RAINS OR THUNDERSHOWERS INPARTS OF CITY UNTIL SUNDAY

The novel coronavirus outbreak can now be characterised as apandemic, the head of the World Health Organisation said on

Wednesday. "COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic," WHO chiefTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva."We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by acoronavirus. Meanwhile, the number of novelcoronavirus patients in the country has risen to60, with 10 more positive cases -- eight fromKerala and one each from Delhi and Rajasthan --being reported since Tuesday's update, theUnion health ministry said on Wednesday.

SBI RATIONALISES INTEREST RATEFOR SB ACCOUNTS TO A FLAT 3% The country's largest lender SBI on Wednesday rationalised interest

rate on all savings bank (SB) accounts to a flat 3 per cent, a moveaffecting 44.51 crore account holders. The bank also waived therequirement for maintaining minimum balance in SB accounts. Keepingin mind the ‘Customers First' approach, the bank further saidit has also waived SMS charges, which will bring signi-ficant relief to all the customers. Bank has also rational-ised interest rate on SB Account to a flat 3 % p.a. forall buckets," it said. Currently, the interest rate on SBaccounts is 3.25 % for deposits up to Rs 1 lakh in SBaccounts, and 3 % for deposits above Rs 1 lakh.

The Congress finally has a new party chief in Karnataka, with the partyleadership stating today that high-profile trouble-shooter DK

Shivakumar will replace Dinesh Gundu Rao. Outgoing KPCC (KarnatakaPradesh Congress Committee) President Mr Rao hadresigned from his post last year soon after the party'sdismal performance in December by-polls, in which 11former Congress and JDS rebel MLAs were re-elected tothe seats from which they had resigned and triggered thefall of a Congress-JDS coalition in the state. Conf-irmation of Shivakumar's appointment came sh-ortly after Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP.

DK SHIVAKUMAR NAMED NEWKARNATAKA CONGRESS CHIEF

COVID-19 CAN BE CHARACTERISEDAS A PANDEMIC, SAYS WHO CHIEF

After bearing scorching heat, the city witnessed rain over isolatedplaces on Wednesday and will continue until Saturday. According to

IMD, Rain or thundershowers would occur towardsafternoon or evening from Wednesday untilSunday. Maximum temperature will be around35degree Celsius in the city despite rains whichare due to cyclonic ciruation over Marathwada"The trough/wind discontinuity now runs from northMarathawada to south Tamilnadu across InteriorKarnataka and extends upto 0.9 km above mean sealevel persists.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A day after resigning from theCongress, Jyotiraditya Scindiajoined the BJP on Wednesdayin presence of the ruling party'spresident JP Nadda and hailedPM Narendra Modi for hisleadership, saying the country'sfuture is secure in his hands.

Welcoming him into the BJP,Nadda recalled the party'sfounder and Jyotiraditya's grand-mother Vijaya Raje Scindia andsaid, "he is joining his family andwe welcome him."

Thanking Prime Minister,Home Minister Amit Shahand Nadda, Scindia said theyhave given him the platform toserve the people.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Health Minister Etela Rajenderhas declared that there is not asingle Covid-19 positivepatient on Telangana soil at thismoment. "The second report(on the sample) of the one per-son who tested positive andtreated in Gandhi Hospitalcame out negative. We'regoing to discharge him soon.Telangana people have to takenote of this. Telangana is rec-ognized as a state effective inpreventing coronavirus," heobserved here on Wednesday.

The Health Minister saidthat the campaign by someirresponsible people on socialmedia had been dismissed."We have been saying early onthat the virus has no effect on81 percent of corona-infected

people. Only 14 percent of peo-ple require treatment. Even inChina, only three percent ofpeople died of coronavirus".Only people infected withcoronavirus need to be treated

according to their symptoms.Everyone was being screenedat the airport and if peopleshowed symptoms, they werebeing sent directly to the hos-pital, he added.

The Union government hadagreed to set up coronavirustesting labs at Kakatiya MedicalCollege; Institute of PreventiveMedicine and Fever Hospital,apart from Gandhi Hospitaland Osmania Medical College.The lab at Osmania will startfunctioning from Friday, whilethe remaining will be opera-tional within a week.

Etela said that in the hospi-tals where people infected withvirus were being treated, thegovernment had set up HEPAfilters in the rooms to preventthe spread of the virus. Thesefilters would help send outclean air.

Upon establishment of themachine, those around GandhiHospital would not have to beanxious.

HYDERABAD, THURSDAY MARCH 12, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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Telangana govt approvesKUDAMaster Plan

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28,979 startupsrecognised byDPIIT as onMarch 1: Goyal

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New paddy varieties soon, says Niranjan

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HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated March 11, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC TODAY

Month & Paksham:Phalguna & Krishna PakshaPanchangam:Tithi: Tritiya: 11:58 amNakshatram: Chitra: 04:15 pm Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 01:54 pm – 03:23 pmYamagandam: 06:29 am – 07:58 amVarjyam: 09:19 pm – 10:46 pmGulika: 09:27 am - 10:56 amGood Time: (to start any important

work)Amritakalam: 10:35 am – 12:00 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 12:02 pm – 12:49 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Partly CloudyTemp: 33/22Humidity: 57%Sunrise: 06.26Sunset: 06.25

Jyotiraditya Scindia joinsBJP, gets RS nomination n Says country's future secure in Modi's hands

Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda welcomes Jyotiraditya Scindia after the latterjoined the saffron party at BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday

Cops pulling down student activists trying to scale over the main gate of theAssembly complex in Hyderabad on Wednesday

‘Good to be onsame team’

NEW DELHI: Former RajasthanChief Minister Vasundhara Raje onWednesday welcomed hernephew Jyotiraditya Scindia'sdecision to jointhe BJP andpraised himfor his"strength ofcharacter andcourage". MsRaje, a senior BJP leader, tweetedMr Scindia and said it is good tobe on the "same team". "If RajmataSahab (Mr Scindia's grandmotherVijaya Raje Scindia) was heretoday, she would be elated to seeyou put the nation first.

‘Only Scindia could walkinto my house anytime’PNS n NEW DELHI

Hours after Rahul Gandhi,whose close if not closestassociate in the party,Jyotiraditya Scindia, joinedthe BJP on Wednesday, theformer Congress chief broke

his silence, saying,"He was the onlyone who couldwalk into my

house anytime".Rahul Gandhi alsorubbished Scidia's

claim that hewas unable tomeet him and

interim Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi, since thatwould be impossible for a per-son who had all access atall time to the Gandhi house-hold.

Scindia earlier alleged thathe had tried to reach out toSonia Gandhi but could notdo so. Rahul Gandhi, who wasonce seen winking to Scindiain the Lok Sabha with PMNarendra Modi making muchof that episode, reacted toScindia's departure from theparty while speaking toreporters in the Parliamentcorridors on Wednesday.

Etela: TS' first Covid-19positive patient cured

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana High Courton Wednesday directed thestate government to take adecision on the report submit-ted by Prof. Tirupati Rao com-mittee, which was constitutedto make recommendations onthe regulation of fee structurein private unaided education-al institutions of the state, tocome out with a comprehen-

sive policy on school fee reg-ulation by April 8,2020. Adivision bench of the highcourt comprising of the Chief

Justice of the state Justice RSChauhan and JusticeA.Abhishek Reddy also askedthe state government to state ifit accept or reject the reportbefore the deadline . The HCpassed the orders while deal-ing with a batch of petitionsincluding a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) filed byHyderbad Students ParentsAssociation and others.

HC directs TS Govt to come outwith a comprehensive policy

Tension at Assembly,protesting studentslathi-chargedPNS n HYDERABAD

Hundreds of students, mainlythose belonging to ABVP andPDSU, from OsmaniaUniversity, Nizam College andvarious other colleges tried tostorm the Telangana Assemblyon Wednesday as part of their'Chalo Assembly' protestagainst the state government'salleged failure to keep certainpromises that were madebefore the elections.

Around 11 am, the activists,who had apparently used pub-lic transport to reach the place,started running towards theAssembly. Policemen on ban-dobast duty outside theAssembly building preventedmost of them from gettinginside, and bundled them awayin police vehicles.

The activists tried to enter

Gate 1 --the main entrance ofthe Assembly. They tried toblock it. Though a large num-ber of police personnel hadbeen deployed amid barricades,the protesters swelled in notime. After repeated attempts topacify the protesting students,the police chased them away. Inthe melee, a couple of themmanaged to scale the gate of theAssembly complex, but werepulled down by the police.

MP Bandi Sanjay is Telangana BJP chiefK VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

Karimnagar MP BandiSanjay, a firebrandHindutva torch-bearer andhard-core sanghi who hadtaken part in the Babrimasjid demoli-tion, was onWednesdaya p p o i n t e dchief of theTelangana unitof the BharatiyaJanata Party. The BJP nation-al general secre-tary Arun Singhissued a state-ment to this effecton Wednesday, on

behalf of party national presi-dent Jagat Prakash

Nadda. BandiS a n j a y ' sappointment iswith immedi-ate effect.

Sanjay's eleva-tion is seen as car-

rying the imprint ofRSS' blessings, consid-ering the 48-year-oldleader has risenthrough the ranks.He served in theAkhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) -- the stu-dent wing of RSS.Sanjay has sinceworked activelyin RSS too.

There was a lot of buzz overthe appointment of TS BJPchief for months, with manyparty leaders, including formerminister DK Aruna,Nizamabad MP D Arvind, for-mer MP AP Jithender Reddyand present chief Dr KLaxman, tryingtheir best toget the posi-tion, apartfrom BandiSanjay Kumar.

Party leadersnow believe thatBandi Sanjay'sa p p o i n t m e n tsmacks of Hindutvabeing given the pushto put it on top of theagenda of the saf-

fron party in Telangana.Sanjay has gone on record thathe will not hesitate to sacrificehis life for the sake ofHinduism. His fiery statementsin the wake of Bainsa riots andduring the municipal electionshelped instill confidenceamong local Hindus, it is said.

This was also factored in bythose who decided onthe chief of the state BJP.

The party's nationalleaders held discussionswith local leaders onFebruary 24 and came to

a conclusion that onlySanjay had the

strength to facethe TRS gov-

ernment.

ThePioneer reported

Sanjay’s elevation 6months back onSept 11, 2019

Revanth's bailpetition dismissedPNS n HYDERABAD

A local court in Kukatpallyon Wednesday dismissed abail petition of Congressworking present andMalkajgiri Lok Sabha mem-ber A. Revanth Reddy inconnection with a case regis-tered against him at NarsingiPolice Station of CyberabadPolice Commissionerate.

The MP, along with sevenothers, has been accused ofusing a 'spy' drone to takephotographs of state ITMinister KT Rama Rao'sfarmhouse and the surround-ing areas at Miyakhangaddavillage.

AP HC orders CBIprobe into Viveka murderPNS n HYDERABAD

The Andhra Pradesh HighCourt on Wednesdayordered an investigation byCentral Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) into YSVivekananda's murder, thepaternal uncle of ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy as it felt there had notbeen any progress in theinvestigation by the AndhraPradesh state police.

Hyderabadis fight shy of getting into ArmyNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Mahabubnagar district fromTelangana and Srikakulamdistrict in Andhra Pradesh aresending the most people intoArmy. According to armyrecruitment data, 693 peoplewere recruited from Telanganaand 1,301 from AndhraPradesh in the year 2018-19.Prior to reorganisation of dis-tricts, most people fromAdilabad would get recruitedin the army.

In 2018-19, as many as 255people from Srikakulam dis-trict were recruited into the

Army, followed by 202 fromPrakasam and 185 fromVisakhapatnam districts. The

number of people joining theArmy has declined in AndhraPradesh.

In 2018-19, as many as 1,301persons joined the Army whileit was 1,431 people in 2017-18and 1,389 in 2016-17. Except forAnantapur and West Godavari,the drop in number of personswas across all the districts.

In 2018-19, 100 people fromMahbubnagar district wererecruited by the Army, followedby Nirmal which sent 63.Adilabad sent 62 people. Overall,

the number of people joiningArmy from Telangana hasincreased. From the 512 peoplerecruited in 2016-18, the intakeinto the Army from Telanganarose to 693 in 2018-19.

Despite the substantial pres-ence of Army areas inHyderabad, the intake of peo-ple from the capital into theArmy is negligible.

n Mahabubnagar and Nirmal sending most people into Army from Telangana

We have beensaying early on

that the virus has noeffect on 81 percent ofcorona-infected people.Only 14 percent of peoplerequire treatment. Evenin China, only threepercent of people diedof corona virus

—ETELA RAJENDER HEALTH MINISTER

As per the Army recruitment data tabled inParliament , Mahabubnagar district fromTelangana and Srikakulam district from AP aresending most people into Army.

Barricades were put upas the mass ofprotesters swelled.After repeated attemptsto pacify protestingstudents, police chasedthem away from thearea near Gate 1.

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HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020 hyderabad 02

EGG RATES

` 44,310 (10 gm)

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` 46,100 (10 gm)

` 2200

HYDERABAD 295VIJAYAWADA 324VISAKHAPATNAM 355RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `22..9955

SILVER

HYDERABADBULLION RATES

`//110000

CHICKEN RATES

Dressed/With Skin `75

Without Skin `86

Broiler at Farm `52

`//KKGG

(IN HYDERABAD)

PNS n HYDERABAD

Bhadrachalam Road -Sattupalli new rail line projectis one of the most importantand much-awaited ongoingprojects on South CentralRailway (SCR). This new lineis being jointly developed bySCR and Singareni CollieriesLimited (SCCL) for transport-ing coal from the nearby minesof SCCL located at Sattupalliarea.

As a part of this, the SCCLhas handed over Rs 200 croreto the South Central Railwayas its share for construction ofa railway line linkingKothagudem and Sathupalli.

The 53- km long line wouldfacilitate transport of coal pro-duced in Sathupalli Open Castmines to Kothagudem and itwould be completed by theend of this year.

Bhadrachalam Road -Sattupalli new rail line Projectwas sanctioned in the year2010-11with joint participa-tion of Railways and SCCL,with an agreement that theland cost to be borne byRailways and constructioncost by SCCL.

Earlier, in March 2017,detailed estimate was sanc-tioned by Railway Board for atotal cost of Rs. 704 crore.Accordingly, SCCL haddeposited a total amount of Rs

156.38 crore to Railwaystowards the cost of work.

Later, during the course ofexecution, revised estimatehas been prepared for accom-

modating additional function-al requirements costing to Rs927.94 crore (Railways Rs309.39 crore & SCCL Rs618.55 crore). SCCL has given

its consent for the revisedestimate and handed over acheque for Rs 200 crore onWednesday taking its totaldeposit to Rs 356 crore.

The project has been takenup with utmost importance byboth the organisations whichis reflected in 90 per cent of theland proposed by the Railwaysbeing acquired with the sup-port of the Government ofTelangana in a record time ofabout six months, enablingearly completion of the project.The project is targeted to becompleted by the end ofDecember 2020.

On the occasion, GajananMallya, General Manager, SCRexpressed his happiness andstated that this step will help inspeeding up the execution ofthe entire project. He also stat-ed that SCR and SCCL havebeen long-standing growthpartners and the constructionof the new railway line will givefurther fillip to the growth ofboth the organisations.

N Sridhar, chairman &managing director, SCCLassured that the SCCL willextend all the possible supportfor early completion of theproject which will benefit boththe organisations. He alsorequested the Railway author-ities to complete and commis-sion the project by the end ofthis calendar year.

Bhadrachalam-Sattupallirailway line by year end

Th eo m i -n o u s

warning soundedby Andhra Chief

Minister YSJaganmohan Reddyto his cabinet col-

leagues and party leg-islators, declaring that they allcould lose their positionsshould the party fail in its cru-cial test in the forthcomingelections to local bodies, hasbrought nightmares to thosewho know that he would keephis word. Ministers and legis-lators have been on their toessince then, wary of the possi-ble follow-up action by Jagan.

The Jagan government hasadopted innovative ways tostrike a chord among people.Housing is one of suchschemes. If all goes well, 26lakh eligible poor people withBPL background will be get-ting house site pattas on theoccasion of Ugadi. The ruling

party is hopeful that muchbefore the unfolding of thatevent, the fruits of its gover-nance should fall into its lapin the form of encouragingresults in polls to local bod-ies! No wonder, Jagan taskedhis ministers and MLAs withspecific responsibilities. Hehas made it loud and clear tohis cabinet colleagues thatthose who do not deliver intheir respective districts willhave to go directly to RajBhavan and submitting theirresignations to the Governor.Likewise, MLAs who fail toshow the required perfor-mance will get no tickets inthe next general election.

Amidst this understand-able cause of concern, there isalso a view that the proposedreplacement of non-perform-

ing ministers is line withwhat their leader had toldthem in the first-ever YSRCLegislature Party. The gist ofthe message that Jagan deliv-ered on the occasion wasthat all aspirants for cabinetposts would get a chance,considering that they wouldbe inducted in two batches,with the first batch, compris-ing 25 members, beingreplaced by the second oneupon completion of half the

tenure of the government ortwo and a half years. Theservices of the outgoing min-isters would be utilized forstrengthening the party.

In other words, Jaganmight adopt something likethe 'Kamaraj Plan', whichwas implemented in 1963 atthe behest of then primeminister Pandit JawaharlalNehru! Most of the ministersin the then Union Cabinetheaded by Nehru had to go

and take up party organisa-tional work. Although thesituations, in the Congressthen and in YSRCP now, arenot comparable, it seemsworkable and imminent. Asfor the ministers in the firing

line, they all seem to be readyfor the inevitable.

The only ray of hope forthem is that, during the timeof polls to local bodies in2006, the then chief ministerof undivided state of AndhraPradesh Dr. YS RajasekharaReddy put the same condi-tions to his cabinet colleaguesand MLAs. After the resultsof elections to local bodieswere declared, he appointeda party-level committee head-ed by former Union ministerP Upendra and asked him toprepare a report on the "per-formance" of ministers andMLAs. That committee haddetailed discussions withcadre and submitted adetailed report with recom-mendations on 'genuine aspi-rants' to be considered for

cabinet expansion. It was asensational development inthe ruling Congress partythen. The big question waswhether YSR would followthe recommendations madeby the committee! When thetime came for cabinet expan-sion and reshuffle in 2007,those recommendations wereignored and YSR acted as perhis political needs!

As things stand, YSRCappears to be confident ofwinning a majority of theseats, despite anticipation ofnegative response from thepublic due to issues like relo-cation of capital city.Although it is not possible forYSRCP to put up a perfor-mance like that of TRS in therecent elections to local bod-ies in TS, the YSRC is deter-

mined to ensure impressiveresults.

The Village Volunteers sys-tem introduced by the Jagangovernment in AP might beplaying crucial role in localbodies ' polls now! It dependson the volunteers' rapportwith people at the grassrootslevel. It is, of course, possiblefor the party to 'utilize' theservices of these volunteers to'reach out' to people whocount during the local bodypolls.

Interestingly, AP DeputyChief Minister AmzathBasha, during a recent meet-ing with village volunteers,urged them to ensure a grandvictory for ruling YSRC,while suggesting that theyowe their jobs to the govern-ment!

M D RATNA KUMAR Senior Journalist

The ruling party is hopeful that muchbefore the unfolding of the Ugadi event,the fruits of its governance should fall intoits lap in the form of encouraging resultsin polls to local bodies!

Will Jagan's warning be followed by ‘execution'?PIN

POINT

MUCH-AWAITED PROJECTLength of the project : 54.10 kmDistricts covered : Bhadradri-Kothagudem

and Khammam Land required : 353 hectares Major Bridges : 10, out of which work is

in progress for 7 bridgesMinor Bridges : 40 Road over Bridges : 8Road under Bridges : 34Stations proposed : 03 crossing stations

New paddy varietiessoon, says NiranjanPNS n HYDERABAD

To grow 1Kg of paddy, 2,395litres of water is required inTelangana as against the glob-al average of 2,300 litres, saidAgriculture MinisterSingireddy Niranjan Reddy inthe Legislative Council.

Replying to a questionposed by MLC ChinnapaReddy, the Minister put theconsumption of water variesbetween 1,786 and 3,683 litersin various states across thecountry to grow a kg of paddy.

To reduce water use waterin paddy crop, several scien-tific methods have beenevolved by Prof JayashankarAgricultural University in Telangana state anddemonstrating the same at thefield-level.

In all, 35 per cent of waterapplication has been saved byencouraging paddy cultivationunder wells and canals imple-menting low-land fieldmethod in a big way inNizamabad, Nalgonda,Warangal, Khammam,Mahbubnagar, Rangareddyand Medak districts.

In collaboration with theInternational Paddy ResearchInstitute in Philippines, vari-eties of aerobic paddy andthose suitable for dry lands arebeing developed, the Ministersaid adding that the varietieshelp save farmer up to 30 percent of water.

The Government ofTelangana developed short-

gestation but high-yieldingvarieties like Telangana Sona,Batukamma, Kunaram finevariety of paddy seeds whichcould save water applicationfor about a month, heexplained.

He also explained how thestate government is imple-menting crop colonies.Moreover, research and devel-opment is going on to createnew paddy varieties that canwithstand climate inTelangana.

The Telanganagovt is focusingon research anddevelopment ofnew paddyvarities that canwithstand climatein TS, saidNiranjan Reddy

Telangana’sfirst Coronavirus patient...Continued from Page 1

As part of various arrange-ments, the Chief Ministerhas assigned two IAS officersto combat Covid-19 viz T KSridevi and Manik Raju.

Sridevi is the Chairman ofthe Procurement Committee.She oversees the purchasingof all the necessary equip-ment. She also oversees theprecautions to be taken at theairport. Manik Raju keepstrack of five thousand passen-gers arriving at the airportevery day, through 104 108call centers, and is able totrack each person for 14 daysat home. Arvind Kumar is incharge of InformationEducation andCommunication (ICE) cam-paign.

On Wednesday, 25 peoplewith suspected symptoms ofcoronavirus were detected; 16of whom are now sympto-matic at hospital isolation andnine asymptomatic underhome quarantine. The resultsof eight patients are awaited,while the rest of them testednegative.

Earlier, a review meetingwas held in which SpecialChief Secretary ShantiKumari, Family WelfareCommissioner Yogita Rana,Ayush Director Alugu Varsiniand Special Officer SrideviDirector of MedicalEducation Ramesh Reddy,Director of Public HealthSrinivasa Rao,Chandrashekhar Reddy,TSMIDC and Shankar direc-tor of IPM took part.

Continued from Page 1

Many students weredetained. Some were injuredin the lathi-charge.

Condemning the "anti-edu-cation policies of the KCRgovernment", the studentsdemanded that the state gov-ernment must allocate Rs1,000 crore towards develop-ment of Osmania University,appoint nine vice-chancellorsfor various universities inTelangana, release immediate-ly pending amount towardsfee reimbursement and schol-arship and fill vacant teachingand non-teaching posts inuniversities. The protestersasserted that they would notbudge until the governmentresolved their demands.

The Police remained ontheir toes to control the pro-testers as slogans against thegovernment reverberated out-side the Assembly.Responding to the issue, theCP said, "Today members ofABVP & PDSU tried to scalethe gate of Assembly andattempted to disrupt the pro-ceedings. Assembly is a verysacred institution. Smoothfunctioning of Assembly ses-sion is the most basic require-ment of a healthy democracy.Under no circumstances theproceedings of Assembly canbe allowed to be disrupted.For this purpose, prohibitoryorders are also issued. Anyindividual, group or organisa-tion making an attempt to dis-rupt the proceedings willattract strict legal action.

Revanth's bailpetition dismissedContinued from Page 1

Revanth had also sharedsome videos taken lastSunday with the media,claiming the farmhouse wasconstructed in the Gandipetlake catchment area in viola-tion of GO 111.

The police had registered acase against Revanth, hisbrother Krishna Reddy, andothers. While others are outon bail, Revanth continues tobe lodged at the CherlapallyCentral prison.

MP Bandi Sanjay is TS...Continued from Page 1

Besides, the national partyhad in mind the continuedlobbying by Reddys andVelamas to get positions forleaders from their respectivecommunities.

Noticeably, Sanjay had notflinched even the policeattacked him during the RTCstrike. On top of that, he inten-sified his activities and high-lighted issues more vociferous-ly. Sanjay has been actively par-ticipating in all programmesmeant against the TRS govern-ment.

As for electoral record,Sanjay lost the Assembly elec-tions in 2018 with a narrowmargin in the hands ofMinister Gangula Kamalakar.However, Sanjay created histo-ry by winning the Lok Sabha

elections with more than87,000 vote majority, defeatingTRS candidate BoinpallyVinod Kumar.

Right from his days as a cor-porator in Karimnagar city,Sanjay has been a torch-bear-er of Hindutva.

Born in 1971 to late BandiNarsaiah and Shakunthala,Sanjay belongs toMunnurukapu. His wifeAparna works as SBI employ-

ee. He has two sons viz SaiBaghirath and Sai Sumukh.

Sanjay was ABVPKarimnagar town convenerand ABVP town vice-presidentand state executive member.He was elected as director ofthe Karimnagar CooperativeUrban Bank twice (1994-99and 1999-2003). He worked aselection campaign committeein-charge in BJP national officein Delhi. He served asBharatiya Janatha YuvaMorcha Karimnagar City gen-eral secretary, city president,state executive member, statevice-president, national exec-utive member and nationalsecretary, besides serving asKerala and Tamil Nadu in-charge. Sanjay also participat-ed in the Babri Masjid demo-lition programme taken up byBJP and RSS.

Hyderabadis...Continued from Page 1

As per the Army recruit-ment data tabled inParliament, only two per-sons from Hyderabad gotinto the Army in 2019-18 andprior to that, just one personin 2018-17 and two in 2016-17. As per the data tabled inParliament by Minister ofState Ministry of DefenceShripad Naik, the maximumrecruitment to the Armyhappens from Uttar Pradeshand Punjab-Chandigarh fol-lowed by Himachal Pradeshand Rajasthan.

During 2020-21, tworecruitment rallies areplanned in Andhra Pradeshand one in Telangana. Thelocation of recruitment rallyis decided from amongst thedistricts under jurisdiction ofthe Army Recruiting Officein consultation with the CivilAdministration.

AP HC orders CBIprobe into ...Continued from Page 1

The high court took intoconsideration various peti-tions, including Viveka's wifeSowbhagyamma, daughterDr Sunitha Narreddy andTelugu Desam Party leader BTech Ravi and BJP leader CAdinarayana Reddy.

The high court heard thepetitions in detail and thecounter argument by the statepolice.

Even Jagan had filed apetition in the high court,seeking to withdraw his ear-lier petition demanding aCBI inquiry, stating that hisgovernment had appointed afresh inquiry by SIT.

But the high court was nothappy with the SIT probe andasked CBI to probe this underextra ordinary circumstances.

Tension atTelangana...

Continued from Page 1

"Pained" and "distressed" fornot able to serve the people inhis previous organisation, hesaid the Congress is living indenial and it is not the sameparty what it used to be.

Hailing Modi for his leader-ship, Scindia said the country'sfuture is secure in his hands.

Talking about MadhyaPradesh, the erstwhileCongress leader said the dreamwhich he saw with his formercolleagues for the state hasbeen shattered in the last 18months. According to sources,the BJP is likely to name him

as one of its candidates for theRajya Sabha polls in MadhyaPradesh and is also confidentof forming the government inthe state with his help as 22MLAs including Scindia's sup-porters have resigned fromthe state assembly reducing theKamal Nath government to aminority.

Peeved with his marginalisa-tion in the Congress, Scindiamet Shah on Tuesday and thenthe two leaders went to theprime minister's residencewhere they held talks for overan hour. Soon after meetingModi, he tendered his resigna-tion to Congress president

Sonia Gandhi saying it wastime for him to move on.

Scindia took the decision tosever his ties with the Congresson the day of his fatherMadhavrao Scindia's 75th birthanniversary.

A four-time MP, Scindiafirst got elected from Guna inMadhya Pradesh in 2002 afterwinning a bye-election neces-sitated by his father's demise.He was only 31 years old at thattime. He gradually made hisway up the Congress ladderbecoming Minister of Statefor Communications and IT in2007 during the Congress-ledUPA-1.

HC directs TS Govt to come... Continued from Page 1

In its petition , the associationurged the HC to issue direc-tions to the state governmentto implement GO MS no.91issued on August 6,2009.

It also urged the HC toissue directions to take actionagainst private unaided schoolsfor collecting one time feeseveral times and for usingnames such as IIT Olympiad,concept and e-techno schoolsby violating the GovernmentOrder.

Later the division benchadjourned the matter till April9,2020. The Tirupathi rao

committee was constitutedon March 21,2017 and wasentrusted with the task ofstudying fee structure in pri-vate unaided schools. It wasgiven six extensions for thecompletion of the taskassigned to it. In protest , theHSPA members, who werealso the members of the com-mittee resigned from it follow-ing its failure to submit itsreport before the deadlinefixed by the state govern-ment.

The HSPA hailed HighCourts's orders and hoped thegovernment will come outwith an effective policy to reg-

ulate fee structure in privateschools, which became unaf-fordable for common people.

"The struggle of parentsthat began around many yearsback demanding fee regula-tion in private schools finallyseems to be reaching a conclu-sion. We have to wait to seehow effective the measuressuggested by the state govern-ment turn out to be. This isa major vindication of thestand taken by HSPA againstillegal profiteering by schools.If not always visible, we con-tinue to fight for everyone inthe best way in which we can,"said HSPA in a release.

Jyotiraditya Scindia joins BJP, gets RS nomination "Good To Be On...Continued from Page 1

I admire your strength ofcharacter and courage. It'sgood to be on the same team.Welcome to the BJP,"Vasundhara Raje said.Vasundhara Raje, is the sisterof Jyotiraditya Scindia's fatherMadhavrao Scindia, who diedin a plane crash in 2001.Political affiliations have splitthe Scindias, a royal familyfrom Gwalior in MP, rightdown the middle.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020 hyderabad 03

RIME ORNERC

CBI raids at 16locations in Ponzi case

The Central Bureau of Investi-gation on Wednesday carried

out searches at over 16 locationsin Hyderabad and Kolkata inconnection with its probe into achit fund case, officials said. Asenior CBI official related to theprobe said that multiple teamswere carrying out searches at theoffices of Ashok Group of Comp-anies and the residential premi-ses of its officials in Hyderabadand Kolkata for cheating invest-ors to the tune of Rs 20 crore.The official said that a case agai-nst the company was registeredat the EO on the directions of theSC. He said that the companyhad promised huge rate of returnon the investments in the firm.

Two miscreantssnatch gold chainfrom woman

Unidentified persons snatchedgold chain from a woman at

Himagiri colony in LB Nagar onWednesday. The victim identifiedas Padmavathi, 50, was walkingnear her house when two bike-borne miscreants snatched hergold chain weighing 5 tolas. The offenders came on a bikewhile the victim was walking onthe road, flicked her chain andfled. The bike did not have anumber plate. The police rushedto the spot and started investiga-tion. Police said that impropernumber plate on bike could bean indicator that the rider is anhabitual offender. We haverecords of 2,000 plus offenderswho use bike to commitchain/cell snatching, the policesaid adding that they havebooked 384 cases against thoseusing improper number plateson Wednesday.

Group of minorsattack studentwith razorAClass X student was attacked

with a razor by a group ofminor boys at Shivanagar inAlwal here on Tuesday night.The victim identified as Vamshi,15, had an argument with thegroup of minors from Alwalrecently. Bearing a grudge, theeight-member group attacked thevictim. "They picked up anargument with him on the issueand first beat him. One of themtook out a razor and started atta-cking him. Two of them attackedthe victim on his neck," policesaid, adding that the victim wasshifted to a nearby privatehospital in Lothkunta.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Edible oils are used as cookingor frying medium, salad oil orin food products formulation.Because of their greater dema-nd in national and internation-al market adulteration in highprice oil with low price oil is amajor issue. It can affect healthof consumers adversely.

Some manufacturers are sell-ing adulterated edible oilintending to make money.

Mustard oil adulterated withargemone oil and butter yellowhas been reported to cause gallbladder cancer. Similarly, arge-mone oil mixed with edible oilscan lead to epidemic dropsy,glaucoma and loss of eyesight.Therefore there is an urgentneed for authentication andprevention of adulteration forthe sake of consumers.

Some manufacturers of edi-ble oils are colluding with thevendors and supplying adulter-ated products and packingthem in counterfeit logos andletters resembling the brands ofsome popular companies.

These fake products arebeing supplied in packs, whichlook like originals. Though thetext 'refined sunflower oil' iswritten on these packs, mostlyinferior quality oil is placedinside. As the copied brandslook like the original brand,whose design is copied, con-sumers often pick the fakes mis-

taking them for the originalbrand of their choice.

Some consumers are unableto distinguish the originalsfrom the fake products. Theyare often fooled to purchasefake oil brands that look like theoriginal refined oil, this causesthem health issues apart fromthe fact that most of the fakebrands don't even carry thespecified quantity of the edibleoil being sold.

Alerted over the issue, vari-ous branded companies aregearing up for taking legalaction with the help of police,courts against the fake oil man-ufacturers. The authorities andvendors are also getting sensi-tised to the seriousness of theissue. Consumers might haveobserved the news in socialmedia like WhatsApp, that gov-ernment's vigilance agenciesare conducting raids on suchfake brand manufacturers andsellers. While the state food safe-ty authorities are responsible forensuring that oil is not sold inloose form, consumers can alsohelp prevent such sale and,thereby adulteration, by buyingonly packed oil. While doing so,one must look for the FSSAIlogo, license number, date ofpackaging, best before date, thecontent, quantity and the pricespecified on the package.

CONSUMERS BEWARE!

OIL ADULTERATIONRAMPANT IN CITY

Timeline set for Jubilee Hills EC worksPNS n HYDERABAD

The elevated corridor (EC)works in Jubilee Hills RoadNo 45 gains momentum asthe acquisition of 21 proper-ties that posed challenge tothe GHMC has been completed.

Though the suspensioncable bridge works acrossDurgam Cheruvu being exe-cuted at a cost of Rs 184 croreare nearing completion, thebridge inauguration has beenpostponed because of thedelay in execution of the ele-vated corridor works for over

a year. MunicipalAdministration MinisterKT Rama Rao hasbeen paying spe-cial attention forcompletion ofthe elevatedc o r r i d o rworks andcable suspen-sion bridgeacross DurgamCheruvu sincetheir completionwould ease traffic con-gestion on IT corridor.

The Minister spoke to elec-tricity department officials

to take steps to shift thepower lines in two or three

days. KT Rama Rao

has been makingthe executingagencies andg ov e r n m e ntofficials to exe-cute works ona war-footing

so as to inaugu-rate the elevated

corridor and thesuspension bridge on

the Telangana Formation Dayto be observed on June 2.

The completion of the ele-

vated corridor will remove tr-affic bottlenecks and alsolinks the Panjagutta andJubilee Hills with the Durgamcheruvu. The estimated costof the corridor works is Rs150 crore.

The GHMC officials arealso view that the bottlenecksin the execution of the elevat-ed corridor, to be executed ata cost of Rs 335 crore willsoon ease as acquisition oflion's share of assets along theroute of the corridor has beenthrough. GHMC is confidentof acquiring the rest of theproperties by the month-end.

Dealers, unregistered vehicle owners in a fixPNS n HYDERABAD

The decision not to register allclass of motor vehicles with BharatStage IV (BS-IV) emission normsafter March 31 and to sell BS-IVvehicles in the inventory as scrappost that date have put the auto-mobile dealers, financiers and theowners of unregistered vehicles ina fix.

More than 2 lakh unregisteredBS-IV vehicles worth Rs 1,500crore will become scrap as theyremained unregistered since 2014.

As the unregistered vehicles

will not get insurance, it is impos-sible to get compensation in casesuch vehicles are involved in acci-dents. Third party insurance for

vehicles from private dealers mayhelp in such cases.

The government officials arenot keen on getting these vehiclesregistered. The dealers are sellingthe vehicles paying the road taxand temporary registrationcharges.

The vehicle owner should getthe vehicle registered in a monthof purchasing it. There are norights for the officials to get toughagainst such vehicle owners. Rulesspecify imposing a fine of Rs 25per month after the one monthgrace period if the vehicles

remained unregistered. The max-imum fine allowed to be collect-ed was Rs 1,000 whenever thevehicle is registered in its lifetime.

Meanwhile, many automobiledealers in the city are trying hardto sell their leftover stock of two-wheelers and four-wheelers, offer-ing fancy deals to customers.

While several dealers inHyderabad are coming up withdiscounts, particularly on two-wheelers, some are still left with alarge number of BS-IV vehiclesand are worried about being ableto clear the stock.

END OF ROAD FOR BS IV VEHICLES

Action plan to tide overdrinking water shortagePNS n HYDERABAD

This summer, HyderabadMetropolitan Water Supplyand Sewerage Board is gearingup to supply a watertanker within 48hours from boo-king time to av-oid inconvenie-nce to people.

The board, ata meeting heldhere with its MDM Dana Kishore,has prepared an actionplan-2020 to tide over drink-ing water crisis in summerwith Rs 50 crore.

Under this initiative, 230additional tankers are beingdeployed in addition to theexisting ones. With mercury

levels steadily rising in the city,the water board has come wi-th an action plan to ensuretimely and sufficient supply ofdrinking water across the city.

To this effect, 23 addition-al water filling stations

will be made opera-tional in addition tothe 110 currentlybeing operated indifferent areas. In

case of any power dis-ruptions, mini power

generators are beingarranged to ensure promptsupply of water as per sched-ule at the filling stations.

To facilitate smooth opera-tions, Rs 50 crore has beensanctioned to Operations andMaintenance wing to take upall these works.

She Team averts child marriagePNS n HYDERABAD

The She Teams ofRachakonda Policeaverted a child mar-riage and rescued aClass VIII student whowas about to marry a21-year-old boy inBhongir on Wednesday.

So far, theRachakonda She teamshas stopped 73 childmarriages and rescued73 minor girls.

"The marriagebetween the minor boyand the 21-year-old wasfixed at Choutuppalmandal of YadadriBhongir district onApril 10. Upon receiv-ing information, theShe Team along withthe Integrated ChildProtection Scheme

(ICPS) team went to thespot and counseledboth parents andstopped the child mar-riage," said the Police.

R a c h a k o n d aCommissioner of PoliceMahesh M Bhagwat IPSappreciated the goodwork done by theRachakonda She Teamin Child MarriagesPrevention Act andappealed to all the pub-lic performing marriagebelow the stipulated ageis crime. Priests, wed-ding card printers,

elders and supporters ofthe marriage, parents ofchild will be heldresponsible for that.

"Under ChildMarriage ProhibitionAct of 2006, minimum2 years imprisonmentand Rs 1 lakh fine ispunishment and evenmediators are respon-sible as well. 18 yearsfor girls and 21 yearsfor boys is the mini-mum marriage age.Due to early marriage,chances are high ofmaternal death ofmother. Below 18 girlsand boys should becompulsory in schoolsas per Right toEducation Act 2010and Supreme Courtorder 2009," added thepolice.

Manufacturingthe fakeproducts, storingin warehousesand selling to theconsumers arepunishableoffenses

Cops arrest auto driverfor spreading rumoursPNS n HYDERABAD

In a bid to nip the problem atthe bud, officials of theHyderabad City Police arrest-ed a man responsible for thecirculation of WhatsApp audiomessages that created panicamong locals. The messagescontained audio clips of pos-sible riots in Hyderabad afterthe Delhi incident and warnedthe Muslim community to bewary of it.

The accused has been iden-tified as 29-year-old RahmathShareef, an auto driver byprofession. As per the prelim-inary investigation, the allegedaccused is working as a vandriver in private school andworks as an auto driver as apart time job, said the Police.

"Today I saw news that afterDelhi's riots, they are planningit in Hyderabad…What hap-pened in Delhi will happenhere, 100 percent…please takecare," said Shareef in the audiomessage on WhatsApp.

The voice note claims that

for the past week, there hasbeen an influx of people fromthe states of Bihar and UttarPradesh who claim to be con-struction workers in Muslimlocalities. The voice notewarns the Muslim communi-ty in Hyderabad to stay vigi-lant and that communal vio-lence along the lines of Delhiwill happen in the city, backedby the RSS and BJP. The voiceasks the public to adopt defen-sive measures such as stockingchilli powder and prepare tobe attacked. Hyderabad PoliceCommissioner Anjani Kumartweeted that the police tracedthe origin of fake news circu-lated on WhatsApp.

JR ARTISTE MOVES SC/ST PANEL AGAINST LAWRENCE'S BROTHERPNS n HYDERABAD

A junior artist, who hadapproached the HyderabadPolice two years ago accusingprominent South Indian chore-ographer and director RaghavaLawrence's brother Vinod ofsexually harassing her, has nowcomplained to the SC/ST com-mission in Basheerbagh.

The victim said that Vinodhad earlier proposed to her butafter she rejected him, he beganharassing her.

Speaking to the media, shesaid that Vinod trapped manyfemale artists in the name oflove for sexual favours. She alsosaid that she had approachedthe Marredpally Police to reg-ister a complaint against him,but in vain. The police said thatactions were taken back thenaccording to the complainantand the accused. She also add-ed that few people have beenfollowing her from the past fewdays and she has a threat to herlife from Lawrence's brother.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

PNS n HYDERABAD

Officials of the Cyber Cri-me Police of Cyberabadarrested four members ofa gang for cheating vic-tims by claiming to sendexpensive gifts after meet-ing them throughdivorcee matrimony.

The accused have beenidentified as Giddy IsaacOlu, 36, Sagar Sharma, 24,Sudeep Giri, 26, and BikasBalmiki, 25. Another per-son, identified as EseluUdo, is absconding, saidthe police.

The complainant saidthat the victim registeredher profile with divorceematrimony of BharatMatrimony in search of analliance. A person withthe profile name Dr VipulPrakash introduced him-

self as an orthopaedicsurgeon in the UK. Hemade a commitment ofmarrying her when hevisits India.

After a few days, heinformed the victim thathe is sending gifts includ-ing jewellery and gadgetsthrough courier. The vic-tim then received a callfrom a person whoclaimed to be from the

customs department, stat-ing that she had to pay toget her parcel released.The caller claimed thatshe had to pay variouscharges like customsclearance, GST, etc. Thevictim transferred Rs7,45,500 to their bankaccounts. Soon, she real-ized that she was cheatedand lodged a complaintwith the police.

Based on the com-plaint, a case was regis-tered at CCS ofCyberabad and investi-gated into. Even as theinvestigation into the casehad begun, the victimcame up with anothercomplaint stating thatafter a few days of filing ofher complaint at the CCSPolice, she received a giftbox having a lock pass-word from a person whoclaimed to be from thecourier service. Dr VipulPrakash then called herand said that in order togive the locker passwordto her, he asked her toremit an amount of Rs5,00,000 into the bankaccounts furnished by thecustoms officer. Believingthe same, she transferredRs 5 lakh to fraudsters.

Four held for matrimony fraud

The messagescontained audios of possible riots inHyderabad andwarned the Muslimcommunity to bewary of it

Ganja worth 96 kilosseized, two arrestedPNS n HYDERABAD

The North Zone teamof the Commissioner'sTask Force along withthe Malakpet Policeapprehended 4 personsinvolved in the posses-sion of banned narcot-ic and seized 96 kg ofganja, three cell phonesand Rs 2,000 from theirpossession. .

The accused havebeen identified asKayyam Nagaraju, 26,Peeri Chinna Rao, 28,Margal Durga Babu, 21,and Gollori Narasimha,30. Kayyam Nagarajuand Peeri Chinna Raohave been cultivatingcannabis plants inOdisha forest area.Margal Durga Babu andGollori Narsimha willsupply the ganja to thedrug peddler Duggim-pudi Shiva ShankarReddy. The accusedpersons supply the drug

for Rs 1,500 per kilo-gram to Shiva ShankarReddy and others. Thedrug peddlers sell thesame for Rs 7,000.

Nararaju, a farmerby profession, begancultivating cannabisplants so that he couldgain easy money. Goll-ori Narsimha, an autodriver, is an associate ofthe peddler ShivaShankar Reddy. Hedeals between the ganjasuppliers on a commis-sion basis. The four

accused took 96 kgs ofganja wrapped in plas-tic bags and boarded aprivate bus from Bhad-rachalam and got downat Malakpet. They werewaiting to deliver thecontraband to Reddy.

Based on a tip off,officials laid a trap atDilsukhnagar and app-rehended them. Theaccused along withseized material washanded over to SHO,Malakpet PS for furtherinvestigation.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020 hyderabad 04METRO LINE TO OLD CITY

TRS puts the onus on MIMPNS n HYDERABAD

Amid the growing chorus toextend Hyderabad Metro ser-vices to the Old City, the rul-ing TRS has put the ball inMIM's court. Earlier, in theAssembly, Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao had stat-ed that MIM will lead from thefront in realising Metro ser-vices to Old City. This was reit-erated by IT Minister KT RamaRao on Wednesday duringresponse to Budget speech byAkbaruddin Owaisi.

"We have found an engineer-ing solution for the 93 religiousstructures (which needs to bemoved). With your (MIM)help, your MLAs and publicrepresentatives, we will start theland acquisition at the earliest.In this also we expect yourhelp, because, wherever thereis sensitive situation, a meetingneeds to be called and locallycoordinated. Government andyou need to work together;

only then this project will bedone at the earliest," said KTRama Rao. Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao said thathe would ensure that the workson Old City Metro will be doneon war-footing basis.

The Chief Minister, duringhis speech thanking theGovernor said, "Previouslythere were apprehensions andobjections. Objections raisedby majilis party were also relat-ed to changes in alignment.Now every doubt is cleared.

Now majilis party is accepting,all MLAs are accepting andeverybody is accepting. Thereis no hurdle. I told the L&Tcompany 'fellows' that I willrequest Akbaruddin Owaisiand also the Hyderabad MPAsaduddin Owaisi. They willstand with you. All our old cityMLAs will stand with you andthey will take forward metrorail construction in old city.They will take the leadership.I assured them and I hope youwill do so, then there will be no

problem." Meanwhile duringquestion hour, KTR informedthe house that Rs 250 crore aspart of Viability gap funding isawaited from the Centre. He

also added that the governmenthas informed L&T about pro-viding monthly passes andscruitinise the extension ofmetro train timings.

Telangana govt approvesKUDA Master PlanPNS n HYDERABAD

The State government onWednesday gave its approvalfor the Master Plan preparedby the Kakatiya UrbanDevelopment Authority(KUDA). Minister forMunicipal Administration andUrban Development K TRama Rao signed the docu-ments approving the MasterPlan after a review meetingwith Ministers ErrabelliDayakar Rao and SatyavathiRathod and KUDA officials inHyderabad.

The master plan will changethe contours of Warangal city,KT Rama Rao said asking theofficials to accelerate the devel-opment of Warangal city. KTRasked the engineering offi-cials to ready 29 km stretch ofthe 68-km-long Outer RingRoad by May-end for inaugu-ration on June 2, the TelanganaState Formation Day.

He asked the officials to pre-pare proposals to run monorail for a distance of 15 km and

also for running of a MetroRail on the lines of Hyderabad.He said that the government,in principle, agreed to developairport near Mamunur.

Later, the Ministers askedthe officials about the progressof smart city project. The offi-cials were asked to build 1,000public toilets in the city byDasara this year. There areonly 250 public toilets in thecity. Therefore, the officials

were told to build 1,000 toiletsimmediately. The officials wereasked to identify garbagedumping yards across the city.

Government Chief WhipVinay Bhaskar, former deputyCM Kadiam Srihari, MPPasunuri Dayakar, MLCPochampalli Srinivas Reddy,MLAs T Rajaiah, C DharmaReddy, A Ramesh, P SudarsanReddy, Nannapaneni Narenda,and others were present.

‘GOVT TURNING BLIND EYETOWARDS OLD CITY'HYDERABAD: AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi said that Metro traincame to Hyderabad because of MIM and his efforts. "People blame ussaying that we gave alignment. Even the Chief Minister was saying itthat the other. We proposed alignment because 93 religious structureswere coming in between. Our proposed alignment was rejectedstating that the Musi River would need environmental clearances. Butmetro went via Musi River near Chaderghat. Whenever it comes toMuslims and old city issues, injustice is being meted out. When wespeak about alignment, you speak about clearance and when youwant it, there is not talk on clearance," the MLA said. "Wheneverybody used to debate about Mono Rail, it was me who used totalk of Metro rail during YS Rajashekar Reddy's regime. Metro Railmade its way into the city, except in the place where the legislator whoproposed it came from," he said. He urged the government to call ameeting with legislators while designing Phase-2. "In phase2, we were toldthat the metro rail will go from Malakpet via Owaisi Hospital to Falaknumaand Airport. Even now in Phase-2, old city is neglected," he said.

Bhatti: Is Ranjith Reddy an MP?K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

Congress Legislature Party(CLP) leader Mallu BhattiVikramarka on Wednesdaysaid he doesn't know the factthat Sri RajarajeshwariHatcheries director G RanjithReddy is an MP. Participatingin the discussion on theTelangana Budget, the CLPleader said, "A huge scamtook place in the poultry sec-tor. Poultry companies pur-chased corn at Rs 18,000 pertonne from the government.In return, the companies soldthe same to poultry farmers at

Rs 26,000 per tonne.Interestingly, the governmentsold corn only to few poultrycompanies like Sneha, SriRajarajeshwari Hatcheries, SriVenkateshwara Hatcheriesand few others. Sneha's RamiReddy purchased 1.24 lakhtonnes of corn and SriRajarajeshwari Hatcheries'sRanjith Reddy purchased98,500 tonnes from the gov-ernment at Rs 18,000 pertonne. But these companiessold the same to the poultryfarmers at Rs 26,000 pertonne," he alleged.

Raising objection to CLPleader's remarks, Finance

Minister T Harish Rao askedthe former not to mention thename of an MP in theLegislative Assembly without

taking permission from theSpeaker.Reacting to it, BhattiVikramarka said, "I don'tknow the fact that SriRajarajeshwari Hatcheriesdirector Ranjith Reddy is anMP". He demanded the stategovernment to order aninquiry into the issue as thepoultry companies sold cornas they wished.

Reacting on the Budget,Bhatti alleged that the Budget,introduced for the year 2020-21, as 'unrealistic'. "It is notcorrect on part of the govern-ment to increase the 2020-21Budget by 29 per cent morewithin six months as com-

pared with the 2019-20Budget. The government hasto reveal how it will generaterevenues. It seems like thegovernment is planning togenerate revenue throughliquor sales and accumulatemore debts. The governmenthas already more than Rs 3lakh crore debts on its head,"he said,

Bhatti demanded the gov-ernment to protect the GONo.111 to protect to saveHimayath Sagar andOsmansagar. He alleged thatseveral constructions are com-ing up violating GO 111 incatchment area of Musi River.

RTC: Govt releases strike period salariesPNS n HYDERABAD

The state government onWednesday released salariesof the RTC employees for thestrike period. In accordancewith the promise made byChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao, theFinance Department hasissued orders releasing Rs 235crore, salary amount of theRTC employees during theirstrike period.

Addressing the media,Transport Minister P AjayKumar thanked the ChiefMinister and said that he hadfulfilled his assurance ofreleasing wages for the strikeperiod for the RTC employ-ees. The Minister said thegovernment issued the GOreleasing Rs 235 crore for theRTC employees. He said theChief Minister had alsopromised to allocate Rs 1,000crore for the revival of theTSRTC and had done so inthe Budget too.

The government has been

trying to introduce reformsin the corporation, he saidadding that the governmentimplemented many welfaremeasures for the employees.The Minister called uponthe RTC employees to workhard to ensure that the cor-poration turns the corner inthe near future.

Meanwhile, employees andauthorities of TSRTC hailedChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao for

releasing Rs 235 croretowards salaries for the strikeperiod. They performedksheerabishekham to theChief Minister's portrait.

Similar celebrations werewitnessed in Adilabad,Kumram Bheem Asifabadand Nirmal districts as theemployees erupted into cel-ebrations after learning thatthe government had sanc-tioned their salaries for thestrike period.

Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar addressing the media on theAssembly premises on Wednesday

Ministers KT Rama Rao, Satyavathi Rathod, Errabelli Dayakar Rao during ameeting at Aseembly Committee Hall on Wednesday

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana High Court onWednesday made it clear tothe state government that itwill not spare the errant offi-cials who are allowing unau-thorised pollutant industries inthe state capital.

A division bench ofTelangana High Courthas accorded per-mission to theGHMC, statepollution con-trol board andenergy depart-ment for closureof all unautho-rised plastic unitswhich are existingfrom 2012 to till date inShastripuram colony ofKatedan area on the outskirtsof Hyderabad.

The court directed them tofile report on the issue beforeit by April 7, 2020. GHMCcommissioner DS LokeshKumar appeared before thedivision bench of the HighCourt. He admitted that the

corporation hadissued onlynotices and didnothing for clo-sure of such unau-

thorised industriesof about 300 in the

area. The division bench com-

prising of the Chief Justice ofthe state RS Chauhan andJustice A Abhishek Reddypassed these orders while deal-ing with a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) filed in 2012.It was filed by one VinayPalnitkar and MA Rasheed,both residents of Shastripuramcolony.

HC orders closure of illegal plastic units

Court accords nodto GHMC, PCB for closure of allunauthorisedplastic unitsexisting from 2012to till date in

Shastripuram

Convene TPCC Corepanel meet: Jagga ReddyPNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MLA fromSangareddy T JaggaReddy demandedTelangana PradeshCongress Committee(TPCC) chief NUttam Kumar Reddy,Telangana CongressAICC in charge RCKhuntia to convene aCore Committeemeeting immediatelyto discuss onMalkajgiri MP A Revanth Reddy's followersalleged 'nuisance' on Facebook.

In a statement, Jagga Reddy asked the partyleaders to discuss on the publicity beingspread by Revanth Reddy's followers in regardto GO 111 issue linking with TPCC chief posi-tion. The MLA demanded the party to take upstate-level issues only after discussing in theCore Committee meeting in future.

BJP condemns lathi-chargePNS n HYDERABAD

Former Bharatiya Janata Partystate unit president Dr KLaxman on Wednesday con-demned lathi-charge, whichleft at least 80 activists wound-ed, on ABVP activists during"Chalo Assembly" rally.Laxman demanded the gov-ernment to release the studentsunconditionally and take dis-ciplinary action against thepolice who resorted to unpro-voked lathi-charge.

Protesting against the 'mea-ger' allocations for educationsector and government notrecruiting teaching staff injunior and degree colleges,the ABVP activists onWednesday took out "chaloAssembly" rally. The BJP heldChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao responsi-ble for the lathi-charge.

"The Chief Minister shouldinvite the students for talks andsolve their problem. Lathi-charge serves as an example ofrepression unleashing by thegovernment during the past sixyears on student movements.On account of severe delay inimplementing the tuition feereimbursement scheme, whichis prevalent since the forma-

tion of Telangana, manage-ments of several colleges arenot returning original certifi-cates to students deprivinghigher education to many,"Laxman said.

"The lackadaisical attitudewith which the Government ofTelanganan conducted the cen-tenary celebrations of OsmaniaUniversity - one of the promi-nent ancient universities in thecountry - is also one of thecauses for agony among thestudents. The educational stan-dards in almost all universitiesof Telangana are falling, but thestate government paid noattention to it," he alleged.

Also, the new chief of BJPTelangana unit and MP BandiSanjay, condemned the attackon the ABVP activists andbreathed fire on the govern-ment for unleashing lathi-charge on the activists whohave been demanding it toresolve problems in educa-tion sector. He demanded thegovernment to take sternaction against the police offi-cers responsible for lathi-charge.

What is wrong in studentsasking the government to fulfill the promises and resolve the problems, he ques-tioned.

CHALO ASSEMBLY

Police bundling away a student during ‘Chalo Assembly’ at the TelanganaLegislative Assembly in the city on Wednesday

PNS n HYDERABAD

Marri Srinivas Reddy, theaccused in the sensationalHajipur rape-murder cases,on Wednesday approachedthe High Court challengingthe special court's verdict.Last month, the FirstAdditional District andSessions Judge Court convict-ed Srinivas Reddy and sen-tenced him to death by hang-ing.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice RS Chauhan andJustice A Abhishek Reddyadmitted Srinivas' plea andissued notices to the respon-dents and the First AdditionalDistrict and Sessions JudgeCourt in Nalgonda, seeking aconfirmation on its orderfrom last month. The courtalso appointed T NiranjanReddy as amicus curiae in thecase and it will come up forhearing soon.

Rachakonda PoliceCommissioner MaheshBhagwat had earlier said thatthe chargesheets in the threecases were filed in threemonths. The court pro-nounced the order afterexamining 101 witnesses.

Hajipur killerapproachesHigh Court

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana HighCourt on Wednesdaydecided to resolve all thepending cases related toillegal constructions thatexist in state capital onpriority basis.

The court directed theGHMC Commissionerto place before it thedetails of all such caseswhich are pendingbefore various courts.

A division bench ofthe HC comprising ofthe Chief Justice of thestate RS Chauhan andJustice A AbhishekReddy also directed theregistrar general of thecourt to notify all thelower courts in thisregard. The divisionbench passed theseorders while dealing witha PIL filed against theillegal constructions. TheGHMC commissionerinformed the HighCourt that there were10,600 complaintslodged with them seek-ing demolition of illegalbuildings in GHMCarea.

‘Will resolvependingissues soon'

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

Madhya PradeshMLAs arrive at JaipurairportJAIPUR: Over 80 CongressMLAs from Madhya Pradesharrived at the Jaipur airportaround 2.30 pm in a specialflight from Bhopal. ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot,government's chief whipMahesh Joshi, deputy chiefwhip Mahendra Chaudhary,Transport Minister Pratap Singhand other leaders of the partyreceived them. The legislatorsarrived at the Jaipur airportamid a political crisis inMadhya Pradesh triggered byformer Guna MP and Unionminister Jyotiraditya Scindia'sresignation from the party.Twenty-two MLAs close to himhave also resigned from thestate assembly, reducing theMadhya Pradesh's Kamal Nathgovernment to a minority.Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlothas accused the BJP of horse-trading in Madhya Pradesh.Arrangements have been madeto take them to a resort nearthe Delhi road here in luxurybuses. It is the same resortwhere legislators fromMaharashtra were lodged inNovember last year.

Bedi pitches forwomen representationin Pondy CabinetPUDUCHERRY: Puducherry LtGovernor Kiran Bedi onWednesday expressed concernover non-representation forwomen in the V Narayanasamy-led Ministry in the unionterritory. In a message tomediapersons here, the formerIPS officer made a veiledreference to the plea by theChief Minister Narayanasamyduring the InternationalWomen's day celebrationsTuesday that the Centre shouldensure 33 per cent reservationfor women in local bodies.Bedi, who is at loggerheadswith the Chief Minister eversince she assumed office in2016, said the Puducherrycabinet had no womenrepresentation when the UnionTerritory has elected womenlegislators. "One-third of thestrength of the cabinet can beearmarked for women MLAs,"she added. The Lt Governoralso wanted to know if any ofthe members in the cabinetwould step down paving theway for inclusion of twowomen members.

Tahir, PFI booked on money laundering chargesPNS n NEW DELHI

The Enforcement Directoratehas booked suspended AamAadmi Party councillor TahirHussain, Islamist group PFIand some others on the chargesof money laundering andalleged funding of last month'scommunal riots in northeastDelhi, officials said onWednesday.

They said the central probeagency has filed a criminal caseagainst Hussain, facing chargesof killing an IntelligenceBureau official during the riots,under the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA).

Similar charges have beenpressed against the Popular

Front of India (PFI), which isalready facing a separatePMLA probe for allegedlyfuelling protests against theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) in various parts of thecountry.

There was no immediatecomment from PFI. The ED isexpected to seek Hussain'scustody to question him in thecase. He is in the custody ofDelhi Police at present.

The officials said the feder-al agency has taken cognisanceof a clutch of FIRs filed byDelhi Police's Crime Branch toprobe the alleged money laun-dering and routing of illegalfunds by Hussain, PFI and oth-

ers to purportedly sponsor thecommunal riots which claimed53 lives and injured over 200.

Hussain, an AAP corporatorfor ward number 59 under theMustafabad assembly seat inDelhi, was booked by thepolice in the murder case of IBstaffer Ankit Sharma in north-east Delhi amid the violenceover the new citizenship law.

The family of Sharma (26),found dead in a drain near his

home in riot-hit Chand Bagharea, has accused Hussain ofbeing behind the killing.

The corporator had said hewas falsely implicated in thecase and had denied wrongdo-ing.

In the case of PFI, the organ-isation was already beingprobed by the ED for alleged-ly routing about Rs 120 crorefunds to fuel anti-CAA riots inthe country and the agency hasquestioned about half-a-dozenof its office bearers over the lastfortnight.

This case is being probed aspart of a 2018 ECIR (enforce-ment case information report),equivalent of a police FIR,against the PFI and some asso-ciated organisations.

DELHI RIOTS:

Hussain, an AAP corporator for ward number 59under the Mustafabad assembly seat in Delhi, wasbooked by the police in the murder case of IBstaffer Ankit Sharma in northeast Delhi amid theviolence over the new citizenship law.

PNS n GANDHINAGAR

The Gujarat government onWednesday rejected a sugges-tion of the opposition Congressto close malls, cinema hallsand other places of public gath-ering in a bid to stop the spreadof coronavirus in the state.

The suggestion to shut downsuch public places for 20 to 25days was made by CongressMLA Naushad Solanki duringa discussion on coronavirus inthe state Assembly here.

Solanki also asked the gov-ernment to start screening ofpassengers at bus stations andrailway stations, on the lines ofscreening being done at theinternational airports.

In his response, GujaratDeputy Chief Minister NitinPatel said there is no need to cre-ate panic among people byshutting down places like mallsand cinema halls.

"Even in China, only five to

six worst affected cities havebeen sealed while life is going onnormally in other parts of thatcountry. Thus, we don't have tocreate panic here at this stage.We are taking all necessarysteps to contain the spread ofcoronavirus," Patel said.

"Screening of internationalpassengers is being conducted atAhmedabad and Surat airportsas per the Centre's guidelines.

We are also screening foreign-ers staying at luxury hotels in thestate," said Patel, who holdscharge of the state health depart-ment.

He said as of now, not a sin-gle positive case of coronavirushas been found in Gujarat. Allthe 56 samples tested for thevirus came out negative so far,Patel said.

More than 2,200 people who

had returned from other coun-tries have been screened till now,he said. Besides, over 2,300people, mostly crew members,onboard 55 ships were alsoscreened at major ports ofGujarat, the minister said.

As a precautionary measure,as many as 576 isolation bedsand 204 ventilators have beenkept reserved at different gov-ernment hospitals in the state,he added.

He said as of now, nota single positive caseof coronavirus hasbeen found in Gujarat.All the 56 samplestested for the viruscame out negative sofar, Patel said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India on Wednesday prohibit-ed entry of any internationalcruise ship, crew or passengerwith a travel history to coron-avirus-hit countries postFebruary 1, 2020 to its majorports till March 31.

To prevent the spread of thedeadly virus, the Ministry ofShipping said it will allow onlysuch international cruise shipsto call on its major ports thathad intimated their call to theports by January 1, 2020.

"Only those internationalcruise ships which had plannedand intimated their call to anIndian Port not later than 1stJanuary, 2020 will be allowed tocall on such port.

"Any international cruiseship or any member of its crewor any passenger therein havinga travel history of visiting any ofthe Covid-19 affected coun-tries... since 1st Feb, 2020; willnot be permitted to enter anyIndian port till 31st March,2020," the Ministry of Shippingsaid.

The government said inter-national cruise ships will beallowed only at ports havingthermal screening facilities forpassengers and crew members.

If any passenger/crew mem-ber of cruise ships show symp-toms of coronavirus, disem-barking will not be permitted,

it added.India has 12 major ports --

Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla),Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao,New Mangalore, Cochin,Chennai, Kamarajar (earlierEnnore), V O Chidambarnar,Visakhapatnam, Paradip andKolkata (including Haldia) --that handled 699.04 MT ofcargo during 2018-19. There areabout 200 non-major portsunder the control of states.

The government last month

had directed all 12 major portsto immediately put in placescreening, detection and quar-antine system for disembarkingseafarers and cruise passengersas a preventive measure againstthe coronavirus outbreak.

The Ministry of Shippinghad issued necessary directionsto the 12 major ports to "placea screening, detection and quar-antine system immediately fordisembarking Seafarers orCruise Passengers".

Defeat ofhumanity:Chowdhury onDelhi violencePNS n NEW DELHI

Lok Sabha on Wednesdaytook up a discussion on therecent violence in parts ofDelhi, with Congress leaderAdhir Ranjan Chowdhurydescribing it as a defeat ofhumanity and hitting out atPrime Minister NarendraModi.

Soon after the suspensionof seven Congress membersfrom the House was revoked,Lok Sabha took up the dis-cussion on the "recent lawand order situation in someparts of Delhi."

Initiating the discussion,Congress leader in Lok SabhaChowdhury said while someclaimed Hindus won, theothers said Muslims won inthe violence.

"The fact is that humani-ty was defeated," he said. Hewondered how violence con-tinued for three days despitethe fact that Delhi Police isone of the best equipped inthe country.

"The Home Minister(Amit Shah) will have toexplain," he said. Hitting outat the prime minister, hesaid, Nero fiddled whileRome burned.

He claimed that whenDelhi was witnessing vio-lence, Modi was hosting USPresident Donald Trump inAhmedabad.

‘Cong not the same as it used to be, farremoved from realty’PNS n NEW DELHI

Jyotiraditya Scindia, whojoined the BJP on Wednesday,criticised the Congress sayingthat the party is not the sameas it used to be and is farremoved from reality.

Addressing a press confer-ence at the BJP headquartersafter being inducted into theparty by its president JPNadda, Scindia hailed PrimeMinister Narendra Modi'sleadership and said the coun-try's future is secure in hishands.

Talking about his decades-old association with theCongress, Scindia said he washurt and distressed as he wasnot being able to serve thepeople in that party.

Attacking the Congressgovernment in MadhyaPradesh, he said the dream

which he along with his for-mer colleagues saw forMadhya Pradesh has beenshattered in 18 months.

"I would like to thank BJPchief Nadda, Prime MinisterModi and Home MinisterAmit Shah for inviting meinto the BJP family," he said,adding that they had givenhim a platform to serve thepeople.

Gujarat govt rejects Congresssuggestion to shut malls, theatres

"Only those international cruise shipswhich had planned and intimated theircall to an Indian Port not later than 1stJanuary, 2020 will be allowed to call onsuch port.

Akhilesh, Shivpalshare stage for Holi PNS n ETAWAH

Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav and his uncleShivpal Yadav shared a stageduring the Holi celebrationsin Etawah amid chants of"chacha-bhatija zindabad"after parting ways aroundtwo years ago.

However, Akhilesh sig-nalled the supporters to stopthe sloganeering during theprogramme attended by partypatriarch Mulayam SinghYadav, Ram Gopal Yadav,Dharmendra Yadav andTejpratap Singh Yadav onTuesday.

Shivpal had ended his 26-year-old association with theSamajwadi Party after fallingout with Akhilesh and cousinRam Gopal Yadav in 2018.

He had formed his ownoutf it the PragatisheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia).

On Tuesday, he was seentouching Ram Gopal Yadav'sfeet.

On March 7 in Firozabad,Shivpal Singh Yadav hadhinted at an "understanding"between his outfit and theAkhilesh-led party for the2022 Uttar Pradesh assemblypolls.

During the visit to meetformer SP legislator AzimBhai, Shivpal Yadav had saidthere was no dispute withinthe family.

"There can be an under-standing with the SamajwadiParty about seats for the 2022state polls. The election sym-bol will, however, be ours," hehad told reporters.

Two Dell, Mindtreeemployees test positivefor coronavirusPNS n NEW DELHI

Two employees working withIT companies Dell andMindtree have been tested pos-itive for coronavirus, accordingto company statements.

The Dell employee hadreturned from the US, includ-ing a visit to Texas while theMindtree employee also had atravel history abroad, the twocompanies said in separatestatements.

"We can confirm twoemployees of Dell India weretested for the COVID-19 virusfollowing their return homefrom the United States – includ-ing a visit to our headquartersin Round Rock, Texas. Oneemployee tested negative;another tested positive and hassince been placed in quaran-tine," Dell Technologies said.

The company said it contin-ues to take steps to protect DellTechnologies team members

and communities by adheringto the health and safety guide-lines from the World HealthOrganization and Centers forDisease Control, and coordi-nating with local health offi-cials.

Mindtree said that one of itsemployees returning from anoverseas trip tested positivefor COVID-19 on March 10,2020. "The employee alongwith his family members areunder quarantine and medicalsupervision. All measures arebeing taken to provide the bestof medical care to him and hisfamily. The employee self-iso-lated himself upon return fromthe trip and did not visit theoffice or meet any otherMindtree colleagues," the com-pany added.

Mindtree said it has beenconsciously taking precautionsacross its operations to fight anyuntoward incident with itsemployees.

Ships with travel history to Covid-19-hit nations barred till Mar 31

Circular for Indians from COVID-19hit nations uncivilised: Pinarayi PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan on Wednesday termedas "uncivilised" the Centre's cir-cular barring the return ofIndians from coronavirus-hitcountries such as Italy unlessthey produce a certificate thatproves they have tested negativefor the virus.

Vijayan has written a letter toPrime Minister Narendra Modilate on Tuesday seeking hisintervention to withdraw thecircular issued by DirectorGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) in this connection.

The circular stipulated thatpeople "travelling from or hav-ing visited Italy or South Korea"and desirous of entering India

"need to obtain certificates ofhaving tested negative forCOVID-19" from the desig-nated laboratories authorised bythe health authorities of thosecountries.

Vijayan said the stateAssembly would consider mov-

ing a resolution in this regard inthe ongoing session seeking theintervention of the Centre tobring back the stranded Indiansincluding many Keralites, fromabroad.

"How can we say that anIndian citizen cannot comeback to India just because he isinfected? Barring our citizensfrom coming to the country isan uncivilised attitude," Vijayantold the Assembly in his reply to

a calling of attention motion.The chief minister has also

shot off a letter to Civil AviationMinister Hardeep Singh Puri towithdraw the circular and bringback the Indians stranded in theairport despite having bookedtickets.

In his letter to Modi, Vijayansaid foreign authorities were notready to test people withoutsymptoms as they were alreadyoverloaded with patients.

POSTERS OF ANTI-CAA PROTESTORS IN LUCKNOW:

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Uttar Pradesh govern-ment moved the SupremeCourt on Wednesday chal-lenging the Allahabad HighCourt order directing the stateadminstration to removeposters of those accused ofvandalism during anti-CAAprotests.

The appeal filed by thestate is scheduled to be heardon Thursday by a vacationbench of justices U U Lalit andAniruddha Bose, advocategeneral for Uttar PradeshRaghvendra Singh told PTI.

Singh, however, refused todivulge the grounds of appeal

against the March 9 order ofthe high court which had alsoasked the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment not to install suchposters "without having theauthority of law".

The high court had orderedimmediate removal of road-side posters in Lucknow withnames and photos of thoseaccused of vandalism duringthe anti-CAA protests, observ-ing that the police action wasan "unwarranted interference"in privacy of people.

It had also directed the dis-trict magistrate and theLucknow police commission-er to submit a compliancereport on or before March 16.

The posters were displayedto "name and shame" theaccused who had allegedlycaused damage to public prop-erty during the protestsagainst the CitizenshipAmendment Act(CAA) onDecember 19 in the statecapital.

PNS n GANDHINAGAR

repealed by the UPA govern-ment at the instance of Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi, GujaratMinister of State for HomePradeepsinh Jadeja said in theAssembly on Wednesday.

The decision to scrap thePrevention of Terrorism Act(POTA), enacted in 2002 whenthe BJP-led NDA was in power,was taken during the UPA ruleat the Centre in 2004 becauseGandhi had "soft corner for ter-rorists", Jadeja alleged.

"POTA was repealed at theinstance of Sonia Gandhi as shewas having a soft corner for ter-rorists," the BJP minister said,responding to a query regard-

ing the Gujarat Control OfTerrorism and Organised Crime(GujCTOC) Act during theQuestion Hour.

"Since you had repealedPOTA, Narendra Modi, whenhe was Gujarat Chief Minister,brought GujCTOC in the stateto punish those involved in anti-national as well as terrorismactivities," Jadeja said.

Taking strong exception toJadeja's remarks on Gandhi,party MLA and GujaratCongress chief Amit Chavdasought evidence from the BJPminister to back his claim.

"Since you had repealedPOTA, Narendra Modi,when he was GujaratChief Minister, broughtGujCTOC in the state topunish those involved inanti-national as well asterrorism activities,"Jadeja said.

It had also directed thedistrict magistrate andthe Lucknow policecommissioner to submita compliance report onor before March 16.

"How can we say that an Indian citizen cannot comeback to India just because he is infected? Barringour citizens from coming to the country is anuncivilised attitude," Vijayan told the Assembly in hisreply to a calling of attention motion.

POTA scrapped at instance ofSonia : Gujarat minister

Uttar Pradesh moves apexcourt challenging HC order

The sudden apparition ofCoronavirus on the world stagewas unexpected for Chinesewatchers. However, it is boundto have deeper implications

than the Tiananmen massacre for thefuture of the Middle Kingdom. Even if thesituation stabilises in the next few months,or by the end of the year, the communityof nations may not see it in the same light.Undoubtedly, the role of the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) will continue tobe discussed for long after the contagiousphase of COVID-19 is behind us. From dayone, a PLA unit, the Joint LogisticsSupport Force (JLSF), has been at the cen-trestage of what the communist party ofChina called the “people’s war” against the“demon” virus.

When I say day one, it means nearlytwo months after the deadly virus surfacedin Wuhan. The communist authoritieswere lax between December 1, 2019, whenThe Lancet’s epidemiological retrospectiveinvestigation showed the first confirmedcase with symptoms of the novelCoronavirus pneumonia, and January 23,2020, when the JLSF troops first arrivedon the scene.

But what is JLSF? The body was cre-ated on January 11, 2016, as part of ChinesePresident Xi Jinping’s in-depth militaryreform measure. According to Xinhua, theJLSF “comprises the support forces forinventory and warehousing, medical ser-vices, transport, force projection, oilpipelines, engineering and constructionmanagement, reserve assets managementand procurement.” Coincidentally, it isbased in Wuhan. The first task given to theJLSF of the Central Military Commission(CMC) was to build the HuoshenshanHospital, an emergency speciality fieldfacility that accommodates 1,000 beds.Believe it or not, it was constructed in justeight days.

At first, 450 Army personnel wereflown in to Wuhan. They were joined inby 1,400 military medical staff on February3 and 2,600 additional medical personnelfrom the armed forces on February 13.Today more than 10,000 troops (includ-ing the militia also serving under the CMC)have been deployed.

Though the Generals were probablyreluctant in the beginning, it became clear-er to the Communist leadership in Beijingthat only the PLA could save China. OnJanuary 29, Xi, who is also the CMCChairman, had to personally intervene toexhort the military to save the nation. Andthe party. He ordered the military to winthe battle, emphasising the importance of“keeping in mind the purpose and carry-ing the burdens.” He exhorted the troops“to keep the original spirit,” adding, “OurArmy is a child soldier of the people,breathing with the people, sharing the samefate and connecting hearts.”

The PLA had to face its ownproblems. The crew of the Type054A multi-role frigate,Changzho, carrying anti-sub-marine missiles had to be quar-antined. The Navy admitted thefear of an outbreak and the cap-tain of the frigate, Yu Song Qiu,and a number of sailors wereplaced on lockdown. Shore leaverules for crew members aboardthe Shandong were tightened toprevent the spread of COVID-19on China’s second aircraft carri-er. By the end of January, therewere 54 declared cases of virus inSanya in Hainan Island where theShandong is based.

At the same time, the CMCstarted regulating the relationsbetween the PLA and the civil-ians: Thirteen forms of activitieswere banned, including receivingmoney/securities and askingnon-military organisations/indi-viduals to provide money orcommodities. Corrupt officerswere warned: No illicit enrich-ment would be permitted.

Probably sensing the lack ofenthusiasm on the part of thePLA to participate in the riskyoperations, the CMC opened alife insurance scheme for thosepersonnel going to the “frontline.”It further declared that those,who would die combating thevirus, would be named “martyr”by the Chinese State.

But the real challenge for theJLSF was to control the spread ofthe virus in Wuhan, which is thestrategic hub for the defenceindustry — it has more than 350research centres and industrialinstitutes as well as 1,700 hi-tech

enterprises covering aerospace,satellites, rocketry and biotech-nology. The future of all theseinstitutions remained undecided.

According to Xinhua, Chinahad to postpone its militaryrecruitment drive, scheduled forthe first half of this year to sup-port the country’s epidemic pre-vention and control work. WuQian, the spokesperson for theMinistry of National Defence,asserted: “Approved by the StateCouncil and the CMC, the post-poned conscription will be com-bined with that of the second half,which will run from August 1 toSeptember 30.” Though Wu saidthat the overall annual recruit-ment targets would remainunchanged, experts believe thatthe PLA could be badly affected.

This was also the time whenan enigmatic personage appearedon the scene. Chen Wei, a 53-year-old leading Chinese epi-demiologist and a Major-Generalin PLA, is known for developingthe world’s first gene-based vac-cine on Ebola in 2014. She wasalso apparently involved in com-bating the SARS outbreak.

According to theInternational Business Times, thecontroversial Major-Generalinjected herself and her six-member team with an untestedCoronavirus vaccine. She has cre-ated quite a stir on Weibo by herradical approach, especially aftershe was posted in the Wuhan labfrom where the COVID-19 straincould have escaped (the Chineseauthorities denied this).

Was this just a gesture toprove her loyalty to Chairman

Xi? Just a month ago, Chen hadtaken over the controversialWuhan lab, originally a civilianresearch lab, partly funded by theFrench Government. When hevisited the research facilities inFebruary 2017, BernardCazeneuve, the then FrenchPrime Minister, declared: “Franceis proud and happy to have con-tributed to the construction of thefirst P4 high bio-safety laborato-ry in China. …This cutting-edge tool constitutes a central ele-ment in the achievement of the2004 inter-governmental agree-ment on Franco-Chinese coop-eration in the prevention andfight against emerging infec-tious diseases.” Something obvi-ously went wrong.

For India, it is important toanalyse the implications of thePLA’s involvement in the battleagainst the virus. Will the JLSFemerge stronger? Can the PLAbecome a threat to the party, justin case the “people’s war” againstthe “virus” is won by the Army?Will it re-emerge stronger despiteXi’s efforts to restrict the Army’sinfluence? What will be theimplications for the PLA’s pre-paredness on the borders withIndia? It may be too early toanswer these questions but eventhough PLA activities on theTibetan plateau have reduced dueto the outbreak, intrusions werereported recently from Naku-la,south of the watershed inNorthern Sikkim, a border saidto be “settled” by China. It is quiteominous.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

While planning for the Allied invasion ofEurope in World War II, experts realisedthat they needed mechanised troops on

the ground, which is infantry backed up by thearmour of tanks. The problem was that tanks wereheavy and wouldn’t quite float. So the Americanscame up with an ingenious solution, the Sherman“Duplex Drive” or “DD” tank, with floatationdevices and a propeller. Nicknamed by Americantroops as the “Donald Duck” tanks, they provedto be a tactical failure. Many of them can still befound at the bottom of the sea outside the beach-

es of Normandy. They were not a complete failure but once on the ground, theyweren’t as effective as plain-jane Sherman tanks. This brings us to the idea of fly-ing cars. Over the years, many firms have experimented on developing a viable work-ing plane that could double up as a car but have failed. This is because these twoengineering marvels are fundamentally different. Reconciling them is not easy. It isn’tabout a mobile phone that can be made into a smart phone by combining the func-tions of a phone, computer, tablet, camera and location sensor among others becausethat was essentially electronic miniaturisation. A plane still needs wings and a carstill needs four wheels. And because they need to carry a human, rather be capa-ble of carrying four people, the end product cannot be too small. As large commer-cial aircraft companies like Airbus and Boeing have proven time and again, build-ing aircraft according to modern safety norms is not an easy task even for profes-sionals. So why persist on a path that doesn’t have a viable solution?

Maybe some engineer might make a viable portmanteau of a car and an aero-plane. A couple of car firms themselves are looking at an aerial solution but this isa stand-alone solution, one that appears to be more driven ironically by drone designthan by a car or a plane. These flyable drones, one showcased by Hyundai and anoth-er by Mercedes-Benz as a form of shared high-speed intra-urban transportation,could potentially be a solution to reach distant suburbs quickly, particularly in dis-aggregated urban areas with high speed mass transit systems doing the rest. A Dutchfirm has even decided to set up a unit in Gujarat to roll out personal air-land vehi-cles (PALVs). The flying car has remained a dream since the 1950s and while wemay not have achieved the future, we have made astounding progress. With limit-ed resources, we should concentrate our efforts on things that work and those thatcan be deployed quickly. The flying car is not one of them.

At one level, nothing unexpected has reallyhappened in the Congress. The young Turks,now not so young, are looking to give their

political careers some individual purpose as theborrowed legacy of an institution called theCongress is fast ebbing away. Directionless with-out peer representation, and a leader who has quitthe game a long time ago, they feel wasted andhelpless with the old guard continuing their stub-born ways of what is right and wrong. JyotiradityaScindia’s resignation is just a summary of all thatails the Congress, where the young leaders want

to keep the party’s nationalist ideology, passion and legacy alive but are dispiritedfor lack of recognition or being “too good” in outshining the Gandhi scions them-selves. It is also but expected of the ruling BJP to claim the spoils of war, especial-ly if that happens to be harvesting the peels of the shell the Congress has become.In this case, Scindia is the prize pick of the BJP, simply because he and his fatherbefore him had been part of the inner circle of the Gandhis and were the cushionaround their leadership of the party. The visible impact of a Congress jolted by atrusted insider is far greater than any game of numbers. Frankly, the BJP really didnot need Scindia as badly as the latter needed the party. His aunts, Vasundhara andYashodhara, and grandmother Vijayraje Scindia, had delivered enough in their veryinfluential capacities. So at another level, it is Scindia’s unchanged net worth thatis unexpected. He doesn’t get much in the tradeoff, certainly nothing that makeshim look like he is starting over. For ideological loyalty is not party loyalty and a man,who claims he has a hold on his former royal subjects, could have easily floatedhis own unit. But by switching over to the BJP, which he had sharply criticised overthe Delhi riots fairly recently and changing his ideology after 18 long years, some-thing that his father Madhavrao resisted for a lifetime, he surely looks like an oppor-tunist. Besides, Scindia Jr is also encashing his family lineage to be of relevance tothe BJP and is not casting away his dynastic mantle, something that the Gandhisare always accused of. Undoubtedly, he worked assiduously to shore up the Congress’fortunes in Madhya Pradesh during the Assembly elections in 2018 and has report-edly been miffed at not being gifted chief ministership. But one cannot ignore thatfor all his claimed sway over the Gwalior belt, he lost his home turf of Guna in theLok Sabha elections. Besides, loyalist party MLAs, who quit the party with him, aren’tkeen on joining the BJP in a leap of faith. They would have if he had floated an inde-pendent State outfit perhaps, something that other young but dejected leaders inthe Congress, like Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, are rumoured to be contemplating. Afresh start gets endorsement more easily than jaded defection plots.

The BJP, which has an ideological resonance across Madhya Pradesh, a Statewhich continues to be the crucible of Hindutva and where its long-range grassrootswarrior Shivraj Singh Chouhan scripted a success story for 13 long years, is nothumouring Scindia’s royal lineage either. All he gets is a Rajya Sabha membershipand a Union Ministry, something which makes his move look like personal aggran-disement than a crusade or revolt. The BJP has too many strongmen that it cannotafford to upset for want of a poster boy and won’t be risking its dynamics in a sureshot heartland bastion. The party may have lost the Assembly elections of 2018but is within snapping distance of power with 107 legislators in the 230-memberHouse. The Congress has 120 MLAs and assuming all its 21 MLAs are gone, willdip to 104, making government formation a skilled and institutionalised game of horse-trading. This wafer-thin anxiety was the reason that the Congress went on the back-foot in effecting a generational change in State leadership and brought in old warhorseKamal Nath as the Chief Minister, who managed numbers and survival. This is alsoone of the reasons why the BJP, despite having the edge, has moved its MLAs toa hotel in faraway Gurugram while the Congress has parked its own in Jaipur. Scindiasaid the Congress is “living in denial” but probably, he is, too, in the process over-selling his chances. The bigger casualty is undoubtedly the Congress itself. No mat-ter who wins what round, the fact is, it is dependent on the age-old structure of self-serving fiefdoms belonging to its hawks, who have passed on timely interests earnedto the ruling first family and claimed to have ownership on what works for the party.Scindia’s trigger could very well encourage its disenchanted brigade, who, unlikeRahul and Priyanka Gandhi, have no space for growth to bleed out as well. The biggestcasualty is politics itself, returning to the age-old ways of manipulation and deceitrather than just relying on a transparent verdict.

Yes Bank crisis

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “When yes became no!”(March 10). The financial crisisfaced by Yes Bank and the pro-posed revival scheme framed bythe Reserve Bank of India (RBI)have exposed some glaring loop-holes within the Indian bankingsystem. Earlier, a similar situationat the Punjab and MaharashtraCo-operative Bank had rendereddepositors helpless, leading toseveral people taking their ownlives and others dying on accountof heart attacks brought on by thestressful situation.

It seems that Yes Bank cus-tomers have been put in the samespot. This development has ledto a steep plunge in the stockmarket, which has investors wor-ried. People are increasingly los-ing their trust in banks, primar-ily owing to the misconduct ofthose at the top. Investigatingagencies must scan the bank’sdealings for evidence of wrong-doing with due accuracy. At thesame time, efforts must be on tofind a buyer who can buy themajority stake in Yes Bank.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

Expand the ambit

Sir — The Ministry of CorporateAffairs’ recent decision to broad-base the exemption window foran online proficiency self-assess-ment test mandated for directorsand key managerial persons is

welcome. According to the newrules, any independent directorwith over 10 years of experienceor a company having paid-upcapital of `10 crore will beexempted from taking the test.

Further, the Ministry shouldalso exempt proficiency tests forkey managerial personnel, includ-

ing CS and CAs, who hold rele-vant skills and expertise in cor-porate and security laws. Asmost listed companies mandatea professional to undertake cor-porate secretarial matters, theexemption of such professionalscan ensure fair play.

As independent directors

are appointed for their skillsand expertise, an online test isirrelevant to determine theirproficiency. The Ministry shouldadopt innovative ways to test anindividual’s proficiency throughboard familiarisation pro-grammes, seminars, conferencesand workshops and, thus, alignthe independent directorappraisal process as per currenttrends in the market.

Varun Dhambal Bengaluru

Stop interfering

Sir — The Allahabad High Courthas done well to slam the UttarPradesh Government’s move toput up banners, naming andshaming those who have notbeen proven guilty of any kind ofviolence. Simply, the Governmentis playing politics to attract Hinduvoters and pro-CAA voters. Butno one can be assumed guiltyunless proven by a court of law.The duty to punish is that of thejudiciary, not any political party.

Rati SinghVia email

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 nionHYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020

06

China’s tainted corona

CLAUDE ARPI

While the contagious phase of COVID-19 may ebb and the communist regime may denythe PLA’s role in the battle, the world may not see it in the same light as before

The BJP is a ruling party andis expected to follow certainnorms and procedures. It isnow seriously in the businessof poaching MLAs andstealing Governments.

Congress spokesperson—Anand Sharma

I would often ask filmmakers for their bud-get after auditioning forthem and even offered topay if they allowed me toact in their projects.

Actor—Vicky Kaushal

The world organisation willbe actively engaged with bigcarbon-emitters such asUS, China, India, Russia andJapan to have them committo carbon neutrality in 2050.

UN chief —Antonio Guterres

S O U N D B I T E

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

Long shadow on the oil sector

In the wake of the spread of Coronavirus, global oilprices have crashed. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)crude is now trading at under $30 per barrel. The

decline in crude oil price was all but expected. For overfour decades now, the global economy has been linkedto the demand for oil; elevated prices have been co-ter-minus with a surge in the economy and trade. As glob-al trade peaked, so did crude, up to 2008-09. Thereafter,Brent Crude fell and economic deceleration set in. Oilsector investments languished. However, what shouldworry us today is the return of a familiar script.

The current 27 per cent drop in oil prices portendsan extended global economic turbulence far beyondCOVID-19 or even Trumpian trade bravado. The first blowis on Saudi's Aramco super mega issue of $25/30 bil-lion that has dropped below issue price. Oil shocks arenow coming home to roost for competitive producers.Crash of crude is a symptom, not the disease. The dis-integration of the Opec+ alliance has led to an all-outprice war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The for-mer’s war of attrition against other oil exporters, includ-ing Russia, will lead to higher cost players suffering loss-

es. Oil and gas are responsible for more than 60 percent of Russia's exports and provide for more than 30per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It hasto sell oil to keep going as do many others and cuttingproduction is an anathema. Only incremental growth ineconomies can elevate the crude. Back home, the fallin prices should provide some relief as we are a majoroil importer but that does not mean cheaper fuel for con-sumers.

R NarayananMumbai

FOR INDIA, IT’SIMPORTANT TO

ANALYSE THEIMPLICATIONS OF

THE PLA’SINVOLVEMENT IN

THE BATTLEAGAINST THE

VIRUS. CAN THEPLA BECOME A

THREAT TO THEPARTY, JUST IN

CASE THE‘PEOPLE’S WAR’

AGAINST THE‘VIRUS’ IS WON BY

THE ARMY? WILL IT RE-EMERGE

STRONGER DESPITEXI’S EFFORTS TO

RESTRICT THEARMY’S

INFLUENCE?

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Flight of fancyHey @PMOIndia, while youwere busy destabilising anelected Congress Govt, couldyou pass on the benefits ofthe crash in the global oilprices to the consumer?

Congress leader—Rahul Gandhi

It’s unlikely that Jyotiraditya will get something more from theBJP than what the Congress denied. Is he just a token?

Aerial mobility may be a solution to urban overcrowding but weshould stop putting money in ill-conceived ideas

Just another Scindia

A new beginning

TO REFLECT AND REALISE THE ASPIRATIONS OF MYPEOPLE AND MY WORKERS, I BELIEVE IT IS BEST

THAT I NOW LOOK AHEAD AT A FRESH START.—FORMER CONGRESS LEADER

JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA

NO QUESTION... HE (SCINDIA) WAS NOT AT ALLSIDELINED... SAD. BUT I WISH HIM WELL UNDERTHE MODI-SHAH TUTELAGE.—CONGRESS LEADER DIGVIJAYA SINGH

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

March 7, 2020 will be flagged as a very sig-nificant date in the short history of thenewly-formed Union Territory (UT) of

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). On this day, the firstmajor political development took place post thereorganisation of the erstwhile State, announcedon August 5, 2019 with the abrogation ofArticle 370. A new political entity, the JammuKashmir Apni Party (JKAP), was launched for-mally. The intransigent attitude of the “Gupkargang” to accept the new reality — that separatismand terrorism would be things of the past aswould dynastic rule — had brought to a stand-still political activity, the heartbeat of democra-cy. The indifference shown by the Kashmiristowards the Gupkar Gang had not only takenthem by surprise but also conveyed a messagethat the people in Kashmir are fed up with oppor-tunistic parties bordering separatism.

The people were hoping for a new leader-ship to fill the political vacuum thus created. Theywere hoping that the old order would give placeto a realist regime. However, complexities ofKashmiri politics prevented that from happen-ing. In that scenario, the initiative was seized bya group of old politicians, who were willing toaccept the new reality and move away from softseparatism. Unfortunately, the new entity com-prises rejects of the old order.

This is significant considering the adminis-tration’s attempt to devolve power to grassrootleadership through development of PanchayatiRaj Institutions (PRIs) has failed to yield thedesired results due to various reasons. Thoughthe BJP continued to raise issues of public inter-est, the people were feeling the lack of a viablealternative. Thus, the formation of the JKAP,drawing from the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and the National Conference (NC) underthe stewardship of ex-PDP Minister AltafBukhari, has raised some hope, if not generatereassurance. On the face of it, the new party isan amalgamation of leaders who have partedways with the parties led by the intransigentGupkar Gang. The biggest sufferers are the dis-integrated PDP and the sinking Sonia Congress.A sangam (confluence) of differing ideologies,beliefs and loyalties, the JKAP has yet to comeout with a clear-cut ideology which would guideits future course and survival, since no politicalparty can survive merely with the assurance ofraising the current issues faced by the awam inthe changed scenario.

Nonetheless, it is a very bold move under thepresent circumstances, though it could turn intoas much of a puppet as the NC or the PDP. Theeasiest way for it would be to pass the buck with-out carrying out any introspection within its ownhouse. The new party has an advantage to beginwith but it would need political acumen, person-al sacrifices and matured leadership to turn thisadvantage into a successful combination withwide acceptance. It would need to avoid beinglabelled as yet another Kashmir-centric party byadopting a holistic approach and rising aboveregional and religious considerations. It appearsto be a Herculean task going by the present com-position of the party because most of the heavy-weights belong to Kashmir and the leaders whohave joined from Jammu do not enjoy the samestatus. Most of the ex-legislators have their own

pockets of influence and hence willensure the party’s penetration amongthe awam.

The party has chosen a few issueson a priority basis and flagged them tobe raised on behalf of the people.However, these will serve no purposeexcept to keep the people amusedtemporarily. The reversion toStatehood, which is on the top of theagenda, is a non-issue as it has beenrepeatedly said that the existingarrangement is temporary with a viewto fighting terrorism, separatism andwidespread corruption. Both the PrimeMinister and the Home Minister, archi-tects of the reorganisation, have assuredthe nation on more than one occasionthat statehood would be restored assoon as normalcy is achieved. To keepits promise alive, the UnionGovernment has ensured separateawards by the 14th and 15th NationalFinance Commissions for J&K andLadakh UTs, as a departure from theroutine practice of combined awards tothe Home Ministry in respect of theUTs.

Negotiating the domicile laws forpeople of the UT could be controver-sial and tricky for it. The people fearthat such a move will further curtailemployment opportunities for theyouth of the UT and lead to a demo-graphic disruption in the Valley.

Their apprehensions were furtherfuelled by the fact that the J&K HighCourt on December 31, 2019 invitedapplications from across the countryfor filling 33 vacant non-gazetted posts.Thankfully, the notification was can-celled after Opposition parties inJammu slammed the move and pressedfor enactment of laws for safeguardingthe interests of the local youths. Though

the notification has been withdrawn bythe Government for the time being, theCentre is reportedly examining otheroptions for opening up employmentopportunities, land ownership rightsand seats in institutions of higher edu-cation, including professional colleges,for non-Kashmiris. This is similar towhat has been done in other States likeHimachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand andother Northeastern states, which arecovered under Article 371 of theConstitution.

Fortunately, the party has not set itseyes on early elections and has givenadequate hints of it not expecting theelections to be held in the next one totwo years, till the process of fresh delim-itation is completed. The fact that theparty admits to the need for meeting“rational aspirations” of the people,without promising them the “moon andthe stars”, sounds good but one onlyhopes that it sticks to its promise in let-ter and spirit.

The bane of J&K politics has beenthe “wada khilafi” (broken promises)made by the Gupkar Gang, that led tothe disillusionment of the youth andwas one of the causes of the emergenceof the “gun culture” in Kashmir. Withthe promise of acknowledging theawam as the real stakeholders, thenewly-floated party is making a bigdeparture from the prevailing cult ofpersonality-driven politics. Anothernoble thought, but one that needs to bewatched as the days go by, since actionswill speak louder than words.

Altaf Bukhari in his press confer-ence also mentioned the Jammu &Kashmir Bank and it being “convertedinto sub-office of the Anti-CorruptionBureau.” Here one wonders if the busi-nessman in him has overshadowed the

righteous politician image that he per-ceives to build. The people are elatedby the fact that the Jammu & KashmirBank has been saved from becoming apersonal fiefdom of the Gupkar Gangand is now being reformed to becomea true bank of the people. They wantthe corrupt to be exposed, nepotismand favouritism prevailing in the bankto end and for the awam be the realbeneficiary. Bukhari and his party willhave to come out with a clear stand onthis. The major issue left with the partyimmediately is to focus on developmentand the economic well-being of the UT.It is heartening that Bukhari has cho-sen to draw inspiration from BakshiGhulam Mohammad, whose tenure atthe helm of the State’s affairs canundoubtedly be termed as the goldenera of economic development. Bakshinot only avoided discriminatory poli-tics but also did not allow the rise offundamentalists in the Valley byencouraging and promoting the Suficulture. One can just hope that theJKAP rises to those ideals and works forthe return of peace, harmony and co-existence, the hallmark of the Bakshiera. The party must come out with itsvision document at the earliest and for-mulate a clear road map for economicrevival with alternatives and optionsrather than sheer rhetoric. Bukhari andhis team will do well to remember thatthere is always resistance to any tran-sition and change management shouldform the JKAP’s key strategy. Neithershould he allow himself to be used asa mouthpiece and implementer ofDelhi. His integrationist ways shouldnot result in a trust deficit all over again.

(The author is a Jammu-basedpolitical commentator, columnist, secu-rity and strategic analyst.)

With the promise of acknowledging the awam as the real stakeholders, the newly-floatedJKAP is making a big departure from the prevailing cult of personality-driven politics

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

A death knell forreligious economy

MICHAEL SONG

Like all others, the religious tourism industry isalso praying for a quick containment and cure

for the Coronavirus epidemic

ANIL GUPTA

THE PARTY MUST COME

OUT WITHITS VISION

DOCUMENT AT THE

EARLIEST ANDFORMULATE

A CLEAR ROAD MAP

FOR ECONOMICREVIVAL

WITHALTERNATIVESAND OPTIONS

RATHER THAN SHEER

RHETORIC. THE NEW

DISPENSATIONNEEDS TO

PROVE A LOT IF ITWANTS TO WIN

THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF

THE PEOPLE

The Covid-19 pandemic has investors and economists all aroundthe world gravely concerned. The negative impact of theCoronavirus on the global economy and businesses was nei-

ther a surprise nor the only outcome. In the light of the risk of expo-sure to the Coronavirus, several notable summits/meetings/events havebeen suspended, deferred or postponed. It has had a widespread impacton the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) andevent industry globally, not only in terms of the money invested beinglost but also brand values seeing a fall.

Many companies have come up with innovative solutions to con-tinue their brand communications and consumer connect in view ofcancellations or general aversion to physically attending the events.Keeping safety/health concerns front and centre, brands have show-cased solidarity with Governments, the medical and scientific frater-nity trying to stem the spread of the Coronavirus and have immedi-ately cancelled or postponed plans for big events.

However, beyond the impact on the manufacturing, production,sports and tourism industry there is another industry that has beenseverely affected by the Coronavirus that is still to be realised by theworld at large. The chaos over the virus has affected the internation-al religious economy. While different industries and brands can utiliseinnovative solutions to avoid physically attending events, the religiouseconomy is suffering as it does not have that option. Simply put, itoperates differently. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advisedmajor social distancing among other basic protective measures to avoidthe risk associated with exposure to the Coronavirus at any publicevent involving a global audience. The religious industry, which dog-matically relies on the physical presence of the devotees, has seena major setback due to this.

So, for starters, Saudi Arabia suspended the entry of pilgrims asa precautionary measure against the spread of Coronavirus. Soon afterthe number of Coronavirus-related casualties touched 3,000, SaudiArabia sterilised the Grand Mosque and banned all foreign pilgrimsfrom entering the country. The kingdom has also suspended touristvisas from countries where the Coronavirus is spreading.

Italy is bearing the worst brunt of the Coronavirus. With morethan 10,000 people having now been confirmed to have the virus,Italy is under a national lockdown and even tougher measures are beingconsidered. Religious tourism and allied industries have taken a majorhit due to the loss of pilgrims coming to Rome and due to Pope Franciscancelling a lot of events in the last few weeks after the virus attackedItaly. The Pope, 83, was also tested for the virus after suffering fromillness at the time when the outbreak happened in Italy. He, howevertested negative but the Pope still cancelled all major events avoidinglarge public gatherings as a precautionary measure in a bid to slowthe spread of Coronavirus. Authorities have imposed restrictions onthe catechism and mass services across the country as well. JP Morgannow expects Italy’s economy to contract 7.5 per cent in the first quar-ter from the previous quarter, with a modest two per cent pick-up inthe second quarter before a full rebound in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, all churches and mosques have been closed inBethlehem for 14 days, including the world-renowned Church of Nativity.The measure has been accompanied by a closure of all schools inBethlehem and Jericho areas after Greek tourists staying at a Bethlehemhotel left for Greece and later tested positive for the virus.

At the Sanctuary of Lourdes in France, the authorities have saidthe pilgrimage season beginning next month will go ahead as usual.However, as Coronavirus cases continue to grow in neighbouring Italy,it is only a matter of time before the pilgrimage season here also comesunder threat. As of now, only the pools that sick people bathe in toheal have been closed until further notice.

Another global religious leader, the Dalai Lama also added to thelist of cancelled events and postponed them all until further notice,including his annual teachings that were scheduled in March. Accordingto the Dalai Lama’s website, “As a precautionary measure, in view ofthe Coronavirus outbreak, all engagements of His Holiness the DalaiLama remain indefinitely postponed. Thank you for your understand-ing.”

However, the coronavirus epidemic is not the first virus outbreakthat has affected the religious economy and spirituality at large. Diseaseoutbreaks have always been a matter of concern surrounding the Haj,for instance and Saudi Arabia’s borders were partially closed to pil-grims from some countries during previous global health scares, suchas the Ebola in 2014. Even the Zika virus epidemic of 2016 majorlyaffected the economic, political, social and religious sector includingthe cancellation of Haj and suspension of church community activi-ties among others. So, like all others, the religious tourism industryis also praying for a quick containment and cure for this epidemic.

(The writer is chairman and founder of Topline Consulting Group,a communications and advisory firm)

Shiv Sena supremo UddhavThackeray is trying to do a finebalancing act between what he

calls his own brand of Hindutva andthe secularism of his new-foundcoalition partners — the Congressand the Nationalist Congress Party(NCP). Significantly, Uddhav’s ide-ological platform revolves aroundHindutva, which is at odds with the“secular” political agenda of his rul-ing coalition partners.

Claiming that his brand ofHindutva is different from that of theBJP he clarified recently, “We don’thave the same thought process. Idon’t want a Hindu Rashtra (nation),which is not peaceful. Using religionand grabbing power is not my idea

of Hindutva.” The Maharashtra ChiefMinister is keen to ensure that hisideological platform remains intactby asserting time and again that hehas not abandoned the Hindutvanurtured carefully by the Senafounder, the late BalasahebThackeray.

No one knows the perils of hav-ing an anti-Hindutva image betterthan Uddhav and hence the stress onthe Hindutva roots. He knows thatSena workers might suffer anyhumiliation out of love for him butthey will never digest being calledanti-Hindu. And they want Uddhavto give the BJP a befitting reply to thesaffron party’s smear campaign,painting them as anti-Hindu.

Also he has realised that cedingthe Hindutva space might cost himbig, given his cousin Raj Thackeray’srecent efforts to rebrand himself asa pro-Hindutva leader. Uddhav hasto reclaim the space. Hence, Uddhav’smuch-publicised visit to Ayodhya lastweek is part of his new political strat-egy.

The Maharashtra ruling coalition

headed by Uddhav recently complet-ed 100 days in office. To mark theoccasion, the Chief Minister visitedAyodhya with his family andannounced a donation of `1 crore forbuilding the proposed Ram temple.

“This sum is not from theMaharashtra Government but frommy trust,” he announced pointing outthat it was his third visit to the tem-ple town, in the last one-and-a-halfyears.

Addressing a huge crowd inAyodhya, he said, “I have parted wayswith the BJP but not with Hindutva.”The Sena mouthpiece Saamana alsoin its latest editorial said Lord Ramand Hindutva were not the sole prop-erty of any single political party. Soit is clear that Uddhav is designinghis own brand of Hindutva.

The Chief Minister has beenconsistent in his assertion and eventold the Assembly on December 1,2019, “I am still with the ideology ofHindutva which cannot be separat-ed from me.” The fact that Uddhav’scoalition partners understand hisneed for asserting his ideological

identity was visible when his plans tovisit Ayodhya were announced. Thelocal Congress leaders were quick tomake it clear that they had no prob-lem with it because the Congress, too,was in favour of building the Ramtemple in Ayodhya. In fact, a signif-icant number of local Congress andNCP leaders feel that the alliance hashelped them to counter the BJP pro-paganda that they were pro-Muslims.

Though Uddhav has kept hisparty intact after the death of hisfather these past seven years, head-ing the Government and running acoalition are new challenges forhim.

For instance, despite the bon-homie, the coalition partners hadsome anxious moments whenUddhav did flip-flops on contentiousissues like the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA), NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) and theNational Population Register (NPR).In December 2019, Uddhav said theCAA will not be implemented inMaharashtra and subsequently aftermeeting Prime Minister Narendra

Modi in Delhi in February, he saidthe law has been misunderstood. Healso spoke in favour of the NPR.

Frowning on this indecisive-ness, Congress leader Manish Tewaritweeted, “CM Maharashtra@UddhavThackeray requires a brief-ing on Citizenship AmendmentRules, 2003 to understand how NPRis the basis of the NRC. Once you doNPR you cannot stop NRC. On CAAhe needs to be reacquainted with thedesign of the Indian Constitutionthat religion cannot be the basis ofCitizenship (sic).”

Now Uddhav has announced acommittee to study the NPR and hehad also assured the legislatorsbefore the start of the Budget Sessionthat contentious issues would not beallowed to disturb the coalition.

However, despite the best effortson the part of the coalition partners,all these issues have made the deli-cate equation a little more fragile.Though the stakes are high for all thethree partners of the Maha VikasAghadi Government to keep thecoalition going, the Sena, in partic-

ular is vulnerable, as it had to go forthis partnership to remain relevantin Maharashtra politics. This was thecalculation that the Sena made whenit parted company with the BJP. And,with the perception quickly gainingground that Uddhav was diluting hisHindutva identity due to coalitioncompulsions, he had to move fast andreassure his cadre that the ideologywas intact. Being a regional party, theSena will have nothing to fall backupon if the party gets weakened andthere is a risk that Sainiks might shiftto the Raj Thackeray-ledMaharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) or the BJP. Therefore, all thathe is doing is to protect his turf whileswearing by the Common MinimumProgramme, which swears by secu-larism.

Meanwhile, as a strategy, thethree partners should keep assertingtheir respective positions for publicconsumption and Uddhav shouldkeep harping on his Hindutva ide-ology. This is the only way that thecoalition Government can continue.(The writer is a senior journalist)

Uddhav doing a tightrope walkThe three partners — Sena, NCP and the Congress — should keep asserting their respective positions for public

consumption and Uddhav should keep harping on his Hindutva ideology. This is the only way the coalition can continue

KALYANI SHANKAR

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

Copyright rulings should notbe so draconian that theyinhibit the creative process.The two snatches of music inStairway to Heaven andTaurus are undoubtedly verysimilar. But descendingchromatic chords, which canconvey a soulful, almostmystical melancholy, werepopular in the guitar musicof the 60s-70s. Sometimes akind of music or thinking is acommon cultural resource;its inflections and idioms cansubconsciously influence andinspire an age or a mood.

(The Guardian editorial)

A BRILLIANT PIECEOF MUSIC

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Bandhan Bank opens3 new branches, 122banking outletsKOLKATA: Bandhan Bank onWednesday said it has openedthree new branches, taking thetotal number across India to1,013. The Kolkata-basedlender also opened 122banking outlets in the form ofsmall-format units. A BandhanBank official said thedevelopment comesdays after the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) lifted restrictionson new branch openings forthe lender. "We are happy thatwith the withdrawal ofrestriction, we will be able toexpand business growthrapidly," MD & CEOChandra Shekhar Ghosh said.The bank has presence in 34states. The total business ofBandhan Bank stood at Rs1,20,364 crore as onDecember 31, 2019, it said ina release.

Hyundai receivesover 10K bookings fornew Creta in 1 weekNEW DELHI: Hyundai MotorIndia Ltd (HMIL) onWednesday said it hasreceived over 10,000 bookingsfor its upcoming Creta SUVwithin a week of openingbookings. The new Creta willbe launched in the market nextweek. It was unveiled at theAuto Expo last month. "We arereceiving customer enquiriesat various touch points acrossthe country...," HMIL Director– Sales, Marketing & ServiceTarun Garg said in astatement. The new Creta hasmasculine and futuristicstance, smart technology,powerful performance,advanced connectivity,intuitive experience andenhanced comfort, he added.

Bajaj Auto launchesDominar 250,priced at Rs 1.6 LNEW DELHI: Bajaj Auto onWednesday launched Dominar250, a variant of the DominarSports Tourer model, priced atRs 1.6 lakh (ex-showroom inDelhi). The Dominar 250 ispowered by a liquid cooled248.8 cc engine delivering 27PS power, Bajaj Auto said in astatement. "Dominar 250 willbe an ideal bike for aspiringriding enthusiasts who wishto get into the world oftouring," Bajaj Auto President– Motorcycles, Sarang Kanadesaid. He said the Dominarbrand has been able to createa strong following for itselfand has become the preferredchoice for long distancetourers. BS-VI compliant newDominar 250 is now availableacross all Bajaj Autodealerships in dual channelABS variant, the company

said.

PNS n MUMBAI

With the introduction of arti-ficial intelligence in banks, theaverage tenure of the employ-ee has doubled from the indus-try average of 1.5 years to 3.02years, says a survey.

According to a survey byHR-tech startup, inFeedo, thatstudied more than 80,000 per-sonnel from banking majors,artificial intelligence (AI) hashelped double the averageemployee tenure.

The report titled ‘The BFSIEngagement Index 2020' notedthat, across organisations, thehuman resource (HR) team'squery response rate had dou-bled from 33 per cent throughannual surveys to 60 per cent

when engaging with AI.The response rate touched

85 per cent for top performing

HR teams in financial institu-tions, while even the lowestperforming HR teams experi-

enced a response rate of 58 percent when AI came into thepicture, it said.

AI also improved the humanresource business partners'productivity by 40 per cent.This included reduction intime spent on manually collect-ing, collating, and analysingemployee feedback.

The report further notedthat with AI, HR businesspartners are able to predict,

strategise, measure, and trackinitiatives around preventingpossible attrition.

This, in turn, has led to theHR business partners andemployee ratio to reduce from1:336 to 1:30, helping HR busi-ness partners focus on employ-ees with turnover intent.

The report further notedthat with a lowered ratio and anaverage of 32 days taken toresolve employee turnover

cases, these HR teams havebeen able to save 57 per cent ofemployees with a possibleturnover intent (average) acrossthe BFSI sector.

"Through this report, ouraim is to highlight how theintroduction of AI in HR, suchas Amber, can bring aboutsignificant changes within theworkforce and help provideinsights on what's working fordifferent enterprises andemployees," said Tanmaya Jain,Founder and Global CEO,inFeedo.

The report was created basedon findings from inFeedo'sAI-enabled engagement botAmber which analysed morethan 1,85,000 chats across morethan 80,000 employees.

AI has helped to double average staff tenure in banksAI also improved the human resourcebusiness partners' productivity by 40 per cent. This included reduction in timespent on manually collecting, collating, andanalysing employee feedback

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government has receivedpart payment of about Rs25,900 crore from telecomoperators towards statutorydues and has again directedtelcos to make full payments,Parliament was informed onWednesday.

"The Telecom ServiceProviders (TSPs) have madesome payments in compli-ance with the Supreme Courtorder dated October 24, 2019,"Minister of State forCommunications SanjayDhotre said in a written replyto the Lok Sabha. The minis-ter said the government has"again" directed the operatorsto make full payments in a let-ter dated March 4, 2020.

"The government has

directed all TSPs to make thepayments in accordance withthe order of the Hon'ble

Supreme Court dated24.10.2019 vide letters dated13.11.2019, 20.01.2020 and

14.02.2020," he said. Dhotreinformed the House that sofar, Bharti Airtel has paid Rs18,004 crore and VodafoneIdea has shelled out Rs 3,500crore. Tata Teleservices haspaid about Rs 4,197 crore,while Rs 3.9 crore has beenreceived from RelianceCommunications. Reliance Jiohas paid about Rs 195 crore.

To another question onwhether the government hasany plans to set up new anti-trust laws to prevent monop-olisation and/or cartelizationin the telecom sector, Dhotresaid, "No such proposal isunder consideration."

To a separate question onfinancial distress in the tele-com sector, he said CellularOperators Association of India(COAI) has sought govern-ment intervention to avert anunprecedented impact on thefinancial health of its membercompanies.

"The government hasoffered a moratorium to theTSPs to defer payment of thespectrum auction instalmentsdues for 2020-21 and 2021-22,either for one or both years,"he said.

Union MinisterSanjay Dhotre saidthe governmenthas ‘again’ directedthe operators tomake full paymentsin a letter datedMarch 4, 2020

l Asks telcos to make full payment

Govt gets Rs 25,900 cr in AGR dues

PNS n NEW DELHI

PNC Infratech Ltd onWednesday said it has baggedorders worth Rs 3,582 crorefrom the National HighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI) forwidening of road projects inUttar Pradesh.

In a filing to the BSE, thecompany saidit has received"letters of award(LOA) fromN a t i o n a lH i g h w a y sAuthority ofIndia (NHAI)on March 9,2020, for the project of four-lan-ing of the Aligarh-Kanpur sec-tion from 356 km (designchainage 373.085 km) to 414km (design chainage 433.728km), package-V, Mitrasen-Kanpur section of NH-91 in thestate of Uttar Pradesh on a

hybrid annuity mode under theBharatmala Pariyojana for a bidproject cost of Rs 2,052 crore."

The price bids for the projectwere opened on February 12and PNC's bid was the lowest,it said adding that the construc-tion of the project is to be com-pleted in 30 months.

In a separate filing, the com-pany said it hasreceived letters ofaward (LOA) fromthe NHAI onMarch 9, 2020 forthe "project of four-laning of theJ a g d i s h p u r -Faizabad section

from 47.93 km (designchainage 47.8 km) to 107.68 km(design chainage 108.02 km) ofNH-330A in the state of UttarPradesh on a hybrid annuitymode under BharatmalaPariyojana" for a bid project costof Rs 1,530 crore".

PNS n NEW DELHI

Tata Power on Wednesdayput its decision to shut oper-ations at its 4,000 MWMundra ultra mega powerproject (UMPP) on hold tillMarch 20, in expectation of anacceptable solution for all par-ties over pass through of high-er coal prices.

Earlier, Tata Powerarm Coastal GujaratPower Ltd (CGPL)which operates4,000 MWMundra planthad servednotices to discomsof Gujarat,Haryana, Rajasthan,Punjab and Maharashtrastating that its will stop supply-ing power from the plant fromFebruary 29 if tariff is notincreased. Subsequently, theCGPL had served notices tothe discoms for closure of theMundra plant progressivelyfrom March 11 due to delay inadoption of the High PoweredCommittee recommendationand entering into supplemen-tal power purchase agreement(PPA).

Intervening the in issue theunion power secretary S N

Sahai convened at meeting ofall concerned parties on theissue on March 9, 2020.

In a statement issued onWednesday, the company said,"There were certain legal andcontractual issues discussedpertaining to the PPA in lightof the earlier and subsequentSupreme Court orders, which

all parties have agreed toexamine upon."

The companyfurther said, "Itwas agreed thatthe Union PowerSecretary will re-convene another

meeting withinnext 10 days so as

to arrive at a decisionon the same on or before

March 20."Given the positive discus-

sions in this meeting and theintent expressed by all partiesto arrive at an acceptable solu-tion, CGPL awaits decision by20th March and till such timenormal operations of theMundra plant will continue."

In October 2018, theSupreme Court had directedthe Central ElectricityRegulatory Commission(CERC) to decide on changesto PPAs.

Tata Power holdsMundra UMPPshut-down till March 20

28,979 startups recognised byDPIIT as on March 1: GoyalPNS n NEW DELHI

As many as 28,979 startupshave been recognised by theDepartment for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade(DPIIT) as on March 1 thisyear, Parliament was informedon Wednesday.

Maximum number of star-tups are recognised fromMaharashtra (5,477). It was fol-lowed by Karnataka (4,206),Delhi (3,740), Uttar Pradesh(2,342), Haryana (1,635),Telangana (1,609), Gujarat(1,555), and Tamil Nadu(1,509). These startups areallowed to enjoy certain taxand non-tax benefits under theStartup India programme.

"As on 1st March 2020, atotal number of 3,37,335employment has been report-ed by 27,137 DPIIT recognisedstartups," Commerce andIndustry Minister PiyushGoyal said in a written reply tothe Lok Sabha.

In a separate reply, the min-ister said there is no provisionunder Startup India initiativefor sanctioning of funds tostartups directly. However, ithas established a Fund ofFunds for Startups (FFS) withcorpus of Rs 10,000 crore, tomeet their funding needs.

DPIIT is the monitoringagency and Small Industries

Development Bank of India(Sidbi) is the operating agencyfor the FFS.

The total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore is envisaged tobe provided over the 14th and15th Finance Commissioncycles based on progress of thescheme and availability of funds.

"As on 18th February 2020,Sidbi has committed Rs3,123.20 crore to 47 Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) registered alternativeinvestment funds (AIFs).These funds have raised a cor-pus fund of Rs 25,728 crore,"Goyal sad.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Inflows into equity mutualfunds surged to Rs 10,730crore in February, the highestlevel in 11 months, even as thebroader market witnessedheavy volatility amid con-cerns over the impact of coro-navirus. Overall, the mutualfund industry witnessed a netoutflow of Rs 1,985 croreacross all segments, mainlyowing to withdrawal from liq-uid or money market catego-ry. In comparison, an inflow ofRs 1.2 lakh crore was seen inJanuary. Net inflows into equi-ty and equity-linked schemesrose from Rs 7,547 crore inJanuary to Rs 10,760 crore inFebruary, data by theAssociation of Mutual Fundsin India showed onWednesday.

This is the highest sinceMarch 2019, when equityschemes attracted an inflow tothe tune of Rs 11,756 crore.

The inflow is well spreadbetween the category of fundssuch as large-cap, mid-cap,small-cap and multi-cap,among others.

Large-cap, mid-cap and

small-cap funds saw inflows ofRs 1,607 crore, Rs 1,451 croreand Rs 1,498 crore, respective-ly during the month underreview. Besides, gold ETFssaw the highest inflows of Rs1,483 crore in February amidselloff in the equity markets.This was in comparison to Rs202 crore inflow seen in thesafe haven instrument.

Interestingly, investmentsinto gold ETFs have been ris-ing for the fourth straightmonth. The assets under man-agement of the 42-playersmutual fund industry droppedby 2.3 per cent to Rs 27.23 lakhcrore in February-end from Rs 27.86 lakh crore in January-end.

Inflows into equityMF touch 11-monthhigh of Rs 10,730 cr

Net inflows intoequity and equity-linked schemes rosefrom Rs 7,547 crore in January to Rs 10,760 crore inFebruary, data by theAssociation of MutualFunds in IndiashowedAs on 1st March 2020, a total number of 3,37,335

employment has been reported by 27,137 DPIITrecognised startups

— PIYUSH GOYAL, Commerce and Industry Minister

PNS n NEW DELHI

Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL)on Wednesday said it haswon a Rs 1,546-crore projectfrom NationalH i g h w a y sAuthority ofIndia (NHAI)for building astretch of NH-16 in AndhraPradesh under BharatmalaPariyojana.

The project will be under-taken under the hybrid annu-ity mode.

"The company led consor-tium has received a letter of

award (LOA) from NHAI for... six laning of VijaywadaBypass from Gollapudi toChinnakakani including

major bridgeacross riverKrishna inVi j a y a w a d aGundugolanusection of NH-16 under

Bharatmala Pariyojana onhybrid annuity mode," AdaniEnterprises said in a regulato-ry fi ling to the BSE.Bharatmala Pariyojana is agovernment-sponsored andfunded road and highwaysproject.

Adani Enterprises wins Rs 1,546-cr NHAI project

MPLAD: Govt says Rs 5,275 crore unspentPNS n NEW DELHI

A cumulative amount of Rs5,275.24 crore remainedunspent under Members ofParliament Local AreaDevelopment (MPLAD)scheme as on March 4, 2020,Parliament was informed onWednesday.

The government releasedRs 53,704.75 crore underMPLAD scheme out of whichRs 51,267.75 crore was spent ason March 4, 2020, Union

Minister Rao Inderjit Singhsaid in a written reply to theLok Sabha.

As per the data given by theMinistry of Statistics &Programme Implementation,Rs 5,275.24 was the "unspentfund" as on March 4.

The unspent amount underthe scheme was Rs 4,103.97crore on March 31, 2019; Rs4,877.71 crore on March 31,2018 and Rs 5,029.31 crore onMarch 31, 2017.

Under MPLAD scheme,

each Member of Parliamenthas the choice to suggest to theDistrict Collector for develop-

ment works to the tune of Rs5 crore per annum to be takenup in his/her constituency.

Rajya Sabha MPs can recom-mend works in one or moredistricts in the State fromwhere he/she has been elected.The nominated members ofthe Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabhamay select any one or more dis-tricts from any one State forimplementation of their choiceof work under the scheme.

"Given the nature anddynamics of the scheme,

unspent balances are bound toexist at any given point oftime, as the funds releasedunder the scheme are non-lapsable and the funds receivedby a district in a particular yearcan be utilized in the subse-quent financial year(s) also.

"Moreover, unspent balanceis not an unused fund but alsoincludes the funds in pipelinefor implementation of ongoingworks," the Minister of State forStatistics & ProgrammeImplementation said.

‘Covid-19 outbreakin China may hitIndian firms’

The shutdown of factories inChina due to the

coronavirus outbreak mayaffect Indian industries likepharmaceutical, electronicsand automobile which importcomponents and rawmaterials from theneighbouring country,Parliament was informed onWednesday. Commerce andIndustry Minister PiyushGoyal said the outbreak hasled to restrictions onmovement of people andbusiness activities in manyprovinces of China, in orderto control the spread of thevirus. "The closure of factoriesin China may affect Indianindustries, which importcomponents, intermediariesand raw materials from Chinalike the pharmaceutical,electronics and automobileindustries," Goyal said in awritten reply to LS.

PNS n FRANKFURT AM MAIN

German sportswear makersAdidas and Puma onWednesday warned the coron-avirus outbreak would dealpainful blows to their businessin 2020, weighing especially onthe first quarter with store clo-sures and lower sales.

Adidas said its revenues invital market China would comein between 800 million and onebillion euros ($907 million-1.1billion), lower than the 2019 January-March

periods. Salesin Chinaplunged by80 percent inlate January-early February."Following theoutbreak of the coro-navirus, our business in GreaterChina has experienced a signif-icant negative impact sinceChinese New Year," chief exec-utive Kasper Rorsted said.

Meanwhile Puma said it "can-not quantify the negative effect"but pointed to sales "severely

affected" inChina andother Asianc ou nt r i e s ,adding there

was "signifi-cantly lower"

traffic to its stores inEurope as the virus spreads.

The historic rivals both faceddisruption to their supply chains,although the gradual reopeningof factories in China and sourc-ing from other countries has sofar limited the impact.Nevertheless, "we cannot yet

reliably quantify the magnitudeof the overall financial impact in2020," Adidas CEO Rorstedsaid.

Looking ahead, "the furtherrecovery in Greater China, theextent of spillover into othercountries as well as the availabil-ity of raw materials remainlargely uncertain," he added.

Without the effects of thecoronavirus outbreak, Adidashad forecast sales growth of sixto eight percent and "double-digit-rate improvement of thebottom line" in 2020.

Adidas, Puma warn of virus blows to 2020 biz

PNS n NEW DELHI

Housing prices in Gurugramand Noida fell 7 per cent and 4per cent, respectively in the lastfive years on demand slow-down, huge delays in executionof residential projects and manybig developers turning bank-rupt, according to News Corp-backed realty portal PropTiger.

It said the average housingprices in Gurugram, Haryana

fell 7 per cent to Rs5,236 per sq ft fromthe rates prevailingin March 2015.Noida in UttarPradesh witnessed adip of 4 per cent toRs 3,922 per sq ft.

H o w e v e r ,Hyderabad saw the averagevalue of apartments increase by40 per cent to Rs 5,318 persquare foot. In Mumbai, the

average value rose15 per cent to Rs9,446 per sq ft,while in Bengaluruthe average apart-ment value appreci-ated by 11 per centto Rs 5,194 per sq ft.Housing prices

increase in Ahmedabad,Chennai, Kolkata and Pune were only marginal by 2-4 per cent.

‘Housing prices in Gurugram fall7%, Noida by 4% in last 5 years’

PNC Infratech bags Rs 3,582 crore orders

A group of NRIs and RNRIs has taken it upon

themselves to show how one can bring about a

change for the better, if one is willing to make that

extra effort. Formed in 2017 after a meeting with

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the group

takes up various activities including helping

fluorosis victims, finds V SATEESH REDDY

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

It all began when Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao invitedNRIs for a meeting to the Pragathi Bhavan during the 5thWorld Telugu Conference held in 2017 in Hyderabad. It was alife changing moment for us, the 400 NRIs of the state met theChief Minister. The CM told us that we are the brandambassadors of the state and asked us to promote ‘BrandTelangana’ across the world.

— SUDHEER JALAGAM

ThursdayMarch 12, 2020

Bringing about a

GENUINE CHANGE

hile many people

only plan, some

attempt to, but

only a very few are

able to bring about

a genuine change

in the lives of others.

One such group that man-

aged to and continues to do

so is the Returned Non-

Resident Indians For a Better

Society.The members of this

Society have been visiting

areas that require the imme-

diate attention of the

Telangana state government

and taking the problems of

the people to the government

and making sure that they are

making a difference to soci-

ety.“It all began when Chief

Minister K Chandrasekhar

Rao invited NRIs for a meet-

ing to the Pragathi Bhavan

during the 5th World Telugu

Conference held in 2017 in

Hyderabad. It was a life

changing moment for us, the

400 NRIs of the state met the

Chief Minister. KCR told us

that we are the brand ambas-

sadors of the state and asked

us to promote ‘Brand

Telangana’ across the world.

He also advised us to visit

Kaleshwaram project,

Siddipet and Gajwel and

arranged a bus tour for us.

We visited the areas and sub-

mitted a report about it to the

CM,” said Sudheer Jalagam,

one of the members of the

society.However, that was not the

end of the matter. The NRIs,

inspired by the Chief

Minister, formed a group and

have been taking up various

issues plaguing the state like

fluorosis in Nalgonda, the

pathetic living

conditions of

handloomweavers and

more.Hailing from

various districts of

Telangana, the

NRIs and RNRIs

including Mahesh

Tanniru, Katti

Gopala Krishna,

Ramesh Deva,

NaveenKanuganti, Shiva

Ramadugu, Surya

Pandiri, Laxman Kastala,

Venkat Mantena, Sunitha

Vijay and others are fighting

for the rights of fluorosis vic-

tims, distributing medical

kits, books, benches etc. to

government schools, prepar-

ing and filing ground report

and getting officials and lead-

ers to act on various major

issues, alerting officials on

lake encroachments in vari-

ous districts of the state, cre-

ating awareness on ‘good

touch and bad touch’ and

more.“We wanted to take up var-

ious issues and began with a

visit to fluorosis victims in

Nalgonda. During our visit,

we met an organization

working there for fluorosis

victims and enquired about

their needs. We learnt that

there are more than two lakh

people suffering due to high

content of fluoride in drink-

ing water. We requested the

Chief Minister to set up a

special corporation for these

nearly two lakh victims,” said

Sudheer.The group sent a detailed

report on the conditions of

the fluoride victims and the

action to be taken. “Mission

Bhagiratha and Mission

Kakatiya will address the

problem to a large extentfluo-

ride issue of the current and

future generations but will

not resolve the issue in the

already affected victims,” he

said.During their visit to the

villages, they met people with

talents and were amazed by

their skills. They met a lady,

Suvarna, who couldn’t move

her hand by a cm but drew

pictures and this caught the

attention of the group. The

team helped Suvarna earn

money for her paintings with

their Facebook group Brand

Telangana. They put her

paintings for auction in that

group and collected more

than Rs 4 lakh for her.Sudheeradded thatit was their

duty to

servetheir home-

land. He says,

“I was born and brought up

here and was provided every-

thing. I went abroad for

livelihood but my heart

always beats for my mother-

land. Morally and financially,

I will provide support and am

always with the people who

work for the betterment of

the society. I wish to see a

healthy and happy society

around me and strive for the

same. I feel happy when I see

light in everyone’s eyes.”

After the fluoride issue,

Sudheer and team visit-

ed the handloom

weavers of Siricilla

and found that the

artisans were not pro-

moted very well. He

shares, “Even though we

have brand ambassador

like Samantha Akkineni

for handlooms, the arti-

sans are not getting

recognition for their

works. We observed

the difficulties of

Gollabhama saree

makers and promoted

their work in our Brand

Telangana group and helping

them to sell their products.”

The group’s interest in edu-

cation drove them to provide

valuable suggestions to

improve government schools.

They inspired by US Coffee

with Principal programme,

started a similar one titled

Tea with Principal in govern-

ment schools across the state.

He shares, “The main objec-

tive of the programme was to

involve parents in their chil-

dren’s education. During the

programme, the parents

informed about their chil-

dren’s education and how

they can play a key role to

help their children excel in

studies.” With their efforts, the

Telangana government intro-

duced the programme in

more than 280 state-run

schools.Sudheer and his team are

also working hard to set up

the trauma care centres on

national highways and

requested AP, TS and Central

Governments to do the need-

ful to help the people.

Sudheer said, “Every day,

many people are dying due to

lack of emergency treatment

after accidents. The first hour

after an accident is called the

‘golden hour’ and we can save

people if we can give them

treatment in this crucial time.

We have requested the gov-

ernments to set up trauma

care centres to help road

accident victims. On the

same lines, we have many

more activities planned.”

W

Swathi BhavaniPotla, the

youngest fromAP and Telangana

to become thejunior civil judgeat the age of 23,

speaks to V SATEESH

REDDY about herjourney to

becoming theyoungest civil

judge, the lure oflaw and more

On the right side of the lawaw is a tough nut tocrack. What with allthe sections one hasto deal with on adaily basis. If thatisn’t enough, people

also say law isn’t a women’s cupof tea. And just like many sec-tors, this is also a sector thathas predominantly seen men.

But the times are changingfor good as many women arecoming forward to take up law.Hyderabad-based SwathiBhavani Potla is one of them.She is passionate about thejudiciary and ranked second inthe Indian Judicial ServicesExam which made her a JuniorCivil Judge at the age of 23.

Swati hopes that her successinspires many women to takeup law in. She adds, “Womenstill shy away from studyinglaw because many wronglyassume that practising lawmeans dealing with criminalsand regular attendance at thecourt. But these are just someof the aspects of civil andcriminal law. There are rela-tively a lesser number ofwomen practising law than inother fields. But the scenarioseems to be changing. In mybatch itself, for instance, morethan a half of them are women.We have laws for everything

and for everyone.”This is the first time since

the bifurcation of Telanganastate that this exam was con-ducted for Telangana andAndhra Pradesh High Courtsrespectively and Swathi wasthe youngest woman tobecome a judge from bothstates.

She says, “I always wanted toserve the society that hashelped me become who I amtoday. The first time I learntthe government has threeorgans — legislature(makes law), execu-tive (implementslaw) and judiciary(interprets lawand delivers jus-tice) — I knew Iwanted to be apart of one ofthese systems.I joined a lawschool toachieve thisaim. I knew

I wanted to be a judge as Iwanted to deal with our lawsdirectly. If I joined the IAS orsome other civil service, deal-ing with law would only be oneof the responsibilities.”

“I’m ecstatic that I’ve finallyachieved this dream, while atthe same time, I’m aware of theresponsibilities on my shoul-ders,” she adds.

Swathi interned under thesupervision of many eminentHigh Court and SupremeCourt judges including Justice

Gopala Gowda, JusticeK.S. Radhakrishnan

and Attorney GeneralK.K. Venugopal.

“The most impor-tant lesson I learnt

from them is that tobe a good judge, one

must be a good studentwho doesn’t stop learn-

ing in life,” she says.Swathi completed

her schoolingand

intermediate from Bhavan’sCollege and LLB (Bachelor ofLaw) from Pendekanti LawCollege, Osmania University.

Speaking about her prepera-tion for the exam, Swathi says,“I started preparing seriouslyin my fourth year. I measuredmy progress by the amount ofsyllabus covered and not by thenumber of hours spent. Igained practical experiencethrough internships and thathas helped me a lot. My par-ents and my sister have alwaysbeen supportive of my dreamwhich I could achieve afteryears of determination andhard work.”

“Now that I am what Ialways wanted to be, I can seemyself as a judge who is inde-pendent, impartial and unbi-ased, giving a fair hearing tothe merits and demerits onboth sides. There is great satis-faction in being a part of suchan all-encompassing field,” sheconcludes.

L

Women still shy away from studying law because many wronglyassume that practising law means dealing with criminals and regularattendance at the court. But these are just some of the aspects ofcivil and criminal law. There are relatively a lesser number of womenpractising law than in other fields. But the scenario seems to bechanging. In my batch itself, for instance, more than a half of themare women. We have laws for everything and for everyone.

— SWATHI BHAVANI POTLA

BIRTHDAYBASH

Socialite Ravitta Mayorrhosted a birthdayparty for her friends

and well-wishers recentlyat The Park. The attendeeshad a gala time over themusic and delicious food.

ITS FASHIONTIME

Sthri — a designersfashion show —

was held at NConvention in

Hyderabad recently.The brand is all for

women who love tobring a unique flair

to their fashion.Models dazzled the

ramp during the event.Socialites and fashion

lovers had a greattime watching

models walk theramp.

10

CITY GUIDEEVENTS

lNori Art and Puppetry Centre is conducting WorldPuppetry Day Celebrations on March 21 at Lamakaanfrom 6.30 pm.

PUPPETRY DAY

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your eventslisted, send your details along with a poster andcontact number to pioneer.features@gmail.com

COMEDY NIGHTSl Stand-up comedian Vivek Muralidharan ishosting his new stand-up show ‘VivekMuralidharan Live’ on March 22 at PhoenixArena from 5 pm. In this weekly show, he willspeak about various societal issues.

PAINTING EXHIBITION

Hyderabad Thursday March 12, 2020

l Madhubani painting exhibition will be held on March 14 at Phoenix Arena from 2 pmonwards. This painting is done with a variety oftools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, andmatchsticks and using natural dyes andpigments.

what’s brewing?

Phot

os bb

ySV

Char

y

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

PART

Y

l Ravitta Mayorr

l Fleming Van and Kubral Evangi Leenal Raml Madhavi Latha

l Srija Reddy

l A

ynab

l S

anjan

a

l Farida

l L

yra

l D

olly

rabhas hasbecome aPan-Indiafigure afterthe releaseof Saaho

and now all eyes areon Prabhas 20 star-

ring Prabhas and

Pooja Hegde. According toreports circulating in themedia circles, the makers ofPrabhas 20 have decided toreveal the title of this film onUgadi, March 25. It is alsosaid that the makers willrelease the first look poster ofPrabhas from the film on

that day.Sources close to the film’s

unit revealed that before fly-ing to Georgia, the team of#Prabhas20 did a photoshootwith Prabhas and PoojaHegde in a specially-con-structed house and train setsthat replicate the era ofEurope.

The makers have finalisedtwo posters for the first look.In one of the posters, Young

Rebel star Prabhas and PoojaHegde will be seen sitting ina train compartment whereasthe second poster will showthem in a jovial mood play-ing the piano together.

Prabhas 20, a romanticentertainer directed by KKRadha Krishna and producedby Gopi Krishna movies inassociation with UV cre-ations banner, will seePrabhas playing a palmread-er. The film is set in thebackdrop of 1980 and isreportedly said to release inOctober as a Dasara treat oron Prabhas’ birthday, whichis on October 23.

fter showing heracting chops in theTamil, Telugu andHindi film indus-try for years now,Regina Cassandra

is set to woo the audiencewith her dancing skills. The29-year old has shot a songwith none other than Telugusuperstar Chiranjeevi for hisupcomingfilm

Acharya.The number is being high-

lighted as a “celebrationsong” in the film directed byKoratala Siva. In an inter-view, Regina recentlyrevealed that matching stepswith superstar Chiranjeeviwasn’t easy because he’s soeffortless at dancing.

“He doesn’t have any airsof a superstar. Throughout

the song, what I observed,was he never goes back

into the caravanafter the scene but

keeps talking toother guests

and directorson the setswho come tomeet him.His humili-ty and sim-plicity iswhat makeshim a super-

star,” Reginasaid.

She alsoshared her expe-

rience from theshoot. She said, “Ishot for six days(night shoots).Watching the easeand the grace inChiru sir’s dancemovements wasvery inspiring. Iremember, on thefirst day of theshoot, we shotfor expressions.His expres-

sions complemented his gra-cious moves. He said I amexpressive too, and I wasfloored with the complimentcoming from someone likehim.”

Apart from this,Regina has herkitty full of pro-jects. Recently,her look fromher film NeneNaa wasreleased online.Directed byCaarthickRaju, thefemale-centricfilm is toutedto be a mys-tery thriller.In theposter, theprettyactress isdressed like aqueen withslap marks onboth sides of herface. It also lookslike she has beenlocked up.

Hyderabad Thursday March 12, 2020

ACTION SEQUENCESARE SAID TO BE ONE OFTHE MAJOR HIGHLIGHTSOF THE FILM.HOLLYWOOD STUNTDIRECTOR STEFANRICHTER OF URI FAMECHOREOGRAPHED THEACTION SEQUENCES OFTHE FILM

THE FILM MAY RELEASEIN OCTOBER AS ADASARA TREAT OR ONPRABHAS’ BIRTHDAYON OCTOBER 23

11

tollywood

RISE, ROAR & REVOLT

hat isarguably themost antici-pated film ofnext year, SSRajamouli’s

RRR, starring Jr NTR

and Ram Charan, has

finally got a full form-

more than 14 months

after it went to sets. It

has been going with the

working title of RRR(abbreviation ofRajamouli, Ramaraoand Ram Charan) for all

the languages ever since

it was first announced.

Although multiple titles

like Raama RoudraRushitam and Rise,Revolt and Revenge have

done the rounds in the

past eight months, The

Pioneer has exclusively

learnt that RRR stands

for Rise, Roar andRevolt.

“To begin with,Rajamouli has toyednaming it differently for

each southlanguage. Hewanted toexpand RRRwith the wordsof respectivelanguages butdecidedagainst it inthe end. Hefelt Rise, Roarand Revolt

would go well withother languages as well

as it is in tune with the

characterisations of his

lead stars. When histeam was conveyed the

decision, they tooendorsed it. An official

announcement to this

end is around the cor-

ner,” said a source close

to the unit.The film, which was

in the news recently for

shattering pre-release

business records ofBaahubali: TheConclusion, is a costume

drama that revolvesaround the fictionalexploits of two real free-

dom fighters Komaram

Bheem and AlluriSeetharama Raju. Tarak

is playing the younger

Bheem, with Englishactress Olivia Morris

paired

alongside him, whileCharan will be seen as

younger Ramaraju, with

Alia Bhatt as his love

interest. The likes ofAjay Devgn, PSamuthirankani, Shriya

Saran and Irish actors

Alison Doody and Ray

Stevenson are essaying

significant roles.After shooting in and

around Hyderabad for

the past six months, the

unit is gearing up for

the Pune schedule next

up. It will witness Alia

Bhatt, who will make

her Telugu debut, join-

ing the sets for the first

time. Close to 80 per

cent of the shooting has

been wrapped up as of

now. The film, a pro-

duction venture ofDVV Danayya,will fly into thecinema halls onJanuary 8 nextyear.

RRR: Rajamouli feels Rise, Roar

and Revolt would go well

with other languages as

well as it is in tune with

the characterisations of his

lead stars, finds

NAGARAJ GOUD

W aj Tarun and Malavika Nair-star-rer Orey Bujjiga has been receiv-ing positive response ever sincethe teaser was launched and theactor who is facing series of flops

has pinned all his hopes on this film. Thelatest we hear is that the film has locked itsrelease date. It will hit big screens onUgadi, March 25.

Meanwhile, the film’s cast has chosennew ways to promote the film. Through‘mobile publicity’ where vehicles equippedwith LED screens will roam across theTelugu states. Telangana cinematographyminister Talasani Srinivas Yadav flaggedoff these vehicles recently in Hyderabad.

Directed by Konda Vijaykumar, the filmwill see Raj Tarun and Malavika Nair in

lead roles while Hebah Patel willbe seen in a crucial role. Vani

Viswanath, Naresh, PosaniKrishna Murali, AnishKuruvilla, Sapthagiri,Raja Raveendra, AjayGhosh and other willalso be seen in key

roles.

OreyBujjiga setfor UgadireleaseR

Reginashakes aleg with

Chiranjeevi

A

Hollywood, Bollywoodtechnicians for Virataparvam

ana Daggubati starrerVirataparvam, billedto be a romanticaction entertainer, isfast progressing withits shoot. Except for

one schedule, entire shoot isalmost wrapped up and the lastschedule will commence soon.

It is learnt that a fewHollywood and Bollywood tech-nicians and artists are workingfor the film.

Action sequences are said tobe one of the major highlights ofthe film. Hollywood stunt direc-tor Stefan Richter of URI fame

choreographed the actionsequences of the film.

While Sai Pallavi plays theleading lady, Priyamani will beseen in a key role. Venu Udugulaof Needi Naadi Oke Kadha fameis directing the film, while DSuresh Babu and SudhakarCherukuri are producing it.Bollywood actress Nandita Das,Eswari Rao and Zareena Wahabwill also be seen in importantroles. Hollywood cameramanDani Sanchez-Lopez will handlethe cinematography.

The makers are planning torelease Virataparvam in summer.

R

P

Prabhas 20 title to beannounced on Ugadi

PTI n DHARAMSALA

Hardik Pandya’s eagerly-awaited internationalcomeback adds a lot of

context to India’s three-matchODI campaign against SouthAfrica starting today where thehosts would be aiming to putthe ‘New Zealand Nightmare’behind them.

Amid the ever-rising dangerof Novel Coronavirus and threatof rain once again playing spoil-sport, Pandya’s all-round flam-boyance will keep skipper ViratKohli in a good headspace as hewould be desperately trying toforget the 0-3 mauling in the lastseries in New Zealand.

Pandya last played an ODIagainst New Zealand in theWorld Cup semi-f inal inManchester and his last interna-tional game was a T20 againstthe Proteas in Bengaluru inSeptember last year.

He forced his way back intothe national team with his all-round performances at the DYPatil Corporate Cup, where helooked completely fit and readyto go.

Skipper Kohli and coachRavi Shastri has spoken openlyabout ODIs being least of prior-ity in a World T20 year. But hismen can ill-afford to lose anoth-er series against an inexperi-enced South African side whichis buoyed after crushingAustralia 3-0 in their own den.

Especially having lost fiveinternational games (two Testsincluded) on trot, the Indianskipper, enduring one of hisrarest of rare bad patches in lastsix years will be keen to buck thetrend.

Kohli managed just 75 runsagainst the Kiwis, and going byhis standards the Indian skipperwould be itching to silence hiscritics, who have raised eye-brows after his statement onODIs not having context in thecurrent calendar.

The presence of Pandyaalong with a fit-again senioropener Shikhar Dhawan (shoul-der dislocation) and seamerBhuvneshwar Kumar (sports

hernia surgery) makes Indiafavourite on paper against aSouth African side that com-prises of seasoned campaignerslike Quinton d Kock, Faf duPlessis and David Miller intheir ranks.

The three players automat-ically pick themselves in theplaying XI while Manish Pandeymight just get a longer run at No6 now that Kedar Jadhav hasfinally been dropped from thesquad.

In the absence of RohitSharma, who is yet to recoverfrom a calf injury, Dhawan’sreturn would lend valuableexperience to the Indian top-order, which badly missed boththe openers in New Zealand

Bhuvneshwar’s return willgive India good depth duringthe slog overs where ShardulThakur had seemed complete-ly misfit.

Mohammed Shami has beenrested for the series after gettinga blow on his shoulder in thesecond Test in New Zealand.

Ravindra Jadeja is expectedto be the lone spinning optionon a seamer-friendlyDharamsala track unless teammanagement feels the urge toinclude Kuldeep Yadav in theteam.

South Africa, on the otherhand, are coming into the tourbrimming with confidence afterwhitewashing Australia in thethree-ODI series.

Faf du Plessis and Rassie vander Dussen, who were rested forthe ODIs against Australia, arepart of South Africa’s touringparty. Since quitting as captain,du Plessis has not had a goodrun and would like to do the

sport 12HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | MARCH 12, 2020

DHARAMSALA: India seamer BhuvneshwarKumar on Wednesday differed with his skip-per Virat Kohli on the significance of ODIs ina Twenty20 World Cup year, saying that allinternational matches are important andanother bad series will be confidence-denting.

“International matches are important.We just lost a series in New Zealand and youall are aware of the reactions after that. Ouraim is to win the series because if we don’t dowell, an individual’s confidence also getsaffected,” Bhuvneshwar said on the eve of thefirst ODI.

Bhuvneshwar believes that a good outingin the series will be a confidence-booster forplayers going into the upcoming IndianPremier League that starts on March 29.

“T20 is a different thing but if we do wellhere, we will have confidence going into theIPL which is necessary.”

After missing the tour of New Zealand,Bhuvneshwar is making a comeback to theteam following a successful sports herniasurgery last year.

And the 31-year-old was candid enoughto admit that making a comeback is not easyfor fast bowlers.

“It’s difficult to maintain pace when youare returning from an injury because italways plays on the mind that if you strive forpace then the injury might reoccur. The bestoption in such a case is to play matches asmuch as possible to gain confidence that youare fit,” Bhuvneshwar said.

With rain predicted on Thursday,Bhuvneshwar also hinted that India would pre-fer to bowl first if they win the toss. PTI

PTI n DHAKA

The Bangladesh Cricket Board onWednesday postponed the upcoming

World XI versus Asia XI matches, whichwould have marked the birth centenary cel-ebrations of father of the nation SheikhMujibur Rahman, owing to the novel coro-navirus outbreak.

The matches were scheduled to be playedon March 21 and 22 in Dhaka and were setto include international stars including ViratKohli, Lasith Malinga and Chris Gayle.

“There’s no guarantee that those who aresupposed to play will be able to arrive, or canleave after the matches,” ESPNCricinfo quot-ed BCB president Nazmul Hasan as saying.

“There are a lot of restrictions, so we havedeferred both programmes. We will organ-ise after a month taking stock of the situa-tion. It is postponed for the time being,” headded.

He said that the matches have been“deferred” until further notice.

The board also decided to postpone theAR Rahman concert at the Shere BanglaNational Stadium, which was to be a part ofthe celebrations.

Bangladesh are currently playing a T20Iseries against Zimbabwe.

PTI n MUMBAI

Insisting that Indians are not badplayers of short-ball, Test vice-

captain Ajinkya Rahane onWednesday said the team’s badrun in New Zealand was largelydue to the wind factor.

Rahane, who had scores of 46,29 (in Wellington) and 7, 9 (inChristchurch), said the criticismthat they do not play short-ballwell, does not hold any merit.

“People are speaking toomuch about it (short balls). If yousee Melbourne innings, we havedominated. We all play short-ballswell. One game doesn’t make youbad player of short ball. I don’tthink we have to make too muchfuss about short-balls, we havebeen playing them really well indifferent formats,” Rahane toldreporters here.

“They (NZ bowlers) usedthe breeze factor very well becausein New Zealand it was biggest fac-tor, cutting the angle and pace. Wehave to stay focused and positiveand the next series is in Australiaand there is a long way to go, look-ing forward to that.

Rahane was referring to the2018 Melbourne Test againstAustralia, which India won by 137runs. Cheteshwar Pujara hadscored a hundred, while Virat

Kohli, Mayank Agarwal and RohitSharma had stuck half-centuriesin the first-innings.

“Personally if you see myMelbourne innings againstAustralia, I was counter-attackingand played short-balls well. It isimportant to learn what wentwrong playing short balls in NewZealand. As long as I am on thatpath to improve, if next time theopposition come and bowl shortballs at me and if I feel like hittingit, I’ll hit,” he said.

“We have really done a goodjob in the last three-four years.Now Test Championship hasstarted. In this journey, you aregoing to win and lose somematches,” he added.

Rahane also said that he wasnot overtly worried about his ownpoor run.

“I am not too much worriedabout that and I am not going toomuch deep in that. TestChampionship is all about onematch and one series at a time,one match at a time becausepoints are involved, because onebad game or two bad games willnot make us bad team,” Rahanesaid.

“We learnt a lot from NewZealand series, they played well.As a team, there is some learningas batting and bowling unit.”

PTI n RAJKOT

Saurashtra maintained theirgrip over the Ranji Trophy

final on day three despite a fight-ing stand between Bengal veter-an Manoj Tiwary and SudipChatterjee on a deterioratingpitch here on Wednesday.

Chatterjee (47 not out off145) and Tiwary (35 off 116) tooka leaf out of Cheteshwar Pujara’sbook to share a gritty 89-run part-nership off 226 balls after Bengalwere in a spot of bother at 35 fortwo at lunch.

Batting is only going to gettougher on this surface with theball keeping low right from dayone, making it a steep challengefor Bengal to get past Saurashtra’sfirst innings total of 425.

Bengal reached 134 for threein 65 overs at close of play, trail-ing Saurashtra by 291 runs withChatterjee and Wriddhiman Saha(4 off 43) in the middle.

Saurashtra, who resumed theday at 384 for eight, went on to batfor one hour and 10 minutes inthe morning session to add 41valuable runs with the last wick-

et pair of Jaydev Unadkat andDharemendrasinh Jadeja pro-ducing 38 runs.

Bengal coach Arun Lal askedhis players to remain optimisticand stretch the fight.

“Fight on. It was an impor-tant toss. First couple of days thewicket still played better now itis misbehaving. There is rapidwear and tear but we willfight it till the end,” Lal said.

Saurashtra coachKarsan Ghavri said, “Weare doing okay at themoment. But cricket is afunny game, things can changequickly. It is not a bad wicket. Ourbatsmen showed it. The odd ballis keeping low. That is it.”

On day two, Pujara and ArpitVasavada batted together for fivehours to put Saurashtra in astrong position and Bengal toowill have to come up with some-thing special to stay in the game.

While Saurashtra are aiming

for their maiden title, Bengal havenot won Ranji Trophy since 1989-90.

The home team’s bowlerswill be aiming for the stumps onday four like they did onWednesday, hoping the pitchdoes the rest. Tiwary’s dismissalclearly showed how tough it hasbecome to bat on the uneven sur-face.

Chirag Jani had him trappedin front of the stumps with a ballthat came back in sharply at a low

height and there was notmuch Tiwary could doabout it. It was a sort ofredemption for Jani,who had oversteppedwhen Tiwary, batting

on 18, played on to hisstumps.

The afternoon session was agood one for Bengal as they didnot lose a wicket and collected 59runs.

Tiwary and Chatterjee pro-vided the much needed fightback after Bengal lost their open-ers — debutant Sudip KumarGharami (26) and AbhimanyuEaswaran (9), in the morning.

PTI n WELLINGTON

Aharsh lesson learnt after England women bowedout of T20 World Cup without actually playing the

semi-final against India, the ICC has now allocated areserve day each for the two semi-finals and final ofthe 2021 ODI edition in New Zealand.

The ICC released the 31-match schedule for thetournament, starting February 6 to March 7 in NewZealand with reserve days scheduled for all threeknockout matches a day later.

Last week, England were forced to make an exitfrom the T20 Women’s World Cup after their semifi-nal clash was washed out resulting in India, the high-er ranked side in the group stage, progressing to thefinal. The ICC had faced a lot of flak for not keepinga reserve day of the recently concluded Women’s T20World Cup.

The Women’s ODI World Cup will be played atsix venues, including Eden Park (Auckland), BayOval(Tauranga), Seddon Park(Hamilton), UniversityOval(Dunedin), Basin Reserve (Wellington) andHagley Oval (Christchurch).

The iconic Basin Reserve will stage the highlyanticipated Trans-Tasman showdown between NewZealand and Australia on February 13.

Auckland will host the opening game between thehosts and a qualifying team, the semifinals will beplayed in Tauranga and Hamilton on February March3 and 4 respectively with the summit clash scheduledto take place in Christchurch on March 7.

New Zealand, Australia, England and SouthAfrica have already qualified for the World Cup. Theremaining four teams will be established following thecompletion of the ICC Women’s Championship anda subsequent qualifying tournament in Sri Lanka inJuly.

Ranji Trophy finalLive from 9:30pm ISTSTAR SPORTS 2 NETWORK

Indian players warm up prior to the start of training session on the eve of 1st ODI against South Africa at HPCA stadium PTI

course correction in his most pre-ferred format.

Heinrich Klaasen and KyleVerreynne, both of whom playedcrucial roles in South Africa’s ODIseries win over Australia, wouldlook to carry on their form in Indiawhile Temba Bavuma has alsoreturned.

Janneman Malan earned his

maiden India tour call as the 16thmember of the squad after hismatch-winning ton in the secondODI against Australia.

This will be South Africa’smaiden ODI at this venue whileIndia have played four ODIs here,losing two and winning two. Theside batting second has won threeof the four contests at the ground.

Seniors need to guideyoungsters: De DockDHARAMSALA: South Africa cap-tain Quinton de Kock urged thesenior members of his team toown up responsibility as well asguide the youngsters during thethree-match ODI series.

De Kock said former captainFaf du Plessis’ comeback after

being rested for theAustralia series, willhold the visitors in agood stead in the

upcoming ODIs.“Obviously, Faf (du Plessis)

has comeback. He plays a big rolefor us from the leadership point ofview. He is here to help out theyounger guys in the team. He addsa lot of value for us. He also knowshe has lot of value to give to thisteam. His experience will be a bighelp for us in this series,” De Kocksaid.

“We understand that we arecoming here with quite an inexpe-rienced side in these conditionsbut it’s important Faf, me, DavidMiller to help out these guysaround, lead the way. Pass on ourknowledge to the youngsters.”The Proteas skipper said the visi-

tors are brimming with confidencecoming into the tour after drub-bing Australia back home.

“India is an unbelievable team,They have got great balance, butI am sure we are also coming herewith a lot of confidence,” De Kocksaid.

De Kock said left-arm seam-er Beuren Hendricks has recov-ered from his illness and is avail-able for selection but batsmanTemba Bavuma is uncertain as heis yet to fully recover from thehamstring injury. PTI

India vs South AfricaLive from 1:30pm ISTSTAR SPORTS 1 NETWORK

All int’l matchesimportant for Bhuvi

Venue P Ind SA N/RIn India 28 15 13 -Total 84 35 46 3D/N matches 51 21 27 3Last 5 matches 5 4 1 -

HIGHEST INNINGS TOTALSIndia 401-3 at Gwalior 24-02-2010SA 438-4 at Mumbai 25-10-2015HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL SCORESIndia 200* Sachin Tendulkar 24-02-2010SA 135 Quinton de Kock 05-12-2013

Faisel Features

IINNDDIIAA-SSOOUUTTHH AAFFRRIICCAA OODDII EENNCCOOUUNNTTEERRSS

INDIA READY FOR FRESH START

Limit usage of saliva for shining ballPTI n DHARAMSALA

The Indian team might avoidusing saliva to shine the ball

if advised by doctors to combatthe novel coronavirus threat,seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar saideven as the South African teaminsisted on continuing the prac-tice in the first ODI.

Bhuvneshwar, however, saida decision on this will be taken bythe team doctor during a meetinglater on Wednesday.

“We have thought about thisthing (not using saliva) but I can’tsay right now we will not use sali-va because if we don’t use salivathen how will we shine the ball,”the 31-year-old pacer said.

“We will get hit and youpeople will say you are not bowl-ing well. But it’s a valid point (con-cern) and let’s see we will have a

team meeting today and whatev-er instruction we get or whatev-er is the best option, we will dothat.

“It all depends on the teamdoctor and what advice he givesus,” he added.

However, South Africa skip-per skipper Quinton de Kock saidthe visitors will continue with itas they are not affected by thevirus.

“We understand the coronathing but it doesn’t change. Thereare some fine lines but I thinkboth the teams are healthy. Wehave been tested on our way toIndia so I think we will still shinethe ball. Our team doctor andmanagement have made sure thatwe all are fit and don’t have coro-navirus so we will keep the ballshinning,” he added.

World XI vs AsiaXI T20 postponed Saurashtra step closer to maiden title

Chirag Jani celebrates after taking wicket of Bengal’s Manoj Tiwary during Ranji Trophy final PTI

We are not bad players of short ball: Rahane

2021 Women’s WC to havereserve day for all knockouts

1st ODI: Coronavirus, rain affect ticket salesPTI n DHARAMSALA

The novel coronavirusoutbreak andinclement weather

here have affected the tick-et sales for the openingODI of the three-matchseries between India andSouth Africa.

Only 16,000 ticketsout of 22,000 were sold tillTuesday for the seriesopener at the picturesqueHimachal Pradesh CricketAssociation (HPCA)Stadium. The numbers,though, are expected torise as the orgainsers are

still awaiting sales figuresfrom online partnerspaytm.

"We have sold around16,000 tickets over thecounter but we still haven'tgot sales figures frompaytm. Normally, thedemand for tickets of inter-national matches here arehuge but the coronavirusoutbreak has taken a tollthis time," a top HPCAofficial told PTI.

"Foreign fans, whichamount to around 1,000are not travelling this timebecause of various traveladvisories. We used to

cater to a lot of spectatorsfrom adjoining Punjab,Harayana and Delhi whichis not notable this timebecause of the current sit-uation."

Not a single journalistfrom South Africa is tour-ing with the national teamfor the series.

The HPCA, on itspart, have put in placehuge hoardings both insideand outside the ground,educating people on pre-cautionary measuresagainst coronavirus.

"We have placedhoardings throughout the

stadium informing specta-tors about preventive mea-sures from coronavirus,"the official said.

Adverse weather con-ditions have also affectedthe ticket sales with rainsand thundershowers pre-dicted for Thursday, theday of the match, andFriday because of freshwestern disturbance overnorth Pakistan and adjoin-ing Jammu and Kashmir.

"Rain is also a factorbut weather is not in ourhands. But in case of rains,we have equipments toprepare the ground in two

hours," the HPCA officialsaid.

It has been rainingsince Tuesday night. Aheavy spell of thunder-showers also lashed the hilltown just after the team'spractice sessions onWednesday, forcing theognaisers to cover theentire playing area.

Rains have playedhavoc here in the past aswell with the last interna-tional game between Indiaand South Africa -- a T20-- washed out without aball being bowled inSeptember last year.