City Police'sflag march ‘onlyat Charminar’leads to controversy

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Naidu's detentionis another case ofvendetta politics

Published FromHYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARHBHUBANESWARRANCHI DEHRADUNVIJAYAWADA

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MUKESH AMBANI MEETS JAGAN

L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Reliance Industries LtdChairman Mukesh Ambanion Saturday made a sudden,apparently unscheduled visit toAndhra Pradesh and met ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy.

The state government keptMukesh's visit under wrapsuntil he arrived inGannavaram airport and pro-ceeded straight to meet Jaganat the Chief Minister's campoffice in Tadepalli. Both werecloseted for about one and ahalf hours.

Jagan's close friend andRajya Sabha member YVijayasai Reddy receivedMukesh at the Gannavaramairport and both travelled byroad to reach the ChiefMinister's office.

Mukesh was accompaniedby his friend, industrialist andRajya Sabha member ParimalNathwangi. Mukesh's sonAnant Ambani was also pre-sent.

As Parimal Natwangiaccompanied Mukesh for themeeting with Jagan, there are

speculations in political circlesthat Mukesh had come tolobby for Rajya Sabha berth for

Parimal under AP quota withthe help of YSRCP.

This is because Parimal iscurrently serving as RajyaSabha member fromJharkhand. His tenure is set toend on April 19.

The notification for thebiennial Rajya Sabha polls inAP was issued recently. FourRajya Sabha seats fell vacant inAP and YSRCP will win allthese four seats based on thehuge majority it secured in theAssembly elections. YSRCPwon 151 seats in the 175-member Assembly in the May2019 elections.

RS BERTH FROM AP TOAMBANI’S CLOSE FRIEND?

AP govt keeps Mukesh's visit a ‘secret' till he met Chief Minister

Mukesh's close friend and industrialist Parimal Nathwangi accompanies him

sdfsdfsdf

n Speculations rife over Mukeshlobbying for Rajya Sabha berthfor Parimal from AP

n Parimal's Rajya Sabha tenurefrom Jharkhand to end on April 19

n Jagan-Mukesh also discussrevival of Reliance's electronichub project in Tirupathi

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Budget session of theTelangana Legislature willbegin on March 6.

Governor TamilisaiSoundararajan will address ajoint session of the Legislatureon the opening day.

This will be the Governor'sfirst address to the Legislature,after she assumed office inSeptember 2019.

The government is likely topresent the state's Budget(2020-21) on March 8 in theLegislative Assembly and theLegislative Council. The gov-ernment may also introducethe new Revenue Act as well asthe new GHMC Act during thesession.

The House will beadjourned to March 10 in

view of Holi festival on March9. Thereafter, the session isexpected to continue till March25.

The government may con-duct the Budget session for 13working days and thus it mayconclude on March 22.However, Chief Minister K.

Chandrasekhar Rao has totake a call on the dates for theAssembly session. The Councilmay meet for four days.

This time, Finance MinisterT Harish Rao is expected tointroduce the Budget in theAssembly.

TS Budget session from Mar 6

Tomato farmersoffered 80 paise per kg!

PNS n HYDERABAD

Although the prices of toma-to in the retail market havebeen fluctuating widely, themost disturbing situ-ation on thewholesale frontis that due to aglut in the mar-ket, traders arenow offeringfarmers justeighty paise per kgof the vegetable!Hence, frustrated farmers havestarted discarding their pro-duce in and around the mar-kets to serve as feed for straycattle.

Until recently, a kg of toma-

to was sold for prices rangingbetween Rs 40 and Rs 50,bringing cheers to farmers.Now, suddenly the farmers aredoomed as the kitchen staple

is reportedly fetching justeighty paise per kg in

Nirmal district andelsewhere.

M a r k e t i n gDepartment officialsattribute the crash in

tomato prices toenhanced supplies from

some of the neighbouringstates.

It is estimated that the veg-etable will command highprices during the peak of sum-mer i.e. in about two months.

IMD warns ofthunderstorm,lightning in TSPNS n HYDERABAD

The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) onSaturday issued a warning ofthunderstorm accompaniedby lightning in a few districtsof Telangana on March 1 and2. It said:"A cyclonic circula-tion at 0.9 km above mean sealevel lies over south MadhyaMaharashtra & neighbour-hood. Mainly low levelSoutherlies/South Easterliesprevail over the state ofTelangana." The weather fore-cast for March 1 and March 2issued by IMD says thunder-storm accompanied by light-ning is very likely to occur atisolated places in the districtsof Adilabad, Asifabad,Nagarkurnool, Nizamabad,Jagtial, Siricilla, Peddapalli,Mancherial and Kamareddy.

TS discoms defer powertariff hike proposals yet againPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State PowerDistribution Companies(Discoms) have deferred sub-mission of tariff hike propos-als to the TS ElectricityRegulatory Commission(TSERC) yet again.

The TSSPDCL andTSNPCL were supposed tosubmit tariff hike proposals toTSERC on Saturday, consider-ing February 29 was the dead-line for the same.

However, the Discomssought more time to submittariff hike proposals, alongwith annual AggregateRevenue Requirement (ARR).

Top officials from Transcoand Discoms met ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao on Friday and soughthike in power tariff to save dis-

coms from financial crisis.They mentioned that the dis-coms already owed nearly Rs13,000 crore to power produc-ers and were also sufferinghuge losses as tariff had notbeen revised for the last fouryears, though expenditure forproduction and supply of eachunit of power had increasedconsiderably. They claimedthat discoms had sufferednearly Rs 15,000 crore 'losses'

on account of non-revision oftariff for the past four years.

However, the Chief Ministeris learnt to have asked powerofficials to put tariff hike pro-posals on hold for now as heis busy with the upcomingBudget session of Assembly --expected to begin on March6. He is understood to haveagreed to hold detailed discus-sions with them later.

6 held for shouting ‘shootthe traitors’ in Delhi MetroPNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi Police have detainedsix men for raising controver-sial slogans at Delhi's RajivChowk metro station onSaturday.

According to the DelhiPolice, "Around 12.30 p.m. slo-gans 'desh ke gaddaron ko, golimaro ***** ko' were raised atRajiv Chowk metro station...we have detained them atRajiv Chowk metro policestation and interrogation isbeing carried out."

Sources said that the sixmen raised the "shoot thetraitors" slogans inside themetro when it was about tohalt at the station and thenthey continued to shout the

slogans after deboarding.The Central Industrial

Security Force (CISF) per-sonnel, responsible for thesecurity of the Delhi Metro,intercepted the protesters andhanded them over to the DelhiPolice.

PNS n TIRUPATI

Tirumala TirupatiDevasthanams (TTD) thatgoverns the world famousshrine of Lord Venkateswaraat Tirumala Hills here onSaturday presented its budgetfor 2020-2021.

The budget proposals envis-age a total revenue of about Rs3,310 crore during the fiscalyear, a top TTD official said.Of the total income, the cash

offerings made by devoteeswere projected at Rs 1,351crore, TTD chairman YVSubba Reddy told mediaper-sons on the Hills.

TTD unveils Rs3,310-cr budget

Delhi violencea nationalblot: PaswanPNS n NEW DELHI

Terming the Delhi violence anational blot, Union MinisterRam Vilas Paswan said strictaction should be takenagainst those who have beenconvicted for it.

Talking to the media,Paswan said the case shouldbe prosecuted in a fast trackcourt and immediate actionshould be ensured.

Assam teacher held forremarks against PMPNS n GUWAHATI

A college teacher in Assamwas arrested for his socialmedia post where he alleged-ly used swear words against"Sanatan dharma" and madederogatory comments aboutPrime Minister NarendraModi in relation to the recentDelhi violence.

Souradeep Sengupta wasarrested by the police onFriday night from his home inSilchar in Cachar district afterstudents of GurucharanCollege protested near hishouse and later filed a policecomplaint.

Sengupta, a guest lecturer ofPhysics in the college and for-mer student leader of

Presidency University, hadcome out with a Facebookpost on Tuesday where heaccused the BJP and RSS of"trying to recreate Godhra inDelhi right now", made abu-sive comments about Modibesides using swear wordsabout 'Sanatan dharma'.

‘Govt ruining economy by itsmonumental mismanagement’Centre should provide guaranteed employment for 150 days

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Saturdayaccused the government of"ruining" the economy by its"monumental mismanage-ment" and advised the Centreto immediately give money inthe hands of the poor bymaking rural job schemeMNREGA "need based".

Senior Congress leaderAnand Sharma said thatunder the rural jobscheme MNREGAthe governmentshould giveemploymentfor 150 days

a year at a daily wage of Rs 500to revive rural demand andeconomy.

"We remain seriously con-cerned about the continuingjob losses which will eventual-ly have an adverse impact on

social stability and peacein the country with alarge number ofunemployed youthin the country hav-

ing no hope and indespair," Sharma said.

"This governmentis ruining the

economy by itsmonumental

mismanage-

ment and it continues toremain in denial," he toldreporters.

He urged the government tohonestly release the number ofjobs lost and not mislead thepeople by giving "the numbersof the changeover from infor-mal to formal as the number ofpeople who are expected innormal course or the employ-ees to come on the providentfund platform".

NSO data shows that theGDP for the third quarter is at4.7 per cent, which is the low-est of the last seven years,Sharma said.

Kothur copsin soup overdrunk dancingPNS n HYDERABAD

Six personnel of the KothurPolice were attached to theCyberabad PoliceCommissionerate onSaturday, after videos of thecops dancing to various songsin an inebriated conditionwent viral on social mediaplatforms.

The officials involved wereidentified as ASI Balaswamy,constables Ashok Reddy,Amarnadh, Chandra Mohanand Venkatesh Goud and ahome guard, RamakrishnaReddy.

In the videos that werewidely circulated, the copswere seen dancing to an oldfamous 'Naagin' soundtrackand another old track,Samsaram OkaChadarangam.

The Discomssought more timeto submit tariffhike proposals,along with annualAggregate RevenueRequirement(ARR)

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani greeting Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy along with son Ananth at the CM’s camp office in Tadepalli on Saturday

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Philanthropist Bill Gates on Friday urged wealthy nations to help lowand middle-income countries strengthen their health systems in

hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus, which Mr Gates saidhas started to behave like a "once-in-a-century"pathogen. "By helping countries in Africa and SouthAsia get ready now, we can save lives and also slowthe global circulation of this virus," Mr Gates, theformer chairman and chief executive of MicrosoftCorp , wrote in an editorial in the New EnglandJournal of Medicine.

CORONAVIRUS A ‘ONCE-IN-A-CENTURY’ PATHOGEN: BILL GATES

US SIGNS PEACE DEAL WITHTALIBAN, TO WITHDRAW FORCES The United States "will not hesitate to nullify" its historic deal with the

Taliban if the insurgents renege on their security guarantees andcommitment to hold talks with the Afghan government, US DefenseSecretary Mark Esper said Saturday. His comments came as the USsigned an accord with the Taliban inDoha, laying out a timetable for afull troop withdrawal fromAfghanistan within 14months as it seeks an exitfrom its longest-ever war.

US REPORTS 4TH CORONAVIRUSCASE OF UNKNOWN ORIGINUS health officials reported a fourth case of novel coronavirus of

unknown origin on Friday, indicating the disease was spreading inthe country. The latest case is a boy under 18 in Washington State whotested "presumptive positive," local authorities said without releasingfurther details about the patient. He is currently in home isolation inSnohomish County. The high schoolhe attends will be shut until March 3while it is deep cleaned, theWashington State Department ofHealth said.

The presence of two feral pigeons onboard a GoAir flight at the airport inAhmedabad in Gujarat created a flutter among the amused passengers,

even though the avian surprise did not lead to any untoward incident ordelay in the flight. The incident took place on Friday when the passengerswere boarding the Ahmedabad-Jaipur flight. "Twopigeons had found their way inside the flight G8 702while the passengers were boarding," an airlinestatement said on Saturday. "The crew immediatelyshooed away the birds. The flight took off at itsscheduled time at 5 p.m.," it added.

TWO PIGEONS SPOTTED INSIDEAHMEDABAD-JAIPUR GoAir FLIGHT

Frustrated growers dumpproduce as cattle feed

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Vendetta politics toucheda new low when theYSR Congress regime

had former Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu detainedat Visakhapatnam airport onFebruary 27 and forcibly bun-dled into a Hyderabad-boundflight. It was reminiscent ofTDP founder N. T. RamaRao's sudden arrest from theTank Bund, where he wasprotesting against vandalism ofhis property by Congressmenin May 1991.

The harassment of Naidu byChief Minister Y. S. JaganMohan Reddy since heassumed office nine monthsago places him right on top ofState satraps seeking to settlescores against political foes. Incontrast to his fatherRajasekhara Reddy, who tem-pered his animosity towardsNaidu, Jagan is shaping him-

self in the mould of J.Jayalalitha and M.Karunanidhi, both no more.

Parallels are drawn withhow Jaya had Karunanidhi'shouse raided at 1.45 am in2011 and hauled down thestairs with his lungi undone inretaliation to a somewhat sim-ilar raid by MK's regime on herhouse and incarceration for sixmonths. Similar vendetta isbeing unleashed at the Centreby Modi-Shah duo in retalia-tion to the umpteen casesfiled against them by settingcentral investigating agenciesafter the top brass of Congresslike P. Chidambaram, MotilalVora, Kamal Nath, SoniaGandhi, Rahul Gandhi,Virabhadra Singh and D. K.Shiva Kumar.

Jagan, who spent 14 monthsin jail, hasn't looked backfrom the time he demolishedthe government-owned build-ing alongside a rented villa

where Naidu heard publicgrievances. In his bucket list ofthings to do against his prede-cessor, Jagan can tick the boxesalongside scrapping Amaravatias the administrative capitaland abolition of the LegislativeCouncil, though they are stillwork in progress.

The harassment of 70-year-old Naidu in Vizag by keepinghim confined inside his vehi-cle for hours was part of thiscontinuum. No amount ofjustification by Jagan's men tovarnish the police action canconvince all those who believe

in the right to protest as a fun-damental right flowing out ofArt 19 (1) (a) of theConstitution dealing with free-dom of speech and expression.

They seem to have missedout on the ongoing nation-wide debate over the legitima-cy of the Shaheen Baghprotests in Delhi against theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA). Almost everyone,from the Supreme Courtdownwards, have endorsedtheir right to protest, thoughthey have disagreed with equalvehemence the protesters' road

blockade affecting movementof an estimated 1,00,000 vehi-cles a day to and from UP.

Naidu had received per-mission from the police to visitPendurthi to interact withfarmers whose lands wereforcibly acquired and to par-ticipate in his ongoing PrajaChaitanya Yatra against Jagan's

3-capital idea in Vizianagaram.Before he could exit the air-port, placard-holding cadreof YSR Congress obstructedhis vehicle, forcing him toremain confined inside forhours. Instead of removingthose obstructing the path ofa high-risk leader, policedetained Naidu under Section151 of Cr. P.C.

Under this Section, policeare empowered to arrest aperson without warrant onknowing that he may commita cognizable offence. It beatslogic how police sensed thatNaidu could beat up YSRCworkers who outnumberedhis own party men or createtrouble at Pendurthi andVizianagaram, where policewere required to deploy ade-quate force. Even assumingthat Naidu's motives were sus-pect, police were required tokeep the two groups apart.This did not happen as

footwear and eggs werethrown towards Naidu andpersonnel of his elite Z+ secu-rity.

True that Jagan too wasdetained at Vizag airport to foilhis candlelight rally in 2017and he also suffered a knifeattack the following year. Tojustify Naidu's detention onthese grounds is tantamount toendorsing Jagan's arrest.Equally foolish is someMinisters' claim that peoplehad sent him back for oppos-ing Vizag as the executivecapital. Vizagites neverdemanded re-location of thecapital from Amaravati. It waspurely Jagan's brainchildwhich was sought to be givena veneer of credibility withreports by so-called experts.But, the broader question hereis the attack on Jagan's free-dom of speech in 2017 andNaidu's now.

After Baba Ramdev and his

supporters were evicted fromthe Ramlila Maidan in Delhion 4-5th June 2011, theSupreme Court said even if thegovernment had decided toevict people, they were entitledto a reasonable notice.Basically, it held the right toprotest as a fundamental rightto protest and assemble. TheA. P. High Court too hasfrowned upon the policeaction by seeking an explana-tion how Naidu was detainedunder Sec 151 of Cr. P.C. aftergiving permission to his pro-grammes.

On the contrary, YSRCworkers had no permission toprotest, more so on a proper-ty that belongs to the IndianNavy. Aside from the law,party workers should knowthat their liberty ends whereNaidu's nose begins. Maybe, itdoes not matter when a larg-er game of vendetta politics isat play.

Jaganmohan Reddy, who spent 14 months in jail, hasn't looked back from the time he demolished the government-owned building alongside a rented villa where Naidu heard publicgrievances

S NAGESH KUMARFormer Resident Editor,

The Hindu

‘ALL ANDSUNDRY’

Naidu's detention is another case of vendetta politics

TRS sweeps all nine DCCBs, DCMSsPNS n HYDERABAD

Continuing its winning streak,the TRS supporters grabbed allposts of chairman and vice-chairman of the DistrictCooperative Central Banks andthe District CooperativeMarketing Societies.

The ruling TRS emerged tri-umphant in elections to all nineDistrict Cooperative CentralBanks (DCCBs) and DistrictCooperative Marketing Societies(DCMSs) covering erstwhilenine districts of the State, deliv-ering a rude shock to theOpposition parties.

The TRS leadership sentnames of prospectivechairman and vice-chairmen in sealedcovers toMinisters follow-ing ChiefMinister KChandrashekharRao's approval.The elections tothe posts were heldon Saturday.

The following have beenelected chairmen and vice-chairmen:

Warangal district: DCCBchairman Marneni Ravinderand vice-chairman KanduruVenkateswar Reddy, DCMSchairman GugulotuRamaswamy Naik and vice-chairman D Srinivas Reddy

Karimnagar district: DCCBchairman-Konduru RavinderRao and vice-chairman PingaliRamesh, DCMS chairmanSrikant Reddy and Vice-chair-

man Fakruddin. Rangareddy district: DCCB

chairman B Manohar Reddyand vice-chairman Sattayya;DCMS chairman -KrishnaReddyand Vice-ChairmanMadhukar Reddy.

Medak district: DCCB chair-man Devender Reddy and Vice-Chairman Patnam Manikyam;DCMS chairman Sivakumarand Vice-Chairman- RameshKumar.

Nalgonda district: DCCBchairman-Gongidi MahenderReddy, vice-chairman-YesireddyDayakar Reddy; DCMS chair-man Vatti Januaiah and vice-chairman D Narayana Reddy

Mahbubnagar district:DCCB Chairman -

Nizam Pasha andVice-ChairmanVe n k a t a i a h ;D C M SC h a i r m a nP r a b h a k a rReddy and Vice-

Chairman HaryaNaik. Nizamabad dis-

trict: DCCB Chairman-Bhaskar Reddy and Vice-Chairman Ramesh Reddy;DCMS chairman SambariMohan and vice-ChairmanYedulla Indrasena Reddy.

Adilabad district: DCCBchairman- Namdev Kamble andVice-Chairman RaghunandanReddy; DCMS chairmanTippani Lingaiah and vice-chairman Komuram Mantaiah.

Khammam district: DCCBc h a i r m a n - K u r a k u l aNagabushanam, vice-chairman

Dondapati Venkateswara Rao;DCMS chairman RayalaVenkata Seshagiri Rao and Vice-chairman Kotwal Srinivas.

Ministers have lobbied with

the party leadership to get theirfollowers accommodated.Minister Eerrabelli DayakarRao and Janagoan MLAMuttireddy Yadagiri Reddy tried

hard with the party leadershipto get berths to their aides. But,at last the party leadership gaveequal significance to both theleaders.

TRS leaders rope in their kinPV KONDAL RAOn WARANGAL

Family members of senior TRSleaders and legislators wereunanimously elected asChairpersons of District Co-operative Central Banks in thestate, for which the electionswere held on Saturday.

Two MLAs - includingAssembly Speaker PocharamSrinivas Reddy were given thechance to rope in their familymembers for the post of DCCBchairperson in their respectivedistricts. Close aides ofMinisters KT Rama Rao andErrabelli Dayakar Rao werealso elected for the post inKarimnagar and Warangal dis-trict respectively.

In Medak DistrictCooperative Central Bank elec-tion, Chitti Devender Reddy,has been once again elected forthe post. Currently, he is thechairman of Kondapaka PACS.

In Nizamabad DCCB elec-tion, Pocharam Bhaskar Reddy,son of Pocharam SrinivasReddy was unanimously elect-ed as Chairman of NizamabadDistrict Co-operative Central

Bank. There was a single nom-ination filed on Saturday forboth DCCB chairman andvice-chairman posts and con-sequently, Pocharam BhaskarReddy was declared elected asChairman and Ramesh Reddyelected as the Vice-chairman.

From Nalgonda district,MLA Aler Gongidi Sunitha'shusband has got the opportu-nity to lead the DCCB ofNalgonda district. MahenderReddy, the chairperson ofPACS Vangapalli is the newchairman of Nalgonda DCCB.

Similarly, the WarangalDCCB post is now headed bythe close aide of MinisterErrrabelli Dayakar Rao.Wardhannapet PACS chair-

man Marneni Ravinder Rao isthe new chairperson ofWarangal bank.

Konduri Ravinder Rao, aclose aide of Minister KTRama Rao has been elected asthe chairman of KarimnagarDistrict Cooperative Bank.Surprisingly, theMahabubnagar DCCB is nowheaded by minority leaderNizam Pasha.

The vice chairman post ofthis district is allocated toKoramoni Venkataiah. TheDCMS chairperson post ofthis district has been securedby Prabhakar Reddy.Haryanaik of the district is theDCMS vice chairman.

The succession of followersof leaders and the family mem-bers in the DCCB and DCMSelections indicate the com-mencement of encouragingmore new leaders of the partyfrom the senior party leaders.

Since all the elections havenow been over and only thenominated posts are keptunfilled, the scope for theseniors' family members toget recruited in the nominat-ed posts seems imminent.

BUDGET MEETING

CS: File replies toAssembly queries

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Secretary SomeshKumar directed the depart-mental heads to submit detailsof new presidential order tothe General AdministrationDepartment by 4 March.

The Chief Secretary held areview meeting with the offi-cials at BRKR Bhavan on imple-mentation of New Presidentialorder, replies to pending

LAQs, LCQs, Zero hour men-tions, audit paras andPreparation of Outcome Budgetand Notes on demand etc.

He informed that reports onnew presidential order submit-ted by various departments toGAD and Finance, have beensent with some observations tothe concerned departments.

He directed the officials to sub-mit the proposals in accordancewith rules by March 4 to GAD.

Continued from Page 1

In this backdrop, it is learntthe Mukesh wanted Jagan to re-nominate his friend Parimalfrom AP to the Rajya Sabha andhence brought Parimal, alongwith him, to meet Jagan.

It is understood that Parimal'sre-nomination from his homestate --Jharkhand as an inde-pendent may be difficult withformer Union minister andJharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM) president Shibu Sorendeciding to return to active pol-itics with the upcoming RajyaSabha polls.

Besides, sources said, Jaganand Mukesh also discussedproposals to revive the Relianceelectronic manufacturing hub atTirupati. Reliance has businessinterests in Andhra Pradesh andin 2018, Mukesh Ambani hadmade the grand announcementof starting an electronics park inTirupati, spread over 150 acres.The park was supposed to man-ufacture mobile phones andtelevision sets.

Reliance in February 2019had signed an MoU with plansto set up a Rs 15,000 crore elec-tronics manufacturing hub atTirupati. The MoU was signed

by the previous Telugu DesamParty government, which allot-ted 150 acres. However, the landcould not be handed over dueto controversy over compensa-tion package after some farm-ers approached courts on thisissue. Subsequently, TDP lostAssembly polls in May 2019 andafter the YSRCP came to power,the project could not makehead way with no initiativefrom both the sides. Mukesh islearnt to have expressed hisdesire to go ahead with theTirupati project if the state gov-ernment hands over 150 acresat the earliest.

RS berth from AP to Ambani’s...

TS Budgetsession fromMar 6

Continued from Page 1

Legislative Affairs MinisterVemula Prashanth Reddy willintroduce the Budget in theCouncil. Harish Rao will givereplies to the discussions onthe Budget in both theHouses, it is learnt.

KCR would address theHouse on the AppropriationBill. The Chief Minister hasalready made it clear that theBudget would reflect reality,suggesting there won't beany new schemes in view ofthe tight financial positionof the state governmentoccasioned by the econom-ic slowdown, reduced devo-lution of funds from theCentre, and certain otherfactors.

TTD unveilsRs 3,310-crbudget

Continued from Page 1

The revenue from theinterest on deposits in nation-alised and private banks wasestimated to be about Rs 706crore, he said.

The sale of tickets for var-ious forms of worship,including daily and weeklyrituals in the temple, specialentry tickets of VIPs and theonline tickets priced at Rs 300could get Rs 302 crore whilethe laddu 'prasadam' mightamount to about Rs 400crore, he said.

The earnings from the auc-tion on human hair to beoffered by millions of devo-tees, including the aged,women and infants, as fulfill-ment of their vow were like-ly to be Rs 106.7 crore, hesaid.

The revenue from the TTDaccommodations and mar-riage halls allotted to devoteeswas estimated to be aroundRs 110 crore, he said.

About Rs 250 crore wasexpected to be spent on newconstruction of pilgrims'amenities, taking up repairand laying of roads, he said.

‘Govt ruiningeconomy by its...

Continued from Page 1

Noting that this is the sev-enth consecutive quarterwhen the GDP has fallen,Sharma said it is a matter of"grave concern" that the nom-inal GDP of India continuesto be in single digit.

"If you take out the expen-diture on defence, publicadministration and other ser-vices of the government, theactual GDP growth of thirdquarter is 3.7 per cent where-as the third quarter historical-ly shows the strongest growthbecause it is after the kharifcrop so there is a growth inagriculture then it is factoredin the gross value additionand in the nominal GDP and

the real GDP," he added.Sharma said the third quar-

ter numbers are generallygood because it is the festiveseason when people go forpurchases consumptionshows a spike.

"But that has not happenedso even in festive season peo-ple have not spent becausepeople have no money," headded.

Sharma said there is 9.2 percent fall in the investments,gross fixed capital formationwhich actually is the onlymeasure of the economygrowing and a tangible invest-ments growing for creation ofnew assets, new factories andjob creation that remains inthe negative.

Assam teacher held forremarks against PM

Continued from Page 1

According to the teacher'sfamily, a group of students hadstaged a demonstration againstSengupta at the college for hispost, following which he delet-ed it and apologised onFacebook itself for uninten-tionally hurting religious sen-timents.

But later, "some 50 membersof the Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)"carried out another protestdemonstration on Friday at hishouse when he was awaydemanding he apologise onFacebook live.

The police have slappedcharges under 153A (Promoting enmity between

different groups) 507 (crimi-nal intimidation by an anony-mous communication) and295A (deliberate and mali-cious acts, intended to outragereligious feelings of any classby insulting its religion orreligious beliefs) of the IndianPenal Code as also the relevantsections of the InformationTechnology Act.

Earlier, the students filed apolice complaint alleging thatSengupta "made derogatoryremarks" about the PrimeMinister, abused the 'SanatanDharma' as a whole" and "triedto incite communal violenceby making inflammatory com-ments against the Hindu com-munity, in the context of therecent Delhi violence."

Delhi violencea nationalblot: Paswan

Continued from Page 1

Action should be takenagainst those also who madeinflammatory statements andno one should be discrimi-nated in this case, saidPaswan.

The minister added thatthe law for sentencing shouldalso be changed if requiredbut it should not be delayedunder any circumstances.

He reminded that justicewas delayed in the anti-Sikhviolence in Delhi and thisshould not happen in thiscase. LJP president ChiragPaswan also demandedaction against the perpetra-tors of violence in the nation-al capital.

6 held for shouting...Continued from Page 1

The police are interrogatingthem. Sources said that the sixmen were raising pro-CAA slo-gans. The five-six men, wearingsaffron T-shirts and kurta, start-ed the sloganeering when thetrain was about to halt at themetro station, according to a PTIreporter who was at the spot.

After deboarding the train, theycontinued chanting pro-CAAand provocative slogans like"shoot the traitors" and onemore literally meaning that the"youth of the country is out tosupport and defend CAA".While some joined the CAAsupporters in their sloganeering,others were quick to get theircameras out to make videos.

Tomato farmersoffered 80 paise...

Continued from Page 1

In any case, though traders arebuying tomatoes at less than onerupee per kg from farmers, theymanage to sell it at rates that jackup the price to Rs 10 in the retailmarket. The wholesale price of to-mato in Hyderabad markets rangesbetween Rs 2 and Rs 6 per kg,depending on quality.

In other areas, the wholesaleprice is Rs 3. The NationalHorticulture Council said that2.05 crore tonnes of tomato washarvested in 2018-19 from 8.14lakh hectares across the country.

TS discomsdefer powertariff hike...Continued from Page 1

TRS sources claimed thatKCR was not keen on hikingpower tariff now as the partyhas to face crucial GHMCelections, apart from elec-tions to the Municipal cor-porations in Warangal andKhammam this year.

KCR may think aboutgoing ahead with hike inpower charges only afterthese polls are completed.

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 1, 2020 hyderabad 03

Padma Bhushan awardee and badminton player PV Sindhu calls on GovernorDr Tamilisai Soundararajan at Raj Bhavan on Saturday. The Governor took theopportunity to extend an invitation to her for Women's Day Celebrations beingheld on March 4, 2020 at Raj Bhavan.

SPECIAL GGUEST

RIMEORNERC

Toddler crushed todeath by school bus

Aspeeding school bus crusheda toddler to death while he

was playing in front of his houseat Navadurga Colony inGhatkesar on Saturday. Thevictim was identified as 2-year-old Mahesh, the son of AngothMohan, 28, a watchman. Mohanand his wife had migrated toHyderabad from Warangal insearch of a livelihood, four yearsago. The couple were blessedwith two children, Manoj Kumar,4 and Mahesh, 2. The family wasstaying at Navadurga Colony atIsmailkhanguda Village inGhatkesar Mandal. According tothe police, Manoj Kumar went toschool by the school bus onSaturday morning and returnedhome on the same day in theafternoon. After alighting fromthe bus, while Kumar washeading home, the driver of thebus, Syed Sadiq Ali, drove thebus in rash and negligentmanner and ran over Mahesh,who was playing in front of theirhome. Mahesh died on the spotdue to grievous injuriessustained in the mishap. Basedon a complaint from Mohan, theGhatkesar Police registered acase under section 304a of theIPC and began an investigation.

Tractor goes amok; 3bikes, 2 cars damaged

Atractor transportingconstruction waste in Ganesh

Nagar of Chaitanyapuri, went outof control and damaged fivevehicles on Saturday. CCTVfootage showed a toddler playingin the path of the rogue tractor,narrowly escaping a gruesomeincident. According to theChaitanyapuri Police, the tractorwas on the fourth trip ofdumping construction debrisfrom a house nearby. The driverof the tractor, suddenly sufferedan attack of fits and lost controlof the vehicle. The tractor thenhit three two-wheelers and twocars before halting. The driver ofthe tractor suffered minorinjuries and is recuperating. Thepolice said that no one else wasinjured in the incident.

35-year-old woman immolates herself

A35-year-old womancommitted suicide by

immolating herself at MohanNagar of Chaitanyapuri on Friday.The victim was identified asJinnaram Rajalaxmi, alias Vijaya.Rajalaxmi got married 15 yearsago. However, due to disputes,she got separated from herhusband and was livingseparately. After her separation,Rajalaxmi started living with aman, identified as Mahesh, in ahouse at Mohan Nagar. However,Mahesh was harassing and illtreating her. According to thepolice, on Friday night, Rajalaxmidoused herself with keroseneand immolated herself. She wasshifted to Osmania Hospitalwhere she succumbed to herburn injuries while undergoingtreatment on Saturday. TheChaitanyapuri Police registeredcases under sections of the IPCand the SC ST act and areinvestigating the death.

Crime cops trace 30lost mobile phones

The crime team of theBahadurpura Police traced 30

mobile phones which werestolen or lost and handed themback to the owners on Saturday.According to D Durga Prasad,Bahadurpura Inspector, themobile phones that were all lostover the past few months, weretraced by the detective team ofthe police station using trackingtechnology. After identifying therightful owner of the phone, thegadget was handed over to themat a program held at the policestation on Saturday. The worth ofthe mobile phones is over Rs3,50,000 said the police.

City Police's flag march ‘only at Charminar’ leads to controversy DAVE BENNETT SILVERY n HYDERABAD

Despite no incident of violenceor any rumors of unrest in thearea, the Hyderabad City Policecarried out a flag march atCharminar on Saturday by asquad of the Rapid ActionForce (RAF). The police's twit-ter handle posted a picture ofthe march and was quickly crit-icised for its move.

Netizens questioned the pur-pose of the flag march atCharminar since the area hasremained calm and no outwardincidents were reported.

The Hyderabad police wereon high alert after Delhi wasrocked by communal riotsduring the week. The city wit-nessed protests at various areascondemning the Delhi Police'sinaction, which seemed to begoing easy on the right wingedrioters and aiding them inrioting.

After Friday's prayers at theMecca Masjid near Charminar,devotees protested peacefullywith a few slogans being raisedagainst Delhi Police's brutali-ty.

The Police Department usu-ally conducts such flag march-es to assure people of theirpresence and instill a sense ofsecurity among the public.

However, Saturday's flagmarch, that had women RAFpersonnel on the forefront,was seen as a move to stiflevoices of dissent and threaten

people using a mighty show offorce. The police officials con-ducted f lag-march onThursday also.

Flag march is an ancientconcept of the kings who usedtheir armies to suppress diffi-cult law and order situations intheir kingdoms. King Ashokaand rulers in Mughal andmedieval periods in India aresaid to have used their armiesto quell civil up-risings in theirterritories. This concept hadbeen frequently used by theBritish, first against their owncitizens during the Tudor peri-od in the 15th century, andthen more freely, in theircolonies to suppress revoltsorganised by natives against theBritish rule.

Netizens also questioned asto why no action was takenagainst BJP's lone MLA in thestate, Raja Singh, for hisprovocative speeches that instillhatred.

The AIMIM president andHyderabad MP AsaduddinOwaisi on Saturday wonderedwhy police were conductingflag-marches only atCharminar.

"Why only at CHARMI-NAR, why not in front ofSecunderabad Railway Stationor at Hi Tec City maybe infront of a US Software com-pany?" (sic) tweeted Owaisi inreply to a post from HyderabadCity Police's Twitter handle.

"Same Police March shouldalso be conduct at Dhoopet.

Why only at Muslim domi-nated ares preferred" (sic)tweeted a user with the handle@kamranalii

Some netizens also asked thepolice officials to explain thesituation that warranted theflag-march in Charminar.

However, speaking to ThePioneer, HyderabadCommissioner of Police AnjaniKumar said that this was a rou-tine exercise to instill a senseof confidence in the public.The commissioner also saidthat similar marches would beconducted in other areas aswell.

Anjani Kumar appealed tocitizens to remain alert andunited to see that 'no mischiefmaker tries to take advantageof the disturbing news fromDelhi.'

Hyderabad City Police’s Twitter handle posts picture of Rapid Action Forcepersonnel staging a flag march near Charminar on Saturday

AsaduddinOwaisi

(@asadowaisi)

Why only at CHARMINAR,why not in front ofSecunderabadRailwayStation or atHi Tec Citymaybe infront of a USSoftwarecompany?

PNS n HYDERABAD

The officials of JJNTU and OUare not able to specify the where-abouts of 60 of the 238 collegesand their university affiliation tothe Education Department spe-cial chief secretary ChitraRamachandran, reflecting thesorry state affairs at the apex lev-els. Of the 238 colleges, 155 comeunder the jurisdiction of JNTU,while 23 come under thejurisdiction of OU. The offi-cials are not able to mentionthe whereabouts of 60 col-leges. Surprisingly, there is noinformation about these col-leges either with the JNTU orwith the OU.

For the past two years, thereis a controversy raging over thecolleges submitting documents,but the university officials areapparently ignorant about it.Two years ago, the AICTE servednotices on 238 college manage-ments which ran into trouble in

obtaining building plans, whosebuildings are entangled in landrelated problems, which are obs-tructing natural undergroundwater channels and attract penal-ty under the GO 111.

But, on the assurances by thestate government, the AICTEgave them two years to submitthe relevant documents. As thedeadline expired, the AICTEserved notices on colleges askingthem to submit the documentsto get affiliation for the year2020-21. Responding to thenotices, of the 178 colleges, 86submitted the documents, while92 other colleges are yet to sub-mit the details. The future of the92 colleges hangs in balance.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The maiden 'Hyderabad Air-port Run' organised by GMRled Hyderabad InternationalAirport was a grand successtoday with over 2,000 runne-rs hailing from different partsof the city and across Indiaparticipating in the 5K and10K categories.

The run was flagged off byCEO of GHIAL SGK Kishoreand other dignitaries fromthe airport community.

After the completion of therun, Kishore felicitated thewinners of 10K run withmedals and prizes. The firstprize winners took home amedal, a winning trophyalong with a prize amount ofRs. 30,000. The first and sec-ond runners up were given aprize amount of Rs 20,000and Rs 10,000 respectively.

Continued from page 1

The police men, in plain clothes,were seen swaying to the trackswhile consuming alcohol in anopen plot with music blaring fromtheir cars.

While essaying snake dance tothe tune of Naagin with beer bot-tles held aloft, the cops were seeneven splashing beer on one anoth-er and frolicking on the ground.

According to sources, the police-men had obtained permission toattend a constable's wedding. Afterthe wedding, they gathered andindulged in the drinking sessionthat was capped with dancing.

However, the Inspector of Police,Kothur, N Chandrababu, said thatthe incident occurred on the 1st ofFebruary. "After the Shadnagarincident, everyone was repri-

manded and we could not havedared to do such a thing. The videois old and is being circulated now,"claimed the official, adding that, ifchecked, many more videos of offi-cials would come out.

On February 23, PoliceCommissioner Cyberabad VCSajjanar transferred Inspector ofShadnagar Police for his allegednegligence and misconduct andattached him to the police armedheadquarters. The Inspector, ASreedhar Kumar, was seen dancingto Naagin in videos that went viralon social media.

The Cyberabad PoliceCommissioner, V C Sajjanar, issuedorders attaching the six personnelto the Cyberabad PoliceCommissionerate on Saturday andordered an enquiry into the inci-dent.

A picture from the video of police officialsdancing after drinking at a private real estateventure located in Farooq Nagar

PNS n HYDERABAD

A Pharmacy student committedsuicide by hanging herself in herhostel room at Chaitanyapuri onSaturday. Police suspect thatthe student was depressed overher health condition.

The student was identified as19-year-old BhimaganiTejaswini, daughter of Ramulu,the sarpanch of Pedda KandukurGramam in Yadagirigutta.Tejaswini, a first year student at

Avanthi institute ofPharmaceutical sciences inAbdullapurmet, was residing inMayuri women's hostel nearAlkapuri chowrastha.

According to the police,Tejaswini was suffering from fits.

Her parents had taken her homeon Thursday. She had returnedto the hostel on Saturday morn-ing. However, on Saturday, thevictim's friends grew suspiciousafter she did not open the doortill afternoon. Her friends, who

were aware of her history of fits,were scared that she might havegot a fits attack and fallen down.Later, they broke open the dooronly to find her hanging fromthe ceiling fan.

Based on a complaint fromher father, the ChaitanyapuriPolice registered a case andbegan an investigation. Thepolice officials appealed to theparents to be cautious andwary of children's mentalhealth .

Pharmacy student commits suicide

PNS n HYDERABAD

Indo-American Chamber of Commerce(IACC) AP & TS organised a round-table discussion on 'overcoming chal-lenges in Aerospace and Defense sectorsfor sustainable business growth atHyderabad' on Friday at Novotel Hotelin Hyderabad.

The discussion supported by GMRAerospace & Industrial Park was attend-ed 35 people comprising of managingdirectors, directors, CEOs and CFOs ofsectors. Chairman of IACC - AP & TS

Shrikant Badiga said that Aerospace andDefence sector play a very important roleand to compliment and accelerate econ-omy more industries need to come up.

Speaking on the occasion, director ofAerospace and Defence Praveen PA saidthat Aerospace, Defence, IT and Pharmaare the thrust areas of the state govern-ment. More companies are looking atHyderabad as it has the people with rightskill sets, infrastructure and vendor base.Aerospace and Defence companies arelooking at Hyderabad to set up theirmanufacturing bases, he said.

Student heldfor raping 5-yr-old girlPNS n HYDERABAD

The Chandrayangutta policearrested a student who hadsexually assaulted a five-year-old-girl on Saturday.

The accused has been iden-tified as 19-year-old N VinayKumar, a resident of Kuma-rwadi in Chandrayangutta.

According to the police,Kumar lured the minor girl,who is suffering from mentalhealth issues, to his house andsexually assaulted her. Basedon a complaint, the policeregistered a case and arrest-ed Vinay Kumar on Saturday.

CWC comesto the rescue of 11 childrenPNS n HYDERABAD

The officials of the Child We-lfare Committee (CWC) onSaturday rescued 11 childrenfrom the clutches of traffick-ers who were transportingthem from Chattisgarh.

An official from CWC saidthat the bus with the childrenwas stopped at LB Nagarbased on a tip off.

"We were able to success-fully track, stop and avert thetrafficking," said the official,adding that further investi-gation is on to find out moreabout the racket behind it.

‘Aerospace, Defence, IT and Pharmaare thrust areas of Telangana State'

Over 2,000runners hitthe track in‘Airport Run’

JNTU, OU clueless about60 of 238 colleges in Hyd

UNIVERSITY AFFILIATION

Denied tab by father, boy ends lifePNS n HYDERABAD

A 12-year-old student fromMiyapur, jumped to deathafter his father did not allowhim to use a tab on Saturday.

The victim was identified asBala Venkata Satya Prasad, a6th class student at MaharshiVidyalaya in Kondapur.

According to a complaintreceived from the boy’s father,N Srinivas, 45, a private

employee, on Saturday, anargument broke out betweenPrasad and his elder brother,Nanda Kishore over the use ofa tablet. Srinivas then tried tobe the peace maker, interferedand handed over the tab toKishore.

Later, when Kishore wasgoing to work, Prasad request-ed his dad to not go for workand stay back. But Kishore leftand Prasad was upset.

Depressed over the wholeepisode, Prasad, climbed ontothe penthouse through theladder and jumped down ontothe apartment’s road.

He received bleedinginjuries and fractures and was. shifted to a private hospital fortreatment where doctorsdeclared that he was alreadydead. The Miyapur Police reg-istered a case and are investi-gating.

The police officials appealed to theparents to be cautious and wary ofchildren's mental health

Kothur cops in soup over drunk dancing

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 1, 2020 hyderabad 04

As part of Pattana Pragathi programme, Excise Minister Srinivas Goud inspecting silt removal works from Pedda Cheruvu in Mahbubnagar

FACELIFT

Telangana Congress hit by insider plots, rumoursK VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

Congress party, which has suf-fered unprecedented electoraldefeats, is facing an existentialcrisis in the state. Fromreplacement over TPCC chiefissue to rift among the seniorleaders, the party now stares atuncertain future. It is said thatsome leaders in the TelanganaCongress are spreadingrumours on the sly.

One such case is RevanthReddy's issue, where it has beenalleged that around six acresand 24 guntas of land atGopanpally village inSerilingampally mandal wasencroached by Revanth and hisbrother with the support ofrevenue officials.

According to sources,Malkajgiri MP Revanth Reddyexpressed his doubt that someleaders within the party areresorting to these tactics to set-tle scores with him. Malkajgiri

MP opined that he is facing theallegations just because of hisown party leaders.

On the other hand,Manthani MLA D SridharBabu has also faced allegationsthat he would be shifting hisloyalties to the ruling TRS. Thenews about Sridhar Babu shift-ing his loyalties was also pub-lished in vernacular media.

Dismissing the rumours,

Sridhar Babu asked people notto believe in such rumours. Hemade it clear that he would notleave Congress, come whatmay. Rumours on politiciansand parties are not new. Evengovernments resort to thesetactics to test the pulse of peo-ple on the issues they wantedto introduce or implement.

However, the rumours with-in the Congress are surprising

people as some leaders insteadof targeting opponents are tar-geting and spreading rumoursagainst the leaders from theirown party.

A leader on condition ofanonymity said, "Rumors werespread against Sridhar Babuonly to see that the high com-mand does not consider himfor the TPCC chief post.Otherwise, there is no reasonto spread these rumors againsthim". Another Congress leadersaid, "Some leaders in Congresswho are expecting TPCC chiefpost are spreading rumours onthe sly against other Congressleaders. The leaders instead ofspreading their own positivepoints are spreading uncon-firmed issues related to otherleaders." Rumours are not newto Telangana Congress. Fewmonths after Assembly elec-tions, 12 Congress MLAs, oneafter the other, spread rumoursthat they were quittingCongress.

Priority for irrigationsector in TS Budget PNS n HYDERABAD

The Government of Telanganain its Budget for 2020-21 islikely to allocate lion's share offunds to irrigation projects.The state has so far spent Rs21,000 crore in the currentBudget for irrigation projectsand the spending is likely toincrease since the next fiscalyear is still one month away.

The projects benefited areKaleswaram LI scheme,Palamuru-Rangareddy pro-ject, Sitarama LI project andflood canal, Tupakulagudemproject and so on.

The pending bills worth Rs10,000 crore are yet to becleared towards making pay-ments for the works executed,electricity bills, land acquisitionand for rehabilitation of the dis-placed persons. This is in spiteof huge allocations made in thestate Budget and state's borrow-ing from banks and otherfinancial institutions.

Quick statsPower bill dues for lift-irri-

gating water fromMedigedda project toYellampalli reservoir andfrom there to Mid-Manairare yet to be cleared Konda Pochamma project

needs huge allocations aswater is needed to bediverted to KondaPochamma from Mid-Manair and to executeworks of other packagesMost of the expenditure of

the Palamuru-Rangareddyproject has been met fromthe state Budget barring Rs1,000 crore, which has beenborrowed from PowerFinance Corporation

Of the Rs 2,000 croreexpenditure incurred onSitarama LI project, Rs1.800 crore has been bor-rowed from banks

The government hascleared Rs 475 crore worthbills pertaining to SrisailamLeft Bank Canal projectand Rs 300 crore worth billspertaining to Dindi LIschemeRegarding Kalwakurthy LI

scheme, bills worth Rs 550crore have been cleared,including power bills. Thegovernment spent Rs 950crore for minor irrigationdevelopment works.

Rama Navamiticket salefrom today

Women staffcan leaveoffice at 1 pmPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana state gov-ernment on Saturday issuedorders allowing womenemployees, who are themembers of the TelanganaNon-Gazetted Officer'sCentral Union, Hyderabad,working in state govern-ment and HoDs to leavetheir offices in the afternoonfrom 1 pm on March 3, 4and 5 for participating in thesports, games, cultural com-petitions, seminars andgroup discussions onwomen problems being con-ducted by the central unionon the eve of theInternational Women's Dayon March 8.

PNS n BHADRACHALAM

The online sale of tickets toparticipate in annual SriRama NavamiBrahmotsvams of Sri SeethaRamachandra Swamy Templewill be open on Sunday(March 1). The tickets will beavailable for 'TirukalyanaMahotsavam' scheduled to beheld on April 2 and 'MahaP a t t a b h i s h e k a mMahotsavam' on April 3.

The devotees can visit thetemple's websitewww.bhadrachalamonline.com and book the tickets. Thetemple Executive Officer(EO) G Narasimhuluinformed that tickets withvalue of Rs 5,000, Rs 2,000,Rs 1,116, Rs 500, Rs 200 andRs 100 are available for salefor different sectors. In addi-tion to that Sri Rama NavamiKalyanaubhayam ticketsworth Rs 5,000 will be sold atthe Devasthanam office dur-ing working hours. Thoseinterested can contact phonenumber: 08743-232428.

Budget session: Cong to highlight farmers' issuesPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana Congress hasdecided to highlight farmers' issuesin the upcoming Budget session.The party has also decided to stage'deekshas' at the district headquarters highlighting the problemsfaced by farmers.

Telangana Congress held ameeting with its MLAs, MPs,MLCs and Kisan Congress leaderson Saturday to chalk out a strate-gy for the upcoming Assembly ses-sion. TPCC president N UttamKumar Reddy, senior leaders -Bhatti Vikramarka, Jagga Reddy, TJeevan Reddy, M Kodanda Reddy,

Anvesh Reddy, DCC presidentsand others attended the meeting.

Speaking to the media after themeeting, Jagga Reddy said, "Thestate government is not clearingsilt in tanks and lakes but is giv-ing wide publicity."

Slamming the government for'enacting dramas', Jagga Reddydemanded the state governmentnot to sell government lands forthe sake of revenue. He said theTRS government is selling landswhereas then Congress govern-ments distributed lands to thepoor.

Jagga Reddy alleged that thePolice Department is tapping theirphones. "The Police Departmentis working in favour of the govern-ment. The TRS is winning elec-tions with the help of police," healleged.

Kisan Congress national vice-president M Kodanda Reddy

alleged that the TRS governmentfailed to fulfill the assurancesgiven by it. "Our aim is to protectfarmers. The state governmentweakened the crop insurancescheme. The state, Central govern-ment and banks are not givingloans to the farmers," he alleged.

"State and central governmentsshould lift tax on agriculturalequipments and fertilizers. Thestate government is not givingpassbooks to the farmers. Somefarmers in the state haven't yetreceived Rythu Bandhu amount.The Congress will mount pressureon the government in regard toloan waiver scheme," he said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MP from MalkajgiriRevanth Reddy launched ascathing attack on the TRSgovernment for failing to con-struct 2BHK units for thepoor in the state.

Participating in the 'PatnaGosha' programme inMalkajgiri Constituency, theMP said, "Most of the earningsof poor people are goingtowards paying rent. The stategovernment is yet to clear thebills pertaining to the con-struction of 2BHK units to thecontractors. The Centre andNABARD sanctioned Rs 9,000crore for the sake of construc-tion of 2BHK units," he said.

"Thousands of women areapproaching me seeking allot-ment of 2BHKs and areexpressing their grievances.

However, Minister KT RamaRao is creating hype in thename of Pattana Pragathi," healleged. He claimed that TRSleaders were threatening peo-ple that the government won'tallot 2BHK units, if they attendPatnam Gosha meeting.TheMP cautioned KCR that thepoor are no longer ignorantabout what is happening aroundand are observing everything.

Revanth lashesout at govt

Congress MP Revanth Reddy interacting with an elderly woman during ‘PatnamGosa’ programme in Malkajgiri constituency on Saturday

PNS n HYDERABAD

After vegetables, it appears it is theturn of the prices of tamarind togo through the roof in Telangana.Though the prices of vegetableshave somewhat stabilised,tamarind's price has been show-ing an abnormal behaviour.

In the wholesale market, a kg oftamarind sells at Rs 250 hintingthat it may cost more in the retailmarket. Even as the consumers areslowly recovering from the shocktreatment they received fromonion, the tamarind is ready todeliver a blow to them.

The reason stated for high

prices of tamarind is attributed tolow-yield during the current sea-son. The wholesale markets inBegam Bazar and Malakpet, theprices of tamarind are very highin spite of the markets receiving

supplies from Rajasthan andChhattisgarh.

The traders say that thetamarind yield has come down onaccount of high rain fall the lastyear. Compared to the last year,this year's yield constitutes only 20per cent of the last year's yield.

A tonne of tamarind reached Rs25,000 mark in the whole salemarket at the rate of Rs 250 perkg. In the retail market, its priceis likely to reach Rs 350-400 a kg,according to wholesale traderDharanikota Sudhakar.

Some of the traders are procur-ing tamarind directly from farm-ers. Currently, wholesale mar-kets in city receive 40-45 lorryloads of tamarind from otherstates.

The traders are storing thetamarind procured in cold stor-ages creating artificial scarcity inthe market, pushing tamarindprices.

Tamarind prices ruling high in TS

Women areapproaching meseeking allotment of

2BHK units. However, Minister KT Rama Rao iscreating hype in the name ofPattana Pragathi

REVANTH REDDYMalkajgiri MP

BJP to stage dharna over PRCPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP Cell of RetiredTeachers and Employees havedecided to stage a dharna atIndira Park on 4 Marchdemanding the governmentto grant Pay RevisionCommission (PRC) to thestate government employees,teachers and retired employeesimmediately.

Telangana BJP Cell ofRetired Teachers andEmployees chairman B MohanReddy demanded the govern-ment to release DA arrears andgive promotions to the teach-ers besides granting QuantumPension to the retired employ-ees.

"It is not correct on part ofthe state government to post-pone the PRC by not evenreleasing Interim Relief (IR) to

the employees and teachers,"he said after the meeting at theparty office. P Venkat Reddy,N Adhinarayana Reddy, GRam Reddy, Balraj Goud, JRavinder Reddy and othersalso present.

It may be recalled that thestate government extended the

tenure of the first Pay RevisionCommission (PRC) tillDecember 31, 2020 as PRCChairman, CR Biswal, is seek-ing more time to submit thereport. The state governmentemployees had earlier met CSto implement a pay for theemployees.

Chairman of Telangana BJP Cell of Retired Teachers and Employees B Mohan Reddy addressing the media in the city on Saturday

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana State Public Service Commission(TSPSC) on Saturday asked provisionally select-ed candidates for the post of junior assistant, typ-ist, junior steno and junior assistant cum typistunder Group-IV services to indicate their pref-erences through web options.

In a release, the PSC directed candidates toexercise web options for giving un-reserved andlocal preference for the said posts as per their req-uisite qualification (academic and technical), andeligibility. The web options will be available onthe Commission's website www.tspsc.gov.infrom March 4 and there will be no provision toedit the exercised web options, it said.

The PSC will hold third spell certificate veri-fication for provisionally admitted candidates forposts under Group-IV services. The verificationof certificates will be done at TSPSC Office fromMarch 4 to 7.

Assistant Section OfficerMeanwhile, the TSPSC on Saturday published

a list of provisionally admitted candidates forinterview for unfilled vacancies of assistant sec-tion officer in the finance department and assis-tant sector officer in the law department underGroup-II services. The interviews will be held atthe TSPSC office on March 7 at 9 am. Visitwww.tspsc.gov.in for a list of hall ticket numbers.

67 sportspersons toparticipate in AIFSMPNS n HYDERABAD

Sixty-seven sportspersons from TelanganaForest Department will take part in the25th All India Forest Sports Meet(AIFSM) to be held in Bhubaneswar fromMarch 3 to 7. Forest and EnvironmentSpecial Chief Secretary Rajeshwar Tiwariwished the sportspersons all success at afunction at Aranya Bhavan on Saturday.

Senior IFS officers P Raghuveer, LokeshJaiswal, Mohan Chandra Pargaien andDFO range section beat officers will takepart in several events. Telangana ForestDepartment's sports team will also par-ticipate in events such as running, javelinthrow, rifle shooting, golf, shuttle andtable tennis.

Principal Chief Conservator R Shobhasaid that all winners of the recent Statelevel sports competitions were beingsent to the national level meet. RajeshwarTiwari handed over sports kits to thesportspersons.

The high prices of tamarind in thestate is attributed to low-yield during the currentseason

GROUP-IV POSTS

Exercise weboptions: TSPSC

The party has alsodecided to stage‘deekshas’ at thedistrict headquartershighlightingproblems faced by farmers

Fears over consumptionof chicken, eggs allayedPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Coronavirus has created apanic among people and mostof them shunning consumptionof chicken assuming that theywill contract the virus, whichhas become deadly, as scores ofpeople not only in China butacross the world fell prey to hit.

In this backdrop, Dr MSrinivas Rao, Director ofAnimal HusbandryDepartment, allayed fears ofpeople on consumption ofchicken. He appealed to themnot to believe news that isbeing circulated on social mediastating that if they eat chickenand eggs, they will be contract-ed with coronavirus (Covid-19).

In a release issued here onSaturday, the director said theposts on social media are base-less and unscientific andappealed to the people not tobelieve in them.

He said Covid-19 virus wasoriginated by eating bats andsnakes. The virus will spreadfrom the infected personthrough sneezing and havingclose contact with the infectedpersons. One should note thatthe Covid-19 virus will notspread by eating chicken or

eggs. Rumours hit the poultrymarket hard and as a resultmany people, who are depen-dent on the sales, are incurringlosses, as many people havestopped buying chicken.

He appealed to people toenjoy chicken and eggs, whichhave an abundant quantity ofproteins, and told people not tospread rumours on Covid-19.

n Rumours hit thepoultry market hardand as a result manypeople, who aredependent on thesales, are incurringlosses, as many peoplehave stopped buyingchicken

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 1, 2020 nation 05

SHORT READS

Modi lays foundationstone of BundelkhandExpresswayCHITRAKOOT (UP): PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSaturday laid the foundationstone of the 296-km-longBundelkhand Expressway inChitrakoot by pressing abutton. To be built at a cost ofRs 14,849 crore, theexpressway will pass throughChitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpurand Jalaun districts. Theexpressway will besupplementing the nodes of theUttar Pradesh DefenceIndustrial Corridor announcedby the Central government inFebruary 2018. Thisexpressway will linkBundelkhand to the nationalcapital Delhi through Agra-Lucknow Expressway andYamuna Expressway as well asplay a vital role in thedevelopment of the region.

Environment of fearprevailing in Delhi:Congress

Param Bir Singh newMumbai PoliceCommissioner

Azam Khan aleges‘inhuman'treatment in jail

MUMBAI: The Maharashtragovernment on Saturdayappointed Param Bir Singh asthe new Mumbai PoliceCommissioner. Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer, was postedas the Director General (DG) ofAnti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)before his appointment as theMumbai Police Commissioner.Singh succeeds Sanjay Barve,who retired on Saturday.

SITAPUR (UP): JailedSamajwadi Party MP AzamKhan on Saturday alleged thatvery inhuman treatment wasmeted out to him. "Bahutamanviya bartav hua hai meresaath,' Khan who was taken toRampur court Saturdaymorning in connection with acourt hearing from the Sitapurjail told newspersons from thepolice van. Khan's legislatorwife Tanzeen Fatima and theirson and disqualified MLAAbdullah Azam were also takento Rampur amidst tight securityin connection with a hearing inanother case. The three wereshifted to Sitapur jail fromRampur on Thursday. A courthad sent them to judicialcustody till March 2 in a fakebirth certificate case after theysurrendered before it onWednesday. The case relates totwo birth certificates forAbdullah Azam, who allegedlygave a wrong date of birthwhile filing his nominationpapers for the assemblyelections in 2017. Abdullah'selection was set aside by theAllahabad High Court lastDecember, and on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: The situation isfar from normal and anenvironment of fear is stillprevailing in Delhi, theCongress party said onSaturday, after 42 peoplepeople died in the worstcommunal riots in the city inover three decades. SeniorCongress leader Anand Sharmaalso claimed that a "one-sided"investigation is taking placeinto the riots. "We have noexpectations from Centre orDelhi CM but we have hopesfrom the courts," he toldreporters.

Curfew lifted, mobile internetsuspended in 6 Meghalaya districtsPNS n SHILLONG

The curfew imposed in Shillongafter one person was killed inclashes between KSU membersand non-tribals during a meet-ing on CAA and inner line per-mit (ILP) was lifted Saturdaymorning but a ban on mobileinternet services was continuingin six districts. Most shops andbusinesses in the city were closedeven after the curfew ended, offi-cials said.

The clashes between the KhasiStudents Union members andnon-tribals broke out duringanti-CAA and pro-ILP meetingheld in Ichamati area of EastKhasi Hills district close to theIndo-Bangladesh border onFriday, officials said.

After the clashes, a curfew wasimposed in Shillong and adjoin-ing areas and mobile internet ser-vices suspended in six districts— East Jaintia Hills, West JaintiaHills, East Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi,West Khasi Hills an South WestKhasi hills — from Friday night

for 48-hours, they said. Officialssaid SMSes will be limited to fiveper day. Meghalaya GovernorTathagata Roy has appealed topeople to stay calm and not payattention to rumours.

"I appeal to all citizens inMeghalaya, tribal or non-tribal,keep calm. Don't spreadrumours and don't listen torumours. The chief ministerhas spoken to me. He assured mehe is taking all necessary steps.The prime requirement now isto maintain law and order," thegovernor said in a statement.

Meghalaya Home MinisterLahkmen Rymbui has con-demned the incident in Ichamati.Rymbui said a magisterial inquiryhas been initiated into the inci-dent to find out the truth.

PNS n KOLKATA

West Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar has demanded infor-mation from the state govern-ment on alleged misuse ofpublic funds on an advertise-ment campaign against thenew citizenship law and on theauthorities who sanctioned thecampaign, official sources saidon Saturday. The governor'soffice has sent a letter to theprincipal secretary, Informationand Cultural Affairs, to submitto him a detailed response onthe money spent on the anti-

CAA campaign, they said.In a communication to the

government on February 4,the sources said, Dhankhartook exception to the spendingof "crores of rupees" on adver-tisements in print and visualmedia having a tagline "NoCAA, No NRC, No NPR".

A concern was also raised

about the involvement of senioradministrative and police func-tionaries, including the chiefand home secretaries and theDGP, in the ads by the side ofthe chief minister, they added.

Dhankhar had repeatedlycautioned the state govern-ment that an agitation againsta valid law cannot be fundedthrough advertisements at Stateexpense. Later, the CalcuttaHigh Court asked the Bengalgovernment to suspend allsuch advertisements.

According to the sources,such utilisation of public funds

makes a plausible case for grantof sanction of prosecution bythe governor. There areinstances when governors havegiven sanction for prosecutionof chief ministers for misuse ofpublic funds. Apart from the AR Antulay case, in recent timesthen Karnataka Governor H RBhardwaj in 2011 sanctionedthe prosecution of ChiefMinister B S Yeddyurappa bythe Karnataka Lokayukta underthe Prevention of CorruptionAct, 1988, for his involvementin illegal mining of iron ore inthe state.

WB guv seeks info on funds usedfor anti-CAA campaign

PNS n ALLAHABAD

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday said ensuring thatall citizens get benefit and jus-tice is the government's respon-sibility and also the base of'sabka saath, sabka vikas andsabka vishwas'.

"It is the responsibility of thegovernment that every personis benefitted and every persongets justice. This is the base ofsabka saath, sabka vikas, sabkavishwas," he said reciting aSanskrit shloka at a mega campfor distribution of assistivedevices among people withdisabilities and senior citizens.

Modi said serving 130 crorepeople of the country is the pri-ority of his government.

Hitting out at previous gov-ernments, he said they did notcare for the people with disabil-ities but his dispensation wasthinking about their problemsand finding ways to reducetheir issues.

During previous govern-ments, very few such campsused to be organised, he said.

"In the last five years, ourgovernment held around 9,000camps in various parts of thecountry. In the five years of theprevious government, equip-ment to people with disabilitiesworth less than Rs 380 crorewere distributed, while ourgovernment gave equipmentworth more than Rs 900 crore,which is two-and-half timesmore," he said.

"I am of the view that theseequipment will only assist your'buland hausla' (strong confi-dence). Your real strength isyour patience, capacity (saa-marthya) and mind (maanas),"he said, adding that he has beentold that many records arebeing created at this camp.

In building a "new India", thepartnership of every youth andchild with disability is essential.

"Be it industry, service sec-tor or sports, the skills of thedivyaangjan are being contin-uously encouraged," he said.

"The sensitivity with whichthe government has worked forthe divyaangjan was neverdone earlier. The divyaangjanwere earlier made to makerounds of offices for weeks,only then they used to get somehelp. Attention was not paid to

the seriousness with whichyour problems should hadbeen heard. The situationwherein the divyaanganj wereleft 'besahara' (helpless) is notacceptable to us," Modi said.

"When there is feeling toserve the poor and thedivyaang, then this type ofpace comes, then work is donewith pace," he added.

During his over 30-minuteaddress, the prime ministergave an account of governmentschemes for the differently-abled and senior citizens.

"In the last four-five years,hundreds of streets in thecountry, more than 700 railwaystations, airports have beenmade convenient for divyaang-jan. Those which are left arebeing linked with SugamyaBharat Abhiyan (AccessibleIndia Campaign)," he said.

"It was our government,which brought a law that forthe first time clearly stated therights of the divyaangjan. Oursis the first government, whichhas enacted the Rights ofPersons with the DisabilitiesAct. The benefit of this law wasthat it increased the ambit ofdivyaang category from 7 to21," he said, adding that reser-vation for people with disabil-ities in institutes of higherstudies has been increasedfrom 3 per cent to 5 per cent.

The prime minister also saidhis government was workingfor the welfare of senior citi-

zens."The government launched

Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojanaalmost three years ago, so thatpoor senior citizens could getnecessary equipment. In thepast five to five-and-a-halfyears, cost incurred on treat-ment of senior citizens hascome down substantially ascompared to earlier time," hesaid.

"In this year's Budget, a pro-vision was made. Earlier if abank goes bankrupt, then youused to get only Rs 1 lakh. Wechanged the law, and amountnow is Rs 5 lakh. This willrepose faith in banks," he said.

Modi also said, "A commonsign language for the divyaangwas never thought of earlier.Our government made effortsfor this, and Indian SignLanguage Research andTraining Centre was estab-lished. My speech is also beingdisseminated in sign language.No one had the time to do thisin 70 years. Government web-sites and currency have beenmade divyaang-friendly."

In the five years ofthe previousgovernment,equipment to peoplewith disabilitiesworth less than Rs380 crore weredistributed, while ourgovernment gaveequipment worthmore than Rs 900crore, which is two-and-half timesmore," Modi said

Justice for all priority of govt: Modi

Prez highlights need for value-based educationPNS n GUMLA (JHARKHAND)

President Ram Nath Kovind onSaturday stressed on the impor-tance of value-based educa-tion, saying the objective shouldbe to make students goodhuman beings.

"A good human being canbecome a good doctor, a goodleader, a good father, a goodhusband. If a daughter becomesa good human being, she canbecome a good daughter-in-lawand a good mother-in-law,"Kovind said, emphasising the

importance of value-based edu-cation. He also said that adegree itself is not the end ofeducation.

The Centre and state govern-ments have taken several initia-tives in education, and every

person should take benefit ofsuch schemes, the presidentsaid. Addressing a function ofVikas Bharati, an NGO, atBishunpur in Gumla district,Kovind said he felt happy tomeet people from the tribalcommunity here.

"The country is changing,and we too should change. Thechange also requiresresources...the population isincreasing. You educate yourchildren and inculcate good val-ues in them," he told the gath-ering.

‘Some political parties rubbing saltinto wounds of violence victims’PNS n NEW DELHI

Taking a swipe at theOpposition, Minority AffairsMinister Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi on Saturday said somepolitical parties and "profes-sional provokers" were rub-bing salt into the wounds ofthose affected by the commu-nal riots, but harmony willprevail. Provokers and perpe-trators will be in prison andpeace and harmony will pre-vail, the senior BJP leadersaid, adding that this should be"our commitment and theconfidence".

Instead of healing thewounds of the victims of theviolence, some political parties

and "professional provokers"are rubbing salt into theirwounds, Naqvi told reportershere. The "secular ride" on theunfortunate communal riotsshould be stopped, Naqvi said.

"It is our collective respon-sibility to ensure the victimsget justice and perpetrators arepunished heavily and peaceand harmony is restored," theminister said.

The death toll in Delhi'scommunal violence rose to 42on Friday as the situationshowed some signs of return-ing to normalcy and clouds ofsmoke cleared to reveal theextent of the damage from theworst riots in the city in overthree decades.

BJP MP to give 1-month salary tokin of riot victimsPNS n NEW DELHI

BJP MP Parvesh Verma, whois accused of making hatespeeches, on Saturday said hewould give his one-monthsalary each to the families ofthe policeman and IntelligenceBureau employee who werekilled in the communal vio-lence in northeast Delhi. Atleast 42 people were killed andover 200 injured as frenziedmobs torched houses, shops,vehicles, a petrol pump andpelted stones at locals andpolice personnel earlier thisweek, the worst riots in Delhiin over three decades.

special 06HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 1, 2020

What was a usualweekend for most ofthe Delhiites but forthe residents ofNorth-east Delhi,

the day will be etched in their mindsfor decades to come. The riots thatshook the Capital has left everyonesaddened that they took place in thefirst place. The question that the res-idents ask themselves is if this canhappen in the Capital, which part ofthe country is safe for our children?

On Sunday, February 23, the areasaw the worst riots after more than40 years. Petrol bombs, iron rods,stones and acid — every possible itemthat could kill and burn was used bythe rioters. Some say that it was theanti-CAA protesters who started itfirst while others say that it wasallegedly followed after Kapil Mishra’scontroversial speech. Now, blame oneor blame all, the reality is that 43humans or to be more specific 43Indians lost their lives while 200 oth-ers were left injured.

The history of the protests start-ed in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh dates backto December 14, 2019. The protestscaused traffic snarls, hours of man-hours lost not to mention the petrolthat was wasted as cars idled andinched forward. However, theseprotests didn’t take a very ugly turnuntil a man carrying a pistol marchedinto the area on January 28, 2020 andallegedly threatened the protesters tovacate the area. All was quiet sincethen until last week.

The once congested streets aredeserted even as the area is limpingback to normalcy with some shop-keepers opening their shutters. Yetthere is a strange silence in thestreets of Jaffrabad, Chandbagh,Kabir Nagar and other adjoiningareas. The silence is deafening. Onecan only imagine what terror the res-idents of the area had seen in the lastseven days.

A resident of Jaffrabad, whowitnessed the whole clash says thatboth Hindus and Muslims have beenliving in the area for decades butnothing of this sort ever happenedbetween the two communities. “Wehave been living peacefully in the areawith all our Hindu brothers. We areone big family. We don’t have anygrudges against any religion. The peo-ple who are identified as anti-CAAprotesters who pelted stones andcaused nuisance are not from ourarea. We all were silently protestinguntil these outsiders came and thematter went out of everybody’shands,” he tells you.

Another resident from the areahad another take on why these riotstook place in the first place. The silentprotest turned violent and that result-ed in this clash. “It was initially a clashof ideologies and nothing else but itultimately turned into a Hindu-Muslim clash which should have nothappened at all. People do have dif-ferent opinions and there is no harmin it. Even in our families, we all dodiffer in our ideologies and opinionsbut that doesn’t mean that we willharm our family members. The sameshould have happened in this casetoo. The protesters should have comeforward and talked about what theywanted instead of turning to violence,”he tells you.

But not all is lost here. The ray ofhope in the dark clouds of the hor-rifying riots that has surrounded theCapital also had some great storiesthat spoke of Hindu-Muslim unitythat stood the test of time.

While some neighbours pro-tected their Muslim brothers and gavethem shelter in their homes, other res-idents stood by their Hindu friendsthough thick and thin. SomeGurudwaras opened their gates for allthe riot affected victims. This in itselfis an example that how this senselessact of violence united people from allcommunities even as rioters didtheir best to destroy the peace andharmony in the area.

Raj Kumari, a widow who stayswith her son Prabhat in a three-storeyhouse in Kabir Nagar recalls the hor-ror that the people of the area had

seen last Sunday afternoon. “Theydestroyed my newly built house.What will I do now? So much ofmoney went into it but those peopledidn’t think for a second beforedamaging it,” she says and bursts intotears. Though her neighbours, bothHindus and Muslims, tried a lot tosafeguard the house but they could-n’t.

Another local alleged that it allhappened after Kapil Mishra’s speech.“It was around 3:30 pm on Sundaywhen a mob of around 200 peoplecame here and started throwingstones. All of them were outsiders.They damaged Kumari’s house think-ing that she was a Muslim. We alltried to stop them but they wereuncontrollable. This happened imme-diately after Mishra’s speech. Wehave lost four boys from our area inthese clashes,” another resident, aneighbour of Kumari, recalls.

As one moved towardsChandbagh, one could see that therewas some semblance of normalcy inthe area with autos, bikes and carsmoving as if the riots had never takenplace here. But for some families inChandbagh, they had no option butto flee out of fear. There were otherswho wanted to leave a swell but hadto stay back because they had nooption. A burnt mazaar is the firstsight that one sees. One has to gath-er enough courage and walk a fewsteps here only to see a fruit shopburnt to ashes. Oranges, grapes andbananas lay scattered even as somepeople were trying to clean it. Amidstthis chaos stood the shattered NooreKhan, the owner of the shop cumhome. “See this dark building this wasonce my home and a way to earn myliving. There is nothing left for me. Idon’t have any other business. Thiswas my only source of income. It isa loss of lakhs of rupees,” Khan, whohas been living in the area for years,tells you.

Even though he tells you thatthere is some tension, Khan has noworries for altogether different rea-

son. “Isse bura kya ho sakta hai? Abkya darna. Jo thha sab chala gaya —mera ghar, meri dukaan. Ab kis cheezke liye fiqr karoon ya ghabraoon? Wehave lodged an FIR. Let’s see whathappens,” he tells you.

Almost 50 steps to the right ofKhan’s shop is a small tea stall ownedby Prabhu Singh. “Noore is like ourbrother. Those rioters have takenaway everything from him. They firstlooted his house and shop and lit it,”Singh tells you.

Does mazaar also has a religion?“The rioters set that ablaze as well.Why did they do so? Mazaar toh sabka hai, sab mante hain ise. Almost 90per cent of the people who used tovisit this mazaar were Hindus. Thoserioters were not from our area theywere outsiders,” he laments.

Bhaisahab aka Lala, a resident ofMoonga Nagar who suffered headinjuries during the clash alleges thatthe petrol bombs and stones werethrown from Tahir Hussain’s build-ing.

“When the clash happened I wasout of my home like all the others tostop the attackers and protect ourfamilies. It was then when a group of

people came, all of them were knownto me, woh sab Tahir ke aadmi thhe,they dragged me and two other boysto their area. They beat us up withiron rods and we became uncon-scious. They left us because theythought we were dead. When wecame back into our senses, all threeof us managed to flee the area andreturn to our homes. We tried con-tacting the police but to no avail,” Lala,who works as a taxi driver, recounts.

One of the locals from the samearea too validated Lala’s claims thatallegedly Hussain was involved in theriots. “No one has the access to thehouse cum factory. How was it pos-

sible for a mob of around 200 peo-ple to enter it without his permission?They were definitely his people whospared no one. Also, from the past fewdays some kind of suspicious activi-ty was going on in his house. Thoughwe didn’t see any petrol bombs orstones coming to his place but wedoubt that he had arranged every-thing before hand. It was all planned,”he tells you.

Lala alleges that it was Hussain’speople who dragged Ankit Sharma,a 26-year-old IB officer and killedhim. “It was around 5:30 pm onTuesday when Sharma returned fromhis office. He went outside to assessthe situation. It was then when he wasattacked by a group of people whotook him into Hussain’s factory andclosed the gates. After that we don’tknow what happened inside thedoors. Later, they came and threw hisbody in the drain,” he says.

No doubt that the violence hasleft the people of Moonga Nagar indistress who want a strict actionshould be taken against Hussain andhis associates.

Given the situation in the area,security personnel have beendeployed at every nook and corner tokeep a check. But still there is astrange kind of fear among the peo-ple who are awake all night just incase something goes wrong again.

Not that the violence was limit-ed to the aforesaid areas. It spread itswing to Vijay Park too where peoplehad to vacate their houses and leaveout of fear.

“Petrol bombs and stones werethrown into our houses by a group ofpeople who chanted religious slogans.They threatened us to go back to ournative countries. But, where I ask?India is my motherland, my forefa-thers have lived here. We were for-tunate enough to have managed toflee at the right time,” a resident of thearea tells you.

Whosoever must have been themastermind of these riots but it isonly the common people that has

suffered losses and will continue to suffer.

“We don’t feel safe anymore inany part of the country. These riotshas shaken us to the core. Wheneverwe think about that fateful day, itsends shivers down our spines. We arenot able to sleep at night. Wheneverwe hear an unusual sound we arealarmed,” a traumatised local ofChandbagh tells you.

A local resident of Bhajanpurawho was at his home when the clashhappened says that it was on Mondaywhen a group of people entered thearea and started putting the shops onfire. “Many Muslims have rentedshops in our area. They have neverhad any fear in living in a Hindudominated area until now. That wasone of a fateful day when a mob cameand burnt the shops of Muslims. Wetoo were in fear and locked ourselvesin the homes until everything seemedsilent,” he tells you.

Surender, vice-president, DelhiMCD, says that all possible effortsare being made to prevent anything that would disturb the com-munal harmony in the Capital.“First of all we strongly condemnsuch riots. It should have not hap-pened in the first place. But now, ourteam has been picking up all thestones that could possibly be usedfor pelting. We also organised aHindu-Muslim peace and harmonymeet day-before-yesterday(February 28, 2020) in Seelampurand received a positive responsefrom both sides. Every one cameforward to be a part of the meetingthat aimed to promote harmony,” hetells you.

Everything may have come tonormal by now but the damagedcause and the lives lost is disheart-ening. The scenes of the areas willcontinue to sadden anyone to thecore. Burnt vehicles andpetrolpumps, broken windows anddamaged houses continue to screamof the horror even after three-fourdays of the incident.

When the clashhappened I was

outside my homelike all the

others to stopthe attackers

and protect ourfamilies. Then

when a group ofpeople came, allof them known

to me. Theydragged me andtwo other boys,

they beat uswith iron rods.

We becameunconscious.

They leftbecause they

thought we weredead— Bhaisahab

aka Lala

Lala, a resident of Moonga Nagar who suffered injuries during the Delhi riots Photo: The Pioneer/Musba Hashmi

Raj Kumari, a resident of Kabir Nagar talksabout the horrors that visited her

TORN FABRICThe last time Delhi was witness to riots was back in 1984. The horrors revisited the Capital on February 23, 2020.It left 43 dead and scars that will take decades to heal. MUSBA HASHMI visits the riot affected places to dig deepinto the mores of the area, what the residents have to say and what caused it to begin with

Burnt building, street full of stones and damagedvehicles in violence-torn Chandbagh

Photos: The Pioneer/Ranjan Dimri

vivacity 07HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 1, 2020

How do we expand the bou-quet of tourism experiencesto inspire the traveller tokeep coming back? Howdo we reintroduce favourites

and invest them with contemporarysensibilities? How do we customisetours to make new memories? How hastheme travel changed the way we live andthink? These were some of the questionsthat were answered by panellists AmanNath, Shilpa Sharma, Sumitra Senapaty,Anup Kutty and Samil Malhotra at thelast session of the Exotica TourismSummit.

DON’T LET HISTORY BECOME ABYGONE

Hotelier, architectural restorer andwriter Aman Nath is the co-founder andco-chairman of the Neemrana Hotelschain, along with Francis Wacziarg.Both are today credited for pioneeringthe heritage hotels movement in India,which they started in 1991. Since then,the Neemrana group has acquired 30heritage properties and converted theminto heritage hotels after restoration, par-ticularly developing unknown propertiesin Rajasthan and breaking stereotypes.

He said, “We have 30 properties in18 states of India. We started by lookingat restoring historical properties whichheld stories about the glorious past ofIndia. The architecture in every statevaries just like food. The idea was tomake a new blend of restoration, rebuild-ing and revitalisation of ruined architec-tural wonders and offer unique accom-modation options. It was to turn utterwaste into mainstream assets, whichnobody looked at and which could con-tribute to society. The term jungle meinmangal actually holds true in that youcan actually create a habitat in thewilderness. Neemranification means thatyou restore a place and you also use it ina way that it perpetuates itself. What youknow as the Neemrana Fort PalaceDelhi-Jaipur highway is actually a 15thcentury heritage hotel. We have a historic700-year-old property as the Hill Fort,Kesroli in Alwar. All efforts have beenmade to maintain the old charm of thefort while ensuring basic comforts thathave come to be associated with thechanges in lifestyle since the 14th cen-tury. Then we have the Bungalow on theBeach in Tranquebar, Tamil Nadu. Whenwe started doing this project, theGovernment said how dare you build aproperty so close to the sea? We toldthem, it was there since the 17th centu-ry. It was actually restored one day beforethe tsunami. The waves crashed the wallsand went over the whole building butnothing happened to it. It stayed intactbecause it was a hundred years old andsolidly built.”

Aman summed up by saying thatwhen you see ruins like these, you don’thave the courage to attempt a new con-struction. “What we actually did wasrestoration-for-reuse,” he said.

LET THE SEA SET YOU FREESamil Malhotra, head of sales at

TIRUN, brings 33 years of experienceduring which he has worked across var-ious sectors with established brands. Asthe exclusive India representative forRoyal Caribbean Cruises, a global cruise-liner with four cruise brands — RoyalCaribbean International, CelebrityCruises, Azamara Club Cruises andSilversea Cruises — he highlighted howvoyages have made slow travel fashion-able again.

He said, “Today, Antarctica is the newAlaska. So in 2020, if you think you cantake a cruise, you could go to Antarctica.There are so many misconceptions andmyths about cruising. The very first is thatcruises are expensive. People tend to thinkit’s too crowded, too confining or too bor-ing. But that’s hardly the reality of mod-ern-day vessels. There are so many argu-ments favouring why you should not gocruising rather than why you should. Theword “cruise” in itself personifies what itdoes. A ship can go at 40 knots but itchooses to go at 10 knots. It’s because itlets you enjoy the sea. If you would liketo have a relaxing holiday, if you don’t wantto pack and repack, if you want to get upin a new country everyday and have 30restaurants to eat, a casino to gamble in,a health club and spa to enjoy andimmerse yourself in, watch Broadwaymusicals and shows at night, listen to BobMarley and Bob Dylan during the day, youshould be taking a cruise.”

Samil concluded his talk by saying,“To demystify all this, Royal Caribbean

Cruises sells at approximately ̀ 10,000 perperson, per night. So if you take a threenight package, you are just spending`30,000. And you are getting everything— stay, food, alcoholic beverages (attimes), entertainment, shore excursionsand so on in comparison to a hotel, wherejust your breakfast is included. When I tellpeople the rates, they are just shocked. Ifyou haven’t seen the cruise, you haven’tseen the world.”

THE BUZZWORD IS SOLO TRAVEL Sumitra Senapaty, known as a

women’s travel expert, has logged thou-sands of miles around the world as a wan-derer, culminating with the creation of the

WOW Club travel and social platform forwomen 15 years ago. This has developedinto an active community for women.Sumitra believes that travel brings alonga sense of empowerment and a feeling ofpersonal freedom. The WOW communi-ty also meets up for a number of socialevents organised exclusively for women bythe club — like heritage walks, wine tast-ings, lunches and movie evenings as well.Sumitra has just returned from Antarctica,her second time to this part of the world.

She said, “It was a dream that I had15 summers ago. I really wanted womento be independent and empowered. Italked to a lot of people and realised thatwomen were more interested in travelling

and adventure and a passion that bringsall this alive. There are times in life whenyou are over with your friends, relativesand colleagues. You want to go beyond thatand have a different social circle. So howdo you make friends later in life? One wayis travel. It gives you me-time, makes youindependent and you feel empowered. Itgives you an opportunity to talk to otherpeople, locals of various countries andother states in India. It gives you time tothink on your feet, to act for yourself, too.Well, I give them the opportunity for solotravel. It’s so comforting because being ina group gives you a sense of safety. We do150 trips every year over 52 destinations.These destinations range from Rishikeshto Antartika and beyond. Future plansinclude the Arctic circle, Greenland andFalkland islands. The change has come forsure. Initially, when I started out, therewere women who called me and said ‘wowit’s such a lovely concept! But we will getback to you after the weekend. I would liketo discuss it with my family and see whathappens’. Invariably, they never got backbecause their family said why are yougoing with them? Why not with us?However, later, women did come back.And how.”

BEYOND THE BROCHURESince 2011, Shilpa Sharma, founder of

Breakaway Travels, has been curating andexecuting bespoke, beyond-the-brochureexperiential journeys around India for solotravellers. Her trips are immersions incrafts, textiles, culinary and social enter-prise interactions. She co-founded Jaypore,

an online retail portal for Indian hand-made and high on design products and isconstantly travelling to find the next expe-riential to curate.

She wanted to do something for herown, something that hadn’t been done byanyone. Said Shilpa, “In 2011, when I setup the company, the whole idea was tofind parts of the country through travelexperiences. There was a lot happening inthe mainstream tourism space. Peoplewere going to Goa, Mumbai, Kerala butI wanted to present a beyond-the-brochure approach to India. I wanted tohave a representation of interactions cen-tred around crafts and textiles becausethat’s where I have spent 12 years of mycareer. I have travelled the length andbreadth of the country and realised thatall the beautiful products come from India.There’s an opportunity to actually travelinto some of the far flung clusters, com-munities and interact with them at theirhometowns. In those interactions you alsoget to experience them, their culture, foodand just every aspect of their lifestyle. I feelfood is our identity. Through my travels,I have figured, regional cuisine in ourcountry is severely underrated. This is alsoone of the reasons which led to my thirdventure — a restaurant called Mustard inGoa and Mumbai.”

Shilpa added that she is now workingto explore another facet of Kutch. It is asso-ciated with textiles and crafts and the greatRann of Kutch but the truth is that it isalso about extinct volcanoes, rock forma-tions, dinosaurs and fossils. “Nobody talksabout these things. There is a Rajasthanthat everybody knows and then there isa Rajasthan that nobody knows.” For her,it’s all about finding that needle in ahaystack.

TO NORTHEAST, WITH LOVEFormer journalist and musician Anup

Kutty, made the rice fields of Ziro inArunachal Pradesh a must-stop simply byhosting a music festival there. Now in itsninth year, he has pioneered the idea of amusical quest in the Northeast, one whichadds to the felt experience.

Said he, “My love story with theNortheast is just 10 years old. I am a musi-cian, so my band was touring theNortheast in 2011. One of the promoterswas from Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. Wehad a show there. Unfortunately, there wassome political unrest and the show gotpostponed. The promoter suggested,‘Why don’t you just come to my home-town, Ziro Valley, and relax?’ We saw theplace, met beautiful people and had greatfood. Over a couple of rice beers, we dis-cussed how we should invite some moreartistes and do a show here. Even aftermoving back to Delhi, the idea stuck in ourheads. So we decided to do it. Our first edi-tion was a huge mess because there weretorrential rains for two days. But on theday of the fest, sun showed up, everybodylanded and the show happened. That was10 years ago. Now we have 6,000 peoplecoming from across the world. It’s like awedding that happens in the village,where everybody comes together and putsin his/her best efforts. The locals open uptheir homes for visitors. When we start-ed, we had couple of home stays. But now,pretty much every home is open for us.The local economy has perked up too.”

The Pioneer group is expanding its umbrella of connecting with thinking minds through live talks. CalledThe Pioneer Agenda series, we hope to generate awareness on ideas that will shape India in 2030 andcould be a template for policy-making. The first such dialogue, Exotica Tourism Summit, Exotica being thegroup's travel and wellness magazine, was held at Shangri-La hotel, New Delhi on February 26. Sincetourism is poised to become a major growth driver and employment generator of the economy, the day-long event had interactive sessions with Union Ministers, industry experts, travel operators, tourismboards, the hospitality sector and brand creators

Left to right: Shilpa Sharma, Aman Nath, Sumitra Senapaty, Anup Kutty and Samil Malhotra

LIVING HERITAGE

WHEN RECALLINSPIRES NEW IDEAS

Minister of Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel at the Exotica Tourism Summit

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 1, 2020 vivacity {48 hours} 08

With so many images, trav-ellers’ tales and food storieson our palmtops, how do

we decide what works best for uswhile planning a holiday? How do weget to the must-knows beyond thephoto-shopped fantasy? Simple, livethe felt experiences with somebodywhom you can trust and somebodywho is like you. Nobody can estab-lish this believability about themselvesthan Rocky Singh and MayurSharma, who have added a wholenew layering to highway travel byexploring dhabas and elevating streetfood as a must-do option. So has chefZorawar Kalra, who has used someof our known street foods to createelegant fusion fare. They were speak-ing at the session Seeing is Believingat the Exotica Tourism Summit.

Rocky and Mayur, who have bro-ken barriers, hit the road, built per-sonal stories and digital highwaysthrough their television showHighway on My Plate, shared theirjourney of bringing the regionalIndian cuisine food to the forefront.“Our life has always been about pro-moting food. We started in 2007 withthe emphasis to focus upon theIndian food as we have the richestfood culture in the world,” saidRocky.

He then talked about weaving inhis experiences as a birder with hisfood journeys on his Instagramaccount. “There are eight million reg-istered birders in the UK and possi-bly more in the US. If you want tolook at birding opportunities inIndia, we have over 1,200 species ofbirds, including the ones who migrate

during the winters. We have some ofthe most phenomenal birds in theworld. Everywhere you go, fromRann of Kutch to the Northeast toKerala to Kashmir, you will find thou-sands of birders looking for exoticspecies. It is a huge business.”

Through the show, Rocky andMayur seem to have enjoyed thediversity of the country as they trav-el and review dhabas on their wayevery 48 hours. “We have had 7,000dishes in 12 years and still have a lotmore to explore. Believe me, 100 mil-lion people would come to India if wewere proud of our food culture andshowed the world the richness of ourcuisine,” added Rocky.

The two were running theirbusiness till they decided that theyhad to make their passion their liv-ing. That happened through theshow, which has several avatars now.Mayur being a vegetarian onlyreviews one end of the spectrum ofdishes. So how many of his fans haveturned vegetarian? “I have no idea.Around 25 to 28 per cent Indians arevegetarian. The rest have sea food,fish and non-vegetarian dishes.Though it is a small number but nowwith the health tag attached to it, thenumbers are growing,” said Mayur.Rocky added that as ones goestowards the coastal areas, there arehardly any vegetarians.

With food being a passion withthe duo, the obvious question was ifthey were planning a restaurant oftheir own? “There’s so much of hardwork and passion involved in it thatI feel, probably never. But whoknows? Never say, never!” said Rocky.

Another panelist Zorawar, whohas nine successful outposts acrossIndia and Dubai, quipped that he wasglad that Rocky and Mayur were notplanning to set up one as it wouldmean competition for him. He talkedabout fusion and his experimentalapproach to food. His London out-post, Farzi Cafe, has been credited forchanging the perception of Indiancuisine because of the use of molec-ular gastronomy and food theatre.“We have been experimenting withkhichdi, which according to me is themost vibrant, versatile and comfort-ing Indian dish. We have experiment-ed and created Dal chawal aracini outof it. It is coated with bread crumbs,has a papad on top and a tomatosalsa. As soon as you take a bite, youwill instantly understand that it is therecreation of khichdi,” said he. Thebest part about papad and khichdi isthe fact that every Indian State has itsown version, said the restaurateurwho loves playing with regionalfood to make it more innovative asit represents the culture of the coun-try. It also gives him a chance to trynew forms of the cuisine.

Rocky and Mayur are pushingnew frontiers on the digital plane asthey felt that television is no moreappealing. “It is boring for people tosee someone sitting on a chair in astudio every day. It is not catchy. Thetelevision is just shooting itself in thehead. Unless it has a hint of creativ-ity it will not be able to sustain itself,”said Rocky. “TV is unidirectional,”added Mayur. As the digital space ismaking waves and their programmesare showcased regularly there, they

shared how this media had helpedthem promote their food journey. “Itis a space to enable conversations andgenerate ideas. The platform givesyou the chance to talk about Beera’schicken and at the same time, sharedetails about an idli from Gujarat.Now Indians are using it as a spaceto put their passion forward,” saidRocky. Mayur laid stress on the factthat the platform enables conversa-tions. One can cater to a specificgroup of people and build a commu-nity with common thoughts. “Ourfocus is simple — be consistent, fre-quent and do things in such a waythat you can defend yourself ineverything you do,” added Mayur.

Having become a part of the pro-fession accidentally, Rocky andMayur realised that documentingIndia’s street food delicacies wassomething they had always wantedto do. But everything comes with itsown risks and challenges. Sinceburgers, pastas and pizzas had firm-ly established their hold on everyonewhen they started, it was challengingto put back Indian food on the plat-ter. But they eventually changedhow people perceived a dhaba andmade it a new trend. “Youngstersstarted looking at dhabas as a coolplace. They wanted to go there andexplore them,” said Mayur.

When asked if there was pressureto reinvent themselves, Rocky replied,“I believe that if you want to be inter-esting, just keep learning, raising yourperformance and reinventing thewheel. It is very important to addmore skills to your existing ones andget more layered.” They even talkedabout travel being a teacher. Themore you travel, the more you getexposed to various cultures andmeet new people.

People usually decide destina-tions first and then look for their spe-ciality in food. But it is the other wayround for Zorawar. “All my travel hasbeen based on food. I first decidewhich destination has good food andthen look for other things. I planeverything on the basis of food. Mymost memorable trip was to Japan.After India, it has the most advancedfood culture,” said he. He evenshared that the first time he had areally high end meal was on his hon-eymoon.

For Mayur, even after 12 years,the joy for this profession remainsintact. It is all about perspective. “Ifevery morning you are excited to goto your work, just continue with it.It is all about having fun in life,” saidhe. This is his mantra in life. Don’ttake yourself too seriously! Rockysummed up the session with RudyardKipling’s poem, If:

“If you can make one heap of allyour winnings

And risk it in one turn of pitch-and-toss

And lose and start again at yourbeginnings

And never breathe a word aboutyour loss....”

Our heritage sites not onlyconnect us to our civilisa-

tional past but play a major rolein attracting tourists. So thequestion that lies here is: How todevelop the heritage infrastruc-ture and increase access to thesesites? Patiala Foundation chiefRavee Singh Ahluwalia, who hasdone pilot projects like introduc-ing E-cabs to encourage footfalls,has an answer. At the ExoticaTourism Summit organised byThe Pioneer media group hesaid, “We need to work on sus-tainable development goals intourism. That is the key to reviv-ing interest in our heritage struc-tures.”

iHeritage is an initiative takenby the Patiala Foundation toexplore and recognise the her-itage of the city on foot. He hadorganised a world event ofGoUNESCO in September, 2016where more than 500 residents ofthe city participated. TheHeritage Walk was led by thethen Hon’ble DeputyCommissioner Patiala and otherdignitaries of the city. It was wellreceived by the citizens. Thesecond heritage walk was organ-ised at Bahadurgarh Fort inMarch, 2018, led by IG RangePatiala. The third heritage walkwas organised at Ghuram villagein September, 2018. It was led byChief Secretary to Punjab’s ChiefMinister.

“When we went to variousmonuments, we saw that some ofthese sites were not even con-served properly. That would needa lot of investment. So wethought of taking this initiativeof revival forward by generatinga local economy around the site,”

said he. The foundation conducted

heritage walks at unexploredsites of Punjab and have exploredaround seven sites till date.Ahluwalia proudly shared,“Patiala, from where I come, is257 years old. We have sites likeSangol which date back to firstcentury, they are there from thetime of the Harappan civilisation.We also have Sultanpur Lodhiwhere the first guru of Sikhsspent his 14 years. We recentlydid a heritage walk there in col-laboration with the PunjabGovernment. The infrastructureof these sites can only developwhen the governments recognisetheir potential and more peoplevisit.”

Through the project, thefoundation takes school kids tothese sites. Till date they havetaken around 5,000 students sothat people become aware aboutit.

He has pioneered the PatialaGreenCABS, an environment-friendly project by starting E-rickshaws on speed dial. “We didan experiment in 2014. We con-ducted personality developmentclasses for auto-rickshaw dri-vers and trained them as tourist-guides of Patiala. We took thisinitiative so that on the way to thesites, the rickshaw drivers couldtell people about the backgroundand history of the place,” said he.It acts as a skill enhancement forthem. They can now double theirincome within the same time. Ina small city, where Ola and Ubercan’t operate, auto-rickshawsserve as a good means of trans-port. If we upgrade them, theycan come into the mainstream.

“Instead of motivating thecorporates to allocate CSR funds,it’s better to widen the scope byasking them to give protection toa particular heritage site undertheir CSR initiative,” added he.

Roma Gupta from TRAC Rajini Hasija, Director, IRCTC Aman Nath speaks to Union Minister of Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal

Nitin Tripathi, Media Advisor at Ministry of Culture and TourismR Nandkummar, Director SRM Institute of Science and Technology Dr Savita Mehta, VP, Amity UniversityDr CB Sharma, Chairman of NIOS

FILLING THE GAPS

While ROCKY SINGH and MAYUR SHARMA spoke about theirjourney and building personal stories, ZORAWAR KALRAdivulged that he decides his next destination on the basis of food

WORLD ON A PLATTER

It is time you believed in yourself and your talents. Youwill work towards a disease-free happy family. On thecareer front, you are positive and will try to bring loveand compassion in your work. Your intuitive nature willbe at play and people would be amazed to see this sideof your personality. This is the time to focus on yourgoals and targets. Avoid being sensitive and emotional,as it will not sort out any problem. Be firm anddetermined in your approach. Those in business needto be careful while conducting financial deals.Relationship wise, there are chances of deception inlove. Be cautious. Those in a committed relationshipmay face confusion. Make sure to clear the doubts toavoid misunderstandings.

Lucky number 11Lucky colour WhiteLucky day Monday

ARIES March 21-April 19

This week you need to balance your health efforts withyour personal and professional responsibilities. Prioritiseyour life and take rest to heal yourself. Career-wise, thoselooking for a job may have to wait for some time. Thisweek is not the best time. Don’t dwell on failures andreward yourself for your successes. Accept that everyonehas limits and cannot succeed at everything. This is thetime to reflect on what you have achieved. If there is noroom for a raise or promotion where you are now, giveserious thought to finding something where there isscope. Those who are already committed should nothesitate to speak their mind to their partner. Stand withpride and express your feelings. This is the time whenyou can strengthen your bonding with your loved one.

Lucky number 6Lucky colour PinkLucky day Friday

TAURUS April 20-May 20

Managing your stress is important in order to stayhealthy. It is better to face any problems that comeyour way, instead of avoiding them. Ensure that you getenough rest. If you require healing, ask for it at boththe literal and the spiritual levels. On the career front,other people may not understand or support your newideas or proposals, but if you know that you are right,go ahead. You are enthusiastic, full of energy and wantto put out your best, but others are not taking itpositively. Leave your simplicity behind, be smart andexpressive. Rest of the things are manageable, you willhandle them well. In love, you are mellow. Romance isin the air. Love at first sight or one-sided love mayprove to be a waste of time.

Lucky number 22Lucky colour RedLucky day Wednesday

GEMINI May 21-June 20

Suppressing your emotions will impact your healthnegatively. You need to be careful about how, when,and where you vent your feelings. Anything thatreduces your stress level will be helpful now, it couldbe a five-minute walk. Maintain a positive outlooktowards life and stay calm and connected. On thecareer front, tension is foreseen. If experiencing stress,reaching out to a friend or a work colleague will provehelpful. Those trying for a job change, this is the righttime. Making plans will not help, you need to get upand execute them. This week, you may acquire theposition you were aiming for a long time. It is a verypositive time for you, as well an excellent opportunityto strengthen relationships of all kinds.

Lucky number 13Lucky colour BlueLucky day Thursday

CANCER June 21-July 22

You may change your mind radically about something. Aword of caution. Do not ignore everything that yourdoctor has told you. Rather, give it a good thought.Those suffering from serious ailments need to be underthe constant observation of doctors. Make sure you havea healthy diet and adequate sleep. Avoid stimulants asmuch as possible. On the work front, you need to bequick with decisions. Make sure your intelligence andlogic are used for the good cause. Don’t waste your timein conflicts. Long-distance travel for business is on thecards. There is hope and happiness at an emotional level,along with a new sense of security, protection andrecovery. This week you will enjoy the warmth, affectionand togetherness with the old friend/lover.

Lucky number 20Lucky colour IndigoLucky day Tuesday

VIRGO Aug 23-Sep 22

Tension, worry and depression might take a toll on yourhealth, leaving you exhausted. Learn to say no. Consciousrelaxation is important for your body and mind. It will helpyou to deal with the stress. On the career front, you will beappreciated for your skills. Your communication skills aregood. Those in business may acquire a secure position interms of wealth and property. This is the right time toinvest in real estate. Those in service or a job, are likely towin support of their seniors, which will prove to be astepping stone in their career. On the personal front, youwill reflect charm and positivity and will win the heart ofyour partner. A new beginning on terms of a relationship ison the cards. You may set fresh expectations. This is agood time for lovers.

Lucky number 10Lucky colour BrownLucky day Tuesday

LIBRA Sep 23-Oct 22

Take a break from your routine. Just slow down andrelax. There is no point in pushing yourself when you aretired, it may cause illness and injury. Meditation is bestfor rejuvenation and will help you recharge your energy.Take a short break. It will do wonders for your physicaland mental well-being. On the career front, investmentdone in the past will bring good returns this week. Youare in the good books of your seniors and soon there willbe rewards. You need to have patience. On the personalfront, you seem to be a confused and double-mindedover something. Those looking for love, need to analysetheir emotional issues and sort them out. Yourrelationship will move into an easier and more balancedphase when you are sure of yourself.

Lucky number 3Lucky colour PeachLucky day Wednesday

SCORPIO Oct 23-Nov 21

Focus on balancing your chakras or your body, mind,and spirit. Meditation, Pranayam and walk workwonderfully well. The benefits are far greater than anyeffort you can put in. At work, networking with newpeople especially foreigners will be beneficial. This isthe time to crack business deals, sign new projects andassignments. Your work will be recognised andappreciated. Those in service may expect araise/promotion. On the personal front, new ideas andplans will help you renew your relations with the lovedones. Love is in the air and you are in full mood toexpress your feelings to the one you like. Singles mayfind an opportunity to meet their sweetheart at one ofthe social gatherings.

Lucky number 9Lucky colour OrangeLucky day Saturday

AQUARIUS Jan 20-Feb 18

You will experience a wave of positivity and creativity thisweek. It is an excellent time to flaunt your charm andenjoy the path of personal development. Thecompleteness, sense of vitality and peace of mind willmake you a very efficient person. On the career front, youare confident and ready to face any challenges. You maygain success and win accolades for your performance.Those in the field of politics will have a good time.Acceptance and implementation of their views is likely. Onthe personal front, mind, heart and emotions are going indifferent ways. This is a highly emotional time in loverelationships. Situations can quickly become heated. Takea break and give space to your partner. Don’t be in ahurry to end or to begin a relationship.

Lucky number 19Lucky colour Sky BlueLucky day Friday

PISCES Feb 19-March 20

Don’t try to deal with the problems alone. Sharing themwith someone may help you offload your stress. Takegood care of yourself, and the people you are concernedwith. You have a generous and nurturing personality andin taking care of others, you often tend to neglect yourhealth. Bring balance in your work and relations. Career-wise, you cannot make up your mind whether to stick toyour job or start a business. You need to have a clearvision about your goals for the future. Constant changingof field is a sign of instability and often gets younowhere. Explore your interest and potentials. In love life,think with a cool mind than the raging heart. Singles, it’snot the time to take a hasty decision. Judge the personand take your own time.

Lucky number 21Lucky colour MagentaLucky day Wednesday

CAPRICORN Dec 22-Jan 19

This week you are overworked and exhausted. Reduce theintake of nicotine or caffeine, as it is harmful. Take timeout for yourself and your health will show a positivechange. Observe the situations that stress you. It will helpyou figure how to deal with them in the future. Learningrituals from the past will deepen your spiritualunderstanding and practice and help you to bring aboutbalance. Career-wise, your focus on finances will keepyou busy. Travel is on the cards. Keep a check on yourbehaviour. Exchange of harsh words may create a hostilesituation around you. Those looking for work, anassignment or a job may come your way. Those in acommitted relationship may work towards taking therelationship to the next level.

Lucky number 18Lucky colour GreenLucky day Friday

LEO July 23-Aug 22

Listen to your body and give it due care and attention.Over-eating or to starve, both the conditions are bad forhealth. Bringing balance in food habits will not only helpyou maintain your weight but also boost your morale. Asense of calm will prevail. Results of competitive examsmay not be encouraging. On the work front, it is best notkeep high expectations, as your stars are not reallyfavourable at this point in time. You may face conflictsand confrontations in trivial matters and this may causeyou to lose your calm. It is best to follow the disciplineand rules of the organisation. Else you may invite thedispleasure of your seniors. Love and emotions will takea back seat. You may prefer isolation over being with thewrong crowd or partner.

Lucky number 12Lucky colour GoldenLucky day Sunday

SAGITTARIUS Nov 22-Dec 21

YOURWEEK

AHEADMADHU KOTIYA

sundaymagazine

tarot 09SOMETIMES YOUR JOY IS THESOURCE OF YOUR SMILE, BUTSOMETIMES YOUR SMILE CANBE THE SOURCE OF YOUR JOY

— THICH NHAT HANH Hyderabad, March 1, 2020

Picking up threads from the previousissue, it is now time to see how cre-ation moved forward on to the

earth plane. Moon plays from the front asthe carrier of cosmic energies, serving asthe interface between the cosmic worldabove and life mechanism on earth plane.Thus, comes into place a life cycle, whichruns in succession, as would runningwater of the perennial river Ganges origi-nating from Lord Shiva’s hair locks imply.Travelling from the source to the sea,water extends life all through its run.Remember, but for water there would beno live form-existence. Even sciencebelieves that the first live existenceemerged in water. Water running downthe river stream as also in the sea evapo-rates, leaving behind all impurities, takesthe form of cloud, and again rains back torecharge the water bodies on earth.Similarly, all forms of life run in succes-sion in a cyclic order.

Coming back to Lord Shiva’sentourage, it exemplifies multitude ofexistence forming this world. The divinebeings are personification of the cosmicforces, vital to creation, sustenance, andrecycling of existential order. Humanbeings armed with intelligence and

awareness level, higher than other crea-tures, the onus lies on them to worktowards qualitative existence of the livingorder. Devilish existence imply ignorantpeople with lower intelligence level andprimarily driven by animalistic instincts.They, therefore, are not expected to beconscious about their collective obliga-tions. It also implies all negative orienta-tion of mind that may prove detrimentalto harmonious and peaceful coexistence.

The presence of invisible existencesuch as ghosts, make out a purposefulreference. These unseen creatures sym-bolise invisible existence in the interven-ing period between two successive form-existence, reflecting upon continuumbetween successive lives. Lord Shiva’sentourage, thus, presents a picture of allseen and unseen existence forming thisliving world.

Lord Shiva, despite evolutionary bar-rier of incommunicability amongst thevaried creatures forming His entourage,through His selfless force of love, remainsin accord with all of them. Overlookingtheir individualistic vagaries, as His eyes,half open and half closed would signify,He carries them all along. Purposely so,because He knows that all creatures, by

themselves, are imperfect, and incapableof meeting existential needs by them-selves. But all put together, complementand supplement each other. Their limita-tions apart, each is simultaneously alsoarmed with such virtues, as would benecessary to nourish and sustain the col-lective existence.

Take the case of termite, which other-wise spoils wood, paper, and if left unat-tended even crops. But then, they dighole deep inside the soil structure tofacilitate entry of oxygen and activate cre-ative potential of the earth mass. In theprocess, the termite eats earth mass. Todigest it, its body releases necessaryenzymes. Having consumed a small partfor its own sustenance, it excretes the rest,and that being rich in enzyme, furtheradd to the fertility of the soil. The termitehas to however meet its end before thecrop comes up, but not before serving thecause of larger existence. It, thus, comesout that there is nothing in existence,without a specific assignment in supportof the collective existence.

Lord Shiva, therefore, in order to getthe best out of one and all and facilitatesmooth run of the worldly order, purpose-ly ignores their individual limitations. Butit doesn’t come about easy. He has toabsorb all the negatives appearing as by-

product during the run of the worldprocess, as would His poison fed blue neckimply. He does that in the larger interest ofthe existential order, but for which thevery existence may become questionable.

Serving as provider, He nourishes thewhole living order with all His resourcesin hand — the cosmic energy drawnthrough lunar crescent, water stream ofriver Ganges. Lord Shiva enjoys the confi-dence of all, as He selflessly serves themall without any sense of differentiation,with the sole noble objective to ensure asmooth run of the existential order. Hisselflessness is exemplified by being barebodied, despite being the source andeffective cause of creation.

To sum up, there is a system in place,which includes the primal source; themanifest plural world; and with lot ofintervening dynamism playing inbetween, which drives us all individuallyand collectively. The existence as such issymbolised by Lord Shiva, who deservesbeing termed as God.

The wwriter iis aan aastrologer, vvastu cconsultant

and sspiritual ccounsellor. WWrite tto hhim aat

G-1102, BBharat NNagar, NNew FFriends CColony,

New DDelhi-1110 0025

Tel: 991-111-449848475/9818037273

Email: bbharatbhushanpadmadeo@gmail.com

ASTROTURFBHARAT BHUSHAN PADMADEO

Madhu Kotiya is a tarot card reader, spiritual healer, and Founder, MShezaim Institute of Tarot and Divination. Contact details: madhu@indiatarot.com, www.indiatarot.com, M: 9873283331

Decoding Shiva: Existence is God

TEAM AGENDA DESK > NAVNEET MENDIRATTA, CONSULTING EDITOR | H LAYOUT AND DESIGN > SATISH CHANDRA JAKHMOLA, SENIOR EDITOR (CREATIVE)

Now yyou ccan wwrite tto uus aat agendapioneer@gmail.com

The demand for recognising issuesrelated to sustainability in highereducation is slated to growexponentially the world over.Educational leaders have a unique

opportunity to lead the creation of a newinstitutional consciousness on sustainability. It iseducational leadership that will lead in enablinga new consciousness and intellectual orientationfor a sustainable world.

The leading universities of the world havedemonstrated a deep, persistent and sustainedcommitment to interdisciplinarity. Theimportance of crossing disciplinary boundariesin teaching, learning and research is yet to befully realised within the Indian higher educationsystem. Institutional mechanisms need to beestablished within universities to enable studentsto learn across schools, departments andprogrammes across the entire university. Thebig debates of our time will not be addressed byknowledge and understanding of singlediscipline, but our ability to drawn upon theexpertise from many disciplines with a view toproducing solutions.

At the Caspian Week — World EconomicForum 2020 sessions at Davos, the two keypanels: “Education & Leadership for SustainableWorld” focussed on educational leadership,sustainability, inclusive development,institutional cultural change, and pedagogies ofsustainability. The second panel was on “TheRole of Global Universities in PromotingSustainable Futures”, where the discussionfocussed on challenges that universities areconfronted with today and that globaluniversities can play a specific role in advancingthe cause of sustainable development.

Higher education institutions in particularhave a central role to play in achieving a newsense of individual consciousness andintellectual orientation towards creating asustainable future. Institutional leaders have theopportunity to intervene and addresssustainability issues in multiple forms. They canfoster new institutional consciousness towards asustainable world; there are some key steps thatneed to be initiated. Universities can be crucialpartners in the initiation of dialogue betweenregional scholars, academics, policymakers,researchers and relevant state-level agencies.International collaborations between academics,researchers, international institutions and non-profit foundations engaged in the study andpractice on related areas can increase potentialto study previously unexplored approaches andpotential funding sources for research andinitiatives related to sustainability.

Universities can affect deep and meaningfulchange in local communities and can shape as

to how they respond to sustainability issues overthe long-term. Adopting approaches to addresssustainability and sustainable futures incurriculum, research agendas, infrastructure(energy/water conservation and wastemanagement), campus engagement, publicinstitutional engagement, diversity andaccessibility indicators, and institutionalenvironmental footprint are some example ofthis initiative.

There is more. Specific initiatives are neededat the institutional level. Investing in researchthat is valuable to local communities will leadthe way to an intellectual consciousness. Thisincludes developing research networks with(in)local communities. Relevant disciplinary areasthat could lead and contribute to such networksinclude public policy, law, architecture,journalism, management, environmentalstudies, and liberal arts. Working incollaboration with local governments is anotherarea for greater exploration by universities andinstitutional leaders.

We need to develop interdisciplinary globalnetworks focused on sustainable development.These could include research partnerships onexchanging institutional and pedagogical bestpractices, and transnational dialogues andforums to deliberate and explore newapproaches to institutional governance thatbetter address sustainability concerns.

For universities to play an effective role inadvancing sustainable local, national, regionaland global development, students must be madeactive stakeholders in existing and futureapproaches to sustainability. A primary mode ofcultivating sustainability consciousness is bygrounding relevant themes, issues, challengesand concerns within the curricula whilefocussing on experiential learning, clinicalprogrammes, capstone projects and communitylevel engagement.

Of particular focus must be those that relateto the most critical local, national and regionalissues. A greater range of relevant pedagogicalinterventions is then made possible throughcurricula that are aligned towards addressingthe challenges of sustainable development. Asecondary focus area is to orient facultymembers to design and teach courses that aremore closely aligned with institutional, nationaland global sustainability agendas.

While research funding for related areas isimportant, institutional incentive structures forresearchers can go a long way in encouraginggreater research on sustainable developmentthemes. One way to address this is for insti-tutional leaders to prioritise research sub-themesthat may contribute directly to sustainable localand national developmental concerns. This

prioritisation could imply not only activelysetting institutional research agendas on aperiodic basis, but also incentivising researcherswho choose to work on these areas throughgreater research support, more accessibledispensing of available institutional funding,adjusting institutional teaching and researchresponsibilities, and making available necessaryinfrastructure for such research. All of this has tohappen in recognition of the extended timehorizons, longer study periods and lack ofimmediate and demonstrable outcomes thatsuch research may require.

Locally, Fostering community networks willencourage exchange of ideas. These couldinclude networks for institutional, research,teaching and student related initiatives thatencourage greater transnational exchange ofcurrent practices, ideas, and problem-solvingapproaches. Of crucial importance will be therole that universities play in not onlyencouraging and nurturing greater participationof young students in such networks, but alsocreating opportunities for greater cross-borderinteractions with peers and enabling students toundertake leadership roles in exploring newapproaches to sustainable futures.

Then, institutions adopting interdisciplinaryapproaches in research, teaching, learning,policy and practice will be key to actingprogressively on sustainability issues. Foruniversities, this means that investing increating opportunities and pathways forinterdisciplinary interactions will be essential.One approach to this is to institutionaliseinterdisciplinarity across core functions. Forinstance, in course offerings, the availability ofinterdisciplinary, cross-listed electives is a usefulway to encourage students to think and learnoutside their own subject areas. Universitiescould also enable greater interdisciplinaryinteractions within their campuses, for instancethrough conscious and deliberate design of theirphysical infrastructure and facilities, andoffering greater support for teachers andresearchers who undertake interdisciplinaryinitiatives and projects.

Higher education institutions necessarilyneed to be as representative as possible of theirhost communities and regions in order tosurvive and thrive. Universities have a greaterobligation to accomplish such representationgiven the public character of their mission andpurpose, and the broad societal goals theycommit to achieve. These aims take on greatersignificance in developing economies, and giventhe value that a robust higher education systemcan add to achieving national developmentalgoals. These include providing adequatelyrepresentative access, particularly to

marginalised groups of citizens; balancing suchaccess with the provision of universityenvironments that are of global standards;helping our students bridge gaps incommunication and thinking skills that canmeet the requirements of globalised careers androles; and perhaps most importantly,institutionalising efforts to identify and correctdisparities in diversity and inclusion indicators.

Universities are confronted with thechallenge of embracing globalised modes offunctioning and expansion while simultaneouslyremaining rooted, mindful and responsive tolocal, national and regional developmental andsustainability concerns.

Eventually, the role that academic leadershipplays in creating a beneficial environment willbe key to creating a systematic process forsustainability. Approaches to creatinginstitutional environments that are conducive tothe study and practice of sustainabilitynecessarily need to be whole-system oriented.

Such approaches could take the form ofmaking sustainability a lived experience withincampus environments and spaces. Hencesustainability as a concept is then not farremoved from the everyday experience ofteaching, learning, working and residing withincampus environments.

There is a need to build an attitude ofconservation of natural and other resources.Institutions need to move towards adoption ofalternate technologies, increasing green cover,water and energy conservation, reducing waste,and increasing intra-campus awareness of itscarbon footprint within host regions.

Leaders must bring greater awareness ofadverse impacts of developmental trajectorieson local/host communities while, interweavingsustainable objectives into all aspects ofuniversity activities including administration,pedagogy, and residential life.

While 21st century universities must serveas bastions for academic and scholarly work,they must also serve as models of organisationalinnovation, agility in a complex world, creativenegotiation with change, and representative indemographic, identity and design with local andnational communities. These are key elementsthat will determine the preparedness ofuniversities to contribute to building moresustainable futures while preparing studentsmore adequately to intervene in sustainabledevelopment efforts.

Prof C Raj Kumar, a Rhodes Scholar is theFounding Vice Chancellor of OP Jindal Global

University. He was the only VC from India to beinvited to speak at the WEF, 2020 at Davos,

Switzerland

sundaymagazine

11The Karmic ConnectionEvery action and thought that crosses your mind leaves an

imprint on your destiny, to be fructified at a later point

F R O M T H E I N S I D E

Hyderabad, March 1, 2020

If you’re performingmusic that is not who

you are or where you’reat, it is painful. It’s

painful for the performerand for the audience

— Rihanna

UNIVERSITIES ARECONFRONTED WITHTHE CHALLENGE OF

EMBRACINGGLOBALISED MODES

OF FUNCTIONINGAND EXPANSION

WHILESIMULTANEOUSLY

REMAINING ROOTED,MINDFUL AND

RESPONSIVE TOLOCAL, NATIONAL

AND REGIONALDEVELOPMENTAL

AND SUSTAINABILITYCONCERNS

Higher education institutions have acentral role to play in achieving a newsense of individual consciousness andintellectual orientation towards creatinga sustainable future, writes PROF C RAJ KUMAR

BUILDINGSUSTAINABLE,GLOBAL INSTITUTIONS

sundaymagazine

spirituality 11Hyderabad, March 1, 2020

MANY ROADS LEAD TO THE PATH,BUT BASICALLY THERE ARE ONLY

TWO: REASON AND PRACTICE— BODHIDHARMA

HIDDENSOULSPRAMOD PATHAK

Defining justice has never been easy as there is alwaysan element of subjectivity in the concept.Understanding the idea of justice may be only a lit-

tle less daunting than verifying the number of stars in ourgalaxy. If the latter ranges from 100 to 400 billion, the num-ber of definitions of justice are only slightly less astronom-ical as they, too, range from 7 to 8 billion. Every individualhas at least one definition of justice, depending on his orher experience and interpretation of that experience.Sometime, the same person can have a different idea in dif-ferent situation. The one thing that can be said about theidea of justice is that it is continuously evolving. Naturally,the law must also change to keep pace with the changingconnotations of justice. Law is the tool that the society hasdeveloped to dispense justice. However, the pace of changeof law is not in tandem with the changing idea of justice.One case in point is the proposed change in the law to tryminors as adults. It is only after the serious public outcrythat a change in Juvenile Justice Law is being felt. It wasalways evident that heinous and serious crimes committedby technically Juvenile offenders needed to be treated as adultcrimes. The rising number of cases involving juveniles inpremeditated heinous crimes were alarming, hence the pun-ishment needed to be the same as that given to an adult.However, there are many other issues involving the ques-tion of law, justice and fairness which need serious consid-eration. The one, and most rampant, issue is the act of insti-tuting false criminal cases on innocent people to harass,intimidate or sometimes even force compliance for achiev-ing wrong ends. The key issue in these cases is the overreliance on eye witnesses. Any person with criminal intentcan find out two or three witnesses and file a case againstany unsuspecting person in order to gain unlawful advan-tage. There is an ancient Indian village proverb saying thatto settle scores don’t go for a civil suit or “Diwani”. Rather,go far a criminal case, which is termed “Faujdari”. The unfor-tunate part is that even in this technology driven 21st cen-tury the trick works. The courts are aware of this hard real-ity, but precious little has been achieved. It is time to makeamends. For some five centuries the Lady Justice has beenstanding as a blind-folded statuette with a balance in onehand and sword in the other. It is time the blindfold isremoved. The allegorical personification of the moral forcein the judicial system needs a rethink as justice is beingderailed by the unscrupulous who have the wherewithal.Justice can certainly be more impartial if Lady Justice cansee the faces of evil with her own eyes. From King Solomonto Suddhodana to Vikramaditya to Ranjit Singh history hasmany examples. They relied more on wisdom, conscienceand judgment rather than evidences of witnesses of doubt-ful virtue and were able to dispense justice. Atop the oldBailey Courthouse of London the Lady Justice stands with-out blindfold, perhaps to suggest this. The crowding at topcourts is more due to motivated concoctions rather thanany genuine grouse. Public opinion as John Galsworthy saidis always in advance of law. Public is now feeling the pinch.

Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com

Our thoughts are dominated bylust, greed, anger, hate, etc. In oldage, our thoughts turn towards

our aging bodies. If we allow thesethoughts to linger, we are in serioustrouble. Because they reinforce “tamo-guna” — the mode of darkness.

There are three modes, which con-stitute our bodies. These are: the modeof goodness, the mode of passion andthe mode of darkness. The mode ofgoodness is the most desirable, becausethis is illuminating and free from dis-eases on account of purity. The modeof passion suffers from the fault ofattachment because of our faulty desires.Normally, this mode dominates the psy-che of most people. The mode of dark-ness causes delusion, because it is bornof ignorance. These modes exist in dif-ferent percentages in us. Ideally, themode of goodness should have the high-est percentage, followed by the mode ofpassion and we should have the leastpercentage of the mode of darkness.

The wise try to reinforce the high-er modes and reduce the percentages ofthe lower modes by their thoughts,deeds, etc. The secret to managing thesemodes within us lies in the way wethink. To work on ourselves, we needto reform our thinking. Because ourthoughts cause the most damage, thatis, they have a large share in changingthe relative proportions of the threemodes. Thoughts of love, compassion,cooperation, forgiveness, etc. increasethe percentage of the mode of goodness,which benefits us immensely. On theother hand, if we reinforce the mode ofdarkness by our impure and negativethoughts, this gives rise to fears, anxi-eties, depression, etc. This mode canbecome so potent that it can even kill,as happens in suicides. There is no out-

side force involved in such deeds; the selfcommits this senseless act.

Let us understand how this danger-ous mode establishes its control in us.Lust thoughts appear in the mind at acertain age. If we allow these thoughtsto rule, we end up causing harm to our-selves without realising. Lord Krishnahas warned of this enemy in severalverses of the Gita. The lust may exist formany things, of which lust for tasty foodand illicit sex are the most damaging.

It is said that lust leads to the doorsto hell. Greed and its related thoughtsare common and not far behind in hurt-ing us. The same is true of angrythoughts. Hate takes us to an entirelylow level. One may even end up beingborn in lower species in the next birth!

Focusing our attention to our bod-ies, we only harm ourselves; we don’tallow our bodies to perform their func-tions, which they do quite well. Thishuman body is a thing of marvel.Normal care by eating, sleeping, beingactive and entertaining the self appro-

priately is what we really need to do; ourmiseries will be reduced drastically.(Bhagawad Gita, 6.17)

So what should we do? As soon asharmful thoughts appear in the mind, weneed to seek help from God. By ourselves,we may be helpless in controlling them.Saintly persons go a step further; theythink of God a lot. God is prepared tohelp and guide. This is the cosmic design.When we do that our lives take an about-turn. Not only do we get the perfect guid-ance and requisite help, we also get theelusive peace. This in turn leads to ‘sukha’or the real happiness, which is differentfrom transitory sense pleasures. However,this practice is not easy. Because we haveto act on two fronts. One, we must desireto shun bad thoughts and two, weshould desire to have God-relatedthoughts. This is ‘tapasysa’. Either we con-vince ourselves of the right way or thetamoguna will create havoc in our lives.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reachedat spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com

You suffer countless losses,diseases, heartbreaks inlife and feel sorry for your-self. And here, oscillatesthe pendulum — good,

bad, right, and wrong. One momentyou like yourself, the other you donot. Duality has its day. Delusion hasits way!

At times such as these, the firstquestion that comes to your mind is— “Why me? What did I do deservethis?” The answer to this lies inunderstanding the concept of sam-skars.

Every action and thought thatcrosses your mind leaves an imprinton your destiny, it gets stored in thekarmashaya, an ethereal hard disk soto say, to be fructified at a later pointin this life or future lives. This storeddata is called samskars.

These samskars fructify, decidingthe course of your life because inattaching emotions to your actionsyou gain a sense of ownership towardsthese actions. When your destiny ispaired with the data stored in yourethereal hard disk, those stored sam-skars, fructify in congruence with the

rays of the planets. So, if at a particular time your

destiny is meant to provide you withwealth, good looks, luxury, goodtimes, the stored samskars that matchyour destiny at the time will fructi-fy.

On the other hand, if physicalpain, loss in business, difficult days,are a part of your destiny at a partic-ular time, then the karmas matchingthis negative period will come to foreand fructify. And what you receive inthe fructification of these past karmas,you take ownership of and begin thecycle all over again, reloading yourkarmic matrix instead of exhaustingit.

You have thoughts all day, everyday. You think about your thoughts,about why you have these thoughts,feel good about some and chastiseyourself for some. Of course you do,they are your thoughts, right? Wrong!They are thoughts that you receive,which come and go through yourmind.

Our minds should be open vesselsallowing these thoughts to enter

and leave, watching them from a dis-tance, in third person. Instead we lidthe vessel as soon as a thought comesfloating in, paint it in emotion andmake it ours. It then adds to ourkarma, positive or negative depend-ing on the thought. And before youknow it, one thought links to anoth-er and you gain ownership of a longchain of thoughts.

The positive samskars will be con-verted in the future into Bhog (plea-sure and riches). The negative sam-skars into Rog (debt, disease, and mis-fortune). And divine deeds will getconverted into Yog (spiritual evolu-tion).

One can extend this point to thefate of countries as a whole too.Countries can be divided into thosethat offer lesser comforts and luxu-ries called Tapo Bhoomi, where peo-ple exhaust more of their negativekarmas and also practice penance andausterity. And other countries thatfulfill the Rajasic experience calledRajo Bhoomi, are where people enjoyand exhaust their positive karmas, bygetting consumed by luxury, comfortand wealth.

Spiritually evolved people knowhow to re-balance their karma and

negate samskars through the practiceof recitation of advanced mantras andperforming a lot of seva, thereby tilt-ing the balance in favour of perceivedpositivity.

When your thoughts, which arenot really your own, lead you to per-form actions you consider worthy ofpride, you take ownership of theseactions and add to your samskars. Itcould be something as simple as help-ing an elderly cross a road to some-thing as large as donating a large sumof money to charity. You feel goodabout yourself and add to your pos-itive karma.

When positive samskars fructify,rewarding you with good days, pros-perity, health, you tend to spend it inindulging your whims and fancies.Some become vain, some abuse thisreward and eventually end up with amassive karmic negative tilt.

It is important to realise thatwhile it is your past actions that haveearned you such luxuries, it is yourdestiny that lead you to earn themand you as an individual have no rolein it.

Credit for the good deeds orblame for the bad, neither is yours totake. These rewards are automatical-ly fructified to balance the karmic bal-ance sheet thereby leading to auto-matic exhaustion and redemption ofstored samskars.

Knowledge or gyan helps peopleto re-examine the above principlesand use them for personal evolution.

There are essentially 3 types of peo-ple:

l The astute, who understand thissubject and try to improve their bal-ance sheet by simply reducing theirdesires, thereby spending less of theirpositive karmas.

l The more astute, who practicetapasya including voluntary suffering,for example fasting, long hours ofmeditation and spiritual sadhana.

l The most astute, who understandthe only way to transcend karma is tonot take ownership of their actions,thereby exhausting the all kinds ofsamskars and karmas and eventuallyfreeing themselves from the shacklesof karmic connections.

It takes a certain level of spiritu-al evolution to be the third type ofperson but that is the ultimate goal.

May this dawn upon you and mayyou succeed in your endeavour.

The writer is the author of Hingori Sutrasseries of spiritual books

Blindfold ofLady Justice

THE KARMIC CONNECTION

Reform your thinkingThe secret to managing anger and hatred lies in your thought. Changethe way you think to fix these negativities, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

Every action and thought that crosses your mind leaves an imprint on your destiny, to befructified at a later point in this life or future lives. These are samskars, writes HINGORI

THE POSITIVESAMSKARS WILL BECONVERTED IN THEFUTURE INTO BHOG

(PLEASURE ANDRICHES). THE

NEGATIVESAMSKARS INTO

ROG (DEBT, DISEASE,AND MISFORTUNE).AND DIVINE DEEDS

WILL GETCONVERTED INTOYOG (SPIRITUAL

EVOLUTION)

If you want your crystals to help you, allow them to thrive, says SUMIRANANNAMARIA KASHYAP in part three of the ‘Cosmic heirloom’ series

Crystals are conductors of healing,uplifting energies. Sometimes, youmight find that you don’t ‘feel’ the

same way around them, as you did before.Nothing has changed in those crystals, but,as ‘mood mirrors,’ they’re trying to show youthat, possibly, something has changed withinyou — for worse, or, for better.

Should you be willing to treat this in aintrospective manner, you might allow yourcrystals to become trustworthy guides, thathelp you understand your day-on-day trig-gers. Eventually, you’ll know when to bringwhich crystal to the forefront, and witheveryday that passes by, you will find thissmall team of guides to be indispensable.The energy exchange can be quite intense,so, like you, crystals need time and space todetox and recharge. While some identify asubtle, but significant difference between theidea of cleansing, clearing and chargingcrystals, I personally find that these termsare largely interchangeable.

METHODS FOR CHARGING CRYSTALSSome do well under clean, pure, run-

ning water, or sunlight. Others aren’t meantfor water, or the sun at all — they may dis-solve, or fade. Take note of specific dos anddon’ts from your vendor, depending on thecrystal you get. If sunlight works for yourchosen crystal, opt for the gentle warmth ofthe early morning, or late evening sun.

Charging under the full moon, withdirect exposure, is popular. I quite like bury-ing my crystals in the earth, the mud of mypotted rose plants. Most crystals come fromthe Earth’s bedrock, so I feel they would liketo hibernate there. The rose is the flower ofthe heart and resonates personally, but youcan go with whichever one is your favourite.

If you have singing bowls for medita-tion, you can charge your crystals to theirsounds, too. And, if you want somethingeven simpler, then, just the warmth of your(clean) hands, moisturised with something

gentle, so as to not disturb the compositionof the crystal. If you are unsure, use an oilthat complements the crystal and rub a fewdrops into your palms. I personally findfrankincense, myrrh, cedar, sandalwood,moringa and jojoba work with most.Otherwise, think of why you’re using a crys-tal, find an essential oil that serves the samepurpose; and add a few drops to a carrier oilthat suits your skin, before application.

CREATING A SACRED SPACEStoring your crystals properly is a funda-

mental step. And, if you like to wear them asyou are going about your day, they will stillcomfort and support you. But, when you sitdown to work with them in a meditative orprayerful way, it helps to designate a specialspace to do so. It doesn’t matter if this space isa small corner, where you can sit on a matand work with your crystals, or a full-fledgedaltar. What you don’t need is external cacoph-ony, your phone ringing constantly, and dirtysheets, mat, clothes, or hands. If you practice

other methods of divination, you can keepthe associated material in this space. Even ifyou don’t, you can just keep symbolic talis-mans, that represent your hobbies, work,family, personal beliefs and so on. You canadd your favourite flowers, or decorate thisspace with the colours that uplift your spirits.

As an extension of the ‘mood-mirror’thought, sometimes, try including colours,or souvenirs that you tend to avoid. See howthey make you feel in the presence of yourcrystals, and think about why you avoidthem. The avoidance could be a nudgetowards an energy block, one that could layall your diligent efforts to waste if you ignoreit. This is probably what needs the mostwork. Remember, while ‘out of sight, out ofmind’ makes convenient sense, it doesn’t talkabout what may have left sight and mind, tolodge itself deep into the soul.

The writer is a content creator (freelance) withdeep interest in metaphysical healing and communica-

tion, divination tools and flower therapies

Energising your crystals

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | MARCH 01, 2020 hyderabad 12

Birthwas

cinematicMy birth was

truly cinematic; it wasprecipitated labour. I

was born in a rickshaw inwhich my mother,

accompanied by my futuremother-in-law, was on the

way to hospital. There washeavy downpour and power

had gone. The tyre of the rick-shaw burst and it stopped. I was

born in the dark.My life as a child was fun-filled;

but I was not naughty per se. I usedto have lot of fun as child and I was

very expressive. I was studious untilClass X and was also involved in activ-

ities like sports, elocution etc. – it was amultifaceted childhood.

White coatfascin-

ationI had a

fascina-tion forthe whitecoat, Iwanted tobecome adoctor right

from my

childhood;my mother too

wanted me tobecome one. Icouldn’t get aseat in medi-cine in myfirst threeattempts. I was

simultaneouslydoing B.Sc

Agriculture in col-lege where my father

was a professor. I got 4/4 GPA and was a top-per, but I wanted to do MBBS. After my thirdattempt, I was asked not to try and my fatherwas against it. My father went abroad for hisPhD and got me M.Sc seat in Kansas state.The road for me to go to America for PG

was nicely laid, but my desire to be adoctor was undiminished.

In Bapatla I used to hide theMBBS books under thehaystack on the terrace. Ifixed a bulb there and Iwould tell anyone whoasked that I was studyingfor B.Sc but would study

for MBBS entrance. Ihid my preparation. My

father was surprised whenI was going to give my med-ical entrance. He asked mehow I could write the examwhen I hadn’t studied. Thatwas the year that I got the seat.

Father said MBBS wasridiculous

My father was not at all happywhen I got the MBBS seat. He askedme why I wanted to waste three yearsagain and then study for another 5-6 years.He said it was ridiculous and didn’t allow meto join MBBS. I waited for 10 days. I had totake transfer certificate to join the medicalcollege and time was running out. So, I putmy foot down and told my father that I want-ed to do medicine and if he did not allow meto do so, I would not do B.Sc. Since I was hell-

bent on doing MBBS despite thecounselling sessions, he gave in.

This was in 1977. Now he acknowl-edges that it was a good decision. I wasnever a rebel but I was also not sub-

servient to my father’s dictum.

Failed in pre-clinicaltests

In Guntur MedicalCollege, I did everything,

except study. I wasinto sports, debat-

ing, and wasinvolved in

literary activi-ties, ragging, hang-ing out with girls. Thecollege had such a niceatmosphere; I felt it was forenjoyment and not studying. As aresult, I failed in Biochemistry in my pre-clinical tests. I was never a student whofailed and had this innate ability to absorbknowledge very easily. It was a shock to meand one of the most depressing academicmoments of my life. Eventually, I startedwandering on roads with people below me

academically. I used to sit in GunturShankar Vilas, and would pass

comments on girls. Afterabout a month, people

who noticed mew h i l i n g

away my time informedmy father. My father gave me a dressing downand lectured me on how I was wasting myselfcoming from a socially respectable family. Irealised my mistake, had I not done so, mylife would not be what it is now. This was in1978. After 6 months I could re-write the test.During those 6 months, I taught English ina tutorial and was paid Rs 700 as salary. It gaveme a purpose in life.

Sold fridge for ticket to EnglandDr Satish Kutty took me to England in 1989,

a move that was to have the biggest influenceon my life. The stint in England set a higheryardstick and changed my outlook towards life.I was in Sancheti Hospital and Dr Kutty was

my boss. I

thought hewas joking when he saidhe would to take me to England. One day I gota letter inviting me to join the course based onDr Kutty’s reference. There was no exam, notest, it was a bolt from the blue. Two monthslater, I sold my fridge and scooter and pur-chased the air ticket. I didn’t want to takemoney from anyone.

Killed one patientIn my profession, everyone faces a time

where there is an error of judgment. Onesuch incident that

a l w a y shaunts me is thatof a 63-year-old womansuffering from acute arthritis.She was literally on her knees,crawling. One of my other patientstook me to her home. She didn’t want tobe operated and said she was able to man-age. I convinced her and her children thatI would make her life better. We broughther to hospital and one week later we per-formed surgery, but she died on the oper-ation table. She had blood clots in her leg.For eight years, she had been crawling andhad developed blood clots. During thesurgery, the blood clots moved to her heartand she died. I was 100 per cent respon-sible for her death as I failed to order aDoppler test before the surgery. It wasvery sad and painful moment for me.I was in depression for about 3

months and couldn’t face thechildren or talk to anyone.

Felt like quittingprofession

Even till five years ago, Iused to feel like quitting theprofession whenever we losta patient, even if it was not myfault. However, this is not so sincethe past five years; I have thou-sands of pleasant memories of thepatients whom I treated successful-

ly. There was one girl with rheuma-toid arthritis with both knees and

hips completely damaged and inwheelchair for 10 years. She was from

a very poor family and couldn’t afford topay the bills. We charged the bare mini-

mum for her treatment. Some patients callme “Devudu” and give me much happiness.I feel very humble; I tell them I am God’s ser-vant. The day I fell I am God, it will be theend of me. I am not religious man, but I dopray and I believe that there is some super-

natural force.

Ortho because of accidents After MBBS, I wanted

to do PG and assessed theoptions. There were somany accidents and frac-tures I heard about and Irealized that someonewith a broken bonewill invariably goto anorthopaedicsurgeon.

Ir e a l i s e d

that it was agood career

option. The fact isthat orthopedics is

very uninspiring and avery poor cousin of general

surgery. Orthopedics in itselfwas unglamorous as at that time,

there was no concept of joint replacements.Pure practical calculations made me takeortho in DNB. At the age of 40, I got FRCS.After MBBS, I went to Pune where DrSancheti was kind enough to give meseat. My operation theaters arenamed after these people.

KIMStoSunshine

Lot of peoplespeculate aboutBhaskar, my co-brother, and why Iparted ways withKIMS Hospital.Basically, I was verypassionate about devel-oping a focused orthope-dic hospital which was notpossible under umbrella of KIMSbecause it is a multispecialty hos-pital. So I thought if I have my own

hospital, I can do it. It was just athought processes. I didn’t have money,but others trusted me. These hospitalswould never be possible with my incomeand balance sheet. When I startedSunshine ten years back, my bank balancewas less than Rs 1 lakh. I started a hospi-tal which is now worth almost Rs 600 crore.It was because of people who trusted me andtheir goodwill that created this tremendousopportunity. They just sent me check of Rs1 crore without any questions. I keep tellingyoungsters that goodwill is an intangible assetand not the balance sheet.

Bommarillu fatherI am the coolest father and very liberal. My

son Adarsh is an orthopaedic surgeon andmy daughter Kavya is still studying. My sonalways says that I am ‘Bommarillu father’,but that’s the way I am. My life revolvesaround family and friends and the best Ican do for them. My son never puts hissurgical coat on to hanger, and I pick itup and tidy up. He doesn’t change, andI don’t change. Every day, it’s a ritual.My daughter got the President’s goldmedal for the best child artiste in amovie ‘Little Soldiers’.

More than their achievements,their outlook towards life, their

temperament and respect towardselders, their humility please me.A lot of people compliment mefor my children. My wife has amajor influence on them.Their behavior and etiquettemakes me proud. Neverhave I got a negativeremark about my chil-dren who areso unlikeme.

In Bapatla Elementary School, they used togive full piece of chalk, if you came first in

class. Getting the chalk piece was the ultimate gift. Iused to compete for that. My toughest competitor was a girl,Mayuravalli, she is now a scientist in Canada. Invariably, thechalk was won by either one of us. Once, when she won it, Igot so upset that I literally pounced on her and broke it. Shecried the entire day and headmaster was very upset and I gotpunishment. From then on, I resolved that I would do no suchthing anymore.

Cinematicdisparity in love

My wife Bhavani and I are related so I know her fromchildhood. She was studying in Siddharatha Medical

College. She is the daughter of Bhavanam Venkatrami Reddy whowas a minister at the time, and became the Chief Minister. We didn’t even

have a fridge at home while she used to travel by car. There was totalcinematic disparity economically. I took almost a year to agree to her proposalbecause of our economic disparity. She won’t go out without car and we didn’t

even have a scooter. When she used to visit Guntur, I took her in city bus to a movie.Generally, the inter-city buses in Guntur are packed with people and I used to take her,

just to gauge her reaction. I was testing her, and she came out with flying colours,never expressing any irritation or dissatisfaction. We dated for about 5-6 years andour parents accepted our relationship. She wrote to her father “I like Gurvi, thoughhe is at the starting point of his career, I am confident that he will make it in life”.

I remember the letter very well. I was pleased with her confidence in myability. We got married in 1984.Bhavani did DGO in AFMC

when I was in Pune.Adarsh was born in

1986.

ARE YOU ACTING IN RAJAMOULI’SMOVIE: It might happen, may be in RRRor somewhere he could fit me in a roleACTING AS CAREER: no, but I want totry anchoring as a career. Whoevercelebrity comes to me, I takeinterviews for consultationMY FAVOURITE FOOD: JunnuFITNESS REGIME: Every morningfrom 6 am to 7 am, I play tennis withmy wife; we have a tennis court in our

homeFAVORITE SPORTSPERSON: RogerFederer for his tenacity and talentIRRITATED BY: Ill treating of a patientand those who don’t respect elders orare not faithfulSCARED OF: water and heightsFAVOURITE MOVIE: Mayabazar,Gundamma katha, Sitaramayya garimanavaravlu, The Day of the Jackal.

FAVOURITE ACTORS: Many, but at themoment, Pooja HegdeFAVOURITE COLOR: PurpleWEIRD HABIT: snoring, I ask aquestion and don’t wait for the answerTHING YOU WANT TO CHANGE INYOURSELF – getting irritated orsnappingCOUNTRIES YOU TRAVELLED- 95,last year alone I travelled 11 countires

WEAKNESS – Sweets. I love junnu somuch that I call my grandson ‘Junnu’.His name is Arjun.FAVOURITE SONG – Aradhana moviesong Vennelaloni vikasameveligincheda nee kanulaa. I am sort ofpianist and songs are important part ofmy lifeFAVOURITE SINGER – Kishore Kumar,Md. Rafi, SP Balasubramanyam

THINGS TO DO AFTER RETIREMENT– travel, cook, gardening andphotographyWHAT IMPRESSES YOU MOST –honestyADVICE GIVEN TO YOU – treateveryone as your family memberDESCRIBE YOURSELF IN THREEWORDS – honest, fun loving andoutspoken

Brokechalk

Nobody believes I am doctor

Even though I do about 20 surgeries a day, I am into multiplethings. I manage this as every minute is a celebration for

me. I am blessed with this attitude. I always try to maketime for people who try to reach out. I don’t seewhat I can get out of every minute, if I getsomething, it’s a gift. I write books, docomedy, do interviews and have my ownYouTube channel. Sometimes if yousee me in social gatherings, youwon’t believe I am a doctor. Iplay pranks, crack silly jokesand dance like a child. Idon’t have any hangups. Some criticiseme, but I am notpretentious. I stillstand behind thedoor and scarepeople with a‘boo’.

Fatherbeat mewith belt

W hile my father was very strict,my mother was stereotypical

mom. As a child I did lot of naughty stuff. Wehad a drumstick tree in our backyard; I was

forbidden to climb it as the wood is quite fragile. Oneday, when my mother gave me rava laddu, I picked four

and climbed the tree to hide the three extra laddus. My father sawme when I was climbing down. He thrashed me with a belt for my two

mistakes –climbing the tree, and stealing more than my share of rava laddu. Hetied my hands to window with a string for 4-5 hours. Despite the

beatings, I was naughty. I have two brothers who are quitestudious -- one studied in IIM Ahmedabad and has his

own consultancy while the other studied in IIT-Kharagpur and is a dean at a

university in Texas.

FAVOURITE BOOKS – Theworld in my pocket andEnlightenment now. Iintend to bring second partof my book Gurvayanam

From a truant medic who failed in preclinicals to one who hasestablished a chain of world-class hospitals to spread 'sunshine' amongpeople having mobility problems, Dr A.V. Gurava Reddy has come along way in life. In an interview to THE PIONEER, he shares the secretof his joie de vivre so much so that he continues to yell ‘boo' just toscare people even now! He reveals to thedaily's correspondent Naveena Ghanatehow he became a doctor overriding hisfather's decision to send him to theUS for M Sc, his love marriage andhis indiscretions as a youth.

Live as if you were to die

tomorrow.Learn as if

you were tolive forever

-- byMahatma

Gandhi

As a child

With father DrSatyanarayanaand sonDr.Adarsh

With wife Bhavani