8

India should resistmisleading allureof domestic market

5

Actor SoumitraChatterjee's heathcondition still critical

Judicial reformsneed of the hour

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MONEY 8INDIA SHOULD RESIST MISLEADING

ALLURE OF DOMESTIC MARKET

ANALYSIS 7CHILDREN OF

A LESSER GOD

SPORTS 11DC BEAT RR TO

GO ON TOP

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

}DIGITAL IS THE WAY FOR AMALA

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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 345*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

{

VIJAYAWADAWEATHER

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: 31/24Humidity: 80%Sunrise: 06.09 amSunset: 05.58 pm

Incessant rain leaves trailof destruction, 49 deaths PNS n VIJAYAWADA \ HYDERABAD

Forty-three deaths, 10 of themfrom Andhra Pradesh, in rain-related incidents were report-ed in Telangana and AndhraPradesh on Wednesday whilethe heavy downpour wreakedhavoc in Karnataka as a deepdepression in the Bay of Bengalcrossed the coast in Kakinada,leaving behind a trail of des-truction in the southern states.

Six more people were killedin a wall collapse triggered byheavy rains in Pandharpur ofMaharashtra's Solapur districtduring the day.

Over 5,000 people in Vizag,Godavari districts and Krishnawere evacuated. Godavari dis-tricts were the worts affected;in East Godavari, six mandalsand 11 villages bore the bruntof the depression-induced rain,forcing the administration toevacuate 3,750 people while900 people in Vizag and 90 inWest Godavari are also takingshelter in relief camps.

The tropical system mayweaken in the next 12 hours,the weatherman said.

While 15 people died inHyderabad following inces-sant rainfall, which led towater logging on roads andinundation of some low-lyingareas in the city, 10 people werekilled in rain-related incidentsacross Andhra Pradesh in thelast 48 hours.

Prime Minister NarendraModi spoke to Chief MinistersK Chandrasekhar Rao and YSJaganmohan Reddy andassured them of all possiblesupport and assistance fromthe Centre in the rescue-and-

relief work.In AP, heavy rains caused

damage to roads and disrupt-ed power supply at severalplaces. For the second time inless than 20 days, river Krishnaremained swollen onWednesday as it received aheavy flood due to rainfall overthe last couple of days.

A statement from the ChiefMinister's Office said 10 peo-ple have died in rain-relatedincidents in the state in the lasttwo days. The Chief Ministerordered that ex-gratia beimmediately paid to the vic-tims' families. He asked offi-cials to focus on restoration ofpower supply and repair dam-aged roads on a war-footing.

A breach occurred to theSarada river bund nearYalamanchili inVisakhapatnam district, inun-dating over 2,000 acres of agri-cultural fields in the vicinity.The flood impact was felt inChodavaram, Payakaraopeta,Yalamanchili and Anakapallimandals in the district.

The famous nurseries atKadiyam near Rajahmundry

were flooded due to downpourin East Godavari district. TheVamsadhara river inSrikakulam district receivedheavy flood under the impactof heavy rain in the catchmentarea in neighbouring Odisha.

The deaths in Hyderabadwere mostly caused by wall andhouse collapses triggered bythe heavy downpour.

The Telangana governmenthad declared a holiday onWednesday and Thursday forall private institutions, offices,non-essential services withinOuter Ring Road here in viewof the rains.

People were advised to stayindoors. Three members of afamily, including a child, diedin a house collapse inGaganpahad area ofShamshabad. Ten people diedin two wall collapse incidentsin the Chandrayangutta policestation limits.

A 40-year-old woman andher daughter died after the roofof their house fell on them inthe Ibrahimpatnam area ofthe city on Tuesday night.Several localities in the Greater

Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation limits receivedvery heavy to extremely heavyrainfall leading to waterloggingon several roads and low-lyingareas.

Rivulets and other waterbodies were in spate inBhadradri-Kothagudem dis-trict in the state followingheavy rains and the adminis-tration has advised people notto travel on or cross suchrivulets and inundated roads.

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.

Several trees and electricitypoles were uprooted due to thedeluge. Power supply was sus-pended in most parts of thestate capital on Tuesday as aprecaution.

Meanwhile, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said winter could becolder this season due to theprevailing La Nina conditions.

Breathless: India to stock OPNS n NEW DELHI

The Union Health Ministryhas initiated the process of im-porting liquid oxygen as partof its preparedness to meet anyunforeseen shortage duringthe winters when the countrymay witness an increase inCovid-19 cases leading to a risein demand for oxygen.

HLL Lifecare Limited, apublic sector undertaking, hasfloated a global tender onWednesday on behalf of theHealth Ministry for procuringone lakh metric tonne of liq-uid oxygen.

In September, when Covidcases were rising exponential-ly, several States experiencedshortage of oxygen.

Several hospitals in Indore,Madhya Pradesh, also ran outof oxygen after Maharashtracut off supplies on September7, and utilised it for its ownhospitals. Several places inKarnataka also faced similarissues.

Even in Telangana, the costof oxygen cylinders almostdoubled during August andSeptember. The jumbo oxygencylinders that normally costaround Rs 7,500 were beingsold upto Rs 15,000. The refill-ing cost of the same, which wasabout Rs 200 pre-Covid, shotup to Rs 800 during the peri-od.

Three years back as well, atleast 30 people including 25

kids lost their lives at BabaRaghav Das Medical College inGorakhpur due to shortage ofoxygen in the hospital.

Taking this into account, theHealth Ministry had repeated-ly advised states to ensureadequate oxygen availability inall healthcare facilities andunrestricted intra as well asinter-state movement of oxy-gen.

States were also asked toensure facility wise/hospitalwise oxygen inventory man-agement and advance planningfor timely replenishment sothat there are no stockouts.

The oxygen is being pro-cured for various Central andstate government hospitals.The entire exercise of import-ing and then distributing themedical oxygen is estimated tocost Rs 600-700 crore, officialsources said.

As on Tuesday, around 3.97per cent of the Covid-19

patients were on oxygen sup-port, 2.46 per cent were in ICUbeds which are again withoxygen support and 0.40 pc onventilator support.

In March, before the coun-try went into a lockdown, thecountry had a manufacturingcapacity of around 6,400 met-ric tonne of oxygen per day, ofwhich around 1,000 metrictonne was being used for med-ical purposes daily while therest was utilised by industries,sources said.

"Industries have opened upfollowing unlock proceduresand as on September 30, thecountry's daily capacity of oxy-gen production is around 7,000metric tonne, of which around3,094 metric tonne is beingused for both Covid and non-Covid patients and is justenough to meet the demands,"a source said.

Same-sex couples eye loopholes to legalise nuptialsPNS n NEW DELHI

If two same-sex couplesbelieved that they had finallyfound a loophole in the lawthat they could take advantageof, they failed to contend withthe wisdom of a Delhi HighCourt bench that lobbed thequestion of same-sex mar-riages back to the gamut of cus-toms and traditions.

The two pairs of couples hadpetitioned the Delhi HighCourt for the legal recognitionof same-sex marriage.

Their contention?The Special Marriage Act

and the Foreign Marriage Actleave room for interpretationand can be applied to mar-

riages of same-sex couples. Their contention stunned

advocate Raj Kumar Yadav,appearing for the Union ofIndia into saying: “This is apeculiar situation. In Sanatana

Dharma, in the last 5,000 years,this kind of situation we havenot faced”.

This response led to JusticeAsha Menon, who was on thebench along with Justice RS

Endlaw, saying “The laws aregender-neutral. You please tryto interpret the law for the cit-izens of Sanatana Dharma inthe country. This is not adver-sarial litigation. I request thatcounsel for UOI (not treat it asadversarial). This is for theright of every citizen of thecountry."

The bench said the conceptof marriage emanates fromcustomary laws which do notrecognise same-sex marriagesand what is a marriage is notdefined under the SMA orFMA.

It said everyone interpretswhat a marriage is according tothe customary laws and oncethey recognise same sex mar-

riages other statutes wouldtoo.

The court further said thatSMA was enacted as therewere no customs for inter-faith and inter-caste marriages.

The bench raised a doubt asto whether the definition ofmarriage under the customarylaws also needed to be chal-lenged by the petitioners.

It suggested that if the peti-tioners wished to make anychanges in their pleas to chal-lenge the definition of mar-riage, as provided under thecustomary laws, now was thetime instead of having to do itat a much later stage in the pro-ceedings.

Jagan’s letter ‘blatant bid’ todiscredit judiciary: AdvocatesPNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court BarAssociation on Wednesdaycondemned Chief Minister YSJaganmohan 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 tothe content of the letter ofChief Minister.

It said that the act of theunwarranted release of the let-ter on October 10 in a pressconference, lacks in proprietyand not in accord with theHigh Office of the constitu-tional functionary 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 tobecomet h e

ChiefJustice 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 onthe alleged conduct of Hon'bleJustice NV Ramana, Judge,Supreme Court of India, andHon'ble Judges of the HighCourt of Andhra Pradesh is anabject and uncalled for inter-

ference in the due administra-tion of justice by the Hon'bleHigh Court of AndhraPradesh, the DHCBA said in aresolution.

The DHCBA, which is cur-rently headed by senior advo-cate Mohit Mathur, also saidthat the writing of the letterand its circulation in publicdomain is clearly a dishonestattempt at overawing the inde-pendence of judiciary and tan-tamount to contempt of court.

The Delhi High Court BarAssociation condemns thisblatant attempt to shake theconfidence of the public atlarge in the judicial institutionwhich has been performing itsduty of due administration ofjustice assigned to it by theConstitution of India. TheDHCBA unequivocally, cate-gorically, and in strongest pos-sible terms, condemns the alle-gations cast upon Justice N.V.Ramana, the resolution said.

The bar body also said thatJustice Ramana, who is next inline to become the CJI, hasbeen one of the most virtuousJudges with the highest level ofintegrity.

HC scraps GOon SSC for notomittingNaidu's namePNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Andhra Pradesh HighCourt on Wednesdayscrapped a GO issued by theState government withoutfollowing Supreme Courtorders and directed theadministration to issue itafresh by including the nameof Leader of the Oppositionin the State SecurityCommission.

The HC took up hearingon the allegation of violationof the Supreme Court orderby the YSRCP Governmentand passed the order afterhearing the arguments ofboth the sides.

The HC rejected the StateGovernment’s arguments andjust said that non-inclusion ofOpposition Leader’s name inthe panel was in gross viola-tion of the Supreme Courtorder. The High Court alsoordered the AP Governmentto issue the new GO withina month’s time.

Renowned Kuchipudi exponentSobha Naidu passes away PNS n HYDERABAD

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

Sobha Naidu, who was inher sixties, was undergoingtreatment at a private hospitaland the end came around 1 amon Wednesday, sources closeto her said.

Sobha Naidu's majorachievements include chore-ography and presentation ofBallets Vipranarayana,Kalyana Srinivasam and manyothers in which she was themain protagonist and donnedvarious roles like Satyabhama,Devadevaki, Padmavathi,Mohini, Sai Baba, andGoddess Parvati which wonher great appreciation.

As a Guru (teacher), shetrained a number of studentsfrom India and abroad.

Her performances have alsowon accolades in foreigncountries.

She has presented a series ofperformances at differentvenues in the US and also per-

formed in countries, includingthe UK.

Besides the Padma Shri,she received a number ofawards, including from theAndhra Pradesh governmentand several reputed organisa-tions.

Telangana Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao mournedthe death of Sobha Naidu andrecalled that she was an out-standing exponent ofKuchipudi, known for por-trayal of Satyabhama andPadmavathi.

He conveyed his condo-lences to the bereaved family,an official release said.

Republic TV honchosappear before policePNS n MUMBAI

Republic TV's executive editorNiranjan Narayanswamy andsenior executive editor Abh-ishek Kapoor on Wednesdayappeared before the Mumbaicrime branch for recordingstatements in the fake TRPracket case.

Narayanswamy reached theCrime Intelligence Unit (CIU)office at 12 noon, whileKapoor, who is based in Delhi,reached around 4 pm, a crimebranch official said.

Republic TV on October 10had aired a document which

purportedly belonged toHansa Research Group.

The summons issued onTuesday said there were "rea-sonable grounds to believe"they were "acquainted withcertain facts and circum-stances of the document", soit was necessary to recordtheir statements.

In a tweet, Republic TVsaid, "Senior Executive EditorAbhishek Kapoor reachesCrime Branch after beingsummoned. Republic MediaNetwork will not yield byrevealing sources."

NeerabhPrasadremoved as CCLAPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The State government onWednesday transferred twosenior IAS officers, withimmediate effect.

As per the orders issued byChief Secretary NilamSawhney, Neerabh KumarPrasad of the 1987 batch, wasrelieved of his post as SpecialChief Secretary,Environment, Forests,Science & TechnologyDepartment and ChiefCommissioner of LandAdministration, AP (FAC)and directed to report toGeneral AdministrationDepartment, for further post-ing.

Aditya Nath Das, also ofthe 1987 batch, was given fulladditional charge as SpecialChief Secretary,Environment, Forests,Science & TechnologyDepartment and ChiefCommissioner of LandAdministration.

n 10 die in AP, 33 in TS and six in Maharashtra n Widespread damage to roads, crops

n Ahead of festive season, Centre begins process to import 1 lakh MT of medical oxygen

2

Naidu seeksrelief for rain-hit

3

Velampalli airlifted to HydPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Endowments ministerVelampalli Srinivas was airlift-ed to Hyderabad onWednesday evening andadmitted to Apollo Hospitalsfor better Covid treatment,according to sources.

The sources said thatVelampalli developed a reac-tion to an injection whileundergoing treatment thatforced doctors to recommendhis treatment continue inHyderabad.

The minister contacted theGMR Group and they airlift-

ed him to Hyderabad. Theminister’s condition is nowsaid to be stable with slightlung infection.

Velampalli had tested posi-tive for Covid soon afterreturning to Vijayawada fromTirupati Brahmotsavam cele-brations. 2

2 2

2

2

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vijayawada 02VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

EGG

RATES

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2000

VIJAYAWADA 529

HYDERABAD 515

VISAKHAPATNAM 522

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀55..2299

SILVER

VIJAYAWADA

BULLION RATES

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CHICKEN

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Dressed/With Skin `206

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

` 53, 100 (10 gm)

` 110

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 VIJAYAWADA

Vijayawada Police Commissioner B Srinivasulu onWednesday revealed trafficrestrictions that will beimposed on heavy and mid-sizetrucks during the Dasara-Navaratri celebrations.Accordingly, traffic will bediverted from October 17 to 25during the celebrations toensure that no inconvenience iscreated for the devotees and thedenizens. The traffic restric-tions will come into force fromthe night of October 16, saidSrinivasulu.

He said that vehicles goingtowards Hyderabad fromVisakhapatnam will be divert-ed from Hanuman Junction,Nuzvid, Mylavaram, G Kondurand Ibrahimpatnam whilevehicles on their way toHyderabad from Vijayawadawill be diverted atIbrahimpatnam, G Konduru,Mylavaram, Nuzvid andHanuman Junction.

Heavy trucks going Chennai

from Visakhapatnam will bediverted at Hanuman Junction,Avanigadda, Repalle, Bapatlaand Chirala while vehiclescoming from Chennai toVisakhapatnam will be divert-ed from Chirala, Bapatla,Repalle, Avanigadda andHanuman Junction.

Heavy vehicles from Gunturto Visakhapatnam will not be

allowed towards Vijayawadaand will be diverted fromBundampadu, Ponnuru,Repalle, Avanigadda, HanumanJunction. Buses fromVijayawada to Hyderabad willstart from PN Bus station,Chepalli Bungalow, Eluru Road,Budameru Bridge, Pipula Road,YV Rao Estate, CVR Flyover,Sitara, Gollapudi Y Junction

and reach Ibrahimpatnam andproceed to Hyderabad. Citybuses going towardsIbrahimpatnam will proceedthrough PCV, Prakasam statue,low bridge, KR Market, PanjaCentre, Nehru Chowk,Chittinagar, Sitara, Gollapudiand reach Ibrahimpatnamwhile in return the bus will takethe same route.

PNS n NEW DELHI/MUMBAI

Sushant Singh Rajput's lasttheatrical release Chhichhore isamong the films that will get abig screen re-release onThursday as cinemas in sever-al parts of the country ready toopen after seven months in theshadow of a pandemic.

While theatres and multi-plexes will remain closed instates like Maharashtra, TamilNadu, Kerala and Chhattisgarh,they will open this week in sev-eral places, including Delhiand parts of Madhya Pradeshand Gujarat, with stringentdos and don'ts in keeping withthe new Covid-19 normal.

Film exhibitors in AndhraPradesh have decided not toreopen from Thursday despitethe Centre's nod. Besides thefinancial burden, exhibitors

are reluctant to resume busi-ness because of the lack of newtitles.

Ushering in a new era ofmovie watching, the Centreallowed multiplexes, cinemahalls and theatres to reopenfrom Thursday within theframework of a set of standardoperating procedures (SOPs).

The Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) left it to states to takea final call on the matter.

PVR Cinemas, India's largestfilm exhibitor with 845 screensin 176 properties across 71cities, on Wednesday said 10states and four union territorieshave given their go-ahead forthe reopening of cinemas.

Accordingly, PVR will startoperations in 487 screens fromThursday and hope that otherstates will soon give their greensignal too.

The SOPs mandated by theUnion government includeone seat distance in halls, 50per cent capacity, masks at alltime, proper ventilation and airconditioner temperature set-tings at above 23 degreesCelsius. The multiplex chainsaid it hopes to build customerconfidence with an Evangelism'phase which will give people achance to experience itsenhanced safety features first-hand. This phase will involvegoodwill screenings for thecompany's employees, healthworkers and the police forceand their children.

The movie screenings willbegin from Friday, October 16,

and tickets will go live ontheir website as well as otherticketing platforms from mid-night.

Like the others in the busi-ness, INOX Leisure Ltd said ithas introduced security checkslike mandatory masks andtemperature checks besidesstaggered entries, intermis-sions and exits.

The theatre chain will com-pletely rely on e-tickets insteadof paper tickets and an all-in-one SMS with links for the QRcode, auditoriums seat chartand access to F&B menu.

“We are also looking toinnovate with private screen-ings, where families or small-er groups of guests can bookthe entire auditorium andenjoy the content of theirchoice,” its CEO Alok Tandonsaid in a statement.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Cinema hall owners inAndhra Pradesh have request-ed the State government tosupport them by waiving theirpower bill arrears since theyare “neck-deep in losses” forthe past seven months.

Film exhibitors from acrossthe state met on Wednesday atthe Film Chambers office inthe wake of the Central gov-ernment's announcement thattheatres could open fromOctober 15 following Covidguidelines.

AP Film Exhibitors presi-

dent KS Prasad said that theState government has assuredthat it would waive power billarrears, but however, this hasnot been done yet.

“In the present circum-stances, we cannot open thecinema theatres from October15 as permitted by the Centralgovernment. Negotiations areunderway with the I&PRMinister Perni Venkataramaiah. Theatres will reopenonly after our problems areresolved by the State govern-ment. We have taken a deci-sion not to open the theatresfrom October 15,” said Prasad.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Showing a further decline,3,892 fresh coronavirus caseswere reported in AndhraPradesh on Wednesday as theaggregate went up to 7,67,465.

The latest bulletin said 5,050patients had recovered in 24hours ending 9 AM onWednesday, taking the overallcount to 7,19,477. Twentyeight fresh Covid-19 deathswere reported in the state asthe gross rose to 6,319. Thenumber of active cases camedown to 41,669. After 67.72lakh sample tests, the overallinfection positivity rate stoodat 11.33 per cent in the state.

Interestingly, East Godavaridistrict once again reportedthe highest number of 607daily additions as its con-firmed positives tally went upto 1,07,888. The total recover-ies in the district also crossedthe one lakh mark, reaching1,00,177. It now has 7,135active cases after 576 fatalities.

West Godavari added 518,Krishna 458 and Chittoor 405new cases. Chittoor andKrishna reported four morecasualties each, along withVisakhapatnam district.

East Godavari, Guntur andPrakasam had three moredeaths each, according to thebulletin.

Traffic curbs in place forDasara Navaratri

VIJAYAWADA : The APSRTCwould operate about 1,850 spe-cial bus services during theDasara festival season startingfrom October 15 to 28 to variousdestinations from various depots,according to RTC officials. The officials made it very clearthat the RTC will not operateservices to Tamil Nadu andTelangana states during theDasara festive season.The RTC would operate 562special bus services to Bangalorefrom various depots. From East

Godavari, RTC would operate sixservices, Vijayawada, 18, Guntursix, Ongole 24, Nellore 24,Chittoor 184, Kurnool 92, Kadapa68 and Ananthapur 120 services,while RTC would operate sixservices to Pondicherry fromChittoor.RTC will operate 130 specialservices to Srikakulam from 250special services to Tirupati, 342special bus services toVijayawada, 194 special servicesto Visakhapatnam, 46 toRajahmundry, 30 to Ongole, 34to Nellore, 24 to Kurnool, 26 to

Kakinada, 20 to Kadapa, 20 toGuntur, 26 to Amalapuram, 12 toBallary, 12 to Bhimavaram fromvarious depots.Speaking to The Pioneer, EDOperations, KS BrahmanandhaReddy said that passengers canavail advance ticket 'reservation'facility that has been provided inDasara special buses. He said that authorities have beendirected to increase the numberof buses making reservations asper demand. The RTC officialsare directed to set up specialbuses as per the congestion.

1,850 special buses for Dasara

Cinemas get ready for ‘new normal’, old fare Waive power billarrears, say filmexhibitors in AP

3,892 fresh cases,28 deaths in AP Continued from page 1

"As weak La Nina conditionis prevailing, we can expectmore cold this year. The El Nino and La Ninaconditions play a dominantrole if you consider the largescale factor for the occur-rence of cold wave condi-tions," IMD Director GeneralMrutunjay Mohapatra said.

He was address ing awebinar on 'Cold WaveRisk Reduction' organisedby the National DisasterManagement Author ity(NDMA).

"La Nina conditions arefavourable for cold waveconditions, while El Ninoc on d i t i ons areunfavourable for it," headded.

An IMD weather bul-

letin said heavy to veryh e av y r a i n f a l l w i t hextremely heavy falls (>20cm per day) at isolatedplaces was very likely overKonkan and Goa and heavyto very heavy falls at isolat-ed places over Coasta lKarnataka and MadhyaMaharashtra on October15. Fishermen are advisednot to venture into the seaove r Gu l f o f Man n ar,C omor i n are a andSouthwest Bay of Bengal,along and off Karnataka-Kerala coats and northAndaman Sea during 14th-15th October, east-centraland adjoining north-eastArabian Sea and along andof f Ma h ar a s ht r a - s out hGujarat coast during 14th-18th October, the depart-ment said.

Incessant rain ...

HC scraps GO onSSC for not...Continued from page 1

As such, the HC posted thenext hearing on the case afterfour weeks.

The Supreme Court hadearlier ordered that the SSCsshould be constituted in allStates for ensuring unbiasedand accountable policing. TheCommissions were expectedto act buffers between thepolitical executive and thepolice. This was aimed atmaking the political executiveresponsible in allowing thepolice to work with account-ability. Only for this purpose,

the Leaders of the Oppositionin the respective States werealso included on theCommissions. However, theJaganmohan Reddy regimeissued the GO without includ-ing Naidu’s name on theCommission. As per the SCorder, the Commission shouldconsist of Chief Minister orHome Minister asChairperson, DGP as ex-offi-cio secretary, Leader of theOpposition, Chief Secretary, aretired judge nominated by theChief Justice of High Court,and up to five non-politicalindependent members.

Same-sex coupleseye loopholes to...Continued from page 1

Senior advocate MenakaGuruswamy, appearing forboth set of petitioners, said thepetitioners are not seekingrelief under any customary orreligious laws, rather they areseeking that the civil laws —SMA and FMA — which areapplicable to all kinds of cou-ples, including inter-caste andinter-faith, be also madeapplicable to them.

She went on to highlightthat the Special Marriages Actonly deals with "who cannotenter into a marriage" i.e.

insane persons, minors,degrees of relations and wherethere is no consent."We arechallenging theConstitutionality of the read-ing of this statute... My sub-mission is simply this. TheSpecial Marriage Act prohibitswho "cannot enter into a mar-riage"... This is what the statuteconceives. It is not here todefine "marriage." It is onlyhere to define "who cannotmarry.”

Guruswamy also told thebench that both SMA andFMA are not based on cus-tomary laws.

Republic TV

honchos...Continued from page 1

In another tweet, the newschannel said, "RepublicMedia Network stands withour Executive EditorNiranjan Narayanaswamy &Senior Executive EditorAbhishek Kapoor. Republicstands wholly for the right ofthe media to report and pro-tect its sources."

The crime branch has sofar arrested five persons inthe case.

The alleged fake TRP scamcame to light when ratingsagency Broadcast AudienceResearch Council (BARC)filed a complaint throughHansa Research Group, alleg-ing that certain televisionchannels were rigging TRPnumbers.

Breathless: Indiato stock O2Continued from page 1

"So this one lakh metric tonneof liquid oxygen which isbeing planned to be procuredfrom foreign countries wouldcreate a one month buffer incase demand rises furtherduring the winter season," thesource explained.

The issue was discussed ata meeting held by the CabinetSecretary on October 10, fol-lowing which it was decided toimport liquid oxygen.

Even though India is wit-nessing a declining trend indaily new Covid-19 cases,experts fear that the upcomingfestive season and followingwinter months may see a spike

in coronavirus infections.Union Health Minister

Harsh Vardhan has urged peo-ple to observe Covid-19appropriate behaviour suchas wearing masks, handhygiene, maintaining respira-tory etiquette and staying awayfrom congregations, citing thepossibility of increased novelcoronavirus transmission dur-ing winters.

"These viruses are known tothrive better in the cold weath-er and low humidity condi-tions. In view of these, itwould not be wrong to assumethat the winter season may seeincreased rates of transmissionof the novel coronavirus in theIndian context too," he said.

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.

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. "Weare pumping out water that hasstagnated in the zoo premises.Efforts are being made to clearout water from animal enclo-sures using pumps at the ear-liest," said an official.

Authorities have requestedvisitors to cooperate and avoidvisiting the zoo on Wednesday.

As per Covid protocolapproved by the Central ZooAuthority and Chief WildlifeWarden of Telangana, the zooauthorities took several mea-sures for the safety of visitors,staff and animals. While the ani-

mals in zoo are being taken careof during the floods, the animalson the street are homeless andhelpless. 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.

Hyderabad zoo shut due to waterlogging

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

Flood alert raised as inflows continue PNS n VIJAYAWADA

With inflows into theKrishna river increasing, allcrest gates of PrakasamBarrage were lifted to releasefloodwaters into Bay ofBengal while the authoritiessounded the second floodalert warning.

As much as 7.40 lakhcusecs of floodwater wasdischarged into the sea fromPrakasam Barrage onWednesday evening even as6.99 lakh cusecs gushed intothe Barrage from upstream.

Elsewhere, road connec-tivity between old Amaravatiand Vijayawada was snappeddue to the Kondaveeti Vaguoverflowing at PedaMadduru on Wednesday.

The low level bridge atPeda Maddur was under asheet of water due toKondaveeti Vagu floodwa-ters. Officials plunged intoaction and released floodwa-ter from Kondaveeti Vaguthrough the lift pumpingsystem into Krishna river.

Residents of low-lyingareas in the city were shift-ed to the relief camp in theIGMC stadium at

Vijayawada. Ther a i n -

water also inundated thefamous Andhra LoyolaCollege campus and adjacentroads in Vijayawada city.

B h u p e s h n a g a r ,T a r a k a r a m a n a g a r ,R amal ingeswaranagar,Balajinagar, Krishnalanka,Y a n a m a l a k u d u r u ,Ranigarithota and adjacentlocalities situated on thebanks of the Krishna river atVijayawada were inundatedand the residents were alsoshifted to the relief camp atIGMC.

Krishna district CollectorA Md Imtiaz visited therelief camp and enquiredabout the facilities.

Imtiaz said that as many as1,323 people were shifted to19 relief camps in the districtand officials are providingfood and shelter to the evac-uees.

He said that besides theseevacuees, another 1,000 peo-ple were living on river/canalbanks who were facing dif-ficulties due to flood waterhence officials are providingfood to the flood victims.

The Collector said thatnearly 7.30 lakh cusecs ofwater would reach PrakasamBarrage so irrigation, policeand Vijayawada MunicipalCorporation officials formedteams and are shifting peo-

ple to relief camps fromlow lying areas. He said

that 25 villages wereinundated.

Paddy wasdamaged in12,466 hectaresand horticul-ture crops in1 , 4 0 0hectares dueto incessantrains inKrishna dis-trict. Imtiazsaid thatteams wouldbe appointedto conductenumerationafter recedingf loodwaterand assuredrelief to allflood victimswithout fail.

Power utilities have risen to theoccasion, claims Energy SecretaryPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The electricity departmenthas successfully restored 97percent of feeders within 24hours in flood-affected areasin the West Godavari,Krishna, Guntur,and Anantapurd i s t r i c t swhere therewere heavyr a i n s ,accordingto offi-cials.

A smany as170 feeders(11&33kv)were affectedacross the Statedue to heavy rains ofwhich 165 have been restoredso far. The electricity depart-ment is making efforts tocomplete the remainingrestoration works and ensure24x7 power supply to allareas in the district, the offi-cials said in a statement.

Energy Secretary SrikantNagulapalli said that theelectricity department hassuccessfully completedpower infrastructure restora-

tion works in flood affectedareas without any interrup-tion in power supply.

“I appreciate the tirelessefforts of CMDs of DIS-COM s and entire field staff

from village to State levelwho are successful

in ensuring 100percent of

power sup-ply acrossthe Stateeven ass e v e r a la r e a sw e r e

s e ve re lyhit by

heavy rains,”he said.Srikanth con-

ducted a teleconfer-ence with top officials of thepower utilities and askedthem to be cautious andcompletely focus on 24x7power supply which is a pri-ority for Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy.

He later briefed EnergyMinister Balineni SrinivasaReddy on the measures takento ensure uninterruptedpower supply in flood-affect-ed areas.

Jagan tells officials to be alert, tappotential of excess floodwatersPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy onWednesday instructed offi-cials to remain on high alertand provide all help to peopletaking shelter in relief campsfrom the incessant and heavyrains. He also announced Rs500 be given to each person inthe camps.

Chairing a review meetingon the situation arising out ofthe heavy rains and floods dueto the cyclonic storm crossingthe cost, the Chief Ministerdirected the district adminis-tration to take adequate mea-sures in the flood-affectedareas.

Interacting with the districtcollectors through videocon-ference, the Chief Ministerasked them to be on alert forflooding, more so in Krishnaand Guntur districts as theinflows to Prakasam barrageis expected to reach 7.5 lakhcusecs due to incessant rainsin Telangana State.

About 4 lakh cusecs will bereleased from Srisailam whichwill increase the flow atPrakasam barrage.

The Chief Minister Hinstructed the officials to

arrange accommodation forthe people who are beingevacuated from flood-proneareas and ensure that emer-gency services are notstopped.

He directed officials tofocus on restoration of powersupply and repairs to damagedroads on a war-footing andtold them to complete all therepair works on a permanentbasis in the next 4-5 months.

He asked the officials to payex-gratia to the kin of 10 per-sons who died during theheavy rains. Jagan pointed

out that the excess floodwa-ters, diverted to canals andponds, can be used for irriga-tion.

In regard to this, he direct-ed the authorities to preparean action plan to make thebest use of floodwater by notallowing it to go waste.

Despite 40 percent excessrainfall in Chittoor district,only 30 percent of the tanksare filled, Jagan said, andadvised the authorities tochange such a situation andensure to fill every reservoir,canals, tanks, and ponds with

floodwater.Further, the Chief Minister

said that safe drinking watershould be supplied to thepublic and appropriate pre-cautions should be taken toprevent the spread of dis-eases across the State.

Authorities were instructedto equip all the PHCs with thenecessary drugs and ensurethat emergency health servicesare in place.

The officials informed thatthe drinking water is beingsupplied through tankers andmeasures are being taken tomaintain sanitisation in allrural areas.

After normalcy returns,agriculture and horticultureexperts from various univer-sities and institutions will beguiding the farmers on crop-ping patterns to minimise theloss.

Ministers MekathotiSucharitha and BotsaSatyanarayana, ChiefSecretary Nilam Sawhney,Special Chief SecretaryPoonam Malakondaiah,Principal Secretary ofPanchayat Raj Gopal KrishnaDwivedi, and other officialswere present at the reviewmeeting.

Agencies step in toretrieve grounded shipPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

To retrieve the Bangladeshimerchant ship, MV Maa thatlost its anchorage support andran aground off Vizag coastnear Tenneti Park beach, sev-eral agencies stepped in onWednesday.

The Mercantile MarineDepartment and Coast Guardexamined the area if there wasany oil spill that would pollutethe sea and affect the vessel'smovement.

The 1,599 dwt vessel havinga length of 72 meters and builtin 2009, drifted towards thebeach after the two anchorssnapped due to high velocitywinds caused by deep depres-

sion in Bay of Bengal.The empty vessel with 15

member crew came fromChittagong Port, Bangladeshto take a load of fly ash andother material. It got stuck inthe anchorage since September22 waiting for the customsclearance.

“Removal of the fuel fromthe ship which has around 41tonnes is required first. GillMarine company which has itsbranch in Visakhapatnam willdo the task,’’ said director ofMMD S Satyanarayana.

He said after the fuel wasemptied, the insurers P&IClub and H&M would entrustthe job of retrieval to someagency.

Probe allegationsmade by Jagan,says top advocate PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Advocates Association of theAP High Court former presi-dent KB Ramanna Dora onWednesday called for a probeinto the allegations of discrim-ination against the State lev-elled by Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy in his let-ter to the Chief Justice ofIndia.

In his four-page letter,Ramanna Dora said that therewas a widespread feelingamong the people that theTDP was running a parallelgovernment using the HighCourt. “This is alarming andneeds to be looked into,” hisletter said. “Scores of negativeorders passed by a few judges

of the HC, unduly criticisingthe government and this givescredence to this impression,”Ramanna Dora’s letter said.

In as many words, thesenior advocate alleged that“those entrenched in the judi-cial system were playing cardsin a way that is helpful to TDPregardless of the party inpower. This has been the casein the state since the past 10years”.

Ramanna Dora concludedby praying that timely inter-vention from the appropriateauthority, in order to upholdthe sanctity of the Judiciary ofthis country, was very muchneeded to put at rest doubtsdwelling in the heads of citi-zens.

GGH gets required cardiac care equipmentPNS VIJAYAWADA

Krishna district CollectorA Md Imtiaz on Wednesdayinaugurated the much-awaitedCath lab and Cardiologydepartment in the SuperSpeciality block of newGovernment General Hospital,Vijayawada.

The Collector inaugurated a2D Echo, ECG/TMT, consulta-tion room, Cath lab, cardiaccare unit ward on the occasion.He also inspected the latestmedical devices.

Speaking on the occasion,Imtiaz said that the new SuperSpeciality block was construct-ed and was put to use to treatCovid patients.

“In the Super Speciality

block, a new cardiac divisionwas inaugurated comprisingCath lab which will be of greatuse to patients in and aroundVijayawada. He said that Covid

patients suffering from cardiacproblems can be treated in thenewly inaugurated cardiacdepartment,” he said.

Imtiaz said that an automat-

ic system with latest equipmentis made available to treat car-diac patients and is on par withthe hospitals at Tirupati,Visakhapatnam and Kurnool.

He said that the latest equip-ment will enable doctors todiagnose blockages the patientsare suffering from, besidestreating them with stent proce-dure or bypass surgery.

For performing bypass surg-eries, the newly-opened cardiacdivision will help the patientswith advanced treatment, hesaid.The collector said that thenew cardiac division was set upon a Public Private Partnershipbasis with Safe NutrientsPrivate limited.

Director of MedicalEducation Dr K Venkatesh,Hospital Superintendent Dr KSivashankar Rao, DySuperintendent Dr DVenkateswara Rao, RMO Dr DHanumnatha Rao, Dr Shobaand others were present.

Brass offeringsstolen fromSimhachalam templePNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Vizag c ity pol ice onWednesday arrested eightpersons in connection withthe theft of over 500 kg ofbrass offerings from theSimhachalam temple.

It may be recalled thatover 500 kg of brass itemsoffered to the presiding deityat Sr i Varaha L akshmiNarasimha Swamy temple inSimhachalam had gonemissing. Brass bracelets andbrass replicas of bells andoxen are offered by thedevotees in the hundi.

Police received a com-plaint from temple AssistantEO P Rama Rao that a bid-der had purchased 665 kg ofbrass items in an auction.

The bidder who won theauction filled the items in 41bags and had kept those at

the Kalyanamandapam onthe temple premises to makesome payment to the temple.However, 34 bags of brassitems (550 kg) worth Rs 1.2lakh went missing by thetime he returned.

Based on the complaint,DCP (Crimes) V SureshBabu formed special teamsand the invest igat ionrevealed that four personscommitted the theft whilefour others were receivers ofthe stolen brass items.

The arrested have beenidentified as K Suresh, KMahesh, S Srinivas, and SSateesh, all the four havestolen the brass offeringswhile the receivers were PAppa Rao, V Ramu, MRajasekhar Reddy and AVenkata Kumar Reddy. Thepolice have recovered thestolen property from them.

Simhachalamofficial suspendedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

P Narasinga Rao, senior assis-tant of the Sri Varaha LakshmiNarasimha SwamyDevasthanam at Simhachalamwas suspended on Wednesdayon charges of indulging in ille-gal activities.

Commissioner of Revenue(Endowments), P Arjun Rao,who issued the orders, saidthat Narasinga Rao stoodaccused of being involved invarious unlawful activities likeencouraging illegal construc-tions, interfering in the post-ings, threatening the guardsposted on duty on the templeprecincts, leaking certain con-

fidential information. ArjunRao said that Narasinga Raowas the kingpin in the illegallevelling of the 13.4 acres ofland belonging to the templethough the High Court hadordered status quo in the mat-ter.

Arjun Rao said that thesenior assistant has beenplaced under suspensionpending inquiry as to his con-tinuation in the post will ham-per not only the inquiry butalso the mass encroachment ofthe land belonging to the tem-ple.

The temple EO has beenasked to take necessary furtheraction in this regard.

Pawan Kalyandevastated byloss of life,propertyVIJAYAWADA: Actor-politician andJana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan onWednesday described the loss of lifeand property in the two Telugu Statesdue to incessant and heavy rains as“very unfortunate”. “Nature brought intense grief to thepeople who were already devastatedby Coronavirus in the form ofdepression. It’s painful that 13 peoplelost their lives in Telangana and six inAndhra Pradesh. A great tragedy isthat eight persons belonging to onefamily have died in a house collapsein the Old City of Hyderabad,” PawanKalyan said in a message.He said that the natural calamity hasbadly hit the farming community inAndhra Pradesh as the rainsdamaged paddy, maize, cotton andchilli crops and also horticulturecrops. “It is a matter of concern thatstanding crops in about 1.5 lakhacres are damaged, incurring a lossof Rs 400 crore to the farmers,”Pawan Kalyan said. “All the tributaries, rivulets, streamsand tanks are overflowing along withKrishna and Godavari rivers andinundation of housing coloniescausing inconvenience to the people.The records show that the heavyrains have ever occurred in the lasthundred years and it can beimagined how horrible the situationwas,” he wrote. “I request thegovernments of Andhra Pradesh andTelangana to extend support to therain-hit people,” he said.

Naidu seeksrelief for rain-hit in letter to JaganVIJAYAWADA : Leader of theOpposition and TDP supremo NChandrababu Naidu on Wednesdaywrote to Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy expressingconcern over the large scaledamage to life and property due tothe unprecedented heavy rains thathave lashed the State and triggeredgales, house collapse andlandslides.Naidu stressed the need for theGovernment to come to theimmediate rescue of the victimsand extend all sorts of reliefactivities and compensation for themassive destruction. In his letter, the TDP chief soughtextension of ex gratia to the familymembers of the victims and alsofor taking up immediateenumeration of crops that weredamaged due to the heavy rains. The Government should purchasethe food grains that have beendiscoloured due to being soaked inthe rainwaters, Naidu wrote,adding that MSP should beguaranteed to the aggrievedfarmers.Naidu demanded urgentidentification of tenant farmerswho lost their crops. “Seed andfertiliser should be provided to thefarmers freely to cultivatealternative crops. Financialassistance should be given toweavers and artisans who lost theirlivelihoods. Assistance should begiven to help fishermen to buyfishing nets and boats in place ofdamaged ones. Families whosehouses were damaged should begiven help for undertaking repairs,”the former chief minister wrote.Naidu alerted the Chief Ministerthat there was a need to sanctionnew houses in place of those thathave collapsed or have beenwashed away in the floods. “Breaches to the streams andrivulets should be filled. Potholeson highways should be levelled ona war footing for the safety of thepeople. All sorts of assistanceshould be provided to the victimsof heavy rains,” he wrote.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Governor BiswabhusanHarichandan on Wednesdayexpressed his profound griefand sadness at the suddenpassing away of Shobha Naidu,the eminent Kuchipudidanseuse and an outstandingdisciple of the renowned mas-ter Vempati Chinna Satyam.

Harichandan said SobhaNaidu who passed away ear-lier in the day in Hyderabad,mastered the art of Kuchipudiand played lead roles in dance-dramas from a very young ageand her performance in theroles of Satyabhama andPadmavati were wellacclaimed.

Sobha Naidu also con-tributed to popularity of the

Kuchipudi art form by impart-ing training to younger stu-dents, said the Governor.Governor Harichandan in amessage said he “prays Lord SriJagannath and Lord SriVenkateswara for her soul to

rest in peace and offer myheartfelt condolences to mem-bers of the bereaved family”.

In his message, ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy expressed grief overthe passing away of SobhaNaidu, renowned danseuseand exponent of Kuchipudidance form.

From being a disciple ofVempati China Satyam toheading the Dance Academyto train young dancers, SobhaNaidu, born in Anakapalle, hasdone great service toKuchipudi and her balladsand solo performances hadwon worldwide acclaim, theChief Minister said.

He conveyed his condo-lences to the bereaved familymembers.

Guv, Jagan grieve Sobha Naidu

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.

VIJAYAWADA| THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020 telangana 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 05VIJAYAWADA | 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 nionVIJAYAWADA | 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

VIJAYAWADA | 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

VIJAYAWADA | 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

ThursdayOctober 15, 2020

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@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

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

Vijayawada 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.

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

VIJAYAWADA | THURSDAY | OCTOBER 15, 2020

11

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

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

12

Vijayawada Thursday October 15 2020tollywood

or the past threeyears, AmalaPaul has made ita point to associ-ate with content-rich cinema and

it’s evident from her filmog-raphy. The actress, who isstaging 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

other being the Teluguremake of Kannada sus-pense thriller Aa KaraalaRatri, with original directorDayal Padmanabhanattached 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