munsey too perished soon while try-ing to muscle a delivery from Soper asScotland slipped to 26 for 2 in 3.4 overs.

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2021 sports 11

PTI n LONDON

India’s Harbhajan Singh and Javagal Srinath wereon Tuesday awarded life membership of the

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), joining 16 othercricketers who were given the honour this year.The MCC, based at Lord’s, is the custodian ofcricket laws. Harbhajan and Srinath both enjoyedfine international careers. Harbhajan is India’s

third-highest wicket-taker in Tests, with 417 dis-missals in 103 Tests and more than 700 plus inter-national wickets across formats. Srinath, current-ly an ICC Elite Panel Match Referee, is one of thegreatest fast bowlers with 315 ODI wickets and236 Test victims. “Eight of the 12 Test-playingnations are represented within this year’s list, whichincludes some of the most recognisable names inthe modern game,” said the MCC in a statement.

England’s leading Test run-scorer AlastairCook, is joined by fellow countrymen Ian Bell andMarcus Trescothick, totalling more than 39,000international runs between them.

A fourth England star, Sarah Taylor, returnedto the field this year, appearing in the RachaelHeyhoe Flint Trophy, Charlotte Edwards Cup andThe Hundred, and is recognised as one of thefinest wicket-keepers of her generation.

IANS n MUMBAI

India’s most celebrated cueist,Pankaj Advani (PSPB) neat-

ly constructed a brilliant 121points effort as he rallied splen-didly from the loss of the open-ing two frames to prevail overDhvaj Haria (PSPB) 4-2 andrecord his fourth successivewin in the Men’s ‘Y’ Camp (1stleg) round-robin league match-es of the World SnookerQualifiers, a BSFI NationalSelection Tournament onTuesday.

The 36-year-old India No.2 Advani, started hesitantly andthe left-handed Dhvaj cashed on

the opportunities to take a 2-0lead. But, the cool and calculat-ed Advani, winner of multiple

World titles, showed his class ashe turned on the magic incompiling a stupendous run

which drew loud cheers andapplause from the goodlycrowds as he went on to win thethird frame and get back intothe match.

That three-figure break, thehighest break so far in the com-petition, seemed to haveknocked the fight out of Hariaas the Bengaluru-based Advaniwent on to comfortable win thenext three frames to complete asatisfying 29-74, 31-79,121(121)-00, 69-14, 69-03 and72-17 win.

On Monday night, Advanihad defeated Pushpender Singh(RSPB) 4-1 (68(51)-34, 86-01,00-86(86), 120(84)-11, 61-25)

win, the organisers informed ina release on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, National cham-pions Aditya Mehta (Men) andVidya Pillai (Women) both suf-fered setbacks. The 35-year-old Mehta (PSPB) came lost toDhvaj Haria (PSPB) who playedsteadily to clinch a 4-2 (13-87,79-39, 44-55, 82-00, 67-01, 71-36) victory late on Monday.However, Mehta regained hiswinning form and with breaksof 83 (2nd frame), 72 (4th), and56 (5th) defeated PushpenderSingh (RSPB) 4-1 (55-19,98(83)-00, 56-65(46), 129(72)-00 and 69(56)-33) to keep hisqualifying hopes alive.

IANS n AL AMERAT

Bangladesh captainMahmudullah won the

toss and opted to bat againstOman in the 6th match of ICCMen’s T20 World Cup 2021 atthe Al Amerat CricketGround, here on Tuesday.

Bangladesh, who suffereda shocking six-run defeat toScotland in the last game,made one change in theirteam as Mohammad Naimcame in place of SoumyaSarkar.

“Going to have a bat, putsome runs on the board andtry to defend it. Dew is a fac-tor and it’s been in our consid-eration. But we’d like to have

a good total on the board.Batting wise we didn’t buildenough partnerships. Today’sanother opportunity,” saidMahmudullah at the toss.

On the other hand, Oman,who won their last matchagainst PNG, also made one

change, replacing Khawar Aliwith Fayyaz Butt for this game.

“Happy to bowl. Just onething — have to keep them toa low total. We have pressurefrom the first game, not thisgame,” said Oman skipperZeeshan Maqsood at the toss.

PTI n STOCKHOLM

With three recent interna-tional wins under its

belt, a confident Indianwomen’s football team willtake on Swedish top tier leagueside Hammarby IF in a friend-ly match here on Wednesday.

This is the first of the two friendlies the Indianteam will play in theScandinavian country.

The team played fourmatches against UAE (4-1),Tunisia (0-1), Bahrain (5-0)and Chinese Taipei (1-0) aspart of preparations for next year’s women’s AFCAsian Cup.

“It’s a big challenge for usin Sweden, but the girls aremotivated to give their best inevery game,” said goalkeeperAditi Chauhan on the eve ofthe match.

“It’s often about who wantsmore on the pitch, and ourgirls are certainly pumped upafter the results that we havehad recently,” she added.

The Indian team underSwedish coach ThomasDennerby scored 10 goals inthe four international friend-ly games while conceding onlyone to register three wins andone loss.

“These games have beenvery helpful for the team. Theyhelped us reflect on the teamand individual performances.These matches helped us lookat our strengths and weakness-es,” another player DalimaChhibber said.

“As a team, we are focusedon building up to the AFCWomen’s Asian Cup next year,and competitive matches likethese help us plan for theareas where we need toimprove.” Chhibber said thatthe team is working hard toadapt to the philosophy thatcoach Dennerby is trying toinculcate in the team.

“We are working with anew coaching philosophy bothon and off the field. The prepa-rations for the flagship tourna-ment is going on in full swing,”she said.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Having once paddled across17 nations and 15,000 kilo-

metres to reach Athens back in2004, veteran Maharashtracyclist Sanjay Mayure hasembarked on ‘Bharat Darshan’as he has undertaken a challengeto cycle from Kashmir toKanyakumari in two months.

A renowned cyclist fromMaharashtra’s Vidarbha region67-year-old Mayure reachedNew Delhi on Tuesday after hav-ing started his mission fromSrinagar’s Lal Chowk onOctober 8.

From Delhi, Mayure will beheading to Gwalior followed by

Nagpur and then off toHyderabad. From Hyderabad,he will be reaching Bengalurubefore the final stretch whichconsists of three cities —Madurai, Ramanathapuramand Rameswaram coveringaround 4,100 kms.

Mayure is expected to coverthis distance in the next twomonths. “I think age is just anumber. It is very easy to giveexcuses to avoid difficult tasks.Cycling has been my passionright from childhood. It kept mehealthy and busy at this age too,”said Mayure, who had someyears back retired as NayabTahsildar of revenue departmentat DM’s office.

Asked how he manages hisaccommodation as there is a fairamount of expense associatedwith this kind of a journeyacross India. “I have never takenmoney and mostly managed onmy own. I have spent lot ofnights at Gurdwaras and ate thelangar food and at times stayedin Mandirs where I have sur-vived on prasad. Some placeswhere I have no option, I stay atbudget hotels to cut costs. Butthis is my passion and I can’t askfor money from anyone,” saidMayure, who hails from a smalltown Buldana, which is 50 kmsfrom Ajanta, Ellora Caves.

Mayure, who won severalcycling races in his younger daysand earned the reward of‘Ghatacha Raja’ (King of Ghats),was 50 years old when he hadcycled across 17 countries toencourage Indian Olympiansduring the Athens edition.

So how does he managecosts and Mayure revealed a storyof passion. “My wife is a retiredSBI officer, my son is also work-ing in a bank and my daughter-in-law is a teacher. I can’t tell howmuch my wife encourages me. Isave my pension money and thenuse it for these trips.

PTI n ODENSE

Returning to action after abreak, double Olympic

medallist P V Sindhu saw offTurkey’s Neslihan Yigit instraight games to join compa-triots Kidambi Srikanth andSameer Verma in the secondround of the Denmark Openhere on Tuesday.

Sindhu, the reigningworld champion, took 30 min-utes to get across Yigit, ranked29th, 21-12 21-10 in herwomen’s singles opener of theBWF World Tour Super 1000tournament.

The fourth seeded Indian,who had skipped theSudirman Cup and Uber CupFinal after the TokyoOlympics, will next faceThailand’s BusananOngbamrungphan.

Former championSrikanth and Sameer alsomade winning starts to theirmen’s singles campaigns atthe USD 850,000 event.

While Srikanth, who hadclaimed the title in 2017, out-smarted compatriot B SaiPraneeth 21-14 21-11 in 30minutes, Sameer, ranked 28th,prevailed over Thailand’sworld no 21 KunlavutVitidsarn 21-17 21-14 in a 42-minute clash.

World no 14 Srikanth willmeet world no 1 and topseeded Japanese KentoMomota in the second round,while Sameer is likely to faceDenmark’s third seed AndersAntonsen in the next round.

Indian men’s doubles play-ers, however, had a mixed dayin office. While SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shettydefeated English pair of

Callum Hemming and StevenStallwood 23-21 21-15 in theiropener, MR Arjun and DhruvKapila stunned England’sworld no 17 pair of Ben Laneand Sean Vendy 21-19 21-15to make a positive start totheir campaign.

But Manu Attri and BSumeeth Reddy lost 18-2111-21 to Malaysia’s Goh SzeFei and Nur Izzuddin in theopening round to bow out ofthe competition.

World no 7 Sindhu, whohad claimed a bronze at TokyoGames to go with her Rio sil-

ver medal, hardly broke anysweat during her openingcontest against Yigit.

The Indian was up 5-4and then kept moving aheadto comfortably pocket theopening game.

The second game was nodifferent as Sindhu erased a 1-3 deficit to grab a 10-4 lead.Yigit made it 9-10 before theIndian held a two-pointadvantage at the break.

After the interval, it was aone-way traffic as Sindhusealed the contest withoutmuch ado.

PTI n NEW DELHI

India winning the SAFFChampionships for an eighth time

is not a “special success” as the coun-try is dominant in the South Asianregion and the bigger aim is to do wellin the 2023 Asian Cup qualification,national football team head coachIgor Stimac said on Wednesday.India won the regional tournamentafter beating Nepal 3-0 in the final inMale on Saturday to hand Stimac hisfirst trophy as in-charge of the team.

“I don’t consider it (the SAFFtitle) as a special success because itis normal that India wins when itgoes to SAFF but it demonstrates thatwe are very dominant in this com-petition and we can progress in ourgame a lot more,” Stimac said at avirtual interaction. He, howev-er, admitted that his team wasunder a lot of “result pressure”after drawing Bangladesh (1-1) and Sri Lanka (0-0) in thefirst two round-robin leaguematches.

The results had putIndia in danger ofgoing out of reckon-ing for the final. Indiathen beat Nepal 1-0and hosts Maldives3-1 in must-winmatches before out-

playing the Himalayan country 3-0in the summit clash to stamp theirauthority.

“It was obviously a difficult sit-uation we found after the first twomatches but they looked bad onlybecause of the results. There was nobig difference in approach, the num-bers and statistics, we had enoughshoots, scoring chances, movementand energy by players.

“We scored sometimes and did-n’t score sometimes and that madethe difference. So, we had a lot ofresults pressure on our shoulders butwe dealt with it the way it should beand in the end we won the trophywhich was really important.” Stimacwas speaking from Bengaluru afterhis return from Maldives and he isleaving for Dubai Tuesday night with

the U-23 national team, which hehas taken charge of for the 2022Asian U-23 Championshipsqualifiers in the UAE fromOctober 25 to 31.

The Croatian gaffersaid that the side’s aim

is to make it to the2023 Asian Cup for

which the qualifi-cation thirdround is set tobegin earlyFebruary next

year.

FRED GOODALL, UMPIRE IN STORMY WINDIES SERIES, NO MOREWelington: New Zealand cricket umpire FredGoodall, who was at the center of a famously ill-tem-pered test series between New Zealand and the WestIndies in 1980, has died. He was 83. His death wasannounced Tuesday by New Zealand Cricket, whichdid not specify a cause. Goodall stood in 24 testmatches and 15 one-day internationals between 1965and 1988. He is best remembered in cricket for hispart in the contentious second test at Lancaster Park,Christchurch in February 1980, when he wasbarged by West Indies fast bowler Colin Croft.

IN-FFORM AMANDEEP EYE GOOD OUTING AT 11TH LEG OF HERO WPGTPanchkula: In-form Amandeep Drall will look tocontinue her impressive run when she competes atthe 11th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour atthe Panchkula Golf Club beginning on Wednesday.The Kapurthala golfer, who has gained a lot of con-fidence with a string of events in Europe, was inexcellent form in the 10th leg where she was a run-away winner and closed the week with a ladies courserecord 7-under 65 on the last day. Two other play-ers showing a lot of confidence on their return fromthe European sojourn are Vani Kapoor and GaurikaBishnoi, who are also in the field.

THERE IS NO CSK WITHOUT DHONI, SAYS N SRINIVASANNew Delhi: Former BCCI president and IndiaCements Ltd (ICL) vice-chairman N Srinivasan hasshowered praise on Chennai Super Kings’ captainMS Dhoni, saying “there is no CSK without Dhoni”.Just to refresh the reader’s mind, ICL owned the CSKfrom the start of IPL in 2008 till 2014, when the own-ership was transferred to Chennai Super KingsCricket Ltd, a subsidiary of ICL. The Super Kingsare the IPL 2021 champion for the fourth time,thanks to Dhoni’s leadership.

SINGLES

DOUBTING WARNER AN ABSOLUTE NO-NNO: MAXWELL

Abu Dhabi: Doubting David Warner “is an absolute no-no,”says Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell who is confidentthat the out-of-form opener will turn things around in the T20World Cup. Warner has been woefully out-of-form with hisIPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad removing him from cap-taincy in May before dropping him from the playing XI forthe second time this year during the second leg. He scored 0and 2 in the two games he played for Sunrisers in the UAEwhich was followed by a first-ball duck for Australia in thewarm up match against New Zealand on Monday. “If you everdoubt Davey, it’s an absolute no-no,” Maxwell was quoted asaying by ‘ESPNCricinfo’.”You know he’s going to turn it around.He’s a superstar of all three formats. He’s made so many runs.He’s going to go down as one of the greats of the game.” Warnerheads into the World Cup having not played an internation-al match in the shortest format for over a year but despite thathe has the backing of his teammates including white-ball skip-per Aaron Finch.

LOVE HAVING DHONI IN DRESSING ROOM AS HE BRINGS SENSE OF CALM: KL RAHUL Dubai: Picking Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s brain is on KL Rahul’schecklist for the next few weeks as he wants to utilise every bitof advice from Team India’s mentor, who, according to the open-er, always instils a sense of calm into the dressing room. Rahul,who is all set to open with Rohit Sharma in the T20 World Cupwhere India will start against Pakistan on Sunday, said that therecouldn’t have been a better “mentor” than Dhoni in what promis-es to be a tough journey. “Obviously, MS Dhoni (being) backwith the team feels amazing because we have played under himand we have looked towards him as a mentor even when hewas our captain,” Rahul, who scored a fine half-century in thewarm-up game against England, said during a Clubhouse ses-sion on 10 years of Red Bull Campus Cricket.

WILL PROBABLY BOWL IN NEXT WARM-UUP MATCHAGAINST INDIA, SAYS STOINISDubai: Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has said that hishamstring is on the path of recovery and he will probably bowlin the next warm-up match against India on Wednesday.Stoinis, who opted out of Australia’s T20 tours of the WestIndies and Bangladesh, suffered an untimely hamstring injuryin the IPL 2021. He spent three weeks on the sidelines, return-ing as a batter in Delhi Capital’s season-ending loss to Kolkatain the playoffs. The all-rounder scored 28 from 23 balls inAustralia’s three-wicket win over New Zealand on Monday ina warm-up match in Abu Dhabi, but he didn’t bowl. “Thehammy is good and it’s tracking pretty well. It feels like it’s onthe right track and it’s ready to go. I’ll probably bowl in thatnext game,” Stoinis was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Agencies

T20WorldCupwindow

IANS n NEW DELHI

Legendary cricketer Kapil Devhas opined that all-rounder

Hardik Pandya not bowling willnot impact Team India’s chancesat the ICC T20 World Cup.However, he added that it willaffect the “combination and theoptions” for Virat Kohli.

Kapil’s comments came afterHardik refrained from bowlingin India’s warm-up matchagainst England, which theMen-in-Blue won on Monday.Kohli used five full-time bowl-ing options and they conceded188 runs. Hardik (12* off 10

balls) played as a specialist bats-man.

“An all-rounder alwaysmakes a massive difference to ateam. Hardik not bowling willnot impact India’s chances, butit will make a difference interms of Kohli’s options. If an all-rounder is available for both, itenhances the captain’s ability torotate bowlers and gives him theextra option to fall back on,”Kapil Dev told Sportskeeda.

“In Hardik’s case, Indiashould be okay given the talentin the team, but him bowlingeven two overs will obviouslylend more flexibility,” he added.

PTI n MUMBAI

India ace PV Sindhu is cur-rently the best badminton

player in the world but sheshould prioritise winningthe All EnglandChampionship, which is theonly trophy missing from herillustrious cabinet, said thelegendary Prakash Padukoneon Tuesday.

Sindhu, a doubleOlympic medallist and thereigning world champion,has won medals in almost allbig-ticket events but the AllEngland trophy has eludedher so far.

Padukone, India’s firstAll England champion, saidSindhu should plan herschedule in such a way thatshe is in the best possibleshape for winning the pres-tigious title.

“If I was in her (Sindhu’s)place, I would do that (pri-oritise the tournament). Thatis one title, which is missingfrom her ... otherwise I thinkshe has done a fantastic job,”Padukone said after launch-ing the PSM BadmintonCoaching Programme at theNational Sports Club ofIndia.

“...probably she is thebest badminton player, shehas won ever ything:Olympics, WorldChampionship, five medals.All England is one which isnot in her (winners list tro-phies),” he told reportershere on Tuesday.

Sindhu had become thefirst Indian woman to claimtwo Olympic medals whenshe won the bronze at TokyoGames to go with her silverat Rio five years ago.

Scotland beat PNG for second win in a rowInch closer to Super 12s

returnwinningmakes

Sindhureturn

winningmakesSindhu

Srikanth, Sameer too advance at Denmark Open

Sindhu should prioritise winningAll England title, says Padukone

T20 World Cup: Bangladesh wintoss, opt to bat against Oman

Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinathawarded MCC life membership

World Snooker Qualifiers: Pankaj Advani shines with 121-point effort Hardik, not bowling will not impactIndia’s chances, feels Kapil Dev

Indian women’s footballteam faces Swedish top tierside in friendly match today

Once having cycled across 17 nations67-YR-OLD MAYURE ON MISSION

KASHMIR TO KANYAKUMARI

SAFF Championshipstitle not a ‘special success’Aim is to qualify for 2023 Asian Cup: Coach

eteran actorKotaSrinivasaRao’s com-ments onactor-

anchor Anasuya hasnetizens divided on thecontroversy. Whilesome have been sup-porting Anasuya, fewothers have beenattacking her on socialmedia. Recently, dur-ing an interview, the

veteran actor,while praising herperformance

alleged that hedoesn’t like theway Anasuya

dresses up in

a popular comedyshow. Angered withsuch comments com-ing from a seniorartist, AnasuyaBharadwaj, onTuesday, took to herTwitter to speak herheart out.

In a series of tweets,Anasuya said, “So letme just clear the mistfor you guys. All thosewho have been talkingabout what womenshould wear in the pastor now are only soweak and polluted intheir heads that ratherthan teaching them-selves to guide/controltheir s*xual feelings or

not fuelling their malechauvinism. Theyimposed/impose thesemindless dress codeson women. They slutshame women to covertheir himbo thoughts.I want to believetoday’s men are muchmore logical and braveand sensible and right-eous. Please prove meright.”

Terming KotaSrinivasa Rao’s com-ments as very low andunnecessary, theactress said that sherespects Kota as anactor, but his com-ments have stoopedtoo low.

K RAMYA SREE

atyam, a self-produced film starringpopular dancer Sandhya Raju, hasbeen creating all the hype for the pastweek. Thanks to the Mega family com-ing all out in support of the actress-

dancer and the film. The film, directed byRevanth Korukonda and produced underthe banner of Nishrinkala Film, will hit

the big screens on October 22.The director, ahead of the film’s

release, chats about the film, themaking of Natyam, and more.

Revanth, who belongs toAnakapalle of Vishakapatnam inAndhra Pradesh, studied in

America. His love for movies and writing

brought him back to his mother-land, and focus on what he loves the

most — writing. He shares, “I likewriting stories. I like movies like

Vithalacharya very much. There aremany stories with a mythological back-

ground. I wanted to talk about such thingsin my own way, and so I made Natyam.

Dance is a form of art that can tell beautifulstories and I wanted to make a good Telugumovie based on this art form.”

The director-writer said he read a lot ofbooks before writing the story for this filmthat is based completely on classical dance.

“When I wanted to make a film on dance,one person that came to my mind was K

Vishwanath garu (director, screen-writer, and actor known for hisworks films like AadavariMatalaku Arthale Verule) I read a

book called Natyasastram. In it, theBrahma thinks a man will listen to thingsonly if conveyed in the form of stories. So hechooses dance as his medium to tell stories.That is why dance is called acting. So I wrotethis story about dance, a village, riots in a vil-lage, and more,” says Revanth.

The story of the film goes like… ‘A teacherwants to change the superstitions in the vil-lage through dance. He tells that story to ayoung girl who is learning dance, but he stopssharing the story midway. Since the girl con-nected strongly to the story, she wanted toknow the entire story. Will she ever fully learn

the entire story? Will the people in thetown change?’ Natyam unfolds all of

these events in its story. Revanth has also been a cam-eraman, editor, and directorfor this film. When askedhow he managed to don three

roles at once, he shares, “I comefrom a short films’ background. We have to

do everything ourselves there. That’s where Ilearned to multitask. I also learned how to uselight and gained some technical and creativeknowledge. I believe the film came out wellwith these combined efforts.”

But how did Sandhya Raju came on boardthis film? He answers, “Sandhya is the mainpillar of the film. I narrated this story to manypeople. Everyone loved it, but everyone feltthat only a professional dancer could do jus-

tice to my story. I have worked with SandhyaRaju for a short film earlier. I told Sandhyathat I was keen on doing my first film on clas-sical dance. When I narrated the story to her,she liked my confidence in the story, that'show she joined us. She is also one of the rea-sons why this film came out so well. She wasvery supportive, not only as a producer butalso as a technician.”

Natyam is also filled with some commercialdrama elements and contains all emotions,cinematic elements, he says.

Revanth is elated that people like RamCharan and Chiranjeevi have been supportingthis film. “My dream is to make films thatevoke Teluguness and express Indian culture.I will make a similar film soon,” Revanthsigns off.

12

Vijayawada | Wednesday October 20, 2021 tollywood

WILL MAKE MORE FILMS ON TELUGUNESS AND INDIAN

CULTURE: REVANTH

Natyam earnsChiru's praise

fter Ram Charan graced the pre-release event of the film and spokewell about the film Natyam, on

Tuesday, Megastar Chiranjeevi was allpraises about the film. He said, “Natyammade me feel good. Dance is telling astory in a beautiful and visually appealingmanner. Revanth and Sandhya Raju havedone exactly that. It is a pleasure to seesuch a film being made in times whenmost have been forgetting their customs,traditions, and art. I wholeheartedlyappreciate this effort. Sandhya Raju toodeserves a pat for making such a film.Coming from a well-established family,Sandhya’s dedication to conveying a goodmessage, instead of chasing money, islaudable. I’m sure this film will reach mil-lions of people. I sincerely want this filmto be a hit. The movie industry is alwaysdivided as ‘before Shankarabharanam’and ‘after Shankarabharanam’. There isnothing new to be told today about howpopular Shankarabharanam was. That's aclassic movie. I hope Natyam will be thatpopular.”

amantha Ruth Prabhu,who was last seen in TheFamily Man 2, is at herhighest on the profession-al front. She was recentlyenlisted among the Forbes

Most Influential Women of southIndian Cinema — 2021.

The latest we hear is that theactress, who already has signed

two films, is in talks with apopular OTT platform Aha

for a new project.Earlier, Aha had

Samantha host acelebrity talk show titledSam Jam, where the

actress engaged withcelebrity guests in

conversations thatbecame instant hits.Reports now suggest

that the OTT platform is planning abigger association with Samantha.

The plan is to roll out a web serieswith the actress playing a central rolein it.

Samantha’s upcoming moviesinclude a love story underShantharuban’s direction. She hasalso signed another movie to bemade by director duo Hari andHarish. And now, if the makers ofAha’s untitled web series get a nodfrom Samantha, they propose to startshooting as early as possible.

The actress, meanwhile, haswrapped up shooting for the talkiepart of Gunasekhar’s mythologicalmagnum opus, Shaakunthalam. Thedubbing of the film has beenwrapped up and the makers are nowbusy with the post-production for-malities.

Anasuya lashes out at Kota Srinivasa Rao

ilmmakerSekharKammula,

who is basking in thesuccess of his mostrecent film Love Story,launched the first lookof the title of the filmVastunnaVachestunna. The filmthat is being directedby Devi Prasad C, hasactors Karthik Rajuand MishtiChakraborty playingthe lead roles.

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COMING SOON

Prithviraj toplay villainin Salaar?

umours were rife thata popular Malayalamactor will joinPrabhas’ Salaar.

We now hear thatPrithviraj Sukumara,

one of the busiest actors in theMalayalam film industry, willbe cast in Salaar oppositePrabhas.

If the ongoing reports are tobe believed, PrithvirajSukumaran will play the villainin Prashanth Neel’s directorialventure Salaar. An official con-firmation regarding the same isawaited.

Prithviraj reportedly shares a

good rapport with the KGFdirector Prashanth Neel, whoalso reportedly purchased theMalayalam theatrical rights ofPrashanth Neel’s KGF: Chapter2.

Salaar, which is being shotin both Telugu and Kannada, isbeing funded by Hombalefilms with Shruti Haasan as thefemale lead.

The film will have its theatri-cal release in 2022.

On the other side, Prabhas iswaiting for the release of hisupcoming romantic film RadheShyam which has Pooja Hegdeas the leading lady.

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Aha plans big for Samantha