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VIJAYAWADA, THURSDAY JANUARY 30, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 89*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPALRAIPUR CHANDIGARH BHUBANESWAR

RANCHI DEHRADUNHYDERABAD

The first of China's emergencymedical centres, that have

been built to control the spreadof the coronavirus that hasalready killed more than 100people, has opened after just 48

hours of construction.Workers and volunteers in Huanggang Citymanaged to put the work in to get the doors open on the DabieMountain Regional Medical Centre, which will provide treatment foraround 1,000 patients, in just 48 hours.

CHINA BUILDS EMERGENCY HOSPITALFOR CORONAVIRUS IN 48 HOURS!

NO TIME LIMIT FOR GRANTING OF ANTICIPATORY BAIL, RULES SC

The Supreme Court Wednesday ruled that notime limit could be fixed while granting

anticipatory bail, and that it could continue till theend of trial. A five-judge Constitution benchheaded by Justice Arun Mishra said the courtcould extend pre-arrest bail, with suitableconditions, under Section 438 of the CrPC. The

bench, which also comprised Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran,MR Shah, and Ravindra Bhat, was hearing a matter regarding whetheranticipatory bail should be limited to a particular period.

US President Donald Trump is likely to visit India from February 24 to 26, though there is no formal announcement of the dates.

Trade will be the top priority in this bilateral meetand US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross mayaccompany the president, sources in the USgovernment said. According to US governmentsources, Kashmir issue will not be raised duringany high-level visit, Washington respects India'ssovereignty, the sources added. This will beTrump's first visit to India.

Aphoto of Infosys co-founder NarayanaMurthy touching Ratan Tata's feet is

doing the rounds on the Internet. In the viralphoto which emerged online, the Infosys Co-Founder touched Tata Sons Chairman RatanTata's feet to seek blessings at an event inMumbai on Tuesday. Ratan Tata also sharedNarayana Murthy's gesture in an Instagramstory and said he was "truly humbled" by it.In his Instgaram's post he wrote, "It was anhonour to be awarded by TIEcon at thehands of a great friend Mr Narayana Murthy".

MURTHY STOOPS TO CONQUER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated January 29, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Magha & Shukla PakshaPanchangamTithi : Panchami: 01:18 pmNakshatram: Uttara Bhadrapada: 03:12 pmTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 01:53 pm- 03:17 pmYamagandam: 06:52 am – 08:16 am

Varjyam: 04:41 am - 06:29 am

Gulika: 09:40 am - 11:05 amGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 09:48 am - 11:36 am Abhijit Muhurtham: 12:06 pm - 12:51 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: ClearTemp: 33/21Humidity: 71%Sunrise: 06.48Sunset: 06.10

Jharkhand to follow Jaganidea, have 4 sub-capitalsPNS n RANCHI

Following footsteps of AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, JharkhandCM Hemanth Soren decided tohave four sub-capitals apartfrom main capital Ranchi.Jharkhand will soon become theonly state in the country to havefour sub-capitals.

Earlier, during the rule ofBabulal Marandi, Dumka townwas declared the sub-capital.Now, Soren has decided to havethree more sub-capitals -Medininagar, Chaibasa andGiridih. Soren Cabinet will givea formal approval as the processfor setting up new sub-capitalshas already been started and aproposal for makingMedininagar, Chaibasa andGiridih as sub-capitals of state

has been finalised. The objectivebehind the proposal is to enableuniform development in alldivisions of the state which sofar, have been lagging behinddue to various constraints.Soren government also wantedto explore new developmentschemes for these four sub-cap-itals. Jharkhand has five admin-

istrative divisions and all fivewill now have a regional capi-tal to meet the needs of the gov-ernance.

Senior officials said that cre-ation of sub-capital would bringemployment opportunities forthe people in the three divisionsof Palamu, Kolhan and NorthChoanagpur.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A 13-year-old girl, who was seton fire by some unknownmiscreants and sustainedmajor burn injuries onTuesday, is battling for life ina hospital at Rajam ofSrikakulam district in AndhraPradesh.

The victim girl was identi-fied as K Bhubaneswari, aClass-VII student of a privateschool at Rajam. The parentsof the victim girl alleged thatthree youngsters, who hadbeen stalking the girl for pastweeks, committed the crime.

In her statement to JuniorCivil Judge Swathi, the girlmentioned that two young-sters poured petrol on herwhile she was attending

nature's call near her houseand set fire.

Deputy Superintendent ofPolice R Prasad said that thegirl had gone to school onTuesday and returned home inthe evening. While the girlwas attending nature's callnear her home, the twoaccused set fire to her and fledthe spot.

Continued on Page 3

Soren Cabinet willgive formal approvalas the process forsetting up new sub-capitals has alreadybeen started to makeMedininagar,Chaibasa and Giridihthe sub-capitals

Saina Nehwal joins BJP,calls Modi an inspirationPNS n NEW DELHI

Former world number onebadminton player SainaNehwal, along with her elderChandranshu Nehwal joinedthe Bharatiya Janata Party onWednesday, hailing PrimeMinister Narendra Modi as an"inspiration" with his "hardwork" for the country.

Joining the party at a cere-mony at its headquarters here,Nehwal (29) said the BJP hasbeen doing "a lot of good", andshe would work to do her bitas its member.

Nehwal, who has been vocal

on Twitter in her support forthe Union government's poli-cies, told reporters that she isa hard-working professionaland likes hard-working peo-ple, as she heaped praise onModi.

"I am a hard-working per-son and like hard-workingpeople. Narendra Modi sirhas been working day andnight for the country. If I cando something for the countrywith him, it will be my goodfortune. I draw a lot of inspi-ration from Modi sir. Heinspires me," she said.

Another report on Page 2

CBI awaiting sanction to prosecutecorrupt MPs, bureaucratsPNS n NEW DELHI

The CBI is awaiting sanctionfor over four months to pros-ecute three sitting Lok SabhaMPs, bureaucrats and bankofficials for alleged corruption,according to the latest CVCdata.

As many as 58 cases involv-ing over 130 allegedly corruptlegislators and serving andretired government officialsare awaiting sanction for pros-ecution from their respectiveorganisations, it said.

According to the norm,sanction for prosecution has tobe decided within fourmonths.

The highest nine cases arepending with the Ministry ofPersonnel, the nodal depart-

ment for anti-corruption mat-ters, eight with CorporationBank and six with the Uttar

Pradesh government, said theCentral Vigilance Commissiondata, updated on November30, 2019.

Four cases each are pendingwith Punjab National Bankand Bank of Baroda, three withDefence Ministry and twoeach with Railway Ministry,Bihar government and Jammuand Kashmir government(now Union territory).

BJP national president JP Nadda presents a bouquet to ace badminton playerSaina Nehwal upon her joining the party, in New Delhi on Wednesday

As many as 58 cases involving over 130 allegedlycorrupt legislators and serving and retiredgovernment officials are awaiting sanction forprosecution from their respective organisations,the latest Central Vigilance Commission data said

PrashantKishorexpelledfrom JDUPNS n PATNA

Prashant Kishor has beenexpelled from Bihar's rulingJanata Dal United (JDU) afterweeks of acrimony betweenhim and Nitish Kumar. TheBihar Chief Minister hadhinted yesterday at the exit amid a rapidly deteriorat-ing slugfest over the citizenship law.

Prashant Kishor, as vicepresident of Janata DalUnited since 2018, had beena virtual number two toNitish Kumar.

This morning, a partyleader has added to the spi-raling feud by comparing MrKishor to the deadlyCoronavirus and said hiscountdown had started.

In a vitriolic attack, JDU le-ader Ajay Alok said that Ki-shor, who became the party'snumber two after NitishKumar soon after joining it in2018, was "not trustworthy".

Govt advised to locate capitalaway from coast: GN RaoPNS n HYDERABAD

Former civil servant and chair-man of expert committee onstate capital GN Rao onWednesday said thatVisakhapatnam city was bestsuited to locate the executivecapital. He said that the com-mittee he headed had recom-mended to the government tolocate the state capital 50 kmfrom the seacoast.

Talking to the media here,the former bureaucrat saidthat the committee recom-mended the government tolocate its administrative build-ings within the VisakhaMetropolitan Region limits.

Referring to contents of thecommittee report cautioningthe government on the cyclone

threat to Visakhapatnam, hesaid the chairman of the com-mittee, which had expertsdrawn from all over the coun-try, noted that cyclones are notlimited to Visakhapatnamalone, and nobody would beable to prevent soil erosion dueto the sea.

The committee recom-mends, but the governmenttakes the decision, Rao said,adding that the committeerecommended Visakhapatnamas the executive state capital,Amaravati as the legislativecapital and Kurnool as thejudicial capital.

The state would developwith the establishment ofVisakha-Chennai corridor, hesaid.

Continued on Page 3

Jagan's cousin moves HC for CBI probe into father's murderIANS n AMARAVATI

In an embarrassment to AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, his cousinhas approached the High Courtto seek a CBI probe into the"killing" of her father YSVivekananda Reddy in March2019. N Suneetha Reddy peti-tioned the Andhra PradeshHigh Court to order the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)probe into the murder of the for-

mer state minister and MP whowas found murdered at his res-

idence in Kadapa on March 15,a couple of weeks ahead of the2019 Assembly elections.

Suneetha said she suspectedthe conduct of her cousin andKadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy

and his father YS Bhaskar Reddyin the matter.

She said that shifting of policeofficials investigating the caseand slow pace of probe also gavecredence to her suspicion. In her

petition, she wondered why theChief Minister was not handingover the case to the CBI, thoughit had been eight months sincehe assumed office.

She recalled that as the thenLeader of Opposition, Jaganhad demanded the CBI probe,submitted a memorandum tothe Governor, and even filed apetition in the High Court.

The High Court, which heardthe plea on Tuesday, asked thegovernment to reply as to why

it has objections to a CBI probe.After the government soughttime to file its reply, JusticeDurga Prasad Rao posted thecase for February 6.

The court will hear the pleaof Suneetha and her husbandalong with the petitions filed ear-lier by her mother YSSowbhagyamma, JaganmohanReddy and others, includingsome TDP leaders.

Continued on Page 3

Mopidevi: 8 AP fishermen in Bangla jails releasedPNS n AMARAVATI

Minister for AnimalHusbandry and FisheriesMopidevi Venkata Ramanasaid that eight fishermenfrom Vizianagaram district,who had been languishingin a Bangladesh jail formany months now, werereleased on Wednesday.

"This has been possible

due to the continuousefforts of Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy,"Mopidevi said.

Addressing a press con-ference at the Secretariathere, the minister said theState government wouldcontinue efforts for the wel-fare of fishermen.

Continued on Page 3

‘India will nolonger silentlywitness terrorattacks on it’

4

Indian economyin great position:Moynihan

8

India asks Israel,Palestine to resolve allissues

5

Suneetha said she suspected the conduct of hercousin and Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy andhis father YS Bhaskar Reddy in the matter

51 from AP face corona threat in Wuhan l Engineer’s SOS to Jagan and Modi from Wuhan seeking help for returnNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

An engineer from AndhraPradesh, among the 51 fromthe state who have been strand-ed in Wuhan in China, hastweeted to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy, requesting their help toreturn to India.

Wuhan is the epicentre forthe Coronavirus and has beenunder lockdown for the pastfew days.

In his tweet, the engineersaid that while they contactedthe Indian Embassy in Beijing,they were still waiting forarrangements to be made fortheir departure from theChinese city.

According to the engineer,there are 51 of his colleagues

from Srikakulam in AndhraPradesh and seven from NorthIndia stuck in Wuhan."Everyone is in contact withtheir parents, and they arevery worried about our situa-tion. We are 58 people, 48 menand 10 women, stuck due tothe lockdown at Zuoling Roadin Wuhan," he responded to atweet from The Pioneer.

He said, "Our company istaking good care of us andhelping us in every possibleway. They are providing usfood even when there is scarci-ty of food. Everything is closedhere." China-based TCL, oper-ating out of Sri City selected 96people through campus place-ment and sent them to Wuhanfor three months of training.

As many as 58 engineers arestill at the company hostel inWuhan.

The engineer said that theIndian Embassy contacted themdays ago and created a group onsocial media app 'WeChat'."They are informing us of thesteps being taken to evacuate usfrom Wuhan," he said.

In the SOS to Modi, Jaganand Pawan Kalyan, he said,"We (58) are taking training atTCL China StarOptoelectronics Technology(CSOT) from August 19, 2019in Zuoling, Wuhan. Now, wehave a problem due to coron-avirus. Everyone is afraid ofthis. We are in lockdown here,please help us come back toIndia. We believe that you willhelp us. Jai Hind".

Continued on Page 3

The committee reco-mmended the government

to locate its administrativebuildings within the VisakhaMetropolitan Region limits

— GN RAO, Former bureaucrat

Promotions for topIAS officers in APPNS n AMARAVATI

Principal Secretaries RajatBhargav, Jawahar Reddy,Anantaharamu and PraveenKumar were on Wednesdaypromoted as Special ChiefSecretaries. Secretaries GJayalakshmi, Usha Rani andRamgopal have been madeprincipal secretaries. Jointsecretaries Mutyala Raju andBasant Kumar have also gotpromotions.

Manjeer Jeelana Samoonand Tamim Ansaria, IAS offi-cers from Nagaland and UPrespectively, have got APposting in inter-transfermode. They will be posted atVisakhapatnam.

While Tamim Ansaria willbe the GVMC Commission-er, Manjeer Jeelana will be theVMRDA Additional Comm-issioner, according to sources.

A picture tweeted by one of the engineers from Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh whohave been stranded in Wuhan, Province of China

In her statement toJunior Civil Judge, thegirl mentioned that twoyoungsters pouredpetrol and set her onfire while she wasattending nature's call

Minor victim of stalkerattack battling for life

FEB. 24: TRUMP DATE WITH INDIA,FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT AWAITED

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Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for anydamage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only. Readers are advised and requested to verify and seek appropriate advice to satisfy themselves about the veracity of any kind of advertisement beforeresponding to any contents published in this newspaper. The printer, publisher, editor and any employee of the Pioneer Group's will not be held responsible for any kind of claim made by the advertisers of the products & services and shall not be made responsible for any kind of loss, consequences and further product-related damages on such advertisements.

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020 vijayawada 02

PNS n NEW DELHI

With the novel coronavirus lead-ing to over 100 fatalities inChina, people need to be extracautious while making their trav-el plans, be it an internationalconference abroad or a vacation.

While several organisationshave started putting restrictionson the travel of their employ-ees to China, there could stillarise the need for you to trav-el to other countries. As theinfection from the virus isspreading to other destina-tions as well, it would be bet-ter for travellers to be cautious.

"As there is no vaccinationsavailable to prevent the spreadof this virus, it is advisable totake certain precautions toprevent nCov (novel coron-avirus)," Suranjeet Chatterjee,Senior Consultant in the

Internal Medicine Departmentof Indraprastha Apollo Hos-pitals in New Delhi, told IANS.

"Wash your hands often withsoap and avoid touching yourface with unwashed hands,observe good personal hygieneand avoid contact with peoplewith possible symptoms andavoid travel to areas wherecoronavirus infection has beenreported," Chatterjee said.

Experts in population map-ping at the University ofSouthampton in Britain haveidentified cities and provinceswithin China, and cities andcountries worldwide, whichare at high-risk from the spreadof the 2019-nCoV.

Bangkok (Thailand) is cur-rently the city most at risk froma global spread of the virus -based on the number of airtravellers predicted to arrive

there from the worst affectedcities in mainland China,according to a report by theuniversity's WorldPop team.

Hong Kong is second on thelist, followed by Taipei. Sydney(12), New York (16) andLondon (19) are among the 30other major international cities

ranked in the research.The most 'at-risk' countries

or regions worldwide areThailand (1), Japan (2) andHong Kong (3). The US isplaced 6th on the list, Australia10th and the UK 17th. WithinChina, the cities of Beijing,Guangzhou, Shanghai and

Chongqing were all identifiedas high-risk by the researchers,along with the Chineseprovinces of Guangdong,Zhejiang, Sichuan and Henan.

While much is yet to beknown about the novel coron-avirus in China's Wuhan city,human-to-human transmis-sion has been confirmed. Early

studies have revealed that thevirus can cause severe respira-tory illness.

"So far, the main clinicalsigns and symptoms reportedin this outbreak include fever,difficulty in breathing, andchest radiographs showingbilateral lung infiltrates. As of27 January 2020, human-to-human transmission has beenconfirmed largely in Wuhancity, but also some other placesin China and internationally,"according to the World HealthOrganization (WHO).

"With the information cur-rently available for the novelcoronavirus, WHO advises thatmeasures to limit the risk of ex-portation or importation of thedisease should be implement-ed, without unnecessary restri-ctions on international traffic,"said the statement from WHO.

Coronavirus: Precautions you need to take while travelling

PNS n NEW DELHI

Badminton star SainaNehwal took the politicalplunge here on Wednesday asshe joined the ruling BJP,sparking off speculation overthe role she may play inAndhra Pradesh andTelangana for the BJP in thecoming months.

While neither the BJP norNehwal made it clear what herrole would be but it is seen asa move by the party to embold-en its efforts to make inroadsin Andhra Pradesh andTelangana. Nehwal is fromHyderabad. Last October, aslew of leaders from the TeluguDesam Party (TDP) joinedthe party in New Delhi.

From Telangana, TullaVeerender Goud, former pres-ident of TDP's youth wing, hadjoined the BJP as did TDP leg-islative council member andformer minister VakatiNarayan Reddy, former minis-ter Sanakkayala Aruna, formerNellore Zilla Parishad chair-man Pathuri Nagabhushanam,former MLAs Thota Nageshand Puthalapattu Ravi and

senior leader G. ChinnaSatyanarayana from AndhraPradesh.

Nehwal, who was honouredwith India's highest award forsporting excellence - the RajivGandhi Khel Ratna - joinedthe saffron party in the pres-ence of BJP General SecretaryArun Singh.

Soon after joining, she said,"It's pretty new for me. I wouldlike to contribute for the bet-terment for India."

Heaping praise on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, shesaid he was an inspiration forher move to join the BJP.

"Narendra Modi Sir hasdone a lot for the country and

for the field of sports," said theshuttler. She also referred to the'Khelo India' programme of thegovernment.

On Wednesday, along withSaina, her sister ChandranshuNehwal also joined the party.

Arun Singh welcomedNehwal to the party with amembership card and bouquetof flowers. Singh listed the longlist of sporting accomplish-ments of Nehwal while she saidthe BJP is the "right party" forher to take the political plunge.

Soon after, she was escortedto the top floor where she metBJP President JP Nadda. Bothhad a chat before she left theBJP headquarters.

Is Saina Nehwal BJP's trumpcard for Telangana, Andhra?

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Vizag police on Wednesdayarrested four Nigerian nation-als and one woman from Delhifor duping a Vizag man of Rs6.62 lakh on the pretext ofdonate a fund of Rs 39 crore($5.5 US) as charity to help thepoor people.

The arrested have beenidentified as Everistus (38),Koffi Eric (32), OhazurumeEmmanuel Abuchi (30) andOgunjiofor ChukwujekwuSolomon (30), all Nigeriannationals and residents ofDelhi. The woman was iden-tified as Eusivia Lyngkhoi (27),a resident of South East Delhi.

Commissioner of Police RKMeena said that one SanjaySingh, a resident of Vizag cityreceived an SMS from one"Aisha", who claimed that sheis a widow from UK and shewanted to donate all her prop-erty ($5.5 million US) as char-ity to help the poor people inIndia.

The messenger asked SanjyaSingh to contact her throughe-mail. Believing the SMS,Sanjay sent his personal data

and his plans to utilize thefunds for the poor. Later, thewoman informed Sanjaythrough mails that her lawyerwould transfer the funds.

Sanjay Singh received manymails and phone calls in thename of customs, bank, insur-ance, RBI and few otherdepartments citing that theyinitiated the exercise to trans-fer the funds to him. Later, theyasked Sanjay to deposit Rs 6.62lakh as fee for the clearancefrom the various departmentsfor the fund transfer. Sanjaydeposited Rs 6.62 lakh in 13bank accounts, which wereprovided by them.

However, Sanjay failed to getthe funds and he realized thathe was cheated by the cybercriminals. Sanjay approachedthe police and lodged a com-

plaint.Inspector of Cybercrimes

Police Station V Gopinath andhis team investigated the caseand found that EusiviaLyngkhoi provided the bankaccounts to Sanjay and thepolice nabbed her.

Based in the key inputsfrom the woman, the policemanaged to nab the fourNigerian nationals who are themastermind behind the crime.

The police said that fourmen have been staying inDelhi. The police are investi-gating the case from variousangles to find out if the gangwas involved in other suchcrimes. The police seized twolaptops, six mobile phones,seven SIM cards, two bankpassbooks, Rs 55,000 in cashfrom the gang.

Indian navy launches‘Operation Vanilla'PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Indian Navy Ship, Airavat,whilst mission deployed in theSouthern Indian Ocean hasbeen diverted to Antsirananabased on request receivedfrom Madagascar.

The ship will undertakehumanitarian assistance anddisaster relief mission as partof 'Operation Vanilla' whichhas been launched to provideassistance to the affected pop-ulation of Madagascar postdevastation caused by CycloneDiane.

During the port call, theship, in coordination withEmbassy of India andGovernment of Madagascaris planned to undertake reliefoperations to provide succourto the flood affected popu-lace. The Indian Navy Shipis geared to set up medicalcamp and provide food, waterand other necessary reliefmaterial.

The situation is being mon-itored and the Indian Navy isprepared to render all neces-sary assistance to the localpopulation in Madagascar.

Centre should focus on bifurcationAct promises in Budget: ChambersC PRADEEPn VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh has hugeexpectations on the budget allo-cations to various sectors in theState like fulfilling the promis-es of AP State ReorganisationAct, Polavaram project, capitaldevelopment, budget allocationfor institutions, developmentof seven backward districts andmany more.

In an exclusive interviewwith The Pioneer, PotluriBhaskara Rao, general secre-tary, Andhra PradeshChambers of Commerce andIndustry Federation (APChambers) shared his views onthe wish list of AP in theUnion Budget - 2020.

He said the Budget shouldbe allocated to the State as per

the provisions in the APReorganisation Act. Enoughfunds should be allocated forcompleting the Polavaram pro-ject in time. Funds should beallocated for capital develop-ment and for nine nationalacademic premium institu-tions in the State like IITs, IIMsand AIIMS, he said.

Bhaskara Rao said budgetaryallocations for seven backwarddistricts to a tune of Rs 50 croreeach should be made for thecurrent year. Besides, arrears tothe tune of Rs 700 crore accu-mulated over a period of twoyears and this year's tranche ofRs 350 should be released, hesaid. Initiative should be taken

on the Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor(VCIC) with central construc-tion funded by AsianDevelopment Bank, BhaskaraRao said.

He wanted a booster dose forhousing, automobile, textileand food processing sectors,apart from an increase in PM

Awas Yojona Scheme slabsfrom Rs 12 to Rs 18 lakh andfrom Rs 18 to 25 lakh.

The housing sector shouldbe accorded priority on parwith infra and industry sectors,booster initiatives for improv-ing consumption and purchas-es, Bhaskara Rao said. He saidreduction in personal IncomeTax and rationalisation of slabsystem and exemption ofincome tax up to Rs 7 lakhwould be most welcome.

Bhaskara Rao said theBudget should be liberal on theconsumption side apart fromgiven a push to economy. Hesaid budgetary allocationshould be done either forDugarajapatnam port orRamayapatnam Port andVisakhapatnam railway zoneinfrastructure development.

Budgetary allocations for sevenbackward districts to the tune of Rs 50 crore each should be madefor the current year. Besides,arrears to the tune of Rs 700 croreaccumulated over a period of twoyears and this year's tranche of Rs 350 should be released

Four Nigerians, woman held forduping Vizag man of Rs 6.6 lakh

One Sanjay Singh, a resident of Vizag cityreceived an SMS from one "Aisha", whoclaimed that she is a widow from UK and shewanted to donate all her property ( US $5.5 mn)as charity to help the poor people in India

AP appoints officers to leadfight against coronavirus AMARAVATI: As part of the precautionary measures taken up by theState government to prevent spread of coronavirus, Dr V Rambabu,Professor of Medicine at Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam, wasappointed the nodal officer and Dr Neelima JD of DME office, as liaisonofficer for effective implementation of the control measures. Minister forHealth and Family Welfare, Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas also stated thatthere were no cases of coronavirus in the State. Later, Dr Rambabusaid, "As part of the precautionary measures, we have instructed all theteaching hospitals to have isolated wards with all the necessary facilitiesand required kits. With coordination from the district officers, allsuspected cases will be considered with utmost care. Public is advisedto take precautions such as covering up themselves in public spaces."

Architecture studentsbag national awardsPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

GITAM Deemed to beUniversity School ofArchitecture students receivedNational Awards for Excellencein Architecture for submittingthe best thesis on "SustainableArchitecture Design".

The Council of Architecture(COA), New Delhi and GreenRating for Integrated HabitatAssessment (GRIHA Council)invited the students ofBachelor's and Master's degreeprogram from across the coun-try to participate with their the-sis projects in the national levelcompetition. The joint awardsprogramme was an effort tospread awareness about sustain-ability in design among thefuture architects of the country.

M.Arch. student RamyaGeetika Vaddiparti from thefirst batch of M.Arch(Sustainable Architecture)stood first and was awarded acash prize of Rs 75,000 for herthesis on "Hawa Mahal,Visakhapatnam - Adaptivereuse and retrofitting thermalperformance of building enve-lope".

Another student ShanmukhaTeja Vedula also from the firstbatch of M.Arch(SustainableArchitecture) was the runner-up and was awarded a cashprize of Rs 25,000 for his the-sis on "Rythu Bazaar -Sustainable Redesign".

V-C Prof. K. Sivaramakri-shna and School of ArchitectureDirector Prof. K. Mohan appre-ciated the students.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

A two-day cultural festival'Bhavana - 2K20', being organ-ised by the PG department ofthe Andhra Loyola College,took off on Wednesday.

Regula Mallikarjuna Rao,executive director and region-al director, AP Tourism anddirector and CEO APCreativity and CultureCommissioner, who inaugu-rated the festival, said suchprogrammes would bring outlatent talent and creative skillsof the students.

He greeted the organisers forsuch programmes and saidthat they enrich team spirit toachieve wonderful goals. Raosaid that such fests enhance ourdesire to fight against socialevils and thereby eradicatesocial problems.

Various off-stage and on-stage programmes like rangoli,

mehndi, flower arrangement,quiz, hairstyles, best fromwaste, fruit / vegetable carving,group and solo singing, dance,Mr & Mrs Bhavana, mime andfashion show were organisedfor students. All the studentsparticipated with enthusiasm.

Duo pays homage to Pulwamamartyrs with Hyd-Vizag tour PNS n VIJAYAWADA

To pay tributes to martyrs ofPulwama attack in Kashmir onFebruary 14 last year, an NGO'I Stand for the Nation' has takenout a bicycle ride fromHyderabad. The members ofthe NGO took the initiative tocreate awareness among thepeople to pay tribute to the mar-tyrs and spread patriotism.

D Ganesh Nag andYugendhar representing 'I Standfor the Nation' stared theirbicycle ride from Hyderabad toVisakhapatnam that reachedPB Siddhartha College of Artsand Science, Vijayawada onWednesday. The cyclists, whostarted from Hyderabad onJanuary 26, would cover a dis-

tance of about 700 km. They were received by the

college principal Dr M Rameshand computer science depart-ment head Kavuri Sridhar.

Ganesh Nag and Yugendharsaid that they have taken the ini-tiative to spread patriotismamong people and to maintain

one-minute silence on February14 as a tribute to the martyrs ofPulwama attack where 40 Jawanswere killed. They said that theywould cover about 30 colleges ontheir way to Visakhapatnamand cover a distance of 700 km.Till now 260 km have been cov-ered, they added.

Two-day Bhavana-2K20off to a colourful start

Such festivalsenhance ourdesire to fightagainst socialevils

Village, ward secretariatsa boon for beneficiariesPNS n VIJAYAWADA

District Collector A. Md.Imtiaz on Wednesday urgedpeople to avail all govern-ment services at village andward secretariats. The collec-tor made a surprise visit tocheck the performance ofward secretariats establishedby the Vijayawada MunicipalCorporation.

Imtiaz said through wardsecretariats people can avail536 government services.Change of ration card, changeof electricity connection cate-gory and many more govern-ment services can be availed atward secretariats.

The collector made a sur-prise visit to the ward secre-tariats 78, 48, 100, 101under

division 22 in Krishna Lankaand inspected the infrastruc-ture facilities like internet,computers, printers and oth-ers. He checked the beneficia-ries list various welfareschemes at the ward secretari-ats like YSR Arogyasri, YSRPension Kanuka, Ration cards,Anna Vodi, Rythu Barosa,Vahana Mitra and other lists.

Then collector interactedwith the beneficiaries on theimplementation of the welfareschemes who visited the wardsecretariat. A few beneficiariesexpressed their satisfactionwith the welfare schemesimplemented by the govern-ment.

VMC circle zone commis-sioner Atluri Sridhar and oth-ers were present.

Ensure clarityof purpose onKanti Velugu,officials told PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Krishna district collector A. MdImtiaz on Wednesday instruct-ed officials to take measures toensure about six lakh beneficia-ries benefit from the third ph-ase of Kanti Velugu programmethat starts from February 15. A review meeting was held onthe programme here onWednesday where the collectorsaid that about 99.15 per centstudents have undergone eyechecks and spectacles weredistributed to those who need-ed them. As many as 44,082students were identified acrossthe district of whom 43,709 hadundergone eye checks.

EGGRATES

` 40,680 (10 gm)

` 70

GOLD

` 45,500(1kg)

` 11400

HYDERABAD 353VIJAYAWADA 375VISAKHAPATNAM 400RETAIL PPRICE `3.75

SILVER

VIJAYAWADABULLION RATES

`/100

CHICKENRATES

Dressed/With Skin `147

Without Skin `168

Broiler at Farm `102

`/KG

(IN VIJAYAWADA)

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020 vijayawada 03

Work on voters’ list forPenamaluru underway

Opposition a hurdleto dvpt: VellampalliVIJAYAWADA: EndowmentsMinister Vellampalli Srinivas onWednesday alleged that Leaderof the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu, Jana Senachief Pawan Kalyan and BJPstate unit president KannaLakshminarayana werehampering developmentactivities in the state. Srinivason Wednesday inaugurated CCroad works, drainage repairworks and drinking waterfacility in West constituency,completed at an estimated costof Rs 2 crore. Speaking on theoccasion, he lambasted Naidu,Pawan Kalyan andLakshminarayana, alleging thatthey were collectively workingagainst the developmentactivities taken up by the Stategovernment. He said that in thelast five years, the previousTDP government neglecteddevelopment of Vijayawada.Srinivas said that Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy wascommitted to the developmentof Vijayawada city and hadreleased funds for this purpose.

VIJAYAWADA: Cooperativedepartment commissioner Dr GVani Mohan on Wednesdaysaid that care should be takento ensure transparency invoters' list and to ensure thatall eligible voters figure in it.She visited PenamaluruTahsildar officer and inspectedthe preparation of voters list forPenamaluru constituency. VaniMohan instructed the officialsconcerned to complete theprocess of addition anddeletion of applicants byFebruary 3 and prepare acomprehensive list by February11. The final voters list will bereleased on February 14, VaniMohan pointed out, anddirected officials to ensure thatthere are no complaints. Shesaid that all the voters shouldcheck their name in the list.Sub-collector and PenamaluruERO, HM Dhyanchand said thatthere are 2,70,961 voters in theconstituency (1,31,991 menand 1,38,969 women) as onDecember 23. There are 302polling booths and Penamaluruis among the biggerconstituencies in the district.He said that there are 26,078new voters and 4,012deletions, making it a total of22,064 additional voters to theold list an increase of 8.8 percent. Tahsildar G Bhadrudu,election deputy tahsildar UdayaBhaskar and others werepresent.

CAPSULE Chinese vessel docks at Vizag,triggers coronavirus scare

Crew members test negative for virus; not allowed to go to civilian areasPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

With every mention of coron-avirus creating fear in the mindsof people after the deadly virusclaimed more than a hundredlives in China, an emptyChinese vessel with an all-Chinese crew docking atVisakhapatnam Port onWednesday morning left manyon tenterhooks.

The Port authorities imme-diately sent a medical teamheaded by senior medical per-sonnel Dr Kranti to check thecrew members. After screeningthem for over two hours, DrKranti declared them to be freefrom virus and other ailments.A senior port official said mer-chant vessel Fortune Sonarrived Vizag from Singaporeport at 8.31 am on Wednesdayto take a load of alumina pow-der. "We immediately sent a

medical team to screen all the21 member of the crew, includ-ing the captain," the port offi-cials said.

"They had boarded the shipin Singapore 20 days ago. Itwould have been impossible forthem to reach here if they hadcontracted the virus. Besides,

they had left their countrymany days before it spread inChina. Had they been sick inSingapore, they would not havebeen allowed to sail to India,'' theofficial said.

However, the crew memberswould not be allowed to leavethe port and enter the civilian

area. Normally, they get visafrom the immigration officelocated in the port premises butafter the virus scare, the author-ities have decided not to grantthem the facility. The loadingwould take three days afterwhich they would sail back toChina, he said.

C PRADEEPn VIJAYAWADA

An increasing number ofwomen and girls are falling vic-tim to traffickers, who selltheir prey to brokers for vari-ous purposes, particularly forflesh trade or bonded labour.

Police and law enforcementagencies have been rescuingthese victims and giving themhope of recovering from thetrauma and physical problemsthey undergo in captivity.

The most important prob-lem faced by the survivors isthe social stigma theyencounter after their rescue,particularly from the familymembers, relatives, neighboursetc. Law enforcement agencies,civil society organizations,NGOs are trying to help thevictims of human trafficking.

Survivors, particularly thegirls and women, invariably

end up living in inhuman con-ditions and they badly need thehelp of the Government tobegin a new life. The sur-vivors demand theGovernment to pay compensa-tion as per the law, give finan-cial assistance, sanction bankloans, vocational training to gettheir life back on track.

Vimukthi, a collective of

survivors of sex trafficking,commercial sexual exploita-tion and women in prostitu-tion, has been vigorously can-vassing in the State for the basicrights of the survivors.

Vimukthi along with otherNGOs like HELP and others,has been organising state-levelworkshops to create awarenessand enable their grievances be

heard by the authorities. Speaking to The Pioneer, N

Rammohan, secretary of theNGO 'HELP', which has beenworking against human traf-ficking in the State, said thatevery human has right to livewith dignity, equality, libertyand freedom from slavery andtorture. He regretted thou-sands of women were trappedby traffickers and the sur-vivors are living in deplorableconditions.

Rammohan underlined theneed to render all kinds ofassistance restart their life. Hefurther said the citizens haverights like the right to work andreceive education, freedomfrom religion and conscience,the right to a standard of liv-ing adequate for one's healthand well-being. He pointedout that out of Rs 16.62 croreallocated by the Central gov-ernment for the survivors to

start a new life, only Rs 2.21crore was utilised in the lastfour years which is about 13per cent. This is mainly due tolack of awareness and compli-cated legal procedures in thesystem, he said.

Radhika, a survivor, saidthat it has been three yearssince she was rescued and thecase has come up for hearingin court now. She said that tillnow she had spent money onlawyer's fees and on travelexpenses to reach the court.She appealed to the depart-ment concerned to pay com-pensation as soon as possible.

Aruna, another survivor,said she had applied for com-pensation through her lawyerin the court of law four monthsago. "Nothing positive hasturned up till now. I know Ishould get compensation fromthe government but how longshould I wait?" Aruna asked.

Government fails trafficking survivors

Images of national leadersconfined to dustbin!PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

People of the country hold ourfreedom fighters, especiallythe Father of the Nation andarchitect of our Constitution,close to our hearts because oftheir services to the country.

However, a reckless act of vil-lage secretariat staff inVisakhapatnam district hasheaped insult on national lead-ers by sending their images tothe dustbin leaving the loneimage of Jaganmohan Reddy onthe wall after whitewashing theoffice walls. For governmentservants working in villagesecretariat at Penugollu ofVisakhapatnam district ChiefMinister Jaganmohan Reddymay be their boss, but it doesnot mean that they should put

images of national leaders,including Mahatma Gandhi, indust bin. Walls of Governmentoffices like village secretariatsand panchayat offices adornimages of the Chief Ministerand also that of eminentnational leaders and so on.

But in Penugollu village,the government authoritieskept image of Jagan on the wallwhile confining the images ofMahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar,Balagangadhar Tilak, IndiraGandhi, Rajiv Gandhi andmany others to the dustbinafter giving a coat of whitewashon the village secretariat walls.

Even before the authoritiescould realise their folly, thenews went viral on Internetprojecting the government inbad light. The Netizens watch-

ing the viral news feel sorry forthe Father of the Nation andother freedom fighters andnational leaders of yore.

When villagers question thePanchayat Secretary about it,the officials is said to havepleaded ignorance. Theshocked villagers are learnt tohave undertaken a protest overthe insult heaped over thenational leaders.

At least 15 images of thenational leaders had earlieradorned the village secretariatwalls. The TDP and Jana Senaactivists uploaded a relevantvideo to the Internet as it findvery convenient to corner thegovernment with it. The TDPwent one step ahead and blam-ing the government for thesorry state of affairs.

‘Naidu U-turn on GN Rao andBCG reports opportunistic’PNS n AMARAVATI

Urban Development MinisterBotsa Satyanarayana onWednesday came down heav-ily on the TDP, accusing themain opposition party of tak-ing U-turns on crucial issues.

"Till yesterday the TDP saidthat GN Rao and BostonConsulting Group reports werebad and bogus but nowChandrababu Naidu and themedia are saying that thesereports recommend thatVisakhapatnam is not suitablefor the capital city. This meansthey are considering thesereports seriously now," he said.

Talking to the media here,Botsa said Naidu has no spe-cific stance on any issue andtakes 'U' turn as per the situa-tion and that is the reason heis called 'U-Turn Babu'.

He criticised the TDP, JanaSena and a section of media forsaying Visakhapatnam was notsafe as capital city as it isprone to natural disasters. Forthe same he questioned arethere any problems withMumbai and Chennai beingthe capital cities for theirrespective states?

Botsa said that unlike Naidu,the YSRCP government hastaken the decision only afteranalysing the GN Rao commit-

tee, BCG reports and furtheranalysis by the High PowerCommittee.

"Naidu had ignored theCentral government'sSivaramakrishnan Committee.Is there any evidence to showthat you (Naidu) followed theSivaramakrishnan Committeereport?" he questioned. TheMinister said that land poolingin Visakhapatnam was for theconstruction of houses forpoor people. About 1.76 lakhpoor people are homeless, hesaid.

He stated that there wassome delay in the process dueto the current situation but thecapital cities process would notstop. "Are you against thedecentralisation or in favour ofdecentralisation?" he ques-tioned those in support ofNaidu.

Botsa also said that Naidu's

stance on the LegislativeCouncil, and his past and pre-sent statements should benoticed. "Naidu would agree anissue is in his favour or other-wise, he would criticize it," headded.

"It was Naidu who wasresponsible for the financialproblems and other fluctua-tions in the state in the past fiveyears," Botsa said and addedthat the government underChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy was going ahead foradministrative decentralisa-tion to develop all the regionsin the state.

Botsa Satyanarayana

‘YSRCP leaders see moneyfrom Executive Capital’PNS n AMARAVATI

TDP MLC Rajendra Prasad onWednesday claimed that expertcommittees have felt thatVisakhapatnam was not suitablefor setting up of the Capital.

Speaking to mediapersonshere on Wednesday, he saidthat the Jaganmohan Reddygovernment did not bother totake into account the recommen-dations of the GN RaoCommittee and BCG report.

"Visakhapatnam has beenannounced as the ExecutiveCapital only due to vested inter-ests," he alleged. Rajendra Prasad

alleged that a land bank had beenset up between Bheemili andVizianagaram by Rajya Sabhamember and YSRCP nationalgeneral secretary V. Vijaya SaiReddy. He also alleged thatYSRCP leaders chose Visakha-patnam as the Executive Capitalas there was no scope for grab-bing land in Amaravati. "The rul-ing party leaders have the ulte-rior motives of taking a cut fromthose intending to set up indus-tries in Visakhapatnam," he said.

‘Jagan cheated many byopting to dissolve Council’PNS n AMARAVATI

TDP state secretary AbdulNazeer on Wednesdayalleged that ChiefMinister YS Jagan-mohan Reddy hadduring his padayatracheated many politicalleaders promising toaccommodate them inthe Legislative Council, buthe chose to dissolve it.

Addressing media, he saidthat the YSRCP government

administration was charac-terised by pulling down of thestructures and dissolving the

existing systems. "The CM deliber-

ately did not make itpublic that the GNRao Committeereport that said that

Visakhapatnam is notsuitable as the state cap-

ital as the YSRCP leadersare busy contemplating how toloot money from developedregion," Nazeer said.

Continued from Page 1

Suneetha also questionedthe Chief Minister's move toset up another SpecialInvestigation Team to probethe crime.

The petitioner alleged thatthe SIT ended up interruptingthe investigation and its con-duct gave rise to doubts aboutpolice's intentions in "impli-cating innocent people", so asto allow the culprits go scot-free.

Suneetha Reddy and herhusband N. Rajasekhar Reddypleaded that Avinash Reddywas one of the first from thefamily to arrive at the crimescene. The petitioners claimedthat Avinash Reddy was pro-tecting Siva Shankar Reddy, ageneral secretary of YSRCongress Party who was close

to both Avinash and his father.They claimed that SivaShankar Reddy had a criminalbackground and VivekanandaReddy was not happy withhim. Suneetha claimed thatShankar Reddy was responsi-ble for her father's defeat inthe Legislative Council elec-tions in 2016.

The petitioners named 15persons whose conduct theysuspected. The plea said thatthese persons were present atthe crime scene when theblood stains were washed andthe wounds on VivekanandaReddy's body were bandaged.

They included Avinash, hisfather Bhaskar Reddy and lat-ter's younger brother Y.S.Manohar Reddy, four othermembers of the YSR family,Siva Shankar Reddy, couple ofpolicemen and K. Srinivas

Reddy. Suneetha claimed thatSrinivas Reddy's alleged sui-cide on September 2, 2019,was in fact murder. Srinivaswas a brother-in-law ofParmeswar Reddy, an accusedin the case.

In his suicide noteaddressed to the ChiefMinister, Srinivas claimed thatpolice was harassing him.

The 68-year-old former MPwas alone at his house whenunidentified persons bargedin and killed him, hoursbefore he was to launchYSRCP's election campaign inKadapa.

Jagan had then demandedthe CBI probe and blamedthen ruling TDP for thekilling. Jagan claimed thatTDP leadership was aware ofthe conspiracy whenever adeath occurred in his family.

Jagan's cousin moves HC forCBI probe into father's murder

Mopidevi: 8 AP fishermen in Bangla jails releasedContinued from Page 1

He said aquaculture wouldget the same priority as agri-culture. "Plans have beendrawn to set up jetties in 22areas. Aquaculture would getthe same importance as agri-culture in the State, "Mopidevi said.

The Minister said thatmajor and minor jettieswould be made available forthe fishermen in a phasedmanner.

"The Chief Minister has a

special interest in the welfareof fishermen community andas promised earlier, jettieswould be provided inSrikakulam andVizianagaram districts so thatthey need not go to otherStates like Gujarat for labourwork. From now on, betterfacilities for fishermen will beprovided in our state itselfand also have better oppor-tunities in the State itself," theMinister said.

He said that in the firstphase, major and minor har-

bours and jetties at Uppada,Machilipatnam, Juvvaladinneand in phase 2 ,B u d a g a t l a p a l e m ,E d d h u v a n i p a l e m ,Pudimadaka, Kothapatnamwould be set up. For theconstruction of each jetty, Rs350 crore would be spentwith 50 per cent of the costbeing shared by the CentralGovernment. Also,Visakhapatnam harbour willbe modernised with Rs 100crore," Mopidevi added

He said that Andhra

Pradesh has almost 40 percent share in the marineexports in the national mar-ket.

"In such case, it is verymuch needed to boost themarine export sector andthus we are providing a sub-sidised price for electricity bycharging only Rs 1.50 perunit, despite a burden of Rs550 crores on State treasury.In the future, with advancedmethods, the fisheries sectoracross the State will be rapid-ly developed."

Continued from Page 1

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation is awaitingsanction to prosecute threesitting MPs Saugata Roy,Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar andPrasun Banerjee and a for-mer MP, Suvenu Adhikari,from Lok Sabha since April6, 2019, it said.

Roy, Ghosh and Banerjeeare Lok Sabha members ofWest Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee-led AllIndia Trinamool Congress.Adhikari is now the trans-port minister in the WestBengal government.

The investigation agencyis also waiting for the sanc-

tion to prosecute NaseemAhmad, a former vice chan-cellor of Aligarh MuslimUniversity. The CBI hassought the clearance to pros-ecute Ahmad from theMinistr y of HumanResources and Developmenton October 23, 2018.

One case involving a reg-istrar and an advocate isawaiting sanction for prose-cution from the Delhi gov-ernment. The CBI hassought the permission toprosecute these two officialson January 22 last year.

There are also other casesinvolving public servantswhich are stuck without thesanction for prosecution.

CBI awaiting sanctionto prosecute corruptMPs, bureaucrats

51 from state facecorona threat in Wuhan

Minor victim ofstalker attack...

Continued from Page 1

The locals admitted to thegirl, who suffered over 80 perpercent burn injuries, thepolice added. Holding theprincipal of the school respon-sible for the ghastly attack, par-ents and relatives of the victimstaged a protest demandingaction against him. Theyalleged that the principal failedto initiate action against threestudents of the school whoharassed her and ultimatelyattacked the girl. The policeregistered a case and visited theschool to ascertain the reasonsbehind the attack. The policeinterrogated the watchman ofthe school, friends and class-mates of the girl. Sources saidthat the girl was friends witha Class-VIII student of thesame school. Some students ofthe school who developed agrudge against her and mighthave eliminated her as theywere jealous of the friendship,the sources said.

Continued from Page 1

In a tweeted reply to ThePioneer, the engineer said "Wesent our details to India embassyin Beijing. We are awaiting theirreply. They are collecting ourdetails. But, the main problemis that there is not enough foodfor some of Wuhan universitystudents. We hope to be evacu-ated as soon as possible. I hopeour media people will forwardthe problem to Central govern-ment." He added, "Today(Wednesday) afternoon ourIndia embassy contacted us tosend an email of our positionwith exact location. They saidthat they would isolate us forabout 14 days after we reachIndia."

Yash Nagpal, said on Twitter:"My brother was sent to Wuhanfor job training in TCL. Theywere supposed to return homein December but they extended

their visa till January. Now dueto this coronavirus, they arestruck there. Please help them sothat they can return home assoon as possible". Attempts tocontact TCL went unansweredat the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, Raveesh Kumar,official spokesperson, Ministryof External Affairs said, "ChineseGovernment requested permis-sion to operate two flights tobring back our nationals fromHubei Province of China.Embassy of India in Beijing is intouch with Chinese authoritieson the ground to work out nec-essary logistics".

Govt advised tolocate capitalaway fromcoast: GN Rao

Continued from Page 1

The committee advisedthe government to establishVisakha metropolitan regionand establish administrativebuildings in the region, Raoelaborated. With decentrali-sation of development, erad-ication of poverty was possi-ble, he said. Rao said thatsome persons consigning thereport submitted by the com-mittee to flames as 'painful'.

"In case of emergency,coordination between execu-tive, legislative and judicialwings is possible. Secretarieswill also work from the placewhere the ministers dischargetheir duties, as per the recom-mendations of the commit-tee," Rao said.

Botsa stated that therewas some delay in theprocess due to thecurrent situation but thecapital cities processwould not stop. "Areyou against thedecentralisation or infavour ofdecentralisation?" hequestioned those insupport of Naidu

RGUKT to hostrural tech festfrom Jan 31PNS n HYDERABAD

Rajiv Gandhi University ofKnowledge and Technologies(RGUKT)- Basar will organ-ise Antahpragnya-2020, athree-day national level ruraltechnical fest on its campusfrom Jan 31 to Feb 2.

Giving details of the eventin the temple town onWednesday, Dr A Ashok,Vice-Chancellor of RGUKT,said the festival hosts techni-cal, literary, entrepreneurial,fun and cultural activities.The main aim ofAntahpragnya 2020 is to spotand encourage rural techinnovators. The theme of thebiggest ever National RuralTechnical Festival is to 'spotand encourage rural techinnovators', he informed.

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020 nation 04SHORT READS

People want to hearfacts about economy,not abuse and rhetoric:ChidambaramNEW DELHI: Senior Congressleader P Chidambaram onWednesday said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and hisministers should speak factsabout the economy in the Delhipolls as people want to hearthat rather than "abuse andrhetoric". Claiming that the PMand his ministers seem to becut off from reality, the formerfinance minister suggestedeconomic issues on which theycan speak about in the Delhielections. "Three things theycan speak about in the Delhielections: CPI has increasedfrom 2 per cent in January2019 to 7.35 per cent inDecember 2019. 2. Taxrevenues will fall short ofbudget estimates by Rs 2.5lakh crore in 2019-20. 3. Therewill be sharp expenditure cutsin programmes meant for SC,ST, OBC, minorities and womenand children," Chidambaramsaid in a series of tweet.

EC notice to BJP MPVerma for controversialstatement

UP: Man booked forgiving triple talaq towife over phoneBANDA (UP): A 23-year-oldwoman in Uttar Pradesh'sFatehpur district has allegedthat her husband gave her'triple talaq' over phone andshe was molested by herbrother-in-law, police said onWednesday. Besides herhusband and his brother, thewoman, who got married lastyear, has named six otherpeople in her complaint, StationHouse Officer (SHO), Kotwali,Ravindra Srivasatava, said.officer said a case has beenregistered and raids are beingcarried out to apprehend theaccused. In her complaint, thewoman said she was sexuallyabused and held "captive" byher husband after her parentsfailed to meet his dowrydemands, he said. She has alsoalleged that she was molestedby her brother-in-law,Srivastava said, adding thatwhen the woman objected tothe dowry demands, she wasasked to return to her parent'shouse in June last year.

NEW DELHI: The ElectionCommission on Wednesdayissued a showcause notice toBJP MP Parvesh Verma for hiscontroversial statement, sayingprime facie the remarks had thepotential of disturbingharmony. The EC asked him torespond to the notice beforenoon on Thursday. It said if hefails to respond, the EC willtake a decision without anyfurther reference to him. WestDelhi MP Verma on Tuesdaysaid what happened in Kashmirwith Kashmiri Pandits couldhappen in Delhi, warning thatlakhs of anti-CAA protesters inShaheen Bagh could enterhomes to kill and rape women.

‘Modi, Shahcreating Hindu-Muslim conflict’PNS n AURANGABAD

Accusing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionHome Minister Amit Shah ofcreating a conflict betweenHindu and Muslim commu-nities in the country, formerJNU student leader KanhaiyaKumar has said theCitizenship (Amendment)Act (CAA) was adding fuel tothe fire.

He was speaking at a rallyheld on Tuesday at Pathri inParbhani district ofMaharashtra against the CAAand the National Register ofCitizens (NRC). It was organ-ised by NCP MLC AbdullahDurrani.

PNS n JAIPUR

An app that allows users tokeep tabs on the distributionof foodgrain has drasticallyreduced corruption inRajasthan's Department ofFood, Civil Supplies andConsumer Affairs, an officialclaimed.

Department of Science andTechnology (DST) SecretaryMugdha Sinha said the fooddistribution against allocationwas never above 80 per centbefore the launch of the app,"Ration Darpan".

Now, it has increased to over95 per cent and not a singlesuspension occurred due tocorruption in the department,Sinha said.

Mugdha Sinha earlier heldthe charge of the Secretary,Department of Food, CivilSupplies and ConsumerAffairs. Anyone can monitordepartment staff, opening andclosing of fair price shops, lift-ing of foodgrain and their

distribution to ration cardholders through the app.

"In January 2018, I launchedthe app based on data availablewith the department. Over ayear, massive changes wereseen in terms of food distrib-ution. Not a single suspension

took place due to corruption,"Sinha claimed.

She added that 10 districtsupply officers (DSOs) weresuspended and only four wereappointed against 40 postswhen she joined the FoodSupplies Department inNovember 2017.

After streamlining the fooddistribution system, districtsupply officers were appoint-

ed against all 40 posts withina year, she added.

She said there was a per-ception that the departmentwas corrupt. "Your honesty isonly proven when there istemptation and you are ableto resist it persistently tomake space for yourself. So, itwas a big challenge to fightcorruption, including suchperceptions," she said.

App reduces corruption in food distribution, in RajasthanCORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK:

IndiGo suspends flightsbetween India-ChinaPNS n BANDA (UP)

IndiGo airlines said onWednesday that due to thenovel coronavirus out-break in China, it hasdecided to suspend itsflights on theBengaluru-HongKong route fromFebruary 1 onwardand on the Delhi-Chengdu route fromFebruary 1 to February 20.

The low-cost carrier said thatfor now, it will continue tooperate the Kolkata-Guangzhou

flight which it is "monitoring ona daily basis".

"Due to China travel restric-tions, we have seen a high num-

ber of cancellations fromChina on our Delhi-

Chengdu route andvice versa. Therefore,we are suspendingour flights betweenDelhi and Chengdu

from February 01, 2020until February 20, 2020.

We are also suspending ourBengaluru - Hong Kong flighteffective February 01, 2020,"the airline said in a statement.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The National Green Tribunalon Wednesday directed a com-mittee to submit report on aplea alleging illegal extractionof groundwater by the NoidaGolf Course without requisitepermission from the CentralGround Water Authority(CGWA).

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice AdarshKumar Goel constituted acommittee comprising theNoida district magistrate andrepresentatives from theCentral Pollution ControlBoard, UP Pollution ControlBoard and the Central GroundWater Authority.

The green panel directed thecommittee to submit reportbefore March 13, the next dateof hearing.

The tribunal's order came ona plea field by environmentactivist Vikrant Tongad alleg-ing illegal extraction ofgroundwater without requi-

site permission by the NoidaGolf Course in Sector 38 inGautam Buddh Nagar.

"The extraction of ground-water by the Noida GolfCourse, is happening in an areawhich has been identified as anover-exploited region forgroundwater, by the CGWA.The extraction of groundwaterby the Noida Golf Course is inviolation of the guidelinesissued by the CGWA in 2015,"the plea, filed through advo-cates Ritwick Dutta and Rahul

Choudhary, stated.According to the plea, the

Noida Golf course is usingborewells as per the informa-tion provided on its website.

"The borewells are beingoperated by the Golf Courseand the water is entirely beingused by the Noida Golf Course.The water is used for maintain-ing the facility, including thelakes and huge lawns in thepremise of the facility," the pleaadded.

Tongad referred to a report

published by the CentralGround Water Board titled"Aquifer Mapping and GroundWater Management Plan-partsof NCR and Uttar Pradesh"and said Noida has been noti-fied as an over-exploited regiondue to the fast depletinggroundwater levels.

"The applicant had writtena complaint letter dated June20, 2019 to the New OkhlaIndustrial DevelopmentAuthority about the illegalextraction of groundwater bythe Noida Golf Course, with-out a NOC from the CGWA.The New Okhla IndustrialDevelopment Authority inresponse to the complaint bythe applicant sent a notice tothe Noida Golf Course toconduct a joint inspection. Itis submitted that till date, noaction has been taken by theNew Okhla IndustrialDevelopment Authority afterissuing the notice to theNoida Golf Course," the pleastated.

NGT seeks report on illegal extraction

of groundwater by Noida Golf CoursePNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court onWednesday asked the JawaharlalNehru University (JNU) whatwas the purpose of having onlineopen book or take home examsif classes have not been held.

"Classes were not held. Sowhat was the purpose of havingexams if the students were notinstructed? Purpose of exams isto evaluate what the studentshave learned.

"But if, practically, no classeswere held, then what are theybeing evaluated on? Are theybeing evaluated on what is writ-ten in books," Justice RajivShakdher asked the varsity.

JNU's decision to hold onlineopen book or take home examsfor the monsoon semester hasbeen challenged by students,who had not taken such tests,and several JNU professors.

The court asked the Board ofStudies of the various schoolsand special centres in JNU toconvene and give recommenda-

tions on how the remainingclasses of monsoon semester canbe held and how the exams canbe conducted.

It asked the Board to forwardits recommendations to JNU'sacademic council and to place acopy before the court prior to thenext date of hearing on February4. The professors and students,represented by senior advocateRitin Rao, have challenged thevarsity's decision to conductend-semester examinations forthe 2019 monsoon semesterthrough an alternative mode ofuploading question papers on

the university's website or send-ing them to students by e-mail,and receiving answer sheets,through e-mails and whatsappmessages.

The petitions, filed throughadvocates Samiksha Godiyaland Abhik Chimni, have alsoopposed the varsity's circulardirecting the professors to com-mence course work for 2020winter semester, saying the direc-tions were issued on instructionsof the Vice Chancellor (VC) inexercise of his extraordinarypowers under the JNU Act andthe Statutes of the University.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court has setaside the direction of NationalGreen Tribunal ordering statusquo on construction of a hous-ing complex adjacent to theDelhi University campus.

Applying the "PrecautionaryPrinciple" of environmental law,the NGT on January 8 hadordered the status quo and saidthat evaluation of relevant datawas required by a jointCommittee comprising repre-sentatives of the CentralPollution Control Board,Ministry of Environment andForests and IIT Delhi.

A bench, comprising JusticesR Banumathi and A S Bopanna,said on Tuesday that when thecounter affidavit along with thedocuments was available onrecord, a detailed considerationwas necessary by the tribunal.Only if any further report wasrequired, the question of consti-tuting a committee would have

arisen, the bench said.However, such consideration

is not indicated in the NGT orderbefore constituting joint commit-tee for evaluation, it said. "Theconsequential interim orderpassed would also, therefore, notbe sustainable. In that view, theappropriate course would befor the NGT to take note of thecontentions put forth by theappellant (builder) hereinthrough their counter affidavitand the environmental clearanceand take a decision in the mat-ter," the bench said.

"On referring to the con-tention and materials, the reasonfor the same not being sufficientor reliable would be an aspect tobe recorded and take such fur-ther action. To enable such exer-cise the order impugned datedJanuary 8 is liable to be set aside,which we accordingly herebydo," the bench said.

The apex court directed theNGT to take note of the counteraffidavit and the documents ofthe appellant and consider thematter on its merits and passorders in accordance with law.

PFI, Rehab India officials meet ED toseek more time on PMLA summonsPNS n NEW DELHI

Representatives of Kerala-basedPFI and NGO Rehab IndiaFoundation on Wednesday metED officials to seek more timefor its office bearers to appearbefore the federal probe agencyin connection with a moneylaundering probe being con-ducted against them, officialssaid.

Four officials including legalrepresentatives of the two organ-isations met EnforcementDirectorate (ED) officials attheir office here at around 10:30am.

The ED is probing the twounder criminal provisions of thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) aspart of an enforcement caseinformation report (ECIR) orFIR filed in 2018.

A recent finding of the feder-al agency, related to violentprotests in Uttar Pradesh andother parts of the countryagainst the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) havingan alleged "financial link" with

the PFI, is also under the probescanner of the ED along withsome purported dubiousdeposits in the bank accountslinked to the Rehab IndiaFoundation (RIF).

It had issued summons toseven office-bearers of the twooutfits on Tuesday in connectionwith this case.

Those summoned includePFI and Rehab IndiaFoundation (RIF) Chairman EAbubacker, PFI vice-chairmanO M Abdul Salam, general sec-retary M Mohammed Ali Jinnah

and national secretaries AnisAhmed and Abdul Wahid Sait.

Similar summonses were alsosent to RIF general secretaryRemiz Muhammed and secre-tary A Chandrankandy.

"We have sought more timefor our chairman Mr Abubacker.He is suffering from cancerand some intestinal problemsand he is hospitalised for the lastfew months," PFI's Anis Ahmedtold PTI.

"We will explore all legaloptions with regard to the EDaction. Our financial transac-

tions are clean and we have filedall our income tax returns. Thisis vendetta politics against us,"he said.

Efforts to obtain commentsfrom the RFI did not fructifydespite making phone calls andsending an email.

On its website, RFI said it wasformed in 2018 and its aim is to"rehabilitate the marginalisedsection of rural India with a bet-ter standard of living by chan-nelling the building rocks of ajust society i.e. education, health,economic development and

environment".Officials said while the agency

may issue a fresh date forAbubacker, the rest of the officebearers are scheduled to appearbefore the investigating officerof the case next week.

The ED, they said, is alsoprobing remittances and with-drawal of funds from nine bankaccounts of RFI apart from adeposit of Rs 20 lakh fromDubai in its accounts.

It had found, sources said,that at least Rs 1.04 crore wasdeposited in several bankaccounts linked to the PFIbetween December 4 last yearand January 6 in various partsof the country.

This was the time whenParliament amended the law togrant citizenship to non-Muslims who were persecutedon religious grounds in Pakistan,Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The sources said a totalamount of Rs 120 crore, credit-ed at varied times into the bankaccounts linked to the PFI, RFIand few others, were under theED's scanner.

PNS n NEW DELHI

After IndiGo and Air India,SpiceJet and GoAir onWednesday suspended stand-up comedian Kunal Kamrafrom flying with them forallegedly heckling journalistArnab Goswami aboard anIndiGo Mumbai-Lucknowflight. AirAsia Indiaspokesperson told PTI onWednesday that the airline'sinternal committee is review-ing the matter and it will takeaction as per due process.

In a similar statement,Vistara had said on Tuesdaythat it will "review and followdue process in such cases".

SpiceJet and GoAir becamethe third and fourth airlines,respectively, to take actionagainst Kamra. While IndiGosuspended Kamra from flyingwith it for a period of sixmonths on Tuesday itself, AirIndia banned him until furthernotice.

After IndiGo announced itsdecision to ban Kamra,

Aviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri stated on Tuesdaythat he had taken note of theincident and "advised" otherairlines in India to impose sim-ilar restrictions on Kamra,stating "offensive behaviourdesigned to provoke & createdisturbance inside an aircraftis absolutely unacceptable &endangers safety of air trav-ellers".

Kamra allegedly heckledGoswami, the editor ofRepublic TV, on IndiGo'sMumbai-Lucknow (6E5317)flight on Tuesday.

In a video clip posted by

Kamra on his Twitter handleon Tuesday, he is seen askingGoswami if he is a "coward ora journalist".

While Goswami can be seensitting in the plane and watch-ing something on his laptopwith his earphones plugged in,Kamra is heard as telling him,"Viewers want to know ifArnab today is a coward or anationalist. Arnab, this is fornational interest. I am part ofthe tukde-tukde narrative. Youshould deflate me. You shouldtake the enemy of the statesdown. You should make surethat the country is in safehands of Narendra Modi."

In a statement, AirAsia Indiaspokesperson told PTI,"Ourinternal committee is review-ing this case and a decision willbe taken soon. We will takeaction as per due processes."

On Wednesday morning,SpiceJet said onTwitter,"SpiceJet has decided tosuspend Mr. Kunal Kamrafrom flying with the airline tillfurther notice."

ARNAB'S HECKLING:

SpiceJet, GoAir ban Kamra

‘RBI, ECIignored onelectoral bonds’PNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Wednesdayaccused the government ofignoring RBI and ECI objec-tions on the electoral bondsscheme.

Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala alleged thatthe role of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in issuance ofelectoral bonds has come underthe scanner as the SBI has beencaught lying.

"BJP gets 95 pc of Rs 6,128Crore worth Electoral Bondsissued up to March 2018. BJPGovernment ignores objec-tions of RBI and ECI,"Surjewala said on Twitter.

"PM's role in issuance ofElectoral Bonds comes underscanner. State Bank of India isnow caught lying" he alleged.

"Media is 'mum'? No noise,No debates," he added.

While there was no imme-diate reaction from the BJP onWednesday to the Congress'allegations, the party had ear-lier rejected the Congress' crit-icism of electoral bonds.

SC sets aside NGT order on constructionof housing complex in north Delhi

India asks Israel,Palestine to resolve all issuesPNS n NEW DELHI

India on Wednesday reaffirmedits call for a two-state solution tothe Israeli-Palestinian conflictand asked both sides to resolveall issues through direct negoti-ations. India's reiteration of itsviews on the issue came a dayafter US President DonaldTrump unveiled his MiddleEast peace plan.

Ministry of External AffairsSpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid India has been consistent-ly supportive of the Palestiniancause and has called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

"We reiterate our view that thefinal status issues should beresolved through direct negoti-ations between the two partiesand be acceptable to both. Weurge the parties to engage witheach other, including on therecent proposals put forward bythe United States, and find anacceptable two-state solutionfor peaceful coexistence," Kumarsaid in response to response toa question on the Israel-Palestine

issue. "We will continue to fol-low developments in the regionand engage with the parties con-cerned," he said.

President Donald Trump onTuesday said Jerusalem "willremain Israel's undivided capi-tal" as he unveiled his MiddleEast peace plan aimed at solv-ing the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict, describing it as "historic"and a "giant step" towards peace.

Standing along with the IsraeliPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu in the White House,Trump proposed a "realistic"two-state solution to solve oneof the world's longest-runningconflicts, saying it would bringlasting peace in the MiddleEast.

Mugdha Sinha earlier held the charge of theSecretary, Department of Food, Civil Suppliesand Consumer Affairs. Anyone can monitordepartment staff, opening and closing of fair priceshops, lifting of foodgrain and their distribution toration card holders through the app

Those summoned includePFI and Rehab IndiaFoundation (RIF)Chairman E Abubacker,PFI vice-chairman O MAbdul Salam, generalsecretary M MohammedAli Jinnah and nationalsecretaries Anis Ahmedand Abdul Wahid Sait

Why exams if classesnot held, HC asks JNU

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

CBI raids J-K GrameenBank in Kupwara toprobe embezzlement SRINAGAR: The Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) onWednesday conductedsearches in Kupwara inconnection with the allegedembezzlement of funds to thetune of Rs 1.33 crore by anemployee of the Jammu andKashmir Grameen Bank,officials said. The raids werecarried out by CBI sleuths atthe Jammu and KashmirGrameen Bank in Khumriyal,Kupwara and the residence ofbank assistant Shariq HussainKhan following registration of acase against him, they said.The officials said the CBI hasstarted investigation of the caserelated to misappropriation offunds to the tune of Rs 1.33crore by Khan, office assistantat the branch. It is alleged thatKhan misappropriated theamount by way of tampering,insertions and manipulation inthe computer banking system.

Six more routesidentified for highspeed corridors

Very sad that BJPcalling me ‘terrorist':Kejriwal

Cabinet approvesallocation of 30%funds of NE CouncilNEW DELHI: The Union Cabineton Wednesday approved theallocation of 30 per cent offunds of the North-EasternCouncil for new projects forfocused development ofdeprived areas, neglectedsections of society andemerging priority sectors.The move will benefitmarginalized and vulnerablegroups of people in backwardand neglected areas of north-eastern States.

NEW DELHI: Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal said hefaced many difficulties to helppeople and in return the BJPhas called him a "terrorist".Tagging a media reportaccording to which BJP MPParvesh Verma had allegedlycalled him a terrorist, Kejriwalsaid he has been working dayand night towards the welfareof people. "Gave up everythingfor the people of Delhi. Afterjoining politics, I faced manydifficulties so that the life of thepeople could improve. Today inreturn, the Bharatiya JanataParty is calling me a terrorist ...It is very sad," he said in atweet.

NEW DELHI: The Railways hasidentified six sections for highspeed and semi-high speed railcorridors, Railway BoardChairman VK Yadav said onWednesday, stating the detailedproject report on three sectionswill be completed within a year.In a briefing ahead of the UnionBudget, Yadav said the sixcorridors include the Delhi-Noida-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasiand the Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Ahmedabad sections. Othercorridors are: Mumbai-Nashik-Nagpur, Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore, Delhi-Chandigarh-Ludhiana-Jalandhar-Amritsar.The Railways has identified sixsections for high speed andsemi-high speed rail corridors,Railway Board Chairman VKYadav said on Wednesday,stating the detailed projectreport on three sections will becompleted within a year.

President, PM, otherscondole kin of victimsPNS n NEW DELHI

President Ram Nath Kovind,Prime Minister NarendraModi and other prominentleaders on Wednesdayexpressed grief over theNashik road accident inMaharashtra.

"Saddened to hear aboutthe tragic accident in Nashik,Maharashtra. Thoughts andprayers with the bereavedfamilies; wishing an earlyrecovery to those injured,"President Kovind tweeted.

"The accident inMaharashtra's Nashik dis-trict is unfortunate. In thishour of sadness, my thoughtsare with the bereaved fami-lies. May the injured recoverat the earliest," PM Modiwrote on Twitter.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh, offering condolence toall the families of those wholost their lives in the accident,wrote: "Anguished by thenews of a road accident inNashik, Maharashtra. Myheartfelt condolences to thefamilies of those who losttheir lives in this tragedy.

Praying for the quick recov-ery of the injured."

"Deeply anguished by thetragic road accident inNashik, Maharashtra. Mythoughts and condolencesare with the bereaved familieswho lost their loved ones. Ipray for the speedy recoveryof those injured," HomeMinister Amit Shah tweeted.Former Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavistweeted: "Very shocking! Mydeepest condolences to thefamilies who lost their lovedones. I pray for the speedyrecovery of the injured pas-sengers."

EC restrictsexit poll forDelhi

Govt mullsnutritiongardens inJammuPNS n JAMMU

Nutrition gardens may sooncome up in government-runschools in Jammu and vegeta-bles sourced from them willbe used to prepare Mid DayMeals for students.

Mission Director, Mid DayMeal, Dr Arun Manhas said,"The administration ismulling to establish 'schoolnutrition gardens' in all gov-ernment-run schools ofJammu and Kashmir".

“The vegetables grown inthese gardens will be used inpreparation of Mid DayMeals (MDM), which areserved to students in schoolsunder the MDM scheme,” DrManhas said.

The Mission Directormade these remarks during acooking competition that washeld at Government HigherSecondary School, Vijaypur,in Samba district.

The idea behind the com-petition was to promote com-munity participation andmotivate cooks-cum-helpersby incentivising their recipes,he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Election Commissionon Wednesday issued a noti-fication restricting mediato conduct or publish anyexit poll during assemblyelections in Delhi onFebruary 8.

The ban wil l be onbetween 8 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.on the poll day in thenational capital, the com-mission said. "ElectionCommission of India, inexercise of the powers undersub-section (1) of Section126 of the Representation ofthe the Peoples Act, 1951 hasnotified the period between8 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. onFebruary 8, 2020 (Saturday)as the period during whichconducting any exit polland publishing or publiciz-ing the result of exit poll bymeans of the print or elec-tronic media or in any othermanner shall be prohibitedin the ongoing GeneralElection to the LegislativeAssembly of NCT of Delhi,2020," the Commission said.

EU parliament passed resolutions against India in past tooPNS n NEW DELHI

The European UnionParliament's move to bringand pass resolutions against theCentral government overCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and reorganization ofJammu & Kashmir is no bigdeal if past resolutions are anyindicator. Two days ago, 559members from five groups ofthe 751-member EuropeanParliament moved resolutionsagainst the CAA, calling it"fundamentally discriminatoryin nature" and "dangerous shift"in the citizenship criteria inIndia. The EU members fearthat the CAA will create the"largest statelessness crisis inthe world causing immense

human suffering". The resolu-tions will be put to vote onJanuary 29 and 30. Though inits response, government offi-cials have been saying that the

CAA, which was passed by theIndian Parliament, is an inter-nal matter, the EU has movedsuch resolutions earlier too.

As per official records, the

EU passed resolutions on otherinternal issues of India includ-ing the hanging of Parliamentattack convict Afzal Guru andthe 2012 gang-rape and mur-der of Nirbhaya in New Delhi.

In the Delhi gang-rape case,the EU Parliament passed a res-olution in 2013 with an expec-tation that India, "being a

democracy and having signif-icant relations with the EU, toensure respect for democraticprinciples, fundamental rightsand human rights, in particu-lar the rule of law and the rightsof women".

In 2013, the EU Parliamentalso passed a resolution con-demning the execution of Afzal

Guru "in secret" at Tihar Jail inNew Delhi. Though capitalpunishment is prevalent underIndian law, the EU Parliamentcriticized the Manmohan Singhgovernment for the executionacein opposition to the world-wide trend" in favour of aboli-tion of death sentence.

The resolution alsoexpressed its regret that AfzalGuru's wife and other familymembers were not informed ofhis execution and burial intime. The EU called on India to"adopt legislation introducinga permanent moratorium onexecutions, with the objectiveof abolishing the death penal-ty in the near future."

Sources said the resolutionsover CAA and Kashmir have

been pushed byParliamentarian, ShaffaqMohammed who is a Britishcitizen of Pakistan OccupiedKashmir (PoK) origin. Shaffaqis a member of the BritishLiberal and representsYorkshire and the Humberconstituency in the EU.

He shares a good relation-ship with the government inPoK and Pakistan's PrimeMinister Imran Khan, whohas been campaigning againstIndia around the world eversince India launched airstrikesagainst Pakistan terror campsin Balakot last year. "The EUParliament resolutions willhave no bearing on India'srelationship with the EU," anofficial in New Delhi said.

The resolutions will be put to vote onJanuary 29 and 30. Though in itsresponse, government officials havebeen saying that the CAA, which waspassed by the Indian Parliament, is aninternal matter, the EU has moved suchresolutions earlier too

PNS nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Amid a high voltage protestand boycott by the oppositionCongress-led UDF, KeralaGovernor Arif MohammedKhan on Wednesday present-ed his policy address in theassembly and read out refer-ences to anti-CAA resolutionpassed by the house, despitedisagreeing with it.

Reading out the the anti-CAA stand of the state govern-ment, the Governor said "ourcitizenship can never be on thebasis of religion as this goesagainst the grain of secularismwhich is part of the basicstructure of our constitution."

Referring to the unanimousanti-CAA resolution passedby the assembly, Khan, whohas been at loggerheads withthe state government for mov-ing the Supreme court againstthe law and the resolutionagainst it, said the governmentbelieves the Act "goes againstthe cardinal principles" under-lying the Constitution.

"Strong states and strongcentre are pillars of our feder-alism.

The voices of genuine appre-hension of the states need to beconsidered by the central gov-ernment in the right spiritkeeping broad national inter-est in mind, particularly when

constitutional values areinvolved and there are wide-spread anxieties and apprehen-sions among a large number ofour citizenry," he said.

It's learnt that the Governordecided to read out the refer-ence to the state's anti-CAAstance after a letter was sent byVijayan this morning, in whichthe Chief Minister hadrequested Khan to read thepolicy address "in its entiretysans any additions or dele-

tions." "Since the constitution-al function under Art 176 isexercised with the aid andadvise of the council of min-isters, it is requested that theaddress approved by the coun-cil of ministers be read in itsentirety sans any additions ordeletions", the letter stated.

The day also saw anunprecedented protest by theUDF members, who also boy-cotted the policy address.

As the governor was beingushered into the assembly hallby Speaker PSreeramakrishnan and ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan,UDF members, blocked Khan,raised "Go Back" slogans hold-ing aloft "Repeal CAA" and"Recall Governor" placardsand banners.

Speaker was seen repeated-ly trying to pacify the agitatingMLAs but in vain, after whichthe watch and ward personnel,who stood as a wall protectingthe governor, cleared his pathto the dais.

India will no longer silently witness terror attacks on it: MinPNS n NEW DELHI

Accusing Pakistan of becomingthe "architect and exporter" ofterrorism, Minister of State forExternal affairs VMuraleedharan on Wednesdaysaid India has made "abun-dantly clear" to its neighboursthat it will no longer remain asilent witness to terror attacks onit and would take resolute steps.

Without naming Pakistan,the Union Minister said one ofour "neighbouring country" haswillingly "embraced" terrorismas a defining feature of itsregional engagement.

"India's equivocal rejection ofterrorism has led us to fine tuneour policy towards countries

that deploy terrorism as a toolof their foreign policy. We havemade it abundantly clear thatnew India will no longer remaina silent witness to repetitive

attacks of terror on its soil," hesaid.

Addressing the 12th SouthAsia Conference on "India'sNeighbourhood first policy:Regional perceptions" at theIDSA, a defence and securitythink tank, he said,"we have alsodemonstrated that while we areland of 'ahimsa' (non-violence),

patience and reverence, we willtake resolute measures to protectour people", in an apparent ref-erence to Balakot strike on ter-ror pads in Pakistan in 2019.

Asserting that there is nocounty in the region which hasnot faced challenges of terrorismleading to the loss of innumer-able lives, the minister said

however, there is "only onecountry, which has willinglyembraced terrorism as a defin-ing feature of its regional engage-ment". "It (Pakistan) has becomeits epicentre, architect andexporter. Radicalisation is anintegral ingredient of terrorism,it knows no boundaries anddoesn't recognise nationalities.In that sense radicalisation, oneof major causes of terrorism, isgrowing in our region and wemust all join hands against it," headded.

Referring to increasing terrorthreats to India, Muraleedharansaid New Delhi has tried to esca-late this at international level asalso include the agenda under itsneighbourhood first policy

engagement. "This cooperationbecomes most useful, effectiveand critical, particularly whenthe challenges faced are region-al and at times global. It is atsuch critical time that vestedinterest attempts to ensure thatmanifestation of responseremains weak and local. Suchthreats tend to exploit cleavagesand cracks across boundariesand within societies, often at thecost of human lives and prosper-ity," he added.

Elaborating on India's 'neigh-bourhood first policy', the min-ister said the Prime Minister hasalways emphasised that India'sneighbourhood is most criticalfor country's future and theworld.

PNS n JAMMU

Jammu and Kashmir ChiefSecretary BVR Subrahmanyamasked the police department towork in synergy with the ShriAmarnath Shrine Board(SASB) for effective regulationof the pilgrimage to the caveshrine in the SouthKashmir Himalayasthis year.

The annual pil-grimage to thecave shrine,which is situatedat an altitude of3,888 m (12,756ft), takes place inthe months of Julyand August. Lastyear, it took placeover 46 days fromJuly 1 to August 15.

An official spokesman saidon Wednesday that ChiefSecretary Subrahmanyam onTuesday evening chaired the9th high-level committee meet-ing to review the arrangementsbeing made for the pilgrimagefor 2020. With regard to thesecurity arrangements, theChief Secretary asked the policedepartment to work in closecoordination and synergy withthe SASB for effective regula-tion of the yatra at access con-trol gates at Domel andChandanwari. He also empha-sized on strict enforcement of

prescribed guide-lines so as to allow

access only to regis-tered pilgrims and ser-vice providers.

Administrative sec-retaries concerned

briefed the Chief Secretaryabout the status of worksincluding improvement of crit-ical stretches on existing tracks,establishment of transit camps,setting up of shelter sheds, pro-vision of environment friend-ly facilities for disposal of wasteand steps taken to stabilize thehill slopes enroute the shrine.The CS also reviewed the trackimprovement works on theBaltal and Chandanwari routesviz installation of railings, main-tenance of footbridges and up-gradation of road from Baltal to Domel.

Kerala Guv faces Oppn ire l Reads anti-CAA reference in policy address

Referring to the unanimous anti-CAA resolutionpassed by the assembly, Khan, who has been atloggerheads with the state government formoving the Supreme court against the law andthe resolution against it, said the governmentbelieves the Act ‘goes against the cardinalprinciples’ underlying the Constitution

Book revealsKolkata's bestkept secretsPNS n NEW DELHI

A classic byf a m o u sB e n g a l ia u t h o rHemendraKumar Royhas beent r a n s l a t e dinto Englishalmost a century after it waspublished in 1923 and revealsto the contemporary readersthe darkest secrets of the erst-while Calcutta. "CalcuttaNights" (originally 'RaaterKolkata') tells stories of the citythat led a life of glamour andscandal in her youth. Onlythat, those are not stories buta moving landscape of eventsthat used to happen under apale hazy moon or perhaps,the dim street lights ofTilottoma.

In the book, translated intoEnglish by Rajat Chaudhuri,Roy reveals the darkest secretsof an earlier Calcutta.

From Chitpur bordellos tothe Chinese gambling dens ofTerriti Bazaar, from the greenrooms of Bengali theatres tothe hideouts of ruthless hood-lums of Mechhobazaar, fromburning ghats to prostitution- the narrative traversesthrough all the dark, narrowalleys of the city and the self,living in it.

India's equivocal rejection of terrorism has led us to fine tune our policy towardscountries that deploy terrorism as a tool oftheir foreign policy. We have made itabundantly clear that new India will no longerremain a silent witness to repetitive attacksof terror on its soil

Court allows UP govt towithdraw case against ministerPNS nMUZAFFARNAGAR

A court here has allowed theUttar Pradesh government towithdraw a case of viola-tion of the model codeof conduct duringthe 2017 assemblypolls against stateCabinet ministerSuresh Rana.

Additional DistrictJudge Ram Sudh Singhon Tuesday permitted theapplication filed by theprosecution on behalf of thestate government to withdrawthe case. The state govern-ment's plea said it wanted towithdraw the case "in public

interest". On the direction ofElection Commission, policehad registered a case againstRana, the then BJP candidate

from Thanabhawan inShamli district, on

January 30, 2017 forallegedly givingi n f l a m m a t o r yspeeches during theelection campaign.

Meanwhile, the UPgovernment is also con-

sidering to withdraw fourcases against BJP MLA

Sangeet Som, including thoserelated to the 2013Muzaffarnagar riots, assistantdistrict government councilSubhash Saini said.

The annual pilgrimageto the cave shrine,which is situated atan altitude of 3,888 m(12,756 ft), takesplace in the monthsof July and August.

Last year, it tookplace over 46

days from July 1 toAugust 15

NIRBHAYA CASE

SC rejects convict Mukesh's pleachallenging rejection of mercy petitionPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme CourtWednesday dismissed the peti-tion of death row convictMukesh Kumar Singh in theNirbhaya case challenging therejection of his mercy plea bythe President, and said that its"quick consideration" and"swift rejection" does not sug-gest non-application of mindor it being pre-determined.

The apex court held that allthe documents, including theverdicts delivered in the case bythe courts, past criminal histo-ry of convict, economic condi-tion of his family, were takeninto consideration by thePresident while rejecting themercy plea. A three-judgebench, headed by Justice RBanumathi, said that allegedsufferings in jail cannot be aground to seek judicial reviewof executive order passedunder Article 72 of theConstitution, which deals withpower of President to grantpardons and to suspend, remitor commute sentences in cer-tain cases. "In the result, we do

not find any ground for exer-cise of judicial review of theorder of the President of Indiarejecting the petitioner's(Mukesh) mercy petition andthis petition is liable to be dis-missed," said the bench, alsocomprising Justices AshokBhushan and A S Bopanna.

It observed that documentsincluding DNA and odontol-ogy reports, dying declara-tion, case diary and chargesheet of the case were alreadyconsidered by the trial court,high court as well as the apex

court and the defence putforth by Mukesh was alreadyrejected. "It is not necessarythat each and every materialrelied upon by the petitioner-accused should have beenplaced before the President.There is no merit in the con-tention of the petitioner thatrelevant materials were keptout of the consideration of thePresident," the bench said in its25-page order.

The bench did not acceptthe contentions of the convict'scounsel that Mukesh was

allegedly kept in solitary con-finement for over eightmonths. The apex courtreferred to an affidavit filed byDirector General (Prisons)which said that he was kept ina separate room having ironbars open to air for securityreasons and the same can notbe equated with solitary con-finement. "This cannot there-fore be a ground for review ofthe order rejecting the petition-er's mercy petition," the benchsaid.

The apex court heldthat all the documents,including the verdictsdelivered in the case by the courts, pastcriminal history ofconvict, economiccondition of his family,were taken intoconsideration by thePresident whilerejecting the mercyplea

NASHIK ROAD ACCIDENT

J&K reviews preparationfor Amarnath yatra

V Muraleedharan Suresh Rana

BVR Subrahmanyam, J&K Chief Secretary

India’s controversial Defence MinisterVK Krishna Menon was recently in thenews, courtesy a well-researched book,which did not elaborate enough on theimplications for the country on account

of having a wrong person at the wrong placeand at the wrong time. Menon was one of thestrangest characters, who appeared on thepolitical scene after independence. PKBanerjee, the Indian chargé d’affaires inBeijing in 1962, who often encountered thehaughty politician, wrote in his memoir:“Krishna Menon’s appearance in the Indianpolitical arena was as sudden as it was unex-pected... he had his education and wasenrolled as a Barrister. He hardly had any legalpractice …[but] became a protégé of PalmeDutt, a lawyer and founder member of theBritish Communist Party.”

How, after independence, he was sud-denly nominated as the Indian HighCommissioner in the UK is still not clear.A few years later, he came back to India andwas made the Defence Minister: “In addi-tion, for all practical purposes, he func-tioned as Foreign Minister de facto,” notedBanerjee. Menon was certainly brilliant insome ways. He joined the Union Cabinetas a Minister without a portfolio in 1956.It was former Prime Minister JawaharlalNehru who appointed him as the DefenceMinister in April 1957.

Sixty-three years later, India still suffersbecause of Nehru’s choice. One of the manyblunders that he committed was to stopusing the seniority system in the Army,replacing it with the so-called merit-basedmethod of promotion; in fact, posting hisfavorites in positions where they should havenever been. This eventually led to the res-ignation of the then Chief of Army Staff,General KS Thimayya.

Let’s take a look at a few examples ofthe wrongs committed by Defence MinsterMenon at the time when the Chinese troopsattacked India in the North-East FrontierAgency (NEFA) and in Ladakh. It was onlyafter meeting Wing Commander JagMohan (Jaggi) Nath, the first of the six offi-cers who have been twice decorated withthe Maha Vir Chakra (MVC), India’s sec-ond highest war-time military award, thatI realised that the outcome of the 1962 warcould have been completely different hadIndia used its Air Force.

Nath received his first MVC for his rolein reconnaissance missions between 1960and 1962 over the Aksai Chin and Tibet. Hismissions proved immensely useful to learneverything about the Chinese militarybuild-up on the Tibetan plateau.Unfortunately, the political leadership (firstand foremost the Defence Minister) refusedto believe the hard evidence gathered dur-ing of his sorties. After one of his missionsover the Aksai Chin and Tibet, a messagecame that Nehru, Menon and their favoriteGeneral, Biji Kaul, wanted to be briefedabout Nath’s reconnaissance sorties.

Along with former Air ViceMarshal DAM Nanda, the thenDeputy Chief of the Air Force,Nath went to South Block tomeet Menon. They were waitingoutside the Minister’s roomwhen Kaul came and he startedtalking non-stop: “I know, Iknow, these fellows [the Chinese]are there. They asked me tothrow them back. I can throwthem back, not a problem! Butthey will be back the next day. Ithas to be planned out properly.”

Nath was surprised thatGen Kaul would speak this wayin front of a junior officer: “Iwas a low-level officer” but[Kaul] continued shouting:“You saw the Chinese soldiers.”I said, “Yes, sir, I saw them.”“OK, go to the DefenceMinister”, he finally said.

Nanda and Nath finallylanded up in Menon’s office.Nath recalled: “He did not askanything”, he just said, “Did yousee the Chinese soldiers?” Ianswered: “Yes sir, I saw them.”“That’s alright, you can go.” Thatwas it. Nath concluded: “Therewas a total breakdown.”

In a secret report written ashe was forced to resign inNovember 1962, the flamboyantDefence Minister wrote: “Chinais reported to have the thirdlargest Air Force in the world.This may well be true.” Though

Menon was aware of the fuelissue: “[China] had inadequatefuel capacity in terms of warrequirements,” he ignored thefindings of the brave airman,who explained: “If we had senta few airplanes [into Ladakh orNEFA], we could have wiped theChinese out and everythingcould have been different in the1962 war. The political leadershipdid not believe me that Chinahad no Air Force…”Unfortunately, the then Chief ofAir Staff did not have the courageto put his foot down. This led toone of the greatest tragedies inIndia’s modern history. Maohad bluffed Nehru and it worked.

Another sad story aboutthe 1962 episode was recountedby Lt Col (later Maj Gen) KKTewari, the Commander of theSignal Regiment of the Corpsbased in Tezpur (Assam),responsible in the early 1960s forthe Tawang sector of the NEFA.Tewari wrote: “On the 19th[October], Brig Dalvi[Commander of the 7th InfantryBrigade] talked to the GeneralOfficer Commanding [GOC] atZimithang [near the Tibet bor-der] on the telephone. He waspleading with the latter to let himmove up to a tactically sounddefensive position.” He describedthe existing position along theriver where he had been ordered

to stay by the CorpsCommander [BM Kaul] beforehis departure for Delhi as a“death trap.” Brig Dalvi was told“not to flap but to obey ordersand stay put. He was visibly upsetand was very abrupt on the tele-phone to his boss. He passed thetelephone to me.”

Tewari told the GOC thatthe Chinese were moving downthe Thagla Ridge like ants. Hecould also see at least half a dozenmortars, which were not evencamouflaged: “The Chinesecould not be there for a picnic,their attack was imminent on amassive scale,” he added. ButDalvi and his men were told thatthey had been informed by the“higher authorities in Delhi”that the Chinese would notattack …at a time they hadalready attacked.

Today, though the trauma ofthe 1962 thrashing remains,many things have changed on theground. The creation of a post ofChief of Defence Staff should goa long way in overcoming thecomplete lack of coordinationbetween the three services expe-rienced in 1962. This, however,will not absolve Nehru’s wrongchoice of making Menon theDefence Minister, a post heoccupied for five crucial years.

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

While flying on an aircraft, one expectssome peace. Away from the pres-sures of daily life, on domestic

flights at least, we are disconnected from the24x7 world we live in. While you may jostlefor the armrest with the person sitting next toyou, on the whole, you expect your fellow pas-senger to respect your private space, just likewe respect the personal space of others. Flying,therefore, has a level of civility that has gonemissing 35,000 feet below on the ground. So,did comedian Kunal Kamra cross the line when

he heckled television anchor Arnab Goswami on a flight recently? Yes. WhileKamra himself released the video and claimed to have apologised to the crewfor his actions, no matter how he justified them, they were completely and total-ly unacceptable. That said, the speed with which he was banned from flying wasincredibly rapid and left no scope for redressal. There is a process to ban some-one from flying that includes setting up an internal committee, waiting for its report,allowing a passenger to contest in an appellate body of the Civil Aviation Ministryand a court. Airlines just cannot follow a diktat from the Civil Aviation Minister.What seems to have irritated people on social media is how the rules were appliedto Kamra when they have not been used against Goswami’s own news chan-nel. His team members have historically boarded aircraft to harry passengers.There needs to be one rule for all. The Government needs to put its foot downand ban harassment of passengers onboard. Television cameras should not beallowed on aircraft and any channel or passenger who is found to be floutingthe rules ought to be banned from flying.

The other reason for this is that flying is also an inherently dangerous modeof travel with terrorists finding civil aviation a juicy target. Had Kamra pulled hisstunt in the US, he would have not only been on the “no-fly” list but also pos-sibly inside Guantanamo Bay. While he is trying his darndest to become a mar-tyr, the fact is that he knows exactly what he was doing. He should understandthat he would have to pay a price. The Government, too, needs to know that itwould be lionising him with its vengeance as he cries victimhood.

Usually, rivals end up pushing each other’scupboards so that the skeletons tum-ble out in election season. But if the rum-

blings in the Janata Dal (United) are anythingto go by, then the family war is now a ragingfire with its leader and Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar expelling its top leadership cruciallyclose to the State Assembly elections. JD(U)’snational faces — vice-president PrashantKishor and spokesperson Pavan Varma —have been shown the door for asking ques-tions of Kumar about the extreme nationalist

politics of his ally BJP and the extent of the party’s continued association withit. Considering that both were once considered trusted aides of Nitish, who riskeddissension within his State unit to empower them and both of whom contributedto his success in the 2015 Assembly elections, one wonders if more is to beread into this than the ideological clash over the BJP’s controversial CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA). Nitish, who has proved himself as a shrewd politician,is known to survive all kinds of odds. This time, however, that job is a tad toodifficult because he seems compromised by circumstance, unable to snap hissymbiotic link with the BJP so close to the State polls, and being forced to spellout his views on citizenship of minorities. Perhaps, Nitish was looking for a wayto trim the ambitions of Kishor, who, as an electoral strategist for other parties,was becoming too big, positing himself as heir apparent and even dictating termsto the JD(U) old guard. Beyond a point, Nitish could not overlook veterans whohave been working with him like Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Ramchandra Prasad Singhand Bashishtha Narayan Singh. Neither could he ignore the fact that Kishor hadaligned with several other Opposition parties (Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool andShiv Sena) and while dictating their strategies, wasn’t always circumspect aboutthe JD(U)’s own imperatives. In fact, Nitish was upset when Kishor publicly crit-icised him for walking out of the federal front or the mahagathbandhan and realign-ing with the BJP. The CAA criticism was only the last straw. Kishor, who wasonce seen as a BJP plant has, in fact, now emerged as a cohesive voice of theOpposition and could well forge an alternative front at the national level by virtueof being the architect of its constituents. And Nitish knows, like all other feder-al parties now, that he can be relevant by only consolidating his home ground.He also knows his strengths. Even assuming that he continues with his supportto CAA and the Muslim vote consolidates around Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya JanataDal (RJD), his voter base is still substantial and loyal. Extremely Backward Castes(EBCs) account for 30 per cent of his votes, the Maha Dalits for 15 per cent andwomen, whom he won over with his landmark 2016 decision to impose prohi-bition in the State, are quite a sizeable number still. Some youth are with him.These easily comprise 45 per cent of voters in Bihar. Besides, there is some left-over halo of being a committed performer and administrator that can be rein-vested as leadership material. It is precisely for this reason that even the BJP isready to go with him as the chief ministerial face.

Yet, the going for the BJP and Nitish will, henceforth, be uneasy. The BJP isbreathing heavy on Nitish, particularly after the JD(U)’s dismal solo performancein the Jharkhand Assembly polls. Although they have negotiated a 50:50 seat-sharing formula in principle, the BJP has the upper hand. Nitish has burnt bridgeswith RJD so badly and has distanced himself from federal front leaders to suchan extent that he has no other option but to be with the BJP. How much he canbargain within that is questionable considering the BJP now has “first party” ambi-tions in Bihar and post the Lok Sabha elections last year, where it swept the State,thinks it is residually helping its junior partner improve its individual numbers. Ofcourse, given the latest round of drubbing in the Assembly elections, the BJP,too, is banking on Nitish to deliver in Bihar, save its face and dispel the notionthat it cannot work with smaller parties. The dependence on numbers has becomeall the more important considering the warts that dot Nitish’s performance graphover the last couple of years — Patna floods, the encephalitis deaths, the accu-mulation of prohibition-related cases in courts and the State’s dismal rank in theSustainable Development Goals index. Besides, though he has supported theCAA, he has categorically refused to comply with any kind of profiling-basedcensus. Can he rescue his and the JD(U)’s credibility or end up just being theBJP’s winning tool? For somebody who has moulded himself as a conscien-tious politician, both Kishor and Varma have, in their exit, left a moral albatrossaround his neck, one that embodies loss of values to naked ambition.

JD(U) war or peace?

Stop interfering

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“A censure too far” (January 28).Goose pimples ran up the Centre’sspine with rage and it criticised theEuropean Parliament, whichdecided to debate the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) resolutions, saying itshould not take actions that callinto question the rights andauthority of democratically-elect-ed legislatures. Further, the draftresolutions urge India to engageconstructively with the anti-CAAprotesters and consider theirdemands to repeal it.

Why is the EuropeanParliament so hell-bent to take upresolutions to tell India to desistfrom implementing the CAA?The matter is entirely an internalissue of India and the fact that EUis going to champion the causehas become an irritating issue asfar as India is concerned. Whycan’t it highlight the killing ofinnocent people in Syria, Iraq,Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Nigeria and elsewhere? It will bebetter if the European Parliamentdrops the resolution against India.

TK NandananChennai

Save the Maharaja

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Selling the jewel” (January 28).Given the leverage that Air Indiaenjoys in a premium and growingsector, it is sad that it has been fac-ing perpetual loss. A precipitateand full disposal of a blue chip assetcould result either in a no-sale orworse, a very bad deal that willhaunt for long. It would havebeen better if the Governmentwould have opted for a 51 per centstake sale and let the best player(s)run the airline.

Synergy between theGovernment and a professionalmanagement would have max-imised the nation’s asset and thenthey could have build on it. Fulldilution of any Government hold-ing has now become the norm evenas interests of the employees finda stable and agreeable solution. UKPrime Minister Margaret Thatcher’speremptory PSU reforms had lefta sharp decline in GDP growth, bigloss of industrial capacity and the doubling of unemployment.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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

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op nionVIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020

06

Wrong person at wrong time

CLAUDE ARPI

Nehru made a wrong choice of making Menon Defence Minister. Though the trauma of the1962 war remains, many things have changed. The CDS should help in neutralising threats

Modi and his dream team ofeconomic advisors have literally turned the economyaround. He and the FinanceMinister have absolutely noidea what to do next.

Congress leader—Rahul Gandhi

I’m doing everything I everwanted to! I’m grateful forthe different types of work Ido. I’m thankful for my sup-port systems and the lovethey give me.

Actor—Shruti Haasan

Enhancing the security andprosperity of India throughexternal ties and the well-being of all Indians,wherever they may be, is our mission statement.

Foreign secretary—Harsh Shringla

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

Political discourse has reached a new low

Politicians trading barbs during election time hasbecome all too common in public discourse.Communal rhetoric during election season revives

the centuries-old schisms that democracy has beenunable to heal. In a way, the Modi Government seemsto have given an open licence to all its affiliates to indulgein open hate speeches. Thus, it is not the violence thatmatters but the spectacle of it — rousing speeches, emo-tive appeals and racking up fears. The agenda is to con-solidate communal polarisation of society along religiouslines. Hindutva hate-mongers seem to have enjoyed afree run and our beloved Prime Minister chooses to main-tain deafening silence. Ahead of the crucial Assemblyelections in Delhi, BJP leaders are hell bent on spew-ing venom through divisive and hate speeches. But BJPleader Anurag Thakur’s incendiary speech crossed thedangerous line. It is clear that he was referring to minori-ties who are at the forefront of the Shaheen Bagh protest.There are many more examples of remarks that raise adust storm and are then blown away till the next onecomes.

Joining the bandwagon of hate-monger is ParvehVarma and Dilip Ghosh who, too, are dangerous. Theyare not frivolous. That is exactly what they want to con-vey as they send a signal to their party’s supporters thatthe BJP will gun down anyone who protests (readMuslims). Union Minister Amit Shah’s notorious “ter-mites” remark was another pointed reference to Muslims,even if the apparent target was illegal migrants fromBangladesh. Election speeches are meant to rouse thevoters, so some exaggeration and fiery sloganeering areunderstandable. But the sight of a Minister, who is sworn

to the Constitution, pumping up his audience to screamabout gunning down peaceful protesters is shocking. Therelentless tsunami of statements, idiotic and sinister,achieves two major objectives: One, it allows the Sanghto keep control of the narrative, forcing others to react.Second, it inures the public to such an extent that eventhe most offensive utterances go unchallenged. Objectionsby many citizens get drowned in the attendant noise cre-ated by the Sangh’s machinery. But it is the lack of dis-approving coverage by the big media that normalises thewhole discourse. Hate speech, especially during elections,shatters the comforting idea of various Indian identitiescohabiting harmoniously. The irony of Indian democra-cy is that politicians want to govern a nation that theydo their best to divide during elections.

Javvadi Lakshmana RaoVisakhapatnam

SIXTY-THREEYEARS LATER,

INDIA STILLSUFFERS

BECAUSE OFNEHRU’S CHOICE.

ONE OF THE MANYBLUNDERS THATHE COMMITTED

WAS TO STOPUSING THESENIORITY

SYSTEM IN THEARMY, REPLACING

IT WITH A SO-CALLED

MERIT-BASEDMETHOD OFPROMOTION

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Civil flying Jerusalem is sacred forMuslims. The plan to give itto Israel is unacceptable. Thisplan ignores Palestinians'rights and is aimed at legit-imising Israel's occupation.

Turkish President—Recep Tayyip Erdogan

As Nitish expels Kishor and Varma, he has a tough jobrescuing lost space for himself than appearing as BJP’s tool

Should Kunal Kamra have been banned from flying? If so,why should rules be different for him and TV channels?

Sugarcoat the Budget

EIGHT MPS OF DELHI BJP WENT TO SCHOOLS TO SEEHOW THEY ARE. THEIR PLIGHT EXPOSED THE CLAIMS

OF YOUR EDUCATION REVOLUTION. —UNION HOME MINISTER

AMIT SHAH

DELHI GOVERNMENT HAS 1,024 SCHOOLS BUT THEYFOUND ISSUES IN EIGHT. CONGRATULATIONS TO THESTUDENTS AND TEACHERS FOR PASSING THIS EXAM.—DELHI CHIEF MINISTERARVIND KEJRIWAL

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Expectations ride high on Finance Minister (FM)Nirmala Sitharaman’s second Union Budget torevive the feel-good factor, which has been

missing since negative news flow continued to dom-inate national and international headlines. At a timewhen the country seeks to increase investments fromFDI and the local industry, the Government needsto pull every lever that can restore business confi-dence and make India the preferred investment des-tination. The 2020 Budget will be bold, it will be dif-ferent. It will be a win-all one. It has to be, becauseit’s a “do-or-die” situation for the Government whichhas to course correct all that ails the economy.Undoubtedly, these are challenging times for any FMto present a Budget, as achieving the goal of a $5 tril-lion economy by 2024 necessitates doubling thegrowth rate to 12 per cent year on year for the nextfive years, which currently seems a distant dream.

What is unmistakable is that never before hasany Prime Minister immersed himself so deeply inthe pre-Budget exercise to get a first-hand sense ofground realities from India Inc, economists and pol-icymakers. And, never before has an FM presentedvirtually four mini-Budgets in quick succession afterher maiden Budget last year in an attempt to recal-ibrate if Government interventions are producingthe desired outcomes to achieve whatever it takesto set the economic wheels in motion.

Fixing the economy and employment genera-tion is the top priority of policymakers, as the win-dow to capitalise on our demographic dividends isa finite one. Time is running out, as the labour forcein the middle and lower levels is ill-equipped forabsorption into Industry 4.0, which will worsen theproblem of unemployment unless we make quan-tum leaps on our Human Development Index.

Thus far, the economy has been propped up byGovernment spending, which is only an interim solu-tion till the private industry does not participate injob creation and expansion. World over,Governments are following a similar template forrevival by marginally exceeding fiscal prudence bya percentage point in order to satisfy rating agen-cies. Since the global economic crisis of 2008, exceed-ing fiscal deficit targets has become the “new nor-mal”, as a decade of easy money has accumulated arecord $250 trillion debt, which is a cumulative ofsovereign, corporate and household leverage. Centralbankers, from the European Central Bank to the IMF,have encouraged Government spending in the hopeof reaping economic dividends, regardless of mount-ing debt to GDP ratios. Globally, we are livingthrough the Age of Uncertainty, beset by more vari-ables than constants than we ever faced in the last50 years. This is the third slowdown India is facingsince 1991, and if we look back at the commentarypost the Lhman-led global collapse in 2008, senti-ments were even more dismal than they are today.Though the financial sector continues to face mas-sive NPA problems, this is not just an India-centricproblem but a worldwide phenomenon. A flashbackto what got us here in the first place is that nothingjeopardised the already beleaguered and brokenIndian banking sector more than the collapse ofIL&FS in 2018 and DHFL in 2019. This was trulyIndia’s unacknowledged Lehman moment, as IL&FSalone accounts for defaults of about `91,000 croreowed to banks, institutional investors and mutualfunds. While there is enough liquidity available withbanks, they are not lending to long-gestation pro-jects in infrastructure, housing or heavy industry such

as steel and cement, which has a cascad-ing effect in delaying their completion. Thesolution lies in creating a separateDevelopment Finance Institution to boostlong-term lending for projects like rail-ways, ports, power and so on, as also afaster resolution of the insolvency processthat would boost credit flows.

Expectations are that the Budgetwould lay the road map for a consolidat-ed action plan to jumpstart the multiplepropellers of growth by incentivisingboth the supply and the demand side.Starting with agriculture, housing, con-struction, automobiles and telecom, to theunorganised sector and MSMEs, all ofwhich await a bailout plan. MSMEs con-tribute 45 per cent towards manufactur-ing output and over 28 per cent towardsthe GDP, while creating employment forover 11 crore people. The Centre has donewell in earmarking `100 lakh crore forinfrastructure by 2025, provided a ̀ 25,000crore fund to revive the realty sector andallocated ̀ 75,000 crore for improving farmproductivity. Yet, the agri-crisis remainsunresolved, as prices of fertiliser, diesel andelectricity keep rising and prices of rice,wheat and sugar continue falling due to asurplus, making crop diversification andagro-based industries a priority.

Coming to the corporate sector,recent tax cuts have made Indian corpo-rate tax rates competitively benchmarkedto international rates. But as the industryhas prioritised on using the cuts to de-leverage — and already has an average of30 per cent excess capacity — the spinoffsfrom lower corporate taxes will takelonger to play out and they will first waitfor demand to pick up before looseningpurse strings. The economy relies on sevenmajor vectors of growth for revenue that

goes towards nation-building and job-cre-ation: Direct tax collections, Governmentspending, private industry, domesticdemand, disinvestment proceeds, exportsand FDI infusion. Typically, during peri-ods of global buoyancy, countries pursuean Export-Led Growth strategy.Conversely, during periods of recession orde-globalisation, the Domestic Demand-Led Growth strategy dominates in orderto keep the local economy insulated fromglobal shocks. It is the contraction indomestic driven demand that has this timefailed to keep the economy afloat. It is esti-mated that 70 per cent of economic growthcomes from consumption, the rest frominvestment. Exports have been the otherlaggard as any comprehensive plan can-not make up the numbers if our share inworld exports languishes at 1.7 per centamid a period of bleak global trade.Consequently, tax collections have beenbelow target in a contracting economy,leaving the Government limited avenuesto raise additional resources.

Also, the Government is very likely toagain miss the FY 20 disinvestment tar-get, as divestment beyond 0.5 per cent ofthe GDP cannot be absorbed by the mar-kets. Expediting disinvestment of AirIndia, Bharat Petroleum, CementCorporation and Shipping Corporation isnot easy as there is not enough appetitefrom retail or corporate investors to has-ten this process. Though India hasimproved on six out of 10 parameters inthe Ease of Doing Business and despiteopening up multiple sectors to foreigninvestment in 2018-19, the foreign invest-ment to GDP ratio has also taken a hit,falling to a decade’s low of 1.1 per cent froma high of 3.6 per cent in 2014-15. Foreigninvestments are vital for India’s growth, and

despite the PM’s powerful pitch to attractinvestments, there is a mismatch on theground, when the likes of Amazon or thelargest foreign investor like Vodafone arelocked in adversarial positions with thecourts or the Government.

Perception, as they say, is moreimportant than reality, so intent for cre-ating an enabling business environmentmust be followed through with leniencyand amicable dispute resolution by courts,regulators and line-ministries. Disputesalso have a domino effect on job losses andbanks that lent to the businesses, sendingnegative signals to oversees investors.

All said and done, the worst could wellbe behind us, as we are nearing the phaseof capitulation. So the only way from hereis up, which offers FIIs very favourablerisk-reward ratios to resume investmentsas we bottom out. Seasoned investorsknow that investing in totally risk-freeassets yields negative returns when adjust-ed to inflation. So FII money will ultimate-ly flow back into emerging markets likeIndia, which has strong fundamentals, astable currency, vibrant demographics andhigh foreign exchange reserves. We will getto $5 trillion, albeit it may take longer than2024 to achieve the goal. Regardless of thetemporary slowdown, India’s weightagewill continue to increase in playing a lead-ing role in restructuring the global eco-nomic order, once we regain momentum.But for now, Sitharaman will have to adda lot of sweeteners to this Budget and con-form to Chanakya’s prescription that,“the king should collect taxes from the tax-payers like a bee collects honey from aflower, without disturbing its petals.”

(The writer is an author, columnist,Chairperson of the National Committee forFinancial Inclusion at Niti Aayog)

The Union Budget will be bold and different. It has to be, because it’s a do-or-diesituation for the Government which has to course correct all that ails the economy

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

Prepare for adifferent world

PRATYUSH PRABHAKAR

Any education system ‘in tune’ with the currenttime or worse, the past, is actually ‘out of tune’with the future which will be radically diverse

BINDU DALMIA

WE WILL GET TO $5TRILLION,

ALBEIT IT MAYTAKE LONGER

THAN 2024TO ACHIEVE

THIS ECONOMICGOAL.

REGARDLESSOF THE

TEMPORARYSLOWDOWN,

INDIA’SWEIGHTAGE

WILL CONTINUETO INCREASE

IN PLAYINGA LEADING

ROLE INRESTRUCTURING

THE GLOBALECONOMIC

ORDER,ONCE

WE REGAINMOMENTUM

Along with the winter season, Delhi witnesses yet another season.This is the period where you can see adults getting ready for schoolwhile their wide-eyed, innocent toddlers look on. It’s the season of

nursery school admissions, when children enter the formal education sys-tem for the first time. This is a tough time for parents as shortlisting schools,visiting them, talking to coordinators, principals, filling up forms and final-ly, getting their child admitted to the school of choice is indeed an excit-ing yet bewildering experience for couples.

The first and perhaps the toughest part is to shortlist schools as itis not only about the infrastructure, brand value, owners, teachers, loca-tion and so on but also about what is best for the child. There are nurs-ery schools which have forward integration with CBSE or ICSE schooleducation systems, there are International Baccalaureate schools and thenthere are schools which follow the learning and standards set up by theCambridge Assessment International Education. Alternative systems oflearning have also come up, which follow educational philosophies likeWaldorf Education or Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Education. Homeschooling,which has its own merits, is also catching up as a concept now. Then,of course, there are schools with the sole philosophy of earning money.What system one should follow and what are the parameters on whicha particular system should be judged become critical questions for youngparents. The world around us prods us to make our children “fit in.” Thedefined notion of success, with even its timeline cast in stone, makesus jittery when those notions are not fulfilled and timelines are not met.As a society, our disproportionately-high focus on making our students“fit in” the traditional moulds makes us lose out on developing leadersfor our society who can stand out. Let’s face it. The future is uncertain.The world, 10 years down the line, will be radically different from whatit is today in ways we cannot even imagine. Things, which are not evenpart of science fiction today, will become reality. After all, who could havethought that the neighbourhood restaurant would be just a click awayand a smart speaker would do your bidding? The advent of ArtificialIntelligence (AI), digitisation and new technologies are changing the employ-ment landscape. Large-scale disruptions will lead to newer jobs, replac-ing the existing ones. The fear of human jobs, being replaced by algo-rithms is not misplaced. As Yuval Harari, in his book, 21 Challenges ofthe 21st Century, says, most humans in the future will not suffer fromexploitation but from irrelevance. Under such circumstances, any edu-cation system “in tune” with the current time or worse, the past, is actu-ally “out of tune” with the future.

In an age where information is available on the fingertips, there isno point in schools bombarding students with facts and figures and judg-ing them on the basis of their ability to recall information. A person fullof facts and knowledge but devoid of critical thinking skills, innovativeideas and perspective will lose relevance in the society of the future. Themorrow will require people who can make sense of information, use itto gain perspectives and create more knowledge. In short, tomorrowbelongs to knowledge-creators, not knowledge-aggregators. “Intelligence”has to make way for “consciousness” and “education” has to make wayfor “learning.” Education, as we know it, has been intertwined with thedimensions of time and space. Technological changes and the conse-quent shift in attitudes are effecting decoupling of education and the twodimensions. The “uberisation” of education due to the rise of on-demandeducation technology is bringing campus to smartphones and disrupt-ing the traditional education system in ways one could not have fathomeduntil recently. The very basic assumption that the first 20 years of life spentin getting educated will guarantee a job that will sustain a person for therest of their working life is being challenged. The ’90s kids, who burntthe midnight oil learning programming languages, suddenly found datascientists getting a major share of the pie in the job market. A personmight have to learn multiple skills in their lifetime to stay relevant. Theframework of life-long learning is expected to eclipse, if not replace, theexisting education system. Learning how to learn will become more impor-tant than learning the skills and knowledge relevant to today’s econom-ic landscape. However, learning skills alone, which can be easily mon-etised, will not suffice in a world both made and fractured by technolo-gy. Ethics, emotional intelligence, resilience and empathy are some ofthe skills needed now, more than any other time in human history.

There is some progress in this direction. “Klassens tid”, a time slotthat Danish schools dedicate just to teaching empathy to students, is afundamental part of the curriculum. Jack Ma said that independent think-ing, teamwork and empathy will not just set students apart, they will ensurethey can be valuable contributors to society in ways that make them irre-placeable. The Indian education ecosystem, too, should catch up withthe metamorphosis of global education systems and create an educa-tion philosophy based on the model of “glocalisation” after understand-ing global trends and assessing local needs. Parents must make con-scious and informed choices to prepare kids for a radically different world.

(The writer works at the intersection of public policy, communica-tion and technology)

The growing disease burdenshould compel the country’spolicymakers to allocate a fair

chunk of funds for public healthcareinfrastructure. The recent news oninfant deaths in Muzaffarpur districtof Bihar due to Acute EncephalitisSyndrome and in Kota district ofRajasthan due to hypothermia areglaring examples of existing faultlines within the primary healthcaresystem in India. Such incidents senda grave reminder that affordable andaccessible, good quality healthcarestill remains the biggest challenge inthe rural hinterlands of our country.

The Centre’s ambitious flagshiphealth insurance scheme, Ayushman

Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) has immensepotential to correct the healthcarebasics in the country. It holds a lotof promise and has the right intent,but one can just hope theGovernment and healthcare author-ities take the right partnershipapproach to a more inclusive partic-ipation.

In the last Union Budget, thebudgetary allocation for the health-care sector stood at `60,908.22 crore,with `6,400 crore earmarked for theAB-PMJAY.

The scheme aims at providingannual health cover of up to `5 lakhper family for secondary and tertiarycare hospitalisation to over 10.74crore vulnerable families (approxi-mately 50 crore beneficiaries).Rationalisation of treatment packagesand speeding up the recovery processare essential elements that willencourage more private hospitals toempanel under this scheme.

Let us focus on the basics: Thehealthcare sector is one of the biggestcontributors to the Indian economyand accounts for six per cent of the

country’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP). The hospital industry inIndia, accounting for 80 per cent ofthe total healthcare market, is wit-nessing a huge demand from globalas well as domestic investors. It isexpected to reach $132 billion by2023 from $61.8 billion in 2017;growing at a CAGR of 16-17 per cent.The country’s medical tourism mar-ket is expected to grow from its cur-rent size of $3 billion to $7-8 billionby the end of 2020.

Yet, the country’s spending onpublic healthcare is estimated only at1.3 per cent of the GDP. Besides hav-ing a poor infrastructure withinpublic health facilities, there is alsoa lack of adequate resources. Whenover two-thirds of the sector is dri-ven by private players, theGovernment should be more willingto get into a partnership-basedapproach with them to achieveUniversal Health Coverage in linewith the United Nation’s SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs).

A multi-pronged approach: Werequire a multi-pronged approachfrom the Government to strengthen

and reform the health sector. On theone hand, it involves improving thestate of public healthcare by increas-ing budgetary allocation, establish-ing more medical colleges andimproving primary healthcare facil-ities. On the other hand, it involvesmeasures to enable the private sec-tor to spread its presence beyond theurban landscape. This will help inimproving accessibility for secondaryand tertiary care in tier-II and tier-III towns, besides rural areas.

For the latter to happen, theGovernment must offer major incen-tives and tax breaks to private health-care organisations setting shop innon-urban areas.

The incentives can includeincome tax breaks for the first fewyears of operations, help in procur-ing land, making medical equipmentGoods and Services Tax (GST)-freefor such hospitals and relaxation onservice tax on hospital inputs.Similarly, establishing a mechanismto offer fund support or subsidisationin treatment costs to private hospi-tals in smaller towns and rural areascan go a long way in bridging the

prevalent accessibility gap. The cost of medical equipment

is another pain point, which requiresthrust and making the medicaldevices and equipment a part of the‘Made in India’ initiative shall ben-efit this sector.

Impetus to innovation: There isalso a need to provide an impetus toinnovation within the medical tech-nology sector. For that, special fundsfor start-ups that manufacture med-ical devices would specificallyaddress the needs of the Indianpopulations, serving as a big boostto the sector.

The introduction of ArtificialIntelligence (AI) and predictive ana-lytics for patient monitoring will addto significant financial savings andwill increase the reach of healthcarein the country.

The need of the hour is that theprimary care system should bestrengthened in such a way that it iscapable of doing the initial assess-ment, diagnosis and basic manage-ment and appropriate referral ifneed be. A thorough assessment andinvestigation at primary care or sec-

ondary care level can lead to a sig-nificant saving of resources at the ter-ritory level. The Government shouldfacilitate more Continuous MedicalEducation to help professinalsupgrade their skills which can solvethe problem of shortage of traineddoctors.

That Government must alsoconsider oral health as an integralpart of healthcare and give it theimportance it deserves. TheNarendra Modi Government shouldprovide an enabling environment forthe healthcare sector to grow. This iswhere the forthcoming UnionBudget can show some vision andleadership.

This being the first Budget of thenew decade, it will not only be amarker of the Government’s assess-ment but also a vision for the econ-omy over the next 10 years.

Let 2020 and the decade turn outto be in the larger interest of health-care, making it more accessible,more affordable and patient-friend-ly.

(The writer is founder and CEOof a dental healthcare chain)

Fix the fault lines in healthcare system Let the 2020 Union Budget and the decade ahead turn out to be in the larger interest of healthcare,

making it more accessible to all, affordable and patient-friendly

AMARINDER SINGH

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

Boris Johnson’s decision togreen light the Chinesefirm’s role in Britain’s digitalfuture is understandable.Taking Huawei out of the5G equation would havesignificantly delayed theintroduction of high-speedinternet across the UK. Thatwas a price the PrimeMinister was not willing topay, even if that meantqueering the post-Brexitpitch in trade terms. MrJohnson has taken agamble and it is not, on anyfront, risk-free.

(The Guardian, editorial)

BORIS HAS TAKENA GAMBLE

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Lamborghini seesdouble-digit salesgrowth in IndiaNEW DELHI: Italian carmakerLamborghini on Wednesdaysaid there has been aslowdown in its order intake inIndia due to the ongoingeconomic slowdown althoughit expects sales to grow indouble digits in 2020. Thecompany, which onWednesday launched itsHuracán EVO Rear-WheelDrive priced at Rs 3.22 crore(ex-showroom pan India), hadposted a growth of 15 per centin India last year. "We ended2019 on a very positive notedespite whatever challengeswe are having in the market.We were aiming higher butdue to various challenges wecould not reach there,"Lamborghini India HeadSharad Agarwal told PTI. Hefurther said, "our 2020 goal isvery clear. We want tocontinue with this growthmomentum.

Saudi Telecom looksto buy majority stakein Vodafone EgyptNEW DELHI: The SaudiTelecom Co. announced itreached a preliminaryagreement on Wednesday tobuy a 55% stake in theEgyptian holdings oftelecommunications giantVodafone. The kingdom'slargely state-ownedcommunication firm announcedthat it had offered $2.39 billionin cash for the Egypt unit, aspart of its continued efforts tocarve out more market share inthe Middle East. Theprospective deal “confirmsSTC's eagerness to maintain aleadership position not only inthe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,but also in the wider region,”said Telecom's chief executive,Nasser al-Nasser. The British-based Vodafone is one of theworld's largest cellphoneoperators and the top providerin Egypt, with over 40 millionEgyptian subscribers.

S African bizmanapologises fortelling Trump thatAfrica loves himJOHANNESBURG: A SouthAfrican billionaire businessmanhas apologised for telling USPresident Donald Trump that"Africa loves you" after hisremarks sparked a debateamong his countrymen whoquestioned his right to speakon behalf of the continent.Patrice Motsepe, former India-Africa CEOs Forum co-chair,made these remarks during theWorld Economic Forum in Davoslast week. The mining magnatecame under fire for his remarksas politicians and economistsfrom across the continentdissociated themselves from thestatement as Trump had earlierused offensive language to referto African countries.

Pakistan to hostconference topromote trade links

PNS n ISLAMABAD

In a first, Pakistan is all set tohost a major conference to pro-mote trade and commerciallinks with the African nations,the Foreign Office said onWednesday. Nearly 300 partic-ipants are expected to attend thetwo-day Pakistan-Africa TradeDevelopment Conference,which will be held in Kenya'scapital Nairobi from Thursday,it said. The conference is part ofPakistan's 'Engage Africa' ini-tiative, which is in line with PMImran Khan's vision to forgecloser political and economicties with the African continent,the Foreign Office said.

Sensex darts up 232points; Nifty above 12,100PNS n MUMBAI

Market benchmark Sensex ral-lied 231.80 points onWednesday, driven by gains inindex heavyweights HDFCBank, ITC, RIL and Infosys.

The 30-share BSE index set-tled 231.80 points, or 0.57 percent, higher at 41,198.66. It hitan intra-day high of 41,334.86and a low of 41,108.19.

Likewise, the broader NSENifty closed 73.70 points, or0.61 per cent, up at 12,129.50.

In the Sensex pack, BajajFinance was the biggest gain-er, rising 4.95 per cent, fol-lowed by Nestle India, ITC,Infosys and NTPC.

On the other hand, TCS,HDFC, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank,Bharti Airtel and Axis Bankended in the negative territory.

According to traders, recov-ery in global equities and hopesof growth-boosting measuresin the upcoming Budgetbuoyed market sentiment.

Further, short-coveringahead of January derivativesexpiry also lifted key indices,they said.

Bourses in Japan and South

Korea ended with gains, whileHong Kong closed with sharplosses as the market openedafter the Lunar New Yearbreak. Bourses in Chinaremained closed.

Stock exchanges in Europeopened on a positive note, evenas investors assessed the risks

posed by the Wuhan coron-avirus.

Brent crude oil futures rose0.71 per cent to USD 59.93 perbarrel.

On the currency front, theIndian rupee appreciated by 8paise to 71.23 per US dollar(intra-day).

In the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finance wasthe biggest gainer, rising 4.95 per cent,followed by Nestle India, ITC, Infosysand NTPC

Bharti Airtel working with DGFTfor removal of name from blacklistPNS n NEW DELHI

Bharti Airtel on Wednesdaysaid it is working to get thecompany's name removedfrom 'Denied Entry List', butadded that DGFT's latestaction does not limit its abili-ty to undertake future importsor exports.

The comment by the tele-com operator came after theCommerce Ministry put BhartiAirtel in denied entry list(DEL) for non-fulfilment ofexport obligation under anexport promotion scheme.

The Directorate General ofForeign Trade (DGFT), whichis under the CommerceMinistry, has put the compa-ny under the list, commonlyknown as blacklist, for non-ful-filment of export obligation inrespect of certain EPCG autho-risation issued to it.

In a regulatory filing onWednesday, Airtel said, "Thecompany is working towards anexpeditious closure of this mat-

ter with the office of the DGFTand for getting the company'sname removed from the DEL".

"It must also be noted thatthe said action does not limitthe ability of the company toundertake future imports orexports," Airtel added.

Bharti Airtel said it has notapplied for any such licensesince April 2018 as there wasno operational need for thesame.

"The company has fulfilledall its export obligations under

the past licenses and hasapplied for closure of theselicenses along with necessarydocuments to the authorities inthis regard," it added.

Under the ExportPromotion Capital Goods(EPCG), an export promo-tion scheme, import of capitalgoods is allowed at zero cus-toms duty. Capital goodsimported at zero duty must ful-fil EPCG export obligationequivalent to six times of dutysaved, as per the scheme.

‘Needs to prioritise residential,industrial solar rooftop users’PNS n NEW DELHI

India needs to prioritise solarrooftop among residential andindustrial users for achievingits 100GW solar energy targetby 2022, a report said.

Demand aggregation mech-anism' could help accelerateenergy efficiency and scale upthe deployment of solar powerin residential apartment com-plexes and MSMEs, accordingto the World Resource Institute(WRI) India.

"For India to achieve its 100GW solar energy target in justtwo years, by 2022, and toemerge as a leader in climateaction, it needs to prioritisesolar rooftop photovoltaic (PV)among two key users – resi-dential buildings and theindustrial sector," the WRI

India said in a statement.The institute released two

research papers -- AssessingClean Energy OpportunitiesThrough Demand Aggregationin Bengaluru's Apartment

Buildings; and ImplementingDemand Aggregation for Ro-oftop Solar Systems in Micro,Small and Medium-SizedEnterprise Clusters -- that arebased on case studies in Be-

ngaluru's residential hubs, andindustrial clusters of Gujarat andMaharashtra.

The paper based on researchconducted in 10 existing resi-dential apartment complexes in

Bengaluru between June 2017and December 2018 uncoveredthat significant energy con-sumption was built into theprovision and maintenance ofthe ‘common area facilities' ofsuch complexes.

Common areas include pub-lic areas in residential societies,like building compounds, play-grounds, gyms, society offices,floor landings, etc. Residents inapartment complexes use thesecommon services that run onelectricity.

In a way, common servicesrepresent “aggregated demand''for energy in the complex. Sincethese services are managed by acollective of residents, there areopportunities for these entitiesto introduce solar energy gen-eration and energy efficiencymeasures in common areas.

Indian economy in greatposition: MoynihanPTI n DAVOS

Bullish about India, globalgiant Bank of America's CEOBrian T Moynihan has said theIndian economy is in a greatposition with a growing con-sumption story and a lot ofuntapped potential in terms ofits big young population and alarge talent pool.

He also expressed confi-dence about the US growthand the overall world economy,citing the estimates of hisresearch team for a 3.2 per centgrowth for the global economyand 1.7 per cent for the US in2020.

"Overall, we feel good aboutthe world. It is a slow growthenvironment and we have tomake our way around it,"Moynihan told PTI in an inter-view.

About the US, he said, "Weare the biggest economy in theworld and we are still grow-ing... These are good things".

Moynihan was in this Swissski resort town last week forthe World Economic Forum(WEF) Annual Meeting 2020.

Asked about the demo-graphic dividends and othergrowth prospects for India, thetop banker said, "The bestthing about your country is, itis big, it is growing, the popu-lation is young, the educationcontinues to improve and youhave a huge talent pool."

"You have skills and com-petence for services economy.For future generations, thelabour arbitrage may not be thesame in terms of voice-basedcall centres etc, which mayhave gone out of the system.But that is switching moretowards a knowledge economy,and towards the fourth indus-

trial revolution areas."He said the Indian economy

is in a great position and theconsumption story is growingthere.

Moynihan, who leads a teamof more than 2 lakh employeesserving investors and cus-tomers across the US andaround the world, said the cor-porates and the countries keeptraining their people for newskills required for the nextphase of growth and same hasbeen the case for even Bank ofAmerica for its operations,including at its Indian centres.

"We have made people morecompetitive with our owntraining. That's what we needto do as responsible corporates.When we hire a person, it isnot for just one job, but for allkinds of potential jobs over a

long period of time. For exam-ple, the number of peoplemanning teller machines inbanks may have come down,but there are more number ofrelationship managers now.Every country has to think ofhow to keep their people rel-evant on skillsets."

"Our teams in India havebeen doing great and runningthe businesses very efficientlythere."

Asked about the change hehas noticed since last WEFannual meeting in 2019regarding global economy andtrade etc, Moynihan said, "Oneconomy, our research team'sestimate for the world is 3.2 percent growth (up from 3.1 percent) for this upcoming year.Their estimate for the US is 1.7per cent."

For India toachieve its 100GW solar energytarget by 2022,it needs toprioritise solarrooftop photovo-ltaic amongresidential bui-ldings users andindustrial sector

PNS n WASHINGTON

The US has filed lawsuits aga-inst five companies and threeindividuals allegedly responsi-ble for making hundreds of mi-llions of fake robocalls to Am-erican consumers from abroad,mostly from India, and causingmassive financial losses to theelderly and the vulnerable.

Seeking a restraining orderagainst such call centers androbocalls, the Department ofJustice in its class action law-suit alleged that the companieswere warned many times not toplace fraudulent robocalls —including government andbusiness-imposter calls — yetthey continued to do so andfacilitated foreign-based fraudschemes targeting Americans.

"The calls, most of whichoriginated in India, led to mas-

sive financial losses to elderlyand vulnerable victims acrossthe nation," it said on Tuesday.

One case has been filed agai-nst Ecommerce National LLCd/b/a TollFreeDeals.com; SIPRetail d/b/a sipretail.com; and

their owner/operators, Nich-olas Palumbo, 38, and NatashaPalumbo, 33, of Scottsdale,Arizona.

The other case has beenfiled against Global VoicecomInc, Global Telecommunication

Services Inc, KAT TelecomInc., aka IP Dish, and theowner/operator Jon Kahen, 45,of Great Neck, New York.

In each case, the Departmentof Justice sought an orderimmediately halting the defen-dants' transmission of unlaw-ful robocall traffic. A federalcourt has entered a temporaryrestraining order against theGlobal Voicecom defendants.

"Robocalls are an annoyan-ce to many Americans, and th-

ose that are fraudulent and pr-edatory are a serious problem,often causing devastating fin-ancial harm to the elderly andvulnerable members of oursociety," said Assistant AttorneyGeneral Jody Hunt for the De-partment of Justice's CivilDivision.

Federal prosecutors say thatAmericans have experienced adeluge of robocalls over thepast several years many ofwhich originate from abroad.

Recently, foreign fraudstershave used robocalls to imper-sonate government investiga-tors and to provide Americanswith alarming messages.

The callers falsely threatenedvictims with a variety of cata-strophic government actions,including termination of socialsecurity benefits, imminentarrest for tax fraud and depor-tation for supposed failure tofill immigration forms correc-tly, the justice department said.

"Each of these claims is a lie,designed to scare the call recip-ient into paying large sums ofmoney. Social Security impo-sters and tech-support schemes(in which callers impersonatelegitimate technology compa-nies) have proliferated in partbecause of the ease with whichrobocalls can reach millions ofvictims every hour," it said.

One case has been filed againstEcommerce National LLC d/b/aTollFreeDeals.com; SIP Retail d/b/asipretail.com; and their owner/operators,Nicholas Palumbo, 38, and NatashaPalumbo, 33, of Scottsdale, Arizona

CholamandalamFinancialrecords Q3 netat Rs 38.48 crPNS n CHENNAI

Cholamandalam FinancialHoldings Ltd, a MurugappaGroup company on Tuesdayrecorded standalone profits atRs 38.48 crore for October-December 2019 quarter.

The city-based companywhich was formerly TIFinancial Holdings Ltd hadclocked net profits at Rs2.05 crore during corre-sponding quarter of previousyear.

For the nine-month periodending December 31, 2019,standalone profits grew to Rs57.97 crore from Rs 32.27 croreregistered year ago period.

Total income on stand-alone basis for the quarterunder review was at Rs 39.81crore as against Rs 3.63 croreduring corresponding periodlast year.

For the nine month periodending December 31, 2019total income standalone wasat Rs 62.24 crore as against Rs37.05 crore during same peri-od last year.

C h o l a m a n d a l a mInvestment and FinanceCompany disbursed Rs23,429 crore for the ninemonth period endingDecember 2019 as comparedto Rs 21,558 crore recordedsame period last fiscal. Thedisbursement for the quarterending December 31, 2019was at Rs 7,475 crore asagainst Rs 7,644 crorerecorded last fiscal.

The company said assetsunder management grew toRs 65,992 crore as atDecember 31, 2019 as com-pared to Rs 52,591 crore as atDecember 2018.

Bharti Airtelsaid it has notapplied for anysuch licensesince April 2018as there was nooperationalneed for thesame

Bajaj Finance postshighest everquarterly net profitat Rs 1,614 cr in Q3PNS n NEW DELHI

Bajaj Finance Ltd (BFL) onWednesday reported highestever quarterly consolidatednet profit at Rs 1,614 crore inDecember 2019 quarter on the back of healthy interestincome.

The non-banking financecompany posted a 52 per centjump in Q3 net profit as com-pared with Rs 1,060 crore inthe year-ago quarter.

Total income of the com-pany grew 41 per cent to Rs7,026 crore for October-December of 2019-20 asagainst Rs 4,992 crore in yearago period, Bajaj Financesaid in a regulatory filing.

The net interest incomewas up by 42 per cent at Rs4,537 crore from Rs 3,206crore. While the interestincome increased by 39 percent to Rs 6,105 crore fromRs 4,387 crore in Q3 of2018-19.

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a move that will help lessenthe burden on the NationalCompany Law Tribunal, theCentre has notified the rulesfor winding up of companiesunder the companies law.

The Corporate AffairsMinistry has notified theCompanies (Winding Up)Rules, 2020, which would beeffective from April 1.

Petitions for winding up ofcompanies are subject to var-ious conditions, includingthresholds on turnover andpaid-up capital.

Akila Agrawal, Partner &Head at law firm Cyril Ama-rchand Mangaldas, said therules seek to inter-alia reducethe burden of the NCLT byenabling summary proceduresfor liquidation to be filed withthe central government.

"Though the draft rules hadmade this available only for

small companies, the finalrules make it available to com-panies that have assets of bookvalue not exceeding Rs 1 crore;and have not taken depositsbeyond Rs 25 lakh or have nosecured loans beyond Rs 50lakh or turnover beyond Rs 50crore or paid up capitalbeyond Rs 1 crore.

A large part of the proce-dure applicable to regular co-mpanies continues to be app-licable to the companies thatcan opt for the summary pro-cedure. It is therefore unclearif the process will be fasttracked merely by shifting thejurisdiction to the Centre.

Government notifiesCompanies (WindingUp) Rules, 2020

US files lawsuits against call centres for fake robocalls

Google grants $ 1 mn to promote news literacy in IndiaPNS n MUMBAI

Technology giant Google onWednesday announced aUSD 1 million grant to pro-mote news literacy amongIndians.

The money will be given toInternews, a global non-prof-it, which will select a team of250 journalists, fact checkers,

academics and NGO workersfor the project, a statementsaid.

The announcement, part ofa USD 10 million commit-ment worldwide to media lit-eracy, comes at a time whennews publishers, especiallyon the digital front, have beenfound to have indulged inspreading misinformation.

Google said a curriculumwill be developed by a team ofglobal and local experts, whowill roll out the project inseven Indian languages.

"The local leaders will thenroll out the training to newinternet users in non-metrocities in India, enabling themto better navigate the internetand assess the information

they find," the statement said.With an eye to curb misin-

formation, Google NewsInitiative (GNI) IndiaTraining Network -- a groupof 240 senior Indian reportersand journalism educators --has been working to counter-act disinformation in theirnewsrooms and beyond sincelast year.

The best thing about your country is, it is big, it isgrowing, the population is young, the educationcontinues to improve and you have a huge talent pool

BRIAN T MOYNIHAN, Bank of America's CEO

team of fiveHyderabad studentswho developedFindr — aLinkedIn-like solu-tion for blue-collar

jobs including the provisionof maids, cleaners, driversand others — won the tophonour in the B-Plan com-petition held during the10th edition of TYE (TiEYoung Entrepreneurs) chal-lenge organised by TiEHyderabad.

The finale was held at theauditorium of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar Open Universityin the city recently. In theTYE challenge, 36 studentsfrom 23 schools formedseven teams and pitchedtheir ideas under the ‘B-Plan’, ‘1 Minute ElevatorPitch’ and ‘Maker FairePrototype’ competitions.

The runner up team wasFlobal, a business ideawhere flower-flavored ice

creams are made of organicingredients, bagged therunner-up position.

In the ‘Maker Faire’ cate-gory for best prototypes,RewardBox, a mobile appli-cation that unifies all theloyalty points a customerearns through his purchases

at several stores across thecountry and alerts the userof their expiry, emerged asthe winner.

It was a tie in the ‘1-minute elevator section’ astwo teams Comfee andPuriFloat were declaredjoint winners. Comfee is a

power conservation solu-tion that controls the speedof fans and ACs throughmeasurement of ambienttemperature, whilePuriFloat, is an device thathelps clean lakes using anElectric motor runboat/conveyor. — PNS

A

There aremany platformswhich facilitatedonations from

people forcertain causes.Goodclap — a

Hyderabad-based crowd

fundingplatform —

however,supports not

just thosefacing medical

emergencies,but also other

causes likeeducation,

environmentand others,

findsV SATEESH

REDDY

A ‘GOOD CLAP' forthe people in need

Reading toyoung minds: Ahead-start in lifeHyderabad-based Haripriya Bathula, founder of‘The Bookshelf' that houses more than 8,000books, speaks to ANUSHKA PRADEEP about hermission to make children get into the habit ofreading, reason for establishing a library primarilyfor children and more

eeing the lack ofquality literaturefor tiny tots inthe country,Hyderabad-basedHaripriya

Bathula took it upon herselfto make a difference andfounded a little library ca-lled ‘The Bookshelf ’ at theDD Colony in Amberpet.

“Not much is known topeople in the city when itcomes to children’s literaturein India. While Singapore,US and several other coun-tries open mall-sizedlibraries in every nook andcorner, it’s not the case here.In fact, a lot of kids here arenot even told that they canhave access to a wide varietyof books at any given pointof time,” Haripriya said.

The Bookshelf startedwith 1,500 books in 2016and now proudly housesabout 8,000 books with 112library members.

“My journey intoresearching and under-standing the reading cultureamong children began afterI picked up a book to readto my niece who wasaround two-and-a-half yearsold at that time,” saidHaripriya, who teaches artin the library and is current-ly pursuing a diploma inchild psychology.

After her return to Indiafollowing the completion of

M.Tech in Biotechnology atthe NUS, Singapore, in2011, she began to worktowards understanding chil-dren’s literature in India.

Speaking further abouther journey, she said,“People often ask me if I canset up similar libraries inother communities too. Forthis, we made severalattempts by approachingpublishers. The goal doesn’tend at libraries, though. Asof now the idea is to set upmini libraries in under-resourced schools and com-munities. We also provideinterventions where kidswill be offered opportunitiesto read out loud. I’ve beenconducting storytelling ses-sions at government insti-tutes for seven years now.We are planning to provideearly English literacy pro-grammes to children too.”

Her art class and story-telling sessions are her mainsource of revenue apartfrom collaborations withNGOs. Both she and herbusiness partner Meghanaare content writers for chil-dren’s magazines as well.

Irrespective of where shetravels, Haripriya alwaysmakes it a point to buybooks. But what’s her pickwhen it comes to best readsfor children? “We predomi-nantly focus on children’sliterature based in India

especially Indian mythologybecause the characters aremore understandable andrelatable to children,” shesaid.

Haripriya advises parentsto read to their childreninstead of worrying thatkids don’t pick up booksthese days. “It is importantto read children at bedtime.Parents who read to theirchildren, can raise their kidsto be voracious readers inthe future. Among kids whoread often, abilities such aslanguage development andothers can be developedearly,” she said.

ow Goodclap cameto being sound likesomething straightout of a moviescript when theyhelped a person in

need and decided to carry onwith the good work. Citing arecent case, V.V. Bhargava SaiKiran, one of the foundingmembers said, “Nataraj andSharan were best friendssince childhood. But tragedystruck one day when Natarajcollapsed in his office due tointernal bleeding in the brain.He was the sole breadwinnerof his family. His mother andsister were unable to pay forthe operation despite sellingall their gold and jewellery.Unable to see the plight of hisbest friend’s family, Sharanstarted a crowdfunding cam-paign on Goodclap to raise

funds for Nataraj. Within aweek, friends, acquaintancesand colleagues who haveknown Natraj or Sharan atsome point contributed. Evenstrangers who read the storychipped in to help Nataraj."

Bhargava said that this isjust one instance whereGoodclap has helped incrowdfunding to help peoplein need.

Started in March 2018, thecrowdfunding platform hasraised over Rs 1.5 crore forvarious causes and helpedover 150 needy people inemergencies. Speaking to ThePioneer, Bhargava said, “Sinceinception, we have experi-enced some wonderful, heart-touching moments throughthe campaigns. These trulyshowcased the power ofcrowdfunding and the

humane side of the people. Itall started when we helped anartist share his work and sellit on social media. Later, werealised that there are manypeople out there who lack

funds for various other caus-es. This is how Goodclap wasconceptualised.”

When asked about theapplication process, ShashankGandrapu, the conceptfounder shares, “Needy peo-ple first share their require-ments. Later, we conduct abackground check. When itcomes to health-related cases,we go to the hospital person-ally or find out throughsources the treatment andmoney required. Later, weverify the beneficiaries’ back-ground and check if they canspend the money or not.After all this, we put it up onour platform, share the linkson social media and helppeople donate.”

Shashank adds that oncethe the concept founder atGoodclap said that they will

put all details in the platformlike health certificates andrequirements for transparen-cy. Shashank shares, “We takethe required details and verifythe need — physically and/orthrough various sources —and set up the campaign witha specific goal amount,explaining the needs of thebeneficiary. We then sharethe link to the benefittingparty and across Goodclap’snetwork via social media.Once the funds are pooled,they will be transacted to thebeneficiary.”

He informs that for thetreatment of a heart relatedailment in a four-year-oldgirl, they raised the requiredRs 15 lakh in just 15 days andsaved the girl.

He adds, “For transparency,we put the donors details tooon our site and encouragethem to meet the beneficia-ries if they want. Somedonors want to donate direct-ly and we facilitate that.”

Recently they also started aSystematic Goodness Plan —where donors can do amonthly donation to a causeof their choice ranging fromhealth and education to theenvironment. Their donationswill then be distributed tocampaigns that support theirchosen causes. All thesedonors will receive monthlyreports of how and wheretheir donations were distrib-uted and the beneficiary’scondition/situation.

Bhargava shares, “We aremostly operating inHyderabad but have offices inChennai, Ahmedabad andothers. We are getting a goodresponse from donors inHyderabad and we plan toexpand to more cities.”

HFOR THETREATMENT OF AHEART-RELATEDAILMENT IN AFOUR-YEAR-OLDGIRL, GOODCLAPRAISED THEREQUIRED RS 15LAKH IN JUST 15DAYS AND SAVEDTHE GIRL

S

It is important forparents to not

look for tangibleresults from thereading habit and letthe process remainrecreational, so thechild can turn towardsit by interest and notunder pressure

HARIPRIYA BATHULA

Portal for blue-collar jobs wins bigChildren's literary fest opens in cityver 130 childrenfrom across 10 stateswill come togetherto express theirdream, aspirationsand ideas on gender

equality as Plan India beganits second edition of Natio-nal Children LiteraryFestival (CLF) in Hyderabadfrom January 29 to 31. Thefestival aims at providingchildren with a platform forchild-led advocacy witheducationists, policy makers,teachers, writers, storytellers,and publishers to promotequality education, joyful cla-ssroom learning and genderequality in children’s litera-ture.

Given the steady declinein children’s reading habitsand the fact that most chil-dren’s books and literatureare seen as propagating gen-der and other social stereo-types, this three-day literaryfestival would provide a plat-

form for children, teachers,educationists and authors toinfluence and advocate withkey stakeholders to publishlow cost, gender sensitiveand socially inclusive chil-

dren’s books and stories.As the first of its kind in

the city, the literary festivalwill provide an excellentavenue for creativity, imagi-nation and a joyful exchangeof ideas between childrenfrom different states.

Since last two months,over 1,00,000 children from10 Plan India states partici-pated in the regional andstate level editions includingBihar, Delhi, Jharkhand,Maharashtra, Odisha,Rajasthan, Uttrakhand,

Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Telangana where theyread schoolbooks, newspa-pers, poetry and stories totheir peers, teachers andparents, enhancing theirinterest in reading andimproving the quality oftheir education.

Mohammed Asif,Executive Director, PlanIndia said, “We are happy tosee large participation ofchildren. Coinciding withthe five years of govern-ment’s flagship initiative BetiBachao, Beti Padhao, thisyear’s festival aims at pro-moting interest in readingand generating awarenessaround gender stereotypes.By means of this festival, wehope to train girls and boysto be able change the waygender is portrayed in booksand create a gender-neutralworld, expressing the sameby various other forms ofart.” — PNS

O

Mohammed Asif

ThursdayJanuary 30, 2020

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

ollywood actor Salman Khanon Tuesday created a stirafter a video of him snatch-ing a mobile phone from thehands of a Goa airportstaffer who tried to click a

selfie with the actor went viral. The stu-dents’ wing of Congress, NationalStudents’ Union of India (NSUI), has

urged Goa Chief Minister PramodSawant to ban Khan from

entering Goa if he does notapologise publicly.

The incident occurredwhen Khan, who is inGoa to shoot for anupcoming film, landed atthe Goa International

Airport in Dabolim onTuesday morning. In the

video, an Airport Authorityof India (AAI) official could be

seen walking ahead ofKhan near the departuregate and taking photos withthe actor walking in the backdrop.After a few seconds, the irritatedactor could be seen snatching hisphone and walking towards anawaiting car.

The NSUI has demanded anapology from the actor. “Irequest your kind authority tolook into this matter with utterseriousness and demand an apol-ogy from the actor on public plat-form since it was a disgrace to thefan publicly, failing which suchviolent actors with a bad trackrecord should not be allowed tovisit Goa in the future,” GoaNSUI President Ahraz Mulla saidin a letter to Chief MinisterSawant.

10

Vijayawada Thursday January 30, 2020

B

what’s brewing?

ndian actress PriyankaChopra Jonas is ‘infinal talks’ for a roleopposite Hollywoodactor Keanu Reeves inthe fourth The Matrix

movie.The Warner Bros. and the

Village Roadshow film is beingdirected by series co-creator LanaWachowski. She will join the pre-viously announced Keanu Reeves,Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Neil Patrick Harris,reports variety.com.

Details about her prospectivecharacter are currently underwraps.

The Matrix 4 cast has been in

fight training for weeks for pro-duction start, which will begin inNorthern California.

Priyanka is a National FilmAward winner with more than 60films to her credit. Her US televisiondebut was with drama Quantico,which ran for three seasons.

She made history as the firstIndian-born actor to star as thelead of a primetime networkseries and won a People’s ChoiceAward for this role in 2016. Shewas featured on the cover ofTIME magazine’s coveted TIME100 issue in 2016, named as oneof the “Most Influential People”in the world, and recognised asone of Forbes Most Powerful

Women.Priyanka recently starred in

and co-produced The Sky isPink. She will next be seen inNetflix’s We Can Be Heroes, byRobert Rodriguez, and anadaptation of the Man BookerPrize winning novel The WhiteTiger. She’ll film Matrix 4concurrently in tan-dem with Citadel,an Amazon serieswith RichardMadden fromthe Russobrothers.

—IANS

ctress ClaireDanes has ‘zero’regrets aboutturning downTitanic, sayingthat she had no

interest in the level of famethe film broughtHollywood star LeonardoDiCaprio.

The Homeland actresssays she bowed out of con-sideration for the Oscar-winning blockbuster, let-ting the lead role ultimate-

ly go to actress KateWinslet back in 1996,largely because the part feltall too familiar.

Danes had just wrappedBaz Luhrmann’s Romeo +Juliet with DiCaprio, andwas looking for a differenttype of venture, reportsaceshowbiz.com.

“I had just made thisromantic epic with Leo inMexico City, which iswhere they were going toshoot Titanic! And I just

didn’t have it in me!”Danes said during a sitdown with Dax Shepard’sArmchair Expert podcast.

The 40-year-old recallsDiCaprio himself wrestlingwith the decision to takeon the James Cameronepic, recounting a conver-sation they had outsidetheir mutual manager’soffice.

“And he just looked upat me and said: ‘I’m doingit! I’m doing it!’ And I

could see he wasn’t sure.But he was like, ‘F**k it, Igotta do this thing.’”

Danes added that shecould not see herself grap-pling with the global atten-tion the actor received fol-lowing the film’s release.

“And I looked down athim, and I was like, ‘Itotally understand whyyou’re doing that. And I’mnot ready for that.’ And Ithink I really wasn’t readyfor it. And I remember

after that movie came out...and he just went intoanother stratosphere.”

She noted she has “zeroregret” after noticing aswift change in how peopletreat her former co-star.

“I think I may havesensed that I was courtingthat (level of fame) or Iwas proximate to that...and I just couldn’t do it. Ididn’t want it. I was justreally clear about it. I was-n’t conflicted,” she said.

As for whether or notanything romantic hap-pened between the pairwhile they were filmingthe classic Shakespeareanlove story, she believes off-screen love was not writtenin the stars for them.

“That was just never goingto happen,” she said, whileadmitting there was a “crushy”vibe between the two.

“I didn’t know how to goabout that... we’re reallydifferent people.” — IANS

‘Didn’t want the kind of fame Titanic brought DiCaprio’

A

I

PRIYANKA CHOPRA JONAS in talksto join Keanu Reeves in Matrix 4

NSUI demandsban of SalmanKhan in Goa

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | JANUARY 30, 2020 sport 11

PTI n HAMILTON

Virat Kohli said New Zealanddeserved to win the third T20

after India prevailed in the Super Overto take an unassailable 3-0 lead in thefive-match series.

Rohit Sharma smashed consecu-tive sixes in the final two balls of theSuper Over to lead India to theirmaiden T20 series win in NewZealand following a nerve-wrackingfinish.

Needing 18 off six balls in theSuper Over, India managed 10 off thefirst four balls. Rohit then smackedtwo sixes — one over mid-wicket andanother over long off — to helpIndia pull off a nail-biter.

“I thought we were gone at onestage. I told our coach that they

deserved to win. The way Kane wasbatting, on 95. Feel bad for him, Iknow what it’s like to play thoseknocks when things don’t go your way.On the last ball, we had a discussionand we came to a conclusion that wehad to hit the stumps,” the India cap-tain said at the post-match presenta-tion ceremony.

Rohit turned out to be the star forIndia as he also top-scored with a 65-run knock to guide the visitors to 179for five in their 20 overs.

New Zealand had it all under con-trol with two runs needed off four ballsand six wickets in hand to overhaulIndia’s total, but they faltered.

Mohammed Shami bowled a bril-liant final over to tie the game andbring back memories of the 2019World Cup final, which New Zealand

agonisingly lost to England on bound-ary count.

New Zealand captain KaneWilliamon did all he could, both in therun chase (95 off 48 balls) and the SuperOver (11), but still it did not prove to beenough.

“Last ball we had a discussion, we hadto hit the stumps because if you don’t, it’sa single anyway. Rohit was outstanding,both in our innings, and the last two ballsas well. We knew if he got one hit, thebowler was under pressure immediate-ly,” Kohli said.

With the series in pocket, the Indiaskipper hinted that he will try out hisbench strength in the remaining twogames.

“It’s important to give a couple of theothers some game time as well. We wantto see how they do in these conditions,

someone like Washington Sundar, or(Navdeep) Saini,” Kohli said.

Meanwhile, Rohit said there is notraining possible for Super Over eventu-alities. In fact, the Indian team wasn’taware of the Super Over and was madeaware of the situation only after the matchhad finished in a tie.

“I don’t know if you can train for aSuper Over. We’ve got a T20 specialist inBumrah. For him, Super Over or whetherhe bowls in a T20 match is the same forhim. There’s no training required therefor him.

“But for the batters, you generally seewho’s in good nick on that particular dayand you assess and try and get that guyto bat. Probably if I hadn’t got the 60today, probably it wouldn’t have been megoing to face the Super Over. It could havebeen Shreyas Iyer or someone else.”

PTI n HAMILTON

“Super Overs aren’t really NewZealand’s friend,” skipper Kane

Williamson said after a heart-breaking lossin the thrilling third game.

India defeated The Back Caps viaSuper Over to take an unassailable 3-0 leadin the five-match series. Rohit Sharmasmashed consecutive sixes in the final twoballs of the eliminator to lead the visitorsto their maiden T20 series win in NewZealand.

The defeat brought back memories ofthe 2019 World Cup final, which NewZealand agonisingly lost to England onboundary count.

“Super Overs aren’t really our friends.To be honest we would have liked to getacross the line earlier and not in the SuperOver. It’s just a shame that we couldn’t getpast the line,” said a disappointedWilliamson at the post-match press con-ference.

“It is pretty disappointing to be on thewrong side of the result after doing a lotof hard work. (But) There was a lot ofimprovement after the first two games.

“If we reflect on the match, then it wasa brilliant game. India had a good total onthat surface and they did well with the ballbecause it was taking some turn as well.The guys fought back nicely after the startIndia got with the bat. And we were ableto build partnerships and take the gamedeep,” he added.

Asked about yet another disappoint-ing outing in the Super Over, the NewZealand skipper said: “In my opin-ion we shouldn’t have them(jokingly). Look it is what itis. It’s good fun. We had afull house at midnight,which is really cool. It’sgood entertainment.

“I am probably notthe person to ask as wecame second in theSuper Over tonight likea few other times. So itwas not ideal but peoplehave enjoyed that, andthat’s fine.”

Williamon did all he could,both in the run chase (95 off 48balls) and the Super Over (11), but stillit did not prove to be enough.

Williamson was especially harsh onJasprit Bumrah (0/45), who had an off dayand then was expensive in the Super Overas well.

“You are just trying to do what isrequired for the team, as best you can, andthere are a number of other contributionsthat are really important,” Williamsonsaid.

“Starting on that surface was quitechallenging. Everybody found so but onceyou got in then you try to get a bit ofrhythm and the partnerships were themost positive thing of that run-chase.Overall it was a much better perfor-mance.”

Williamson, however, said he didn'thave any specific plan against Bumrah.

“No, not really targeting him (Bumrah),it was just that we need 10s (per over).There are big challenges that we have seenin every game but I guess you are trying todo the best and keep up with the askingrate.”

“Maybe ask AB (de Villiers) or othersuperstars (how to play Bumrah), but forme I was just trying to look for areas on thatsurface. It doesn’t always come off but it wasnice that we were able to get so close with-out quite getting across the line,” he added.

RANGERS SSIGN BBALA DDEVIGlasgow: Rangers Football Club on Wednesdayannounced the signing of Bala Devi from Manipur PoliceSports Club. The 29-year-old joins the club on an 18-month-deal after a successful spell on trial at Rangers inNovember. This will make Bala the first Indian woman tobecome a professional footballer anywhere in the worldand she also becomes Rangers' first Asian internationalfootballer. Bala is the current top scorer for the Indiannational women's team, netting an impressive 52 timesin 58 games since 2010, also making her the topinternational goal scorer in the South Asian region.Speaking of her delight at signing for Rangers, Bala said:“To play my football in Europe with one of the biggestclubs in the world is something I could never havedreamed of. “I hope my move to Rangers serves as anexample to all the women footballers back home in Indiawho dream of taking up the sport professionally.

INJURED FFELIX TTO MMISS MMADRID DDERBYMadrid: Atletico Madrid said on Wednesday that JoaoFelix has sustained a muscle injury, meaning the strikeris likely to miss Saturday's city derby against RealMadrid. Atletico confirmed in a statement that Felix wasinjured during last weekend's goalless draw withLeganes in La Liga. “Joao Felix suffered a muscularinjury in his right leg during the match against Leganes,”the statement read. “With the persistence of discomfortafter a day of rest, the medical services have performedtests that detected the injury. His return will depend onhis recovery.”

IND OOPEN KKICKBOXING TTOURNEY AANNOUNCEDNew Delhi: India Kickboxing Federation, affiliated to theWorld Association of Kickboxing Organizations, onWednesday announced the launch of the first-everWAKO Indian Open Kickboxing int’l tournament. Thetournament is scheduled to be held in the capital'sTalkatora Indoor stadium from February 10th to 13. Over1000 male and female athletes and officials from over 12countries are expected to participate across two formatsand seven disciplines of the sport.

FORTUNA SSACK ‘‘COACH OOF TTHE YYEAR’Berlin: Fortuna Duesseldorf, who are bottom of theBundesliga, sacked Friedhelm Funkel, just a day after hereceived a ‘coach of the year' award. On Tuesday,Fortuna tweeted “congratulations” to Funkel forreceiving the accolade from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. However, the 66-year-old was sacked lessthan 24 hours later in the wake of Sunday's 3-0 loss tomid-table Leverkusen. “We have scored just 18 goalsthis season, statistically we are the weakest team inattack, and one of the weakest in defence, in theBundesliga,” said sports director Lutz Pfannenstiel. “Asa result, we no longer believe we can stay up if thingsstay as they are. We had to react.”

PACER JJAMIESON IIN LLINE FFOR OODI DDEBUTChristchurch: Fast bowler Kyle Jamieson is likely tomake his debut for New Zealand during the three-matchODI series against India beginning in Hamilton onFebruary 5. The 25-year-old had impressed during theOne-day series against India A, taking six wickets. Hewas left out of New Zealand A's squad for the upcomingfirst unofficial Test at Christchurch, keeping in mind theupcoming series against India. New Zealand pace trio ofLockie Ferguson (right calf), Trent Boult (left hand) andMatt Henry (left thumb) are recovering from injuries andselector Gavin Larsen said Jamieson would be a coverfor the ODI series.

LEA TTAHUHU AADDED TTO NNZ SSQUADDubai: New Zealand pacer Lea Tahuhu, who recentlyhad her first child, has returned to the national team'ssquad for the T20Is against South Africa and the ICCWomen's T20 WC. Tahuhu had taken a break for thebirth of her daughter Grace and skipped the ongoing ODIseries against South Africa. “It's been a whirlwind lastcouple of weeks — becoming a mum for the first timeand everything that goes with it,” Tahuhu told ICC. “I'mvery excited to be back. I'm grateful of Amy's supportback home and can't wait to get stuck in at trainingahead of the T20 series against South Africa,” sheadded. AGENCIES

SINGLES

IANS n VADODARA

Jaydev Unadkat picked upsix wickets as Saurashtra

held their nerve to win byfour wickets against Barodain a Group B Elite game onWednesday.

Saurashtra had 200 tochase down and were on themat at 113/6. But AarpitVasavada and PrerakMankad got together andthey took the bull by thehorns, adding 87 to takeSaurashtra over the line byfour wickets.

Vasavada made 48 notout, Mankad fin-ished with anunbeaten 36.The outrightw i nstrengthensthis positionas far as quar-ter-finals qualification goes.In six games, they have 25points with three wins.

In Surat in a Group Agame, Gujarat need 105 moreto win against Vidarbha.

At 104/6, Vidarbha weredown in the dumps, leadingby just 36. Then, they werelifted by a seventh-wicketpartnership of 82 betweenAkshay Wadkar and AdityaSarvate to help swell theirlead. Wadkar top scored with87.

At close of play, Gujarat

were tottering at 74/4 withAditya Thakare picking up allfour wickets for the defend-ing champions.

FIGHT FFOR 33 PPOINTSKOLKATA: Hosts Bengal andDelhi fought hard for threepoints as rain and bad light

allowed less than an hour’splay on the penultimateday of their Group Amatch.

Middle-order batsmanJonty Sidhu was unbeatenon 49 after surviving an lbwoff a no-ball, while SubodhBhati looked edgy for his

25-ball seven as Delhi were217 for 7, still trailingBengal by 101 runs as only9.3 overs were possible inthe entire day.

Both the teams willlook to get a first inningslead to secure three points,even as more rain is forecastfor the final day.

GOA JJUMP TTO TTOPPORVORIM: Amit Verma ledby example with a match-haul of nine wickets and anunbeaten century as Goarecorded an innings and336-run win overArunachal Pradesh insidethree days in their Plategroup fixture. The bonuspoint victory helped Goa(37 points) to the top spotin the Plate group, fourpoints clear of Puducherry.

Nine for three after fol-lowing-on, ArunachalPradesh were bundled outfor 170 in 49.2 overs withlegspinner Verma returningwith 6/71.

Rahul Dalal waged alone battle with a 98-ball 68but Verma cut short hisresistance en route to hissixth five-wicket haul infirst-class cricket.

Arunachal were shotout for a paltry 83 in replyto Goa’s mammoth 589/2declared in the first innings.ASSAM’S FFIGHTBACK

CUTTACK: Openers KunalSaikia (62 batting) andSubham Mandal (40 bat-ting) led Assam’s fightback inthe second innings with acentury parntership afterbeing forced to follow on byOdisha on the third day ofGroup C match.

Assam was bowled outfor 238 in reply to Odisha’sfirst innings score of 436 withRanjeet Mali (59) and open-er Kunal Saikia (53) beingthe major contributors.

Resuming at theovernight score of 59 for 3,the visitors slipped to 147 for7, losing the wickets ofRishav Das (37) and talent-ed Riyan Parag (43).

Wicket-keeper Saikiaand Mali, batting at No 9,launched a rearguard actionand added 58 runs for theeighth wicket.

Asked to follow-on,Assam was provided a solidstart by Mandal and KunalSaikia, who was promoted toopen, as they added 102runs in 31 overs.

The visiting team stillneeds 96 runs to makeOdisha bat again.

Meanwhile in Agartala,Maharashtra scored 103 for2 in the second innings andneeds 101 more runs tosecure a victory againstTripura.

AFP n HARARE

Zimbabwe all-rounder SikandarRaza picked up a career-best

seven wickets as the hosts built a175-run lead over Sri Lanka on thethird day of the second Test hereon Wednesday.

Off-spinner Raza claimedthree wickets apiece in the morn-ing and afternoon sessions to fin-ish with figures of seven for 113 asSri Lanka were bowled out for 293.

Raza’s haul was the second bestfor Zimbabwe in Test cricket, afterformer legbreak bowler PaulStrang’s eight for 109 against NewZealand at Bulawayo in 2000.

Rain again brought an early

end to the day as Zimbabwereached 62 for 1 at stumps in theirsecond innings with PrinceMasvaure unbeaten on 26.

Craig Ervine was the onlyZimbabwe wicket to fall after teawhen he edged behind off Vishwa

Fernando for 13. Play will startearly on Thursday at 07:35 GMT.

For the second Test in succes-sion Zimbabwe were forced tomake a concussion substitutionafter opening batsman KevinKasuza was again struck on thehelmet while fielding at short leg.

Kasuza was diagnosed withmild concussion and will take nofurther part in the match. All-rounder Timycen Maruma hasbeen drafted in to take his place.

Angelo Mathews, who madehis first Test double century in theseries opener, top-scored for SriLanka with a gritty 64 from 158balls before he was caught behinddown the legside off Mumba.

PTI n BENONI

Kristian Clarke came up with anall-round performance to help

New Zealand beat West Indies by twowickets in a low-scoring affair andenter the semifinals of the ICC U-19World Cup here on Wednesday.

Clarke (4/25) first shone with theball to restrict West India to 238 andthen made an unbeaten 46 off 42 ballsto take New Zealand home in thecompany of Joey Field, who was notout on 38.

Batting first, West Indies werebowled out in 47.5 overs with KirkMcKenzie top-scoring with a 104-ball99.

Besides McKenzie, KevlonAnderson (33) and Antonio Morris(31) also made useful contributionswith the bat.

Right-arm pacer Clarke pickedup four wickets for New Zealand,while left-arm spinner Jesse Tashkoff(2/35) and Field (2/52) shared fourwickets between them.

Chasing the modest total, NewZealand lost wickets at regular inter-vals to find themselves in a spot ofbother at 153 for 8 in 34.5 overs.

But Clarke and Field had otherplans as they duo joined hands andshared unbeaten 86 runs for the ninthwicket to take New Zealand home,finishing at 239 for 8 in 49.4 overs.

Super Overs aren’t our friends: KaneDisappointed Kiwi captain says it's just a shame that we couldn't get past the line

Rohit Sharma hugs KL Rahul after he hits Tim Southee for six in the final ball of super over to help India win 3rd T20 AP

Thought at one stage we're gone: Kohli

HAMILTON: Vice-captain RohitSharma on Wednesday empha-sised on India’s recent winningstreak in the shortest format,calling it a good sign headinginto the T20 World Cup.

Rohit has forged two greatopening partnerships for Indiawith KL Rahul and ShikharDhawan. He said that the teammanagement will decide whichone comes to the fore later forthe T20 World Cup.

“Whenever anyone’s got anopportunity, they have made itcount. Shikhar as well, when heplayed the last series against SriLanka, he got a crucial 50 andthen KL has been in good formover the last 7-8 T20s, he’s gotprobably 4 or 5 fifties,” Rohitsaid.

“So it’s a good sign for theteam. That’s how we look at it.It’s important for most of ourplayers to stay in good formand then what happens withthe final XI and everything thatwill be only decided once all theplayers are available and thecaptain and management willsit together and identify whoare the right guys to play thatparticular game. That’s how Ilook at it.

“For me, I want everyoneto stay in good form, which hashappened through the series. Itis a great sign for us movingforward in this particular for-mat at least. I wish the next twogames too we don’t relax. Wejust want to keep the momen-tum going. It’s a good sign,” heopined.

India wouldn’t have wonthe third T20I without his twoSuper Over sixes but a modestRohit credited MohammedShami for the victory.

Shami took two wickets inthe final over to dismiss bothKane Williamson and Ross

Taylor.Rohit hit two sixes off the

last two balls in the SuperOver as India took an unas-sailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Both teams weretied on 179 runs each afterfifties from Rohit andWilliamson cancelled eachother.

“I think MohammedShami’s last over was crucial,and actually that got us the vic-tory. Not my two sixes. It wasShami’s over where we defend-ed nine runs. It’s not easy withthe dew,” Rohit said at thepost-match press conference.

The India vice captainadded, “The wicket settling innicely and two set batsmen outthere as well... One batsmanwas batting on 95 and theirmost experienced player wasat the other end. Hats off toShami to bowl that over andget us back into the game andinto the Super Over.”

Last but not the least,Rohit opined that it was toughnot to feel for New Zealandwho have been on the wrongend of Super Over results fora while now.

“Kane Williamson playeda solid innings. Of coursetheir team will feel disap-pointed about how they couldlose such a game. But wehave to look at how we cameback into the game.

“The last over that Shamibowled was very important forus and a positive sign becausewe could play a game like thisin the World Cup. Then whatdo we do.

“We can’t lose hope. Wewill need to stay strong, evenif you need defend five runs,you have to show a positiveattitude, and we showed thathere,” Rohit signed off. PTI

Winning run ‘goodsign’ ahead of WC

“NEVERDONE THAT BEFORE

(BATTING IN SUPER OVER). IDIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT,

WHETHER TO GO FROM THE FIRST BALLOR JUST TAKE A SINGLE, TRY AND PUT

PRESSURE ON THE LAST THREE OR FOURBALLS OF THE OVER. I JUST WANTED TOSTAY STILL AND WAS WAITING FOR THE

BOWLER TO MAKE A MISTAKE (ON THE LAST TWO SIXES).”

— ROHIT SSHARMA

Sikandar’s 7 dismantle Lanka

Bengal bowler Mukesh Kumar celebrates after taking wicket of Delhi’s AnujRawat during third day of Ranji Trophy game at Eden Gardens PTI

NZ into U-19 WC semis

Unadkat guides Saurashtra to close win

Vijayawada Thursday January 30, 2020

12

tollywood

ass Maharaja RaviTeja is going througha torrid time at thebox-

office. His latest, Disco Raja,has tanked but that hasn’tdeterred him from signingback-to-back films. His newfilm with Rakshasudu direc-

tor Ramesh Varma wasannounced on Sunday andthe latest we hear is thathe will be seen in a dualrole in the movie.

A highly-placedsource close to thedevelopment tells us,“Besides the story, it’sthe variation in thecharacters that led Ravi

Teja to green-lit the film.He is at a phase in his

career where hewants to

associate with meaningful yetunique roles and RameshVarma has narrated to himwhat he was looking for.While one role will see himas an innocent middle-classman, the other will see himin a mass avatar in a layeredrole, which will be the film’sbiggest USP (unique sellingpoint). Scenes with Ravi Tejaas a middle-class man will beshot in Hyderabad while hisdoppelganger’s portions willbe filmed in Azerbaijan. Howboth of them connect to thestory is revealed in an engag-ing manner.”

This action-thriller will goto sets in March. Ramesh isyet to find two leading ladies.The film is a production ven-ture of educationalist Ko-

neru Satyanarayana underA Studios. Ravi Teja is

currently shooting forGopichand Malineni’s

Krack. He will wrapup the film by

February end. Hewill shoot Var-ma’s film beforefocussing onpromotingKrack, whichis slated torelease onMay 8.

Ravi Teja isknown for his

comedic timingand bodylanguage.

Unfazed by hislatest box-office

debacle, the MassMaharaja is nowgoing to doublehis efforts in the

film withRakshasudu

director RameshVarma, writes

NAGARAJGOUD

M

RAVI TEJATO ENTERTAIN IN A DUAL ROLE

PAWAN- KRISH film toget a pan-India release

awan Kalyan’s nextwith filmmaker Krishand producer A.M.Ratnam was launchedin Hyderabad onWednesday. It was a

low-key affair with only the actorand the principal crew attendingit, said sources.

Like with the Telugu remake ofthe hit Hindi film Pink, the mak-ers of this film too have been toldnot to speak to the press. “Pawanwants to balance both politics andfilms till the end of this year. Hedoesn’t want people, especially his

political rivals to target his come-back to films,” added sources.

The film is a period drama tobe based on the 18th centuryTelangana revolutionary PandugaSayanna who was a Robin Hoodfigure for the people back then.The principle shoot will begin inHyderabad from February 4, withPawan set to join the sets aftercompleting the Pink remake.

Sets of Charminar and othermonuments of the bygone era arebeing designed at the AluminumFactory, Lingampally for key por-tions.

The untitled film, which willhave Keeravani’s musical score, isbeing mounted on a budget of Rs100 crore.

Krish is planning to rope infamiliar Bollywood faces for sup-porting roles, including that of theleading lady. Although it will beshot in Telugu, the idea is to giveit a pan-India release as the mak-ers are of the belief that the con-tent can resonate with everyIndian, sources mentioned. It willbe Pawan’s second film afterSardaar Gabbar Singh to get anation-wide release.

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Trivikram'sSTARRYLINE-UP

aunched in October2018, VijayDeverakonda-starrerWorld Famous Lover,

directed by Kranthi Madhav,will be releasing this Valentine’sDay. Film’s presenter K.S.Ramarao, who has produced anumber of films in a career,spanning more than threedecades, reveals that the film’sdelay was inevitable asDeverakonda was shooting forDear Comrade for a good partof early last year. “Once hejoined the sets of our film, hehad to grow his beard and hairfor some portions. It took timebut we never felt the delay. Wedid consider last Decemberand this month but decidedagainst it, as ours is not a typi-

cal holiday film. We wantedan appropriate date

and locked in onFebruary 14

which goeswell with thefilm’stheme,” hesays, addingthe film will

trace different chapters ofDeverakonda’s love life.

Ramarao adds that the dis-tribution network is not thesame as it used to be and hasslowly slipped into the handsof a few individuals. “Backthen a distributor would waitfor the film to end its run toget his share, whereas now heis looking to get his moneyback in the first week itself. Adistributor is betting on filmsthat guarantee him returns,which is why he is releasing itin multiple screens. It inadver-tently leads to piracy. So whena big film releases, there is noscope for medium budget filmto survive and get theatres.Even if they get theatres andpick up business gradually, itgets replaced the next week.Telugu Film Chamber ofCommerce and Producer’sCouncil should step in andensure that a fair practice isadopted,” he points out.

We neverfelt the

delay, saysRamarao on

WFL

L

RAMARAO SAYS THE MOVIEDISTRIBUTION NETWORK HASGRADUALLY SLIPPED INTO THEHANDS OF A FEW INDIVIDUALS

ohn Kottoly, who played support-ing roles in films like Manu andFalaknuma Das, passed away onTuesday morning in Hyderabad

following a cardiac arrest. Hailing from atheatre background, he was associatedwith a corporate firm, before he shiftedattention to movies. A believer in mean-ingful cinema, he chose projects that werehigh on content. Sainma (short film),Raktham and Gods of Dharmapuri (webseries) were some of his other works. He issurvived by a nine-year-old daughter.

Expressing shock over John’s suddendeath, activist and producer Sunitha said,“This is unimaginable. To John, acting wasa passion. He was not enticed by the glam-our of the entertainment world. Hebecame an actor because he was devotedto the craft. It was not about money. InRaktham, his performance was on a parwith senior actors. Many digital offerscame his way post our film.”

J

John Kottolypasses away

he movie, Satyam,with Suman and ShiajiShinde in lead roles,which was launched atthe Annapurna Studiosin November 2019, has

completed its first schedule in theforests.

Srimata Creations is fundingthe film and Ashok Kadaba is theproducer.

Shiaji Shinde and Suman shotsome key scenes in this schedule.The new schedule of the film willstart soon. Balraj Santosh,Lokesh, Avinash, RanjiniRaghavan, Vinay Prasad, SringeriRamana, Uma and Basava Rajuwill be seen in important roles inthe film.

KGF music director RaviBansuru is composing the music.K.V. Raju has written the scriptand Mudhuri Anjibabu is theexecutive producer of the movie.

Sumanfinisheskey shootin forests

T

rivikram Srinivas, who isriding the wave of AlaVaikunthapuramlo’s enor-mous success, will beginpenning the story of his nextwith Jr NTR from February.

He is planning to take this full-length comedic entertainer tofloors in May and get it ready for2021 Sankranti.

We hear that his future projectstoo are more or less in place. AfterJr NTR’s film, he will be directingRam Charan. Haarika & HassineCreations and Pawan KalyanCreative Works will pool inresources for this project, it is said.It has been Pawan’s wish to producea film with his nephew and Trivi-kram is obliging his best friend’srequest. Immediately after this, thedirector will mostly be teaming upwith megastar Chiranjeevi. Theirproject was announced on recordmore than a year ago, with D.V.V.Danayya set to produce it. But thegrapevine states that China Babuwill produce it with Ram Charan.“While the current order is to com-mence film with Charan next year,it wouldn’t be a surprise ifTrivikram begins Chiranjeevi’s filmfirst,” sources say.

T