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PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Blaming the ComprehensiveFinancial Management System(CFMS), being used by the Stategovernment for its payments, forthe large-scale discrepancies inaccounts for 2019-20 and 2020-21financial years, Finance MinisterBuggana Rajendranath on Tuesdaybrushed aside the allegations madeby PAC chairman PayyavulaKeshav regarding the transactionsworth Rs 41,000 crore.

Describing it as another falsepropaganda by the opposition TDPleaders, he said that details ofevery transaction that has takenplace are available.

"There are several lacunae in theCFMS and there are program-ming errors. This system was intro-duced by the previous TeluguDesam government. It will takeanother year to set the CFMS inorder," he told a press conference.

Buggana was reacting to PublicAccounts Committee chairmanPayyavula Keshav's request toGovernor BiswabhusanHarichandan for a full-fledgedaudit of the state Finance depart-ment as large sums in excess of astaggering Rs 41,000 croreremained unaccounted for.

On July 8, the PAC chairman metthe Governor at the Raj Bhavan inVijayawada and submitted a mem-orandum in this regard, attachinga letter written by the PrincipalAccountant General to thePrincipal Finance Secretary on thegross discrepancies in the accounts

f o r

2019-20 and 2020-21 financialyears.

"Large sums of money, to theextent of Rs 41,043 crore, have notbeen accounted for as per thecodal provisions. It appears that thesaid amount is being transferred orwithdrawn in gross violation ofAndhra Pradesh Treasury Code,"Keshav had told the Governor.

He said such gross violationsneed to be checked on an emer-gency basis.

The next day, Principal Finance

Secretary SS Rawat claimed thatnothing was amiss with the pay-ments position and maintainedthat everything was happening asper the book.

Rawat said the issues raised bythe auditor have "arisen due tooperation of adjustment transac-tions".

Reiterating this, the FinanceMinister said a sum of Rs 10,895crore remained in the personaldeposit accounts in the 2020-21financial years.

"This has been subsequentlyrestored to the Consolidated Fundat the end of the financial year, elsethe funds would have elapsed,"Buggana pointed out.

He cited the payment of Rs2,728 crore to farmers under theRythu Bharosa scheme, which thestate government sought to dothrough the Centres e-Kuber plat-form.

SNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

Cash-strapped Andhra Pradeshhas informed the ReserveBank of India (RBI) that itwould borrow around Rs8,000 crore from the mar-ket through the weeklyauctions during the July-September quarter of thecurrent fiscal.

The RBI, in consultation withthe governments of States andUnion Territories (UTs),announced that the quantum of

total market borrowings by themfor the quarter July - September2021, is expected to be Rs

1,92,091 crore. Of this ,Andhra Pradesh would

be tentatively borrowingRs 8,000 crore.

As revenue contract-ed and Covid-relatedexpenditure went up,

governments of variousstates, especially Andhra

Pradesh, with an ambitiouswelfare agenda, have looked atevery possible avenue to raisefunds.

In the wake of Covid-inducedsituation, the Centre recentlyallowed the State governments toborrow 75 percent of their annu-al market borrowing limit of 4percent of their respective GrossState Domestic Product (GSDP)in the first nine months of thecurrent fiscal. Last year, permis-sion was given to State govern-ments to borrow up to 50 percentof the annual threshold.

As per fiscal norms, States needprior approval of the Centre forundertaking market borrowings.

Buggana blames CFMS glitch fordiscrepancy in Rs 41,000 cr bills

GVL demands CBIinquiry, CAG specialaudit into PD accountsPNS n VIJAYAWADA

BJP Rajya Sabha Member GVLNarasimha Rao on Tuesdaydemanded that an inquiry by theCBI, apart from a special auditby the Comptroller and AuditorGeneral, be ordered into thePersonal Deposit accounts beingmaintained by the AndhraPradesh government.

In a letter to GovernorBiswabhusan Harichandan, theMP noted that allegations ofexpenditure running into severalthousand crores of rupees in vio-lation of rules were "very grave".

"The CAG, in its latest report,pointed out that there is notransparency in spending pub-lic money and that the YSRCongress Party governmentspent over Rs 41,000 crore byplacing them in PersonalDeposit (PD) accounts," GVLwrote.

He said that there were glar-ing irregularities in the Statefinancial management. GVLpointed out that funds from thePD accounts were meant foruse in emergency situationsonly.

AP to borrow Rs 8,000 cr frommarket for July-Sep quarter

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a surprising development,Praveen Prakash, who is consid-ered the ‘most powerful’ bureau-crat in the CMO and favourite ofChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy, was on Tuesday replaced bya junior officer, Revu MutyalaRaju, as Principal Secretary(Political) in the GeneralAdministration Department.

According to a GO issued byChief Secretary Adityanath Das onTuesday, Revu Muthyala Raju, arelatively junior officer, has beengiven full additional charge of thepost of Principal Secretary(Political) in the GAD.

Raju, a 2007-batch IAS officer,was appointed as AdditionalSecretary to the Chief Minister afew months ago.

The Principal Secretary

(Political) in the GAD is a very cru-cial post which deals with thetransfers, postings and promo-tions of IAS officers.

Mutyala Raju replacesCM’s favourite PraveenPrakash as GAD boss

The State FinanceMinister said a sumof Rs 10,895 croreremained in thepersonal depositaccounts in the2020-21 financialyears.

TS to follow APlead, releaseannual jobcalendar ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

In a decision that should bringcheer to the unemployed youth,the Telangana State Cabinet hasinstructed the officials to identi-fy vacant posts in all categoriesand prepare an annual recruit-ment calendar for timely filling ofvacancies.

Andhra Pradesh had earlierreleased a ‘job calendar’.

The officials should fill the vac-ancies without fail in accordancewith the annual recruitment cal-endar, the Cabinet resolved.

The State Cabinet meetingchaired by Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao discussedvarious items in the agenda atPragathi Bhavan here on Tuesdayincluding recruitment to fillvacant posts, upward revision ofmarket value of lands and chargesfor registration of documents.

The Cabinet meeting willresume again on Wednesday todiscuss measures to fill vacantposts and also to identify vacan-cies in various departments.

The Cabinet has instructedthe Secretaries of all the depart-ments to attend the meeting withall the details of vacant posts onWednesday.

The Cabinet also discussed therepresentation given by theTNGO and TGO representativesfor district-wise allocation ofemployees in accordance with thenew zonal system and new dis-tricts-wise allocation of postsand officers.

SC to hear AP plea onAmaravati land scamPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Tuesdaysaid it will hear on July 22 the pleaof Andhra Pradesh governmentchallenging the High Court orderthat stayed SIT probe into allegedirregularities in the land deals inAmaravati during the previousTDP Regime.

A bench of Justices Vineet Saranand Dinesh Maheshwari did notagree with the State government'ssubmission that the matter beremanded back to the High Courtas investigation in the case hasalmost been stalled.

During the hearing, senior advo-cate Rajeev Dhavan, appearingfor the State, said the writ petitionfiled before the High Court is anoutcome of "regime revenge".

If both parties agree that thematter should be heard here, thenthe court can apply its mind, thebench said.

Dhavan said he was not in aposition to say that the matter beheard here "but on instructions, Ican say that it should be heard inthe High Court, at length as thereare too many facts and case lawsin the matter and, moreover, it isagainst the interim order".

He said the State governmenthas accepted most of the condi-tions in the writ petition filedbefore the High Court by formeradvocate-general DammalapatiSrinivas such as it is ready for acourt monitored probe and nocoercive action will be taken till thependency of the plea.

Senior advocate Harish Salve,appearing for Srinivas, said his sub-mission was that the appeal filedby the State government be dis-missed and matter be remandedback to the High Court.

Dhavan said the proceedingsare not taking place before the HighCourt and even investigation hasalmost been stalled and thereforethe matter should be remandedback.

Trade margin on 5 meddevices capped at 70 pc

Modi promises Sindhu ice cream after Games TS on high alert at AP,Maha border districtsNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

With Maharashtra and AndhraPradesh reporting cases of Deltaplus variant, the Telangana Stategovernment has sharpened itsfocus on border districts.

Already Khammam, Nalgondaand Karimnagar districts havebeen reporting high cases, eventhough delta plus variant has notyet been detected. Khammam, onthe radar of the central govern-ment, is among districts with casepositivity of more than 10 percent.

Officials are now setting targetsto increase the number of tests perPHC in these districts.

Apart from Covid tests, contacttracing is being strengthened as theHealth Department has decided totrace a minimum of 25 primarycontacts of positive patients to con-

tain the spread.The third round of Fever survey

has commenced in these areasreporting high cases. An officialsaid that fever surveys were beingtaken up and this time even sea-sonal diseases would be assessed aspart of the survey.

Vaccination in these districts hascome down with some of the cen-ters reporting zero doses admin-istered as per information availableon CoWIN portal. An officialsaid that it was important toincrease vaccination in these areas.So, measures were being taken toovercome vaccine hesitancy.

Telangana Health Departmentpersonnel have been touring thesedistricts on the instructions ofChief Minister K ChandrashekarRao to assess the situation.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi onTuesday held an online interactionsession with India's Tokyo-boundathletes.

Combining jocularity with sin-cerity, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday engaged in alight-hearted interaction withIndia's Olympic-bound athletes,donning the role of an interview-er to get insights into their journeys.

"Kaun si chakki ka atta khilatehain aap apni ladkiyon ko?" the PMasked top wrestler Vinesh Phogat'sfamily, leaving her and others par-ticipating in the interaction insplits.

From PV Sindhu, Modi wantedto know whether she has beenbanned from having ice creambefore the Games just like the2016 Rio Olympics where coachPullela Gopichand had also takenaway her mobile phone.

When the situation demanded,Modi cited the example of cricket

legend Sachin Tendulkar in the1999 World Cup to boxer AshishKumar, whose father died beforethe Olympic qualifier last year. Healso battled Covid-19 a few monthsago during a tournament in Spain.

And when he realised that hecould do with a bit of humour, thePM promised to have ice creamwith Sindhu after she returnedfrom Tokyo.

Modi sought to make the athletes

feel at ease before they leave for theTokyo Games, where expectationsfrom them will be high.

During the interactive session,the PM jokingly asked Sindhuabout her diet restrictions andrecalled how chief badmintoncoach Pullela Gopichand tookaway her phone and prevented herfrom having ice cream during the2016 Rio Olympics.

"There was a ban on eating ice

creams on you during the 2016Olympics, has another ban beenimposed for Tokyo?" he asked to agrinning Sindhu, who would beaiming to better the silver she wonfive years ago. "Sir, I have to be care-ful about my diet," she responded.

Modi also hailed the contribu-tion of the Phogat family to Indianwrestling.

Speaking to boxer Ashish, herecalled his struggles in the run-upto the Games, since losing hisfather, who was a kabaddi player."Your father was a kabaddi player.How did you come to choose box-ing?" Modi asked.

"My father wanted me to be aboxer. I come from a family ofsportspersons. My brother was awrestler but I was of a lean frame.So, I decided that I couldn't be awrestler and chose boxing," Ashishsaid. "You suffered from Covid. Youlost your father as well. How didyou cope and continue workinghard?" the PM asked.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government on Tuesday cappedthe trade margins of five criticalmedical devices such as oximeterand digital thermometer, usedextensively in the treatment and pre-vention of Covid-19, at 70 per centin order to bring down prices.

The National PharmaceuticalsPricing Authority has invokedextraordinary powers under theParagraph 19 of DPCO, 2013, toput a cap on trade margin of fivemedical devices -- oximeter, glu-cometer, BP monitor, nebulizer

and digital thermometer."NPPA brings Pulse Oximeter,

Glucometer, BP monitor, Nebulizerand Digital Thermometer underTrade Margin Rationalisation.Caps Margin at Distributor @70%,"the drug pricing regulator said ina tweet on Tuesday.

The revised prices of the fivemedical devices would be effectivefrom July 20, it added. "Existingmargins range from 3% to 709%across five categories," NPPAtweeted.

NEET-POSTGRADUATE EXAM TO BE HELDON SEPTEMBER 11, CONFIRMS CENTRE

RAHUL GANDHI-PRASHANT KISHOR MEETAHEAD OF LIKELY REJIG IN PUNJAB CONG

AFGHANISTAN SAYS MAY SEEK ‘MILITARYHELP’ FROM INDIA IF TALIBAN TALKS FAIL

PM CONCERNED OVER CROWDS WITHOUTMASKS IN HILL STATIONS, MARKETS

Ahead of a likely organisational and government reshuffle in Punjab,Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met poll strategistPrashant Kishor at his residence. Other party leaders like Priyanka

Gandhi Vadra, AICC general secretary Punjab-in-charge Harish Rawatand KC Venugopal were also present duringthe meeting where they are learnt to havediscussed the party's overhaul in Punjab andefforts to end factionalism ahead of assemblyelections. Kishor had earlier met Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh on the impendingchanges. Amarinder Singh and Navjot SinghSidhu, who have been at loggerheads, havemade a number of public statements againsteach other in recent months.

The government of Afghanistan may, at some future point, seekIndia's military assistance if talks with the Taliban fail amid awithdrawal of US troops from there, the country's Ambassador to

India has said. He, however, made it clear that the aid sought would notinvolve sending troops but could be in areaslike training and technical support. Represe-ntatives of the Taliban and the Afghanistangovernment have been holding talks amid theinsurgents' increasing control over the countryeven as the US looks to wind up its almosttwo-decade war there by the end of August.However, the peace talks supposedly takingplace in Doha have fizzled out, and the Talibannow appear set on a complete military victory.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed concern overpeople crowding at hill stations and markets without wearingmasks or observing social distancing norms, as he urged all to

guard against complacency to prevent a third wave of the coronavirusspread. He asked the people to shun theargument that they "want to enjoy before thethird wave of coronavirus" and stressed thatthere should be no compromise in followingCovid-19 protocols. "It is true that tourism,trade and business have been greatlyaffected due to the coronavirus. But today Isay with emphasis that huge crowds withoutmasks and not following Covid protocol is amatter of concern,” he said.

The NEET postgraduate exam will be held on September 11, UnionHealth Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Tuesday. Inview of a spike in Covid-19 cases, the NEET-PG, which was

scheduled to be held on April 18 was postponed. "We have decided toconduct #NEET Postgraduate exam on 11thSeptember, 2021. My best wishes to youngmedical aspirants!" the Minister tweeted. OnMonday, the Centre announced that the NEET-UG 2021 will be held on September 12 withall Covid protocols. The National Board ofExaminations in Medical Sciences in a noticesaid that “the examination shall be conductedin the morning session, from 9:00 am to12:30 pm".

A file picture of shuttler PV Sindhu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

Apolitical party that hadbrought about a 'sea-change' in a region is

now fading away from itsbirthplace. This in short is thechequered story of theTelugu Desam Party inTelangana.

It was the TDP thatchanged the course ofpolitics in the region bystretching its armstowards the down-trod-den and the BackwardClasses, and inviting them torepresent various constituen-cies in the Assembly andParliament. Such was thestrong foundation laid by TDPfounder and matinee idol N TRama Rao.

Of course, the prevailingpolitical situation in the erst-while undivided state ofAndhra Pradesh was ripe forthe TDP to dislodge the rulingCongress, which had beenpower virtually sinceIndependence.

The TDP could establishitself soon after taking birth on29 March, 1982 in Hyderabad.In those days, the totalstrength of the opposition inthe Assembly including, Leftparties and Janata Party, wasmere 60. The brute majority

that the Congressenjoyed then created animpression among thepublic that there is needfor a viable alternative to

the grand oldparty. Such historic rea-

sons enabled the TDP toemerge victorious in the 1983Assembly elections and it wasthe first ever defeat for theCongress.

Some revolutionary stepslike abolition of Patel-Patwarisystem brought the new partycloser to the general public.Despite electoral reversal at thehands of the Congress party in1989, the TDP could managethings and tried its level bestto be alive in people's minds.

One can rate the perfor-mance of TDP in the 1989elections and arrive at a con-clusion that the murder ofCongress' MLA fromVijayawada (East) VangaveetiMohana Ranga Rao had influ-enced the electorate that led tothe defeat of TDP. It was apolitical murder that tookplace due to the tense local sit-

uation between two warringgroups and it negativelyimpacted the poll prospects ofTDP.

The TDP, however, regis-tered a landslide victory in1994. As years rolled by, a'change of guard' took place inTDP as a result of dethrone-ment of NTR. Although seenas the person mainly respon-sible for the dethronement,Chandrababu Naidu man-aged things to retain power inthe subsequent elections of1999 by aligning himself withBJP. For bifurcation of AP, theTDP had to bell the cat, as

part of its political strategy todeliver a death blow to theCongress, by writing to theUnion government headedby Congress party in 2008.But the Congress took thechallenge as a strategy tocounter TDP and moved fur-ther in the case of bifurcation.The political games of the twoparties ultimately led to thebifurcation of AP.

Following the creation ofTelangana, the TDP compro-mised its future in this regionand its influence started dwin-dling day by day. The main-tenance of the party in

Telangana was smooth whenit was in power in residuaryAP during 2014-19.

What is the main reason forthe present plight of TDP inTelangana? Is it really possi-ble for the leadership to reju-venate it and bring it back ontrack? Is erosion of the cred-ibility of leadership in thisregion a real cause for the pre-sent situation? These ques-tions are making rounds inpolitical circles as well as in

public domain. The party hasbeen in a precarious situationand could not protect itsMLAs & MPs in the aftermathof the 2014 and 2018 polls.

The party's flip-flop on thedemand for separate state ofTelangana made people thinkotherwise about Naidu. Somequestions remained: Whatwould have happened ifNaidu had taken the issue for-ward when he played keyrole in the formation of theNDA government at Centreheaded by Vajpayee in 1998 &1999? The present chief min-ister of Telangana K.Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)was a keen follower of Naiduin those days. He got anopportunity in Naidu's cabi-net as Transport Minister in1997 and continued till theelections of 1999.

But Naidu disappointedKCR by not continuing him inthe cabinet and chose toreplace him with K.Vijayarama Rao, former direc-tor of CBI, as part of casteequations, presumably on the

advice of his 'guru'. Thiscaused heartburn for KCRand that led him to part wayswith TDP in the name oflaunching an agitation for T-state.

Had Naidu favoured bifur-cation in those days andmoved further in that direc-tion, the NDA government,which was running with thehelp of Naidu's support (with29 MPs), Telangana Statewould have been realisedalong with the creation ofthree new states ofUttaranchal (nowUttarakhand), Chhattisgarh& Jharkhand in 2000. Thesethree states had been createdfollowing the unanimous res-olutions adopted by therespective Assemblies of UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh &Bihar. On the same lines,Telangana could have seen itsbirth with the unanimousresolution of the Assembly ofundivided AP.

Had Naidu positivelymoved forward on T-issuethen, Telangana would have

been a reality in 2000 itself.TDP would have got a gold-en opportunity to becomefirst in ruling the new state asit enjoyed a majority in theAssembly of undivided AP.Probably by virtue of beingstaunch follower of Naidu,KCR might have been thechoice of the latter and KCRcould have become chief min-ister on the lines of Ajit Jogiof Chhattisgarh.

It is a different matter thatKCR paved the way for him-self to become first chief min-ister of Telangana on his ownstrength by projecting himselfas the one and only warrior inrealising the new state.

Now what are the optionsbefore Naidu to resurrectTDP in the new state ofTelangana? Will he find suit-able 'head' in place of L.Ramana, who has switched toTRS? Naidu has ruled out thechances of bringing new pres-ident for TTDP from his fam-ily. It is an uphill talk forNaidu to rejuvenate his partyin Telangana as he himselfcaused erosion of its basedue to his own policies. Onlytime will decide the destiny ofTTDP under the leadership ofNaidu.

M D RATNA KUMAR

Senior Journalist

It was the TDP that changed the

course of politics in the region by

stretching its arms towards the down-

trodden and the Backward Classes,

and inviting them to represent various

constituencies in the Assembly and

Parliament. Such was the foundation

laid by matinee idol N T Rama Rao.

PIN

POINT

Can Naidu bring TTDP back on track?

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Convergence Energy ServicesLimited (CESL), aGovernment of India compa-ny under Ministry of Power,on Tuesday signed an agree-ment with New andRenewable EnergyDevelopment Corporation ofAndhra Pradesh (NREDCAP)to provide 25,000 electric two-wheelers in the state.

These e-vehicles will be pro-vided to employees of theAndhra Pradesh governmentand the number may increaseas per requirement.

Under the agreement,CESL and NREDCAP willwork to aggregate demand,deploy electric vehicles, andbuild charging infrastructure.CESL will also devise a suit-able payment security mech-anism, which will be facilitat-ed by NREDCAP.

Speaking on the occasion,Energy Minister BalineniSrinivasa Reddy said, "Ourvision, with the procurementof 25,000 two-wheeler electricvehicles, is to make AndhraPradesh go electric. We have

been effectively providingaffordable and clean powerand a fillip to e-mobility willmake a further push towardsclean energ y adoption.Electric two-wheelers for gov-ernment employees will boostenergy and financial savingsand we hope more and morepeople will also make a shiftto EVs."

Energ y secretar y andNREDCAP chairman SrikantNagulapalli said that provid-ing 25,000 two-wheeler elec-

tric vehicles to governmentemployees will be a gamechanger for e-mobility in theState.

"Apart from mitigating cli-mate change, electric mobil-ity is going to be a key eco-nomic growth driver. We arefocused on building the e-mobility ecosystem in thestate. We will encourage allgovernment employeesincluding cooperative soci-eties, public sector undertak-ings, village, ward secretari-

at staff and others to opt forEVs. A bigger fleet of EVs inthe government will encour-age greater uptake amongthe masses," Srikant said.

The electric two-wheelerswill be provided on a month-ly lease, inclusive of compre-hensive insurance that will bededucted as EMI from thevolunteering governmentemployee's account. The elec-tric two-wheeler will carry astandard warranty of 3 yearsagainst any manufacturingdefect. Batteries too will carrywarranty till 3 years or 60,000km, whichever is earlier.

CESL MD and CEOMahua Acharya said thatAndhra Pradesh's decisionto go electric will accelerate e-mobility adoption in thecountry, hopefully providinga blueprint for other states toadopt.

"We are delighted to part-ner with NREDCAP andgrateful to the Minister forthis opportunity and lookforward to achieving scale,consolidation and standard-isation across the ecosystem,"she said.

AP to buy 25K e-bikes forstaff with NREDCAP help

AP logs 2,567new Covidcases, 3,034recoveriesPNS n AMARAVATI

Andhra Pradesh reported2,567 fresh cases of coron-avirus in the 24 hours ending9 am on Tuesday. The latestbulletin said 3,034 patientshad recovered from the infec-tion while 18 more suc-cumbed in the State.

The gross positives nowrose to 19,26,988, recoveriesto 18,87,236 and toll 13,042.The active caseload droppedto 26,710, the bulletin added.

In 24 hours, East Godavarilogged 356, Prakasam 351,Chittoor 300, West Godavari279, Guntur and Krishna 269each, SPS Nellore 244 andVisakhapatnam 199 freshcases. The remaining fivedistricts added less than 90new cases each, with Kurnoolregistering just 18.

Guntur had four freshCovid-19 fatalities, Chittoorand SPS Nellore three each,Prakasam, East and WestGodavari two each,Visakhapatnam andVizianagaram one each in aday. Five districts did notreport any Covid-19 deaths in24 hours.

GVL demands CBIinquiry, CAG specialaudit into PDaccountsContinued from Page 1

"The PD accounts are not forparking huge funds anddiverting them in contra-vention of rules. Expenditureof public funds should be inaccordance with finance rulesand transparent," the MPremarked.

The Rajya Sabha Memberrecalled that even during theprevious TDP regime, morethan Rs 53,000 crore wasspent from PD accounts inviolation of rules, as observedby the CAG in its 2016-17report.

"The CAG reports estab-lished that over Rs 94,000crore were spent by successivegovernments in an opaquemanner through PDaccounts. As people are con-cerned over this illegitimateexpenditure, there is everyneed for establishing thefacts," he stated.

Narasimha Rao requestedthe Governor that a probe bythe Central Bureau ofInvestigation and also a spe-cial audit by the CAG beordered into the utilisation ofpublic funds.

Buggana blamesCFMS glitch for...Continued from Page 1

"It did not work out due totechnical issues and we had todo it through RTGS. Therewere similar instances whereanother sum of Rs 8,869 crorewas revalidated," he said.

On excessive borrowing bythe government, the FinanceMinister said they were usingthe money for distribution topeople under various freebieschemes.

"Yes, the situation is bad.Covid-19 has compounded it.Whats wrong in borrowing?,"he asked.

Even the Centres borrowingstouched Rs 18 lakh-crore, wayabove the three percent limitunder the Fiscal Responsibilityand Budget Management Act,Buggana said.

"PAC is a responsible posi-tion. Instead of writing letters

and going public, its chairmancould have discussed the sub-ject with the government. ButKeshav displayed undue hasteand fell flat, the FinanceMinister remarked.

The Minister said that theallegations levelled by the PACchairman were baseless, andappear to be aimed at creatingmisunderstanding over theState finances among the peo-ple. He said that the oppositionhas been doing unnecessarypolitics based on CAG lettersand that the PAC should havediscussed the issue with thegovernment instead of writingletters to the Governor andconducting press conferences.

Buggana said that the oppo-sition should know the factsbefore addressing the publicand if there are any doubts,they can be clarified througha meeting.

SC to hear AP plea on Amaravati...Continued from Page 1

"I have gone through the entirecase law related to this matter.The Supreme Court has neverstopped an investigationbefore. This petition is avengeance petition of a lostelection," Dhavan said.

Salve said that if the courtgoes through the papers andthe FIR filed in the matter, itwill quash the investigation.

The bench said it would hearthe matter after one week andposted the matter for furtherhearing on July 22.

On March 5, the State gov-ernment had told the top courtthat it was agreeable for courtmonitored CBI probe intoalleged irregularities in landtransactions during shiftingof the state capital toAmaravati.

It urged the court to lift thestay granted by the High Courton the probe by the Special

Investigating Team (SIT) intothe alleged scam and allow theinvestigation to go on in thecase.

The YS Jaganmohan Reddygovernment had earlierconstituted the 10-member SIT, head-ed by a DeputyInspector Generalof Police-rank IPSofficer, to conducta comprehensiveinvestigation intovarious alleged irregu-larities, particularly theland deals in the AmaravatiCapital Region, during theprevious Chandrababu Naiduregime.

Dhavan had earlier submit-ted that they are agreeable tosome of the prayers sought bySrinivas before the High Court.

The top court was hearingan appeal filed by AndhraPradesh government throughadvocate Mahfooz Ahsan

Nazki against the September15, last year order of the HighCourt.

On November 25, last year,the top court had stayed the

High Court directionrestraining the media

from publishing newsregarding an FIRlodged on allegedirregularities in landtransactions during

shifting of the statecapital to Amaravati.It had refused to stay at

this stage the other directionsof the High Court includingthe stay on probe into the FIRin the matter.

The top court had not issuednotice to Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy on theappeal as the High Court hadnot issued notice to him andhad sought responses fromothers including the DirectorGeneral of Police of AndhraPradesh.

It had said that court is alsonot issuing notice to Srinivas,on whose plea the High Courthad passed the order, as he hasappeared before it on caveat.

The report of a CabinetSubcommittee on the proce-dural, legal and financial irreg-ularities and fraudulent trans-actions concerned with variousprojects, including the issuesrelated to land in the CRDAregion will form the basis forthe SIT probe, the AndhraPradesh government had said.

The State government hadearlier argued the High Courtcould not have said that noinvestigation should take placein the case and should not havegiven directions that no coer-cive action be taken and no gagorder could have been passed.

It had contended that thewrit petition before the HighCourt is political and againstthe Chief Minister and is basedon reliable sources.

AP to borrowRs 8,000 crfrom market...Continued from Page 1

According to the weeklyschedule, Andhra Pradeshinformed the RBI that itwould want to borrow Rs2,000 crore in the auctionscheduled on July 6, Rs 1,000crore on July 13, Rs 2,000crore on August 3, Rs 2,000crore on August 31 and Rs1,000 crore on September 7.

However, the RBI said thatthe actual amount of borrow-ings and the details of thestates and UTs participatingwould be intimated two orthree days prior to the actualauction day and would dependon the requirement of theState governments, approvalfrom the Government of Indiaunder Article 293(3) of theConstitution and also marketconditions.

The RBI also has the rightto modify the dates and theamount of auction in consul-tation with State govern-ments.

Trade margin on 5 med devices capped...Continued from Page 1

With an aim of making themedical devices affordableduring the evolving situationof COVID pandemic, it is feltnecessary to regulate the trademargin on these medicaldevices, NPPA said in its order.

NPPA noted that the datacollected from the manufac-turers /marketers/importerspointed out that existing trademargins on the five medicaldevices ranged up to 709 percent from price to distributorto MRP level.

"Now, therefore, in the exer-

cise of the powers vested by theGovernment of India in theMinistry of Chemicals andFertilizers, having been satis-fied that in view of the extra-ordinary circumstances inpublic interest, as explainedabove, the Government, here-by, invokes the provisions ofParagraph 19 of the DPCO,2013 to regulate the price ofthese five medical devices,"NPPA stated.

By invoking Paragraph 19 ofDPCO, 2013, the Governmenthereby puts a cap on trademargin of pulse oximeter,blood pressure monitoring

machine, nebulizer, digitalthermometer, glucometer atfirst point of sale of product,it added.

The manufacturers of thesefive medical devices selling atprice higher than the newMRP structure shall revisethe prices downward, NPPAsaid.

"The manufacturers notcomplying with the MRP socomputed..shall be liable todeposit the overchargedamount along with 15 percent interest p.a. from thedate of increase in price inaddition to penalty upto 100

per cent of the overchargedamount under the provisionsof the Drugs (Prices Control)Order, 2013," it stated.

The Paragraph 19 of DPCO,2013, authorises the NPPA tocontrol the prices of drugs thatare not under the NLEM(National List of EssentialMedicines) under extraordi-nary circumstances in publicinterest.

Last month, the govern-ment capped the trade marginon oxygen concentrators at 70per cent by invoking extraor-dinary powers under Para 19of the DPCO, 2013.

Modi promises...Continued from Page 1

Ashish replied, "I was emo-tionally hurt after my fatherdied. My family supportedme well through testing times.My friends motivated me thatI should work towards fulfill-ing my father's dreams."

"When I was in Spain, I hadtested positive for Covid. ButI was given special facilities.Despite those facilities I tooka long time to recover. Afterreturning to India, our sportsstaff helped me a lot. I got backinto rhythm with their help."

Modi reminded Ashish thatTendulkar "had also lost hisfather during a tournament".

"He paid tribute to his fatherthrough his game. You havealso done the same. You arealready a champion and thenation expects a lot from you

at the Olympics," said thePM.

With ace rifle shooterElavenil Valarivan, Modireminded her that she comesfrom the same vidhan sabhaconstituency in Gujarat -Maninagar - from where hecontested the Assembly polls.

Modi greeted theAhmedabad-based shooter inGujarati and encouraged herto give her best at the Games.

To javelin thrower NeerajChopra, Modi said, "I havebeen told that you got injured,but still you created a newrecord. You don't need to getbogged down by expectations,don't take the burden ofexpectations, just focus onyour goal."

The Olympics are scheduledto be held in the Japanese cap-ital from July 23 to August 8.

TS to follow AP lead, release...Continued from Page 1

The Cabinet instructed theofficials to take up district-wise allocation of posts andofficers as well as identificationof vacancies and recruitmentto fill those vacancies at theearliest.

The Cabinet decided toallot 50 per cent of seats ingovernment residentialschools to the students ofrespective Assembly con-stituencies.

The local MLAs,MPP, ZPChairman, MunicipalChairmen should be invited tothe monthly meetings inResidential Schools without

fail, the State Cabinet instruct-ed the officials.

Rs.1,200 crore toMunicipalities on CityOutskirts

The Cabinet has discussedthe drinking water problem inthe municipalities and corpo-rations on the outskirts ofcity and Chief Minister gavean immediate sanction ofRs.1,200 crore for measures toaddress the drinking waterproblem in those municipali-ties.

It was also decided in theCabinet meeting to developlayouts through land poolingsystem for development ofmunicipalities.

TS on highalert at AP,Maha...Continued from Page 1

Health Secretary SAMRizvi, Public HealthDirector Dr Srinivas Rao,Director of MedicalEducation Dr RameshReddy, TSMSIDCManaging DirectorChandrashekhar Reddy andCMO OSD P Gangadharhave been touring districtsto take the stock of the sit-uation.

Mutyala Rajureplaces CM’s...Continued from Page 1

Until now Praveen Prakash,a 1994 batch officer, washolding the key post in theGAD by taking the full addi-tional charge besides beingthe Principal Secretary inthe CMO.

Interestingly, it took barelytwo months for Raju after join-ing the CMO to get the subjects.

After a long wait Raju wasallocated Housing and CMRelief Fund besides address-ing the problems of electedrepresentatives by his bossPraveen Prakash.

Allocating the subject oflooking into issues raised byMPs and MLAs is generallyhandled by senior officials.The responsibility beingentrusted to Raju, a juniorofficer, had raised many eye-brows among the bureau-cratic circles in the past.

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu onTuesday accused theJaganmohan Reddy govern-ment of filing fake cases andmaking false arrests of TDPleaders only to divert the atten-tion of the public from theunchecked corruption andendless atrocities by YSRCPleaders.

Naidu said that fabricatedcases were slapped againstDhulipalla Narendra despitethe fact that he came from ahighly respected political fam-ily with three decades of ser-vices to the farmers. Naidu vis-ited Chintalapudi in theGuntur district and called onNarendra and his family.

Naidu said that it was inhu-man on the part of the govern-ment and the police to arrestNarendra without evidenceand without even giving priornotice. "Politically motivatedarrests of TDP leaders started

with Atchannaidu. The policeare unable to discharge theirduties lawfully because of themaniacal tendencies of thepresent rulers," Naidu said.

He said that the law andorder situation has become souncertain in AP now that falsecases were being booked justfor posting comments onsocial media.

Naidu recalled how the pre-vious TDP regime successful-ly suppressed the Pulivendula

style faction culture in thosedays but now the policebecame puppets in the handsof the "atrocious YSRCP lead-ers".

If the TDP used oppressivetactics during its rule, not asingle leader of the YSRCPwould have survived to rear hisor her ugly head now, he said."Freedom of expression isunder constant attack underthe YSRCP regime," the TDPsupremo alleged.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy on Tuesday directedofficials to complete work ionvillage secretariats, village clin-ics and digital libraries by theend of the year.

Chairing a review meetingon the progress of work in thePanchayat Raj and RuralDevelopment Departments athis camp office here, the ChiefMinister instructed the officialsto complete geo-tagging andreview the progress of con-struction of those buildings.

He asked the officials tostart the work related to devel-opment of infrastructure facil-it ies in YSR Jaganannacolonies on priority. He alsoasked them to give impor-tance to the cleanliness driveto keep the villages clean.

The Chief Minister accord-ed permission to launch14,000 tricycles in villagesand 1,034 autos in urbanareas for door-to-door collec-tion of household waste. Thedrive would press into service23,747 green ambassadorsand 4,482 green guards across

the state. Approval was givento recruit additional 11,453green ambassadors and 5,551green guards.

It was decided to use heavymachinery for waste man-agement. Accordingly, 9,148incinerators, 3,279 mist blow-ers, 3,197 brush cutters, 3,130hypertension toilet cleaners,165 portable thermal foggingmachines and 157 sheddingmachines were arranged.

The officials informed theChief Minister PPE kits havebeen distributed to all the

green ambassadors and greenguards. The Chief Ministerdirected the officials to focuson maintenance of garbagecollection vehicles and dispos-al of PPE kits.

Jagan said solid and liquidwaste management systems invillages and towns should befully functional and that theClean Andhra Pradesh(CLAP) concept would onlybe successful if municipaland panchayat raj depart-ments work in coordination.

He asked officials to make

arrangements to collect wetwastage in rural areas and todisplay a special phone num-ber in villages for collectionand shifting of garbage totreatment plants.

The Chief Minister said sixlakh women have benefittedwith sustainable livelihoodunder YSR Cheyutha and YSRAsara schemes this year anddirected the officials to ensurethat they have no cause tomake complaints.

He made it clear to the offi-cials that they should only for-

malise contract with compa-nies that have a wide range ofmarketing capabilities.

The Chief Minister saidYSR Jala Kala project, a pres-tigious project will be helpfulto lakhs of farmers will belaunched soon. He directedofficials to focus on effectiveimplementation of the project.He said to construct check-dam type structures nearbridges on small rivers acrossthe state so that water can bestored upto 3-4 feet.

Jagan said these structureswill help increase groundwa-ter levels and directed the offi-cials to prepare an actionplan in this regard.

The Chief Minister alsotold officials to set up a com-mittee with three ministers foreffective implementation ofYSR Jagananna SaswathaBhoomi Hakku-BhoomiRakshana scheme.

The committee will com-prise Panchayat Raj, Revenueand MunicipalAdministration Ministers andfocus on effective implemen-tation of comprehensive landsurvey.

CM tells officials to expedite workon village secretariats, clinics

Jagan trying hard to divertattention from scams: Naidu

FAPTO wants eduofficial suspendedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Federation of AndhraPradesh Teachers 'Association (FAPTO) haswritten to Chief SecretaryAditya Nath Das, demandingthe suspension of SchoolEducation CommissionerVadrevu Chinaveerabhadruduwho is facing corruption andother charges.

The FAPTO representativeswrote to the CS on Tuesday,highlighting the fact thatChinaveerabhadrudu is facingallegations of corruption,irregularities and harassmentand sought his suspensionwhile the inquiry is underway.

The FAPTO representativessaid that the official shouldremain under suspension tillthe inquiry was completed asthere are chances of him try-ing to influence the inquiryofficers.

They mentioned that asthe complainant was a teacherand if the official is discharg-ing duties, he could influencethe inquiry team against theteacher.

The FAPTO representa-tives informed the ChiefSecretary that the School

Education Commissionerhas discharged duties in var-ious departments andinquiry should be conduct-ed in all the departments inwhich he has dischargedduties till date.

It may be recalled that oncharges of corruption, irreg-ularities and harassmentagainst Chinaveerabhadruduthe government has appoint-ed an inquiry committee.The Commissioner of theB oard of IntermediateEducation was appointed asthe inquiry officer.

New property tax system won’tburden citizens, says Velampalli PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Endowments MinisterVelampalli Srinivas Rao onTuesday refuted allegations byopposition parties aboutputting huge financial burdenon people by saying that thenew property tax system wastransparent and affordable.

He alleged that TDPVijayawada MP KesineniSrinivas (Nani) and MLAGadde Rammohan and otherpolitical leaders were mislead-ing the people on the new taxsystem based on market value.

Srinivas Rao visited thequarry centre (KummaripalemRoad Ravindra Bharathi PublicSchool), Sanjay GandhiColony, Kamakotinagar alongwith Vijayawada MayorRayana Bhagyalakshmi andVijayawada MunicipalCorporation officials.

Public health and safetyofficials were instructed toaddress the drainage problem

in the area. "The 22 divisionsin the West constituency lim-its will be developed as modeldivisions," Srinivas Rao saidafter distributing three types ofdustbins to women as part ofSwachh Bharat campaign. Thedustbins should be used to seg-regate waste in three cate-gories, the Minister said.

He said Kesineni Nani andGadde Rammohan werespreading false propagandaabout the tax policy to createfear among the people. TheMinister claimed that the gov-ernment introduced a hassle-

free tax policy which wouldnot put any extra financial bur-den on the common man.

Refuting allegations by JanaSena leaders and party chiefPawan Kalyan alleging extrafinancial burden being leviedthrough taxes by AP govern-ment, the Minister said thatJana Sena Party was in alliancewith the BJP and PawanKalyan should demand theBJP Government at the Centreto reduce all taxes.

Mayor Bhagyalakshmi saidthat the tax system on Capitalvalue basis was being imple-mented in many states likeTamil Nadu, Kerala andMaharashtra in the countryand the political parties shouldtake note of this.

She refuted the claims ofopposition parties of a massivehike in taxes and said that theruling party was providingtransparent governancethrough welfare and develop-ment activities.

Kaushal takes overas Krishna dist SPPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Top priority will be given tomaintenance of law and orderand safety of women, saidSiddhartha Kaushal who tookcharge as Krishna district SPon Tuesday.

The 2012 batch IPS officer wasinitially discharging duties inGreyhounds and was later post-ed as ASP of Parvathipuram,Visakhapatnam. He wasdischarging duties asSP Prakasam dis-trict before beingtransferred toKrishna district.

Addressing thegathering aftertaking charge as SP,Kaushal expressed satis-faction on his posting asKrishna district SP andthanked Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy and DGPGautam D Sawang.

As part of the state-widetransfers of IPS officers,

Kaushal was transferred fromPrakasam district to Krishna.He said maintenance of lawand order, women protection,welfare of the police depart-ment staff and makingKrishna district free fromcrime were his priorities.

The SP said justice will bedone to the weaker sections,grievances of the individualswill be addressed and special

care will be taken tocheck the peddling

of ganja, liquorfrom other states,sand smugglingetc.

A d d i t i o n a lSuperintendent of

Police Malika Garg,Special Enforcement Bureau

Additional Superintendent ofPolice Vakul Jindal, AdditionalSuperintendent of PoliceArmed Reserve Satyanar-ayana,DSPs, circle inspectors andother staff met Kaushal andwelcomed him to the district.

TDP urges Jagan to protectAP farmers’ rights on waterPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Telugu Desam Party onTuesday said that every effortshould be made to protect therights of AP farmers as per theprovisions of the 11th Scheduleof AP Reorganisation Act andas per GO No 69.

A TDP meeting chaired byparty supremo NChandrababu Naidu, onTuesday decided to hold itspolitburo meeting at the TDP'scentral office on July 15 and itsParliamentary Party meetingon July 16.

The TDP leaders discussedthe Krishna water dispute andurged Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy to takeforward the projects aimed atthe interlinking of rivers inorder to boost the agriculturesector in the State.

"The Chief Minister shouldensure that farmers of AndhraPradesh get their rightful shareof river waters as per the joint

agreement signed by AP andTelangana in the presence ofthe top officials of the UnionJal Shakti Ministry in 2015,"the TDP said.

Referring to the courtorders, the TDP advised theYSRCP Government to clearthe NREGS bills without vio-lating the orders of the HighCourt.

The party decided to exertpressure on the Governmentin this regard by stepping upprotests by the aggrieved per-sons at all the district collec-torates on Wednesday. "Thegovernment should take upimmediate steps for ensuringcompensation and resettle-

ment of all the Polavaramevacuees," the TDP said.

TDP leaders condemnedthe threats being made to adi-vasis protesting against themining activities in theAgency area. "It was unfortu-nate that the police was beingused to create terror amongthe tribals. Trees were felledand a road was illegally laid inthe forests using the panchay-at funds for the same in orderto benefit the mafia," the meet-ing said.

The TDP decried what itsaid was the JaganmohanReddy regime's attempts todivert the funds meant for thegrowth and development ofthousands of panchayats in theState. "By suspending the GO2, the High Court has createdscope for the prosperity anddevelopment of the villages.Justice was thus ensured to thesarpanches by giving backtheir powers," the meetingsaid.

Rice mill owner heldfor cheating farmers PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Farmers from across AndhraPradesh filed a complaint withthe Jaggaiahapet police againstT Viswanadham, owner ofthe Pallavi Rice Mill, accusinghim of cheating them to thetune of Rs 60 crore. The policesaid that the accused has beenavoiding payments to farmerswho sold their crop to him forthe past two years.

The affected farmers fromboth the Telugu states reachedViswanadham's house at RamMandir in Vijayawada onMonday. Farmers from Eastand West Godavari districts,Nellore, Guntur, Prakasam,Kakinada and Krishna dis-tricts besides Khammam andSuryapet districts in TelanganaState were also reported tohave also been cheated byhim. Farmers sold their cropto the rice mill either throughmiddlemen or directly, but in

both cases payments werekept pending.

The farmers sold theirpaddy stock to the PallaviRice Mills and when asked toclear the payments,Viswanadham reportedly gaveambiguous answers. Paymentsfor more than 60 percent ofthe farmers were still pending.The farmers allege that the ricemill owner had purchasedproperties with the moneydue to them.

Viswanadham is said tohave admitted that he owedthem money, but as the ricemill was shut due to the pan-demic situation, he expressedinability to clear the dues.

Vishwanadham has beentaken into custody and a caseof cheating under Sections406 and 420 of the IPC hasbeen booked against him. Heis said to have assured that alldues would be cleared afterselling the mill’s assets.

NIT-AP inks pacts on mobile satellite comPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The National Institute ofTechnology (NIT)-AP atTadepalligudem plans to col-laborate with industry partnerson cutting-edge areas such asmobile satellite communica-tions, semiconductor design,and power quality in renewabletechnology.

The institute has signed rel-evant MoUs, thereby enteringinto formal academia-institutecollaboration with ScarletIndustries, Bitsilica, andInstaSine Power TechnologiesPvt ltd.

One of the key areas of thecollaboration with Scarlet is on

creating secure communica-tions and preventing any unau-thorised access. The areas ofcollaboration with InstaSineand BITSILICA are powerquality enhancement in renew-

able energy systems and semi-conductor design, respectively.

The agreements were signedby NIT-AP director Prof CSPRao and Sreeram MM, manag-ing director Scarlet Industries,

Bhaskar Kakani, chief executiveofficer, Bitsilica, and DrBharath Ambati, director andco-founder, InstaSine PowerTechnologies Private Limited.

The three industry partnerswill offer free internships forNIT-AP students and willexplore bringing in the MTechand PhD students on to theirrespective firms’ R&D facility.

The companies would alsorecruit, based on their require-ments, final year BTech stu-dents of NIT-AP for their facil-ities and/or their sister con-cerns effective from the acad-emic year 2021-22.

Highlighting the Industry-oriented R&D culture of the

institute, Prof CSP Rao said,“These collaborations will ben-efit both the Industries and theInstitute. We have talented fac-ulty, highly motivated studentsand good collaborative part-ners. The kind of benefit we arelooking for is the creation oftraining facilities for our studentsand encourage the students toemulate the industry founders.”

Elaborating on these collab-orations, NIT-AP AssociateDean (Research andConsultancy), Dr SankarPeddapati said, “These MoUswill facilitate exchange of per-sonnel, researchers and indus-try internships for NIT-APstudents.”

HC begins hearing AP pleaagainst Sanchaita's removalPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The AP High Court has begunhearing the petition filed by theState government against theorder of single judge benchcancelling the appointment ofSanchaitha Gajapathi Raju asthe chairperson of theMaharaja Alak NarayanaSociety of Arts and Science(MANSAS) Trust.

The single judge benchorder led to TDP senior leaderAshok Gajapathiraju returningas chairman of the Trust.

The state governmentapproached the division benchchallenging the orderof the single benchjudge. The PublicP r o s e c u t o rbrought to thenotice of thecourt that a fewmore petitionswere pending inthis matter. Takingcognisance, the courton Tuesday adjournedthe hearing for two weeks.

It may be recalled that the

High Court had on June 14struck down the GOs issued by

the State government inMarch last year

a p p o i n t i n gSanchaita as chair-person of theMANSAS Trust inVizianagaram andof the

S i m h a c h a l a mTemple Trust Board.The court reinstated

TDP leader AshokGajapathiraju as chairman ofthe two trusts.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Krishna district Collector JNivas on Tuesday instructedofficials concerned to hand overthe land identified for the con-struction of BR Ambedkar SmritiVanam at Swaraj Maidan inVijayawada city to contractors sothat they can meet the construc-tion deadline of 14 months.

The officials should ensurethat there shall be no interruptionwhile the construction is on, theCollector said.

The polytechnic building inthe premises has already beenvacated and would facilitatefaster work of the AmbedkarSmriti Vanam. “Five buildingshave been vacated and electrici-ty cables are being removedfrom them. Another eight build-ings of the irrigation departmentin Swaraj Maidan that werevacated earlier have been demol-ished. The remaining offices inSwaraj Maidan should be vacat-ed in a week,” the Collector said.

Nivas said that 2,000 sq ftspace was provided in InlandWater Ways Authority officeand additional 1,000 sq ft spacewas also allocated and measuresshall be taken to relocate theoffices into the new premises.

For the district Informationand Public Relations office, spacein state guesthouse has been allo-cated and the office shall be relo-cated on urgent basis, said theCollector.

The Rythu Bazaar in SwarajMaidan is proposed to be relo-cated to Dharna Chowk at

Gandhinagar. The Collector saidthat Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy has beenreviewing the work on the SmritiVanam on a regular basis andsaid that the project should becompleted soon.

Joint Collector Dr KMadhavilatha, VMC commis-sioner V Prasanna Venkatesh,Sub-Collector GSS PraveenChand, Irrigation Departmentsuperintendent engineer AMuralikrishna Reddy and otherswere present.

Ambedkar Smriti Vanamwork going on as scheduled

The polytechnicbuilding in thepremises hasbeen vacated tofacilitate fasterwork of theAmbedkarSmriti Vanam.

Sharmila goeson fast, asksTS govt to fill vacancies PNS n HYDERABAD

YSR Telangana Party(YSRTP) leader Y.S. Sharmilaon Tuesday went on a fast inWanaparthy district ofTelangana demanding thestate government to fill thevacancies in governmentdepartments.

A day after announcingthat every Tuesday will beobserved as 'unemploymentday', Sharmila reachedTadiparthi in Wanaparthydistrict and consoled thefamily of an unemployedyouth who recently commit-ted suicide.

Sharmila, sister of AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJagan Mohan Reddy, brokedown while consolingKondal's family members attheir house. She offered somefinancial assistance to thefamily.

The YSRTP leader later saton fast at Tadiparti bus stand.Speaking on the occasion, sheslammed Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao for hisindifference to the burningissue of unemployment.

vijayawada 04VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021

East Godavari District Joint Collector (Revenue) Dr Lakshmi Shah, along withDistrict Civil Supplies Officer Prasada Rao, conducted a surprise inspections onhouseholds of rice card holders. As the APSRTC workers have now turned intogovernment employees, the government has issued orders to surrender their ricecards. With this, about 5,000 RTC workers across East Godavari district will belosing their rice cards.

SURPRISE IINSPECTION

PNS n KAKINADA

With doctors recommendingintake of chicken for increasingprotein levels in the body duringthe Covid-19 pandemic, thedemand for it has been on therise, more so in East Godavari dis-trict. Besides, the people of thedistrict are not only food loversbut are also known for their hos-pitality.

Consequently, chicken pricesin the district have gone throughthe roof. On Tuesday, the retailprice of 1 kg of skinless chickenreached Rs 320, creating an all-time record in the district. Nomatter what the rate is, meatlovers are not deterred.

Poultry production in the dis-trict has been on the decline andthe prices are going up due tohigh demand for broiler chicken.Moreover, in the month ofAshada there is naturally a crazefor non-vegetarian food. It iscustomary for women to go totemples in groups and arrangebanquets with non-vegetarianfood. The demand for chicken ishigh on Sundays and Tuesdays.The price, which stood at Rs 240per kg last Sunday, rose by Rs 80

to Rs 320 on Tuesday. Retailchicken sellers say the price is like-ly to go up further, as broiler hensare in short supply in the localmarket.

Chicken prices have risenbeyond the reach of the commonman. Within one week, theyhave risen by over Rs 100 per kg.But still, the consumers are buy-ing chicken as the doctors are rec-ommending nutritious food dur-ing the present pandemic.

While the Marketing depart-ment has the power to control theprices of essential commodities,it does not have any say on theprices of chicken and eggs.Consumers allege that some

traders are creating an artificialscarcity to raise the prices.

Chicken prices are determinedby the broiler association at a timewhen the demand in the marketis high. Egg prices are set bymembers of the National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC).As they are all private entities, theprices are being increased arbi-trarily.

On the other hand, the recentincrease in the number of meatlovers is also contributing to theskyrocketing of prices.

PNS n KAKINADA

Known for its agriculture, spir-ituality and arts, East Godavaridistrict is also home to politi-cally conscious people. Therole of women officers in sucha district is also crucial.

Of late, women are playingan exemplary role in bureaucra-cy and politics in this Centralcoastal district of AndhraPradesh.

Joint Collector(Development) Kirti Chekuriand Joint Collector (Welfare) BR a j a k u m a r i ,Rajamahendravaram Urban SPShimoti Bajpayee, SC

Corporation Executive DirectorSunitha, BC CorporationExecutive Director ChintaSubbalakshmi, Zonal Managerof Civil Supplies DepartmentD Pushpamani, BC WelfareDeputy Director Mayura,Superintendent of KakinadaGovernment Hospital Dr. RMahalakshmi, Legal MetrologyDeputy Director Madhuri;ICDS Project Director GVSatyavani, Project Director ofDWAMA AdapaVenkatalakshmi, ExecutiveOfficer of Mandapally SriSaneeswara Swamy TempleSingam Radha, AssistantCommissioner of Peddapuram

Maridamma TempleVijayalakshmi, ExecutiveOfficer of KandrakotaNukalamma Temple AlluDurga Bhavani and EO,Kakinada JagannadhapuramVenkateswara Swamy temple LSatyavati.

Women are playing a promi-nent role in politics. Two of thethree MP seats in the district arereserved for women. VangaGeeta was elected to theKakinada MP seat and ChintaAnuradha emerged victoriousfor Amalapuram MP seat.Besides, Adireddy Bhavanibecame the MLA ofRajahmundry Urban seat.

PNS n KAKINADA

Ravindranath Babu assumedcharge as East Godavari dis-trict SP here on Tuesday.Prior to his present appoint-ment, he was serving asKrishna district SP.

The new SP was accordeda warm welcome by policeofficials at the District PoliceOffice in the city. After tak-ing charge, he thanked ChiefMinister Jagan Mohan Reddyand DGP Gautam Sawang forappointing him as the EastGodavari district SP.

He said that apart fromtaking steps for proper main-tenance of law and order inthe district, he would focuson women's issues and workhard to do justice to them.

PNS n ELURU

Telugu Desam Party (TDP)in-charges and deputy lead-ers of the LegislativeAssembly in 15 constituen-cies in West Godavari districtstaged a protest at theCollectorate here on Tuesday,demanding immediate clear-ance of pending bills forwork done through theNREGA scheme.

A petition was submittedto Deputy Collector UdayBhaskar Rao, a copy of whichwas placed at Gandhi statueon the premises of theCollector's office. FormerMLAs Prabhakar, GanniVeeranjaneyulu and otherstook part in the programme.

Chicken dearer in EG, priceshoots up to Rs 320 a kilo

Collector inspects ongoingworks of Veligonda project PNS n ONGOLE

Prakasam District CollectorPraveen Kumar on Tuesdayinspected the constructionwork of the Pula SubbayyaVeligonda project tunnel. Hetoured extensively in theDornala and Peddaraveedumandals.

Praveen Kumar later wentinto the tunnels 1 and 2, whichare under construction, andexamined them closely. Theconstruction of the tunnels isexpected to take place on astretch of at least 4 metresevery day.

The Collector inspectedthe reservoir wall built at aheight of 80 metres atGottipadiya,-Sunkesula gap inPeddaraveedu mandal. Heexamined the areas wherewater is stored in the reservoir.As part of the works, he exam-ined the excavation plans to betaken up at the eastern maincanal and inspected the con-struction work of theSunkesula Reservoir and landsunder its ayacut.

Earlier, the Collector held areview meeting with officials atDornala.

The construction of theVeligonda project will be com-pleted soon, the collector said.

The project will have thecapacity to store 53 TMC onceit is completed. A total of Rs8,080 crore has to be allocatedfor the construction of theproject while Rs 6,000 crore hasbeen received for the project sofar.

The SuperintendingEngineer explained to theCollector that only Rs 1,230crore is being spent underland acquisition and R&Rpackages. He said the projectwould irrigate 4.4 lakh acresand provide drinking water tomillions. Prakasam district will

get 1.20 lakh acres under Stage-1 and 2.55 lakh acres underStage-2, he said. The SE said62,000 acres of farmland inErragondapalem constituen-cy would be brought undercultivation by diverting waterfrom Sunkesula to TigaleruCanal. Seventy percent of theseworks were already completed.

The Collector said that theconstruction work of theproject is progressing as perthe decisions of the tribunal

and the agreements of theState government. He saidthere were permits to movewater stored at a height of840 feet from the Srisailamproject. The contractors aretaking up the constructionwork as per the governmentcontracts.

He said 54 percent of thecanal cable works at T-5 Blockwere completed. He enquiredwhy 27 out of 74 works havenot been started till date while

the rest are under variousstages of progress. TheCollector enquired about thedetails of the construction offour excavation schemes atthe eastern main canal fromthe reservoir. The constructionof the first tunnel was complet-ed and the construction of thesecond is in full swing, theCollector said.

The Collector explained thatthey are waiting for the direc-tions of the Chief Minister forinauguration of the project.Arrangements would be madefor once the approvals arereceived from the ChiefMinister's Office (CMO).

The meeting was attendedby Project SE Srinivasa Reddy,Land Acquisition SpecialCollector Sarala Vandanam,Markapuram RDO LakshmiSiva Jyoti, Deputy CollectorGloria, EEs Abutalim, ChinnaBabu, Prabhakar and others.

Ravindranathassumescharge as E. Godavari SP

Women play crucial role in bureaucracy, politics in this district

PNS n ONGOLE

In a breakthrough in rape andmurder case of 7-year-old girl,the Prakasam police havenabbed the accused –Dudekula Siddaiah – at the busstand in Giddaluru.

Under the directions of In-charge SP K Chowdeswari,three police teams formed byDisha DSP M Dhanunjaya andGiddaluru CI Feroz fanned outinto various parts of the dis-trict. Finally, the accused, whoworked at a chicken shop inBestavaripeta, was found wan-dering in his native village inan inebriated condition.

Siddaiah was married toHussain Bi of Devanagaramvillage four years ago but thelatter left him unable to bear

his harassment and startedliving with her parents. Sincethen, he had been creating anuisance to everyone in the vil-lage.

Addressing a press here onTuesday, the In-charge SP saidSiddaiah saw a 7-year-old girlplaying near his house andtook her into his house andthen sexually assaulted andkilled her brutally by bashingher head against a rock, fear-ing that she would tell the truthif she survived.

Later, he wrapped the girl'sbody in a plastic bag, carriedit to the village outskirts on abicycle and then dumped itthere.

The police immediatelystarted investigating the casefrom various angles. In view of

the seriousness of the case, theinvestigation was also carriedout by Ongole Disha PoliceStation DSP Dhanunjaya byforming special teams and theaccused was arrested atGiddaluru RTC out gate onMonday evening.

Chowdeswari appealed tothe people to inform the Policedepartment if they come acrossany atrocities being meted out

to women.The in-charge SP appreciat-

ed the police officers and stafffor solving the case fast.

She also suggested to thepolice officials to create aware-ness on Disha app by involvingwomen police personnel, vol-unteers and Mahila Mitramembers. She advised thewomen and girls to press theSOS button on the Disha appand get immediate help.

Disha DSP Dhanunjaya saidthat the accused would beremanded. The case could besolved quickly with the tech-nology support. He said thecharge sheet will be filed soon.

Markapuram DSP MKishore Kumar and GiddaluruCI MD Feroz were also presentat the press conference.

Mystery behind rape-cum-murder ofminor girl unravelled, accused arrested

TDP leadersstage protest

PNS n NARASAPURAM

President of the MogalturuDocument Writers'Association KollatiVenkateswara Rao has allegedthat local Sub-RegistrarAmbati Satyanarayana is cor-rupt.

He was speaking at a pressconference organised here onTuesday. He criticisedSatyanarayana and his staff formaking money by resorting toillegal registration of proper-ties.

He said Satyanarayana wasconducting the registrationprocess illegally by bargainingfor every document.

Venkateswa Rao said fromthe time Satyanarayana tookover as Sub-Registrar atMogalturu till date, he hadbeen acting aucratically with-out coming to the office dur-ing working hours.

He said that despite the

provision that the assignedlands in Muthyalapalli and KPPalem villages should not beregistered, the registrationswere carried out in violation ofthe rules.

Venkateswara Rao said thathe had lodged a complaintwith DIG Sivaram againstSatyanarayana. He said that theDIG had promised to look intothe case.

Venkateswara Rao said that

if DIG Sivaram did not do jus-tice to them, he would submita complaint to the InspectorGeneral (IG).

Document writersSeelaboina Satyanarayana,Kadali Trimurtulu, ThirumaniTata Rao, Pattapu Ramu,Pemmaraju Surya VenkataSubba Rao, KadaliChandrasekhar, PulaparthiNageswara Rao and otherswere present.

Document writers rise againstSub-Registrar of Mogalturu

G Rajakumari, Jt Collector GV Satyavani, PD, ICDS D. Pushpamani, Z M, Civil Supplies

Chinta Subbalakshmi, ED, BC Corp Allu Durga Bhavani, EO Singam Radha, EO

In the month of

Ashada, there is

naturally a craze

for non-vegetarian

food. It is

customary for

women to go to

temples in groups

and arrange

banquets with non-

vegetarian food.

PNS n KURNOOL

APSRTC Vice-Chairman andManaging Director ChDwaraka Tirumala Rao hasappealed to the employees ofthe State-owned public trans-port company to be polite tothe passengers and earn theirrespect.

Dwaraka Tirumala Raoundertook a maiden visit toKurnool Region on Tuesday.Officials and staff gave him arousing welcome.

He inspected inspected thebus stand and issued instruc-tions to the authorities.

After inspecting the busstand, the VC & MD of theAPSRTC visited the garage ofKurnool 1 Depot and planteda sapling there. He visited theKurnool 2 Depot garage andinspected some sections of it.

Addressing the officials andemployees of both the depotsat Kurnool 2 Depot, he saidthey should see to it that all thefacilities were made availablefor passengers at the busstands. He also called uponthem to work with dedicationto increase the cargo revenueto steer the corporation on thepath of profits. He said the gov-ernment was positive aboutgiving compassionate appoint-ments and the process would

start soon.In view of the Covid-19

pandemic, Dwaraka TirumalaRao appealed to to the staff totake care of their health.

The company's executivedirectors KS BrahmanandaReddy (Operations), P KrishnaMohan (Engineering), KadapaZone Executive Director G VRavi Verma, Kurnool RegionalManager TV Ramam,Kurnool-1, 2 Depot Managers,representatives of various asso-ciations, RTC officials, garagestaff and others were present.

He then visited KurnoolZonal Staff Training College.where he inspected rooms anddepartments.

He then inspected the RajVihar bus stand in Kurnooltown.

Dwarka Tirumala Rao also

visited the Nandyala depotwhere he inspected the bus sta-tion surroundings.

He said APSRTC should beable to compete well with pri-vate bus operators.

Later, he visited theAllagadda Depot where headdressed the workers andasked them to perform well soas to win the admiration of thepassengers. "We should pro-vide the best service to impressthe passengers. Every employ-ee should strive to provide bet-ter services than other RTCsand private services. ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy has converted APSRTCemployees into governmentemployees. All of should workbetter before taking our prob-lems to the notice of the gov-ernment," he said.

Focus on bolstering revenue,APSRTC MD tells employees

PNS n ONGOLE

Prakasam District Collector Praveen Kumar,who inspected the village secretariats ofYadavalli, Dornala, Peddaraveedu,Vemulakota and Devaraju Gattu in Prakasamdistrict and expressed his anger over theabsence of staff in their respective office.

Later, he inspected Gottipadiya andSunkesula dams and visited the rehabilitationcentres.

He enquired about the problems of the dis-placed and promised to provide all facilitiesto them.

Collector inspects village secretariats

Protest stagedover ‘land grab' PNS n NELLORE

Members of the Minoritycommunity on Mondaystaged a sit-in alleging thatsome people had occupiedWaqf Board sites in Nellore'sMagunta layout. CorporationExecutive Engineer SeshagiriRao and DE Raghuramrushed to the spot. An argu-ment between members ofthe Minority community andthe Corporation officials tookplace.

Municipal officials said theDistrict Collector hadapproved the constructionof a compound wall aroundthe site.

Corporation officials askedthe protestors to produceproof before the DistrictCollector stating that the sitebelongs to the Wakf Board.They are free to approach thecourt if they choose to do so,they said. Outraged by this,the Minority leaders allegedthat some influential peoplewere grabbing the WaqfBoard assets.

City Minority president SabirKhan from Telugu DesamParty, District TDP ExecutiveSecretary Jafar Sharif, DistrictMinority Leaders Zia-ul-Haq,Shabbir from Congress,Suleiman from MuslimFederation of Andhra Pradesh,and others participated.

nation 05VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021

NLFB militant killed in police encounter in Assam

Amilitant of the National LiberationFront of Bodoland (NLFB) outfit was

killed in a police encounter in Assam'sUdalguri district on Tuesday. Acting ona tip-off, police launched an operation inDimachang in Mazbat police station areaand the outfit's self-styled Udalguri dis-trict commander was killed in anencounter, Special Director General ofPolice G P Singh said. "Early this morn-ing, one Jayphrush @ N Jwngkhwl...waskilled in police operation in Dimachangarea of Mazbat police station of Udalguri

district," Singh tweeted. A pistol and several cartridges were seized from the encounter site, headded. The slain militant was a close associate of former NDFB leader M Batha who had surren-dered along with several other cadres during the signing of the third Bodo Peace Accord inJanuary 2020 but later returned to the forest to set up the NLFB.

Indian Navy receives 10th P-8I aircraft from Boeing

The Indian Navy has received the 10th anti-subma-rine warfare aircraft P-8I from the US-based aero-

space company Boeing, according to a statementissued on Tuesday. The Defence Ministry had firstsigned a contract for eight P-8I aircraft in 2009. Later,in 2016, it signed a contract for four additional P-8Iaircraft. "This is the second aircraft to be deliveredunder the option contract for four additional aircraftthat the Indian Ministry of Defence awarded in 2016,"

the statement said. "In addition to unmatched maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine war-fare capabilities, the P-8I has been deployed to assist during disaster relief and humanitarianmissions," it added. The Indian Navy had received the ninth P-8I aircraft in November last year.The patrol aircraft is an integral part of the Indian Navy's fleet and has surpassed 30,000 flighthours since it was inducted in 2013, it mentioned. "Boeing supports India's growing P-8I fleetby providing training of Indian Navy flight crews, spare parts, ground support equipment andfield service representative support," its statement said. Boeing's integrated logistics support hasenabled a high state of fleet readiness at the lowest possible cost, it added.

‘Digital initiatives taken in educationduring pandemic will be strengthened’

Digital initiatives taken to ensure the continuity ofeducation during the COVID-19 pandemic will be

further strengthened and institutionalised, UnionEducation Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said onTuesday. Pradhan said this after reviewing the digitalinitiatives taken by the ministry including the PM e-Vidya and the National Digital EducationArchitecture(N-DEAR). "New age education willleverage technology to be open, inclusive andaccessible. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated ashift towards digital medium of education. Digitalinitiatives taken during this time will be further

strengthened and institutionalised. "A vibrant digital ecosystem in education will expandlearning opportunities for the students, spur innovation and entrepreneurship in theeducation sector," the minister said after the meeting.The meeting was also attended by threeministers of state (MoS) for education -- Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Subhas Sarkar andAnnapurna Devi.

INDIA

CORNER

PNS n MUMBAI

The Maharashtra government onTuesday submitted to the BombayHigh Court the medical recordsof Jesuit priest and activist StanSwamy, an 84-yar-old accused inthe Elgar Parishad-Maoists linkscase who died in a hospital herewhile being in judicial custody lastweek awaiting a medical bail.

Chief public prosecutor ArunaPai told a bench of Justices SSShinde and NJ Jamadar that thestate had submitted "a compila-tion of Swamy's complete medicalrecords" since the time he waslodged in the Taloja prison as anundertrial.

Swamy was arrested by theNational Investigating Agency(NIA) from Ranchi in October2020. He was interrogated at thetime of his arrest by the NIA butthe central agency never soughthis custody.

Suffering from Parkinson's dis-ease and a host of other medicalailments, Swamy, who was then83-year-old, was remanded tojudicial custody following hisarrest. He was then admitted tothe Taloja prison hospital in NaviMumbai.

After informing the high courtabout Swamy's death on July 5 thisyear, senior counsel Mihir Desai,who had represented the tribalrights activist in the HC, had toldthe court that Swamy's deathwas a result of negligence on partof the NIA and the Maharashtraprison authorities who had failedto provide him timely and ade-quate medical aid.

Desai had also urged the HC atthe time to keep Swamy's plea formedical bail and his plea challeng-ing the bar on grant of bail underthe Unlawful Activities

Prevention Act pending. He hadalso urged the HC to call forSwamy's medical records.

On Desai's request, the highcourt had passed an order callingfor the medical records to ascer-tain the veracity of the allegationsmade against authorities.

On Tuesday, Pai submittedthat the "Taloja prison authorityhad placed on record a 300-pagelong compilation of documentsincluding medical reports fromthe time Stan Swamy was broughtto Taloja Jail till his postmortemreport".

Besides the state government,the private Holy Family Hospitalin Mumbai, where Swamy diedduring treatment, also submittedthe late activist's medical recordsand the treatment provided tohim.

The high court took all thedocuments on record.

The bench also said that sinceSwamy died in judicial custody, amagisterial inquiry into his death,as mandated by section 176 of theCrPC, will be conducted.

"Whatever inquiry or investi-gation by the magistrate under176 (CrPC) takes place, someonewill have to participate in it now,"the high court told Desai.

Desai said he had some sub-missions to make on such inquiryand he will do so on the next dateof hearing.

The HC will hear Desai and allother parties on July 19.

The Elgar Parishad case isrelated to inflammatory speech-es made at a conclave held in Puneon December 31, 2017, which, thepolice claimed, triggered vio-lence the next day near theKoregaon-Bhima war memoriallocated on the outskirts of thewestern Maharashtra city.

Maha govt submits to HCmedical records of late Stan

Maha against spl cell to protectdocs from unwarranted FIRs

Southwestmonsooncovers entirecountryPNS n NEW DELHI

After advancing over Delhi-NCR, the SouthwestMonsoon covered the entirecountry on Tuesday after adelay of five days, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said.

The Southwest Monsoonusually covers the entirecountry on July 8. The earli-er normal date for the mon-soon to cover the entire coun-try was July 15. Last year, theIMD revised its onset date forseveral areas.

It is also one of the usualinstances when monsoon hascovered the national capital inthe end.

The monsoon covered itslast outposts - the deserttown of Jaisalmer andGanganagar in Rajasthan -on Monday but evaded Delhi.It covered Barmer, anotherdesert district in Rajasthansome two weeks before itsnormal onset date.

On Tuesday, several partsof the NCR received rainfallfollowing which the IMDdeclared monsoon's arrival inDelhi.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Women who received freemeals in primary schools ofIndia have children withimproved linear growth,according to a study.

The research, published injournal NatureCommunications on Monday,suggest a potential pathwaythrough which school feedingprogrammes may have inter-generational effects on childnutrition outcomes.

The researchers at theInternational Food PolicyResearch Institute (IFPRI) inthe US noted that India ishome to the highest number ofundernourished children andthe largest school feeding pro-

gramme in the world -- theMid-Day Meal (MDM)scheme.

However, long-term benefitsof the scheme on nutrition areunknown.

The researchers used nation-ally representative data onmothers and their childrenfrom 1993 to 2016 to assesswhether MDM supports inter-generational improvements inchild linear growth.

They found that investmentsmade in school meals in pre-vious decades were associatedwith improvements in futurechild linear growth.

"Our findings suggest thatintervening during the prima-ry school years can makeimportant contributions to

reducing future child stunting,particularly given the cumula-tive exposure that is possiblethrough school feeding pro-grammes," said study co-author Suman Chakrabartifrom the University ofWashington in the US.

The findings also show thatschool meals may contribute toeducation, later fertility deci-sions, and access to health care,reducing the risk of undernu-trition in the next generation,the researchers said.

"School feeding programmessuch as India's MDM schemehave the potential for stimulat-ing population-level stuntingreduction as they are imple-mented at scale and targetmultiple underlying determi-

nants of undernutrition in vul-nerable groups," said study co-author Samuel Scott fromIFPRI.

Study co-author, HaroldAlderman from IFPRI, notedthat findings from previousevaluations of India's MDMscheme have shown a positiveassociation with beneficiaries'school attendance, learningachievement, hunger and pro-tein-energy malnutrition, andresilience to health shocks suchas drought.

All of these may have carry-over benefits to children bornto mothers who participated inthe programme, he said.

Further research is requiredto understand whether improv-ing the quality or quantity of

meals provided and extendingthe programme beyond prima-ry school might furtherenhance its benefits, theresearchers added.

The MDM scheme, initiatedby the central government in1995, was intended to cover allgovernment schools under theNational Programme ofNutritional Support forPrimary Education, the authorsof study wrote.

Due to institutional chal-lenges, only a few states scaledup the programme immediate-ly, they said.

According to the researchers,data from 1999 show that only6 per cent of all girls aged 6-10years received mid-day mealsin school.

India's free meals scheme in schools linked to improved growth

PNS n NEW DELHI

Serum Institute of India (SII)will start production ofSputnik vaccine at the com-pany's facilities in September,Russian Direct InvestmentFund (RDIF) said onTuesday. "The first batch ofSputnik vaccine is expected tobe produced at SII's facilitiesin September," RDIF said ina statement.

The parties intend to pro-duce over 300 million dosesof the vaccine in India peryear, it added.

Three dead as bus hitsmotorcycle inUP's FirozabadPNS n FIROZABAD

Three persons, including twowomen, were killed aftertheir motorcycle was hit by abus here Tuesday, police said.

They said a three-year-oldboy, also on the motorcycle,has received serious injuriesin the incident and beentaken to an Agra hospital fortreatment. Shikohabad policestation SHO Pramod KumarMalik said the three deceased-- the 26-year-old Sunny andtwo women named Neeraj(25) and Reshu (24) -- wereresidents of Khairgarh area ofthe district.

Three-year-old Mayank isson of Neeraj, he said.

The incident happenedwhen they were returningfrom Balaji Mandir inShikohabad. A sleeper coachbus coming from Etawah hittheir two-wheeler onNational Highway-2, policesaid. Mayank was seriouslyinjured and was taken to thedistrict hospital, from wherehe was referred to Agra fortreatment, they said.

The three bodies have beensent for post-mortem exam-ination, police said, addingthe driver fled from the spotwith the bus.

PNS n BHOPAL

The Madhya Pradesh cabineton Tuesday decided to pro-vide an additional pension ofRs 1,000 per month to wid-ows of the Bhopal gastragedy victims, state HomeMinister Narottam Mishrasaid.

"This is in addition to thesocial security pension forthe surviving widows of theBhopal gas leak victims,"Mishra, who is also the gov-ernment's spokesperson, toldreporters after the cabinetmeeting.

The decision was takendespite the finance depart-ment's objections to the pro-posal of providing addition-al Rs 1,000 to these women,he said.

Mishra said the previousKamal Nath-led Congressgovernment had stopped theadditional pension in 2019.

He said the earlier BJPgovernment started this pen-sion in 2013 and now, thepresent ruling dispensationdecided to resume it.

Welcoming the decision,Rachna Dhingra of NGOBhopal Group forInformation and Action said,“Several announcementshave been made in the lastone year, but these widows

are yet to receive a singlerupee into their account.”

She claimed the widows ofthe gas leak victims have not

received their pension sinceDecember 2019, and saidthe arrears need to be paidimmediately.

Dhingra also said there isno clarity in the Gas ReliefDepartment's policy due tolack of understanding onthe needs of the Bhopal gastragedy victims.

Over 15,000 people werekilled after methyl iso-cyanate leaked on the inter-vening night of December 2-3, 1984 from the pesticideplant of Union Carbide IndiaLimited, then located on theoutskirts of the state capitalBhopal.

More than five lakh peo-ple were affected due to thetoxic leak.

MP Cabinet approves Rs 1,000additional pension for widows

“Severalannouncementshave beenmade in thelast one year,but thesewidows are yet to receive a single rupeeinto theiraccount.”

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court onTuesday sought responsefrom Centre and UIDAI ona petition seeking mecha-nism and procedure forissuance of new Aadhaarnumber to existing cardholders.

Justice Rekha Palli issuednotice on the petition filed bybusinessman Rajan Arorawho apprehends that his per-sonal detai ls includingAadhaar number have beencompromised.

Apart from seeking adirect ion to Unique

Identification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) to issue freshAadhaar number for Arora,the petition also seeks direc-tions from court for protec-tion of the fundamental rightof privacy and prevention offurther breach and damages.

Advocate Zoheb Hossain,appearing for UIDAI, sub-mitted that the moment anAadhaar number is issued,the person concerned andthe number are “lockedtogether for life”.

The court , however,responded that had that beenthe case, power would nothave been given to UIDAI

under Section 23(n) of theAadhaar (Targeted deliveryof Financial and other subsi-dies, benefits and services)Act of 2016 to lay downconditions and procedurefor issuance of new Aadhaarnumber for exiting holders.

“You have the power. Itcan't be read in such a prag-matic manner (if it can't bechanged) then the rule has togo. It can be exercised insome manner,” the court said.

The court added that itnonetheless agreed that anAadhaar number could notbe changed “at the whimsand fancies” of a user.

HC seeks UIDAI, Centre’s responseon issuance of new Aadhaar number

Serum Instituteto startmanufacturingSputnik vaccine

PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Minister for Devaswomand SC and ST Welfare, KRadhakrishnan on Tuesdayalleged that he received threatcalls after 'misappropriation' ofwelfare funds of scheduled casteand scheduled tribes wasexposed in the state.

The minister claimed that aperson had made several calls

to the office landline recentlyandthreatenedhim after it wasclear that he won't support anykind of malpractice.

People, indulging in suchmalpractices, may be very far-sighted, he saidwhile speakingin a programme here.

"Such fraudsters are very sadnow as they have realised thatwe will not support cheatingpoor people.

After that, one of such fraud-ster evencalled in the officephone and used abusive lan-guage and threatened me,"Radhakrishnan said.

He also said he would notgive in to such threats.

Later, the minister's officesaid a complaint had alreadybeen lodged with the con-cerned authorities in this regard.

Radhakrishnan had recent-

ly made it clear that the gov-ernment would not protectanyone involved in the allegedsiphoning of the funds meantfor the welfare of SC/ST peo-ple.

Investigators recently record-ed the arrest of a person alleged-ly involved in the embezzlementof funds meant for studentsbelonging to the Scheduledcaste and tribe categories.

Kerala Minister alleges threat after unearthing SC/ST fund fraud

PNS n MUMBAI

The Maharashtra governmentinformed the Bombay HighCourt on Tuesday that it haddecided against constituting a spe-cial cell of experts to protect doc-tors against unwarranted policecomplaints and FIRs registered bypatients' kin.

Earlier this month, AdvocateGeneral (AG) AshutoshKumbhakoni had told a bench ofChief Justice Dipankar Datta andJustice G S Kulkarni that the stategovernment was "thinking of "forming a cell to look into com-plaints of negligence filed againstdoctors, and only if the commit-tee felt a complaint seemed primafacie genuine, would an FIR beregistered.

However, on Tuesday, the AGtold the bench that a governmentresolution (GR) issued in March2010 already provided for district-level committees of experts toweed out frivolous or unwarrant-ed complaints against doctors,and protect them from beingnamed in bogus cases of medicalnegligence.

The submissions were madewhen the bench was hearing apublic interest litigation filed byone Dr Rajeev Joshi seeking judi-cial intervention to curb violence

against healthcare professionals.According to the PIL,

Maharashtra witnesses the max-imum number of such instancesof violence, and the state govern-ment had failed to implement theexisting legal provisions, includ-ing the Maharashtra MedicareService, Persons and MedicareInstitutions (Prevention of vio-lence and damage or loss ofproperty) Act, to curb suchinstances.

The plea further claimed therewere frequent cases of medicalnegligence registered against doc-tors at the behest of relatives ofpatients, who were unhappy withthe treatment protocol providedby a doctor.

Kumbhakoni, however, saidthe Maharashtra director gener-

al of police was of the opinion thatthere was no need to have a sep-arate cell for the same.

"The police department hasbrought to my notice a GR issuedway back in March 2010. This GRprovides for an expert panel inevery district," Kumbhakoni said,adding that the DGP was of theview that there was no need fora separate cell.

To this, the High Court askedif the GR had indeed been imple-mented and if functional commit-tees existed in every district in thestate. The AG then said he willcheck if such committees werefunctional, and added that thestate government will consideramending the existing legislationto provide a safer environment fordoctors.

ing President are able tomanipulate provisions ofArticle 76. Oli was sworn in ascaretaker PM again on May 13as leader of single largestparty and was required tosecure a confidence vote byJune 12 but realising he wouldfail, he managed to sabotagethe House after a midnightcoup and get himself appoint-ed as caretaker PM on May 22.

Many Nepalis have calledBhandari as Oli’s accompliceand argued that her discre-tionary powers are finite andjusticiable as court has nowdecreed. No one is above therule of law. It must also be notedthat the same person in sameterm of House cannot berepeatedly appointed PM underArticle 76 (3) and allied provi-sions. Other anomalies thatarise are (a) requirement of sig-natures essential for claim toGovernment formation; (b) aPM who has lost confidence ofthe House is unfit to counselPresident on House dissolution;(c) resignation of PM manda-tory after losing floor test; (d)floor test essential beforeappointing Oli PM underArticle 76 (3) on May 13. InFebruary 2018, Oli with com-mendable foresight had said theNepal’s Constitution is best inthe world. Besides Oli, oncekingmakers Janata Samajbadi

Party (Mahanta Thakur-Rajendra Mahato group) arethe best losers: Their 20Ministers were sacked barely 15days in office by the court. TheCitizenship Act Ordinance thatMadhesi parties have beenseeking was also annulled bythe apex court which said noconstitutional amendment tillthe five-member task force hasscrutinised the amendment.

Disenchantment with thepolitical system has drawnNepalese back towards monar-chy. Surveys carried out in allseven provinces indicate that51.7 per cent want Nepal tobecome a Hindu State and 40.3per cent a secular Nepal.Mahesh Bhatt, CPN UML, ayouth leader close to Oli, hasbeen praying for return ofmonarchy. Oli too, lately, hasbeen championing cause ofHindu Rashtra — sanctioningconstruction of a grand newRam temple. Talking to jour-nalists, even Prachanda admit-ted country’s image was betterunder monarchy. The Kingand Queen were down withCOVID after the Kumbh mela.After Oli’s ascent to power asan ultranationalist and manag-ing his Government’s longevi-ty, he became the most pow-erful though not the smartleader of Nepal. Oli, the mancredited with showing India its

place after the blockade, open-ing up to China and carto-graphic recovery of territoryfrom India, was quietly mend-ing fences with New Delhi,even promising a Hindu rajafter dumping the Chinese. Hetold the BBC recently that themisunderstanding (withoutspecifying it) with India hasbeen resolved.

With the return of Deubaand the Opposition alliance,India has been dealt a trickyhand thanks to the devoutindependence of judiciary,proven not once but twice.Deuba will have to prove hismajority within a month inwhich support of the 23-strong Madhav Nepal fac-tion will be crucial. Keepinghis mixed flock of NepaliCongress — they want lead-ership change; Maoist Centre-Prachanda’s insatiable thirstfor power; Janata SamajbadiParty (Upendra Yadav-Baburam Bhattarai faction);and CPN UML (Nepal fac-tion) still finding its feet —together will not be easy.

(The writer, a retiredMajor General, wasCommander, IPKF South, SriLanka, and founder member ofthe Defence Planning Staff,currently the IntegratedDefence Staff. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

MORE THAN WHAT MEETS THE EYE?Sir — The Kerala-based garment manu-facturing company Kitex GarmentsLimited has now decided to invest inTelangana, backtracking from its earlierplans to invest in Kerala. It is natural thatbusinessmen move to greener pastures forgrowth. Here, the company’s ManagingDirector, Sabu M Jacob, chose to blame theState for his decision to move out. He wasmiffed at the raids on the company on thecomplaints about dumping dangerous pol-lutants in the river Kadambrayar, ofopenly flouting the minimum wagerequirement, poor dwelling conditions ofmigrant labourers and the sufferings ofwoman workers during the pandemic.

History has recorded the growth of theAnna Kitex Group in Kerala. It was in 1968that (deceased) MC Jacob founded it withjust eight employees. Kitex Garments Ltdwas established as a part of the group in1992. Anna Kitex Group is a case in point.In 2013, Sabu M Jacob founded a non-profit charitable organisation calledTwenty-20. The outfit eventually becamethe company’s political arm. It achievedsome success in the local body elections.However, the drubbing it got in theAssembly election in April 2021 extin-guished the bigger political ambitions ofits founder. Perhaps, that was the tippingpoint. The cautious response of the LeftDemocratic Front Government to thehoax propaganda is reassuring.

Haridasan Rajan | Kozhikode

ACHIEVING THE ‘ZERO-HUNGER’ TARGETSir — Lucky are the people who do nothave to worry about food every singlemorning. The world produces more thanenough food to feed its population but stillsome 690 million people have to go to bedon an empty stomach. The report, ‘TheState of Food Security and Nutrition in theWorld’, suggests that due to the recent pan-demic-induced lockdowns and contain-ment, another 83-132 million peoplemay go hungry in 2020 which will take thefigure of empty stomachs close to 1 bil-lion. Looking at these figures, it will notbe wrong to say that the “zero hunger” tar-

get of the sustainable development goalswill not see the light of the day by 2030.

For this, we also share the blamebecause we can see in various marriagereceptions, meetings and even in ourhomes that a lot of food is wasted. Nearly30 per cent of the total food produced inthe world goes down the drain. Hunger isalso a major driving force of crimes in theworld. Needless to say that if the problemof hunger is solved the crime rate wouldalso go down. In the words of Bharat RatnaBhupen Hazarika, “Manuhe manuhorbabe jodihe okonu navabe vabibo kunenukua xomoniya” (If people do not thinkabout each other, who will, my friend?). Letus all join hands for a good future.

Noopur Baruah | Tezpur

A GIFTED MIDDLE-ORDER BATSMANSir — The demise of former Indian play-er Yashpal Sharma is a huge loss to thecricketing fraternity, and especially to the

members of India’s 1983 World Cup-win-ning team. Yashpal was a gifted middle-order batsman and a brilliant fielder. Hisbest moments at the 1983 World Cup werethe brilliant knock of 89 against the fierypace attack of West Indies in the openinggame that set the tone for India’s success-ful campaign in the tournament, and thevital 61 against England in the semi-finalsthat enabled the team’s passage into thefinals.

In Tests, if GR Viswanth’s career bestof 222 against England at Chepauk in 1982is remembered by generations, equallyYashpal’s 140 in the same innings wasworth its weight in gold. With his grit,doggedness and application, YashpalSharma infused a lot of strength and ener-gy to the Indian team in the 1980s.

Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai

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VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021

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With the return of Sher Bahadur Deuba and the Opposition alliance, India hasbeen dealt a tricky hand; thanks to the Supreme Court’s independence

PUBLICCONFIDENCE IN

THE CONSTITUTIONAND POLITICAL

SYSTEM HASERODED

AND NATIONALSURVEYS BLAME

POLITICAL LEADERSFOR IT. NEPAL

HAS HAD SEVENCONSTITUTIONS.

APPARENTLY THE 2015

CONSTITUTION HASLOOPHOLES THATNEED TO BE FIXED

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

ASHOK K MEHTA

It is significant that the new population poli-cy for Uttar Pradesh unveiled by the YogiAdityanath Government has been followed by

the announcement of some BJP MPs that theyintend to push for a population control Bill inParliament. On the face of it, it seems like some-thing that is needed to reduce the populationgrowth rate. But then the BJP’s real intentionsbecome suspect when we find references to“community-wise fertility rates”, “a religious bal-ance of population among various communi-ties” and “polygamy” in the draft policy. It leadsto doubt if there is a covert communal agen-da. Contrary to the Hindu right’s propaganda,breeding prolifically is a choice of couples, asagainst communities. Procreation, an act of biol-

ogy, must be kept separate from religion.One postulate to which BJP seems to sub-

scribe is that poverty is caused by the rise in pop-ulation. Quite the opposite is true. Poverty whichis often a corollary of wrong-headed econom-ic policies exacerbates the population problem.Its mitigation or eradication is not achieved byfamily planning. Impoverished families inevitablyregard children as economic assets. The newdraft policy proposes to incentivise a two-childnorm and penalise couples with more than twochildren. It is unconscionable to link family sizeto eligibility to avail benefits of welfare schemes,apply for Government jobs and contest local polls.Family planning programmes work best whenparticipation in them is voluntary and not com-pulsory. State meddling and coercion throughenactment and enforcement of laws could proveto be counterproductive and lead to demograph-ic distortions, to borrow a phrase from an affi-davit filed by the Union Government in theSupreme Court in 2020. There are better waysto empower people to make informed choicesand achieve the object of population control.

G David Milton | Tamil Nadu

Reviving population control debate

Nepal’s judiciaryrises to the occasion

Never before has theSupreme Court reviveda dissolved House twicein five months as on July

12 in Nepal. This is a recordsmacking of infirmities in the 2015Constitution but also indepen-dence of judiciary. The 167-pagejudgment was not just alongexpected lines, but went beyondexpectations of the petitioners. Theverdict overturned the decision ofPresident Bidya Devi Bhandari todissolve the House on recommen-dations of Prime Minister KP Oli,ordered the resurrection of theHouse at 5 PM July 18 and passeda rare mandamus to the Presidentto appoint under Article 76 (5)Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NepaliCongress as the new PrimeMinister (a record fifth time) byJuly 14. Further, it declared that aparty whip does not apply whenlawmakers take part in voting toelect Prime Minister under 76 (5).

Fearing the criticality of 23UML lawmakers from MK Nepalfaction who signed on to theOpposition alliance tilting thebalance, Oli was on the cusp ofa deal with the dissident group.Thirty petitions were entertainedby the Supreme Court and onefrom Opposition alliance seekingrestoration of Parliament andappointment of Deuba as PM.The court ordering appointmentof PM was unusual.

The first dissolution onDecember 20, 2020, was over-turned on February 23. Then, asnow, four former Chief Justices ofNepal had predicted the Housewill be restored. Oli has managedto remain Prime Minister byBhandari favourably interpretingprovisions under Articles 76 (1, 2,3, and 5). Acting on recommen-dations of Oli and his Cabinet, shedissolved the House a second timeon May 22 and announced snappolls for November 12 and 19. Olifailed to secure a vote of confi-dence, especially after MaoistCentre withdrew its support to theCentre on May 4. Oli should haveresigned on moral grounds afterfailing to prove majority — 93-124— under 100(6) on May 10.

Public confidence in theConstitution and political systemhas eroded and national surveysblame political leaders for it.Nepal has had sevenConstitutions. Apparently the2015 Constitution has loopholesthat need to be fixed. It has spacebetween which a PM and oblig-

SOUNDBITEOur OppositionAAP has alwaysrecognised myvision and workfor Punjab. It isclear they knowwho is really fighting for Punjab.

Congress leader— Navjot Sidhu

Immigration has long con-tributed socially,culturally andeconomically to New Zealand,

and our society is better for it.

New Zealand Deputy PM

— Grant Robertson

The people whomake you laughare very deep…they hide theirwounds.

Anchor-actor— Maniesh Paul

Nana Patole’s state-ments were distort-ed, taken out ofcontext... It was alla creation of themedia which creat-ed a misunderstanding.

Congress leader— HK Patil

He (NovakDjokovic) is like in

the movies. Youhave to kill the

guy 27 times andstill he gets up.

Tennis ex-player and coach— Goran Ivanisevic

The Copa America final saw Argentina beating Brazil 1-0. While the goal differencemay not be huge, it was enough to end Argentina’s 28-year drought and get Messihis first title with the national team. Dexterity, artistry, skill and efficiency are hall-

marks of both these teams but Argentina should count itself lucky not to have been caughtoffside, while Brazil did not turn out to be so fortunate. The most active person on the

field was the match referee who incessantly kept blow-ing the whistle; and the main targets of the rough tack-les were Neymar and Messi. Undoubtedly, football isa tough, competitive and difficult sport, especiallybetween two such teams. Perhaps the same spirit ofrivalry was on display at the 1982 World Cup, whenMaradona kicked Zico in the stomach and saw the redcard. Also, who can forget German keeper ToniSchumacher’s dangerous tackle in the semi-final matchagainst French player Patrick Battiston? But with thepassage of time, the nature of football is also chang-ing: No matter the intensity of conflict on the field, friend-

ship is becoming evident outside the playing arena. Even in the 1986 World Cup, Argentinaplayed a negative game, but still beat a better team like Brazil.

Realising that they had managed to defeat a superior team, the Argentine players choseto forgo their celebration and, instead, joined the Brazilian team members in their misery;which was a superb example of empathy. Such show of sportsmanship is understand-able in games like cricket, badminton or tennis because you have physical distance fromother players: Gavaskar and Malcolm Marshall may be friends because they stand sever-al feet apart; same with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi or Prakash Padukone and MartinFrost. But football is a different ball game altogether, where players have to score goalswhile exerting physical supremacy over the rival defenders. It’s brutal, like life. As Americanfootball player and coach Duffy Daugherty famously said: “Football isn’t a contact sport;it’s a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.” But such emotions get uplifted whenthe world sees Neymar and Messi hugging and congratulating each other; both for differ-ent reasons. Messi was sad for Neymar and therefore consoling him, and Neymar washappy for Messi despite his own team’s loss. But the beautiful scene showcased the core,the spirit, the purity of the world’s most beautiful game. Two perfect 10s.

It is high time the courts step in to stop a more dangerous version of Coronavirusfrom attacking the country any day now. This is not to create panic but rather afrantic call for rational thinking to take over. The euphoria in June that the second

wave of COVID-19 was beginning to taper off has already worn off. It is replaced bya literal countdown for the onset of the third wave perhaps spearheaded by the moredangerous Delta Plus variant. The Indian Medical Association says the die is alreadycast and the fresh wave is inevitable given the flagrant violation of safety protocolsby the people across States. Cases are already rising in Maharashtra and Kerala, withboth State Governments still arguing that the situation is not out of control. It is nowknown that the North-Eastern region is emerging as the latest hot spot in the coun-try. At least 40 districts in the region are returning a positivity rate of over 10 per

cent. Arunachal Pradesh has 10 districts with a highnumber of positive cases. Manipur has nine,Meghalaya has six, Sikkim and Assam four each,Tripura three, and Mizoram two. The StateGovernment’s presence in the form of public healthinfrastructure is recorded largely in the urbanareas. The countryside in most of the States paintsa dreadful picture.

For instance, in Arunachal Pradesh, where thevillages are far-flung and remote, people complainof the absence of medical assistance. In all theseStates, the cases are rising in villages, a unique fea-

ture being entire families getting infected. The death rate is not as high as the infec-tion rate, which is some solace. There is hardly any visible campaign to force peo-ple to wear masks and follow social distancing. On top of such civic irresponsibili-ty, there is a palpable fear of the virus super-spreaders in north India. The Char DhamYatra and the Kanwar Yatra are the two forthcoming major events that, if allowed thego-ahead, can wreak as much havoc as the Kumbh Mela. Millions of devotees areready to undertake the pilgrimages. In 2019, over 30 million devotees from 10 Statestook part in the Kanwar Yatra — a logistical and healthcare nightmare if it were allowedthis year. And the State Governments are still indecisive, with the Uttar PradeshGovernment claiming it can hold the yatra with complete adherence to COVID pro-tocols. But there will hardly be any adherence as the Kumbh example has shown.The Uttarakhand Government has challenged the State High Court’s decision to can-cel the Char Dham Yatra. As it is, the hilly regions of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradeshare sitting on a virus bomb as vast crowds have landed there to take advantage ofthe unlock, hardly bothered about masking or social distancing. Neither the StateGovernments nor the people appear willing to learn from past mistakes and stop invit-ing the third wave. It is up to the courts now.

Fatal negligence

True friendsIconic footballers Messi and Neymar have become the latest example of sportsmanship amid rivalry

PICTALK

Pollutants-laden water gets dumped into Yamuna river near the Wazirabad bridge in Delhi PTI

Several States appear unmindful of the threatposed by the imminent third wave of COVID-19

State of bureaucracy:Honesty still pays

POPULATION CONTROL CAN’T BE ATTAINED BY JUST

MAKING LAWS. THERE ARE REACTIONS IN MANY

COMMUNITIES…IT IS A POLITICALLY SENSITIVE ISSUE.

— BIHAR CHIEF MINISTER

NITISH KUMAR

EVERY CONSCIOUS CITIZEN SHOULD MAKE A

COMMITMENT TO CONTRIBUTE TO POPULATION CONTROL

ON THE OCCASION OF WORLD POPULATION DAY.

— NCP CHIEF

SHARAD PAWAR

Karl Marx had wished the state towither away. It has not. Even inthe countries where Marxismwas purported to have been

practiced, the State has become more andmore powerful and its prime tool, bureau-cracy, more and more relevant. In capi-talist countries too, the bureaucracies havecome to stay. We, in India, have our brandof bureaucracy which is castigated, pillo-ried, used, abused, harassed yet pampered,cultivated, and cajoled to assist in policyformulation and in executing such poli-cy decisions. There is no likelihood of itswithering away.

Amongst a variety of ills that afflictbureaucracy, corruption lies at the top ofthe stack. However, the moment we talkof corruption, several questions immedi-ately crop up, especially in the wake of theemerging socio-political environment: Isthe entire bureaucracy corrupt? Does thepresent-day bureaucrat have the choice toremain honest? Has the choice becomelimited over time? Can the bureaucracyafford to be honest? Does the politician(the prime decision-maker) want integri-ty in bureaucracy? What is the price tobe paid for remaining honest? Is merelybeing honest sufficient for a bureaucrat?

This is an attempt to answer somesuch questions. The idea is not toapportion blame but to analyse and sug-gest a possible way forward. Corruptionis ubiquitous and has been in existenceever since the emergence of the humanrace. However, its degree has varied fromtime to time and place to place. The acutenature of the problem in countries likeIndia is the impact that such corrupt prac-tices have on the common man. The shiftfrom ‘nazrana’ (a practice of giving giftsto the emperors and kings as recognitionof their tutelage) to ‘jabrana’ (extortionby state agencies, including bureaucracy)is a serious cause for concern and requiresto be addressed.

More sophisticated pseudonyms forcorrupt practices have evolved over theyears. However, perhaps the most dan-gerous development has been the accept-ability of corruption as a way of life andin a certain context, recognition provid-ed to its perpetrators in public life. A closelook at the history of criminalisation ofpolitics will help us understand themilieu in which the bureaucracy has hadto function.

Immediately after independence, thecountry was driven by standards set bythose who sacrificed their lives to freeIndia from British rule. The politicianwould keep criminals at a safe distance.This changed during the post-Nehru erawhen criminals started helping politiciansbut still the politicians would shy of open-ly associating with criminals. With thechanging political environment and theemergence of coalition politics, criminalsbecame necessary to subvert the politicalprocess. Bihar set this trend but it wassoon pursued in other states as well. Theassociation between crime and politics

If honest bureaucrats have suffered on account of harassment and transfers, so havethe dishonest ones as the law finally catches up with them one day

COALITIONPOLITICS AND

UNSTABLEGOVERNMENTS

LED TO SOME OTHER

UNFORTUNATECONSEQUENCES

AS WELL. THEVISIONARIESWERE GONE.

THE POLITICIANCOULD NOT SEE

BEYOND A FEW MONTHS.

THE INDIANADMINISTRATION

STOOD ON ITS HEAD. THE

POLITICIAN WAS MORE

INTERESTED INTRANSFERS AND

POSTINGS OFOFFICERS THAT

PROVIDEDPECUNIARY

GAINS

Cardiac symptoms among patients infected during the secondwave of the Coronavirus are getting difficult to deal with. Whyare younger COVID-19 patients developing heart problems?

Infection-related heart problems vary from sudden cardiac death tominor problems in heart rate. Sudden cardiac death can be due to aheart attack. There can be a clot formation in heart blood vessels.Clots can also be formed in lung blood vessels causing pulmonaryembolism. The virus can also affect heart muscles causing cardiomy-opathy and heart failure. A common problem post-COVID-19 is vari-ation in heart rate. A slow heart recovers in a majority of cases auto-matically in a few weeks. A heart attack can be caused by oxygendeprivation, a common risk factor with severe Covid-19 infection. Anydisruption in healthy oxygenated blood can cause inflammation, weak-en heart muscles, and trigger problems. Heart attacks after the infec-tion also happen due to the rupture of the plaques in the heart ves-sels which leads to the occlusion of the arteries. But this is general-

ly seen in individuals with underlying cardiovascular disease, smok-ing habits, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. If one is unableto breathe properly and is experiencing shortness of breath then itcan be a serious issue and needs immediate attention. There is a pos-sibility that your vital organs are not getting adequate oxygen. Thiscan not only impact your heart but also your lungs. Chest pain causedby a heart attack is often a sensation of pressure, burning, and squeez-ing in the middle of your chest and can spread to the chin, left arm,and back. As soon as you experience such pain you should consultyour doctor and go to the hospital. Time is of the essence here.

Keep measuring your oxygen levels even after you have recov-ered from infection as fluctuations in your oxygen levels can be dan-gerous. It can be a result of irregular heartbeat and other severe issueswhich cannot be ignored. Therefore, always keep your oximeters nearyou. Dizziness can be a big warning symptom of a cardiac arrest. Ifyou are feeling lightheaded or fatigued so much that it is getting dif-ficult to stand or sit, immediately seek medical help. Extreme sweat-ing is a major symptom of a heart attack. Even if you have recov-ered from COVID-19, make sure to keep a check on your body tem-perature and seek medical help as soon as possible. Post-infectionrecovery if you are experiencing a rapid heartbeat or palpitations, con-tact your doctor. A temporary increase in heart rate can be causedby a lot of things including dehydration. Make sure you are drinkingenough fluids, especially when you have a fever. The way to a healthyheart for a COVID-19 negative patient is through COVID-appropriatebehaviour, a healthy diet rich in proteins, fibre, vitamin C, and essen-tial nutrients combined with a workout regime. If you are experienc-ing symptoms like chest pain, breathing difficulty, dizziness, or pal-pitations, go to your doctor at once. Patients, and in particular car-diac patients, ought to maintain a healthy lifestyle, i.e., eat healthily,quit smoking, restrict alcohol intake, get adequate sleep, and keepphysically active. Physical activity should be strongly encouraged eitherin a home setting or outdoor areas with social space as that will alsoimprove well-being. Exercise daily. Stay hydrated. Get enough sleep.Social networking should be encouraged in person if safe, or virtu-ally. Patients should seek medical help immediately and not neglectsymptoms. Cardiac follow-up needs to be continued and advice ofyour doctor should be sought promptly in case of deterioration of theheart condition.

(The writer is Chief Of Clinical Services, Head Of Cardiac Sciences,and Chief Cardio Vascular Surgeon, Manipal Hospitals, Dwarka. Theviews expressed are personal.)

Should India do away withthe concept of personallaws and bring in a

Uniform Civil Code for all cit-izens? Is this the right time forbringing such a law?Supporters say it is already toolate, while opponents feel thatthis is not the time. The ideais a complex one and needspolitical consensus.

There are many anglesinvolved — legislative, reli-gious, gender, political, andconstitutional. Primarily, theissue has become more polit-ical than legal. Had theframers of our Constitutionnot deferred the decision to alater stage it would havebecome law by now. EvenIndia’s first Prime MinisterJawahar Lal Nehru did notpush through the legislationclaiming,"I do not think that

at the present moment, thetime is ripe for me to try topush it (UCC) through”. Goais the only Indian state that hasa uniform civil code. ThePortuguese Civil Code, 1867was not altered after Indiaannexed Goa.

The ruling BJP has beenbatting for a UCC for decadesand has included it in its pollmanifesto. It was the first topromise a UCC if it came topower. Most political partiesoppose it for their vote bankpolitics as Muslims oppose theUCC. Today, Narendra Modihas the mandate, the ability,and also the willingness tobring in the UCC. But it willnot become a reality unless hebuilds a political consensus.He has already achieved theother two core issues — build-ing the Ram temple in

Ayodhya and revoking Article370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

The UCC is a secularconcept and is above all priva-cy laws based on religion orcaste. The Muslim, Christian,and Parsi communities havetheir personal laws. TheHindu personal law deals withcivil matters of Hindu, Sikh,Jain, and Buddhist religions.At present, there is no one-

country-one-law concept inIndia.

There is a need to haveone law for all sooner or later.It should apply to all religiouscommunities in matters relat-ing to marriage, divorce, adop-tion, etc. Criminal laws inIndia are uniform and applic-able equally to all, no matterwhat their religious beliefsare.

The UCC is prevalent inFrance, the United Kingdom,the United States, andAustralia. However, Kenya,Pakistan, Italy, South Africa,Nigeria, and Greece do nothave it.

The debate on UCC hassurfaced once again after theDelhi High Court recentlythat there is a need for it sothat the youth of modernIndia does not suffer from

conflicts due to the presenceof multiple personal laws.

It is not the first time theCourt has given this sugges-tion. The Supreme Court toohad batted for the UCC, point-ing out that the foundingfathers who framed theConstitution had hoped thatthe state would bring in sucha code. It has made repeatedobservations on the UCC.

The origin of the UCCdates back to colonial Indiawhen the British governmentsubmitted its report in 1835which stressed the need foruniformity in the codificationof Indian law. It specificallyrecommended that the per-sonal laws of Hindus andMuslims be kept outside suchcodification.

In 1985, in the Shah Banocase, the Supreme Court had

observed that the UCC wouldkeep the country as one. In1995, the Court had directedthe government to implementArticle 44 of the Constitutionin the country. After theSupreme Court verdict out-lawing the practice of TripleTalaq among the Muslimcommunity in India in 2019,the debate on UCC came tothe surface again. The thenLaw Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad told Parliament thisyear that the government wascommitted to bringing in theUCC.

As for gender inequality,there is no denying that per-sonal laws are oppressivetowards women. The UCCwould provide them equality.This discussion becameintense after the Triple Talaqjudgment in 2019. Women

activists soon started question-ing Islamic law.

However, it is not easy tolegislate a uniform set of rulesdue to diversity in India. Manycommunities and religions,particularly Muslims, fear thatthe UCC will take away theirfreedom of the right to reli-gion. Implementing theUniform Civil Code is a sen-sitive task, therefore.

Though there are manydifferences and conflicts in theidea of one-nation-one-law, itwill draw more benefits thanmultiple laws with conflictingprovisions. There is everyneed to build a political con-sensus and bring the UCCwithout delay. The PrimeMinister should convene anall-party meeting to discussthe issue and arrive at a con-sensus.

There are many differences over the idea of one-nation-one-law but it will draw more benefits than multiple laws with conflicting provisions

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMNPOST-COVID19

CARDIAC DISTRESSRecovering patients should be alert for symptomsthat can lead to heart attacks, and get medical care

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

(The author is a formerIAS officer. The views

expressed are personal.)

Uniform Civil Code: Need for urgent consensus

KALYANI SHANKAR

(The writer is a senior journalist. The views expressed

are personal.)

YUGAL KISHORE MISHRA

started becoming visible as govern-ments became increasingly inse-cure. The next stage of criminal-isation of politics was marked bydirect participation of the crimi-nal in the political process, contest-ing elections and winning them instyle. They sought and acquiredpolitical legitimacy for their nefar-ious deeds. The last nail in the cof-fin was driven in the form of thesecriminals starting to dominatethe political process by becomingcabinet ministers. The bureaucratwas to directly report to that veryperson who he would have incar-cerated at some point in time.

Coalition politics and unstablegovernments led to some otherunfortunate consequences as well.The visionaries were gone. Thepolitician could not see beyond afew months. The Indian adminis-tration stood on its head. Thepolitician was more interested intransfers and postings of officersthat provided pecuniary gains.Policy issues were brushed asideand only those were taken up thatwould either ensure their sur-vival or result in some benefit. Thatperhaps is the only explanation formass-scale transfers and mass-scale cancellation of such transfers.In some of the underdevelopedStates, the only industry that isknown to flourish is the “TransferIndustry”.

However, what is even moredangerous is the move to destroyinstitutions and systems to ensurethat unfettered discretionary pow-ers remained with the decision-maker. This enabled the decision-maker to extract a price for everydecision. The destruction of insti-tutions and the threat of harass-ment were often used as a lever to

extract as much as possible fromthe bureaucrat. The critical factoris not efficiency or the lack of it,but pliability. If you do not con-form, you are shown the door andharassed. It is much worseamongst the lower echelons of thebureaucracy as they are more vul-nerable to such extortionist pres-sures.

Thus, unfortunately, theemerging political environment isinimical to honest functioning.However, the bureaucracy has toshare the blame for the presentState of affairs. It is a different mat-ter that the political environmentencourages pliability and corrup-tion. Generally speaking, abureaucrat would fall into a com-bination of the following cate-gories: Honest, efficient, not pli-able, dishonest, inefficient, and pli-able.

It would be an honest admis-sion to accept that the combinationof an honest, efficient, and non-pli-able bureaucrat has become a rareoccurrence. As mentioned earli-er, the politician would prefer a pli-able and dishonest officer who isalso efficient. Not surprisingly,most of the known corruptbureaucrats are efficient as well aspliable. These two attributes areessential for survival. Such an offi-cer thrives on account of theseattributes. These bureaucrats havebasic capabilities of performingefficiently but their focus is not apublic good but their own interestas well as that of the politician.

The corrupt bureaucrat-politi-cian nexus is increasingly emerg-ing as a major threat to the systemwhere the majority of fence-sittersamongst the bureaucrats are suc-cumbing. Given this set of circum-

stances, the choice before thesebureaucrats is becoming increas-ingly limited. Far from appreciat-ing efficiency and honesty, thepolitician is busy evolving waysand means to use this tool calledbureaucracy to fulfill one’s person-al and political goals.

Given the state of affairs, whatcan a bureaucrat do? Is there achoice before the bureaucracy?There is a price to be paid for mak-ing any choice. If honest bureau-crats have suffered on account ofharassment and transfers, so havethe dishonest ones as the lawcatches up with them one day.

Some recent events have pro-vided enough evidence to thiseffect. The high and mightyamongst the bureaucracy havepaid a heavy price for being dis-honest and pliable. An honestand efficient bureaucrat can be putto inconvenience (especially in thehigher echelons of the bureaucra-cy) but the dishonest one is morelikely to suffer in the long run(what with increasing access of themedia to official misdeeds and anever-increasing number of well-informed public).

There is greater recognitiontoday, both by the media and thepublic, of the good work beingdone by bureaucrats. The numbercould well increase once it dawnson the bureaucracy that there is noother option. And it does not endwith honesty alone. The officer hasto perform and deliver. A bureau-crat cannot afford to be inefficientbut has to be aware, accessible, dis-ciplined, and above all, transpar-ent. The issue is not the survivalof bureaucracy. The bureaucracyhas to thrive, in the interest of ourcountry and our people.

ANIL SWARUP

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021 Money 08

Japanese electric vehicle maker Terra Motors Corporation onTuesday said it has joined hands with FCC Corporation tocollaborate on the development of futuristic electric vehicles for

global markets while utilising Indian operations as the base for theactivity. Japan-based FCC is a global market leader in motorcycleclutches, with 22 production facilities spread across variouscountries. “In building a business foundation in Asia, we will providetwo customer values: EV bodies that are more economical thangasoline vehicles and brand value that evokes a new lifestyle. “To thisend, we aim to increase new business value through co-creation withservices and businesses, such as the advancement of vehicle techno-logy, the improvement of convenience through innovative Internet ofThings (IoT), and shared mobility," Terra Motors India CEO AkihiroUeda said in a statement. The company is aiming to increase newbusiness value through co-creation with services and businesses,such as shared mobility, he added. For Terra Motors R&D is topmostpriority especially for emerging markets like India where it has astronghold in the three-wheeler (3Ws) EVs, the company stated.

Terra Motors joins hands withFCC Corp to develop EVs, parts

Integrated steel company ShriBajrang Power and Ispat Ltd hasfiled preliminary papers with

capital markets regulator Sebi toraise Rs 700 crore through an initialshare-sale. The initial public offer(IPO) consists of issue of equityshares aggregating up to Rs 700crore, according to draft red herringprospectus (DRHP). Proceeds from the issue would be utilisedtowards repayment or pre-payment, of certain borrowings of thecompany, funding incremental working capital requirements and forgeneral corporate purposes. Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat Ltd(SBPIL) is one of the leading integrated steel companies based outof central India and a key player in the country in terms of capacityfor iron ore pellets, iron ore beneficiation and sponge iron. SBPILutilises its captive iron mine (with an approval to mine 1.2 MTPA),and manganese ore mines to manufacture intermediate and longsteel products, such as, TMT Bars, ERW pipes manufacturedthrough tubular section mill, wire rods, HB wires including bindingwires, ferro alloys, steel billets, iron pellets and sponge iron.

Shri Bajrang Power and Ispatfiles Rs 700-cr IPO papers

Tech-enabled consumer supplychain firm Stellar Value Chainplans to invest Rs 200 crore for

setting up 25 fulfilment and sortcentres pan-India to boost its e-grocery supply chain offerings thisfiscal. Besides, a part of theinvestment will also be made intechnology integration as well toenhance operational efficiency, a company statement said onTuesday. The company will also infuse money into rolling out a fleetof electric vehicles (EVs) to develop an EV-based transportationnetwork to facilitate the e-grocery delivery, Stellar Value Chain said.The company said it has rolled out modern infrastructure in severalTier-I/II and Tier-III cities. A strong HR team coupled with a learningand development program ensures recruitment and skilldevelopment training for the staff and upskilling for contract staff tomake them operation-ready for new sites within days.

Stellar to invest Rs 200 cr toboost e-grocery supply chain

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmark Sensexlogged its best session in oversix weeks on Tuesday onaccount of hectic buyingmainly in financial stocks asinvestors cheered steady eco-nomic data and favourableglobal cues.

At the closing bell, the BSESensex was 397.04 points or0.76 per cent higher at52,769.73 – breaking its three-session losing treak. This wasalso the best single-day gainsfor the benchmark since May31. Likewise, the broader NSENifty surged 119.75 points or0.76 per cent to settle at15,812.35.

On the Sensex chart, ICICIBank was the top gainer,surging 2.83 per cent, fol-lowed by HDFC, Axis Bank,Sun Pharma, NTPC andM&M.

On the other hand, HCLTech, Dr Reddy's, Maruti andTech Mahindra were amongthe laggards.

Of the Sensex constituents,21 shares closed with gainsand 9 logged losses. Sectorally,BSE bankex, finance, metal,energy and basic materials

ended up to 1.41 per centhigher, while BSE IT, teck andFMCG indices ended in thered. Broader midcap andsmallcap indices underper-formed the benchmark, set-tling up to 0.46 per centhigher. "Following favourableeconomic outcome and pos-itive Asian markets,d o m e s t i cbourses trad-ed positivetoday. Asianshares sparkeda rally after bet-ter-than-expectedChinese eco-nomic data and

a bounce back in Chinese techstocks,” said Vinod Nair, Headof Research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Though June CPI infla-tion continued to remainabove RBI's tolerance level, iteased to 6.26 per cent from6.30 per cent in the previousmonth, giving some relief to

the market, he said. Industrial pro-

duction (IIP) forMay grew 29.3per cent Y-o-

Y essentially dueto a lower base,

Nair noted.Elsewhere in

Asia, bourses in Shanghai,Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyoended with gains. Stockexchanges in Europe weretrading mixed in mid-sessiondeals.

Meanwhile, internationaloil benchmark Brent crudeadvanced 0.56 per cent toUSD 75.58 per barrel.

On the forex market front,the rupee ended 9 paise high-er at 74.49 againstthe US dollar onTuesday.

Sensex, Nifty rebound in line with Asian peers PNS n NEW DELHI

S&P Global Ratings onTuesday affirmed India's sov-ereign rating at the lowestinvestment grade of 'BBB-' forthe 14th year in a row with astable outlook, and said thatthe country's strong externalsettings will act as a bufferagainst financial strains despiteelevated government fundingneeds over the next 24 months.

The sovereign credit ratingson India reflect the economy'sabove-average long-term realGDP growth, sound externalprofile, and evolving monetarysettings, S&P Global Ratingsstated.

"India's democratic institu-tions promote policy stabilityand compromise, and alsounderpin the ratings. Thesestrengths are balanced againstvulnerabilities stemming fromthe country's low per capitaincome and weak fiscal set-tings, including consistentlyelevated general governmentdeficits and indebtedness," itsaid in a statement.

S&P Global Ratings hasforecast economic activity inIndia to begin to normalisethroughout the remainder offiscal 2022, resulting in realGDP growth of about 9.5 percent. A significant proportionof this rebound will be due to

the very weak base in theprior fiscal year, when theeconomy contracted by arecord 7.3 per cent. India's fis-cal settings are weak, anddeficits will remain elevatedover the coming years even asthe government undertakessome consolidation.

The country's strong exter-nal settings help buffer therisks associated with the gov-ernment's high deficits anddebt stock, S&P said whileaffirming 'BBB-' long-termand 'A-3' short-term unso-licited foreign and local cur-rency sovereign ratings onIndia. "The stable outlookreflects our expectation thatIndia's economy will recoverfollowing the resolution of theCOVID-19 pandemic, and that

the country's strong externalsettings will act as a bufferagainst financial strains despiteelevated government fundingneeds over the next 24months," it added.

The sovereign credit ratingson India reflect the economy'sabove-average long-term realGDP growth, sound externalprofile, and evolving monetarysettings.

India's democratic institu-tions promote policy stabilityand compromise, and alsounderpin the ratings. Thesestrengths are balanced againstvulnerabilities stemming fromthe country's low per capitaincome and weak fiscal set-tings, including consistentlyelevated general governmentdeficits and indebtedness.

S&P affirms India rating at lowestinvestment grade for 14th yr in row

PNS n LONDON

After Dr Ifeanyi Nsofor and hiswife received two doses ofAstraZeneca's coronavirus vac-cine in Nigeria, they assumedthey would be free to travel thissummer to a European desti-nation of their choice. Theywere wrong.

The couple — and millionsof other people who have beenvaccinated through a UN-backed effort — could findthemselves barred from enter-ing many European and othercountries because those nationsdon't recognise the Indian-made version of the vaccine fortravel. Although AstraZenecavaccine produced in Europehas been authorised by thecontinent's drug regulatoryagency, the same shot manu-

factured in India hasn't beengiven the green light.

EU regulators saidAstraZeneca hasn't completedthe necessary paperwork on theIndian factory, including details

on its production practices andquality control standards.

But some experts describethe EU move as discriminato-ry and unscientific, pointingout that the World Health

Organization has inspectedand approved the factory.

Health officials say the situ-ation won't only complicatetravel and frustrate fragileeconomies but also under-mine vaccine confidence byappearing to label some shotssubstandard.

As vaccination coverage risesacross Europe and other richcountries, authorities anxiousto salvage the summer tourismseason are increasingly relax-ing coronavirus border restric-tions. Earlier this month, theEuropean Union introduced itsdigital COVID-19 certificate,which allows EU residents tomove freely in the 27-nationbloc as long as they have beenvaccinated with one of thefour shots authorized by theEuropean Medicines Agency,

have a fresh negative test, orhave proof they recently recov-ered from the virus.

While the US and Britainremain largely closed to outsidevisitors, the EU certificate isseen as a potential model fortravel in the COVID-19 eraand a way to boost economies.

The officially EU-endorsedvaccines also include thosemade by Pfizer, Moderna andJohnson & Johnson. Theydon't include the AstraZenecashot made in India or manyother vaccines used in develop-ing countries, including thosemanufactured in China andRussia. Individual EU coun-tries are free to apply their ownrules for travelers from insideand outside the bloc, and theirrules vary widely, creating fur-ther confusion for tourists.

Immunised but banned: EU says not all Covid vax equal

PNS n NEW DELHI

Aquaconnect, a startup firmthat works with aqua farmers,on Tuesday said it has raisedUSD 4 million (about Rs29.7 crore) in a fundinground led by RebrightPartners and FlourishVentures. AgFunder and 6GCapital also participated inthe pre-Series A round, alongwith existing investorsOmnivore and HATCH, acompany release said.

Aquaconnect Founder andCEO Raj said, "We willdeploy the fresh capital toscale our farm advisory,financial services, and mar-ketplace for seafood exports."

The recent investmentfrom marquee investors likeRebright, Flourish,AgFunder, and others is astrong validation of the com-pany's goal to become India'slargest aquaculture valuechain aggregator, and willhelp us scale up in both sizeand scope, he added.

MONEY MATTERS

Startup firmAquaconnectraises USD 4mn funding

PNS n NEW DELHI

State-run power giant NTPC onTuesday said its arm, NTPC REL,will set up the country's firstgreen Hydrogen Mobility projectin Ladakh.

"NTPC REL, a 100 per centsubsidiary of NTPC, signed aMoU with the Union Territory ofLadakh, to set up the country'sfirst green Hydrogen Mobilityproject in the region," a compa-

ny statement said.According to the statement, the

signing of the memorandum ofunderstanding (MoU) was alsomarked with the inauguration ofNTPC's first solar installations inLeh in the form of solar trees anda solar carport. The MoU willenable NTPC to help Ladakhdevelop a carbon-free economybased on renewable sources andgreen hydrogen. The MoU wassigned in the presence of Lt

Governor R K Mathur, senior dig-nitaries of the government, NTPCand public representatives. TheLG mentioned that he would likeLadakh to become a hydrogenstate and is happy to partner withNTPC to achieve this long-termgoal. NTPC has plans to ply fivehydrogen buses, to start with, inthe region and the company willbe setting up a solar plant and agreen hydrogen generation unitin Leh towards this end.

NTPC to set up country's first greenHydrogen Mobility project in Ladakh

PNS n NEW DELHI

Tech major Cisco onTuesday said it has elevat-ed Daisy Chittilapilly asthe President of its Indiaand SAARC operations.

Chittilapilly succeedsSameer Garde, who recent-ly announced his decisionto join the social sectorafter four years at Cisco.She will take on her newrole from August 1.

With over 25 years ofexperience in the technol-ogy industry, including 17years of leadership experi-ence at Cisco, Chittilapillyhas a proven track record oftransforming operationsand cultures to dr ivegrowth at scale, a statementsaid.

"As President of the Indiaand SAARC theatre, shewill be responsible for strat-egy and sales, operations,and investments to drivelong-term growth in theregion. Daisy will start hernew role from August 1,2021, which also marks thebeginning of Cisco's newfinancial year," it added.

Cisco appointsDaisy Chittilapillyas India andSAARC President

PNS n NEW DELHI

German luxury carmaker Audion Tuesday said it will offerbuyback up to 3 years from thedate of purchase and high-volt-age battery warranty of 8 yearsas part of curated packages onits upcoming all-electric SUVs-- e-tron and e-tron Sportback.

The e-tron, which will beoffered in two variants -- 50and 55, along with theSportback version, will belaunched on July 22.

Under the curated owner-ship packages, Audi India isoffering a choice of serviceplans ranging from 2 years to5 years. A standard warranty of2 years and a high-voltagebattery warranty of 8 years or160,000 KM whichever is ear-lier is also available, the com-pany said in a statement.

The options for extendedwarranty are available across aperiod of 2+2 years or 2+3years, it added.

"Additionally, comprehen-sive service plans are availablefor either 4 years or 5 years,depending on the scheme cho-sen by the customers," thecompany said adding under itthe costs of service and theperiodic maintenance of the

brakes, suspension, andextended warranty are covered.

Audi India further said it isoffering buyback, "where cus-tomers are being assured of alucrative buyback price up to3 years from the date of pur-chase, when they decide toupgrade or sell their Audi e-tron 50, the Audi e-tron 55 andAudi e-tron Sportback 55 inthe future".

PNS n NEW DELHI

Specialty chemical manufac-turing company Tatva ChintanPharma Chem on Tuesdayfixed a price band of Rs 1,073-1,083 a share for its Rs 500-crore initial share sale.

The three-day initial publicoffer (IPO) will open on July 16and conclude on July 20 andthe bidding for anchorinvestors will open on July 15,

the company announced in avirtual press conference.

The Rs 500-crore IPO com-prises fresh issuance of equityshares worth Rs 225 crore andan offer of sale to the tune ofRs 275 crore by existing pro-moters and shareholders.

The offer for sale size hasbeen increased to Rs 275 crorefrom Rs 225 crore earlier men-tioned in the draft papers.

Proceeds from the fresh

issue would be used towardsfunding capital expenditurerequirements for expansion ofthe company's Dahej manufac-turing facility; upgradation ofresearch and developmentfacility in Vadodara; and gen-eral corporate purposes.

In addition, the companysaid it expects to receive thebenefits of listing of equityshares on the stock exchangesincluding enhancing visibility

and brand image among exist-ing and potential customersand creating a public marketfor equity shares in India.

Half of the issue has beenreserved for qualified institu-tional buyers (QIBs), 35 percent for retail investors and theremaining 15 per cent for non-institutional investors.

Vadodara-based TatvaChintan is a specialty chemicalmanufacturing company. The

company exports most of itsproducts to over 25 countries,including the US, China,Germany, Japan, South Africaand the UK.

For fiscal year ended onMarch 31, 2020, the companyposted a profit of Rs 37.78crore as compared to Rs 20.54crore in the preceding financialyear, while it reported a rev-enue of Rs 263.23 crore againstRs 206.3 crore.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Demand for electricity in Indiais expected to grow 6 per centin 2021-22 as compared to theprevious fiscal year, ratingagency Icra said on Tuesday.

It has also estimated powergeneration capacity addition at17- 18 GW for the ongoing fis-cal year.

The electricity demandslowed down during the firsttwo months of 2021-22 com-pared to March 2021 amidlockdowns imposed by stategovernments to control thesecond wave of COVID-19, itsaid. Nonetheless, with theslowdown in fresh COVID-19infections from the secondhalf of May 2021, state govern-

ments eased lockdown restric-tions and this in turn improvedthe electricity demand growthprospects as seen in June 2021,with a month-on-monthgrowth of 3.9 per cent, it stat-ed. However, it added that anyresurgence in infections lead-ing to lockdown restrictionswould remain a key downsiderisk for the demand.

PNS n MUMBAI

UPL, a leading player in sus-tainable agriculture productsand solutions, is expecting itsnew global business unit'Natural Plant Protection' togrow its contribution to thecompany's total business to 15per cent by 2025. NPP com-prises UPL's comprehensiveportfolio of natural and bio-logically derived agriculturalinputs and solutions.

"NPP is 7 per cent of thetotal UPL business and ouraim is to outperform the mar-ket and hopefully grow intodouble digits, that is 15 percent by 2025," UPL ChiefOperating Officer (NPP) said.

NPP, which has a 100 percent focus on bio solutions, isa completely different businessand works in a different way,he said adding that underNPP, there is a need to educatefarmers about the products.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's palm oil imports fell 24per cent to 5,87,467 tonne inJune over the previous monthof this year due to higher stockin the domestic market, indus-try body Solvent ExtractorsAssociation (SEA) said onTuesday. The SEA expressedconcern that the recent cut inimport duty of crude palm oil(CPO) and other plam oils tillSeptember, as well as unre-stricted import of RBD pal-molein till December wouldbe detrimental to the interestof domestic refiners andoilseeds growers.

India, the world's leadingvegetable oil buyer, hadimported 5,64,839 tonne palmoils in June 2020. Whereas inMay 2021, palm oil importsstood at 7,69,602 tonne.

The country's total veg-etable oil imports declined 17per cent Rs 9.96 lakh tonne inJune this year compared to11.98 lakh tonne in the year-ago period. The share of palmoil is more than 60 per cent ofthe country's total vegetable oilimports.

According to SEA, vegetableoil imports in June were lowerthan the previous month dueto higher stock in the domes-tic market.

PNS n MUMBAI

Tyre maker Ceat on Tuesdaysaid it has tied up with TataPower to establish a 10MWcaptive solar plant at the lat-ter's Solapur site for power-ing its tyre manufacturingfacility in Bhandup(Mumbai). Tata Power hascreated a special purposevehicle (SPV) -- TP AkkalkotRenewable Ltd -- which willbe responsible for undertak-ing the construction, opera-tion and maintenance of thiscaptive solar power plant,Ceat said in a release.

While Ceat will hold 26 percent stake in the SPV, Tatapower will own 74 per cent,as per the captive generationrules, it said.

India's June palm oilimports down 24 pc

Ceat ties upwith Tata toset up captivesolar plant

Audi to offer packages on itse-tron and Sportback SUVs

TCPCL IPO to open on Jul 16; price band at Rs 1,073

UPL expects global biz Power demand in India expectedto grow 6 per cent in FY ’22: Icra

9

Vijayawada Wednesday July 14, 2021what’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

ctor Mahesh Shetty,who’s a popularhousehold name isexcited to see theaudience in cine-mas with the

upcoming film Bhuj: ThePride of India. As he looksforward to the release of thefilm, he shares the highlightof shooting for it. He heapspraises over his co-star in thefilm, Ajay Devgn, who headmires for uplifting the spir-its on set while shooting.Mahesh who is essaying therole of a Squadron Leader inthe film shares some gleefulmemories from his shootingdays.

The talented actor says,“Shooting for Bhuj: The Prideof India has made me appreci-ate the armed forces evenmore. Even when we were notshooting, I had the mostinsightful and fun chats withteam when fined together. I’m fortunate to have theopportunity to work with

wonderful people. Ajay, being one of them. Apartfrom being a superstar inevery way he works before the camera, h’s brings about a jovial mood before the callfor action and cut. He canreally keep a set alive.”

Mahesh also says us howthe entire cast had a lovelytime not only just shootingfor the movie but also postpack up.

Mahesh adds, “The entireteam was like a big family and post our pakup every-body used to gather togetherand have dinner and shareinteresting stories, experi-ences. It was such a lovelyfeeling to hear those fascinat-ing tales and have a heartylaugh.”

Mahesh who has neverfailed to impress us with hisdown to earth and charmingpersona will be seen quite afew interesting projects whichare in pipeline along withBhuj:The Pride of India.

Mahesh Shetty shares fondmemories of shooting for Bhuj...

he South Koreanband BTS extendedtheir reign on theBillboard Hot 100chart with Butter,remaining at the

summit for seventh consecutiveweeks.

The song is also number 10on the Pop Airplay chart, theirsecond song so far to enter thetop 10. This makes them the

first Korean act to have multipleentries in the top 10 of the PopAirplay chart.

The septet recently releasedtheir CD single Butter thatincludes the brand new trackPermission to dance.

The song sends the messagethat you don’t need permissionto dance, prompting listeners toget up on their feet and danceagain.

BTS are known for the waythey interact with their fans andalso their authentic music. Itsband members are RM, Jin,Suga,J-hope, Jimin, V, and JungKook.

BTS are slated to appear onThe Tonight Show StarringJimmy Fallon for two nights,where the US television pre-miere of Permission to dance isscheduled to happen.

BTS’ Butter tops BillboardHot 100 chart for 7th week

he talented actorChandan RoySanyal recallsbeginning hisstruggle inMumbai as an

extra on a film set, and oftenskipping meals due to lack ofmoney. “When I first cameto Mumbai, I was really poorand sometimes had to skipmeals because I didn’t havemoney. When I started earn-ing, a lot of people used tocome to my place forrehearsals. At that time Iused to cook a lot. I madesure anybody who came tomy house goes back wellfed,” Chandan said, recallinghis early days in Mumbai 20years ago.

Chandan loves cookingbut doesn’t call himself afancy cook. Talking abouthis love for cooking, theactor said, “I cook all thetime. I’ve been cooking for awhile now actually. I’m not afancy cook making fancysalads and pastas, cake and

all that. I make very basiceveryday kind of food. I’vebeen doing that for years.”

“I mostly cook Bengaliand North Indian cuisine. Ireally suck at making dosas.It becomes khichdi,” headded with a smile.

Bringing together his lovefor food and films, the actordreams of making a film onthe same someday. Heinformed, “Food has beenvery special in my life. Infact, I’ve written a script on afilm based on food, which Ihope to make one day. Foodhas been important.”

On the work front,Chandan recently featured inthe Spotlight segment of thedigitally released anthologyfilm Ray, which is inspiredby a few short stories of themaster storyteller SatyajitRay. Being a Bengali child,did Chandan grown upreading Ray’s books andwatching his films?

“I think Satyajit Ray isclose to every Bengali. We

watch his films and learn.I’ve not read much of Feludaor his other stories but I’vewatched each of his work. It’san honour to be a part of ananthology on Ray on the100th year of his birthdaycelebration,” he shared.

The ongoing Covid-19pandemic has taken a toll onmost of our mental health.Does the actor also feeldown at times? “Yes, I feeldown sometimes but then Ithink there are so many peo-ple who are less privilegedthan me. I have my ownhouse and the luxury ofwaking up doing nothingand still having a meal onmy plate and everything else— internet, food, warmth,comfort. Whereas there areso many people out on thestreets who are without ajob, food, who are dying dueto health issues, unemploy-ment. I feel my pain is noth-ing compared to theirs,”Chandan concluded sound-ing concerned.

ctor Tom Hiddleston says hischaracter Loki is still the God ofMischief but in the latest web-series, he takes the role to anoth-er level.

“We have created somethingbright, colourful and spectacular, which con-tains light and shade, depth and relief. Wehave created interesting characters and newworlds where people come up against physi-cal and emotional challenges, which testthem. And they are forced to overcome andmake the right choices,” Hiddleston saidabout his new series, Loki.

“For anyone out there who loves Loki, thisis the guy you know. He is still the God ofMischief, but this takes him to anotherlevel,” he added.

Hiddleston tagged it as a unique experi-ence working on the series.

“I hope the fans and the audience feel thesame excitement, the same passion and thesame sense of possibility that we all feltwhen we were making it. It has been a reallyunique experience. In the creative mix, therehas been so much passion and so muchenergy. I hope fans can feel that energy and

feel excited and inspired about where we gonext,” he said.

Hiddleston added, “I hope fans feel thatthe things they love about Marvel and thethings they love about Loki are all there.” Heis joined by Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosakuand Richard E. Grant in the cast.The seriesstreams on Disney+ Hotstar, Disney+ HotstarPremium and Disney+ Hotstar VIP.

Tom Hiddleston: Loki stillGod of Mischief, but seriestakes him to another level

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Chandan Roy Sanyal: Skipped meals whenI came to Mumbai as I had no money

he rising crude oilprices are expectedto further increasepetrol and dieselprices, which arealready sky-high.

The rising price of crude oil canbe explained by a simple eco-nomical theory that is demandand supply. Prices of crude oilhave been steadily risingthrough the start of 2021 only.Supply was short as oil-produc-ing countries made drastic cutsin 2020 when crude oil wasbeing traded in the negative. Sonow, with the price of petroland diesel climbing up consis-tently in recent months, a num-ber of consumers are consider-ing ways to reduce their fuelcosts. While some consumersare looking at ways for reducingcar usage, others are consider-ing moving to alternative fuels!If you are among those lookingfor cheaper alternatives topetrol and diesel, auto LPG is ahighly viable and easily avail-able solution for your vehicle.In fact, autogas is today themost popular alternative topetrol and diesel for passengercars and vans worldwide!

“When liquefied petroleumgas is used in internal combus-tion engines, it is termed asAuto LPG. A mixture ofpropane and butane, LPG couldbe sourced either from crude

oil or natural gas. Auto LPG orautogas, as it is called in somecountries, is the third mostwidely used automotive fuelglobally and powers as many as27 million vehicles. It is envi-ronmentally friendly and hasseveral advantages over conven-tional fuels petrol and diesel.While automobile manufactur-ers in India produce a limitednumber of Auto LPG variants, avehicle can easily be fitted withan LPG conversion kit whichallows it to run on both petrolas well as Auto LPG,” informsSuyash Gupta, DirectorGeneral, Indian Auto LPGCoalition.

While Russia, Turkey, SouthKorea, Poland, and Italy are themost widespread users of AutoLPG, Japan, Australia, Mexico,and the USA are also furtheringthe trend by promoting eco-friendly fuel. In India, the usageof Auto LPG has remainedmuch below its potential! Indiaconsumed 83.5 million tonnesof diesel and 28.3 milliontonnes of petrol in 2018-19while its consumption of AutoLPG stands at around 0.42 mil-lion tonnes. However, accord-ing to the director-general, anumber of factors have inrecent times have served tounderline the positive potentialfor Auto LPG in India too. Forexample, he says, “We all knowhow using LPG as a cookingfuel has had environmentalpayoffs. However, do you knowthat LPG as an internal com-bustion engine fuel has hugeenvironmental benefits aswell?” He highlighted how theUN International Panel onClimate Change has assigned aglobal warming potential factorof zero to LPG, implying that itis not a greenhouse gas! “To putthings in perspective, the GWPfactor of carbon dioxide is onewhile that of methane is 25. Incomparison to most hydrocar-bons, LPG generates loweramounts of carbon dioxide peramount of heat produced. Atthe same time, emissions ofharmful nitrogen oxides andharmful particulate matter PM2.5 are also negligible for AutoLPG. Notably, it is the highconcentration of harmful PM2.5 that is considered the mosttoxic element in India’s air. Notonly do these qualities make

Auto LPG a cleaner transportfuel choice than petrol anddiesel but also as compared toCNG,” he added.

Unfortunately, despite a sig-nificant price advantage overpetrol and diesel and practicalbenefits, Auto LPG hasachieved only marginal successin India. Also, a number ofpolicies are hampering itsgrowth at a time when we needto deploy clean transport alter-natives swiftly. With the threatof climate change loominglarge, the need for rapidlydeploying clean fuels for trans-port has never been more pro-nounced. Suyash Gupta alsosays, “Skyrocketing prices ofpetrol and diesel are the prima-ry reason many consumers arelooking for cheaper alternativefuels today. It is significantlycheaper than petrol. In recentmonths, even as petrol anddiesel have been hovering overthe Rs 70-80 mark, it hasremained priced at almost halfof both the conventional auto-motive fuels. In terms of run-ning costs, it has consistentlybeen at least 40% cheaper thanpetrol. This gives consumerswho drive on Auto LPG a

major cost advantage. Withsuch a huge difference, con-sumers who choose to converttheir vehicles to Auto LPGstand to recover their invest-ments in conversion kit installa-tion within a few months. And,it is also good for your car’sengine. Being a cleaner-burningfuel that produces little residue,it doesn’t damage the engine.Rather it allows engine compo-nents to last longer. Being ahigh octane fuel, it also ignitesfaster implying no pre-ignitionor knocking. An LPG carengine will heat up faster, even

when the engine is the fullycold engine. This is highly ben-eficial for the engine as betterand faster combustion meansno knocking damage. This alsoleads to a low noise ridingexperience. It is estimated thatAuto LPG driven engines mayhave up to twice the life of anengine that runs on petrol.”

So if you desire to switch toan alternative fuel that is drivenby environmental conscious-ness amid these strikingly highprices of petroleum and diesel,you mustn’t think twice aboutswitching to this clean fuel!

CHOOSE CLEAN AND GREEN

ositive think-ing can have ahuge impacton the littleone’s well-being and self-

esteem. Inspired by herone-year-old son, AmritaAswani, a long-term practitioner ofpositive affirma-tions and Founderof Summer Stories,released her firstbook called ‘A to ZAffirmation andWellness book forkids’.

The affirmationbook, which is ahardback of 28pages, features pos-itive words with allthe 26 alphabets A-Z, theirmeanings, and an engag-ing activity for children,where they get to put intheir own affirmationsdown as per their under-

standing of these words.All the 26 words,along with a simpli-

fied child-friendly def-inition for each word, anexample to go with it andrelevant pictorial illustra-tion makes the book anengaging and easy learn-ing tool.

Amrita collaboratedwith child psychologistShrradha Sidhwani towork on the A-to-Z affir-mation words along withtheir meanings. With thehelp of her affirmationsbook, this mom and busi-nesswoman are laying thefoundation for self-love,self-confidence, and self-esteem amongst the kids.The book is targeted atchildren aged 5-12 butslightly younger childrencan also use it.

“I have published abook that helps children tounderstand the power ofwords, positive words, andaffirmation. It helps chil-dren to unlock that powerwithin them and beinspired by themost powerfulvoice

in the world – their own!What I want through thebook is for every kid tobelieve in themselves, theirabilities, and their talentwithout fears like — I amnot good enough, ‘What ifI fail? How a child's mind

is fed is what he or sheshapes up to be. I feel if aperson is trained to thinkpositively, using affirma-tions early on in life, it willgenuinely take them a longway,” shares Amrita.

About the various ways,the book will be of help tothe children, Amritashares, “Some of the wordsin the book are Focused,Grateful, Confident,Mindful, Brave, Honest,Joyful and Kind. Thesewords are everything youwant your child to be. Thebook acts as a great con-versation starter with yourchild. Each page has asmall box posing differentquestions like — When doyou feel brave? When doyou feel joyful? What’syour X- factor? You canmake them aware of theirown abilities through thisbook. The child can sharetheir multiple experienceswith their parents wherethey felt brave and writedown one or twoinstances. The Affirmationand Wellness book is cou-pled with affirmation col-oring bookmarks which isa fun element added tomake the experience morejoyful.”

Teaching your wardwhen they’re ‘schoolingfrom home’ and you’re‘working from home’ is areal challenge. This bookcan prove to make parent-ing in time like this, a loteasier.

oga can help youmanage stress, andthe best part is it doesnot take a lot of time.You don’t have tospend hours on the

mat or invest years in learningcomplicated postures. Instead,by simply taking out a few min-utes every day, you can reduceyour stress levels and improveyour quality of life. A key com-ponent of yoga is that it empow-ers you to manifest thesechanges in your breath.

By changing the speed, pace,and quality of your breath, youcan calm down your nervoussystem, thereby moving yourbody from a state of stress toone of relaxation. NamitaPiparaiya, Yoga and AyurvedaLifestyle Specialist, Founder —Yoganama, shares three simpletechniques that can help you:

1.Start with the palming technique

Palming is very useful for eyefatigue and stress from lookingat a screen for long hours. Rubyour palms together to findsome heat, and then gently cupyour eyes, creating a hollowdark space around them. Relaxyour forehead, eyes, and neck asyou hold this for a few breaths.

You can follow this up with agentle head massage, particu-larly focusing on the eyebrows,

temples, and forehead. Thenbring your hands in front of youas you open your eyes with afew gentle blinks looking direct-ly at your palms. If you’re doingthis outdoors, you can also lookfar into the distance. Taking afew moments to look outside,preferably at some greenery orstanding by the window andlooking outside in natural light,is also very helpful.

2. Do some deep breath-ing

When you are emotional,stressed, or physically tired,your breath becomes shallowand loses its rhythm. The goodthing is that this is a two-waystreet. By consciously relaxingyour breath and bringing it toan even pace or rhythm, youcan reduce your stress levels.This is important because wespend a lot of our modern-day life in a stressed andhyper state, makingit even morenecessarytomake

time for activities that counterstress. Deep belly breathing orDiaphragmatic is just the tech-nique you need as you can do itanytime you’re on an emptystomach. Just remember not tobecome overly conscious of thebreath and start forcing it tobreathe deeply. By payingattention to the breath,you will naturallyslow it down.Immerse yourselfin the beautifulexperiencefor 3 min-utes,threetimesa day.

3. Practice still-ness

After somedeep breath-ing, themind

naturally comes into a calmerstate, and that's a great time to practice medita-tion. You can do this by choos-ing an object of meditation; itcould be a deity, a symbol, an affirmation, a mantra, a chant,or even your breath. And try tospend at least 3 minutes observ-ing the nature of your object,introspecting on its mean-ing, or

sim-

ply trying tomaintain your atten-

tion on it. For example, ifyou’ve chosen the breath as

your object of meditation, try totake five slow breaths withoutgetting distracted. If you do getdistracted, which is very nor-

mal, startagain at

oneandrepeattillyou’vetakenthosefive

breathswith your atten-

tion intact.In this way, you can integrate

yoga into your everyday life.These techniques are simple,don't require any equipment,and can be done anywhere. Butthey are immensely powerful,and you will start to see the dif-ference within a couple of weeks

of practice.

Mompreneur pens affirmations

book for kids

YOGA DURING LUNCHBREAKS TO KEEPSTRESS IN-CHECK

P

Y

T

Following theever-rising

prices of petroland diesel, The

Pioneer'sSHIKHA

DUGGAL talksto experts tofind how it's

time we movedto cleaner andgreener LPG

In terms of running costs, it hasconsistently been at least 40%cheaper than petrol. This givesconsumers who drive on AutoLPG a major cost advantage.With such a huge difference,consumers who choose toconvert their vehicles to AutoLPG stand to recover theirinvestments in conversion kitinstallation within a few months.

— SUYASH GUPTA

WednesdayJuly 14, 2021

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

PTI n CHELMSFORD

The Indian women’s cricketteam would aim to put up acomplete performance instead

of relying on individual brilliance totopple a hurting England for its firstT20 series victory since 2019 here onWednesday.

Another impressive outing in thefield and tight death over bowlingfrom the spin duo of Poonam Yadavand Deepti Sharma brought Indiaback from the dead in the secondT20 on Sunday.

And now Harmanpreet Kaurand her players have a chance ofenjoying their first T20 series successafter the 2019 away triumph againstthe West Indies.

England self-destructing from acommanding position also helpedthe visitors level the series in Hove.

The hosts are unlikely to giftanother match to India, who willneed to excel in all departments towin the series.

While Shafali Verma wasimpressive at the top and spinnerscame to India’s rescue later in thegame, the middle-order and the pacedepartment needs to step up.

Harmanpreet, who promotedherself to number three and gotmuch needed runs, would be wellserved by doing the same.

Shafali had got the team off to acracking start but the incomingbatters were not able to maintain the

momentum despite wickets in hand.On the contrary, England batters

kept going for their strokes despiteloss of wickets at regular intervals.

There is little point in savingwickets in the shortest format andIndia need to be more aggressive intheir approach to score a 160-plustotal.

Pacers Shikha Pandey andArundhati Reddy, who were all overthe place on Sunday, will have to bemuch more accurate.

England lead the multi-formatseries 8-6 and therefore can’t lose it.Skipper Heather Knight was expect-edly gutted after losing the game

from a pretty commanding positionand expects England to be moreruthless on Wednesday.

There were as many as four run-outs in England’s innings, reflectinga panic situation when they couldhave sailed to a series win. OpenerDanielle Wyatt, who made a come-back with this rubber, is due for a bigscore.

The battle between pacerKatherine Brunt and Shafali at thetop has become more interestingwith the Indian hammering her forfive successive boundaries afterbeing bowled by the English womanin the series-opener.

sport 11VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | JULY 14, 2021

shortpasses

AFP n GROS ISLET

AChris Gayle half-centuryblasted the West Indies to

victory over Australia in StLucia on Monday, clinching thefive-match T20 series betweenthe sides.

Chasing a modest target of142, Gayle recaptured his mostdestructive form in racing to 67off only 38 balls to take his teamto the target with five overs tospare at the Daren SammyStadium.

By spearheading the WestIndies to an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the series, the 41-year-old also sent an ominous warn-ing that he could yet be a factorin the Caribbean side’s defenceof the World T20 title later thisyear.

Gayle’s pyrotechnics fol-lowed another efficient WestIndies performance in the fieldas wrist-spinner Hayden Walshagain presented the most effec-tive challenge to the Australianswith figures of two for 18 in lim-iting the visitors to 141 for six.

“I have to thank my entireteam for the faith they haveshown in me because everyoneknows the struggles I have hadwith the bat in the last few

matches,” said Gayle on receiv-ing the Man of the Match award.

“They have all stood up forme and I am happy that I wasable to stand up today anddeliver to remind everyone thatI still have it in me to do some-thing special at the World T20.”

Gayle passed 14,000 runs inall T20 matches during theinnings, the only player to so farreach that milestone.

For Finch, it was anothercase of his team failing to meet

the expected standards.“We really should have built

on that start but I didn’t help thesituation when I got out andwhen you’re playing a team likethis with so much experienceand so many world-class play-ers it is always going to betough,” he explained.

“Yes, we are missing a num-ber of key players here but thatis no excuse. We expect better ofourselves and haven’t managedthat yet so far in this series.”

Gayle leads WI to series winPTI n NEW DELHI

India’s 1983 World Cup heroYashpal Sharma, who was

admired for being a gutsy mid-dle-order batsman at the peakof his prowess, died on Tuesdayafter suffering a massive cardiacarrest here.

He was 66 and is survivedby his wife, two daughters anda son.

Yashpal collapsed at homeafter returning from his morn-ing walk. He was cremated atthe Lodhi Road crematoriumwith his former teammate KirtiAzad among those in atten-dance.

In his International career,Yashpal played 37 Tests, scor-ing 1606 runs, and 42 ODIs inwhich he made 883. He alsopicked up one wicket each inthe two formats to his credit.

He was known for hisgutsy attitude and his stroke-filled half century in the semi-final against England in the1983 campaign at the OldTrafford will forever be etchedin the public memory.

He was also a nationalselector in early 2000s and waspart of the panel which gave M

S Dhoni his maiden India call-up in 2004.

Yashpal was also part of theselection panel that picked thetriumphant 2011 World Cupsquad under Dhoni’s leader-ship. So, from being a part ofa World Cup winning to pick-ing one that also won the tro-phy, Yashpal had seen it all.

In between, he also wit-nessed closely a phase ofimmense turmoil in Indiancricket when the then captainSourav Ganguly had a bitterfallout with the team’sAustralian coach GregChappell in 2006. As a selector,

he had famously backedGanguly at that time.

In Ranji Trophy, where herepresented three teams —Punjab, Haryana and Railways,Yashpal played 160 matchesamassing 8,933 runs whichincluded 21 centuries with ahighest score of 201 not out.

He was an umpire too andstood in a couple of women’sODIs. The multi-faceted for-mer player also served as coachof the Uttar Pradesh Ranjiteam.

He later also became asought after cricket analyst forTV channels.

AFP n EDGBASTON

Pakistan captain Babar Azamreturned to form with a bril-

liant 158, his highest One-DayInternational score, as thetourists tried to deny England aseries sweep at Edgbaston onTuesday.

Azam’s 14th century in 83matches at this level was the cen-terpiece of Pakistan's 331-9 afterthey lost the toss.

Together with MohammadRizwan (74) he shared a standof 179 — Pakistan’s highest forany wicket in an ODI againstEngland — after adding withopener Imam-ul-Haq (56).

Azam’s innings was also thehighest individual score in a 50-over ODI at Edgbaston withNew Zealand’s Glenn Turner,scoring 171 in a 60-over WorldCup match against East Africain 1975 and England’s RobinSmith making 167 againstAustralia in a 55-over match in1993.

Fast bowler Brydon Carsedismissed both Azam andRizwan before collecting some

late wickets as Pakistan hit outfor a return of 5-61.

Azam spent 14 balls onnought and went to fifty in a rel-atively sedate 72 balls.

But so long as he stayed inthere was every chance he wouldincrease his scoring rate and soit proved with a cut boundary offMahmood taking him to a hun-dred in just 104 balls includingnine fours and two sixes.

And having gone past hisprevious highest ODI score of125 not out, he was dropped on126 before going to 150 in 134balls.

London: England’s MarcusRashford said he will “neverapologise for who I am” in anemotional statement after receiv-ing racist abuse following theside’s Euro 2020 final defeat.

The Manchester United for-ward was one of three players,who were attacked by racist trollsafter missing penalties inSunday’s 3-2 shoot-out defeat byItaly.

Rashford has become a heroto many outside football bylobbying the BritishGovernment to provide freeschool meals for under-privi-leged children during the coro-navirus pandemic.

“I’m Marcus Rashford, 23-year-old black man fromWithington and Wythenshawe,South Manchester. If I have

nothing else I have that,”Rashford wrote on Twitter.

Rashford, who came on latein the second period of extratime, apologised for his penal-ty miss and said “something did-n’t feel quite right” when hecame to take the kick.

“It’s been playing in myhead over and over since Istruck the ball and there’s prob-ably not a word to quite describehow it feels. Final. 55 years. 1penalty. History. All I can say issorry. I wish it had gone differ-ently,” he wrote.

“I can take critique of myperformance all day long, mypenalty was not good enough, itshould have gone in but I willnever apologise for who I amand where I came from,”Rashford added. AFP

PNS n NEW DELHI

India will host the WorldBadminton Championships

in 2026, the sport’s governingbody BWF said on Tuesday.

India were scheduled toorganise the Sudirman Cup in2023 but the BadmintonWorld Federation decided toaward the hosting rights of theworld mixed team champi-onships to China.

The BWF was forced toshift this year’s Sudirman Cupfrom Suzhou, China to Vantaa,Finland due to the Covid-19situation in the Asian country.

“Suzhou will now stage the2023 edition of the BWFWorld Mixed TeamChampionships, with origi-nal 2023 hosts India acceptingthe opportunity to host theBWF World Championshipsin 2026,” the BWF said in arelease.

This will only be the sec-ond time that India will behosting the world champi-onship, with Hyderabad hav-ing played hosts to the presti-gious event in 2009.

Since then, India hasplayed hosts to various majorbadminton tournamentsincluding the 2014 Thomasand Uber Cup Finals, the

Asian Championships apartfrom the annual BWF Super500 event, the Yonex-SunriseIndia Open.

“Staging a tournament ofthe stature of WorldChampionships is a greatachievement for us atBadminton Association ofIndia as well as for the coun-try,” Badminton Association ofIndia (BAI) president HimantaBiswa Sarma said.

“We are thankful to BWFfor considering India forBadminton’s most prestigiousand premier tournament andI believe with world class shut-tlers coming to participatewill not only be a great oppor-tunity and motivation for theenthusiasts of the game butwill see a huge growth for thesport across the country too.”

The Olympic-bound P VSindhu is the reigning worldchampion in women’s singles.She also has two Silver and twoBronze medals at the worlds.

“Indian Badminton hasseen great success with twosuccessive medals comingfrom Olympics and with thislatest news of the WorldChampionships is the rightstimulant for the game,” BAIgeneral secretary AjaySinghania said.

India to host badmintonWorld C’ship in 2026

ANDREESCU TO SKIP OLYMPICSLOS ANGELES: Canadian world number fiveBianca Andreescu said she will skip theTokyo Olympics, citing concerns over theCovid-19 pandemic. The 21-year-old 2019US Open champion announced her decisionin a statement on social media.

BORDEAUX SPARED RELEGATIONPARIS: Bordeaux and Angers will both playin Ligue 1 next season after their appealsagainst relegation imposed by France'sfinancial watchdog DNCG were successful.

IYER IN FOR MCA FITNESS CAMPMUMBAI: India batsman Shreyas Iyer, whois recovering from a shoulder injury, hasbeen included in the list of 45 playersannounced by the MCA for its fitness camp.

INDIA TO SEND 119 ATHLETESNEW DELHI: India will be sending a 228-strong contingent to the Tokyo Olympics,including 119 athletes, IOA PresidentNarinder Batra said. Out of the 119, 67 aremale and 52 female participants.

INDIA SAILING TEAM REACH TOKYONEW DELHI: The Indian sailing team onTuesday became the first from the country'scontingent to arrive here for the Olympics.The pictures of the Indian sailing teamcomprising Varun Thakkar, GanapathyChengappa, Vishnu Saravanan and NethraKumanan and their coaches arriving at theHaneda airport were put up by SAI.

7 SHOOTING COACHES TO TRAVELNEW DELHI: Ronak Pandit, who has beentraining medal prospect Manu Bhaker forpast six months, Oleg Mikhailov andSamaresh Jung are among the sevencoaches travelling with the Indian shootingsquad to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

IOC CHIEF BACH PRAISES TOKYOTOKYO: Olympics chief Thomas Bachpraised Tokyo on Tuesday as the “best-everprepared” host city, as athletes beganentering the Olympic Village 10 days beforethe opening ceremony.

JILL TO ATTEND OPENING CEREMONYWASHINGTON: US first lady Jill Biden willattend the opening ceremony of thesummer Olympics in Tokyo, the WhiteHouse announced on Tuesday. Biden willattend the opening ceremony on July 23without President Joe Biden. Agencies

Babar 158 propelsPakistan to 331/9

Never apologise for who I am:Rashford after racist abuse

England W vs India WLive from 11:00pm IST

SONY TEN 1 NETWORK

India’s 1983 WC hero YashpalSharma dies of cardiac arrest

India W aim forcomplete

performance inseries-deciding

T20I vs England

TAKES ALLWINNER TAKES ALLWINNER We need to regularly

score 250+: MandhanaChelmsford: Indian women areaiming to stem the rot of three suc-cessive white-ball series defeats byreversing the trend in the finalT20I against England onWednesday but Smriti Mandhanais more worried about team’sindifferent batting performances in50-over format.

In their last eight WODIs,Indian women have lost six — fourto South Africa at home and twoagainst England. While One Saycaptain Mithali Raj scored threehalf-centuries in three games,only one came in winning causeand in other two her slow bat-ting didn’t serve any purpose.

“We have to work on a lotof things, especially in the bat-ting department. Goingforward, the next sevenmonths will be reallycrucial,” Mandhanasaid in a virtualmedia conference,looking ahead tonext year’s ODIWorld Cup in NewZealand.

“We have to startputting up good scores.If I talk about the ODIformat, we have to startposting 250-260-plusscores consistentlywhile batting first, that’s

something we have to work on,”the elegant left-handed batter said.

“And of course, our bowlingand fielding can get consistent. Weare probably one good perfor-mance (away) and then becomingokay, so I think we can be consis-tent in that department as well.”

India reached the WODIWorld Cup final in 2017 but fellshort by nine runs againstEngland, choking under pressurein a chase of 228 at the Lord’s.

Mandhana said the Australiaseries would be crucial to tighten

up the loose ends ahead of theWorld Cup slated in March-April.

The India women’scricket team is scheduled toplay against Australia

women’s in September-October 2021 where theywill play three ODIs,three T20Is and theirfirst-ever Pink ballDay/Night Test.

“Next sevenmonths will be very cru-

cial to get ourselves readybefore the World Cup(in New Zealand). Ofcourse the Australia

series will also goingto be big in terms ofpreparations for the

World Cup.”

New Delhi: India captain and starbatter Mithali Raj was on Tuesdaydethroned from the top spot byWest Indies skipper Stafanie Taylorin the latest ICC ODI rankings.

Taylor recaptured the numberone position in batting as well as inthe list of all-rounders after asuperb effort in the first ODI inCoolidge that helped the WestIndies win by five wickets againstPakistan.

Taylor’s Player of the Match

effort of three for 29 and an unbeat-en 105 have helped her ascend allthree lists. She has gained four posi-tions and displaced Mithali fromthe top of the batters’ list.

She also gained three places toreach 16th position among bowlersand is up two places to first amongall-rounders, replacing Ellyse Perryof Australia.

Veteran Jhulan Goswami is atfifth among bowlers while DeeptiSharma also occupies the fifth

spot among all-rounders.In the T20I Player Rankings,

Natalie Sciver of England has pro-gressed two places to ninth amongbatters after a knock off 55 in thefirst match while India all-rounderDeepti Sharma is up two places to37th.

In the bowlers’ list, PoonamYadav (up five places to seventh)and Shikha Pandey (up eight placesto 27th) are the main gainers forIndia. PNS

Indian spinner Poonam Yadav, left, celebrates the wicket of English batswoman during second T20I in Hove on Sunday @BCCIWomen

Mithali loses top spot in ODI rankings

PNS n TOKYO

With the Olympics about tostart in Tokyo, the previoushost city is struggling to makegood on legacy promises:Brazil's government is provid-ing assurances that Rio deJaneiro's Olympic Park venueswon't be abandoned, whileCity Hall rebuilds a belea-guered bus system and is againpledging to create schoolsfrom the dismantled Arena ofthe Future.

Recreational spaces inareas that previously had nonewere welcome, as was Rio'srevamped port area with newtunnels and museums, even ifit didn't lure hoped-for resi-dents or companies.

And demolition of an ele-vated highway allowed forsweeping views of theGuanabara Bay where sailingcompetitions took place, but itswaters weren't cleaned ofsewage, as had been promised.

The postcard city's bid forthe Olympics drew inspirationfrom Barcelona's urban renew-al with the 1992 games.

There are reasons Rio'sgolden dream didn't fully pan

out, some justifiable: thenation suffered its worst reces-sion in a century.

Others are indefensible.Prosecutors found corruptionin subway works; theOlympics-era governor is injail for that and other offences.

Even if Rio resuscitates itslegacy, it will be too late to con-vince the InternationalOlympic Committee to returnto a model in which the Gamesdrive development.

Mayor Eduardo Paesargues that after "going

through an economic crisis, apolitical crisis and a president'simpeachment," today's imageof the country "is not theBrazil that had won theOlympic Games in the past ...an arguably much betterimage."Paes was mayor whenRio bid to host in 2009 andduring the games in 2016, hisfinal year in office.

Paes insists the Olympics'urban legacy is top-notch,given low expense relative toother hosts and the fact morewas delivered than pledged.

Rio's Olympics cost USD13.5 billion, according to thegovernment's accountingwatchdog and using a 2016exchange rate.

A study by Oxford schol-ars published in Septemberfound average sports-relatedhosting costs are USD 12 bil-lion, with non-sports coststypically several times more.

Japan expects the Tokyogames to cost at least USD 15billion without building near-ly as much as Rio.

But some academics argueauthorities didn't consider thebest means to better the livesof Rio's long-suffering resi-dents.

There are no reliable opin-ion polls on satisfaction withhaving hosted.

Delmo de Oliveira, 57,who lives next to the Vila Autdromo Cycling Stadium, doesnot understand why manymillions have been spent onthe Olympic complex andasks: "Why didn't they spendthat on healthcare?

The country has the third-highest Covid-19 death tollafter the United States andIndia.

As Tokyo gets ready, Rio de Janeirochases legacy of 2016 Olympic Games

12

Vijayawada Wednesday July 14, 2021 tollywood

he Covid-19lockdownsgave prettyKajal Aggarwalquality time tospend with her

husband GauthamKitchlu. Their adorablephotos together havegone viral the instantthey shared them onInstagram. Now afterthe relaxation by thegovernment, it is back-to-work mode for the

multilingualactress.Kajal has signed

a new movie titledRowdy Baby to bedirected by debu-

tante Raju Saravananand produced byRamesh P Pillaiunder the bannerAbhisekh Films.The film has musicby Sam CS, lyricsby Vairamuthu,cinematography

by Chelladurai and edit-ing by DeepakDwarakanath.

Kajal, who has primar-ily played glamorousroles in her career, isreportedly poised to gode-glam for her charac-ter in Rowdy Baby, astory about a mother-daughter relationship.The Thuppakki actresswill also be playing themother of a little girl forthe first time in hercareer spanning seven-teen years. The officialannouncement of theproject and its details areawaited.

Kajal Agarwal, whorecently acted in thehorror web series LiveTelecast, has a few ofhuge projects in theworks, including KamalHaasan’s Indian 2,Chiranjeevi’s Acharya,and the horror-comedyGhostly with Yogi Babu.

sychological thriller dramaRakshasudu, which was a hit at thebox office, starring actress AnupamaParameswaran is gearing up for itssequel whose shoot will commencesoon, announced the makers.

Ramesh Varma is going to work with KoneruSatyanarayana for Rakshasudu 2 in which a bighero will play the lead role. On Tuesday, themakers confirmed the same by sharing the titleposter on the social media sites.

“To Double the Thrill & To Spine the Chill#Rakshasudu gang is Back with Nail BitingSequel #Rakshasudu2 A Big Hero to Play theLead @DirRameshVarma @idhavish#KoneruSatyaNarayana @SrikanthVissa@sagar_singer @GhibranOfficial. Shoot BeginsSoon,” tweeted the makers.

Titled Rakshasudu 2, it features a topTollywood actor in the lead role and the detailswill be announced very soon.

On the otherside, currently Ramesh Varma isbusy in his upcoming directorial ventureKhiladi in which Ravi Teja is playing the leadrole and will make his screen presence in dualrole. After the release of Khiladi, Ramesh willstart the preparation for Rakshasudu 2. We nowhave to wait and see who will play the lead rolein Rakshasudu’s sequel.

Ghibran has been roped in to score themusic, Venkat C Dileep takes care of cine-matography department whereas Sagar andSrikanth Vissa together are penning the dia-logues.

KAJAL TO PLAYA MOTHER IN

HER NEXT?

ivetha Pethuraj hasbecome one of thepopular names insouth Indian filmindustry after herdebut with Oru

Naal Koothu, in 2016. Theactress is not just acing heracting skills, but has also

achieved a rare feat. Youngactress Nivetha Pethuraj has

now become a certified carracer. The actress has immense

passion for car racing. NivethaPethuraj has completed Level 1 ofthe Formula Race CarTraining Program hosted byMomentum — School ofAdvance Racing.Confirming the news,Nivetha said, “My interesttowards cars started dur-

ing my school days. When I wasstudying in 8th grade, an aunt inmy neighbourhood purchased asports car that inspired me with astrong curiosity towards sports cars,and it kept brewing in me for years.”

The actress has purchased aDodge Challenger sports car in2015, and she is the second girl inUAE to get it. Though her fatherwas not happy as he was concernedwith the V6 Engine, which has afast racing power, she was confi-dent about driving it and felt it'll allbe cool. The photographs of

Nivetha Pethuraj donning a carracer suit is going viral on thesocial media.

On the work front, she willbe next seen playing the femalelead in Vishwak Sen-starrer

Paagal.

fter Varudu Kavalenuand Lakshya, actorNaga Shaurya hasresumed the shootingof his third film postthe second wave of

Covid. Directed by Aneesh Krishna,

the yet-untitled film resumed itnew schedule in Hyderabadtoday. Aneesh has earlier directedAla Ela and Lover.

Produced by Usha Mulpuri, thefilm also stars Satya and Rahul inimportant roles.

With music by Mahati SwaraSagar and cinematography by SaiSri Ram, this film marks thefourth production under the Ira

Creations banner. Naga Shaurya, the film’s lead

actress, singer Shirley Setia, and a few others are part of theshoot. The announcement hasbeen made with an on-locationstill where Shaurya, Shirley,Anish and Shaurya’s mom UshaMulpuri are seen sharing a lightermoment. Senior actress Radhikawill be seen in an important rolein the film which is tipped to be afamily entertainer. On the otherside, singer Shirley, who madeher acting debut with ‘Maska’ onan OTT platform, will also makeher Bollywood debut oppositeAbhimanyu Dassani in Nikamma.

ccording to the latest buzzin the film industry,Sumanth is all set to workwith Malayalam heart-throb Dulquer Salmaan inan upcoming drama. To

be helmed in Telugu, Tamil andMalayalam languages, the big-bud-get film is directed by HanuRaghavapudi of Andala Rakshasifame. Dulquer Salmaan is playingthe role of a lieutenant Ram in theIndian Army. Set against the back-drop of the 1960s, the film is toutedto be a love story set duringwartime. Currently, the shoot of thefilm is underway in Hyderabad. Aspecial set was erected at AnnapurnaStudios for the shoot.

Sources say that Malli Raava,Godavari, Madhumasam fameSumanth will play the crucial role inthe Dulquer Salmaan and HanuRaghavapudi film, which isbankrolled by Priyanka Dutt andSwapna Dutt.

Vishal Chandrashekar of Padi

Padi Leche Manasu has been ropedin to render the tune. Recently, spec-ulations went rife that dusky beautyPooja Hegde is likely to play theromantic interest of Dulquer in thisuntitled project.

In 2018, Dulquer Salmaan madehis debut in Tollywood by playingthe role of Gemini Ganesan in NagAshwin’s directorial ventureMahanati, the biopic of yesteryearactress Savitri, in which KeerthySuresh played the titular role.

et ready to witness thegolden era of the 70sand ride with thepunches with a sneakpeek into the world ofSarpatta Parambarai!

All set to premiere for the glob-al audiences on July 22,Sarpatta Parambarai will beavailable for its viewers in Tamiland Telugu too. With the versa-tile and accomplished actorArya in the lead, the film isdirected by critically-acclaimeddirector Pa. Ranjith and pro-duced by Neelam Productions& K9 Studios. The film featuresan ensemble cast includingDushara Vijayan, John Kokken,

Kalaiyarasan, Pasupathy, JohnVijay and Santosh Prathap inpivotal roles.

Set in the 70s, SarpattaParambarai is not just a regularsports movie about boxing. Italso showcases the culture, andlives of the boxing clans thatexisted in the North Madras. Atthe centre of the story lies tworival clans — Sarpatta andIdiyappa, who are constantlylocking horns in a duel for thepride of their respective clans.The film, with a backdrop ofsports, illustrates the nuances ofan era that was rife with cultur-al and societal changes.

Talking about the film, actor

Arya shared, “I have gonethrough a major physical trans-formation for this film anddone a rigorous amount oftraining to get the physicality oftechniques of a boxer right. It isa completely different role forme from my previous moviesand I believe it is going to be acareer defining film for me. Justlike the sport, SarpattaParambarai promises to delivera thrilling experience withaction sequences and a story-line that will keep you on theedge of your seats, the trailer ofthe film will give you a briefsneak peek on what is about tocome.”

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Epic boxing duel between two clashing clans

Sumanth to work withDulquer Salman

Naga Shaurya-ShirleySetia film resumes shoot

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