HYDERABAD, THURSDAY OCTOBER 15, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated October 14, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Ashwin (Adhik) & Krishna Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Trayodashi: 08:32 am, Chaturdashi:

04:52 am (Next Day)

Nakshatram: Uttara Phalguni: 05:58 pm

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 01:28 pm – 02:56 pm

Yamagandam: 06:12 am – 07:39 am

Varjyam: 01:19 am – 02:43 am

Gulika: 09:07 am - 10:34 am

Good Time: 11:35 am – 01:00 pm

Amritakalam: 11:38 am – 12:24 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Scattered thunderstormsTemp: 27/22Humidity: 88%Sunrise: 06.09 amSunset: 05.58 pm

PNS n HYDERABAD

At least 25 people have died inHyderabad alone over the pasttwo days, following incessant,heavy rainfall due to a depres-sion that lay over Telangana.With water-logging on mostroads and inundation or sub-mergence of low-lying areas,multiple deaths were reporteddue to wall collapses, boulderscrashing on homes or peoplegetting washed away.

Eight people were reported-ly killed due to rains or flood-related incidents elsewhere inthe state, taking the overalldeath toll to 33. Three personswere killed in Yadadri-Bhongir,two between Kothagudem andPochampally, one inWanaparthy district, oneKhammam, and one Asifabaddistrict.

The state government hasdeclared a holiday onWednesday and Thursday for allprivate institutions, offices, non-essential services within theOuter Ring Road here in viewof the havoc caused by the rains.

Three persons atShamshabad, two persons atIbrahimpatnam, two atMailardevpally, one each atPhoolbagh, Amberpet,Abdullapurmet, Nacharam,Saroornagar, SR Nagar, Alwal,LB-Nagar, Dilshuknagar,Banjara Hills and eight atBandlaguda died in rain-relat-ed incidents.

A woman and her daughterdied after a two-decade-olddilapidated house collapsedlate on Tuesday night atSheriguda in Ibrahimpatnam.

Three members of a family,including a child, died in a housecollapse in Gaganpahad area ofShamshabad on Wednesdaymorning, police said.

A postman was washedaway in LB-Nagar limits, whileone Raj Kumar died due toelectrocution in Amberpet.

A Naveen Kumar, 45, waswashed away at Saroornagar.In another incident atPhoolbagh inChandrayangutta, one persondied in a wall collapse onTuesday night and search is on

for another person reportedmissing. At Ghousenagar inBandlaguda, eight persons,including three children, diedwhen a boundary wall made ofgranite collapsed on twoasbestos-roofed houses.

20,540 homes affected byrains, floods in GHMC

Call drops, snappedlines hit communicationPNS n HYDERABAD

The flash floods in Hyderabadhave hit communication, withmany citizens facing call dropsand problems due to snappedlines and damaged mobiletowers. Several users of Airtel,BSNL and JIO raised issuesover the call drops and lack ofconnectivity.

BSNL confirmed that due toheavy rains some services gotinterrupted and assured thattheir teams were trying toresolve the issues.

As TSSPDCL had discon-nected power supply in manyareas of the city "as a precau-tionary measure" amid theincessant rainfs, there was dis-ruption in mobile phone ser-vices as well as internet con-nectivity. Sources indicatedthat nearly 40 per cent of the

mobile towers in Hyderabadhave been impacted due toprolonged power outage.

TSSPDCL is in the processof restoring power supply.Some of the networks areslowly picking up. Sourcescouldn’t confirm when thecommunication will berestored completely.

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

D e p r e s s i o n - b a t t e r e dHyderabad recorded 192.1 mmrain on Tuesday. This single-day downpour is far more thanthe 153.2 mm rainfall record-ed on September 27, 1908 thattriggered the catastrophic Musifloods.

This is also the second high-est rainfall witnessed in the cityafter the August 2000 floods.On August 24,2000 the city wit-nessed 241.5 mm rainfall. Thiscontinues to be the highest 24-hour rainfall record for the city.

According to IMDHyderabad Director NagaRatna, “30 locations inHyderabad received about 30

cm-20cm rain. In other places,7 cm above Hyderabad. OnAugust 24 in 2000, Hyderabadreceived 24.1 cm. This is thehighest ever rainfall. In 2000too, the Tank Bund inundatedand now the same situation isbeing replicated.”

According to IMD, thehighest ever rainfall recordedin the month of October was117.1mm in October3,1903.

Explaining the phenome-non, Mahesh Palwat of Skymetsaid, “Generally, October is nota season of heavy rains. For thecity, the monthly October aver-age rainfall is 10.3cm. So, forOctober the city has witnessedunprecedented rainfall due tothe deep depression, breakinga 117-year-old record”.

Snaps by our photographers show patheticsituation in Hyderabad city which was pounded byincessant heavy rains for last three days. More thanone crore people affected and property loss ismassive. Let all of us join hands to give relief to theflood-ravaged families.

n Hyd records more rain than what triggered 1908 Musi floods

n Second highest rainfall in the city after 2000 floods

n 117-year-old record for month of October dislodged

MONTH AND YEAR RAINFALL IN MM AS PER IMD HYD

24 AUG 2000 241.5MM

13 OCT 2020 192.1MM

27 SEPT 1908 (MUSI FLOODS) 153.2MM

24 JULY1989 140.5MM

26JUNE1914 122.7MM

06 OCT 1903 117.1MM

Heavy rains kill 33 in State

Tainted KeesaraTahasildar ‘endslife' in jailDURGAPRASAD SUNKUn HYDERABAD

Tainted Keesara Tahasildar EBalraju Nagaraju, who hasbeen under judicial custody inthe Chanchalguda jail inHyderabad since August 14thwhen he was caught red-hand-ed accepting Rs 1.10 crore incash as part of bribe from arealtor, allegedly commitedsucide in his cell on Tuesdaynight.

According to an official ofthe Chanchalguda prison,Nagaraju was found hangingby a towel from the window

of the room in which he hadbeen lodged along with fiveother prisoners. The prisonofficial expressed his viewthat Nagaraju might havecommitted suicide late in thenight when the other inmatesin his room were asleep.

The jail warden, who wason rounds at around 4 AM,noticed it first and informedthe higher officials.

Asked whether he hadshown any suicidial tenden-cies, the Jail official said, " Wedidn't notice any thing suspi-cious like that. He used to bevery silent.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Renowned Kuchipudi expo-nent Sobha Naidu, a recipientof Padma Shri and numerousother awards, passed awayhere on Wednesday.

Naidu, who was in her six-ties, was undergoing treat-ment at a private hospitaland the end came around0100 hours on Wednesday,sources close to her said.

Sobha Naidu's majorachievements includechoreog-raphyand presentationofBalletsVipranarayana,KalyanaSrinivasam and many others inwhich she was the main protag-onist and donned various roleslike Satyabhama,Devadevaki,Padmavathi,Mohini, Sai Baba, and GoddessParvati which won her greatappreciation. As a Guru(teacher), she trained a num-ber of students from India andabroad. Her performanceshave also won accolades inforeign countries. She haspresented a series of perfor-mances at different venues inthe US and also performed incountries, including the U.K.

Besides the Padma Shri, shereceived a number of awards,including from the AndhraPradesh government and sev-eral reputed organisations.

Telangana CM KChandrasekhar Rao mournedthe death of Sobha Naiduand recalled that she was anoutstanding exponent ofKuchipudi,known for por-trayal of Satyabhama andPadmavathi.

Rains upset TRS plan to advance GHMC pollsL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Flash floods in the city havehampered the plans of theTRS government to advancethe GHMC polls, which,though due only in February2021, were expected to be heldlatest by December 2020 as per

indications in official quarters.TRS chief and Chief

Minister K Chandrasekhar Raoand his son and IT andMA&UD Minister KT RamaRao, party's in-charge for theGHMC polls, had prepared theground for early GHMC pollsby announcing in Septemberthat the TRS government had

spent over Rs 67,000 crore todevelop roads and other infra-structure in Hyderabad overthe past five years i.e. after thepink party won the 2016GHMC polls with a thumpingmajority.

However, the flash floodsand the deluge-like situation inHyderabad for the past two

days have changed the politicllandscape too, with distressedpeople venting their anger atthe TRS government for itsperceived 'miserable failure'in ensuring proper stormwaterdrainage system. Citing theofficial figure of Rs 67,000crore government spend,

This winter could becolder due to La NinaPNS n NEW DELHI

Winter could be colder thisseason due to the prevailing LaNina conditions, IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) Director GeneralMrutunjay Mohapatra said onWednesday.

He said there should not bean impression that climatechange leads to rise in the tem-perature, but on the contrary,it leads to erratic weather.

"As weak La Nina conditionis prevailing, we can expectmore cold this year. The ElNino and La Nina conditionsplay a dominant role if youconsider the large scale factorfor the occurrence of coldwave conditions," Mohapatra

said.He was addressing a webi-

nar on 'Cold Wave RiskReduction' organised by theNational DisasterManagement Authority(NDMA).

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court BarAssociation on Wednesdaycondemned Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy's lettercasting aspersions on SupremeCourt judge, Justice NVRamana and judges of theState High Court.

Elsewhere, a Supreme Courtlawyers' body condemned theact of unwarranted release ofthe letter by Jagan, saying ittends to scandalise and breachthe independence of the judi-ciary.The Supreme CourtA d v o c a t e s - o n - R e c o r dAssociation (SCAORA) in itsexecutive committee meetingon Tuesday passed a resolutionexpressing deep anguish to thecontent of the letter of ChiefMinister.

Delhi Bar AssncondemnsJagan’s letter

RenownedKuchipudiexponent SobhaNaidu passes away

Modi speaksto KCR, JaganPNS n HYDERABAD

Prime Minister NarendraModi has spoken to chiefministers of both AndhraPradesh and Telangana toassure Central assistance afterunprecedented rainfall in theregion. "Spoke to TelanganaCM KCR Garu and AP CMYS Jagan Mohan Reddy Garuregarding the situation inTelangana and AP respective-ly due to heavy rainfall.Assured all possible supportand assistance from theCentre in rescue & reliefwork," tweeted PM Modi.

The PM said his thoughtsare with those affected due tothe heavy rains. The rainfallreceived by Hyderabad onTuesday was an all-time high,

Hussain Sagar goes beyond FTLPNS n HYDERABAD

With Hussain Sagar goingbeyond its full tank level (FTL)513.700 feet on Tuesday ,GHMC released contaminatedwater into downstream areas.The water level at Hussainsagarlake at 9 pm Wednesday was514.17m. The full tanklevel(FTL) was 513.410m. Thecurrent inflows was 3987 cucecsand outflows was 5568 cucecs.

PNS n HYDERABAD

As many as 20,540 homeshave been affected by theheavy rains and flash floodsin the GHMC area alone. Asper GHMC, 122 localitieswere inundated, with maxi-mum localities being in LB-Nagar and Charminar Zone.The GHMC, however,claimed that only six personsdied in rain-related incidents.

In GHMC limits, 61 reliefcamps have been set up inwhich 684 persons are takingshelter. About 1.5 lakh foodpackets were distributed in thecity on Wednesday. At 30 cen-ters, 24X7 medical camps havebeen set up, while the DMHO

deployed nearly 350 personnelto visit low-lying areas In all,1,531 complaints were receivedby GHMC on Wednesday,

including 717 related to water-logging. About 360 DRF teamswere deployed on the ground.

IMD predictslight rainsuntil SundayPNS n HYDERABAD

As per IMD, the city will witnessrain or thunderstorms towardsevening or night on Thursdayand thereafter it will be aGenerally cloudy sky with LightRain or Drizzle untilSaturday.Sunday also the weath-er will continue to be cloudy.

Minister KTR interacted with the citizensin flood-hit localities of Old City alongwith Hyderabad MP Asaduddin OwaisiMLAs Akbaruddin Owaisi

Taking care of loved ones amidst flood

People watching while rain water entered their homes, displacing thousands

Flood water let out through gates of Hussain Sagar on Wednesday evening.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

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Another interesting obser-vation that we come

across is about judicial post-ings and transfers. In almostall states in this country, trans-fers and postings are done forvarious government employ-ees following certain guide-lines and regulations. Animportant principle that weapply in this regard is toensure that no one is posted inhis native village, native taluk,native division and native dis-trict depending on the cadreand seniority, be it a VRO,Collector or an SP. Then, whymake an exception in the caseof the judiciary? Why a later-al entrant, who has practicedin a High Court for manyyears with large client networkand political affiliation, ispicked up from Bar and post-ed in the same High Court?Such 'selections' are based onpolitical affiliation, nepotism,casteism and professional rela-tionships whether one admitsor not.

Conceptual issues:Right from the concept of

justice to all, the procedurallaws and evidence appreciat-ing laws were all importedwholesale and nothing isnative to us. Are the founda-

tions on which the system wasbuilt and the concepts that weborrowed relevant to our cul-ture? Did we ever examinethem and made them moresuitable to our conditions? Wedo not find answers to thesequestions. Look at one of thefundamental assumptions-people speak truth takingoath on religious texts. Judgesrecord statements according-ly. Do we really speak truthso? Gandhi himself said insome context that peoplespeak truth only if truth isconvenient for them. Nine outof 10 behave so. When such isthe reality, why did we notattempt to change the concep-tual basis and make it morepragmatic to suit the present-day needs?

Despite conceptual andstructural issues today, ordi-nary citizens in this countrystill look up to the highercourts with great faith andrespect that normally is notaccorded to other organs ofgovernment. Recent devel-

opments, however, do notjustify this faith. Corruptionin judiciary is now on parwith the rest is the broad per-ception. Not giving permis-sion to investigate and pros-ecute errant judges has led tosome kind of impunity to cor-rupt judges. Today, citizens ofthis country know that themalaise runs deep. Advocateswho work as party workersand are loyal to political par-ties/politicians get elevatedthrough the so-called col-legium system. Surprisingly,no records of collegiums aremaintained. In contrast, themuch-maligned bureaucracycannot take decisions withoutrecording its views, whetherright or wrong in any file.Lord Atkins' immortal lines

say "Justice is not a cloisteredvirtue. It must suffer scrutinyand outspoken comments ofordinary men"

Where is the discipline?With no accountability

built into the system, it isnoticed that many a time,judges stray from the fewbasic principles laid down bytheir own superiors. The fol-lowing illustrations revealhow the judiciary has beendisrespecting its own laiddown path by breaching themoften.1. A judge shall not refuse to

follow a binding precedentresulting in unpredictabil-ity of his judgments andconfusion in the adminis-tration of Justice (as laid

down in the honourableSupreme Court's decisionreported in AIR 1972Supreme Court 2466(Baradakanta MishraCommissioner ofEndowments Vs. BhimsenDixit ).

2. A judge shall not inten-tionally give factuallywrong or illegitimate rea-sons to distinguish a bind-ing precedent (as laiddown supra).

3. A judge shall not decide anissue not raised by theparties expressly or byimplication and imposehis own views (as report-ed in 2000 AIR SupremeCourt weekly 794(Gopalankutty Nair Vs.Kunhirama Tharakan).

4. A judge shall not decide anew point of law or factwhich is not argued by anyof the contestants withoutdrawing their attention toit by reopening the argu-ments (2003 SupremeCourt weekly 4504 (Unionof India, Gopal Singh,Shambhu Dayal, V.K.Majotra Vs. Union ofIndia)

5. A judge shall refer to allthe points raised by coun-sel in the arguments (asper the division of theA.P. High Court reportedin 2003-2 ALD 926 (G.JayaRao Vs. State of A.P), Also2004-3 ALD 874 (AsiaVision EntertainmentLimited Vs. Suresh

Productions).6. A judge shall not overlook

a mandatory legal provi-sion either during conductof the proceeding or in hisjudgement. Deliberatemisinterpretation of lawshall be deemed to be mis-conduct (AIR 1999Supreme Court weekly2779 (Zunjarrao BhikajiNagakar Vs. Union ofIndia).

7(a) Order 17 rule 2Civil Procedure Codemandates day-to-day post-ings of trial unless thereare special reasons to berecorded in writing todeviate from this rule.Except when advocates forall the parties to a proceed-ing consent, if the judgedoes not adhere to thisrule nor does he recordreasons for deviating fromit, it is misconduct.

b. Order 41 rule 11-A man-dates that appeals shall bedisposed of within 60 daysfrom the date of presenta-

tion of the appeal. Thejudge does not hear theappeal even after theappeal is registered andnotices are served on therespondents. This is mis-conduct.

c. When statute enjoins ajudge to draw a presump-tion, whether rebuttable orirrebuttable, the judge shallnot omit to draw suchpresumption while assess-ing the evidence in thejudgement. (Based on theratio reported in 2002-2ANDHRA LEGAL DECI-SIONS 843 (Ailuri UshaSwamy Vs. VijayPrestressed Products (P)Ltd.) Moving forward

Judicial services shouldbe a self-governing institu-tion with accountabilitybuilt into it. They shouldevolve into a custodian ofpublic interest and not aninstrument to self serve. Atthe same time, JudicialA c c o u n t a b i l i t yCommission, on the linesof those in countries likethe U.K., needs to beestablished as early as pos-sible.

(Concluded)

AJEY KALLAM

Principal Advisor

Government of Andhra Pradesh

Lord Atkins' immortal lines say "Justice isnot a cloistered virtue. It must sufferscrutiny and outspoken comments ofordinary men"

Judicial reforms need of the hour

PNS n HYDERABAD

Irrigation projects across thestate are receiving good inflowsfollowing the incessant rainsduring the last two days. WaterResource Management author-ities are releasing water down-stream by lifting crest gates forthe safety of reservoirs. InKarimnagar district, SripadaYellampalli project is receivingaround 1.35 lakh cusecs.Following this the officials arereleasing 1.36 lakh cusecsdownstream by lifting 20 gates.In Lower Manair Dam, 84,312cusecs of water is being dis-charged by lifting 10 floodgates. LMD is receiving 83,281cusecs. Of 24.034 TMC capac-ity, 23.732 TMC water is avail-able in the project. On theother hand, discharge of waterfrom Mid Manair Dam hasbeen enhanced to 24,000cusecs from 8,814 cusecs as theproject is getting a similarquantity of water from UpperManair Dam.

Irrigation projects ofMancherial, Nirmal andKumram Bheem Asifabad dis-tricts are also receiving copiousinflows following rains inupstream areas. SripadaYellampalli Project nearGudipet village in Hajipurmandal, had 2.77 lakh cusecsof inflows. As a result, thewater level reached 147.5meters when compared withthe total storage capacity of 148meters. Surplus water wasreleased downstream by lifting

27 gates. It registered a total of11.71 tmcs of water, while out-flow was 11.82 tmcs, in the last24 hours. Meanwhile, KaddamNarayana Reddy of Nirmaldistrict Project recordedinflows of around 5,450 cusecs.Consequently, the water levelof the project reached to 698feet as against the storagecapacity of 700 feet. Surpluswater was discharged by liftinga gate. Outflow was 4,868cusecs.

Kumram Bheem Project of

Kumram Bheem Asifabad tooregistered 4,200 cusecs ofinflows and outflows wereassessed to be 4,200 cusecs.The water level was 241 meterswhen compared to the storagecapacity of 243 meters.Vattivagu, Neelwai and Swarnaprojects also had inflows,resulting in increasing thewater level of the projects.Due to heavy rains in Manjira'scatchment area, the projectgates have been lifted after agap of three years in the earlyhours of Wednesday. The pro-ject, which was having24TMCft by Tuesday evening,has received over one lakhinflow on Wednesday at 2 amwhen the irrigation authoritieshave lifted three gates of theprojects to let the water flowdownstream. Over 68,000cusecs of water is beingreleased downstream from theproject by lifting five crestgates while it was receiving anequal amount of the waterfrom upstream.

Heavy rains fill up projectsin districts across state

High Courtdeclaresholiday todayPNS n HYDERABAD

Owing to the unprecedentedincessant rains across thestate, the Telangana HighCourt declared holiday toHigh Court and all subordi-nate courts on Thursday(October 15,2020) .

In an official notification,the registrar general of theHigh Court said that theholiday would also apply tostate judicial academy, statelegal services authority. TheHigh Court and all other sub-ordinate courts would resumetheir work on Friday.

Continued from page 1

they are now questioningwhere all these funds havegone.

For roads that were stated tohave been either laid orrepaired "on a war-footingtaking advantage of the coro-na lockdown in city", with theobvious aim of presenting a'beautiful city' to people aheadof the GHMC polls, have beenwashed away in these floods.It will take at least four to fivemonths to bring roads andother infrastructure damagedin the floods back to shape.

The TRS government,

which appeared keen on hold-ing the GHMC polls inDecember, now wants to waittill February 2021, when theterm of GHMC ends.Between March and June,KCR and KTR had drafted aperfect sketch to advance theGHMC polls. Accordingly,they expedited all pendingworks, especially roads andflyovers, taking advantage ofthe lockdown. As per theirplan, all the major roads andflyovers were completed andthrown open to public.

The latest jewel of the cityto be thrown open to public isthe Durgam Cheruvu cable-

stayed bridge. This is amongthe TRS government's majorshowpieces ahead of theGHMC polls.The governmenteven convened a special ses-sion of the LegislativeAssembly on October 13 topass the GHMC AmendmentAct.

All these were done with thesole aim of advancing GHMCpolls to December in the beliefthat works done in the citysince the corona-inducedlockdown period have createda 'feel good' factor among thepublic towards the TRS.Hence, the pink party wantedto cash in on public mood by

advancing the GHMC elec-tions by three months.

Ironically, the flash floodsoccurred on the day when theGHMC Amendment Act waspassed in the Assembly, thusdashing all the plans of TRS.

Social media platforms areflooded with posts against theTRS government, KCR andKTR accusing them of inepthandling of the flood situationin the city.Netizens areexpressing their ire at the TRSby posting stock videos inwhich KCR and KTR are seenmaking puffing statementsand promises of makingHyderabad a 'global city', a la

'Dallas in US', an 'Istanbul' etc.Those videos have come inhandy for people to make funof the administration.Netizens are now 'thanking'the government for showing'Niagara falls ' r ight inHyderabad and are sayingthat TRS had turnedHyderabad into 'Venice city' byspending Rs 67,000 crore.

In this backdrop, TRS partysources said the party leader-ship was not keen on takingany chances by advancing theGHMC polls at a time whenthe public mood was againstthe TRS government.

Continued from page 1

It said that the act of the unwar-ranted release of the letter onOctober 10 in a press confer-ence, lacks in propriety and notin accord with the High Officeof the constitutional func-tionary involved.

SCAORA notes, with deepanguish, the contents of the let-ter dated October 6, written byChief Minister to the ChiefJustice of India, concerning asitting judge of the SupremeCourt of India next in line tobecome the Chief Justice ofIndia, a one-page resolutionsaid.The writing and circulationof the ill-founded letter datedOctober 6, written by ShriJaganmohan Reddy to Hon'bleChief Justice of India, whichunfairly and without reason,casts serious aspersions on thealleged conduct of Hon'ble

Justice NV Ramana, Judge,Supreme Court of India, andHon'ble Judges of the HighCourt of Andhra Pradesh is anabject and uncalled for interfer-ence in the due administrationof justice by the Hon'ble HighCourt of Andhra Pradesh," theDHCBA said in a resolution.

The DHCBA, which is cur-rently headed by senior advo-cate Mohit Mathur, also saidthat the writing of the letter andits circulation in public domainis clearly a dishonest attempt atoverawing the independence ofjudiciary and tantamount tocontempt of court."The DelhiHigh Court Bar Associationcondemns this blatant attemptto shake the confidence of thepublic at large in the judicialinstitution which has been per-forming its duty of due admin-istration of justice assigned toit by the Constitution of India.

Rains upset TRS plan to advance GHMC polls

20,540 homesaffected by rains,floods in GHMCContinued from page 1

In addition, 48 teams weredeployed for de-wateringusing machines. For manualde-watering, 34 teams weredeployed across the city. Inall, six boats and 20 JCBswere used to rescue peoplefrom flood-hit areas.A total of19 dilapidated structures weredemolished in the last twodays. About 35 persons wereevacuated from old structuresand rehabilitated. During thisseason so far, 154 dilapidat-ed buildings have beendemolished.

Modi speaks toKCR, JaganContinued from page 1

The 19.2 cm rainfall in thecity broke all previous records.The previous highest was 9.83cm recorded on October 10,2013, said Dr K. Naga Ratna,scientist at the HyderabadMeteorological Centre.

Authorities on Wednesdayopened 13 of the 17 gates ofHimayat Sagar reservoir onthe outskirts of Hyderabad tolet excess water into the Musiriver which flows through thecity. Water entered into hous-

es in several areas on thebanks of the river, especially atChaderghat andMoosarambagh. Residents ininundated areas were waitingfor help. The Moosarambaghcauseway across the river waswashed away in flood waters.

Meanwhile, President RamNath Kovind dialled GovernorDr. Tamilisai Soundararajanon Wednesday evening toenquire about the heavy rains,flood situation, as well as res-cue and relief measures in theState.

Heavy rains kill 33 in StateContinued from page 1

A 47-year-old man, GSrinivas, suffered electric shockand died on the spot at S RNagar.

At Mailardevpally, two per-sons were reported deadamong nine persons belongingto the same family who werewashed away. Search is on forseven other persons. A doctorat Banjara Hills, who went tothe apartment cellar to switchon the motor for pumping outthe water that had filled thecellar, died of electrocution. AtDilsukhnagar, a three-year-old boy, who was playing, wasdrowned in the apartment cel-lar. In Alwal, a 70-year-old ladywho was asleep in her house,unaware of flooding, died.

At Nacharam,a 30-year-oldprivate employee Phani diedafter a high tension electriccable snapped and fell on hisbike on Tuesday. One deadbody was recovered inAbdullapurmet. Search is onfor another person reportedmissing in the area.

Even as citizens were gettingto grips with heavy inundation,the skies very largely clear formost part of the day onWednesday.

Minister for MunicipalAdministration and UrbanDevelopment KT Rama Raoand Animal HusbandryMinister Talasani SrinivasYadav held an emergencymeeting with senior officialsand reviewed the rescue and

relief operations in the city.Chief Secretary Somesh

Kumar has instructed officialsin all districts to remain onhigh alert.

Police teams and personnelof Disaster Response Force(DRF) of GHMC and NDRFevacuated several families fromdifferent localities that wereflooded, even as rescue effortswere on in many other areas.

The GHMC Mayor, DeputyMayor, MLAs, and other elect-ed representatives and officialshave been ordered to be avail-able in the field and continu-ously monitor and coordinaterelief measures.

Rama Rao directed theHyderabad and Ranga Reddydistrict collectors to coordinatewith the police and MunicipalAdministration and UrbanDevelopment (MAUD)department to shift peopleresiding in low-lying areasand on the banks of Nalas andMusi rivers to relief shelters.

As several trees and electric-

ity poles were uprooted due tothe deluge Rama Rao asked theTelangana State SouthernPower Distribution Company

Limited (TSSPDCL) offi-cials to coordinate withMAUD and police to ensurepower was restored at the ear-liest.

Police teams and personnelof Disaster Response Force(DRF) of GHMC and NDRFevacuated several families fromdifferent localities that wereflooded. Rescue efforts are onin many other areas. Severaltrees and electricity poles wereuprooted due to the deluge.

Power supply was suspend-ed in most parts of the statecapital on Tuesday as a precau-tion, officials said adding themeasure was taken for publicsafety. At least 17 majorroads/highways were closed,following traffic snarls, includ-ing the Vijayawada-Hyderabadhighway. Commuters wereadvised to take alternativeroutes. Police personneldiverted vehicular movementon the outskirts of the city.

Rivulets and other waterbodies were in spate in theBhadradri-Kothagudem dis-trict in the state, followingheavy rains. The administra-tion has advised people not totravel on or cross such rivuletsand inundated roads.

In its weather forecast, theMet department here said thatthunderstorms, accompaniedby lightning, are very likely tooccur at isolated places overTelangana on Wednesday.

Call drops,snapped lineshitcommunicationContinued from page 1

Meanwhile, private opera-tors in the city have set upwar-rooms to restore dam-aged equipment. Airtelspokesperson said, “In thewake of torrential rains, Airtelhas set up dedicated warrooms to monitor networks24x7 and put in place rapidresponse teams for anypotential restoration require-ment. Provisions have alsobeen made for quick deploy-ment of temporary sites (cellon wheels) in case of damageto existing sites. Our fieldpersonnel are working roundthe clock to ensure that cus-tomers stay connected in thestate of Telangana.”

Delhi Bar Assncondemns...

This winter could ...Continued from page 1

La Nina conditions arefavourable for cold wave con-ditions, while El Nino condi-tions are unfavourable for it,"he added.

Mohapatra said Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh and Bihar areamong the states that mostlysee deaths due to cold waves.

The IMD also releases awinter forecast every year inNovember which gives predic-tions on the severity of the

winter season startingDecember to February.

La Nina is related to thecooling of the Pacific waters,while the El Nino is linked toits heating. Both factors arealso believed to have an impacton the Indian monsoon.

For instance, 2020 wit-nessed an above normal mon-soon with nine per cent excessrainfall. The winter seasonlast year had long spells of coldwaves.

Hussain Sagar goes ...GHMC already lifted the

vent and sluice gates onTuesday afternoon to avoidsudden floods in the low lyingareas.

The excess water is alsobeing diverted throughKukatpally diversion nala onthe Marriott Hotel side.

If the in-flows reduce, the

sluice will be closed onThursday.

Excess water would leavefrom the sluice and diversionnala near Marriott hotel.Officials said there was nodanger, but residents would bealerted and requested to shiftto nearby rehabilitation centresif the level crosses 514.91 feet.

The GHMCMayor, DeputyMayor, MLAs,and otherelectedrepresentativesand officialshave beenordered to beavailable in thefield

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020 hyderabad 03

Himayatsagar gates opened tolet flood water into Musi riverPNS n HYDERABAD

Authorities on Wednesdayopened 13 of the 17 gates ofHimayatsagar reservoir on theoutskirts of Hyderabad to letexcess water into the Musiriver which flows through thecity.

Water entered into houses inseveral areas on the banks ofthe river, especially atChaderghat andMoosarambagh.

Residents in inundated areaswere waiting for help. TheMoosarambagh causewayacross the river was washedaway in flood waters.

Hyderabad Metro WaterSupply and Sewerage Board(HMWS&SB) opened the gatesof Himayatsagar as the waterlevel touched its Full Reservoirlevel (FRL) of 1,763.500 feet.

Officials said incessant rainsin the catchment areas over the

last three days increased thewater level and to save the dam,they had to open the gates.

The total water storagecapacity of Himayatsagar is2.97 TMC, and as of 7.30 a.m.,

full reservoir level was main-tained.

The inflow in the reservoirwas 21,450 cusecs while theoutflow was 22,145 cusecs.

People in low-lying areas

and those living in the river bedand its banks were told evacu-ate before opening the gates.

The last time, the gates ofHimayatsagar were lifted wasin 2010 to release flood water

into the river.Large number of curious

onlookers gathered on bridgesacross Musi river to watch therare spectacle of floods in theriver.

People were seen onPuranapul, Nayapul andChaderghat to look at the flow-ing river and capture the rareimages on their mobile phones.

Meanwhile, with HussainSagar lake in the heart of thecity receiving huge inflows,authorities released excesswater into outlet nalas, whichjoin the Musi river.

Municipal AdministrationMinister KT Rama Rao said aclose watch was being keptalong outlet channels to pre-vent inundation of the adjoin-ing areas.

Greater Hyderabad Munici-pal Corporation (GHMC) andpolice personnel were patro-lling the areas to alert people.

DRF teams to the rescuePNS n HYDERABAD

As heavy rains came down onHyderabad's Tolichowki onTuesday night, the DisasterResponse Force team of theGreater Hyderabad Munic-ipal Corporation, equippedwith boats, evacuated resi-dents of city, with rainwaterentering several homes. Theevacuees were shifted to ashelter by the DisasterManagement officials.

Several low-lying areas inthe city, such as EastAnandbagh and Raj BhavanRoad, were inundated withrain water. In Hyderabad'sSaroornagar, which receivedextremely heavy rainfall, a carand minivan were washedaway due to the force offlowing rain water.

Traffic was severely affect-ed across the city due to theheavy rainfall, and policewere deployed to managethe situation.

The GHMC, which was onan alert, has been receivingseveral emergency calls.

Hyd police rescue over 60 personsDURGA PRASAD SUNKU

n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad City police haverescued scores of distressedpeople on Wednesday whowere stuck in houses due tofloods. Rachakonda andCyberabad police in coordi-nation with GHMC's DRFteams and National DisasterResponse Team teams help-ing rescue operation.

"Today 15 people havebeen rescued since morningin Al Zubair Colony, Chan-drayangutta. One of them, anelderly woman sufferingfrom diabetes, was also sentto the hospital," said Hyder-abad City police commissi-oner Anjani Kumar request-ed citizens not to step outunless it is very important.

Chaderghat Police onWednesday morning res-cued a family of 15 personsincluding a pregnant woman

and children stuck up inhouse at Moosa Nagar due tooverflow of Musi river.

Chaderghat Police alsorescued RTC bus with 25passengers from washingaway near Malakpet Railwaybridge on Tuesday night.

Bowenpally Police haverescued the residents ofProgressive colony, Manov-ikas nagar Old Bowenpally asit was flooded. The policeofficials shifted them to safeplace with the help of raftingboat. Meanwhile, Rachako-nda Police came to rescue offour patients who are in cri-tical condition and undergo-ing treatment in GlobalAware Hospital shifted toGlobal Hospital at Lakadi-kapool due to water logging.

In another incident,Hayathnagar police rescueda lorry driver Ramreddywith the help of NDRF andhanded over to his family.

Cops issue traffic advisory in view of torrential rains PNS n HYDERABAD

Keeping in view the incessantrains in the city from Tuesdaymorning, the Telangana Policehas issued several road diver-sions for the safety of the citi-zens. The flow of traffic wasdisrupted due to continuousrain in the city on Tuesday,both during the morning andevening rush hour.

The following diversionswere advised to the citizens tofollow: As the Hyderabad toKurnool Road (NH- 44)beyond Aramghar Junction istotally water locked and novehicle can move till waterreduces, all the vehicles goingtowards Airport, Shadnagaror Kurnool on NH-44 areadvised to take ORR to go toairport and NH-44. PVNRExpress Way could be avoided.

The commuters intending togo towards Gachibowli fromMehdipatnam are advised toavoid Tolichowki flyover andtake seven tombs road instead.Also, the traffic coming fromGachibowli towadsMehdipatnam are advised totake alternative routes viaShaikpet, Senor valley,Filmnagar, BVB junction andRoad No 12 Banjara Hills.

With the Musi river over-flowing its maximum level,Puranapool 100 feet road hasbeen completely closed. Thecommuters, thus, are advisedto take diversion towardsKarwan.

Malakpet RUB too, is com-pletely blocked. The com-muters coming fromChadharghat are advised totake diversion towardsNimboliadda, Golnaka,Ambarpet, Ramanthapur,Uppal and take alternateroutes.

Further, MoosarambaghRTA Office Bridge between AliCafé, Amberpet road wasblocked due to over flowing ofMusi river. Thus, the com-

muters advised to take alter-nate routes.

Malakpet to LB Nagar routeis completely blocked due toNala overflow at MalakpetRUB. The commuters areadvised to take diversion nearChermas Malakpet,Akberbagh, towards FireStation, Chenchalguda.

MBNR X road - FalaknumaRailway bridge is totallyblocked with heavy rain water.The commuters advised toavoid this road and take alter-nate routes. Further, theHyderabad Traffic Police canbe contacted for emergencypurposes on the helpline num-ber: 9010203626; and TrafficControl on 040-27852482.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A woman had a narrow escapefrom death when a buildingcollapsed right when she waspassing by it at Moghalpura onWednesday afternoon.

The woman, yet to be iden-tified, was walking past by theAkkanna Madanna templewhen an old building adjacentto the temple gave way andcollapsed all of a sudden.

The woman, who wasshocked, managed to escapenarrowly and rushed to theother side of the road.

According to theMoghalpura police, thoughshe escaped unhurt, she was ina state of shock after the hor-rifying experience. TheClosed-circuit television cam-era footage of the entireepisode has gone viral onsocial media.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Governor Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan exhorted theRed Cross functionaries andvolunteers all over the state totake active part in the rescueand relief measures in rain-hit areas.

Concerned over the loss oflives, damage to the proper-ties and heavy inundation,the Governor on Wednesdayconvened a meeting with allthe units of the Red Cross.

She instructed them to beconstantly associated withthe district administrationand support their rescue andrehabilitation services.

"We must rise to the occa-sion and be in the forefrontto help the needy and otheraffected people," she added.

Meanwhile, President RamNath Kovind dialled Gove-rnor on Wednesday eveningto enquire about the heavyrains, flood situation, as wellas relief measures in the state.

The Governor informedthe President that rescue andrelief measures were in fullswing in all the rain-affectedareas. The governmentmachinery was in full pre-paredness to meet any situa-tion, she added.

Narrow escape for woman Man, minordaughtergo missingPNS n HYDERABAD

A person along with hisdaughter went missing inMalkajgiri. The missing per-sons were identified as DPeddirajula Ramakrishna, 35,and his daughter Nagashan-thi, 3.

Accor-ding to the com-plaint from Ramakrishna’swife, they got married in2016 and were blessed withtwo children. Due to someissues in August she went toher maternal home. OnMonday, Ramak-rishna wentto his in-law house and askedhis wife to come to home andwhen she refused he quar-reled with his wife and in-laws and took his three-year-old daughter with him, thepolice said.

Governor toattend calls ofneedy patientsPNS n HYDERABAD

Governor Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan will be per-sonally attending calls frompatients and others seekingmedical advice as a mea-sure to reach out to thepatients and the needythrough telemedicine facil-ity on Thursday from 4.30pm to 5.30 pm.

A medical doctor byprofession, the Governoralong with two other RajBhavan doctors will per-sonally take the calls andwill offer the guidance andadvice to the patients inneed.

Take part in rescuemeasures: TS Guv

Hyderabad zoo shut due to waterlogging PNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad's Nehru ZoologicalPark was closed to visitors onWednesday due to waterlog-ging at a number of places afterheavy rains, NZP Curator NKshitija said.

Areas like the safari park,bear moat, primates area etcwere the worst-affected, shesaid.

The zoo, one of the keytourist attractions in the city,had reopened on October 6after nearly seven months amidelaborate safety measures inview of Covid pandemic.

"We are pumping out waterthat has stagnated in the zoopremises. Efforts are beingmade to clear out water fromanimal enclosures using pumps

at the earliest," said an official.Authorities have requested

visitors to cooperate and avoidvisiting the zoo on Wednesday.

As per Covid protocolapproved by the Central Zoo

Authority and Chief WildlifeWarden of Telangana, the zooauthorities took several mea-sures for the safety of visitors,staff and animals. While theanimals in zoo are being taken

care of during the floods, theanimals on the street are home-less and helpless.

Shares, animal activist,Priyanka Samyukta, "We all arehaving a field day trying to res-cue as many animals as possi-ble. The worst are the ones inlow lying areas, where even weare struggling to go. We havetill now rescued at least 40street animals and workingon reaching more. It's a toughday."

She further adds, "The bestpart is people are coming outto help these poor animalsthemselves. We just want torequest people to just let theanimals be in your premises tillthe rains stop. They will at leasthave a roof on their head andnot drown.”

Man arrested for honey-trappingPNS n HYDERABAD

Rachakonda police arrested acyber stalker for honey-trap-ping women on Wednesday.

The arrested identified asJagan Raju is Assistant profes-sor from Coimbatore. Heused to honey-trap womenand blackmail them to extortmoney. Using similar modusoperandi, the accused met thecomplainant on a webinarand made false promises andstarted collecting moneyfrom her. When she refusedto do so, the accused startedblackmailing her that hewould post nude pictures ofher on social media. Based onthe complaint from her, thepolice arrested the accused.

Inundated railway track of the Hyderabad Multi-Modal Transport System after unprecedented heavy rains through the day and night on Tuesday. The rain, whichcontinued till the morning hours of Wednesday, disrupted railway services.

People waded through knee-deep water to find a safe haven in flood-hit Hyderabad on Wednesday. In many areas, sewage drains have overflowed, posing a healthhazard for residents who have had to wade through the water.

Experts: Officials should have paid attention to Nizam's infra NAMRATA SRIVASTAVA

n HYDERABAD

The rains have proven that thecity is not equipped with prop-er water infrastructures.However, city environmental-ists share how the city, since thetime of Nizam's, has been verywell designed to take care ofstorm-like situation.

They inform that the city'swater can be drained 75 percent in Musi and 25 per centin Godavari. However, theHMDA didn’t pay attention tothese arrangements before giv-ing permissions for new con-structions. Subba Rao, a well-known environmentalist from

the city shares, "I have beentelling the government to lookinto this issue for so long now.The Nizam's had made surethat the city was storm proof.They made the drainages in away that 75 per cent of drainwater emptied in Musi and theother 25 per cent in Godavari,making sure that the tankswere filled in the course. Infact, till date there are 17 sto-rm water ducts around citywhich could have take care ofthe issue pretty well."

He further adds, "HMDApaid no attention to theseinfrastructures while expand-ing the city. Also, no lessonswere learnt from the 2012 and

2016 rain incidents. And herewe are. Constructing big build-ings and road is not develop-ment. The state will also haveto put a lot of efforts in mak-ing sure that the water drainagesystem works fine and is capa-ble of handling such situationsin the future."

Giving an insight, ProfPurushottam said, "After thefloods of 1908, the Nizamsmade sure that the situationnever happens again. TheNizams took the advise of SirMokshagundam Visvesvaraya,and built a solid storm waterdrainage system. Unfortuna-tely, it was completely ignoredby the goverenment."

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao hasdesired that there should bequalitative changes in the cul-tivation and growing of vegeta-bles, fruits, flowers and otherhorticulture crops and for this,the Department ofHorticulture should be trainedand strengthened. The ChiefMinister said since theTelangana State is blessed witha wide variety of soil, goodrainfall and professional skilledfarmers, these advantagesshould be utilised to optimallevel and there is a need tobring in revolutionary changesin the cultivation of Vegetables,fruits, flowers and otherHorticulture crops.

The Chief Minister assuredthat all the necessary actionthat are needed to strengthenthe Horticulture Departmentwould be taken by the govern-ment. He said aComprehensive HorticultureCultivation Policy should beprepared and the results ofwhich should be realised with-in a year. The State, which isoccupying number one posi-tion in several other sectors,should occupy number oneposition in the Horticulturesector too. In the TelanganaState, where a strong founda-tion has been laid for develop-ment, there should be a com-prehensive perspective onHorticulture crops too, theCM desired.

The Chief Minister held areview meeting on Wednesdayat Pragathi Bhavan onHorticulture in the State.Ministers S Niranjan Reddy,Sabita Indrareddy, State Rythu

Bandhu Samithi PresidentPalla Rajeshwar Reddy, CMsecretary Smita Sabharwal,Principal Secretary(Agriculture) B JanardhanReddy, Horticulture MDVenktramreddy, JD Sarojana,DD Sunanda, senior officialsSattar, Babu, Bhagya Laxmi,Madhusudhan, Lahiri,Subhashini and others partic-ipated.

"Telangana state is endowedwith a wide variety of soil.There is an average rainfall of900-1,500 mm per year. Thereare lakhs of farmers' familieswho have the professionalskills. All these are ideal for thehorticulture cultivation.Despite all these advantages,the State is importing vegeta-bles, fruits, flowers, spices,and Oil seeds from other states.This situation should change.The Telangana state shouldbecome self-sufficient in thehorticulture crops. The stateshould develop in such a waythat it should be able to exportto other regions in the coun-try horticulture produce aftermeeting the demand withinthe State. It should also exportto other countries as well. To

achieve this, the horticulturedepartment should get itselfready. Create awareness amongthe farmers. Reach greaterheights in the Horticulturecrops and make the state num-ber one in the country," theChief Minister said.

"Horticulture Departmentshould equip itself to make thestate number one in cultivat-ing the horticulture crops andproduces such as fruits, vegeta-bles, flowers, honey, spicesand others. Increase the studyof horticulture, extension andresearch. In states likeMaharashtra, Karnataka, andHaryana and in countries likethe Netherlands horticulturecrops are being cultivated verysuccessfully. One should visitthese places to learn about thecultivation techniques, market-ing methods and their richexperiences. We should followthe best practices.

"Prepare ComprehensiveHorticulture Cultivation poli-cy to usher in qualitativechanges in the horticulturecrops cultivation,” he said.

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020 hyderabad 04

TS, which isoccupyingnumber oneposition inseveral othersectors, shouldoccupy numberone position inthe Horticulturesector too, saidKCR

KTR keeps officials on high alertPNS n HYDERABAD

In light of heavy rains in thecity, Ministers KT Rama Raoand Talasani Srinivas Yadavconvened an emergency meet-ing with officials from variousgovernment departments atGHMC Head Office to takestock of the situation inHyderabad city. Mayor BonthuRammohan, Dy Mayor BabaFasiuddin, MAUD Prl SecyArvind Kumar, HMWSSB MDDana Kishore, EVDM DirectorViswajit Kampati participatedin the meeting. Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar, DGPMahender Reddy, and PoliceCommissioners have attendedthe meeting via teleconfer-ence.

Ministers instructed theGHMC Mayor, Dy Mayor,MLAs, and other elected rep-resentatives and officials to beavailable in the field and con-tinuously monitor and coordi-nate relief measures. KTRrequested DGP MahenderReddy and all PoliceCommissioners of Hyderabad,Cyberabad, and Rachakondato proactively monitor inun-dated areas/roads and ensureappropriate traffic diversionsare in place. He asked the offi-cials to ensure food, water, andother essentials are available atrelief shelters. Doctors fromBasthi Dawakhanas to be sta-tioned at relief camps.

KTR stated that several treesand electricity poles wereuprooted due to the deluge. He

asked the TSSPDCL officials tocoordinate with MAUD andPolice Departments to ensurepower is restored at the earli-est. Minister asked theHMWSSB MD Dana Kishoreto ensure all storm waterdrains are functional, and allmanholes are guarded proper-ly. Also, take precautions toprevent drinking water conta-mination.

He asked the Hyderabadand Ranga Reddy DistrictCollectors to coordinate withthe Police and MAUDDepartments to evacuate peo-ple residing in low-lying areasand on the banks of nalas andMusi River to relief shelters.KTR instructed GHMC offi-cials to inspect the under-construction buildings andtake necessary precautionswhere cellars are dug. He alsoasked the GHMC and PoliceDept to coordinate and shiftthe homeless to relief shelters.

Minister instructed the

offices to evacuate the citizensfrom the flood-affected areasand shift them to the nearbycommunity halls, functionhalls. People living in lowlying areas need to be alert asthe gates of Himayatsagar andHussain Sagar were lifted torelease the floodwater. Ministerasked the officials to take com-plete precautions while con-ducting rescue operations. Heasked the officials to evacuatepeople from old and dilapidat-ed buildings as a precaution-ary measure. Public represen-tatives and officials across theGHMC limits are already onthe ground, trying to normal-ize the situation in the city.

He instructed GHMCOfficials to double the numberof Annapurna meals served inthe city and also serve dinnertoo where there is need.Minister KTR appealed to thecitizens not to venture out forthe coming two days as morerains are expected in the city.

Asks departments concerned to shift people in low-lying areas to relief camps

Officials breach Musi project bund

Heavy rain leads to traffic snarls

PNS n HYDERABAD

The irrigation officials onWednesday breached thebund of Musi project nearRudhrapuram in a bid to savethe medium irrigation pro-ject in Suryapet district. Theauthorities pressed into ser-vice earth moving equip-ment to effect the breach, asthe inflows into the projectcontinued unabated due toincessant rains for the lastthree days. Thirteen crestgates of the project werealready lifted up to 20 feet tolet out about 1.58 lakh cusecs.The decision to breach thebund was taken after inflowsincreased to 1.83 lakh cusecs

in the early hours ofWednesday, while the out-flow was only 1.58 lakhcusecs through the 13 gates.Keeping in mind the furtherincrease in the inflows, thedecision to breach the bundat Rudhrapuram was taken,an official explained. Thebund had instantly reducedthe water pressure on theproject gates.

PNS n YADADRI

Traffic snarl stretching toover one km at Kothagudemof Pochampally mandal onNH 65 in the district was wit-nessed as flood waters flowedover a bridge. With this,traffic between Hyderabadand Vijayawada came to haltat Kothagudem bridge. Policewere rushed to the spot andadvised people not to take therisk of crossing the bridge.

Musi water was flowingjust two feet under theTekumatla bridge in Suryapet

district. Water stagnationwas also reported at the railover-bridge at Chityal ofNalgonda district impactingvehicular movement. Peopletravelling on NH 65 betweenHyderabad and Vijayawadafaced hardship right from theearly hours of Wednesday.

KCR calls for changes toboost horticulture crops

PNS n SIDDIPET

TRS candidate for Dubbakby-poll, Solipeta Sujatha onWednesday filed her nomina-tion papers. Accompanied byFinance Minister T HarishRao, and Medak MP KothaPrabhakar Reddy, Sujatha hassubmitted her papers toReturning Officer, Chenniah atelection office in Dubbak.

Earlier, the TRS candidateoffered prayers at DubbaRajeswara Swamy Temple,Chowdarpally by placing hernomination papers before thepresiding deity. Sujatha alsooffered prayers at a Church inDharmajipet and a Dargha atChowdarpally. She was accom-panied by Zilla PariadhChairperson, Roja Sharma,MLA and others.

Speaking to the media afterfiling her papers, Sujatha saidthat she will develop DubbakConstituency following thefootsteps of her husbandSolipeta Ramalinga Reddy,

whose sudden demise inAugust first week necessitatedthe by election, and with thesupport of Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao andFinance Minister T HarishRao. Speaking on the occasion,Harish Rao predicted that theCongress and BJP were goingto forfeit their deposit sincethey were aiming to Party vic-tories in Huzurnagar by elec-tion and local body elections ofNizamabad Constituency.

Stating that the Congressand BJP parties were trying tostall several development

works such as KaleshwaramLift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS),Pharma City and others,Harish said that the TRS gov-ernment, under the leadershipof Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao was dri-ving the State towards develop-ment braving all odds.Accusing the Union govern-ment led by the BJP forallegedly indulging in falsepropaganda on making contri-butions in distributing pen-sions, Harish said the Centreis contributing less than 2 percent in over 11,000 crore being

Solipeta Sujatha files hernomination for Dubbak

Covid-19 testsmandatory atrelief campsPNS n HYDERABAD

Reeling under floods andlong-standing Covid-19 situ-ation, Hyderabad is now fac-ing unprecedented crisis. Totackle the unusual situationand to prevent rapid spreadof Coronavirus, the HealthDepartment has begun con-ducting rapid antigen tests onpeople sheltered in reliefcamps. In Hyderabad andRangareddy districts, nearly33 health camps have beenset up in low-lying areas.People who are taking shel-ter in these relief camps haveto undergo the tests. Despiteheavy rains, nearly 40,056people took Covid-19 tests onTuesday, of which 1,446turned out to be positive inthe state. In the GHMC area,about 252 of those tested pos-itive on Tuesday.

Covid patient stranded Members of the family of

a Covid-19 infected personfaced a strange crisis onTuesday as their neighbourswere hesistant to come totheir rescue, though theirhome was inundated.

Khalida Parveen ofAmoomat Society in a tweetsaid, "A family with a COVIDpatient named Venkatesh attheir home is wanting toevacuate as their ground floorhome is flooded with water.Neighbours and first floormates are not taking them asthey are affected”.

Power staff on alert:Prabhakar RaoPNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao onWednesday directed the staffand officers of the power util-ities in the State not to rest tillpower supply was completelyrestored in the State. He appre-ciated their immediateresponse to heavy rains in theState and for taking up restora-tion works in adverse weath-er conditions.

Telangana State Genco,Transco CMD DevulapalliPrabhakar Rao informedChief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao that theElectricity organisations are ona high alert following theheavy rains and flash floods allover the State and are involvedin the restoration measures.

The Chief Minister wantedthe CMD to review on a reg-ular basis the situation withthe Transco and Discom offi-cials and take the necessarymeasures. The Chief Minister

also instructed the CMD toput general public also onhigh alert. "ElectricityDepartment have also suf-fered huge losses at severalplaces in the State. The elec-tricity employees are workingvery hard despite the adverseweather conditions. Continuethis spirit of work till every-thing is restored to normalcy,"the Chief Minister directed theCMD. "Due to heavy rainsand floods there were severalinterruptions in the powersupply in the state.Transformers in large numbershave been washed away in thefloodwaters. At several placespoles were uprooted or twist-ed and power transmissioncables were snapped. Theintensity of rain and floodshave not been reduced as yet.Employees are unable to reachthe flooded areas. Power shutdown became necessary asrainwater flooded the cellars ofapartments in Hyderabad andother cities.

More recoveries than new corona cases in TSPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana continues to seemore recoveries from Covid-19than the new infections. Atotal of 1,918 people recoveredfrom the virus during the last24 hours while 1,446 peoplewere infected, officials said onWednesday.

The State's recovery rateclimbed further to 88.45 percent against the national aver-age of 87 per cent. The newcases took the cumulative tallyto 2, 16,238. Eight more peo-ple succumbed to the virusduring the period, pushingthe death to 1,241. The fatali-ty rate remains at 0.57 per centagainst the national average of1.5 per cent.

Officials said percentage ofdeaths due to Covid-19 was44.96 while remaining 55.04had co-morbidities. The activecases stand at 23,728 including19,413 in home/institutionalisolation. During the last 24hours, 40,056 tests were con-

ducted. Of this 36,619 sampleswere tested in government-runlaboratories and 3,437 in pri-vate. According to a media bul-letin from the office of thedirector of public health andfamily welfare, of the totalsamples 17,624 were primaryand 4,806 were secondary.

With this the cumulative

number of samples tested havegone up to 36,64,152.Seventeen government-runlaboratories, 44 private labora-tories and 1076 Rapid Antigentest centres are conducting thetests. Samples tested per mil-lion population ratio rose fur-ther to 98,445. The daily test-ing target for the state is 5,600

per day as per the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)benchmark of 140 per millionper day.

Out of 2, 16,238 total posi-tive cases so far, 70 per cent(1,51,367) were asymptomaticwhile remaining 30 per cent(64,871) were symptomatic.Of the new cases registered

during last 24 hours, GreaterHyderabad accounted for 252cases. Rangareddy districtrecorded second highest num-ber of cases at 135 followed byMedchal Malkajgiri (131),Karimnagar (74), BhadradriKothagudem (59),Nalgonda(58), Khammam (52) andKamareddy (43).

The data shows that 63.9 percent of those tested positive sofar are in the age group of 21-50 years while 22.91 are above51 years of age. Those below 20years are 13.18 per cent.Officials said 64.64 per cent ofthose tested positive were malewhile the remaining 38.37 percent were female. The data alsoshows most of the beds in gov-ernment and private hospitalstreating Covid patients arevacant. Out of total 8,792 bedsin 62 government-run Covidhospitals, 7,017 are vacant. Atotal 228 private hospitals treating Covid patients have9,094 beds, of which 6,554 arevacant.

Ex cricketer Kapil Dev joins‘Green India Challenge’PNS n HYDERABAD

Former Indian cricket teamcaptain and the chief architectof India's historic CricketWorld Cup victory in 1983,Kapil Dev on Wednesday par-ticipated in the Green IndiaChallenge, initiated by RajyaSabha MP Joginapally SantoshKumar.

The ace cricketer of yester-years joined the now viralchallenge by planting saplingsin his house at Sundar Nagarin New Delhi. Kapil Devexpressed his happiness to bepart of the Green Challengeand asked all Indians to plantas many trees as possible toprotect the environment andimprove the greenery aroundthem. He also said it was theduty of this generation to givea good environment to thenext generation.

KTR receives flak from stranded citizens

Government declares 2-day holiday in Hyd

PNS n HYDERABAD

MA&UD Minister KT RamaRao was at receiving end aspublic vented ire over lack ofresponse from officials andpublic representatives. KTRaccompanied Home MinisterMahmood Ali, Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar and DGPMahender Reddy on a fieldvisit and personally inspectedvarious areas in the city.

The Minister then went toassess the situation there as the

Ramanthapur pond in Uppalconstituency and Habsigudawere flooded on a large scale.A resident Swathi fromHabsiguda said, "No corpora-tor came here. This happenedearlier as well. Last time theyjust sent us to the garden andgave food for two days andnothing beyond that. the housemight collapse." Several resi-dents said not one fromGHMC, corporator came tohelp them or picked up theircall. People at Habsiguda

staged a flash protest after thepolice didn't allow people totalk to KTR. Similar situationwas witnessed as Bairamalgudawhere a resident complainedthat the corporators were notvisible. A resident complainedto KTR that , “locals helped usby giving rice but not oneleader showed up".

KTR tried to convince thelocals and asked people to bepatient for 2 days. He theninspected the Azampura,theegalaguda, Musarambag,

Moosa Nagar and ShankarNagar colonies in Malakpet.MInister KTR told an agitat-ed citizen “I have been inHyderabad for 45 years andnever seen such thing. Wewill divert the waters perma-nently and if needed givecompensation to those effect-ed.”

During his visits, Ministersaid that the government wastrying to provide the neces-sary food, blankets, and med-ical facilities to all those in

need of immediate relief.People are advised to stay inthe centers set up by theGHMC as heavy rains arelikely for another two days.After that Minister KTRalong with Hyderabad MPAsaduddin Owaisi and sever-al MIM MLAs inspected var-ious areas in the old city. KTRadvised GHMC and otherengineering department offi-cials to undertake large-scaleroad repairs after the rainssubsided

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana governmentdeclared a holiday onWednesday and Thursdaywithin Outer Ring Road(ORR) in Greater Hyderabadin the wake of incessant rains.Urban Development SecretaryArvind Kumar announced theholiday in all private institu-tions, offices, and non-essen-tial services and that a work-from-home advisory. GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation's (GHMC)Disaster ManagementDirector appealed to the arearesidents to stay home andcooperate in relief activitiesand normalisation tasks doneby Disaster Response Force(DRF). "All efforts are beingmade to get the city back ontrack," an official tweet said.

Director General of PoliceM Mahender Reddy tooappealed to people to stay

indoors. "It's time again torestrain yourself from comingout. People are requested toreach your police on 100 andDRF teams on 040-29555500for assistance. HyderabadPolice Commissioner AnjaniKumar urged people to avoidgoing out till the rainwaterrecedes. “Traffic advisory is foryour own safety and security.Please follow them. Our offi-cers have been working sincelast night to see that minimuminconvenience is caused toyou,” he said.

Meanwhile, TelanganaGovernor Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan said that inces-sant heavy rains and its after-math had worried all. "Apartfrom the government, every-one of us should take part tohelp those sufferings, in what-ever way possible. Interactingwith Telangana Red Crossvolunteers to appreciate theirwork and motivate them.

nation 05HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

INDIA CORNER

The health condition ofveteran actor SoumitraChatterjee continued to be

"critical" on Tuesday, withdoctors at the hospital, where heis undergoing treatment, nowplanning to put him on invasiveventilation. The 85-year-oldthespian's oxygen saturationlevel did not improve despitehim undergoing Bilevel positive airway pressure therapy, one of thesenior doctors treating him said."Mr Chatterjee is not keeping verywell. He is still in a drowsy, confusional state. His neurologicalcondition has shown no change in the last two days. We areplanning to put him on invasive ventilation," the doctor said. Thecritically acclaimed actor was admitted to hospital on October 6 afterhe tested positive for COVID-19.

Actor Soumitra Chatterjee'sheath condition still critical

Ahead of the Bihar assemblyelections, Loktantrik JanataDal chief Sharad Yadav's

daughter Subhashini Yadav joinedthe Congress on Wednesday inthe presence of local leaders. LokJanshakti Party (LJP) leader andformer MP Kali Pandey also joinedthe Congress. Both are likely tocontest the upcoming assemblyelections in Bihar and are seeking tickets from the Congress party. Subhashini Yadav, a social worker, said she is taking the esponsibility of carrying on the fight of the 'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar, asher father Sharad Yadav has always supported it. "I thank SoniaGandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for giving me thisopportunity. Sharad Yadav is not actively taking part in the Biharelections, as he is not well.

Sharad Yadav's daughterSubhashini joins Congress

The death toll in the explosionat a toy factory in Delhi Gatearea here has risen to four,

while a dozen people have sustained injuries in the incident, policesaid on Wednesday. The explosionapparently caused by a gascylinder on Tuesday had rippedapart at least half a dozenneighbouring houses in Khatikaanlocality under the Delhi Gate Police Station area. Among the fourdead are two brothers--Manoj (38) and Vishal alias Vicky (32)--whoowned the factory where toy pistols were produced for over 50years, police said. The factory is located in a huge compound ownedby the deceased's uncle Surinder Bhilwarey. Two others who died inthe incident have been identified as Pankaj (30) and Abhishek (26),they said.Talking to reporters, District Magistrate Chandra BhushanSingh said investigation into the incident would be carried out by ateam of experts from different departments, including the fire servicedepartment.He said keeping in mind the upcoming festival season,the authorities would intensify checking operations for illicit storageof firecrackers and related explosives.

Death toll in explosion at DelhiGate rises to four, 12 injured

PNS n BHOPAL

The Madhya Pradesh Congresshas approached the ElectionCommission seeking removalof 14 non- MLA ministersfrom the state BJP governmentfor allegedly violating themodel code of conduct bymisusing their ministerial posi-tions ahead of the November 3bypolls.

The ruling BJP, however,denied the allegations, sayingnone of its candidates misusedpower or violated any provisionof the model code of conduct.

The 14 ministers, whoresigned from the Congressand their Assembly member-ship earlier this year and joinedthe BJP, are contesting theupcoming by-elections in thestate.The Madhya PradeshCongress unit on Monday sub-

mitted a complaint againstthem to the state chief electoralofficer.

"These ministers are misus-ing their positions to influencevoters by announcing falseschemes, performing falsefoundation laying ceremoniesby virtue of their clout as min-

isters and thus, violating themodel code of conduct,"Congress spokesman NarendraSingh Saluja alleged.

"The officials of departmentsheld by these ministers areworking under the ruling BJP'spressure to campaign for theparty, he further charged.

Therefore, these ministersshould be immediatelyremoved from their posts forthe by-elections to be conduct-ed in a free and fair manner,Saluja said.

However, BJP state spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi dis-missed the allegations as base-less, and said those levellingsuch charges are "desperate,totally disappointed and men-tally disturbed".

"All these ministers are nowin the peoples court. Let them

decide their fate," he said."All the allegations of misuse

of power or governmentmachinery are baseless andthe ministers are following allprovisions of the model ofconduct, he added.

By-elections for 28 Assemblyseats in Madhya Pradesh willbe held on November 3. Thebypolls were necessitated fol-lowing resignation of 25 MLAsof the Congress and death ofthree sitting legislators.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The biennial elections to 11Rajya Sabha seats from UttarPradesh and Uttarakhand onNovember 9 are set to changethe political dynamics as theBJP is set to gain more seatsand is inching towards amajority in the Upper Houseof Parliament along with alliesand supporting parties.

Ten of these Rajya Sabhaseats falling vacant inNovember are from UttarPradesh and one inUttarakhand.

The Rajya Sabha membersdue to retire on November 25are Chandrapal Singh Yadav,Javed Ali, Ravi Prakash Verma,Ram Gopal Yadav (all fromSamajwadi Party), Veer Singhand Rajaram (Bahujan SamajParty), Raj Babbar and PLPunia (both from Congress),and Neeraj Shekhar, HardeepSingh Puri, and Arun Singh(all from BJP). Only Raj

Babbar was elected fromUttarakhand whereas the restrepresented Uttar Pradesh inthe Upper House.

As per the current configu-rations in Uttar PradeshAssembly, the Samajwadi Partycan win only one seat. The SPhas renominated Ram GopalYadav as its candidate.

One possibility in UttarPrdesh is of the oppositioncontesting one more seat,depending on the surplus votes

available. However, as theopposition is not united, a jointopposition candidate is notlikely to be fielded from thestate. Sources said that in casethe BSP tries, it could get sup-port from the Congress andsurplus votes from the SP andother smaller parties. Thesources said that the Congressis contemplating to contest ifthe BSP does not come up withany candidate, propping up aBrahmin candidate.

Cong seeks removal of 14 MPministers for poll code violation

The ruling BJP, however, denied theallegations, saying none of its candidatesmisused power or violated any provision ofthe Model Code of Conduct.

BJP set to gain in strengthafter RS polls in November

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi government onWednesday wrote a letter to theCentre to urge it to shut downall 11 thermal power plants inthe National Capital Region(NCR) in the backdrop ofincreasing pollution levels.

Delhi Power MinisterSatyendar Jain wrote the letterto Union Power Minister RKSingh on the issue.

Addressing a press confer-ence at the Delhi Secretariat,Jain asserted that these plantswere the biggest contributors tothe Delhi pollution.

He also said that the Kejriwalgovernment was the only onein the states which had shutdown all its three thermalpower plants.

Jain also noted in his letter

that the Delhi government hadshown the path by shuttingdown its own power plants.

Citing the Supreme Court's2015 order, the Minister

accused the central govern-ment of intending to allow twomore years to the power sta-tions in 2019 despite the apexcourt's order.

He said that shutting downthe 11 power plants will defi-nitely make a difference in thepollution situation in Delhi.

"In a bid to bring down theNCR pollution, the Delhi gov-ernment shut down theIndraprastha power plant in

2009, Rajghat plant in 2015,and Badarpur plant in 2018due to increased environmen-tal concerns," the Ministersaid.

"Delhi is the only state whereno thermal power station isrunning."

Responding to a question,Jain said that the Dadri powerstation, which causes immensepollution in the city despitecrossing its threshold of com-pleting 25 years, will allegedlybe renewed by the central gov-ernment.

"Stubble-burning and powerplants are the biggest contrib-utors to the harmful air inDelhi. On air quality, every stepcounts," Jain said.

"Delhi has alternativesources to generate power andthere is no lack of it even dur-

ing the peak hours. So, thesethermal plants can be closed asit will not lead to reduction inpower supply."

On the issue of non-paymentof salaries to the staff at theNorth MCD-run Hindu RaoHospital, he reiterated that thecivic body should hand overthe hospitals to Delhi govern-ment.

Jain said that MCD had ear-lier tried to transfer the hospi-tals to the Centre but they didnot accept.

"We give funds to the MCD,but we are unaware of theexpenditure since they do notget audits done. A formal writ-ten proposal has been sent tothe Centre to transfer thesehospitals to the Delhi govern-ment," the Delhi Minister said.

Shut all thermal plants in NCR: Delhi govt tells CentreCiting the SupremeCourt's 2015 order,Delhi Power MinisterSatyendar Jainaccused Centre ofintending to allow twomore years to thepower stations in 2019despite the apexcourt's order.

PNS n MOSCOW

Russian President VladimirPutin on Wednesdayannounced that the countryhas registered the secondCovid-19 vaccine, accordingto media reports.

Russia became the firstcountry to give regulatoryapproval to a Covid-19 vac-cine in August when SputnikV was officially registeredahead of large-scale clinicaltrial, drawing criticism fromsome quarters in the scientif-ic community.

The second Russian vac-cine to get regulatory approvalhas been developed by the

Vector State Research Centreof Virology and Biotech nol-ogy. Vector's vaccine, dubbed"EpiVacCorona", relies onchemically synthesized pep-tide antigens of SARS-CoV-2proteins, conjugated to a car-rier protein and adsorbed onan aluminum-containingadjuvant, according to detailsposted at ClinicalTrials.gov, adatabase of privately and pub-licly funded clinical studiesconducted around the world.

Putin said that a thirdRussian vaccine againstCovid-19, developed by theChumakov Centre, wouldalso be registered in the nearfuture, Sputnik news agencyreported.

Putin: Russia approvesanother Covid vaccine

PNS n BENGALURU

Red alert has been sounded in10 districts across Karnataka asheavy rains continued topound them, causing flashfloods, inundating low-layingareas and disrupting normallife, an official said onWednesday.

"Red alert has been sound-ed in 10 districts across thecoastal, and northern regionsof the state, as heavy rains arepredicted to lash the area overthe next 2-3 days due to lowpressure and strong winds," astate MeteorologicalDepartment official told IANShere. The 10 districts areBagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad,Gadag, Haveri, Kalaburagi,Raichur and Vijayapura in thenorth region and Dakshina

Kannada and Uttara Kannadain the coastal region. "As thesouthwest monsoon hasextended beyond September,the state received 38 per centexcess rainfall over the last twoweeks, at 104 mm as against 76mm average from October 1-

14 morning," the official said.On Tuesday, the rainfall

across the state was 24 mm asagainst 4.6 mm, a whopping427 per cent increase.

"The coastal region received57 per cent excess rainfall, at172 mm against average 110

mm. On Tuesday, 74 mm rain-fall was recorded against 5.3mm average," the official said.

Similarly, 82 per cent excessrainfall was recorded in thenorthern region, with 120 mmtill Tuesday against the average66 mm. The region had 32 mmrain against 3.5 mm, which isa 799 per cent departure fromthe average. In the state'ssouthern region, rainfall inthe first 2 weeks was average 78mm, though it was 54 percentexcess on Tuesday with 8.2 mmas against 5.3 mm average.

"The heavy rains and strongsurface winds wreaked havocin the affected districts, withwater overflowing roads andbridges, uprooting several treesand electric poles and causingwater-logging in towns and vil-lages," said the official.

Red alert sounded in Karnataka

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Central Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB) has told theNGT that it has issued showcause notices for closure ofoperations to Flipkart andPatanjali Peya as they are notregistered with it and have notresponded to its communica-tions on the matter.

In a report submitted to theNational Green Tribunal, theCPCB has said the show causenotice under Section 5 of theEnvironment (Protection) Act,1986, has been issued to theseunits on October 8, for closureof their operation and environ-ment compensation for non-compliance of provisions ofPlastic Waste Management

(Amendment) Rules 2018.The CPCB further informed

the NGT that four firms --Hindustan Coca-colaBeverages Pvt Ltd, PepsicoIndia Holding Pvt Ltd, BisleriInternational Pvt Ltd, and MsNourishCo Beverages Ltd --are registered with CPCB.

'However, they have not pro-vided information for evidencebased assessment of imple-mentation of action plan forfulfilment of ExtendedProducer Responsibility (EPR)liability'.

The documents submittedby them have not been

endorsed by state pollutioncontrol boards (SPCBs) andaccordingly, the show causenotice has been issued to thesefirms as well. It told the NGTthat they are required to sub-mit quarterly progress reportsand comply with conditionsstipulated in the registrationcertificate issued to them.

Notices for closure issued to Flipkart, PatanjaliCPCB issued noticesfor closure of ops toFlipkart and PatanjaliPeya as they are notregistered with it andhave not responded toits communications onthe matter

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's COVID-19 caseloadrose to 72,39,389 with63,509 infections being report-ed in a day, while the numberof people who have recuper-ated from the disease crossed63 lakh pushing the recoveryrate to 87.05 per cent, accord-ing to the Health Ministrydata updated on Wednesday.

The coronavirus death tollclimbed to 1,10,586 with thevirus claiming 730 lives in aspan of 24 hours, the dataupdated at 8 am showed.

For six days in a row theactive cases of COVID-19

remained below 9 lakh.There are 8,26,876 active

cases of coronavirus infec-tion in the country whichcomprises 11.42 per cent ofthe total caseload, while therecoveries have surged to63,01,927, the data stated.The COVID-19 case fatalityrate was recorded at 1.53 percent. India's COVID-19 tallyhad crossed the 20-lakh markon August 7, 30 lakh onAugust 23 and 40 lakh onSeptember 5. It went past 50lakh on September 16, 60lakh on September 28 andcrossed 70 lakh on October 11.

Covid caseloadrises to 72,39,389

PM Narendra Modi releases autobiography of formerUnion Minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil; says he worked for

improving lives of poor, farmers and villagers.

PNS n KOTTAYAM (KER)

The Kerala Congress (M)faction headed by Jose KMani on Wednesdayannounced its decision tosevere its decades old tieswith the Congress-ledUDF and work alongsideruling CPI(M)-led LDF inthe state. Party leader Jose

K Mani also said he wouldquit his Rajya Sabha mem-bership, won with the sup-port of the UDF.Announcing his faction'spolitical position at a pressconference, Jose expressedhope that the LDF leader-ship will take a decision onhis party's entry into theruling front.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi government is inthe process of formulating apolicy for regulation of privatecoaching centres functioningin the capital and frame guide-lines with respect to basicfacilities, fee and safety mea-sures, according to officials.

Noting that private coach-ing centres are running a par-allel education system and arestill out of the ambit of anyregulation and running with-out any statutory compliancesleading to serious hazards tostudents, the government hasasked institutes with enrol-ment of more than 20 studentsto register themselves withthe Directorate of Education(DoE).

The government also pro-poses to collect the data ofsuch institutes and details of

their infrastructure, land area,basic facilities, fee structure,safety standards etc.

"Private coaching insti-tutes and centres, impartingpre-admission coaching tostudents for admission intomedical and engineering orany other professional cours-es or pre-examination coach-ing for securing governmentor private job through writtenor oral examination conduct-ed by any agency of the gov-ernment or a private establish-ment, or coaching and tuitionof any subject taught at sec-ondary or senior secondaryschool examination level, aregrowing rapidly in Delhi,"said Yogesh Pal Singh, Delhi'sAssistant Director ofEducation. Singh pointed outthat a tragic fire incident at acoaching centre in Gujarat'sSurat.

Delhi to crack whipon coaching centres

Kerala Cong (M)faction to quit UDF

Recently, India decided tojoin the Djibouti Codeof Conduct/JeddahA m e n d m e n t(DCOC/JA) as an

observer after a high-level meet-ing held on August 26. This is agroup on maritime affairs, includ-ing countries such as Djibouti,Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar,Maldives, Seychelles, Somalia,United Republic of Tanzania andYemen, all from the Red Sea, theGulf of Aden, the east coast ofAfrica and island countries in theIndian Ocean Region (IOR).Member nations include SouthAfrica, Sudan and the UnitedArab Emirates. Recently Japan,Norway, UK and the US have alsobeen included as observers ofDCOC/JA. So India’s inclusionwould increase its political stake inthese waters and help it use the col-lective heft with other nations totame Chinese expansionist tenden-cies.

The alliance came into beingin January 2009 under theInternational MaritimeOrganisation (IMO). It initiallyfocussed on piracy and armed rob-bery against ships in the westernIOR, the Gulf of Aden and the RedSea. In 2017, other issues like theenvironment, human traffickingand illegal fishing were added. Butit is the Jeddah Amendment thatis significant. At a high-level meet-ing of the countries that signed theDCOC in Jeddah in January 2017,17 signatory nations agreed toadopt a revised code of conduct.They agreed to work closely withthe IMO and other stakeholders tobuild national and regional capac-ities in addressing broader mar-itime security issues and enablingthe sustainable development of themaritime sector. And at the sametim, the code emphasised theimportant role of the “blue econ-omy” in supporting sustainableeconomic growth, employment,food security and stability.

The Horn of Africa is of greatstrategic importance from a com-mercial and economic point ofview because it is coveted bymajor powers of the world.Djibouti’s role is most importanthere. It may be a small country interms of area and population butenjoys great geo-strategic impor-tance. It commands the narrowentrance to the Red Sea on thesouthern end (from the Gulf ofAden side) with Egypt on the

northern end. Every day mil-lions of oil barrels and other oilproducts pass through thisroute to different destinations.Due to its important position,it hosts military bases of aboutnine countries, including theUS, France, Italy and China.After the 9/11 attacks on the US,Washington established itslargest permanent base inDjibouti, named CampLemonier, which houses at least4,000 military personnel.

China has also expanded itsmilitary cooperation across theAfrican continent in recentyears as part of its nationaldefence policy. On July 11,2017, Beijing sent two warshipsacross the Indian Ocean toDjibouti, the main objective ofwhich was to establish China’sfirst overseas permanent mili-tary base. Work started formal-ly on August 1, 2017. Djiboutiis at the centre of China’s mar-itime policy as it is located at thenorthwest end of the IndianOcean, allowing it to checkmateIndia. Its naval base here couldprove to be the pillar of itsoceanic strategy, known as the“string of pearls” or friendlyislands in the sea route connect-ing China to West Asia. It is acrucial link in its ambitious“maritime Silk Route” plan.

The purpose of this networkis to ensure the safety of China’strade routes, its raw materialsand oil-laden ships and theuninterrupted return of finishedgoods to Europe via the Gulf ofAden. India’s relations with theHorn of African nations like

Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea,Sudan and Djibouti have beenfriendly since ancient times.Some historical researchersbelieve that economic and cul-tural relations existed betweenthe two regions since 538 BC.All these nations share thesame legacy of colonialism aswell as the struggle for indepen-dence; India continued to sup-port their anti-colonial fighteven after attainingIndependence in 1947. In thepost-colonial period, Indiaestablished the SpecialCommonwealth AfricanAssistance Programme(SCAAP) in 1963. Its relationswith the Horn of Africa coun-tries have further strengthenedthrough the Indian Technicaland Economic Cooperation(ITEC), South-SouthCooperation and other interna-tional fora. Now it is building onthis historicity to emerge a keyplayer in the region.

The strategic importance ofthe Horn of Africa for India canonly be known from the factthat President Ramnath Kovindmade his first foreign trip to twoAfrican countries — Djiboutiand Ethiopia. During his visit,he remarked, “India andDjibouti have had historicalconnections and mutual con-tacts for a long time. Now weshould try to rediscover thisshared history and identity.Not only for the old times butto build a contemporary part-nership, it is necessary to makethe utmost effort to revive thisshared heritage of ours. The

potential of marine resourcesand engagement with theIndian Ocean has immensepotential to create a sustainablefuture.” The President also saidthat “Djibouti is a strategiccountry, located near the Gulfof Aden. For India, it is animportant partner of the IndianOcean. In 2015, during theYemen crisis, as part ofOperation Relief, at the time ofevacuating citizens and peoplefrom other countries, Djiboutisupported India’s efforts.”

As an observer nation, Indiacan boost its influence in theIOR with new diplomatic equa-tions. New Delhi is alreadystrengthening its position in itssurrounding waters as part ofthe Indo-Pacific policy throughProject Mausam, Mission Sagarand Indian Ocean Rim Group.It can further increase its strate-gic footprint through blue econ-omy initiatives. This will enableus to sustain the use of oceanresources for economic growth,create better livelihoods andjobs and ensure the health ofocean ecosystems.

On the other hand, Beijing isincreasing its clout through itsclaims in the South China Seaand the East China Sea, theString of Pearls diplomacy andBelt & Road Initiatives (BRI).India can effectively neutraliseit if it consolidates its hold inthis region alongside the Quadinitiative with the US, Japan andAustralia.

(The writer is an AssistantProfessor, Department of AfricanStudies, Delhi University)

The French term, fait accompli, means that thingshave already been decided in a certain way beforethose affected hear about it. You can use it to talk

about many issues in today’s world. It could be usedto describe the conditions for Tibetans and Uighurs inChina, or explain why a certain case had been decid-ed in a certain manner. But right now, we are using itto describe the cut-offs for admission in Lady ShriramCollege (LSR) in Delhi University (DU). It is not neces-sarily the most correct usage of the term but any stu-dent who has ever attended DU could see this comingfor years now. In that sense, it is fait accompli. To the

casual outside observer, who has never needed to worry about college admissions in DU,this might seem ridiculous and indeed it is. So what do the cut-offs really say? For one,absolute perfection in examinations should not be possible in non-mathematical and sci-entific subjects. But students are now scoring cent per cent in English and Hindi and gradeinflation is to blame. Partially this is because certain State boards are giving illogical marksto their students so that they can corner all the seats as was seen in a top college for thelast couple of years.

The solution clearly lies in a more realistic evaluation mechanism in our school sys-tem. So, is it time to have a singular nationwide school-leaving examination on the linesof the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical seats, the Joint EntranceExaminations (JEE) for engineering and the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) for businessschools? It is hard to see why not because the senior secondary board examination sys-tem is broken beyond repair and that has allowed several international examination sys-tems to make inroads into India. While that should be welcomed at a level, Indian educa-tors must draw a line in the sand. And this is exactly what the new National EducationPolicy (NEP) proposes, a single exam that will allow grades to be better calibrated acrossthe nation. The problem is that certain States are opposing the NEP for the sake of oppos-ing any idea by this Government. But these cut-offs should be a wake-up call becauseno one really knows what is next. And a single national school-leaving exam like mostother nations has to become the norm quickly. The Supreme Court has decided once andfor all in favour of NEET and the JEE, the NEP should make this law fast.

Gubernatorial assignments have always been politi-cised regardless of regimes. No matter what theparty at the Centre, each has used its chosen

Governor to keep a watch on Opposition StateGovernments and undercut federal powers in the eventof a crisis, especially when the Central party, as the mainchallenger, has been within smelling distance of power.But just because a violation has become a political con-vention, can one justify its continuity? And by extensiondoes it have to be more flagrant than earlier occasions?It is on this count that Maharashtra Governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari’s letter war with Chief Minister Uddhav

Thackeray over the re-opening of religious places in the State is not only indecorous butchallenges the limits of a constitutionally-appointed post. Worse, what could have been amature confabulation was converted to a media circus as the Governor’s letter was cir-culated widely. Making a case for re-opening places of worship, Koshyari asked Thackerayif he had “turned secular” by keeping them shut. The latter shot back a letter, asking ifHindutva meant simply opening religious places and as a Governor who had sworn onthe Constitution, was he denying the secularism enshrined in it? Clearly, Koshyari, whohas been used time and again to embarrass the Shiv Sena-led alliance Government, shouldhave clearly kept the arrow in his quiver. For he unwittingly gave the political advantage toThackeray by trying to expose the latter’s commitment to Hindutva. Thackeray may havebeen vociferous about Ayodhya but in COVID-stressed times and as Chief Minister of theworst-affected State, he has managed the festival season with reason. By confining theGanesh Mahotsav to a largely indoor celebration, he avoided a super spreader event. Andalthough the Governor has questioned the rationale of opening bars and restaurants andnot shrines, Thackeray knows that faith is a heave of emotion that defies protocols andhe would much rather go in for a graded opening of these places after assessing the riskof spread. Besides, the Governor, given the gravitas associated with his chair, should nothave run down the weight of the word “secular” in his official capacity, no matter whathis personal belief systems might be. Also using the religion card is unbecoming of a postthat demands reason, neutrality, dignity and integrity. But then Koshyari has been too pli-ant to walk the thin line between propriety and impropriety, nicety and brashness. Let usnot forget that he is the same man who had revoked President’s rule in the State in thewee hours and hurriedly sworn in BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis with then rebel NationalistCongress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, ignoring the split mandate in the State. He didnot give adequate time to the Opposition parties and even an adrift Sena for crystallisingtheir adjustments before committing to furnishing letters of support. By that yardstick, theGovernor seems immune to the adverse criticism that his overstepping of constitutionallimits entails. So long as his political purpose is served, in this case going after the ShivSena. This explains why NCP supremo Sharad Pawar wrote to Prime Minister NarendraModi, expressing shock at the tone and tenor of the Governor’s letter. He even clarifiedthat while he was not against the Governor’s prerogative to discuss matters with the CM,he was against a squabble deliberately played out in the public domain for political gains.

Shaming the regional party, wherever the BJP is the main Opposition, is now morethe rule than the exception. In Bengal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankar has been blowing hoton the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government at the slightest pretext orthe other. The latest spat is over the unnatural death of a BJP MLA and the Governor’s let-ter to vice-chancellors (VCs) asking them to attend a video-conference with him. The VCsrefused to attend unless the invitation was routed through the State higher education depart-ment. After this Dhankar took to Twitter to defend his partisan action, saying he could notallow students’ issues to be “politically caged.” His lie was exposed when Banerjee her-self revealed all of her Government’s communication with the Raj Bhavan before the media.But at least he had done his bit for the BJP’s “Didi hatao” campaign. All these examplesprove there is an internecine plot to erode the spirit of alliance politics in general and theregional ones in particular, making them look like puppets in a shadow play, so powerfulthat the voter changes his pattern in the next round of elections. The problem with the BJPis that it just can’t get out of the whataboutery trap, countering every criticism by citingCongress precedents and repeating every mistake of its rival party that ultimately cost thelatter dear. Then how is BJP the “party with a difference?” If Governors are abdicatingtheir role responsibilities and preferring to be agents of the ruling party, then their use isnot even ceremonial. For even that demands a degree of integrity and respect for the normsof parliamentary democracy. They are toothless when they recommend President’s ruleas it is the Central Government which runs the State affairs by proxy with its own teamof bureaucrats. Isn’t it time then to look at the selection process of the post of Governoritself, provided each party agrees to neutralising it in the first place? The procedure forappointment of the Lokpal could easily be followed to secure the position in a manner thatthe Governor cannot be recalled or moved at the Centre’s whim. But will all parties agreeto amend a convention that suits each one of them when each gets the hot seat?

Spat with Governor

Another failed attemptSir — On October 12, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanannounced the payment of cashin lieu of Leave TravelConcession (LTC) and `10,000festival advance to Governmentemployees to stimulate con-sumer demand during the festi-val season and boost the econo-my. The Government will alsogive its employees income tax-exempt cash vouchers in lieu oftheir entitled travel allowancesthis year. However, there is acatch. The cash will have to bespent on buying goods thatattract 12 per cent or more GST,a condition which totally elimi-nates the possibility of the cashbeing spent on food items.Additionally, the Governmentwill, as a one-time measure, give`10,000 salary loans to all its offi-cers and employees as a festivaladvance.

The Retailers’ Association ofIndia (RAI) has welcomed theGovernment’s LTC cash vouch-er scheme stating that it will helpits members recover from theloss of business caused due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. However,the expectation to create a con-sumer demand of about ̀ 28,000crore through this scheme is

rather far-fetched. This seems tobe just another attempt to stripthe middle class and lure themto transfer their savings to thecapitalist.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

State vs judiciarySir — It is disconcerting that dif-ferences between the executive

and the judiciary have emergedin Andhra Pradesh. In a first, theState has lodged a complaint tothe Chief Justice of India (CJI)alleging that the Supreme Courtjudge, Justice NV Ramana, wasinterfering in the judicial process-es of the High Court. The Statehas placed material evidencebefore the CJI, highlightingJustice Ramana’s proximity withN Chandrababu Naidu and his

interventions to protect the inter-ests of the Telugu Desam Party(TDP). Chief Minister JaganMohan Reddy, in his letter datedOctober 6, has expressed that theobjective of the letter is solely toinform the Supreme Court aboutthe acts of a few individualjudges.

The apex court should take theallegations made by the APGovernment seriously and clear

the air or else it could affect thefaith of the common man in thejudiciary. A touch of pragmatismis what the judiciary and theexecutive need at this juncture asthe very credibility of the judicia-ry as an institution is at stake. TheCJI should personally look intothe matter and consider initiat-ing steps to ensure that the Statejudiciary’s neutrality is main-tained.

Yash Pal Ralhan Jalandhar

Cinema hall protocolSir — Cinema halls are all set tore-open across the country.However, strict measures need tobe taken so that they don’tbecome spaces of mass infection.Six feet distance should be fol-lowed outside the auditoria,common areas and waiting areasat all times. There should also behand sanitisers, preferably inthe touch-free mode, at the entryand exit points as well as com-mon areas within the premises.And the use of face masks mustbe made mandatory.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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

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op nionHYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

06

Taming the dragonBy joining the Djibouti Code of Conduct as an observer, India gains strategic heft

in the Indian Ocean Region and can challenge Beijing's military influence

Complacency is certainly not warrantedin the face of this register, but nor is an existentially pessimistic fatalism. An exaggerated sense of danger ispositively harmful, as is the over application of threats.

Australian Home Affairs secretary—Michael Pezzullo

Farm laws: Claims and reality

Dutifully, Prime Minister Narendra Modi defendedthe recently enacted farm laws by saying, “it wasnecessary to bring these to protect them (farm-

ers) from middlemen.” However, this claim is not exact-ly in tune with the provisions in the laws. The Farmers’Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services(Empowerment and Protection) Act 2020 provides that“aggregators” or “farm service providers” can be par-ties to the farming agreements. Here, “aggregator”means any person who will act as an intermediarybetween a farmer or a group of farmers and a spon-sor. In a nutshell, the “aggregators” or “farm serviceproviders” mentioned in Section 10 are middlemen ina different nomenclature to broker farm deals.

The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 permits intra-state and inter-state trade of the produce only in tradeareas such as farm gates, factory premises, warehous-es, silos and cold storages, which are outside the man-dis managed by the Agricultural Produce Market

Committees (APMC) directly and deemed markets func-tioning under them. The farm Acts make no mentionof the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) as well, leaveaside the support prices based on comprehensive costsplus 50 per cent profits as recommended by theSwaminathan Commission.

Haridasan RajanKozhikode

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Needed, an entry test

Koshyari’s letter war with Uddhav Thackeray turns ugly as he goesagainst the mandate of his post to follow a party line

The criterion to score 100 per cent to enter a top DU collegewas coming for some time. That doesn’t make it less ridiculous

LOKESH KUMAR

AS AN OBSERVERNATION, INDIA WILL

BOOST ITSINFLUENCE IN THE

IOR WITH NEWDIPLOMATIC

EQUATIONS. NEWDELHI IS ALREADY

STRENGTHENINGITS POSITION IN

THE INDIAN OCEANAND ITS

SURROUNDINGWATERS AS

PART OF THE INDO-PACIFIC

POLICY THROUGHPROJECT MAUSAM,

MISSION SAGAR

AND INDIAN OCEANRIM GROUP

There is no better feelingthan playing hockey, andhaving been away fromit, you get a sense ofwhat you've missed out on as well.

Hockey player—Varun Kumar

I challenge Nitish Kumar to filenomination papers from anyAssembly segment in his homedistrict of Nalanda. I will alsofile my nomination from thesame seat and defeat him.

RJD leader—Tejashwi Yadav

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

Mehbooba Mufti Sahiba haskindly accepted Farooq(Abdullah) Sahab's invitation to join a meetingof the Gupkar Declarationsignatories.

National Conference leader—Omar Abdullah

Children of a lesser god

THIS (TANISHQ) ADVERT IS WRONG ON MANY LEVELS.

IT DOES NOT ONLY PROMOTE LOVE-JIHAD

BUT ALSO SEXISM.

—ACTOR

KANGANA RANAUT

DEAR TANISHQ, MOST PEOPLE ATTACKING YOU CAN’T

AFFORD YOU. AND WITH THE ECONOMY DOWN WON’T

BE ABLE TO AFFORD YOU IN FUTURE. SO DON’T WORRY.

—AUTHOR

CHETAN BHAGAT

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

With caste and gender-based crimes inIndia on the rise, some really tough ques-tions need to be answered by us all. The

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2019 reportdoes a wonderful job in showcasing some extreme-ly relevant data for our consideration. India report-ed 4,05,861 cases of crimes against women. Assamreported the highest rate of crimes against womenat 117.8 per lakh population and Uttar Pradesh (UP)topped the list with 59,853 incidents. From 2018, therate of crime against women has risen by 7.3 per cent,with the country recording an average 87 rape casesevery day in 2019. UP had the highest number ofcrimes against girl children under the POCSO Actwith 7,444 cases, followed by Maharashtra (6,402)and Madhya Pradesh (MP) at 6,053. Other registeredcases on the rise were assault, cruelty and outrag-ing the modesty of a woman. On the other hand,crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) andScheduled Tribes (STs) saw a seven per cent and 26per cent rise respectively. Curiously, the report alsoindicates a consistent decline in conviction rates incaste-related violence in the past three years.

So, why and how did we land here and whereare we going? I shall endeavour to declutter this bya simple process called reverse engineering. Ours hasalways been a divided society. Caste and gender-based discrimination weren’t a colonial constructionin India. It was our own. Our social, economic andlegal institutions were all divided and categorised tomeet vested interests. What the British did was amere “reinvoking of the Varna system.” This, theyjustified, was necessary to make sense of the com-plexity that existed within the Indian caste system.As BR Ambedkar said in his Annihilation of Caste,the caste system in India had been historically usedto perpetuate discrimination in the name of “divi-sion of labour” which in fact, according to him, wasa “division of labourers.”

Such discrimination gave rise to a social andbehavioural bias, and in the long run, led to the“upward mobility” of the concept of caste. Since thisconcept was used to allocate social roles such as one’sprofession in a hereditary manner, it restricted thesocial mobility of those groups who were allottedlower roles. This led to a lost individual identity ofthe members of those groups and instead, in soli-darity, gave rise to a “group identity.” In modern-dayIndia, we know these groups as SCs, STs, OtherBackward Classes (OBCs), women and religiousminorities.

A systemic problem: Our police force was alsonot immune to this virus. As caste and gender-baseddiscrimination grew in independent India, privilegedupper caste men, who were born, trained and nur-tured in a favorable environment, filled the spacesin our administration, including but not limited to,our police force. The problem was further exempli-fied when we inherited the colonial Indian PoliceAct of 1861 and other such laws from British India.The Act was brought in after the revolt of 1857 andthe purpose behind enacting it was, as David Arnoldsays, “to establish control, coercion and surveillanceover the Indian subjects.” So, lack of diversity, anunder-represented administration and a law basedon tyrannical ideologies became a perfect mishmashfor future discriminatory policing in India. Thiswould lay the foundation for perpetration of violenceand creation of an extremely patriarchal institutionthat would survive for decades if not centuries.

Institutionalised discrimination: What tran-

spired, as a consequence, years later, is theinstitutionalisation of the very same dis-crimination within our police force. Aninstitution becomes defunct if its work-ing is entirely based on biased andinequitable means. To command confi-dence, trust and respect of the public, thepolice administration in a democracymust be diverse and must acknowledgethat people from different backgroundswill bring with them skills, experiencesand perspectives that are vastly differentfrom others. However, the opposite is truefor India.

Laws such as Abolition ofDiscrimination under Article 17 of theConstitution, SC/ST Prevention ofAtrocities Act and provisions forAffirmative Action have by and largeremained symbolic. The Common Causereport on Status of Policing in India, 2019,reveals some shocking numbers. It showshow the representation of SCs, STs, OBCsand women is extremely poor in our policeforces. Reserved positions for such person-nel have been vacant for years. The Statestopping the list here are Haryana and UP.Furthermore, it shows how such groupsare less likely to be posted at officer-levelranks. They are also more likely to faceunequal distribution of work wherein theyare asked to do their seniors’ chores andhousehold work.

One out of four women police per-sonnel reported the absence of a sexualharassment committee in police stationsand one out of five reported the absenceof separate toilets for policewomen. Stateslike Bihar, Karnataka and Bengal have thehighest levels of institutional bias againstwomen in the forces. The report goes onto state that senior police officers think that“women are less hard-working, less effi-cient and should focus on householdduties.” Data shows that policewomen are

given in-house tasks like maintaining reg-isters, and so on, whereas, male person-nel are given on-field investigation, lawand order, policing and patrolling tasks.This has literally been normalised with-in the working of our police administra-tion, to an extent that it no more looks likediscrimination. Instead it is seen as rou-tine division of work, based onnatural/biological capabilities.

Shockingly many police personnelthink that Gender-Based Violence (GBV)complaints are false and motivated. Theyalso say that members of the transgendercommunity, Muslims, Dalits and so on, aremore “naturally” prone to committingcrimes. Such institutionalised discrimina-tion against caste and gender reasserts itselflike a vicious cycle. It also assists in exer-cising a lot more political control on thosewho are vulnerable. The way our policereacts to caste and gender is a mirrorimage of the political ideology ruling overthe State. It is a common phenomenonthat majoritarian governments who cometo power based on hyper-nationalism andby using the rhetoric of religion, tend tobe a lot more misogynist, divisive and reli-giously intolerant.

Resultantly, constitutional moralityisn’t their source of power. The increas-ing nature of politicisation of crimesagainst women has gained momentum inthe last decade, ever since there has beena rise in majoritarian politics. The 2019report shows how police personnel almostalways face political pressure while inves-tigating crimes that have political ramifi-cations. If an honest police officer tries notto be swayed by such an influence, he ismet with the “Black Sheep Effect.” This isa process of evaluative upgrading of“norm-compliant” members and evalua-tive downgrading of “deviant” ones. So, thedeviant members are usually transferred

to locations where there is less digital andmedia penetration so that their honestyis less of a problem for the State. It is alsoseen that there are certain areas wherepolitical control is exercised more effec-tively with the help of the police. In theareas where the majority population isfrom the Dalit or minority community, thepolice infrastructure is in shambles. Thereis a greater lack of adequate training, dig-ital accessibility, vehicles and funding pro-vided to the police. In such a situation,crimes either go unreported or are metwith State-sponsored violence in policestations.

Creating such systemic barriers, overa long period of time, for people who havebeen historically discriminated againstleads to a situation of internalised oppres-sion. Paulo Freire, a renowned educator,in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, says, “Theoppressed, having internalised the imageof the oppressor and adopted his guide-lines, are fearful of freedom.” This fear actsas an incentive for political control.Control on what is reported, what is notreported and how reported cases are dealtwith. It is almost like an echo-chamber thatincentivises political oppression.

Expecting that such an institution,where discrimination and victimisation isnormalised against its own membersand has been historically used as a polit-ical sidekick, would do justice by protect-ing those outside the institution against thesame evil forces, is simply living in an alter-nate reality. Public outrage has been mis-placed in so far as it consistently demandspolitical reform. The following state-ment by Ambedkar is of huge significance,“There is a need for social reform beforepolitical reform and the latter cannot hap-pen without the former.”

(The writer is from the National LawUniversity, Visakhapatnam)

With caste and gender-based crimes on a continuous rise, we need to look at ourhistory which over time has institutionalised discrimination as a social order

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

Root for greenproducts

KOTA SRIRAJ

Whether electronics harm the environmentor not depends on how environmentally

accountable the manufacturer is

ANURAG TIWARY

LAWS SUCH AS ABOLITION OFDISCRIMINATION

UNDER ARTICLE 17 OF THE

CONSTITUTION,SC/ST PREVENTIONOF ATROCITIES ACT

AND PROVISIONSFOR AFFIRMATIVEACTION HAVE BY

AND LARGEREMAINED

SYMBOLIC. THECOMMON CAUSEREPORT ON THE

STATUS OF POLICING IN INDIA, 2019,

REVEALS SOMESHOCKING

NUMBERS. ITSHOWS HOW THEREPRESENTATION OF SCs, STS, OBCS

AND WOMEN ISEXTREMELY

POOR IN OURPOLICE FORCES.

RESERVEDPOSITIONS FOR

SUCH PERSONNELHAVE BEEN VACANT

FOR YEARS

Most phone and high-tech companies globally are investing inenvironmental accountability. For instance Apple, whichrecently launched its new range of products, would be ship-

ping them without the customary charger and headphones being includ-ed in the box. Though this might put off quite a few of its customers,it is part of the company’s commitment to reduce carbon emissionsand ramp up the use of clean energy. With over 700 million headphonesand two billion power adapters already out there with the customers,the firm has taken a bold measure to stop including the same in itsretail product pack to cut down electronic waste generation at sourceand reduce carbon emissions, which are generated in the process ofmining for precious earth materials. Moreover, due to the removal ofthe charger and headphones, Apple has been able to reduce the sizeof its boxes, enabling it to fit 70 per cent more boxes and, therefore,transition to a more effective logistics template. By 2030 the consumertechnology giant aims to achieve net zero climate impact from its entirebusiness, including manufacturing, supply chain and product cycles.

Samsung, too, is setting up new standards in conserving the envi-ronment through its “circular resource management system” that hingeson recycling, green purchasing from vendors amid effective hazardousmaterial management. The company is focussing on reducing green-house gas emissions (GHG) emissions to the extent of 70 per cent inthe near future. Another global tech giant, Nokia, is redefining how prod-ucts become more environmentally accountable. It calls this“Responsible Technology” and has gone a step further by joining 86other like-minded companies to ensure that the strategic vision for thegroup is aligned with reducing the global temperatures by 1.5° Celsiusin order to collectively battle climate change. This is in addition to theactive initiative currently under way to completely remove single-useplastics across its production spectrum.

For a world that is drowning in electronic waste, especially in coun-tries such as India where e-waste regulations are anything but effec-tive, these firms are setting a benchmark in product responsibility andaccountability towards the environment. However, they still have a longway to go since not all products end up getting 100 per cent recy-cled. The day they can recall their “end of life cycle product” back tothe starting point for recycling is the day they can claim 100 per centenvironmental accountability. However, their efforts are thought-pro-voking and make one wonder where do Indian companies figure incomparison? And why do none of the Indian-made products achievesuch comprehensive environmental accountability? The answer liesin vision or the lack of it. Much of the corporate social and environ-mental responsibility in India is aimed at satisfying Government pro-tocols and very little actually percolates to the ground level. One canstill see the impact corporate vision has on some social project, butone is hard-pressed to effectively find an environmental project thathas the stamp of a sincere corporate effort on it.

Indian manufacturing companies need to build a much-neededenvironmental dimension into their products. This is no easy task giventhe fact that sometimes even finding after sales service for many prod-ucts we buy today can prove to be a harrowing experience. To grad-uate from this stage to a level where the companies produce a 100per cent recyclable product is a long journey that needs encouragingpolicies and incentives from the Government and world-class corpo-rate leadership. In this journey, innovative methods and ideas can laythe foundation for Indian companies to produce environmentally-account-able products. One of the initiatives that can be pursued is to createa category of “green” electrical and white goods which are made of100 per cent recyclable material and have a clear-cut end of life cycledisposal plan. This category can be promoted and encouraged by theGovernment through tax and logistics sops besides finance optionsto manufacture them. On the consumer end, they can also carry com-pelling finance schemes or lucrative discounts. The clear environmen-tal and viability-related benefits would surely drive manufacturing firmsto increase their “green product” portfolio as it would also improvethe company’s image and standing for being environmentally conscious.Similarly, the drive to produce at the lowest cost and sell at the max-imum profit is the root of all evils because in the pursuit of driving downcosts, manufacturers disregard all ecological concerns and use sus-pect material that is environmentally hazardous. Recycling then is impos-sible. Therefore, to give credence to the concept of “green products”,the Government must rein in the supply chain and third-party vendorsfor whom quality assurance and environmental responsibility are alienconcepts. Surprise checks, quality control at Government laboratoriesand harsh penalties for defaulters can help infuse a new-found respectfor the environment. Products that we buy today continue to exist longafter we dispose them. Whether they harm the environment or notdepends on how environmentally accountable the producer is.

(The writer is an environmental journalist)

There was a deliberate smashingof pots; people making a clam-our. This may be an illustration

of a population experiencing trau-matic shock. It might have been donein panic but also might have beendone to somehow disturb and clearthe air,” Hays wrote about a supposedact of an angry God when hedescribed the plague in his bookEpidemics and Pandemics: TheirImpact on Human History. But hecould have been writing about us inthe present day and our initialattempts to keep away a disease thathas yet not been properly under-stood.

“The mask is a tool to make usweak.” Our attention turned towardsthe driver as he detailed the complex

inter-relationship between carbondioxide (CO2) and the mask. Hislogic was, as we exhale CO2, themask forces us to inhale it back,thereby weakening our body’simmune system. This was a novelconspiracy theory in a world filledwith absurd theories about the pan-demic.

Over ten months into the out-break, the inventory of rumoursrelated to the contagion has managedto transcend boundaries. Creativeand inane, such stories multiply asthe pandemic refuses to release itsgrip. While in the early days, mostconversations veered around thepotency of the virus and the multi-tude of ways to cure oneself of thisdreaded pandemic, they now tend todismiss the disease as “just anotherflu.” The apparent casualness flies inthe face of conventional analysis asawareness about the disease isimmense and Indians who livedthrough the difficult times of thelockdown are cognisant of its life-threatening effects.

However, the current predilec-tion of not wearing masks alsocomes associated with the sense of

fatality and fatigue, having under-gone painful job losses and socialstigma for the past few months.Varying from, “It is all God’s will” to“Nothing will happen to me” to “Wehave all caught the disease” to “Godcannot kill all the poor” to “If it hap-pens, it happens” to “We don’t havemoney to buy a mask” and a multi-tude of other reasons, the almost uni-versal lack of interest in wearing aface cover hides an important detailabout our social lives. People havebeen hit hard by the economicimpact of the crisis and most have noother option but to step out. Theycannot stay in and worry about wear-ing a mask or maintaining social dis-tancing. They are more concernedabout filling their stomachs andmeeting their financial needs.

In many ways, the fear of thepandemic, coupled with the spreadof fake news in this era of socialmedia and messaging platforms,have led to revisionist theories thatat once declare the impact of theCoronavirus a hoax while also pan-dering to the fear of its supposedeffects.

With millions falling prey, there

is an outcry that this generation ispaying for its sins. However, WilliamDunbar said it best when he wrotethat, “The fear of death disturbs me”in the Lament for the Makers, sug-gesting perhaps that the human racehas faced such threats throughouthistory. And those dark momentswere unique as humanity did nothave an answer then just as it does-n’t have one now. People in thosedark days were prone to succumbingto fear as the rise of a disease, cut-ting through society without any dis-crimination, results in helplessnessamong the rich and the poor alike.This causal relationship betweendisease and sin is seen also in Greekliterary texts, such as Homer’s Iliadand Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.Iliad opens with a plague visitedupon the Greek camp at Troy to pun-ish them for Agamemnon’s enslave-ment of Chryseis.

Humankind has time and againlet this fear turn into panic, over-whelming all traces of rationality.This facilitates easier propagation offake news in the community. Thefeedback surrounding the mythsand legends over managing COVID

also borders on the absurd. Just as theCO2 theory propounded by the dri-ver, more such theories abound inthe markets of Bengaluru, Chennai,Pune and Delhi, ranging from guz-zling copious amounts of alcohol, tobeing safe in one’s locality, to stop-ping the consumption of fruits asthey are known to carry the virus.The list is endless, and each country,State, city and locality has added atwist to these stories. The challengefor people working in the frontlineis to sift through the rumours andconvey basic truths about the pan-demic and its causes.

However, as we see more com-placency creep in, it would do goodto understand the underlying fearand weariness that communities aresuffering from. For the moment, theyface a gun-shaped thermal scanner,an oximeter and endless surveys thathave fatigued them. Then there is theunfortunate spread of stigma of anuncommon but not unmanageabledisease and the mishandling of dis-semination in this very real publichealth crisis.

The need of the hour is toaggressively push for an overarching

campaign that involves all stakehold-ers and myriad activities such asposters, stickers, banners, wall paint-ings, murals, street theatre, songs,tableaus, announcement from reli-gious places, radio campaigns, tele-vision ads and as many creative out-lets as possible.

As we learn from this crisis, itwill bode well to recall that literaturehas been humanity’s constant com-panion though long periods ofuncertainty. And often, when a pan-demic hit humankind, there was notmuch that could be done then as itis now.

The only effective measure backthen was what is known today associal distancing and quarantine ofthe sick which, according toProcopius, the principal Byzantinehistorian, was done voluntarily byindividuals. In this current age, wecan strive to be a step ahead, promotesocial distancing, wear masks andensure better hygiene in a mannerthat was not possible in ancienttimes.

(Sharma is a faculty at AzimPremji University and Bhaskar is anindependent researcher)

Behold the COVID theatre of the absurdThe feedback surrounding the myths and legends on managing the pandemic also borders on the weird

KUNAL SHARMA

AISHWARYABHASKAR

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

For those who believe thejudiciary wields far too muchpower over democracy,increased skepticism of theUS Supreme Court would bea welcome development.Law professors RD Doerflerand S Moyn argue that ascontentious as Judge AmyBarrett’s nomination is, ithas had one benefit: “It’smade it clearer than ever thatSupreme Court reform is anurgent democratic cause,one that requires rethinkingthe federal judiciary from theground up.”

(The NYT editorial)

AN URGENT CAUSEFOR DEMOCRACY

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020 money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Hindustan Syringes & MedicalDevices on Wednesday saidit has sent the first shipment

of 56 million auto-disable syringesto Covax facility to help in COVID-19 vaccination. The Covax facility,which is working for globalequitable access to COVID-19vaccines, has ordered 140 millionKOJAK AD Syringes from Hindustan Syringes & Medical Devices (HMD) to be supplied betweenAugust and December 2020, it said. "We have shipped out morethan 56 million pieces of 5 ml auto disabled (AD) syringes forintramuscular syringes to Covax facility and will soon send the nextshipment of 28 million Syringes by October end," HMD ManagingDirector Rajiv Nath said. About the availability of the syringes inIndia, Nath said: "Should the government need 100 million KOJAKauto-disable syringes for COVID-19 vaccines by the end of thisyear, we can easily offer them to lift the outstanding orders placedwith us".

Honda Cars India onWednesday said it hasintroduced a special

edition of its compact sedanAmaze priced between Rs 7lakh and Rs 9.10 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), ahead ofthe festive season. Thepetrol trim with manualtransmission is priced at Rs7 lakh, the CVT (automatic)variant is tagged at Rs 7.9 lakh. On the other hand, the dieselmanual is priced at Rs 8.3 lakh, while the diesel CVT (continuouslyvariable transmission) trim is tagged at Rs 9.10 lakh. The specialedition comes with Digipad 2.0, a 17.7 cm touchscreen advanceddisplay audio system and new seat covers and body graphics. "TheAmaze S Grade is one of the highest selling grades of the model.With the inclusion of smart new features in the special editionbased on S-Grade, the overall package has freshness at a veryattractive price," Honda Cars Director Rajesh Goel said.

Rallying for the 10thstraight session, equitybenchmark Sensex

ended 169 points higher onWednesday, led by gains infinancial stocks amid largelypositive cues from globalmarkets. The 30-share BSEindex opened on a weak noteand gyrated over 600 pointsduring the day. However, it gained ground in the last hour of thesession to finish at 40,794.74, up 169.23 points or 0.42 per cent.Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rose 36.55 points or 0.31 per centto 11,971.05. Bajaj Finserv was the top gainer in the Sensex pack,rising around 4 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank,IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, HDFC and SBI.On the otherhand, NTPC, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, Infosys and HCLTech were among the major laggards. On the global front, boursesin Hong Kong and Seoul ended higher, while Shanghai and Tokyowere in the red. Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on apositive note in early deals. Meanwhile, international oil benchmarkBrent crude was trading 0.09 per cent lower at USD 42.41 perbarrel.

HMD sends first shipment of 56mn syringes to Covax facility

Honda launches spl edition ofAmaze ahead of festive season

Sensex ends 169 points higher after fag-end rally

PNSn NEW DELHI

India should resist the mislead-ing allure of the domestic mar-ket and should zealously boostexports, according to a researchpaper co-authored by formerchief economic advisor ArvindSubramanian.

The paper titled 'India'sInward (Re)Turn: Is itWarranted? Will it Work?' --jointly authored by Subramanian and Pennsylvania StateUniversity professor ShoumitroChatterjee -- said that India isturning inward, domesticdemand is assuming primacyover export-orientation andtrade restrictions are increas-ing, reversing a three-decadetrend.

"Resisting the misleadingallure of the domestic market,India should zealously boostexport performance anddeploy all means to achievethat.

"... abandoning export orien-tation will amount to killingthe goose that lays golden eggsand indeed to killing the onlygoose laying eggs. Alas, toembrace atmanirbharta is tochoose to condemn the Indianeconomy to mediocrity," thepaper noted.

Further, it said that the con-sensus to favour an inward ori-entation was emerging evenbefore COVID-19 had struckIndia, reflected in increasingcalls to atmanirbharta or selfreliance.

This shift is based on threemisconceptions that India'sdomestic market size is big,India's growth has been basedon domestic not export mar-kets, and export prospects aredim because the world is

deglobalising, it noted.The paper also said that

India still enjoys large exportopportunities, especially inlabour-intensive sectors such asclothing and footwear, butexploiting these opportunitiesrequires more openness andmore global integration.

"Indeed, given constraintson public, corporate andhousehold balance sheets,abandoning export orienta-tion is akin to killing the onlygoose that can lay eggs," it said.

The paper said that India'sreal market size, defined as

consumers with a modicum ofpurchasing power is not big.

"It is much smaller than theheadline GDP number, muchsmaller than China's, and onlya small fraction of the worldmarket. The reason is thatIndia has many poor con-sumers, while the rich tend tobe large savers, limiting theirconsumption," it added.

Similarly, the prognosis thatexport prospects are dimbecause the world is deglobal-ising is overly pessimistic, thepaper pointed out.

To begin with, it is unclear

whether the world is reallydeglobalising, at least in ser-vices.

Even if it is, India's exportshare is so small-even smallerthan Vietnam in manufactur-ing exports-that its exportscould grow rapidly by gainingmarket share, according to thepaper.

In particular, the papersaid that India has major unex-ploited opportunities in low-skill manufacturing and ser-vices, which it could exploit inthe post-COVID-19 environ-ment where firms are lookingto exit China and diversifytheir sources of supply.

"Meanwhile, protectionismis unlikely to succeed as anexport strategy becauseexploiting the big opportunitiesin the key labour-intensivesectors requires more opennessand more global integration, asthe experience of China andVietnam have shown," it said.

India should resist misleadingallure of domestic market

The paper also said that India still enjoyslarge export opportunities, especially in labour-intensive sectors such as clothing and footwear, but exploiting theseopportunities requires more openness and more global integration

PNSn NEW DELHI

The government on Wednesday said the mines and miner-als sector is a major employerin rural areas and its role as anessential service has beenacknowledged during thecoronavirus pandemic.

"Just like agriculture, thissector (mines and mineralsector) gives employment tothe people in rural areas, to thepeople in the interior parts ofIndia," Mines Secretary AnilKumar Jain said during FIMI's54th Annual General Meeting.

He added that the mineralsector's role as an essential ser-vice has been acknowledgedduring the coronavirus pan-demic.

Jain added that the impor-tance of the sector is wellappreciated and "when I seemining sector today, I see lotsof development, lots ofgrowth".

Referring to the Mines andMinerals (Development andRegulation) Act, 2015, he saidthat it is a forward-looking law.

On the proposed reforms inthe mines and mineral sector,Jain said "reforms is an ongo-

ing process".Recently, the mines min-

istry sought suggestions fromthe general public, miningindustry and other stakehold-ers on the proposed reforms inthe Mines and Minerals

(Development and Regulation)Act. Under the AatmanirbharBharat scheme, the Centre inMay announced enhancingprivate investments in themineral sector and bringing inother reform measures.

Mineral sector’s role essentialduring pandemic: Mines secy

Under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme, theCentre in May announced enhancing privateinvestments in the mineral sector and bringingin other reform measures.

PNSn NEW DELHI

The rupee edged 4 paisehigher to close at 73.31against the US dollar onWednesday, tracking weakAmerican currency.

At the interbank forexmarket the rupee traded in anarrow range. It opened at73.39 against the US dollarand finally settled for the dayat 73.31 against the green-back, higher by 4 paise overits previous close of 73.35.

During the session, thedomestic unit witnessed anintra-day high of 73.28 and alow of 73.47 per US dollar.

Market participants arestill under the notion that anew US stimulus is coming,but the delay is hinting thatit may be rolled out after theUS election, said RahulGupta, Head of Research-Currency, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services.

“Also, the halt in COVID-19 vaccine trials calibratesthat the race for a vaccine isbumpy and we cannot hopefor a quick global economicrecovery," he added.

PNSn NEW DELHI

German luxury car makerMercedes-Benz on Wednesdayreported a 38.64 per cent dropin its sales at 2,058 units inIndia in the third quarter of theongoing year but almostreached its pre-COVID saleslevel.

The company had sold 3,354units in the July-Septemberquarter last year.

Mercedes-Benz India said it

is witnessing a V-shaped recov-ery of sales based on the Q3performance, pointing to thebeginning of a good festive sea-son.

The Q3 sales also almostreached pre-COVID level forthe first time since lockdown.In the first quarter of 2020,sales were at 2,386 units asagainst 3,885 units in the year-ago period, down 38.58 percent, the company said.

Commenting on the sales

performance, Mercedes-BenzIndia Managing Director &CEO Martin Schwenk said,"Weare glad to witness a strongcomeback in the course of thelast quarter, with a significantincrease from month-to-month within the third quar-ter."

This performance is a resultdriven by the company's newproduct introductions, rolling-out of attractive financial pack-ages, combined with the grad-

ual pick-up in business andeconomic activities that haspositively influenced customersentiment, he added.

"We are confident, theupcoming festive season willdeliver further momentum forthe recovery of our sales devel-opment. We remain optimisticfor the fourth quarter as thecurrent demand situation andthe feedback of the customersfor our products is very posi-tive," Schwenk said.

PNSn NEW DELHI

A total of 39.43 lakh domesticpassengers travelled by air inSeptember this year, 66 percent lower than the corre-sponding period last year, thecountry's aviation regulatorDGCA said on Wednesday.

As many as 21.07 lakh and28.32 lakh people travelled byair domestically this July andAugust, respectively, the regu-lator had said last month.

While IndiGo carried 22.66lakh passengers in September,a 57.5 per cent share of the totaldomestic market, SpiceJet flew5.3 lakh passengers, which is13.4 per cent share of the totalmarket, according to datashared by the DGCA.

Air India, AirAsia India,Vistara and GoAir carried 3.72lakh, 2.35 lakh, 2.58 lakh and2.64 lakh passengers respec-

tively in September, the datashowed.

The occupancy rate or loadfactor of six major Indian air-lines was between 57 and 73per cent in September, it saidWednesday.

"The passenger load factorin the month of September2020 has shown some recovery

due to increased demand afterthe opening of lockdown," saidthe Directorate General ofCivil Aviation (DGCA).

The occupancy rate inSpiceJet was 73 per cent inSeptember, the regulator noted.

Meanwhile, the occupancyrate for other major airlinesVistara, IndiGo, AirAsia India,

Air India and GoAir stood at66.7 per cent, 65.4 per cent,58.4 per cent, 57.9 per cent and57.6 per cent, respectively,according to the DGCA.

India resumed domesticpassenger flights on May 25after a gap of two months dueto the coronavirus pandemic.Indian airlines are allowed tooperate a maximum of 60 percent of their pre-COVID-19domestic flights.

A total of 19.84 lakh passen-gers travelled domestically inJune this year. Between May 25and May 31, 2.81 lakh air pas-sengers had travelled domesti-cally, the DGCA noted.

The DGCA data mentionedthat in September, AirAsiaIndia had the best on-time per-formance of 98.4 per cent atfour metro airports --Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabadand Mumbai.

PNSn NEW DELHI

State-owned Power FinanceCorporation has introduced afacility for electricity distribu-tion companies (discoms) toavail funds for paying theirdues to power generation com-panies (gencos), a move thatwill help in avoiding late pay-ment charges as well as earnrebates for timely payments.

Mounting outstanding duesof discoms has been a peren-nial issue in the country.Theoutstanding dues of discoms asof August stood at Rs 1.32 lakhcrore compared to nearly Rs97,000 crore in the samemonth last year, as perPRAAPTI (PaymentRatification And Analysis inPower procurement for bring-ing Transparency in Invoicing

of generators) portal.PFC's credit facility would

be available to discoms underthe policy for offeringRevolving Bill Payment Facility(RBPF) to discoms/ gedcos forensuring early payment ofdues to gencos/ transcos/ trad-ing companies, an official told

PTI. Gedcos are those stateutilities which are into gener-ation as well as distribution ofelectricity. Transcos are intopower transmission.

As per CERC regulations, arebate of 1.5 per cent is extend-ed on payment of power pur-chase dues up to 5 days of rais-

ing the invoice by genco/transco, and thereafter, 1 percent is extended for paymentfrom 6th to 30th day.

Further, a LPSC (LatePayment Surcharge) at the rateof 1.5 per cent per month ischarged in case the payment isdelayed beyond 45 days.

The board of directors ofPFC approved the policy at its404th meeting held onSeptember 14. Under the pol-

icy, PFC Chairman andManaging Director is autho-rised to approve any modifica-tion/ relaxation/ deviation,issue any clarification/ interpre-tation and internal operatingguidelines/ procedures, ifrequired, for the purpose ofgiving effect to the provisionsof the policy.

The policy was circulatedearlier this week for implemen-tation.

As per CERC, a rebate of 1.5 per cent isextended on payment of power purchase duesup to 5 days of raising the invoice by genco/transco, and thereafter, 1 per cent is extendedfor payment from 6th to 30th day.

Rupee settles4 ps higher at73.3 against $

Benz reports 38% drop in sales for Q3

39L domestic air passengers in Sept: DGCA

PNSn NEW DELHI

Future Group founder KishoreBiyani on Wednesday said thehomegrown retail major lostnearly Rs 7,000 crore revenuein first three-four months ofthe COVID-19 pandemic dueto closing of stores, which ledhim to sell his business toReliance Industries.

In August this year, billion-aire Mukesh Ambani'sReliance Industries announcedacquisition of retail and whole-sale business and the logisticsand warehousing business

from the Future Group asgoing concerns on a slump salebasis for Rs 24,713 crore.

"We got into a trap to be

very honest with COVID-19.In the first 3-4 months, we lostnearly Rs 7,000 crore of rev-enue,” Biyani said at thePhygital Retail Convention.

There was no way the com-pany could have survived los-ing such an amount, he said,adding “the problem is rentdoesn't stop, interest (on debt)doesn't stop”.

"We did too many acquisi-tions in the last six-sevenyears... I thought there was noother answer but to exit," hestated. He said for retailers theworst is yet to come.

PNSn NEW DELHI

Sebi has extended the dead-line to November 6 for indi-viduals and entities to submitapplications for SecuritiesMarket Trainers (SMARTs),who will supplement the reg-ulator's investor educationinitiative amid growing retailparticipation in the capitalmarkets.

Earlier, the last date forsending applications wasOctober 16.

Sebi gives moretime to submitapplications for SMARTs

PNSn KOLKATA

E-commerce major AmazonIndia has opened a new ful-filment centre (FC) of 1.2million cubic feet or 11,300square feet at Uluberia tomeet the growing demandahead of the festive season.The expansion in WestBengal is a part of the com-pany's plans announced inJuly to add 10 new FCs andexpand seven existing sites,across India.This expansionmarks a significant increasein Amazon’s infrastructurein the state, which will nowoffer a storage capacity ofmore than 3.4 million cubicfeet across state.

Amazon opensfulfilment Centrein West Bengal

PNSn MUMBAI

Asia's largest fixture manufac-turer Forms and Gears is look-ing to set up a manufacturing-cum-assembly plant inThailand for fixtures andautomation products, besidesestablishing a production facil-ity in Chennai for automation,its Managing Director RejiVerghese has said.

The company at presenthas a manufacturing facility inChennai, with a capacity toproduce 500 fixtures annual-ly to meet the demand ofboth domestic and overseasmarkets.

Forms and Gears alongwith its partner ASMTechnologies provides com-

plete turnkey solutions withcutting tool, fixtures andautomation to clients acrossindustrial segments such asautomotive and tractor OEMs,generator manufacturers,engine testing companies andother special purposemachines, among others.

Besides providing com-plete turnkey solutions todomestic OEMs includingTata Motors, Ashok Leyland,Mahindra & Mahindra, VolvoEicher, Escorts, Sonalika,Maruti Suzuki and TVS,among others, it also exportsto about 10 international mar-kets such as China, Japan,Indonesia, Thailand,Germany, Turkey and Qatar,among others.

Forms & Gears to setup assembly plant

PNSn NEW DELHI

The rights issue of EIH Ltd,which runs hotels and resortsunder the Oberoi brand, hasbeen over-subscribed, withRs 561 crore being offeredagainst the issue size of Rs 350crore.

EIH offered 5.37 croreshares for subscription toexisting shareholders at a priceof Rs 65. The rights issueopened on September 29 andclosed on October 13.

The firm received applica-tions for 8.63 crore shares or

160 per cent of the issue sizeat the close, according to mar-ket sources.

In all, Rs 561 crore worthshares were bid for, they said.

EIH plans to use Rs 280crore out of the net proceedsof the rights issue to repay/pre-pay some of its existing bor-rowings, according to the offerletter for the rights issue.

The remaining Rs 65.98crore are to be used for gen-eral corporate purposes. EIHreported profit of Rs 165.14crore on a revenue of Rs1,674.69 crore in fiscal 2020.

EIH rights issuesover-subscribed

Future Group lost Rs 7K-cr infirst 3-4 months of pandemic

PFC offers funding to discoms for timely payments

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

ThursdayOctober 15, 2020

Quite a few Telugu content creators on Instagramhave taken to the culture of collaborating with

their colleagues who are usually otherwise seen ascompetition. The community of Telugu bloggerson Instragam speaks to The Pioneer's RACHEL

DAMMALA about the sudden rise in collabs, thereason behind it, benefits of it, and more

THERISINGCOLLABCULTURE

Telugu contentconsumer onInstagram andother socialmedia handleslike Twitter will

definitely have noticed agrowing trend ever sincethe lockdown — that ofcollaborations. Not onlyhave new content creatorsemerged into the businessof entertainment, they’realso more willing than everto want to collaborate withother artists if need be.

While collabs are notnew to India, given it hadbecome a norm forYouTubers, they, sort of,are new to the Telugu audi-ences, especially onInstagram. Several pageson Instagram, thanks tonewer ways of putting outcontent like IGTV andreels, have taken to creat-ing and sharing as muchand with as many as theycan, amid the pandemic.They’ve roped in individualTelugu creators with thou-sands of followers to pro-duce content that’s real,raw, and relatable.

Asked about the suddenshift, Priyasree Saragadam,founder of one of the mostloved Telugu pages onInstagram — The TeluguProject, says, “It’s amazingto want to collaboratewhen two creators sharethe same ideas and goals.When TTP had the TeluguLanguage Month for over45 days in August, I hadseveral content creatorsincluding illustrators, over7-8 of them, work together,all in the spirit of volun-teering. Neither have I paidthem a single penny nor

have I received any. Aslong as another creatorunderstands the purpose ofthe page and content, andshares them, or is willingto manifest the same ideasand causes, we’re on board.For example, my pagebelieves in and strives forthe promotion of Telugulanguage and culture andlinguistic equality anddiversity, I deem it a socialcause, another creator whobelieves the same is morethan welcome to join me.”

Some creators considerhealthy competition andentertainment coupledwith a little didacticism asa great means to function.Jane Serena, founder of thepage Just Chepthunna onInstagram, welcomes theidea of collabs. “We believecollaborations are morepowerful than competition.They allow creators togrow together and eventu-ally help give rise to morecontent. The audience getsto choose between the cre-ators and the content theyprefer. In a recent collab,content creator Pruthvispoke about ‘CreatorKashtalu’ and the videoblew up because peopleunderstood the idea behindit and were willing to con-sume honest and real con-tent,” Jane shares. Shebelieves that even if it’s justan IG Reel for 30 seconds,it has the power to capture.“It’s not just about funnycontent or the kind thatpleases the audience butone with a message. Overtime, creators have come torecognise the benefits ofcollaborating, especiallythe advantage of having to

interact with each other’saudience,” she adds.

Interestingly, the pagealso has people not justfrom the two Telugu statesbut beyond the borders ofthe country. ShireenFlorence, a Telugaite andcontent creator who livesin Australia, believes thattough times brought peopleto choose to work togetherthan harbor bitterness. “Inthis rough phase of time,people have come to realisethat it is only they that canbe there for each other.People are willing to work

together irrespective oflanguage, region, either forpersonal growth or for thegreater good. Collabs openavenues to learn from eachother by putting aside fameand competition. Thischange of mindset ishealthy and helps bringbonding and businesstogether,” opines Shireen.

Another creator HarishKumar, who’s also an actorworking for shows on tele-vision and an upcomingfilm, has an interestingtake on the reason behindsudden collabs. “The death

of actor Sushant SinghRajput opened a can ofworms regarding nepotismand only the rich andfamous ruling the roost.With people realising thispurported filth, they’remore than willing to bethere for each other ratherthan fight for space,”Harish believes. Jane, how-ever, thinks while thiscould've been a catalyst, itmost definitely has a lot towith great content beingavailable on Netflix,Amazon Prime, and evenTikTok.

The founder of the pageFake Muchatlu onInstagram believes it has alot to do with the lock-down blessing people witha lot of time and therefore,great ideas. He shares,“The culture of collabora-tion is a great start, and Ithink it has to do with peo-ple wanting to create con-tent that makes them satis-fied at the end of the day,and if another creator whoshares the same idealswants to join them, whynot? It’s beautiful andpraiseworthy to see cre-ators also lift each other upat a time when pages get alot of hate when theychoose to take a stance ona particular subject.”

A

SEVERAL PAGESON INSTAGRAM,THANKS TONEWER WAYSOF PUTTINGOUT CONTENTLIKE IGTV ANDREELS, HAVETAKEN TOCREATING ANDSHARING ASMUCH ANDWITH AS MANYAS THEY CAN,AMID THEPANDEMIC.THEY’VE ROPEDIN INDIVIDUALTELUGUCREATORS WITHTHOUSANDS OFFOLLOWERS TOPRODUCECONTENTTHAT’S REAL,RAW, ANDRELATABLE.

ewellerybrandTanishq’s newadvertisementfaced back-lash for rep-

resenting interfaithunity —#BoycottTanishq becamea trending topic onTwitter. The commercialspoke of the importanceof love and co-existenceirrespective of religionby featuring a Muslimfamily celebrating a tra-ditional South Indianbaby shower ceremonyfor their pregnantdaughter-in-law. Severalpeople on twitter andelsewhere claimed that

it hurt their religioussentiments especiallybecause the ad promotesLove Jihad. The adver-tisement since then hasbeen taken off the airbecause of the hate itreceived online. Thenation is becomingpolarised by the day,trying hard to bringdivision among us.Tanishq’s advertisementhad that very harmonymany seem to lack yetwasn’t received well.How long and howmuch more will extrem-ist groups indulge inhate-mongering? Whyare we reducing our-selves to a state of polar-

isation?“It’s the beginning of

unadulterated hatred,the outrage reflects ourregression. Extremistsare taking over and weare trying to refuse tohave an honest conver-sation that needs to takeplace. However, being ajewellery owner myself,from a financial angle,Tanishq should dowhatever it takes to stayon the greener side ofthe grass,” sharesVikrant Boorugu ofBoorugu Bros Jewellers.

With a simplistic reac-tion of hatred and big-otry, we are movingtowards a never-endingdivisive and a politicalagenda. Is this the newIndia we were yearning

for? Subjects of love-jihad are arising, thosesupporting the ad alsourged industrialist RatanTata to stay strong in theface of such hate and notback down and somealso asked why Tanishqhad bowed to pressureand taken the ad off air.Amid all this controver-sy actress Divya Dutta,the actress who lent hervoice for the ad, took toTwitter to say this aboutthe now-removed com-mercial: “I loved theadvertisement. Don’t weall promote brother-hood?? We as India areall about that. That’s oursoul sir. Unity in diversi-ty bachpan mein suntethe...”

Tanishq has removed

the commercial from all platforms issuing anapology note acrosstheir social mediaaccounts stating that“the idea behindEkatvam campaign is to celebrate the comingtogether of people fromdifferent walks of lifeduring these challengingtimes and celebrate the beauty of oneness.This film has stimulateddivergent and severereactions contrary to its very objective. Weare deeply saddened bythe inadvertent stirringof emotions and withdraw this film keeping in mind thehurt sentiments andwell being of ouremployees.”

J

Tanishq recently had toremove an advertisement oftheirs after people on social

media claimed that it wassexist and also promoted

Love Jihad. But should thebrand have bowed to social

pressure? Was the ad indeedpromoting toxic ideas, asks

SHIKHA DUGGAL

Let's #BoycottHatehef SanjeevKapoor says hehas a dream ofmaking Indianfood the num-ber one pre-

ferred cuisine in theworld; but it’s not only adream, he’s also workingtowards it.

“I’ve tried so many dif-ferent types of cuisine andcurated various interna-tional and local dishes.But I’d still say, nothingcomes close to Indian,” he says.

The veteran shares hisviews on the journey ofIndian food, nutrition, thefuture of the industry,while suggesting usefulhealth tips that may helpduring the crucial times.Excerpts:You have been very vocalabout local food. Do youthink in today’s time,people are moving backto local food or are theystill inclined towardsinternational food?

Today’s generation isfascinated with Westernfood and they are unawareabout what grows locallyin our own land being farmore nutritious. Havingsaid that, I also see a trendof people moving back totraditional food which isgreat. Nutritional benefitsof Indian food have

always been high, and giveyou complete nutritionthat one needs. For exam-ple, besan — it is loadedwith multiple nutrientsand fibre. People are real-ising that traditional foodcan help us obtain whole-some nutrition, which inreturn makes us strongerfrom within and buildsour immune system. I rec-ommend one shouldinclude green leafy vegeta-bles, dals, fruit and saladsin their daily meals. Lookfor unpolished dals asthey are untouched, andtheir nutritional value ishigher.From a tourism point ofview, do you think foodcan play an importantrole in bringing touristsfrom across the countryand world?

On tourism, yes, ofcourse it does! Food issuch an integral part oftourism. Each city/regionis famous for its own foodand that is one major rea-son that adds to the expe-rience of travelling to thatplace. Delhi is known forits fine selection of finger-licking street food,Mumbai for its regionalcuisine, Lucknow has avariety of kababs,Hyderabad for its quintes-sential dish, the biryani,the list can go on!

Can you shed some lighton the journey of Indianfood and nutritionthrough history?

There is a lot aboutIndian culinary heritagethat people may not know.I’ve tried so many cuisinesand curated various inter-national and local dishes,but I’d still say, nothingcomes close to Indianfood. For instance, theIndian thali itself has sam-pann poshan (rich nutri-tion) and this is one of itsmost important part ofIndian food history. Thediversity of Indian food isthe source of my motiva-tion, to stamp my person-al identity on each dish. I

must also tell you that Ihave a dream of makingIndian cuisine the numberone in the world and I’mdefinitely workingtowards it, non-stop!What you think aboutthe future of Indian foodindustry?

We are facing a situa-tion that none of us couldhave foreseen!Unprepared for a storm asbig as this, understandablyeveryone is in a state ofshock as the economy hasbeen massively hit. Thefood service and hospitali-ty industry too is drasti-cally impacted and we allare bracing for majoradjustments as we look atthe number of the affect-ed, growing each day.There is a major downfallin the industry with vastdisruptions in the labourand supply sectors. Not toforget, employment issuestoo.

It will take some time toget back on the road andresume the businesses atthe same pace again. The‘virus’ is just another hur-dle, in this race of life.Surely, it has broughtchanges that the worldhad never imagined, but,in no way has it affectedthe spirit. I’m sure we allcan do it, fight the virusand win over it, together!

C

‘I dream of making Indiancuisine world's number one'

Shireen Florence Harish Kumar

Jane Serena of Just Chepthunna

10

Hyderabad Thursday October 15 2020 tribute

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

K RAMYA SREE

hobha Naidu, inarguably among the most out-standing exponents of Kuchipudi art form, has

a string of awards and titles to her credit,including the Padma Shri. Her performances

brought her global fame and much acclaim. Critics described her as “a boneless wonder”

for her agility and the fluidity of her movements; a dancerof exceptional grace, and one with great command over

the navarasas for the ease with which she displays akaleidoscope of emotions.

A crowd-puller performer, her portrayal ofSathyabhama, Padmavathi and Chandalika are

among her most celebrated roles. Dr Shobha Naidu’s greatness lay in her total dedi-cation to the exacting genre with classical base. A

fiercely uncompromising purist, she was highlyimaginative with a sense of deep involvement butnever lost that essential connect with contempo-

rary taste and sensibilities. She was the principal of Kuchipudi Art

Academy, Hyderabad since 1980 and herrole is evident in the institution producing

15 ballets and more than 80 solo items. While Sobha Naidu groomed over

1,500 students from India and overseasas a teacher, the path she chose was

never easy, especially when she beganher journey as a child.

Most of her stu-dents are settled in

India and abroadtoo and are

propagatingthe art form

by establishinglearning centres

in India andabroad.

S

CHILDHOOD...

Dr Shobha Naiduwas born inAnakapalle,Visakhapatnam dis-trict in 1956, into aconservative family.She was dissuadedfrom taking to dance.

However, hermother sensed herpassion for the art,and encouraged her.After initial lessonsfrom PL Reddy,Shobha Naidu’smother took her toChennai for tutelageunder Vempati.Twelve years of rigor-ous sadhana fol-lowed.

Dr Naidu’s father,who wanted her tostudy medicine,reluctantly gave hisblessing to her tomove to Chennai —after she assured himthat she would stopperforming after herarangetram.

But themorningafter thisdebut, shereceived 10performanceoffers —even afterher return toHyderabad— and therewas no stop-ping hersince.

KUCHIPUDI OVER ANYTHING ELSE...

Shobha Naidu is known for her unswervingdevotion to classical dance, more specifically,Kuchipudi.

Iconic Bharatanatyam guru Vazhuvoor RamaiahPillai was so impressed by her skills that he offeredto teach her Bharatanatyam free of cost!

However, Shobha declined the offer sayingthough she admired Bharatanatyam and himtremendously, she felt one lifetime was not enoughto learn Kuchipudi.

REJECTING FILM OFFERS...

The doe-eyed dusky dancer with a sculp-turesque figure received countless offers fromsouth-Indian film producers and directors toact in films. However, she politely turned themall down, saying she wanted to focus on dance.

For example, she was the first choice forSargam (remake of the Telugu hit SirisiriMuvva). Rukmini Devi Arundale, who attend-ed her arangetram, instinctively realised shewould be sought out by filmmakers, and madeShobha give her word of honour that shewould never be tempted by film offers andwould dedicate herself to classical dance.

A GLOBAL STAR...Her major achievements are chore-

ography and presentation of the bal-lets — Vipranarayana, KalyanaSrinivasam, Sri Krishna SaranamMama, Vijayosthuthe Naari, KsheeraSaagara Madhanam, SarvamSaimayam, Jagadaananda Kaaraka,Girija Kalyaanam, SwamiVivekananda and the latest NavarasaNatbamini in which she was the mainprotagonist and donned roles likeSatyabhama, Chandalika, Devadevaki,Padmavathi, Mohini, Sai Baba,Goddess Parvati and many more. Herperformances brought her greatappreciation.

She won accolades not only in themotherland but also all around theglobe. She represented India and per-formed in places like the UK, the erst-while USSR, Syria, Baghdad,Kampuchea, Turkey, Hong Kong,Bangkok and many more. SobhaNaidu also led a cultural delegation onbehalf of the Government of India tothe West Indies, Mexico, Venezuela,Tunis and Cuba followed by a visit toWest Asia.

A NATYACHARYAAIN HER OWN RIGHT

AWARDS AND

RECOGNITIONS...

She was bestowed with the covetedtitle of “Nritya Choodamani” by noless an institution than Krishna GanaSabha of Madras, followed by a presti-gious award by Central SangeetaNataka Kala Academy in the year1991. She was the recipient of“Nrityavihar” by Sri Sringara Samsadof Bombay in 1991.

In 1996, Nungambakkam CulturalAssociation, Madras, awarded the title“Nritya Kala Siromani” to ShobhaNaidu. She was also awarded by theGovernment of Andhra Pradesh onthe birth anniversary of the late NTRama Rao. Telugu University hon-oured her with its Puraskara Award.She was also bestowed with the‘Hamsa’ award by the Government ofAndhra Pradesh, while the UnionGovernment honoured her with theprestigious Padma Shri in 2001.Earlier in 1990 Sobha Naidu hadreceived Sangeet Natak Akademiaward for her unparalleled contribu-tion to Kuchipudi dance.

With her passing, the world hastruly witnessed the end of an era.

Set to make a comeback to Telugu with Netflix’sstill-to-be-titled anthology drama, Amala Paul has

given her consent to a new project by U Turnfame Kannada director Pawan Kumar,

NAGARAJ GOUD reports

11

Hyderabad Thursday October 15 2020tollywood

or the past threeyears, AmalaPaul has made ita point to asso-ciate with con-tent-rich cinema

and it’s evident from her fil-mography. The actress, whois staging a comeback toTelugu with the untitledNetflix anthology drama,where she is playing a chal-lenging role, has green-litanother digital offer.According to a source, shehas agreed to headline UTurn director PawanKumar’s new project.

The source says, “Theproject is another differentattempt from Pawan. It willbe a thriller but there willbe an extra layer to it,which will be the film’s USP.Raj Tarun was initiallyapproached to be the malelead and he even gave hisnod but due to schedulingconflicts, he had to make

way. Pawan is on the look-out for another actor toreplace him. RahulRamakrishna is on boardfor a crucial supportingrole.”

The source further addsthat the project is beingmade for aha. It is one ofthe two web films that thesteamer has agreed topump in themoney, withthe otherbeingthe

Telugu remake of Kannadasuspense thriller AaKaraala Ratri, with originaldirector DayalPadmanabhanattached to directand PayalRajput toplay thelead role.

Digital is theway for Amala

F

egastarChiranjeevi onWednesdaysaid that hewas “deeplysaddened” by

the death of eminentdanseuse Dr ShobhaNaidu.

Awarded the civilianhonour of Padma Shri bythe Government of Indiain 2001, Naidu wasundergoing treatment forbrain hemorrhage for thepast couple of months.She passed away in thewee hours of Wednesdayat a private hospital inHyderabad. She was 64.

Pouring out his heart-

felt condolences to Naidufamily, Chiru said shecarried the legacy of thelegend and her mentorVempati China Satyamgaru incredibly well,relentlessly working forthe promotion of ourculture throughKuchipudi dance withgreat commitment. Headded that they bothshared mutual admira-tion for each other’sworks. “Being a greatdancer herself, I felt itwas an honor when sheappreciated my classicaldance act in the filmShubhalekha. Ever sincethe tradition continued,”

he noted on his socialmedia pages.

He reminded his fol-lowers that though a filmcareer beckoned her, shededicated herself toKuchipudi. “It was hercalling. Most recently shedid a dance video to pro-mote awareness on theCorona pandemic. WhenI saw it, I immediatelyrang her and congratu-lated her for her untiringefforts to use the artform for the well-beingof the society. I saluteher for her tremendousservices to Indian /Telugu culture,” he con-cluded.

M

ilmmaker Sai Rajesh sayshis personal experiencesserved as an inspiration topen the story of ColourPhoto, which he also pro-duced. “Film’s director

Sandeep Raj has been a friend foryears. I even tried to get a big pro-duction house to bankroll his maid-en feature directorial but due tosome reasons the project kept ongetting delayed. It was when I decid-ed to part with the story I had andintroduce him as a director undermy banner Amrutha Productions,”he recalls.

Set in the 90s, the film addressesthe discrimination on the basis of

colour, class and caste issues, asromance plays out between charac-ters played by Suhas and ChandiniChowdary. “Especially the discrimi-nation on the basis of colour hasbeen dealt honestly and to the point.That said it’s not a serious film. Theaudience can expect humour andemotions in equal measure,” henotes.

He informs that he had his appre-hensions on Chandini being apt forthe heroine’s role but the concernswere dispelled after watching herperformance in the film. “Initially, Ifelt the need of choosing an actressfrom Mumbai but we later locked inChandini. After seeing the way she

went about enacting her part, I felt Ishouldn’t have doubted her abilities,”he reveals.

Rajesh mentions that earningrespect for Amrutha Productionswas one of the reasons that drovehim to invest in Colour Photo withnewcomers. “Despite the success offilms Hrudayakaleyam andKobbarimatta, my banner didn’t getthe name it deserves. Colour Photowith newcomers was a step in thatdirection to earn respect. But themoment the film’s teaser wasreleased, the banner got both respectand recognition. I was pleased whenthe industry personalities rang meand lauded the teaser,” he states,adding that his production housewill continue to associate with con-cept-based films featuring new faces.

Want toassociate

withconcept-

basedfilms as aproducer:

Sai Rajesh

F

ctress Kalyani Priyadarshanof Hello and Chitralaharifame says that shooting forPutham Pudhu Kaalai, aTamil anthology of five shortfilms over three days were

best ones for her during lockdown.“For an actor who has been working

like crazy during normal period, this(lockdown) was one of the toughestthings I had to go through. In fact, thethree days that I shot for this film,were probably my best three days.Otherwise, I was incredibly bored. Iam not used to that. I am either travel-ling or shooting,” she said.

Kalyani added that she enjoyedspending time with family duringlockdown though she missed “shootpretty much every single day”.

Putham Pudhu Kaalai will premiereon Amazon Prime Video on October16.

“OTT platforms give accessibility toa lot of people. That gives you moreopportunity to show your work tomore people and makes you excitedabout that. Right now, I don’t knowwho will go to a theatre to watch afilm. I would, but that’s only because Iam crazy about cinema. A Fridaywithout going to a theatre didn't existbefore. But to most people, I am surethis is a much more accessible plat-form for films, especially for regionalcontent,” said Kalyani.

The unit followed safety measuresand ensured not too many peoplecrowded the room, said Kalyani,daughter of renowned filmmakerPriyadarshan.

“As actors, it was an interestingexperience. We didn’t have hairand make-up teams or assistantsand staff who are part of ourcomfort crew,” she said.

“A lot of times you are hesi-tant about stepping into anew film, and not havingthese people around you.The set is new and peopleare new. They (comfortcrew) just bring the com-

fort blanket along withthem,” she added.

Lockdown was oneof the toughest

things I had to gothrough: Kalyani

A

e were the first to inform you (onOct 5) that Ravi Teja will be play-ing a lawyer in his forthcomingnext with Maruthi. To this end,the latest piece of information isthat the director has decided to

repeat composer SS Thaman for theproject tentatively titled Lawyer Saab.The director and the composer workedon films like Mahanubhavudu andPrathiroju Pandage earlier.

A source points out, “Maruthi’s deci-sion was a complete no-brainer.Besides his camaraderie, the compos-er’s red-hot form was another reason.

The fact that he is also most preferredby Ravi Teja worked in Thaman’sfavour. The music sessions will com-mence once the project is officiallyannounced.”

The source adds that Maruthi hasgiven a final narration to Allu Aravind,who gave his approval to proceed withthe pre-production. “Ravi will be play-ing a criminal lawyer in the film,which is conceived as a full-on com-mercial entertainer. He is likely to jug-gle between the sets of this film withRamesh Varma’s,” the source con-cludes.

Thaman again forRavi Teja and Maruthi

W

Shobha Naidu carriedthe legacy of Vempati

China Satyamincredibly well: Chiru

PTI n SHARJAH

Kings XI Punjab will be hoping thatChris Gayle fires on his much-

awaited return and they, for once, putup a complete performance in theirmust-win game against a high-flyingRoyal Challengers Bangalore here onThursday.

The inability to producean all-round show and closeout games they should havewon has led to KXIP losing sixout of their seven matches.

But KXIP can take con-fidence from the fact theironly win in the tournament hascome against RCB, who look a muchmore potent squad since their lastmeeting on September 24.

Though the Sharjah wicket hasbeen slowing gradually, the smallerground dimensions are ideal forsomeone like Gayle to go on a six-hit-ting spree.

However, it certainly won’t be easyfor the 41-year-old to get going fromball one, having not played earlier inthe competition.

He would have played thelast two games but could notdue to food poisoning. Havingrecovered fully, it will be inter-esting to see who hereplaces in the side.

Benching a yet tofire Glenn Maxwell isone option or theteam can bringGayle at the expenseof an overseasbowler and replacehim with the availableIndian talent.

KXIP are languishingat the bottom of the tabledespite having the top-twoleading run-getters of thetournament in skipper K LRahul (387 at strike rate of

134.84) and his opening partnerMayank Agarwal (337 at 48.14).

Barring Mohammad Shami andRavi Bishnoi, none of the bowlershave inspired confidence, especiallyin the death overs.

Not being able to find the rightbalance despite trying out manyoptions has also contributed to KXIP’s

rapid slide.They run into a RCB

squad which has grownin confidence by leapsand bounds since theirlast meeting.

For the first time inmany years, they seem to have fixedtheir bowling woes.

Their spin pairing of WashingtonSundar and Yuzvendra Chahal hasproved very effective and the pacedepartment has strengthened withthe return of Chris Morris frominjury.

“Playing such a side (with thelikes of Gayle, Rahul and Agarwal) ina stadium like Sharjah is definitely notgoing to be easy. It’s going to be a bit

challenging but I will definelty domy homework heading to thematch,” Sundar said on the eve ofthe match.

RCB’s last game against KKRwas also on this ground, so

they come into the matchmore aware of the grad-ually changing condi-tions than KXIP, whoplayed here last onSeptember 27 whenthe surface was much

better to bat on.With Aaron Finch back

among the runs againstKKR, RCB’s top-four(including DevduttPadikkal, Virat Kohli andAB de Villiers) can be a

nightmare for any team.

KL Rahul 387 runs

Kagiso Rabada 17 wickets

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

12

MOTION PICTURE

DUGOUTSam is a complete cricketer forus. You need a seaming all-rounder. He strikes the ballnicely, he can bat up the order,plays the spinners well. He cangive us those quick 15-40 runs

We need to monitor the wicketsand select team accordingly. Ithink with our team and thedepth that we have, we'realways going to be one shorteither way

I would love to win a game forRCB with the bat. I've beenfocusing on my batting. Whenthe opportunities come Ishould be able to step andperform

Kane’s experience can helpout the younger players. If hebats at number three, he canplay bigger knocks butplaying at number four is hisrole right now

TODAY

Live from 7:30pmSTAR SSPORTS 11

VVSS

POINTS TABLEP W L NRR PTS

1 DC 8 6 2 +0.990 12

2 MI 7 5 2 +1.038 10

3 RCB 7 5 2 -0.116 10

4 KKR 7 4 3 -0.577 8

5 SRH 8 3 5 +0.009 6

6 CSK 8 3 5 -0.390 6

7 RR 8 3 5 -0.844 6

8 KXIP 7 1 6 -0.381 2

Sunrisers Hyderabad players Abhishek Sharma, Priyam Garg,Shahbaz Nadeem and Abdul Samad chat with Chennai SuperKings skipper MS Dhoni at the end of IPL game @SunRisers

CLOSE TO PERFECT GAME Relieved and ecstatic in equal measure, CSK skipper MSDhoni lauded his team's “close to perfect” show in thetriumph over Sunrisers Hyderabad that infused fresh lifeinto its faltering IPL campaign. “Ultimately what reallymatters is you getting two points. What T20s haveshown is that there are a few games that don't go yourway and then there are some that go your way evenwhen you haven't earned it. Today I felt we did a verygood job even in batting,” said Dhoni after the match.“There was some purpose with the bat and the batsmenassessed the situation very well. With a total like 160, itall depends on the start you get in the first six overs,”Dhoni said. “The fast bowlers did the job, the spinnerscame into play and it was one game that was as close tobeing perfect,” he added.

TREND OF LOSSES WAS BECOMING FAMILIARCSK coach Stephen Fleming is glad that changes madeto the team broke an increasingly familiar “trend oflosses” in the IPL and said the side will look to find newways to achieve match-day perfection in the upcominggames. The most prominent change in Tuesday's winwas Sam Curran's elevation to the opener's slot andFleming said the move provided momentum to the CSKinnings. “We have put the onus on the batting grouprather than hiding and shuffling it. It was great and Samprovided a little bit of momentum in the front. Wewanted to do something different because the trend ofour losses was becoming too familiar,” Fleming saidafter CSK's 20-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Kolkata Knight Riders wish former captain Gautam Gambhir onhis 39th birthday. KKR won two IPL trophies (in 2012 and 2014)under Gambhir’s leadership @KKRiders

IPL Twitter handle share Rajasthan Royals Indian all-rounderRahul Tewatia’s throwback picture for ‘How it started-How it’sgoing’ meme captioning ‘Rahul TTewatia's iinspirational jjourney’

MATCHES 25

ROYAL CHALLENGERS 12

KINGS XI PUNJAB 13

Stats: Faisel FFeatures

KARACHI: Former captainMisbah-ul-Haq on Wednesdaysaid he will be stepping down asPakistan’s chief selector nextmonth to focus on his role ashead coach of the national crick-et team.

Misbah told a media brief-ing in Lahore that he hasinformed the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) that he would bestepping down as chief selectoron November 30. He took up thedual role of chief selector andhead coach in September lastyear.

“I will select the squad forthe coming series againstZimbabwe but after that I justwant to focus on my work ashead coach,” he said.

Misbah insisted that he had

not quit as chief selector becauseof pressure from the board.

“No, it is purely my ownpersonal decision and I took itbecause I think it is not easydoing two high profile jobs atone time. I want to give my bestas head coach of the nationalteam. “Whoever is appointed aschief selector, I will fully coop-erate with him and work to takethe Pakistan team into the topthree of every format,” Misbahsaid.

Misbah said with time heunderstood that it would be pos-sible to give his best only to onerole. “When I accepted bothpositions I thought I couldmanage it but with time I thinkit is better for me to focus on onejob.” PTI

NEW DELHI: It was October 2010when India hosted the 19thedition of CommonwealthGames in Delhi where morethan 4,352 athletes from 71nations participated in 21 sportsand 272 events. The event wasa big hit but also had a fair shareof controversies and one suchwas the underpayment of vari-ous officials hired on contractu-al basis for various events dur-ing the 11-day sporting extrav-aganza. And one such wasDelhi-based Vikram Nayar whoworked as a sports announcerfor the fullbore shooting event.

But even 10 years after theconclusion of Games where hewas hired for `4500 per day for11 days, he is still fighting inhope to get his dues cleared, onlya part of which he is provided tilldate.

Speaking to The Pioneerabout his decade-old struggle,Nayar said “I was hired as asports announcer and theamount of `4500 per day waspromised to me for my servicesduring the entire duration.However I wasn’t provided withany contract document andthat’s why as soon as the gameswere done, I was sidelined andno payment was made for myservices.”

He was offered only one-

fifth of the total money that wasoriginally promised and that tooafter 15 months after wide-spread media coverage.

“I had received my part pay-ment of ̀ 10,500 after a gap of 15months. They had no intentionto make any payment but afterthe story about nonpaymentgot published in one of the lead-ing newspapers they had to doso. And since that day onwards,I have been fighting my battle forthe recovery of my balance andjustice till date, said Nayar, whowas selected as a sportsannouncer after clearing fiverounds of auditions.

In this long decade-old bat-tle to get justice, Nayar hasspent more than six times themoney that he is originally sup-posed to receive from the Gamesfederation and knocked doors ofvarious Government officialsbut all resulted in vain. But heis still hopeful that one day thetruth shall prevail and he will gethis dues sorted. PNS

LIMA: Neymar scored a hat-trick to become the sec-ond highest scorer in Brazil’s history as the CopaAmerica champions won 4-2 away to 10-man Peruin a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.

The goals took Neymar to 64 internationalstrikes, two more than Ronaldo but still well behindPele’s record of 77.

Peru twice took the lead through Andre Carrilloand a heavily deflected strike from Renato Tapia, buttwo controversial Neymar penalties, an injury timethird and a close range strike from Richarlison main-tained the Selecao’s winning start to qualifying forQatar 2022.

Elsewhere, Joaquin Correa scored the winner 11minutes from time as Argentina labored to a 2-1 vic-tory over Bolivia to maintain their 100% record aftertwo matches. While Ecuador totally dominatedUruguay in a 4-2 victory.

Luis Suarez scored his record-extending 61st and62nd goals for Uruguay with a pair of late penaltiesthat were no more than a consolation.

Radamel Falcao scored an injurytime equaliser as Colombia salvageda point in a 2-2 draw in Chile.

Jefferson Lerma gaveColombia an early lead butChile turned the match inQuito around by half-timewith strikes from ArturoVidal and Alexis Sanchez.

Gaston Gimenez scoreda late winner before goalkeep-er Anthony Silva saved a penal-ty from Yangel Herrera asParaguay won 1-0 in Venezuela.AFP

AFP n KYIV

Joachim Low’s 14-year reign asGermany head coach is under

threat after his side’s run of poorresults continued on Tuesday asthey had to come from twogoals down to limp to a 3-3 drawagainst Switzerland in theNations League.

Germany have drawn four oftheir last five games — surren-dering the lead on three occa-sions — to leave them second intheir Nations League groupbehind Spain.

They squeezed past Ukraine2-1 with a full-strength side inKiev on Saturday and after a 3-3 friendly home draw againstTurkey last Wednesday, Low’sside were once again guilty ofpoor defending.

The 60-year-old Low has aGerman FA contract until the2022 World Cup.

However, his popularityamong German fans has plum-meted, from the heights of win-ning the 2014 World Cup title,since Germany’s debacle at Russia2018 finals when they failed toget out of their group.

The draw with the Swiss willonly enhance the domestic crit-icism of Low from key nameswithin German football such asLothar Matthaeus and BastianSchweinsteiger.

Dinamo Zagreb striker

Mario Gavranovic scored goalseither side of a deft chip by RemoFreuler as all three Swiss goalscame from German mistakes.

Germany fought backbehind closed doors with goalsby Timo Werner, his Chelseateam-mate Kai Havertz and SergeGnabry.

SPAIN GGO DDOWNIn other games, Substitute

Viktor Tsygankov’s strike gaveUkraine a surprise 1-0 win overgoal-shy Spain in their clash inKiev. The 22-year-old DynamoKiev player had not long beenthrown into the fray by coachAndriy Shevchenko when helatched onto AndriyYarmolenko’s superb throughball and fired past an exposedDavid de Gea in the 76th minute.

It was a shock result afterSpain — who had not lost sinceNovember 2018 — won 4-0when the sides met in Madridjust last month, and Ukraine arenow only a point behind LuisEnrique’s team in League A,Group 4.

Elsewhere, San Marino arethe perennial whipping boys ofinternational football but onTuesday they were able to cele-brate claiming their first point insix years thanks to a 0-0 draw inLiechtenstein.

Goalkeeper SimoneBenedettini was the hero for SanMarino as he kept their first cleansheet since a goalless draw athome to Estonia in a EuropeanChampionship qualifier inNovember 2014, and their firstever clean sheet away from home.

AP n COLOGNE

Andy Murray suffered another first-round elimination, this time at the

Cologne Indoors at the hands of out-of-form veteran Fernando Verdasco.

Verdasco exploited Murray’s fragileserve to win 6-4, 6-4 in a match which fin-ished after midnight German time.Verdasco, at 36 one of the few players olderthan the 33-year-old Murray in the tour-nament, broke Murray’s serve four times— once to love and three times to 15.

Murray lost in the second round of theUS Open and in the first round of theFrench Open. He used wild cards for bothof those Grand Slam tournaments andagain in Cologne for his first loss on anindoor hard court since the 2015 tourfinals.

Verdasco ended a four-match losingrun going back to January in the AustralianOpen and will take on top-seededAlexander Zverev in the second round afterthe German player had a bye in the firstround.

Eighth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilichad to dig deep to avoid a first-round elim-ination as he beat Marcos Giron 6-2, 4-6,6-3.

Another British player was eliminatedas Kyle Edmund lost a tight match 7-5, 7-6 (1) to big-serving South African LloydHarris, who hit eight aces.

The second-seeded Roberto BautistaAgut will take on Gilles Simon in the sec-ond round after the veteran French play-er swept past Marton Fucsovics 6-0, 6-3.Bautista Agut has a first-round bye.

PTI n ODENSE

Ace Indian shuttler KidambiSrikanth on Wednesday out-

classed England’s Toby Penty instraight games to enter theDenmark Open second roundhere and likened his return tointernational badminton after acoronavirus-forced hiatus to “anadventure”.

The former world numberone, who had claimed four SuperSeries titles in 2017, beat Toby 21-12, 21-18 in 37 minutes, as thesport finally got going after aseven-month-long break.

“I started off well, but he wasgood in the second game. I’mplaying after a long time. It’s likean adventure. This situation issomething new. I’ve never beenaway for this long, and I’m happywith the way it went,” he told

BWF.The fifth seed will next face

Canada’s Jason Anthony Ho-Shue, who defeated India’sSubhankar Dey 21-13, 21-8 in alop-sided contest.

Former world No 13 AjayJayaram also couldn’t cross theopening hurdle, going down 12-21, 14-21 to world No 3 AndersAntonsen of Denmark in 37

minutes. Srikanth and LakshyaSen are now the only survivingIndians in the competition.

Lakshya has already reachedthe second round with a straightgame win over Christo Popov onTuesday. He will face Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus ofDenmark in the next round.

Srikanth said it will takesome time for him to find his best,given the circumstances.

“The last time I played was atthe All England where I lost in thefirst round, so I’ve not had muchof match practice. But I think I’mslowly getting back,” said theworld No 14 Indian.

“It will definitely take sometime, as there are no tournamentsafter this one. There will be apause in the season, so it mighttake time to get used to matchfeeling.”

Cape Town: South Africa is in dan-ger of being banned from internation-al cricket after its Government onWednesday said that it intended tointervene in the affairs of the sport’snational body following revelations ofserious misconduct by senior officials.

The statement from sports min-ister Nathi Mthethwa said he hadinformed the International CricketCouncil of the intended action. TheICC’s constitution forbidsGovernment interference and thepunishment is normally a ban frominternational games for the country’steams until the national cricket bodyis operating independently again.

The tension between the SouthAfrican Government and CSA relatesto a long-running investigation intothe affairs of the cricket body, whichresulted in the firing of CEO ThabangMoroe for serious misconduct. AP

Gayle set forIPL 2020 debut

SA cricket indanger of ban

Misbah steps down

as Pak chief selectorSrikanth wins 1st match at Denmark Open

Verdasco extendsMurray’s losing run

Swiss draw pile pressure on Low Neymar breaksRonaldo’s record

2010 CWG announcer stillwaiting for his payment

PTI n DUBAI

Shikhar Dhawan and skipperShreyas Iyer hit stroke-filled half-centuries but

Delhi Capitals lost momentumtowards the end to be restrict-ed to 161 for seven againstRajasthan Royals in an IPLmatch here on Wednesday.

The last five overs of theDelhi Capitals innings yieldedonly 32 runs and they lost fourwickets, an indication how theymissed Rishabh Pant andShimron Hetmyer.

DC had a disastrous start toits innings after opting to bat asit lost Prithvi Shaw off the firstball of the match with a gem ofa delivery from Jofra Archer(3/19) that jagged back in afterpitching and crashed into themiddle stump after getting an

inside edge.To make matters worse for

DC, Ajinkya Rahane was holedout to Robin Uthappa off Archerat mid-on an over later.

But then skipper Iyer (53 off43) joined hands with Dhawan(57 off 33) and the duo initial-ly played cautiously before open-ing up to take DC forward.

They shared 85 runs for thethird wicket off 55 balls to keepDC’s momentum going after theearly jolts.

Dhawan looked in greatnick from the onset, often find-ing the boundary with his trade-mark pulls and shots square offthe off side.

In the process he scored his39th fifty in the IPL off just 30balls but soon after reaching thefeat he departed while trying toforce the pacer, caught at shortthird man by Kartik Tyagi offleg-spinner Shreyas Gopal.

His runs came off 33 ballswhich had six boundaries andtwo hits over the fence.

After Dhawan’s dismissal,Iyer took the onus on himselfand upped the ante with somelusty hits and in the process gotto his fifty off 40 balls in the 15thover bowled by Jaydev Unadkat,that yielded 17 runs, includingtwo sixes. But soon after, Iyerdeparted, caught by Archer atlong-off off Kartik Tyagi as hewent for another big hit.

Marcus Stoinis (18) andAlex Carey (14) tried their bestto add muscle to the scoreboardbut were unsuccessful.

DC BEAT RR TO GO ON TOP

Jofra Archer celebrates after taking wicket of Prithvi Shaw IPLT20.com

Shreyas Iyer congratulates Shikhar Dhawan after he completes his fifty against Rajasthan Royals IPLT20.com

THE LAST FIVE OVERSOF THE DELHI

CAPITALS INNINGSYIELDED ONLY 32

RUNS AND THEY LOSTFOUR WICKETS