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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 359*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

POLAVARAM

Naidu’s letter ‘accepting’ revised cost comes back to hurt AP PNS n HYDERABAD

By all accounts, the road takenby the State government toconvince the Centre to releasethe funds required for comple-tion of the Polavaram irrigationproject is a thorny one - thethorns in the form of not onlya financial crunch but also ofsome 'missteps' by the previousTDP government.

With the country facing afinancial crisis of unprecedent-ed magnitude, convincing theCentre to release the requiredfunds is becoming increasing-ly difficult.

The latest stumbling block tothe State government's effort isa letter by former chief minis-ter N Chandrababu Naidu tothe Prime Minister, in whichthe Andhra Pradesh govern-ment accept the revised cost ofthe project at the price level ason April 1, 2014 and request-ed the Prime Minister toapprove the revised cost.

A copy of the letter sent by

Naidu, dated January 12, 2018,to Modi requesting theGovernment of India to fulfilthe promised made in the APReorganisation Act-2014 states:

"As per the orders issued bythe Ministry of Finance,

Government of India VideF.No.1(2)/PF-1/2014(pt),Dt.30.09.2016, revised cost ofthe Project at the price level ason 01.04.2014 has been submit-ted to the Central WaterCommission (CWC). I request

the kind intervention of theHon'ble Prime Minister ofIndia to direct the concernedfor early approval of the revisedcost (sic)".

A senior YSRCP leader toldThe Pioneer that Naidu's letter

was now being used by theCentre to press the StateGovernment to accept the revisedcost of the project at the pricesprevailing on April 1, 2014."How can this be acceptable tous?" the YSRCP leader said, oncondition of anonymity since

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy is pursuing the matterwith the Centre and he does notwant to jeopardise the talks thatare at a 'delicate' stage.

"The CM has been pursuingthe matter regarding Polavaramconstruction and its comple-

tion with the Centre. But itmust be noted that he has tocontend and undo the damagedone by Chandrababu Naiduduring his rule. The previousgovernment had acceptedevery decision taken by theCentre without murmur orobjection. This is now provingcostly to the State," the YSRCPleader said.

He said that Naidu's afore-mentioned letter to the PrimeMinister may prove to be quitea major stumbling block in theChief Minister's efforts.

Earlier, sources familiar withthe matter had told ThePioneer that Jagan has beengiven 'concrete assurance' bythe Jal Shakti Ministry thatAndhra Pradesh will not beburdened with the cost ofresettling and rehabilitatingthe people displaced by theproject. 'in principle' and theCentre will honour the promis-es made in the APReorganisation Act-2014.

Total expenditure incurred on Polavaram project underNational Project upto December 2017 is Rs 7780.07 Crores.

Out of this, an amount of Rs 4329. 06 Cr has been released toGovt. of Andhra Pradesh by Government of India. The balanceamount of Rs 3451. 01 Cr (Rs 7780.07 Cr - Rs 4329 06 Cr) is still tobe released by the Government of India. Early reimbursement ofthe same would ensure speedy completion as per schedule.

As per the orders issued by the Ministry of Finance Governmentof India Vide F No,1(2yPF-1/2014(pt). Dt 30.09.2016. revised costof the Project at the price level as on 01- 04- 2014 has beensubmitted to Central Water Commission (CWC). I request the kindintervention of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India to direct theconcerned for early approval of the revised cost.

— N CHANDRABABU NAIDU, In his letter to the Prime Minister dated January 12, 2018

(1035432/201B/EXOF PSL SECY-GAD)

PNS n HYDERABAD

The National Green Tribunalon Thursday ordered a stay onconstruction work of theRayalaseema Lift IrrigationProject (RLIP) proposed by theAndhra Pradesh governmentacross the River Krishna in thebackwaters of Srisailam reser-voir to draw three tmc ft ofwater per day to irrigateparched lands of Rayalaseema.

Acting on a petition filed bya Telangana activist GavinollaSrinivas, the green tribunalmade it clear to the AP gov-ernment that it should not goahead with the construction ofRayalaseema lift scheme,unless it obtained all clearancesfrom the Centre, includingenvironmental clearance.

It also directed that the APgovernment submits a detailedproject report (DPR) to the

Ministry of Jal Shakti andunless the project report isapproved, it cannot take upconstruction work.

The NGT gave its orderbased on the report submittedby the Union Ministry that thescheme does not have anyapproval from the Centre and

that the state had not submit-ted its DPR to the ministry tillnow.

The NGT bench comprisingJustice Ramakrishnan and irri-gation expert Sibal Das Guptabrushed aside the argument ofthe state government that thescheme was not a new project

but only part of the TeluguGanga project and there is noadditional ayacut involved.

Telangana has been pres-surising the Centre to issueimmediate direction to AndhraPradesh to stop work onexpansion of Pothireddypaduregulator and construction ofRayalaseema Lift IrrigationScheme.

TS Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao had writ-ten to Union Jal ShaktiMinister Gajendra SinghShekhawat, saying that thiscould be done by immediate-ly handing over operationalcontrol of Srisailam reservoir toTelangana.

In his letter, KCR said thatthe Rayalaseema Lift irrigationproject would “irreversiblycompromise the interests andrights of Telangana”.

NGT halts AP's RLIP projectPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The State government wouldbe spending Rs 17,300 crore torevamp existing governmenthospitals and for setting up 16new medical colleges in APunder Nadu-Nedu initiative.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, whochaired a review meeting onNadu Nedu in hospitals hereon Thursday, directed offi-cials to finalise the tenders fornew medical colleges byJanuary.

The Chief Minister soughtdetails on the establishment ofnew medical colleges, develop-ment of village clinics, prima-ry healthcare centres, commu-nity health centres, area hospi-tals and district-level hospitals

under the Nadu-Nedu initia-tive.

Reiterating that all the hos-pitals in the state should havebetter medical facilities, theChief Minister said that therewill be no compromise on thequality of infrastructure orthe services being provided in

the hospitals. He stated that the hospital

authorities should be account-able and responsible in allaspects and directed them toensure that all facilities are inplace and make sure thatpatients coming to the hospi-tal should experience the feelof corporate hospitals. He saidthat there shouldn’t be anycomplaint on sanitation orother facilities.

The Chief Minister instruct-ed the authorities to studybest practices in the construc-tion of hospitals and imple-ment them in the State. Inaddition to these, he alsostressed on following envi-ronment friendly initiativesand setting up green buildings.

LG Polymers case: SC asks NGT to defer hearingPNS n NEW DELHI

LG Polymers Ltd, from whoseplant at Visakhapatnam poiso-nous Styrene vapour got leakedon May 7 leading to the deathof 15 persons and hospitalisa-tion of scores of others, haschallenged the suo motu hear-ing of the case by NationalGreen Tribunal.

On behalf of the company,senior counsel Mukul Rohatgifiled a petition in the SupremeCourt stating that the NGT hadno locus standi in taking up suomotu the case of the Styrene gas

leakage. He brought to the notice of

the SC that the NGT was hear-ing the case on November 3.

The Supreme Court benchheaded by Justice Lalith, whichheard the arguments of boththe sides, asked the companyrepresentatives to submit theirobjections within 10 days overthe findings of the committeeappointed by NGT in the case.

The Supreme Court direct-ed that till it gave furtherorders, the NGT should nottake up hearing but defer theproceedings. The court post-

poned the case to November 16for further hearing.

The Visakhapatnam policehad in July arrested 12 personsincluding the chief executiveofficer and two directors of LGPolymers Ltd. They include

company’s managing directorand CEO Sunkey Jeong, tech-nical director D S Kim (bothSouth Korean nationals), addi-tional director (operations)Pitchuka Poorna ChandraMohan Rao, head of the depart-ment and shift in-charge KodiSrinivas Kiran Kumar, teamleader (production) RajuSatyanarayana.

However, all of them werereleased later on bail. TheKorean officials were also givenpermission to leave the coun-try.

The state government sus-

pended deputy chief inspectorof factories KBS Prasad foralleged negligence in inspectingthe LG Polymers plant for anypotential hazards in its design.

Besides, Visakhapatnamzonal environmental engineerR Lakshmi Narayana andregional environmental engi-neer P Prasad Rao were alsosuspended for allowing opera-tion of LG Polymers plantwithout environmental clear-ance and the import and stor-age of huge quantities of styrenewithout verifying safety andenvironmental issues.

Govt to invest Rs 17,300 crin AP’s health sector: Jagan

Senior IPS officer Ravindranathalleges harassment, resigns PNS n BENGALURU

A senior Andhra Pradesh batchIndian Police Service officer hasresigned from the service accus-ing 'a few individuals' of harass-ing him indirectly.

According to top policesources, Dr P Ravindranath,who is serving as AdditionalDirector General of Police inthe Forest Cell tendered his res-ignation to the Chief SecretaryT M Vijay Bhaskar through theDirector General of PolicePraveen Sood on October 28.

The sources added that in therecent transfer and posting listorder, two top IPS officersAmar Kumar Pandey and TSuneel Kumar were promotedto the rank of the DirectorGeneral of Police. However,Ravindranath's name was miss-ing. In his resignation letter,Ravindranath stated that he hadserved the people of Karnatakawith utmost devotion but in thelast four years he faced "prob-lems created by a few individ-uals."

‘Dharani’ a trendsetter: KCR PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao saidon Thursday that the path-breaking Dharani, one-stop portal for all mattersconcerning land transac-tions across the State,would emerge as a trend-setter for the nation.

Addressing a gatheringafter inaugurating the por-

tal at Moodu Chintalapallyin Medchal-Malkajgiri dis-trict, the Chief Ministersaid: “Gone are the dayswhen people, particularlyfarmers, had to make therounds of various officesfor land transact ions ,including registration andmutation, often greasingthe palms of corrupt offi-cials."

AP slashes liquor prices, cites smugglingPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

In an interesting U-turn afterexponentially increasing theprices of liquor, the AndhraPradesh government has cutthe prices of medium andhigher category of IndianMade Foreign Liquor onThursday in view of increasedcases of inter-state smuggling.

The reduction in prices ofthese liquor brands ranged

from Rs 50 per 180 ml to Rs1,350 per bottle. The new rateswill come into force with effectfrom Friday, a governmentorder said.

The government defendedits decision stating that it wasaimed at smuggling of high-value brands from other statesas pointed out by the SpecialEnforcement Bureau in itsreport.

Initially, the governmentdrastically reduced the numberof liquor shops and bars. Thegovernment also took overliquor business stating thatthis would eliminate the busi-

ness of belt shops in rural areas.Subsequently, the govern-

ment abnormally increasedthe liquor prices up to 75 percent, hoping that it wouldbring down the liquor con-sumption in the state. It alsoimposed restrictions on peoplestating that one cannot possessmore than three bottles.However, the measures led tomassive inter-state smuggling.

The Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), scheduled to be held inNovember, has been deferred to January next year due to the COVID-

19 pandemic, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said onThursday. Initially the 26th edition of the KIFF, with limited number ofvisitors, was scheduled to be held from November 5 to12. It will now be organised from January 8 to 15,2021. Banerjee posted on her twitter handle, "Afterreceiving global film fraternity's consent, I herebyinform all stakeholders of Kolkata International FilmFestival & cine lovers that our festival has beenrescheduled, given the current circumstances. "Itwill now be held from Jan 8-15, 2021. Let thepreparations begin!"

KOLKATA INTERNATIONAL FILMFESTIVAL DEFERRED TO JANUARY

SOME RECOVERED CORONAVIRUSPATIENTS MAY STILL CARRY VIRUS

Awoman in Pakistan's Punjab province was allegedly sold for rupees5,000 by her husband to four persons who gang-raped her for 21

days. The incident took place in North Sargodha, some 200 kilometresfrom Lahore. The suspects took her to their place and gang-raped herfor 21 days before she managed to flee and reachedthe local police station. The woman onWednesday submitted an application in thesessions court Sargodha after police refusedto file a case against her husband and fourrapists. Additional sessions judge MuhammadIjaz issued a notice to district police officerSargodha and sought a report on the matter onNovember 2.

The Trump administration has proposed to scrap the computerised lotterysystem to grant H-1B work visas to foreign technology professionals and

replace it with a wage-level-based selection process, a move that is expectedto counter the downward pressure on the wages of US workers. Anotification on the new system is being published in the Federal Register onThursday. Stakeholders have 30 days to respond to the notification, theDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday, less than aweek before the US presidential election. Replacing thecomputerised draw of lots to decide on the successful H-1B applicants, the DHS said it is expected to help counterthe downward pressure on the wages of Americanworkers that is created by an annual influx ofrelatively lower-paid, new cap-subject H-1B workers.

Some recovered COVID-19 patients may still carry the novelcoronavirus, according to a new study which recommends that

people leaving quarantine avoid close contact with others, wear a facemask, and possibly undergo an additional test to confirm ifthey are free of the virus. The study, assessed 131COVID-19 patients who met the World HealthOrganization (WHO) criteria for discontinuation ofquarantine, and found that close to 17 per cent of them,who were considered fully recovered, tested positive forthe virus in follow-up screening. "Our findings indicate thata noteworthy rate of recovered patients with COVID-19 couldstill be asymptomatic carriers of the virus," said study co-authorFrancesco Landi from Fondazione Policlinico Universitario in Italy.

PAKISTAN WOMAN GANG-RAPED AFTER BEING SOLD BY HUSBAND

US TO SCRAP COMPUTERISEDLOTTERY SYSTEM FOR H-1B VISAS

8

Sensex sheds 173pts amid F&Oexpiry; Nifty slipsbelow 11,700

5

Left govt on thebackfoot afterSivasankar'sarrest

2

Edu institutionsget ready toreopen with Covidprotocols

2

22

2 2

2

VIJAYAWADAWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated October 29, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Ashwin & Shukla Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Chaturdashi: 05:44 pm

Nakshatram: Revati: 02:57 pm

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 10:34 am – 11:59 am

Yamagandam: 02:50 pm – 04:16 pm

Varjyam: NIL

Gulika: 07:42 am - 09:08 am

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 12:15 pm – 02:03 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:36 am – 12:22 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Partly cloudyTemp: 31/22Humidity: 70%Sunrise: 06.13 amSunset: 05.45 pm

{

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vijayawada 02VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020

EGG RATES

` 51, 690 (10 gm)

` 3370

GOLD

` 64,700 (1kg)

`2,300

HYDERABAD 490

VIJAYAWADA 529

VISAKHAPATNAM 522

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀55..2299

SILVER

VIJAYAWADABULLION RATES

`̀//110000

CHICKEN RATES

Dressed/With Skin `190

Without Skin `216

Broiler at Farm `131

`̀//KKGG

(IN VIJAYAWADA)

Edu institutions get ready toreopen with Covid protocolsPNS n AMARAVATI

At a time many states in thecountry are in a quandaryover reopening of schools withfear of a third wave of theCovid-19 pandemic, theAndhra Pradesh governmenthas decided to open education-al institutions on November 2with all precautionary mea-sures in place.

The State government hasdecided to reopen schools andcolleges from November 2, ChiefSecretary Nilam Sawhney hadsaid in her order.

The schools would be run onalternate days in three phases forwhich officials are makingarrangements. Precautionarymeasures would be taken to con-tain the spread Covid-19, the CSorder said, giving details on theschedule of classes.

All government schools andcolleges would reopen onNovember 2. Classes 9, 10, 11and Intermediate first and sec-ond year would function onalternate days only for half-a-day.

All the higher secondary col-leges would also start function-ing from November 2 on arotation basis and fromNovember 23, Classes 6,7 and 8

would start functioning on half-a-day basis.

Classes 1,2,3, 4 and 5 wouldstart functioning fromDecember 14. On alternate daysand on half-a-day basis. The

same schedule would apply to allgovernment schools and col-leges, she said.

Meanwhile, there is a mixedresponse from the parentsregarding the reopening of

schools. Doubting hygiene andsocial distance enforcement,some parents may not sendtheir kids to schools.

UNESCO’s plan

n with health authorities thesafety of scho-ol buildings andtheir surroundings beforereopening.n Establish conditions thatmust be met before schoolsare reopened. This will lessenthe probability of a newoutbreak and boost theconfidence of parents,students, and teachers interms of school safety. n Ensure communities’ trustin the health and safetymeasures taken by schools toguarantee the well-being ofreturning students and toensure that the risk ofcontagion is minimised. n Renovate, improve, orinstall (as necessary) hygienefacilities like washrooms,toilets, and bathrooms;guarantee that hand washingstations will be avail-able; andprovide running water as wellas, for example, soap anddisposable hand towels.

Plan for teacher mobilisation, prioritisingregions that were worst hit by the crisis.

n Explore, as an exceptional measure,the emergency deployment of teachers

to areas affected by high teachermortality rates during the crisis.

n Train teachers to monitor childrenand identify those experiencing particulardifficulties when they are back in school.

n Begin structurededucation activities assoon as it is safe to doso in order to mitigatethe psychosocialimpact of the crisis onchildren and youth.

Raju style: Taking on the powers-that-beNarsapuram MP

Kanumuru Raghu RamaKrishna Raju has been in thethick of news of late forrebelling against his party —the YSRCP — line and mak-ing no bones about it.

The MP has been facingprotest by activists of his ownparty and had sought securi-ty to visit his own constituen-cy, fearing an attack. In a con-versation with The Pioneer, hetells Prasad VSD Gosala thathe is being targeted as he isstanding up for what is right,and after raising the agenda of‘Hindutva’, for speaking outagainst conversion of Hindus,and protecting the landsbelonging to the TTD, theplight of farmers in Amaravatiand other burning issues.

Q: Why have you picked upHindutva agenda? A: I am only talking about theConstitutional provisions thatno government should beinvolve in propagation of anyreligion and give financialassistance to build churches.This government has pro-posed to give Rs 5,000 per

month to around 29,500 pas-tors and is also giving moneyto build churches.

Also, no government hasany right to the lands ownedby the Lord. So how could theState government decide toauction TTD lands? Naturally,I opposed the decision.

Q: Is your stand not againstyour party line?A: I am advising YSRCP lead-ers to respect the Constitutionin the interest of the party.Since we are elected by thepeople for the people, it’s ourduty to uphold the values andrespect the Constitutionalways, irrespective of partyline.

Q: How aligned are you withthe YSRCP ideology?A: I am associated with theideology that does not goagainst the Constitution. Iopposed the move to scrap themedium of instruction in themother tongue as it’s againstArticle 350(A).

Q: Have you been ill-treatedby the party leadership?

A: My party has already fileda disqualification petitionagainst me with the LokSabha Speaker. As thepetition was not in accor-dance with the Schedule10 of the Constitution, itwas rejected. So my partyhas kept me at adistance, but Ihave not keptthe party at adistance.

Q: You havebeen facingcriticism fornot visitingyour con-stituencye v e nafter get-ting cen-tral protec-tion. Whyare younot goingto the con-stituency?A: I have beenadvised againstvisiting my con-stituency for onemonth as some of

those opposed to me plan tofile a Covid norm viola-

tion case. However, Iam in touch with myconstituents throughvideoconferencing ona daily basis.

Q: Is there anyproposal from

you to end therift betweenthe partyand your-self?A: I nei-ther sentany pro-posal tothe party

nor thep a r t y

sent anyproposalto me fora patchup. Since

they sent thedisqualificationpetition in ahasty manner,perhaps theyare not able toproceed further.

Q: How do you explain yourrebellion against the YSRCP? A: I am against imposition ofEnglish in primary educationat the cost of ignoring themother tongue Telugu, sincethis is guaranteed by theConstitution under article350 (A). In the Lok Sabha, Ipraised the CM for appoint-ing Lakshmi Parvathi aschairperson of the TeluguAcademy and also requestedthe Centre to support theState government efforts topromote Telugu as a heritagelanguage.

Unfortunately, that result-ed in differences with theYSRCP leadership, as some ofthe party’s decisions were notin line with the pre-pollpromises.

Q: How did your associationwith YSRCP begin?A: I was attracted to the partyby seeing the policies ratherthan other issues. I wasapproached by the YSRCP tocontest from Narasapurambecause survey reports byPrashant Kishor indicated avictory for me.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Governor BiswabhusanHarichandan on Thursdayconveyed his greetings tomembers of the Muslim com-munity on the occasion of“Eid-Milad-un-Nabi”, thebirthday of ProphetMuhammad.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy too con-veyed his greetings on theoccasion.

"I extend my warm greet-ings to the Muslim brethrenon the occasion of Eid-Milad-un–Nabi, the birthdayof Prophet Muhammad,” theGovernor said in his mes-sage.

He said that the life of theProphet has been an inspir-ing saga of love, brotherhoodand virtue to mankind.

“The Prophet’s mission isfulfilled when we serve ourfellow countrymen withfaith, trust, care and compas-sion.

May the birthday ofProphet Muhammad usherin peace and goodwillamongst all,” the Governorsaid.

“Prophet Muhammadpreached peace, harmonyand universal brotherhood,”the Chief Minister said in hismessage.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's Covid-19 caseload sur-passed the 80-lakh mark onThursday, 18 days after it hadgone past 70 lakh, with 49,881new cases while the recoveriessurged to 73.15 lakh pushingthe national recovery rate to90.99 per cent, according to theUnion Health Ministry data.

The total coronavirus casesmounted to 80,40,203 and thedeath toll climbed to 1,20,527with the novel coronavirusvirus claiming 517 lives in aspan of 24 hours in the coun-try, the data updated at 8 amshowed.

The Covid-19 case fatalityrate has further declined to 1.49per cent.

There are 6,03,687 activecases of coronavirus infection

in the country which compris-es 7.5 per cent of the total case-load, the data stated.

According to the ICMR, acumulative total of10,65,63,440 samples have beentested up to October 28 with10,75,760 samples being testedon Wednesday.

India's Covid-19 tally hadcrossed the 20-lakh mark on

August 7, 30 lakh on August 23and 40 lakh on September 5. Itwent past 50 lakh onSeptember 16, 60 lakh onSeptember 28 and crossed 70lakh on October 11.

The 517 new fatalitiesinclude 91 from Maharashtra,60 from West Bengal, 55 eachfrom Chhattisgarh andKarnataka, 40 from Delhi, 35

from Tamil Nadu and 27 fromKerala.

A total of 1,20,527 deathshave been reported so far in thecountry including 43,554 fromMaharashtra followed by11,046 from Karnataka, 11,018from Tamil Nadu, 6,958 fromUttar Pradesh, 6,643 fromAndhra Pradesh, 6,664 fromWest Bengal, 6,396 from Delhi,4,158 from Punjab and 3,701from Gujarat.

The health ministry stressedthat more than 70 per cent ofthe deaths occurred due tocomorbidities.

"Our figures are being recon-ciled with the Indian Councilof Medical Research," the min-istry said on its website, addingthat state-wise distribution offigures is subject to further ver-ification and reconciliation.

Covid caseload breaches 80L mark with 49,881 new casesOver 88K tests in AP yield2,905 Covid positive cases Vijayawada: A new record highof 88,778 samples were tested ina single day for the coronavirus inAndhra Pradesh but only 2,905 ofthem turned positive, in what isseen as a clear indication of thecontinuing decline in the spreadof the infection.

The latest bulletin said atotal of 78,62,459 tests hadbeen done in the state so far,which revealed an overallinfection positivity rate of10.40 per cent, after 8,17,679cases were confirmed.

In 24 hours ending 9 am onThursday, as many as 3,243patients had recovered fromthe disease, taking the total to

7,84,752.Another 16 patientssuccumbed, the lowest in aday in many months, as theoverall toll mounted to 6,659,the bulletin said.

The active cases slumped to26,268.

West Godavari district added494, East Godavari 414,Krishna 361 and Guntur 359fresh cases.

Kurnool reported thelowest 25, Vizianagaram 70,Srikakulam 90 and SPS Nellore96 new cases. Four districtsSPS Nellore, Vizianagaram,Srikakulam and Kurnool nowhave less than 1,000 activecases each.

Governor, CMgreet Muslims onMilad-un-Nabi

AP slashes liquor prices...Continued from page 1

An analysis of the inflow ofillegal liquor into State ofAndhra Pradesh during theperiod of one month — fromSeptember 15 to October 15 —revealed that 1,211 cases ofsmuggling have been regis-tered, out of which 630 caseswere in respect of smugglingfrom Telangana, 546 cases inrespect of Karnataka, 24 casesin respect of Odisha and 11

cases in respect of Tamil Nadu. The most smuggled liquor

brands are in the category ofmedium and premium seg-ments. The report points to thelarge difference between theMRPs of medium and premi-um liquor brands, observingthat the prices of some brandsof liquor in AP are more thandouble the MRPs prevailing inTelangana and Karnataka.

“The report therefore sug-gests reduction in the MRPs of

medium and premium brandsof liquor so as to preventsmuggling of liquor in thesesegments and consequentdrain of the revenues of theState,” the order said.

The government alsoreviewed the matter andnoticed that apart from anincrease in the smuggling ofliquor into the State, therehave been unfortunate deathsdue to consumption of sanitis-ers and methyl alcohol.

State to invest Rs 17,300...Continued from page 1

He directed the authorities toimmediately release Rs 5,472crore for revamping the exist-ing hospitals under the Nadu-Nedu programme.

Tender for medical col-leges to be finalised byNovember end

Meanwhile, the officialsinformed that the tendersfor medical col leges inPaderu, Piduguralla, Mach-i l ipatnam and Puliven-dula,will be finalised by theend of November, and forBapatla, Narsapuram, Eluru,Anakapalli, Markapuram,Madanapalle and Nandyalmed-ical colleges the tenderswill be done by December.

For Vizianagaram,Rajahmundry, Penukonda,Amalapuram and Adonimedical colleges the ten-ders will be finalised by

January. For all these med-ical colleges it is estimatedthat Rs 7,500 crore will beutilised.

Discussing the Aarogyasrireferral programme, theChief Minister stated thatvillage/ward secretariats willbe acting as referral centreson a temporary basis, untilthe establishment of YSRHealth Clinics.

The list of empanelledhospitals has to be displayedat all secretariats and thehealth assistant or ANMwill be guiding the patientsin receiving treatment fromthe best hospital.

As the Aarogyasri pro-gramme will be made avail-able to the remaining six dis-tricts from November 13,the Chief Minister directedthe authorities to add anytreatment or procedures tothe list if necessary.

NGT haltsAP's RLIP...Continued from page 1

"I want to express strongobjections of Telangana to thetaking up of expansion ofPothireddypadu HeadRegulator and the newly pro-posed Rayalaseema LiftIrrigation Scheme. The orig-inal project itself is com-pletely illegal as it has nowater allocation, no approvalby any statutory authority,and is meant to send wateroutside Krishna Basin”, KCRwrote.

He said that though theRayalseema Scheme wasnever sanctioned by anystatutory body, AndhraPradesh has proposed to lift3 tmc ft per day from the bot-tom of Srisailam reservoirand transport it to the Pennarand adjoining basins.

IPS officer Ravindranath ...Continued from page 1

He stated that he hadapproached the CentralAdministrative Tribunal andHigh Court and obtained relief.

He added that the SupremeCourt too gave him justice onOctober 15 with respect to hisservice matter.

"But a few individuals pre-vented justice for me. Therefore,having undergone agony of theindirect harassment, I submitmy resignation herewith to lead

a peaceful life," Ravindranathsaid.

He asked the Chief Secretaryto accept his resignation.

The 1989 batch IPS officerfrom Andhra Pradesh had land-ed in a controversy six years agowhen he was accused of alleged-ly clicking pictures of a womanat a cafe in Bengaluru.

The woman in her complaintto the police had stated thatwhen she and her cousin wereat the cafe they saw a man star-ing at them and clicking pictures.

Naidu’s letter ...Continued from page 1

The Chief Minister's effortshad been redouble of late fol-lowing the failure by theCentre skipping mention ofthe rehabilitation and resettle-ment cost in its response to anRTI query, leading to confu-sion that it would releasefunds only for the execution ofthe irrigation component ofthe project.

In its reply to the RTIquery, the Ministry of JalShakti said that so far, Rs8,614.16 have been released forthe project since 2015. Whilethe Centre gave Rs 950 crorefor the project on its own,

NABARD released Rs 7,664.16crore, it had said.

"Not just this past week, butright from the day he hastaken charge as the ChiefMinister, The absence of R&Rcomponent in the response tothe RTI query may have beeninadvertent, especially sincethe question was precise and sowas the answer too," the sourcesaid. "The total expenditureincurred on the Polavaramproject under the NationalProject upto December 2017 is7,780.07 crore. Out of this, anamount of Rs 4,329.06 crorehas been released to AndhraPradesh by the Centre," Naidu'saforementioned letter said.

‘Dharani’ a trendsetter: KCRContinued from page 1

Telangana had achievedtremendous progress in allsectors of the economy, includ-ing power, agriculture, indus-try and irrigation, KCR said.

Dharani portal was animportant step towards resolv-ing issues pertaining to landsacross the State. “With thisexercise, about 1.45 lakh croreacres of land in the State nowhave clear titles. This was not

an easy task, but one which wehad to take up,” he said.

Developed by the TelanganaState Technical Services(TSTS) Department, Dharanicomprises two separate partsfor agricultural lands and non-agricultural lands.

Going forward, the revenueportal was bound to have animpact across the countrysince both the Union andother State governments wouldbe under pressure to introduce

similar measures to ensuretransparency in land dealingsand simplify procedures, theChief Minister surmised.

“Even before the formallaunch of the portal, during thetrial run in the past three tofour days, officials reportedheavy traffic since thousands ofpeople not just from the Statebut also from other countrieswere accessing Dharani as theywere keen on knowing itsfunctioning,” KCR said.

Telangana relaxes EAMCETeligibility criteria for this yearNAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

The eligibility criteria forTelangana State Engineering,Agriculture and MedicalCommon Entrance Test (TSEAMCET) candidates, whoqualified in the exams, hasbeen relaxed only for this year.

Now, instead of 45 per centmarks, students who havecleared their Intermediateexaminations and qualified inthe entrance test are eligible foradmission.

The State government’smove of doing away with min-imum qualifying marks comesafter the Telangana High Courton Wednesday directed theauthorities concerned andJawaharlal Nehru

Technological University,Hyderabad (JNTU-H) to post-pone the second phase ofcounselling, scheduled to beheld between October 29 andNovember 5, to enable stu-dents, who have now been ren-dered ineligible, to appear forcounselling.

The decision will benefitstudents of Telangana OpenSchool Society (TOSS) andthose who were to write theIntermediate Public AdvancedSupplementary Examinations,but were instead promotedwith 35 pc.

This year, the TelanganaState government promotedseveral students without con-ducting the exams and theywere awarded minimummarks.

Thus many students whoqualified in the EAMCETcould not get the ranks as theyfailed to meet the eligibility cri-teria of 45 per cent marks inthe Intermediate.

As per the rules, the TSEAMCET candidates shouldobtain at least 45 per centmarks (40 per cent in case ofcandidates belonging toreserved category) in the sub-jects specified taken togetherat 10+2 pattern except for BPharmacy course.

This is a one time measurein the wake of the ongoingpandemic situation.

The authorities have alsorevised the schedule of admis-sion in EAMCET colleges,keeping in mind the relax-ations given to the students.

6 arrested fortrying to sellleopard skinPNS n MANCHERIAL

In a joint operation, sleuths ofTask Force, Special Branchand Devapur police arrestedsix persons for allegedly try-ing to sell leopard skin atGunduguda village in Kasipetmandal. The accused wereidentified as Gopathi Vamshi,Sikram Gangu, Jupaka DurgaPrasad, Shaik Jameel, WajidKhan and Avula Sai Krishna.

Gangu admitted that he con-tacted his friends GopatiVamashi who in turnapproached his cousin Muralifor disposing the skin of the car-nivore which was reportedlypoached by Shankar in theforests of Mangi, a fortnight back.

DEE arrestedfor acceptingbribe of Rs 4KPNS n HYDERABAD

The ACB officials caught BRamu, Deputy ExecutiveEngineer (DEE) of the RuralWater Supply (RWS) depart-ment, Narsampet, red-hand-ed while accepting a bribe ofRs 4,000 from a contractor athis office in Narsampet in thedistrict on Thursday.

Ramu had demanded Rs24,000 bribe for the clear-ance of bills worth Rs 20lakhs from the contractor,Rajako-muraiah inKhanapuram mandal.

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020

No action in ‘mass killing’ of stray dogs in VizagPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Animal activists have beenseeking action from theGVMC and local police againstmass killing of stray dogs butin vain. Local authorities areturning a blind eye to the bru-tal acts though it is evidentfrom photographs showingcarcasses being dumped at themunicipal dump yard.

Finally, the Vizag DistrictLegal Service Authority hasissued a notice to the GVMCauthorities to intervene in thisregard. Earlier, the AnimalWelfare Board of India had alsorequested the GVMCCommissioner to investigatethe incidents as complained bythe animal activists.

The MunicipalAdministration Departmenthas also asked the GVMCCommissioner to take neces-sary action in the incidentbased on a complaint filed byanimal activist and founder

secretary of Blue Cross(Guntur) Suresh Jagu. Theactivist has also filed a com-plaint with the assistant com-missioner of police, DwarakaSub-division, attaching the pic-ture of the carcasses of sevendogs being dumped in theMudasarlova dump yard.

“We have learnt from vari-

ous sources that the streetdogs captured from differentlocalities for several reasons inVizag are killed in mass usingunidentified injection. Theinjection causes pain, sufferingand at last death. I haveattached photo evidence thatclearly show either dog carcass-es on the dump yard premises,

or the vehicle carrying dogs byuntrained dog squad on anaverage of eight dogs a triploaded on garbage collectingvehicles at Mudasarlova dump-yard under Arilova police sta-tion limits,” Suresh alleged.

“The dump yard is meantfor waste disposal. But thecarcasses of stray dogs are alsodumped, which is clear animalcruelty and against the animalburied procedures and provi-sions stated in Gazette notifi-cations issued for Preventionand Control of Infectious and

Contagious diseases inAnimals (Central) Act- 2009and Prevention of Cruelty toAnimals Act- 1960 of Section3 among other rules and reg-ulations,” the animal activistexplained.

The Animal Birth Control(ABC) operation unit inArilova is violating the clearlayout guidelines, he protestedadding that the brutal incidentis also a violation of APMunicipal Administrationrecent circular on 11/05/2020and the Supreme Court inter-im orders.

“I was informed that theissue was brought to the noticeof the Chief Secretary office,which forwarded the com-plaint to the Home depart-ment. And, as per the instruc-tion of DGP and CP of Vizag,it is now pending with theArilova police station,” he said,hoping that police would soonissue notice to the GVMC inthis connection.

n The MunicipalAdministrationDepartment has alsoasked the GVMCCommissioner to takeaction in the incidentbased on a complaintfiled by animal activistand founder secretary ofBlue Cross (Guntur)Suresh Jagu

Govt to unveil tourism policy soonPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The government will unveil thetourism policy soon, disclosedMuttamsetti Srinivasa Rao,Minister for Tourism, Culture& Youth Advancement, at theCII Andhra Pradesh Tourismconclave.

The Confederation of IndianIndustry organised the AndhraPradesh Tourism conclave witha theme focusing on 'RestartingTourism and Hospitality Sector- Andhra Pradesh as mostpreferred Destination' throughdigital mode. Delivering thekeynote address at the TourismConclave, the TourismMinister said that tourism inthe country has grown by leapsand bounds over the years,with each region of the coun-try, contributing something toits splendour and exuberance.

Srinivasa Rao felt thatAndhra Pradesh has the dis-tinction of being a leadingtourism destination in thecountry and is presently, thethird most visited State in

terms of domestic tourism. Inview of Covid-19, AndhraPradesh would continue topromote the State domestical-ly to attract more number oftourists

into the State.The State is a microcosm

within itself - offeringunmatched tourism potentialto investors and tourists. Itoffers a multitude of themebased options to explore acrossits length and breadth. Hehighlighted the major strengthsof Andhra Pradesh tourism

themes such as beach andwater-based, eco-tourism,Buddhist, religious, heritage,spiritual or wellness and med-ical, which has the great poten-tial in the coming days.

The minister also stated thatthe government would soonunveil the tourism policy toattract private investmentsacross the State. He assured allsupport for industry in view ofCovid-19.

Vinod Zutshi, IAS (retired)former secretary - Tourism,Government of India &

President, New TourismFoundation, stated that AndhraPradesh could take a lead in re-start operations of tourism inthe State. He said that AndhraPradesh has great locationsbased on coastal advantage,eco-tourism and pilgrimagetourism.

He advocated that in view ofCovid-19 there is a need topromote Andhra Pradeshtourism with new brand con-cepts to build confidenceamong all stakeholders. Healso mentioned that it is timefor promoting successful casestudies to encourage people tovisit short distance places dueto pandemic.

He also suggested that thereis a need to effectively managethe supply side and demand inthe tourism sector.

In this context, he advocat-ed for the State-level TourismInvestors Summit, whichwould create a platform forinvestors about new avenues ofopportunities.

Pravin Kumar, IAS,

Managing Director, AndhraPradesh Tourism DevelopmentCorporation, Government ofAndhra Pradesh, said that thetourism sector is contributingsignificantly to Gross/Net StateDomestic Product (GSDP) ofthe State.

He mentioned that the gov-ernment has put requiredStandard Operating Protocols(SOP) to restart tourism oper-ations in the State. In fact, inview of Covid-19 digital plat-forms have emerged as a viableoption to market AndhraPradesh tourism strengths.

The suggestions emergingout of conclave include focus-ing on destination basedtourism, which has greatopportunities in the comingdays, need to create pockets ofexcellence with required infra-structure and nature tourismand engaging the local com-munities for sustainabletourism operations in the State.The conclave witnessed sixtyparticipants through digitalmode.

Advanced technology will help curb disasters: Home MinisterPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Technology will be incorporat-ed extensively to prevent acci-dents and mitigate the situa-tions during disasters, saidHome Minister and DeputyChief Minister MekathotiSucharita.

Speaking to the reportersafter inaugurating addition-al building at the fire stationin Visakhapatnam onThursday, the HomeMinister said the State has185 fire stations of which 12are in Srikakulam district.

The State disaster reliefofficials served people for 22days non-stop during theTitli cyclone and recentlyrescued and rehabilitatedpeople in East Godavari andWest Godavari and Krishnadistricts during the floods.

Apart from preventinghuman loss, the SDRF per-sonnel also saved the live-stock. "Some of our person-nel were also sent to Kerala

and Hyderabad dur ingfloods to carry out rescueand relief operations,'' shereminded.

The police departmentwon accolades from all overthe country and recentlywon 48 of the 83 awardsannounced at the national-level," she said.

On the occasion, she pre-sented merit certificates tofire service personnel BJDSPrasant Kumar, K Srinu

Babu, Durga Reddy, PRambabu, Rajasekhar and PChakradhar. DirectorGeneral of Fire ServicesMohammed Hasan Reza waspresent on the occasion.

She was announced thatForensic Laboratories wouldbe set up soon inVisakhapatnam, Tirpati andVijayawada.

She further stated that aPol ice Training S choolwould be set up soon but thelocation was not yet decided.

n Home Minister andDeputy Chief MinisterMekathoti Sucharitaannounced thatForensic Laboratorieswould be set up soonin Visakhapatnam,Tirpati and Vijayawada.She further stated thata Police Training Schoolwould be set up soonbut the location wasnot yet decided

Jumbo attackclaims farmer's lifePNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A 25-year-old farmer died ina jumbo attack inVizianagaram district. Thedeceased was identified as YNarayana. He sustained severeinjuries in the attack lastTuesday at Gumpa village inKomarada mandal ofVizianagaram district and hesuccumbed to injuries in KGHospital on Thursday.

The herd of wild elephantswreaked havoc in Bangar-ampeta and a few other areasin Komarada mandal ofVizianagaram district damag-ing the standing paddy, maize,cotton and a few other cropsfor the past few days.

The jumbo menace is giv-ing sleepless nights to farmers.

K Samba Murthy ofKomarada said that elephantsventured into their villages afew days ago in search of foodand water and damagedstanding crops and a fewhouses.

He said that they have beenfacing the elephant menace forthe past few weeks but noneof the officials took any mea-sures to send the elephantsback to the jungle.

Farmers ran away fromtheir fields soon after thetuskers entered their fields.The attack by the tuskers onthe standing crops confirmedtheir worst fears and the vil-lagers are alleging that the offi-cials didn't give any compen-sation for the damage of theircrops citing various reasons.

Korean delegationcalls on CMPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Representatives of South Koreanleading steel manufacturerPOSCO called on ChiefMinister YS Jaganmohan Reddyat the camp office here onThursday and expressed theirwillingness to invest in theState. The Chief Minister saidthe industrial policy of the stateis transparent and encourages

investors for industrial develop-ment. Natural resources willhelp for industrial developmentin the State, he added

POSCO India GroupChairman and ManagingDirector Sung-Lae Chun, ChiefFinancing Officer Goo YoungAn, Senior General ManagerJungLe Park and other officerswere part of the delegation thatmet the Chief Minister.

One of the representatives of South Korean leading steel manufacturer POSCOhaving a word with Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy at the camp office inTadepalli on Thursday

Botsa blames Naidu fordelay in Polavaram projectPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Minister for MunicipalAdministration BotsaSatyanarayana lambastedopposition leaders over thePolavaram project and large-scale corruption in TIDCOhousing during the TDPregime.

The minister alleged that itwas Chandrababu, whoexploited the project for thesake of commissions fromcontractors, which ultimatelyled to a reduction of fundsfrom the Centre. "UnlikeNaidu, we are not interested incontracts, or commission, wewill convince the Central gov-ernment to complete thePolavaram. If necessary, we willalso go to court for funds," hestated.

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Thursday, theminister criticised Naidu forfailing to sanction housesmeant for the poor during histerm and said TDP leadershave looted huge amounts inthe name of houses for thepoor. The previous govern-ment had laid the foundation

for only three lakh housesdespite the Union governmentsanctioning seven lakh hous-es.

"Out of three lakh houses,2,62,216 reached the base-ment level while only 81,040houses came up to 90-95%works and in 71,488 housesonly 20-40% works were com-pleted in the five-year term ofTDP," he pointed out.

The previous governmenthad fixed Rs 2,000 per sft forproviding a house in 300 sftand charged over Rs 2.6 lakhfrom the poor. For houses in345 sft and 430 sft, the benefi-ciaries have to pay Rs 3.25 lakhand Rs 4.65 lakh. Though theprice per sft is only at RS 1,200,the TDP government hadcharged over RS 2,000 andpocketed all the money, with-

out even clearing bills to thecontractors, or completing asingle house, he added.

Seeing the plight of the poor,Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy has decided to allocate30 lakh houses free of cost,along with the TIDCO houses.By spending RS 600 crore, theState government had complet-ed all those pending housesand geared up for distribution.However, TDP leadersapproached the High Courtand stalled the distribution ofhouse pattas. He stated that allthe 30 lakh beneficiaries mightstage a protest in front ofNaidu's house for obstructingthe distribution of houses.

n Minister for MunicipalAdministration BotsaSatyanarayana allegedthat it wasChandrababu Naidu,who exploited theproject for the sake ofcommissions fromcontractors, whichultimately led to areduction of fundsfrom the Centre

Govt to promote spice cultivationPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The Horticulture Departmentembarks on a special project topromote the cultivation of high-value spices such as nutmeg, cin-namon, black pepper, turmeric,ginger and a few others as inter-crops with coconut in the State.

The Covid-19 pandemic hasfuelled the demand for thespices as more people are tak-ing to higher consumption ofspices citing immunity boosters.

The horticulture departmenthas observed that there is a needto promote high-value spicecrops in the State as there is a bigopportunity for spice promo-tion.

The country will need dou-ble production of spices inorder to meet the growingdemand for domestic as well asinternational markets. There isan ample opportunity to growhigh value spices in AndhraPradesh as the State is blessed

with different climatic condi-tions, which is suitable for awide range of horticulture crops.

Chiranjiv Choudhary,Commissioner of horticulture,Andhra Pradesh, said that therealising the demand for spices,they have decided to promotehigh value spices as intercropsin coconut orchards. Amongnew crops, nutmeg, pepper andcinnamon have been successful-ly introduced for commercialcultivation in the State. Thedepartment initiated innova-

tions for promotion of spices inthe State and established MasterPepper Nursery in Chintapallifor large-scale multiplicationof new ICAR-IISR pepper vari-eties.The government will spendaround Rs 44 lakh under theMission for IntegratedDevelopment of Horticulture(MIDH).

The Horticulture Depart-ment is procuring quality plant-ing material of pepper and nut-meg from the Indian Institute ofSpices Research (IISR) atKozhikode in Kerala for thedevelopment of mother blocksat the Krishi Vigyan Kendras(KVKs) atVenkataramannagudem andVijayarai. These KVKs will sup-ply planting material to farmers.The department in partner-ship with Rainforest Allianceworking for development ofspices in Eastern Ghats to upliftthe income levels of Tribalfarmers.

COVID-19 EFFECT

The HorticultureDepartment hasobserved that there isa need to promotehigh-value spicecrops as there is abig opportunity forspice promotion

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a significant development,Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhneyhas directed government depart-ments to include energy conser-vation and energy efficiencyprogrammes under the Stategovernment's flagship Nadu-Nedu programme with an objec-tive to take energy efficiencymomentum up to village-level.

During the executive commit-tee meeting of Andhra PradeshState Energy ConservationMission (APSECM) conductedthrough a video conference withSpecial Chief Secretaries ofHigher Education and Industriesdepartment, PrincipalSecretaries of School Education,Women and Child Welfare andSecretaries of Medical & Health,MA&UD, the Chief SecretaryNilam Sawhney has given cleardirections to senior officials togive utmost priority for imple-

mentation of energy efficiencyand energy conservation in theirrespective departments.

The government has decidedto aggressively promote effi-cient use of energy and its con-servation, which is the least-costoption to achieve energy secu-rity, meet the energy demand,along with enormous econom-ic, environmental and social

benefits. As part of this, theChief Secretary has directed thedepartments to take up energyefficiency programmes underNadu-Nedu programme andasked Energy Secretary SrikantNagulapalli to organise fre-quent meetings with depart-ments such as Housing,Education, Medical & Health,Women and Child Welfare ,

Roads and Buildings(R&B),Industries and MA&UD whereconstruction activities areactively going on. The ChiefSecretary also directed to takeimmediate steps to sensitise theengineers over the concept ofenergy efficiency and greenbuildings and suggested train-ing programmes to impartknowledge on effective imple-mentation of EnergyConservation Building Code(ECBC) in their respectivedepartments.

The Chief Secretary alsodirected the energy depart-ment to conduct training pro-grammes to the employeesfrom the Village Secretariatand Ward Secretariat levels topromote energy efficiency andenergy conservation up to thegrassroots, which ensure effec-tive implementation of energyefficiency even at the village-level.

TDP leaderprotests govtinaction on onlineharassmentPNS n RAJAHMUNDRY

Former MLA and TeluguDesam Party (TDP) polit-buro member VangalapudiAnitha has protestedagainst the governmentinaction over her com-plaints on online harass-ment.

"What is the use of 'DishaPolice ' dedicated towomen's protection whenthey do not take action onmy complaints , " saidAnitha. Joined by a group ofwomen, she lashed out atthe government for not tak-ing action against peopleposting objectionable mes-sages about her on socialmedia.

For this bureaucratsinging is a passion

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Colleagues of Pasam VijayaKumar wished him to contin-ue his musical journey to thedelight of millions of his fans,as he is retiring as an assistantdirector of civil suppliesdepartment, Bandar, onOctober 31 on attaining theage of superannuation.

Vijaya Kumar is a giftedsinger, who can sing songsrendered by eminent play-back singers with aplomb. Thegovernment employee has astrong cultural bent of mind.

The gifted singer ever since hepresented his first music con-cert at the age of 15 performedat various venues in the com-pany of the high and mightyof the celluloid world and hasease in singing Telugu andHindi songs.Recipient of sev-eral awards, he acted in someyet to be released films, sangfor several private musicalbums. Several litterateurs,including Dr C NarayanaReddy, spotted his talent andencouraged him to sing. Hecreated six records by singing61 songs in 12 hours in 2017.

Pasam Vijaya Kumar, assistant director of civil supplies department, receives anaward from the late poet, lyricist and Jnanpith Awardee Dr C Narayana Reddy (file photo)

Awards galorefor AP police

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The government has issuedorders to conduct the APFormation Day celebrationsfollowing the Covid-19 pro-tocol on November 1. ChiefSecretary (political) toGovernment Pravin Prakashissued orders on Thursdayin this regard. ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy will hoist the nation-al flag at 9 am at the campoffice in Tadepalli and payfloral tributes to AmarajeeviPotti Sriramulu by garland-ing his portrait.

Furthermore, district in-charge ministers, ministersand collectors will celebratethe Formation Day in theirrespective districts.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The AP Police department,which bagged 48 Skoch awardson Wednesday, yet again shinedon Thursday by winning 18awards out of 28 awards ofGovernance Now India PoliceAwards-2020. They createdanother record by winning 18awards as no other State in thecountry bagged double digitawards. Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy congratulated the policedepartment for their excel-lence at the national-level.

Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra and Gujarat havewon two awards each; Bihar,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand andTelangana got one award each.Out of total 18 awards, the APpolice headquarters won sevenawards, followed by two awardseach by Anantapur andPrakasam police, one eachaward bagged by EastGodavari, Guntur Urban,Kadapa, Kurnool, Srikakulam,Vijayawada and Vizianagarampolice. The AP Police wonawards for Disha mobile app,AP Police Seva, Drone withaudio announcement, DigitalHealth, House Quarantine app,Disha integrated crime scenemanagement et al.

CM to hoist flagon FormationDay on Nov 1

Carcasses dumped at the municipal dump yard in Visakhapatnam

‘Include energy conservation under ‘Nadu-Nedu'

VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020 telangana 04

MARK OOF RRESPECT

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao garlanding the statue of Veera Reddyat Moodu Chintalapalli Village in Medchel-Malkajgiri district on Thursday

PNS n HYDERABAD

The fast-track courts set up instate to try cases of atrocities onwomen and children have beenrendering justice to the victimsdelivering verdict speedily withofficials submitting pucca evi-dence to the courts.

On Wednesday, a court inWarangal district sentenced aman to death for killing ninemigrant workers by throwingthem into a well after mixingsedatives in their food. Thecourt verdict came five monthsafter the shocking incident asFirst Additional District Courtmagistrate found 24-year-oldSanjay Kumar Yadav guilty ofthe gruesome killings and sen-tenced him to death.

The police investigationshad revealed that to hide themurder of a woman withwhom the Bihar man, had alive-in relationship, SanjayYadav committed nine moremurders by throwing the vic-tims into a well at Gorrekuntavillage near Warangal townon May 20.

In the sensational rape of

Abhaya in IT corridor in 2013by cab drivers, a fast-trackcourt was constituted to try thecase. Since then constitution of

the fast-track courts had begunin the state. The verdict in therape case was delivered in 209days. Two youth were sen-

tenced to undergo 20 years ofjail term each. Of late, the fast-track courts have been deliver-ing verdicts one after the other.

On the night of June 19,2019, a nine-month-old babysleeping by the side of hermother was kidnapped, sexu-ally assaulted and killed bystrangulation. The WarangalPolice Commissionerate tookinvestigation of the case seri-ously and investigated the caseand filed charge sheet in courtin 20 days. Thirty witnesses tes-

tified before the fast-trackcourt. The accused, Pravin,28, was handed down punish-ment in 48 days. He was award-ed capital punishment. Uponappealing to the High Courtagainst the judgment, the HCconverted the capital punish-ment to life term.

On November 24 last year, awoman who goes from villageto village to sell balloons wasgang raped by three persons -Shaik Babu, Sahik Shabuddin,Shaik Maqdoom - and latermurdered her by slitting herthroat. The police arrested theculprits within 19 days andcharge-sheeted the case in acourt facilitating fast trial in thecase. The trio was sentenced todeath in a 66-day trial. A lift-mechanic turned psychopathkiller Srinivasa Reddy rapedthree students of Hajipur vil-lage and disposed of their bod-ies in a roadside and disusedwell. The fast-track court triedthe case in 42 days. SrinivasaReddy was handed down deathsentence on January 27 thisyear.

Fast-track ‘justice' in hour of grief

On Wednesday, a court in Warangal district sentenced a man to death for killing nine migrantworkers by throwing them into a well after mixing sedatives in theirfood

PNS n HYDERABAD

After throwing open zoo parkand urban natural forests inand around the city four weeksago, the Forest Departmentnow has decided to allow jun-gle safari in Amrabad tigersanctuary in Nallamala forestarea and Kawal tiger sanctuaryin Adilabad district fromNovember 1.

With the retreat of mon-soons, relaxation of Covid-19restrictions, the ForestDepartment is providing an

opportunity to tourists to expe-rience nature. Because of thepandemonium, the officials

prohibited tourists visitingNallamala forest area sinceseven months. As part of the

Centre's unlock procedure ofthe lockdown, several touristplaces have been thrown openfor tourists. The Centre opened

zoo parks and urban naturalforests for tourists four weeksago. Similarly, the ForestDepartment is allowing touristsvisit the reserve forests.Therefore, the tiger safari willresume in Amrabad andKawwal from Sunday onwards.

The Forest Department hasdecided to collect Rs 50 fromeach vehicle travelling toUmamaheswaram andMaddimadugu temples inNagarkurnool district and sentproposals to the state govern-ment in this regard.

Tiger safari for tourists from November 1

PNS n WARANGAL

Minister for Panchayat RajErrabelli Dayakar Rao onThursday formally launchedthe cotton purchasing at theEnumamula agriculture mar-ket yard.

Speaking on the occasion,the Minister said, "Cotton pro-curement centers were set upat 22 notified ginning mills inthe combined Warangal andthe CCI has begun the pro-curement today," and addedthat the cotton was grown inan area of 7,58,560 acres in thecombined Warangal districtand they were expecting6,25,285 tonnes of cottonarrivals. Stating that cotton isgrown in an area of 82,842acres in Warangal Urban dis-trict with a yield of 79,114 met-ric tons of cotton, the Ministersaid that the CCI had raisedprocurement centres in theUrban district from 18 to 28

this year. He said that there area total of 30 ginning mills inWarangal. "Besides cotton,grain, turmeric, chilli andgreen gram will also be pur-chased at the Enumamulamarket that has a storagecapacity of 19 lakh metrictonnes," he said and added thatthere were 24 cold storageswith a storage capacity of24,45,000 bags under Warangalmarket limits. He further saidthat the farmers had already

stocked 22,37,765 bags of farmproduce in the cold storagesthis year. He also urged thefarmers to bring cotton adher-ing to the norms of the CCIstandards, and added that themoisture content of the cottonshould be below 12 percent.

Reiterating that the govern-ment is committed to buy thelast bag from the farmers, theMinister directed the author-ities to work in coordination tomake the process hassle free.

Cotton procurement begins

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will inaugurateRythu Vedika at KodakandlaMandal head quarters inJangaon district on October31. The Chief Minister willvisit Village Natural Forest inthe vicinity of the RythuVedika. He will address thefarmers and general public.The Chief Minister willexplain the reasons behindsetting up of the RythuVedika, their importance,programmes and utilities.

Rythu Bandhu district,Mandal and VillageCommittees in the erstwhileWarangal district are invitedfor the programme.Agriculture Minister SNiranjan Reddy, Ministersfrom the erstwhile Warangaldistrict Dayakar Rao,Satyavathi Rathod, RythuBandhu state President PallaRajeshwar Reddy, MPs,MLAs, and MLCs from thecombined Warangal districtwill participate.

KCR toinaugurate RythuVedika tomorrow

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telanganga BJP leaders NalluIndrasena Reddy, former MPAP Jithender Reddy onThursday met Dubbak centralobserver (law and order) SarojKumar Thakur at MissionBhagiratha Guest House. TheBJP leaders submitted a mem-orandum to the special officerregarding the recent incidentsin Dubbak.

Speaking to the media,Indrasena Reddy alleged thatthe police are arresting BJPactivists in the name ofbind over cases. Theyurged the specialofficer to beef upsecurity on thepolling day as thereis a scope that theruling party mayindulge in malprac-tices. “The ruling partywantedly attacked TelanganaBJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumarand conducted raids in thehouses of BJP candidate MRaghunandan Rao's relatives

house, he alleged. Taking pot-shots at KTR, he said that the

Chief Minister is criti-cizing PM as he

wished. JithenderReddy alleged thatthe Telanganapolice are harass-ing BJP activists

for the last oneweek. The police

turned as sycophants ofthe ruling TRS. On the otherhand, special officer Takururged all political parties toextend their cooperation toconduct elections peacefully.

BJP decries ‘political vendetta’

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MP from BongirKomatireddy Venkat Reddyon Thursday addressed a let-ter to Central ElectionCommissionerrequesting tosend centralforces toc o n d u c telections inDubbak.

The MP, inhis letter, alleged that TRSand BJP are trying to winelection on wrong path."Finance Minister T HarishRao is misusing his powersand threatening local oppo-sition party leaders.Thepolice found cash in BJPcandidate M RaghunandanRao's relatives house," heallege in the letter.

The Congress MPdemanded the ElectionCommission to initiate actionagainst the leaders violatingelection code of conduct. Heasked the EC to appoint cen-tral observer to each mandalof Dubbak constituency.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Minister for Civil SuppliesGangula Kamalakar hassought cooperation of theCivil Supplies Corporationchairman Mareddy SrinivasReddy, rice millers associationpresident and secretary anddistrict level rice millers' asso-ciation leaders to ensure thatthe paddy procurement duringthe current Vanakalam wouldbe smooth and without anyhiccups.

He held a review meetingwith Civil Supplies Corporation Chairman MareddySrinivas Reddy and RiceMillers' association presidentand secretary and district levelrice millers' association leadersover the paddy procurement.

In a release here on Thursday,the Minster said that it wasdecided to procure 75 lakhtonnes of paddy through 6,467paddy procurement centers.

So far, 16,702 tonnes ofpady worth Rs 3.15 crore wasprocured through 1,071 pro-curement centers. He said thatdistrict level officials havebeen given directions to openprocurement centers in dis-tricts depending on the needs.He appealed to farmers tobring paddy as per the speci-fication standards prescribedby the center for procure-ment. He told the rice millersthat the state government isready to solve the problems ofthe millers and offered to taketheir problems to the notice ofthe CM for resolution.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP Chief BandiSanjay Kumar on Thursdaylaunched a scathing attack onChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao andtermed the latter as 'passportbroker'. "KCR earned crores ofrupees by deceiving the unem-ployed youth. KCR is deceiv-ing BCs," he alleged. "TheChief Minister didn't evenutter a word on Kondagattu

bus accident. KCR slept infarmhouse when theHyderabad city was battlingfloods," he alleged. While par-ticipating in election cam-paign, Bandi Sanjay exudedconfidence that BJP will hoistits flag in Dubbak. DubbakBJP candidate MRaghunandan Rao calledupon the people to give a befit-ting reply to the TRS andFinance Minister T HarishRao.

BJP will win big inDubbak: Bandi

Send centralforces toDubbak: Cong

Govt to procure 75Ltonnes of paddy

PNS n HYDERABAD

Union Minister VMuraleedharan on Thursdaysaid passport application processhas become much more userfriendly due to efforts made bythe ministry, and expressedhope that work would resume infull swing and reach pre-Covid-19 level in due course as theeconomy reopens. The Ministerof State for External Affairs wasspeaking after virtually inaugu-rating the renovated premises ofRegional Passport Office,Hyderabad, which will houseMEA's second integrated com-plex, after Mumbai.

The renovated RPOHyderabad premises will be anintegrated facility. He said evenduring the lockdown period, the

passport offices were working tobring down the passport pen-dency. "Now international trav-el is gradually picking up despitethe ongoing restrictions.MEAhas taken a decision to resumepassport operations throughoutthe country. We are closelyworking with the Department ofPosts to reopen all post officepassport sevakendras,"Muraleedharan said.

On the integrated complex,he said MEA offices located inHyderabad including the MEA'sBranch Secretariat, the Protectorof Emigrants office and theIndian Council for CulturalRelations Regional Office will beshifted to this facility. As aresult all MEA related services,whether it is passport or immi-gration services, will be availableunder a single roof within thepremises of RPO Hyderabad, hesaid. “This makes Hyderabadthe only second cityin Indiaafter Mumbai to have an inte-grated MEA complex. Today'sinauguration of the renovatedpremises of the RegionalPassport Office Hyderabad isa milestone in the operation ofRPO Hyderabad,”Muraleedharan said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court onThursday asked the BombayHigh Court to expeditiouslyconsider hearing the plea filedby the wife of Telugu poet andwriter Varavara Rao, arrestedin connection with theKoregaon Bhima case, seekingbail for him. Taking note of thefact that the bail applicationhas not been heard by theHigh Court since September17, the top court said Rao'smedical condition demandsattention of a particular char-acter and time.

A bench of Justices U ULalit, Vineet Saran and SRavindra Bhat said the matterraises questions regarding theprisoner's human rights.During the hearing, senior

advocate Indira Jaising,appearing for Rao's wifePendyala Hemalatha, said hehas been suffering from vari-ous health problems whichhave affected his capacity tomake decisions and mentalcomprehension.

The bench told Jaising themedical report filed in thematter was of the month ofJuly, and asked when the bailapplication was last heard bythe Bombay High Court.

Forest Dept has

decided to collect

Rs 50 from each

vehicle travelling to

Umamaheswaram

and Maddimadugu

temples

PNS n NIRMAL

Forest and EnvironmentMinister Allola IndrakaranReddy said the launch ofDharani was a new chapter inthe management of lands inthe State. He opined that theportal would play a vital rolein protecting assets and thatit heralded a new phase forthe government to rendertransparent services to thepublic and prevent themfrom being fleeced by mid-dlemen. He further said theTRS-led governmentembarked on a revolutionarysystem to simplify land trans-actions and to put an end tothe saga of challenges of theagrarian community in reg-istering their assets, carryingout mutations and receivingpassbooks.

Expeditiously considerVaravara Rao's bail plea: SC

PNS n BHUPALPALLY

With a view to protect thetigers, mainly in the forests ofJayashankar Bhupalpally,Mulugu and Peddapalli dis-tricts, the authorities of theMaharashtra, Chattisgarh andTelangana States have resolvedto work in tandem to protectthe forests by preventing tim-ber smuggling and poaching inthe forests of Godavari basin.

An 'Interstate coordinationmeeting on forest and forestand wildlife protection' wasconducted at Chelpur GencoOffice in the district onThursday. Addressing the meet-ing, Principal ChiefConservator of Forests (PCCF)

R Shobha said that the contin-uous surveillance would bepossible to protect forest habi-tats through mutual coordina-tion, regular meetings and shar-ing views between borderingstates and bringing awarenessamong forest officials.

Inspector General (IG) of theNational Tiger ConservationOrganization (NTCA), NS

Murali lauded Telangana State'sinitiatives for forest conserva-tion, and assured to see thatmore funds would be allocatedfor the conservation of tigers inTelangana. He said that therewas a very much possibility ofdevelopment of forests as thetiger movement was spotted inMulugu, Bhupalpally andPeddapalli districts recently.

More funds for conservationof tigers in Telangana

MEA-related services undersingle roof: Union Minister

PNS n HYDERABAD

Central Water Commission(CWC) officials on Thursdayclosed the 14 Babli projectgates in the presence of irriga-tion officials from Telangana,Andhra Pradesh andMaharashtra. The SupremeCourt had ordered that everyyear the Babli project gatesshould be lifted on July 1 andclosed on October 29 to facil-itate flow of Godavari waterinto Sri Ram Sagar Project.

This monsoon, a total of356.23 TMC of Godavari

water flowed into SRSP in thelast five months. The projectreleased 225.76 TMC's ofexcess water downstream intothe river Godavari. The SRSPnow has 90.313 TMC of waterand was receiving inflows of9,984 cusecs.

PNS n KHAMMAM

The launch of Dharani portalunveiled a new era in landadministration in the State,Transport Minister P AjayKumar said on Thursday.

He along with elected mem-bers and officials watched thelaunch of Dharani portal byChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao andaddressed a public meeting atRaghunathapalem in the dis-trict on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion,

the Minister said that Dharaniportal, the brainchild of theChief Minister, was aimed ateliminating corruption andensuring transparency in thetransactions related to landpurchases, mutations andother processes.

Very soon the registrationof non-agriculture assetswould also be made availableon Dharani portal, whichcoupled with the newRevenue Act could simplifythe entire system of revenueand land administration, AjayKumar noted. The minister

later visitedRaghunathapalem tahsildaroffice and checked the func-tioning Dharani portal. TheDistrict Collector RV Karnaninformed that the tahsildarsoffices would be consideredjoint sub-registrar offices andall arrangements were in placefor offering the services.

Zilla Parishad ChairmanLingala Kamalraj speaking tothe presspersons at Madhirafelt that Dharani portal wouldbring about revolutionarychange in land administra-tion.

Babli gates closed

‘New chapterin landmanagement’

Dharani will end graft: Minister

Telangana policeare harassingBJP activists forthe last oneweek, allegedformer MP APJithender Reddy

VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020 nation 05

INDIA CORNER

AMumbai court on Thursday grantedbail to Fakt Marathi channel ownerShirish Pattanshetty, who was

arrested in the alleged fake TRP scam.Additional sessions judge P R Sitregranted bail to Pattanshetty on a surety ofRs 50,000, his lawyer Aniket Nikam said.Nikam earlier argued in the court that hisclient had not done any rigging of theTelevision Rating Points nor therewas a rise in the TRP of the Fakth Marathichannel.The revenue of the channel had also not increased during therelevant period, he said, alleging that this was a "witch-hunt". Hefurther submitted that during the custodial interrogation ofPattanshetty, who was arrested earlier this month, nothing wasrecovered and his further detention was unwarranted. The allegedfake TRP scam came to light after ratings agency Broadcast AudienceResearch Council (BARC) filed a complaint with Mumbai policethrough Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain channels wererigging TRP numbers to lure advertisers.

TRP scam: Court grants bail toFakt Marathi channel owner

In a bid to check the spread ofCOVID-19, the Maharashtragovernment has directed the

Government Railway Police (GRP)to impose fine on commutersfound without masks in local trainsand on stations here, an officialsaid on Thursday.In a letter to GRPCommissioner RavindraSengaonkar, state disaster management department director AbhayYawalkar has said the fine will be in line with the circular issued bythe Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on September9, or any further circular issued by the civic body. The MCGMcurrently imposes a fine of Rs 200 on people found without masks inpublic places. "The state bequeaths powers to the GovernmentRailway Police to impose fines on commuters found to be travellingwithout masks in the local trains or inside the stationpremises," Yawalkar said in the letter.In order to avoid resurgence ofCOVID-19 cases, it is imperative that all related protocols are followedby commuters, the letter said.

Maha govt directs GRP to finecommuters travelling sans masks

The Election CommissionThursday orderedimmediate removal of the

District Magistrate and theSuperintendent of Police ofMunger over violence duringgoddess Durga idol immersionthat had left one dead andscores injured, officials said.The poll panel has also orderedan inquiry into the entireincident by Magadh Divisional Commissioner Asangba Chuba Ao, anelection commission statement said.The probe has to be completedwithin a week. Rajesh Meena is District Magistrate and Lipi Singh isSP of Munger. The EC statement said Munger will get a new DM anda Superintendent of Police Thursday itself.One person was killed andover two dozen others, including security personnel, were injured infiring and stone-pelting during goddess Durga idol immersion lateMonday night.

EC orders removal of MungerSP, DM over violence

Union Home Minister AmitShah on Thursdaycondoled the death of

former Gujarat chief ministerKeshubhai Patel and said hislong public life was devoted tothe service of the people of thestate. Patel died in Ahmedabadafter prolonged illness.“I havereceived the sad news of the death of former Chief Minister of GujaratKeshubhai Patel. His long public life was devoted to the service of thepeople of Gujarat. With the death of Keshubhai, a void has beencreated in the politics of Gujarat which is not going to be filled easily.My condolences to his family,” Shah tweeted in Hindi.The homeminister said Patel, while in the BJP, played an important role instrengthening the party in Gujarat and as a trustee of the SomnathTemple, he always supported the development of the temple.

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a bid to tackle the persistentproblem of air pollution inDelhi-NCR, the Centre hasintroduced a new law throughan ordinance which comesinto force with immediateeffect.

Violation of the provisionsentails a punishment of a jailterm up to five years or withfine up to Rs one crore or withboth, the ordinance released bythe Ministry of Law and Justiceon Thursday said.

"The ordinance may becalled the Commission forAir Quality Management InNational Capital Region andAdjoining Areas Ordinance2020. It shall apply to nation-al capital region and alsoadjoining areas in so far as itrelates to matters concerningair pollution in the NCR. Itshall come into force at once,"it said. The ordinance wassigned by the president onWednesday. As per the ordi-nance, the adjoining areaswhere it shall be in forceinclude Punjab, Haryana,Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh,adjoining areas of the NCRand Delhi where any source of

pollution is located which iscausing an adverse impact onair quality in the national cap-ital region. The commissionwill consist of over 20 mem-bers who will ensure strictcompliance."Any non-com-pliance or contravention ofany provisions/rules ororder/direction of the

Commission will be an offencepunishable with a jail term upto five years or with fine up toRs one crore or with both," itsaid. The members willinclude a chairperson, who isor has been a secretary ofGovernment of India or chiefsecretary of a state, a represen-tative of Environment secre-tary and five ex-officio mem-bers who are either chief sec-retaries or secretaries in chargeof the environment depart-ments of Delhi, Punjab,Haryana, Rajasthan and UttarPradesh, it added.

The commission will alsoinclude two full- time mem-bers who have been joint sec-retaries to the central govern-ment, three full-time indepen-dent technical members whohave specific scientific knowl-edge regarding air pollutionand others.

HM Amit Shah condoles deathof Keshubhai Patel

PNS n MUMBAI

Mumbai, Oct 29 (PTI)TheBombay High Court onThursdayasked the Union government

to clarify whether "excessive"reportage by the press on anongoing investigation amount-ed to interference in theadministration of justice underthe Contempt of Courts Act.

A bench of Chief JusticeDipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni asked the govern-ment to state by November 6if such reportage adverselyaffects the probe and subse-quent trial, and if the courtshould lay guidelines on mediareporting.

"If there is excessive report-ing, that can put an accused onguard, and he may resort todestroying evidence orabsconding. Or if that personis actually innocent, the

excessive media reportingcan damage his reputation," itsaid.

"We would not like themedia to cross it boundaries

and we would also like to bewithin our boundaries," thecourt said and asked the stateif such reportage wouldamount to interference and ifthe government thought theHC had the jurisdiction toframe guidelines.

"Whetherexcessive report-ing by media in an ongoinginvestigation amounts to inter-ference in administration ofjustice under Section 2(c) ofthe Contempt of Courts Actand should we lay guidelines?This is the issue before us,"

HCsaid.It also asked the govern-

ment's counsel, AdditionalSolicitor General (ASG) AnilSingh, to consider scenarioswhere such reportage on anongoing probe, where a chargesheet was yet to be filed, influ-enced the investigating officer,or resulted in a witness beingthreatened.

It asked if the court muststep in and formulate guide-lines to regulate the press toavoid such scenarios.

"If media identifies that aperson is a very vital witness,he could be won over, threat-ened, or he could be evenphysically harmed so that hedoes not give evidence," it said.

On the possibility of thepress influencing an investigat-ing officer, the HC said, "Thinkof a police officer. Can anyoneguarantee that he will not beinfluenced?"

"He may be following a par-ticular track. Media says no nothis must be the track. He losestrack and rounds up an inno-cent person," it said.

PNS n BHOPAL

The Union Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) has upheldthe suspension of seniorMadhya Pradesh IPS officerPurushottam Sharma, whowas seen purportedly thrash-ing his wife in a video thatwent viral last month.

In a letter issued to theMadhya Pradesh chief secre-tary on Wednesday, the MHAalso directed the state govern-ment to chargesheet Sharmaby November 27. The stategovernment had suspendedSharma from the post of spe-cial director general onSeptember 29 following hisviral video, in which he wasseen beating his wife after sheconfronted him at the house ofa news anchor with a region-al channel. After the incidentcame to light, Sharma had saidthat it was a family disputewhich would be sorted out.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Nearly 11 lakh CovidD-19tests have been conducteddaily on an average in the pastsix weeks as the cumulativetests have crossed 10.65 crore-mark, the Health Ministry saidon Thursday.

In a statement, the HealthMinistry said 15 lakh testscan be done everyday now.

"The declining trend ofcumulative positivity rate in thepast three weeks is a testimo-ny of the wide expansion of thecountry's testing facilities," itsaid. "With 10,75,760 testsconducted in the last 24 hours,the cumulative tests havecrossed 10.65 crore

(10,65,63,440). Nearly 11 lakhtests have been conducteddaily on an average during thepast six weeks," it added.Giving break-up from the

states, the ministry said 79 percent of the new cases are from10 states and union territories.

"Kerala continues to be thestate reporting a very high

number of new cases withmore than 8,000 cases, fol-lowed by Maharashtra withmore than 6,000 cases," it said.

The ministry said the declin-ing trend of the active cases issupported by the rising num-ber of recovered cases. "Thetotal recovered cases havecrossed 73 lakh (73,15,989).The gap between recoveredcases and active cases hascrossed 67 lakh (67,12,302).With an increasing number ofrecoveries, this gap is contin-uously widening," it said.

A total of 56,480 peoplehave recovered and dischargedin the last 24 hours whereas thenew confirmed cases stand at49,881, the ministry said.

Covid positivity rate declining: Govt

MHA confirmssuspension ofMP IPS officer

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court has grant-ed an interim stay on sum-mons issued to a Delhi resi-dent, accused of allegedlymaking an 'objectionable'Facebook post against the WestBengal Government, by aninvestigating officer in thestate.

A bench of Justices D YChandrachud and IndiraBanerjee said the court shouldrestrain the exercise of judicialreview in the matter of policeinvestigation. However, it mustsafeguard the fundamentalright to the freedom of expres-sion under Article 19(1)(a) ofthe Constitution.

There is a need to ensurethat the power under section41A CrPC is not used to intim-idate, threaten and harass, thebench said. Section 41A of

CrPC deals with notice ofappearance before a policeofficer. “We are, however, ofthe considered view that torequire the petitioner at thisstage to comply with the sum-mons under Section 41A dur-ing the pendency of the pro-ceedings before the HighCourt would not be justified inthe facts as they have emergedin this case. “Hence we grant

an ad-interim stay against theimplementation of the direc-tion of the high court requir-ing the petitioner to appearbefore the Investigating Officerat Ballygunge Police Station,”the bench said. This is subjectto the condition that the peti-tioner undertakes to respondto any queries that may beaddressed to her by theInvestigating Officer and, if sorequired, attend to thosequeries on the video confer-encing platform with suffi-cient notice of twenty-fourhours, the apex court said.

Senior advocate MaheshJethmalani, appearing onbehalf of the petitioner, statedthat the petitioner would coop-erate in all respects thoughafter the order of 5 June 2020,no query was addressed to thepetitioner, despite five monthshaving elapsed since then.

SC stays summons to Delhiresident over objectionable post

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Thursdaysought the Centre's reply ona plea alleging that two med-icines Remdesivir andFavipiravir, are being used fortreatment of COVID-19 with-out approval.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice S A Bobde issuednotice to the Centre on theplea and sought its responsein four weeks.

Advocate M L Sharma peti-tioner in-person referred tothe bench, also comprisingJustices A S Bopanna and VRamasubramanian, the WorldHealth Organization (WHO)report of October 15 andsaid that nowhere these med-icines are designated official-ly as medicines for coron-avirus. The bench said it is

only going to make the cen-tral government aware of itand therefore issuing notice.

On September 16, the topcourt had said that there wasan approval by the centralgovernment on use ofRemdesivir and Favipiravir, asmedicines to treat COVID-19.

The top court was hearinga plea seeking registration ofan FIR by the CBI against tenIndian pharmaceutical firmsfor manufacturing and sellingthese two medicines for treat-ing COVID-19 patientsallegedly without validlicences.

Remdesivir and Favipiravirare antiviral drugs and theirefficacy in treating COVID-19 patients has been a matterof debate among medicalexperts.

Remdesivir: SCseeks Centre's reply

‘Can excessive mediareporting hinder justice?’

PNS n NEW DELHI

Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Thursday said devel-opment and environment con-servation should go hand inhand as "we not only need astronger India but also agreener India".

He also urged finance com-missions and local bodies toencourage green buildingsthrough tax incentives.

The vice president said it istime to consider making allnew buildings to mandatorilygo green and environmentfriendly.

Inaugurating CII's GreenBuilding Congress, he saidexisting buildings too shouldbe retrofitted to make themenvironment friendly byadopting green practices thatpromote energy efficiency andwater conservation.

He termed sustainablebuildings as an importantcomponent in buildingresilient communities andcalled for extensive use andpromotion of low carbon tech-nologies. “We not only need a

stronger India but also agreener India,” he said accord-ing to an official statement.

Drawing attention to theincreasing number of extremeclimate events such asdroughts, floods, and wildfires,Naidu said climate change is asreal as daylight and countriesall over the world must adoptdrastic and revolutionary mea-sures to mitigate the problemof global warming.

Calling for the sustainableapproach to development, thevice president said the chal-lenge is to marry developmentand environment.

“If we take care of nature,the nature in turn will takecare of the mankind,” he said.

PNS n CHENNAI

Breaking his silence, actorRajinikanth on Thursdaysaid he has been adviseda-gainst entering politics bydoctors as he had under-gone a kidney transplantand due to the coronaviruspandemic.

Rajinikanth said on histwitter handle that though astatement -that hints that hemay reconsider his politicalentry given his health condi-tion- doing rounds in socialmediawas not from him, thecontent related to his healthstatusand doctors advise tohim "is all true."

PNS n Thiruvananthapuram,

The arrest of suspended IASofficer M Sivasankar by theEnforcement Directorate hasput the Left Democratic Frontgovernment and the CPI(M) inKerala in a spot at a time whenthe state is getting ready for thecrucial local body and assem-bly polls.

The Left party and its lead-ers cannot simply wash theirhands off the development bysaying Sivasankar, said to be aclose confidant of ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan and

once the most influentialofficial in the CMO, was justone among the several civil ser-

vice officers in the state cadre,according to political observers.Sivasankar, the former princi-pal secretary to Vijayan, was onWednesday arrested by theEnforcement Directorate inconnection with the controver-sial gold smuggling case, after

over six hours of interrogationby the ED, probing the moneytrail in the case. The arrest hasgiven the opposition- Congressand BJP- an unexpected polit-ical weapon to attack Vijayan,heading the lone Communistgovernment in the country.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A Delhi court has closed acriminal defamation caseagainst BJP leader KapilMishra after he tendered anunconditional apology toAAP leader and Delhi HealthMinister Satyendar Jain.

The complaint was filed byJain against Mishra in 2017for his defamatory statementsagainst him and ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal.

The case was closed onWednesday after Mishraagreed to tender an uncondi-tional apology beforeAdditional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate,Vishal Pahuja.

"It is submitted by theaccused (Mishra) that he isready to make a statementbefore the court tenderingunconditional apology.Complainant (Jain) also sub-mitted that in case theaccused gives his statementbefore the court, he shallwithdraw the present com-plaint,” the Court recorded.

After recording the state-ment of Mishra, as well asJain, the Court disposed ofthe defamation complaint aswithdrawn.

In a press conference heldin 2017, Mishra had accusedJain of handing over a bribeof Rs 2 crore to ArvindKejriwal.

Rajini says heunderwent renaltransplant in ‘16

Left govt on the backfoot after Sivasankar's arrest

PNS n SRINAGAR

Several PDP leaders were onThursday detained by police asthey tried to stage a protestagainst the new land laws noti-fied by the Centre for Jammuand Kashmir. PDP leader

Khursheed Alam, partyspokesman Suhail Bukhari andyouth president Waheed Parrawere among those detained bypolice as they came out of theparty's Srinagar office at Sher-e-Kashmir Municipal Park, offi-cials said. The party leaders

wanted to hold a protest rallyagainst the amendments madeto the land laws of the Unionterritory by the Centre onTuesday which allow peoplefrom other parts of the countryto buy land in the region. Themainstream parties of Kashmir

have decried the amendmentsand termed the move akin toputting Jammu and Kashmir upfor sale.

PDP president MehboobaMufti tried to reach the PDPoffice, but was asked by thepolice to return to her residence.

PDP leaders stage protest; arrested

Venkaiah bats forstronger, greener India

Delhi court closes defamationcomplaint against Kapil Mishra

As per theordinance, theadjoining areaswhere it shall be inforce includePunjab, Haryana,Rajasthan andUttar Pradesh,adjoining areas ofthe NCR and Delhi

“We would not like the media to crossit boundaries and we would also like tobe within our boundaries," the courtsaid and asked the state if suchreportage would amount tointerference

Centre introduces new lawto tackle pollution in Delhi

PNS n NEW DELHI

BSP leader Mayawati sus-pended seven of her party'srebel MLAs who hadopposed the nomination ofits official candidate RamjiGautam for the elections tothe Rajya Sabha.Amid spec-ulation that the MLAs couldswitch sides in Uttar Pradesh,Mayawati also said that toensure defeat of SamajwadiParty candidates in futureMLC elections, her partywill vote for BJP or anyother party's candidate.

She said as soon as therebel MLAs join any party,the BSP would take actionagainst them under the anti-defection law. She said theparty organisation has beeninformed that the suspendedlegislators should not beinvited to any party function.

Mayawatisuspends sevenrebel MLAs

In mid-October, a 17-year-oldgirl, Neema (name changed)was found by the UttarPradesh (UP) Police in adazed state, hungry and deliri-

ous. Sold to traffickers by herpoverty-stricken parents on theadvice of “well-meaning” neigh-bours in her village in MadhyaPradesh, the teenager had escapedfrom her tormentors in Delhi.Neema walked and hitch-hiked forthree days to cover a distance of 200km before she was spotted by con-cerned passersby and the police inHathras. Unaware of her where-abouts and determined to reachhome, she was still 794 km short ofher home in Mandla district whenshe was rescued. The girl told thepolice that there were 12 otherminors like her, confined to oneroom in Delhi. Fortunately, they allmanaged to escape.

Neema is not the only childfrom her village to have been traf-ficked. Several others like her havebeen sold by needy parents. Thisstory is repeated over and over againin India, particularly in rural areas.India is starving and its children arebearing the brunt of this hunger.They are being sacrificed at the altarof the crippling poverty that hasworsened because of the suckerpunch delivered to the already tot-tering economy by the Coronavirus.As feared by the experts in the fieldof rescue and rehabilitation of traf-ficked children, the number ofminors, particularly girls, sold totraffickers for as little as `10,000-`50,000, has grown alongside thenumber of people rendered joblessby the pandemic. As a result, des-perate parents, having to choosebetween survival of the family fora little while longer and their love,chose the former. So many girls andboys were sold to traffickers acrossthe country.

This is despite the fact thatArticles 23, 39, 14 and 21 of theConstitution guarantee every childfreedom from exploitation in anyform. The Immoral Traffic(Prevention) Act, 1956 was enact-ed in pursuance of the InternationalConvention signed at New York onMay 9, 1950 and it was amended in1986 to widen its scope to cover allcitizens. However, according torights advocates, the Act has glar-ing lacunae as it fails to define theterm “traffic” or “trafficking” andaims to penalise those who aid andabet commercial sexual exploita-tion. Therefore, its focus on the def-

inition of the term brothel leadsto the inference that commercialsexual exploitation takes placeonly in a brothel and not in otherplaces, such as in a house. TheAct is clearly not victim-centricas women and children, who areforced into prostitution, are alsotreated as criminals and arrest-ed when raids are conducted.

Similarly there are severalother laws to protect the rightsof children, such as theCommissions for Protection ofChild Rights Act, 2005, theRight of Children to Free andCompulsory Education Act,2009, the Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences Act, 2000.The rights of child labourers canbe adequately secured only if themonitoring and controlling pro-visions contained in the saidstatutes are fully implemented.However, they are not despite theSupreme Court insisting upontheir applicability.

In 2013, the top court lament-ed that despite its directions, lit-tle or no progress was made bythe States in protecting the rightsof children. Thus, we have hor-ror stories emerging from acrossthe country. Desperate children,sold to traffickers by impover-ished parents, making hopelessbids to return home to the sameparents who pushed them intothe hell in the first place.

Though Neema and severalothers like her have escaped fornow, not everyone is so lucky.Thousands of children are beingtrafficked globally for initiationinto the sex trade, to be recruit-ed as bonded labour, drug run-ners, child terrorists or humanshields. The InternationalLabour Organisation has pre-dicted that with the pandemicravaging economies globally,

the world may witness anincrease in child labour for thefirst time in 20 years and thereis a huge risk of years of progressin this arena being reversed.First, it was hunger induced bythe lockdown that fuelled thetrafficking. And now that theeconomy has opened up, it is thedemand for cheaper labour andbigger margins by businesses.Closer home, ever since thelockdown was imposed andthen eased a few months later inphases, Delhi-NCR has becomea hub of trafficking as more andmore children are being rescuedfrom factories and brothels.

The Delhi Commission forProtection of Child Rights res-cued 93 children from gold andjewellery factories in Karol Baghin May. Of them, 57 were belowthe age of 14 and some were even10-year-olds. The rest of the chil-dren were between 14 and 18.Then in July, nine child labour-ers were found working at sev-eral scrap shops in North EastDelhi’s Mustafabad. But theserescues are like a drop in theocean as the lockdown sloweddown such initiatives as well.There was a time when only 27per cent of the Anti-HumanTrafficking Units were func-tional. Thankfully, in September,36 children under 14 years wererescued from bangle-makingunits in West Delhi’sJahangirpuri area where theywere made to work for 15 hoursa day and sleep in the same dingyroom. All lured or sold on thepromise of food and a roof overtheir heads.

Nobel laureate KailashSatyarthi, Chairperson of NGOBachpan Bachao Andolan, esti-mates that in Delhi, “at least fivelakh children are in full-time

jobs. That means every sixthchild is out of school and work-ing somewhere.”

Every time we hear such sta-tistics, we are shocked and angry.Even more disturbing is the factthat these children are there inour midst, suffering abuse, hard-ship, deprivation and long hoursof work in dingy, dark and pol-luted places where they have nobusiness to be. We are blissfullyignorant of this invisible, silentand hapless workforce. The tinyfactory workers, who are wellhidden from our sight, toil topander to our penchant for buy-ing things at discounted prices,the cheaper the better. But we arecontent sweeping our collectiveguilt under the carpet, simplybecause they do not torment usvisibly.

We do know that certainindustries traditionally employchildren. Like bidi factories, thecarpet industry, the garmentsweatshops, incense and fire-work factories, brick kilns, thefarm sector and so on. Butwhen buying these products, dowe ever take the pain to ensurethat the brand that we are pur-chasing has nothing to do withchild labour? It is our demandfor cheaper products that in turncreates the demand for childlabour as businesses then cankeep the cost of productiondown and their margins up. Wedon’t bother to boycott goodsover unethical trade practices. Ifwe did so, the factory ownerswould have revised their norms.So, by extension, we are as guiltyas the perpetrators of the crimeof trafficking and hiring childlabour.

And what about child labour-ers, who are staring us right inour faces? What of the minor

hired to “baby-sit” children? Orthe ubiquitous chotus (appren-tices/assistants) all over India,selling chai at the local tea shopand even delivering it to ouroffices and at the railway station?What of the little boy cleaningthe car in the neighbourhood,his little hands and musclesstraining to carry a heavy buck-et full of water? Or the shoeshineboy, the child manning a road-side dhaba, serving food to cus-tomers? Have we ever botheredto question the people who hirethem or even inform the lawenforcement authorities abouttheir presence? Clearly we do notwant to get out of our comfortzone and easily attribute it to asocietal crime, without realisingwe form the society that con-dones it. We could have pickedup the phone and called theNGOs and rights activists whocan help the child in distress. Butwe don’t do that either.

And what about childrencaught in the sex trade? If peo-ple stop watching child pornog-raphy, there will be no marketfor it. If men stop violatingminor girls for a price, there willbe no market for it again. So, onall counts, society is as guilty asthe criminals who traffic chil-dren.

Apart from a mindset change,there has to be communityalertness and personal account-ability by each citizen. Theremust be non-Governmental andGovernment intervention toensure that hapless parents donot take the extreme step of trad-ing their children for a dole.There is no time to be lost, elsea nation will forget the meaningof bachpan.

(The writer is Senior Editor,The Pioneer)

Delhi University (DU) is not only India’s largestand most prestigious Central university, hometo several top colleges of the country, it is also

the most politically active. However, what is happen-ing in DU right now is unprecedented in its 98-yearhistory as President Ram Nath Kovind has ordered anenquiry against Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi on thegrounds of “misconduct” and “dereliction of duty.”Tyagi has been suspended till the probe is complet-ed since he can influence the investigation while inoffice. Much of this has been precipitated by the healthof the Vice-Chancellor, who had to be admitted to AIIMS

on emergency grounds back in July and a Pro-VC, Professor PC Joshi, had to be appoint-ed. However, after Tyagi returned to work, he tried to invalidate several appointmentsmade by the Pro-VC, even those that had been cleared by DU’s Executive Council. Therow escalated when Tyagi appointed Professor PC Jha as the interim Registrar despitethe Union Ministry of Education’s claims that the new order was not effective as theVC was still on leave while issuing it. However, the Executive Council resolved thatProfessor Suman Kundu would continue as Director, South Campus and acting Registrartill a permanent Registrar was appointed. This was followed by Tyagi removing ProfessorJoshi as Pro-VC and appointing Geeta Bhatt in his place. Meanwhile Joshi had noti-fied the appointment of a new Registrar, Vikas Gupta, whose interview had been com-pleted and appointment cleared by the Executive Council. This is a truly bizarre andridiculous situation, particularly when the 2020-2021 academic year is about to start.By initiating an enquiry against Tyagi and completely clipping his wings, his term is asgood as over. However, the Ministry should take its fair share of the blame here. Whenthe V-C was admitted to hospital in an emergency condition, it should have steppedin to put a system in place. At the same time, it has consistently overlooked past laps-es flagged against Tyagi, including not filling vacant positions, delay in redressal ofsexual harassment cases and vigilance complaints in university, mishandling of theissue of ad-hoc teachers, which led to a massive agitation, and non-submission ofdetailed plans for implementation of the Institution of Eminence (IoE). The last strawcame in the form of certain appointments he made while being on medical leave.

This mess needs to be immediately rectified by the Ministry and if Tyagi is to beremoved, a new V-C must be found post-haste. This is a situation that is unprecedent-ed and if elections and a pandemic were not ongoing, this would be the top headlineof the day. This development is not surprising after decades of Ministers and bureau-crats striking at the autonomy of Central universities. Institutions of higher learning thrivewhen they are allowed to function independent of the Government and where the V-Cis prided for his integrity and not seen as a political appointee.

The byelection in Madhya Pradesh may have gotswamped by the Assembly polls in Bihar and itsresults may not threaten the ruling BJP

Government in the State. But it is significant in decid-ing the political future of stalwarts both within the BJPand the Congress. The number game is fairly settled.The BJP currently has 107 seats in the 230-memberAssembly, with the support of Independents,Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)MLAs. So, given its ambition to do without props ofany kind and consolidate its position as the singlelargest party, it would just about need to win nine of

the 28 seats going to the polls and cross the half-way mark. The Congress has 88MLAs after Jyotiraditya Scindia revolted and took 22 loyalists with him to the BJP, top-pling the Kamal Nath Government. It would need to win all 28 seats to cross the halfwaymark, a tall order, though party hopefuls are arguing that even 20-plus seats could keepit in the running as it could manage the deficit by co-opting smaller parties. This pre-sumptive logic isn’t much to bet on. The desperation of the Congress is understand-able considering it wants to prove a point to Jyotiraditya that his exit hasn’t really affect-ed the party’s grassroots matrix. In one word, therefore, the bypolls are his test. Hemay have defected with his loyalists but can he ensure vote transference with suchease? Particularly when the Congress is relentlessly calling him a traitor, even draw-ing on his family history to show how the Scindias betrayed Rani Laxmibai. Besideswith most of the seats going to the bypolls being located in the Gwalior-Chambal region,which has the highest number of caste atrocities and violence and where the Dalit voteswing matters politically, Jyotiraditya has to have an umbrella appeal to win and notjust depend on his legacy. His being in the BJP could actually be a liability as this is aBSP bastion and its people were at the forefront of protests against the dilution of theScheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in 2018. Besides,the BSP is contesting all seats here this time and unless, as a kingmaker, its chief Mayawatidecides whom to side with in the event of a mixed verdict, the going could be toughfor Jyotiraditya. Of course, his staunch follower and Dalit candidate, Imarti Devi, whomKamal Nath insulted, could mop up some of the sympathy votes from the communi-ty at the expense of the Congress. The BJP has obliged Jyotiraditya for catapulting itback to power by giving tickets to the rebel MLAs loyal to him. This has not been tothe liking of its Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who wouldn’t want Jyotiradityato challenge his stature. So the latter has to prove his mettle in his adopted party byensuring the maximum wins. If he does, his stakes will rise but if he fails, then he couldbe badly marginalised. As it is, the State BJP campaign is still pivoted around Chouhanand has hardly taken note of the new entrant. This is Jyotiraditya’s big chance to provehis political currency and if he fails, he will be of no use to any party. Not even Congress.In fact, if Jyotiraditya succeeds, it would be the most effective message of getting evenwith Kamal Nath and convincing the grand old party of the need for a generational change.If he does really well, he could even get a Central Ministry, something he has beenwanting since he crossed over.

Though the BJP needs single digits to coast home, Chouhan wants to win at leasthalf of the seats to show that he is not dependent on Jyotiraditya’s clout. Having con-ceded tickets and ministerial berths to the young leader’s group following Central pres-sure, the Chief Minister wants to show he is in command. But Chouhan is caught betweenthe criticism of his handling of COVID-19 and the challenge from Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar, who has the blessings of the Central party leadership to under-cut him. As far as Kamal Nath is considered, the bypolls are his last chance to takeanother shot at chief ministership. But with below the belt attacks and scorning a womanlegislator, he may have just scripted his own downfall. Kamal Nath has an axe to grindwith Imarti Devi, who is a Jyotiraditya Scindia loyalist and defected with him to theBJP. In fact, the sexist remark against her came days after and probably as a hitbackto her accusation that Nath bribed MLAs when he was Chief Minister, that he gave cashdoles of `5 lakh to Congress MLAs who could not be granted ministerial posts. In ret-rospect, her needless victimisation only drew attention to his greed for power by man-aging numbers. Of course, the seasoned politician he is, he knows how to work thearithmetic in case of an adverse scenario. But the old-style politics may not work at atime when the BJP won’t be sparing any resources either to ensure that one party-ruleflows from the Centre to other States.

Jyotiraditya’s test

Poor footfall Sir — As per the Centre’s guide-lines, many cinema halls are re-opening. However, the footfallremains in single digits.Currently, the halls are permit-ted to operate with 50 per centcapacity; one seat between twopersons is to be kept empty toensure social distancing. Othermandatory norms include wear-ing of masks, applying sanitis-ers, compulsory thermal scan-ning, adequate ventilation andfreezing temperature settingsof all air conditioning at 23degree Celsius or above. Evenwith strict guidelines in place,people are extremely hesitant tovisit the theatres. Also, no big-time releases are slated for nowas it is preposterous to imaginea producer or an actor riskinghis/her fortune during suchcrucial times. Over the monthssince the lockdown, the loyalfilm audience has adapted toonline streaming apps.Adjusting to big screens againmight take some time. Alsomany are cutting on expenditureowing to their financial stress.

The cinema hall owners, too,are in a quandary because of thefinancial losses they have beenbearing due to the complete clo-

sure of the theatres for the pastseveral months. In addition toelectricity and ancillary costs,the huge challenge of sanitisingthe halls after every show can betaxing. Many are hoping that thefestive season might make somedifference but given the currentscenario, the future of moviehalls seems rather bleak.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

Defence agreementSir — On October 27, India andthe US signed the BasicExchange and CooperationAgreement (BECA) to furthermilitary ties between the twocountries. India will now be ableto keep an eye on the move-ments of Chinese warships inthe Indian Ocean Region (IOR).BECA will help us get real-time

access to American geospatialintelligence that will enhance theaccuracy of automated systemsand weapons like missiles andarmed drones. Sharing informa-tion on maps and satelliteimages will help us gain accessto topographical and aeronau-tical data. The signing of thelong-negotiated defence pactcomes against the backdrop ofa tense border standoff with

China in eastern Ladakh. Theincreasing defence and securi-ty partnership between the twonations will help monitor the sit-uation in the Indo-Pacific at atime when China is attemptingto expand its economic and mil-itary clout in the region. In June,India and Australia had signeda pact allowing their militariesto access each other’s bases. Asimilar agreement with Japanalso came to fruition last monthafter years of negotiations. It isalso hoped that the sharing oftechnology will contribute sig-nificantly towards bringingIndia closer to the lofty goal ofatmanirbharta in the defencesector.

Yash Pal RalhanJalandhar

Ban firecrackers Sir — The air quality has furtherworsened as hundreds of Ravanaeffigies and firecrackers wereburnt in the Capital on Dussehra.The Government needs to wakeup and put a blanket ban on fire-crackers this Diwali.

Yugal Kishore SharmaFaridabad

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

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionVIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020

06

Nobody’s childFuelled by a pandemic-hit economy and the lack of personal accountability,

India’s child trafficking problems have further worsened

Some experts told us informally thatair pollution is not only caused dueto stubble burning, but there aremany other causes too. You lawyerswill also have to get down from yourbig, beautiful cars and ride cycles.

Chief Justice of India —SA Bobde

Punjab makes a point for its farmers

The Punjab Assembly has passed three farm Billsas the farmers’ protests against the recently passedfarm Acts intensify. The Central laws are silent about

the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for agricultural pro-duce. Sale of produce to the private traders, compa-nies, corporates and other agencies cannot take placein the Agricultural Produce Market Committees(APMC) mandis anymore, and levy of fee for tradeshas been prohibited. Thus, farmers have no option butto approach the courts for dispute resolution. Thethought of a takeover of the agriculture sector by tradersusing their financial power is haunting the farmers.

According to the State Bills, “no sale or purchaseof wheat or paddy shall be valid unless the price paidfor such agricultural produce is equal to or greater thanthe MSP” announced for the two crops. And if an indi-vidual or a company or any other agency compels orexerts pressure on a farmer to sell the agro-produceat a price below the MSP, then such person shall bedeemed to have committed a punishable offence. The

Bills also have a provision to levy a fee on trade plat-forms outside the markets established under the PunjabAgricultural Produce Markets Act 1961 to fund welfareactivities. These proposed amendment Bills are not justmeant to counter the Centre's laws but to save the peas-antry of Punjab.

Haridasan Rajan Kozhikode

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

DU imbroglio

The MP bypolls would prove if he can indeed get even with formerCM Kamal Nath and earn his stripes in the BJP

The power tussle between the Vice-Chancellor and thePro-VC only harms the most prestigious university

REENA AMOS DYES

There is total lawlessness.Jammu and Kashmir has been converted into a jail. We are not Twitter politicians,we won't stay inside, we will come out.

Former Chief Minister—Mehbooba Mufti

We have 2,25,000 deaths, themodeling tells us we're goingto get one hundred or morethousand as we get into thewinter, that is just somethingthat's unacceptable.

US disease expert—Anthony Fauci

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

If we talk about my cricket career, then theonly and biggest regret isthat we failed to win thesemi-final of the 2011World Cup in Mohali.

Cricketer—Umar Gul

S O U N D B I T E

Graft-free governance

THIS DUSSEHRA THE EFFIGIES OF THE PRIME

MINISTER AND INDUSTRIALISTS WERE BURNT. IT IS

SAD, BUT IT IS HAPPENING AS FARMERS ARE UPSET.

—CONGRESS LEADER

RAHUL GANDHI

THIS SHOWS HOW DESPERATE THE CONGRESS IS.

SHOULD THE FORMER CONGRESS CHIEF TALK LIKE

THIS? HE HAS NO POLITICAL STANDING LEFT.

—UNION MINISTER

RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Among the issues in public discourse that havecaught the attention of the country is the prob-lem of corruption, which elicits strident crit-

icism. The issue has triggered a slew of reforms aimedat strengthening the fabric of integrity, like the enact-ment of the Public Procurement Bill, the Lokpal Actincorporating, inter alia, the public disclosure of assetsby public servants, reforms in higher judicialappointments and so on. While anti-graft activistsdiffer in terms of strategies and focus areas, there isa unanimous acceptance of the fact that technolo-gy and e-governance promote greater transparency.The rationale is very simple. Deny the opportunityfor manual manipulation and replace it with tech-nology, crafted around well-defined protocols andlegal safeguards with minimal human intervention.

It has been five years since India adopted theUN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Corruption in general and venality in public life inparticular adversely affect the fulfilment of theseSDGs. Therefore, a proactive and preventive vigilanceregime forms the backbone of good governance andis critical to their realisation. How then do we makegovernance more effective without inhibiting itsobjectives? Today, administrative affairs grapple withleakages in public delivery of welfare and develop-ment goals on account of manual processes that canbe manipulated. But by leveraging technology,these leakages can be plugged. Incremental improve-ments to technology should continue to be the main-stay of advancements in administration.

In the recent discourse on procurement meth-ods, transparency of policy, procedure and practicesis increasingly being seen as an imperative of usingpublic monies to remove any allegations of opacityand inconsistencies in decision-making. Achievingtransparency ensures that procurement is open topublic scrutiny, which results in best value for pub-lic monies. For example, the transparency of proce-dure as achieved in online applications is one of thesimpler yet effective features of digitisation, as it shiftsthe onus of submitting correct information and datato the applicant. This, once verified by the public ser-vant, retains the maker-checker wedge in a direct way.

In an effort to plug leakages in procurement sys-tems, the Government launched the Government E-Marketplace (GeM) in 2016 as an end-to-end mar-ketplace for goods and services required by Centraland State Governments as well as Public SectorUndertakings. As per an assessment by the Centrefor Public Impact, the savings impact of GeM hasbeen substantial, wherein a maximum price reduc-tion of approximately 56 per cent of goods and ser-vices, coupled with demand aggregation, has alreadyled to savings to the tune of `40,000 crore annual-ly. Given the fact that the public procurement econ-omy constitutes about 20 per cent of India’s GDP, itis imperative to build on this initiative through ampli-fied efforts and bring as many goods and serviceson board as possible. And in order to make the plat-form more robust, addressing the issue of quality con-trol should be the next level of sophistication thatGeM should aspire for.

In the next 10 years, the business of Governmentwill experience massive disruption. This comes onthe back of technological enhancements that reducethe need for intermediaries and ensure that the sanc-tity of process remains unimpeachable. One suchtechnology which has been discussed widely in recenttimes is blockchain. A NITI Aayog discussion paperhas identified use-cases where the technology canpotentially improve governance, ranging from trac-ing of drugs in the pharmaceutical supply chain toverification of education certificates. The three keyprinciples of the blockchain technology are:Transparency, decentralisation and accountability.

One of the most interesting areas ofintervention for this technology would bein the space of land records. Ever since thePermanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793,the issue of land records has occupied theadministration and citizenry with itscomplexities, misgivings and fraud. Thesystem is riddled with inefficiencies thatreduce trust in the Government. Currentlythe UNDP is involved in certain Proof ofConcept (POC) pilots across India. Theunderlying theory intends to create animmutable history of transactional recordsthat helps in checking authenticity; a tam-per-proof system to avoid forgery; a dis-tributed ledger so that all stakeholders seethe same information; and a secureencrypted environment, where updates areavailable in near real time. The NITI Aayogpaper also identifies this value proposition.For example, the paper notes that, in orderto ensure that transactions are not fraud-ulent, the physical presence of witnessesis mandated at the time of sales deed reg-istry. Deployment of blockchain wouldpotentially eliminate the need of theseprocesses while maintaining the sanctityof the transaction.

This helps create a tamper-proofaudit trail that allows for tracking decision-making and ensures that they are in accor-dance with anti-corruption principles. Itaddresses concerns around cyber securi-ty. Currently there are interesting pilotsbeing conducted across the world, wheredeployment of blockchain is being testedfor public procurement, wherein systemsare being built in to identify graft with aview to disincentivise corrupt actors fromaccessing the system at the outset.

From the perspective of InternalControls and Governance (Vigilance), itis strongly recommended to employ a five-part test while assessing such deviationsfrom process: Whether the issue being pur-sued has corrupt connotations; the gener-al reputation of the employee involved;whether better options were available andignored without valid reasoning; whetherthe situation inhibited the selection of any

other option but the one finally chosen andfinally, whether the larger interest of theorganisation was safeguarded or not.

Deployment of technological solutionslike blockchain can potentially remove theneed or significantly reduce the time takenfor making such assessments. In a recentpaper released by Denmark’s Ministry ofForeign Affairs, titled Code to Integrity, theauthors have highlighted how blockchaincan be a powerful tool in the fight againstGovernment corruption. The report citescase studies of countries like Kenya,Rwanda and Ghana where Governmentrecords pertaining to court systems, edu-cation and land rights are migrating to dis-tributed ledgers.

However, a significant factor inblockchain’s success will be a country’s abil-ity to develop/reform laws and buildrobust data protection and maintenanceregimes. Till such time we address theseissues, blockchain is not likely to have amonumental impact in creating an integri-ty-first governance ecosystem.

The general environment now is infavour of a regime which ensures that com-panies not only do profitable business butdo so in a manner which is ethical. TheUnited Nations Convention againstCorruption, ratified by India in 2011, aswell as the anti-corruption principlesexpounded by the Organisation forEconomic Cooperation and Development(OECD) cover a wide gamut of vulnera-ble areas and aspects of business opera-tions, including anti-bribery, public pro-curement and conflict of interest. More andmore countries in the coming years willbe obliged to establish laws and mecha-nisms in place to ensure clean businessoperations as well as seize and confiscateassets derived from corrupt practices.

India, too, needs to review its existinglegal framework to address issues arounddata security, corrupt practices and corpo-rate governance with a view to address ouranti-corruption objectives and provide thenecessary guidance to well-intentionedofficials in the Government.

The Centre made a significant changeto the Prevention of Corruption Act in2018. The element of intention has beenadded under definition of criminal mis-conduct. Similarly, broadening the defin-ition of “unfair advantage” and introduc-tion of corporate criminal liability will goa long way in apprehending or deterringbad actors on both sides from indulgingin bribery. The amendments also haveensured that our obligations under the UNConvention against Corruption are ade-quately addressed and bring us closer toleading anti-bribery legislations in theworld such as the UK Bribery Act.

While these amendments will go along way in guiding the work of internalcontrol agencies, it would be important toinstitutionalise a system, wherein compli-ance against said legislation and establishedprocesses can be checked and quantified.A metrics-based system for oversightover governmental processes will bringtransparency, build trust and spur furtherdigital innovation to make any adminis-tration more robust without inhibitingpublic interest-oriented decision-mak-ing.

It would be incorrect to end this dis-cussion without addressing the well-intentioned public servant who finds theprocesses leading to greater transparencyand ensuring value for taxpayers’ moneycumbersome and time-consuming andwho is, therefore, tempted to short-circuitit. Well-intentioned though it may be, butany attempt to overwrite the processes,despite even demonstrable honesty of pur-pose, carries the major risk of opening upthe system to misuse by corrupt playersand would lead to eventual loss of publictrust and decimation of the structure ofpublic procurement. Thus, the intent ofprocesses involved is to keep the prover-bial Caesar’s wife above suspicion. Throughrobust yet streamlined procedures, abureaucrat can achieve the intended out-come and avoid unintended consequences.

(The writer is an IPS officer. The viewsexpressed are personal)

A metrics-based system for oversight over governmental processes will bring transparency andspur digital innovation to make any administration robust without inhibiting public interest

07F I R S T C O L U M N

Make the rightpolicy choices

KUMARDEEP BANERJEE

A continued prosperity for nations will only beachieved by allowing and championing a global

open market for trade, goods and digital services

RAJESH RANJAN

HOWEVER, ASIGNIFICANT

FACTOR INBLOCKCHAIN’S

SUCCESS WILL BEA COUNTRY’S

ABILITY TODEVELOP/REFORMLAWS AND BUILD

ROBUST DATAPROTECTION AND

MAINTENANCEREGIMES. TILLSUCH TIME WE

ADDRESS THESEISSUES,

BLOCKCHAIN ISNOT LIKELY TO

HAVE AMONUMENTAL

IMPACT INCREATING AN

INTEGRITY-FIRSTGOVERNANCE

ECOSYSTEM

It is festival time globally, and not just the religious and fun varietybut also the vital festival of democracy or elections. It is for thefirst time in our lifetimes that festivities, mostly associated with huge

crowds jostling to reach the ballot box or bedi (the pedestal on whichthe idols of deities are kept), are taking place in the shadow of a rag-ing global pandemic. Forced departures from well-known rituals asso-ciated with festivals make these times a case study for future gen-erations. Many would have seen a video on social media of an idolbeing immersed using mechanised trolleys, with least human inter-vention, in the recently-concluded Durga puja festivities. Now switchto the theatre of democracy in Bihar, where Assembly elections arebeing held. The common thread between the two festivals is, tech-nology. Bihar, would perhaps be the first State in the country wheretechnological interventions played a key role in the elections.

First, the Election Commission (EC) allowed online filing of nom-inations for candidates and many political parties chose to reach outto their constituents through virtual rallies and put up huge LED wallsfor public viewing. Given the absence of many veterans active in Biharelections for at least three decades, most of the young scions of thecolourful, vociferous and politically-influential families were sudden-ly catapulted to the centrestage of a new narrative. This young brigadeof Biharis, technologically more versatile than their parents, soughtvotes on issues. Something hitherto unheard of in a State, knownfor its divisive caste and religious biases. It was surprising to seerival candidates promise lakhs of jobs to young voters in a State grap-pling with the problem of the jobless migrant labourers.

The most welcome aspect of this election has been the relianceon technology in a State which could well be a case study on thedigital divide between India and Bharat. Many statisticians will pointto a survey which revealed that more than half of Bihar’s womenand around 40 per cent men have no access to mass media. This,when extrapolated over digital media, means a significant part of thepopulation can either be completely insulated from the impact of tech-nology or could be the next addressable unconnected millions, whoneed to be put on the information technology expressway of pros-perity.

Now let’s jump across the Pacific to the US, which, too, is aboutto witness one of the fiercest and cacophonic elections on November3 amid the COVID threat, deaths and economic destruction. The com-mon binary binding Bihar elections, Durga Puja festivities and USelections is again, technology. After all, the new dominance gameand the race to be a global superpower is now increasingly gettingdefined by your first tap on a smartphone, first digital payment/elec-tronic transaction, first contact-free shopping for world-classbrands from the comfort of your home and perhaps the first digitaldate after months of trying to understand each other’s typos and abbre-viated texts.

Therefore, restrictions on digital applications, depending on thecountry of origin, to applying the same principles to hardware solu-tions in technical infrastructure, to forming an alliance of like-mind-ed technology fraternity of nations were some of the key highlightsin the election campaign of the two presidential candidates of theworld’s richest democracy. What it also highlighted was the fact thatincreasingly, the physical restrictions (read policies) of trade and com-merce dominating economic relations between a bunch of nationswill now be enthusiastically copy-pasted in the digital arena to pre-vent loss of sovereign powers and dominance at the global high tables.

COVID has put the spotlight on public policy issues, which, tillFebruary, were still in advanced stages of intellectual discourses. Ithas challenged our ability to adapt and eventually recover from thedisease. And the only sector which has truly helped this advance-ment is technology. It reacted quickly and ensured teachers, parentsand children were handed online course materials for seamless aca-demic learning and doctors were given online tools for initial digitalhealth interventions for patients. It gave the Government effective plat-forms for interaction and empowered it to push critical policy goals.Technology enabled digital live darshans of beautiful but desertedpandals and online delivery of prasad for the religious, too. If the humanrace has been pushed ahead by three decades in one stroke by thelockdown and technology has taken centrestage, it is also time tothink and refresh many global policy challenges and perhaps releasean update. Policymakers have to realise that imposing strict restric-tions, based purely on case-by-case models, and having a physicalworldview of digital policy issues can be self-defeating in the longrun. A continued prosperity for nations will only be achieved by allow-ing and championing a global open market for trade, goods and dig-ital services. It must be kept in mind that the new normal for poli-cy-making at sovereign-level negotiations must be dictated by a setof principles. This must be compulsory in all digital agreementsbetween consumers and technology providers, governments and theircounterparts across borders. A multi-lateral approach must be cham-pioned. It is time to click on the right button.

(The writer is a policy analyst)

Most nations imposed someform of shutdown to limit thespread of the Coronavirus.

India’s lockdown, which involved anear cessation of all movement andeconomic activity, has been rated asone of the most stringent across theworld. Not surprisingly, it had a severeimpact on our economy.

A sector that was hit particularlyhard is retail. This is due to several rea-sons. First, shops and warehouseswere closed during the initial phasesof the lockdown. This brought the

operation of both physical and digitalretailers to a standstill. Second, restric-tions on inter-State movement ofgoods and the opening of only specif-ic industries disrupted supply chains.For instance, the Centre recognisedboth medicines and processed foodsas essential goods and allowed theirsale. However, similar status was notgranted to units which manufacturethe packaging for medicines andprocessed foods. Hence, sellers ofthese goods found it difficult to oper-ate. Third, the system of issuing pass-es and permits to personnel workingfor physical and digital retail was notwell-implemented. It was unclearwhich authority would issue the pass-es and for how long they wouldremain valid. Further, personnel hav-ing to travel across districts wererequired to obtain separate passes fromthe authorities for each district. Fourth,the Ministry of Home Affairs issued anorder directing all employers to ensurefull payment of wages to all employ-ees even if they were unable to work.

As a result of the order, several migrantlabourers returned to their towns andvillages once restrictions on movementof persons were lifted. A survey ofretailers selling their products online,conducted as part of the Esya Centre’sreport on e-commerce, shows thatnearly 60 per cent of such entities willbe unable to recover losses sufferedbecause of the lockdown. Given thatpeople are likely to be wary of enter-ing shops and stores even after lock-downs are eased, it is important toexplore different avenues throughwhich retail outlets can avoid furtherlosses.

One such avenue is e-retail. Areport by Global Trade and RegionalIntegration Unit of the World Bankhighlights the utility of e-commerce inthe post COVID normal. Not only cane-commerce help reduce the risk ofnew infections and preserve jobs, it canalso increase the acceptance of pro-longed social distancing measuresamong the population. Further, previ-ous research has shown that there are

numerous benefits for MSMEs thatadopt e-commerce, in the form of bet-ter price discovery, access to new con-sumers, support with logistics andinventory management. It is in recog-nition of the above that several nations,such as the United Kingdom and NewZealand, have given preference todigital forms of retail both during andafter the lockdown. However, India isone of the few countries that has notleveraged the numerous benefits thate-commerce brings, particularly dur-ing a lockdown.

Policy-making towards e-com-merce, both before and during thelockdown, may have hindered theoperation of e-commerce entities.Prior to the lockdown, legacy govern-ment rule-making on e-commerce pre-sented several barriers to the growthof the sector. These included ever-changing FDI rules, unresolved issuesof data localisation and source codedisclosure as well as the over-regula-tion of platforms. During the lock-down, the Government failed to adopt

a clear and consistent approach to pol-icy formulation vis-a-vis retail. As anexample, both physical and digitalretailers were only allowed to sell essen-tial goods in the initial phase of thelockdown. This continued till aboutmid-April, when the Governmentissued a notification which allowed e-retailers to deliver non-essential itemsfrom April 20. In conformity with thisorder, e-commerce firms began tomake predations to resume their fullscale of operations. However, on April19, the Government withdrew itsnotification, seemingly under pressurefrom industry organisations that rep-resented small and medium traders.Subsequently, relaxations regardingdelivery of non-essential items werefirst given to physical outlets while e-retail continued to be limited to essen-tial items for 8-10 days thereafter. Thezonation framework introduced by theGovernment additionally preferredphysical outlets in Red zones, as theycould sell a wide range of merchandisewhile e-retail tasks were limited to

essential goods.As pointed out, e-commerce

enjoys numerous advantages overphysical retail, particularly in a situa-tion where social distancing continuesto be important. Hence, there is a needto provide a policy environment thatfosters the uptake and adoption of e-commerce by both consumers and sell-ers. To achieve this, we recommend afive-step recovery process. The firststeps are geared towards fostering anatmosphere of trust and credibilitybetween the Government and marketentities.

This can be achieved by holdingregular consultations, opening avenuesfor feedback and providing sufficientnotice before major changes. Further,policy actions should not skew com-petition between physical and digitalbusiness models. Instead, both mod-els should be allowed to leverage theirrespective strengths. Finally, theGovernment must reassess what itseeks to achieve through its proposede-commerce policy. In the current sce-

nario, a policy framework governinge-retail or e-commerce in general,should look to assist small enterpris-es in capacity-building for a digitallyenabled future through the provisionof finance, skill development andunderlying infrastructure. There is,therefore, a need to move away fromlegacy regulatory institutions, based onlicensing and control, to an entity thatactively participates in capacity-build-ing and development of small andmedium retailers in India. In this con-text, it is worthwhile to explore the rolebeing played by digital economy devel-opment authorities in countries suchas Malaysia and Vietnam, whichactively promote the adoption of dig-ital solutions and e-commerce forSMEs as well as consumers. Thisapproach would be in keeping with theGovernment’s focus on a Digital Indiawhere citizens are able to leverage theirconnectivity into better opportunitiesand prospects.

(The writer is a research assistantat the Esya Centre)

Nurture e-retail in a post-pandemic worldThis approach would be in keeping with the Centre’s focus on a Digital India where citizens are able to leverage their connectivity into better opportunities

MOHIT CHAWDHRY

VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020

www.dailypioneer.comanalysis

VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020 money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Textile major Arvind Ltd onThursday reported aconsolidated net loss of

Rs 5.86 crore for the quarterended on September 30,2020, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The companyhad posted a net profit of Rs49.68 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago, the company said in a BSE filing.Total income during the quarter stood at Rs 1,318.95 crore againstRs 1,973.90 crore in the corresponding quarter a year-ago.Arvind Ltd said as a result of lockdown to contain the outbreak ofCOVID-19, the volumes for the current quarter and half year areimpacted.Revenue from operations and profitability have decreaseddue to COVID-19-related market volatility. Therefore, financialresults for quarter and half year ended September 30, 2020, are notcomparable to previous corresponding period results, it added.Shares of Arvind Ltd were trading 0.29 per cent lower at Rs 34apiece on the BSE.

Arvind reports Q2 net loss of Rs 5.86 crore

Toyota Kirloskar Motor(TKM) on Thursdayannounced the launch of

its first regional stockyard inGuwahati, which aims atreducing delivery time fromthe current 13 days to amaximum of two days for thedealers in the northeasternstates. The new stockyard willsignificantly enhance distribution efficiency, reduce inventory costsand turnaround time for dealer working capital besides facilitatingTKM dealers to meet customer requirements faster, the automakersaid in a release. It will also allow the dealers to focus on the corearea of sales and after-sales to meet customer requirements, it said."We are happy to announce the launch of our first regionalstockyard in Guwahati during this auspicious festive season," saidTKM Senior Vice-President (Sales and Service) Naveen Soni. Headded that there has been a rise in demand from this region overthe years .

Toyota launches first regionalstockyard at Guwahati

Nokia profit up, new CEO pledgesto boost 5G investments

Telecom equipment makerNokia has reportedimproved third-quarter

earnings largely in line withexpectations, butacknowledged it facedchallenges in the race for newgeneration 5G networks.It pledged to invest more in those networks and said it wouldrevamp business strategy under its new CEO.The Espoo, Finland-based maker of new-generation 5G mobile and other networks saidThursday that net profit for the July-September period was up 14%at 305 million euros ($358 million). Sales were down 7% at 5.3billion euros.Nokia's quarterly report is the first one under new CEOPekka Lundmark, who took over the company's top spot on Aug. 1.He said “more change is needed” within Nokia, which has playedcatch-up to China's Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson in the lucrative5G market.“Our financial performance in 2021 is expected to bechallenging,” Lundmark said.

Gold declines Rs 121, silverplunges Rs 1,277

Gold prices fell Rs 121 to Rs50,630 per 10 gram in thenational capital on Thursday,

according to HDFC Securities.The precious metal had closed atRs 50,751 per 10 gram in theprevious trade. Silver prices alsodeclined Rs 1,277 to Rs 60,098 perkilogram from Rs 61,375 perkilogram in the previous trade. Inthe international market, gold rose marginally to USD 1,878 perounce, while silver was trading flat at USD 23.30 per ounce. "Goldprices traded under pressure with strong dollar recovery whichdampened safe-haven demand for gold," HDFC Securities SeniorAnalyst (Commodities) Tapan Patel said.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Contracting for the seventhconsecutive month, the outputof eight core infrastructuresectors dropped by 0.8 percent in September, mainly dueto decline in production ofcrude oil, natural gas, refineryproducts and cement.

The production of eight coresectors had contracted 5.1 percent in September 2019, datareleased by the Commerce andIndustry Ministry showed onThursday.

The decline in output duringthe month under review waslowest since March.

Barring coal, electricity andsteel, all sectors -- crude oil,natural gas, refinery products,

fertiliser and cement -- record-ed negative growth inSeptember 2020.

During April-September, thesectors' output dropped by14.9 per cent as compared to agrowth of 1.3 per cent in thesame period of the previous

year. The output of crude oil,natural gas, refinery products,fertiliser, and cement declinedby 6 per cent, 10.6 per cent, 9.5per cent, 0.3 per cent, and 3.5per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, the coal,steel and electricity sector out-

put grew by 21.2 per cent, 0.9per cent and 3.7 per cent,respectively, during the monthunder review.

Commenting on the num-bers, Icra Ltd PrincipalEconomist Aditi Nayar said,

the substantial improvement inthe core sector performance inSeptember 2020 was driven bythe base effect-led uptick incoal production, related toheavy rainfall and labour issuesin some mines in September2019. With improved mobili-ty of people and goods, thecontraction in refinery prod-ucts halved in September 2020,an encouraging trend that maycontinue in the immediateterm, she said.

"While many lead indicatorshave displayed signals of astrengthening economic recov-ery in September 2020, wecaution that the sustainabilityof the upturn may not be uni-versal, and await signs of itsdurability," she added.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Plastic export promotion coun-cil PLEXCONCIL said itexpects positive growth in thesector's outbound shipments inthe coming months on theback of global demand andgovernment support to boostlocal production and looks toachieve exports of USD 25 bil-lion by 2025.

Plastics Exports PromotionCouncil of India (PLEXCON-CIL) Chairman Ravish Kamathsaid that exports are growing ascustomers in Europe and theUS are looking at India as areliable supplier.

He said that exports record-ed positive growth inSeptember, "so we expect thistrend to continue and plasticsexports will post much betterresults. The council intends to

target plastics' exports of USD25 billion by calendar year2025, while posting 20 percent growth in the exportsduring this fiscal and next".

He added that the govern-ment is supporting to increasedomestic production by settingup of 18 plastic parks.

Talking about challengesfaced by the sector, he told PTI

that finished goods are waitingin factories and cannot beexported due to shortage ofcontainers, which is leading toexpiry of LC's (letter of credit)and breaching of deliveryschedules.

"This will greatly affectcredibility of Indian exportersif not corrected very quickly.Similarly, as India is importdependent on polymers,import shipments are not get-ting loaded at ports in Europe,

and the US for India due towhich a panic situation hasarisen doubting the availabil-ity of raw materials on time,"he said.

This has led to an unprece-dented hike in polymer prices,specially for PVC Resinwherein India produces only45 per cent of its mammothconsumption, he added.

Kamath suggested the gov-ernment to continue with theexport incentive scheme -

MEIS (merchandise exportfrom India scheme) and fix-ation of liberal refund rates forthe sector under RoDTEP(Remission of Duties or Taxeson Export Product(RoDTEP).

He also stated that availabil-ity of polymers at competitiveprices in India is a challengefor the sector boosting itsdomestic production wouldhelp adequate availability ofpolymers in the country atcompetitive rates.

"India does not have anytrade agreements with any ofthese regions / countries dueto which our exporters areunable to compete. If the gov-ernment can forge a tradeagreement with these regions/ countries, our exporterswould be able to increaseexports," he said.

PLEXCONCIL targets $25 bn shipments

PNSn NEW DELHI

Equity benchmark Sensextumbled 173 points onThursday, tracking losses inindex majors HDFC twins,L&T and HUL as volatility per-sisted amid expiry of monthderivatives contracts.

Lacklustre cues from glob-al markets also kept domesticinvestors on the edge, traderssaid.

The 30-share BSE Sensexended 172.61 points or 0.43per cent lower at 39,749.85.The broader NSE Nifty fell58.80 points or 0.50 per cent to11,670.80. L&T was the toplaggard in the Sensex pack,dropping around 5 per cent,followed by Titan, ONGC,Axis Bank, HUL, M&M andHDFC. On the other hand,Asian Paints, UltraTech

Cement, HCL Tech, KotakBank and Reliance Industrieswere among the gainers.According to traders, marketvolatility was heightened asOctober futures and optionscontracts expired. The Indianmarket opened on a subduednote following mixed globalcues as coronavirus cases in theEurope surged and several

countries considered re-imposing strict lockdown mea-sures, said Narendra Solanki,Head- Equity Research(Fundamental), Anand RathiShares & Stock Brokers.

During the afternoon ses-sion, the markets continued totrade weak with selloff in met-als, auto, realty and financialstocks, he added.

Sensex sheds 173 pts amid F&Oexpiry; Nifty slips below 11,700

Eight core industries' outputcontracts 0.8 pc in September

PNSn NEW DELHI

In order to help the juteindustry, the government onThursday decided that 100per cent food grains and 20per cent sugar wi l l bemandatorily packaged in jutebags.

A decision to extend thenorms for mandatory pack-aging in jute materials wastaken by the Union Cabinet,Information andBroadcast ing MinisterPrakash Javadekar said whilebriefing reporters about themeeting.

Govt makes packaging of foodgrains in jute bags mandatory

PNSn MATHURA

Mutual funds offer one of themost transparent and costeffective investment options toall categories of investors, irre-spective of gender or financialconstraints and other consid-erations, Surya Kant Sharma,Senior Consultant - NorthIndia, Association of MutualFunds in India (Amfi) said onThursday.

"To counter COVID-19type challenges in life, finan-cial planning has to be an inte-gral part of wealth creation,"Sharma said while deliveringthe keynote address for awebinar on 'Strategy for man-aging personal finance includ-ing mutual funds during andafter COVID-19'.

He said each family should

maintain an emergency fundfor catering to basic needs forat least 9-12 months to safe-guard against unforeseendevelopments like theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Mutual funds provide notonly short-term investmentoptions but also medium-term and long-term invest-ment solutions for sustainedwealth creation for allinvestors, he said.

"Even during distress situa-tion like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, investors havethe option to continue, defer,suspend or discontinue theirinvestments in mutual fundschemes," Sharma said.

Investment in mutual fundspaves the way for better returnthan a savings bank account,he added.

Mutual funds offertransparent options

PNSn NEW DELHI

Australia-based REA GroupLtd will hike its stake to takecontrolling interest in ElaraTechnologies, which ownsthree leading realty portals inIndia including Housing.com,in a cash and equity deal esti-mated up to USD 70 million.

US-based News Corp,which has a majority stake inonline realty firm REA group,will also increase its stake inElara Technologies to 38.9 percent from 22.1 per cent byacquiring preference sharesworth USD 34.5 million.

REA Group said in a state-ment that it has "entered intoa binding agreement toincrease its ownership interestin Elara Technologies Pte Ltd."

On completion of the deal,REA will hold five out of nineboard seats and is expected tohave a shareholding between47.2 per cent and 61.1 per cent,it added. "The total consider-ation for the transaction isexpected to be in the range ofUSD 50 million-USD 70 mil-

lion with USD 34.5 millionpayable out of existing cashreserves and the balance innewly issued REA shares,"REA said.According to marketsources, the deal has beenentered at an enterprise valueof over USD 160 million(around Rs 1,200 crore).

REA to buy controlling stake in Elara for up toUSD 70 mn; News Corp to hike stake

PNSn NEW DELHI

The Union Cabinet onThursday raised the price ofethanol for doping in petrolby 5-8 per cent, I&B MinisterPrakash Javadekar said.

The move will help farm-ers get remunerative pricewhile also cutting down oilimports, he said.

As much as 10 per centethanol is doped in petrol.

The move also checkspollution as ethanol is envi-ronment-friendly, the minis-ter added.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Markets regulator Sebi hasimposed a fine on an employ-ee of Biocon Ltd for violatinginsider trading norms whiledealing in the company'sshares.

The employee, P Ravishankar (noticee), general manag-er of the project department ofBiocon at the time of investi-gation and also a designatedperson, has been penalised Rs

3 lakh by the regulator for vio-lating provisions of theProhibition of Insider Trading(PIT) norms.

The watchdog conducted

an investigation with respectto his transactions betweenAugust 31, 2018, and October1, 2018.

The investigation carriedout by the regulator foundthat Ravishankar, who held19,500 shares of the compa-ny, acquired through exerciseof employee stock optionplan (ESOP), sold 5,000shares in September 2018without seeking pre-clear-ance from the compliance

officer. He had also indulgedin contra trades of buyingand selling shares, Sebinoted. In terms of PITRegulations, every promoter,employee and director ofevery company shall discloseto the company the numberof securities acquired or dis-posed of within two tradingdays of the transaction if thevalue of the securities trad-ed crosses a certain thresh-old.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Teachmint, an online teachingplatform, on Thursday said ithas raised USD 3.5 million(about Rs 25.9 crore) in seedfunding, led by LightspeedIndia and existing investors,Better Capital and TitanCapital.

This is the second round offunding for Teachmint after itraised its first round in Augustthis year, a statement said.

Teachmint will leverage thisfunding for building out itsproduct suite, introducingadditional offerings andincreasing geographic reach tomore tutors, it added.

Launched in May this yearby Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain,Divyansh Bordia andAnshuman Kumar, Teachmintenables offline tutors to digi-tise their classrooms, engageonline with existing studentsas well as reach out to a widerstudent base. Teachmint has

developed a mobile-first,video-first product thatenables ease of content deliv-ery, engagement and evalua-tion and business workflowtools. Within five months oflaunch, Teachmint has addedmore than 1.2 lakh tutorsacross over 1,000 cities andtowns to its platform.

Harsha Kumar, Partner atLightspeed India, said India'stutoring and coaching marketis estimated to be over USD 25billion, and is fragmented intomillions of tutors and coach-ing centres.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Ahead of starting the nextwave of gas production fromthe KG basin, UK-based super-major BP Plc has pitched foroil and gas producers sharingtheir infrastructure to helpcut costs and monetise smalland marginal discoveries.

BP, which in partnershipwith Reliance Industries Ltd isinvesting USD 5 billion indeveloping three sets of discov-eries in the Krishna Godavaribasin block KG-D6, also want-ed sanctity of contracts to be

honoured and policy stability.Speaking at the India Energy

Forum of CERAWeek, BP'sIndia head Sashi Mukundansaid policy and decision mak-ing must support raising

domestic oil and gas produc-tion by adopting best interna-tional practices. He also madea case for offering incentivesfor doing better than targetedproduction rather than impos-ing penalties.

"One of the things that sur-prised me when I came toIndia was that you don't seeupstream companies workingtogether and sharing infra-structure," he said, giving anexample of a hub called Nikarathat BP and Royal Dutch Shellhave created in the Gulf ofMexico.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Debt-ridden telecom firmVodafone Idea on Thursdayreported narrowing of itsconsolidated loss to Rs7,218.2 crore for the quarterended September 2020.

The company had posted aloss of Rs 50,897.9 crore inthe same quarter of the pre-vious fiscal on account ofmaking provisions for statu-tory due payments. Totalincome declined by about 3per cent to Rs 10,830.5 croreduring the reported quarter,from Rs 11,146.4 crore in thecorresponding period of2019-20. Vodafone Idea MDand CEO Ravinder Takkarsaid while challenges relatedto COVID-19 continue, thesecond quarter has shownsigns of recovery with a grad-ual improvement in econom-ic activities.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Drug firm Laurus Labs onThursday reported an overfour-fold jump in its consoli-dated net profit to Rs 242.27crore for the quarter ended inSeptember on account ofrobust sales.

The company had posted anet profit of Rs 56.55 crore forthe corresponding period of

the previous fiscal, LaurusLabs said in a filing to BSE.

Consolidated revenue fromoperations of the companystood at Rs 1,138.84 crore for thequarter under consideration. Itwas Rs 712.42 crore for the sameperiod a year ago, it added. Theboard of directors has approvedan interim dividend of 80 paiseper equity share of Rs 2 each, thefiling said.

PNSn NEW DELHI

The government onThursday banned exports ofonion seeds with immediateeffect amidst rising prices ofthe bulb in the domesticmarkets.

Earlier, the export of onionseeds was in the restrictedcategory, which means anexporter was required toobtain a licence or permissionfrom the government forshipments.

"The export of onion seedsis prohibited, with immediateeffect," the DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Trade(DGFT) said in a notification.

It added that the provisionsunder transitional arrange-ment shall not be applicable.

Teachmint raises $3.5mn fromLightspeed India, others

Sebi fines Biocon staff for violating norms

BP pitches for infra sharing with cos like ONGC

Govt hikesethanol price by 5-8pc

Vodafone IdeaQ2 lossnarrows

Laurus Labs Q2 net profit jumpsover four-fold to Rs 242.27 cr

Govt bansexport ofonion seeds

The production of

eight core sectors

had contracted 5.1

per cent in

September 2019,

data released by

the Commerce and

Industry Ministry

showed

Plastics Exports Promotion Council

of India (PLEXCONCIL) Chairman

Ravish Kamath said that exports are

growing as customers in Europe and

the US are looking at India as a

reliable supplier

FridayOctober 30, 2020

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

Few actors in theentertainment industry

have always mesmerisedthe audiences with their

outstandingperformances! Fewer ofthem have successfullycreated a huge impact.

One such actor, who hasproved his dedication

towards the craft bydelivering a flawless

performance is GaganAnand. Tinsel town’srising star Gagan has

been enthralling viewersall over the country with

his charming looks andversatility ever since he

released the teaser of hisupcoming web series

Bicchoo Ka Khel. Thismulti-talented actor,through his differentqualities, has left theaudience wanting for

more. He talks to The Pioneer’s

SHIKHA DUGGAL onhis journey, his latest

projects, dream role and more

hat made youtake up thisproject?

Dark rolesalways fascinat-

ed me. This is a very com-plex character with unlitundertones of revenge, sex-uality and politics. Apartfrom my character, theoverall story and dialoguesare so cool that I couldn’tsay no to it. Ashish Shuklais the director of the seriesand he’s as humble as canbe. I saw Undekhi earlier, itreally made me want towork with him. His mainfocus has always been toextract incredible perfor-mances from his actors.

How was the shootingexperience post anextensive lockdown?

With proper precautionsand norms laid by the gov-ernment, we started shoot-ing. I was extremely happyto resume shooting. We’vecome back with even morepositive energy for theshoot. Everybody is takingprecautions and wearingprotective gears, sometimesfunnily leading to confu-sions about who’s who. Weare very positive and Ihope everything will go

smoothly. We are comingto meet our audiences!

Tell us somethingabout your characterand how you preppedfor it?

I am playing an assassinwho is hired to kill people.In real life, I am a man offew words but reel life dif-fers, I was asked to adorn aBanarasi accent. I did acouple of readings with thedialogue writer andworked religiously on myphysique. Due to the lock-down, the gyms were shut,so I had to work extra formy body and maintain abalanced diet. There willbe disputes and moneyetc., with some startlingaction sequences.Hopefully, this series willstand out! Will I succeed?To know more about it,wait for me to nail it inBicchoo Ka Khel.

How was it workingwith Mirzapur-fameDivyendu Sharma?

Amazing fun — he is agreat actor and we all knowit. Outdoor shoots wereeven more fun with him.Though we were runningon a busy schedule inBanaras, he always man-

aged to find time to chillafter pack-up. We were bal-ancing work with fun!

What’s your dreamrole?

Referred to as the tale oflust and valour, my dreamrole has always been toplay Allauddin Khilji fromPadmavat because I look toraise the bar. The charactercomes across as very royal,opulent, grand and breath-taking. I would love toexperiment with an eye-catchy look like that, simi-lar to one of the charactersfrom Game of Thrones.

How do you think OTTplatforms are chang-ing the dynamics?

Thanks to OTT, I didn’tsit at home for even a sec-ond in these last two yearsapart from the lockdown.It has changed our livesdrastically! We all havebecome so busybecause of it. Talkingabout creativity, OTThas given us the liber-ty to express ourthoughts and present itin our own uncensoredmanner. OTT is absolutelythe new flavour of the sea-son and has already beenaccepted by the audiences.

TALE OF THEBANARASI BABUW

arlier this week,Hyderabad’supscale restau-rant Olive Bistrohosted a diningexperience of a

different kind. With socialdistancing being the newand accepted norm for in-house dining, as well as fiftypercent occupancy, whatbetter way to ensure it thangetting mannequins tooccupy a couple of tables?

“While mannequins arebeing used globally at thefinest restaurants in Paris,London and New York toensure social distancing, weat Olive took the trend astep ahead by dressing themannequins in haute cou-ture,” shares ShaazMehmood, partner OliveBistro Hyderabad.

So, couturier GauravGupta, who opened theIndia Couture Week 2020conducted digitally thisSeptember, (India’s first-evervirtual fashion show of thisscale) gets to showcase hisethereal wedding gowns inall their drapy silouhettesfor a fortnight from now.“We are planning#TheBistroRunway as a bi-monthly affair, so in twoweeks from now, it will bedesigner duo Shantanu &Nikhil who will get to show-case their collections andgoing forward, we will beperhaps continuing withother designers,” addsShaaz.

Perceived as a win-winsituation for both thedesigner and the restaurant,it is the closest one can getto a physical fashion show,minus the models and theramp walk, of course, in thisCovid era.

“It is a brand collabora-tion of the best kind, thedesigner gets brand visibility

which might get convertedto orders and for the restau-rant, it adds to both visualquotient and the footfalls,hopefully,” opines RajveerKaur, marketing and PRprofessional.

For diners who wereinvited to this select pre-view, sipping on their G&T’sand chomping Prawn Fritti,fashion zoomed into focus,with the city’s best fashionbloggers getting a preview ofthe season’s collections.

For fashionpreneurs likeKamini Saraf, online cus-tomisation and fittings arethe way forward, althoughAngasutra, the high-enddesigner store, which shepartners, recently launchedphysically, the hugely popu-lar online designer shoppingportal Pernia’s Pop-Up

Studio and is now currentlyhosting a high-end jewelleryshowcase by Raj Mahtani.“In the US and Europedesigner brands are heldliable for size misfits etc. InIndia, perfection in brandsis yet to be realised, there-fore I would always preferphysical shopping and cus-tomised fittings, whereverpossible. Having said that, Idon’t think I have shoppedas much online in all theseyears as I have done duringthe pandemic,” addsKamini, who had to foregohosting the triannualFashion Yatra, for the firsttime in fifteen years.

“We had a sale of ManishMalhotra’s collections atAngasutra, which did fabu-lously well, but I thought weshould also practise some

business ethics by not host-ing physical exhibitions,especially in cases likeFashion Yatra, which hasdesigners participating fromacross the country, and inthis situation I could noteven think of hosting it atall this year,” adds Kamini.

But what about recessionand the loss of jobs andbusiness revenues, isn’t thatimpacting high-end design-er brand sales? “I think thebiggest takeaway fromCorona is that we are per-haps learning the morehumane values of life, likecompassion and patience.We have seen bigger strug-gles this year, people strug-gling to hold onto their jobsand lives, migrants to theirhomes etc. And workingfrom home has meant that

we are prioritising comfortand our ego of how I shoulddress up and look my best,has taken a backseat,” sharesShivani Mohan, brand host-ess of dining app DineoutPassport, and a spiffy dress-

er. “One doesn’t know whenthe cycle will rebound andour vanities will return, buttill that time haute couturewill be only endorsed dur-ing weddings and by theaffluent. Also, the resulting

bar on socialising and big-ticket events has meant thatshoppers like me who feeltempted to buy for everyoccasion have learnt to reinin temptation and make dowith one’s wardrobes, recy-cling and revamping,” addsShivani.

“Online shopping is cer-tainly the way forward andis here to stay,” agrees mar-keting consultant ShailyaMehta Bhandari, who hel-ped design and curate ThePink Flamingo, an onlineluxury shopping extrava-ganza, which was hosted bythe Ladies Circle of theRound Table, Rotary Clubof India recently this month.

The portal offered a greatplatform for displaying skillsets of locked-down, cre-ative women who had stuffranging from clothes (bothfor men, women and chil-dren), lifestyle accessories toedibles for showcasing.“Interestingly, we had par-ticipants from outsideHyderabad too and while itwas initially slated for 3days, we eventually had sellers exhorting us toextend it for two more days,as they were doing verywell. The sale proceeds,which came from theexhibitor’s fees went towardsa NGO in Domakunda,which offers vocational

training to women,” addsShailya.

With Diwali and the mar-riage season round the cor-ner, can fashion designersstill afford to be high-end?“My friend in Hyderabadshopped for an AnamikaKhanna outfit from herstore in Mumbai and got awhopping 50 percent dis-count after the designer'steam did extensive videocalling and back and forth,”shares Shailya.

“For any wedding, be itTelugu or Marwari orPunjabi, there is a givenbudget for brideswear. But Iguess the pre-weddingevents this year like sangeet,mehendi will see recycledwardrobes not just for thefamilies, but also for thebride and groom. Also,fashion industry is hugelylabour-intensive and thisyear, there are fewer collec-tions, and even in pret wear,like Zara and H&M, you seethe same old stuff beingrecycled,” adds Kamini.

Clearly this year is not thebest place to ve for design-ers, as prudence will rule fora while, till the vaccinecomes along and the econo-my bounds back. Till then,happy window-shopping fornot-so-urgent shoppers andprudent negotiations for theserious buyers!

ESWATI SUCHARITA, Senior journalist

Fashion Forward 2020

Olive took the globaltrend of maintainingsocial distancingusing mannequins astep ahead bydressing them up inhaute couture

REFERRED TO ASTHE TALE OF LUSTAND VALOUR,GAGAN'S DREAMROLE ISALLAUDDINKHILJI FROMPADMAVAT,BECAUSEHE LOOKSTO RAISETHEBAR.

Olive BBistrolaunches iits#TheBistroRunwayinitiative wwithGaurav GGupta

10

Vijayawada Friday October 30 2020 what’s brewing?

he Akshay Kumar-starrerLaxmmi Bomb has been renamedLaxmii, following suggestion ofthe Central Board of FilmCertification (CBFC). The deci-sion was taken by Akshay along

with co-producers Shabinaa Khan andTusshar Kapoor on Thursday.

The news was confirmed by trade analystTaran Adarsh on Twitter. “NEW DEVELOP-MENT... #LaxmmiBomb title changed...New title: #Laxmii... Premieres 9 Nov 2020on #DisneyPlusHotstarVIP... Stars#AkshayKumar and #KiaraAdvani,” tweet-ed @taran_adarsh.

The film directed by Raghava Lawrencewas submitted for censor certification andthe decision was taken after after the screen-ing for the CBFC members.

According to earlier reports, the makershad received a legal notice from theRajasthan-based outfit, Shri Rajput KarniSena, claiming that the name LaxmmiBomb was demeaning towards GoddessLaxmi, adding that the title insulted senti-ments.

The horror comedy starring AkshayKumar and Kiara Advani is a remake of asuccessful Tamil film, Muni 2: Kanchana.

Laxmii is slated for release on November9 on the OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar VIP.

Akshay Kumar-starrerLaxmmi Bombrenamed Laxmii

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

op star Bebe Rexha is allset to make her debut asan actress in a crime com-edy film titled Queenpins,starring Kristen Bell.

Rexha will be playingthe character of Tempe Tina, an eccentriccomputer hacker in the film, which isinspired by a true story of the biggestcoupon counterfeit scam, reportsvariety.com.

The film is developed by STXfilms.Adam Fogelson, chairman of theSTXfilms Motion Picture Group said:“This is a perfect film for Bebe to be mak-ing her live-action film debut. She’s anincredible talent and international super-star and we love her for this role as TempeTina, an eccentric computer hacker whohelps our heroines with their couponscam.”

“We know she will add so much fun,talent and personality to this cast.”

Queenpins is written and directed byAron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly. The castalso includes Vince Vaughn, Paul WalterHauser and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.

In the film, Bell plays a suburbanhousewife who is tired of being over-looked by the world, and plans to takeback control of her life.

P

Pop star BebeRexha to

makeHollywood

debut asactress

eInternational popstar Dua Lipa is all setto bring her virtualshow, Studio 2054, toIndia, adding that she

hopes to be back to the countryand perform before a live audi-ence again.

Studio 2054 is said to delivera brand new multi-dimensionallive experience.

“It’s almost exactly a yearsince I last performed in Indiaand I’ve been dying to come backand play my new album for you.I can’t wait for you to come andjoin me for my Studio2054 liveexperience where I’ll performlots of new songs as well as some old favourites like you’venever seen before,” Dua Lipasaid.

Shot live in a massive ware-house location, Studio 2054 willsee her move through custom-built sets, roller discos, and ball-rooms. Accompanied by a cast ofmusicians, dancers, skaters, aeri-alists and acrobats, the singer willbe joined by a host of surprisesuperstar guests in the show.

Featuring tracks from FutureNostalgia, Club Future Nostalgiaand her debut album, Studio2054 is expected to be a musicalblend of past, present and future.

Studio 2054 will be streamedfrom Friday at different timesacross global territories.

Tickets will be available onBookMyShow from October 31.

The One kiss hitmaker per-formed in India for the first timelast year.

Dua Lipa to bring virtual ‘Studio 2054' gig to India

N

T

MELBOURNE: Australia on Thursdayincluded young all-rounder CameronGreen in their T20 and ODI squadfor the limited-overs series againstIndia while Moises Henriquesreturned to national fold after threeyears following his exploits in the BigBash League.

India will play three ODIs(November 27, 29,December 2) and as manyT20Is (December 4, 6, 8)against Australia.

“Cameron’s domesticform has been outstandingand he has carried itthrough for WesternAustralia this summer.As a potential player ofthe future this is anopportunity for him tobe part of the squad andbuild on his experience,”national selector TrevorHohns was quoted assaying by Cricket Australia.

Australia have focussed on bat-ting all-rounders while picking their

limited overs squad.Henriques had led Sydney Sixers

to KFC Big Bash title last summerwith a strike rate close to 150.

“Moises is a tremendous cricketerwith loads of experience and is a greatperson to have around the group. Hisform was extremely impressive inleading the Sixers to the BBL title lastsummer and he has played well at thestart of this season,” Hohns said.

Mitchell Marsh, who injured hisankle during the ongoing IPL, wasnot considered but he may make acomeback to the side for the A side

before the Test series.ODI & T20 squad: AaronFinch (C), Sean Abbott,

Ashton Agar, Alex Carey ,Pat Cummins (vc),Cameron Green, JoshHazlewood, Moises

Henriques, MarnusLabuschagne, Glenn Maxwell,Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson,

Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, MarcusStoinis, Matthew Wade, DavidWarner and Adam Zampa. PTI

PTI n ABU DHABI

Arampaging Kings XI Punjabwould look to extend their

exceptional run and inch clos-er to a Play-offs berth whileRajasthan Royals would be des-perate to stay alive in the tour-nament when the two sidesclash, here on Friday.

It has been a dramatic turn-around for the KL Rahul-ledside after a string a losses earli-er in the tournament.

They have managed toweave together five consecutivewins against the top four sidesin the tournament, infusing lifeinto their campaign. They are infourth position with 12 pointsfrom as many games, while theRoyals have slumped to thepenultimate spot with 10 pointshaving suffered seven defeatsfrom 12 outings.

It’s a mad scramble for theplay-offs. With Mumbai Indians

all but through, six teams are inthe hunt for the remainingthree spots.

The Royals can’t afford toslip up, if they lose on Fridaythey will be out of the reckon-ing while a defeat for Punjab willdent their chances for a top-fourfinish.

They wouldexpect their skipperRahul, the leadingrun-scorer of thetournament, to firein the crucial gameafter three under-whelming per-f o r m a n c e swith the bat.

T h eaddition ofChris Gaylehas donewonders forthe team’sconfidence.

It is to be seen if Mayank

Agarwal, who missed twogames with a bruised knee,returns to the side. In hisabsence, Mandeep Singh rev-elled in the role of an openerwith a match-winningunbeaten 66 in the winagainst Kolkata KnightRiders.

Punjab’s bowl-ing, which has been theirweakest link throughoutthe tournament, has been

exceptional in their recentwins, choking the oppo-

sition for runs.The Royals will

also be high on con-fidence after theirmorale boostingwin over tabletoppers Mumbaiand would bedesperate tokeep the win-ning momen-tum going.

The biggest positive for theRoyals is Ben Stokes roaringback to form after rusty displaysin previous five outings. TheEnglish all-rounder, who has

been elevated to therole of opener,smashed an unbeaten107 to help seal aseven-wicket win

over Mumbai.Sanju Samson is also back

among runs, while Jos Buttlerhas looked erratic. That skipperSteve Smith is in the middle ofa lean patch will augur well forKXIP.

The Jofra Archer-led bowl-ing attack has looked ordinary.The Barbados-born Englishpacer, who is having a stellarindividual season with 17 wick-ets from 12 matches with aneconomy of 6.71, has done mostof the heavy lifting with the ballwithout adequate support fromthe rest of the bowlers.

KL Rahul 595 runs

Kagiso Rabada 23 wickets

VIJAYAWADA | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 30, 2020

11

MOTION PICTURE

DUGOUTHe (Suryakumar) has had a goodtournament and today he was thedifference, getting that score andscoring as quickly as he did. (He)put Chahal under pressure, withsome good boundaries and sixes

We always spoke about one ofthe top three batters, or top fourbatters, bat all the way throughif you are chasing and win thegame for us. He (Surya) hasdone that more often than not

It is (opening innings) somethingthat I have sort of always wantedto slowly and gradually get into.So yeah, really enjoying theopportunity and responsibility I'vebeen given here at the Royals

The team management andRohit told me before the startof the tournament that youhave played enough to takethe game deep. I am glad Ihave been able to do it

TODAY

Live from 7:30pmSTAR SSPORTS 11

VVSS

Old tweets of Suryakumar Yadav praising RCB skipper Virat Kohlihave resurfaced after Surya's match-winning knock for Mumbai

POINTS TABLEP W L NRR PTS

1 MI 12 8 4 +1.186 16

2 RCB 12 7 5 +0.048 14

3 DC 12 7 5 +0.030 14

4 KXIP 12 6 6 -0.049 12

5 KKR 13 6 7 -0.467 12

6 SRH 12 5 7 +0.396 10

7 RR 12 5 7 -0.505 10

8 CSK 13 5 8 -0.532 10

MATCHES 20

KINGS XI PUNJAB 09

RAJASTHAN ROYALS 11

AFP n TURIN

Marcus Rashford was again the starfor Manchester United in the

Champions League with a hat-trick in a5-0 thumping of RB Leipzig onWednesday as Barcelona put their off-field troubles to one side to win 2-0 awayto a Juventus side deprived of CristianoRonaldo.

Rashford’s late goal earnedUnited a 2-1 victory away to ParisSaint-Germain last week and at OldTrafford, the England striker cameon as a second-half substitute andscored three times from the 74thminute on in what was a fine winagainst last season’s semi-final-ists.

Paul Pogba releasedMason Greenwood to openthe scoring in the first half,before the youngster madeway for Rashford after thebreak and Ole GunnarSolskjaer’s side ran awaywith the game to make it twowins from two in Group H.

Anthony Martial alsonetted from the penaltyspot as United ruthlesslyexposed the side whocurrently top theG e r m a nBundesliga andwent clear at the topof the section.

“We looked dangerousthroughout and that wecould score every time we

went forward,” said Rashford. “It was areal team performance.”

Meanwhile PSG got theircampaign up and running bybeating Istanbul Basaksehir 2-0

in Turkey, although they lostNeymar to an adductor injuryin the first half.

Both PSG’s goals werescored in the second half by

Moise Kean, the on-loan Evertonstriker heading in Kylian Mbappe’scorner in the 64th minute andthen turning to fire in the sec-ond late on.

B A R C ABOUNCE BBACK

In Turin,B a r c e l o n a

bounced backfrom their week-

end defeat in theClasico against Real

Madrid and shut out theboardroom crisis which led to

president Josep MariaBartomeu resigning onTuesday.

Ronald Koeman’sside had luck on theirside as they took the

lead through a

deflected Ousmane Dembele strike andthen saw Alvaro Morata have three goalsdisallowed for offside for the hosts.

The absence of Ronaldo because ofa positive coronavirus test meant nochance to see him renew his on-fieldrivalry with Lionel Messi, but theArgentine got his name on the scoresheetlate on, netting a stoppage-time penaltyto seal Barca’s second victory in as manyGroup G outings.

“This was our best game all season,”said Koeman.

Juve had Turkish defender MerihDemirel sent off late on as their under-whelming start to the season under

novice coach Andrea Pirlo contin-ued.

Their next game is away atFerencvaros, who came from behindto draw 2-2 with 10-man DynamoKiev in Budapest.

ZIYECH IIMPRESSESIn Group E Chelsea were compre-

hensive 4-0 winners away to Krasnodarin Russia, with Jorginho missing apenalty before Callum Hudson-Odoiopened the scoring.

Timo Werner smashed in a spot-kickon 76 minutes to double Chelsea’s lead,with Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisicadding late goals.

Sevilla beat Rennes 1-0 in the samesection with Luuk de Jong scoring theonly goal.

Borussia Dortmund claimed theirfirst points in Group F with JadonSancho’s 78th-minute penalty and ErlingBraut Haaland’s stoppage-time strikesecuring a 2-0 win over Zenit Saint-Petersburg.

The Germans are a point behindLazio and Club Brugge, who drew 1-1 inBelgium with a Hans Vanaken penaltysecuring a draw for the hosts.

Lionel Messi hugs Leonardo Bonucci after Barcabeat Juventus in Turin on Wednesday AP

Rohit Sharma knew it way before that Suryakumar has the potentialto be a big player. In his tweet that he posted way back in 2011,Rohit Sharma had stated that his IPL and state teammateSuryakumar would be a player to watch out for in future.

Former cricketer Manoj Tiwary praised Team India head coach RaviShastri's tweet on Suryakumar Yadav after his match-winningknock against Royal Challengers Bangalore

MORRIS, HARDIK REPRIMANDED RCB all-rounder Chris Morris and his Mumbai Indians'counterpart Hardik Pandya have been reprimanded for averbal altercation during their teams' IPL clash. Theincident took place in the 19th over of MI's chase whenPandya struck Morris for a massive six and gesturedtowards the South African. Morris got his revenge whenhe dismissed Pandya in the fifth ball of the over and gavehim a send off. A press release from the IPL said that bothof them admitted to breaching the Code of Conduct.

FEELING VERY GOOD, SAYS KAPIL DEVA week after undergoing angioplasty, the legendary KapilDev on Thursday greeted his former India teammates fromthe 1983 World Cup, saying he is “feeling very good” andeager to meet everyone soon. The 61-year-old underwentthe procedure after suffering a heart attack. “My family 83.The weather is very pleasant and I am very eager to meetyou all. I am feeling very good. Thanks to all for yourwishes and concern,” an enthusiastic Kapil, dressed in apurple T-shirt, said in a video which he shared with his1983 teammates. “I am hoping that we all will meet prettysoon. I will try to meet you all as early as possible. Wehave approached the end of the year and I am confidentthat we will have a great start to next year. Love you all,”he added.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Chennai Super Kings’ unflinchingreliance on experience over youth has

been their undoing this IPL season, saidWest Indies batting icon Brian Lara, urg-ing the franchise to give its younger lota chance in the remaining games. One ofthe most successful sides in the historyof the tournament, CSK are languishingat the bottom of the points table. Whilemost sides nurture youngsters, that hasnot been the case with the MahendraSingh Dhoni led side, often referred toas Dads Army.

“I think they (CSK) have got a lot ofolder players. There are not any youngplayers coming through the line-up.You look at it. Even their overseas play-ers, they have been around for a longtime,” Lara said on Star Sports’ SelectDugout.

“So, they have backed experienceover youth, and this has really turnedupside down for them,” he added.

It is the first time Dhoni and his menhave failed to clear the league stage, hav-ing managed only eight points so far afterfour wins.

The three-time champions’ poor runthis season has put a question-mark ontheir approach, leading to heavy criticismof Dhoni, who has been accused of notshowing enough faith in the youngsters.

“It’s just an unbelievable season so far.You know, every time they turn up, we’revery hopeful that CSK is going to turnit around,” Lara said.

“We all came here thinking this wasgoing to be the time when Dhoni turnsthings around with his team. And gameafter game, it just went, and they just kepthoping.”

“But it’s a situation where they canjust to try to build from next year. In thefew coming games that they have, seewhat they can do with the younger play-ers they’ve got,” Lara said.

PTI n DUBAI

Opener Nitish Rana's 87and a late burst helpedKolkata Knight Riders

get to 172 for five againstChennai Super Kings in an IPLmatch here onThursday.Following Rana's 61-ball effort, cameos from skip-per Eoin Morgan (15 off 12)and Dinesh Karthik (21 notout off 10) allowed KKR to putup a competitive total. CSK, who pulled things backin the middle overs after a finestart from KKR openers Rana

and Shubman Gill (26 off 17),leaked 66 runs in the last fiveovers.Lungi Ngidi (2/34) wasthe best bowler for CSK whileSam Curran also bowled wellearly on.

The KKR innings was builtlargely on Rana's knock whichcomprised 10 fours, foursixes.The southpaw mixed cau-tion with aggression and over-came a sluggish period in themiddle overs with some love-ly shots.Rana hit three consec-utive sixes off Karn Sharma inthe 16th over to up the ante asKKR looked for quick

runs.Sent in to bat, KKR got offto a solid start with Gill andRana putting on 53 runs for thefirst wicket.Gill looked in goodtouch and hit four boundariesbefore falling to leggieSharma.Sunil Narine (7), sentin at number three, smashedthe second ball for a six and fellfour balls later, unable to cleara Mitchell Santner deliverywith Ravindra Jadeja taking thecatch.KKR decided to sendRinku Singh, who was pickedfor the first time this season,ahead of Morgan at numberfour.

SAARBRUCKEN: Indian shuttlersAjay Jayaram and ShubhankarDey were on Thursday forcedout of the SaarLorLux Openafter being put in isolationowing to contact with Covid-19positive father-cum-coach ofdefending champion LakshyaSen, who has already with-drawn.

The 19-year-old Lakshyawithdrew on Wednesday afterhis father D K Sen returned apositive test for the virus.

“BWF can confirm threeplayers have been withdrawnfrom the SaarLorLux Open 2020as a precautionary measure forall participants after they were incontact with a member of theirteam entourage who tested pos-itive for COVID-19,” the BWFsaid in a statement. “The threeplayers: Lakshya Sen, AjayJayaram and Subhankar Dey willnot compete further in the tour-nament, which began onTuesday,” it added.

Later, Jayaram, in a Twitterpost tagging sports ministerKiren Rijiju, the national bad-minton federation and BWF,said that he and Dey would liketo return to India as the organ-isers have not given them anyinformation or assistance apart

from asking them to isolate.The Sports Authority of

India assured that it will pay forthe expenses to be incurred bythe two players “for the lengthof their quarantine in Germanyfrom October 30 to November10, on humanitarian grounds.”

“SAI will be paying a totalof ̀ 1.46 lakh for their hotel stayand food expenses and willrelease 90 percent of the amountimmediately,” SAI said in astatement. PTI

Rawalpindi: The Pakistanteam management has left outthe promising duo of batsmanHaider Ali and uncappedAbdullah Shafique in its 15-member squad for Friday’sfirst ODI against Zimbabwe inRawalpindi.

Vice-captain Shadab Khanwas not considered after beingruled out of the first match dueto stiffness in his left upper-leg.

Senior batsmanMohammad Hafeez and youngfast bowler MohammadHasnain were also not pickedeven though they were namedin a preliminary squad, likeHaider and Shafique, last weekfor the white-ball series againstthe visitors.

Pakistan’s top batsman,Babar Azam, will be leading theteam for the first time in anODI series and said he want-ed to start his tenure on a win-ning note.

“I’m keen on winning theODIs as this is my first seriesas captain,” said Azam.

“No team is easy in inter-national cricket so we won’ttake Zimbabwe lightly.” PTI

PTI n NEW DELHI

Mahendra Singh Dhoniand Chennai Super

Kings owners share suchmutual trust and fabulousrelationship that he could beretained as captain of the sidein 2021 despite enduring anabysmal IPL season in theUAE, says former India open-er Gautam Gambhir.

“I keep saying that whyCSK is CSK is because of therelationship between the own-ers and the captain. Theyhave given all the freedom toMS, and MS has received allthe mutual respect from theowners as well,” Gambhir wasquoted as saying byESPNcricinfo.

“So I would not be sur-prised if they continue withMS and MS plays till the time

he wants to play. And thennext year he still continues tobe the captain and have amuch different squad thanwhat he has this time around.”

“He deserves that much ofappreciation from the owners.”

The 39-year-old Dhoni’sfuture has come under scruti-ny in the wake of CSK’smediocre performances in theongoing IPL.

Gambhir, who flourishedunder Dhoni’s captaincy ininternational cricket, pointedout his overall record as CSKskipper.

“What he has done for thefranchise and how the fran-chise actually deals with MSand treats MS is a fabulousrelationship.

“And that is how everyfranchise should deal withtheir captain, who has deliv-

ered for them.”Gambhir said, “MS has

won them three (IPL) tro-phies, couple of ChampionsLeagues, he has made themone of the top successful sidesin the IPL after MumbaiIndians.

“So CSK saying they aregoing to continue with MS —it is just the relationship, it isjust the mutual respect.

“That’s why MS has beenso loyal (to the Super Kings).That’s why MS has giveneverything: heart and soul, hissweat, sleepless nights — I’msure he must have had sleep-less nights while he has con-tinued captaining CSK.”

Earlier, the CSK manage-ment has said that Dhoniwould be retained at the nextmega auction, which is likelyto be held in 2022.

Backing experienceover youth backfiredfor Chennai: Lara

KXIP meet Royals in must-win game

Jayaram, Subhankar seek to return

after withdrawal over Covid-19 contactPakistan leave out Haider Alifor 1st ODI

Oz include Green for India series

Hat-trick hero RashfordSubstitute Marcus nets thrice in Utd’s 5-0 win; Barca beat Cristiano-less Juve

CSK SPOIL KKR’S PARTY

Won't be surprised if MS leadsCSK in 2021: Gambhir

Nitish Rana reacts after scoring his fifty against Chennai Super Kings IPLT20

12

Vijayawada Friday October 30 2020tollywood

CHANDINI TO HEADLINE A THRILLER ON LINGUISTIC FORENSICS

The Vizag girl, who is basking in the glory of Colour

Photo, will be seen in a challenging and interesting rolein the untitled film written by lyricist-filmmaker Krishna

Chaitanya, reports NAGARAJ GOUDesides being a promi-nent lyricist who haspenned some block-buster songs, KrishnaChaitanya has provedhis range and depth as

a script writer with his directorialefforts, Rowdy Fellow and ChalMohan Ranga. Before he embarkson the ambitious journey ofdirecting his two-part high-volt-age political drama, Power Peta,with Nithiin from early next year,the director, The Pioneer hasexclusively learnt, has penned astory, which has been picked upby a new production house head-ed by Charan.

A source close to the develop-ment tells us, “It’s a female-cen-tric thriller on linguistic foren-sics. The subject matter is some-

thing new to the Telugu audienceand Charan is upbeat about it. Hehas roped in Chandini Chowdaryto spearhead it, while debutantKalyan, a mass communicationsstudent who has been an assistantdirector on multiple films in therecent past, has been signed on tohelm it. Chandini has got a chal-lenging and interesting role. Sheneeds to prep extensively for itbefore filming.”

The source adds that filmingwill commence next month inHyderabad and the makers are inthe process of finalising the tech-nical crew and other cast mem-bers. “The official announcementis around the corner. KrishnaChaitanya has also written thefilm’s dialogues,” the source con-cludes.

B

Sam thanksuncle Nag forhelping her‘overcomehosting fears'

amanthaAkkineni, whohosted anepisode ofpopular realityshow Bigg Boss

4 last week due to theunavailability of hersuperstar uncleNagarjuna, dubbed theexperience as somethingshe will remember.Taking to her Instagramspace on Thursday, theactress, who hasn'twatched a single episodeof the show before takingover the hosting duties,extended thanks toNagarjuna for helpingher overcome her jitters.“An experience toremember… Neverthought I'd be on the BigBoss stage as host ! Only

because I was given thisresponsibility by myMamagaru.. I could findthe strength to overcomemy fears… the fear that Ihad no experience host-ing , the fear of Telugu ..I had never even watchedan episode before..Thankyou mama forhelping me overcome myfears and trusting mewith this (sic),” she wrote.

Although the critics mayhave been divided on herhosting skills, she is happyfor all the love she receivedafter the episode. “I wasjumping with joy And GKMohan garu for handhold-ing me through a verydemanding Maha episodeof #bigbossseason4,” shewrote further.

SFlaunting bridal glow

The wedding festivities of Kajal Aggarwal, who will tie the knot withentrepreneur Gautam Kitchlu today in Mumbai, are at full-swing at herhouse. On Thursday, she posted a picture from the mehendi

ceremony, flaunting the deep colour of henna on her hands. She wasdressed in a mint green salwar suit with golden chandbalis, while being allsmiles for the camera. She captioned the picture stating,“#kajgautkitched”.

treaming on aha since lastweek, Colour Photo, frontedby Suhas, ChandiniChowdary and Sunil, con-tinues to be a beneficiary ofpositive feedback from the

industry. After the likes of Ravi Teja,Nani and Sai Tej, the latest to haveraved about the film is actor JagapathiBabu. Taking to Twitter, the senioractor said that the film’s success is a tes-timony to the fact it is heart and soulthat makes a film to succeed but notstardom and money. “I am glad thisfilm once again proves that it is not justthe currency and stardom that makesmovie a hit..it is more heart andsoul...most of the times I wonder aboutwhat am I doing here when the young-sters are pacing far more ahead in cre-

ativity and naturality (sic),” the actorposted on Thursday.

Lauding the efforts of the principalteam, he added, “Seeing what I believedin. I am totally impressed by watching#ColourPhoto. super kid@SandeepRaaajdid a great job for hisage. @ActorSuhas a good actor provedto be a hero, @kaalabhairava7 whom Iam really fond of as a person and hissensibilities of music always impressesme (sic),” Jagapathi wrote.

Actor Satyadev too posted an appre-ciation message on Thursday. “Beensome time since I’ve watched a touch-ing love story. Edipinchesaru ! Love youmy darlings for making a beautiful film.Every department excelled and thus wehave a smile,” he wrote on Twitter tag-ging the film’s key team.C

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SandamuriBalakrishna’suntitled nextwith BoyapatiSreenu hasresumed in

Hyderabad on Thursday-nearly eight months afterits shoot was put onpause mode due to thepandemic. While themakers confirmed thesame, they refused toreveal information about

whether Balayya hadjoined the sets onThursday or not.

The film’s team, how-ever, is following safetyprotocols. The presentschedule will go uninter-rupted until December 3,with majority of thefilming set to take placeat Ramoji Film City,Hyderabad.

In the action-enter-tainer with an underly-

ing social message,Balayya will be seen indual roles — of whichone role is that of anaghora. Expectations arehigh on this untitled filmas it marks the reteamingup of the actor andBoyapati after successfulventures like Simha andLegend in the past.Produced by M RavinderReddy, the film hasmusic by Thaman.

Balayya-Boyapatifilm back on sets

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Allari Nareshcompletes Naandhi

he filming of AllariNaresh’s next,Naandhi, withdebutant directorVijayKanakamedala has

been wrapped up, film’s pro-ducer Satish Vegesna said onThursday. Before the pan-demic forced the unit to takean extensive break of sixmonths, the film was 90 per-cent wrapped up.

Inspired by a true story, thefilm follows an undertrial(played by Naresh) brought to

Chanchalguda prison,Hyderabad, for a crime thathe didn’t commit. A hard-hit-ting social drama, it will drawattention to the torture hefaces at the hands of cops andhow he finally comes out ofthe prison.

The film, which is Naresh’s57, co-stars VaralakshmiSarathkumar, Priyadarshi,Praveen, Harish Uttaman,and Devi Prasad in support-ing roles. A Sri Charan Pakalamusica, it has dialogues bypopular writer Abburi Ravi.

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