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VIJAYAWADA, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2019; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUNHYDERABAD

*Late City Vol. 1 Issue 328*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

TS stares at Rs 1.43L cr public debt: CAG

Petrol pricerise highest in 2 yearsNEW DELHI: Petrol priceshave been increased by Rs.1.59 a litre and diesel by Rs.1.31 in the last six days — themost since the current systemof daily price reviews wasintroduced in 2017. Petrolprice on Sunday was hiked by27 paise to Rs. 73.62 a litre inDelhi. The rate of diesel wasincreased by 18 paise to Rs.66.74 per litre in Delhi. Thisis the sixth straight dailyincrease and has taken thecumulative price hike sinceSeptember 17.

Naidu wants CM to cancel VS examVIJAYAWADA: TDP chief NChandrababu Naidu haswritten a letter to ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy demanding cancella-tion of the exam conductedfor Village Secretariat jobs onSunday. He said that it is theresponsibility of the govern-ment to do justice to the 19lakh candidates whoappeared for the exam.

Naidu alleged that the peo-ple of the State are facingproblems due to the inexpe-rience of Jaganmohan Reddy.A leader should have deci-sion-making power after athorough study of any situa-tion. He alleged that relativesof employees working inAPPSC obtained top ranksand jobs in the VillageSecretariats.

G RAVI KIRANn VIJAYAWADA

The latest notice served byCRDA on LingamaneniRamesh, owner of the houserented by TDP chief NChandrababu Naidu, indicatesthat the structure would bedemolished. UnlessLingamaneni Ramesh obtainsa stay order from the HighCourt, the demolition will bejust a formality next week.Now the question is whetherNaidu will vacate the housesilently or will he try to protestagainst demolition.

Ramesh claimed that he hadpermission of Undavalli pan-

chayat and that he had paid theplan approval fee accordingly.But, CRDA, quoting from theletter of the PanchayatSecretary, had claimed that itwas a lie. CRDA made it clearthat it was a resolution passed

by the Panchayat and it was notvalid. CRDA officials refutedthe argument of Ramesh thatthe authority did not exist atthe time of construction. Citingthe CRDA Act, they men-

tioned a clause that allowsthem to correct the previousauthorities' acts.

Mangalagiri MLA AllaRamakrishna Reddy said, "Idon't understand why Naidu ishesitating to vacate the build-ing. He has clearly mentionedthat it's a rented house. Ruleswere violated by its owner. IfNaidu wants, the StateGovernment will provide hima suitable house."

According to sources, TDPleaders are against Naidu vacat-ing the building. It appears theywant to create a sympathywave for Naidu by highlightingthe demolition, which nowlooks imminent.

Rajnath Singh

PNS n HOUSTON

Prime Minister NarendraModi, who arrived in Houstonon Saturday ahead of the mega"Howdy, Modi!" event, receiveda warm welcome at the airportwhere several Indian and USofficials met him. A gesture bythe Prime Minister left manyon social media inspired andimpressed.

Christopher Olson,Director of Trade andInternational Affairs, USAmbassador to India KennethJuster and IndianAmbassador to the US HarshVardhan Shringla were at theairport to receive PM Modi.

In visuals, PM Modi is seencoming out of the plane,walking up to the officials andexchanging greetings withthem. When he is handed a

bouquet and some flowers fallon the carpet, he promptlypicks them up and gives them to one of his security personnel.

PM's gesture at Houston airport wins hearts

MEIL is lone bidder for Polavaram projectPNS n AMARAVATI

Of the eight companies thathad taken part in the pre-bidmeetings for the prestigious Rs4987-crore Polavaram pro-ject, seven companies haveshied away with only MeghaEngineering InfrastructuresLimited (MEGA) alone par-ticipating in the bids.

The State Government,which hoped that the con-tracting firms would competewith one another to bag theprestigious project works,found its hopes evaporatingwith only MEIL making abid. It may be recalled thatWater Resources Minister AnilKumar Yadav went on recordstating that it could save Rs 58crore in one of the packages ofworks for Polavaram.

The Government invitedbids to execute works worth Rs4,987 crore towards the maindam works and also the hydelpower project works. But, totheir dismay, barring MEILnone evinced an interest.

Senior officials held nego-

tiations with several top-notchengineering firms and assuredthem that they would nothave to pay a single rupeetowards kickbacks to anyone.They encouraged the engi-neering firms to take part inthe bidding process withoutfear. But, out of the eightcompanies that attended thepre-bid meetings, seven optedout.

According to a highlyplaced government official,who wished to remain anony-mous, ever since the govern-ment cancelled the PPAs andPolavaram contracts, the cred-ibility of the government wasat stake given the lackadaisi-cal approach of the engineer-ing firms. A general pre-sumption is that they devel-oped cold feet and were averseto being dragged into avoid-able controversies.

The MEIL is known for itsspeedy completion of workswithout compromising thequality. On Monday, the gov-ernment will announce nameof the successful bidder.

PNS n HYDERABAD

In a freak mishap, a 24-year-oldwoman died after chunks ofconcrete fell from the ceiling ofthe pedestrian area under theAmeerpet Metro station fell onher head from a height of ninemetres on Sunday. She wasrushed to a nearby private hos-pital, but succumbed to theinjuries en route.

The woman identified asMounika, a homemaker fromKukatpally and wife of TCSemployee Harikanth, was stand-ing in the pedestrian zone of thestation while taking cover fromheavy rains in the evening.

Hyderabad Metro Rail

authorities said the mishap tookplace when some "small piecesof plaster" fell off from a "sur-face wall" of the station.

"The sharp edge of the piecefell on Mounika's head fromabout nine meters height, andshe unfortunately succumbed tothe head injury while beingtaken to a nearby hospital by

L&T personnel," said HMRLmanaging director NVS Reddy.

Sources said Mounika, alongwith her cousin, had come toAmeerpet in a Metro trainfrom Kukatpally.

They were there to look fora hostel for her cousin, who wasmoving to the city for higherstudies.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana's total debt stood atnearly Rs 1.43 lakh crore bythe end of 2017-18, an 18 percent increase over the pre-ceding year, the CAG said inits report tabled on Sunday inthe state assembly.

The Comptroller andAuditor General alsoexpressed concern that theinterest payments by the gov-ernment, relative to revenues,were higher at 12.19 per centagainst the target of 8.31 percent fixed by the 14th FinanceCommission.

"Outstanding public debt(Rs 1.42,918 crore) increasedby 18 per cent in 2017-18 overthe preceding year at a high-er place than growth of GSDP(Gross State Domestic

Product). Interest paymentsare increasingly consumingrevenue receipts. The interestpayments relative to revenuereceipts were much higher at12 per cent against the targetof 8.31 per cent fixed by the14th Finance Commission,"the CAG said. The ratio ofdebt repayment to tax revenuealso increased from six percent in 2015-16 to 8.05 per

cent 2017-18,it said.The maturity profile of out-

standing public debt as onMarch 2018 showed that Rs65,740 crore, 48 per cent oftotal outstanding debt, is to berepaid over the next sevenyears, the auditor said in thereport.

"The state government mayundertake a study supportedby future projections to mea-sure its total physical commit-ments that the ability to meetthem. Inform the risk assess-

ment on its future borrowing,"CAG said in its recommenda-tions.

The CAG report said thegovernment had ensureddecrease in the cost of collec-tion in the past three yearsprior to fiscal 2018, indicatinggreater efficiency measured ascost of tax collection as a per-centage of tax collection.

The state government didnot disclose financial results ofany of the irrigation projects,it said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General alsoexpressed concern that the interest payments bythe government, relative to revenues, were higherat 12.19 per cent against the target of 8.31 per centfixed by the 14th Finance Commission

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Three Maoists were killed inan exchange of fire with secu-rity forces in the reserve for-est area near Madimalli areaunder GummarevulaPanchayat of GK VeedhiMandal, close to Darakonda inVizag Agency on Sunday. Theregion comes under Silerupolice station limits.

Three members of the out-lawed CPI (Maoist), includingtwo women, were gunneddown when the elite anti-naxal squad Greyhounds ofthe AP Police encounteredthe Maoists, Visakhapatnamdistrict Superintendent ofPolice Babujee Attada said.

There could be someinjuries but the police are yetto confirm. Intensive combinghas been launched in the areaafter the firing incident.

The incident took placewhen the CPI (Maoist) Partywas celebrating the 15th for-mation day of the outfit fromSeptember 21. It also coin-cides with the completion ofexactly one year of the killingof the then Araku Valley MLAKidari Sarveswara Rao and theformer Araku Valley MLASiveri Soma by the Maoistsnear Livitput underDumbriguda Mandal in Vizag

Agency on September 23,2018.

The police said that basedon intelligence reports on thepresence of the Maoists inVizag Agency, they intensifiedthe combing operations. Theexchange of fire lasted forover 30 minutes before someMaoists escaped into the for-est, police said.

Vizag Rural SP BabujeeAttada confirmed the death ofthree Maoists in the exchange

of fire and said that theexchange of fire was going onwhen reports last came in. Thepolice are yet to establish theidentity of the deceased.

Police officials said one self-loading rifle and two .303rifles were seized from theMaoists. There were noreports of any casualties on thepolice side. The banned out-fit had announced anniversarycelebrations from September21 to 28.

Three Maoists killed in Vizag Agency encounter

Two women among those gunned down Encounter continuing: Greyhounds

It also coincides with the completion of exactlyone year of the killing of the then Araku ValleyMLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and the former ArakuValley MLA Siveri Soma by the Maoists nearLivitput under Dumbriguda Mandal in VizagAgency on September 23, 2018

HYDERABAD: ChiefMinisters of Telangana andAndhra Pradesh - KChandrasekhar Rao and YSJaganmohan Reddy - willmeet at Pragati Bhavan hereon Monday to discuss variousissues, including bringing ofGodavari waters to Srisailamproject and pending issuespost-bifurcation.

The CMs will lead officialand ministerial delegationsand of engineering officialsfor the crucial meeting. Themeeting will mainly discussbringing of Godavari watersto Srisailam project, whichalso featured prominentlywhen the two met earlier

Various proposals havebeen formulated and exam-ined on the issue. The pro-posals of the two states havebeen taken to the notice ofthe CMs.

CrucialJagan-KCRmeet today

PNS n KAKINADA

Union Minister of State forHome G Kishan Reddy onSunday said that the PakOccupied Kashmir (POK)issue would be taken up at anappropriate time and stronglywarned that if war breaks outwith Pakistan, the neighbour-ing country would be wipedout.

Addressing Jan JagaranSabha at JNTU-K, under ‘OneNation one Constitution’ aspart of National UnityCampaign, the Minister nar-rated in detail about Article370 and why it was scrappedby the NDA government.

He held Shaik Abdullah and

former Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru responsiblefor continuation of this 'onenation two flags' system forseveral years. He also expressedconcern that the IndianConstitution written by BabaSaheb Ambedkar was notbeing implemented in Jammuand Kashmir.

The Minister deplored thatthere were no reservations orefforts for women education inthe valley. Nor was there anindustrial activity in the region,he lamented.

The Kashmiri Pundits hadto take shelter at differentcities because of the policiesadopted and ones that weredetrimental to their well-being.

``Had Sardar VallabhaiPatel, been the prime minis-ter things would have been dif-ferent,'' the Minister felt.

Kishen Reddy criticisedPakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan for trying to instigateviolence in POK by imper-sonating some terrorists asIndian soldiers . Reddy dis-closed that action would beimitated in POK at an appro-priate time and warned Pakrulers not to create a war-likeatmosphere if it hopes to sur-vive. Earlier, BJP leaders SomuVeerraju, Y Malakondayya,and JNTU- Anantapur Vice-Chancellor Prof S. SrinivasKumar also addressed theSabha.

Behave or get wiped out,Kishen Reddy warns Pak

Union Minister of State for Home G Kishen Reddy addressing Jan Jagaran Sabha themed ‘One Nation One Constitution’ atJNTU-K in Kakinada on Sunday

Pak may splitinto pieces:Rajnath SinghPNS n NEW DELHI

No power would be able tosave Pakistan from gettingdivided into pieces, if humanrights violations againstBalochs and Pashtuns contin-ued, said Defence MinisterRajnath Singh on Sunday."You can see they're gettingdiscouraged. Pakistan PMcomes to PoK and says 'coun-trymen don't go to India-Pakborder'. I say it's good becauseif they do, they would not beable to return to Pakistan.They should not commit themistake of repeating 1965 and1971," Rajnath said at a "JanJagran Sabha" (public aware-ness meet), organised by BJPin Patna.

"If they (Pakistan) repeat it,they would have to think whatwould become of PakistanOccupied Kashmir. Humanrights violations are commit-ted against Balochs andPashtuns there. If it continues,no power will be able to pro-tect Pakistan from getting fur-ther divided into pieces," hesaid.

AREA OF THE PLACE

SURVEY NUMBERS

1.318

272/1A, 272/2, & 274of Undavalli Village

acres

N Chandrababu Naidu

Naidu's rented house headed for demolition?

PNS n BHOPAL

Police posts will come up atwomen's colleges acrossMadhya Pradesh to ensurethe safety of students andteachers, it was announcedon Sunday.

The decision, taken by theHigher EducationDepartment, is being com-municated to theSuperintendents of Police inall districts.

In the letter, theDepartment has asked thepolice to identify education-al institutions for womenand areas where womenwork for setting up policeposts there and arrangingpatrols by women constables.

It has also asked to set upcommittees of students tosuggest security measures.

The authorities have alsosought CCTVs be set up atthe entrance and exit gatesand common areas ofwomen's colleges - so as tosafeguard privacy. The insti-tutions have also been askedto compile a list of any seri-ous incidents in the last twoyears and the action takenagainst the perpetrators andgive it to the districtCollector andSuperintendent of Policeconcerned.

MP womencolleges tohave policeoutposts

Ketamine worthRs 300 cr seized NEW DELHI: The IndianCoast Guard has seized ahuge cache of ketamine drugworth Rs. 300 crore from aMyanmarese ship, the agencysaid on Saturday.

The Coast Guard, in acoordinated sea-air opera-tion on Thursday, appre-hended the ship off the CarNicobar islands. On rum-maging the vessel, 57 suspi-cious gunny bundles werefound aboard, the CoastGuard said. The gunny bagswere then transferred toIndian Coast Guard ShipRajveer, which has appre-hended the ship.

In a joint investigation bythe Narcotics Control Bureauand the local police, it wasrevealed that suspicious sub-stance in the gunny bags wasketamine, a psychotrophicsubstance, and there were1,160 packets of 1 kg each.

Woman killed as chunk falls off Hyd Metro station ceiling

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated September 22, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Bhdrapada & Krishna PakshaPanchangamTithi : Navami : 06:37 pmNakshatram: Ardra: 11:30 amTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 07:38 am – 09:08 amYamagandam: 10:38 am – 12:08 pm

Varjyam: 11:01 pm - 12:33 am

Gulika: 01:38 pm - 03:08 pmGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: NILAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:44 am - 12:32 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: Isolated ThunderstormsTemp: 32/25Humidity: 88%Sunrise: 06.05Sunset: 06.11

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CAPSULE

BOOK ON ‘BOTANYAND BEYOND' TO BERELEASED TODAYVIJAYAWADA: A book titled'Botany and Beyond' written byDasari Lakshmana Rao will bereleased by AP High Court ChiefJustice C Praveen Kumar here onMonday. The book will containbotanical nomenclature ofvarious plants and their uses.Vice-Chancellor of Dr B RAmbedkar University Dr K Ramjiwill be the special invitee.Velagapudi Siddhartha LawCollege Principal Ch DiwakarBabu, SVVU Dean of VeterinarySciences T S ChandrasekharaRao, Andhra Loyola CollegeBotany Department HoD RoseMary, Neel Kamal PublicationsPrivate Limited MD SureshChandra Sharma will be theguests.

STATE GETS AWARDSFOR WATERCONSERVATIONVIJAYAWADA: The AndhraPradesh government has wontwo awards for waterconservation and watermanagement from the Uniongovernment's National WaterMission. Horticulture departmentof the State has won the awardfor conservation techniques usedfor drip irrigation in Kurnooldistrict. Similarly, HindustanCoca Cola Beverages PrivateLimited in Guntur district haswon the award in watermanagement category.Union Minister for Jal SakthiGajendra Singh Sekhawat willpresent the awards to the Stategovernment on September 25.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 vijayawada 02

HC UPADHYAY n HYDERABAD

Finally, curtains will fall on themuch-prolonged legal battle onthe contentious issue of LordRam's birthplace in Ayodhya,going by the Supreme Court'sdecision to conclude the hearingof petitions on the subject mat-ter on October 18. Thereafter,hopefully before the retirementof the Chief Justice of India,Ranjan Gogoi, the verdict will bedelivered. If that happens, andshould happen under any cir-cumstances, the people of thecountry would heave a sigh ofrelief.

Call it travesty of circum-stances, sinister planning byanti-Hindu forces or sheer mis-fortune, the fact is that over four-fifths of 132 crore population hasbeen forced to silently sufferonslaughts on their faith forseveral generations!

No provision for consolida-tion of cheque bouncing casesin law: SC

The Supreme Court, in arecent judgment in Vani AgroEnterprises vs State of Gujarat &anr observed that "there is noprovision of consolidation ofcases in the Code of CriminalProcedure" with regard to thecases filed under Section 138 ofthe Negotiable Instruments Act.

The appellant had issued fourcheques to the respondent No.2which subsequently bounced.The respondent no.2 sent onenotice in terms of Section 138 of

NI Act with regard to bounc-ing of all the four cheques.Thereafter, complaints werefiled in the year 1999 andthese complaints havedragged on for 20years, only on theapplication of theappellant that all thefour complaintsshould be consolidat-ed and heard together.

"The main groundraised is that in terms ofSection 219 of the Codeof Criminal Procedure since theoffences took place during peri-od of one year, the cases shouldbe dealt together. Even if Section219 of the Code of CriminalProcedure was to apply, therehave to be two trials because notmore than three cases can betried together even if theyoccurred in one year.", the courtobserved. However, the courtgranted relief by directing thetrial Magistrate to fix all the fourcases on one date so that it is con-venient to both the parties toattend the hearing of all the fourcases on one date.

Kerala HC follows HRC-UNFollowing the Human Rights

Commission of the UnitedNations, the High Court of

Kerala on September 19declared that right to accessthe internet is a

Fundamental Right formingpart of the Right to

Privacy underArticle 21 oft h e

Constitution of India. Delivering the judg-

ment on a petition filed byan undergraduate stu-dent, Faheema Shirin,Justice P V Asha accept-ed the petitioner's con-

tention that the restriction placedon access to internet by her col-lege hostel curtailing the use ofmobile phones amounted to aviolation of Fundamental Rightto freedom of speech and expres-sion under Article 19(1)(a)of theConstitution of India. The Judgealso agreed with the petitionerthat internet accessible throughmobile phones or laptops, pro-vided an avenue for the studentsto gather knowledge as well as toexpress themselves.

Housing society is not industry : HC

The Allahabad High Court,dealing with a petition filed byArun Vihar Residents WelfareAssociation, a society regis-

tered under the SocietiesRegistration Act 1860, hassaid that the said Society isnot an industry within theIndustrial Disputes Act,1957and its employees arenot workmen.

Citing Som ViharApartment Owners HousingMaintenance Limited vs.Workmen (2002) 9 SCC 652,the court observed, "any ancil-lary activities which may becarried on by such a housingsociety would be treated to bemerely adjunct and applyingthe 'dominant nature test,'the same good not change thenature of the activity so as tobring it within the purview ofthe term "industry"."

No online sale of liqour: HC The Karnataka High Courthas held that online sale ofliquor cannot be allowed asthere is no provision for suchsale in the Karnataka ExciseAct.

HIP Bar Private Limitedwas offering a semi-closedprepaid payment instrument(mobile valet) to its customersafter obtaining necessary per-mission from the Reserve ofBank of India (RBI). However,

the licence issued by the Stategovernment under FSS Actonly enabled the company tocarry on the business of dis-tributor, supplier, transporter,wherein the petitioner is per-mitted to carry on food busi-ness relating to ready-to-eatsavouries, beverages, excludingdaily products.

Justice S. Sujatha, while dis-missing the petition filed by thesaid company observed: "indis-putably, liquor is deleterious tothe health ofmankind...younger generation,including children below thepermissible age, succumbing tothis temptation of liquor con-sumption may not be strin-gently regulated through onlineorders. The eligibility of ageand sound mind to receive andconsume liquor is difficult tomonitor with the trade carriedout by the petitioner."

Overhaul of criminal law on thecardsThe Union Home Minister, AmitShah, has expressed himself infavour of major changes in theIndian Penal Code and the Codeof Criminal Procedure to makethe criminal justice delivery sys-tem more efficient. He has askedthe state governments to suggestchanges in the criminal law toensure that the criminals do notgo scot-free.

With the changing times, lawsshould also be modified to keepin tune. This augurs well for thestreamlining efforts of the justicedelivery system.

LEGALROUNDUP

Justice in sight over Ram temple issue

PNS n HYDERABAD

Amidst simmering hostilitiesbetween the US and Iran, oilprices have zoomed all over theworld. However, due to suc-cessful diplomacy of our lead-ership, oil-supply to India islikely to remain uninterrupted,albeit within higher price-bracket.

Gold remained buoyant andclosed at US $ 1,519. 14 (perounce) while silver, followedsuit and closed at $ 18.06 (perounce). Platinum andPalladium also marched for-ward and closed at $.948.60(per 10 gms) and $. 1,645.75(per 10 gms) respectively.

Other economic parameterstoo moved northward. Brentclosed at US$ 63.82 (per bar-rel), while Crude oil wasquoted at Rs.4,178 (perbarrel). Gold MCXstood at Rs.37,697 (per10 gms). Sensex andNifty 50 closed at38,014.62 and1 1 , 2 7 4 . 2 0points respec-tively.

Leading foreign currencies'exchange rates were: US $:Rs.71.27, British Pound: Rs.88.79, Euro : Rs. 78.42,Singapore $ : Rs.51.86, SwissFranc : Rs.72.30, Australian $:Rs.48.19, Saudi Rial : Rs.19.03,New Zealand Dollar :44.63, Kuwaiti Dinar :Rs.234.40, Omani Rial : Rs.184.93 and UAE Dinar :Rs.19.41.

At home, due to on-goingSraddhapaksh, trading wasdull. As such, both the preciousmetals remained divergent.Standard gold (24 carats)declined by Rs.180 and closedat Rs.37,700 (per 10 gms).Ornamental gold too, moved intandem and was quoted in therange of Rs.35,760 - 35,860 onthe closing day. On the otherhand, Silver (0.999) appreciat-ed by Rs.700 and closed atRs.46,500 (per kg).The diver-gent trend is likely to continuetill the beginning of Navaratrifestival.

COMMODITIESThe sentiment in principalwholesale commodity mar-kets in the twin cities was mod-

erate. At Rythu Bazars and inthe various commodity mar-kets located in Begum Bazar,Kishangunj, Mukthyargunj,Risala Abdullah, Mir AlamMandi, Dilsukhnagar,Kukatpally, Bowenpally andGeneral Bazar, it oscillated

between moderate andstrong.

The inflow of agro-goods supplies fromother states, particu-

larly Gujarat,Maharashtra and

M a d h y aPradesh, hasb e e no b s t r u c t e ddue to heavy

rains and flood situation inthese states.

During the week, commonpulses such as tuar dal, moongdal, urad dal, chillies, turmer-ic and masoor dal recordedmarginal appreciation, whilestaple food grains and com-mon edible oils remainedsteady at the previous week'sclosing levels. With lower cropestimates for soyabeans, itsprice is expected to go up inthe near future. Corianderremained divergent withinnarrow margins.

The prices of common veg-etables rose considerably dur-ing the week. Common veg-etables such as cabbage, cauli-flower, ribbed gourd, snakegourd, lady fingers, cucumber,potatoes, onions, tomatoes andFrench beans, along with otherleafy vegetables, recorded anincrease in the range of 30 percent to 45 per cent.

In Hyderabad, the NECCwholesale egg price appreciat-ed by Rs.34 and closed atRs.378 (per 100). The highestprice of Rs.438 was recorded atKolkata, while Hospet closedat the lowest price of Rs.370.

Standard gold declined by Rs.180 and closed atRs.37,700 . Ornamentalgold too, moved intandem and wasquoted in the range of Rs.35,760 - 35,860on the closing day

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Gold remainsbuoyant, closes at $ 1,519. 14

Call it travesty of circumstances, sinister planning byanti-Hindu forces or sheer misfortune, the fact is thatover four-fifths of 132 crore population has beenforced to silently suffer onslaughts on their faith forseveral generations!

Huge response to free eye camp PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Maxi Vision Super SpecialtyEye Hospital in associationwith Telugu Association ofNorth America (TANA) andFree Cataract OperationAssociation organised a megafree eye camp at the ZillaParishad High School inNidamanuru village ofVijayawada rural on Sunday.

The eye camp was started at9 am and continued till 3 pm.Eye camp received a hugeresponse as people made a bee-line for the screening. Morethan 750 patients underwentscreening.

Dr Madhavilatha from MaxiVision Eye Hospitals carriedout the screening of thepatients. Over 550 plus spec-

tacles were distributed to thepoor patients by Venkat Rao,Senior Vice -President andArjun, Vice-President of MaxiVision Super Specialty Eye

Hospital. Medicines distrib-uted to 350 patients for free.Yugender, Sagar, Ravi Kumarfrom TANA participated in theeye camp.

Venkat Rao, Senior Vice-President of Maxi Vision Super Specialty Eye Hospital,inaugurating the mega eye camp at Nidamanuru village on Sunday

Banks merger to hit job aspirants G RAVI KIRANn VIJAYAWADA

Unemployed youth, preparingfor bank jobs, is disappointednow with the number ofopportunities in the sector willbe on the wane following themerger of several banksannounced recently by theUnion government. TheCentre's decision has damp-ened even the spirits of engi-neering graduates, who havebeen aspiring for bank jobs, oflate.

Normally, graduates andpost-graduates of traditionalcourses prefer bank jobs.Earlier, Banking ServiceRecruitment Board India(BSRB) used to conduct examsfor the posts in all public sec-tor banks regularly.

Private banks and insurancecompanies have providedmany jobs in the marketingsector for youngsters, who arenot lucky enough to find a gov-ernment job.

Due to the entry of corporatebanks, public sector bankshave stepped back a littleunable to match their aggres-sive business techniques.Barring a few banks like theState Bank of India (SBI), mostof the public sector banksshied away from expansion.

Many jobless engineering stu-dents are focusing on bank jobsafter failing to get software jobs.

But now, the worldwiderecession has influenced theUnion government to take theinitiative to merge the banks.Due to this step, now thebanks have to adjust the exist-ing staff, rather than recruitingnewcomers. This has given a

jolt to youngsters.S Venu Gopal, B Tech, said,

"I have not got a job in campusrecruitment. Hence, I havechosen to prepare for a bankjob. For that, I have joined acoaching centre recently. Now,all the people are saying oppor-tunities will be very less in thebanking sector also. I am upsetwith this."

Even coaching centre man-agements are in trouble. GRamachandra Rao, a faculty,said "Now, many have notbelieved that the entire situa-tion will change because of theUnion government's decisionon merger of public sectorbanks. After knowing about thereality, bank job-aspirants willbecome fewer in the course of

time. This will definitely affectthe institutes and we will alsobe in the soup along with theunemployed youth."

l Normally, graduates andpost-graduates of traditionalcourses prefer bank jobs.Earlier, Banking ServiceRecruitment Board India(BSRB) used to conduct examsfor the posts in all publicsector banks regularly

l Private banks andinsurance companies haveprovided many jobs in themarketing sector foryoungsters, who are not luckyenough to find a governmentjob

l Due to the entry ofcorporate banks, public sectorbanks have stepped back alittle unable to match theiraggressive businesstechniques

l Barring a few banks like theState Bank of India (SBI), mostof the public sector banksshied away from expansion.Many jobless engineeringstudents are focusing on bankjobs after failing to getsoftware jobs

‘Not just kids,adults too loveanimated content'PTI n MUMBAI

A new study from India'sanimated news creator Bisbo,on Sunday, revealed that 80per cent of their 10 millionstrong users are adultsbetween the age of 18 and44.

According to Bisbo, thecontent industr y a lsoincludes mixed mediumindustries like mobile-basedshort news creators and ani-mation.

While mainstream newshas been giving space toscripted toons for long, a fewhave used these as the main,storytelling medium.

From left-side cartoonboxes in newspapers to 2-min, 3-D political capsules -these cartoons have a curiovalue in newspapers andnews channels.

"There is an increasingamount of 2D animationcontent for adults - onewhere the chosen topics res-onate with them and theirlives. Our chosen type ofcontent is animated news,the merging of currentaffairs with a friendly format.

"People today don't havetime for repetitive footage onTV, or the patience to readcolumn in newspapers .Bisbo's solution for that is topresent news and currentaffairs in the animated for-mat in such a way that view-ers never get bored watchingthe videos and end up learn-ing about something newevery time they watch avideo on Bisbo's channel,"said Shakir Ebrahim,Founder of GoBisboBroadcast ing NetworkPrivate Limited.

News is created every day,as videos for Bisbo are basedon the topics for the day,they have a steady source ofinformation.

The team takes topicsfrom the events of the day,researches them and thenprepares a script that is visu-

ally compelling, yet easilyunderstandable. The net-work is capturing a lot ofusers' attention on YouTube.It regularly clocks a watchtime of over 50 million min-utes a month, on just 50minutes of original animat-ed content created in thesame period.

l People today don't havetime for repetitive footageon TV, or the patience toread columns innewspapers

l Bisbo's solution for thatis to present news andcurrent affairs in theanimated format in such away that viewers never getbored watching the videosand end up learning aboutsomething new every timethey watch a video onBisbo's channel," saidShakir Ebrahim, Founder ofGoBisbo BroadcastingNetwork Private Limited.

l News is created everyday, as videos for Bisbo arebased on the topics for theday, they have a steadysource of information

l The team takes topicsfrom the events of the day,researches them and thenprepares a script that isvisually compelling, yeteasily understandable

Wipro techies, kith & kin run in 110 cities PNS n BENGALURU

Celebrating the spirit of cama-raderie, thousands of globalsoftware major Wipro's techies,their families, friends, alumni,customers, partners and sup-pliers ran for fun in 110 citiesacross 34 countries, said the ITbehemoth on Sunday.

"The Spirit of Wipro run

with a'#FurtherTogether' as thetheme for the 14th consecutiveyear reinforced our core valuesto treat each person withrespect, be global and respon-sible, and integrity in everythingwe do," said the city-based soft-ware vendor in a statementhere. The annual global eventhas brought people together asa community to bring change in

society. "The marathon is ourannual, global tradition toremind that everyone canachieve if they apply their mindto it. We celebrate the spirit ofWiproites the world over on thisspecial day," Chief ExecutiveAbidali Z Neemuchwala said ina statement.

As one of the largest employ-ee engagement events the world

over, the run has brought allstakeholders together for a com-mon cause.

"The run is a testament ofwhat the spirit of togethernessand collaboration can achieve,"said Wipro chief HR officerSaurabh Govil. The run wasorganised in 25 global cities and15 Indian cities, includingVijayawada and Vizag.

Vysakhi Natyashriaward for Gaurie DwivediPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Gaurie Dwivedi, a renownedclassical dancer in Odissiand Kathak, on Sundayreceived the prestigiousVysakhi Natyashri Awardfrom the Nataraj Music andDance Academy. She washere to participate in thethree day national dance fes-tival.

Gaurie Dwivedi travelledacross the world to give per-formances and enthralled theaudience with her lively andenergetic performance thatdisplayed perfection in allaspects of classical dance.

Trained in two dancestyles, Gaurie Dwivedi hasperformed at all prestigiousdance festivals in the country.Her most recent performancewas at the world famousSwami Haridas SangeetAvum Nritya Mahotsav inVrindavan earlier this monthwhere Swami NrityagopalDas was the chief guest.

Cull out boatdrivers’ call data:Jyotula Nehru PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Former ML A JyotulaNehru alleged a huge scambehind the recently boattragedy near Devipatnamand demanded the policeto cull out boat drivers’ calldata.

Addressing the mediahere on Sunday, he saidthat the culling out of calldata would throw morelight on the circumstancesleading to the boat tragedy.

He alleged that there wasno transparency in fillingthe Village Secretariat postsand demanded that theYSRCP government go infor reverse exams proce-dure on the lines of reversetendering of the Polavaramproject works.

The storage capacity ofthe Polavaram project wasreduced by 60 tmc feetfrom the previous 196 tmcfeet, he alleged

He app ea led toJaganmohan Reddy not tomortgage interests of theState to sustain friendshipwith his Telangana coun-terpart K ChandrasekharRao.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 vijayawada 03

CAPSULE

‘BABA' CLAIMING TOBE EXORCIST HELD Hyderabad: A man who claimedto be a 'Baba', an exorcist whocould rid people of evil spiritsthat possessed them, wasarrested on Saturday night. Theman had thousands ofsubscribers on his YouTubechannel containing videos whichshowed him performing rituals.The accused, identified asSayyed Tipu Sultan alias TipuBaba, 26, a resident of KinaraGalli in the city, used to shootvideos of himself 'healing'people afflicted of ailments. A complaint was filed by JawedKhan, 42, a videographer, withthe Hussaini Alam police stationstating that Tipu Baba hadaccused him of performing blackmagic on his employee MohdIrfan, making him fall ill. The Baba convinced Irfan thatJawed has done black magic onhim which made him fall sick.

How often in the recent pasthave we seen Speakers inAssemblies and Chaipersons

in Upper Houses instinctivelyfavouring parties they've comefrom - whether it is ex-LS SpeakerSumitra Mahajan or current RajyaSabha Chairman and V-P VenkaiahNaidu? The latest entrant in the clubis Pocaharam Srinivas Reddy,Speaker of Telangana Assemblyand ex-Agriculture minister of thestate. On Saturday, the penultimateday of the Session, he happened torespond to protesting CongressMLAs stating: "We didn't pass theBill when the Congress MLAs wereoutside of the House." That madeit look he was defending the rulingTRS instead of being impartial asthe Speaker. Not to be undone, CLPleader Bhatti Vikramarka seized theopportunity to make the Speakerrealise his faux pas with a stingingremark. "We are not attributing anymotives to the Chair. We are ask-

ing only Treasury Benches!" Bhattishot back at Speaker PocaharamReddy.

Dengue extent not quantified

So, how bad is the dengue epi-demic scene after all, and howmany have fallen prey to the diseasein the state so far? Fact is, therearen't any definitive answers. TheHealth Department admits that thenumber of dengue patients report-ed in Hyderabad this year is muchhigher than the season's averageannual data. Officials have notmeasured the magnitude of dengueoutbreak and so we might not beprovided an exact figure any timesoon. However, one can get a reli-able estimate of the epidemic fromdoctors who are treating patients

currently. One of the doctors atFever Hospital told us, "Of about 50cases I see in a day, at least 12 aredengue positive. The Fever Hospitalalone has assigned more that 50doctors to especially tackle dengue.Most of them concur that at least100 cases get detected at the hos-pital every day. This can serve asfair enough pointer of how wide-spread the epidemic is.

IT's control+Z -- back toHyd from Amaravati

Hyderabad is seeing the return ofIT experts, who had once gone all-out in marketing Amravati underthe Chandrababu Naidu regime. Somuch so that somebody no lessthan JA Chowdary, the IT advisorof Andhra Pradesh governmenthimself, who at one point did all he

could to promote Sunrise State ofAP, returned recently to set up the'Hyderabad Fintec Forum' in thetech city. Chowdary, who in his pre-vious role used to tom-tom'Vishakapatnam Fintec Valley','Hackathons' and other initiativesof the AP government. But in theHyderabad venture, there was nomention of Andhra Pradesh. Callit what you will - pressing 'reset'botton, or backspace or control+Z- but the move is quite a turnaroundfor the IT tzar. These days he is busy

networking and re-working all hisold connections in the IT industry,and the Telangana government is alltoo happy about the turn of events.

Jagan taking cue from KCR?

There is nothing secret about theclose friendship between AP CMJaganmohan Reddy and TelanganaCM KCR. Both leaders have open-ly exhibited their 'dosti' and evenvowed to lend support to each otherfor better coordination between theTelugu states and progress of Telugupeople. While the benefits of thetwo CMs' camaraderie are yet toaccrue, Jagan has surely borroweda leaf or two out of friend KCR'splaybook. He recently banned twoTV channels in AP, apparentlyafter being miffed at those channels'

anti-government stance. KCR, forhis part, had set the ball rolling firstby showing the door to two chan-nels in TS soon after he assumedpower in the state. Okay, they arepals, but wonder if they are actu-ally sharing the 'best practices'between them.

YSRCP MLAs in low spiritsFour-odd months into its fresh

tenure, YSRCP's honeymoonshould have been barely over if notstill continuing. But its party MLAs'relationship with the electorateseems to have hit a rocky patch. Thetrouble is they are finding it diffi-cult to convince people of anythingmeaningful being done in AP. Themasses had a lot of expectationsfrom the Jaganmohan Reddy gov-ernment, but it has hardly done

anything to speak of in terms oftangible change for the better.Frustrated MLAs vented their dis-comfort in front of Ministers MSrinivasa Rao and MopideviVenkataramana at a review meet-ing held in Visakhapatnam onSaturday. One MLA said revenueofficials were just not listening toparty leaders, while another onesaid they were feeling hamstrungbecause the police were behavinglike they were the actual bosses.Minister Srinivasa Rao tried liftspirits by saying all will fall in placewith time. But the MLAs weren'tbuying the Minister's word muchlike the voters who are beginningto shrug off the MLAs themselves.

((Contributed by Kolishetty Venkateshwarlu,

Mayank Tiwari, Naveena Ghanate,

Deepthi Nandan, KMP Patnaik)

REPORTERS’

D ARY

House Speakers still dyed in party colours?

Dy CMs fire a fresh salvo at NaiduPNS n VIJAYAWADA

"Are you feeling jealous of cre-ation of 1.25 lakh governmentjobs within three months?"Deputy Chief Ministers - PilliSubhash Chandrabose, AllaNani, Pushpa Sri Vani, NarayanaSwamy and Amjad Basha -asked TDP chief Naidu.

In a letter to Naidu inresponse to the letter by him toChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy on Sunday, they saidNaidu is unable to digest thetruth that candidates belongingto SC, ST, BC and Minoritycommunities had found jobs intheir own villages. Agreeingthat the majority of volunteersrecruited are YSRCP cadre, theysaid the followers of TDP arehabituated to easy money. "TheYSRCP cadre are ready to acceptthe low paid jobs," they added.

The Deputy Chief Ministers

questioned the credibility ofNaidu. They said the people ofAndhra Pradesh had rejectedthe useless experience of Naidu,which had looted the public.

They clarified that the examsfor Village Secretariat jobs havebeen conducted in a very trans-parent manner and asked theTDP to stop making false alle-gations, which are insultingbackward communities, whosecured jobs.

l In a letter to Naidu inresponse to the letter by him toChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy on Sunday, they saidNaidu is unable to digest thetruth that candidates belongingto SC, ST, BC and Minoritycommunities had found jobs intheir own villages

l Agreeing that themajority of volunteersrecruited are YSRCP cadre,they said the followers ofTDP are habituated toeasy money. "The YSRCPcadre are ready to acceptthe low paid jobs," theyadded

l They clarified that theexams for Village Secretariatjobs have been conducted in avery transparent manner andasked the TDP to stop makingfalse allegations, which areinsulting backwardcommunities, who securedjobs

Pilli Subhash Chandrabose Alla Nani Pushpa Sri Vani

Deputy ChiefMinistersquestioned thecredibility ofNaidu as thepeople of AndhraPradesh hadrejected his party

VILLAGE SECRETARIAT RECRUITMENT TEST

Lokesh alleges paper leak, demands CBI probePNS n VIJAYAWADA

Former minister Nara Lokeshon Sunday levelled allegationsagainst the YSRCP govern-ment charging some of theministers in the Cabinet withdeliberately leaking questionpapers for the recent VillageSecretariat jobs recruitmenttest.

He demanded that thesenior leaders in the govern-ment resign owning moralresponsibility for the paperleak. Because of the paper leak,YSRCP followers' family mem-bers secured good ranks.

In a tweet, he charged theruling party leaders with sell-ing each job for Rs 5 lakh. Heaccused the State governmentof holding secret parleys toput the question paper leakissue under the carpet.

Referring to YSRCP mak-ing a hue over the questionpaper leak that never hap-pened when the TDP was inpower, he said that a probeordered by the TDP govern-ment into the alleged leakproved that there was no leakat all.

Referring to Sakshi, what hesaid the mouth piece of theYSRCP, spewed venom onthe issue, he said. He recalledhow the YSRCP leaders wentfor the scalps of senior lead-

ers in the government anddemanded a CBI probe intothe leak of SSC papers.

Referring to the incident,Lokesh demanded when theYSRCP leaders are going tostep down and order a CBIprobe into the incident.

Referring toYSRCP makinga hue over thequestion paperleak that neverhappened whenthe TDP was inpower, he saidthat a probeordered by theTDP governmentinto the allegedleak proved thatthere was noleak at all

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Members of the AarogyasriNetwork Hospitals Associationof Navyandhra demanded thatthe government enhance thetreatment cost of various dis-eases covered under thescheme. The first executivebody meeting of the newly-formed association was heldhere on Sunday.

Addressing the media, pres-ident of the association DrBusireddy Nagendra Reddy

said hospitals cannot survive ifpayments are kept pendingfor a long time by the State gov-ernment. If the governmentdelays the payments for more

than a year, the hospital man-agements will run into debts.The government has to clearthem within 60 to 90 days afterdischarge of the patient.

He said Aarogyasri pay-ments of about Rs 650 croreand Employee Health Scheme(EHS) payments of about Rs130 crore are pending. Aboutfive lakh people apart fromdoctors are dependent on theAarogyasri scheme, he added.

Secretary Dr PB KameswaraRao, treasurer Dr Vijay Kumar,Vice- Presidents Dr MadalaNarendra Kumar, Dr KetireddyMohan Reddy, Dr RamanaMurthy and executive mem-bers participated.

Aarogyasri payments ofabout Rs 650 crore and

EHS payments of Rs 130crore are pending, says

Busireddy Nagendra Reddy

Aarogyasri: Enhancement of treatment costs demanded

PNS n TIRUMALA

With just less than a week left forthe mega religious festival ofannual Brahmotsavams inTirumala, elaborate arrange-ments by various departmentsfor the big event reached pinna-cle stage. The TTD has rolled outmassive arrangements to ensurethat lakhs of devotees, whothrong Tirumala during theSrivari annual Brahmotsavamswon't face inconvenience.

On the directive of TTDExecutive Officer Anil KumarSinghal, Special Officer AVDharma Reddy took measuresto coordinate all departmentsand provide devotees a comfort-able darshan of Vahana Sevas inmada streets and also the dar-shan of Mula Virat in Srivaritemple.

EXTENSIVE PUBLICITYFOR BRAHMOTSAVAMSThe TTD has launched a widepublicity by printing 12,000wall posters, one lakh pam-phlets, 4,500 booklets in Telugu,Tamil, Hindi, Kannada andEnglish for the benefit of devo-tees. Information booklets onVahana Sevas and other facilitiesprovided by TTD to pilgrims arealso available at all theInformation Kiosks or May IHelp You centres located inTirupati and also at SarvaDarshan token issuing counters.

The Brahmotsavams wallposters are being displayed atTTD Kalyana Mandapams and

also pasted on inter, intra-stateRTC buses, tourism depart-ment vehicles to other States.TTD Public RelationsDepartment roped in SrivariSevakulu to arrange, paste anddistribute these material.

ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT CIVIL WINGThe TTD EngineeringDepartment is fine-tuning

colourful and bright decorationsalong the four mada streets.Barricades and queue line gates,repairs to toilets, drinking watertaps are all put up. Special brassgrills were set up with granitepillars at Swamy Pushkarani.Paintings and repairs complet-ed on all thoroughfares and ghatroads to give festival ambianceto devotees. Additional parkingspace and mobile toilets are also

set up near Alipiri as well. TheRangoli works are underprogress to give enhanced lookthe hill town in and outside thetemple.

ELECTRICAL WINGThe TTD's electrical wing isputting up colourful LED lightdecorations and electrical cut-outs at vital places in Tirumalaand Tirupati. Nearly, 37 (34 inTirumala and three in Tirupati)huge display screens wereinstalled. The hill town is deckedup with 41 huge electricalthemes, 15 arches giving a grandlook for the annual event.

VIGILANCETo provide theft-free and stam-pede-free environment to mil-lions of devotees coming for

Brahmotsavams about 6,000security personnel, including1,200 TTD cops, 3,500 SrivariSevakulu, 1,000 Scouts andGuides will be deployed at vitalpoints while 1,650 CCTV cam-eras will be installed. In view ofhuge crowd for Garuda Seva on

October 4, the TTD has bannedplying of two-wheelers on ghatroads from midnight of October3 to the morning of October 5.

The TTD has prepared anaction plan for providing max-imum facilities to devotees withwell-knit coordination between

employees of Srivari temple,Anna Prasadam, accommoda-tion, Kalyana Katta, medical,health and PR departmentswith additional staff. Staff fromeach of this department willfunction 24X7 in CommandControl Centre at Tirumaladuring Brahmotsavams.Devotees can call to an exclusivetoll-free number 1800 425 4242during Brahmotsavams forany queries.

ANNAPRASADAM AND HEALTHWhile annaprasadam andhealth wings are gearing up forthe big festival with theirarrangements of the differentmenu at different point of timeduring Vahana Sevas especial-ly on Garuda Seva day and alsoat Vaikuntham queue complexand outside lines. The healthdepartment also deployed addi-tional manpower to keepTirumala clean and hygienic inspite of the anticipated heavyinflux of pilgrims.

EXHIBITIONThe TTD has put up grandexhibition stalls at KalyanaVedika with a display of colour-ful flowers and fruits, museum,ayurveda, sculpture, TTD for-est and garden departments.Arrangements have been com-pleted for artists, who arrivefrom 14 States to display theirculture and art forms, under theaegis of HDPP and other cultur-al projects of TTD.

Sasibhushangets addlcharge as CS of GADPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Principal Secretary ofWater ResourcesSasibhushan Kumar hasbeen given an additionalcharge of Chief Secretaryof GAD (GeneralAdministration) andKona Sasidhar,Commissioner of CivilSupplies Department, hasbeen given an additionalcharge as Secretary ofRTGS and Secretary of IT,relieving Anup Singh. Thegovernment has issuedorders in this regard onSunday.

Six IAS Officers of 2017batch, who completedtheir training, got post-ings on Sunday. The Stategovernment posted HMDhyanachandra asVijayawada Sub-Collector,R Gopala Krishna asGuduru Sub-Collector, TNisanthi as PenukondaSub-Collector,

K Dinesh Kumar asTenali Sub- Collector, KSViswanathan asNarasapuram Sub-Collector and CP PraveenAditya asRampachodavaram Sub-Collector. In anothermove, the governmenthas promoted 140Inspectors of Police asDSPs.

ARRANGEMENTS UNDERWAY FOR BRAHMOTSAVAMS

On the directive of TTD EO Anil KumarSinghal, Special Officer AV Dharma Reddytook measures to coordinate all departmentsand provide devotees a comfortable darshanof Vahana Sevas in mada streets and also thedarshan of Mula Virat in Srivari temple

(Left) Workers painting a rangoli on the premises of Lord Venkateswara Swamytemple at Tirumala (top and bottom) Finishing touches are being given torenovation works ahead of Brahmotsavams, which are slated from September 29

Delhi-Vja AI flighthit by turbulence,probe orderedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Hit by turbulence, an AirIndia flight from New Delhi toVijayawada suffered a partialdamage and its crew memberswere injured on September 17.No passenger has been injuredin the incident. The incidentcame to light only on Saturday.

Air India has ordered aprobe into the incident asnone of the members of thecrew reported the incident tothe safety department.

According to sources, AirIndia flight No 467 departedfrom Delhi at 7.28 pm onSeptember 17. It was sched-uled to land at 9.40 pm inVijayawada. Turbulence aftertakeoff caused minor damageto the interior of the Airbus320. A few members of thecrew were also injured. First-

aid was administered to theinjured in the flight immedi-ately. The authorities areinquiring into the incidentfrom all angles.

Air India has ordered aprobe into the incidentas none of themembers of the crewreported the incident tothe safety department

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

TS Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao has said thatabout 4,000 constables will getpolice training in neighbouringAndhra Pradesh state. He furthersaid that the police recruitmentresults would come within aweek. The Chief Minister said that

he had already discussed withAndhra Pradesh Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy to extendtraining to about 4,000 constablesin Andhra Pradesh. KCR said thatthe AP CM accepted his request.

While giving reply to the Houseon Appropriation Bill on Sundayin Legislative Assembly, the ChiefMinister said that it is not prop-er to the Congress to criticise the

TRS government saying that itwas not filling the jobs.

The Telangana government isfilling jobs but the Congress is fil-ing cases in Courts time and againto stop the recruitment process.He alleged that the Congressfiled about 900 cases againstrecruitments. "It is not proper onthe part of Congress to approachcourts, while on other side

demanding the government to fillup jobs," he pointed out.

He said that the PoliceRecruitment Board wouldannounce the results of nearly18,000 police jobs within a week.He said that no government filledpolice vacancies in such a massivemanner. He said that theTelangana has the chance toextend training to around 14,000at a time and so that he request-ed the Andhra Pradesh govern-ment to extend police training to4,000 candidates in Andhra.

TS police to get training in AP

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 region 04

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NEW FORUMLAUNCHED FORSELECTING LIFEPARTNERSVisakhapatnam: AnAhmedabad-based NGOlaunched a new forum for peopleto select their life partners, whootherwise have been browsingmatrimonial sites.Anubandh Foundation organiseda swayamvar sabha for morethan 200 people, all above 50years of age here on Sunday.The unique event took place inthree rounds. In the first roundcandidates introducedthemselves to one another andselected a partner. In the secondround, candidates were given achance to have a one on oneinteraction with their selectedpartners and in the last roundorganisers counselled thecandidates. Speaking to thereporters, founder of AnubandhFoundation Natubhai Patel said"It's not that they have to getmarried today itself. Now, theycan meet each other for a whilebefore taking the final steps."The initiative was launched in2002 after the devastatingGujarat earthquake a year earlier.

ONE MORE BOATMISHAP VICTIM'S BODY FOUNDKakinada: The East Godavaripolice, in association with NewIndia Assurance Company,started helpdesk atRajamahendravaramgovernment general hospital onSunday. The help desk will helpthe needy in registering thenames of deceased in prescribedformat for insurance claims,Police CI S Rambabu, New IndiaAssurance Company zonalmanager B G K Mohan Rao,branch manager Parked Kumarand others participated. Mean while, one more body of adeceased surfaced in Godavaririver waters on Sunday makingthe total of deceased in thetourism boat mishap to 37. Outof 75 in the boat, 26 wererescued on the day of incidenton 15 of this month. Still 12more are missing in the mishap.

AU students take beach walk for Ozone layerPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Students of EnvironmentalSciences of Andhra Universitytook out a beach walk here onSunday to create awareness onthe importance of Ozone layer.

Joint chief engineer of APPollution Control Board RLakshminarayana spoke onthe occasion.

He extended the talk byadding the ozone layer is main-ly found in the lower portionof the stratosphere, fromapproximately 15 to 35 kilome-ters above Earth. The thicknessof the ozone layer varies world-wide and is generally thinnernear the equator and thickernear the poles. If all of theozone were compressed to thepressure of the air at sea level,it would be only 3 millimetersthick. The evolution of photo-synthesis allowed the Sun'senergy to be harvested direct-ly by life forms. The resultant

molecular oxygen (O2) accu-mulated in the atmosphereand due to interaction withultraviolet solar radiation,formed a protective ozonelayer (O3) in the upper atmos-phere. True multi-cellularorganisms formed as cellswithin colonies becameincreasingly specialized. Aidedby the absorption of harmfulultraviolet radiation by theozone layer, life colonizedEarth's surface. The ozonelayer contains less than 10parts per million of ozone,while the average ozone con-centration in Earth's atmos-

phere as a whole is about 0.3parts per million.

HCFCs are both ozone-depleting substances and pow-erful greenhouse gases thatcontribute to the thinning ofthe ozone layer, said Dr EUBReddy, retired Professor, AUEnvironmental Sciences.

"The ozone layer absorbs 97to 99 percent of the Sun'smedium-frequency ultravio-let light (from about 200 nm to315 nm wavelength), whichotherwise would potentiallydamage exposed life formsnear the surface, said Prof TByragi Reddy.

Man murders wife and kid, ends life in OdishaPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A 35-year-old man fromOdisha killed his wife andfour-year-old daughter inMadhuravada area in the cityand subsequently reportedlycommitted suicide by jumpingin front of a running train inOdisha on Saturday.

Reports said SakrajitBhanjeo alias Sujith, a native ofRourkela,, and employee ofFood Corporation of India(FCI) was living with his wifeShukla and daughter Alina ina flat at Jhahnavi Enclave,Madhurawada for the pastfour years.

Sujith made a call to hismother on Saturday eveningand informed that he killed hiswife and daughter in the flatand was going to end his life.Sujith's mother alerted Odishapolice and her relatives inVizag immediately and Odishapolice called up PM PalemPolice in Vizag city.

The PM Palem police withthe support of Sujith's relativesreached Jhahnavi Enclave andentered the flat by breakingopen the door. The police

found Shukla in a pool ofblood in the bedroom whileAlia was lying dead in the bath-room.

Inspector A Ravi Kuamrsaid that Sujith murdered his

wife by slitting her throat andsmothered his daughter todeath.

``We are suspecting thatSujith might have committedthe crime on Thursday as the

bodies were partially decom-posed,'' he said.

The Odisha police found thebody of Sujith near the railwaytrack at Rourkela on Saturdaynight.

Investigations have revealedthat the disputes betweenSujith and Shukla have led tothe murders and suicide. Theirneighbours told media thatSujith used to pick up fightswith his wife on a regularbasis suspecting her fidelity.

The watchman of the apart-ment said that he had seenSujith last on Thursday morn-ing. The police are suspectingthat after killing his wife anddaughter, Sujith left forRourkela where he committedsuicide after informing hismother.

The police are examiningthe CCTV footage at the apart-ment and also the call data ofthe accused to ascertain thereason behind the crime. Theyshifted the bodies to KingGeorge Hospital for autopsyafter registering a case, saidAssistant Commissioner ofPolice, North Zone, RaviShankar Reddy.

City businessmen face threat from a gangPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A gang has been threateningbusiness persons in the city tomake a quick money. Suchthreats are not known to the cityand when an industrialistbrought it to the notice ofpolice and minister for tourismminister M Srinivasa Rao, theywere shocked. The police soughtthe names of the people whothreatened the businessman sothat they could take action. Thelocal BJP leaders who came toknow about the incident saidthey would inform the unionhome minister Amit Shah.

According to reports, theCEO of Symbiosys O NareshKumar’s brother in law Laliteshowned five acres of land inMadhavadhara and 200 squareyards went into a dispute.Subsequently it was solved andthe occupants vacated the land.Prior to that Lalitesh obtaineda GO from the government inis favour. The gang, not awareof the Go and comprise, tried tothreaten Naresh Kumar at hishouse in East Point Colonydemanding money for a settle-ment. When Naresh becameaggressive and shouted back,they quietly left the place.

Naresh Kumar told a sectionof media that when he sharedthe threat with his friends,they too revealed that they hadfaced such threats recently.

He later went to collectoratewhere MP V Vijaysai Reddyand ministers Srinivasa Raoand Mopidevi Venkataramanawere in a review meet andinformed Vijaysai Reddy.

Both Reddy and MinisterSrinvasa Rao assured NareshKuamr that the governmentwould not spare such elementsin the State. They asked him tocollect their names and basicdetails so that then police wouldswing into action.

Sources said Naresh Kumartold the police that one ofthem claimed as ZTPC fromKadapa and close to YS JaganMohan Reddy family andanother as MPTC from thesame district.

Naresh also showed theCCTV footage of the visitors tohis home to the minister andthe commissioner of police.Meanwhile , former MP Dr KHaribabu and other leaderstold Naresh Kumar that theywould take the issue to thenotice to the Union HomeMinister Amit Shah so thatsuch activities were put to stopin the beginning itself.

Sujith made a call to his mother onSaturday evening and informed thathe killed his wife and daughter in theflat and was going to end his life.Sujith's mother alerted Odisha policeand her relatives in Vizag immediatelyand Odisha police called up PM PalemPolice in Vizag city

He later went tocollectorate whereMP V VijaysaiReddy andministers SrinivasaRao and MopideviVenkataramanawere in a reviewmeet and informedVijaysai Reddy

VMRDA to widen roads in VizianagramPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Visakhapatnam MetropolitanRegional DevelopmentAuthority has taken up tworoad widening projects underVizianagaram MunicipalCorporation.

The first is the 600-metrelong Gumchi-Rythubazaarroad and the other is the 950-metre long R&B Junction toDuppada Y-Junction road.

VMRDA Commissioner PKoteswara Rao urged thespecial of f icer of theCorporation and DistrictCollector M Hari JawaharLal to take measures in amanner that would not drawpublic criticism.

For the Gumchi-Rythubazaar road, a temple and sixbuildings will have to bedemolished for the roadwidening work, while for theR&B-Duppada Junction road,work had come to a standstillbecause of high tension electricwires.

Hari Jawahar Lal urgedmunicipal authorit ies ,VMRDA and electricity

department to coordinateand ensure that stalled pro-jects were completed. TheCollector added, "These tworoads are key junction pointstaking commuters to differ-ent parts of the city.Widening works have to betaken up."

He also urged local MLA,K Veerabhadra Swami, toensure cooperation from thelocals.

He wanted officials of thecivic body to plant aromatic,herbal and oxygen-generatingplants around tanks that havebeen cleaned.

VMRDACommissionerP Koteswara Raourged the specialofficer of theCorporation andCollector M HariJawahar Lal to takemeasures

A visual treat for dance connoisseurs PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The second day of VysakhiNrithyotsav 2019, the 12th AllIndia Dance Festival, organisedunder the aegis of NatarajMusic and Dance Academy,captivated the audiences atKalabharathi Auditorium hereSunday evening.

The three-day festival, heldunder the supervision of BRVikram Kumar, founder-President of NMDA and Editorof The Dance India, sawdelightful Bharatanatyam,Kuchipudi and Odissi rendi-tions.

Mohini Attam exponent DrKanak Rele held saw with herscintillating performance,while coming up with equallyvibrant showings were GauriDwivedi from New Delhi withher Odissi and Dr RatheeshBabu and group fromChhattisgarh with their

Bharatanatyam.D Sathyanarayana Raju,

additional Commissioner ofIncome Tax; Mavuri VenkataRamana, CMD of ChandanaBrothers and O Naresh Kumar,CEO of SymbiosisTechnologies and chief patronof Vysakhi Nrithyotsav openedthe day's proceedings by light-ing the traditional lamp.

Later in the evening, theypresented Padma Bhushanawardee Dr Rele with 'VysakhiLifetime Achievement Award'for her contribution elevatingMohini Attam.

The eight-member troupe ofDr Ratheesh Babu's 'PibareRama Rasam' in raga Bhairaviand tala Adi, emphatically cap-tured the transformation of

thief Ratnakara to sage Valmikiupon meeting Narada.

As a second item, the troupepresented 'Sapta TandavaMalika' of Lord Siva that wasset in Ragamalika andTalamalika. Gauri Dwivediexcelled in her performance.Each presentation lasted for 45minutes, much to the delight ofthe audience.

Compère Dr PeralaBalamurali Krishna was at hisusual best. Connoisseurs ofIndian dance filled the audito-rium to rafters.

FLASH MOB ON SWACHHTAPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Waltair Division is observing‘Swachhta Hi Sewa Pakhwada’across its entire network fromSeptember 21 to October 2 tocommemorate the 150th birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi. As a part of this fort-night various programmessuch as intensive awarenesscampaigns were organizedusing social media, NukkadNatak, audio/video clips tomotivate and involve passen-gers, students, families, pen-sioners, SHGs and other stakeholders to also participate inthe various activities of the“ S w a c h h t a - H i - S e w aPakhwada.

On Sunday, Bharat Scoutsand Guides wing of WaltairDistrict comprising wards ofrailway employees organizedawareness campaigns over theDivision. At VisakhapatnamRailway Station more than 100

cadets of Scouts and Guidestook part in the flash mob andstreet plays to create awarenesson cleanliness and avoid usageof plastic in railway premises.

Apart from this rallies wereorganized at Visakhapatnam,

Vizianagaram, SrikakulamRoad to propagate the messageon ban on single use plasticand its ill effects.

Speaking to the media dis-trict commissioner, Scouts andGuides of Waltair District K

Narasimha Rao said that thecampaign will continue evenafter the conclusion of thisPakhwada till the end of thismenace and the cadets willspread the message every cor-ner of this division.

Mohini Attamexponent Dr KanakRele held saw withher scintillatingperformance

Members of Scouts and Guides performing a flash mob at Visakhapatnam railway station on Swachhta-Hi-Sewa Pakhwadaon Sunday

Andhra University students at a beach walk to create awareness on Ozone layer in Visakhapatnam on Sunday

HCFCs are both ozone-depleting substancesand powerful greenhouse gases thatcontribute to the thinning of the ozone layer,said Dr EUB Reddy, retired Professor, AUEnvironmental Sciences

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

IT Minister KT Rama Raosince he took oath as theMinister, vowed to promotehandlooms. But the machineryis unable to cater to thedemand which the Minister istrying to create. KT RamaRao's first post after swearingas the Minister for secondtime was with#HandloomSunday. While hetried to spread the word online,the TSCO website, where peo-ple can buy clothes is an eye-sore.

There are just about 100sarees and about 10 duppattas.The website, which was glori-fied last year, became a victimat the whims of the contractorwho used to run it. Accordingto a senior official ofDepartment of Handloomsand Textiles, “The website washandled by a one contractorSiva Reddy, who found hand-

loom business lucrative and leftour website in limbo in mostunethical way. We will have thewebsite updated in another 2months. We are trying to getour handlooms on shopify”.

For months, the website hasbeen showing the same sareeswithout any changes resem-bling a dummy website. It has38 gadwal sico, 19 gadwal silksarees, 13 spun silk sarees, 12Narayapet silk sarees, 9 gollaba-ma sarees, 8 pochampally cot-ton, 6 pochampally ikat, 6Gadwal cotton and 10 duppat-tas. About 13 of these 100 are

sold out, so evidently govern-ment can provide only 87sarees online. Official said thatwhen the website was function-al, it was generating highersales and lot of traction. Forhandloom enthusiasts, theTSCO possesses 9 outlets locat-ed in Northern India and 37outlets situated in TelanganaState.

Meanwhile the TS govern-ment is also exploring alternatemodes of promoting hand-loom. The government haspartnered with Amazon topromote its handloom prod-ucts and crafts. However, whenit comes to textiles, the govern-ment is following the approachof one step forward and twosteps backwards. With Amazoncurrently only cheriyal masks,Nirmal paintings and othercrafts are being shipped. Whenit comes to clothing, officialspoint that supply from ourweavers is unable to meet thedemand.

Ramaduguprojectreaches FRLPNS n NIZAMABAD

After four years, theRamadugu medium irrigationproject in the district reachedits full reservoir limit. Withthe project full to the brim,the farmers belonging to 11villages would benefit, as itwould provide irrigation to5,000 acres.

The project was construct-ed across Ramadugu Vagu atRamadugu village ofDharpally mandal in 1964.On Friday and Saturday theproject received heavy inflowsand reached FRL level, afterobtaining inflows of over1,000 cusecs.

The project has left andright canals, with the leftcanal extending to a length of9.60 km and cultivating 1,400acres, while the right canal haslength of 18.80 km and cul-tivates 3,601 acres. Ramadagubenefits 11 villages ofDichpally and Dharpallymandals whose farmers growkharif and rabi crops underan ayacut of 5,000 acres.North Telangana's boon, SriRam Sagar Project, is gettingheavy inflows since the lasttwo days and on Saturdayevening, the project received57,820 cusecs inflows andwater in the project level was45.700 TMC.

SRSP capacity is 90 TMCand FRL level is 1,091 feet.On Saturday evening, theproject's water level reached1,077.40 feet, and of 90TMC the project now has45.700 TMC of water.

All this is due to heavyinflows into Vishnupuri andJayakwadi projects, whichreached FRL level, andexcess water being releasedinto river Godavari. OnFriday evening, Maharashtrairrigation officials releasedf lood waters fromVishnupuri project by liftingtwo gates. Thanks to theseinflows and local catchmentrecording good rainfall, theSRSP is receiving 57,820cusecs inflows and untilnight they may go up.

KTR's fillip to handloomssees dearth of supply

Rly stadium goes onlineVisakhapatnam: East CoastRailways Sports Associationdeveloped state of the artdesigned web site under theguidance of Sports OfficerSakkeer Hussain to have selfreliant website to put all the rail-way sports related informationon-line. Now with tag line onThink railways ….think sportsthe web page www.waltairrail-waystadium.com. All Updates,Subscriptions, CoachingAcademy, Sports events ofWaltair Railway Sports Stadiumwill be available in this site. Thisweb portal was commissionedtoday by Divisional RailwayManager Chetan KumarShrivastava in the presence ofSakkeer Hussain, ADRM infraAkshay Saxena and ADRM,operations P RamachandraRaoand other officials.

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 nation 05SHORT READS

Mumbai man drownsin Nagpur lakeNAGPUR: A Mumbai residentdrowned in Ambhajari Lake inNagpur on Sunday morning,police said. Anand Dwivedi,who hails from Matunga inMumbai, was working in anInformation Technologycompany here, an official said."He had gone to the lake with6-7 friends. He did not know toswim and drowned soon afterhe entered the water. Theincident happened at 7 am. Hisbody was brought out later bypeople who were swimmingnearby," the Ambhajari policestation official said.

Policeman's sonelectrocuted in UP's Bareilly

Now Mulayam set to lose his Mercedes SUVLUCKNOW: After losing theplush bungalow allotted to himas former Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister and then the sprawlingLohia Trust office, SamajwadiParty (SP) patriarch MulayamSingh Yadav is now set to losehis swanky Mercedes SUV. TheMercedes, according to EstateDepartment sources, hasdeveloped some technical faultand some Rs 26 lakhs isrequired for the repairs. "Ourbudget does not allow us toundertake the expensive repairsso we will give another suitablecar, probably a Prado, toMulayam Singh," said an estatedepartment official. SP leaders,meanwhile, see this as yetanother attempt by the state'sBJP government to target theparty leaders. "The governmentcan spend crores of rupees inpublicity and advertising butcannot afford a mere Rs 26lakhs for a car repair. Thisproves that the BJP is pursuingthe politics of vendetta," said anSP leader. Mulayam Singh andhis son Akhilesh Yadav weremade to vacate their officialbungalows, allotted to them asformer Chief Ministers, after aSupreme Court order. Earlierthis month, the stategovernment also got the LohiaTrust office vacated as per thedirection of the apex court.

BAREILLY: A son of a policepersonnel was electrocutedhere on Sunday morning as hepressed the door bell of apolice outpost, where his fatherwas posted. According toSuperintendent of Police (City)Abhinandan Singh, the incidenttook place at the Biharipurpolice outpost in the city.Singh said, "It was rainingwhen Saurabh (20), son ofoutpost in-charge DevendraSingh, pressed the door bell.He got an electric shock anddied." He said at the time of theincident, the police outpost wasfilled with water. "The firebrigade was called to pump outthe accumulated water," the SPsaid, adding that the incidentwould be probed.He said the body had been sentfor a post-mortem examination.

PNS n KOTA (RAJ)

A 40-year-old Dalit man wasbeaten to death for allegedlystealing a water pump inRajasthan's Jhalawar district,police said on Sunday.

The incident took place inGhatoli area on Saturdaymorning, when a 60-year-oldman, his two sons, and someother unidentified peoplethrashed Dhulichand Meenaof Mewakheda village, alleg-ing that he stole a waterpump from their fields,Station House Officer (SHO)Nainuram Meena said.

When Dhulichand was onhis way to a nearby village,Purilal Tanwar, his sons, DeviSingh (23) and Mohan (20)and the other men confront-ed him, the SHO said.

He said a heated exchangebetween Dhulichand and thegroup of men over the stolenhand pump soon turned vio-lent and he was beaten upbadly. Dhulichand's fatherreached the spot and took hisinjured son home.

Later, Dhulichand's con-dition deteriorated and hewas rushed to a hospital,where doctors declared himbrought dead, the SHO said.

He said preliminary inves-tigation revealed that Tanwarand his sons had on Fridaycomplained about the theft toDhulichand's father, who rep-rimanded his son and askedTanwar to lodge a policecomplaint against him.

A case under Section 302(murder) of the Indian PenalCode and the SC/ST(Prevention of Atrocities)Act has been registeredagainst Tanwar, his sons andseven unidentified men, theSHO said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Seeking to deepen its cooper-ation with India, Suriname iscurrently working on estab-lishing a collaborativeAyurveda Chair at a universi-ty in its capital and direct airconnectivity between the twocountries, Vice PresidentMichael Ashwin Adhin hassaid.

In an interview to PTI, thesenior leader from Surinamealso said, Bollywood will be"most welcome" to shoot filmsin his country.

"The two countries sharecultural ties that go back tonearly 150 years, when peoplefrom India had arrived inSuriname in search for a bet-ter future... Of the totalSurinami population of near-ly 600,000, around 30 per centare of Indian-origin," Adhinsaid.

The Suriname vice presidentsaid his country is seeking to"diversify relationship" withIndia to deepen bilateral coop-eration in a number of fields.

"Tourism and agricultureare the two main areas ofcooperation. But, we are diver-sifying our strategy to includeother areas like bauxite, goldand oil. In 2024, we will start

the second cycle of bauxite atthe University of Suriname.These are new opportunitiesfor the Indian government toinvest," Adhin said.

The 39-year-old leader, ascholar of Sanskrit and Indianscriptures, including theUpanishads, Vedas andPuranas, visited India last weekto attend programmes at the

Delhi University and Punjab-based Lovely ProfessionalUniversity.

On cultural cooperation,Adhin said, work is underwayon setting up an Indo-Surinamicollaborative Ayurveda Chairat the University of Surinamein capital Paramaribo.

"The last amendments arebeing made on the subject(Ayurveda Chair). All the trib-al and indigenous knowledgehas to be systematised. And, wefeel the Ayurveda system has a

very good international certi-fication, with all the botanicaldetails.

"We are working on it and anMoU is to be signed betweenthe governments of Indian andSuriname to set up the Chair,"he told PTI in the interview.

Adhin's roots are in UttarPradesh as his great-great-great grandfather had left thecountry to reach Surinameover 140 years ago.

"We can boost cooperationin tourism and we are planningto open the airspace so thatfamilies from India whoseancestors had migrated toSuriname, can visit and see thecountry today," he said.

Asked if a direct flight isbeing planned, Adhin said,"Yes, we are working on it".

Suriname aerially connectsto other countries through itsinternational airport atParamaribo.

‘Suriname working on Ayurveda Chair’

PNS n NEW DELHI

Doctors, nurses, dentists andmid-wives who wish to prac-tice in the UK will no longerhave to appear for Englishlanguage tests like TOEFL andIELTS as the country will nowaccept scores of OccupationalEnglish Test (OET) which thecandidates have to anywayclear for registering with therelevant healthcare regulator.

The OET is an internation-al English language test thatassesses the language commu-nication skills of healthcareprofessionals, who seek to reg-ister and practise in an English-speaking environment.

The candidates had to ear-lier take OET to register withNursing and MidwiferyCouncil and the GeneralMedical Council, which are thetwo healthcare boards in theUK, as well as TOEFL orIELTS like exam to apply forvisa.

"The UK Home Office hasstreamlined English languagetesting ensuring that doctors,dentists, nurses and midwives,

who have already passed anEnglish language test acceptedby the relevant professionalbody, do not have to sit anoth-er test before entry to the UKon a Tier 2 visa," said SujataStead, CEO, CambridgeBoxhill Language Assessment,which conducts the OET.

"This change which wasannounced last week will makesure that hospitals and medicalpractices across the countrywill be able to access the staffthey need more quickly," sheadded. The change will apply

to all Tier 2 (General) visaapplications submitted fromOctober 1. The OccupationalEnglish Test (OET) is designedto meet the specific Englishlanguage needs of the health-care sector. It assesses the lan-guage proficiency of healthcareprofessionals who wish to reg-ister and practise in an English-speaking environment.

OET is conducted byCambridge Boxhill LanguageAssessment (CBLA), a venturebetween CambridgeAssessment English and Box

Hill Institute. CambridgeAssessment English is a not-for-profit department of theUniversity of Cambridge.

The test is recognised asproof of English proficiencyfor registration purposes bymajor healthcare boards andcouncils in the UK, Ireland,Australia, New Zealand,Dubai, Singapore, Namibiaand Ukraine. It is also accept-ed in Australia and NewZealand for visa and immi-gration purposes.

OET is used as an entry orexit test for healthcare cours-es by educators and as recruit-ment criterion for employ-ment of healthcare profes-sionals.

PNS n SRINAGAR

Ahead of winters, the Centrehas sanctioned setting up ofover 40 pre-fabricated huts forparamilitary forces in theKashmir valley, besidesimproving infrastructure inexisting private house andhotels to keep its troops com-fortable during the snow peri-od, officials said here.

The move, which is indica-tive of a longer haul for para-military forces in the Valley, islikely to be implemented in thenext few weeks as the winterseason is expected to settle bythe end of next month inKashmir.

The prefabricated shelterswould be insulated with PolyUrethane Foam (PUF) andpriority would be given tothose troops who are sta-tioned in areas that get moresnow, the officials said.

Many CRPF companieswere pushed into the Valleyahead of the Centre's decisionof August 5 to withdraw spe-cial status to Jammu andKashmir and also bifurcate itinto two Union territories --Jammu and Kashmir, andLadakh.

The Union territories willcome into being from October31. Apprehending a backlashfollowing the move, the Centre

had withdrawn paramilitaryforces, especially the CentralReserve Police Force, fromother areas and airlifted themto the Kashmir valley.However, there have beenminor skirmishes since thewithdrawal of special status tothe state.

The PUF hut, according tothe officials, will have a specialfoam layer to insulate theinteriors from the winter chill.

Besides this, for the firsttime the CRPF has managedto secure a sanction for pur-chase of over two lakh coirmattresses which will be usedby the jawans of the paramil-itary force deployed in theValley.

PNS n NEW DELHI

An information stealing com-puter malware by masking as amessage from the Income TaxDepartment has been foundprowling in the Indian cyber-space, a federal cyber securityagency has warned in a recentadvisory.

"A phishing and malwarecampaign is active since at leastSeptember 12 and is targetingindividuals as well as financialorganisations. The campaigninvolves fake emails purportingto be sent from Indian IncomeTax Department," the CERT-In said its latest advisoryaccessed by PTI.

Indian Computer EmergencyResponse Team (CERT-In) isthe national agency to combathacking, phishing incidents andto fortify security-relateddefences of the Indian Internetdomain. While phishingdenotes to a category of cybercrime where a person's personalvital information like banking,credit card details and pass-words are stolen, malware is ane-virus.

A senior tax official saidfraud links faking the I-Tdepartment are often used byfraudsters as people are veryconcerned and serious abouttheir tax filing, refunds andother businesses with thedepartment.

"It is very important to guardagainst any malicious emailthat talks about your I-T recordsor banking issues. The depart-ment has run many awareness

series to educate people and tax-payers against these frauds," theofficial said.

The advisory said at least twovariants of the latest malwareemails have been observed.

First variant includes anattachment with extension“.img” which contains a mali-cious “.pif” file while the secondvariant lures the users to down-load a malicious ".pif” file host-ed on a sharepoint page via alink of fraudulent domainincometaxindia[.]info, it said.

This domain, it said, hasnow been disabled.

"The malware samples addpersistence by modifying theWindows registry and havebeen observed to have infor-mation stealing capabilities," itsaid. It issued some samples of

fraud emails being sent withsubject line stating: “Important:Income Tax OutstandingStatements A.Y 2017-2018”;Income Tax Statement XMLPAN XXX895X.pif; IncomeTax Statment XML.img;Income Tax StatementXXX8957X.pif among others.

The agency also suggestedsome counter-measures:

Do not to open documentsfrom untrusted sources andshould disable running macrosin MS Office by default; don'topen attachments in unsolicit-ed e-mails, even if they comefrom people in your contact listsand never click on a URL con-tained in an unsolicited e-mail,even if the link seems benign, itsaid.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The September 23 bypoll tothe Hamirpur Assembly con-stituency in Uttar Pradeshwill witness a four-corneredcontest, with the BJP, BSP,Samajwadi Party and theCongress fielding their can-didates.

According to office of theChief Electoral Officer, UP,voting will be held from 7 amto 6 pm while counting ofvotes will take place onSeptember 27.

The by-election, the first tobe held after the 2019 LokSabha polls, has been neces-sitated due to the disqualifi-cation of sitting BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) MLAAshok Kumar Singh Chandelfollowing his conviction in amurder case.

Nine candidates are in thepoll fray. Prominent amongthem are Yuwraj Singh (BJP),Hardeepak Nishad(Congress), Manoj KumarPrajapati (SP), Naushad Ali(BSP) and Jamal AlamMansoori (Communist Partyof India).

The Election Commissionon Saturday had announcedpolling for 11 Assembly seatsin the state mostly belongingto MLAs who had won theLok Sabha elections andresigned as members of stateassembly will be held onOctober 21. Assembly con-stituencies which will vote inbypolls are Gangoh, Rampur,Iglas (SC), LucknowCantonment, Govindnagar,Manikpur, Pratapgarh,Zaidpur (SC), Jalalpur, Balha(SC) and Ghosi.

The OccupationalEnglish Test (OET)is designed tomeet the specificEnglish languageneeds of thehealthcare sector

The prefabricatedshelters would beinsulated withPoly UrethaneFoam (PUF) andpriority would begiven to thosetroops who arestationed in areasthat get moresnow, the officialssaid

A senior tax official said fraud linksfaking the I-T department are oftenused by fraudsters as people are veryconcerned and serious about their taxfiling, refunds and other businesseswith the department

PUF insulatedshelters for forces

In an interview, thesenior leader fromSuriname alsosaid, Bollywoodwill be "mostwelcome" to shootfilms in his country

PNS n AHMEDABAD

A depression formed over east-central and north-east ArabianSea was now around 170 kilo-metres west-southwest offVeraval in Gujarat, the IndiaMeteorological Department saidon Sunday.

It is likely to intensify into adeep depression and subse-quently convert into a cyclonicstorm in 24 hours and move

west-northwest towards Omancoast over the next 72 hours, theIMD added.

The cyclonic storm will causelight to moderate rains in sev-eral places in the Saurashtra-

Kutch region of Gujarat, andheavy rainfall in isolated placesin the coastal districts during thenext 24 hours, the IMDinformed.

Fishermen have been advisednot to venture into the east-cen-tral and adjoining north-eastArabian Sea along and offGujarat coast during next 48hours as the condition of the seawould be very rough with windswith speeds of 45-55 kmph to 65

kmph, the IMD informed. Thedepression over east-central andadjoining north- east Arabiansea off Gujarat coast movedwest-northwest with a speed of15 kilometres per hour and laycentred, at 11:30 am on Sunday,around 170 km west-southwestof Veraval in Gujarat, 570 kmsouth-southeast of Karachi inPakistan, and 1170 km east-southeast of Muscat in Oman,the IMD said.

Dalit beatento death for theft

Hamirpurbypoll: Four-corneredcontest

Depression off Guj coast, may become storm

PNS n PUNE

Senior Congress leader ShashiTharoor, who is a strong crit-ic of the Modi-led government,on Sunday said the primeminister deserves respect whenhe visits foreign countries asIndia's representative, butwhen he is in the country, peo-ple have the right to questionhim.

On the row over a commonlanguage for India, the LokSabha MP from Kerala said hewas in favour of a three-lan-guage formula (promotingmultilingual communicativeabilities).

He was speaking at a sessionorganised by the All IndiaProfessional Congress in Punedistrict of Maharashtra.

"The prime minister

deserves respect in foreigncountries as (there) he is a rep-resentative of our nation. Butwhen he is in India, we havethe right to ask him questions,"Tharoor said.

On the issue of one com-mon language in the country,he said the BJP's ideology ofpromoting Hindi, Hinduismand Hindustan is "dangerous"for our country.

"We need to carry on thethree-language formula," he

said.Amid a heated debate over

his remark that Hindi shouldbe a common language, UnionHome Minister Amit Shah onWednesday said he has neverasked for imposition of Hindiover native languages in thecountry but advocated its useas the second language, Hecriticised the ruling BJP overincidents of mob lynching,saying they are an "insult toHinduism and Lord Ram".

Shashi Tharoor Narendra Modi

PM deserves respect when herepresents India abroad: Tharoor

Doctors, nurses need not take TOEFL, IELTS

PRACTICE IN UK

Happy Daughter's Day: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra postsphoto of her daughter Miraya on Daughter's Day

PNS n NEW DELHI

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadraposted a picture of her daughter this morn-ing on Twitter on the occasion ofDaughter's Day. In the picture, MirayaVadra, her 16-year-old daughter, is seenenjoying the snow. The Congress generalsecretary tweeted, "Who knew there wasa '#Daughtersday' I thought it was everyday." Miraya Vadra and her elder brotherRaihan Vadra, 18, are usually kept awayfrom the public eye. However, they wereseen posing for a selfie with their moth-er in April when their uncle Rahul Gandhifiled his nomination for the Lok Sabhaelection from Uttar Pradesh's Amethi.

On daughter's day, PriyankaGandhi's note on 16-yr-old Miraya

Miraya Vadra and her elder brother Raihan Vadra, 18, are usually kept away from the public eye

Phishing email in garb of I-Tdept lurking in cyberspace

They say the story of India isfound in its people, its complex-ity unravelling in everyday life.And so it is that I chanced uponAnkit, who is an owner-driver of

a Hyundai Xcent with taxi aggregator Uberand makes anything about `40,000-50,000a month. That’s not new or surprising. ButAnkit was a verification officer at Barclay’sbank, who found himself jobless at a timewhen he was expecting his first child and hisfamily deep in a financial trough for otherreasons. Maternity meant his wife, too, washived off from her firm that justified job cutsin the name of smart-sizing. Another jobwith his qualifications was difficult to comeby and the offers that came guaranteed himnothing more than `35,000 a month. Withmounting debts, he invested his severancepackage in a car and drove around the city,17 hours on normal days, 22 hours over theweekend, so that he could earn the highpoints and incentives that Uber guarantees.Despite the inhumanity of sleep deprivationthat such trips entail, Ankit’s biodata on thecompany’s app flashes the only thing that hasbecome his calling card; that he is healthyand ever-ready to run. Now a father of a one-and-a-half month daughter, a fan of Adelewhose songs motivate him on each ride, hehas invested in a second car which he usesfor inter-city tours. Some day, he hopes togrow his tourist car business, may be evenset up his own agency. But a job he is notgoing back to, even if it means devaluing hiseducation or explaining to neighbours in theGhaziabad condominium he lives in why hescours the city at night. “Whatever gives memoney, there is no shame. My education isn’tworking anymore.”

Many like Ankit, young graduates andwith middling incomes that are on freeze ina sputtering economy, are signing up with taxiaggregators to make ends meet across thecountry. A very infrequent user, over the lastcouple of months I have chanced upon at leastsix graduates who believe in dignity of labourprovided it ensures the right price. There wasSandeep, who was a junior sales executive ata company and a people’s person but onceretrenched, chose the graveyard shift to rushpeople to their destinations. There wasVikas, who junked a job of `25,000 simplybecause it involved gruellingly long hours andhe realised he could make more money inthe same time period. “Now I can pace outmy work on my own terms, be my boss andtake home everything,” he had told me.“What social embarrassment, I am my owncompany and I can vary my workflowdepending on my needs. Which job will giveme this flexibility? This is my choice.” Therewas a young woman too, Suman, who isfunding her vocational course by drivingaround women professionals in a WagonRowned by the family. “I drive select hours, amon GPS, so safety isn’t an issue. This is goodsupplementary income for me.”

The fact that I found all these drivers in

Noida’s one-time booming SEZarea also presents a sordid tale ofa slowdown and shutdown that’sforcing our young people to findtheir own means of survival.With taxi aggregators like Uberand Ola finding the third largestride-sharing market in Indiaafter the US and China, a drivingpartnership has now become aviable self-entrepreneurialoption. Yet others are signing upwith food and other serviceaggregators. Some are evenrelooking at their passions andacquired skills as there is a shopfor every kind of service, utilitar-ian and entertainment, online.

If a report released by theAzim Premji University’s Centrefor Sustainable Employment isto be believed, then people witha graduate degree are morethan twice as likely to be unem-ployed than the national average.The same study also found thatwomen are more likely to fall bythe wayside. Not only that. Evenif graduates decide to take uplow-skill work, they have to faceintense competition from thosewho apply to such categoriesnormally. This trend was echoedby a Kotak Institutional Equitiesreport too, which cited data fromthe Government’s periodiclabour force survey (PLFS). Theunemployment rate among malejob seekers with secondary-

level education far exceeds job-lessness among illiterates inboth rural and urban areas:“The unemployment rate ishighest among youth with edu-cation until diploma (37 percent), graduate (36 per cent) andpost-graduate and above (36 percent), suggesting the lack ofopportunities for a higher skilledworkforce.” The crisis was foundto be more acute in urban areas(7.8 per cent) than in rural (5.3per cent). A report by theCentre for Monitoring IndianEconomy (CMIE) had alsofound that qualified youth —those with bachelor’s degreesand above — faced the highestunemployment.

There have been alarmingnews reports about how gradu-ates and post-graduates areapplying for Class IV services inMaharashtra and how nearly athird of the 93,000 applicants for62 police courier jobs in UttarPradesh had doctorates. Withmore people moving away fromagriculture sector jobs to ser-vices, the pool of applicants isnow an ocean of missed oppor-tunities. There’s a big rush forany kind of Government jobs asthey provide what has becomeelusive today — job security,salaries that are routinely revisedand a relatively good beginners’package. The minimum

Government salary is now`18,000 per month, higher thanwhat 70 per cent employed peo-ple make in this country in des-olate times. No data encapsulatesthis better than the Hindi filmDream Girl, where AyushmannKhurrana plays an educatedyoung man from Mathura, whohas pursued the conventionalpath of BA, MA and MPhil butfinds himself without a job.Out of sheer desperation, hesigns up for a phone-sex callcentre simply because it promis-es an income that his degreescannot give him.

Undoubtedly, this trend issetting off a socio-economictransformation. At one level, it isoffering recourse to studentswho are not academically bril-liant and won’t make the cut inhigher institutions, just plainregulars who, however, make upthe bulk of our educated work-force. At another level, it alsomeans we are dilluting their corecompetence, productivity andbelief that education and knowl-edge are tools for an elevated life.We are teaching them the art ofcompromise, building valuesnumerically than holistically. Infact, if basic skills like driving andcooking can earn people themoolah, then our young may justgive up the idea of “becoming agraduate,” still an aspiration that

parents sacrifice their earningsfor across the vast hinterland ofIndia. If that benchmark is seenas a redundancy, then it is anoth-er challenge in a country whereliteracy is often mistaken to begood enough as an education,compromising the overarchingprocess of evolution of the mind.Let’s not forget the last AnnualStatus of Education Report(ASER) which found that oneout of every four Class VII stu-dents in rural India is unable toread even a Class II text and overone in two Class VIII studentscannot solve a problem thatinvolves basic division.

In the end, there is thesocio-psychological impact oflevelling out to a bare median, ofa graduate and a class VIIIdropout being forced into thesame bloodstream. Is a compro-mise ever happy when you aretold that excellence should beyour only pursuit? Besidescrushed expectations can haveramifications in the form ofincreased manifestation of dis-turbing and deviant behaviouramong the youth.

How then can we customisehigher education for a seg-mented job market rather thandumping a one-size-fits-all for-mula on sectors that can hire butneed specific domain knowl-edge? How can we make ourgraduates job-ready? As a recentskill research has shown,employers found 80 per cent ofIndian engineering graduatesfailing to meet minimumrequirements for a hire. Manysuch firms say prospective can-didates lack sufficient industryexperience because our cours-es are too theoretical and notapplication-oriented. Theremust be an industry-aided skillrequirement map so that theproblem of over-qualification, asevidenced by the latest job rushqueues in Maharashtra, does notdash hopes. Besides, there mustbe a provision for career-longskill upgradation given that theeconomic paradigm can changedue to technological break-throughs and fluidity of theeconomy. There should beenough start-up incentives forengineers to set up small unitsthat are viable. Yes, use ofArtificial Intelligence (AI) maykill some traditional jobs but asseen with the IT revolution, theyalso encourage an allied layer ofhuman services and talent. Thatspinoff is often overlooked inumbrella decisions. The jobs cri-sis is severely threatening ourdemographic dividend, giventhat half our population isbelow the age of 25. But apotential asset could becomeour biggest liability if we don’tlook at the bigger picture now.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

Youth leadership is certainly changing theworld. And the greatest impact amongactivist leaders has been achieved by 16-

year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden, who hastaken upon herself the task of awakening the con-sciousness of the world community to the onlyissue that will matter to us — climate change.From launching a protest outside her country’sParliament on August 2018, till a little more thana year now, the teenager has indeed caught theattention of not just the intended audience, the

lawmakers across the world, but gathered traction among the youth. Her mes-sage has been plain and simple: Stop talking, start acting. And she is lead-ing by example, taking the road and sailing the waters in solar-powered rideswhile strictly not flying. Now her call for “climate strikes” till the end of themonth has ensured the largest student demonstration on planet earth till now.Millions of youth, predominantly school-going, are giving their classrooms amiss to take part in peaceful street protests demanding world leaders to takeconcrete actions and avert environmental catastrophes. Her echoes have beenheard here, too, as millennials in Delhi launched a march from the city cen-tre that snaked past Lodhi Garden and ended at the Ministry of Environment,Forests and Climate Change. The students even submitted a memorandumto the powers that be. In the spirit of the freedom movement and a displayof our vibrant culture, brightly dressed students held up placards that read,“The show must go on” and “if the weather can change, so can you.” Youngpeople in other metro cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata followed suit,setting aside their weekday pursuits.

Ahead of the 2019 Climate Action Summit, while speaking to the membersof Congress in the House Ways and Means Committee last week, Greta said,“This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, you cannot solve a crisiswithout treating it as one. Stop telling people that everything will be fine. As itlooks now, everything won’t be fine.” Bluntly, she told the US lawmakers,“Listento the scientists, unite behind the science, then take real action.” Echoing herwords, even the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could not afford to remaina mute spectator and asked member nations to bring a plan and not plain speech-es to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Greta’s success and freshness have beenthat as a disruptor, she is being heard more and as a representative of a gener-ation we will be bequeathing the earth to, is stirring up enough guilt within us.Besides, her passionate campaigns and demonstrable actions of how to re-ori-ent modern living in a sustainable manner have given everybody an individualgoal that is easier to meet than effecting a policy change. Climate scientists hadfor long warned that the world is running out of time to avert the worst effectsof global heating. They had alerted about the consequences — food scarcity,water stress, deaths due to high temperatures, forest fires, and mass displace-ments — all of which have become a reality. Youth leaders are more aware ina knowledge society, more user-oriented and practical. It’s time we go by theirblueprint. For a child is indeed the father of man.

On the face of it, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman’s announcement tocut the corporate tax rates in India from

30 to 25 per cent, making for an effective slabof 25.17 per cent for all companies in Indiathat do not use incentives, is a smart move,both for the corporate sector and the opticsof politics. This avoids any potential conflictwith sector-specific reductions in Goods andServices Tax (GST) rates, which would haveled to a showdown in the GST Council. By cut-ting a Central tax, a decision solely of the Central

Government, days of headache have been avoided. Of course, Opposition politi-cians will make a fuss about these rates but the smarter among them will under-stand that not only did something need to be done but that the private sectorwas essential for creating employment and the challenges thereof might poten-tially be reduced. Now, how the tax cuts will be utilised could determine howthey benefit the economy. Companies could use the extra cash to fund expan-sion, pare debt or even not reduce their workforces in what has been a difficultyear. That said, the reduction in corporate tax rates would also be extremely ben-eficial for potential foreign investors who might have shied away from India dueto higher rates and could, therefore, give a boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative.This shows that the Government is not just taking half-hearted selective mea-sures to revive the economy but is actually taking matters seriously.

The prime disappointment though has been felt by middle-class income taxpayers, who were also hoping for some adjustments in personal income taxrates that remain relatively high. While the after-effect of demonetisation andthe GST rollout, both of which brought in a lot of the informal economy into theformal scheme, was an increase in the overall tax base, there have been nocommensurate rate reductions. The investing classes are still peeved about long-term capital gains tax on money market investments and any reduction in thesewill excite the markets once again. The problem is that while this might havegiven the bourses a booster shot, it could take several quarters for the effectsto really start taking hold of the economy. In the short-term, consumer senti-ment might take a while to recover. And that is worrisome. With companiesalready stressed, some feel that the rate cut will be absorbed in the near-termby firms balancing their books. While there could be some concerns and somecribs, there should be no doubt that the measures taken by the Governmentare on the whole an extremely positive given the overall state of the economy,and could even improve collections in the long-run once investments increase.If companies pare their debts, it could encourage the banks to start lending more.Increased investments could spur job creation as well. Yes, the Governmenthas huge social responsibilities but the best way to help people is to create jobsand India’s challenge on that front is unparalleled. This will help. However, thislooks more like a distress management module rather than embodying a visionof either long-term goals, structural or big bang reforms that will take us to thenext level irrespective of market trends and crisis. If only, this gives credenceto the idea that no Government really changes the status quo unless it is forcedto by the scale of an economic crisis. This is a repeat of the scenario in 1991when the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh liberalised the economy inthe face of an unprecedented crisis. India’s economy cannot afford to be reac-tive anymore, it has to be proactive.

A dose of adrenaline

A wake-up call

Sir — The world’s largest oil facil-ities in Saudi Arabia have facedmassive damages in the recentdrone attacks. Various conspira-cy theories have been doing therounds regarding the culpritsand the US President, DonaldTrump, has as usual pointed a fin-ger at Iran. But it must be remem-bered that Saudi Arabia has forlong been threatened by internalconflicts by fringe elements andother radical groups. Further,the dependence of the world onSaudi Arabia for fuel makes itcrucial for any strife there to besolved at once. This incidentgoes on to show how such attackscan impact world economics andpolitics.

P SenthilVia email

Boosting the economy

Sir — This refers to the report,“Corporate tax slashed to 25% torev up economy” (September21). In a bold move to revive theeconomy, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman announcedan eight percentage points cut in

the corporate tax rate. This meansthat the effective tax rate for firmswho do not avail exemptionswill fall from 34.94 per centpresently to 25.17 per cent.However, for new domestic man-ufacturing companies, incorpo-rated after October 1, the tax rate

will be as low as 15 per cent. Due to high corporate tax

rates, investments had remainedat the lowest ebb. The presentmove will encourage privateinvestment. It may also give aboost to foreign investmentsgiven that global value chains

stand disrupted due to the tariffwar between China and the US.While the present rate cut bodeswell for the overall economy,largely, the corporate sector mustnot falter now.

Srishti Mathur Ujjain

Timely action

Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Missing woods for trees”(September 20). With more than100 million adult smokers, Indiahas a huge market for both elec-tronic and conventional ciga-rettes. Although few Indians vapeat present, the Indian ban cuts offa vast potential market of 1.3 bil-lion consumers for makers of e-cigarettes. In particular, the e-cig-arette market is acquiring ‘epi-demic’ proportions among theyouth and children. Given theirattractive appearances and theavailability in a number of fla-vors, teenagers are likely to bemore prone to such devices.

In this backdrop, theGovernment’s comprehensiveban on these battery-operateddevices is welcome. The percep-tion that e-cigarettes are a less-harmful alternative to cigarettesis entirely wrong. In fact, young-sters who use ENDS are morelikely to start smoking conven-tional cigarettes.

Bal GovindNoida

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

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06

What’s a degree worth?

RINKU GHOSH

As graduates and class VIII dropouts are forced into the same career stream,India’s joblessness is leading to desperate choices

I cried the day Article 377 wasabolished in India. The nextstep is gay marriages areallowed in our country. I hopethat happens very soon.

Filmmaker—Karan Johar

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

Apathy towards a football player

Stories about celebrities falling on bad times arenot rare. Managing whatever fortune they amassedduring their heydays, many are known to have had

pitiable existence thereafter, passing the rest of theirlives in near anonymity. But some sagas are knownto have their own share of shocks and surprises. Thestory of ace footballer Uday Konar from Mumbai is acase in point. Harassed by local goons, backed by influ-ential people who are on the lookout to evict him fromhis hawking space at the Colaba Causeway, Konar isat the risk of losing his only means of livelihood. Apartfrom the space from where his father used to run anewspaper stall since the 1960s, the land mafia is intenton grabbing control of all spots allotted to his fami-ly in the close vicinity. One can very well understandhis desperation.

The very fact that Konar has not been able to elic-it any response from Government officials speaks vol-umes about a powerful nexus with powerful lobbies.His situation is that of a typical ordeal of a street ven-dor who gets targetted by powerful lobbies who useforce and bullying tactics to evict them. But how canthe administration be silent to the plight of the starplayer who has brought many laurels to the State?

Besides playing for Mumbai’s top outfits, Konar wasalso part of the Maharashtra squad that won the goldmedal in football at the 1999 National Games as wellas the 2000 Santosh Trophy. Such indifferencetowards one of India’s sporting heroes does not behovewell. When it comes to matters of livelihood, it is essen-tial that the administration takes a stringent view ofthe matter and ensures that the Konar family is allowedto operate from its ancestral hawking spots.

Pachu MenonMargao

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Role model

The people of the countryhave been divided into blackand white and there is noshade in between which iscalled tolerance.

Congress leader—Shashi Tharoor

The Indian economy needed a booster shot. Was NirmalaSitharaman’s corporate tax cut the way to do it?

Greta Thunberg’s call is reverberating in India where schoolkids in metros are missing classes for a climate strike

India is an important actor in climate action. Obviously, part of the dialogue was also related to our own efforts andthe need to green the UN.

UN chief—Antonio Guterres

The Government has initiateda major exercise to formulatea National Education Policythat will aim to fulfil the aspiration of the youth.

HRD Minister —Ramesh Pokhriyal

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 op nion

Beating desertification

BJP SHOULD STAGE A SIT-IN AT DELHI FOR RELEASEOF FLOOD RELIEF FUNDS INSTEAD OF INDULGING IN

TONGUE WAGGING AGAINST MY GOVERNMENT.—MADHYA PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER

KAMAL NATH

KAMAL NATH SHOULD GO TO DELHI HIMSELF ANDASK FOR HELP. HAVE I EVER TOLD THE OPPOSITIONTO GET HELP FROM DELHI WHEN I WAS CM?—FORMER MP CHIEF MINISTER AND BJP LEADERSHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

At the just-concluded Conference of Parties(COP) 14 hosted by India under the aegisof the United Nations Convention to

Combat Desertification (UNCCD), 196 partici-pating countries and the European Union adopt-ed the ‘New Delhi Declaration’ wherein theyagreed that land degradation is a major econom-ic, social and environmental problem, and wel-comed strengthening of the adoption of volun-tary “land degradation neutrality” targets thatinclude restoration of degraded land by 2030.

The UNCCD, one of the three environmen-tal conventions running after the Rio de JaneiroEarth Summit in 1992, (the other two being TheUnited Framework Convention Climate Changeand Convention on Biological Diversity) wasestablished in 1994 as a legally-binding interna-tional agreement within the parameters of the UNand connects the environment and developmentwith sustainable land management. The conven-tions deal with most vulnerable ecosystems in arid,semi-arid and dry lands areas. The basic aim ofthe convention is to work for improving the liveli-hoods of the people in these ecosystems throughrestoration of soil and land and combat draughtconditions.

Under the UNCCD, the developed countriesare supposed to transfer technologies to the devel-oping countries for sustainable land development.The UNCCD had adopted a strategic frameworkfor the period 2018-2030, which among otherthings, primarily focusses on improving the con-dition of affected ecosystems, combat desertifi-cation, land degradation, promote sustainable landmanagement and contribute to land degradationneutrality. It also aims to mitigate, adapt to andmanage the effects of drought in order toenhance resilience of vulnerable populations andecosystems; mobilise resources for implementa-tion of the convention and improve the living con-ditions of the people residing in dry land ecosys-tems. By far this is the most important conven-tion and the success of two other conventions’objectives depends upon the success of theUNCCD. The secretariat of the convention hadtaken lot of programmes to achieve its mandateand some excellent work has already beenachieved by India though almost one-third ofcountry’s landmass remains degraded and proneto desertification.

China, which became the president of the con-vention in 2017, passed on the baton to India atthe programme held in Greater Noida, UttarPradesh. Environment, Forest and ClimateChange Minister Prakash Javadekar, now has themammoth task of steering the mandate of the con-vention for the next two years. The four issues dis-cussed during COP14 were land and draught; landand human security; land and climate change andland and sustainable development goals.

Signatories to the New Delhi Declarationendorsed 35 decisions, including commitmentsto combat land degradation, desertification anddrought. In the resolutions, the conference agreedto make the Sustainable Development Goal tar-get of achieving “land degradation neutrality”(LDN), a national target for action. Besides theLDN agreement, whereby countries have pledgedto halt the degradation of land to the point whereecosystems and land use can no longer be sup-ported, there was a landmark decision to boost

global efforts to mitigate and manage the risks ofcrippling drought.

Countries will now be expected to addressinsecurity of land tenure, including genderinequality; promote land restoration to reduce car-bon emissions and mobilise innovative sources offinance from public and private sources to sup-port the implementation of these decisions at anational level.

All countries recognised that desertificationundermines health, development and prosperi-ty in all regions and were deeply concerned thatthe impacts would be felt most keenly by vulner-able people. They were also convinced that par-ticipation from civil society organisations, localgovernments and the private sector would be cru-cial to achieving the objectives of UNCCD.

The document laid special emphasis on com-munity-driven transformative projects that aregender-sensitive at local, national and regional lev-els to drive implementation.

While the declaration is a statement of con-sensus, the 35 decisions are legally binding on eachof the 197 signatories. Activities carried out overthe next two years would be monitored by India.

The resolutions adopted in the New DelhiDeclaration are vital for India and the world, whichis grappling with the ever-increasing effects of cli-mate change and faces a major desertificationthreat.

Around 30 per cent of the world’s populationslive in dry areas, which cover more than 40 percent of Earth’s land surface. Countries likeEthiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Afghanistan, China andPakistan are prone to repeated draught and in fact,40 per cent of the world is now facing draught-like conditions due to climatic vagaries.

In India, around 20 per cent (63.8 millionhectares) of the land is categorised as waste landsand most of this is in dry areas. Latest statisticsshows that 42 per cent of the Indian land massfaces draughts where more than 600 million peo-ple live.

In the light of these findings, the COP14 isvital for the entire world and its recommendationsneed to be implemented in all seriousness. Thepeople and the institutions of governance mustfocus on physical structure of land and quality ofsoil; improve the availability of water; control land-slides, floods and movement of soil and conserve

the bio-diversity and use of land for sustainabledevelopment of the people living in these areas.

India must gear up its diplomatic channels toensure creation of fund and technology for tack-ling the threat by all countries. As for India, anaction plan must be prepared to deal with defor-estation, water conservation and land degradationfor forest and non-forest lands. The degradedforests below 40 per cent crown density haveincreased from 24 million hectares in 1985 to 30million hectares in 2017 and regeneration of nat-ural forests needs to be backed up.

The recent proposal of the Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest and Climate Change to bringprivate investments in forest areas of less than 10per cent crown density should be started on pilotbasis after taking the local people into confidence.If it succeeds, it will give a big fillip to forest con-servation and enhancement of land productivi-ty. The land vested with tribals under Forest RightAct should also be taken up for investment for pro-ductive use and livelihoods.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whoaddressed the ministerial segment of the conven-tion, outlined the success achieved by India inimplementation of the objectives of the conven-tion in checking desertification and land degra-dation as well as help in saving the livelihoods ofthe people residing in dry areas. Modi assertedthat India was looking forward to making an effec-tive contribution at the global level as it took overthe chairmanship for the next two years.

He called for concerted attempts as two-thirdof the countries are affected by desertification andare in the grip of severe water crisis. He exhort-ed the delegates to create a Global Water ActionAgenda and offered Indian expertise to othercountries in land degradation and raised the tar-get of its land restoration from 21 millionhectares to 26 million hectares by 2030.

Pointing out that India was on course toachieve its Paris climate change targets, Modiannounced setting up of a Centre of Excellenceat the Indian Council of Forestry Research andEducation to facilitate scientific and technologi-cal collaboration between South-SouthCooperation and with those who wish to accessknowledge and training of manpower so that landdegradation is addressed effectively.

(The writer is a retired civil servant)

At the COP14 held in India, 196 countries and the EU adopted voluntary landdegradation neutrality targets that include their restoration by 2030

F I R S T C O L U M N

Unsung hero ofthe downtrodden

RAJ PARASHAR

Though Bhola Paswan Shastri worked tirelesslyfor the benefit of the underprivileged, he was

never credited for his socio-political work

VK BAHUGUNA

The name, Bhola Paswan Shastri, might have a different mean-ing for different sections of society, but his contributions andaccomplishments in the social and political arena speak for

themselves. It is unfortunate that Shastri’s endeavours have not beenaccommodated in the political history of India. Though he workedtirelessly for the benefit of the underprivileged and the oppressed,and for the freedom of the country from colonial rule, Shastri hasnever been duly credited for his socio-political work.

Simple living and high thinking was a way of life for the three-time Chief Minister of Bihar, who not just dedicated his whole lifefor the uplift of the marginalised sections of society but also fol-lowed a righteous path in the murky world of politics.

Not one to believe in politics of opportunism, nepotism,favouritism, glorification and cashing in on his following by bargain-ing for political posts, Shastri charted his own course in life andwas always guided by political ethics and constitutional morality.

Born in 1914 in Bairgachhi, Purnea district, Bihar, in a familythat belonged to the Pasi community (considered untouchables)Bhola Paswan, as he was known at that time, faced intense dis-crimination and atrocities. However, rising above that, he chartedhis way forward and was a brilliant student. He gained a respectableposition in society by studying from the renowned Kashi Universityand the title of Shastri was conferred on him due to his keen intel-lect. Using his education as a means to fight for the emancipationof his people, Shastri began raising his voice against the caste sys-tem and the atrocities inflicted on members of the Dalit communi-ty. He participated in many of the struggles launched for the bet-terment of Dalits and later on joined active politics to make theirvoice heard as their representative.

Being a follower of Gandhi, he strongly advocated the Mahatma’sideas during the days of freedom struggle and reiterated that polit-ical independence could not be achieved unless one was sociallyequal and liberated. Realising the important role education had playedin his life; Shastri always stressed on the need for learning and urgedDalits to pursue higher education for an overall and holistic devel-opment. His keen understanding of socio-political dynamics allowedShastri to ignite the minds of the oppressed and encourage themto break the shackles of poverty and social stigma attached to thecaste-system.

Later Shastri, who also had a nationalistic bent of mind, wasto jump into the struggle for India’s independence as a revolution-ary and play a significant role in it. Shastri’s dynamic personalityand love for the country, politics and social issues resulted in himbecoming the first Dalit Chief Minister of Bihar in 1968. He was tooccupy that post twice more. Shastri was also a member of theRajya Sabha and a vocal advocate for his community and the pro-gressive plans he had for them.

Shastri’s unmatched wit and intellect came through in an inter-view he gave in 1978 in his capacity as the Chairman of the thennewly-founded Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission.When asked about caste-based discrimination in the country, hesaid, “With more people from different communities becoming edu-cated, the discrimination against Harijans is slowly becoming less.But then, you also have rigid Hindus, like the ones who washedwith Ganga water a statue that Jagjivan Ram had unveiled at Varanasi,in order to ‘purify’ it.”

He mobilised the Harijan community to enter the national main-stream and join hands with other landless peasants to change theirlives for the better. Shastri supported affirmative action and termedit as a way to rectify the history of injustice dating back thousandsof years. A proponent of the reservation policy, Shastri often point-ed out that Harijans have a double impediment, poverty and socialdiscrimination, to overcome and quota would help them beat this.

Shastri was one of the unsung leaders and visionaries of yes-teryears who contributed a lot to the nation but never took advan-tage of their capacity and position. He always gave priority to soci-ety over his family and was against amalgamation of wealth, whichis why Shastri was left with just a few clothes, a pair of shoes anda meagre bank account at the time of his death. Socialism and egal-itarianism were the inalienable attributes of Shastri’s personality whichis evident from the journey of his life.

It will be an injustice to let his name be erased from the annalsof history, especially whenever we remember frontline social reform-ers and Dalit ideologues. In an era where politics of vendetta andnepotism is being used as a means to further personal agendasor decimate rivals, his simple lifestyle and brand of selfless poli-tics can prove to be the guiding light for modern-day politicians andinspire many budding leaders.

(The writer is a Research Scholar at Patna University.)

In 2005, an independent filmmak-er, Dylan Avery, made a docu-mentary called Loose Change.

The film explores the many conspir-acy theories which began to emergeafter the 9/11 attacks in New York.

The documentary does not dis-cuss the theories as much as it actu-ally promulgates them in a ratherdramatic manner. The film claimsthat it has enough evidence to provethe conspiratorial notion that the9/11 attacks were an “inside job,”meaning they were organised by theUS Government.

In 2006, Avery and the film’s pro-ducers released a second edition ofthe film, claiming that this oneincluded some new evidence. But,

actually, this one left out certainclaims made in the first edition of thefilm after they were debunked.

A year later in 2007, a third ver-sion of the documentary emergedcalled Loose Change: Final Cut. Thisedition almost entirely edited out themany speculative claims of the pre-vious editions. This left the film look-ing more like a compilation ofreports on the attacks because, bythen, Loose Change had been system-atically debunked through a series ofarticles in various newspapers in theUS and the UK.

Ironically, the American businesstycoon, Mark Cuban, who hadbought the rights to distribute the lastedition of the film — which, unlikethe first two editions, was notreleased online for free — was quot-ed as saying that he entirely disagreedwith the contents of the film. One ofthe film’s producers, Mathew Brown,echoed the sentiment but added thathe had financed the film because hebelieved in freedom of speech.

The first edition was a sloppy andamateur attempt to cynically drawtraction from online fans of conspir-

acy theories. However, it became ahuge online hit, encouraging themakers of the film to turn it into alucrative franchise of sorts.

The first edition cost just $2,000,the second $6,000 and the third$200,000, after the rights of the filmwere sold to a major DVD distribu-tion company. Translated versions ofthe film were also screened on TVchannels in various countries, includ-ing Pakistan.

Geo TV ran it with an Urdu com-mentary, even though, by then, thefilm had been significantly discred-ited. Influenced by the successfulmanner in which it had managed todraw a large audience, another localTV channel, Indus TV, began to runa series of translated documentariesfunded by the wealthy Turkish‘Islamic creationist’ and cult figureHarun Yahya. These films explainedDarwinism, secularism, democracy,‘Western modernity,’ and so on, as thecore reasons behind the misery in theMuslim world and on Earth in gen-eral.

In 2009, ARY News jumped onthe bandwagon by adapting anoth-

er Yahya-funded documentary Endof Time. Commentary in the Urduversion was provided by a talk-show host, who faithfully replicatedthe film’s sombre tone, pointing outthe ‘signs’ foretold by the holy scrip-tures of the coming apocalypse.

As I mentioned in a previous col-umn two in-depth studies, conduct-ed in 2018 and published in theJournal of Individual Differences,identified ‘schizotypy’ as a prominentreason behind the growth in theacceptance of fantastical claims andconspiracy theories in recent years.People with schizotypy have an ele-vated need to feel unique, but at thesame time take refuge in a commu-nity of like-minded individuals. Suchan individual or community aremore likely to judge nonsensicalstatements as profound.

They often believe in things forwhich there is no empirical evidence.The higher this schizotypy is in a per-son, the more likely he or she is tobelieve in conspiracy theories.

There is also the fact that thecomplex political, economic, cli-matic and demographic shifts and

changes occurring in the post-9/11world and the mushrooming ofsocial media sites, have all con-tributed in making fantastical expla-nations — that were once relegatedto the lunatic fringe — migrate to themainstream.

Confusion and polarisation inthis context allows people to latch onto theoretical concoctions connect-ing disparate dots to complete an(often diabolic) explanatory whole.Nothing new about this, as such. In1902 a tome appeared in Russia titledThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The book reports how a groupof powerful Jews got together to plana sinister takeover of the world’s eco-nomic, political and media institu-tions. The book is also a hotchpotchof segments plagiarised from certain19th-century anti-Semitic literature.Russian scholar and professor CesareG. De Michelis writes in his book TheNon-Existent Manuscript that TheProtocols was an anti-Semitic satireon a seminar organised by RussianZionists. Anti-Semitism was peakingin Russia at the time, and this is whythis satire was then published more

widely, but this time as fact, accord-ing to Michelis.

After doing the rounds in Russia,The Protocols reached the US in 1917.In 1921, US car manufacturer HenryFord financed the publishing of50,000 copies of the tome. He alsopublished a series of articles inspiredby the book in a newspaper that heowned. The articles all appearedunder the title The International Jew.Everything from the communistrevolution in Russia to the creationof trade unions and inter-racial mar-riages in the West was blamed on theJews. In 1922, the book and the arti-cles were translated into German andbecame popular in Germany. Itwould go on to influence the ideol-ogy of Nazism in that country. It did-n’t matter that the British daily TheTimes had already thoroughlyexposed the book as a hoax and aforgery. At the end of World War II,when facts about the Holocaustbegan to emerge, the book lostmainstream traction and reader-ship in Europe and the US, and wasrelegated to the Right-wing fringe.

But it rebounded by finding a

brand new audience in the Arabworld after the creation of Israel in1948. Its first Arabic translationappeared in 1951 in Egypt. It soonmade its way into the non-ArabMuslim world as well.

I am not sure when it appearedin Pakistan as an Urdu translation,but I once found a 1968 Urdu edi-tion of it in a second-hand book storein Islamabad in 2005. In 1987, whenthe Palestinian Islamist outfit Hamaswas formed, its first charter (pub-lished in 1988) heavily referencedThe Protocols. But by then the bookhad already begun to lose purchasein the Muslim world as well, until itreturned with a bang a decade or solatter due to the internet explosion.

Uploaded by Neo-Nazi andwhite supremacist groups and by var-ious Islamist outfits, The Protocolsonce again managed to migratefrom the fringes to the mainstream.

Its readers again outnumberthose who are more interested inreading the many exposés that com-pletely debunked the book as avicious fraud.

(Courtesy, The Dawn)

The rise of conspiracy theories and fantasiesComplex political, economic, demographic shifts and the mushrooming of social media sites have all contributed in making fantastical

explanations, that were once relegated to the lunatic fringe, migrate to the mainstream

NADEEM PARACHA

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

COUNTRIES WILLNOW BE EXPECTED

TO ADDRESSINSECURITY OFLAND TENURE,

INCLUDINGGENDER

INEQUALITY;PROMOTE LAND

RESTORATION TOREDUCECARBON

EMISSIONS ANDMOBILISE

INNOVATIVESOURCES OF

FINANCE FROMPUBLIC AND

PRIVATE SOURCESTO SUPPORT THEIMPLEMENTATION

OF THESEDECISIONS AT ANATIONAL LEVEL

analysis 07www.dailypioneer.com

VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 money 08

CAPSULE

BSNL pays Augustsalaries to staff: CMDNEW DELHI: Ending days ofagonising wait for employees,crisis-ridden Bharat SancharNigam Ltd (BSNL) has madesalary payment to its staff forAugust, according to a topofficial. BSNL Chairman andManaging Director P K Purwarconfirmed to PTI that thecorporation transferred thefunds and made August salarypayment to its employees, lastweek. "Employees have gottheir salary now. The salaryrequirements were metinternally," Purwar said.State-owned distressed telecomfirms Mahanagar TelephoneNigam Ltd (MTNL) and BSNLhave been incurring lossesand have been facingproblems in clearing staffsalaries in the recent past.The Department ofTelecommunications (DoT) forsome time now has beenworking on a rescue plan forthe two companies in the formof a revival package thatentails components such asvoluntary retirement scheme,asset monetisation andallocation of 4G spectrum.

Torrent Pharmaexpands recall ofhypertension drugNEW DELHI: Drug firm TorrentPharmaceuticals is expandingits voluntary recall for tabletsused to control hypertensionin the US due to detection oftraces of N-Methylnitrosobutyric acid,according to health regulatorUSFDA. The company isexpanding recall for Losartanpotassium tablets USP andLosartan potassium /hydrochlorothiazide tablets tothe consumer level due to thedetection of trace amounts ofan unexpected impurity whiletesting some finished productbatches manufactured utilisingactive pharmaceuticalingredient manufactured byHetero Labs, TorrentPharmaceuticals said in anannouncement posted on thewebsite of USFDA.

Amway aims 12%of India biz fromconsumer durablesNEW DELHI: Amway India isexpecting its consumerdurables business tocontribute around 12 per centto the company's overallturnover in the next two tothree years as the direct sellingfirm carrying portfolioexpansion plans in thesegment, a top companyofficial has said. Amway India,as part of expansion of itsproduct portfolio, alsoannounced foray into emerginghome air purifier segment andaims to clock sales of aroundRs 100 crore in the next 12 to18 months. Besides, thecompany is planning to enterthe water purifier segment andworking on the project.

PTI n NEW DELHI

The Centre is mulling impos-ing stock limits on oniontraders as the retail prices ofthe key kitchen staple have shotup to Rs 70-80 per kg in thenational capital and other partsof the country owing to supplydisruption in the wake ofexcess monsoon rains in themajor growing states, accord-ing to sources.

As per the data maintainedby the consumer affairs min-istry, retail onion prices rose toRs 57/kg in Delhi, Rs 56/kg inMumbai, Rs 48/kg in Kolkataand Rs 34/kg in Chennai lastweek. The prices were quoted atRs 60/kg in Gurgoan andJammu during the same period.

However, trade data showedretail onion prices skyrocketingto Rs 70-80 per kg towards theend of the last week from Rs 50-60/kg in the previous week.

Onion prices are on the risedespite several measures takenby the central government toboost supply.

"The government has takenseveral measures in the last fewweeks to improve the domesticsupply and check furtherincrease in prices of onion.However, retail prices have sud-denly shot up in the last 2-3 daysbecause of supply disruptiondue to excess rains in the grow-ing states," a source told PTI.

It is a short-term supply dis-ruption and if the situationdoes not normalise in the next2-3 days and prices rise, thenthe government may considerseriously imposing stock hold-ing limits on onion traders, thesource said.

According to the MetDepartment, main onion pro-ducing regions especiallyMaharasthra, Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, east-ern Rajasthan and westernMadhya Pradesh have receivedexcess monsoon rainfalls in thelast two days.

Right now, stored onions aresold in most parts of the coun-

try as fresh kharif (summer)crop will hit the market fromNovember onwards, traderssaid.

Traders further said thatthere is enough supply ofstored onion of the previousyear's crop in the country butits transportation has beenaffected because of heavy rains.

Much of the onion is storedin Maharashtra, where rainsdisrupted the transport of thekitchen staple to other parts ofthe country, said a wholesaletrader from Lasalgoan inMaharasthra, Asia's largestonion market.

At wholesale market ofLasalgoan, onion prices rose toRs 45/kg last week, when com-pared with less than Rs 10/kgin the year-ago period.

The Centre has taken severalmeasures to arrest the prices ofonion in Delhi and other partsof the country. It is offloadingonion from its buffer stockthrough agencies like Nafed

and NCCF which are selling ataround Rs 22/kg and state-runMother Dairy at Rs 23.90 perkg in the national capital

The state governments havebeen asked to boost supply intheir states lifting central bufferstock. Some states like Delhi,Tripura and Andhra Pradeshhave shown interest so far.

The centre has a bufferstock of 56,000 tonnes ofonion, of which 16,000 tonneshas been offloaded so far. InDelhi, 200 tonnes a day isbeing offloaded.

Besides, the Centre has dis-couraged export of onion byincreasing the minimumexport price and withdrawingincentives. It is also crackingdown on blackmarketeers.

Besides rains, prices areunder pressure on likely fall inkharif production of this yearowing to less planted areaunder onion on account ofexcess rains, the sourcesadded.

PTI n NEW DELHI

CRISIL Research on Sundaysaid top 1,000 listed companiescould see tax savings of Rs37,000 crore on account of thecorporate tax cut.

"Over the past few days, aslew of measures have beenintroduced to address the slow-down in the Indian economy.Friday's announcement, how-ever, is the most material...Ouranalysis indicates these 1,000companies could see tax sav-ings of Rs 37,000 crore, ornearly a fourth of the total sav-ings anticipated by the gov-ernment," it said in a statement.

The drop in tax rate wouldnow bring India at par withmost Asian economies, itadded.

"CRISIL Research's analysisof nearly 1,000 companies --spread across 80+ sectors suchthat they cover more than 70

per cent of NSE's market cap-italisation -- indicates thateffective tax rates had risenover the past 5 years," it said.

These companies, includ-ing oil & gas and financial ser-vices, account for nearly athird of the tax paid by India

Inc."These estimates are based

on profit before tax for fiscal2019. Given that we expect 5-6 per cent growth in India Increvenues and Ebitda (earn-ings before interest, tax, depre-ciation and amortisation) for

this fiscal, the savings couldend up a tad higher," it added.

In a major fiscal booster, thegovernment on Friday slashedeffective corporate tax to 25.17per cent, inclusive of all cessand surcharges for domesticcompanies.

Top 1,000 listed firms maysee Rs 37,000 cr savings

Given that weexpect 5-6 per centgrowth in India Increvenues andEbitda (earningsbefore interest,tax, depreciationand amortisation)for this fiscal, thesavings could endup a tad higher," itadded

CENTRE MULLS IMPOSING STOCK LIMITS

It is a short-term supply disruption andif the situation does not normalise inthe next 2-3 days and prices rise, thenthe government may consider seriouslyimposing stock holding limits on oniontraders, the source said

Indian researcher wins accolade at global startup contestPTI n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

An Indian startup mentoredand curated by the KeralaStartup Mission (KSUM) forthe 'She Loves Tech GlobalStartup Competition-2019' in

Beijing has won accolades atthe meet.

Odisha based researcher andentrepreneur Dr Nusrat J MSanghamitra was honoured atthe meet for the path-breakingcancer drug delivery devicedeveloped by CyCaOncoSolutions founded by her.

The molecular drillingdevice that can inject directlyand precisely anti-cancer drugsto the affected cells, devel-oped by the Odisha-basedresearch and technology start-up, has been hailed as a break-through in cancer treatment, a

press release here said.'She Loves Tech' is a global

platform committed to build-ing an ecosystem for technol-ogy, entrepreneurship andinnovation that creates oppor-tunities for women.

Cyca OncoSolutions had ear-

lier won honours at the She LovesTech India meet, organised byKSUM in Kochi recently.

Following this, KSUM sentDr Nusrat to the four-day bootcamp in Beijing and subse-quently she made her way tothe global summit.

Cyca OncoSolutions baggedthe third prize at the summit,held to identify and encourageinnovative and successful tech-nological ventures promoted bywomen.

Startups from Germany andUS bagged the first two prizesat the summit, which had linedup 15 women led enterprisesfrom around the world for thefinal round to present theirimaginative and trail-blazingproducts and ideas.

Cyca OncoSolutions has

developed an efficient, non-toxic invitro and in vivo deliv-ery method for various clinicalapplications, especially for can-cer therapeutics, the releasesaid

Since the nano technologybased molecular drillingdevice has proved effective indelivering anti-cancer medi-cines to the affected cellsdirectly, it is expected to causeminimum harm to the unaf-fected cells and to reduce theside-effects.

A method that can radical-ly improve the quality of livesof nearly 15 million cancerpatients worldwide, itreducesthe quantum of drugs sub-stantially due to its precisionmethod, besides being able toskip their side effects and mak-ing cancer manageable.

"This technology can alsosharply bring down the eco-nomic and social cost of man-aging cancer, which especiallyis a major issue with publichealthcare systems the worl-dover," Dr Nusrat said.

"Entrepreneurship is not justa career option. It is a way oflife. It's a mindset that strivesto make a difference in people'slife and to make a positiveimpact on society by ones pro-fessional and personal endeav-ours", Dr Nusrat added.

She Loves Tech' is a global platformcommitted to building an ecosystemfor technology, entrepreneurship andinnovation that creates opportunities for women

CANCER FEARS

Dr.Reddys halts worldwide supply ofRanitidine until FDA probe overPTI n HYDERABAD

Dr Reddy's LaboratoriesLimited on Sunday said thatit is suspending supply of itsdrug Ranitidine worldwideas a precautionary measure,following the ongoing probeby the US Food and DrugAdministration into thereported impurity N-nitroso-dimethylamine in it at low lev-els.

Ranitidine is an Over-The-Counter (OTC) and pre-scription drug which decreas-es the amount of acid createdby the stomach.

"Dr.Reddys is still evaluat-ing potential impact of the

issue. As a precautionary mea-sure, Dr Reddys is suspendingall shipments worldwide ofRanitidine products until theinvestigation (by the FDA)outcome is available.

We have both a prescription

and an over-the-counter port-folio of the product," DrReddys spokesperson toldPTI in an email reply.

The FDA in a statement onSeptember 13 had said it isworking with international

regulators and industry part-ners to determine the sourceof this impurity in Ranitidinebeing manufactured by sev-eral companies RPT beingmanufactured by severalcompanies and examininglevels of NDMA in Ranitidineand evaluating any possiblerisk to patients.

Though the FDA is not call-ing for individuals to stop tak-ing Ranitidine at this time,however, patients taking theprescription and wishing todiscontinue its use shouldtalk to their health care pro-fessionals about other treat-ment options, the US drugregulator said.

Ranitidine is anOver-The-Counter(OTC) andprescription drugwhich decreasesthe amount ofacid created bythe stomach

PTI n NEW DELHI

Petrol prices have soared by Rs1.59 a litre and diesel by Rs 1.31in the last six days -- the mostsince daily price revision wasintroduced in 2017, as a mas-sive strike at Saudi Arabian oilfacilities jolted oil markets.

Petrol price was on Sundayhiked by 27 paise to Rs 73.62a litre in the Delhi market -- thebenchmark for national rates,according to a price notificationby state-owned oil firms.

Price of diesel was increasedby 18 paise to Rs 66.74 per litrein Delhi.

This is the sixth straightdaily increase and has takenthe cumulative price hike sinceSeptember 17 to Rs 1.59 perlitre in case of petrol and Rs1.31 for diesel.

Global oil prices shot up themost since the Gulf war in theimmediate aftermath of theunprecedented drone missilestrikes on key oil facilities inSaudi Arabia that disabled 5per cent of the global supply.

Oil prices have cooled sincethe spike on September 16 butremain on the edge.

Attackers using low-flyingdrones and cruise missilesknocked out 5.7 million bar-rels of production, or about 60per cent of what Saudi Arabiacurrently produces. It was thelargest supply disruption in

history. On Monday, Brentoil futures soared 15 per cent.

Analysts have warned thatthe style of the attacks onSaudi Aramco's Abqaiq andKhurais oil facilities may adda permanent risk premium tooil and gasoline prices.

While Saudi Arabia is say-ing it can quickly bring supplyback online, experts say theshock to the global oil marketwill be felt for years.

India depends on SaudiArabia for a fifth of its oilimports and has been in con-stant touch with Kingdomofficials on securing its sup-plies.

Oil prices havecooled since thespike onSeptember 16but remain onthe edge

Petrol price jumps Rs 1.59/ltr, diesel Rs 1.31/ltr

Yogi hails corporate tax cutPTI n NEW DELHI

Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath Sundaytermed as "historic" and "bold"the cut in corporate tax ratesand said the measures are aprecious pre-Diwali gift to thesector from Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Adityanath exuded confi-dence that the UnionFinance Ministry'smove will "not onlyenable India tobecome a USD 5 tril-lion economy by 2024as envisaged by PMModi but also help in provid-ing an opportunity to UttarPradesh to embark on the path

of becoming a USD 1 trillioneconomy". "The message

behind the cut in the taxrates is very clear -- morewealth with the compa-nies, more investment by

the companies, more cre-ation of jobs in the economy,

high development, increase indemand and productivity andincreased income," he told.

‘Markets may take a breather,sentiment to remain upbeat’PTI n NEW DELHI

Equity markets may take abreather following the massiverun up on Friday after the gov-ernment announced a slew ofeconomy-boosting measures,while the overall sentiment islikely to stay upbeat, analysts said.

The Sensex posted itsbiggest single-day jump inover a decade at 1,921 pointson Friday after FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamandelivered a surprise cut incorporate tax rates. She alsoclarified that enhanced taxsurcharge will not to apply oncapital gains arising from saleof any security including deriv-atives in the hands of FPIs.

Besides, the all-powerfulGST Council slashed tax rateson hotel tariffs and some goodswith a view to addressing sec-toral concerns and spurgrowth.

"Market will take a breatherafter a massive run up onFriday by witnessing somecorrection. It is important tosee when FPIs will resumetheir buying spree and howthey are taking the tax rate cut,"said Jimeet Modi, Founder &CEO, SAMCO Securities &StockNote.

The base corporate tax forexisting companies has been

slashed to 22 per cent from 30per cent; and for new manu-facturing firms, incorporatedafter October 1, 2019, to 15 percent from 25 per cent.

The reduction in corporatetax, which India Inc hailed asthe one which will revivegrowth and investment, is thesingle biggest cut in tax ratessince India opened up its econ-omy in 1991.

Market will take abreather after amassive run up on

Friday by witnessing somecorrection. It is important tosee when FPIs will resumetheir buying spree and howthey are taking the tax rate cut

—JIMEET MODIFounder & CEO, SAMCO Securities & StockNote.

Non-life insurersregister 17 pcrise in Aug

PTI n NEW DELHI

The US has sought establish-ment of a dispute panel by theWorld Trade Organization's(WTO) in a case againstIndia's import duties on cer-tain ICT products, includingmobile phones.

The US sought consulta-tions in July under the WTO'sdispute settlement mechanismover imposition of importduties by India on certaininformation and communica-tion (ICT) products, allegingbreach of global trade norms.

As both the countries failedto resolve the dispute throughthe consultation process, theUS has sought setting up of thedispute panel.

Bilateral consultation is thefirst step towards resolution ofa trade dispute under theWTO norms.

"The US held consultationswith India on August 1, 2019.Unfortunately, these consulta-tions did not resolve the dis-pute," according to a commu-nication of the US to the WTO.

Several countries includingthe European Union,Singapore, Canada, China,

Taiwan and Thailand havesought to join in the dispute asthey have claimed significanttrade interest in the ICT prod-ucts over which India hasimposed import duties.

The EU has challengedintroduction of import dutieson a wide range of ICT prod-ucts, for instance, mobilephones and components, basestations, integrated circuitsand optical instruments.

PTI n NEW DELHI

India's non-life insurancecompanies registered a rise of17 per cent in their combinednew premium collection at Rs15,964 crore in August, Irdaidata showed.

The 34 insurers' gross pre-mium collection stood at Rs13,657.51 crore in the samemonth a year ago.

Among these, the 25 gen-eral insurance providershad a combined premiumof Rs 12,447.10 crore duringthe month, up by 12 percent from same period of2018.

India's coalimport declinesabout 4%PTI n NEW DELHI

India's coal import declinedby 3.7 per cent to 18.93 mil-lion tonnes (MT) in July thisyear from 19.67 MT in thesame month a year ago.

Of the total coal imports inJuly 2019, non-coking coalshipment was at12.66 MT,coking coal'swas at 4.17MT, amongo t h e r s ,according to ap r o v i s i o n a lcompilation bymjunction services based onmonitoring of vessels' positionsand data received from ship-ping companies.

Bilateralconsultation isthe first steptowardsresolution of atrade disputeunder the WTOnorms

US seeks India’s tariffsWTO dispute panel

Onion prices shoot up

CRISIL ON TAX CUT

‘SHE LOVES TECH'

MondaySeptember 23, 2019

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dailypioneer

The school my son wasgoing to provided bus

facility for its students. Andcompared to any other means of

transport we have provided for himin the consecutive years I still feel that

using school bus was convenient for children andparents alike

— PRASOONAA PARENT

Using school buses might reduce carbon footprint alongwith fuel consumption as several groups of these students

travel together instead of their private transport. Also, anothervery important aspect of this move is that the parents would be

able to teach their children about being environment-friendly. Asense of responsibility towards the environment is planted in theminds of the next generation at a very young age

— NAVDEEP PALLAPOLLUACTOR

The reason we are having a hard time toconvince students to use school buses

is that these buses that we hire cannotgo door to door unlike autos or

vans or their privatevehicles. Children have

to walk up to the busstops. And forworking parents, atransport which picksup their kid fromtheir doorstep is way

more convenient thanhaving their kids walk a

bit further.

— NARASIMHA REDDYPRINCIPAL, HPS RAMANTHAPUR

he morning schoolrun has turned intoa nightmare asevery family dropstheir kids in theirpersonal vehicles.

But there are steps a family cantake to tackle pollution andcongestion by being selectiveabout the use of private vehi-cles to drop and pick up chil-dren from schools and col-leges.

Despite several private andinternational schools offeringtransportation, the proportionof students going to schools incars and bikes is much higherthan the number of studentsattending government schools.

Although the governmentpromotes using public trans-port, most state-run schoolsand Central governmentschools do not provide trans-portation facilities in schools.

Around 41 per cent of stu-dents attending private schoolsarrive in motorised vehicles ascompared 24 per cent attend-ing government schools,according to an article pub-lished by BMC public health onthe NCBI website.

While some parents sightthe lack of basic safety as amajor deterrent for not usingschool buses, others feel thetime taken to travel via aschool bus and a common pickup and drop point for an areais an extra hassle for workingparents.

Speaking about the same,actor Navdeep Pallapollu, whohad recently commented onthis issue on his Twitter handlesaid, “Chirec Public school hasa rule that its students have tocommute by school bus and ina country like ours with such alarge population, we cannotexpect the government to edu-cate everyone. Hence, it is bet-ter to impose a rule on the stu-dents in various schools andcolleges about making usage ofbuses mandatory keeping in

mind the students’ needs. Forexample, students comingfrom far off areas or studentswith physical disability can bethe exceptions. I’m aware thatseveral parents find that theprice for school transportationis pretty high and this is whereI believe the schools shouldcome in. They must try to reg-ulate the fee amount theycharge for transportation inorder to encourage the parentsto consider the school bus asan option.”

The actor feels that usingschool buses as the mode oftransport might reduce carbonfootprint along with fuel con-sumption as several groups ofthese students travel together.Also, another very importantaspect of this move is that theparents would be able to teachtheir children about beingenvironment-friendly. A senseof responsibility towards theenvironment is planted in theminds of the next generationat a very young age.”

Escorting children toschools in private vehiclesevery day is known to accountfor a large population ofhousehold travel and in mostcities peak traffic density coin-cides with the beginning andthe end of the normal workingdays of schools. Curious aboutthe opinion of parents on theissue, we approached Prasoonawho is a mother of two kids.She has firsthand experience ofbeing a parent who sends theirkids in both private vehicles aswell as buses. When askedabout her opinion she clearlystated, “I prefer my kids travel-ling in school buses than anyother means of transportation.The school my son was goingto provided bus facility for itsstudents. And compared toany other means of transportwe have provided for him inthe consecutive years I still feelthat using school bus was con-venient for children and par-

ents alike.”P Navya, another parent

says, “Although public trans-port reduces pollution, weprefer private transport as weget to know the whereaboutsof the child. Also, most schoolbuses lack basic safety featuresand hire inexperienced drives,leading to an increase in acci-dents involving them.”

“If schools and govern-ments impose stringent actionagainst errant bus drivers andmandate basic safety rules,parents would eventuallyverve towards public trans-port,” she concludes.

According to a source at ahigher-level at KendriyaVidyalaya Sangathan, underthe condition of anonymity,has revealed that several stateand central governmentschools do not really providetransportation facilities. “Thegovernment ensures that thefees they charge from the stu-dents is considerably less sothat the students are not bur-dened by the fee structure andcan avail education which isideal, but at the same time itleads to a dearth of fundswhen it comes to providingtransportation to the students.Therefore the governmentmust try to come up with ini-tiatives towards the promotionof school buses, because morethan anything else they pro-vide the children with safetravel which would be the pri-mary concern of any parent,”he says. Since the governmentis keen on encouraging peopleto adopt an eco-friendlylifestyle, initiatives such asmaking school buses mandato-ry at all state and centralschools would yield great bene-fits. And more importantly itwould bring down the trafficcongestion to a considerabledegree.

Narasimha Reddy, PrincipalHPS Ramanthapur said, “Weprefer public transport. In

fact, our school hires publictransport exclusively for ourstudents. Once the bus haspicked up and dropped thestudents the bus becomesanother normal RTC bus,which benefits both us as wellas the RTC authorities. Out of1,200 students approximately200 of them travel by thesebuses provided.”

“The reason we are havinga hard time to convince stu-dents to use school buses isthat these buses that we hirecannot go door to doorunlike autos or vans or theirprivate vehicles. Childrenhave to walk up to the busstops. And for working par-ents, a transport which picksup their kid from theirdoorstep is way more conve-nient than having their kidswalk a bit further. We under-stand this, but the benefits oftravelling in a bus are greatercompared to that of pri-vate transports, whenwe look at the biggerpicture here. Thus, inorder to encouragestudents to travel viabuses provided bythe school we person-ally took certain mea-sures such as organis-ing talks andsessions withmembers ofthe trafficpolice, train-ing older stu-dents to takecare ofyoungerones onthebusesand soforth. Wedo wishmore studentswould come for-ward to opt forbuses as their dailymode of commute.” MrReddy said.

As thegovernment is

keen on spreadingawareness about environment by

promoting travel via Metro and public transport, itshould also educate schools to provide buses for students and

encourage them to use the same, reports ANUSHKA PRADEEP

T

GOING GREEN: WHY

IT IS IMPORTANT FORKIDS TO TRAVEL BY

SCHOOLBUS

t some point oftime in your life -maybe you werewalking througha dark alley atnight or being

shoved indiscriminately themid-afternoon rush on therailway platform - the needfor defending oneself mighthave occurred to you. Manyworking women are vocalabout the need for classesthat teach self defense tech-niques to adults and chil-dren alike.

Recently, a three-hourworkshop on self defensefor girls using Hapkido atthe Guidance High Schoolin Old Malakpet, witnesseda turnout of 100 girls fromclasses 6 to 10.

Md. Zaheeruddin,

President of HapkidoAssociation Telanganashared and demonstratedtechniques of Hapkido - aKorean martial art thatfocuses on locking joints,grappling and throwingtechniques in combat. Themoves are meant to weakenthe assailant and give youenough time to get away.

The Central governmentand many state govern-ments, in tie up with vari-ous private agencies, haveorganised self defense class-es in government schoolsfor the students. The stu-dents are witnessing thebenefits of attending suchclasses through the waythey are able handle them-selves with confidence indaily routine.

A chance for youngfootball talent to shine

here are manyyoung kids whoare interested infootball but arewithout the finan-cial means to pur-

sue their passion. Keepingthis in mind, FatehHyderabad AFC announcedthe second season of theHyderabad Baby Leaguewhich will be held in midOctober at HyderabadRiding and Polo Club BabyLeague.

Yogesh Maurya, Technicaland Sporting Director of

Fateh Hyderabad AFC, shedmore light on how theHyderabad Baby Leaguewould function. “The Leaguewill be held for the Under 6,Under 8, Under 10 andUnder 12 age groups. Thecost of the league shall beborne entirely by FatehHyderabad AFC. Kids fromlocal teams and schools aremore than welcome to comeand participate. The matcheswill be held on Sunday andwill be geared towards mak-ing the participants enjoythemselves. We will be scout-

ing the league for talent thatcan go into Fateh Hyderabad'AFC’s U-13, U15 and U-18teams. This chapter of theinitiative is more advanced interms of venue and spon-sors.”

Jayesh Ranjan, PrincipalSecretary, Ministry of IT,Telangana and AndrewFleming, the British DeputyCommissioner for Telanganaand Andhra Pradeshexpressed their support forthe event and hoped thatmore will come forward toconduct such events.

T

ASTANDING UP FOR ONESELF

GOING GREEN: WHY

IT IS IMPORTANT FORKIDS TO TRAVEL BY

SCHOOLBUS

ctress Anushka Sharma has beennamed in the Fortune India’s top50 list of Most PowerfulWomen of 2019.

The actress, whoventured into

Bollywood in 2008 with thefilm Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, is

the youngest woman on the listand ranks at 39.

Fortune India wrote about the actress,“Sharma is not only the face of her clothingline Nush and several other brands such asNivea, Elle 18, Myntra and Lavie, but also aproducer. Clean Slate Films, which Sharmaset up when she was 25, has produced

three small-budget Hindi films NH10,Phillauri, and Pari.

“They made around Rs 40 croreeach at the box office. Moving

beyond Bollywood, Clean SlateFilms has tied up with Netflix

to produce a feature filmtitled Bulbul and a web-series called Mai. It is alsodeveloping and producing aweb-series for AmazonPrime Video.

Fortune’s annual rankingof India’s most powerful

women in business ischosen for making animpact by virtue oftheir business acumen

and social and culturalinfluence.

ANUSHKA INFORTUNE INDIA'SLIST OF MOSTPOWERFULWOMEN

ctress Hilary Duff, who is battling “very contagious” strep throat, has openedup about feeling mom guilt.

The actress took to Instagram stories about how she was battling a “very con-tagious” case of strep throat. Although Duff, 31, felt terrible, she said her momguilt was making her feel even worse because she is currently unable to spendtime with her children — son Luca Cruz, 7, and daughter Banks Violet, 10

months — as she recovers from the illness, reports people.com.“I’m super sick — I think I have strep throat - and I’m in bed… I’m getting an IV to

hopefully feel better,” Duff explained, before asking her followers, “As a parent, why doesit feel so horrible to be sick? Like, the guilt of being in bed.”

“There’s obviously times when I’ve had to be with my kids all day long, sick andfeeling horrible, with no help. But today, I have help and I should be resting and theguilt is crazy.”

“My head is spinning, and I feel like I should be doing a million things andbeing with my kids every minute when really I’m very contagious,” she added.

“It’s just the hard part of being a parent. It s**ks.” Since she is unable to doanything or go anywhere, Duff said she was using her time in bed

wisely — to prepare for the upcoming Lizzie McGuire reboot.“I’m going to take this opportunity to watch LizzieMcGuire, like, start to finish,” she shared. “I’m going to

do all my research and get it all fresh in mymind.”

10

celeb talks

treet Dancer 3D

actor Varun

Dhawan will

shake a leg with

budding hip-hop

artistes in a music

video.The artistes are winners of

a hip-hop dance festival.

After touring 10 cities

across the country and with

an international round in

Bangkok, hip-hop dance fes-

tival, Breezer Vivid Shuffle,

concluded Season 3 with a

finale on Saturday here.

Varun, Breezer Vivid

Shuffle’s Ambassador,

announced Bfab Crew as the

winner of the Crew

Showcase category of Season

3, along with winners

Eshwar Tiwari AKA Bboy

Wild Child (Breaking cate-

gory) and Neeraj (popping

category).

The winners bagged a

cash prize, the chance to go

to an international dance

festival, the opportunity to

feature in a music video

alongside Varun, and the

chance to perform at

BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender.

“It feels amazing to have

been part of India’s ultimate

hip-hop dance platform for

the third time. There is so

much talent out there which

often goes unrecognised.

This is a platform where

they can express themselves

and live their passion in

colour, with their crazy and

fun moves,” said Varun.

This year, the festival wit-

nessed participation from

nearly 1,500 dancers.

“Three years ago, when

we started out, our objective

was to help provide recogni-

tion to budding hip-hop

artistes in the country. The

festival went international

this year and we look for-

ward to expanding it more

with the future editions,”

said Anshuman Goenka,

Marketing Head, Bacardi

India.Raashi Sanghavi, Festival

Director, Breezer Vivid

Shuffle, OML, added:

“Sending out a lot of respect

to the dancers/artists who

have been a part of the fest

over the last three years. I’ve

seen massive growth in the

community and we will con-

tinue to develop more talent

to make a mark in the global

hip hop scene.”

S

VARUN TO STAR IN MUSIC VIDEO

WITH BUDDING HIP-HOP ARTISTES

Vijayawada Monday September 23, 2019

IT'SSPLITSVILLEFOR MILEYCYRUS,KAITLYNNCARTER

inger Miley Cyrus and

Kaitlynn Carter have gone

their separate ways a little

over a month after they

started dating.

“Miley and Kaitlyn broke

up. They’re still friends,” people.com

quoted a source as saying.

The split came as Miley headed to

Las Vegas on Saturday with her moth-

er Tish and sister Brandi to attend the

iHeartRadio Music Festival. Carter

remained at her home here.

“They’ve been friends forever and

were there for each other when they

were both getting separated, but they’re

just not in a romantic relationship any-

more,” the source added.

The two had been spending quality

time together since announcing their

splits from their respective husbands.

They were first linked in early

August, when they were spotted

kissing on vacation in Italy.

HILARYDUFF'S HASMOM GUILT

A

GULZARRETURNS TO PEN SONG IN

THE SKY IS PINKollywood’s poet-lyricist par excellence Gulzar

remains active as ever at 85. Although he has

grown selective with time, he is still penning

songs as diverse as the sprightly Hello hello in

Pataakha and the lilting Dilbaro in Raaz.

While every new Gulzar track is eagerly await-

ed by fans, he returns with a new song in Shonali Bose’s

upcoming film, The Sky Is Pink.

The lyricist has collaborated with composer Pritam

after a hiatus to create the number Dil hi toh hai in Bose’s

film, which stars Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and

Zaira Wasim. Arijit Singh has sung the song along with

Antara Mitra and Nikhil D’Souza.

“It was an honour to work with Gulzar Saab for the

music of this film. Dil hi toh hai is a very special song and

it was also an amazing experience to work with Shonali

(Bose),” said Pritam.

The Sky Is Pink recently had its world premiere at

Toronto International Film Festival. The October 11

release is a bittersweet drama about a couple, played by

Priyanka and Farhan, over 25 years, by their daughter

(Zaira Wasim), who is afflicted by the deadly disease pul-

monary fibrosis.

B

SA

am Prasad, Sudheer andGetup Sreenu, notedcomedians from theTV showJabardusth, have

teamed up for a film called3 Monkeys. Directed by G.Anil Kumar and produc-er by G. Nagesh, the film’stitle logo was unveiled byactor Naga Babu inHyderabad on Sunday.

Speaking later, Naga Babuexpressed his happiness onJabardusth helping film industrydiscover new comic talents. “There’sa still lot of potential which can be tapped from theshow,” he told, addressing the industry.

He said that in the group, Getup Sreenu is hisfavourite. “Ram Prasad is good at writing funny skits,while Sudheer can easily be the leading face of a film.Sreenu is my favourite and he can perform on aninternational platform too. He must’ve playedclosed to 90 roles in the show now and every rolehad a different diction and body language. It’s notan easy task for any comedian. Telugu industrywill lose a gem of talent if it doesn’t use his poten-tial to its full effect,” he said.

Sudheer said the film is a comic caper whichwill make the audience laugh and teary-eyedat the same time as it culminates into a climax.

lthough it wasn’t officiallyannounced, Allu Arjun-starrerAla Vaikunthapuramlo wasexpected to release on January 14— four days after Mahesh Babu-

starrer Sarileru Neekevvaru opens. But ina latest development, we’ve now learnt thatthe film has been advanced by two days toJanuary 12. While reasons regarding the

change are unknown,January 12 hap-

pens to be aSunday

b u t

since it’s the Sankranti season, producersAllu Aravind and S. Radha Krishna seemto be fine.

Meanwhile, the shooting of the fam-ily entertainer is in full-swing inKompally, Hyderabad. The major cast,including Allu Arjun and Tabu are par-ticipating in the schedule which will goon till the month ends. Featuring anensemble cast consisting of Sushanth,Navdeep, Nivetha Pethuraj, Jayaram,Sathyaraj, Sunil, Rajendra Prasad, RahulRamakrishna, Brahmaji, Harsha Vardhanand Vennela Kishore, the makers are plan-ning to complete the shoot by November-

end.

Vijayawada Monday September 23, 2019

11

tollywood

hammeer Sultan, the direc-tor of Meeku MaathrameCheptha, never expectedthat happening faces likeVijay Deverakonda andTharun Bhascker would

associate with his maiden film as a pro-ducer and as an actor respectively.“Moreover, our entire team is fromChennai and we don’t know Telugu.Turns out, we’ve made a Telugu filmand with utmost satisfaction,” the 33-year-old lad from Chennai says in anexclusive conversation with ThePioneer.

Sultan started off his creative jour-ney by penning a novel in 2010-11. Ina first-of-its-kind, he attached anaudio CD to the book, as he wantedpeople to listen to the songs while read-ing the book, so that they can connectto it at a deeper emotional-level. Afterwriting a couple of novels, he decidedto switch to visual medium. Shammeerwho was an engineer by profession quithis corporate job and started makingshort films along with his friendsMadan (cinematographer) and Arjun(co-director). “I wouldn’t have madeshorts films and a web series, WeekendMachan, with Gautham Menon if itwasn’t for them,” he adds.

One of the first short films he madewas part of an anthology drama Aviyalcompiled by Jigarthanda directorKarthik Subbaraj. It even got a theatri-cal release. “The last short film Naan8 travelled to various national andinternational festival film circuits,

ending up bagging eight awards,” heexults.

The success of Naan 8 meant that helanded opportunities at feature filmdirection but his maiden pro-ject couldn’t get going inTamil. Luckily for himand his team, VijayDeverakonda wasmighty impressedwith Naan 8 andsoon a meetingfollowed inHyderabad. Thishappened beforeArjun Reddyreleased. “Hereally liked thescript of MeekuMaathrame Cheptha,but there was this debatewhether we should do it inTamil or Telugu as we were hand-icapped when it came to the latter.After Arjun Reddy released, equationschanged overnight for him and weunderstood it. Our film is more of ascreenplay-based content driven com-edy and didn’t demand any star as such.But he was kind enough to tell us that

he will produce it,” Sultan reminiscesfondly.

It was Vijay’s father VardhanDeverakonda who proposed the name

of Tharun Bhascker to be thefilm’s lead. The Pellich-

oopulu helmer, who isfluent in Tamil as well,

helped Sultan andteam to translateand adapt theTamil script ofMeeku MaathrameCheptha intoTelugu but wasdisinclined to act.

“He was like, ‘Whyare you asking me to

act? I’m writing thescript for my next’. After

the narration, he got excit-ed and said he would do it. He

felt the role was close to his real self,”Sultan avers, adding that Tharun’sreservations went on after saying ok.“We had a few workshops, where wepracticed some scenes. There itself wediscovered a hidden actor in him andhis comic timing was spot on, helpingthe scenes to come alive more. Even if

he wasn’t a director we would’ve stillcast him.”

During the film’s pre-production,which went on for almost five months,Sultan, a fan of Martin Scorsese, DavidFincher and Edgar Wright, and histeam figured out that language barri-er wasn’t as tough as they predicted itto be.

“Tharun helped us to overcome ourbarrier. Abhinav Gomatam who isplaying another lead knows Tamil asmuch as he knows Telugu. Vani Bhojanwho is cast opposite Tharun in the filmis a Chennai-based actress, so it waskind of easy to communicate with ourlead actors,” he explains, adding thatonce Tharun was on sets, the directorin him took a backseat. “He didn’tinterfere much in writing or directionon sets. Only when we needed his help,he was there.”

Shot completely in and aroundHyderabad in 44 days spread over fourschedules, the film is a tragic comedyof sorts, a rare genre for Telugu audi-ence.

“The title is relevant to the theme ofthe film ‘my best friend’s secret’. Thescreenplay follows the journey of anembarrassing secret and how it turnsinto a different story altogether, puttingthe concerned friend’s life in a spot ofbother. We wanted to generate curios-ity about the film in the title itself,which is why we’ve named it MeekuMaathrame Cheptha. In fact, it getsrepeated multiple times by differentcharacters in the film,” he concludes.

s

FROM NOVELS TO SHORTFILMS TO SILVER SCREEN

ONE OF THE FIRST SHORT FILMS MADE BY SHAMMEERSULTAN WAS PART OF AN ANTHOLOGY DRAMA AVIYALCOMPILED BY JIGARTHANDA DIRECTOR KARTHIKSUBBARAJ. IT EVEN GOT A THEATRICAL RELEASE

NIHARIKA bets big on digital front

er film career might not havebeen as successful as shewould’ve expected it to be, butNiharika Konidela has been asuccess story on the digitalfront, having produced and

featured in successful web series likeMuddapappu Avakai and Nanna Koochi inthe past. Scaling her production further,she has now produced a 100-episode com-edy series called Mad House under herPink Elephant Pictures. Debutant MaheshUppala has directed the series which will

stream on YouTube from October firstweek. Niharika says, “Except forAmrutham not many sitcoms have beenmade in Telugu. Our show follows thesame pattern as Amrutham but it is differ-ent in its own way. It explores the problemsfaced by millennials and how they go aboutsolving it. Sometimes the problems get thebetter of them. The chain of events, how-ever, is dealt in an entertaining way. Eachepisode will be of 15-20 minutes and theseries will go on for almost 18 months. Anew episode will be uploaded every week.”

H

he filming of NandamuriKalyanram-starrer EnthaManchi Vadavu Ra, directed bySatish Vegesna, has been goingon in Rajahmundry and its

surrounding areas for the past 20 days.The schedule will go on till thisWednesday. Producer Sivalenka KrishnaPrasad says, “A jathara set worth Rs 35lakh has been erected at Thorredu wherean item song has been shot on Kalyanramand Natasha Doshi. Around 50 dancersand 500 junior artistes participated in it.We’ve even shot a thrilling climax action

sequence in Godavari with16 boats. Thefilm will be releasing on January 15.”

The next schedule will commencefrom October 9 in Hyderabad and will goon till October 22. The final schedule willtake place in Kerala and Karnataka. A jointproduction venture between UmeshGupta of Aditya Music and SivalenkaPrasad of Sridevi Movies, Entha ManchiVadavu Ra sees the likes of V.K. Naresh,Suhasini Mani Ratnam, Tanikella Bharani,Pavitra Lokesh, Vennela Kishore, Praveenand Prabhas Sreenu in supporting roles,while Mehreen is the film’s leading lady.

KALYANRAM's next tohave boat fight sequence

t

a

Ala Vaikunthapuramlorelease advanced

r

GETUP SREENU isNAGA BABU's favourite

Starting his journey with novels, ShammeerSultan has now evolved to become a directorwho is backed by stars like VijayDeverakonda and Tharun Bhascker. Hetalks about his rise to recognition withNAGARAJ GOUD.

sport 12VIJAYAWADA | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

AFPn MADRID

Barcelona threw on their starsof the present and the future

but neither Lionel Messi norAnsu Fati could save them froma dismal 2-0 defeat away atGranada.

Messi was still not deemedfit enough to start at LosCarmenes while Fati, the 16-year-old who has lit up La Ligain recent weeks, also began thegame on the bench on Saturday.

But while both came on athalf-time with Barca trailing toRamon Azeez’s opener, it wasGranada that scored again,Alvaro Vadillo converting apenalty after Arturo Vidal wasfound guilty of a handball.

Barcelona have now wononly two of their opening fiveleague games and none awayfrom Camp Nou, this their sec-ond loss already, just one fewerthan the three they suffered dur-ing the entirety of last season.

With seven points on theboard, this is their worst start toa season since 1994.

“Obviously I am worried,”said coach Ernesto Valverde.

“Because we are not gettinggood results and when thathappens in two or three games,it means we are not playing well.”

Instead, Granada go top ofthe table after capitalising onAtletico Madrid’s goalless drawat home to Celta Vigo a fewhours before.

They will stay there untilSunday, when Sevilla, RealMadrid or Athletic Bilbao couldovertake them.

Barcelona are sixth, grasp-ing onto the consolation ofMessi’s second substitute appear-ance in five days that now sug-

gests he has finally recoveredfrom the niggling calf injury sus-tained at the start of August.

Their problems though areunlikely to be solved simply bytheir captain’s return. JuniorFirpo’s error two minutes intohis first start for the club giftedGranada their opening goal andset the tone for a chaotic nightin defence.

And up front, AntoineGriezmann was quiet again,

with little in any of the combi-nations to suggest ErnestoValverde has yet worked outwho will form his best attackingtrio and in what positions.

“In the end, the coach isresponsible and I feel responsi-ble,” Valverde said.

“I always think you canwin or lose but at least you haveto deserve to win when you lose,and today it hasn't been like that.

MESSI IMPACT LIMITEDWith Firpo on the floor,

Gerard Pique scrambled acrossbut Puertas’ shot only looped upoff the defender to the back postwhere Azeez headed in.

Granada seemed hungrierthan Barca and their domi-nance persuaded Valverde tomake two changes at half-time,Messi and Fati replacing CarlesPerez and Firpo.

Messi won a free-kick 30yards out but hit it straight at thewall while Marc-Andre terStegen fumbled a cross and hadto react quickly to claw it backoff his own line.

Any hopes of a Barca come-back were dashed in the 66thminute as Vidal handballed atthe end of a scramble in the boxand Vadillo made no mistakewith the spot-kick.

AFP n MILAN

Romelu Lukaku fired InterMilan back top of Serie A

with the second goal of a 2-0 derbywin that extended their perfectstart to the season at the expenseof city rivals AC Milan.

Belgium striker Lukaku andMarcelo Brozovic’s second halfstrikes gave Inter their fourth winin as many games, putting themtwo points ahead of Juventus afterthe champions’ came back from agoal down beat Verona 2-1 thanksto Aaron Ramsey’s first Serie Agoal and a Cristiano Ronaldopenalty.

Antonio Conte’s Inter werelooking for a boost after their dis-mal 1-1 draw in their ChampionsLeague draw against Czech out-siders Slavia Prague.

And they hit back in a fieryMilan derby with Belgian strikerLukaku heading in his third goalin four games with 12 minutesremaining after Brozovic’s 49th-minute opener.

“At 26 years old, I needed andwanted a coach like this, one whomotivates me every day,” saidLukaku of Conte.

“My relationship with Conte isvery strong, he’s a really goodcoach because he’s someone whohelps players to develop a lot.

“I’m really happy to be hereand to be wearing this shirt.”

Milan could thank GianluigiDonnarumma for keeping thematch goalless in the first half after

he denied Lautaro Martinez,Lukaku and Danilo D’Ambrosio.Lautaro had a goal ruled out after35 minutes for being marginallyoffside.

But the breakthrough camefour minutes after the break whenStefano Sensi set up Brozovic,whose def lected shot beatDonnarumma and was confirmedafter consultation with VAR.

Lukaku sealed the win and aperfect 12 points from four gameswhen he guided Nicolo Barella’scross home with a glancing head-er, as AC Milan slip to ninth placewith six points.

“We came from a performancein the Champions League thatleft us with a bitter taste, but gaveus more impetus to face the derbyin the best way,” said Conte.

“It is a deserved victory, I amhappy for our fans, because thederby is always the derby."

PTIn NUR-SULTAN (KAZAKHSTAN)

Wrestling was just a route which Deepak Puniahoped would find him a good job to help sustain

his family.He wanted a job and was even offered the post of

a sepoy in the Indian Army back in 2016.But he was told to dream big and not settle for lit-

tle things in life by none other than Sushil Kumar.“Keep wrestling as your priority, jobs will chase you

later,” Sushil, India’s most successful wrestler with twoOlympic medals and a world title, had told him, besidesarranging for a sponsorship.

He became a World Cadet champion in 2016 andonly last month won the junior World title, only thefourth Indian ever to do so and first in 18 years.

Within one month of that feat in Estonia, he foundhimself face-to-face with his idol and Iranian great HasanYazdani for a clash, the winner of which would becrowned the senior world champion.

It is a pity that the bout did not happen because ofthe ankle injury he sustained during the semifinal againstSwitzerland’s Stefan Reichmuth and he settled for a sil-ver.

He missed out on a great opportunity to wrestle withone of the best the sport has seen in its history.

But the last three years in Deepak Punia’s life stillsounds like a dream.

So, what is it that makes Deepak India’s best inheavyweight category in recent times. The results havecome thick and fast.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things. Everything hasto come together,” said India’s former foreign coachVladimir Mestvirishvili, who has played a key role inDeepak’s progress as a world-class grappler.

“You need four things — brain, power, luck and flex-ibility on the mat. Deepak has all. He is a disciplinedwrestler and that he gets from his father.

“Boys usually get bored with the repetition processwhen they are told to learn a new technique but Deepakwould do it for two, three, four days unless he gets it.It comes from family.”

It’s true.His father Subash has been coming to his training

centre every morning to deliver milk and fruits to himsince 2015 despite the fact their Chhara village in Jhajjardistrict in Haryana is at a distance of 60km.

That Deepak has immense appetite for milk wasknown from his childhood when he was a four-year-old kid and even it has a role in him getting the moniker'Ketli pehalwan'.

The Sarpanch of his village once offered him milkwhich was kept in a 'ketli' (kettle). He drank that in onegulp. He was offered a second, a third and a fourth andhe finished all.

From then onwards, people started calling him 'ketlipehalwan'. Deepak said staying disciplined has been abig reason for his success.

"I like hanging out with friends, going to malls anddoing some shopping. But we are not allowed to go outof the training centre. I like buying shoes, shirts and jeans,though I don't get to wear them because I am alwaysin a tracksuit," he said.

"Whenever I get a chance, like after the tournaments,I go out and eat even junk food. But once the break isover, I don't think about anything else. Wrestling andtraining is life then."

The sponsorship he got from OGQ took away a bitof worry and he began to concentrate on honing hisskills.

PTIn NUR-SULTAN (KAZAKHSTAN)

Rahul Aware won the biggest medalof his career by bagging a Bronzewhile an injured Deepak Punia

settled for a Silver after pulling out ofthe final as India celebrated its best-everperformance at the World WrestlingChampionship here on Sunday.

Aware outclassed Tyler Lee Graff,the 2017 Pan- America champion, 11-4 in the 61kg bronze play-off to takeIndia’s tally to five medals.

Deepak, the reigning junior worldchampion did not take mat againstIranian great Hasan Yazdani due to anankle injury, sustained during the semi-final.

The other medal winners in this edi-tion are Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya andVinesh Phogat.

India’s previous best show was at the2013 edition, when the country had wonthree medals through Amit Dahiya(Silver), Bajrang Punia (Bronze ) andSandeep Tulsi Yadav (Bronze inGreco-Roman)

Winning Gold medal at the 2018Commonwealth Games was 27-year-oldAware’s best performance before.

“I could have won a Gold. It waswithin my reach. I could have won thatsemi-final (against Beka Lomtadze). Ibotched it up in the first period,” Awaretold PTI.

Aware had shown early promisewhen he won Bronze medals at theAsian Championships in 2009 and2011 but suddenly vanished from thescene after that.

“The injuries pegged me back. I wasready in 2014 but then there were no tri-als for the CWG or the Asian Games. So

I did not get a chance to prove myworth,” he argued.

“I feared for losing this chance. Aftera long time, something good was wait-ing for me and I was really scared to loseit. I am glad I pulled it off,” Aware heaveda sigh of relief.

Westling of late has been a sportdominated by grapplers from Haryanaand Aware is first from Maharashtra towin a senior World medal.

“But Maratha sports history willremember me for winning this medal.I am first from that region to do this,"he said adding that he would dedicatehis medal to his first coach, lateHarichander Brajdar.

For the record, the greatest everMaharashtrian wrestler undoubtedly islate KD Jadhav, who won independentIndia’s first individual medal, a bronzein the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

Aware, who now trains under KakaPawar in Pune, said he was under a lotof self-imposed pressure going into thebout. The American surprised Awarewith a double leg attack, the moment thebout started and earned two points witha takedown.

However, he became alert and twice

wriggled out of Graff ’s right leg attacks.He also scored consecutive takedownpoints to lead 4-2 at the break.

In the second period too, Graff gothold of Aware’s right leg but the Indiangot himself out of trouble in an impres-sive manner.

He then pulled the bout away fromthe American with a flurry of moves -the takedowns and expose -taking acommanding 10-2 lead. It consolidatedfurther when the American lost a chal-lenge. Eventually he won 11-4.

The morning of the final day of thechampionships brought with it thenews that Deepak will not be able tocompete in Sunday’s final.

“The left foot is not taking the load.It’s difficult to fight in this condition andcould have aggravated the injury. I knowit was a big chance to fight againstYazdani but I can't help it,” Deepak toldPTI.

Deepak had come out of the matlimping and a swollen right eye after hissemifinal against Switzerland’s StefanReichmuth.

It was a good draw for Deepak andhe exploited it to get the biggest medalof his career.

In a dream run, Deepak reached thefinal with wins over Reichmuth,Colombia’s Carlos Arturo Mendez andKazakhstan’s Adilet Davlumbayev. Hebecame only the fifth Indian ever toreach the World Championship finalafter Bishamber Singh (1967) SushilKumar (2010), Amit Dahiya (2013) andBajrang Punia (2018). Only last year hehad won the junior world championship.

Sushil Kumar remains India’s onlyWorld Champion. He had won a Goldin 2010 in Moscow

AFPn GENEVA

Jack Sock and Nick Kyrgiospaired up to defeat Rafael Nadal

and Stefanos Tsitsipas as TeamWorld cut Europe’s lead to 7-5heading into the final day of theLaver Cup in Geneva.

Sock and Kyrgios wonSaturday’s doubles 6-4, 3-6, 10-6after Nadal defeated Milos Raonicin his first match since his USOpen triumph in the singles.

“There was a lot on the linethere,” said Sock. “We obviouslywanted to keep the overall week-end close. Being down 9-3 is dif-ferent than 7-5.

“We’ve had so many chancesthis weekend, it’s been crazy, so Ithink the score could be the otherway round.

“I thought it was a high qual-ity match and we’re definitelyhappy to get the win.”

Nadal, who won his 19thGrand Slam title in New York, hadearlier overcome Canada’s Raonic6-3, 7-6 (7/1) after defendingeight break points in the first set.

“I feel very lucky,” said Nadal.“I think he deserved that first

set for sure. Later in the match Ithink I started to play a little bitbetter.”

Roger Federer, who won his

first match alongside AlexanderZverev in Friday's doubles tie,beat Australian Kyrgios 6-7 (5/7),7-5, 10-7 to the delight of his17,000-strong home crowd.

“The crowd could feel it, Icould feel it. I needed to get someenergy going but you can’t do thatif you don’t play any good shotsand Nick was playing very well,”said Federer, the 20-time GrandSlam champion.

“I was just trying to stayfocused. If you can turn themomentum, the crowd gets backinto it and I need some earplugsnext time, it was just phenomenal."

Bjorn Borg's holders had seen

Team World draw level with JohnIsner's victory over Zverev.

Isner fought back from a setdown to beat Zverev 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 10-1 and haul Team World levelat 3-3 after Europe led by twopoints after the opening day.

The scoring system sees onepoint awarded for each win on thefirst day, two points given for eachvictory on the second day, andthree points on offer in eachmatch on Sunday's final day.

This year is the first time thetournament has been played sincebeing added to the ATP Tour.Europe won the 2018 edition 13-8 in Chicago.

AFPnWUHAN

Venus Williams' first visit to Asia since 2017was cut short as she crashed out of the

Wuhan Open first round on Sunday 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) to fellow American Danielle Collins.

The 39-year-old Williams, a 2015 Wuhanchampion now 59th in the world rankings,squandered a lead in the first set before even-tually losing to Collins, who recorded just thesecond match win of her career on Chinesesoil.

The 35th-ranked Collins rallied backfrom 3-5 down in the opening set, winninga whopping nine games in a row to go up 7-5, 5-0.

Williams, a wildcard at Wuhan this year,finally stopped the bleeding, holding the serveto interrupt her opponent's momentum.

It was the start of a surprising five-game

run from Williams, who saved two matchpoints along the way as she drew level at 5-5. In the decider, Williams got the first mini-break but it was Collins who eventually cre-ated a 6-4 gap, converting with an ace on herfourth match point to move into the secondround.

It was Collins' second triumph overWilliams, who had also stumbled against the25-year-old during the Miami Open last year.

"This is my first tournament here in Asia,I was just happy to come out with a win, saidCollins, who next takes on defending cham-pion and ninth seed Aryna Sabalenka, a 6-1,6-2 winner over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

Former US Open champion SloaneStephens battled past home favourite ZhangShuai 7-5, 6-4 to take just her second win atWuhan from four starts.

Stephens had lost her last two matchesagainst Zhang, and was relieved to getthrough unscathed.

The American had won just one of herlast seven matches on tour but said she was-n't concerned about her performance this year.

"I don't really dwell on things, just moveon," the 14th-ranked Stephens said.

"The season is not fully behind me, I'mstill playing, but when I'm done, it'll definite-ly be behind me. I'm just going to get in thebest shape I can, have a great off-season, andget ready for next year."

TOP RANK RACEMeanwhile, 2017 Wuhan runner-up

Ashleigh Barty is making sure she hasenough left in the tank for a busy closingstretch of the season, including her singles

debut at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen anda highly-anticipated Fed Cup final betweenAustralia and France in Perth.

Barty is top seed at Wuhan and facesa stiff challenge in the fight for the year-end number one ranking from the likes ofKarolina Pliskova, Simona Halep, BiancaAndreescu and Naomi Osaka. The 23-year-old Australian is first-ranked thisweek and would like to finish the year ontop, but admitted that she has other pri-orities.

"I think it's a target without being a tar-get," Barty told reporters.

"We've put ourselves in a positionwhere it's a possibility. I plan my sched-ule, the last six months of this year, wellin advance. I think I'm not going to changeit to try and chase it," she added.

AFPn LONDON

West Ham inflicted more away-daypain on a poor Manchester

United side on Sunday, lifting them-selves to fourth in the Premier Leaguewith a comfortable 2-0 win at theLondon Stadium.

Andriy Yarmolenko's goal shortlybefore half-time and a wonderful lateAaron Cresswell free-kick extendedUnited's barren run on the road.

United, who started the season bythumping Chelsea 4-0, have lost twicealready in their opening six leaguegames and lie seventh, without anaway win in any competition sinceMarch.

Injury-hit United were withoutmidfielder Paul Pogba and forwardAnthony Martial and huffed and puffedbut failed to break down their doggedopponents.

West Ham are riding high underManuel Pellegrini, unbeaten since a 5-0 drubbing in the first match of the sea-son and this victory followed a homewin last season against United at theLondon Stadium.

But it was a chastening day for OleGunnar Solskjaer's men, just a day afterchampions Manchester City came closeto matching United's Premier Leaguerecord for margin of victory -- 9-0against Ipswich in 1995.

Solskjaer played the same side thattriumphed against Leicester last weekwhile Pablo Fornals came in for theinjured Manuel Lanzini for the homeside. Both sides were cagey at the startof the match, with neither side able tocreate clear-cut chances.

West Ham looked the more inven-tive team when they broke forward

while United looked ponderous inattack and lacking in ideas, with MarcusRashford isolated up front.

The match was drifting towards theinterval before Felipe Anderson andYarmolenko combined to sap United'sconfidence with a goal in the 44thminute.

United went close to an equaliserearly in the second half as the rain camedown in London, with Juan Mata miss-ing from close range after an AndreasPereira cross.

Already short of options up frontand missing creators in midfield, theylost Rashford just before the hourmark, replaced by the out-of-formJesse Lingard. West Ham went close todoubling their lead shortly afterwardsbut David de Gea got down low to keepout an Anderson shot from a tight angle.

United upped the pressure and WestHam had goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianskito thank for keeping out a HarryMaguire strike from close range.

But West Ham continued to lookmore dangerous on the break andmade United pay when Ashley Youngbrought down Mark Noble on theedge of the penalty area.

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Ole’s veering off road Sock, Kyrgios keep World in touch

VENUS OUT OF WUHAN OPEN

Rahul clinches bronzeI could have won aGold. It was withinmy reach. I could

have won that semi-final (against Beka

Lomtadze). Ibotched it up in the

first period