NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

As debates over having a stormwater network and ways ofimproving bad roads in the citygo on, Hyderabad's heros, espe-cially the GHMC DRF teams,NDRF and traffic police, havebattled odds to address thechaos created by rainfall in thepast 72hours. Be it rescuing amother and her 3-month-oldbaby at midnight, pulling out aman from drain, de-watering atDevnar blind school, rescuingpeople using boats or clearingwater, they were spot on. Thedifference this year was that allthe DRF teams were bettercompared to last year, when theywere just formed. The maxi-mum time taken by DRF teamsto clear water was 3 hours,while the minimum was 10minutes. With 13 teams cover-ing the city, every person on the

ground was a hero, be it GHMCstaffer or a policeman, or just acommon man who helped oth-ers. About 135 of the 150 com-

plaints were solved on Friday,while the other 15 are inprogress.

Continued on Page 2

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HYDERABAD 11STRIVING TO SECURE

THE RIGHTS OF NURSES

ANALYSIS 9FARMING AS

SMART BUSINESS

SPORTS 16KASHYAP SEALS

KOREA SEMIS SPOT

HYDERABAD, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2019; PAGES 16 `3

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUNVIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 1 ISSUE 355*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

We have been working for 72hours with hardly any sleep to manage this crisis.There is prediction of rain for Friday night and so we are gearing up for

contingencies in the night. The time frame to resolve a problem pertains to eachissue like magnitude of water logging and if pump can reach the location. We have13teams, but need 30 teams, one per circle then we can effectively use them andeffectively respond. On Friday, Minister K T Rama Rao also agreed that the number ofteams will be increased and commended us on our very good job. Hopefully, for thenext monsoon, we will have better teams and more teams

— VISWAJIT KAMPATI

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated September 27, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Bhdrapada & Krishna PakshaPanchangamTithi : Amavasya : 11:56 pmNakshatram: Uttara Phalguni: 10:03 pmTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 09:07 am – 10:37 pmYamagandam: 01:36 pm – 03:05 pmVarjyam: 07:22 am - 08:46 am07:00 pm - 06:50 amGulika: 06:09 am - 07:38 amGood Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 03:45 pm - 05:09 pmAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:43 am - 12:30 pm

Forecast: Isolated ThunderstormsTemp: 29/22Humidity: 92%Sunrise: 06.05Sunset: 06.07

L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Having failed to receive theKharif Rythu Bandhu amountfor the past three months,Telangana farmers have been atthe end of their tether. Yet,political weathercock smiledon farmers in Huzurnagar,where by-polls would be heldon October 21. For the pastfour days, it has been rainingfunds, with the State govern-ment releasing Rs 128 crore forfarmers in Suryapet district.The amount has been trans-ferred to banks, which havebeen asked to credit the moneyinto the accounts of the farm-ers on a war-footing.

Normally, Kharif seasonbegins on June 1 and ends onSeptember 30 every year. TheState government is supposedto disburse Rythu Bandhuamount of Rs 5,000 per acre tofarmers for the season in Juneor July. However, the govern-ment could not disburse theamount in time to lakhs offarmers in several districtsostensibly due to cash crunch.With the season almost com-ing to an end, farmers had

almost lost their hopes of get-ting the Kharif Rythu Bandhuamount.

Farmers in Suryapet dis-trict, however, are laughingtheir way to the bank as theyhave started receiving fundsinto their bank accounts. Thishas been happening for thepast four days, thanks to theupcoming Huzurnagar by-elections. Huzurnagar is part ofSuryapet district.

Farmers here are thrilled toreceive SMSes from theAgriculture Department andbanks informing them aboutthe amounts being creditedinto their accounts. There are2.30 lakh beneficiaries of Rythu

Bandhu in Suryapet district.Only 1.20 lakh farmers hadreceived their money, totalingRs 130 crore, prior to theannouncement of the pollschedule for the Huzurnagarbypoll. A sum of Rs 160 crorewas pending and the remain-ing 1.10 lakh farmers were dis-appointed all these days.

Out of Rs 160 crore, the gov-ernment released Rs 128 crore.Orders have been issued torelease the balance — Rs 32crore next week so that theentire Rythu Bandhu arrearspertaining to Suryapet could becleared before polling.

Nearly 50,000 farmersreceived the amount into their

banks accounts during thepast four days.

The urgency shown by theState government in selective-ly disbursing Rythu Bandhuamount has given scope foropposition parties to criticisethe TRS government that it hasbeen done only to purchasevotes with public money.

For, the government stillowes over Rs 2,400 croretowards Khariff Rythu Bandhuto 14.35 lakh farmers. Hence,the release of funds for farm-ers belonging to Suryapet aloneis being questioned by oppo-sition parties.

Continued on Page 2

Its raining Rythu Bandhufunds in Huzurnagarl Govt releases Rs 128 crore for Suryapet district l Amountcredited into 50k farmers' bank accounts over the past four days

PNS n HYDERABA

An eight-year-old girl waskilled and her mother injuredon Friday when the roof oftheir mud house collapsed inNarayanapet district ofTelangana in heavy rains, evenas the downpour caused havocin Hyderabad.

The girl was killed when therain-soaked roof of her homeat Pulimamidi village collapsedon Friday morning, policesaid. Her mother is undergo-ing treatment at a govern-ment hospital, they said.

Heavy rains lashedHyderabad and many otherparts of the state since lateThursday, but there was a lullin the downpour this morning.

Gudimalkapur, Red Hills,Srinagar Colony, Sivarampalle,Monda Market, GanankaBhavan (Khairatabad), VijayNagar colony and other areasof Hyderabad receivedbetween 10 to 14 cm of rain-fall since Thursday, officialdata said. The IMD weatherbulletin said Rajendranagarand Golconda here andThimmajipet in Nagarkurnooldistrict received 8 cms of rain-fall, followed by Hakimpet(Hyderabad) and Julapalle inPeddapalle district (seven cmeach).

About 200 houses inHyderabad's M S Maktha areawere inundated early on Fridayafter a protective wall of a canalconnected to Hussain SagarLake partially collapsed in

heavy rains, official sourcessaid. The rains also led towaterlogging in low-lying areas

of the city, they said.

Continued on Page 2

Heavy rain causes havoc;Girl killed in house collapse

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

TPCC working president andformer Indian cricket team cap-tain Mohammed Azharuddin isset to meet Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao onSaturday, triggering specula-tions that he might join TRSsoon. After Azharuddin won inthe Hyderabad CricketAssociation (HCA) electionsas president, rumors have beenrife that he is planning to jumpinto TRS, considering that thepink party had extended its sup-port to the panel which includ-ed him during the elections.

When The Pioneer contact-ed him, Azhar, merely said:"Media gave birth to rumorsagainst me. Why should Irespond on mere rumors?Rumors are rumors."

Curiously, after HCA results,while speaking to media per-sons at Uppal Stadium,Azharuddin had remarked:"This is not the forum to tellwhether I will join TRS or not.I will meet Chief Minister,along with my panel. KChandrasekhar Rao is boss ofthe State. I will discuss thedevelopment of cricket withthe Chief Minister."

Meanwhile, word spreadacross political and sports cir-

cles that Azharuddin may joinTRS, most probably on Fridaynight or Saturday morning, ifeverything goes right.Azharuddin sought appoint-ment and it is learnt thatAzharuddin will meet KCR onSaturday. This being so,Congress senior leader VHanumantha Rao, who cele-brated Azharuddin's victory in

HCA polls at Gandhi Bhavan bydistributing sweets and burstingfire crackers, condemned thenews about Azharuddin joiningTRS. The news had been spreadagainst Azhar by some "vestedinterests" to take revenge againstformer HCA president G Vivek,who joined BJP recently afterquitting TRS.

Continued on Page 2

Former India captain MohammadAzharuddin was on Friday

elected President of the HyderabadCricket Association (HCA), lifecoming full circle for the man whowas once indicted for match-fixingand banned for life from playing.The stylish batsman of yesteryearspolled 173 votes while hisopponent Prakash Chand Jain got73 votes. The victory marks hisentry into cricket administration.The 56-year-old, who has alsoserved as the member ofparliament from Moradabad inUttar Pradesh, led India to a spate

of Test series wins over England, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at homein the 1990s. But the former batsman fell from grace after he wasimplicated in the 2000 match-fixing scandal that shook the core ofIndian cricket. However, the Andhra High Court had ruled that theinvestigation against him was not conducted properly. Azharuddin,who appeared in 99 Tests and 334 ODIs, filed his nomination for thepresident's post in the HCA last week.

Azhar elected president of HCA

Director among sevenarrested in medical scamPNS n HYDERABAD

The Anti-Corruption Bureau(ACB) on Friday arrested sevenpersons, including the InsuranceMedical Services (IMS) depart-ment Director Ch Devika Raniand Joint Director K Padma, inconnection with financial irreg-ularities in supplying medicinesto dispensaries and hospitals.The other arrested personsinclude IMS Assistant DirectorVasantha Indira, pharmacistRadhika, Omni MediaManaging Director Srihari andemployee Nagaraju and Srihari,and IMS senior superintendentHarshavardan.

The ACB on Thursday hadconducted simultaneoussearches at 23 places on the

offices and residences of offi-cials of IMS and other areas andseized key documents.

According to sources, theACB enquiry revealed that theIMS Director and other officialswere "involved in making fakeindents, falsification of records,violating the rules and regula-tions in purchasing the medi-cines, surgical kits and causedloss to the government exche-quer". Earlier, the State gov-ernment's vigilance andenforcement (V&E) wing hadconducted an enquiry into theallegations that no proper eli-gibility criteria was followed bythe IMS Director in the selec-tion of firms for supply ofmedicines.

Continued on Page 2

Azhar to meet KCR todayl Triggers rumours of his joining TRS

Farmers in Suryapetdistrict, however, arelaughing their way tothe bank as they havestarted receiving fundsinto their bankaccounts. This hasbeen happening for thepast four days

IMS department Director Ch Devika Rani being taken into custodyPNS n HYDERABAD

In a significant development,the Telangana High Court onFriday convicted theKarimnagar PoliceCommissioner VBKamalasan Reddy and twoother police officers in a con-tempt case and sentencedthem to six months' impris-onment and imposed a fine ofRs 2,000 each. The Court alsoimposed costs of Rs 10,000 oneach of them, payable to thestate legal services authority.The Court directed the Stategovernment to incorporatethe said punishment in theirservice records. The names ofthe other convicted policeofficers are Karminagar ruralACP Tirupati andKarimnagar Rural CIShashidhar Reddy.

The Court, however, sus-pended the order for fourweeks to enable the contem-nors to avail legal remedies.

Continued on Page 2

School bus stuck in water, carswept away as rains batter cityAschool bus was stuck in the middle of an inundated road in

Trimulgherry, while a car was partially swept into a canal at thesame spot on Friday due to the impact of torrential rains that havelashed Hyderabad from Saturday night. The school bus, ferryingchildren of DRS International School, apparently had a batteryproblem after it passed through waist high water running across theroad near Manasarovar Heights in Trimulgherry around 7.30 am.Earlier, around 2.30am, a car that was attempting to cross the samespot was swept off the road into the drainage canal, but held frombeing washed away by a safety net that had been put across thecanal. The driver managed to get out of the car, local residents said.As for the students in the school bus, another bus was called in andthey were shifted to safety after having to wait for about an hour.The canal has been overflowing dangerously whenever it rainsheavily. Tuesday night's rains had caused a similar situation withtwo cars getting stuck at the same point late in the night. Across thecity, the rains continued till early morning, with the rainfallsurpassing Tuesday night's rainfall by a huge margin.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana HealthDepartment on Fridayordered a probe into thealleged illegal clinical trials atgovernment-run NilouferHospital here. Director ofMedical Education, K.Ramesh Reddy directed hos-pital superintendent to con-duct a probe and submit areport. The official asked thesuperintendent to submit allthe details of each trial pro-tocol.

This followed the allega-tions that some doctors at thehospital colluded with phar-ma companies to conduct tri-als in violation of all norms.

Resident Medical Officer(RMO) Lalu Prasad onThursday accused head ofPediatrics, Ravi Kumar, ofconducting clinical trialswithout any permission.

The latter, however, deniedthe allegations and said thetrials are being conductedwith all the required permis-sion. Niloufer is Telanganabiggest government-run hos-pital for children and alsodeals with maternity cases.

Continued on Page 2

Probe orderedinto clinicaltrials at Hydhospital

Govt retires 15 more taxofficials ongraft charges

Maruti cutsprice of Balenoby Rs 1 lakh

Disgruntledlitigant ‘seals'judge's chamberPALGHAR (MAHA): Anunidentified person lockedthe judge's chamber at acourt in Maharashtra'sPalghar district, claiming thathe was doing so because hewas being made to run frompillar to post to get justice.

The incident took placeduring lunch recess at a courtin Vasai town on Wednesday,the police said.

Between 2 and 2.30 pm,when magistrate S B Pawarand the court staff hadstepped out for lunch, anunidentified person put alock on the door of thejudge's chamber from out-side, said police spokespersonHemant Katkar.

The culprit had pasted apiece of paper on the lock, onwhich was written, "SalmanKhan convicted for five yearsby sessions court Mumbai.Got bail from high courtwithin three hours and I amwandering door to door forjustice.

NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzukion Friday announced areduction of Rs. 1 lakh in theprice of its compact-segmentmodel Baleno RS. The moveby the country's largest car-maker comes two days afterit lowered the prices of selectmodels by Rs. 5,000 follow-ing a cut in corporate taxesannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanlast week. The ex-showroomprice of Maruti Suzuki'sBaleno RS model in Delhi isRs. 5,58,602, according tothe carmaker's Nexa website.The Baleno RS model is partof the company's Nexa seriesof premium and luxury cars.

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment has compulsorilyretired 15 more tax officers inthe fourth tranche of itscrackdown on errant officialsaccused of corruption andother malpractices.

The Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) -- the agency thatoversees GST and import taxcollections -- compulsorilyretired 15 senior officersunder Fundamental Rule56(J) on corruption and othercharges, official sources said.

Since June, this is thefourth round of sacking ofcorrupt tax officials. In theprevious three rounds, 49high ranking tax officers,including 12 from the CentralBoard of Direct Taxes(CBDT), were compulsorilyretired.

GHMC DRF becomes Hyderabad's new army

In view of the successof Disaster Response

Force unit in Hyderabad,similar units will beextended to allmunicipal corporations.Witnessing theeffectiveness ofEnforcement, Vigilance& Disaster Management(EV&DM) wing in thecity, Minister K T RamaRao announced that

similar assistance would be provided to citizens in other MunicipalCorporations in a phased manner. "In the initial stage, the DRF teamswill start their operations in Warangal and Karimnagar MunicipalCorporations," KTR said. He appreciated the work of DRF teamsduring emergencies in Hyderabad. MA&UD Minister K T Rama Raoand Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao launched the'Central Enforcement Cell' and a mobile app at EVDM office inHyderabad on Friday. Continued on Page 2

MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao appreciating the efforts of DRF personnel, Panchayat RajMinister Errabelli Dayakar Rao also seen

HC sentencesKarimnagar CPto jail term

{

DRF units in all the Municipalcorporations soon: KTR

HARD TALK AT UN

Modi warns against terror,Imran harps on nuclear warPNS n NEW YORK

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Friday addressed the 74thsession of the United NationsGeneral Assembly in New YorkCity with focus on positioningIndia as a world leader.

The theme for this year's ses-sion is "Galvanising multilater-al efforts for poverty eradica-tion, quality education, climateaction and inclusion".

Modi highlighted his gov-ernment's achievements, andwarned the world against ter-rorism, while giving a messageof harmony, peace and multi-lateralism. "The modern tech-nology is bringing big changesto society, personal lives, econ-omy, security, connectivity and

international relations... Adivided world in these circum-stances is in nobody's interest.Nor do we have the option tostay limited within our borders.We must give a new strengthand new direction to multilat-eralism and the UnitedNations," he observed.

Quoting SwamiVivekananda, Modi said India'smessage to the world is still thesame: harmony and peace. Aworld divided in the name ofterrorism hurt the principlesbehind the formation of theUnited Nations. Therefore, forthe sake of humanity, it wasmandatory for the world to beunanimous and united in itsopposition to terrorism.

Continued on Page 2

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at JagathiPublications Ltd, D 75, E 52, Industrial Estate, Balangar, Hyderabad -500 037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 hyderabad 02An education which does not teach us todiscriminate between good and bad, to assimilate

the one and eschew the other, is a misnomer — MAHATMA GANDHI

India is Gandhi's countryof birth; South Africa hiscountry of adoption. He

was both an Indian and aSouth African citizen. Bothcountries contributed to hisintellectual and moral genius,and he shaped the liberatorymovements in both colonialtheaters. He is the archetyp-al anti-colonial revolutionary.His strategy of non-coopera-tion, his assertion that we canbe dominated only if wecooperate with our domina-tors, and his nonviolent resis-tance inspired anti colonialand antiracist movementsinternationally in our centu-ry.

Both Gandhi and I suf-fered colonial oppression,and both of us mobilizedour respect ive peoplesagainst governments thatviolated our freedoms.

The Gandhian influencedominated freedom strug-gles on the African conti-nent right up to the1960s because of thepower it generated andthe unity it forgedamong the apparentlypowerless. Nonviolencewas the official stanceof all major Africancoalitions, and theSouth African A.N.C.remained implacably

opposed to violence for most ofits existence.

Gandhi remained commit-ted to nonviolence; I followedthe Gandhian strategy for as

long as I could, but then therecame a point in our struggle

when the brute force ofthe oppressor could no

longer be counteredthrough passive

r e s i s t a n c ealone. Wef o u n d e dUnkhontowe Sizwea n d

added amilitarydimen-sion to ourstruggle.

Even then, we chose sabotagebecause it did not involve theloss of life, and it offered thebest hope for future race rela-tions. Militant action becamepart of the African agenda offi-cially supported by theOrganization of African Unity(O.A.U.) following my address

to the Pan-African FreedomMovement of East and CentralAfrica (PAFMECA) in 1962, inwhich I stated, "Force is theonly language the imperialistscan hear, and no countrybecame free without somesort of violence."

Gandhi himself neverruled out violenceabsolutely

a n du n r e -

servedly. He conceded thenecessity of arms in certainsituations. He said, "Wherechoice is set between cow-ardice and violence, I wouldadvise violence... I prefer touse arms in defense of honorrather than remain the vilewitness of dishonor ..."

Violence and nonviolenceare not mutually exclusive; itis the predominance of theone or the other that labels astruggle.

Gandhi arrived in SouthAfrica in 1893 at the age of23. Within a week he collid-ed head on with racism. Hisimmediate response was toflee the country that sodegraded people of color,but then his inner resilienceoverpowered him with asense of mission, and hestayed to redeem the digni-ty of the racially exploited, topave the way for the libera-tion of the colonized theworld over and to develop ablueprint for a new socialorder.

He left 21 years later, a nearmaha atma (great soul). Thereis no doubt in my mind that

by the time he wasviolently removedfrom our world, he

had transited intothat state.

Gandhi-The Sacred Warrior

Gandhi remained committedto nonviolence; I followed the

Gandhian strategy for as long as I could

—NELSON MANDELA

PNS n HYDERABAD

TSRTC employees unions haveset September 30 as the dead-line for the state government torespond on the strike noticegiven by them. RTC employeesJAC convenor and general sec-retary of Telangana MazdoorUnion (TMU) AshwathamaReddy warned that if the gov-ernment does not invite RTCemployees unions for talksbefore September 30, thenemployees will start relaystrikes from the same day andannounce the date for an indef-inite strike.

While several RTC employ-ees unions have given strikenotices to RTC managementdemanding merger of TSRTCin government and to fulfillother long-pending demands,there has been no reply fromgovernment or TSRTC man-

agement. Moreover, newly-appointed Transport MinisterPuvvada Ajay's comments onTSRTC merger has furtherirked employees.

"We have given strike noticedemanding to merge RTC ingovernment and raise salaries.But till now there has been noresponse from government orTSRTC management. If gov-ernment does not inviteemployees for talks beforeSeptember 30, then we willstart relay strikes form thesame day and announce date

for indefinite. We hope thatgovernment responds proper-ly and avoids inconvenience forlakhs of passengers dependenton RTC. We will also explainabout the urgency and need tofulfill our demands and reasonfor strike to people," saidAshwathama Reddy, issuingan ultimatum.

With fellow Telugu stateAndhra Pradesh ChiefMinister giving nod for themerger of APSRTC in govern-ment, TSRTC employeesunions in Telangana are plan-

ning to build up on themomentum and mount pres-sure on TRS government.TSRTC Employees Union,TSRTC Jathiya MazdoorUnion (TJMU), TelanganaMazdoor Union affiliated toTRS and others have decidedto go on protest.

With Dasara festival seasonapproaching, an indefinitestrike by RTC employeesunions at this juncture isexpected to cause severe incon-venience to people. Accordingto official estimates, TSRTChas 364 bus stations, 97 depots,10,400 buses and transports 98lakh passengers daily makingit an indispensable part ofpeople's lives. But due to theneglect of government, TSRTCis incurring losses to the tuneof Rs 650 to 700 crore per yearand has debts to the tune of Rs3,000 crore.

‘Rural startups need of the hour'PNS n HYDERABAD

Union Minister for RuralDevelopment, Panchayat Raj,Agriculture, and Farmers WelfareNarendra Singh Tomar said thatnew ideas will help us in makinga new village, a sustainable village,and it is the first step towards mak-ing New India.

He was addressing the entre-preneurs at National RuralInnovators Startup Conclave atNational Institute of RuralDevelopment and Panchayati Raj(NIRDPR) on Friday.

"India is a village country andIndian economy has been depen-dent on agriculture since thedawn of civilization. If villages aremoving forward, the countrywill move forward," he said andadded that "Ever since indepen-dence, we are working on sus-taining the villages, and it has allbeen unsuccessful in so far. Whenwe started schemes like StandupIndia and Startup India, we feltthat we will all together be suc-cessful. But no! it is not happen-ing in villages, most of the entre-preneurs are still city dwellers. Inthe case, the only hope is RuralStartups."

There is a dire need for new

start-up ideas to come in theAgriculture and RuralDevelopment sectors. Addressingthe young entrepreneurs Tomarsaid, "Today, I urge you all to comeup with new ideas, and tomorrowwe will be in a position to employmore people."

The Rural DevelopmentMinister also backed Start-upIndia, Make in India, Skill Indiaand Stand-up India initiatives ofthe government.

"Ideas that come to conclave

must be nurtured and since thereare a lot of problems for youngstersin actually converting the idea intoa business, NIRDPR must supportall the support that it can. And restwill be taken care of by the gov-ernment of India," he said.

"I am pleased to know thatNIRDPR is working towards therequirements of the country andis successful in accomplishing itsresponsibilities. We believe, withthe development of rural areascomes the development of the

country. When agriculture pros-pers, then villages, farmers andcountry also prosper," he added.

A total of 48 applications fromstartups across India have beenaccepted to participate in RuralIndia Startup Conclave this yearfrom diverse domains of agricul-ture and allied activities, greenenergy solution, waste to wealth,health and elderly care, drinkingwater and sanitation, sustainablehousing, and sustainable liveli-hood.

MP Ranjith Reddy, who wasalso present during the occasionsaid, "NIRDPR has come up witha novel idea of promoting ruralinnovations. To solve the ruralproblems these Science andTechnology innovations will playa key role."

Dr WR Reddy, DirectorGeneral, NIRDPR, said, "Thisconclave brings together variousstakeholders of the entrepreneur-ial ecosystem under one roof,which will go a long way in help-ing rural startups and innovatorsto get the exposure and fundingnecessary to scale up their ideasand technology. I am sure therewill be many startups and inno-vators gaining significant successfrom this initiative."

n Narendra Singh Tomar urges youngsters to come up with more startup ideas

The govt is making plans to initiatetalks with RTC employees unions from October 4, in spite of pressurefrom employee union leaders toinitiate talks at the earliest

RTC employees set Sept 30 deadline

Union MInister Narendra Singh Tomar at the National Rural Innovators Startup Conclave

Probe orderedinto clinicaltrials at Hyd...Continued from Page 1

Patients from various parts ofthe state and even neigh-bouring states come here forthe treatment.

Controversies hit the hos-pital on many occasions inthe past. Death of five womenpost delivery in a span of 10days had sparked a row in2017. Earlier, the hospitalauthorities had come underscanner for alleged negli-gence following unusualnumber of infant deaths.

Its raining RythuBandhu funds...Continued from Page 1

They say if the government were really sin-cere about Rythu Bandhu, it would havereleased the full amount so as to clear thearrears in all districts.Opposition partieshave, therefore, decided to complain to theEC on this issue. It may be pertinent to notehere that similar complaints made during theDecember 2018 Assembly polls were ignoredby the EC after the government claimed thatRythu Bandhu was not a new scheme, butan 'ongoing' one that was launched in May2018. The EC clarified that the governmentcould not launch new schemes, but waswithin its right to continue ongoing schemes.

DRF units in all theMunicipal...Continued from Page 1

The Central Enforcement Cell and Mobileapp will be monitoring illegal activities like

illegal construction, footpathencroachmentsa and illegal dumping. Theapp will also provide features, using whichcitizens can pay penalties. In the meeting,Viswajit Kampati, Director, Enforcement,Vigilance & Disaster Management, statedthat DRF mobile teams were providingassistance to citizens and are also attendingto emergency calls and executing rescueoperations. He mentioned that teams werehelping to clear water logging in severalareas and in removal of fallen trees acrossthe city. Mayor Bonthu Rammohan, MAUDPrincipal Secretary Arvind Kumar andGHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar wereamong those present.

GHMC DRF becomes Hyd...Continued from Page 1

Major complaints were waterlogging and fallen trees.Residents who witnessed DRFteams at work have commend-ed their job.

Boats and lifejacket were usedin Malkajagiri and East AnandBagh for rescue by DRF teams.According to Viswajit KampatiDirector Enforcement Vigilance &Disaster Management, "Basicallyit was mix of training the staffproperly and clearly delineatingtask. DRF people had been trainedperfectly in what job one has to doand in the way in which they haveto respond. We gave them neces-sary vehicle, machinery and tools;everything that was required. Wehave been working without prop-er sleep for the past 72hours. Weeven had our boats ready".

Officials pointed that the situ-

ation in East Anand Bagh was nolonger grim, considering boatswere used. He said, "In EastAnand Bagh, residents were notable to come out and they want-ed some provisions. The situationwas not very grim, but it took 2-3 hours for water to recede. Thistime was important because itwas early morning hours andeveryone had to go to offices andschool. People also shouldn't feelthat we have left them to bestranded. Boat is symbolic gesturefor security and presence ofadministration there."

Whether the boat had anyimpact was for people to assess.Still, DRF folks wanted to instillthe sense of security that theywere monitoring the situation.However, managing the turn-around time for DRF forceswas more than 2 hours becausethere were only 13 teams.

7 including director...Continued from Page 1

The wing found that medicineswere bought at "exorbitant" prices,in "violation" of the procurementprocedures and the e-tenderprocesses. The ACB said twofake indents for medicinesworth Rs.1,03,13,247 were pre-pared by Padma on May 26,

2018 and May 28, 2018 and billswere claimed though theincharge medical officers andhad never indented those med-icines. Rani passed the bills.Similarly, medicines worth Rs1,22,51,291 were indented andreceived by Padma but the stockwas not sent to the dispensariesduring May 2018.

Yadadri will be a pilgrimage centre: MinisterPNS n YADADRI-BHONGIR

Agriculture Minister SNiranjan Reddy on Fridaysaid the extent of area undercultivation had increased sig-nificantly in Kharif seasondue to the ample rains in theState. Niranjan Reddy wasspeaking to the media after avisit to the Yadadri SriLakshminarsimha Swamytemple (Balalayam). He alsoinspected the main templedevelopmentworks at theYa d a d r ihill shrine.

He saidf a r m e r swere happyin the Statewith ample rains and avail-ability of water in projectsand reservoirs, and hencethe increase in area of culti-vation. The State, he said, wasexecuting projects with thesame sanctity shown on thedevelopment of Yadadri.

Stating that the develop-ment of Yadadri would be a his-toric milestone in the history ofthe State, the Minister exudedconfidence that Yadadri wouldemerge as one of the top Hindupilgrim places in the country.

HC sentences jailto Karimnagar CP

Azhar to meet...

Continued from Page 1

The court passed the orders,while dealing with a con-tempt petition filed by formerMLA of Karimnagar V.Jagapati Rao against thepolice, alleging that they com-mitted contempt of court bynot complying with the HighCourt's orders. He also allegedthat the police concernedentered his PushpanjaliResorts by violating the HighCourt orders and harassedhim with allegations of play-ing banned bet games likerummy at his resorts.

Continued from Page 1

"I spoke to Azharuddin justnow. Azhar said no such plansof shifting his loyalties to TRS",VHR remarked.

Azharuddin was CongressMP from Moradabad, UttarPradesh in 2009. He lost elec-tions from the Tonk-SawaiMadhopur Lok Sabha con-stituency in 2014.

Azhar reportedly wanted tocontest from the SecunderabadLok Sabha constituency, butstayed away from the 2019 elec-tions as he did not get the ticket.

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HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 03The emphasis laid on the principle ofspending every minute of one's life

usefully is the best education for citizenship.— MAHATMA GANDHI

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Residential schools making ‘Impact'PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Social and TribalWelfare ResidentialEducational Institutions worea festive look on Friday asthousands of parents attendedthe 'Impact' meeting conduct-ed across Telangana.

D Sravan, father of oneThirumal of Gandhari tribalwelfare residential junior col-lege, said, "we are grateful tothe Chief Minister

K Chandrashekhar Rao forhis vision for providing qual-ity education in English medi-um to poor students, on parwith the corporate institu-tions." "I wouldn't have afford-ed my son's education in a cor-porate school owing to pover-ty," he further said.

Eminent persons like doc-tors, engineers, scientists,police officers, revenue officers

among others attended theImpact meeting as chief guestsin different institutions. Theycalled upon the parents totake responsibility in bringingup their children, besidespointing out that education isthe only hope for poor com-munities.

Dr RS Praveen Kumar said,for the first time, Academic

Calendar (2019), Telugu ver-sion was distributed to all theparents along with progressreport. The academic calendarcontains information aboutvarious curricular and extra-curricular activities being con-ducted in welfare institutionsfor all round development ofchildren.

The academic calendar was

distributed to parents to makethem take active role in thefunctioning of social and trib-al welfare institutions. "Parentsneed to make sacrifices toprovide the best possible edu-cation for their children, par-ticularly girls," the secretarysaid.

He thanked the ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao and Minister for SocialWelfare Koppula Eshwar andMinister for Tribal WelfareSathyavathi Rathod for theirsupport and making huge bud-getary allocations for the socialand tribal welfare institutionsunder the KG-PG Mission.

The TSWREIS conducts theimpact meetings twice in a yearto sensitise rural parents aboutart of parenting, importance ofeducation, evils of child mar-riages and the need to sendchildren to schools in time.

Parents of the students at the ‘Impact’ meeting in Hyderabad on Friday

When rains turn nightmare MAYANK TIWARIn HYDERABAD

The three-day torrentialrain has disrupted the reg-ular course of life inHyderabad. The 14 cms ofrain, which lashed the citylate on Thursday andFriday night, turned out bea nightmare for the peopleliving in low-lying areas ofthe municipality.

According to the dataacquired from automaticweather stations ofTelangana StateDevelopment PlanningSociety (TSDPS), AsifNagar received 149.3 mmof rainfall followed by135.3 mm at Nampally.Other areas which record-ed rainfall above 100 mminclude Khairatabad,Tirumalgiri, Bahadurpura,M u s h e e r a b a d ,Rajendranagar, Malkajgiri,Balanagar, Begumpet,Alwal, Marredpally, andShaikpet.

The rains also led towater logging in the low-lying areas of the city.Mercilessly as the rainpoured, residents in theaforementioned suburbswere awake as the rainwa-ter gushed into theirhomes. Many people spenthours flushing water out oftheir homes. Not to beforgotten, on Wednesdaycity recorded 13 cms ofrainfall as well, which wasenough to disrupt the lifeof several Hyderabadis.However, on Friday, it wasworse, according to the

Indian MetrologicalDepartment rain beganaround midnight and con-tinued till 5 am.

IMD Meteorologist,Mohan Rao said, "Theserains are associated with acyclonic circulation which

prevails over Karnatakaand adjoining AndhraPradesh and Telangana.There are chances of heavyrain very across the isolat-ed places in all the districtsof Telangana till Fridaynight, from Saturday

onwards sky is likely toremain clear."

Normally the southwestmonsoon in South Indiarecedes during the lastweek of September, thisyear however it has beenproactive. "This monsoon

Hyderabad has received24 per cent of excess rain-fall and Telangana alto-gether has received 10 per-cent of excess rainfall sinceJune 1," added IndianMetrological Departmentofficial.

n An extended archedportion of historic Moti

Darwaza of Golkonda Fort collapsed due to

heavy rain

n Safari at NehruZoological Park will remain

closed temporarily as the heavy inflow of water from

the adjoining Mir AlamTank inundated the area

post heavy rain

n Knee-deepwater led to amajor roaddiversion underPVNR flyovernear PillarNumber 190 atAttapur

n As usual,PunjaguttaFlyover wasflooded

n TelanganaLegislativeCouncilpremises atLakdi-ka-Pulwas full ofrainwater

WRECKS HAVOC

n WATERLOGGING IN MOST OF THE LOW-LYING AREAS

Heavy raincauses havoc...

Burglar arrested,booty recoveredPNS n HYDERABAD

The Rajendranagar police andShamshabad SpecialOperations Team arrested aburglar and recovered Rs 1.5lakh, a car, silver and goldornaments from his posses-sion. According to the police,Mohd Ibrahim alias MohdKhalil alias Baba Shot, a dri-ver from Resham Badh inGolconda, was involved in 45burglaries and a murder inCyberabad and Hyderabadpolice station limits.

He was earlier detainedunder the PreventiveDetention Act in 2016.Between 2005 and 2016, hewas arrested and remanded injudicial custody several times.But, he continued to commitburglaries after being released.Since January, he committed 10burglaries in Rajendranagar,Golconda and Asifnagar.

Continued from Page 1

The Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation(GHMC) is carrying out oper-ations to remove knee deepwater in some areas, they said.

GHMC Commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar held a tele-conference with senior offi-cials of the civic body anddirected them to take neces-sary steps to clear waterlog-ging and fallen trees, thesources said.

Mayor B Rammohan,accompanied by officials, vis-ited several inundated areasand ensured dispatch of dis-aster response teams to theaffected areas, they said.

Mphasis sets up centre

PNS n HYDERABAD

IT Minister KT Rama Rao onFriday hoped that the Mphasis- an IT services company, atsome point of time will comeand talk to government aboutsetting up their own campus.He was speaking after inaugu-rating the company's new cen-ter in Hyderabad.

The company is going aboutwith Optimal CorporateStrategy wherein the focus ison bringing 'T' back into ITusing Hyper personalised NextGen Solutions bringing togeth-er deep domain expertise andcutting-edge technology.

Referring to this T-shapedstrategy, the Minister said,"We have a similar T-shapedstrategy, but our T-shapedstrategy is for Telangana. Howdo you put T back in IT, iswhat you said. IT in our caseis India and Telangana. Howdo we put T in the center stageof India. That's what we aretrying to do in last 4.5years andwe have succeeded reason-ably well. Thanks to companieslike yours, our IT exports aregrowing at much higher pacethan Indian national averageand more than Bengaluru forlast 5 years. But we have lotmore of growth to cover."

Speaking on occasion, NitinRakesh, Chief Executive Officerand Director, Mphasis said,"Hyderabad is fast emerging asthe leading center for techopportunities with its large poolof skilled talent. I thank ITMinister for helping us set thefoundation three years ago andfor his continued interest inMphasis' growth".

Meanwhile, Minister putforth offer through programme

by TASK, where Mphasis canwork with local talent engi-neering colleges and studentpool and see how to tailor makesomething for the company, sothat they can establish theirnext labs in Hyderabad to domore R&D.

He said, "With all restrictionsin United States and other partsof world, lot of youngsters arelooking at brighter opportunitiesback home. That's where

Hyderabad stands a great chancebecause of talent pool, becauseof progressive government. Welooked forward to partneringwith Mphasis for taking it toplaces".

Mphasis has setup CognitiveHub for Risk and Compliance inAugust 2016 and this new cen-ter will help build on the workwe do across verticals and a widespectrum of next-gen tech-nologies.

n IT Minister KT Rama Rao inaugurates the facility

Thundersoft to add another850 jobs in next three yearsPNS n HYDERABAD

Smart device operating sys-tem and platform technolo-gy provider ThunderSoftware Technology Co.Ltd. of China on its firstanniversary announced thatthey would increase theirheadcount from 140 to 1,000in Hyderabad. IT MinisterKT Rama Rao said, "First

anniversary in marriage isimportant and this is yourmarriage to Hyderabad andIndia, congratulations onyour first anniversary."

KTR said that he isdelighted to the companywould recruit 850 people inthree years and would beorganic which means theyare going to hire and notacquire.

Metro to chuginto Raidurg soonPNS n HYDERABAD

Raidurgam Metro Station atMindspace is gearing up forinaugural. L&THMRL onFriday announced that the ChiefElectrical Inspector toGovernment of India (CEIG) forHyderabad Metro Rail Project,DVS Raju has inspected33kV/415V Raidurg IndoorSubstation and balance ofOverhead Electric Traction(OHE) works from Hitech Cityto Raidurg.

The inspection is a processfor according the sanction forenergisation of ASS & OHEwhich will facilitate trail runs,Automatic Fare Collection,Signalling and TeleCommunication among others.The Metro rail station andOHE section will receive powerfrom 132/33/25 kV ReceivingSubstations (RSS) located atYousufguda and Uppal.

This Auxiliary Substation(ASS) and Overhead ElectricTraction are a part of Corridor- III (Nagole to Raidurg) of theHyderabad Metro Rail Project.According to the press release,

DVS Raju, CEIG said,"Commissioning of the AuxiliarySubstation (ASS) and OHE willboost the progress and hasten thecompletion of rail system relat-ed works between Nagole andRaidurg of Corridor - III."

KVB Reddy, MD & CEO,L&TMRHL stated, "This is animportant development forCorridor - III (Nagole toRaidurg). With the commis-sioning of Raidurg station andOHE between Hitech Cityand Raidurg will completeenergization of the entireCorridor - III."

Chief ElectricalInspector forHyderabad Metro RailProject, DVS Raju hasinspected RaidurgIndoor Substation andbalance of OHE works from Hitech City to Raidurg

‘Dissentessential todemocracy’PNS n HYDERABAD

Kannan Gopinathan, an engi-neer-turned-bureaucrat, whois on a country-wide tour fol-lowing his resignation fromIndia's top administrativeservice last month, hasaddressed an event here inHyderabad on Friday, wherepeople from different walksof life attended.

Kannan Gopinathan hadresigned last month and stat-ed that he did so as the denialof 'freedom of expression' tothe people of Jammu andKashmir was not acceptable tohim. Speaking at the event, the2012 batch AGMUT cadreIAS officer said that dissentwas essential to democracy. "Ihaven't resigned because ofthe abrogation of Article 370,but for what we did after that.We just shut them up, andsimply told them you don'thave a voice; you can't expresswhether you're angry orhappy, whether you are upsetor in anguish," he said in a ref-erence to the abrogation of theArticle 370. Kannan arguedthat it is important toacknowledge the fact thatthere is a difference betweenthe government and the coun-try or nation, adding thatcriticising the former doesn'tmake one anti-national.

Kannan Gopinathan

IT Minister KT Rama Rao inaugurating Mphasis’ new centre in Hyderabad on Friday

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 hyderabad 04It is not nationalism that is evil, it is the narrowness,selfishness, exclusiveness which is the bane of modern

nations which is evil. Each wants to profit at the expense of,and rise on the ruin of, the other.

— MAHATMA GANDHI

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Telangana Government,which has received NationalTourism Awards under vari-ous categories consecutivelyfor the past four years, hasadded another award to itskitty. The Ministry ofTourism, Government ofIndia, which presents NationalTourism Awards to varioussegments of the travel andtourism industry every year,has awarded the TelanganaGovernment for the 'Best Statefor the innovative use of IT'.Meanwhile, the neighbouringAndhra Pradesh won the BestState award for overall growthin tourism category .The VicePresident of India, MVenkaiah Naidu presentedthe awards to the winners.

Speaking at the NationalTourism Awards 2017-2018ceremony on the WorldTourism Day, the VicePresident said, "India has great-ly improved its business envi-ronment as tourists, who ear-lier had to deal with 'red tape',now get a 'red carpet welcome".

He urged all stake holders ofthe industry to be especiallymindful of their ecologicalfootprints. He also called formore responsible and sustain-able tourism practices. "Thegovernment has also takenseveral decisive steps to makethe country accessible and safeto travellers... India has alsogreatly improved its businessenvironment, the ease of doing

business, overall travel andtourism policy and enablingconditions, infrastructure andinformation and communica-tions technology."

"There is no red tape, onlyred carpet welcome for allthose who want to come toIndia," he said. A total of 76awards were given under var-ious categories this year. Goaand Madhya Pradesh were thejoint winners in the AdventureTourism category andUttarakhand won the awardfor the Best Film Promotion-Friendly State.

Hotel 'The Ashok', a flagshipproperty of India TourismDevelopment Corporation(ITDC), was awarded the BestHotel Based Meeting Venue.Union Minister of State forTourism and Culture PrahladSingh Patel and Secretary-General of World TourismOrganisation ZurabPololikashvili were also presenton the occasion. Naidu urgedstudents to undertake 'Bharat

Darshan' to learn about vari-ous facets of India's culture,heritage, languages and cuisineand enhance their under-standing of the unique cultur-al mosaic of the country.

"This understanding wouldhelp them devise ingenuousand effective solutions to thechallenges faced by the coun-try today," he said. The VicePresident also underscoredthe country's tremendouspotential in the field of med-ical tourism and said thatIndia must leverage itsancient practices of healingsuch as Ayurveda and Yoga toattract more tourists whoseek holistic wellness.

Patel in his address saidthat the tourism industry islike a tractor whose every partis essential for the overallhealth of the machine. Heurged all stakeholders, fromguides to tour operators todrivers to work together inorder to run the tourismindustry seamlessly.

PNS n HUZURNAGAR

TRS' Saidi Reddy will win theby-election with over 40,000votes majority, said party in-charge for the by-election toHuzurnagar Assembly con-stituency Palla RajeshwarReddy here on Friday.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, Palla said that theTRS had won all the by elec-tions conducted in the State sofar, and would bag HuzurnagarAssembly seat as well. RecallingTPCC president N UttamKumar Reddy's statement thathe would quit politics ifCongress was defeated in the2018 Assembly elections, theTRS leader took on the formerfor not keeping his word

because of his greed for power. "The public mandate in the

by-election will put an end tothe political life of Uttam

Kumar Reddy and his wife andCongress candidate UttamPadmavathi," he said. He saidthat Uttam Kumar Reddy, who

described Minister for IT andMunicipal Administration K TRama Rao as 'Bacha," shouldknow the age of their leader

Rahul Gandhi. Stating thatCongress was synonymous

with dynastic rule, he saidUttam Kumar Reddy had nomoral right to make such alle-gations against the TRS. UttamKumar Reddy was leveling falseallegations against TRS becauseof his fear of defeat of theCongress candidate in thebyelection. Uttam KumarReddy terming Saidi Reddy asa person from Andhra alsoindicated his ignorance, he said.

He said that the TRS govern-ment will implement Rs 1 lakhcrop loan waiver in four phasesas promised in its elections man-ifesto of 2018. He pointed outthat no Congress government inany State had implemented croploan waiver in the country.

TRS will win big in Huzurnagar: PallaSAYS THE BY-ELECTION RESULT WILL PUT AN END TO UTTAM'S POLITICAL LIFE

PNS n KARIMNAGAR

Health Minister Etela Rajenderon Friday said that all viralfevers were not dengue cases.The government, he said, isproviding all facilities in gov-ernment hospitals to treatviral fevers, besides ensuringsupply of required medicines.

The Minister was speakingafter inaugurating a megahealth camp organised byKarimnagar MunicipalCorporation to carry outhealth checkup of municipalemployees and sanitationworkers at Kalabharathi here.

Pointing out that denguecases this season were muchlower compared to previousyears, the Minister appealed tothe people not to waste moneyby treating ordinary viralfevers as dengue cases.

All possible measures havebeen taken to control thespread of viral fevers, he said,and advised the people to gettreatment for any type of feverin government hospitals andPrimary Health Centres(PHC).

Besides enhancing outpa-tient services, measures havealso been taken to continueOP services till the evening, hesaid, adding that there was nodearth of doctors and medi-cines in the district. Medicalcamps have also been con-ducted in different areas,besides providing homeo-pathic and allopathic treat-ments and medicines, heinformed and asked the peo-

ple to make use of medicalcamps. KMC commissioner GVenugopal Reddy, DistrictMedical and Health Officer RManohar Rao and others werepresent.

Reviews MGM hospitaldevelopment worksHealth Minister Etela Rajenderhas conducted a a reviewmeeting with the doctors andofficials concerned over thedevelopment of MGMHospital here in Warangal onFriday.

The meeting was held inKaloji Narayan Rao HealthUniversity and district medicaland health officials and MGMhospital doctors and expertstook part in the meeting.Speaking on the occasion, theMinister exhorted the officialsconcerned to take necessarysteps to implement the devel-opment works on a war foot-ing so that the development ofthe hospital is achieved in apositive mode.

Terming the MGM hospitalas the premier health institutein the second major city of theTelangana, the Minister saidthe government was keen onimprovising the conditions ofthe hospital on par with thecorporate hospitals and assert-ed that the development worksundertaken in MGM hospitalwould be accomplished posi-tively in the specified period.

The District Collector ofWarangal urban districtPrashanth Jeevan Patil andothers were present.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Efforts of the SingareniCollieries Company Limited(SCCL) to acquire new coalblocks in other states havesucceeded with the UnionMinistry of Coal allocatingNew Patrapada coal block inOdisha to public sector miningcompany. New Patrapada coalblock has coal reserves to thetune of 1,040 million tonnesand SCCL can extract about200 lakh tonnes coal per yearfrom the coal block.

"New Patrapada coal block isthree times bigger than thealready acquired 'Naini' coalblock in Odisha. This is a bigboon for SCCL, as it will help usin increasing production huge-ly and earning profits. Once allpermissions are sought and

production starts, 'New patra-pada' will be considered to beone of the biggest coal blocks inthe country. Currently, SCCLextracts 680 lakh tonnes of coalfrom its 48 mines, but 200 lakhtonnes of coal can be extractedfrom this one mine alone. Whencompared to Singareni mines,coal reserves at New Patrapada

and other coal blocks at Orissahave quality coal reserves andhence the cost of coal produc-tion will come down. Presentlythe coal production cost pertonne is Rs 2,000 in Telanganawhereas in Orissa it will beunder Rs 800. Hence, there isa chance for more profits andlong term opportunity," SCCL

CMD N Sridhar.'NewPatrapada' is one of the manycoal blocks in ChandipadaThahasil area in Orissa State.This is approximately 15 kilo-meters away from Naini Coalblock which has already beenallotted to SCCL. The area of'New Patrapada' is 31 sq kms.Coal reserves in this area are

1040 million tonnes. Most ofthe permissions for Patrapadacoal block have been received.Coal extraction will be startedfrom 2021.

"SCCL has decided toincrease coal production fromthe present 67 million tonnesto 100 million tonnes over thenext 7 years. As As part of thebusiness expansion, the newblocks taken up by Singareniwill be a boon for theCompany. 10 million tonnes ofcoal would be produced fromNaini block in Orissa from2021 and by 2023, 20 milliontonnes of coal would be pro-duced from New Patrapadablock. Along with these andother blocks which are to beallotted Singareni will be ableto achieve the targeted 100 mil-lion tonnes," he further said.

SCCL gets another coal block in Odisha

Dip in dengue casesthis year, says Etela

TJS to perform‘Pitru Amavasya'for TS martyrs K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

The Telangana Jana Samithi(TJS) is all set to perform this'Pitru Amavasya', which falls onSeptember 28 (Saturday) in aunique manner.

The party has decided toperform 'Pitru Amavasya' byremembering the martyrs, whosacrificed their lives for the sakeseparate Telangana state.

In a statement, TJS ChiefProf M Kodandaram has calledupon the party activists andTelangana protagonists to par-ticipate in Annadanam and dis-tribute fruits in hospitals ordonate rice to orphans, remem-bering martyrs on September28 across Telangana.

He said in the statement thatHyderabad party activists willpay floral tributes to martyrs atTelangana Martyrs Statue atGun Park. It may be recalledthat Telangana people used toobserve Pitru Amavasya (alsocalled Petramavasya) everyyear on the day whenBhatukamma festival begins.

On the day, the peoplewould offer cloths and rice andother to priests on the day as atradition remembering thefamily members or loved ones.The TJS decided to pay tributesto Telangana martyrs markingthe 'Pitru Amavasya' onSeptember 28. Kodandaramwill pay tributes to Telanganamartyrs at Gun Park.

New Patrapadacoal block hascoal reservesestimated at1,040 mn tonnesand SCCL canextract about200 lakh tonnescoal per year

NATIONAL TOURISM AWARDS

Telangana ‘best state for innovative use of IT'

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu presents the award to Telangana Minister VSrinivas Goud in New Delhi on Friday

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee (TPCC) president& Nalgonda MP N UttamKumar Reddy on Fridayalleged that Legislative CouncilChairman Gutha SukhenderReddy was interfering inHuzurnagar by-elections.

"As the head of the State andprotector of the Constitution,I wish to bring to your kindnotice the fact that all knownconstitutional norms and tra-ditions are being violated inTelangana by the ruling TRSparty in general and specifi-cally now to win theHuzurnagar by-election.

"Gutha Sukender Reddy,Chairman of LegislativeCouncil, is interfering in theelection process of Huzurnagarby-election against all knownconstitutional norms and pro-

prieties. Right from indepen-dence, presiding officer ofboth houses of Parliament andof Legislative in all States havekept away from direct politicsduring the period of theirtenure. But Sukender Reddy isinterfering on a daily basis inHuzurnagar by-elections andlowing the dignity of theoffice," Uttam Kumar Reddysaid in his letter to GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan.

Uttam alleged thatSukhender Reddy, in the last 3-

4 days, called Palakeedu ZPTCMotilal Naik, SarpanchJitender Reddy and a largenumber of other Congressleaders from HuzurnagarAssembly Constituency andgave them huge amounts ofcash in his house in FilmNagar in Hyderabad and per-suaded them to join TRS party.

"It is being said by theseCongress leaders that he isopenly telling these and otherleaders that CM has told himthat he will be made Ministerin place of Malla Reddy orJagdish Reddy, if TRS partywins the by-election. This hasbeen told to me many Congressleaders who were called byGutha. We are bringing toyour notice, that a person inconstitutional appointments isviolating norms because of hisgreed for becoming a minister,"he alleged.

Uttam lashes out at GuthaChloralHydrate worthRs 3 cr seizedPNS n NIZAMABAD

Narcotics prevention wingof police seized ChloralHydrate (CH) weighing near-ly 1,250 kg, while it wasbeing shifted to an auto rick-shaws near Madhavnagar.The contraband, whose esti-mated value is around Rs 3crore was being illegallytransported from Gujarat.

On the credible informa-tion, narcotics police fol-lowed the truck fromHyderabad on Thursdaynight and intimated theNizamabad police about ille-gal transportation of ChloralHydrate. Police seize 1250 kgof Chloral Hydrate inNizamabadPolice with theseized truck.

Secretariat tobe lockedfrom Sunday PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana governmenthas decided to lock the exist-ing Secretariat from Sundayonwards. The GeneralAdministration Departmenthas directed to all the depart-ments orally to vacate the oldSecretariat before Sunday.

Already, all most all thedepartments have vacatedexisting Secretariat.Departments such as Financeand Revenue are also vacatingthe Secretariat. All the blocksshifted their files and goods toBRKR Bhavan. The CPROoffice and other departmentswill be vacated by Saturdaynight. From Monday onwards,the BRKR Bhavan will workon full-fledged basis.

DEEPTHI NANDAN REDDY n HYDERABAD

Victory of former captain ofthe Indian cricket teamMohammed Azharuddin aspresident of HyderabadCricket Association (HCA)rekindles hopes ofHyderabad's cricket's revival.Upcoming cricketers, sport'sadministrators, cricket enthu-siasts from Hyderabad arehoping, Azhar will bring backglory to Hyderabad cricket,which has been long plaguedby controversies andscandals in the recentpast.

"Hyderabad hasproduced severalgreat cricketersand is home forthe finest cricketingtradition. Hyderabadhas a special place inIndian cricket. But over thepast three to four years,Hyderabad cricket has facedseveral hiccups and gone offtrack. I will strive to set thingsright in HCA and bring backglory to Hyderabad cricket.There is no use in forminggroups and fighting with eachother. I will take along every-one in HCA and work as ateam to develop cricket inTelangana," said MohammedAzharuddin, creating positivevibes, immediately after beingelected as HCA president.

Though Azharuddin's vic-tory was almost sure, the huge

majority he earned, provedhow much HCA members,district associations, privateclubs trusted him for the toppost. Due to the mass supportthe stylish batsman fromHyderabad, who had led Indiato many memorable victoriesduring his international career,has found himself in the newrole of cricket administrator.

Though Hyderabad hadseveral players in internation-al team in the past likeAzharuddin, VVS Laxman,Venkatapathy Raju, Pragyan

Ojha and others, of latethere are has been

no representationby Hyderabadis inIndian team. EvenHyderabad Ranjiteam has been

d i s app oi nt i ng .Instead of focusing

on improving stan-dards and grooming players,

HCA was mostly engulfed incontroversies and scandal.

With Azhar taking charge ofHCA, Hyderabad cricketlovers are hopeful that, 'crick-et' and not 'politics' will takecentre stage at HCA. With 99test matches and 334 ODIs,Mohammed Azharuddin isamong the all-time popularplayers who played for India.With such an impressive inter-national career and cricketingexperience, Azhar is surelyexpected to up the standardsand encourage budding crick-eters in the region.

Azhar's victoryrekindles hopes of HCA's revival

TRS governmentwill implement Rs 1 lakh croploan waiver in fourphases aspromised, saysparty in-charge forthe by-election toHuzurnagarconstituency PallaRajeshwar

SHORT READS

India capable ofdealing with anysituation: MoS Naik onPak drones' intrusionNEW DELHI: India is capableof dealing with any situation,Union Minister of State forDefence Shripad Yesso Naiksaid on Friday over incidentsof drones from Pakistanairdropping weapons inPunjab. The Indian Army hasemerged stronger afterfighting terrorism, he said onthe sidelines of India Defenceand Security Expo (IDSE)2019, held at IIT-Delhi.According to a recent PunjabPolice probe, GPS-fitteddrones capable of lifting up to10 kilograms of weight flew infrom Pakistan seven to eighttimes to airdrop severalcaches of arms, ammunitionand fake currency which wereseized in Tarn Taran district. Itindicated the weapons were tobe used for terror attacks inJammu and Kashmir. Policeofficials said it is the first timethat drones have been used todrop weapons in Punjab fromacross the border.

NCW decries lack of security at homesfor womenNEW DELHI: Lack of security,unhygienic living conditionsand no skill developmentprogrammes were amongfindings of inspections carriedout by the NationalCommission for Women atrehabilitative homes forwomen. The inspection wascarried out by the NCW across35 'Swadhar Grehs' that givetemporary shelter to womenwho are in need ofinstitutional support forrehabilitation. These homesaim to provide shelter, food,clothing and health as well aseconomic and social securityto women in distress. TheNCW inspected the 'SwadharGrehs' in Karnataka, MadhyaPradesh, Odisha, UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand andWest Bengal and submitted itsreport to the Women andChild Development Ministry.The commission found thatguidelines set by thegovernment wre not beingfollowed at these homes."Girls below 18 years, womenwho are over 60 years andmentally challenged womenare all kept together. Therewere no separate facilities forthem," NCW chairpersonRekha Sharma said.

PNS n MUMBAI

The country's democracy is in"peril" and will be "extinct",warned NCP leaders on Fridayas they slammed the BJP govern-ment over the ED case againsttheir chief Sharad Pawar andalleged detention of party work-ers ahead of his visit to thecentral agency's officehere. The Congress, anally of the NCP, hasalso slammed theModi government andaccused it of targetingPawar ahead of the nextmonth's assembly polls inMaharashtra.

The NCP patriarch had twodays ago announced he will visitthe Enforcement Directorate's(ED) office here after a moneylaundering case filed againsthim and others in connectionwith the alleged Maharashtra

State Cooperative (MSC) Bankscam. Police have imposed pro-hibitory orders outside theagency's office in South Mumbaiin view of his visit later in theday. The leaders alleged partymen were being detained aheadof Pawar's visit to the ED office.

Asserting the NCP chiefwas no way associated

with the alleged scam,the party has allegedthe ED's press state-ment that bearsPawar's name in con-

nection with the casewas drafted in the ruling

BJP's office. "It seems the press note was

issued from the BJP's office. Wewon't tolerate the machinationof maligning the party and itsleader ahead of the polls. We areready to face the situation,"NCP chief spokesperson NawabMalik told reporters.

Democracy in danger,BJP “inebriated withpower”: NCP

PNS n MORADABAD

High on steroids, a former body-guard of actor Salman Khan cre-ated a ruckus in Moradabad onThursday. Anaz Qureshi, the for-mer bodyguard had to be over-powered using ropes and fishingnet before he could be taken intocustody by the police.

On Thursday, local residentswere shocked and frightened tosee a bare-chested Qureshiroughing up pedestrians andhurling bricks at the vehicles. Helater got hold of an iron rod andvandalised several cars parkedon the stretch. A video of theincident, which later went viral,showed hundreds of people,along with local police and firebrigade team, trying to get holdof the bodybuilder.

Police reports said Qureshihad consumed an overdose ofsteroids and lost his mind as aside-effect. He was taken to thedistrict hospital from where hewas referred to Bareilly mentalhospital. According to his neigh-bours, Qureshi, who works as abouncer in Mumbai, used toserve as part of Salman Khan'sprivate security headed by Sherauntil around two years ago.

He is currently deployed inthe security of a minister inMaharashtra. A resident of PeerGaib locality under Mughalpurapolice station of Moradabad,Qureshi had arrived in hishometown only 10 days ago.Two days ago, he had participat-ed in Mr Moradabad champi-onship and was declared the firstrunner-up.

PNS n BHOPAL

Names of several Bhopal-basedjournalists have emerged in thehigh-profile honey-trap andextortion racket of MadhyaPradesh. The journalistsallegedly having a role in thecase, include a resident editorof a Hindi newspaper, a cam-eraman of a news channel andan owner of a regional satelliteTV channel. The journalistswere apparently negotiatingdeals with bureaucrats andhoney-trap kingpin ShwetaJain, acting as key conduits,sources said.

On the involvement of jour-nalists in the case, spokesper-son for ruling Congress in thestate K.K. Mishra said whoev-er is involved in the scandalwould be booked as soon asevidence is gathered by theSpecial Investigation Team(SIT).

Mishra, considered close toChief Minister Kamal Nath,was the first to highlight thecase. "As far as I know, a fewjournalists, close to bureau-crats, negotiated deals onbehalf of the officials. Theywere not directly involved withthe accused, arrested in the

case," said Mishra.Earlier, BJP General

Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiyaalleged that he has specificinformation about three-fourjournalists who were involvedin the blackmailing scandal.The SIT has not yet deniedVijarvargiya's allegation aboutthe involvement of journalistsin a case which has rocked the

central Indian state.After bureaucrats and politi-

cians, the alleged involvementof journalists in the scandal hasadded more hype to the case,generating curiosity about thereal identities of the accom-plices in the crime. On the roleof a few journalists in thescandal, editor-in-chief of aprominent Hindi daily pub-

lished from Indore, HemantSharma said for years a smallgroup of journalists in thestate capital have been foundengaged in striking such shadydeals.

"Actually it is a small bunchof so-called journalists, whomove in the corridors of powerwith the sole purpose of extort-ing money from bureaucrats orpoliticians involved in corruptpractices. However, as of now,SIT has not named anyone(journalist). I can only saythat Shweta and Aarti, used afew journalists in negotiatingdeals with the bureaucrats orministers," said HemantSharma.

Sources in the SIT revealedto IANS that the investigationat present is focussed on ascer-taining the role of bureaucratsand other persons(politicians)holding important positions inthe government. "The master-mind of the racket, ShwetaJain, her husband SwapnilJain, and aide Aarti Dayalhave already been arrested.During their interrogation, itcame to light that people inpower, honeytrapped byShweta and Aarti, have fund-ed their NGOs.

PNS n KOTTAYAM

The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF inKerala on Friday won the by-election to Pala assembly con-stituency, wresting the seatfrom the opposition Congressled UDF. LDF candidate ManiC Kappen defeated Jose TomPulikkunnel of the oppositionCongress-led UDF in a close-ly contested fight.

Kappen, leader of theNationalist Congress Party,defeated Pulikkunnel, a factionleader of the Kerala Congress(M) by 2,943 votes. Pala was abastion of the Congress-ledUDF, held by veteran leaderand former Finance MinisterK M Mani for the last fivedecades.

The bypoll was necessitateddue to the demise of Mani inApril. The win has come as ahuge relief to the LDF after itsrout in the Lok Sabha polls.The bypoll was viewed as anacid test for UDF and the BJPheaded NDA as a victorywould have given a boost tothe prospects of the threemajor combines in the by-elec-tions to five more assemblyconstituencies, scheduled forOctober 21.

While Kappen's victory is abig morale booster for ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan-ledLDF government, the resultswill put the UDF on the back

foot for the October 21 bypolls.The victory will also give

Chief Minister Vijayan theconfidence to carry forwardhis party's social and eco-nomic agenda in the state.

During the election cam-paign, Vijayan had said theresults would be the people'sassessment on the perfor-mance of his government,which came to power in 2016.

"The bypoll victory will givestrength to the LDF govern-ment to carry out its develop-ment works, as well as welfareactivities more vigorously," hesaid in a statement.

He thanked the people ofPala for "contributing a spec-tacular victory" to the LDF. Forthe UDF, the rout in its tradi-tional stronghold is a huge set-back as it comes less than fivemonths after the Congress-ledalliance won 19 out of 20 par-liamentary seats in the state inthe Lok Sabha polls.

PNS n KOLLAM

A big incident carried out byterrorists from a neighbouringcountry on India's coastlinecannot be ruled out but thegovernment is committed tocoastal and maritime security,Defence minister RajnathSingh said on Friday.

Speaking at the 66th birth-day celebrations of MataAmritanandamayi Devi inKollam at Kerala, Singh saidIndia will not let anyone whobothered them "rest in peace"while referring to the air-forcestrike in Balakot in response tothe Pulwama attack.

"We cannot rule out that ourneighbouring country's ter-rorist can carry out a big inci-dent on our coastline whichextends from Kutch to Kerala.As a Defence minister I wouldlike to assure that our country'smaritime security is absolute-ly strong and solidified.

"We are completely commit-

ted to coastal and maritimesecurity," he said.

Singh said that when he wasHome minister, the Pulwamaincident had taken place andno one in the country will beable to forget the sacrifice ofthe soldiers who died in theincident.

"You know that after somedays of Pulwama incident, ourair force conducted airstrike atBalakot in Pakistan. We do notbother anyone, but if anyonebothers us, we will not let themrest in peace.

"The country that does notremember the sacrifice of its

soldiers, it is not respected any-where in the world," he said.

He also said asked not toforget that the soldiers whosacrifice their lives for thecountry also have their parents.

"We should stand with themand honour the sacrifice madeby the martyr of their family,"he said.

‘Big terror incident on India'scoastline can’t be ruled out’

PNS n PATNA

The ruling NDA in Bihar onFriday cited "unavoidable cir-cumstances" to put off a jointpress meet, where names of can-didates of the JD(U), the BJP andthe LJP for the upcoming by-polls were likely to beannounced.

A communication to thiseffect was issued by the JD(U)'sstate headquarters, though it didnot give any next tentative datefor the conference, which was tobe addressed jointly by theparty's state president VashishthNarayan Singh, BJP state vice-president Devesh Kumar andLJP parliamentary board chair-man Chirag Paswan.

Sources in the NDA said onthe condition of anonymity thatannouncement of candidateswas likely to take place onSunday, a day after "Pitri Paksha"

- a fortnight considered inaus-picious - comes to an end.

By-elections will be held forfive assembly segments, besidesthe Samastipur Lok Sabha seatwhich fell vacant upon the deathof sitting LJP MP Ram ChandraPaswan, younger brother of theparty's founding president RamVilas Paswan. By-polls to fiveassembly segments - four held bythe JD(U) and one by theCongress - have been necessitat-ed following the election of sit-ting MLAs to the Lok Sabha.

Bihar NDA puts offpress meet; may nameby-poll nominees later

PNS n NEW DELHI

Days after the Union HomeMinistry clarified that those leftout of the National Register ofCitizens in Assam will continueto enjoy all rights of a citizen tillthey exhaust all legal remedies,the Election Commission hasdecided that such people willcontinue to be voters if theirnames exist in the electoral rollsof the state. A senior func-tionary of the poll panel onFriday said until those left out ofthe NRC are eventually declaredforeigners after they exhaust alltheir legal remedies, they wouldnot be disenfranchised.

A foreigner cannot be a voterin India, according to theRepresentation of the People Act,the functionary pointed out.The EC functionary referred toa clarification issued by theHome Ministry earlier thismonth that those left out of the

NRC would continue to enjoy allrights as earlier, like other citi-zens. The functionary said therewill be no review of their votingrights till they use all legaloptions available to them.

The final NRC was releasedon August 31 with 19,06,657 ofthe total 3,30,27,661 applicantsexcluded and 3,11,22,004 includ-ed. The process for updatingNRC was started in Assam fol-lowing a Supreme Court orderin 2013 and since then, theapex court has been closelymonitoring the entire process.

As per electoral laws, name ofa voter cannot be deleted with-out issuing a notice.

Voters out of NRC can vote tillthey exhaust legal remedies: EC

PNS n MUMBAI

NCP chief Sharad Pawar,named in a money-launderingcase by the ED in connectionwith a scam at MaharashtraState Cooperative Bank, onFriday said he won't visit theagency's office "for now", muchto the relief of police and com-mon citizens.

Pawar's decision came afterMumbai Police CommissionerSanjay Barve met him at hisresidence and requested himnot to visit the EnforcementDirectorate's (ED) office as itmay create a law and order sit-uation.

The former Union ministerhad announced he would go tothe ED office at 2 pm, eventhough the agency has notsummoned him yet. He hadalso appealed to party workersnot to gather outside the EDoffice.

Ahead of Pawar's proposedvisit, the police had imposedprohibitory orders outside theED office in South Mumbai

and stepped up security."I have cancelled to go there

(ED office) as of now. I amready to go there whenrequired. We work in politics.But if someone tries to scare offus through agency, they willnot succeed," he told reportersat his residence.

Pawar thanked political lead-ers who supported him."(Congress leaders) RahulGandhi, Manmohan Singh andother senior national leadersand the Shiv Sena, too, support-ed me, I thank them," he said.

Gandhi had slammed theModi government for "target-ing" Pawar ahead of theMaharashtra polls.

"Sharad Pawar Ji is the latestOpposition leader to be target-ed by a vindictive Government.The timing of this action, amonth before elections inMaharashtra, reeks of politicalopportunism," Gandhi said onTwitter.

The Maratha strongmanquestioned the timing of theED case, which came justweeks ahead of the October 21

assembly polls in Maharashtra."Our impression is the decisionwas taken to malign the imageof heads of opposition partiesat a particular time (during polltime).

"Hence, I wanted to visit theED office. I had also conveyedthe decision to visit the officein writing. I got a reply to thisyesterday. It said I not beensummoned, that I need notvisit the office, that I will beinformed about visiting theoffice whenever required," hesaid.

Party workers had beenthronging the megapolis aheadof Pawar's planned visit to theED office, putting law enforce-ment personnel on their toes todeal with any law and orderproblem.

Without naming any party,Pawar said the effort to "scareoff" opposition leaders throughprobe agencies will not suc-ceed. Pawar said he did notwant to give the impressionthat he was shying away fromfacing probe.

Pawar drops ED office visit plan ‘for now’Will call you when required: ED to PawarPNS n MUMBAI

The ED has sent an emailcommunication informingNCP chief Sharad Pawar thathe is not required to deposein a money laundering caseprobe on Friday and he willbe called when required, offi-cial sources said.

They said the agencyreceived a communicationfrom Pawar on Thursday thathe will visit their office inBallard Estate in Mumbai to"submit information" andshare details related to thealleged Rs 25,000-crore scamin a Maharashtra cooperativebank in which he has beenbooked by the EnforcementDirectorate.

Sources said the agencyreplied to him stating thatwhile his cooperation isappreciated, he is not requiredto come on Friday, September

27 and that he will be calledas and when required.

The agency, they said,while replying to Pawar fol-lowed procedure as stipulat-ed while conducting probeunder the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA).

Pawar on Friday said hehas dropped the plan to visitthe ED office.

The former chief ministerhad said earlier said that hewill, on his own, visit the EDoffice at 2 pm on September27 to submit "whatever infor-mation" has been sought inconnection.

The ED officials, however,had said that deciding toquestion any person oraccused in a case is the pre-rogative of the "investigatingofficer" and such a decision istaken when there are reasonsto do so.

The ED, as part of its com-plaint filed under the PMLA,is probing allegations thatthe former top executives,chairmen, MDs, directors,CEOs and managerial staff ofMaharashtra StateCooperative Bank (MSCB)and office-bearers of cooper-ative sugar factories (CSF)were given loans in an illegit-imate manner.

We cannot rule out thatour neighbouringcountry's terrorist cancarry out a big incidenton our coastline whichextends from Kutch toKerala. As a Defenceminister I would like toassure that our country'smaritime security isabsolutely strong andsolidified

PNS n MUMBAI

As many as 75 per cent young-sters in India, covered under amulti-city survey, revealed thatthey consumed alcoholic drinksbefore turning 21, the legal agefor drinking. The survey wasrecently conducted by the firstyear students of St Xavier'sCollege located in southMumbai. It was carried outunder the guidance of DrAvkash Jadhav, head of thehistory department at the col-lege.

The findings of the reportwere presented to BhumeshAgarwal, AssistantCommissioner of Police,Superintendent, NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB), onThursday. As many as 1,000

youths in the age group of 16 to21 years, from cities includingMumbai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata,Rajasthan, were surveyed. It alsocovered youth from Prague, thecapital of the Czech Republic, andHungary, a country in CentralEurope. The exercise revealedthat 75 per cent youngsters sur-veyed had tried alcohol before

they turned 21, the legal age fordrinking, while 47 per cent hadtried cigarettes. It also says that20 per cent had tried drugs, while30 per cent smoked a hookah.

Almost 88 per cent youthtried some or the other addic-tion between 16 and 18 years ofage, the report said. Curiosity,peer pressure and easy accessi-

bility to intoxicating substancesare some of the prominent fac-tors that drive the youth towardsthese addictions, it said.

While 17 per cent of the sur-veyees said that they did takesome external help to overcometheir addiction, the remaining83 per cent said that did notknow how and from where toget help to get rid of the prob-lem. Talking about the report,Avkash Jadhav said, "The youthtoday is facing many vulnera-bilities and addiction to variousunhealthy habits is one of them.The purpose of this surveywas to understand the groundrealities and genesis of theseunhealthy habits, and to iden-tify the key players who areinvolved in feeding into thesehabits."

75% youths consume alcohol before 21, claims survey

High on steroids,Salman's ex-bodyguardgoes on a rampage

Ruling LDF wins Pala bypollAfter babus, netas, journos' roleemerges in MP sex scandal

BJP general secretary KailashVijayvargiya alleged that he hasspecific information about three-fourjournalists who were involved in theblackmailing scandal

The agency replied tohim stating that whilehis cooperation isappreciated, he is notrequired to come onFriday, September 27and that he will becalled as and whenrequired

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 nation 05

I have taken up journalism not for its sake but merely as an aid towhat I have conceived to be my mission in life. My mission is to teach

by example and precept under severe restraint the use of the matchlessweapon of Satyagraha which is a direct corollary of non-violence and truth.

— MAHATMA GANDHI

SHORT READS

Blackbuck poachingcase: Salman Khanskips local court hearingJODHPUR: Actor Salman Khanon Friday did not appear beforea local court here in connectionwith the blackbuck poachingcase. Khan's counsel movedtwo applications in the court,one for his exemption from thecourt on Friday and the other forpermanent exemption frompersonal appearance. The courtaccepted the application forexemption from appearing todayand posted the matter forhearing on the secondapplication of permanentexemption on December 19,Hastimal Saraswat, counsel forSalman Khan told reporters. Hesaid the ground for notappearing on Friday was hisengagement in a film's shooting.A gangster has threatened to killSalman by posting a deaththreat on Facebook. SalmanKhan had filed a plea against hisconviction by a lower court,which had sentenced him to fiveyears in jail. During a hearing onJuly 4, Sessions Court JudgeChandra Kumar Songara haddirected him to appear beforethe court on September 27,failing which his bail plea maybe cancelled. Khan is accused ofkilling two blackbucks duringthe shooting of a film inJodhpur in 1998.

10 killed, severalothers injured inBolero-minibuscollision in Rajasthan

Ex-UP CM KalyanSingh appears beforecourt in Babri Masjiddemolition caseLUCKNOW: Former UttarPradesh Chief Minister KalyanSingh on Friday appearedbefore a special CBI courtresponding to its summons inthe Babri Masjid demolitioncase. The court holding the trialof various BJP leaders,including L K Advani, MurliManhor Joshi and Uma Bhartifor allegedly conspiring todemolish the mosque at thedisputed Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya,had issued summons to KalyanSingh after it was informed thathis term as Rajasthan governorexpired in the first week of thismonth. Singh was the chiefminister of Uttar Pradesh whenthe 16th-century structure wasrazed on December 6 in 1992.After completion of his term asRajasthan governor, whichaccorded him immunity fromprosecution in any criminalcase during his tenure as aconstitutional dignitary, KalyanSingh had joined the BJP thismonth.

JODHPUR: At least 10 peoplewere killed and several othersinjured after a collision betweentwo vehicles near here onFriday, police said. The accidentoccurred when a tyre of aminibus burst and it collidedhead-on with a Bolero, leavingat least 10 people dead, said in-charge of Balesar police stationDevendra. Several others wereinjured in the accident and theyare being shifted to a hospital,he added. Further details areawaited, he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Fridaydirected demolition of flatsbuilt on the coastal zone ofKochi's Maradu within 138days and asked the Kerala gov-ernment to pay Rs 25 lakhinterim compensation to eachflat owner within four weeks.

The top court also orderedsetting up of a one-membercommittee of retired high courtjudge to oversee the demolitionand assess total compensation.

A bench comprising justicesArun Mishra and S RavindraBhat directed freezing of assetsof builders and promoters whowere involved in the construc-tion of illegal buildings in thecoastal zone areas of Kochi.

The bench further said thegovernment may considerrecovering the interim com-pensation amount from thebuilders and the promoters.

Kerala Chief Secretary Tom

Jose was present at the hearing.The court said his presencewould not be required duringthe next hearing on October 25.

Senior advocate Harish Salve,appearing for the Kerala gov-ernment, informed the benchthat power and water supplywere disconnected to the fourapartment complexes in Kochion Thursday. The apex courtsaid there should be no reason

for delay in demolition andgave the example of Kantenclave in Faridabad whereillegal structures have beendemolished, and modalities ofrecovering the money fromthose responsible for such con-struction has been worked out.

The bench clarified that thecourt's primary concern wasthat no construction shouldhave been carried out at the

eco-fragile coastal zone and thequestion was not regardingany individual.

While Salve was makingsubmissions relating to thenitty gritty of demolition exer-cise that has to be carried out,the bench said, "If you cannotdo it, we will think of involv-ing some other outside agency."

Salve said the state govern-ment has submitted a plan

under which in 138 days thestructure would be demol-ished -- including 90 days fordemolition and 38 days forremoving of debris.

He said the buildings need tobe brought down throughimplosion and expert agencywill be appointed by October11 to carry out the work.

The apex court onSeptember 23 had said that ille-gal construction in coastalareas of Kerala is a "colossalloss" to the environment, andhad expressed shock over spateof unauthorised structurescoming up at Kochi's Maradu.

The top court had said thatit appears that the authorities,rather than preventing the vio-lations, were trying to mobilizethe public opinion and time hascome to hold them responsiblefor their active connivance insuch activities of degrading theenvironment and violation ofthe coastal zone regulations.

The apex court had alsosought a concrete plan from theKerala government on theremoval of illegal structures.

On May 8, the apex courthad directed that these build-ings be removed within amonth as they were construct-ed in a notified CRZ, whichwas part of the tidally-influ-enced water body in Kerala.

The court had passed theorder after taking note of areport of a three-member com-mittee, which said when thebuildings were built, the area wasalready notified as a CRZ andconstruction was prohibited.

Earlier, the court had reject-ed a plea filed by the residentsof the area against the demo-lition order and taken a strongexception to an order passed bya vacation bench during thesummer break of the apexcourt, which had stayed thedemolition of these buildingsfor six weeks.

PNS n NEW DELHI

.The ASI report of 2003 on theRam Janmabhoomi-BabriMasjid site was not an "ordi-nary opinion" as the archaeol-ogists were acting on behalf ofthe Allahabad High Courtjudges to give their views onthe excavated material, theSupreme Court said Friday.

A 5-judge Constitutionbench, headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi, said the infer-ences from the ArcheologicalSurvey of India (ASI) reportwere drawn by "cultivated andstudied minds".

The apex court's observationcame when senior lawyerMeenakshi Arora, appearingfor the Muslim parties, told theapex court that the ASI reportwas "merely an opinion" ofarcheologists which needed tobe supported by substantialproof to establish that a Ramtemple already existed at thedisputed site at Ayodhya.

Arora told the bench that thereport cannot be held to be a

"substantive proof "."The 2003 ASI report is a

weak evidence and needs cor-roboration with the substantiveevidence," the senior lawyertold the bench which alsocomprised Justices S A Bobde,DY Chandrachud, Ashok

Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer.She said the report was not

binding on the court as it wasonly "advisory" in nature.

"This (ASI report) is just anopinion and no definitive con-clusion can be drawn from it,"she told the bench which was

hearing the politically sensitiveAyodhya land dispute case forthe 33rd day. Arora said arche-ologists were asked to give theirreport as to whether Ram tem-ple existed at the site or not. "Atthe highest the structure wasakin to a north Indian temple,"she said referring to the report'sconclusions.

She also stated that at someplace in the ASI report it hasbeen said the Ram Chabutra inthe outer courtyard was prob-ably a water tank. "There are alot of assumptions and pre-sumptions in this report andthe court is not bound toaccept it which is advisory innature and amounted to just anopinion," she said.

Another senior advocateShekhar Naphade also appear-ing for Muslim parties,advanced his arguments onlegal principles of "res judicata".

This principle under thecivil law deals with the fact thata same nature of dispute can-not be adjudicated upon twicein a court of law.

SC says ASI report reflectsviews of cultivated minds

AYODHYA CASE

PNS n KOLKATA

A 10-member CBI team sent toKolkata to track down formercity police commissioner RajeevKumar, who has been evadingsummons in connection withthe multi-crore Saradha chitfund scam, has returned to itsheadquarters in Delhi, an agencyofficial said.

The special team, which camedown to the state capital onSeptember 17, visited numerouslocations in and around the cityover the past week but failed tolocate Kumar, he said.

"The team that had come herefor a few days returned yester-day," a senior CBI official toldPTI. The Calcutta High Courthad earlier this month with-drawn the protection granted to

Kumar, who is currently theAdditional Director General-Crime InvestigationDepartment, from any coerciveaction by the probe agency.The senior IPS officer, accusedof tampering with crucial evi-dence in the Saradha chit fundcase, had moved multiple courtsover the past two weeks seekinganticipatory bail, but failed to getany reprieve.

Kumar still untraceable,special CBI teamreturns to Delhi

PNS n NEW DELHI

Search giant Google turned 21on Friday and it celebrated theoccasion with a special doodlethat showed a 90s era desktopcomputer flashing its old logoon the screen.

Google is a US-based multi-national technology bell-wether that specialises inInternet-related services andproducts, which include aneponymous search engine,online advertising technolo-gies and cloud computing.

The colourful doodle, in

sync with the company'sonline vibe, depicted a desk-top computer connected to aCPU and a huge printer, typ-ical of those in the 1990s, andthe logo displayed promi-nently on the screen of themonitor.

The image was shownprinted over a postcard float-ing in a mix of colourful bub-bles and stars, with the found-ing date '98 9 27' mentionedon the bottom right corner.

The search page showed thetypical Google logo on the topleft corner with numerals '2'

and '1' positioned in it, carry-ing candles on top, to make'21'.

Google was founded onSeptember 27, 1998, by Larry

Page and Sergey Brin whilethey were PhD students atStanford University inCalifornia in the US.

"It's @Google's 21st birth-day! 'We chose our systemsname, Google, because it is acommon spelling of googol,'wrote Sergey Brin & LarryPage, back then just 2 StanfordPh.D. students making a verylarge scale search-engine(sic)," the company tweeted.

Google doodles whichcommemorate importantevents in history or celebrateiconic personalities of the

past, are known for theirvibrancy and inventiveness.

"21 years ago, two StanfordPh.D. students, Sergey Brinand Lawrence (Larry) Page,published a paper aboutlaunching a prototype of a'large-scale search engine',"the search engine wrote on itsofficial doodle page.

"We chose our systemsname, Google, because it is acommon spelling of googol, or10100 and fits well with ourgoal of building very large-scale search engines," the stu-dents then wrote.

Google turns 21; special doodle marks birthday

PNS n GORAKHPUR

Two years after 70 infants diedat the BRD Medical Collegehere, a UP government inquiryhas given a clean chit to DrKafeel Khan in the case.

Dr Khan was suspendedfollowing the death of childrenin the hospital in August 2017.

Investigating Officer of thecase, Principal Secretary,Stamp and Registration,Himanshu Kumar, said onFriday that Dr Khan has beengiven a clean chit in the case.

The infants had diedallegedly because of disruptionin oxygen supply due to pend-ing payments to the supplier,a charge stoutly refuted by thestate government.

The government has main-tained that the children dieddue to different illnesses,including JapaneseEncephalitis (JE) and therewas no shortage of oxygen.

Dr Khan told PTI that"Principal, BRD MedicalCollege, Ganesh Kumar gaveme the UP Government letter.It clearly describes that I amfree from charges of medicalnegligence, corruption andnot performing duty on that

fateful day when around 70children lost their lives at BRDMedical College Hospital".

"My bail order of AllahabadCourt of April 25, 2018, con-firmed that I was not part of thetendering process of oxygensupply and also there is nomaterial on record which provesmy medical negligence," he said.

Kumar said, "It is a proce-dure that Government lettersand orders are handed over inperson under which the letterwas given to Dr Kafeel Khanon Thursday".

As per the investigationreport, Dr Khan was neitherthe nodal medical officer incharge of encephalitis wards atBRD nor documents contest-ing the same provided by thedepartment were adequate andconsistent. The report alsostates that Dr Khan was notinvolved in the process of allot-ting tenders for oxygen supplyamounting to corruption, or ofmedical negligence on his parton the day of the tragedy.

The report also says that DrKhan informed seniors aboutshortage of oxygen supply andarranged seven oxygen cylin-ders on the night of August 10-11, 2017. Dr Khan said he willhold a press conference inDelhi and ask CM YogiAdityanath as to why his sus-pension has not been revokedso far.

"I have got the clean chit now.The question arises as to whokilled the 70 children," he said.Dr Khan said the letter handedover to him was dated April 18.

PNS n KOLKATA

West Bengal government hasplans to set up a museum at thenorth Kolkata house of 19thcentury social reformer IshwarChandra Vidyasagar where hehad spent the last few years ofhis life, state minister ParthaChatterjee said.

The museum will come up atVidyasagar's residence at BadurBagan area where pictures andmodels, chronicling his lifefrom his birth place atBirsinghapur village in PaschimMedinipur district to the housein north Kolkata, will be put ondisplay, he said on Thursday.

Chatterjee, who is the edu-cation minister, said this at afunction after inaugurating'Vidyasagar Academy' at theBadur Bagan residence on the

200th birth anniversary cele-brations of the educational andsocial reformer.

The minister also releasedtwo books, 'Amader Vidyasagar'and 'Chotoder Vidyasagar' atthe programme. Some itemsused by Vidyasagar, gatheringdust in the storeroom of thehouse, will be brought out forpublic viewing at the museum.

This will help the presentgeneration to know about theman, who had waged a waragainst women oppression andpropagated widow remarriage,he said.

The School Education andHigher Education departmentwill organise seminars high-lighting Vidaysagar's life andwork in schools and collegesduring a year-long programme,Chatterjee said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

There are 389 districts in thecountry where the number ofpending child abuse casesexceeds 100 and as per a LawMinistry proposal, one fasttrack special court will be setup in each of these districts toexclusively try such cases.

According to a Law Ministrydocument, "Scheme on FastTrack Special Courts (FTSCs)for expeditious disposal ofcases of rape and Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act", there are 389districts in the country wherethe number of pending casesunder the POCSO Act exceeds100.

"Therefore, as per the orderof Apex (Supreme) Court, ineach of these districts, oneexclusive POCSO court will beset up which will try no othercase," it said.

Depending upon the pen-dency of POCSO cases, thestate or the Union territorygovernments, in consultationwith the high courts con-cerned, could, however, decideif more number of exclusivePOCSO courts need to beestablished within the overall

number of FTSCs providedunder this scheme.

The Union government hasproposed to set up a total of1,023 fast-track special courtsfor expeditious trial of over1.66 lakh pending cases ofcrime against women and chil-dren across the country.

Each of these special courtsare expected to dispose of atleast 165 such cases per year, thescheme document prepared bythe Department of Justice of theLaw Ministry said.

A total of 1,023 FTSCs willbe set up, out of which 389courts, as per a Supreme Courtdirection, will exclusively han-dle cases registered under the

POCSO Act, it said.The remaining 634 FTSCs

will deal with either rape casesor both rape and POCSO Actcases, depending upon thependency and requirement.

"Each FTSC is expected todispose of 41-42 cases eachquarter and at least 165 casesin a year," the documentadded.

According to the document,a total of 1,66,882 cases of rapeand those under POCSO Actare pending trial in variouscourts across the country.

The process of setting up ofthese FTSCs is likely to beginon October 2, the LawMinistry had earlier said.

Over 100 pending child abusecases each in 389 districts

Raze completely in 138 days; make Rs 25L payout to owners: SCMARADU FLATS

"The 2003 ASI report is a weak evidence and needscorroboration with the substantive evidence," thesenior lawyer told the bench which also comprisedJustices S A Bobde, DY Chandrachud, AshokBhushan and S Abdul Nazeer

WB govt plans museumat Vidyasagar's house

In detention, Farooqturns to religion

Gorakhpur hospital tragedy:Dr Kafeel Khan gets clean chit

PNS n SRINAGAR

National Conference Presidentand MP Farooq Abdullah hasturned to religion in his homein Srinagar that has beendeclared a sub-jail by the J&Kadministration.

Known for his humour,Farooq now reads the Quranand reads 'Namaaz' five timesa day, sources said. His house,G-40, at Srinagar's poshGupkar Road is sandwichedbetween the houses of hisyounger sister Suraiya andelder daughter Safiya.

Safiya had put up a blackflag, seemingly as mark ofprotest against the revocationof special status of J&K, out-side her house. The J&Kadministration has justifiedthe slapping of PSA on the NCpresident on the grounds thathe has "tremendous potentialto create public disorder inSrinagar and other parts of theValley".

The administration hascited several instances since2016 when he made state-ments in conflict with thelaw.

Farooq was booked underPSA a day before the SupremeCourt on September 16 askedthe Centre and J&K adminis-tration to respond to a plea byMDMK General SecretaryVaiko that the former J&KChief Minister be producedbefore the court. Vaiko hadsought Farooq's release sothat he could attend a confer-

ence in Chennai.NC MP from Baramulla

Akbar Lone said there is nojustification for slapping PSAon the NC president.

"If anybody stood for Indiain Kashmir it was FarooqAbdullah. And this is how theyare paying him back," Lonesaid. The J&K High Court hadpermitted Lone and HasnainMasoodi, NC MP fromAnantnag, to meet Farooq athis residence.

"I met him," Masoodi said."We wanted to enquire

about his health as he has aheart condition."He said healso met former ChiefMinister and Farooq's son,Omar Abdullah, who has beenkept in preventive detention atHari Niwas. "Omar has grownbeard," he said. "He is in goodspirits."

It is believed that if J&Kpoliticians like Farooq stick totheir stand that rescinding ofthe special status is unaccept-able and unconstitutional, itwould weaken New Delhi'scase on Kashmir and encour-age Pakistan.

There is agreement inKashmir that adverse state-ments by politicians likeFarooq against the removal ofJ&K's special status wouldundermine New Delhi's effortsto pacify the internationalcommunity on Kashmir. Itwould also embolden main-stream politicians and theirsupporters to agitate againstthe Centre.

My bail order ofAllahabad Court ofApril 25, 2018,

confirmed that I was not partof the tendering process ofoxygen supply and alsothere is no material onrecord which proves mymedical negligence

— Dr KAFEEL KHAN

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 nation 06It is not that I do not get angry. I don't give ventto anger. I cultivate the quality of patience as

angerlessness, and generally speaking, I succeed— MAHATMA GANDHI

Kerala ChiefSecretary TomJose was presentat the hearing.The court saidhis presencewould not berequired duringthe next hearingon October 25

world 07HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

AP n WASHINGTON

The White House is dustingoff its playbook from the

special counsel's Russia inves-tigation.

Caught off guard by thespeed at which a whistleblow-er's claims have morphed intoan impeachment inquiry,President Donald Trump andhis team are scrambling torespond.

They're turning, at least fornow, to some of the samestrategies they used to counterspecial counsel RobertMueller's investigation.

The basic tactics deployedby the short-staffed WhiteHouse: Attempt to discreditgovernment officials at theheart of the story. DispatchTrump lawyer Rudy Giulianiand other allies to muddy thepicture. Lean on Republicans inCongress to provide cover.

And, most of all, presiden-tial counterattacks.

"Corrupt CongressmanLiddle' Adam Schiff," Trumptweeted on Friday about thechairman of the HouseIntelligence committee, whomhe also called on to resign forreading a dramatized version ofTrump's call with Ukraine'spresident during a hearing theday before.

Stepping up his attacks onthe anonymous complainant,Trump on Friday suggestedwithout elaboration that it's

"Sounding more and more likethe so-called Whistleblowerisn't a Whistleblower at all" andalleging the person is a "parti-san operative." The commentcould presage an effort by thepresident to argue that protec-tions laws don't apply to thecomplainant and that they canbe personally maligned — amove that may open a newfront in his battles withCongress.

Just as the Republican pres-ident considers himself to behis own best adviser, he oftenacts as his own most vocaldefender.

"It's a disgrace to our coun-try. It's another witch-hunt.Here we go again," an agitatedTrump said Thursday as hereturned to Washington afterfour days at the United Nationsin New York.

"They're frozen — theDemocrats. They're going tolose the election; they know it.

That's why they're doing it. Andit should never be allowed,what's happened to this presi-dent."

AP nWASHINGTON

House Speaker Nancy Pelosivoiced concern on Friday

over President Donald Trump'scomments that suggested retal-iation against people who helpedan intelligence whistleblowerwhose complaint about Trump'sphone call with Ukraine's leaderis at the center of the Houseimpeachment probe.

In the call, Trump proddedUkrainian President VolodymyrZelenskiy to investigateDemocratic rival Joe Biden.

White House officials tookextraordinary steps to "lockdown" information on Trump'scall, even moving a transcript ofit to a secret computer system,according to the whistleblower'scomplaint.

Trump lashed out onThursday, saying whoever pro-vided information to thewhistleblower is "close to a spy."Trump suggested that was trea-son, an act punishable by death.

Pelosi told MSNBC's"Morning Joe" show, "I'm con-cerned about some of the pres-ident's comments about thewhistleblower."

She said the House panelsconducting the impeachmentprobe will make sure there's noretaliation against people whoprovided information in thecase.

Pelosi declined to provide atimeline for the House impeach-

ment investigation, saying "thefacts will lead us."

"They will take the time thatthey need, and we won't have thecalendar be the arbiter," shesaid, but she added, "it doesn'thave to drag on."

She said she expects theimpeachment probe to focus onTrump's pressure on theUkrainian president at a timewhen he was temporarily with-holding military aid to the coun-try.

"I think we have to stayfocused, as far as the public isconcerned, on the fact that thepresident of the United Statesused taxpayer dollars to shakedown the leader of anothercountry for his own politicalgain," she said.

She said Trump's actions putnational security at risk.

"This is about the nationalsecurity of our country, thepresident of the United Statesbeing disloyal to his oath ofoffice, jeopardizing our nation-al security and jeopardizing theintegrity of our elections," shesaid.

Pelosi also had some choicewords for Attorney GeneralWilliam Barr, who is mentionedin the rough transcript theWhite House released this weekof the July 25 call in whichTrump urges Zelenskiy to workwith Barr and with Trump's per-sonal lawyer Rudy Giuliani toinvestigate Biden.

WH dusts off Muellerplaybook as pressure rises

Pelosi concerned aboutTrump's whistleblower‘spy' comments AFP n STOCKHOLM

The British-flagged oil tankerStena Impero, which had

been held off the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas for more than two months, set sailand reached internationalwaters Friday, its Swedishowner said.

Seven Indian nations out ofthe 23 crew members werereleased on September 4.

A total of 18 Indian nation-als were among the 23 crewmembers of the tanker.

The ship's seizure waswidely seen as a tit-for-tat moveafter authorities in the Britishoverseas territory of Gibraltardetained an Iranian tanker on

suspicion it was shipping oil toSyria in breach of EU sanctions.

Tehran repeatedly deniedthe cases were related but aGibraltar court last monthordered the Iranian tanker's release despite an 11th-hour US legal bid to keep it indetention.

"She (the tanker) reachedinternational waters about 15minutes ago," Erik Hanell, CEOof the company that owns thevessel, Stena Bulk, told AFP at12pm (1000 GMT) on Friday,adding that the ship was head-ing for Dubai.

On Wednesday, an Iranianforeign ministry spokesman,Abbas Mousavi, said the liftingof the seizure was finalised in

a procedure coordinated bythe foreign ministry, Iran's judi-ciary and its port and maritimeauthorities.

After the ship had left Iranand reached internationalwaters on Friday Hanell said itwas "obviously a relief " andadded that the priority now wasthe crew.

"When we reach Dubai we will firstly take care of thecrew and then try and get theship in operational order again,"he told AFP.

Iran's RevolutionaryGuards seized the tanker in theStrait of Hormuz on July 19after surrounding the vesselwith attack boats and rap-pelling onto its deck.

Tanker released by Iran reachesint’l waters: Swedish owner

AFP n TEHRAN

Iran's foreign ministry onFriday condemned new

United States sanctions againstChina and Russia, saying theyendanger "international tradesecurity".

"As the primary victim ofeconomic terrorism, Iranstrongly condemns the desta-bilising act of sanctioning cer-tain Chinese companies," saidIran's foreign ministryspokesman Abbas Mousavi inan official statement.

"The actions of (USPresident Donald) Trump'seconomic terrorism team goagainst international tradesecurity," he added.

US Secretary of State MikePompeo said Wednesday theactions against Chinese entitieswere in response to violationsof unilateral US sanctions overbuying Iranian oil.

Mousavi also slammed USsanctions against Russian entities allegedly involved inSyria, and called on the worldto stand up against US "bully-ing".

Three individuals, fiveshipping vessels and a Moscow-based front companywere sanctioned over an oper-ation to move money and fuelto Russian forces supportingthe government of Syria'sPresident Bashar al-Assad, theUS Treasury announcedThursday.

Iran and Russia have sup-ported Assad during Syria'seight-year conflict.

Irancondemns USsanctions onChina, Russia

AP n UNITED NATIONS

Saudi Arabia urged the worldto apply "utmost pressure" on

Iran, while Tehran dismissed thatpolicy as already having failed.

Saudi Foreign MinisterIbrahim al-Assaf took the stageThursday at the U.N. GeneralAssembly and urged world lead-ers to cut off Iran's financialresources. But across town,Iranian President HassanRouhani insisted that wouldkill all chances of successful

negotiations. Saudi Arabia insistsIranian weapons were used in aSeptember 14 missile and droneattack on Saudi oil facilities,which jolted global oil prices.Iran denies involvement.

Gulf tensions took centerstage again on the third day ofdebate at the U.N. GeneralAssembly. Two more adver-saries will face off Friday, whenIndian Prime Minister NarendraModi and Pakistani PrimeMinister Imran Khan take thestage in the morning.

Saudi Arabia urges pressureon Iran, which says that failed

AP n HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s beleagueredleader Carrie Lam faced

her public with humility, butshe may not get the responseshe hoped for.

In a face-off with an antag-onistic audience, Lam quietlytook blow after blow as citizensat a town hall session Thursdayvented anger at her refusal togive more concessions to final-ly end more than three monthsof anti-government proteststhat have rocked the semi-autonomous Chinese ter-ritory.

After the dialogue ended,Lam stayed holed up in thebuilding for another four hoursto avoid confrontation withangry protesters outside.

HK leader'stown hall failsto persuadeprotesters

AP n HONG KONG

Hong Kong police saidFriday that students

account for 29 per cent ofnearly 1,600 people detained inanti-democracy protests sinceJune and urged young peopleto take the "straight and narrowpath" as more major ralliesloom this weekend.

Police public relations chiefTse Chun-chung said 207 highschool and university studentswere detained this month alonedespite the resumption of class-es after the summer holiday, upfrom 257 over the June-Augustperiod.

He said there was a rise inteenagers participating in vio-lent crimes, with some alreadycharged in court.

This included a 16-year-old charged recently witharson, which carries a lifeimprisonment upon convic-tion, a 13-year-old girlcharged with desecratingChinese flags and others withattacking police officers andcarrying dangerous weapons.

"It is an alarming trend tous," he said at a news con-ference.

"It is worrying to seethese youths breaking the lawand possibly having criminalrecords at such a young and tender age. We appeal toall youngsters to rethink their actions and hope theeducation sector and parentswill help our young people towalk the straight and narrowpath."

Hong Kong policesay student arrestsat protests on rise

AP n JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu's main

rival party says it has rejectedhis demands to form a unityGovernment under his lead-ership and include his right-wing and ultra-Orthodoxallies. The centrist Blue andWhite Party said after talksFriday with Netanyahu'sLikud that it "was made clearfrom the outset" that the partywould reject the prime min-ster's conditions.

AP n LONDON

Asenior adviser to BritishPrime Minister Boris

Johnson has dismissed con-cerns that politicians' heatedrhetoric over Brexit is polaris-ing society, telling supportersthat it isn't surprising that peo-ple are upset about the coun-try's failure to leave theEuropean Union.

The prime minister hasbeen accused of whipping updivisions with his charged lan-guage about Brexit opponentsin the House of Commonsthis week.

But adviser DominicCummings told backers at abook launch that the only wayto calm tensions over Brexit isfor British lawmakers to respectthe result of the 2016 referen-dum and take the country out

of the European Union.Cummings claimed that

Britain's current political chaosis "a walk in the park" com-pared with the referendumcampaign in which the coun-try narrowly voted to leave theEU.

Three years later, Britainand its politicians remain bit-terly divided over how, or evenwhether, to leave the 28-nationbloc.

"We are enjoying this," saidCummings, one of the archi-tects of the 2016 "leave" cam-paign.

"We are going to leave andwe are going to win."

In a raucous, ill-temperedparliamentary debateWednesday, Johnson arguedthat he is safeguarding the willof the public against the inter-ests of the political establish-

ment, which wants to remain inthe EU.

He said postponing thecountry's departure would"betray" the people, referred toan opposition law ordering aBrexit delay as the "SurrenderAct" and brushed off concernsthat his forceful language mightendanger legislators as "hum-bug."

Bishops at the Church ofEngland on Friday appealed forcalm amid the growing acri-mony.

"We should speak to others with respect," the bish-ops said in a statement. "Andwe should also listen ... Weshould not denigrate, patron-ise or ignore the honest viewsof fellow citizens, but seek torespect their opinions, theirparticipation in society, andtheir votes."

UK PM's adviser shrugs offconcerns about Brexit tensions

AFP n CAIRO

Egyptian President AbdelFattah al-Sisi on Friday dis-

missed a call for a secondweekend of protests as "noreason for concern", with hun-dreds already arrested in anintensifying crackdown on arare show of discontent on thestreets.

Last week's open defianceof President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi — triggered by viral videosfrom exiled Egyptian busi-nessman Mohamed Aly — hassurprised observers in a coun-

try where opposition of allstripes has been severely cur-tailed.

Elected president in 2014after pushing predecessorMohamed Morsi and hisMuslim Brotherhood frompower the previous year, Sisi isseen by many as one of themost authoritarian figures inthe Middle East.

Construction magnate Aly has called for a "million-man march" to take placeFriday and a "people's revolu-tion" to unseat the uncompro-mising head of state.

Al-Sisi: Fresh protestcall not a concern

AFP n WASHINGTON

The whistleblower whosecomplaint has shaken the

foundations of Donald Trump's presidency is a maleofficer of the CentralIntelligence Agency who wasseconded to the White House,the New York Times reportedThursday.

The man "was detailed towork at the White House at onepoint" but has since returned tothe CIA, the Times said, citingthree people familiar with hisidentity.

Whistleblower inTrump Ukraine scandala CIA officer: Report

Israel PM's rivalrejects conditionsfor forming Govt

Anumber of critical developments,pertaining to climate change,held centrestage among eventsmarking the week that isapproaching its end. The one that

stood out for its importance in terms of itsimpact on governmental actions was theUnited Nations Climate Action Summit(UNCAS) in New York on September 23.There were demonstrations of youths andschool children in an estimated 185 countriesto accelerate the implementation of steps tocombat global warming.

The first was convened by the UnitedNations Secretary-General, António Guterres,to accelerate and strengthen governmentalefforts to restrict the rise in global temper-ature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial revolution level. According to TheSpecial Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C(The Special Report), released by theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) on October 7, 2018, this level is like-ly to be reached sometime between 2030 and2052. Perhaps more alarming is the fact thatthe report states that the risk of global warm-ing and its adverse impact will not be reducedeven if the increase is limited to 1.5 degreesCelsius. Sea levels will continue to rise beyond2100, threatening coastal ecosystems andinfrastructure. Flooding, drought andextreme weather events will wreak havocaround the world. Many species will contin-ue to be driven towards extinction andmarine ecosystems could face “irreversibleloss.” All this is widely known, as is whatneeds to be done to limit global warming to1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrialrevolution level. IPCC lists a number of these,including those requiring an unprecedent-ed reduction in fossil-fuel use by half in lessthan 15 years, and a total elimination of theiruse in 30 years.

This will require drastic changes in pub-lic policies and life-styles. There will have tobe no gas or oil heating of homes, businessor industry establishments; no running ofvehicles by diesel or gasoline; closing downof all coal and gas power plants; and whole-sale conversion of the petrochemical indus-try to green chemistry. Heavy industries likesteel and aluminium will have to use carbon-free energy sources or employ technology tocapture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions andpermanently store these.

The Special Report further states thatdepending on the speed at which emissionsare reduced, between 0.4 and 2.7 millionsquare miles of land may have to be convert-ed to growing bioenergy crops and up to 3.86million square miles of forests added by 2050.Even that, it says, will not be enough. Everypound of CO2 emitted in the last 100 yearswill continue to trap heat in the atmospherefor hundreds of years to come. By 2045 or2050, there will still be excessive CO2 in theatmosphere.

The current pledges to cut CO2 emissionsare so inadequate that the global warming rate

is set to rise by at least threedegrees Celsius by 2100, riskingnatural tipping points such asthawing of large areas of per-mafrost. President DonaldTrump’s withdrawal of the USfrom the Paris Agreement hasmade things worse. While itwould become effective from2020, steps to dismantle measuresto implement the goals by theParis Agreement, as well as otherenvironmental regulations, havealready been initiated. The mostrecent of these has been the rever-sal of automobile emission rules.Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro wants toopen up the Amazon to freshcommercial activity. ThoughChina is taking steps to curbemissions, its state-owned com-panies want to take up coal pro-jects at home and abroad.

An important cause of poorprogress on the environmentfront has been the close linksbetween corporations and polit-ical leaders. Here, two develop-ments require attention. Thefirst is the UN’s 195-nation cli-mate science body’s approval onTuesday of the IPCC’s SpecialReport on the Ocean andCryosphere in a ChangingClimate, detailing the dire impactof global warming on oceans andearth’s frozen zones and high-lighting the urgency of prioritis-ing timely, ambitious and coor-dinated action to addressunprecedented and enduringchanges in the ocean and cryos-phere. The second is UNCAS’

decision to set up a new leader-ship group, led by India andSweden, to help guide the world’sheaviest greenhouse gas emittingindustries towards a low carboneconomy. Both measures have tobe welcomed with the rider — itwill all depend on the results.

Public pressure is veryimportant. I had written in thesecolumns under the heading“Chronicle of a death foretold”(Published in The Pioneer onOctober 13, 2018), “The answerclearly lies in building up pressurefrom below to compelGovernments to take politically-difficult decisions and groups ofpeople to abandon their opposi-tion to measures critically impor-tant for combating global warm-ing, which affect their individualor sectional interests. This wouldrequire a mass movement. Thelatter is also necessary to persuadepeople to give up ways of living— such as compulsive use of airconditioners — that conduce toglobal warming and adoptlifestyles — shifts to vegetariandiets — that hinder it.”

An early indication that atransnational mass movementdemanding urgent action onglobal warming was in theworks came in the form of theexplosive youth movementstarted by the 16-year-oldSwedish school girl, GretaThunberg, just over 12 monthsago, when people protestedfrom the Pacific islands, throughAustralia, across Southeast Asia

and Africa into Europe andonwards to the Americas. Thenext notable indication camewhen Wee Rebellion, a youngpeoples’ group combatting cli-mate change and associatedwith a bigger group, ExtinctionRebellion, held a “die-in” protestdemonstration on April 27,2019. Referred to in my columnin The Pioneer titled, “Sign up fora new crusade” (May 2, 2019),it involved protesters in France,Australia, New Zealand,Finland, Sweden, Norway, Italy,the Netherlands and the UnitedKingdom, lying on the groundat transport hubs and culturaland shopping centres on April27, demanding action to preventan environmental collapse.

All earlier events were, how-ever, overshadowed by the mas-sive demonstrations staged in 185countries on September 21, 2019,by youths who were joined byadults. These issued stridentdemands for urgent action tolimit greenhouse gas emissionsand stabilise the climate. The cli-max was Thunberg’s stingingspeech at the UN on September23, where she warned worldleaders, “The eyes of all futuregenerations are upon you. And ifyou choose to fail us, I say we willnever forgive you.”

The tocsin has been sound-ed. The crusade of the young andold has begun.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)Ever since Donald Trump won the presi-

dential election, not quite by a landslidebut rather convincingly nonetheless,

there have been calls to impeach him from var-ious quarters inside the US. These were main-ly predicated on the fact of illegal interferenceby Russian operatives, almost certainly linkedto the Kremlin, in Trump’s surprise victory. Ayear-long investigation into these allegationsof impropriety led by former Director of theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), RobertMueller, has not done much to damage the

Trump train. Now, however, a call made by the US President to Vlodymyr Zelensky,the new President of Ukraine, during which he dropped hints that the latter shouldinvestigate former Vice-President and now the Democratic front-runner for the2020 US election, Joe Biden, and his son’s business dealings in that country,has become controversial. After a whistle-blower, who according to The NewYork Times is from the US Central Intelligence Agency, flagged the call and com-plained to his superiors about it, matters have moved fast. Nancy Pelosi, the Speakerof the US House of Representatives, the lower House of the US Congress, hasstarted a formal inquiry to start impeachment proceedings against Trump. Inrecent history, two American Presidents were “impeached” — Richard Nixonresigned before the move — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Both were acquit-ted by the US upper House, the Senate. The latter is almost certain to happenin this case again, given the hyper-partisan times we live in. The fact that Nixonwas forced to resign as President was primarily because both American politi-cal parties came together against him. With few in the Republican Party goingagainst Trump, the same is well nigh impossible.

While Nixon and Clinton were disgraced, at least for a while, Trump sees theimpeachment proceedings as a political edge. While a case might have beenmade for an impeachment early in his term, starting the process now, 14 monthsahead of the presidential election, prima facie seems to benefit Trump and his“witchhunt” narrative. Not only that, with the White House releasing the transcriptof the phone conversation, he seems to be highlighting the misdemeanours ofhis opponent and not fighting shy of the charge of using another country in hisdomestic affairs. He might have surprised everyone in 2016 but that was a les-son on how shrewd the man is politically. Despite the near-constant harangu-ing by Opposition party members, Trump seems to revel in the moment. So closeto the election, unless something substantial can be found, the impeachmentproceedings will almost definitely help rather than harm him. And Trump knowsthat as long as his own party controls the US Senate, nothing is going to hap-pen to him. This could potentially fire up his base. Besides, US voters want localissues, not some theoretical technicality to determine their agenda.

The spate of snatchings and shootouts atbusy neighbourhoods and during work-ing hours has definitely alarmed Delhiites.

It is not only the count which is climbing recent-ly, as confirmed by Delhi Police data betweenJanuary and May, but the brutality and vio-lence quotient involved in each incident. Clearly,there is no fear of the law. While murders wentup from 205 to 211, snatching cases shot upfrom 2,691 to 2,812 for the above-mentionedperiod. Of particular interest is the fact thatsnatchings and robberies had actually gone

down over the last three years. With targets being dragged out of autorickshawsor beaten into submission, it shows that the perpetrators have become moredetermined and desperate enough to risk being seen on CCTV and get the jobdone with lightning efficiency. Policing in Delhi has always been a challenge whatwith the State Government having limited powers and Delhi Police coming underthe Union Home Ministry. At the same time, it is because of its special statusthat Delhi Police is better equipped with resources for crime-fighting. So clear-ly the question arises why the sudden uncomfortable spikes on the graph? Ofcourse, the nimbleness of snatching operations with alarming regularity pointsto the profile of a gang of young desperados, usually bike-borne, who go aftermobile phones and jewellery that are easier to dispose of in a secondary mar-ket and encashable enough in the short-term. They are clearly technologicallyclued in as they can change the IMEI number of the cellphones in no time, anability which makes them untraceable. It is believed snatchers use the quick moneyfor drug use. Among the four metros, Delhi reports the highest incidence of thefts,though around 90 per cent of victims do not register an FIR. That’s becausethey feel an investigation is pointless considering theft as a crime is bailable.Currently, a case under Section 356 (assault or criminal force in attempt to com-mit theft of property) of the IPC is slapped against the accused with a maxi-mum imprisonment for two years. It is because of this glaring loophole that neig-bouring Haryana recently made snatching a non-bailable offence punishable upto 10 years in prison.

As for streetside shootouts, their daredevilry hints at an influx of profession-al gangs, who have of late taken refuge in the national capital region (NCR) asa hideaway. Some of these hardened criminals are easily getting bail in their homeStates, in the absence of local police monitoring important hearings or challeng-ing their bail plea. The bustle of Delhi and its suburbs allows them a certain anonymi-ty and enough work sheds that double up as factories of country-made pistols.It is because of these newer challenges that the Delhi Police decided to strength-en its vigilance arc at the beginning of this year itself. With GPS technology, fasterpatrols, drones, body cams, AI-assisted drills and a reactivated beat network, ithas been able to improve its emergency responses and their efficacy. It is alsoworking with real-time data, something which needs to extend countrywide. Fora sense of perspective, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data waslast updated in 2016 and cannot at any stretch be held as an indicator. Meanwhile,Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is doing his own bit to enhance security, hav-ing announced the installation of 2.10 lakh streetlights across the city’s dark spotsto arrest snatching incidents. His ongoing CCTV camera project has taken off,too, with 2.8 lakh surveillance devices in residential and market areas as sug-gested by local MLAs and RWAs. While many may argue that such measuresare no guarantee for the severity of crime committed, studies around the worldhave found that improved street lighting did have a positive effect in reducingcrimes such as burglary and theft. And these are a matter of concern at the moment,most victims being women. If both the Kejriwal Government and Delhi Policecan complement each other’s strengths, then we may at least learn not to livein denial of our underbelly.

Crime capital

Can’t define happiness

Sir — This refers to a surveyreleased by a Pune-based RSS-linked think-tank, Drishti StreeAdhyayan Prabhodhan Kendra,which has said that marriedwomen had a higher level ofhappiness, “whereas the lowestpercentage was among thosewho had live-in relationships.” Ithas also said that happinessdepends on a woman’s age, edu-cation and marital status and hasnothing to do with income.Happiness is very subjective.How one measures it is the realquestion and that differs fromperson to person.

Well, indirectly, it may be saidthat if an average person feelssecure in his/her life and if everynow and then the peace of mindis not disturbed, one is consideredto be happy. But how should oneattain happiness? Nobody earnsthe peace of mind either byhis/her own existence or throughpersonal income? It comesthrough social security.

A couple, who is enjoying alifestyle called living together, ifless happy compared to a mar-ried couple, then the needle ofsuspicion points to the admin-

istration in general which restson certain beliefs in a society,termed as “morals.” Any surveydone with a specific purpose andwhen a political leader isinvolved speaks volumes about“ideological” propaganda.

PP SenNew Delhi

Revisit norms

Sir — The Reserve Bank of India’s(RBI) decision to increase thecash withdrawal limit to `10,000per account-holder from theexisting `1,000 has come as amajor relief to the hapless cus-

tomers of the crippled Punjab &Maharashtra Cooperative bank.Some of the ill decisions of thebank landed the depositors in asoup. The present crisis speaksvolumes about the the governancestructure of cooperative banks.Needless to say, the PMC’s prox-imity with a real estate company

made matters worse. The RBImust revisit the regulatory frame-work of cooperative banks.

Bal Govind Noida

Trump’s desperation

Sir — Desperate to secure a secondterm, US President Donald Trumpis ready to do all it takes to achievehis goal. He has gone all out todestroy the man who, he thinks, willsquare up to him in the next pres-idential contest, former VicePresident Joe Biden. Trump seemsto have taken a leaf out of the bookof leaders who try to destroy theiropponents politically, or even oth-erwise, before elections. But opin-ion is divided on the moves beingmade to impeach Trump. TheRepublicans, save a few, have ralliedbehind him. It is too early to saywhether the Democrats will be ableto oust their bete noire but they arebound to go to any length toembarrass and discredit Trump andthe Republicans in time for the nextpresidential poll.

Meghna ANew South Wales

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

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op nionHYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

08

Just be the change

HIRANMAY KARLEKAR

Greta Thunberg’s stinging speech at the UN sounded alarm bells for the world tostart acting on climate change. The crusade of the young and old has begun

Young actors are hard-working. They don’t comewith the thought that we willlearn after doing 12-15 filmsand will have a lot of time.

Director—Anees Bazmee

Elimination of terrorism in allits forms is a pre-condition notonly for fruitful cooperation butalso for the very survival of theSouth Asian region.

External Affairs Minister—S Jaishankar

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

A true gentleman is honoured

This refers to the editorial, “Real Mr India” (September26). With a career lasting for about four decades,the 76-year-old superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, has

seen it all — success, failure, bouquets and brickbats.He can well be called a man with a Midas touch as hehas faced all struggles very calmly and converted neg-atives into positives. A string of flops early in the careercan put any dreamy youngster off but this was not thecase for this gentleman who strode like a colossus inthe Hindi film industry once he began to taste success.From an angry young man to a greying elder to a ripeoldie — there are no roles in Hindi celluloid in whichBachchan has not showcased his talent.

Not for nothing is he fondly referred to as thechampion of social and health movement in the coun-try. His services as the Unicef Goodwill Ambassadorfor polio eradication have been immense. Besides, healso promoted various health and related issues suchas childhood immunisation programme, anti-tubercu-losis campaign and the Clean India initiative. The edi-torial was spot on in saying that the Dadasaheb Phalkeaward perhaps came in too late for him. Polite, hum-

ble and courteous, Bachchan would like us to believethat the Phalke award arrived neither too early nor toolate. However, in the backdrop of many lesser lightshaving been conferred with the prestigious award longbefore Bachchan, the intention and intuition of the“award conferrers” leave a lot to be desired. AmitabhBachchan deserves every honour on this globe.

Ganapathi BhatAkola

THE CURRENTPLEDGES TO CUTCO2 EMISSIONS

ARE SOINADEQUATE THAT

THE GLOBALWARMING RATE IS

SET TO RISE BYAT LEAST THREE

DEGREES CELSIUSBY 2100, RISKINGNATURAL TIPPINGPOINTS SUCH AS

THAWING OFLARGE AREAS OF

PERMAFROST

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Another Trumpcard

Sharad Pawarji is the latestOpposition leader to be target-ed by a vindictive Government.The timing of this action reeksof political opportunism.

Congress leader—Rahul Gandhi

The brazen increase in the number of incidents in Delhimeans that the Government and police must work in tandem

The Democrats have decided to initiate the impeachment ofthe US President. But nothing much will come of it

We cannot rule out that ourneighbouring country's terrorist can carry out a bigincident on our coastline,from Kutch to Kerala.

Union Home Minister—Rajnath Singh

Farming as smart business

OURS IS REALLY NOT JUST A STORY OF MISSEDOPPORTUNITIES BUT ALSO OF DELIBERATE

OBSTACLES. TERRORISM IS ONE AMONG THEM.—EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER

S JAISHANKAR

I CANNOT SIT AND TALK WITH KILLERS OFKASHMIRIS. INDIA MUST PUT AN END TO THESIEGE IN KASHMIR.— PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTERSHAH MAHMOOD QURESHI

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

One of the critical sectors to have sufferedduring the first term of the NarendraModi Government was agriculture, with

just 2.9 per cent growth, down from 4.3 per centduring the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s)second term.

Even though agriculture continues to be themain driver of the economy of rural India,declining prices of farm commodities in the inter-national market and fall in food inflation in thecountry have reduced the returns from farming.Small and fragmented land holdings on accountof repeated divisions have also contributed to thedecline in agri-incomes. Hence, there is a needfor providing structured income support to smallgrowers, for procuring seeds, fertilisers, equip-ment, labour and so on. Such support will helpthem in avoiding indebtedness as well and fallinginto the clutches of money lenders. Fortunately,the Government is aware of the crisis in the farmsector and the aim of the Union Budget 2019-20 is to revive the ailing rural economy. However,as in all things, implementation would be the keyto success here.

The agriculture sector needs care and visionnot just because over 70 per cent of the peopleof the country are still dependent on it for theirlivelihood but also because it will play a key rolein India becoming a $5 trillion economy as envi-sioned by the Prime Minister. The Budget hascome with multiple measures and promises,which will add not only vibrancy to the farm sec-tor but will also lay the foundation for its sus-tainable growth.

At a time when a farmer’s son does not wantto pursue his family’s age-old occupation becauseof the multiple challenges as well as lack ofreturns, there is an immediate need to make agri-culture more enterprising. The announcementto create 75,000 skilled agriculture entrepreneursin the country is a novel move and if taken toits logical conclusion, will unleash the innova-tive and enterprising spirit in rural India. It willalso dispel the image of the farm sector beingdependent only on hand-outs and encouragegrowers to be self-reliant. There are many suc-cessful models of skill development increasing-ly leading to rural youth becoming entrepreneursin the areas of mechanisation, input suppliers andadvisory services in the private sector.

The emphasis on creating more PublicPrivate Partnerships (PPPs), therefore, in creat-ing agri-businesses will go a long way. In mostof the countries, including the United States (US),PPPs have played an important role in value cre-ation in agriculture. Unfortunately in India,which adopted the policy of liberalisation wayback in 1991, the pace of PPPs in the agriculturesector has not been so bullish. This new push willalso improve the low percentage of private sec-tor investment in the agriculture sector.

Another announcement in the Union Budgetregarding creation of around 10,000 moreFarmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) is aimedat enhancing the collective decision-makingpower of the farming community. However, themajor thing to watch out for over here would beimplementation, as many of the FPOs createdthus far have not been able to achieve the objec-tive of improving the collective bargainingpower of farmers in India. The focus on incul-

cating more professionalism will ensurethat the FPOs are successful and hereagain the experience of the private sec-tor can be harnessed in the PPP mode.The vision of the Government to turnfarmers into powerhouses instead ofdole receivers will unleash a new waveof entrepreneurial spirit in rural Indiaand strengthen the aim of theGovernment to double farmers’ incomeby 2022.

Overall the clear articulation of theGovernment’s focus on “Gaon, Gariband Kisan” will hopefully translateinto many more initiatives where theprivate sector can partner with thegrowers. The Budget shows a rarecommitment for not only providing theimpetus that the farmers need througha series of progressive programmes butalso creates for them an enablingecosystem by ensuring electricity, accessto cooking gas, roads, housing and hon-ing their entrepreneurial abilities.

The Finance Minister has rightlypointed out that the ‘Ease of DoingBusiness’ and the ‘Ease of Living’should apply equally to farmers too,going beyond the conventional frame-work, which looked at farmers only vis-à-vis his field and not his entire lifecycle. All these measures will give a fur-ther boost to the schemes already inexistence like Grameen and the onlineagri-trade portal, e-Nam, and so on andtake agriculture on the path of consis-tent high growth.

It is heartening indeed that theGovernment has not allowed numbersto be an issue and this is reflected in theallocations for the farm and allied sec-tors. Against the Budget 2018-19

(revised) estimates of `86,602 crore foragriculture and allied activities, Budget2019-20 proposed to invest `1,51,518crore in this sector. The Governmenthas also been pushing for the imple-mentation of schemes aimed at shift-ing focus from a production-led toincome-led strategy.

To achieve this objective, theGovernment is urging farmers to adoptthe multi-dimensional seven-pointstrategy suggested by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. This includes empha-sis on irrigation along with end-to-endsolutions on creation of resources for‘More crop, per drop’; provision of qual-ity seeds and nutrients according to thesoil quality of each farm; large invest-ments in warehouses and cold chainsto prevent post-harvest losses, promo-tion of value-addition through foodprocessing; creation of a national farmmarket, removing distortions and e-Nam across 585 stations; introductionof a new crop insurance scheme to mit-igate risks at an affordable cost and pro-motion of ancillary activities like poul-try, bee-keeping and fisheries.

The Agriculture Export Policy,2018 is another important initiative,which the current regime has undertak-en. It has a stated objective of doublingfarmers’ income by 2022 and theexport of agricultural products will playa pivotal role in achieving this goal. Thepolicy aims to harness the exportpotential of farm products through suit-able instruments, make India a globalpower in agriculture and raise farmers’income. It intends to double farmexports from the present $30 billion toover $60 billion by 2022 and reach $100

billion in the next few years thereafter,with a stable trade policy regime.There is no denying the fact that thereis a need to diversify our export basket,destinations and boost high-value andvalue-added agricultural exports,including perishables, and promotenovel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, tra-ditional and non-traditional farmexports. There is also a need to providean institutional mechanism for pursu-ing market access, tackling barriers anddealing with sanitary and phytosanitaryissues.

As harnessing the potential of agri-culture is a matter of long-term plan-ning, the Government is rightlyfocussing on infrastructure and logis-tics upgradation, greater involvementof State Governments in agri-exports,clusters, value-added exports, privateinvestments in production and process-ing, establishment of a strong qualityregimen and research and development.

The Government aims to investwidely in agriculture infrastructureand allied areas and will seek supportfrom entrepreneurs for value-additionin the farm sector, especially in the foodprocessing industry. One hopes that pri-vate entrepreneurships play a pivotalrole in driving value-addition to farm-ers’ produce and generate renewableenergy. The time is ripe to make themost of India’s farm potential and scripta new story of success, which will bringan everlasting smile on the faces of mil-lions of farmers.

(The writer is Chief SustainabilityOfficer of an agricultural products man-ufacturing company and the viewsexpressed in the article are personal)

The aim of the Government is to revive the ailing rural economy through variousmeasures. However, implementation would be the key to success here

analysis 09F I R S T C O L U M N

Policy overhaulmust for India

SHIVAJI SARKAR

It requires a mix of short and long-termmeasures for demand to pick up and the ailing

economy to recover

KC RAVI

THEGOVERNMENT

AIMS TO INVESTWIDELY IN

AGRICULTUREINFRASTRUCTURE

AND ALLIEDAREAS AND WILL

SEEK SUPPORTFROM

ENTREPRENEURSFOR

VALUE-ADDITIONIN THE FARM

SECTOR,ESPECIALLY IN

THE FOODPROCESSING

INDUSTRY. ONEHOPES THAT

ENTERPRISESWOULD PLAY A

PIVOTAL ROLE INDRIVING

VALUE-ADDITIONTO FARMERS’

PRODUCE ANDGENERATE

RENEWABLEENERGY

India needs to look at its falling demand, rising power, fuel andbanking charges, high tax and toll rates. It is an induced inflation,whatever the indices might say, amid a perceptible economic slow-

down. The nation forgets that commodity prices are increasing,incomes are falling and atrocious banking policies and transporttariff are aggravating the situation. The rising power charges in Stateslike Uttar Pradesh are spiking up prices and slowing down crucialsectors, even agriculture. The non-banking financial companies(NBFCs), key lenders to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs), are in a crunch owing to massive loan defaults by roadtoll collectors of IL&FS. Officially it lost `91,000 crore in 2018. Thoughit is not widely discussed, it has severely affected many micro-financ-ing institutions. The PMC bank’s virtual closure has exposed thecooperative sector as well and the modus operandi is almost sim-ilar to that of IL&FS. The latest Asian Development Bank assess-ment further brings down the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growthrate to 6.5 per cent against the official estimates of 7 per cent. Inthe last quarter, it touched 5 per cent, the lowest in six years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying hard to lure foreign invest-ment but it is taking time to get translated on the ground. Even thecountry’s rich are hit, according to Hurun India Rich List 2019. Theircumulative wealth dropped by `3,72,800 crore. It says 344 indi-viduals or almost a third, witnessed wealth reduction and another112 could not meet the cut-off of `1,000 crore, about half of lastyear. It finds India’s richest man Ambani’s asset value rising by threeper cent and the upcoming Adani’s by 33 per cent, while Shanghviof Sun Pharmaceutical lost 20 per cent wealth and LN Mittal of ArcelorMittal lost six per cent. Eight other super rich also saw a decline intheir wealth. The list indicates tough competition among the richand also that their industries have been hit by the economic slow-down. In short, the fiscal meltdown is all encompassing.

The Finance Minister, despite defending her policies, agreedto cut corporate tax rates from 35 per cent to 25 per cent. It is wel-come but a bit too late. In fact, it is admission of a faux pas. Withdepreciation and other adjustments, the corporates for the last overtwo decades have not been paying more than 22.5 per cent in incometax. The supposed relief of ̀ 1.45 lakh crore is mere numbers. Overallthe Indian corporates had been paying 48.3 per cent taxes, accord-ing to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD), including tax on dividends to shareholders, who also payanother tax on it. Indian corporates, despite the present cut, wouldpay over 38 per cent as taxes. They were paying 48.3 per cent now.The problem is individuals still have the highest rate of 42.5 percent. With other indirect taxes, even after the Goods and ServicesTax (GST), an individual pays over 70 per cent of their income astaxes. Could the economy do better with less than 30 per cent ofearnings its citizens are left with?

Somewhere the country is unable to understand its econom-ics. The Government expenditure increases and businesses gaspdue to their inability to recover basic costs. Despite easing of norms,no man can dare do business unless he pleases law enforcers. Thisis despite efforts by Modi to root out graft. Citizens say Modi’s clam-pdown on corruption has only led to rise in rates as “risk for per-petrators” has grown.

Naturally the crisis continues. The latest Reserve Bank of Indiaannual report 2018-19 confirms the difficult path the economy ison. The collapse of the automobile, textile and diamond industry,thaw in the information technology sector, rising Non-PerformingAssets, tightening of banking charges and norms, the failing man-ufacturing sector and sluggish consumer demand lead to deceler-ation. There is a cash crunch. It is affecting the farm and whole-sale sectors. Government rules of transacting through banks is alsodelaying deals and adding to the cash crunch. India does not learnfrom the US sub-prime crash of 2007-8. When we move throughbanks, the perceptible volume of loans increases but in reality itsuffers as there is no cash quantification. The system needs cashlubrication, which in the wake of demonetisation, has dried up. Thechief economist of Yes Bank, Shubhada Rao, recently said peopleneed to have cash for the supply-side changes to yield benefits.She said that a spree of job losses and high unemployment hasled to the fall in demand, a key reason for the slowdown.

It requires a mix of short and long-term measures for demandto pick up. The mix has to include easing of taxes as also a dis-cussion with all stakeholders, including the Opposition and the com-mon man. The NITI Aayog has to take the lead in generating newthoughts and formulate a people-oriented policy. The situation isdifficult, but not impossible to handle. Deliberations and proper, noteuphoric, publicity-oriented actions, may be the trajectory for growth.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

The period drama Mad Menbased in the 1960s America,pilots with an advertising com-

pany tasked with selling cigarettes asa “safe” product in response to a fair-ly new research claiming otherwise.They appealed to the aesthetic andbrand managed cigarette to stand formore than just a product, a cultivat-ed taste. Liquor, cigarettes and otherinjurious products have all been soldas acquired taste, though it is nosecret that smoking will lead to ill-nesses, including lung cancer. Assuch, there has never been anyshortfall in its demand.

The E-cigarette, once considereda healthier substitute, is being tout-ed as the new-age addiction on sim-ilar lines as cigarette. Unburnt nico-tine used in e-cigarette was consid-ered preferable to byproducts like tarand burned nicotine produced onsmoking. At present only 0.02 percent people in the country use it butglobally it is being conjectured to riseto the level of an epidemic.

If smoking cigarettes is injuri-ous to health; vaping is not only (lit-

tle less) injurious to health but alsoheavy on the pockets. The instru-ment used for vaping was alreadycostly and now as per the Prohibitionof Electronic Cigarettes (production,manufacture, import, export, trans-port, sale, distribution, storage andadvertisement) Ordinance, 2019,consumption, production, manu-facturing, import, export, transport,sale, distribution, storage and adver-tisement of e-cigarettes wouldbecome illegal. Fines would rangefrom `50,000 to `5 lakh and impris-onment from six months to threeyears.

Is it not true that like gums,lozenges and patches and evenElectronic Nicotine Delivery System(ENDS) were developed as an alter-native to smoking which is a defin-itive cause of cancer? TheGovernment cites a US study whichstates that youth and children are theparties at risk of addiction. If adoles-cents are at risk, then is it not pos-sible to regulate it like liquor andtobacco instead of putting in place ablanket ban?

As acorollary, itwas seen thatshares oftobacco com-panies likeITC gained1.8 per cent;G o d f r e yPhillips Indiasoared 7.8 percent, VSTI n d u s t r i e srose 1 per centand Golden Tobacco advanced 4.5per cent on announcement of theordinance. The Centre and StateGovernments have been accused ofhelping the cigarette industry in thepast. In 2017, auction of custom-seized/confiscated cigarettes withoutpictorial warning was banned. Primafacie, this seems like a well-intend-ed objective. But you scratch the sur-face and you realise that this onlymeans that imported cigarettes can-not be sold in India (as they do nothave pictorial warning) while the bigIndian brands continue to operate

openly. Is theGovernmentcorrect in dis-tinguishing e-c i g a r e t t e sfrom ciga-rettes? Article14 of theConstitutionprovides forre a s on ab l eclassificationbased on“intelligible

differentia,” something which iscapable of being understood.Logically vaping is nothing but a sub-set of smoking and the Governmentis free to ban res extra commercium(a thing outside commerce). As perrecorded data though, there aremanifold smokers than vapers in thecountry. The recent step raises eye-brows on why have cigarettes notbeen banned in equal measure likee-cigarettes. Is it “welfare” alone orthe fact that the economy, at themoment, is in the doldrums and afresh impetus is needed from wher-

ever possible? Last year’s data of bothITC and Golden Tobacco shows thatthey have been in the red. GodfreyPhillips India Limited was in the redfor the past six months.

It is acknowledged that startingfrom 2014, vaping has already beenbanned in 15 States and two UnionTerritories, including Punjab,Karnataka, Mizoram, Kerala, UttarPradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, TamilNadu, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh,Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Odisha,Nagaland. UTs include Jammu andKashmir and Puducherry. Yet allthese places freely allow sale ofordinary cigarettes.

No one is suggesting that theGovernment should not regulateaddictive products but all actionmust bear a reasonable nexus withobject it wants to achieve. Is it onlyhealth and curbing addiction or is iteconomics too?

In the case of Murli S Deora onthe ban on smoking in public, theapex court opined that “Tobacco isuniversally regarded as one of themajor public health hazards and is

responsible directly or indirectly foran estimated eight lakh deaths annu-ally in the country. It has also beenfound that treatment of tobacco-related diseases and the loss of pro-ductivity caused therein cost thecountry almost ̀ 13,500 crore annu-ally, which more than offsets all thebenefits accruing in the form of rev-enue and employment generated bytobacco industry.” Perhaps regulat-ing sale/consumption of e-cigarettesalong with normal cigarettes was thebest way forward, health wise as well.

There is no lesser evil here. Allintake is harmful, and should be reg-ulated on the same yardstick.Chewing tobacco and smoking areboth proven health hazards and anybeneficial steps by the Governmentto better health under Article 47 ofthe Constitution will always be wel-comed. But the steps should not beseen to protect one hazardous indus-try at the cost of another.

(Srivastava is Law Officer inMSTC Ltd, and Kant is a SupremeCourt Advocate)

What is the Government thinking?Smoking and vaping are equally bad for health and any step to protect citizens will always be welcome. However, the Government

cannot be seen to shield one hazardous industry at the cost of another, say TANVI SRIVASTAVA and YASHARTH KANT

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

US President Donald Trumppressed the president ofUkraine to investigate JoeBiden. Trump seemed to beusing the power of hisoffice to solicit foreigninterference in the nextelection. If Trump wasabusing his office to distortthe next election result, thevoters wouldn't be able tomake a free choice. Theonly constitutional recourse,then, is impeachmentinquiry, to air facts andpermit Congress to decideTrump’s fate.

(The New York Times)

IMPEACHMENTA JUST WAY

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 money 10

CAPSULE

MP govt to promotecineplexes togenerate employmentBHOPAL: Madhya Pradeshgovernment on Friday assuredmedia and entertainmentindustry that cineplexes will bepromoted to provideentertainment at affordablerates coupled withemployment generation. "Thestate government wouldpromote setting up ofcineplexes in a bid to provideentertainment to the people atan affordable rate andgenerate employment at thelocal level," Madhya Pradeshchief minister Kamal Nath toldrepresentatives of industrybody Ficci. The chief ministerdiscussed various issues likeconcessions in entertainmenttax, goods and service tax(GST) and infrastructure withthe Ficci representativesassociated with the media andntertainment industry.

IHS: Corporate tax cut to improve India's competitiveness in Asia

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

Odisha government hasapproved investment propos-als worth Rs 2,435 crore in dif-ferent sectors which wouldprovide direct employment to

5,432 people in the state, anofficial said. The investmentprojects were approved at theState Level Single WindowAuthority (SLSWA) meetingchaired by chief secretary A KTripathy on Thursday, the offi-cial said.

The projects were approvedin food processing, chemicals,metal, infrastructure, power,renewable energy and down-stream sectors.

The chief secretary directedstate government officials tomake proper assessment ofthe land and water require-ment of the proposed projectsand facilitate them for earlygrounding.

The proposal of IonExchange Limited for settingup a manufacturing plant ofanion and resin at Paradip withan investment of Rs 166 croreand creation of employmentfor 125 people got the approvalof the SLSWA.

The Highland Agro projectto set up a shrimp processingand cold chain unit atGadabhanga of Balasore dis-trict at an investment of Rs53.08 crore which would pro-vide employment to 445 peo-ple also got the nod in themeeting.

The proposal of RatnamaniMetals and Tubes Limited to

set up a steel pipe manufac-turing unit at Kalinganagar inJajpur district with an invest-ment of Rs 156 crore was alsoapproved. This project willcreate employment for 183people.

Similarly, the proposal ofMetaliks Limited to set up ironpipe plant at Kalinganagarwith an investment of Rs 504crore and employment poten-

tial for 2,181 people has beenapproved.

Beekay Steel IndustriesLimited's proposed Rs 196crore steel billet manufacturingunit at Kalinganagar also gotthe approval. This unit will cre-ate employment oppurtuni-ties for 506 people.

The proposal of KamaljitSingh Ahluwalia for expansionof its existing 0.1 mtpa steelplant to 0.2 mtpa capacity at

Barpada in Keonjhar districtwith an investment of Rs593.67 crore and employmentpotential of 1,274 people alsogot approval of the SLSWA.

Other projects which got thenod were: Suraj ProductsLimited's expansion of its exist-ing steel plant capacity byaddition of steel melting shopand rolling mill at Barpali inSundergarh district at aninvestment of Rs 50.25 crore,TM International Logistics'Logistics Park at Kalinganagarwith an investment of Rs 168crore.

Strides suspends sales of ranitidine tablets in USPNS n NEW DELHI

Strides Pharma Science onFriday said it has suspendedsales of ulcer-treating tabletranitidine in the US followingthe USFDA finding contami-nation in some of such medi-cines with potentially cancercausing impurities, N-nitroso-dimethylamine (NDMA).

In a regulatory filing, thecompany said it has received anInformation Request from theUSFDA to provide test datarelated to NDMA impurities inranitidine tablets. "This data isto be provided to the agency in30 days," Strides said.

While the company conductsthe relevant tests mandated bythe USFDA, Strides said it "hassuspended sales of ranitidinetablets in the US market untilsuch time it has clarity of nextsteps as would be indicated bythe USFDA". The company fur-

ther said it predominantly sellsranitidine tablets in the USmarket, and its front end salesglobally for the product werearound USD 9 million in thefirst half of 2019-20.

"In spite of this temporarysuspension of the ranitidine

supplies, the company retainsits FY'20 growth outlook forthe US markets," it said.

On Wednesday, Strides hadsaid that the United StatesFood and DrugAdministration (USFDA) haslearned that some ranitidineproducts contain NDMA atlow levels. The agency is exam-ining the levels of NDMA inranitidine and is evaluating anypossible risks to patients.

On the basis of a Citizenpetition, the USFDA is reach-ing out to all formulationcompanies to perform tests toevaluate presence of NDMA inthe product.

PNS nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Social media major Facebookis gearing up to make sub-stantial investments in tech-nology start-ups in India, a topofficial from the companysaid here on Friday.

Ajit Mohan, the company'sIndia vice-president and man-aging director, said they arewilling to make direct invest-ments in technology start-ups in India.

"We are willing to spend ourtime and energy to tap themassive depth of engineeringtalent in the country," saidMohan while addressing theopening session of the secondedition of 'Huddle Kerala2019,' a start-up meet here.

"A couple of months ago, weannounced the first minorityinvestment that Facebook hasdone anywhere in the world ina company called Meesho.What Meesho does is it relieson the existing behaviour ofcommunities in India andleverages on women entre-preneurs essentially pitchingproducts to their friends andfamilies," added Mohan.

He went on to add that thebest thing about their modelwas it could bring 2,00,000first-time female entrepre-neurs online.

"It is an innovation that wascoming out of India which can

be exported to the rest of theworld, and that model hasscaled a dramatic impact injob creation. Any analysis ofthe economy, most of the jobcreation happens from smallbusiness," he said.

Anil Agarwal, JointSecretary, Department forPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade (DPIIT), saidother states should replicatethe Kerala model in buildingthe start-up ecosystem.

Fuel pricescontinue to soar,Rs 80 per litre inMumbaiPNS n NEW DELHI

Petrol and diesel pricescontinued the upward trendon Friday with petrol sell-ing at Rs 80/litre and dieselat Rs 70.55/litre in Mumbai.

The maximum surge wasrecorded in Maharashtra'sParbhani where the price ofpetrol was Rs 81.93/litre anddiesel Rs 71.31/litre.

Petrol rates increased by15 paisa in Delhi, Kolkataand Mumbai, and by 16paisa in Chennai. Dieselrates shot up by 10 paisa inDelhi and Kolkata, by 11paisa in Mumbai andChennai. The rest of thecountry has also witnessedhike in fuel prices.

As per the Indian Oilwebsite, petrol priced inDelhi, Kolkata, Mumbaiand Chennai were: Rs74.43/litre, Rs 77.03/litre, Rs80.00/litre, Rs 77.28/litrerespectively, while the dieselrates were: Rs 67.24/litre, Rs69.66 /litre, Rs 70.55 /litreand Rs 71.09/litre respec-tively.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The steepest ever cut in tax thatcompanies pay will improverelative competitiveness ofIndia and should help boostcorporate investment over themedium-term, IHS Markit saidin a report on Friday.

The decision to implementthe sweeping corporate taxreform measures reflects theslowdown in economic growthmomentum in recent quartersas well as the need to improveIndia's international competi-tiveness as a manufacturinghub, it said.

The economy has been fac-ing headwinds in 2019 due toweakening domestic demand.The RBI has eased monetarypolicy four times so far in 2019,by a total of 110 basis points,over concerns that growthmomentum is slowing down.

The GDP growth in April-June 2019 slowed to 5 per centyear-on-year, the weakest paceof growth since 2013. Thepace of manufacturing outputgrowth has also stalled, heav-ily impacted by weakeningauto sector sales. The autoindustry has slumped into acrisis, with passenger vehiclesales down 31 per cent year-on-year in July 2019, while domes-

tic passenger vehicle produc-tion lower by 17 per cent.

"The Indian governmentannounced a major reform ofcorporate tax rates onSeptember 20. This is expect-ed to significantly improve therelative competitiveness ofIndia's corporation tax ratescompared to other Asianindustrial economies, as India'scorporate tax rates had beenrelatively high compared toregional peers prior to the lat-est tax reform measures," IHSMarkit said.

The lower rates should helpboost corporate investment inIndia over the medium-term,at a time when economic

growth momentum has facedincreasing headwinds, it said.

The corporate tax ratereforms reflect the global fiscalpolicy trend towards loweringcorporate tax rates.

"The average corporateincome tax rate across theOECD has dropped from 32.5per cent in 2000 to 23.9 percent in 2018, with notable cor-porate tax cuts in the US andUK in recent years," it said.

The base corporate tax ratehas been cut from 30 per centto 22 per cent. Companiesthat do not claim benefits forincentives or concessions willbe eligible for the effective taxrate of 25.75 per cent, while

new manufacturing firmsestablished after October 1,2019, are eligible for an evenlower base corporate tax rate of15 per cent (effective tax of justover 17 per cent) if they makefresh new investments in man-ufacturing by 2023 and are notclaiming incentives. "Servicesfirms are expected to be majorwinners while manufacturingcompanies in the consumergoods, capital goods and steelsectors will also reap significantbenefits as many of them havean effective tax rate of around30 per cent," it said.

Since taking office in 2014,Prime Minister Narendra Modihas put a strong policy focus onimproving the business land-scape to attract investment byboth foreign and domestic firms.

When the BJP-led NDAtook office, India was ranked142nd out of 189 countries inthe World Bank's Ease of

Doing Business ranking for2015, which reflected resultsfrom the annual survey under-taken during 2014.

Reflecting significantprogress in reducing barriers tobusiness investment, India wasranked 77th out of 190 coun-tries that are included in theWorld Bank's Ease of DoingBusiness Index in 2019.

"The improving macroeco-nomic environment since 2014has also helped improve India'sattractiveness as an investmentdestination, as falling world oilprices have helped to reduceinflation pressures and alsotrimmed the current accountdeficit as a share of GDP asIndia's oil import bill has mod-erated," IHS said.

Sustained strong GDPgrowth over the past decadehas also reinforced confidenceamong international investorstowards the Indian economy.

FACELESS SYSTEM

I-T e-assessment: Person with noPAN, e-filing account not eligiblePNS n NEW DELHI

A taxpayer who does not havean e-filing account or a PANwill not be able to avail thefacility of getting into e-assess-ment system of income tax thatis set to be launched from nextmonth, a latest Central Boardof Direct Taxes (CBDT) direc-tive said.

It added cases where a tax-man has conducted raids andinstances categorised under"extraordinary circumstances"shall also not be covered underthe faceless assessment systemset to be launched on October8 in the country. The CBDT,which frames policy for theIncome Tax Department, issueda circular on Thursday statingexceptions to the new system.

Cases where the IncomeTax Return (ITR) was filed inthe paper mode and the

assessee concerned does notyet have an e-filing account;assessment being framed innon-PAN (permanent accountnumber) cases; cases wherethere are administrative diffi-culties, complex cases or thereare certain extraordinary cir-cumstances will be exceptionsfor the new system, the circu-lar accessed by PTI said.

Cases of assessment insearch or raids, set-aside

assessments due to an earlierprobe issue will also beexempted, it said.

It said the assessees, who arepart of the e-assessment sys-tem, will be "required to pro-duce their response, evidenceto any notice, communicationor show cause issued by theassessing officer (AO) elec-tronically through their e-fil-ing account on the officialportal of the department.

Rupee reversesearly losses ascrude oil dropsover 1 pcPNS n MUMBAI

The rupee recovered fromearly lows to trade higheragainst the US currency inafternoon session followingmore than 1 per cent drop incrude oil prices in global mar-kets. The domestic currencywas trading up by 10 paise at70.78 at 1325 hrs against thedollar which otherwise was rul-ing high in overseas markets.

The rupee opened lowerand fell further to 70.93 as theUS currency rose to multi-weeks high against the majorcurrencies like euro. The rupeemoved in a range of 70.76 to70.93 in day trade. It hadclosed at 70.88 to the US dol-lar on Thursday. Weakeningcrude oil prices following aquick recovery in SaudiArabia's production, whichwas hit by attacks at its refiner-ies two weeks ago, helped therupee stem losses. InternationalBrent crude declined by 1.88per cent or USD 1.18 to USD61.42 per barrel.

India's oil import depen-dence is more than 80 per centand any spike in crude oil pricesweighs on the rupee due toforex outflows. Foreign fundinflows also helped the rupeepost gains over the US dollar.FIIs, who were net sellers forthe last few sessions, boughtequities worth a net Rs 737.17crore on Thursday, accordingto provisional exchange data.

SECURITY IN THE PERSIAN GULF

Modi reaffirms India's support for diplomacy, talksPNS n NEW YORK

Prime Minister Narendra Modihas reaffirmed India's supportfor giving priority to diploma-cy, dialogue and confidence-building for maintaining peaceand security in the Persian Gulfamidst tensions in the region,as he held in-depth talks withIranian President HassanRouhani.

Modi met Rouhani on thesidelines of the high-level 74thSession of the GeneralAssembly on Thursday amidstfresh tensions between Iranand the United States.

"Delighted to meet President@HassanRouhani. We had in-depth discussions on the fullrange of India-Iran ties, andregional & global matters," theprime minister tweeted.

The two leaders discussedbilateral relations andexchanged views on regionaland global developments of

mutual interest. According to anofficial press release, the primeminister reiterated India's sup-port for giving priority to diplo-macy, dialogue and confidencebuilding in the interest of main-taining peace, security and sta-bility in the Gulf region, whichis of vital importance for India.

The meeting was keenlyawaited as it comes amid esca-lating face-off between Iranand the US on Tehran's nuclearprogramme. Iran is alsoaccused by the US and itsallies of attacking two key oilfacilities in Saudi Arabia, trig-gering a new phase of tensions

in the region. The September 14 attacks

caused oil prices to spike by thebiggest percentage since the1991 Gulf War.

Noting that India and Iranshared old and civilisationalties, the two leaders assessedthe progress in bilateral rela-tions since their first meetingin Russian city of Ufa in 2015.

They especially mentionedovercapitalisation of ChabaharPort and noted its importanceas gateway to and for the land-locked Afghanistan and theCentral Asian region.

During the meeting, it wasagreed to mark the 70thanniversary of the establish-ment of diplomatic relationsnext year. The two leaders "dis-cussed bilateral cooperationand exchanged views on the sit-uation in the region," ExternalAffairs Ministry SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar said.

The two leaders could nothold a planned meeting on thesidelines of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisationsummit in Bishkek,Kyrgyzstan, in June this yeardue to scheduling issues.

PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Twitter co-founder and Angelinvestor Biz Stone on Fridaysaid he would be investing ina Kochi-based start-up, Sieve.Stone said this through a videoconference while addressingHuddle Kerala 2019, a start-upmeeting held here.

Founded by SanjayNediyara, a hearing-impairedentrepreneur, Sieve is a com-plete platform for freelancersand agencies that provide theinfrastructure from websites todigital signatures and all way

up to invoicing and paymentmanagement.

The company currentlyserves in the US market andwill soon be expanding toEurope. Stone said he hasused the product of Sieve as afreelancer.

"As an Angel, I consider theperson first and the productsecond. I find Sanjay a dedi-cated, empathetic andextremely hardworking indi-vidual," said Stone in his videoaddress. He, however, did notdivulge his quantum of invest-ment.

Twitter co-founderto invest in Keralastart-up

Gold drops by Rs 121 on strongrupee, weakinternational cuesPNS n NEW DELHI

Gold prices in the nationalcapital dropped Rs 121 to Rs38,564 per 10 gram on Fridayamid a strong rupee and weakinternational cues, accordingto HDFC Securities. Silverwas also on a weak ground asit fell Rs 851 to Rs 46,384 perkilogram. In the previoustrade, it closed at Rs 47,235 perkilogram.

Gold of 24 Karat had closedat Rs 38,685 per 10 gram hereon Thursday. "Spot gold(Delhi) prices were tradinglower amid stronger rupeeand weak international cues,"according to Devarsh Vakil,head (advisory-PCG), HDFCSecurities. In the internation-al market, gold was rulinglower at USD 1,497.17 perounce in New York and silverprices were also trading downat USD 17.54 an ounce.

The GDP growth in April-June 2019slowed to 5 per cent year-on-year, theweakest pace of growth since 2013. Thepace of manufacturing output growthhas also stalled, heavily impacted byweakening auto sector sales

Facebook to backtech start-ups in India

"We are willingto spend ourtime and energyto tap themassive depthof engineeringtalent in thecountry," saidMohan whileaddressing the'Huddle Kerala2019'

Odisha approves investmentproposals worth Rs 2,435 crore

The proposal of IonExchange Limited forsetting up amanufacturing plant ofanion and resin atParadip with aninvestment of Rs 166crore and creation ofemployment for 125people got the approvalof the SLSWA

In a regulatory filing, thecompany said it hasreceived an InformationRequest from theUSFDA to provide testdata related to NDMA

The meeting was keenly awaited as it comesamid escalating face-off between Iran and the USon Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran is alsoaccused by the US and its allies of attacking twokey oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, triggering a newphase of tensions in the region

The companycurrently serves inthe US market andwill soon beexpanding toEurope. Stone saidhe has used theproduct of Sieveas a freelancer

ailing from Eppalapalli Thandain Nagarkurnool district,Lakshman Rudavath had done

research on the life of tribes living inBhadrachalam where he discoveredthe several health issues they face intheir day to day lives.

Some of the crucial issues includenutritional deficiency, skin diseasesand diseases from unhygienic condi-tions. With the help of an NGO,Lakshman is conducting variousawareness activities for the tribes liv-ing in the forest areas.

Lakshman says, “I also belong to atribal community and know what kindof problems people face in agency

areas. Tribes live far away from citiesand don’t have basic facilities like edu-cation, health, transport and infra-structure. Born to a poor family, Iworked hard to study. After seeing thehealth issues in my area, I decided tobecome a doctor. But due to the finan-cial crisis, I did my nursing coursefrom Mahaveer Narsingh School.”

After completing his course,Lakshman observed that nurses werenot given their due respect and remu-neration. To unite all the nurses in thetwo Telugu states, Lakshman startedNursing Officers Association andworks hard for their rights.

He shares, “Nurses are the lungs ofthe health sector and without them nohospital can survive. They treatpatients with utmost care and restorehealth, prevent illness and protect thepeople entrusted to their care. Theywork to alleviate the sufferings of com-munities. Nurses provide servicesthat maintain respect for human dig-nity and embrace the uniqueness ofeach patient and the nature of his orher health problems, without restric-tion in regards to social or economicstatus.”

He explains, “Nurses feel that most

of the time they do not get the respectthey deserve. Either from their owncolleagues or even from patients;especially when compared to doctors.It is hard for nurses to work in an envi-ronment where there is no respect andteamwork. Nurses do not even get paidwell. I believe they should be compen-sated for their job and would also likethem to have more benefits. This is theleast that one can do for the sacrificesmade by them.”

Lakshman adds, “In patient assess-ment, nurses do not just consider testresults, they also use their judgementto integrate objective data with subjec-tive experience of a patient’s biologi-cal, physical and behavioural needs.This ensures that every patient, be itin a city hospital or a communityhealth centre; state prison to summercamp, receive the best possible careregardless of who they are, or wherethey may be.”

The medical industry involves longworking hours is a known fact.Lakshman added that nurses need towork long hours and are sometimesforced to do back to back shifts.Lakshman said that nursing educationis currently facing challenges relatedto the application of nursing knowl-edge in clinical environments andinability of students to apply what they

learnt in clinical settings. When we hear the term nurses, we

generally only think of women.However, there are many men in nurs-ing too.

By identifying the need of men insome departments of nursing, the stategovernment has released a GO toencourage men to take up nursingcourses.

Lakshman told this correspondentthat, “Even the government’s GO toinspire men to take up nursing has nothelped increase the applications. Weare trying to get equal rights for allnurses. No political party is interest-ed in looking into the needs of thenurses. We are also protesting to getminimum wages for nurses workingin private hospitals as suggested by theSupreme Court.”

With support from the departmentof language and culture, Governmentof Telangana, the Nurses OfficersAssociation celebrates InternationalNurse Day on May 12 at RavindraBharati every year.

On a concluding note, Lakshmansays, “Tribes are not getting basic facil-ities like education, health, roads andmore. We are trying our best to cre-ate awareness. I'm requesting peopleto join us to help those who live awayfrom cities.”

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dailypioneer

SaturdaySeptember 28, 2019

ollution and global warmingseem to be the talk of town,literally, as everyone is final-ly taking note and trying toreverse the harmful thingsdone by humans to this plan-

et over the centuries. It is also time indus-tries pull up their socks and take stepstowards creating sustainable, eco-friend-ly products. The fashion industry is onesuch industry which is highly polluting.

According to the Pulse of Fashionreport in 2015, the industry was respon-sible for 1,715 million tonnes of CO2

emissions. If this is not cut down, theimpact of this industry on the climate isexpected to increase to 49 per cent by2030, states Global Fashion Agenda2017. As awareness regarding environ-mental hazards begun to increase, peo-ple across the world are slowly movingtowards healthier alternatives in fashionand several movements towards eco-friendly fashion are also coming into thepicture.

Several celebrities across the world alsopromote this cause with great gusto. Takefor instance Nikki Reed, who ardentlypromotes upcycled and/or handmade,eco-friendly clothing and accessories,Emma Watson, who promotes fair tradeand Stella Mc Cartney, who supports sus-tainable fashion.

But the pertaining question is whatmeasures is India taking to reduce the

carbon footprint?“People are finally realising that we are

burdening the Earth,” said Zubin Vakil,the brand ambassador and patron of sus-tainable clothing in Hyderabad.

“India has since long promoted andencouraged lavish clothing and heavyembroidery, but people nowadays don’thave the time for such customised attire.But irrespective of the type of clothing,I urge designers to produce less, becauseproducing more units only leads towastage. And getting rid of dead stockis not easy as people only buy what theyneed. The pace and cycle of the Indianmarket is very different from the West.But the good news is that designers andbrands have woken up to sustainableclothing now,” he noted.

Another significant movement gath-ering pace in India is ‘Slow Fashion’.“Slow Fashion is the movement ofdesigning, creating and buying gar-ments for their quality and longevity. Itencourages slower production schedules,fair wages, lower carbon footprints and(ideally) zero waste,” explains StudyNew York, a fashion website.

An event titled ‘The slow fashion col-lective’ is set to be held in October inHyderabad and its main aim is to bringtogether several fashion brands thatinvest in sustainable fashion.

“Our primary goal is to starta dialogue on sustainable fash-ion and its necessity in today’sscenario. It’s important toestablish a dialogue on local-ly sourced ethical fashion,which would be the ultimatefocus of the event,” said SofiyaSujad, the event manager for theslow fashion collective and anevent curator by profession.

A number of fashion brands in Indiahave also come forward for the samecause.

Doodlege, Ilamra, Upasana, Ba NoBatwo are a few notable examples. Evenumbrella brands that integrate severaldifferent brands under them such as ‘TheRipple effect’ are working towards this.Asmita Marwa, another sustainablefashion label creating and manufactur-

ing garments in-house using ethicalnorms and practices, has been rated byVogue as one of the top nine up-and-coming international designers. Herbrand proudly professes her belief in‘Cradle-to-Cradle’ design or re-genera-tive design which is holistic.

“Sustainable fashion is what I believeis the future and my brand has estab-lished itself as one that creates sustain-able clothing,” she said. “While design-ing an attire, we need to ensure that wedo not waste any material. We add detailslike textures, tassels or a whole corsageof flowers, which accentuate its beauty.Sometimes leftover cloth is also embed-ded to make accessories. I believe inmaking sure that clothes have relevanceand is not discarded as the season ortrends change. So I try to make timelesspieces with natural fabrics,” she said.

Reshma Mehta, CEO and co-founderof ‘Midoree’ tells us that the focus of theirbrand is to create designs that are envi-ronment friendly.

“Midoree is fairly new. We started sixmonths ago and focus on working with

artisans to ensure

they are paid fair wages. We also focuson fair trade, which is another importantaspect of the fashion industry,” she said.

“We support underprivileged peopleas artisans have been treated as com-modities for long and do not receivemuch of the profit. That’s why we focuson doing our bit to improve the liveli-hood of these artisans,” says ReshmaMehta.

According to Global Fashion Agenda,2017, over 50 per cent of the workers inthe fashion industry are not paid mini-mum wages in countries like India andPhilippines.

“Fair trade means that producers geta fair price for their products. A price thatmatches their real production costs, notthe rates set by the international market(as is usually the case). Fair trade alsostands for fair working conditions,which is not respected in the fast fash-ion industry,” elaborates GoFrank, a plat-form devoted to helping people whowant to start making sustainable and fairfashion choices.

However, what is incredible is that beit sustainable fashion, slow fashion, fair

trade or cradle to cradle design(which are all just a few of the

many more variants of thesame cause), India is mak-

ing a mark and is slow-ly welcoming the

change.As movements,

events and brandsaimed towardsreducing the car-bon footprintsprout across the

country, it’s timewe give ourselves a

pat on the back for tak-ing the lead.

But as leading fashiondesigners, brands and indus-tries do their bit towards try-ing to sustain the environmentfor future generations, theonus now falls on the shoul-ders of the consumer tomake a conscious decisionevery time they buy clothes.

P

WEARING GREEN:THE IN THING

India has since long promoted andencouraged lavish clothing and heavy

embroidery, but people don’t have the time forsuch customised attire. I urge designers toproduce less, because producing more onlyleads to wastage

ZUBIN VAKILFASHION DESIGNER

While designing an attire, we need toensure that we do not waste any

material. We add details like textures andtassels which accentuate its beauty.Sometimes leftover cloth is also embedded tomake accessories

ASMITA MARWAFASHION DESIGNER

We support underprivilegedpeople as artisans have

been treated as commodities forlong and do not receive much ofthe profit. That’s why we focus ondoing our bit to improve thelivelihood of these artisans

RESHMA MEHTACEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF ‘MIDOREE’

Manizaay KaikobadCFO, Co-founder, Midoree

Our goal is to start a dialogue onsustainable fashion and its necessity in

today’s scenario. It’s important to establish adialogue on locally sourced fashion, whichwould be the ultimate focus of the event

SOFIYA SUJADEVENT CURATOR

With the fashionindustry undergoing a

revolution globally, itis time we address

the progress made bybrands that createand promote eco-friendly fashion inIndia. How far has

India come inproducing and

promotingenvironmentally

conscious fashion isthe question we seek

to answer, writesANUSHKA PRADEEP

Striving to secure the rights of nurses

HNagarkurnool-based LakshmanRudavath has been helping

nurses assert their rights in theTelugu states and working for

uplift of tribals in agency areasby conducting various awareness

activities, finds V SATEESH REDDY

MANY CELEBRITIESACROSS THE WORLDPROMOTE GREENFASHION WITH GREATGUSTO

Even the government’s GO toinspire men to take up

nursing has not helped increase theapplications. We are trying to getequal rights for all nurses. Nopolitical party is interested inlooking into the needs of the nurses.We are also protesting to getminimum wages for nurses workingin private hospitals as suggested bythe Supreme Court

LAKSHMAN RUDAVATHSOCIAL WORKER

Arkayam, a first of its kind fashion andlifestyle exhibition, had its grand launch atthe Taj Deccan, Banjara Hills. The exhibitionstarted on Friday and will continue till 29September. Actresses Bhanushree Mehraand Mannat Singh inaugurated the firstedition of Arkayam.The exhibition offers the city’s fashionaficionados the most unique fashioncollection with more than 60 designers andweavers from across the countryshowcasing their creativity in fashion,home decor, accessories, footwear andmore all under one roof. And as festivepreparations for Dussera, Diwali, Dhanterasare around the corner, the exhibition isgarnering the attention of fashionistas fromacross the city.

12

Hyderabad Saturday September 28, 2019

BAAGHl Baagh, a play written byBadal Sircar and directedby Malyaban Lahiri hasfriendship andrelationships at its core.The play revolves aroundrepressed pain,relationships, and structures that we adhere to.October 2 at 8 pm, Phoenix Arena

MAHABHARATA - THE EPIC TALEl All historyand mythologyis based oncause andeffect.Mahabharata -The Epic Tale...in-depth dealswith theprimaryemotional andpsychologicalcauses that were the genesis of this destructivewar. The planet has witnessed destruction basedon the whims of a few people. Till October 6, multiple venues

lThis is a show wherecomedian AnubhavSingh Bassi will tell youan honest story abouthis career choices andlifestyle. ‘Bas Kar Bassi’is what he said tohimself when he wasfired from his last job.The show will be heldtill October 16 atKulapati MunshiSadan, King Koti,Basheer Bagh.

THEATREHONEYMOON (A HINDI PLAY)

CITY GUIDE

PAKITMAAR RANGMANDAL

INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVALlThe fifth edition ofthe IndianPhotography Festivalwill be held tillOctober 20 at variouslocations inHyderabad. IPF is aninternationalphotography festivalwhich showcasesvarious events, inclu-ding talks, discus-sions and more.

EXHIBITION

ART AAND CCULTURE

EMERGING PALETTES lA group art exhibition, aplatform for emergingartists to display their work,has organised its 11thedition in collaboration withGoethe-Zentrum. The eventwill be held till October 6 atShrishti Art Gallery, Jubilee Hills.

COMEDY

l PakitmaarRangmandal is aHindi play writtenby AsgharWajahat. The storyis about apickpocket namedBhagwan who ispassionate abouttheatre. Afterwatching a Parsi play he decides to do a theatreshow himself and leave pickpocketing. The playis about the troubles he faces organising theshow due to the label of a thief that the societyhas put on him. The play will be held today at7.30 pm at Lamakaan.

lManch Theatre is going to organise Honeymoon,a comedy play in Hindi about two friends. The playrevolves around one friend, on a honeymoon whois forced to find a way to help his other friend introuble. The play will be organised on September29 at 7.30 pm at Phoenix Arena.

GET YOUR EVENT LISTED: To get your events listed, please send your detailsalong with a poster and contact number to features.pioneer@gmail.com

BAS KAR BASSI

FUNNY BUZZNESSlFunny Buzznessis a well knowncomedy gig seriesby Buzz KyaEntertainment andhas beeninstrumental inbringing up artistslike — AmitTandon, SorabhPant, SumukhiSuresh andNaveen Richards.October 20 at 6pm HICC.

l Kruthika l Aastha l Smitha l Mannat Singh

l Kavitha l Shalikal Akshara l Isha

PARTY

what’s brewing?FESTIVEFERVOUR

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

Yesterday’s solution

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.

FUN TIME

Phot

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Char

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anus

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ilmmaker Puri Jagannadh, whose lat-est iSmart Shankar, minted big money,has extended a helping hand to fellow

directors who are in need of financial help.The director, who is celebrating his 53rdbirthday today, will be offering monetaryaid to 20 struggling directors and co-directors who are no longer active in theindustry. “Accept this with love. Iunderstand it’s not a big help but it’smy way of saying hello to you witha smile. If this helps you in any way,

we would only want your blessingsfor our future endeavours,” he

said in a statement. He furtheradded that if God gives him the

strength, he will continuewith such measures everyyear.

The director will also beinteracting with mediatoday in Hyderabad.Sources say he might offi-cially announce a projectwith Nandamuri

Balakrishna. They’ve earlierteamed up for Paisa Vasool butas it sank without a trace, they

decided to team up to make itcount. The project will mostlikely go to floors in the secondhalf of next year-after both Puriand Balayya complete theirrespective projects with VijayDeverakonda and BoyapatiSreenu.

fter her goofball act asHoney in box-office smashF2- Fun and Frustrationwon her many admirers,especially kids, MehreenPirzada is now looking for-

ward to the release of Gopichand-star-rer Chanakya, a spy thriller whichtraces a RAW agent’s (played by Gopi)covert operation across the border, nextSaturday. As the Thursday releasedtrailer indicates, her character forms theentertainment segment of the film,which morphs into an edge-of-the-seatespionage thriller in the second half.

“I play a sassy businessman calledAishwarya who heads a courier com-pany. She is modern-day girl who getsa shock of her life when she realises thatthe man she loves, Ramakrishna, is nota bank employee but is Arjun, a spy. Inthe context of narrative the part has itsown significance as she supports Arjunin his mission,” she informs.

She adds that the film is special toher, as she got to act with top comedi-ans Ali and Sunil for the first time,besides reteaming up with Anil Sunkarawho produced her first filmKrishnagadi Veerapremagaadha alongRam Achanta and Gopi Achanta.

Mehreen heard Chanakya’s story onphone from director Thiru. “He gaveme a brilliant narration and I couldvisualise the film in front of my eyes.It’s not easy to make a spy thrillerbecause it needs to be edgy, fast whilesimultaneously keeping the viewersengaged. Thiru sir was up to the task.He was so sure of the kind of shots heneeds. He would operate like an editoron sets and would only get the shots

that would make the final edit," sheraves.

Before F2 released, Mehreen’s fourfilms — C/O Surya, Jawaan, Panthamand Kavacham — flopped in a row butshe doesn’t dismiss them as wrongchoices. “They were right scripts but Ibelieve it’s the viewers who decide thefate of the film. When you move outof your house for work, you think thebest will happen to your work. Failuresare a part of life. It’s important to havelows so that you’ll respect the highsmore. Life imparts you lessons everyday. I don’t take failures to heart. Aslong as I’m being truthful to my work,I’m fine,” she reveals her mantra.

A promising talent, she hasn’t land-ed a Hindi project after her debutflick Phillauri (2017), spearhead-ed by Anushka, failed to light upthe box-office. However, she hasno complaints. “Telugu indus-try is my mother and I’m par-tial to it. If something goodcomes up here, I will chooseTollywood any day. Havingsaid, that I’ve done a couple ofPunjabi films of late, with onescheduled to open nextmonth,” she points out, addingthat she was supposed to makeher Kannada debut withDarshan but as her diary is fullwith Entha ManchiVaadavuraa, Ashwathama anda Tamil film with Dhanush forthe year, she decided to completethe work in hand. “I’m sure thatsomething better will come inKannada sooner.”

While she likes to be a part of fam-ily entertainers, she is game for boldoutings as well as long as shethinks she can watch the role asa viewer in cinema halls. "WhenF2 was narrated to me, I wassure that I will be watching iton first day first show. It wasmy good luck that I got toplay Honey, the role ofwhich is on everyone'stongue wherever I go,"she signs off with asmile.

Hyderabad Saturday September 28, 2019

PURI MIGHT ANNOUNCEA PROJECT WITH JRNTR. THEY HADEARLIER TEAMED UPFOR PAISA VASOOLBUT IT WAS A FLOP

WHILE MEHREEN LIKES TOBE A PART OF FAMILYENTERTAINERS, SHE’S

GAME FOR BOLD OUTINGSAS LONG AS SHE CAN

WATCH HER ROLE AS AVIEWER IN CINEMA HALLS

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tollywoodFor Mehreen, T'wood is first priority

Mehreen Pirzada,the ‘Honey' fromF2 talks abouther upcomingprojects in thesouth and herpartiality towardsTelugu cinema,reportsNAGARAJ GOUD

Ashwatthama completesVizag schedule of shoot

Marar back inthe Megafamily fold

fter his rumoured fallout with friendand actor Pawan Kalyan, producerSharrath Marar has maintained a low-

profile for almost three years. Although he hasannounced a couple of films lately — a jointventure with Sukumar and another withNaga Shaurya — there has been little progresson them, with a little birdie telling us thatSukumar’s film has been shelved. Now, the lat-est is that Marar is back to where it all beganfor him. Yes, the camp of megastarChiranjeevi. The producer has once coordi-nated Chiru’s endorsement deals, before heforged a thick bond with Pawan. The associ-ation continued for over a decade. Buzz is thatCharan has handed over some key responsi-bilities to Marar, part of which includes plan-ning Chiru’s media events in Mumbai andhelping Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy reachacross the country. In fact, he has coordinat-ed a two-hour chat show between AmitabhBachchan and Chiranjeevi, with film’s Hindipresenter Farhan Akhtar moderating it inMumbai on Thursday. Marar even accompa-nied the megastar to Mumbai. He was spot-ted at the pre-release event of Sye Raa... inHyderabad earlier this week as well.

fter badly injuring his leg while filming for Ashwatthamain Visakhapatnam earlier this June, Naga Shaurya hasrejoined the sets in July, completing the Hyderabad leg

of filming. Earlier this month, the unit commencedVisakhapatnam schedule of the film and the latest we hear is thatit has been wrapped up as well. The actor has shot for a coupleof action episodes under the supervision of KGF stunt mastersAnbu-Arivu, who are making their Telugu debut with the film.The next schedule will kickstart in October and will go till onfor 15-20 days, before Shaurya shifts attention to his project withSithara Entertainments.

In Ashwatthama, directed by newcomer Ramana Teja, the actorwill be seen as someone who boldly questions anything that hefinds to be unjust or inappropriate. Mehreen is the leading ladyof the film, which is a production venture of Shaurya’s motherUsha under IRA creations.

KGF stuntmasters

Anbu-Arivusupervised

actionsequences

in the movie

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F

Puri comes to therescue of strugglingdirectors

espite repeated state-ments on multiple occa-sions that he will be

devoting full time to politicsafter his party fared poorly in therecent Assembly elections in AP,speculations that Pawan Kalyanwill don the greasepaint againhave failed to die. A little diggingtold us that in the recent pastmany filmmakers have did madethe round of Pawan’s office inHyderabad in case he has achange of heart as next Assemblyelections are more than fourand half years from now. Theybelieve that the actor, whose lastrelease Agnyaathavaasi (2018),was a box office turkey, can chipin with a project, before shiftingcomplete attention to being apolitical leader“Yes, emi-nent filmpersonalitieslike A.M.Ratnam, Krishand Y. Naveenand Y. RaviShankar of MythriMovie makershave met theactor-turned-politician in thisregard. But it’stoo early toc o m m e n twhether Pawanhas agreed tomake a film forany of them,”informed a sourcein the know. In fact,Pawan owes a film toboth Ratnam and the duoof Naveen and Ravi. While hehas taken advance amount fromMythri Movie Makers to spear-head a film for them three yearsago, he participated in the muhu-rat of a film for Ratnam long backwith Tamil director Neason.

Also, the source pointed outthat for these makers, it’s not

about money but the opportuni-ty to do a film with Pawan thatcounts the most.

Meanwhile, the actor hasn’tbeen participating in any politi-cal activity of his party for thepast three days, as he is undergo-ing treatment for his backache.Shooting for Gabbar Singh, hesustained an injury to his back,which kept on resurfacing. Thepain aggravated while he hit thecampaign road for his party ear-lier this summer. “Doctorsadvised me to go for asurgery, but I soughtthe help ofIndian tradi-tional medicalpractice. I’munder treatmentright now," he saidin a statement. —

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s their maiden venture Student No. 1 as a director and an actor clocked18 years on Friday, the formidable combination of Rajamouli andNTR were in RFC on Friday, shooting for their next. Coincidentally,

their first film too was shot in RFC,prompting them to recreate a shot and aworking still from the film and posting iton their social media pages. “18 Years of#StudentNo1 .. Coincidentally we areshooting in RFC today,where 18 years agowe filmed this shot..So much haschanged..But the fun of working togeth-er with Jakkanna @ssrajamouli hasn't!!(sic),” wrote Jr NTR. Tweeted Rajamouli,“18 years!! #StudentNo1 released today.Coincidentally we are in RFC.. So muchhas changed... He’s grown leaner, me older and both wiser.. (sic)”

The duo is now working for RRR, their fourth film after Student No.1,Simhadri and Yamadonga. The director has recently wrapped up an exten-sive schedule in Bulgaria with NTR.

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18 years of Student No. 1

THE DUO IS NOWWORKING FOR RRR,THEIR FOURTH FILMAFTER STUDENTNO.1, SIMHADRIAND YAMADONGA

Filmmakersqueue up to meetPawan Kalyan

fter talking about sapiosexuali-ty on one of the television shows,music producer Mark Ronson

apologised to people who misunder-stood or took offence at his com-ments.

On Good Morning Britain, Ronsonreportedly made the revelation that hefinds intelligence more appealing thanphysical features for a potential sexu-al relationship.

Now, in an interview with RollingStone, Ronson clarified his statement,claiming his words were taken out ofcontext and that he does not identify assapiosexual, reports people.com.

According to Psychology Today, sapio-sexual is “someone who finds intelli-gence and the human mind to be themost sexually attractive feature for apotential sexual relationship”.

“I do not consider myself part of anymarginalised community and I apolo-gise if anybody misunderstood or tookoffence to it. It sounds like I went on aTV show to be like, ‘Guys, I have somebig news!’ And the fact that I would goon and sort of declare myself — like asa heterosexual white male — part of anymarginalised community was terrifyingto me, or just embarrassing,” he said.

Ronson said that while he was onGood Morning Britain, the show’s hostsexplained how they recently had a seg-ment on sapiosexuality.

When Ronson asked what it was, hesaid the hosts told him, “When you’reattracted to intelligence.”

In response, Ronson said, “Thatsounds great. Of course, who wouldn’tbe?” — something he claimed thehosts misinterpreted as him identifyingas a sapiosexual.

“And they were like basically like,‘OK, Mark Ronson identifies himself assapiosexual, that’s great,’. And thenthey proceeded to ask me about MileyCyrus’ dating life and somethingelse I probably wasn’t thatinformed to talk about,either, and then thatwas it,” he added.

ctress Katrina Kaif hasopened up about superstarSalman Khan calling him a

true friend.Katrina was speaking at the

India Today conclave about herrelationship with Salman, withwhom she has given hits afterhits such as Maine Pyaar KyunKiya, Tees Maar Khan, TigerZinda Hai, Ek Tha Tiger andPartner.

She also said, “Its a friendshipthat’s lasted 16 years, he’s a truefriend. He’s a solid person whois there for you when you needit. He may not be in touch withyou all the time but he standsbesides his friends.”

The two were last seentogether in Bharat, which hasbeen named as Bollywood’sbiggest overseas grosser in2019 so far. The Ali AbbasZafar directorial is thehighest-grossingHindi film abroad.

On the workfront, Katrina,who is HongKong-born, isc u r r e n t l y

busy shooting for filmmaker RohitShetty’s next titled Sooryavanshiopposite Akshay Kumar.

Katrina says she has alwaysloved his movies, which are pop-ular for their high dose of action.

“Sooryavanshi has a really inter-esting story and I’ve always lovedRohit’s films,” Katrina had previous-ly told IANS, without divulging muchabout her role in the film.

Sooryavanshi is the new addition inRohit Shetty’s cop drama universe afterthe two Singham films and Simmba.

While Salman is currently busy shoot-ing for the third installment of theDabangg franchise directed byPrabhudheva. The action comedy bringsback the 53-year-old star in his popularavatar of Chulbul Pandey.

Salman will be seen in another filmdirected by Prabhudheva, which is slat-

ed to release in Eid 2020. Thedetails related to the movie

are still under wraps.The Wanted star willalso be seen hosting

the 13th season ofthe controversialreality show BiggBoss.

lans for Marvel’s Ghost Rider live-action serieshave been scrapped by streaming serviceHulu.

The live-action superhero drama was set to pick upthe story of Robbie Reyes (Gabriel Luna) in an infor-mal spin-of from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D,reports thesun.co.uk.

While the series was announced in May alongsidefellow supernatural superhero show Marvel’s Helstrom,it appears the more well-known property has been can-celled due to a “creative impasse” between producersand the streaming service, according to EntertainmentWeekly.

Ingrid Escajeda was announced as showrunner andexecutive producer for Ghost Rider, alongside PaulZbyszewski and head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb alsoexecutive producing.

The character has been described as “consumed byhellfire and supernaturally bound to a demon. He liveson the Texas/Mexico border and when he unleashesthe Rider, Robbie brings vengeance for the innocents

he encounters, but struggles to control the power hewields”.

It’s unclear whether the show will be shoppedto other services or even debut on Disney+.There’s also the possibility they could beusing the character in a movie instead.

Disney — which owns Marvel Studiosand is the leading shareholder at Hulu —still has multiple shows in development forthe streaming service.

This includes l ive action showsMarvel’s Runaways and Helstrom, butalso animated series M.O.D.O.K., Hit-Monkey, Tigra & Dazzler Show and

Howard The Duck.These animated shows will converge for an Avengers

team up called Marvel’s The Offenders.

Hyderabad Saturday September 28, 2019

14

celeb talksJohn Malkovich, BenSchwartz get togetherfor Space Force

ctors John Malkovich and BenSchwartz will be joining SteveCarell in Netflix’s Space Forceseries.

The upcoming Netflix com-edy series Space Force has added seven newcast members, reports variety.com.

Malkovich, Schwartz, Tawny Newsomeand Diana Silvers will be series regularsalongside Carell, while Jimmy O. Yang,Don Lake, and Alex Sparrow have beenbooked for recurring roles.

Carell is also the show’s co-creator andexecutive producer. In addition, PaulKing is on board to direct two episodes ofthe series, including the pilot.

The show, which was ordered in January,is being described as a workplace come-dy centred around the people back onEarth tasked with creating a sixth branchof the armed services. The announcementcame shortly after US President DonaldTrump opened up about plans for a sixthbranch of the military dedicated to pro-tecting American interests in space.

The 10-episode series is expected to pre-miere in 2020. Greg Daniels has co-cre-ated the series along with Carell and servesas showrunner, with Howard Klein of 3Arts also executive producing.

Carell will star as Mark R. Naird, aGeneral tapped by the White House to leada new branch of the Armed Forces with

the goal of putting American Boots on theMoon by 2024. Malkovich will play DrAdrian Mallory, the head science advisor,who is described as brilliant, arrogant andhopes to prevent space from becoming thenext great international battlefield.

Schwartz will play F. Tony Scarapiducci,a self-centred media consultant, andSilvers will essay the role of popular andan A-student Erin Naird. Newsome willappear as Angela Ali, a helicopter pilot,who is described as ambitious and com-petitive.

Yang will recur as Dr. Chan Kaifang,Mallory’s right-hand man and a brilliantastrophysicist. Sparrow plays Yuri BobbyTelatovich, an observer from the Russiangovernment.

Salman is Kat’s‘true friend’

Tamannaah to play sports coachctress Tamannaah Bhatia will be seen in therole of a coach in Sampath Nandis sportsdrama.

She will be playing the female protagonist as asports coach to an all-girls team opposite Gopichandin the yet-to-be titled sports drama.

“I share a great working relationship withthe director and when the story was narrat-ed to me, I found the script very exciting andexperimental. Sports is something that hasalways intrigued me. There will be a lot ofgroundwork that I will have to undergo rightfrom accent to my posture to technical knowl-edge to prepare myself well for this film,”Tamannaah said.

“My role is a tribute of sorts to coaches likePullela Gopichand, Ramakant Achrekar,Guru Hanuman, Satpal Singh and the likeswho have turned things around for Indiansports. Coaching is an underrated aspect ofany professional sport and that is why this waseven more interesting,” she added.

The actress feels “the coaches tend to absorb muchof the unwarranted blame, but they are still impor-tant figureheads, vital to their team’s overall success”.

“The best coaches in sports history have impact-ed the game both on and off the sidelines of theirrespective sports. There is one thing they all hadin common though, a winner’s mentality and that’ssomething that I want to showcase on the big screen.I have been making a conscious effort of multi-task-ing between genres so that there’s more versatilityin my creative kitty and I’m not stereotyped into anyparticular genre. Versatility is the key to survival,”she added.

Talking about the project, Nandi said,“Tamannaah is one of the most contemporary andtalented actresses of our times. Moreover this is asports drama and the actress needs to be very phys-ically active and I see Tamannaah has already start-ed gearing up.”

The entertainer, which is being produced byChitturi Srinivas Rao under Srinivasaa SilverScreen banner, will go on floors in November.

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Mark Ronsonapologises for his ‘sapiosexual'comment

Marvel cancels plans for live-action Ghost Rider series

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AFP n MADRID

Real Madrid and AtleticoMadrid have each averted a

mini-crisis already this seasonand one of the rewards for thewinner of the derby todaywould be to stall their rival’srecovery.

At the WandaMetropolitano this weekend, itwill be La Liga’s first againstthird, even if the ascendancy ofMadrid’s two premier clubsperhaps says as much about thechaos of the opening few weeksin Spain as it does about thestrength of their revivals.

Real Madrid are top andwhile Zidane discounts the fact,their turnaround has beenimpressive.

It began againstSevilla, who could havegone top themselves,and at the RamonSanchez Pizjuan, whereMadrid had previouslywon just once in sevenyears.

Beating Sevilla and thenpromoted Osasuna onWednesday has turned the tide,not least because there was aresilience and purpose so pre-viously lacking.

In each game, Madrid man-aged not to concede a singleshot on target. “What haschanged is that we believe inwhat we do,” Zidane said.

“Now we are at our begin-ning.”

Atletico is an opportunity tomaintain momentum and itmight be that a draw, at thisearly stage in the season, isacceptable to both, particular-ly ahead of the second round ofChampions League groupgames next week.

Certainly, Atleti neededtheir win away at Mallorca onWednesday, even if AlvaroMorata’s mindless sending off,eight minutes after coming onas a substitute, means theSpaniard will be suspended for

the derby this weekend.Morata’s absence makes it

all the more likely Diego Costawill keep his place up frontalongside Joao Felix, particular-ly after it was their goals thatsealed the Mallorca win.

After starting theseason with three con-secutive victories,Atletico were being cir-cled as genuine con-tenders for the title butdefeat to Real Sociedadand the stalemate

against Celta had temperedexpectations.

One win has restored beliefbut this game will be taken as anearly litmus test for the threatthat these teams pose. Neitherwill want to fail it.

Barcelona’s stuttering starthas arguably been the most wor-rying of all but they too enjoyeda rejuvenating win overVillarreal in midweek, ahead oftheir visit to Getafe today.

Scepticism around coachErnesto Valverde is never farfrom the surface at Camp Nouand it remains to be seenwhether Barca can now leavebehind their own sticky patch,and without Lionel Messi, whois nursing a thigh injury.

Valverde might takeencouragement from last seasonwhen his side won only once infive games through the end ofSeptember and early October.They went on to win the title by11 points.

AFP n LONDON

Liverpool and Manchester Cityare again threatening to streakclear in the Premier League title

race with their main challengerslooking ill-equipped to keep up.

Both teams were irresistible lastseason, with runners-up Liverpoolfinishing 25 points ahead of third-placed Chelsea, and they look aclass apart again in this campaign.

The two front-runners will eachexpect to pick up another threepoints this weekend despite being ontheir travels as Liverpool go toSheffield United and City visitEverton.

Leicester, Arsenal and West Hamare their closest challengers and

early leaders in the fight for the finaltwo Champions League placesdespite just three wins apiece after sixrounds of matches.

Tottenham, Chelsea andManchester United, all of whomhave struggled badly, are under pres-sure to get back on track on home soilthis weekend.

SEVEN HEAVENCity showed no mercy against

Watford last weekend, hammeringthe Hornets 8-0 in a staggering dis-

play of dominance that even visitinggoalkeeper Ben Foster admittedcould have resulted in aneven more damaging score-line.

Yet Pep Guardiola’s mencould find themselves eightpoints behind in the titlerace come kick-off atGoodison Park today shouldLiverpool maintain theirrelentless run.

Jurgen Klopp’s side havethe chance to win their 16thconsecutive Premier League game inthe early kick-off in Sheffield.

Liverpool have not lost in theleague to a side outside the tradition-al “Big Six” since January 2018.

But Blades boss Chris Wilder is

demanding his players are not star-struck by the European champions.

MUST-WINSTottenham f luffed another

chance to land a first trophy underMauricio Pochettino in midweek,with an embarrassing third-roundLeague Cup defeat by fourth-tierColchester on penalties.

Spurs have won just two of theiropening eight games in all competi-tions and four of their past 17 dat-ing back to last season.

With Bayern Munich to visit onTuesday in the Champions League,that record threatens to get evenworse unless Pochettino can get aresponse from his stale-looking sideagainst Southampton.

Chelsea fared far better in theLeague Cup as a 7-1 rout of Grimsbyhanded Frank Lampard his first vic-tory in charge at Stamford Bridge.

In contrast to Spurs, though,Chelsea are at the start of a new era

and there were encouragingsigns for Lampard in lastweekend’s 2-1 loss toLiverpool.

Defensive issuesremain, with the Blues yetto keep a clean sheet in ninegames under Lampard, butN’Golo Kante’s return frominjury does offer somemuch-needed protectionfor the backline.

Brighton’s visit to the Bridgealso starts an enticing run of fixturesfor Chelsea to haul themselves backinto the top four, with Southampton,Newcastle, Burnley, Watford andCrystal Palace to come.

sport 15HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

AFP n SEVILLE

Sevilla threw away a two-goal lead and with it the chance togo second in La Liga as they lost 3-2 to Eibar on Thursday.Julen Lopetegui’s side could have climbed above Atletico

Madrid but instead slipped to their second consecutive defeatafter conceding three times in 16 minutes at Ipurua.

Lucas Ocampos gave Sevilla an early lead, finishing throughthe legs of Mark Dmitrovic in the 11th minute before Oliver Torresmade it two with just over half an hour played.

But Eibar stormed back after the interval with goals in the66th, 77th and 82nd minutes.

The first was a penalty, converted by Fabian Orellana. PedroLeon then capitalised on some poor defending from Sevillagoalkeeper Tomas Vaclik and Diego Carlo to equalise. Cotecompleted a remarkable comeback by scoring from a free-kick.

Defeat leaves Sevilla seventh in the table and needing aresponse on Sunday against Real Sociedad, who did jump upto second after continuing their excellent start to the season

with a 3-0 win over Alaves.Elsewhere on Thursday, Celta Vigo drew 1-1 at home to

Espanyol as Santi Mina scored a 90th-minute equaliser for Celtato cancel out an opener from Adria Pedrosa.

AFP n TURIN

Skipper Andrea Belotti’squick-fire second-half dou-

ble, including a sensationaloverhead kick in front of goal,sealed a 2-1 comeback win inSerie A over AC Milan onThursday.

Polish striker KrzysztofPiatek had put AC Milan aheadfrom the spot after 18 minutesin the clash between midtablerivals in the Olympic Stadium.

But in four-minute spell,Belotti sealed all three points forWalter Mazzarri's side who hadsuffered back-to-back losses intheir previous two games.

Torino move up to sixth inthe table, equal on nine pointswith Napoli and Cagliari afterfive games, but six pointsbehind leaders Inter Milan.

AC Milan drop to 13th, fol-lowing on from last weekend’s2-0 derby defeat.

“We didn’t want to lose athird in a row,” said Belotti.

“They made us dance in thefirst half but when we returnedafter the break we were a differ-ent side.”

Both northern Italian rivalswere desperate to get back to

winning ways with Milan goingahead early after a penaltyawarded when Lorenzo DeSilvestri fouled Rafael Leao.

Piatek — third top scorer inSerie A last season with 22 goals— stepped up to slot in theresulting penalty.

Belotti missed a chance toequalise just before the break,sending the ball over whenalone in front of goal, with

Piatek also wasteful firingAlessio Romagnoli’s perfectcross wide on 53 minutes.

But Torino piled on thepressure and it paid off withBelotti breaking through on 72minutes with a blisteringequaliser which left GianluigiDonnarumma with no chancein the Milan goal.

And the 25-year-old addeda second minutes later amidconfusion in front of the Milangoal.

Belotti sent the ball throughfor Simone Zaza, butDonnarumma cleared with therebound finding the Italy inter-national again who finishedoff an acrobatic overhead kickinto goal for his fourth goal infive games.

Milan missed two latechances to snatch a point withFranck Kessie hitting the ballwide while Piatek’s header wascleared by Torino goalkeeperSalvatore Sirigu.

“It was a game we hadunder control, but we didn’thave the cynicism to kill it off,”said Milan coach MarcoGiampaolo.

“It is clear that this defeathits our self-esteem.”

AFP nMADRID

Zinedine Zidane insists EdenHazard will fulfil his poten-

tial at Real Madrid despite aslow start since his 100 millioneuros ($109 million) movefrom Chelsea in the summer.

Hazard picked up a thighinjury the day before Real’sopening La Liga game againstCelta Vigo and missed their firstthree matches of the season.

He has since come off thebench against Levante andstarted against Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, but theBelgian is yet to register a goalor an assist for his new team,who face capital city rivalsAtletico Madrid today.

“Listen we know the qual-ity of player we have and weknow he is going to deliver,” saidZidane in a press conference onFriday.

“Everyone expects a lotfrom him and he knows that.But we support him and he iswith us. As the games go by Iam sure he is going to be theplayer we want him to be in thisReal Madrid team.”

“We are going to giveeverything,” Zidane said. “Ourideas haven’t changed, we knowhow tough it will be tomorrowagainst a difficult opponent butthey are going to find it toughas well.”

Atletico thrashed Madrid7-3 in a pre-season game in July,a match Zidane said his teamplayed like a friendly and their

opponents treated like a com-petitive fixture.

Zidane’s response was briefwhen asked about whether thatresult had any significance onthe upcoming derby. “No it hasnothing to do with this game,”he said.

Marcelo, Luka Modric andIsco have all recovered frominjury and trained with the restof the squad on Friday.

But Rodrygo, the 18-year-old Brazilian who scored on hisdebut against Osasuna, oneminute after coming on, willreturn to Madrid’s reserve team,Castilla, this weekend.

“He knows we’re going togo bit by bit with him,” Zidanesaid. “For tomorrow we havealready taken the decision andthat’s it. For thenext gamewe’ll see buttomorrowhe plays forC a s t i l l aand he’shappy withthat.”

AFP n MILAN

Cristiano Ronaldo looks setto return for Juventus today

as Serie A leaders Milan headfor Sampdoria seeking a boostahead of their ChampionsLeague blockbuster againstBarcelona next week.

Antonio Conte’s sideare the only Italian teamwith maximum 15 pointsfrom five games withMaurizio Sarri’s championsJuventus second two pointsbehind before they hoststruggling SPAL.

“Five wins in a row is nofluke, we’re getting into theright frame of mind,” saidConte, whose side followed upon their dire 1-1 Europeanstalemate to Slavia Prague with

wins in the Milan derby andagainst Lazio midweek. “But westill have to grow a lot. We’re

newborns at a pro-ject level,” addedthe former Chelseaboss of Inter wholast won Serie A in2010.

Eusebio DiF r a n c e s c o ’ s

Sampdoria have had a night-mare start to the season — withthe Genoa club sinking to fourdefeats in five games.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, looksset to return for Juventus athome against SPAL having

missed last weekend’s gameagainst Brescia with a muscularproblem, with the Turin giantshosting Bayer Leverkusen inEurope next week.

In Naples, Serie A run-ners-up Napoli host MarioBalotelli’s Brescia desperate fora win after their surprise mid-week reversal to Cagliari butwithout defender KalidouKoulibaly.

Carlo Ancelotti’s southern-ers slipped six points behindInter following their shock defeatto the Sardinians with Koulibalysent off late in the game.

Atalanta are third after theirlate 2-0 win over Roma and nexttravel to midtable Sassuolobefore their first ever ChampionsLeague home game againstShaktar Donetsk.

PTI n KABUL

Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener

was on Friday appointed ashead coach of the theAfghanistan cricket team.

He will take charge of

Afghanistan in the seriesagainst West Indies inNovember.

“I am extremely excitedand honoured to be given theopportunity to work withsome of the best talent in

world cricket. Everyoneknows the fearless brand ofcricket Afghanistan play,”said Klusener.

“I am very confidentthat with some hard workwe can become one of the

best sides in the world. I amreally looking forward toworking with the Afghanistanteam and helping them taketheir cricket to the next level,”said the 48-year-old who hasplayed 49 Tests and 171 ODIs.

Klusener is a certifiedLevel 4 coach and has servedas bowling coach of MumbaiIndians in the IPL, consultantto South Africa NationalAcademy and batting coach ofSouth Africa Test team.

AFP n MANCHESTER

Paul Pogba is a doubt forManchester United’s match

against Arsenal, giving belea-guered manager Ole GunnarSolskjaer a fresh headache as hejuggles his scant attackingresources.

The France midfielder hurthis ankle again in the LeagueCup match with Rochdale inmidweek on his return to theside after not playing since lateAugust.

Solskjaer revealed on Fridaythat his ankle knock was thereason he did not join his team-mates.

“The situation is Paul fin-ished the game, 90 minutesfantastically, but he got a knockto his ankle which is veryswollen,” said Solskjaer.

“So it was better for him notto go there with the team andhe’s in a race for Monday. He isa doubt, but that is the way it is.”

Forwards Anthony Martialand Marcus Rashford are alsofacing a battle to be fit forMonday’s game at Old Trafford,with Solskjaer short of attack-ing options.

Martial is still trying torecover from a thigh injurysustained last month whileRashford limped off with agroin problem in the 2-0 defeatat West Ham on Sunday.

If neither of those twomakes it, Mason Greenwoodwill be in line to start his firstPremier League game.

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Reigning Wuhan Open champion Aryna Sabalenka poses for photo after her semi-final victory over world number one Ashleigh Barty on Friday. The 21-year-oldBelarusian power-hitter proved she was back in top form and well past her slump asshe dismissed Barty 7-5, 6-4 in 103 minutes Sabalenka/Twitter

“Thank God we lost from time totime in the Champions League orin other cup competitions so westill know how it feels.We are maybe considered as atop team but we don’t want tobehave like a top team,playing (like one) ifpossible, yes, butfighting like achallenger.”

—JURGEN KLOPP(Liverpool manager)

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PTI n NEW DELHI

Former India cricketerYuvraj Singh has suggested

that Rohit Sharma can be con-sidered for T20 captaincy ifVirat Kohli feels “overloaded”by leading the side in all threeformats.

Rohit, the vice-captain ofIndia’s limited-overs sides, hasbeen the most successful cap-tain in the IPL, leadingMumbai Indians to four titlewins and Yuvraj said it won’tbe a bad idea for India to tryout split captaincy to ease theworkload of the best batsmanin the world.

“Earlier there used to bejust two formats — ODI andTests, so it was perfect to haveone captain. Now there arethree formats and if Virat isfeeling overloaded, maybe theyshould try somebody else forthe T20 format. Rohit hasbeen a very successful captain,”Yuvraj told 'Aaj Tak' newschannel.

“I don’t really know. They(team management) have todecide how much workloadVirat can take. Do they need totry somebody else for T20? Itcompletely depends on howthey want to go for the future.Virat has been the best bats-man. How to manage hisworkload? It is completely

team management’s call.”Yuvraj also took a dig at

the team management for get-ting the crucial No 4 positionwrong in the ICC World Cupin England earlier this year.

“You need to identify whois your best talent and thenback him. The highest score inNo 4 position at the World

Cup was 48. The captain,coach and the selectors shouldhave known that No 4 is a veryimportant position, especiallyin England where the ballseams,” he said.

“The No 4 batsman has tobe technically strong. VijayShankar didn’t have that expe-rience, Rishabh Pant didn’t

have the experience. DineshKarthik was an experiencedguy who was sitting out andsuddenly went to bat in thesemifinal.”

He said any cricketerneeds a sense of security toexcel.

“I really didn’t understandwhat the think-tank was doing.

If you had to get the best outof a player you have to securehim. A player can never playwell if he is insecure. That wasthe big reason why India did-n’t win the World Cup,” Yuvrajsaid.

Meanwhile he has claimedthat the team management lethim down towards the fagend of his international careerand he could have playedanother World Cup after the2011 heroics if he had enoughbacking.

“(I) Regret that I couldn'tplay another World Cup after2011. There was hardly anysupport from the team man-agement or people around. Ifthat support was there thenmay be I would have playedanother World Cup,” Yuvrajsaid.

“But whatever cricket Iplayed it's on my own. I neverhad any godfather.”

Yuvraj, who retired fomthe game earlier this year,reiterated that he was ignoreddespite clearing the mandato-ry yo-yo test for fitness.

sport 16HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

K O M PANY OUT OF EUROQUALIFIERSBrussels: Veteran defender Vincent Kompany willmiss Belgium's next two Euro 2020 qualifiers afterpicking up an injury in the Belgian Cup in midweek, hisclub Anderlecht said on Friday. The formerManchester City captain will be absent for the matchesagainst San Marino in Brussels on October 10 and thetrip to Kazakhstan three days later. Kompany had beenout of action since August 23 when he picked up athigh injury against Genk.

SARAH TAYLOR QUITS INT’LCRICKETDoha: Battling anxiety, England wicketkeeper SarahTaylor has announced her retirement frominternational cricket. The 30-year-old made herEngland debut in 2006, and has gone on to make 226appearances across the three formats. Taylor's anxietyhas affected her ability to enjoy the game in recentyears, according to the England and Wales CricketBoard (ECB). She termed it a “tough decision” but onethat has come at the “right time”. “In 2006 my dreamcame true and I beam with pride at what I've achievedover the years, alongside the best players and people.It is the right time for me and my health to retire, butI have loved every minute in an England shirt. Thankyou to everyone for supporting me,” Taylor tweeted.

INDIAU-18 REACH SAFF C’SHIP FINALKathmandu: The Indian football team hammeredMaldives 4-0 to storm into the final of of the SAFF U-18 Championship here on Friday. With NarenderGahlot (7th), Manvir Singh (79th) and NinthoinganbaMeetei (81st) found the target for India whileMaldives' Ahnaf Rasheedh (45'+1') scored an owngoal on the stroke of half time to make it an emphaticvictory for India. India now play Bangladesh in thesummit clash on Sunday.

UNCHANGED SQUADS NAMED FORWI TOUR Belgrade: The Indian women's team selectors onFriday named unchanged squads for the ODI and T20series in the West Indies beginning November 1 inAntigua. Only Sushma Verma has been added to the16-member ODI squad for the three-match seriesbeginning on November 1. India had picked a 15-member squad for the home ODI series against SouthAfrica beginning in Vadodara on October 9. The sameT20 side that is hosting South Africa at the momentwill take on the West Indies in the five-match seriesbeginning November 9 in St Lucia. Fifteen-year-oldShafali Verma has retained her place in the T20 side.She had failed to open her account in the seriesopener against South Africa.

SREESHANKAR FLOPS AT BIGSTAGEDoha: India began its World Athletics Championshipscampaign on a disappointing note with long jumper MSreeshankar failing to reach the final after finishing22nd in the qualification round with a below par efforthere on Friday. The 20-year-old Sreeshankar couldonly produce a best jump of 7.62m from his threeattempts in the qualification B. His effort was wellbelow his season's best of 8.00m, which he hadproduced only last month in Patiala. The youngsterbegan with a 7.52m before clearing 7.62m. He thenfouled his third and final jump to end his campaign indisappointment.

AZHARUDDIN ELECTED HCAPRESIDENTHyderabad: Mohammad Azharuddin was on Fridayelected President of Hyderabad Cricket Association(HCA), the former India captain's life coming full circleyears after being indicted for match-fixing and bannedforever from playing. The stylish batsman ofyesteryears polled 173 votes while his opponentPrakash Chand Jain got 73 votes. His entire panel wontheir respective contests.

SINGLES

PTI n NEW DELHI

World ChampionshipSilver medallist wrestler

Deepak Punia has jumped toworld number one positionin 86kg but Bajrang Punialost the top rank in the 65kgcategory in the latest rank-ings issued by the interna-tional federation (UWW).

Competing in his maid-en senior WorldChampionship, Deepak set-

tled for a Silver after an ankle

injury forced him to pull out ofthe final against Iranian greatHasan Yazdani.

The 20-year-old now has 82points, four more than WorldChampion Yazdani.

This year, Deepak had won aSilver Yasar Dogu and Bronzemedals at Asian Championshipand at Sassari tournaments. Hehas been rewarded for his con-sistent show.

However, Bajrang, who wentinto the World Championship asworld number one, dropped to

PTI n INCHEON

Indian shuttler Parupalli Kashyap pro-gressed to the men’s singles semi-finals

of the Korea Open World Tour Super500 with a straight-game win over for-mer world No 2 Denmark’s Jan OJorgensen on Friday.

In a clinical display, the 33-year-oldfrom Hyderabad, who is the lone Indianleft in fray, outsmarted Jorgensen 24-22,21-8 in 37 minutes to make it to his sec-ond semifinal of the season. He hadreached the last four at the India OpenSuper 500 tournament.

The 2014 Commonwealth GamesGold-medallist will now face world No1 and two-time world champion KentoMomota of Japan today.

A former World No 6, Kashyap,who was promoted from the qualifyinground, had last played Jorgensen fiveyears ago at the Denmark Open.

The Indian entered the match witha 2-4 record against Jorgensen, a 2015World Championship Bronze medallist.

In the first game, the duo engagedin short rallies initially and spilt the first8 points. A couple of backhand error andKashyap was lagging 5-8.

Another miscued shot at the net anda wide smash gave Jorgensen an 11-8advantage at the break.

After the interval, Kashyap garnereda few quick points to turn the tables onhis rival, reaching 14-12. The Dane hitthe net thrice and also went long, whileKashyap unleashed two powerful crosscourt smashes.

A precise slice helped Jorgensenbreak the run of points and then levelpar when kashyap committed an error.

The duo fought hard, moving from14-14 to 18-18. A timely video referrelgave Kashyap another point but he sentone to the net as it was 19-19.

Jorgensen then held the game pointopportunity after a precise smash at thebackline. However, a jump smash fromthe Indian made it 20-20.

Kashyap then earned a game pointonly to give it away. However, the Indiangrabbed a second game point opportu-nity and converted it when his opponenthit the net. He thus sealed the first gamewhich lasted 22minutes.

The second game started on a sim-ilar note with the duo tied 3-3 initially.Kashyap then took control of the net andcurbed his errors to reel off five straightpoints. Jorgensen tried to up the pacebut unforced errors pegged him back askashyap held a 11-7 lead at the breather.

It was mostly one way traffic afterthe break as Kashyap found the gaps eas-ily even as his rival got buried in a heapof unforced errors. Kashyap grabbed thenext nine of the 10 points to move to thematch point and then sealed it with asmash.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Indian boxers are headed in the rightdirection and will do something big

at the Tokyo Olympic Games, reckonsHigh Performance Director SantiagoNieva, who wants his wards to emergeas outright winners and secure at leastfive Olympic spots during the Asianqualifiers.

The Indian boxers produced theirbest-ever show at the WorldChampionships with Amit Panghal(52kg) and Manish Kaushik (63kg)winning Silver and Bronze respective-ly in Russia. Before this, the countryhad never won more than one Bronzein a single edition of the showpiece.

“Every tournament we go, wealways compare the results to whatcould have happened if it were theOlympics. Are we on the right track?So far, we have shown in every singlecompetition that we are doing well,”Nieva said.

“In Olympics, there are no guaran-tees but we are in the right directionand we are confident we will do some-thing big in the Olympics.”

Indian boxers will now train theireyes on the Asian-Oceania qualifiers

scheduled to be held in Wuhan, Chinafrom February 3-14.

In the qualifiers, Olympic spots willbe up for grabs in eight men’s weightclasses — Flyweight (52kg),Featherweight (57kg), Lightweight(63kg), Welterweight (69kg),

Middleweight (75kg), LightHeavyweight (81kg), Heavyweight(91kg) and Super Heavyweight (+91kg).

“The qualifiers will be tremendous-ly tough. We want all eight to qualifybut realistically 5 to 6 boxers shouldqualify for the Olympics,” Nieva said.

“In lower weights, there are worldchampionship and Olympic medallists,so we can’t sleep. We have to ensure thatwe beat them by enough margin so thatthere is no doubt in the judges’ mindsand that is our challenge,” Nieva said.

Nieva is happy with the progressthat Indian boxing has made in the lastfew years but stressed on the impor-tance of infrastructure for the coun-try to emerge as a dominating nationin the sport.

“This was India’s best ever perfor-mance at Worlds. If this would havebeen an Olympic qualifier, we wouldhave had four boxers qualified. It wasa great performance but we wantmore medals and champions. So wecontinue to work to stay at this level,”he said.

“There are many countries whowould like to be in our position but insome other ways, we still lack a lot ininfrastructure to compare with topnations such as Kazakhstan,Uzbekistan, Russia.

“They have more complete set up,from grassroots level to all the way up,so that is what we are trying toachieve...Otherwise it will be very dif-ficult,” he signed off.

PTI n VIZIANAGARAM

Opener Aiden Markramstruck his second successive

hundred in as many games asSouth Africa scored steadily toreach 199 for 4 in 50 oversagainst Board President’s XI onthe second day of the rain-cur-tailed warm-up match here onFriday.

Markram had earlier scored161 for South Africa A againstIndia A in a first-class game lastweek.

On the day, he retired aftercompleting his hundred in agame which has not been accord-ed first-class status. Markram’sinnings was an attacking one ashe faced 118 deliveries, hitting 18boundaries and two sixes.

Markram’s good form augurswell for the Proteas as the 24-year-old right-hander wasmarked as one for he future byIndia captain Virat Kohli, whenthey toured the rainbow nationback in 2018.

Earlier, opener Dean Elgarwas snuffed out by senior pacerUmesh Yadav (1/34), caught byPriyank Panchal in the slip cor-don. One down batsman Theunisde Bruyn got one from IshanPorel (1/11) that jagged back in

to trap him plumb in-front.The talented Zubayr Hamza

(22) hit three fours and a sixbefore left-arm spinnerDharmendra Jadeja (2/52) hadhim leg before with an arm ball.The lesser-known Jadeja fromSaurashtra also had rival skipperFaf Du Plessis (9) trapped leg-before.

However before that,Markram and the stodgy TembaBavuma (55) had a century part-nership. The slightly builtBavuma also hit nine fours in his92-ball unbeaten knock.

The two pacers who didn’tperform up to the mark wereAvesh Khan (0/44 in 10 overs),who got a bit of stick andMumbai man Shardul Thakur(0/34 in 10 overs), who sharedthe new ball with Umesh.

The most impressive amongpacers was young Bengal speed-ster Ishan but unfortunatelyBoard President’s XI skipperRohit Sharma only gave him asix-over spell during which hegot De Bruyn.Brief Scores: SA 199/4 in 50overs (Aiden Markram 100retired, Temba Bavuma 55,Dharmendra Jadeja 2/52, IshanPorel 1/11, Umesh Yadav 1/31) vBP XI.

IANS n CHENNAI

Out of favour Indian batsman SureshRaina has not given up on his India

dreams and believes that he can bat at themuch-debated No 4 spot for the team inthe shortest format of the game.

Raina, who last played for Indiaagainst England in 2018, is eyeing a come-back to the national side with two T20World Cups in successive years, 2020 and2021.

“I can be the No 4 for India. I have bat-ted in that slot before and delivered. I amlooking forward to an opportunity withtwo T20 World Cups coming up,” the 32-year-old told The Hindu on Thursday.

The No 4 batting spot has been a hottopic of discussion for Team India in thelast two years. While they tried AmbatiRayudu for some time, right before theWorld Cup, Vijay Shankar was handed theresponsibility to play at the spot. But, onceShankar got injured during the course ofthe tournament, Rishabh Pant wasappointed as the batter to play at the No4 slot.

However, Pant has not been able to dojustice to his role and has been facingharsh criticism from several quarters. Hehas been accused of poor shot selectionand not putting price on his wicket.

Raina, who has scored 5,615 ODI and1,605 T20I runs, believes the 21-year-oldappears to be confused at the moment andsomeone needs to sit down and talk withhim.

“He appears confused, is not playinghis natural game. He is looking for singles,blocking, and appears lost,” said thesouthpaw.

“Someone needs to talk to him as MSDhoni would do to players. Cricket is amental game and Pant has to be backedto play his attacking brand of cricket. Rightnow he seems to be playing under instruc-tions and it is not working,” he added.

The left-handed batter, who is count-ed as one of the most energetic fielders inworld cricket, also said Dhoni has a lot tooffer to Indian cricket and can prove tobe a worthy asset for the team in nextyear’s World T20.

“He is still fit, still a terrific wicket-keeper and still the greatest finisher in thegame. Dhoni will be an asset for India inthe T20 World Cup.”

Rohit T20 captaincy can manageVirat's workload: Yuvi

PTI n JAIPUR

Jammu & Kashmir registered afacile 55-run win over host

Rajasthan in a Group C matchof the Vijay Hazare Trophy hereon Friday.

Put in to bat, J&K made 317for 5 in 50 overs thanks toimpressive knocks by ShubhamKhajuria (94) and ShubhamSingh Pundir (96 not out).

Leggie Rahul Chahar, whorecently broke into the IndianT20 side, finished with 2 for 50in 9 overs while Deepak Chaharwent wicketless in 9 overs givingaway 53 runs.

Rajasthan struggled in thechase and ended up with 262,being dismissed in 49 overs.

Captain Mahipal Lomrortop scored with 88 while ChetanBist made a strokeful 72 but theteam was always behind the

run rate.Ram Dayal finished with 4

for 45 as J&K wrapped up theRajasthan innings in 49 overs tosecure four points.

Services rode on RaviChauhan's knock of 104 to beatTripura by 19 runs.

Chauhan's ton helpedServices make 241 for 9 in 50overs.

Tripura was bowled out for222 in the 48th over as Servicesgained a win and 4 points.

In another match, GouravYadav (5/45) and Naman Ojha(60 not out) helpedMadhyaPradesh post a three-wicket win over Railways toearn four points.

In Dehradun,skipperUnmukt Chand hit an unbeaten80 to help Uttarakhand defeatAssam by seven wickets in arain-curtailed Plate group match.

Deepak Punia is new No1, Bajrang loses top rank

I can be India’sNo 4: Raina

Suresh Raina in a file picture PTI

Kashyap seals Korea semis spot

Parupalli Kashyap in a file picture Kashyap/Twitter

Markram’s 100take SA to 199/4

J&K registers 55 runwin over Rajasthan

Competing in his maidensenior World C’ship,Deepak settled for aSilver after an ankle

injury forced him to pullout of the final against

Iranian great HasanYazdani. The 20-year-oldnow has 82 points, four

more than WorldChampion Yazdani

Boxers will do something big in Olympics: Nieva

Rohit’s T20 captaincy is option tomanage Virat's workload: Yuvraj

Officials cover the ground of the National Stadium after arain in Karachi on Friday. An unusual spell of rain in thesouthern port city of Karachi during this time of the yearleft the cricket ground completely waterlogged on Friday

number two spot after man-aging a Bronze.

The 25-year-old now has63 points while Russia’sGadzhimurad Rashidov, whowon Gold in Nur Sultan, isthe new world number one in65kg.

In 57kg, world Bronzemedallist Ravi Dahiya hasentered the top-five bracket.He is ranked exactly five with39 points while Rahul Aware’sBronze medal has pushedhim to world number two.

Meanwhile, in women’srankings, Vinesh Phogat, whoalso won a Bronze in NurSultan along with TokyoOlympic quota, has jumpedto number two in 53kg cate-gory, gaining four places afterher stupendous show lastweek.

In 50kg, Seema Bisla hasdropped a rung to numberthree while Pooja Dhanda(32) is ranked five in 59kg,two places behind compatri-ot Manju Kumari (40).