5

Pawar'ssecurity atDelhi home‘withdrawn':NCP flays BJP

4

MP garnersinvestmentsworth Rs 4,125 crat Davos

8

PNS n HYDERABAD

In a major setback to AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, a SpecialCourt designated ofEnforcement Directorate (ED)on Friday dismissed an inter-im application (IA) filed by theCM seeking exemption fromhis personal appearance beforeit during the hearing of a casefiled by the ED against him.

The court pronounced itsorders which were reserved byit after the conclusion of thearguments on the applicationmade by the AP Chief Minister.During the course of argu-ments over his application,Jagan urged the court to allow

the representative of JagatiPublications to represent himin the case. However, the EDhad strongly opposed Jagan'splea and told the court that theappearance of the accused ofserious frauds and crimes wascompulsory.

The ED also said that Jaganshould attend the hearing of thecases filed against him on a reg-ular basis. It told the court that

Jagan was also the accusednumber one in the cases filedby it. The ED also said that theyhad filed five cases against theAP Chief Minister on allega-tions that he had dispropor-tionate assets. It later adjournedthe case till January 31, 2020.

ED Court rejects Jagan’splea on exemption from per-sonal appearance.

Continued on Page 4

@TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneerFollow us on:

MONEY 8SEBI ASKS INDIVIDUAL

TO DISGORGE RS 4.9 CR

ANALYSIS 7BUILD A

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

SPORTS 12INDIA RULE IN

RUN FEST

HYDERABAD, SATURDAY JANUARY 25, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

}NISHABDAMRELEASE DATEPOSTPONED

Page 11www.dailypioneer.com

{

RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUNVIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 2 ISSUE 105*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated january 24, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Magha & Shukla PakshaPanchangamTithi : Pratipada: 04:30 am (Next Day)Nakshatram: Shravana: 04:35 am(Next Day)Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 09:40 am – 11:04 amYamagandam: 01:52 pm – 03:15 pmVarjyam: 07:04 am – 08:47 amGulika: 06:53 am - 08:16 amGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 05:24 pm – 07:07 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 12:06pm – 12:50 pm

Forecast: Clear with periodic cloudsTemp: 31/17Humidity: 51%Sunrise: 06.49Sunset: 06.07

MAMATA WILL NOW PAINT TOPROTEST AGAINST CAA AND NRCWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will now take up the

brush on January 28 to protest against the amended CitizenshipAct and the proposed NRC, well known painter Shuvaprasanna who isorganising it said on Friday. The programme will take place at theGandhi statue on Mayo Road, where Banerjee, a painterherself, will wield the brush along with several otherrenowned painters to depict the problems of thecontentious CAA and NRC, he said. The theme of theprogramme is 'No CAA-No NRC'. It has been plannedby Banerjee, Shuvaprasanna said.

INDIA SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRES K-4 SUBMARINE-LAUNCHED MISSILEIndia on Friday successfully test-fired the K-4 submarine-launched

ballistic missile off the coast of Visakhapatnam for the second timethis week, seen as a major milestone to augment India's naval prowess.The missile, developed by the DRDO, with its range of 3,500 km canbring almost all parts of Pakistan and severalareas of China within its reach, officials said.The missile is set to be integrated withIndia's Arihant class nuclear submarine. Themissile was test-fired successfully for thesecond consecutive time in the last five days.

‘WEINSTEIN RAPED ME’: ACTRESSANNABELLA TESTIFIES IN COURT"The Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra fought back tears as she

told a court Thursday that being raped by Harvey Weinstein left herfeeling like she was having "a seizure" and caused her to self-harm. Inemotional testimony at Weinstein's trial, Sciorra describedhim barging into her New York apartment late at night inthe early 1990s and attacking her while she was wearinga nightgown. "It was just so disgusting that my bodystarted to shake in a way that was very unusual. Ididn't really even know what was happening," the59-year-old said.

Taking a swipe at the protesting Jawaharlal Nehru University students,yoga guru Ramdev on Friday said the government should start a

"pension scheme for the elderly students of the varsity so that they canquietly pursue their studies on the campus". "I demand that thegovernment start a pension scheme for JNU's elderlystudents so they can keep quiet on the campus," Ramdevremarked laughingly while addressing the media at theConstitution Club here. Ramdev also supported theCAA and termed the protests against the law as "anattempt to malign India's image internationally".

GOVT SHOULD GIVE PENSION TO‘ELDERLY' JNU STUDENTS: RAMDEV

Muslims in TS, AP vow not to fill NPR, NRC formsPNS n HYDERABAD

Muslims in parts of Telanganaand Andhra Pradesh states,including Hyderabad, repre-sented by a joint action com-mittee, on Friday pledged notto fill forms relating to theNational Population Register(NPR) and the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC).

'We will not fill the forms'pledge was taken after Fridayprayers at the historic MeccaMasjid here and at severalother mosques in the city andelsewhere in the districts.

Mushtaq Malik, convenor ofthe Joint Action Committee(JAC) against CAA, NPR,NRC, administered the pledgeafter Friday prayers at MeccaMasjid.

"We are Indians. TheConstitution has given us free-

dom and we will continue tofight to safeguard this freedom.We will not fill NPR and NRCforms at any cost," he said, as

he administered the pledge."We are citizens of India and

the 'communal government'can't seek proof of our citizen-

ship. We announce that we willnot fill the forms at any cost,"he said.

Later, Malik claimed that 50to 60 lakh people took thepledge after Friday prayers inmosques across Telangana,Andhra Pradesh and in theHyderabad-Karnataka region.He said the designs of the com-munal forces to depriveMuslims of their citizenshipcould be defeated only if allpeople refused to fill the formsor submit supportive docu-ments.

"We have to remain unitedand nobody should feel that heis safe because he has the doc-uments. Such people shouldlook at Assam, where, despitesubmitting documents, manypeople were kept out of NRC,"he said.

Continued on Page 4

Mushtaq Malik, convenor of JAC against CAA, NPR, NRC, administering thepledge after Friday prayers at Mecca Masjid in city

ED Court rejects Jagan’s petition onexemption from personal appearance Directs Jagan to appear in court again on Jan 31

PNS n HYDERABAD

In a relief to Telangana govern-ment and setback to theAndhra Pradesh government,the Supreme Court on Fridaydismissed the plea of APpower utilities to keep JusticeDM DharmadhikariCommittee orders on distrib-ution of staff to TS and APpower utilities 'underabeyance'.

It may be recalled that theSupreme Court had appoint-ed a one-man committeeheaded by JusticeDharmadhikari to resolve thedispute between TS and APpower utilities over bifurcationof staff and make final alloca-

tion of staff to both the states. The committee made final

allocation of staff to TS andAP utilities on December 26,2019.

However, the AP powerutilities challenged the com-mittee orders in the SupremeCourt saying that they were"one-sided" in favour of TS.

Continued on Page 4

SC refuses AP plea tokeep Dharmadhikarireport ‘under abeyance'

Results of civic polls todayPNS n HYDERABAD

Counting of votes polled in 129civic bodies across the State,will begin at 8 am on Saturday.While the fate of 12,846 can-didates who contested themunicipal polls will be decid-ed by evening, the newly elect-ed councils will convene sep-arate meetings on Monday toelect chairpersons and Mayorsfor their respective municipal-ities and municipal corpora-tions.

"In case the candidates con-

testing for the post of chairper-son or Mayor receive samenumber of votes, we will

declare the winner through lot-tery system.

Continued on Page 4

AP power utilities get two weeks tolodge objections with committee

DRI seizes 4.08 kg goldworth Rs 1.66 cr at RGIA PNS n HYDERABAD

A series of interceptions byDirectorate of RevenueIntelligence (DRI) officials atthe Rajiv Gandhi InternationalAirport (RGIA) inShamshabad here resulted inthe seizure of 4.08 kg gold,worth over Rs.1.66 crore,involved in smuggling by per-sons who adopted differentmodus operandi.

Four passengers, who wereinvolved in separate cases ofsmuggling gold into the coun-try, were arrested. Based onspecific intelligence, the cityzonal unit of DRI officialssearched an Air India flightcoming from Dubai to RGIA

in the early hours of Thursday,and confiscated gold bars con-cealed beneath a seat. Thegold bars were found wrappedand hidden inside a hollowtube beneath the seat.

The DRI officials then inter-cepted a passenger who hadcome from Muscat at theCustoms arrival hall. A thor-ough inspection of his baggageresulted in the recovery of

700 grams of gold in the formof two cylinders concealeddeep inside the transformer ofa microwave oven carried bythe passenger. On yet anotherspecific input that a passengerarriving from Dubai was car-rying concealed gold, author-ities checked him and foundoval-shaped capsules contain-ing gold paste hidden in hisrectum.

Continued on Page 4

Jilted lover murders minor at ChilkalgudaPNS n HYDERABAD

A 17-year-old girl was foundmurdered, lying in a pool ofblood, at her residence inChilkalguda on Friday.

According to the police, 21-year-old Shoeb, her senior atschool, who had professed tobe in love with her, killed herbecause he believed she wasresponsible for the rejection ofhis proposal for marriage.

The deceased, a juniorIntermediate student, was aresident of Warasiguda. Shewas found dead with multiplebleeding injuries on the ground

near her residence. It is sus-pected that she was done todeath on the terrace with sharpweapons and her body throwndown from the two-storeyedbuilding.

The girl had been residingwith her mother, brother andsister in the two-floor buildingat Warasiguda since her fatherexpired in 2018.

Police arrested Shoeb, a flexboard designer fromWarasiguda, as the prime sus-pect in this case. Shoeb was thegirl's schoolmate from Class I

to Class IX. The police received a call on

100 at 7:15 AM stating that agirl died after falling from atwo-storeyed building. Therewere blood stains on the ter-race of the house.

Based on a complaint fromthe girl 's mother, theChilkalguda Police have regis-tered a case under sections 302,201 and 354-D of IPC and sec-tions 11 and 12 of the POCSOAct.

Police learnt about Shoeb'sinvolvement during the courseof investigation.

Continued on Page 4

The Enforcement Directoratestrongly opposed Jagan's pleaand told the court that theappearance of the accused ofserious frauds and crimes wascompulsory

The deceased, a juniorIntermediate student,was a resident ofWarasiguda. She wasfound dead withmultiple bleedinginjuries on the groundnear her residence

4 passengers, whowere involved inseparate cases ofsmuggling of gold intothe country, were held

No rally against CAA, NRC

HC permitspublic meetingin cityPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana High Courton Friday refused to grantpermission for the organisa-tion of a rally in the state cap-ital by AIMIM party andcity-based United MuslimAction Committee (UMAC)against the CitizenshipAmendment Act and theNational Register of Citizens.It, however allowed the twoorganisations to hold a pub-lic meeting in the city.

The High Court grantedconditional permission tohold the meeting and askedAIMIM and UMAC to abideby the conditions imposed bythe court. The HC passedthese orders while dealingwith a petition filed againstthe organisation of the meet-ing in the city.

Continued on Page 4

‘Set example by following duties’PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday asked theyouth to set an example by fol-lowing their duties to the coun-try and said this will pave theway for the building of a 'newIndia'.

Addressing the young crowdwhich will participate in theRepublic Day parade, Modialso extolled India's diversity,saying geographical and socialdiversities are features of thecountry's greatness.

"We have to ensure that noperson and no region in India

is left behind. This is also theaim behind the Republic Dayparade," he said, adding thatIndia is a life force made up ofseveral ideals and values.

He said the youth have to setan example by following their

duties."This is our 71st Republic

Day. For the past 70 years, asa republic, we have set a per-fect example before the world,"he said adding that now was aneed to pay attention duties.

He said this importantaspect of the Constitutioncould not be discussed in greatdetail in the past.

"We must give prominenceand priority to our duties as cit-izens. If we are able to performour duties properly, then wewill not have to fight for ourrights," he said.

NCC cadets NSS volunteers,tableau artists were part of theaudience. Defining unity indiversity, he said despite sever-al languages, traditions, castesand creeds, India is one -- likea bouquet of flowers.

Continued on Page 4

Chairs in universities namedafter 10 eminent women soonPNS n NEW DELHI

Ten eminent women adminis-trators, artists, scientists andsocial reformers, includingHansa Mehta and Devi AhilyaBai Holkar, will have Chairs inuniversities in their names, thegovernment said on Friday.

The announcement wasmade by the women and childdevelopment ministry onNational Girl Child Day.

The 10 Chairs will be set upwith the University GrantsCommission's assistance andwith an aim to carry outresearch in different fields,

according to a statement.The initiative is called

"establishment of chairs inuniversities in the name ofeminent women administra-tors, artists, scientists andsocial reformers", it said. Thesewill be established for a peri-

od of five years initially, as perguidelines, according to thestatement.

The chairs are being namedafter Holkar queen DeviAhilyabai Holkar, litterateurMahadevi Verma, freedomfighter from the North EastRani Gaidinliu, physicianAnandibai Gopalrao Joshi,Carnatic singer M SSubbulakshmi, forest conser-vationist Amrita Devi Beniwal,mathematician Lilavati, sci-entist Kamala Sohonie, poetLal Ded and educationalreformist Hansa Mehta.

Continued on Page 4

The 10 Chairs will be setup with the UniversityGrants Commission'sassistance to carry outresearch in differentfields

AP Cabinet tomeet onMondayPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinetwill meet at 9.30 am onMonday in the conferencehall of Block 1 of theSecretariat.

The meeting will be chai-red by Chief Minister YS Ja-ganmohan Reddy, accordingto an order issued by ChiefSecretary Nilam Sawhney.

The meeting comes in thebackdrop of the state Assem-bly passing the AP Decentr-alisation and InclusiveDevelopment of All RegionsBill, 2020 and the APCRDA(Repeal) Bill and the chaos inthe Legislative Council overthese Bills.

TS SEC Commissioner V Nagireddy adderssing media on Friday

PRIME MINISTER TO YOUTH

Municipalelections:Karimnagarrecords 65%voter turnout

PNS n HYDERABAD

The double line betweenGuntakal and Kalluru has beencompleted along with electri-fication in all respects.Commissioner, Railway Safetyhas inspected the electrifieddouble line and has given cer-tification as fit to run passen-ger train services with imme-diate effect.

Since the potential of theexisting line is improved bystrengthening the track alongwith flattening of almost 20curves existing in the section,the maximum speed withwhich the trains can be oper-ated is enhanced from 70Kmph to 100 Kmph. Thisenabled to run all types of pas-senger services with electric

traction in this vital rail linewhich acts as bypass line forthe trains bound to south

direction from northern areasand vice-versa. The 41 km railline between Guntakal-

Kalluru is an important by-pass rail line connecting themain line in which trains fromDelhi, Mumbai andHyderabad run towardsBengaluru. It was earlier asingle line with trains runningon diesel traction. In order toimprove the mobility of trainoperations and also tostrengthen the infrastructuralfacilities, the zone has pro-posed for doubling and electri-fication of this vital rail link.Accordingly, work was sanc-tioned in the year 2015-16 withan estimated cost of Rs. 357Crore. The project was com-pleted in different phases viz.,Doubling of section betweenKhadarpet - Gullapalyamu,Electrification of entire singleline, doubling between

Guntakal - Gullapalyamu,Doubling between Khadarpet- Kalluru and finally electrifi-cation of Second line.Withthis, one more significant stephas been taken towards fulfill-ing the dreams of Rayalaseemapeople to have better rail con-nectivity and morenumber oftrains.

The section betweenGuntakal and Kalluru is themost accessible shortest routeto many important cities ofsouthern states, from whererailway lines going towardsHyderabad, Raichur, Bellary,Hubli, Goa and the Nationalcapital New Delhi. Iron oreand other bulk commoditiessuch as cement, steel etc., arebeing moved on this route toNorth and South directions.

PNS n MEDARAM

The Telangana State ForestDepartment is making elabo-rate arrangements for thesmooth conduct of MedaramJatara, which will begin onFebruary 5. In a statement, theForest Department said that itis fully geared up to make thejatara a great success. Also, theForest Department is plan-ning to distribute free saplingsfor the devotees under the"Vriksha Prasadam" pro-gramme during theSammakka Sarakka Jatara.Special counters will beopened at the Jatara site togive away plants to devoteesin an effort create an aware-ness among the public on theimportance of green cover.

On Saturday, the PrincipalChief Conservator of ForestsR Sobha visited Medaramand reviewed all preparationsbeing made. As the tribal fes-tival will take place in theMulugu forest area, theDepartment is also makingelaborate arrangements fromits side.

Efforts are being made tostop the devotees cutting freshforests to camp close to theJatara site, the ForestDepartment is encouragethem to erect their tents at thedesignated areas, causing lessdamage to the forests. Thedevotees are also advised topurchase wood from the des-ignated shops of the depart-ment rather than cuttingdown trees near the parkinglots or camp sites.

The Forest Department willalso enhance its vigilanceactivity to discourage killing

or hunting wild animals forfood in the Mulugu forestarea. The department is pre-dicting heavy rush fromMulugu, Tadwai,E t u r u n a g a r a m ,

Venkatapuram forest divi-sions and also from theTelugu states. The ForestDepartment also decided tohelp the ST WelfareDepartment's efforts to make

Medaram Jatara as a plastic-free congregation. It said thatgarbage piling up in the for-est area will be immediatelycleared and moved to thedesignated dumping yards.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The business trip of MinisterKT Rama Rao to WorldEconomic Forum, Davos,which concluded on Friday,witnessed him participating in50 bilateral meetings with thehead honchos of global corpo-rations. He also took part in 5engaging sessions with busi-ness and political leaders.

He met several leaders fromacross the globe, includingCentral Ministers from variouscountries, top executives ofglobal corporations. The pri-mary aim of this visit was toshowcase the Telangana stateto multinational investors withan intention to draw investorsand thereby create moreemployment opportunities tothe youngsters back home.The visit also fetched Rs 500crore worth investments fromPharma major Piramal group.Several business entities haveevinced keen interest in invest-ing in Telangana state.

KTR made a strong pitch

promoting Telangana as a pro-gressive state, with a strong andable leadership. Minister hadoutlined the various resourcesavailable in Telangana andhow the state has been consis-tently ranking high on Ease ofDoing Business index.Minister also informed theglobal leaders aboutHyderabad's rapid develop-ment during the past five anda half years. He highlighted thecity's cosmopolitan cultureand the fact that the city hasbeen ranked as 'Number One'in the Mercer Livability Index.

Telangana state governmenthas set up an exclusive Pavilionon the Davos Promenade, to

showcase the state. While therewere delegations fromKarnataka and MP state too, itwas Telangana which couldgenerate huge buzz in Davos.This is the second trip of KTRto World Economic Forum,Davos. The Minister wasaccompanied by IT &Industries Secretary JayeshRanjan, Director Digital MediaDileep Konatham and T HubCEO Ravi Narayan. KTRthanking his team on twittersaid, ""I Would like to thankour small team Jayesh Ranjan,Konatham Dileep, RaviNarayan, Saketh & Krishna fora fabulous job for Telangana AtDavos."

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any

damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only. Readers are advised and requested to verify and seek appropriate advice to satisfy themselves about the veracity of any kind of advertisement before

responding to any contents published in this newspaper. The printer, publisher, editor and any employee of the Pioneer Group's will not be held responsible for any kind of claim made by the advertisers of the products & services and shall not be made responsible for any kind of loss, consequences and further product-related damages on such advertisements.

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020 hyderabad 02

Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali offering prayers at Janpahad Dargah in Suryapet on Friday. On the occasion, the Ministeroffered chadar, flowers, garlands at holy dargah and prayed for the wellbeing of people and overall development of Telangana

PRAYER TTIME

KTR’s visit to Davos fetched Rs 500 crore worth investments from Pharma major Piramal group.Several business entities haveevinced keen interest in investing in Telangana state

Special counterswill be opened atthe Jatara site togive away plantsas ‘VrikshaPrasadam’ todevotees in an effort createan awarenessamong the publicon the importanceof green cover

EGGRATES

` 40,130 (10 gm)

` 10

GOLD

` 46,200(1kg)

` 1100

HYDERABAD 370VIJAYAWADA 395VISAKHAPATNAM 410RETAIL PPRICE `3.70

SILVER

HYDERABADBULLION RATES

`/100

CHICKENRATES

Dressed/With Skin `155

Without Skin `177

Broiler at Farm `107

`/KG

(IN HYDERABAD)

SCR GM batsfor strongvendor base PNS n HYDERABAD

Gajanan Mallya, GeneralManager, South CentralRailway said that there is anannual procurement of mate-rial worth more than Rs1,000 crore by SCR whichneeds a strong base of vendorsystem to meetthe require-ments ofs m o o t hoperation,m a i n t e -nance andmanufacture.

SCR organised a'Meet for indigenization andvendor development' onFriday at Rail Nilayam,Secunderabad. On the occa-sion, he emphasised for reg-ular interaction with ven-dors for new developments inprocurement eco-system, andthe need for a strong vendorbase and good supply chainmanagement system for theconsistent growth andprogress of Indian Railways.He also stressed the need forease of doing business inaccordance with Make inIndia policy pursued byGovernment of India.

Indian Railways has com-pletely switched over to end-to-end on-line procurementsystem duly incorporatingfeatures of Reverse Auction,on-line Bill payment, pay-ments through letter of Creditfor transparent, efficient andeffective system.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

KTR ends Davostrip on a high note

IT Minister KT Rama Rao, IT & Industries Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Director Digital Media Dileep Konatham, T Hub CEO RaviNarayan and others at Davos

MEDARAM JATARA

Devotees to get ‘Vriksha prasadam'

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests R Sobha and other officials inspecting theworks at Medaram Jatara site on Friday

MINISTERS INSPECT JAMPANNA VAGU WORKSWARANGAL: Panchayat Raj MinsterErrabelli Dayakar Rao and ExciseMinister Srinivas Goud on Fridayinaugurated Tourism Departmentowned Haritha Hotel cottages inTadwai mandal headquartersenroute Medaram SammakkaJathara. The Ministers inspected thedevelopment works undertaken inChilukalagutta area of Medaramand Jampannavaagu area in theJathara precincts in the afternoon.Prior to that, the Ministers, alongwith the district Collector of MuluguVaasam Venkateshwarlu offeredprayers to the tribal deities inMedaram. ZP Chair personKusuma Jagadeesh, MP MalothKavitha and MLA Seethakkaaccompanied the Ministers.

Minister Srinivas Goud performs puja after inaugurating Haritha Hotel andcottages in Mulugu district on Friday

FIT TO OPERATE

Cilicant Chemplans to set up packaging unitin Hyderabad PNS n HYDERABAD

Pune-based pharmaceuticalpackaging manufacturingfirm Cilicant Chem is plan-ning to set up a packagingunit in Hyderabad.

The company plans toinvest over Rs 50 crore in theunit. It is establishing itssales team in the city thisyear. Disclosing that theyare foraying into SouthIndian market throughHyderabad, Manish Jain,managing director,"Hyderabad is one of the keymarkets for Cilicant's growth.The state has made excellentinroads in the pharma sectorand Cilicant endeavours tomake a significant contribu-tion and grow in this space.While the pharma sector is ofimmense importance, thereis also scope for growth forthe active packaging indus-try in non-pharma sectorwhich is Rs 2,500 croreindustry."

The company has firmedup its plans to set up a mar-keting base at Hyderabadvery soon.

Passenger trains to chug on Guntakal-Kallur line

2 held with bannedforeign cigarettes PNS n HYDERABAD

Officials of the Commissioner'sTask Force, Central Zone, alongwith the Gopalapuram Policeapprehended two persons atSecunderabad Railway stationand seized 12 cartons of Wincigarettes worth Rs 6 lakhfrom their possession. Thearrested were identified asGujalavar Venkatesh (40) andErravally Praveen (25).Venkatesh is a driver atVenkatesh Railway Cargo andPraveen is a helper. Anotherperson, identified as JaveedKhan is absconding, the policesaid.

Based on a tip-off, officialsarrested the duo while theywere transporting banned cig-arettes through train at theparking place near platformno.10 at Secunderabad railwaystation. Gujalavar Venkateshruns Venkatesh Railway CargoBusiness at Hanumanpet inMalkajgiri. While loading andunloading goods along withhis workers at SecunderabadRailway Station, he met JaveedKhan, a resident of Mumbai

who runs parcel services at theMumbai Railway Station.Khan began fraudulentlytransports banned foreign"Win" cigarettes fromGuwahati to Mumbai viaSecunderabad through trainwith the help of GujalavarVenkatesh to avoid customsduty and also to avoid GST.Venkatesh received these cig-arette cartons at Secunderabadrailway station from Guwahatiand send the same to Mumbai.

Police said that they suspectcigarettes such as win andother banned foreign ciga-rettes to be coming fromChina and Bangladesh viaKolkata. Smuggling of for-eign cigarettes is a lucrativebusiness to black marketers asthey make huge profits byavoiding customs duty.Smuggled cigarettes don't havepictorial warnings on them,despite it being mandatory asper the provisions of Sec.20(2)of Cigarette and OtherTobacco Product Act 2003.The arrested along with seizedmaterial were handed over toGopalapuram PS.

Irrigationexperts topresent paperson Large Dams PNS n HYDERABAD

Two technical papers submit-ted by Engineers of InterStateWing of Telangana State'sIrrigation Department havebeen accepted by the 88thannual meeting of the IndianNational Committee onLarge Dams (INCOLD)which will be held in NewDelhi from April 4 to 20.

S Narasimha Rao, ChiefEngineer, Irrigation andCommand AreaDevelopment, K VenkataNarayana, Deputy ExecutiveEngineer and NRavishankar, Deputy EE willpresent 'Case study in sedi-mentation and sustainableplans and approaches forNizam Sagar and SriramSagar Reservoirs'.

Another paper on'Evaluating methods for esti-mating evaporation in majorreservoirs-Srisailam project'will be presented by SNarasimha Rao, MRaghunath Sharma, DEE,and MK Krishnan AEE, allfrom Telangana IrrigationDepartment.

The State engineersthrough the first paper dis-cussed the issue of sedimen-tation in reservoirs whichposes a serious challenge forlarge dams, in the context ofclimate change. The paper isa case study on reservoirsedimentation and sustain-able plans and approaches forNizam Sagar and SriramSagar reservoirs in Godavaribasin of the state.

CAPSULE

Driver killed in mishapin MancherialMANCHERIAL: A 45-year-oldcontract based driver, KrishnaSwamy, was killed on the spotwhen a dumper he was drivingrammed a van in Open Cast coalmining Project inRamakrishnapur on Friday. Theproject belongs to SCCL.Sources said Durgam KrishnaSwamy of Mandamarri townreceived fatal injuries when hewas hit by a coal laden truck inthe morning project. He wasworking as a driver in a privatefirm on contract basis. He wassurvived by his wife and son.Meanwhile, drivers' communityworking in the project staged adharna demandingcompensation to the kin of thevictim.

3 women held forjewellery theftKOTHAGUDEM: Three womenshoplifters who had stolenjewellery in a gold shop werearrested at Paloncha inBhadradri Kothagudem district.DSP Madhusudhan Rao saidthat the women have visitedAmbika Jewellery Shop at SastryRoad area on Jan 10. In thepretext of buying ornamentsthey have stolen jewelleryweighing around nine tolaswhich costs around Rs 3.5 lakh.The shop owner who cameabout the theft in the evening onthat day has complained to thepolice. During vehicleinspections at Nataraj Centre, thewomen were found movingsuspiciously, he said.

BUDGET-2020

Residents hope for tax breakPNS n HYDERABAD

There is a widespread hopeamong citizens that theupcoming Budget-2020 willincrease basic exemption limitof Rs 2.5 lakh for individuals.

According to KPMG inIndia's Pre-Budget survey con-ducted in January 2020, "A fur-ther stimulus by way of person-al tax cuts is also anticipated.Respondents also expect theFinance Minister to increasethe income limit at which themaximum marginal rate of 30per cent kicks in. If implement-ed, this can help spur consumer

demand by complementingthe interest rate cuts deliveredsince last year".

Over 215 respondents par-ticipated in the survey. Amajority of respondents alsobelieve that the FinanceMinister will not introduceInheritance Tax. This is inline with the overall expecta-tion, that there exists a need toprovide a fiscal stimulus byreducing taxes on individuals.

About 50 per cent of therespondents expect the tax hol-iday for exports available to SEZunits to be extended to units setup beyond 31 March 2020.

The year 2019 saw the govern-ment implement significant taxcuts for domestic companies (to22 per cent) and for newly setupmanufacturing companies (to15 per cent) subject to their giv-ing up available incentives anddeductions. More than half ofthe respondents are interestedto opt for the lower tax regimeof 22 per cent by giving upavailable incentives from finan-cial year 2019-20. A majority ofrespondents also believe thatthe rate of tax for foreign com-panies should also be reducedin light of tax cuts for domes-tic companies.

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020 hyderabad 03

RIMEORNERC

HYDERABAD: A local courthere on Friday awarded 7-years rigorous imprisonmentfor a gang of six members in adacoity case that took placelast year. The convicts, SRaghupathi, Vadde Raju,Vadde Murugesh, VaddeDhindi Ravi, Vadde Narsimha,and Vadde Vakra Chinna baba,are all residents of Jadcharla.Last year on 14 November, thegang illegally entered the lock-out at Amith Cotton MillsCompany in Burgula villageusing cutters and otherequipment for committing theftof wires. The security guardstried to catch them. However,the gang beat them with ironrods and the guards sustainedbleeding injuries. Following acomplaint, the gang wasarrested and sent to judicialremand. During the hearing onFriday, the court at Shadnagarconvicted the accused personswith seven year rigorousimprisonment.

Six get 7-yr jail term in dacoity case

HYDERABAD: A student waskilled and his friend sufferedinjuries in a road mishap atDundigal late on Thursdaynight. The deceased wasidentified as Mosin Hussain(21). Police said that the bikeborne duo were drunk andwere returning from a weddingwhen the incident occurred.According to the police,Hussain and his friend went toa wedding reception. At around12:45 AM, when they reachedSuraram, the duo tried tonegotiate a statue in the middleof the road but could not. Thebike rammed straight into thepillar of the statue at a highspeed. Due to the impact of thecrash, Hussain was flung intothe air and fell directly onto theroad headfirst. He sufferedcritical injuries. Hussian'sfriend fell on the other side andsustained minor injuries.Hussain was not wearing ahelmet. Passersby shifted theduo to a hospital whereHussain died while undergoingtreatment. The Dundigal policeregistered a case and sent thebody to Gandhi Hospital for apost-mortem.

Student killed inroad mishap atDundigal

PNS n HYDERABAD

In order to achieve the objec-tive of safety to the lastwoman/girl in the communi-ty, DGP Mahender Reddy, hasproposed the formation of'Public Safety Clubs' in alleducational institutions acrossthe state. It is seen as a step tospread 'safety as a culture'across the communities in thestate of Telangana. The pro-gramme is proposed to beinaugurated on February 6,2020.

Nearing official announce-ment, the Women Safety Wing(WSW) headed by IGP SwatiLakra IPS has decided to takeforward the idea by introduc-ing the volunteering pro-gramme by selecting 5 collegesin Hyderabad City on a pilotbasis, namely Badruka Collegeof Commerce and Arts,Aurora Degree and PGCollege, Jagruti Degree & PGCollege, Sreyas Institute ofEngineering & Technologyand Indira Priyadarshini Govt.Degree College for Women.

In the proposed PublicSafety Clubs, women and childsafety, traffic and road safety,general safety will be three dif-ferent components whichpolice will work with the helpof stakeholder departments,education, WCD, MunicipalAdministration towards safe-ty of girls and women, saidSwati Lakra.

A meeting was held in theoffice of the IGP WSW whichwas attended by NGOs-Savethe Children and Lead Lifewho will be the major partnersin the proposed volunteeringprogramme on the lines ofpublic safety along with theprincipals of 5 select collegesin Hyderabad.

It is planned for implemen-tation as 2-year long

'Volunteering Programme'which will ensure an establish-ment of well-informed 'SafetyClub' in each college, to createawareness on various safetyissues within the colleges aswell as in their neighbour-hood. Safety Club memberswill be the facilitator whowould bridge the gap betweenthe youths who are in need ofsupport and the existingresponse mechanisms (Police,Legal Aid, Public Health and

others) available in the city foraddressing girls' safety issues.

Speaking on the occasion,Swati Lakra said that "Youthshave a right to feel safe andprotected when they are in apublic space, and if this rightis violated, they should beable to have confidence thatlaw enforcement authoritieswill take them seriously andwill properly investigate theirclaims".

Vikas Gora, Deputy

Director-South India, Save theChildren, said, "Women andgirls must be at the heart ofpolicies that guide urbandevelopment. The processesshould not be prescriptive andhence it is important thatfrom policies to its execution,it has participation of girls andwomen. The VolunteeringProgramme is designed toencourage youth participationand decision making for theirown safety."

HYDERABAD: In view of the National Girl Child Day, the Women Safety Wing (WSW) of Telangana Policeconducted an awareness session at Kasturba Gandhi Degree and PG College for women at Secunderabad.The Session was inaugurated by the chief guest, Swati Lakra IPS IGP L&O by lighting up the lampfollowed by a prayer song by the students of Kasturba Gandhi College. B Sumathi IPS SP of WSW hasconvened the meeting by addressing the audience on the importance of National Girl Child Day, SHETeams and safety and security of women and children. Mamatha Raghuveer, founder of Tharuni NGO,Hyderabad addressed the students about the importance of the National Girl Child day. Seela SubdhraDevi, senior writer, addressed the students who spoke about the SHE teams poetry book "Hithaishe" andlaunched during the session. The following writers Jwalitha, Nampally Sujatha, Shanti Prabhodha,Ramadevi Kulaani and Raja Chandrika read out their poems. Sayeed addressed the students about the useof E-learning course which was developed to sensitise the students on various crimes being committedagainst women and children in cyberspace. The students were educated on how to take up the courseonline. The chief guest addressed the audience and informed that Telangana State Police is giving highpriority towards protection of women and children. "Dial-100 and Hawk Eye mobile application can beused to report any sought of crime at any point of time. If the students find it difficult reaching police,they may report it to their elders or institution heads who would in turn take the help of the police. SHETeams is working for your safety, Please feel free to approach at any time" said Swati Lakra.

IGP Swati Lakra and others at an awareness session held at Kasturba Gandhi Degree and PG College for Women inSecunderabad on Friday

‘SAFETY OF WOMEN IS OUR PRIORITY'

PNS n HYDERABAD

The world's largest medita-tion centre of its kind, whichcan accommodate 1,00,000people at a time, is all set to beinaugurated on January 28 inthe global headquarters ofHeartfulness on the outskirts ofHyderabad. The centre will beunveiled to mark the 75thanniversary of the HeartfulnessInstitute at Kanha Shantivanamin the presence of over 40,000"abhyasis" or practitioners ofHeartfulness.

Daaji, the global guide ofHeartfulness, will dedicate thecentre to the first guide ofHeartfulness who was fondlycalled as Lalaji. Yoga guruBaba Ramdev will be present

on the occasion, theHeartfuless Institute said onFriday. The magnificent struc-ture, comprising one centralhall and eight secondary halls,

is spread over 30 acres and canaccommodate 100,000 practi-tioners at one go, making it thelargest closed meditation cen-tre in the world.

The meditation centre whenlit up at night looks resplendentand can easily match thegrandeur of other popularglobal structures such as theSydney harbour. "Built with theprimary aim to impart medi-tation to the largest number ofpeople at one go this medita-tion centre will be one of themost recognised symbols in the

world in years to come.Recognised not just due to itsmagnificence, but as a symbolof human transformation," saidDaaji. To mark the 75thanniversary of the Institute, athree-day session will be heldduring January 28-30 ,February 2-4 and February 7-9. The sessions will host 1.2lakh practitioners as part of

mass meditation activity.President of India RamnathKovind and Anna Hazare willaddress the practitioners onFebruary 2 and February 7respectively. Baba Ramdev willdeliver his address on January29. Several state Governorsare expected to be part of thelist of prominent people attend-ing the celebrations.

The Heartfulness facility isspread over 1,400 acres and isa self-sustained ecosystem thatcan host 40,000 plus people,self-sustained kitchen that canmake food for 100,000 peoplein a day, an upcoming 350 bedAyush medical facility, nurseryof six lakh saplings and sever-al lakh trees that have beenplanted over the last four years.

World's largest meditation centre ready in cityThe centre, which can accommodate1,00,000 people at a time, is all set to be inaugurated on January 28 in the global headquarters ofHeartfulness on the outskirts of Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: The Nallakuntapolice on Friday arrested twomen, including an Uber cabdriver, for stealing car tyresand batteries and recovered 30tyres and 20 car batteriesworth Rs 3 lakhs from theirpossession. The accused wereidentified as AnkamBalakrishna, 27, an Ubercabbie from Kesampet, andKota Raju, 25, also a privatecab driver, the police said,adding that they were involvedin 9 cases in the city. The duo take cars on rentalbasis and during the day, theywork as cab drivers and at latenight hours, they move aroundin isolated colonies andremove the car tyres usingjacks. Since the past twomonths, they have committed9 offences in various policestations limits of Hyderabad,Rachakonda and Cyberabad,the police said.

Two held forstealing carbatteries, tyres

Old-age home booked for chaining mentally-ill patientsPNS n HYDERABAD

As many as 73 individuals,including those with mental ill-ness and psychiatric disor-ders, were found chained withpadlocks at an old-age home inKeesara on the outskirts ofHyderabad. The centre staffhad been allegedly torturingthe inmates, which included 21women, in the guise of givingthem care and medication,said the Keesara police, whobooked cases against the psy-chiatric rehabilitation centernamed Mamatha Old AgeHome in Shilpa Nagar.

The issue came to light afterneighbours heard cries of thechained persons and called theKeesara Police. A case hasbeen registered against thecaretakers, while all theinmates have been shifted to ahospital. According to thepolice, Shaik Rathan John Paul,K Bharathi and three othersrun 'Mamatha Old Age Home'in two independent houses. Itwas found that they were run-ning a psychiatric rehabilita-tion centre and had kept psy-chiatric patients, mentally dis-turbed persons and a few alco-holics in the houses.

"They were admitting peo-ple with psychological disor-ders and keeping them alongwith elderly persons in twodouble bedroom independenthouses. They had kept 52 menin one house and 21 womenwere in the other," police said,adding the residents were

almost crammed into thesehouses and kept under unhy-gienic conditions. There werecomplaints of some patientskept in bad conditions, shack-led and beaten up with sticks.

The caretakers were collect-ing up to Rs 10,000 a monthfrom the families of each per-son towards their treatmentand care. Sources said thatcaretakers do not have properdegrees to treat such peopleand the psychiatric rehabilita-tion centre is unregistered.

Based on the complaint, thepolice booked a case for cheat-ing, confinement, criminalbreach of trust, causing hurt withweapons and sections of theMaintenance and Welfare ofParents and Senior Citizens Act.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The reported attempt by agroup of women to stageShaheen Bagh-like protestagainst the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA),National Population Register(NPR) and the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC)was foiled by the HyderabadPolice in the early hours ofFriday. Tension prevailed inthe Moghalpura area near thehistoric Charminar whenpolice detained a few slogans-shouting youth protestingagainst the police 'excesses'.

The protest, which startedThursday evening continuedtill 4 a.m. A few burka-cladwomen, including activists ledby Khaleda Parveen beganthe sit-in under a speciallyerected tent at a privatepremises. As the word spread,more women, including stu-dents and housewives joinedthe protest. They weredemanding revocation of theCAA and opposed the NPRand the NRC.

Senior police officials led byin-charge DeputyCommissioner of Police

(South Zone) AvinashMohanty reached the spotand asked the organisers toend the protest. However, theyraised an objection to policeinterference in the protest ina private place. Some womenactivists seen pleading thepolice official to allow them tocontinue the peaceful andsilent protest. They said thepresence of police personnel inlarge numbers was creatingtension. When police stoppedwomen from reaching theprotest venue, some youthcame out on the streets in theadjoining lanes, raising slogansagainst the police.

Cops foil ‘Shaheen Bagh-like’ protest

PNS n HYDERABAD

Indian School of Business(ISB) has signed a MoU withSBI for partnering on variousresearch, publication andcapability building initiatives.The objective of this MoU isto create synergies betweenthe two parties by combiningacademic research with prac-tical experiences towardsdeveloping distinctive con-tent on large scale digitaltransformations. Areas cov-ered under the partnershipinclude a series of case stud-ies and a book documentingSBI's digital transformationjourney in addition to variousother research opportunities.

ISB will capture in variouscase studies and by way of abook, the transformationjourney of SBI, right from theBank's inception till the mostsuccessful digital bankingstory in recent times - YONO,through focused themes.Both the institutions will alsoexplore research opportuni-ties in areas like technologydiffusion in different geogra-phies, analytics-based cus-tomer segmentation, digitalgamification of frontline, toname a few. Lastly, both theinstitutions will also collabo-rate in training, white papers,conducting seminars/work-shops/conferences.

ISB signs MoU with SBI

Car runs over3-yr-old atAnand Bagh PNS n HYDERABAD

In a tragic incident, a three-year-old boy was run over bya car in an apartment's base-ment at Anand Bagh inMalkajgiri on Friday morn-ing. The deceased was iden-tified as Tarun. Thedeceased's father, Rangappaworks as a watchman for theapartment and his familywas staying in a room in thebasement.

"The incident occurred ataround 9 am, while Tarunwas playing in the basementand his parents were insidetheir room. ManoharSudhakar, a resident of thesame apartment, gone out ona personal work had justreturned in his car, duringwhich he allegedly drove in anegligent manner. Sudhakaropened the main gate anddrove the car from the rampinto the basement. Tarunwho was playing nearby issuspected to have come onthe ramp," said the police,adding that he came underthe front tyre on the right sideof the car on the ramp.

"He suffered grievous bleed-ing injuries and was rushed toa nearby private hospital, wheredoctors declared him dead,"police added. The Malkajgiripolice have booked a caseunder section 304-A of the IPCagainst Manohar and took himinto custody. Sudhakar told thepolice he had not seen Tarunplaying there and that the childhad suddenly come under thewheel.

TS may use facial recognitionsystem for entrance examsPNS n HYDERABAD

All entrance examinations inTelangana are expected to havefacial recognition system forstudents appearing for examsin the near future. It is beingconsidered as a welcome inno-vation for the use of technol-ogy in education. This will helpin curbing down imperson-ation and will be a boon for theeducation system.

Students will only be allowedinside the examination hall ifthey clear face and eyes scan. Thediscussions about putting thesystem in place are underwaywith Telangana State TechnologyServices limited (TSTS).However, a final call is yet to betaken. A similar initiative wasadopted in polling stationsduring the recent municipalelections in Kompally munic-ipality of Medchal-Malkajgiri

district. The process is said tobe safe as the photographtaken will not be stored or usedin future hence there is nochance of any replication.

Around 7,000 people castedtheir votes using the method.An officer at the polling boothheld a Smartphone to verifythe identity of the voter. Themove with regard to the edu-cation system is being consid-ered as a great initiative.

Young Investigator Awardfor UoH alumnus PNS n HYDERABAD

Dr Achala Bakshi, alumnus ofthe Department of PlantSciences, School of LifeSciences, University ofHyderabad (UoH) has beenawarded the 'Springer SPBB-Young Investigator Award forexcellence in plant biology'2019 by the Springer Nature,India and Society for PlantBiochemistry andBiotechnology (SPBB) for out-standing contributions madein her Ph.D. research.

She was awarded duringthe National Conference onIntegrative Plant Biochemistryand Biotechnology which was

held at ICAR-Indian Instituteof Rice Research, Hyderabad.She is currently working as apostdoctoral fellow in theDepartment of Biotechnology,Indian Institute of RiceResearch, Hyderabad.

Traffic curbs for R-day fetePNS n HYDERABAD

In connection with theRepublic Day celebrations atPublic Gardens in Nampally,the Hyderabad City PoliceCommissioner, Anjani Kumar,imposed traffic diversions andparking arrangements. Thetraffic coming from MJ Marketand proceeding towardsMehdipatnam will not beallowed and will be diverted atTaj Island towards Ek Minar toBhazarghar to Asif Nagar/ RedHills to Ayodhya Hotel,Lakdikapul.

The traffic coming fromNampally Railway Stationtowards Public Garden will notbe allowed and it will be divert-ed at Chapel Road T junctiontowards Gunfoundry Abids orBJR Statue to BasheerbaghFlyover etc. The traffic comingfrom Nirankari Bhavan andKhairatabad towards RavindraBharathi will not be allowed andwill be diverted at Old PSSaifabad towards TelephoneBhavan, Iqbal Minar, SecretariatRoad, Telugu Talli, AmbedkarStatue, Liberty, Bhasheerbagh,Abids etc.

The traffic coming fromHyderguda, King Koti and BJRStatue towards PCR, PublicGarden will not be allowed andwill be diverted at BasheerbaghJunction towards Liberty,Telugu Talli, NTR Marg, IqbalMinar, Old PS Saifabad,Lakdikapul Bridge and BJRStatue to Abids etc.

The traffic coming fromTankbund towards RavindraBharathi will not be allowedand will be diverted at IqbalMinar towards TelephoneBhavan road, Old PS Saifabad,

Lakdikapul Bridge etc. Thetraffic coming from NampallyRailway Station side towardsPublic Garden will not beallowed and will be diverted atAR Petrol Pump towards BJRStatue/Gunfoundry etc.

The traffic coming fromTelugu Talli, NTR Marg andLiberty sides towards PoliceControl Room Junction (PCR)via Adarshnagar will not beallowed and will be diverted atAdarsh Nagar towards Libertyroad and Telugu Talli Flyover.However, the car pass holdersattending the Republic day cel-ebrations will be allowed at thediversion points.

The Police also requested thegeneral public to not carry anyhand bags, briefcases, cam-eras, tiffin carriers or other con-tainers while proceeding toPublic Garden, Nampally. Anyperson found carrying suchitems will be subjected to frisk-ing and checking by the Policeon the 26th January, theRepublic Day celebrations. Thepublic are requested to cooper-ate with the Police in thisregard as this is a securityrequirement.

In SecunderabadKeeping in view the secu-

rity alert issued ahead of theRepublic Day celebrations,road closures will be in effectin the Secunderabad area.According to a press releaseissued by the Defence winghere on Friday, the alert levelhas been enhanced acrossthe country in view of thesecurity situation prevailingwith the Republic Day cele-brations.

Military establishments arein the target list of anti-national elements. Keeping inview the enhanced securityaler t , road closure for Bolarum in military estab-lishment will be effectivefrom 10 pm on January 24 to6 pm of January 27. TheTrimulgherry military estab-lishment will also have roadclosure during night from 10pm to 6 am for Gough road,Wellington road, AOC roadand Entrenchment road," therelease said.

Ambulances or emergencymedical cases will however bepermitted with proper checkand verification.

Sources said thatcaretakers do nothave properdegrees to treatsuch people andthe rehabilitationcentre isunregistered

Tension prevailed in the Moghalpuraarea near thehistoric Charminarwhen policedetained a fewslogans-shoutingyouth protestingagainst the police‘excesses’

‘Public Safety Clubs' inedu institutions soon

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020 hyderabad 04

Hyderabad U-19 team pose for a picture after winning the Rajiv Gandhi All India U-19 Day and Night Cricket Championship. Former Haryana CM Bhupinder SinghHooda presented the trophy to the winning team. Congress senior leader V Hanumanth Rao is also seen.

ONE FFOR TTHE AALBUM

MUNICIPAL POLLS

Karimnagar records 65% voter turnoutPNS n KARIMNAGAR

Karimnagar MunicipalCorporation recorded 65 percent voter turnout on Friday.Though polling for 14 munic-ipalities and RamagundamMunicipal Corporation of erst-while Karimangar district washeld on Januarry 22,Karimangar corporation elec-tion was posted to January 24following the court cases.

As two of the corporatorswere elected unanimously,polling held for 58 divisions. Atotal of 369 aspirants were infray for remaining corporatorposts. Officials have arranged377 polling stations for conve-nience of 2,72,195 electorates toexercise their franchise. Voterslined up at the polling stationsfrom 7 am onwards as thepolling process began.

Since morning, moderate tobrisk polling was recorded inalmost all the divisions of theprestigious municipality andthe two prime contenders -TRS and BJP took the pollingprocess as a challenge while theCongress, has lodged a com-plaint against Minister GangulaKamalakar alleging that hecampaigned for the rulingparty inside the polling stationsin certain parts of the city.

Terming this as gross viola-tion of poll code, the Congressleaders submitted a memo-randum to the districtCollector and election officerthat the Minister, in the 42nddivision of the city, has violat-ed the code after exercising his

franchise. The Congress repe-sentation demanded that acriminal case be foisted againstthe Minister. BC Welfare andCivil Supplies Minister,Gangula Kamalakar along withhis family members exercisedhis vote in Trinity Girls College.Telangana State PlanningCommission vice-chairman, BVinod Kumar also cast hisvote. While local MP BandiSanjay Kumar cast his vote inSt. Alphonsas High School,TPCC working presidentPonnam Prabhakar exercisedhis franchise in Paramitha

High School,Mankammathota. Speaking onthe occasion, Kamalakarexpressed happiness for castingvote in the capacity of cabinetminister. Though he had votednumber of times as MLA andcouncilor, he for the first timeexercised his franchise afterbecoming the minister, heinformed and said that he wasmore excited to vote in thecapacity of minister.

Never before in the historyof Karimangar municipality, nopolitical party had capturedpower on its own. In 2014,

Telangana Rashtra Samithicame to power with the sup-port of independents. However,for the first time, TRS is goingto get full majority and captureKarimnagar Corporation on itsown without the support ofanybody, he expressed confi-dence.

Though Karimnagar wasdeclared as municipality longtime ago, it had been continuedas a tiny village due to negli-gence of previous rules.Development of the town hasbeen taken back seat for about72 years. But, the face of thetown has been changed duringthe last four years after TRScame to power in the state, onlybecause of the Chief MinisterK Chandrashekhar Rao,Kamalakar said. He pointedout that people had realisedthat they had done a mistake byelecting the BJP candidateBandi Sanjay Kumar to theParliament.

Minister Gangula Kamalakar at a polling booth on Friday; MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar and his family members as well as Congress’ Ponnam Prabhakar and others show their inked fingers after exercising their franchise

COUNTING FOR MUNICIPAL POLLS TODAY…

TRS TO CONTINUE ITS WINNING STREAKPNS n HYDERABAD

There is pervasive excitementover the outcome of themunicipal polls that took placeon January 22nd in TelanganaState. Counting of votes for thepolling held through paperballots will start at 8 AM onSaturday.

The TRS, which has regis-tered impressive victories in allthe recently held polls for theLegislative Assembly,Parliament, Zilla Parishad andMandal Parishad, is hopefulthat even in the present munic-ipal elections it would registera decisive victory. The opposi-tion parties, particularlyCongress and BJP, say that theresults of the civic polls couldreverse trends of their previousdefeats. Leaders of Congressand BJP are of the consideredview that the contests havebeen keen at several places,thereby undermining the per-ceived dominance of TRS. Allthe political parties cam-paigned vigorously.

Will the results be along thelines of the predictions madeby the Opposition and will theTRS' majority come down?Or, will TRS continue its win-ning streak? This crucial ques-tion has kept all parties on ten-terhooks with endless debatesamong contestants all over.

On January 22, electionstook place for 120Municipalities and 9 MunicipalCorporations in the State. Theoverall voting percentage was70.26. In 120 municipalities,there are a total of 2,727 wards;of these, in 80 wards the can-didates were declared unani-mously elected. The rest --2647 went to polls.

In 9 municipal corporations,there are 325 wards; of these inonly one ward the candidateswas declared unanimouslyelected. Elections were held forall the remaining wards.

Will TRS break the nationalrecords?

The question uppermost inthe minds of those who believeTRS will sweep the elections is:Will the pink party breaknational records too?

For, TRS has registered vic-tories at "record levels" inevery election that has takenplace since the formation of theTelangana State. So, theybelieve, the pink part will con-tinue its winning spree in themunicipal polls. Althoughsome believe that TRS couldwitness decline in its hold insome areas, many are confi-dent that, like in the polls forrural local bodies, the pinkparty will set records in themunicipal elections.

TRS won 100 percent ZPsIn the 2019 rural local bodies'elections for Zilla Parishadsand Mandal Parishads, TRScreated a national record. TheTRS won all the 32 ZillaParishads. This is a feat thatperhaps no other party hasachieved in the entire countrytill date. The opposition par-ties, like the Congress andBJP, could not win even a sin-gle seat. When polls took placefor 537 ZP TerritoryConstituencies, TRS won 448(83.42 %). The Congress gotonly 75 seats (13.9 %), while

the BJP got only 8 (0.14 %).Elections were held for 5,817Mandal Parishad TerritorialConstituencies (MPTC) in theState. TRS won 3,556(61.13%), Congress 1,377 (23.67 %) and BJP 211 (3.62 %). Ofthe total 537 Mandal Parishadpresident posts, TRS won 431,Congress 72, and BJP only six.In the 2016 GHMC too, TRSregistered a huge victory. Ofthe 150 wards, TRS won 99and its alliance partnerAIMIM 44; while the Congresswon 2 wards, BJP 4, and TDPone ward. In the annals ofGHMC, for the first time onepolitical party won so manywards and was able to fillMayor's post on its own.

Second term for TRSIn the Assembly polls thattook place in December in2018 for 119 seats, TRS got46.87 per cent votes andsecured 88 seats. The Congressgot 28.43 percent votes andwon 19 seats, while the BJP gotonly 6.98 percent votes andconfined itself to one seat! TheAIMIM got 2.71 per cent of thevotes and won seven seats.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions, while the entire countrywitnessed Narendra Modi'swave and BJP influence; inTelangana State, TRS showedits dominance.

ADILABAD: Political parties have started organising 'camps' in hotels of cities to avoid poaching of theircandidates by opposition parties. In Mancherial and Adilabad, nominees of a party are reportedly campingin Bengaluru and of another party have been asked to stay in hotels in Hyderabad and other cities, toprevent their nominees being lured by their rivals. The candidates were shifted on January 22 and 23. Themove was aimed at avoiding poaching by counterparts, informed a source. Meanwhile, the Independentswho are expected to win in the polls are staying in touch with the parties that are likely to bag the posts ofchairperson in the municipalities. They feel they will play a vital role in a party' securing the posts. It islearned that they have been offered posts of vice-chairpersons for extending their cooperation to parties.However, the parties and candidates, who are anxious over the results are keeping their fingers crossedbefore counting of votes. The outcome of polls will indicate performance and whether strategies devisedby the leaders and public representatives worked or not. Eleven municipalities including four new ones-Chennur, Luxettipet, Kyathanpalli and Naspur- will have chairpersons and councillors for the first time.

Parties organise 'camps' to avoid poaching Another caseregistered againstMP ArvindNIZAMABAD: Police registeredanother case against BJP MPAravind on charges ofpreventing officials fromdischarging their duties andand using abusive language.Nizamabad rural policeregistered the case againstNizamabad MP Aravind andBJP State council memberBaswa Lakshmi Narsaiah forviolating norms. NizamabadACP Srinivas Rao said MPobstructed police officials fromdischarging their duties. TheMP, it was said got into anargument with police officialsduring the municipal elections,used unparliamentarylanguage against the ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao, IT and MunicipalAdministration Minister KTRama Rao, Nizamabad UrbanMLA Bigala Ganesh Gupta andpolice officials. On Tuesdaypolice registered a caseagainst MP Aravind forviolating MCC and other Acts.

Officials have arranged 377 pollingstations for convenience of 2,72,195electorates to exercise theirfranchise. Voters lined up at thepolling stations from 7 am onwards as the polling process began

Muslims inparts of TS, APvow not to...

ED Courtrejects Jagan’spetition on...Continued from Page 1

The other accused in thecase like YSRCP Rajya SabhaMP Vijaya Sai Reddy, ShyamPrasad Reddy of Indu Group,Pratap Reddy of PennaGroup and former IAS offi-cer Y. Srilakshmi alsoappeared before the court.

Meanwhile, a city-basedSpecial CBI Court which isdealing with the other allegeddisproportionate assets casesfiled against the AP ChiefMinister granted exemptionto Jagan from personalappearance before it onFriday.

Continued from Page 1

JAC Core Committeemember and head ofWahdat-e-Islami MoulanaNaseeruddin administeredthe pledge to people follow-ing his sermon at Masjid-e-Ujale Shah in Saeedabad here.

Leaders of various con-stituents of JAC adminis-tered the pledge at variousother mosques. People wereurged not to cooperate withthe enumerators during theirhome visit for updating NPRor NRC.

SC refuses AP plea to keepDharmadhikari report...Continued from Page 1

The AP power utilitiesrefused to give postings to645 employees allotted tothe state saying that therewere no vacancies in AP toaccommodate them and alsoit would impose heavyfinancial burden. TS utilitiesargued that they were suffer-ing huge financial burden topay salaries for these 645staff allocated to AP for thepast six years since bifurca-tion of state and urged theapex court to issue direc-tions to AP to give postingsto these staff immediately.

As per the final alloca-tions made by the commit-tee, 613 employees wereallotted to AP and 502 toTelangana. Another 42, whodid not choose any of theoptions given by the com-mittee, were allotted to APbased on their place of birth.And 242 employees belong-ing to Telangana, but work-ing in AP, were allotted toTelangana.

The AP power utilitiesdisputed with the alloca-tions alleging that out of6 ,162 State a l lo cableemployees, allotments weremade unilaterally to 1,157

employees only. They arguedthat the Telangana powerutilities arbitrarily removed1,157 employees in violationof the AP ReorganisationAct, 2014, and was insistingthat AP 'absorb them'.

The Supreme Court whichheard the case on Fridayrefused to put the commit-tee orders in abeyance assought by AP. It asked AP tofile its objections, if any,with the Dharmadhikaricommittee , with in twoweeks and asked the com-mittee to look into theseissues and resolve them atthe earliest.

Results of civic polls todayContinued from Page 1

Elections to the posts ofdeputy chairpersons or deputyMayors by the newly electedmembers will be conductedthereafter," said TelanganaState Election CommissionerV Nagireddy.

Elections for 3,052 munic-ipal wards were held in 129civic bodies including 120municipalities and ninemunicipal corporations. Ofthese, about 81 ward memberswere unanimously elected,before polling was held onTuesday. About 70 per cent of53.5 lakh voters exercisedtheir franchise across 7,961polling stations. Followingthe polling, the ballot boxes

were stored at counting cen-tres with armed security.About 10,000 staff trained forcounting of ballot papers, willparticipate in the process.The State ElectionCommission made elaboratearrangements to ensuresmooth completion of theelectoral process.

Further, Nagireddy sug-gested that the political partiessupply Form A and Form B totheir candidates for the postsof chairpersons and Mayors.While Form A should be sub-mitted by 11 am on Sunday,Form B should be submittedby 10 am on Monday.Accordingly, the political par-ties have been directed tofurnish the name of their

respective party whips to thepresiding officer by 11 am onSunday. Ex officio memberslike MPs, MLAs and MLCswith more than one civicbody in their respective con-stituencies, should give theiroptions to the respectivemunicipal commissionersfrom where they chose tocast their vote.

Meanwhile, polling for 58wards of 60 wards inKarimnagar MunicipalCorporation concluded peace-fully on Friday evening.Counting of votes will be con-ducted on January 27, fol-lowed by announcement ofresults. TRS had already wonunanimously in two wards ofthe corporation.

Chairs to be set up invarsities in name of...Continued from Page 1

The financial implicationsof the proposal is Rs 50 lakhper Chair for a year and thetotal expenditure for establish-ing them will be about Rs 5crore per annum, the state-ment said. "The Chair's acad-emic functions will be toengage in research and con-tribute to the advancement ofknowledge in the area of thestudy, strengthen the univer-sity's role and academics inpublic policy making, and todesign and execute short-termcapacity-building programmesfor teachers in higher educa-

tion focused towards the des-ignated discipline of theChair," it said. The other aca-demic functions will be to pro-vide a forum for inter-univer-sity and inter-collegiate postgraduate and research leveldialogues; discussions; meet-ings; and seminars, the state-ment said. Functions will alsoinclude summer and winterschools; and publishing arti-cles, research papers, reportsand books, it said.

The university will reviewthe progress of its Chair annu-ally and submit a report on theactivities and outcomes to theUGC after the five years.Set example

by following...Continued from Page 1

Referring to their efforts oftraining for the Republic Dayparade, Modi said the wholeworld witnesses the power ofIndia through their perfor-mance on Rajpath. "It also hasan effect in the propagation ofsoft power of India and alsoboosts tourism sector. Thissentiment is further strength-ened by our youth exchangeprogrammes," he said.

Referring to the NCC cadetsand NSS volunteers, he saidwhen a rich tradition of disci-pline and service through NCCand NSS is seen on Rajpath,crores of youth of the countryare inspired and encouraged.

Jilted lovermurders...Continued from Page 1

Knowing Shoeb's liking forthe girl, his parents hadapproached the deceased girl'sparents for marriage, but theydid not agree. Since thenShoeb bore grudges against thegirl and suspected her hand inthe rejection of his marriageproposal. Hence, he decidedto kill her. On the interveningnight of Thursday and Friday,Shoeb and the girl went to theterrace, where they had aheated argument. Shoeb thencaught her by the neck, pickedup a sharp-edged stone, andinflicted multiple injuries onher. He then hit her with agranite boulder. After makingsure she had died, he draggedher body to the edge of the ter-race and pushed it down theparapet wall.

DRI seizes...Continued from Page 1

The gold paste weighed928 grams. Later in the day,two passengers coming viaSaudi Arabia were intercept-ed based on information atthe Customs arrival hall.

The duo admitted to haveconcealed oval shaped cap-sules containing gold pastein their rectum. Goldweighing 797.23 grams and817.24 grams was recov-ered from the two flyersrespectively.

HC permitspublic meetingin cityContinued from Page 1

The court has asked MIMpresident and Hyderabad MPAsaduddin Owaisi to holdthe meeting between 6 pmand 11 pm. The court hasasked the Director General ofPolice of the state to video-graph the proceedings of theentire meeting. It has alsoasked the DGP to take allsteps necessary to maintainlaw and order in the city andprevent any kind of clashesbetween different groups ofpeople.

Hyd turning into ‘City of Misfortune', says Karuna GopalPNS n HYDERABAD

BJP national manifesto sub-committee member and stateexecutive member and presi-dent of Futuristic Cities KarunaGopal alleged that theHyderabad city, which has asynonym of 'City of Fortunes',has been transforming as a'City of Misfortune'. She allegedthat the TRS government isfailing to protect the lakes andwater bodies.

Speaking to the media atstate BJP office on Friday,Karuna Gopal said, "TRS gov-ernment apathy will push the

city of Hyderabad into ICU andit will make 'Bhagya Nagaram'(City of Fortunes) into'Daurbhagya Nagaram' (City ofMisfortune).

She said that IT Minister KTRama Rao is hard sellingHyderabad in Davos and pitch-ing for investments especiallyPharma companies whereas

the very Pharma companiespresent here are already pollut-ing all the lakes with their efflu-ents and creating great diseaseburden to the city. She asked "IsKTR interested only in cosmet-ic treatments. Just give cosmet-ic treatment to the city andignore deep seated problems?Will makeup help coverPsoriasis and Eczema? Willcosmetics cure cancer and car-dio vascular disease?".

She reminded that the HighCourt and NGT summonedthe municipal authoritiesworking under TRS govern-ment over negligence of lakes,

the life line of cities, and askedthe officials to quit the posts ifthey can't protect Hyderabad'slakes and in the entire state ofTelangana while dealing withthe two separate PILs and thedispleasure expressed by theChief Justice saying if the pre-sent trend of encroaching lakesand ponds in Telangana statecontinues, soon Hyderabadand Telangana will face the sit-uation in Jaisalmer inRajasthan, where an individualis given half a mug of water totake bath.

Karuna Gopal said "But we inBJP would say it will be much

worse I am saying the - City willbe in ICU (Intensive CareUnit)". She said the City's vitalswill be economy, environment,equity if environment is totallyneglected the city will be in ICU.

Stating that almost all thelakes of the city including theiconic Hussainsagar are com-pletely polluted, Karuna Gopalalleged that rampant illegalencroachments of lakes andwater beds were taking place inHyderabad and across the state.She asked TRS whether TRS isplanning to make theHyderabad, City of Fortunes toCity of Misfortunes.

BJP national manifesto sub-committee member Karuna Gopal addressing themedia at the state BJP office in Hyderabad on Friday

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

‘Nadda's vastexperience will givenew impetus to BJP’NEW DELHI: External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar on Fridaysaid the vast experience ofBJP's newly-elected president JP Nadda will give a newimpetus to the party. Nadda waselected as the BJP president onTuesday. "Today I met BJP'snewly-elected president J PNadda and congratulated him.His vast experience will give anew impetus to the BJP. Mybest wishes to him for hissuccessful tenure," he said in a tweet.

Brazilian Prez arriveson 4-day India visit

Heroin worth Rs 1,000 croredestroyed: CustomsNEW DELHI: Heroin worth overRs 1,000 crore has beendestroyed by the customsdepartment here, an officialstatement issued on Fridaysaid. A high level disposalcommittee has carried outdestruction of 207.109 kgs ofheroin on January 24 at acentralised bio-medical wastefacility, it said. The quantity ofdrugs was related to 15 casesof seizures made by thedepartment during 2004 to2010. "The current marketvalue of the destroyed drugsi.e. heroin, in the internationalmarket is approximately Rs1,000 crore," the statementissued by the customspreventive commissioneratesaid. The process ofdestruction was conducted inan environment friendlymanner and as per the existingenvironmental norms, it added.

NEW DELHI: Brazilian PresidentJair Bolsonaro arrived hereFriday on a four-day visit withan aim to further expand thealready close strategicpartnership with India.Bolsonaro will be the chiefguest at India's 71st RepublicDay Parade on January 26,besides holding talks withPrime Minister Narendra Modiand President Ram NathKovind. Secretary (East) in theExternal Affairs Ministry VijayThakur Singh said the focus ofthe Brazilian president's visitwill be to re-energise the ties ina number of key sectors. "Thevisit of President Bolsonaro isan extremely important visit. Itwill be an opportunity to re-energise our strategicpartnership and take it forwardin a focused manner," she hadsaid at a press conference onThursday. Bolsonaro isaccompanied by eightministers, four members of theBrazilian Parliament, seniorofficials and a large businessdelegation.

Political parties shouldnot give tickets to‘criminal’ candidatesPNS n NEW DELHI

The EC told the SupremeCourt Friday that its 2018direction asking poll candi-dates to declare their criminalantecedents in the media hasnot helped curb criminalisa-tion of politics, and suggestedthat political parties should beasked not to give tickets tothose with criminal back-ground. A bench of Justices RF Nariman and S RavindraBhat asked the ElectionCommission (EC) to come upwith a framework within oneweek which can help curbcriminalisation of politics innation's interest.

It asked BJP leader andadvocate-petitioner AshiwiniUpadhyay and the EC to sittogether and come up withsuggestions which would helpcurb criminalisation of poli-tics. In September 2018, afive-judge Constitution benchhad unanimously held that allcandidates will have to declaretheir criminal antecedents tothe EC before contesting pollsand called for a wider public-ity, through print and electron-ic media about antecedents ofcandidates.

On October 10, 2018, theEC had issued notificationregarding the amended Form-

26 and directions to politicalparties and candidates forpublication of criminalantecedents.

However, the plea filed byUpadhyay alleged that the ECneither amended the ElectionSymbol Order, 1968 nor themodel code of conduct (MCC)so the said notification has nolegal sanction.

The EC neither published alist of leading newspapers-news channels for the purposenor clarified the timing fordeclaration of criminalantecedents by candidates, itsaid. This led to the candidatespublishing the required infor-mation in newspapers andnews channels that were notvery popular and at odd hours,it added.

Pawar's security at Delhi home‘withdrawn': NCP flays BJPPNS n MUMBAI

The NCP on Friday accusedthe central government ofwithdrawing its chief SharadPawar's security at his officialresidence in New Delhi andcharged it with playing"vendetta politics".Maharashtra minister andNCP's chief spokespersonNawab Malik said party lead-ers cannot be scared off withsuch a move.

The party's fight againstPrime Minister NarendraModi and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah will con-tinue, he asserted. Malik saidPawar, a Rajya Sabha MP andformer Union minister, had 'Y'category security cover in thenational capital.

The security personneldeployed at Pawar's residenceat 6 Janpath in the nationalcapital stopped reporting at thebungalow since January 20and there was no prior intima-tion from the governmentabout it, he added.

"This is a kind of vendettapolitics. They think NCP lead-ers will be deterred by this. Itis their misconception.

"The fight against Modi andShah will continue," theMinority Affairs Minister said.

His party and ministerialcolleague Jayant Patil alsoslammed the BJP and linkedthe alleged move of the Centreto the saffron outfit losingpower in Maharashtra.

"From by-lanes to Delhi,the BJP has taken it to heart thechange of power inMaharashtra. Therefore, theBJP is behaving withvengeance.

"This is detrimental to the

democracy!" tweeted Patil, thestate NCP president who isalso the water resources min-ister.

State Housing MinisterJitendra Awhad said Pawarcannot be scared off by suchsteps and likened the NCPpresident to a "mountain fromSahyadri range".

"The love and affection ofthe people is his securitycover," he added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court hasagreed to hear in open courtformer Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis'plea seeking review of its ver-dict which said the BJP leaderwill have to face trial forallegedly failing to furnishdetails of two pending crimi-nal cases in his 2014 poll affi-davit. "Application seekingoral hearing of review peti-tions in open court is/areallowed. List review petitionsbefore the court," a bench ofJustices Arun Mishra, DeepakGupta and Aniruddha Bosesaid in its Thursday's order.

On Oct 1 2019, the apexcourt had set aside theBombay High Court orderwhich had given a clean chitto Fadnavis and had held thathe did not deserve to be triedfor the alleged offences underthe Representation of People's(RP) Act. The apex court'sverdict had come on an appealby one Satish Ukey, who hadchallenged the high court'sorder. On July 23, 2019 the top

court, while reserving the ver-dict, had said that the alleged"omission" by Fadnavis of notdisclosing information abouttwo criminal cases in his elec-tion affidavit may be decidedin the trial. The apex courthad said that it was concernedwith a limited issue whetherprima facie Section 125A ofthe RP Act is attracted or not.

The provision deals with thepenalty for "filing false affi-davit" and says that if a can-didate or his proposer fails tofurnish or gives false or con-ceals any information in hisnomination paper on issues

like pending criminal casesthen the person may beawarded six months jail termor fine or both. Ukey had con-tended that the chief ministerfiled a false affidavit by notdisclosing two criminal mat-ters and yet the trial court andthe high court held that thereno prima facie case was madeout for prosecution of thechief minister. He had saidthat a candidate was undermandatory legal obligation todisclose details of all cases, inwhich either charges havebeen framed or the trial courthad taken cognizance, in the

nomination papers. The peti-tioner had alleged thatFadnavis, in his election affi-davit filed in 2014, had failedto disclose the pendency oftwo criminal cases againsthim. It was contended that thechief minister did not disclosethe information as required ofhim under the election lawand the non-disclosure ofthese two pending criminalcases was in violation ofSection 125A of the RP Actand constituted an offence initself.

On Oct 1 2019, theapex court had setaside the BombayHigh Court orderwhich had given aclean chit to Fadnavisand had held that hedid not deserve to betried for the allegedoffences under theRepresentation ofPeople's (RP) Act

The security personnel deployed at Pawar'sresidence at 6 Janpath in the national capitalstopped reporting at the bungalow sinceJanuary 20 and there was no prior intimationfrom the government about it

‘BJP leader told me about myphone being tapped by govt’PNS n MUMBAI

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut onFriday said that a BJP leaderhad informed him that hisphone was being tapped bythe previous DevendraFadnavis government inMaharashtra.

On the NCP's allegationthat the Centre has with-drawn party chief SharadPawar's security at his officialresidence in New Delhi, Rautsaid it could have beenbecause Pawar was intru-mental in forming the ShivSena-led government in thestate.

"A BJP leader had told methat my phone was beingtapped. I said if anybodywants to listen to what I amsaying I welcome it. I amBalasaheb's chela (disciple),whatever I do, I do it openly,"Raut told reporters here.

"In spite of the phone-tap-ping, we formed the govern-ment in Maharashtra," hesaid.

Raut's remarks come a dayafter state Home MinisterAnil Deshmukh alleged thatthe Fadnavis dispensationmisused government machin-ery to tap the phones ofopposition leaders, especial-ly during the formation of theMaharashtra Vikas Aghadi(MVA) government.

"The cyber cell ofMaharashtra police has beenasked to look into the variouscomplaints ofsnooping/phone tappingcame in during the previous

government," Deshmukh hadsaid on Thursday. SeniorCongress leader DigvijayaSingh had earlier also allegedthat phones of opposition

leaders were tapped by theFadnavis government. He hadalso raised questions aboutthe involvement of officials inthe phone-tapping episode.

‘My govt didn't tap phones, but state free to probe’MUMBAI: Amid allegations that the previous BJP-led dispensation inMaharashtra tapped the phones of opposition leaders, former chiefminister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said phone-tapping was not theculture of the state and his government had not given any suchorders. He also said that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA)government was free to conduct an inquiry into the phone- tappingcharges against the previous BJP-led dispensation. "Phone-tapping isnot the culture of Maharashtra. My government had not given anysuch orders," Fadnavis, who is the Leader of Opposition in the stateLegislative Assembly, said in a statement. "The whole country knowsthe credibility of those who have levelled such allegations," Fadnavis,who was the chief minister of the state between 2014 and 2019, said."The state government is free to probe the allegations with the help ofany machinery. People of Maharashtra know the truth. A Shiv Senaleader was the minister of state for home during my tenure," headded. "I have a request- the government should immediately conductan inquiry and make the report public. If it wants to go to Israel forthe probe, it should do that," he said. His remarks come a day afterMaharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh alleged that the Fadnavisdispensation had misused the government machinery to tap thephones of opposition leaders, especially during the formation of theMVA government.

FACING TRIAL IN TWO PENDING CRIMINAL CASES

SC to hear in open court pleaof Fadnavis seeking review

PNS n NEW DELHI

The latest edition of the OxfordAdvanced Learner's Dictionaryfeatures 26 new Indian Englishwords, including Aadhaar,chawl, dabba, hartal and shaa-di. The 10th edition of the dic-tionary, which was launchedon Friday, has 384 IndianEnglish words and incorpo-rates over 1,000 new wordssuch as chatbot, fake news andmicroplastic. The dictionaryfocuses on language changeand its evolution through theyears, and has ensured that thelanguage and examples used inthe new edition are relevantand up to date with the times,Oxford University Press

(OUP) said.The new edition comes with

interactive online supportthrough the Oxford Learner'sDictionaries website and anapp. The website includesadvanced features such as

audio-video tutorials, videowalkthroughs, self-study activ-ities and enhanced iWriterand iSpeaker tools.

"This edition has 26 newIndian English words of which22 figure in the printed dictio-

nary. The other four are in thedigital version," said FathimaDada, Managing Director(Education Division) at OUP.

Some of other new Indianwords in the dictionary areauntie (while aunty already fig-

ures in the English dictionary,auntie is an Indianism), busstand, deemed university, FIR,non-veg, redressal, tempo, tubelight, veg and videograph.

The four new Indian Englishwords in the online version ofthe dictionary are current (forelectricity), looter, looting andupazila (one of the areas thata district is divided into foradministration purposes).

According to OUP, the newedition provides better, moreaccurate and understandabledefinitions with examples,usage notes and additionalresources to help the learneruse the right word in the rightcontext.

"Prevalence and common

usage are the main criteria forenlisting new words. We scanthe globe for words which areoften used by people whilespeaking English. Then thesewords go through a rigoroustesting process," Dada said.

"As OUP is the custodian ofEnglish language globally,these words have to go throughits processes," she said.

The Oxford AdvancedLearner's Dictionary, she said,has been reinventing itself fornearly eight decades, anticipat-ing the growing learningrequirements of learners.

"The 10th edition also isequipped with a strong digitalsupport system, including anapp," she said.

Aadhaar, dabba, hartal, shaadi make it to Oxford dictionary

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Election Commission hasasked Twitter to remove a con-troversial tweet by BJP's KapilMishra, a candidate for theupcoming Delhi assembly polls,in which he likened the electionin the city to a India versusPakistan contest.

The Election Commission'saction came after the office ofthe Delhi Chief Electoral Officerwrote to the EC to remove thetweet posted by Mishra onThursday, EC officials said.

The Delhi CEO Office hasalso issued a showcause notice

to Mishra, who has been field-ed by the BJP from the ModelTown constituency, they said.

"We took cognisance of thetweet, and wrote to EC last nightseeking its removal. The EC thenasked Twitter to remove histweet. The tweet is a violation ofthe Model Code of Conduct andthe the Representation of the

People Act, so we have takenaction," Delhi CEO RanbirSingh said. "We have also issueda showcause notice to KapilMishra," he said. In the tweet onThursday, Mishra, a formerminister in the Arvind Kejriwalcabinet, said the February 8 elec-tion will be a contest betweenIndia and Pakistan in Delhi.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Dairy farms in a residential areain Ghaziabad are running with-out any license from localauthorities, a committee told theNational Green Tribunal onFriday.

The panel comprising offi-cials from the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB), UttarPradesh pollution control board,municipal corporation and oth-ers told the tribunal that therewas lack of adequate infrastruc-ture to ensure proper disposal of

solid waste and wastewater. "Allthe dairy farms collect dungfrom the floor of shed anddump the same to a locationnear the railway line. Thereafter

the municipal corporationtransports dung to for utilisationas manure in horticulture.

"The floorings of the shedsare not properly paved with awaste water collection system.The waste water generated fromthe daily premises is dischargedto a common drain which ulti-mately meets river Hindon," thecommittee told the NGT.

The tribunal was furtherinformed that no electronicmeters are installed for waterconsumption by dairy farmsand they do not follow the

good housekeeping practiseslike maintaining proper sanitaryconditions, protecting dungfrom pests and insects in orderto minimise odour nuisance.

"The floor feeding water andair spaces available for each ani-mal was not adequate for stand-ing, resting, exercising, feeding,watering and ventilation. TheNagar Nigam should carry outextensive survey of the area andensure immediate closure ofdairy farms being operated inresidential colonies," the com-mittee said.

A BJP leader hadtold me that myphone was beingtapped. I said ifanybody wants tolisten to what I amsaying I welcome it. I am Balasaheb'schela (disciple),whatever I do, I do it openly

The Election Commission's action came afterthe office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officerwrote to the EC to remove the tweet postedby Mishra on Thursday

EC asks Twitter to take down Kapil Mishra's India Vs Pak tweet

PNS n ALIGARH (UP)

An FIR was on Friday regis-tered against former AMUstudents union presidentFaizul Hasan for his statementthat if Muslims decide to"ruin", they can "finish anycountry".

"The case under IPC section153A (promoting communalhatred) has been registered atcivil lines police station againstHasan in connection with hisspeech on Thursday at theprotest site near Babey Sir Syedgate," Senior Superintendent ofPolice (SSP) Akash Kulharisaid. The action was takenafter a video clip of Hasan'sspeech went viral on socialmedia and the nationalspokesman of the HinduMahasabha Ashok Pandeydemanded stringent actionagainst him.

The student leader in hisspeech had said, "ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath isrepeatedly issuing highlyprovocative statements againstMuslims. The CM is testingthe patience of Muslims to thehilt by repeatedly issuing com-munally charged statements.

FIR againstformer AMUstudentsunion chief

JGU signs MoU withUniversity of ZurichPNS n NEW DELHI

The O P Jindal Global University(JGU) has signed aMemorandum ofUnderstanding with theUniversity of Zurich,Switzerland for mutual cooper-ation in higher education andresearch.

The MoU was signed at theWorld Economic Forum inDavos on January 22 in the pres-ence of Vice Chancellor of JGU,Prof (Dr) C Raj Kumar and thePresident of the UZH, Prof (Dr)Michael Hengartner.

Speaking at the ceremony,

Kumar said, "The University ofZurich has carved out a namefor itself as a leading higher edu-cational institution in the world.This MoU will lead to manymutually beneficial forms ofcollaboration, including studentand faculty exchanges and jointresearch activities".

Hengartner said, "We are trulyexcited about the prospect ofcollaborating with O P JindalGlobal University. I am person-ally convinced that this MoUwill provide a solid basis forfruitful academic exchange fromwhich our two institutions willbenefit in many respects".

GRSE layskeel of Navy'ssecondstealth frigatePNS n KOLKATA

The Garden ReachShipbuilders and EngineersLimited (GRSE) on Fridaylaid the keel of the second ofthree advanced stealth frigatesit is building for the IndianNavy, an official said here. Thekeel is the lengthwise structurealong the base of a ship, sup-porting the framework of thewhole. Vice Chief of NavalStaff (VCNS), Vice Admiral GAshok Kumar commendedthe city-based Defence PSUfor its commitment in provid-ing maintenance support tothe ships built by it.

"GRSE can be proud of itsachievements as it continues tobuild complex ships understringent timelines," he said inhis address during the keel lay-ing ceremony.

The officer said the IndianNavy and Indian Coast Guardare on a growth path, thusboding well for the shipyard'sfuture wherein quality shipsare expected on time.

The keel laying for the sec-ond frigate was achieved aheadof schedule, a GRSE officialsaid. The contract of Rs 19,294crore for construction of threehighly advanced stealthfrigates under Project 17A isthe largest ever order won bythe company, the official said.

Dairy farms running in Ghaziabad residential area sans licence

At the time of a drought of goodnews in the country, therecomes one to celebrate. TheExpert Appraisal Committee(EAC) of the Union Ministry of

Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEFCC) has halted the construction ofan airport at the site of an abandonedWorld War-II airstrip near Jharkhand’sDhalbhumgarh town. The reason? It woulddisrupt an elephant corridor used by 200pachyderms.

The airport near Dhalbhumgarh was tobe the first of 400-of-its-kind, which theAirport Authority of India proposes to buildthroughout the country. Its halting repre-sents one of the rare occasions when a con-cern for animals has won out against agrandiose plan for so-called development.The disruption of the corridor would haveforced the elephants to look elsewhere forpassage, including urban and semi-urbanareas, thus taking them to new places andcreating new dangers of elephant-humanconflict.

The resultant casualties would have hadan adverse impact on Jharkhand’s elephants,whose numbers have been declining. From772 in 2002, the figure came down to 624 in2007. It increased to 688 in 2012 only to comedown to 679 in 2017, according to the ele-phant census titled, ‘Synchronised elephantpopulation estimation India 2017’, released onAugust 12 (World Elephant Day), that year.

The causes, related to conditions creat-ed by continuing human encroachmentupon and activity in elephant habitats,include habitat loss, electrocution by con-tact with sagging and/or low-hanging highvoltage transmission wires, running over bytrains, conflicts with humans besides poach-ing, poisoning and old-age related medicalproblems. According to a report in May,2017, 32 elephants had been killed by elec-trocution and 22 in train accidents inJharkhand until then.

One hopes that the decision to stop theconstruction of the airport will not bereversed under pressure and will prove to theprecursor of many similar decisions concern-ing all animals. Elephants, doubtless, need par-ticular attention. They have been listed inSchedule One of the Wildlife Protection Actof India, 1972, which gives them the highestlevel of protection. Project Elephant waslaunched in 1992 to protect the Asian elephant(the category to which Indian elephantsbelong), its habitat and corridors and addressthe human-elephant conflict. The elephantwas declared India’s National Heritage Animalon October 22, 2010.

Yet serious challenges remain. Almost allthe factors adversely affecting elephants inJharkhand apply to the species throughoutIndia. The most important of these is habi-tat loss, caused principally by continuinghuman encroachment. This is clear from theElephant Task Force’s report, Gajah: Securingthe Future for Elephants in India, submitted

on August 31, 2010. Dwelling onhow various elements contributeto habitat loss and the latter’simpact, it states, “Large develop-mental and infrastructural pro-jects when not planned or locat-ed with adequate care are frag-menting habitat[s], while otherlocal pressures degrade them.” Itfurther states, “The physicalpresence of the roads and railwaylines in the habitat creates newhabitat edges, alters the hydrolog-ical dynamics and creates a bar-rier to the movement of elephantsand other animals, leads to habi-tat fragmentation and loss, apartfrom death due to train andvehicular hits.”

It adds, “Rail and anincrease in road traffic operatesin a synergetic way across sev-eral landscapes and causes notonly an overall loss and isolationof wildlife habitat but also splitsup the landscape in a literalsense. Various developmentalactivities also come up on eitherside of the highways and rail-roads, thereby further frag-menting the habitat and increas-ing biotic pressures.”

With shrinking habitats, ele-phants searching for food raidcultivated areas, devouring anddestroying crops. Attempts toturn them away constitute animportant cause of human-ele-phant conflict, which is taking agrowing number of lives.Replying to a question, BabulSupriyo, Union Minister of Statefor MoEFFC, told the Lok Sabhaon June 28, 2019, that 2,398 peo-

ple had died since 2014.According to other official statis-tics, a total of 1,465 people werekilled between the years 2013-14and 2016-17. In turn, people kill40 to 50 elephants every year,apart from those slain by poach-ers for the ivory of the tusks.

Habitat loss also forces ele-phants to move into other areas.They are now seen in States likeManipur, Mizoram, Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, Haryana,Himachal Pradesh and the UnionTerritory of Andaman & NicobarIslands, where they had not beenpresent earlier. Other factorshave also contributed. A majordrought in Tamil Nadu hadcaused herds of elephants tocross over to Andhra Pradeshwhere they had no presence forover two centuries. The result isan extension of the area witness-ing human-elephant conflict.

The impact of habitat loss iscompounded by that of elephantcorridors, which account formuch of the rail and road acci-dents. According to the report,Gajah: Securing the Future forElephants in India, train accidentshad killed as many as 150 of thesebehemoths since 1987.According to a Ministry state-ment in the Rajya Sabha, 49 ele-phants were killed in railway acci-dents between 2016 and 2018.

The Elephant Task Force’sreport has recommended sever-al measures to protect habitatsand prevent elephants from beingkilled in road and rail accidents.These include the announcement

of principles of forest area, rail-way track and highway manage-ment, the grant of mininglicences and rules governing thedrawing and maintenance ofpower cables through forestareas.

Besides these, attention hasto be paid to nurturing elephantreserves as the basic managementunit for their conservation in thecountry. At present, there are 32of these across India, coveringover 69,000 sq km. The problemis that more than over 40 per centof these is not under ProtectedArea or Government forest.Hence, the main emphasis has tobe on managing land use patternsin the areas outside the preservesto reduce human-elephant con-flict. Also, the havoc bush firescontinue to play in Australiareminds us of the need to beready to cope with such calami-ties which have been taking asevere toll in Uttarakhand andHimachal Pradesh and mayoccur in other parts of Indiathanks to climate change.

All this will require hugeexpenditure and effort. TheGovernment must not balk fromeither. Besides, it needs to reachout to organisations like WildlifeSOS, TREE Foundation andWildlife Rescue andRehabilitation Centre, whichhave been doing outstandingwork in rescuing and nurturingelephants.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

Citizen Pranab Mukherjee has as usual lis-tened to the voice of his conscience andrestored faith in our democratic renewal as

a nation. So on a day that India slipped 10 ranksin the 2019 Democracy Index to the 51st posi-tion, its lowest since 2006, the former Presidentcame out strongly in favour of peaceful protestsacross the country, emphasising that they wouldkeep the institution alive and well. Stressing thatthe present wave of civil society campaigns woulddeepen the nation’s democratic roots, Mukherjee

took a veiled dig at the Government and said that Indian democracy had beentested time and again but had come through regardless. Coming from Mukherjee,who has been feted as a Bharat Ratna by the Modi regime and who was eveninvited by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to address its session, itshows his public morality would not be beholden to political trade-offs. Of course,even as President, he didn’t mince words, decrying cow vigilantism, lynchingsand curbs on free speech. The significance of his nomenclature as “CitizenMukherjee” was not lost on anyone, particularly at a time when the BJPGovernments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh (UP) had been facing flak fortheir autocratic ways in executing power. Though he did not make an all-out state-ment in favour of the anti-CAA protests, his comments were seen as an indi-rect validation of the protesters — especially the students who have borne thebrunt of the establishment’s wrath — and a much-needed salve on the bruisedspirit of the nation.

Meanwhile, the protests against the Act, that is largely seen as divisive, dis-criminatory and unconstitutional, continue unabated and have acquired a momen-tum of their own, forcing politicians to follow them for a change. The social spec-trum widens every day. Right from Bollywood actors like Deepika Padukone andformer Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung to students’ organisations, lawyers,doctors, academicians, housewives, the Mayor of Maharashtra’s MalegaonMunicipal Corporation, Dalits and the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit BahujanAghadi, a representative cross-section has joined the cause. By lending weightto a people’s movement, Mukherjee has encouraged us into demanding answers.All things considered, these protests now show that the arrogance of theGovernment of the day has boomeranged on itself and powers that be don’t quiteknow how to handle such spontaneous combustion.

In the end, India has to evolve its own dynam-ic regarding Pakistan and its sponsored ter-ror instead of focussing solely on isolating

it diplomatically and amassing internationalopinion on its side. For the fluidity of geopol-itics means that each nation would work outits tactical advantage in an evolving context andmight not prioritise India’s concerns. And glob-al politics is but transactional and revolvingstakes mean shifting alliances. To that extent,even India’s wins are dictated by its econom-ic potential. So it comes as no surprise that

at a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — the global watchdogthat tracks terror-funding States and can disqualify them from aid by World Bankand global institutions — members expressed satisfaction over Pakistan’s cor-rective compliances and counter-terrorism efforts. India’s was the lone voice ofprotest. What is of significance is that Pakistan has been able to convince theUS, EU, Australia and even Japan about its efforts to curb terrorism. The changein position seems drastic considering last October, the FATF had found Pakistanwanting in most criteria — it had cleared only six of the 27 parameters — andpushed it dangerously closer to the dark grey and black lists. Now the chancesof Pakistan “exiting” the grey list are brighter. This indeed would be a blow toIndia’s diplomatic lobbying and efforts. The support of China, its all-weather friendand FATF president, Turkey and Malaysia, with which Pakistan aspires to claimleadership of a neo-Islamic world, was but expected. But the US, while endors-ing India’s position on Kashmir at the UN, is too invested in stitching up a dealwith the Taliban in the final stages before it exits Afghanistan. So it needs Pakistannow. That explains the clean chit in Beijing and even the acknowledgement ofPakistan’s “great efforts” at course correction. The US may also have yieldedground at FATF because freezing aid to Pakistan could aggravate economic insta-bility in the region with a cascading impact on politics. Pakistan has been dri-ving home its arguments on this count with its Minister for Economic AffairsHammad Azhar lobbying in Beijing over the past few days. Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan has been appealing to US President Donald Trump in Davos to helpthe country get off the “grey list.” China, of course, has been the accelerator,certifying Pakistan’s “political will and active efforts.” Not only this, it has beenarguing for a renegotiation of the FATF brief itself, saying the grouping had nobusiness to blacklist nations but should help them counter-terrorist funding andnetworks. India must realise that the shades of the FATF list mean nothing in termsof threat levels ever since the definition of blacklist was diluted as a “call for action”and the grey list was downgraded to “other monitored jurisdictions.”

If indeed Pakistan gets out of the grey list, it can avail international fundingand clamber out of a choked economy. The conduits to Kashmir could be redhot again, not that they had stopped completely. And though we would want tobelieve that the Pakistani economy is stuttering, the fact is Moody’s upgradedits status from negative to stable, the Arab benefactors have sent grants witheven Russia meaning to invest in north-south gas pipelines. Global penalties won’timpact Pakistan’s proxy war with India; the Government-military configurationwill always keep that on the boil, prioritising it as a strategic interest. Even whilestaying on the FATF watch, there has been no cessation of terrorist infiltrationinto Kashmir. A listing won’t change that ground reality. Besides, as Khan’s sus-tained efforts to raise Kashmir at international fora show, the abrogation of Article370 has completely taken down the pillar of Pakistan’s domestic and interna-tional policy. It certainly wouldn’t want to let go of the anti-India pitch as its bar-gaining worth. India has to be prepared for every such manoeuvre. At the sametime, it has to ensure that there is no change in the international opinion of “Kashmiris a bilateral issue” argument, the pin-pricking offers of mediation by Trump notwith-standing. For this, the Government needs to demonstrate that it is not at war withthe Valley and restore civil rights. This would go a long way in assuaging domes-tic critics in the US and EU, both of which are being pushed uncomfortably onhuman rights in Kashmir, and may have compulsions to humour the activist lobbyas well. India, too, could make some move to demonstrate its seriousness aboutbilateral talks and seem to practise what it preaches. Our hardening stance wouldmean that the world will have a relaxed attitude towards our neighbour. In reali-ty, the deterrence for Pakistan has to be our own measured call.

Stoking controversy

Sir — Amid raging controversyover the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA), BJPleader Kailash Vijayvargiya, whois known for his controversialstatements, apparently saw con-struction labourers eating pohaand suspected they wereBangladeshis. He chose to burpout his angst about it during ameeting on the CAA and lacedit with references to “strange eat-ing ways” of the workers.

It is unclear whether leadersin the BJP have been given thetask of spearheading the party’snationwide outreach programmein support of the CAA or to cre-ate more controversies by makingsuch outlandish claims.

N NagarajanVia email

Beef up preparedness

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Another deadly virus”(January 23). The world is beingstalked by the coronavirus thathas locked down the Chinese cityof Wuhan. Already, train, airline,ferry, subway and bus services

have been suspended over there.More than 600 people have beeninfected and around 17 peoplehave lost lives. With outbreaksbeing reported in Singapore andVietnam, other countries in theregion such as Thailand, Japan,South Korea, Australia and Indiahave been put on high alert.

But is India well prepared todeal with the spread of the infec-tion here? None can forget the

H1N1 swine flu outbreak of2009, which claimed more than1,000 lives. It’s welcome thatpassengers are being screened atmajor airports across the coun-try. However, it will be better ifhospitals, too, are put on highalert. They must be better pre-pared to deal with suspectedisolated cases.

Yash NaryaniUjjain

Act before it’s too late

Sir — The Supreme Court’srefusal to stay the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) came asa surprise. However, one is at aloss to understand why the courttook this long a time to hear thepetitions if it only had to consid-er referring the issue to a largerBench. With the people of the

country, particularly the Muslims,still reeling from the shock of thecourt’s Ayodhya verdict, thecourt’s refusal to stay the CAAeven temporarily has added insultto injury. It is alleged that someBJP-ruled States like UttarPradesh have already started act-ing on the CAA. Giving a verdictafter all the damage has beendone will not be of much use.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

Picking right issues

Sir — The Supreme Court hasflagged a vital issue by askingParliament to ponder over hav-ing an independent and perma-nent body to decide disqualifica-tion petitions against MPs andMLAs, instead of the Speakerretaining exclusive powers. Whatpurpose is the anti-defection lawwhen all the drama is beingplayed out blatantly? Parties mustnot deviate from their declaredalliances and ideologies, else theelectorate suffers.

KristyVia 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/

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020

06

Elephants over an airport

HIRANMAY KARLEKAR

At a time when there’s a drought of good news in the country, a report from Jharkhand that theconstruction of an airport has been halted to ensure the jumbo corridor isn’t affected is welcome

We had a downgrade in onelarge market, India, but we believe that's temporary.We expect momentum to improve further going ahead.

IMF chief—Kristalina Georgieva

I came into movies to makemoney and I fell in love withthe profession. It was the most wonderfulplace to be, mentally andcreatively

Actor—Sonali Bendre

If India can resolve its landboundary issue withBangladesh, then why notwith Nepal? The time hascome to resolve all pendingissues through dialogue.

Nepal Foreign Minister—Pradeep K Gyawali

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

Ball is in the Supreme Court

As many as 144 petitions against the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) have been filed in theSupreme Court. Petitioners have asked the top court

to declare the said law unconstitutional. But the apexcourt’s three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice SABobde and comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer andSanjiv Khanna, issued a notice on all fresh petitions andgave four weeks to the Government to file a reply. Maybethe top court forgot that any delay in addressing press-ing issues like the CAA will erode its credibility. Now thebigger question is: How much time does the Centre needto provide the information required by the court? Onefails to understand that when the Government had alreadygot around a month's time to submit its response, whydoes it need an extra four weeks? But the answer to thismay not be far-fetched. It's just another ploy to slow downjudicial processes.

Since various States are raising their voice againstthe CAA in the people’s court, there’s no case for adjourn-

ments. If anything, the protests are drawing support fromvarious quarters. Will it not be better for the apex courtto put an interim stay on the implementation of the Acttill the time the larger Bench hears the case? People arewaiting with a lot of hope because the top court’s wordon issues like these would be final.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee Faridabad

YET SERIOUSCHALLENGES

REMAIN. ALMOSTALL THE FACTORS

ADVERSELYAFFECTING

ELEPHANTS INJHARKHAND

APPLY TO THESPECIES

THROUGHOUTINDIA. THE MOST

IMPORTANT OFTHESE IS HABITAT

LOSS, CAUSEDPRINCIPALLY BY

CONTINUINGHUMAN

ENCROACHMENT

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Citizen MukherjeePeople are wondering why italways happens that the lan-guage of AAP, Congress andImran Khan is the same.Khan raises the same ques-tion as do AAP and Congress.

Union Minister—Prakash Javadekar

With the US and EU now backing its counter-terrorismcompliances at FATF, it may get out of the grey list

The former President renews hope for democracyby encouraging civil society protesters

Reprieve for Pak

op nion

Build a knowledge society

YOU PROMISED FREE WI-FI IN DELHI. I WAS SEARCHINGFOR IT ON THE WAY BUT COULDN’T FIND IT. INSTEAD, MY

PHONE BATTERY DIED BECAUSE OF THIS.—UNION MINISTER

AMIT SHAH

SIR... WE HAVE ALSO ARRANGED FREE MOBILEPHONE BATTERY-CHARGING STATIONS ALONGWITH FREE WI-FI IN DELHI.—DELHI CHIEF MINISTERARVIND KEJRIWAL

Each year, as soon as the ceremonial halwa isserved in the North Block and FinanceMinistry officials are locked in, the entire

nation starts asking a question which is embossedon the home page of the Press Information Bureau’s(PIB) website — what’s in it for me? Clicking theyouth icon on the portal leads to a dialogue boxwhich identifies five new initiatives under the hash-tag #BudgetForNewIndia. These include the NewEducation Policy (NEP), National ResearchFoundation (NRF), the ‘Study in India’ programme,Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) andNational Sports Education Board (NSEB) under theKhelo India scheme. The fact that each of these pro-posals can radically transform the education sectormakes the forthcoming Union Budget a particular-ly interesting one. And, for the same reason, thereis anxiety too. Moreover, some of the trends in theprevious Budget outlays have added to apprehen-sions. Between 2017-18 and 2019-20, the share ofIITs declined from ̀ 8,337 crore to ̀ 6,223 crore. TheUniversity Grants Commission (UGC), IIMs(Indian Institutes of Management) and the All IndiaCouncil for Technical Education (AICTE) have reg-istered funds cuts too. Should we be worried?

Let us begin by acknowledging that the mech-anism through which the Ministry of HumanResource Development (MHRD) arrived at someof these schemes was elaborate, inclusive and cer-tainly not hurried. Before the release of the NEPdraft, the MHRD initiated a nationwide multi-stra-ta debate around 20 themes each for school and high-er education. Moreover, the document is refreshing-ly candid, forthright and does not shy away fromasking provocative questions. For example, in thecontext of State universities, it admits to problemssuch as excessive politicisation and deterioratingresearch standards. Further, a number of recurringfeatures across the NEP draft, themes for policy con-sultation and the NITI Aayog’s Strategy for NewIndia (SNI) suggest clear thinking on the part of theGovernment. Training schools for teachers, recruit-ment and retention of faculty with research aptitude,industry linkage and so on are common to all threedocuments.

Similarly, there is an admission that State spend-ing, both by the Central and State Governments,must be significantly enhanced. The NEP draft pro-poses an incremental increase in public spendingon education at the rate of one per cent per year tillit reaches 20 per cent of the total expenditure. But,in a country where educational infrastructure is yetto stabilise with respect to its demographic size anddiversity, challenges are multi-pronged. Increasingthe Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher edu-cation to 35 per cent by 2022-23; establishing newinstitutes; augmenting existing infrastructure andmaking Indian universities globally competitive aresome of the major concerns. It is perhaps for thesereasons that the Government is mulling public-pri-vate partnership in higher education and loan-basedcredit for expansion of facilities. The establishmentof a Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA),a joint venture between the MHRD and CanaraBank, is a step in this direction. The HEFA intendsto leverage funds from the market and extend lowinterest loans to universities for R&D.

However, repayment of loans, even if stretchedover a decade and offered interest-free, could provean uphill task for most universities. If initiatives suchas ‘Study in India’ were to succeed and India were

to transform into a knowledge economy,one would expect a substantial rise in rev-enue generation through tuition fee.However, this will entail generous endow-ments for creation of world-class infra-structure and a gestation period of someyears for return on investment. Butaccording to the MHRD’s own documents,it is not fair to expect that higher educa-tion institutions will meet operational coststhrough student fee alone. Global trendssuggest that robust infrastructure devel-ops in countries with healthy state support.Moreover, in these countries, state supportis matched by an equally generous grantfrom non-state stakeholders. Theseinclude corporate philanthropists andalumni. But these are either knowledgeeconomies like Australia and South Africaor societies like the UK, the USA andGermany that take immense pride in theinternational stature of their educationalinstitutions.

It should be registered with a certaindegree of alarm that even though individ-ual philanthropy is on the rise, the over-all figures do not appear very encourag-ing for India. According to Bain and Co’sIndia Philanthropy Report, 2019, contribu-tions of `10 crore and above, which con-stitute nearly 55 per cent of the entire vol-ume of individual philanthropy, have reg-istered a decline of four per cent since2014. This is both surprising and sad asthe number of Ultra-High Net WorthIndividuals (UHNWIs) has grown by 12per cent over the same period. Further, thefact that Azim Premji alone accounts fornearly 80 per cent of the aforementioned55 per cent, goes to show that the idea ofCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) isyet to take roots in India’s corporate cul-ture. Similarly, alumni support is too var-iegated to be factored in as a stable com-

ponent in financial overhaul. While topprofessional institutions like the IITs andIIMs manage to raise huge funds throughtheir alumni, the same may not be true ofNITs and other management institutes, letalone universities specialising in human-ities and social sciences. The sincerest ofefforts at alumni outreach at India’s top-ranked colleges yield at most an annualalumni meet and an abysmal donationthrough membership subscription. Evenwith proactive placement cells and the bestof faculty, strictly in market terms, a stu-dent with a degree in literature cannot bescaled at par with one with a degree fromIIT. Understandably, their ability to payback to the institution is considerablylower than that of an average IITian. Butthe picture isn’t entirely bleak.Government-aided business incubators,established at degree colleges and univer-sities across India, have been moderatelysuccessful. If properly nourished, success-ful business models can provide the hostinstitution with both direct revenue andpotential alumni-philanthropists. But atthe initial stages this, too, shall entail gen-erous risk-free endowments.

At a time when we speak of unbur-dening our students and allowing them thefreedom to explore a career of their apti-tude, it is not advisable to link every aca-demic activity with industrial output. Toquote Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, uni-versities are not supposed to function likeassembly line manufacturing units. Whilewe need capital to run a country, cultur-al capital is equally important for the well-being of a society. Promotion of scienceand industry might take the centrestagebut endeavours to preserve our history,culture, modern Indian languages andclassical languages shouldn’t lag too farbehind. Global trends suggest that while

departments of Indology are getting pro-gressively replaced by South Asian Studies,China is strengthening its soft power byfinancing departments of Chinese stud-ies. It is now up to the Indian universitiesto open centres of excellence where clas-sical cultures of the country may be taughtand translated. Unless UHNWIs come for-ward and fund a project similar toNarayan Murthy’s Harvard-based MurtyClassical Library, the onus of endowmentswould be on the Government.

As per reports compiled by NASS-COM and PurpleLeap, both of which arecited in the MHRD document, only 25 percent of India’s engineering graduates areemployable. Even interventional trainingfails to brighten their prospects. Openingmore technical institutions withoutemphasis on quality would only create anational backlog of technocrats with asense of entitlement and huge educationloans to pay forward. As is promised inthe NEP draft and SNI, serious effortsmust be made to improve teaching stan-dards in India. This alone will solve manyof the problems that afflict the educationsector as only inspired teachers can churnout a globally-competitive workforce.Teachers should be encouraged andempowered to undertake research andwritings. At the same time, NRF shouldnot end as another bureaucratic super-structure with every power to stall projectsand no resource to leverage.

Undoubtedly, the Finance Ministerwill tread a tightrope, juggling betweeninclusivity and resource augmentation.Hopefully, some day, we would deliver onour national commitment of devoting sixper cent of the GDP to education, firstenvisaged in 1968.

(The writer teaches English at theUniversity of Delhi)

The FM will have to juggle between inclusivity and resource augmentation. Hopefully, one day,we would deliver on allocating six per cent of the GDP to education, first made in 1968

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

India needsPalkhivala now

KUMAR CHELLAPPAN

The legal luminary didn’t hesitate to call a spadea spade and point out to the most authoritarianruler the folly of tinkering with the Constitution

GAUTAM CHOUBEY

GLOBAL TRENDSSUGGEST THAT

ROBUSTINFRASTRUCTURE

DEVELOPS INCOUNTRIES WITH

HEALTHY STATESUPPORT.

MOREOVER, INTHESE COUNTRIES,STATE SUPPORT IS

MATCHED BY ANEQUALLY

GENEROUS GRANTFROM NON-STATE

STAKEHOLDERS.THESE INCLUDE

CORPORATEPHILANTHROPISTSAND ALUMNI. BUT

THESE ARE EITHERKNOWLEDGE

ECONOMIES LIKEAUSTRALIA AND

SOUTH AFRICA ORSOCIETIES LIKE THE

UK, THE USA ANDGERMANY THATTAKE IMMENSE

PRIDE IN THEINTERNATIONAL

STATURE OF THEIREDUCATIONALINSTITUTIONS

January marked the birth centenary of Nani A Palkhivala, themost respected legal luminary the country has ever had theprivilege to call its own. This is a time when India — divided

vertically over contentious issues like the Citizenship AmendmentAct (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National PopulationRegister (NPR) — misses the guidance and scholarly presence ofa person like Palkhivala, who was considered the last word on theConstitution of India. He never hesitated in calling a spade a spadeand pointing out to the most authoritarian ruler of our times the follyof tinkering with the Constitution.

One can only look back at Palkhivala with awe and adorationfor the bravery with which he opposed the move of the then PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi to tamper with the Constitution by bringingin the most unwanted Amendment of our times, the 42ndAmendment Act, 1976. With most Members of Parliament (MPs)belonging to the Opposition, in jail, under the dreaded Maintenanceof Internal Security Act (MISA), there was none to raise a voiceagainst the then Prime Minister, whose only interest was to saveher job. She had appointed a committee of “yes men” under SwaranSingh, the then Minister for External Affairs, to bring in revolution-ary changes in the Constitution and ensure the Gandhi clan’s holdover the Government and the Congress party.

The Swaran Singh Committee’s remedy or antidote to counterthe “onslaught” by the Opposition was to incorporate the terms “sec-ular” and “socialist” and add “integrity” to the word “unity” in thePreamble of the Constitution. In a scathing article in the July 4, 1976issue of The Illustrated Weekly of India (now defunct), Palkhivalawarned: “Our Constitution has an extraordinarily forceful and mean-ingful Preamble which reflects the pledge contained in the ObjectiveResolution of 1946 to guarantee basic human rights; we, the peo-ple of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into aSovereign Democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:Justice, social, economic and political; liberty of thought, expres-sion, belief, faith and worship; equality of status and of opportuni-ty; and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignityof the individual and the unity of the nation; in our ConstituentAssembly this twenty-sixth day of November 1949, do hereby adopt,enact and give to ourselves this Constitution.”

The Swaran Singh Committee wanted that in place of the expres-sion, “Sovereign Democratic Republic” we should substitute thewords “Sovereign Democratic Secular Socialist Republic”, and thatthe word “integrity” should be inserted after “unity.”

Palkhivala opined that this proposal was “singularly ill-con-ceived.” He cited four reasons why such a change should not bemade in the Constitution of the country. “What follows or is annexedto the Preamble is the Constitution. The Preamble is a part of theConstitution Statute, but it is not a part of the Constitution. Article368 deals only with an amendment of ‘this Constitution’ but not ofthe Constitution Statute. Therefore the Preamble cannot be amend-ed under Article 368. Moreover, the Preamble, from its very natureand content, is incapable of being amended. It refers to the mostmomentous event in India’s history and sets out, as a matter ofhistorical fact, what the people of India resolved in 1949 to do fortheir unfolding future. No Parliament can amend or alter the histor-ical past,” said Palkhivala in the article, which was published dur-ing the peak days of Emergency.

He also said that the insertion of the word “socialist” would,instead of clarifying the basic structure of the Constitution, mere-ly make it dangerously ambiguous. Palkhivala, a brilliant legal mind,deciphered the meaninglessness of the term Socialist Democracy,which he likened to “boiling ice” because it was precisely this democ-racy that the dragon of socialism was about to devour. The legalwizard was of the view that the words “secular” and “integrity” couldadd nothing to the content of the Preamble.

“Anyone, who has a sense of rhythm and style, would knowthat the beauty of the Preamble, which is distinguished by econo-my of words, would be marred by the insertion of the three words,all of which are unnecessary and one of which is misleadingly equiv-ocal,” he stated.

The greatest lawyer of our times signed off the article with thewords: “We, the people of India, made our choice in 1949. Twenty-seven years later, we are invited to make the other choice.” Well,Palkhivala, might be having a hearty laugh every time we read thePreamble of the Constitution today. While we assert that “in ourconstituent Assembly this twenty-sixth day of November 1949, dohereby adopt, enact and give to ourselves this Constitution”, theterms “Socialist”, “Secular” and “Integrity” were incorporated onlyin November 1976.

(The writer is Special Correspondent, The Pioneer)

The Forest Survey of India (FSI)had recently released its bien-nial State of Forest Report,

2019 and civil society is busy inanalysing it. The FSI’s reports areeagerly awaited by the Centre as theyapprise the Union Government of theimpact of its policies and an increasein forest and tree cover is a huge polit-ical gain. However, more often thannot, the political masters are unwill-ing to acknowledge adverse impacts.Thankfully, the current assessmenthas shown an increase of 5,188 sq kmof forest and tree cover (3,976 sq kmof forest and 1,212 sq km of tree coveroutside recorded forests). The totalforest and tree cover in the countryis 80.7 million ha (Mha) which cor-

responds to 24.56 per cent of thecountry’s geographic area. The carbonstock is assessed at 7,124.6 milliontonnes, an increase of 42.6 milliontonnes compared to the 2017 assess-ment. For accuracy, the growingstock assessment was done with high-er sampling intensity and uniformly-spread sample plots.

For the first time since 1985, thisyear’s FSI report has providedenhanced information by addingmore parameters. As around 32 Mhaof forests are intimately linked to thelivelihood of people living in 170,000forest fringe villages, the FSI had cal-culated the dependency of people ineach State for fuel wood, fodder, bam-boo and small timber. The reportgives State-wise details of removal ofthese items and per capita consump-tion. This is pertinent information forassessing the contribution of foreststo the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)and also for infusion of financial andtechnical resources for the manage-ment of forests, as a big chunk are notin a good shape. The ground-levelinformation on changes in biodiver-sity and hydrology is key to combat-

ting climate change and in this year’sreport the biodiversity and wetlandsin 16 forest types have been assessed,which will assist foresters in planningmanagement strategies.

The report provides details of fiveNon-Timber Forest Products(NTFPs) for each State, which reflectsthe contribution of this segment in thelivelihood of rural and tribal belts.Most of the NTFP-producing treesand shrubs are under threat of over-exploitation and poor regeneration.The planners, forest, tribal and ruraldevelopment ministries must have alook at these statistics and plan theirregeneration and efficient manage-ment accordingly.

The study also highlights forestsoccurring in different slopes, whichare an indicator of the stability of theforest ecosystem. The report alsoreveals the threat of invasive speciesdue to anthropological and climaticreasons, in each State.

It is well-known that around 28per cent of the recorded forests (76.74Mha) are without trees and comprisesnow-covered mountains, glaciers,desert and inaccessible treeless rocky

areas above the tree line. These areasare critical for our ecological and eco-nomical lifeline and are a continuoussource of water for our rivers, agricul-ture and forest biodiversity. They mustbe integrated within the overall for-est ecosystems though they may nottechnically qualify as forests. If we addthis 21 Mha to the 80 Mha forest andtree cover, then the ecological life-sus-taining system comes to around 101Mha. Planners, therefore, need tospend at least a certain per cent of ourGDP on this land’s stability.

The 71.22 Mha of forest coverincludes around 20 Mha of thetree/forests having areas over morethan one ha outside recorded forestareas. The areas less than one ha(around 9.5 mha) outside recordedforests are clubbed separately, whichbrings us to the figure of 80.7 Mha oftotal tree and forest cover and thus24.56 per cent of the land mass.

The report, however, gives a dis-mal picture of forests in tribal districts,showing a decrease of forest cover tothe tune of 741 sq km. The livelihoodof tribals is dependent on forests andadequate steps must be taken for the

productive management of land vest-ed under the Forest Rights Act. Eitherthe areas have been cleared of treegrowth due to encroachments or theland use has changed in these forests.Another area of concern is that a largechunk of forests (30 Mha) are in theopen category.

The report also gives a scary pic-ture of the growing stock whichshows extremely poor count of maturetrees. Yet another worrying feature isthat 36 per cent of the forests area isfire-prone. The North-east, centralIndia and Himalayan forests are los-ing rich bio-diversity due to forestfires, which must be curbed.

While the mandarins at the pol-icy-making level have much to rejoiceas the report vindicates the hard workput in by foresters in States, the newparameters in the report are food forthought for foresters and plannersalike to use the information for fine-tuning forest governance.

The report highlights that all isnot well scientifically with our forestecosystems and needs infusion of pol-icy, institutional and technologicalinputs with a pragmatic forward-look-

ing approach to forest management.The State Governments must see thetables for their areas and draw strate-gies for sustainable management ofthe forests. Unless this is done, theeuphoria of increase in forest coverwill be over in a few years.

The FSI had done a commend-able job and the way this organisation’sresponsibilities are increasing, it needssubstantial enhancement in man-power and technology so that itmeets its ever-increasing mandate —like the recent Supreme Court orderon survey of illegal occupation of for-est land. It is time its functioning isreviewed and the post of DG FSI andits regional centres need to be upgrad-ed to attract and retain highly quali-fied professionals.

The organisation should beupgraded to the level of an attachedoffice under the Ministry so that it cangive executive directions requiredfor better coordination with States inthe implementation of the policies laiddown by the Ministry. We owe this toour forests.

(The author is a retired civil servant)

2019 forest report a mixed bagWhile the mandarins at the policy-making level have much to rejoice as the report vindicates the hard work

put in by foresters in States, the new parameters are food for thought for foresters and planners alike

VK BAHUGUNA

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

By March, over four millionover-75s will get a letterfrom the BBC explainingthat for the first time in twodecades they must pay TVlicence fee. Letting a groupof people who may be livingwith disability, low incomeand loneliness navigate anunfamiliar bureaucracy topay for TV licence is arecipe for chaos. Plus, itwould be wrong for theGovernment to hoodwinkseniors with the idea thatthere will be no damage tothe BBC if they don’t pay.

(The Guardian, editorial)

BILKING THE BBC,AND SENIORS

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

PNS n NEW DELHI

Although India's Ujjwala pro-gramme encouraged adoptionof liquefied petroleum gas(LPG) for cooking among thepoor, households availing thescheme have not shifted awayfrom using highly pollutingfuels like firewood, a studyreveals. The researchers, includ-ing those from the University ofBritish Columbia (UBC) inCanada, found that additionalincentives to encourage regularuse of cooking gas are necessaryfor a complete transition toclean cooking fuel among poorrural households.

They noted that about 2.9 bil-

lion people across Asia, Africa,and Latin America burn solidfuels like firewood to meet theircooking energy needs.

This has significant negativeimplications for public health,the environment, and societaldevelopment, according to the

researchers.Through the Pradhan Mantri

Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), Indiahas provided capital cost subsi-dies to poor women to adopt aclean-burning cooking fuel orLPG.

The researchers explained

that within the first 40 monthsof the scheme, more than 80million households obtainedLPG stoves.

However, the full benefits ofLPG adoption depend on nearcomplete replacement of pollut-ing fuels with LPG, according to

a research-based policy briefpublished in the journal NatureEnergy.

The scientists said this cannotbe assumed solely on the basisof LPG presence in the house-hold.

"Our research shows thatUjjwala was able to attract newconsumers rapidly, but thoseconsumers did not start usingLPG on a regular basis,"Abhishek Kar, a postdoc atColumbia University in the US,said. The study analysed LPGsales data for over 25,000 con-sumers, including PMUY ben-eficiaries, as well as generalrural LPG consumers in Koppaldistrict of Karnataka.

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020 money 08SHORT READS

Maruti Suzuki begins export of S-PressoNEW DELHI: The country'slargest carmaker Maruti SuzukiIndia (MSI) on Friday said ithas commenced exports of itslatest compact car S-Presso,which has been conceptualisedand designed in India. Theconsignments have left forglobal markets, including partsof Asia, Latin America andAfrica regions, the companysaid in a statement. "S-Pressois a true symbol of Make inIndia. The car stands testamentto our commitment to offerbest in design, technology andsafety to our customers bothlocally and globally," MSIManaging Director & CEOKenichi Ayukawa said. Hefurther said the car has beenwidely appreciated bycustomers in India and thecompany is confident of itsacceptance in internationalmarkets.

EU chiefs sign Brexitdeal ahead ofparliamentary vote

Sensex ends 227 ptshigher; Nifty reclaims 12,200MUMBAI: Extending its gainsfor the second session, marketbenchmark Sensex rose 227points on Friday, tracking rallyin banking stocks amidrecovery in global equities. Afteropening on a weak note, the 30-share BSE index settled 226.79points, or 0.55 per cent, higherat 41,613.19 -- hitting an intra-day high of 41,697.03 and alow of 41,275.60. Likewise, thebroader NSE Nifty closed 67.90points, or 0.56 per cent, up at12,248.25. Ultratech Cementwas the top gainer in theSensex pack, advancing 2.44per cent, followed by TechMahindra, Axis Bank, Titan,Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank andBajaj Finance. On the otherhand, PowerGrid, IndusIndBank, Sun Pharma, TCS, RILand Infosys, Maruti and HDFCBank ended in the red.

BRUSSELS: Brussels' two topofficials, the presidents of theEuropean Commission and theEuropean Council, signed offon Britain's EU divorceagreement Friday. With Ursulavon der Leyen and CharlesMichel's formal endorsement,the text will now go to theEuropean Parliament onJanuary 29 for ratification.Then, on Thursday next week,diplomats from the EUmember states will approve thedeal in writing, ensuringBritain's orderly departure atmidnight on January 31."Charles Michel and I have justsigned the Agreement on theWithdrawal of the UK from theEU, opening the way for itsratification by the EuropeanParliament," Commission chiefUrsula von der Leyen tweeted.In a separate tweet, Michelsaid: "Things will inevitablychange but our friendship willremain. We start a new chapteras partners and allies."

They noted that about 2.9bn people across Asia,Africa, and Latin Americaburn solid fuels likefirewood to meet theircooking energy needs

PNS n NEW DELHI

Cautioning investors overPACL's illegal money-poolingcase, market regulator Sebi hasadvised them against dealingwith any property where thegroup and its promoters haveinterests.

The Securities andExchange Board of India(Sebi) found Pearls AgrotechCorporation (PACL) to havecollected more than Rs 60,000crore through illegal collectiveinvestment schemes over aperiod of 18 years.

PACL had raised moneyfrom the public in the nameof agriculture and real estatebusinesses.

The fresh advisory comesafter the markets regulatorreceived complaints or infor-mation that certain entities areattempting to sell such prop-erties.

"The public is thereforeonce again cautioned againstbuying/dealing with any prop-erties wherein PACL Ltd or

any of its associates/sub-sidiaries have anyinterest/rights, directly orindirectly," Sebi said in a state-ment.

The investors have been,further, requested to rely onlyon the public notices andpress release published by thecommittee or Sebi which areavailable on the regulator'swebsite.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Markets regulator Sebi hasasked an individual to disgorgeRs 4.9 crore latest by January 31for failing to comply withtakeover regulations in thematter of Orient Tradelink.

The amount has to be paidalong with a 10 per cent inter-est from August 1, 2019 till thedate of actual payment.

Sebi in March 2008 issued ashow cause notice againstAushim Khetarpal for alleged-ly indulging in market manip-ulation and creation of artifi-cial volume in the scrip ofOrient Tradelink Ltd.

Besides, he had failed tocomply with the mandatoryrequirement of making a pub-lic announcement in accor-dance with the TakeoverRegulations.

Later, Sebi asked Khetarpalto make an open offer for theacquisition of shares in thematter of Orient Tradelink.

The open offer made by theacquirer had opened on July 5,2019 and closed on July 18,

2019 for acquisition of over 1crore equity shares represent-ing 20 per cent of the total vot-ing share capital of the firm.

"As per information receivedby Sebi from the BSE,1,09,65,000 equity shares weretendered in the open offer i.e100 per cent acceptance andaccordingly, the total maxi-mum consideration payableunder the open offer amount-

ed to Rs 5,04,39,000," Sebisaid.

Besides, it noted thatKhetarpal had opened andescrow account with ICICIBank wherein it deposited Rs14 lakh. In addition, he hadpledged 17.3 lakh equity sharesof Orient Tradelink amountingto over Rs 1.1 crore with mer-chant banker Fast Track Finsecas security towards the oblig-

ation under the open offer.However, Sebi said "there has

been a shortfall in respect ofthe deposit of 25 per cent of theopen offer consideration inthe escrow account," and theacquirer had "prima facie" vio-lated takeover norms.

"In the facts of the instantproceedings, it is observed thattill date, the Acquirer has failedto ensure payment of consid-eration to all shareholders whohad tendered their sharesunder the open offer," Sebi said.

Accordingly, Khetarpal hasbeen asked to disgorge thebalance open offer considera-tion amount of Rs 4.9 crorealong with simple interest of 10per cent.

The disgorged amount willbe credited to the Investor

Protection and Education Fundand will be utilised to makerestitution of the investors ofthe firm who have tenderedtheir shares in acceptance ofthe open offer.

Besides, Rs 14 lakh deposit-ed by him in the escrowaccount shall stand attachedwith immediate effect and shallbe utilised for payment of con-sideration to the eligible andidentifiable investors of OrientTradelink who have tenderedtheir shares in acceptance ofthe open offer.

In a separate order, Sebilevied a fine of Rs 25 lakh to bepaid "jointly and severally" byPeers Allied Corporation Ltdand its 11 directors for operat-ing unregistered collectiveinvestment schemes.

Ujjwala scheme yet to complete shift from firewoodLPG FOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS

ED issues fresh summonsin Air Asia PMLA casePNS n NEW DELHI

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has issued fresh sum-mons to senior executives ofAir Asia airlines, includingCEO Tony Fernandes, forquestioning next month inconnection with a moneylaundering case, officials saidon Friday.

According to sources, thecentral agency has askedFernandes to appear before theinvestigating officer of thecase here on February 5, hisdeputy and former DeputyGroup CEO of Malaysia-basedAir Asia Berhad Bo Lingam onFebruary 3 and RVenkataramanan, formerDirector Air Asia India Ltd,Bengaluru, on February 10.

Few others linked to thepresent and past managementof the airline have also beenasked to depose.

The ED had earlier askedsome of these executives toappear this month but after

some failed to appear orsought additional time, newdates have been given, theysaid.

The summons have beenissued under the PMLA and asper sources the executives willbe questioned and their state-ment recorded in connectionwith the investigation.

The agency had registered acase under the PMLA againstthe airline and its officials inMay, 2018.

This criminal case was filedtwo days after CBI filed acriminal complaint to probe

these allegations. Probe in thecase is related to allegationsthat the airline tried to manip-ulate government policiesthrough corrupt means to getinternational licence for itsIndian venture Air Asia IndiaLimited.

The ED is also probing thiscase under the ForeignExchange Management Act(FEMA).

Air Asia India at present hasflights connecting 21 domes-tic destinations and as per aaircraft fleet tracking website,it has 29 Airbus A320 planes.

Sebi cautions investorsagainst dealing inPACL properties

In the facts of the instant proceedings, it isobserved that till date, the Acquirer has failedto ensure payment of consideration to allshareholders who had tendered their sharesunder the open offer

Sebi asks individual to disgorgeRs 4.9 cr for flouting takeover

J&K aims to register 20 pc growthPNS n JAMMU

Jammu and Kashmir TaxesDepartment (JKTD) is aimingto register 20 per cent growthin tax collection by the end ofthe current financial year, asenior official has said.

J&K is targeting the growthof 20 per cent in few heads oftax collection against the targetset for 2019-20, CommissionerState Taxes, J&K, P K Bhat saidhere.

Under the Heads of Stampsand MST, the growth is expect-ed to rise by 16 per cent and 4per cent, respectively, he added.

Financial CommissionerArun Kumar Mehta compli-mented the officers for theirefforts towards registering agrowth of about 11 per centover the target till date.

He asked the officers toorganise a massive campaign tomake concerned aware aboutthe benefits of timely paymentof Goods & Services Tax (GST).He also directed them to fill allvacant posts in the departmenton urgest basis.

Mehta asked the officers tointensify physical verificationsof goods traded or in transit.

He also suggested them tomake use of economic intelli-gence, coordination, cohesionand convergence to furtherimprove their performance.

The financial commissionerfurther asked them to set targetsfor each officer regarding per-formance indicators like rev-enue realisation, registrations,inspections and cancellations.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India and the US have agreed toresolve amicably a dispute overAmerican import duties on cer-tain Indian steel products,wherein Washington is yet tofully comply with the WTO rul-ings, an official said.

The WTO dispute resolutionbody has ruled against the USin this case stating that the highduty imposed by America oncertain hot-rolled carbon steelflat products from India wasinconsistent with various provi-sions of the WTO's Agreement

on Subsidies and CountervailingMeasures.

The US agreed to resolve thematter amicably as the appellatebody of the WTO's dispute set-tlement mechanism has becomedysfunctional since last month.

America has failed to fullycomply with a six-year-old rul-ing of the WTO's dispute panelover import duties on certainIndian steel products whichhas endorsed India's belief thatnot only the practices followed

by the US, the law itself violatesWTO agreements, the officialsaid. The compliance panel hasfound that the US has not com-plied with the rulings and rec-ommendations of the disputepanel. India has dragged the USin WTO in 2012, alleging thatWashington's move to imposehigh duties on imports of cer-tain Indian steel products areglobal trade rules.

In December 2014, the WTOdispute panel had ruled againstthe US imposing high counter-vailing duties on imports of cer-tain Indian steel products.

Ultratech net soars80% to Rs 712 crin Oct-DecPNS n MUMBAI

Largest cement makerUltratech on Friday reporteda consolidated net income ofRs 712 crore for the October-December quarter, up 80 percent from Rs 396 crore in theyear-ago period.

Consolidated revenue ofthe Birla Group flagship firmslipped to Rs 10,176 crorefrom Rs 10,294 crore, thecompany said in a statement.

However, the managementdid not offer any reason for thefall in top line or what pushedup the bottom line.

On a standalone basis, netincome stood at Rs 643 crore,up from Rs 433 crore in theyear ago period, the companysaid in a statement. The com-pany said it has made a pro-vision of Rs 133 crore underthe legacy dispute resolutionscheme 2019, announced bythe government as part ofother expenditure, against var-

ious disputed and contingentliabilities and that had it notbeen for this the net incomewould have been higher bythis amount. Since some signsof revival have been visible insome markets during the lat-ter part of the reporting quar-ter, this, together with thegovernment commitment torevive the economy and thethrust on infrastructurespending, augur well forgrowth revival, it said as partof its business outlook.

During the quarterUltratech acquired groupcompany Century's cementbusiness after the scheme ofdemerger became effectiveOctober 1.

MP garners investmentsworth Rs 4,125 cr at DavosPNS n BHOPAL

Madhya Pradesh gained signif-icantly at Davos, where theWorld Economic Forum(WEF) is holding its annualmeet, with investors promisingto invest Rs 4,125 crore in foodand renewable energy sectors.

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath alongwith senior officials includingChief Secretary S R Mohantyand Principal SecretaryIndustries Rajesh Rajora, helddiscussions with potentialinvestors at Davos and show-cased the state as a viableinvestment destination.

The Daawat Food Ltd,which has a plant inMandideep, near Bhopal hasgot FDI worth Rs 125 crorefrom Saudi Arabia Agricultureand Livestock Investment

Company (SALIC), a seniorofficial of the public relationdepartment said on Friday.

Besides, two central windprojects of capacity 325 MWeach are now approved. One bySoft Bank Energy (Japan) andanother by Actis (England)would be coming to the state.

It will involve a total invest-ment of Rs 4,000 crore, Rajorasaid.

Nath also held discussions

at length with Max Peterson,the Vice President of AmazonWeb Service.

According to Peterson, thecompany is operating at sixplaces including New Delhi,Mumbai, Hyderabad,Bengaluru, Pune and Chennai.

Out of these, the companyhas data centers in Delhi,Mumbai and Chennai andwishes to start business inMadhya Pradesh, the officialsaid.

The Chief Minister assuredthat all facilities and resoucesneeded for data centre likeland, electricity and workforceare available in MadhyaPradesh, the official added.

The Chief Minister alsoinformed that 690 acre land isavailable at nine differentplaces of the state for setting updata centre business.

14.33 lakh newjobs created inNovember: ESICPNS n NEW DELHI

Around 14.33 lakh jobs werecreated in November 2019 ascompared with 12.60 lakh inthe previous month, accordingto payroll data of theEmployees' State InsuranceCorporation (ESIC).

Gross enrolments of newsubscribers with ESIC were1.49 crore during the entirefinancial year 2018-19, theNational Statistical Office(NSO) said in a report.

It also showed that duringthe September 2017-November 2019 period,around 3.37 crore new sub-scribers joined the ESICscheme. The NSO's report isbased on the payroll data ofnew subscribers of varioussocial security schemes run byESIC, retirement fund bodyEPFO and PFRDA.

Bajaj Auto,Triumph startmanufacturingPNS n PUNE

Bajaj Auto and iconic Britishmotorcycle brand Triumphon Friday formally com-menced their non-equity glob-al partnership to manufacturea new range of mid-capacitymotorcycles in the country.

The two automakers hadannounced a non-equity part-nership in August 2017. Thebikes produced under thebrand will be available from2022 and will have price start-ing at less than Rs 2 lakh,Triumph Motorcycles ChiefCommercial Officer PaulStroud said here. The partner-ship will build a new engineand vehicle platform in themid-capacity range (200-800cc) and offer multiple optionsto address different segments inthis class. "The triumph brandis an iconic one the world over.So, we are confident that therewill be a huge appetite in Indiaand other emerging markets forthese new products," BajajAuto Managing Director RajivBajaj said.

Kamal Nath

The compliancepanel has found thatthe US has notcomplied with therulings andrecommendations ofthe dispute panel

India, US agree to resolve amicablydispute over steel import duty

West Bengal emerges at thetop in vegetable productionPNS n KOLKATA

West Bengal has emerged asthe top state in the country invegetable production in 2018-19, according to horticultureproduction data released by theCentral government recently.

West Bengal witnessed aproduction of 29.55 milliontonne (MT) of vegetables dur-ing 2018-19 which was themaximum in the country inthat period, said the state-wise horticulture productiondata. Uttar Pradesh was in thesecond place with 27.71 mil-lion tonne of vegetable produc-tion in the same period, it said.

In 2017-18, West Bengalwas in the second place with27.70 MT of vegetable produc-tion while UP held the topposition with a production of28.32 MT.

As per the data, for the2018-19 period, West Bengalhas accounted for 15.9 per cent

of the country's total vegetableproduction.

It said UP produced 14.9 percent of the country's vegetableproduction, while MadhyaPradesh recorded 9.6 per centfollowed by Bihar 9 per centand Gujarat 6.8 per cent.

It's a great achievement andthe credit goes to our farmers,Agriculture Advisor to theChief Minister, Pradip KumarMajumder said.

He said, "Under the guid-ance of Chief Minister MamataBanerjee we are trying to helpthe farmers in enhancing theirincome which eventuallyincreased the production."

The Securities andExchange Board ofIndia (Sebi) foundPearls AgrotechCorporation (PACL)to have collectedmore than Rs60,000 crorethrough illegalcollectiveinvestmentschemes over aperiod of 18 years

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

As a president to the cabdrivers association, I know ofthe consequences of notwearing a seat belt. Evenmultiple airbags are uselessunless the occupants belt up.Without a seat belt, you couldcrash into the vehicle’s interior,into other passengers, or beejected from the vehicle. Tospread awareness on this, westarted this initiative last year

SHAIK SALAUDDINPRESIDENT, T.S. FOUR WHEELER

DRIVER’S ASSOCIATION

revention is betterthan cure is a pop-ular saying whichexplains theimportance of tak-ing care of our-

selves to avoid untowardincidents. Every year, rashdriving kills many. Some-times, innocent bystandersbear the brunt of mistakesthat are not theirs. Eventhough we have been toldabout safety measures likewearing a helmet or a seatbelt to save us from acci-dents, many people are notfollowing it properly.

To create awareness aboutroad safety and the impor-tance of wearing seatbelt,Telangana Four WheelerDriver’s Association started‘Selfie With Seatbelt’ initia-tive last year. As part of theprogramme, cab drivers andcar owners take a selfie wear-ing a seat belt and post it onsocial media with the#SelfieWithSeatBelt to inspireothers.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Shaik Salauddin, President,Telangana Four WheelerDriver’s Association,says, “Wearing aseat belt can bethe most

effective way to save lives andreduce injuries related to carcrashes. Riders should alwaysrequest a car that has enoughseat belts for everyone andnot travel in large groups thatexceed the number of seatbelts. Drivers can decline aride if there are not enoughseat belts for every passengerin the car.” “As a president tothe cab drivers association, Iknow of the consequences ofnot wearing a seat belt. Evenmultiple airbags in a car areuseless unless the occupantsbelt up. Without a seat belt,you could crash into thevehicle’s interior, into otherpassengers, or be ejectedfrom the vehicle. To encour-age drivers to wear seatbelts,we started this initiative lastyear,” he added.

He shares, “As per ourrecent survey reports, thehighest percentage of peoplenot wearing a seatbelt isamong people driving SUVs.Nearly one in every eightrespondents shared that theydon’t use seatbelts. Even dri-vers of

Hatchback (72%), Sedan(68%) and other luxury cars(64%) form a considerablenumber. The report alsoreveals how people oftenoffer trivial reasons for notwearing seatbelts such as 25%respondents who claimedwearing of seatbelts ruins thecreases on their clothes.Salauddin says that even doc-tors advise pregnant womento wear seatbelts as theyknow it won’t cause anyproblem to the baby.

Salauddin and his teamaim to achieve a zero acci-dent rate by 2022 with theirinitiative.He adds, “All ourefforts are to make peopletalk about the initiative. Weinform passengers about theimportance of wearing seat-belt and spread the word onsocial media.”

He said that theHyderabad Traffic Police hasalso joined in their cause andappreciated their effortstowards road safety. He says,“We have more than 35,000drivers in our association andwe are implementing theserules in our cabs. We are alsotalking with 16 other cab dri-

vers associationsand inviting them to do thesame. We also requested thePrime Minister to declareFebruary 6 as NationalDriver’s Day.”

Elaborating on the choiceof the date he adds, “OnFebruary 6, 2017, we lostColonel Nizamuddin, a dri-ver who took three bullets inorder to save Netaji Subhash

Chandra Bose in Burma.Colonel Nizamuddin standsfor the dedication that dri-vers have for the safety andsecurity of their passengers.To honour thousands of suchforgotten heroes who toil dayin and day out, we requestthat February 6 be declaredas National Drivers’ Day andencourage a celebration ofthe profession of driving.”

SELFIE with seatbelt for

road safetyTelangana Four Wheeler Driver's Association started ‘Selfie With Seatbelt'initiative to create awareness among peopleabout road safety, reports V SATEESH REDDY

P

Iconicmeditationcentre setto open

o mark the75th anniver-sary of theorganisation,HeartfulnessInstitute is all

set to inaugurate what hasbeen touted as world’slargest meditation centreat its global headquartersat Kanha Shantivanam inHyderabad.

This centre will beinaugurated on January28. Around 40,000 mem-bers of the Heartfulnessinstitute are expected toturn up for the event. Thestructure will be dedicatedto the first guide ofHeartfulness fondly calledLalaji. President RamnathKovind and social activistAnna Hazare willaddress the practition-ers on February 2 andFebruary 7 respec-tively. BabaRamdev, the yogaguru, will alsobe presentat theocca-

sion. Several state gover-nors are expected to bepart of the list of promi-nent people attending theinauguration.

The structure has onecentral hall and eight sec-ondary halls spread across30 acres. It can accommo-date one lakh practition-ers in one go, making itthe largest closed struc-ture meditation centre inthe world. The entirefacility is spread over1,400 acres and can host40,000 people, can makefood for 1,00,000 people aday among other suchfacilities.

“Built with the aim toimpart meditation tolargest number of peoplethis meditation centre willbecome one of the mostrecognised symbols in theworld, not just for its

magnificence but as asymbol of human

transformation,”said Daaji, guide

of Heart-fulness.

T

Average storyline mars Ravi Teja's comeback film

K RAMYA SREE

midst strong promo-tions and an amaz-ing trailer that waswell received by theaudience, Ravi Teja’sDisco Raja finally hit

the screens with expectationsgalore on Friday. Directed by ViAnand, the film is a science fic-tion and had created immensebuzz. The Mass Maharaja hasbeen lookingfor a solid hitto revive hiscareer

which has been going Southwith no hits for over three years.The actor has pinned his hopeson this film. Let’s find out ifDisco Raja will help Ravi Tejaget a hit or will it add to his listof flops.

The film opens in pic-turesque locales filled withsnow-capped mountains withRaviteja saying the “Game hasjust begun”. The very next sceneis Vasu (Ravi Teja), who is bru-tally beaten up and buried inthe snow-capped mountains inLadakh, gets airlifted from thereto a science lab, where scientistsconduct experiments to bring

brain dead people back tolife. Vasu, who was braindead, gets a new lease oflife with this experi-

ment, but his memoryis erased. Elsewherein New Delhi, we are

introduced

to a family awaiting the returnof its elder son, Vasu (RaviTeja), who is the sole breadwin-ner of the house. The storyrevolves around how Vasu triesto recollect his past and findsout about the whereabouts ofhis family and who is DiscoRaja? Why doesn’t Vasu likeDisco Raja? What is the connec-tion between them? Who isBobby Simha? What is theenmity between Disco Raja andSethu (Bobby Simha)? How hefinds answers to these forms theremaining part of the film.

While the first half of the filmhas a pinch of comedy betweenVennela Kishore and Ravi Teja,the second half takes the usualcommercial route and falls flatdespite starting on a bright note.Though these scenes are inter-esting, the film loses steamtowards the climax and makesthe film a drab.

Speaking of performances, itwas a feast to watch Ravi Teja inan action avatar. Bobby Simha’scharacter could be given some

importance as the antag-

onist doesn’t feel like he hasmuch to do. The leading ladiestoo were not given muchimportance. Basically, the filmwas a one man show of DiscoRaja. After Ravi Teja it is BobbySimha who steals the show.

Others just looked like pass-ing clouds. Sunil’s character toowas just fine. Satya and VennelaKishore tried to evoke laughsand could only succeed in parts.As director Vi Anand himselfsaid, ‘The film has a very simplestory.’ The storyline could’vedeveloped better and writtenbetter. The boring screenplay,clichéd hero-villian dramamakes the whole experiencetedious.

SS Thaman’s BGM needs aspecial mention. He continueshis success story in this film too.His music is probably the onlyicing on the cake for the filmwithout which the film could’vebeen, well,even moreboring.

AVERDICT: The film’s story

is a regular hero-villiandrama with a sci-fi sto-ryline. More than posi-tives, the film has morecons and lands in theone-time watch catego-ry even for Ravi Tejafans. Don’t go expect-ing a bag full of come-dy or fresh content. Inall, Disco Raja is anaverage film with aver-age performances andan average storyline,making the wholeexperience tedious

CAST: Ravi Teja, BobbySimha, VennelaKishore, Sunil, PayalRajput, Nabha Natesh

Rating:

2/5

SaturdayJanuary 25, 2020

10

Hyderabad Saturday January 25, 2020

CITY GUIDEEVENTS

l “SPEAK UP” is an intensive weekend workshopon effective Communication and Public Speakingskills. With theatre-based exercises, group activitiesand stage time, this program helps you break outwith confidence and discover your own voice. Thefocus here is on verbal, non-verbal and writtencommunication. The workshop will be conductedtoday from 11 am to 5 pm.

SPEAK UP

lBanyan Tree's Splendor of Masters aims atshowcasing a bouquet of maestros from theworld of Indian music in combinations that arenot only rare but also aesthetic and enriching.Every year this festival has received anoverwhelming response from music lovers invarious cities. The event will be organised atShilpakala Vedika today at 6 pm.

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

PALM LEAF CRAFTlFor all craft lovers Lamakaan Cultural spacebrings you Palm Leaf Craft, which is the third ina series of workshops named Leela Ten Months,Ten Crafts. This is an initiative to sustaintraditional crafts that are on the verge ofextinction. The workshop will be held tomorrowat 11 am.

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

VIVEK MURALIDHARAN LIVE

DISCOVERBEAUTYMy South Diva Calendar 2020,

powered by Bharathi Cements,was unveiled at Ramanaidu

Studios in the city. As per thephotographer and curator of thecalendar, Manoj Kumar Katokar,the calendar was shot acrossOoty, Kathmandu, Mumbai,Sri Lanka and Hyderabad.Actor Shriya Saran, who waspart of the calendar for all foureditions from 2017 to 2020, waspresent at the event along withother prominent personalities.

DESIGNING A NEW STYLETop models of the city took to the ramp to

showcase the latest trends in Indian ethnicwear during Neeru's end-of-the-season

sale. The guests at the event were delighted tosee a fusion of timeless traditional andcontemporary wear.

what’s brewing?

PART

Y

lSh

riya

Sara

n

lGh

ena

Sipp

y

lM

anoj

Kum

ar

lSa

ndhy

a

lPr

iya S

ingh

l Ravinder Reddyl Kasturi

lAm

eesh

a

l Pranitha Reddy l Sana

nnounced for aJanuary 31 release byits makers early lastmonth, Anushka-star-rer Nishabdam hasbeen postponed. We

hear producers T.G. VishwaPrasad and Kona Venkat are nowtoying with the idea of releasing iton February 20.

A source close to the develop-ment tells us, “The film reliesheavily on its sound effects to givethe thrills as it is a horror-thriller.But with the sound designer ask-ing more time for a superior out-put, the makers were left with nooption than to reconsider thedate. After investing nearly 18months on the film, they didn’twant to let out a product that theyare not happy with. There’s also

some delay in getting the comput-er graphics done.

It is reason why they have heldup all promotional activities.They are considering exam seasonnext month, before announcing anew date. But one thing’s for sureis that they are keen on arrivingnext month.”

Also featuring Madhavan,Anjali, Shalini Pandey,Subbaraju andAvasarala Srinivaand Hollywoodactor MichaelMadsen in keyroles,Nishabdam, shotcompletely inthe US, is aGopi Sundarmusical.

Nishabdampostponed

According tosources, Diawill be seen

as Nag'swife who ishis pillar ofsupport in

the film,finds

NAGARAJGOUD

Hyderabad Saturday January 25, 2020

11

tollywoodMani Sharma on a roll

DIA MIRZA's Telugudebut with Wild Dog?

fter signing muchanticipated flickslike MegastarChiranjeevi’s nextand VictoryVenkatesh-starrer

Naarappa, Mani Sharma hasbagged another important pro-ject. Our sources say, the tune-smith, who is back in highdemand for composing iSmartShankar album, will be themusic composer of lyricist-

turned-director KrishnaChaitanya’s third directorialproject, Power Peta, starringNithiin. To be produced byT.G. Vishwa Prasad underPeople Media Factory, the filmis a gritty realistic period crimedrama.

“Besides the fact that thecontent has rich scope forbackground score, Mani feltthat he can experiment withsongs as well and decided to

come on board. The fact thathe hasn’t done many periodflicks was another reason thatdrove him to sign the project.He will start composing fromMarch,” said a source.

For the film, chances ofDivakar Mani being the cine-matographer are high, whileJayashree Lakshminarayanan(of Malayalam film Charliefame) has been signed on asthe art director. — NG

A

n her two-decade career,Dia Mirza, aHyderabadi, has neverfeatured in a Telugufilm let alone an itemsong, preferring to stick

with Hindi cinema. Well, that’sgoing to change now. According tosources, the actress, who for over adecade has mostly got supportingroles in Hindi cinema, is playing akey role in Nagarjuna-starrer WildDog. A true-life inspired drama,the film, an action-thriller, marksthe directorial debut of Oopiriwriter Ahishor Solomon. It ispresently progressing in Mumbai.

A source says, “Dia was floodedwith offers from Tollywood earlylast decade after she burst on to thescene with Rehnaa Hai Terre DilMein but she chose not to signthem due to reasons best knownfor her. But this time around, rolein Wild Dog was too tempting to bemissed. She will be seen as Nag’s

wife who is his pillar of support ashe goes about his job of eliminatingterrorists from the society as perhis duty as a cop. The role mightnot be layered but the romancebetween her and Nag will be pleas-ing to the eye. The other factorsthat drove her to consider the pro-ject are the presence of Nag and thefact it is set in a realistic realm.”

An enquiry to one of the pro-ducers, Niranjan Reddy (the otherbeing Anvesh Reddy) about Dia’spresence in the film went unan-swered until the time of going topress.

The makers of Wild Dog aremaintaining extreme secrecyaround the project. Except for thelead casting, no other castingdetails are out. After the ongoingMumbai schedule, the unit willtravel to Bangkok where a new out-ing will mostly begin after March 4.The film is being planned for arelease in May.

I

A

ebah Patel, whois a part of anuntitled webseries commis-sioned by AlluAravind, is

playing a singer in it,The Pioneer has reliablylearnt.

Presented and writ-ten by Krish and direct-ed by Dhada fame AjayBhuyan, the shooting ofweb series, which alsofeatures Navdeep,Bindu Madhavi,Chandini Chowdary,Akshara Gowda andRaja Chembolu, hasbeen wrapped upsometime back. “Hebahwill be seen as a leadsinger of a band. Tolend more authenticityto her part, Ajay hasasked Hebah if she cansing for real and sheobliged taking it as achallenge. The series isan urban romanticmusical drama, withKrish drawing inspira-tion from music bandsacross Hyderabad. Themakers are planning tolaunch the soundtracksoon,” said a source.

Hebah has pinned alot of hopes on the webseries as her career isn’tgoing great guns of late.The series will startstreaming after theOTT platform gets anofficial launch. — NG

H

Hebahturnssinger

THE SERIES IS AROMANTICMUSICAL,

WITH KRISHDRAWING

INSPIRATIONFROM CITY’S

MUSICBANDS

ver since the firstteaser ofAswathama, star-ring Naga Shaurya,was out sometime

back late last year, the filmbegan to carry a good buzzaround it in themarket.We nowhearthe

trade deals have been closedfor all the territories and theproducers are happier withwhat they’ve got.

“The worldwide theatricalrights have been sold for Rs10 crore while the non-the-atrical rights fetched themakers Rs 6.20 crore. The

business of areas likeVisakhapatnam were

closed immediatelyafter the release of thetrailer on Thursday.For a film whosebudget is somewherearound Rs 10-12

crore, the makers havelanded in good profits,”

said a source.An action drama with a

social message, the film,directed by first-timerRamana Teja, will releasenext week.

Shaurya’s mother UshaMulpuri is producing it underIra Creations, while SriCharan Pakala is the songscomposer. Mehreen is castopposite Shaurya.

Aswathamastrikes

profitabledeals

E

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2020 sport 12

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former India pacer AjitAgarkar on Friday entered

the race for the national selec-tor’s job and is a frontrunner forthe chairman’s post.

Agarkar confirmed that hehas applied for the nationalselector’s position.

Agarkar, who is a formerchairman of Mumbai seniorselection committee, is in con-tention for the chairman’s postas the new constitution doesn’thave provisions for zonal system.

It can also be confirmed thatformer India medium pacerand junior chairman of selectorsVenkatesh Prasad has once againapplied for senior selector’s post

although he has only around oneand half years of his cumulativeterm left. With BCCI settingJanuary 24 as the deadline forsending applications, the 42-year-old Agarkar is certainly themost high-profile name with 26Tests, 191 ODIs and 3 T20Internationals, picking 349 wick-ets across formats.

“Ajit entering the fray is aninteresting development. He issomeone who would have put ina lot of thought before applying.If anyone thought that Siva’snomination as a chairman ofselectors is a given, will nowthink again. It will be every inter-esting to see who all are short-listed,” a senior BCCI officialsaid.

PTI n CHRISTCHURCH

India A’s top-order bats-men failed to convert

their starts into big scoresas New Zealand A won thesecond unofficial ODI by29 runs and restored pari-ty in the three-match serieson Friday.

The home team reliedon opener George Worker’s135 and Cole McConchie’sbrisk 56 to post 295 forseven in the stipulated 50overs after being sent intobat at the Hagley Oval.

In reply, the visitingteam was stopped at 266 fornine.

Opting to bowl afterwinning the toss, India Atasted early success when

Mohammed Siraj dis-missed Rachin Ravindrafor a nought.

Left-arm spinner AxarPatel accounted for GlennPhillips as New Zealand Afound the going tough inthe middle.

Ishan Porel picked upa couple of wickets by thetime the innings enteredthe middle overs, leavingthe visitors struggling at 96for four in the 22nd over.Krunal Pandya made itworse by removing MarkChapman.

At 109 for five in the25th over, the hosts badlyneeded someone to steadythe ship, and Worker,Jimmy Neesham (33) andMcConchie came to their

rescue. During his 144-ball knock, Workersmashed six sixes and 12boundaries. McConchiethen scored some quickruns, hitting eights fours inhis 54-ball knock.

India A’s reply was notgood as they lost their in-form opener Prithvi Shaw(2) in the first over.

Leading the team inthe absence of ShubmanGill, Mayank Agarwalmade 37 off 42 balls, whileIshan Kishan scored 44 off55 deliveries.

All-rounder VijayShankar contributed 41 off53 balls and Krunal, com-ing in to bat at numberseven, top-scored with a48-ball 51.

PTI n AUCKLAND

The immensely talented ShreyasIyer enhanced his reputation asa finisher with a scintillating

29-ball-58 in India’s six-wicket vic-tory over New Zealand in a high-scoring first T20 International atEden Park on Friday.

Iyer built on KL Rahul’s (56 off27 balls) blazing start and ViratKohli’s useful 45 off 32 balls as Indiamade short work of a 204-run target,knocking it off with an over to spare.

Credit should be given to Indianbowlers for restricting New Zealandtowards the end considering thedimensions of the ground.

Earlier, Colin Munro and KaneWilliamson had smashed quick-firehalf-centuries as New Zealand scored203-5.

In pursuit of 204, India lost RohitSharma (7) early in the second overas he played one too many shots ina bid to go after spinner MitchellSantner (1-50).

Rahul and Kohli then tookcharge of the innings with an 99-runpartnership coming off only 50 balls.The duo launched a good array ofstrokes with seven fours and foursixes between them as New Zealandstruggled to contain the runs.

Continuing his fine form, Rahulnotched up his half-century off 23balls while Kohli fell short of his land-mark by just five runs. Together, theyprovided the base for India’s middleorder to finish the chase.

The Black Caps roared back intocontention with a double blow. First,Rahul was out caught off Sodhi in the10th over and then seven balls later,Martin Guptill pulled off a scream-er at deep mid wicket to send backKohli.

India lost their set batsmen forsix runs and their ploy to sendShivam Dube (13) up the order onlyhad limited success. Dube and Iyeradded 21 runs to provide someacceleration, before the all-rounderwas Sodhi’s second dismissal of thenight.

Iyer then took charge of proceed-ings as he smacked five fours andthree sixes to propel India to victo-

ry. He added 50 off 29 balls withManish Pandey, who hit 14 not outoff 12 balls with a six.

It was an immaculate display bythe young batsman who showed thebenefits of reaping experience batting

in the middle order and perhapsanswering India’s questions regard-ing the number four situation.

This was after Munro,Williamson and Ross Taylor (54 notout off 27 balls) made the Indian

bowlers suffer. Jasprit Bumrah (1-31)put in a good shift with cleverchange of pace and control.

Also Yuzvendra Chahal (1/32 in4 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/18in 2 overs) kept a check on the run-

flow during the back-end.Munro scored 59 off 42 balls,

including six fours and two sixes,while Williamson hit four fours andfour sixes in his 26-ball 51-runinnings as the Black Caps’ made gooduse of the peculiar Eden Park shapeto pile on the runs.

Shardul Thakur (1-44) andMohammed Shami (0-53) proved tobe expensive in their opening spellsbefore Dube (1-24) got the break-through with Rohit Sharma catchingsmartly to dismiss Guptill. It broughtWilliamson to the crease and theonslaught continued as he put on 36off 24 balls with Munro.

The latter reached his half-cen-tury off 36 balls before holing out offThakur. India quickly got a secondwicket in the space of four balls withRavindra Jadeja (1-18) dismissingColin de Grandhomme (0).

New Zealand, at 117-3 in the13th over, were placed awkwardly butWilliamson and Taylor put on 61 off28 balls to completely decimate theIndian bowling in the second half oftheir innings.

Taylor smashed three fours andthree sixes, taking 22 runs off Shamiin the 16th over, as he raced to a 25-ball half-century. It was his first T20Ihalf-century in six years. Williamsontoo completed his half-century off 25balls.

AFP n LAHORE

Recalled Shoaib Malik smashed a solid half-century to anchor Pakistan’s five-wicket

win over Bangladesh in first Twenty20I onFriday.

Malik’s 45-ball 58 not out for his eighthTwenty20 fifty as Pakistan overhauled amodest 142-run target in 19.3 over to take a1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Bangladesh had managed 141-5 in their20 overs with openers Mohammad Naimscoring 41-ball 43 and Tamim Iqbal hit 34-ball 39 as Pakistan’s three-man pace attackkept them in check on a flat Gadaffi stadiumpitch.

The win further consolidated Pakistan’schances of hanging on to their world num-ber one ranking in the shortest format. If theylose any of the remaining matches — on todayand on Monday, also in Lahore, Australia willreplace them at the top.

Malik, playing his first match sinceFebruary last year, was in sublime form as hehit five boundaries and added 46 for the thirdwicket with debutant Ahsan Ali who made 32-ball 36 with four boundaries.

Malik, fourth leading run-getter inTwenty20 internationals with 2321 in arecord 112 matches, credited bowlers for thewin.

“Congratulations to the whole Pakistanfor this win and for hosting another match,”said Malik.

“It wasn’t an easy pitch and our bowlersrestricted them to a gettable total.

“It’s tough to be in and out of the teambut I have been playing leagues and domes-tic cricket and that helped me stage a come-back in this match.

“I am happy to help achieve this win ina chase.”

Earlier, Bangladesh, who won the toss andopted to bat, were off to a good start as Iqbaland Naim put on 70 for the opening wicket.

Iqbal was run out in the 11th over whileNaim holed out off spinner Shadab Khan inthe 15th.

Skipper Mahmudullah hit two boundariesin his 14-ball 19 not out.

PTI n KOLKATA

Chief national coachPullela Gopichand

admitted to crammed BWFitinerary causing a problembut at the same t imebelieves that onus is on aplayer of PV Sindhu’s cali-bre to adapt to the calenderinstead of complainingabout it.

Apart from the WorldChampionships Gold,Sindhu failed to win anyother tournament last year.

“I think the crammed

schedule is a problem forthe top players, but also tobe fair, I think the wholeworld it’s been an issue. Asa top player, it’s her (Sindhu)duty to adapt without com-plaining,” Gopichand said.

“So I think, yes, Sindhuis working on some of thosemistakes, and hopefullywe’ll be able to sort it out.”

Gopichand exuded con-fidence that Sindhu will beable to turn it around intime ahead of the Olympicsand will be able to win amedal at Tokyo, despite her

dip in form.“I do believe that she

has a bright chance. Andhaving said that, I thinkwhether it’s the Tai TzuYing or Carolina Marin,whether it’s the Japanese orthe Thai girls, I think thereis definitely good amount ofcompetition. But I am say-ing who’s done well in thepast, and I do believe thatwith some good prepara-tion, she will do well.”

While Sindhu is assuredof a ticket to Tokyo, time isrunning out for Saina

Nehwal and KidambiSrikanth to make the cut butGopichand said the Indianduo can still qualify withsome good performancesin a couple of tournaments.

London OlympicsBronze medallist Saina andSrikanth suffered openinground losses at the ThailandMasters and are currentlyplaced at the 22nd and 26thspots respectively in theRace To Tokyo BWFOlympic Qualif icationranking.

Each country is allowed

two singles quota providedtheir ranking is inside top-16 within the cut-off date ofApril 28.

“I think it’s about seventournaments going into thethe Olympic qualifications,I think they will need toperform really well to qual-ify for the Olympics,”Gopichand said.

“And they are at themoment of borderline, oneor two good performancescan clearly put them in agood space to qualify for theOlympics.”

GONDOMAR: Indian men and womenfailed to deliver when it matteredmost, losing to Slovenia andRomania respectively in the pre-quarterfinals of the Olympic quali-fying team event to significantlyreduce their chances qualifying forthe 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

While the 17th seeded womenplayed their hearts before losing tofifth seeds Romania 2-3, the mendisappointed with their 1-3 defeatagainst Slovenia.

The fifth seeded men’s teamcomprising G Sathiyan (world rank30) and veteran Sharath Kamal(WR 33) was expected to get the bet-ter of 11th seeded Slovenia.

After winning the opening dou-bles, Sathiyan, Harmeet Desai and

Sharath came a cropper in the sin-gles, severely denting the chances ofteam qualification at the Olympics.

A quarterfinal finish would haveguaranteed an Olympic berth butnow, both the men and women’ssquad have to win the plate divisionto qualify. All losers in the round of16 will take part in the knock-outplate event.

The Indian women’s team playedreally well to take Romania to thedistance before running out ofsteam.

After Ayhika Mukhejee andSutirtha Mukherjee lost the openingdoubles, India number one and61st ranked Manika Batra levelledthe tie with a fine win over worldnumber 19 Bernadette Szocs.

However, Romania regained thelead in the match after ElizabetaSamara steamrolled Ayhika 10-12,11-5, 2-11, 7-11.

The Indian women looked downand out before Sutirtha, ranked157, gave a new lease of life to herteam with a fighting win over Szocs,an opponent ranked more than 100places higher than her.

In probably her biggest win tilldate, Sutirtha edged Szocs 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 3-11, 11-4. The match waslevelled at 2-2.

Manika was expected to winagainst 134 ranked Daniela Monteiroin the fifth and deciding rubber butwent down 8-11, 4-11, 11-3, 2-11,much to her and her team’s disap-pointment. PTI

PTI n BLOEMFONTEIN

Left-arm spinner AtharvaAnkolekar showed big

heart while leg-spinner RaviBishnoi was all guile in India’s44-run win against NewZealand as they set-up aquarter-final date withAustralia in the ICC U-19World Cup on Friday.

During a rain-hit finalgroup A league encounterreduced to 23-overs per-side,India scored 115 for no lossin 23 overs with openersYashasvi Jaiswal (57 not outoff 72 balls) and DivyanshSaxena (52 no off 62 balls)hitting half-centuries.

New Zealand needed 193as per DLS method calcula-tions but managed only 147in 21 overs as India emergedgroup toppers with six points.

Left-arm orthodoxAnkolekar, who playedthrough pain with a fracturedfinger on his right hand, hadfigures of 3 for 28 in five overswith some accurate wicket-to-wicket bowling. This wasafter New Zealand No 3Fergus Lellman hit him fortwo sixes off his first twodeliveries.

Bishnoi, a ` 2 crore buyfor Kings XI Punjab, is fastturning out to be the biggeststar in the junior line-upwith his variation and control.He bowled googlies, slidersand top-spinners to end with4 for 30 from five overs asvice-captain Dhruv Jurel was

fantastic behind the stumpswith some neat glovework.

India will now meetAustralia in the Super Leaguequarters at Potchfestroom onJanuary 28.

Put into bat, bothYashasvi and Divyansh werewatchful but didn’t wait topunish the loose deliveries.Yashasvi, who will be playingfor Rajasthan Royals in the2020 IPL, again held anchorhitting four boundaries andtwo sixes.

His opening partnerDivyansh was a bit moreaggressive as he hit sixboundaries in his half-centu-ry. Just when they had com-pleted a century stand, theheavens opened up to playspoilsport.

Skipper Priyam Garg washappy that they had a toughgame against New Zealandbefore facing the Aussies inthe semi-final.

Shreyas fireworks, KL onslaught give Men in Blue 6 wicket win over Black caps

India rule in run fest

Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer celebrate after India’s 6 wicket win over New Zealand in the first Twenty20 match at Eden Park PTI

PTI n AUCKLAND

Wicket-keeping alongside bat-ting is a lot more work but

India’s KL Rahul on Friday said “heis loving” the additional responsi-bility as it is bringing the best outof him.

Rahul, who scored 56 runs of27 balls in the first game kept full-time first during three-match ODIseries against Australia last week.Following his good work with bothbat and behind the stumps, Kohlihad said he will continue with hisdual role “for a while” as it lendsmassive balance to the team.

“I’m quite honestly loving it. Atthe international stage, it mightseem very new and it might seemlike I’ve never kept. (But) I’ve keptfor my IPL franchise for the last 3-4 years, and I’ve kept for my first-

class team as and when there is anopening. I’ve still stayed in touchwith wicket keeping.

“I enjoy staying behind thestumps and it also gives me a greatidea about how the pitch is playing,and I can pass on that message tothe bowlers and the captains withfield-sets and everything. As akeeper, that’s also your responsibil-ity to stay active and pass the mes-sage on to your captain as to whatlengths are better and what I feel wecan do better.”

It is extra work but stayingbehind the stumps also helps bat-ting, feels Rahul.

“As a batsman as well, afterkeeping for 20 overs, especially youget a fair idea on what are the goodshots on this kind of wicket and soI’m enjoying the responsibility andso far so good for me.”

KL Rahul attempts to hit a six during his 56-run innings against New Zealand in 1st T20 PTI

AUCKLAND: New Zealand’sRoss Taylor lamented thattheir bowlers didn’t putenough pressure on theIndian batsmen in thefirst T20I, held at a groundwith odd dimensions.

The experienced mid-dle-order batsman saidthat the hosts were prob-ably 10-15 runs short ona batting beauty at EdenPark, but failed with extrasand lack of pressure on theIndian middle order.

“It is hard to tell at

Eden Park. Inthe last threeovers Indiabowled well andwe didn’t get abig over. We stilldid get 100 in thelast 10 overs to putpressure on thembut it’s always hardto gauge,” Taylor said.“We bowled well butsometimes have to givecredit to how batsmenare. In T20s you have tolearn quick and we have

to adapt. Our bowlers willhave to look atthem and at thesame time their

batsmen are aclass line-up

all the waythrough.

“ T h eway we

attack themin the nextgame will becrucial. How we

attack them andhow we do that on

Sunday.”The batsman appreci-

ated the base set earlier butsaid the middle order did-n’t generate enoughmomentum in the lastfew overs.

“A lot of times whenyou play at Eden Parkwind is a factor and youare able to attack fromboth ends. It was hard toknow what a good total is.They won with an over tospare so we were definite-ly 10-15 runs short.” PTI

We didn’t put enough pressure on Indian batsmen: Taylor

Recalled Malikleads Pak win

Tamim Iqbal plays against Pak at Gaddafi Stadium AP

It is Sindhu’s duty to adapt to crammed calender: Gopi

Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu pose with coach Pullela Gopichand PTI/File Photo

India U-19 makeit 3 in a row

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyansh chatduring India’s innings ICC/Twitter

Indian TT teams disappoint in Olympic qualifier

Sutirtha Mukherjee in a file picture ITTF/Twitter

India A lose by 29 runs Agarkar frontrunnerto replace MSK

Rahul loving dual role