ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · india on monday successful- ... the cm chose...

12
India on Monday successful- ly flight-tested the indige- nously-developed hypersonic technology demonstration vehicle (HSTDV), joining a select group of countries hav- ing the capability to develop the next-generation hyper- sonic cruise missiles, officials said. The HSTDV, based on hypersonic propulsion tech- nologies and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), will help India develop futuristic space assets like long-range missile sys- tems and aerial platforms, they said. In a sudden development on Monday, the state government issued orders prohibiting prop- erty registrations across Telangana from Tuesday until further orders. The state government issued orders declaring holidays for all registrar and sub-registrar offices until further notice as it prepares to bring a new Revenue Act in the ongoing session of the Legislative Assembly. However, registration of will deeds, administration of mar- riages and franking services will continue as usual. Ostensibly, the new Act aims to tame corruption in the rev- enue department. Accordingly, the authorities concerned stopped booking slots for registrations and sell- ing the revenue stamps on Monday itself. Only those who booked slots earlier were allowed to get their lands and other properties registered as per schedule. The state government has also decided to abolish VRO (village revenue officers) sys- tem in the revenue department amid increasing complaints of corruption against VROs and frequent incidences of ABC nabbing VROs while accepting bribes. Accordingly, orders were issued to VROs to surrender all revenue records available with them to the state government with immediate effect. Rejecting media reports that he was contemplating floating a national party, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday said that he has no such plans on the anvil, at present. However, he gave enough hints that such an eventuality is all too possible. “I will take a decision after deliberating on the need for floating a new political party at the national level. There is no need to go to national pol- itics, as of now,” the Chief Minister said. “No Naya Bharath…No Giya Bharath. The name ‘Naya Bharath’ is good. However, there is no need to believe the talk doing rounds in this regard. I will not go alone to the nation- al stage,” KCR said. Speculations of KCR mulling a new ‘national level’ political party had been sparked by a comment attributed to the Chief Minister that there is a political vacuum at the national level as the BJP has failed at the Centre. Also, it’s no secret that KCR accuses the Congress of ‘utter failure’ to corner the BJP-led Union Government on any issue. KCR’s comments came at the end of the TRSLP meeting that was held at Telangana Bhavan on Monday evening. The Chief Minister, speaking at length on the deliberations at the meeting, made it clear that ‘goondas and dadas’ will no longer be able to encroach lands after the New Revenue Act comes into force in the State. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was on Monday seen without a face mask inside the House when the monsoon session of Legislative Assembly com- menced. KCR, who entered into the Assembly premises wearing a face mask, removed it later and attended Assembly pro- ceedings without wearing one. While all members, includ- ing Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, were seen wearing face masks till the House was adjourned, the Chief Minister walked inside the House with a kanduva that he tried to use as a mask. He was seen struggling to cover his mouth and nose with the kanduva — in vain — while moving condolence resolutions and addressing the House on Day-1. KCR repeatedly tried to cover his mouth and nose several times as the kanduva kept slipping below his nose while he was speaking. Though wearing of masks both inside the House and in Assembly premises was made mandatory by the Speaker, the CM chose to ignore it. Though no reasons were cited either by CMO or Assembly officials as to why KCR did not wear a face mask inside the House, there was a discussion on this issue by TRS ministers and MLAs in the Assembly premises. They opined that KCR might have removed the mask inside the House as only members with negative reports were allowed inside and as such he did not see any risk of infection inside the House. KCR ignores mask rule in House, relies on kanduva Days after arresting Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi on drug peddling charges, Bengaluru Police continued their crackdown on the ille- gal drug market with sever- al others - including stu- dents and the son of a police constable - arrested and raids being carried out across drug seizures being made in the city. The police said that some of those arrested are stu- dents who were drug users before they turned to selling the banned substances. "In the last week we have been able to arrest 28 ped- dlers in 14 cases. As a result, in two divisions - east and south-east - we have been able to (seize) narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances worth over ? 1.5 crore," S Murugan, Additional Commissioner of Police (East), told reporters on Monday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has cautioned the gen- eral public not to deal with around 350 confirmed attached immovable proper- ties suspected to be involved in money laundering. These properties have been attached by the ED under Section 5 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The list of properties can be seen on the ED web- site. In a statement, the ED said: “The general public is cautioned not to deal with such immovable property in any manner whatsoever as the said property may be confis- cated by the Government at a later stage as a result of pro- ceedings under PMLA”. T elangana Assembly Speaker P Srinivas Reddy on Monday adjourned the House for Tuesday after the Members unanimously passed two separate condo- lence motions mourning the deaths of former president Pranab Mukherjee and sit- ting TRS MLA S Ramalinga Reddy who died recently. Moving the motion for Mukherjee, who passed away on August 31, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao said the political doyen played a crucial role in Telangana for- mation as the head of a com- mittee appointed by then UPA Government on the statehood issues. "Not only as a trou- bleshooter, but also he is known as man for all sea- sons," KCR heaped praise. Businessman Deepak Kochhar and husband of former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate for alleged money laundering in a deal between the bank and Videocon Group. He had been questioned since noon today before he was arrested at night. The probe agency had filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) early last year against Chanda Kochhar, her husband and Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon Group to investigate alleged irregularities and corrupt prac- tices in sanctioning ? 1,875 crore in loans by ICICI Bank. The Enforcement Directo rate is also probing at least two other instances of loans given by ICICI Bank during Ms Kochhar's tenure to Gujarat- based pharmaceutical firm Sterling Biotech and to Bhushan Steel Group; both these are also being probed on alleged money laundering charges. First day Metro transports 19K citizens The Hyderabad Metro was back on tracks on Monday, but there was not much excitement when it came to patronage. On the first day after resumption of ser- vice as part of ‘Unlock-4’, the HMRL said that patronage was limited to a mere 19,000 passen- gers on Corridor 1 (Miyapur to LB Nagar), a far cry from the 4- lakh odd passengers that used to patronise it every day before lockdown. The HMRL has opted for resumption of services in a graded manner. HMRL MD NVS Reddy said, "Around 120 train trips were made on Monday from 7 am to 12 noon and 4 pm to 9 pm on Corridor 1 as against about 800 trips on all corridors in the pre-Covid days. Around 19,000 passengers availed the service, which was on expected lines.” Sneha Reddy, who travelled f r o m Ameerpet to Miyapur at 9 am, said, “There was no crowd — only a few passengers. Nobody was standing. There was ther- mal screening and sanitisers placed at many points. At the terminal station, I saw that the train was being sanitised.” She found the physical dis- tancing measures and hygiene rules being strictly followed noteworthy. Syed Rizwan, who travelled on Monday said, “Travelling wasn’t the same as before. They have incorporated safety rules with markings and hygiene measures — now it’s upto us to maintain physical distance and wear face masks”. Presence of antibodies indi- cates previous exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus but may not always translate into protection against the disease, say scien- tists, citing imponderables such as what kind of antibodies, how many and how long they last. As worries over India's Covid-19 spike mount the country added 90,062 cases on Monday to take its tally past the 42-lakh mark scientists are grappling with the pivotal issue of antibodies and trying to understand how they impact on the progression of the dis- ease. But the jury is still out there with several studies and hypotheses but no consensus yet. The only thing that can be said with any degree of uncer- tainty is that antibodies is a sign that the person has already been infected with the novel coronavirus, the scientists said. Immunologist Satyajit Rath said he would prefer to wait and see where the evidence goes. Antibody presence in itself tells us nothing about dis- ease progression in individuals, said the scientist from New Delhi's National Institute of Immunology (NII). Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday cleared the name of renowned poet and short story writer Rama Chandra Mouli of Warangal district for the Kaloji Narayana Rao Award for 2020. The prestigious award will be presented to Mouli at a pro- gramme to be held on September 9 in connection with the birth anniversary of ‘Praja Kavi’, Padma Vibushan Kaloji Narayana Rao. The Telangana state govern- ment felicitates poets, short story writers, intelli- gentsia and litterateurs annually by present- ing them with the award. Mouli retired as a professor of an engi- neering college at Warangal. His popular works of poetry include Deepasikha, Smruti Dhara, Antardahanam, Antara and Asampurna. Two doctors in the Osmania General Hospital have been reinfected with Covid-19. The two doctors are doing their residency in general medicine at the OGH. This is in addition to the two cases already reported in Telangana. The two cases of reinfection were also apparently of medical per- sonnel.

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Page 1: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

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India on Monday successful-ly flight-tested the indige-nously-developed hypersonictechnology demonstrationvehicle (HSTDV), joining aselect group of countries hav-ing the capability to developthe next-generation hyper-sonic cruise missiles, officials

said. The HSTDV, based onhypersonic propulsion tech-nologies and developed bythe Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO), will help Indiadevelop futuristic space assetslike long-range missile sys-tems and aerial platforms,they said.

�* � +�������

In a sudden development onMonday, the state governmentissued orders prohibiting prop-erty registrations acrossTelangana from Tuesday untilfurther orders.

The state government issuedorders declaring holidays forall registrar and sub-registraroffices until further notice asit prepares to bring a newRevenue Act in the ongoingsession of the LegislativeAssembly.

However, registration of willdeeds, administration of mar-riages and franking serviceswill continue as usual.

Ostensibly, the new Act aimsto tame corruption in the rev-enue department.

Accordingly, the authoritiesconcerned stopped booking

slots for registrations and sell-ing the revenue stamps onMonday itself. Only those whobooked slots earlier wereallowed to get their lands andother properties registered asper schedule.

The state government hasalso decided to abolish VRO(village revenue officers) sys-tem in the revenue department

amid increasing complaints ofcorruption against VROs andfrequent incidences of ABCnabbing VROs while acceptingbribes.

Accordingly, orders wereissued to VROs to surrender allrevenue records available withthem to the state governmentwith immediate effect.

������������������� �������������+&�*+��� �,��#�� +�������

Rejecting media reports that hewas contemplating floating anational party, Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao on Mondaysaid that he has no such planson the anvil, at present.

However, he gave enoughhints that such an eventuality isall too possible. “I will take adecision after deliberating on theneed for floating a new politicalparty at the national level. Thereis no need to go to national pol-itics, as of now,” the ChiefMinister said.

“No Naya Bharath…No GiyaBharath. The name ‘NayaBharath’ is good. However, thereis no need to believe the talkdoing rounds in this regard. I

will not go alone to the nation-al stage,” KCR said.

Speculations of KCR mullinga new ‘national level’ political

party had been sparked by acomment attributed to the ChiefMinister that there is a politicalvacuum at the national level asthe BJP has failed at the Centre.

Also, it’s no secret that KCRaccuses the Congress of ‘utterfailure’ to corner the BJP-ledUnion Government on anyissue.

KCR’s comments came at theend of the TRSLP meeting thatwas held at Telangana Bhavanon Monday evening.

The Chief Minister, speakingat length on the deliberations atthe meeting, made it clear that‘goondas and dadas’ will nolonger be able to encroach landsafter the New Revenue Actcomes into force in the State.

�* � +�������

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao was onMonday seen without a facemask inside the House whenthe monsoon session ofLegislative Assembly com-menced.

KCR, who entered into theAssembly premises wearing aface mask, removed it laterand attended Assembly pro-ceedings without wearingone.

While all members, includ-ing Speaker PocharamSrinivas Reddy, were seenwearing face masks till theHouse was adjourned, theChief Minister walked insidethe House with a kanduvathat he tried to use as a mask.

He was seen struggling tocover his mouth and nosewith the kanduva — in vain— while moving condolenceresolutions and addressingthe House on Day-1. KCRrepeatedly tried to cover his

mouth and nose several timesas the kanduva kept slippingbelow his nose while he wasspeaking.

Though wearing of masksboth inside the House and inAssembly premises was mademandatory by the Speaker,the CM chose to ignore it.

Though no reasons werecited either by CMO orAssembly officials as to whyKCR did not wear a face

mask inside the House, therewas a discussion on this issueby TRS ministers and MLAsin the Assembly premises.

They opined that KCRmight have removed the maskinside the House as onlymembers with negativereports were allowed insideand as such he did not see anyrisk of infection inside theHouse.

*'��%*��'�%��

KCR ignores mask rule inHouse, relies on kanduva�.����$�

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Days after arresting Kannadaactress Ragini Dwivedi ondrug peddling charges,Bengaluru Police continuedtheir crackdown on the ille-gal drug market with sever-al others - including stu-dents and the son of a policeconstable - arrested and raidsbeing carried out across drugseizures being made in thecity.

The police said that someof those arrested are stu-dents who were drug usersbefore they turned to sellingthe banned substances.

"In the last week we havebeen able to arrest 28 ped-dlers in 14 cases. As a result,in two divisions - east andsouth-east - we have beenable to (seize) narcotic drugsand psychotropic substancesworth over ? 1.5 crore," SMurugan, AdditionalCommissioner of Police(East), told reporters onMonday.

�������� �� �*+�� +�������

The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has cautioned the gen-eral public not to deal witharound 350 confirmedattached immovable proper-ties suspected to be involvedin money laundering.

These properties have beenattached by the ED underSection 5 of Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act, 2002(PMLA). The list of propertiescan be seen on the ED web-site. In a statement, the EDsaid: “The general public iscautioned not to deal withsuch immovable property inany manner whatsoever as thesaid property may be confis-cated by the Government at alater stage as a result of pro-ceedings under PMLA”.

"��!�*�(�,�(�� �/��� �*��!����� ��*�����! '!!Telangana Assembly

Speaker P Srinivas Reddyon Monday adjourned theHouse for Tuesday after theMembers unanimouslypassed two separate condo-lence motions mourning thedeaths of former presidentPranab Mukherjee and sit-ting TRS MLA S RamalingaReddy who died recently.

Moving the motion forMukherjee, who passed away

on August 31, Chief MinisterK Chandrashekhar Rao saidthe political doyen played acrucial role in Telangana for-mation as the head of a com-mittee appointed by thenUPA Government on thestatehood issues.

"Not only as a trou-bleshooter, but also he isknown as man for all sea-sons," KCR heaped praise.

�������#!�����$�����%������������!"���&!�������������'�����'���!���* � �������+�

Businessman Deepak Kochharand husband of former ICICIBank CEO Chanda Kochharhas been arrested by theEnforcement Directorate foralleged money laundering in adeal between the bank andVideocon Group. He had beenquestioned since noon today

before he was arrested at night.The probe agency had filed

a criminal case under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) earlylast year against ChandaKochhar, her husband andVenugopal Dhoot of VideoconGroup to investigate allegedirregularities and corrupt prac-tices in sanctioning ? 1,875

crore in loans by ICICI Bank.The Enforcement Directo

rate is also probing at least twoother instances of loans givenby ICICI Bank during MsKochhar's tenure to Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firmSterling Biotech and to BhushanSteel Group; both these are alsobeing probed on alleged moneylaundering charges.

First day Metro transports 19K citizens�* � +�������

The Hyderabad Metro was backon tracks on Monday, but therewas not much excitement whenit came to patronage. On thefirst day after resumption of ser-vice as part of ‘Unlock-4’, theHMRL said that patronage waslimited to a mere 19,000 passen-gers on Corridor 1 (Miyapur toLB Nagar), a far cry from the 4-lakh odd passengers that used topatronise it every day beforelockdown. The HMRL has

opted forresumptionof services ina gradedmanner.

H M R LMD NVSReddy said,"Around 120train trips were made onMonday from 7 am to 12 noonand 4 pm to 9 pm on Corridor1 as against about 800 trips onall corridors in the pre-Coviddays. Around 19,000 passengers

availed thes e r v i c e ,which was one x p e c t e dlines.”

S n e h aReddy, whot r a v e l l e df r o m

Ameerpet to Miyapur at 9 am,said, “There was no crowd —only a few passengers. Nobodywas standing. There was ther-mal screening and sanitisersplaced at many points. At the

terminal station, I saw that thetrain was being sanitised.”

She found the physical dis-tancing measures and hygienerules being strictly followednoteworthy.

Syed Rizwan, who travelledon Monday said, “Travellingwasn’t the same as before. Theyhave incorporated safety ruleswith markings and hygienemeasures — now it’s upto us tomaintain physical distance andwear face masks”.

�* � �������+�

Presence of antibodies indi-cates previous exposure to theSARS-CoV-2 virus but may notalways translate into protectionagainst the disease, say scien-tists, citing imponderables suchas what kind of antibodies, howmany and how long they last.

As worries over India'sCovid-19 spike mount thecountry added 90,062 cases onMonday to take its tally past the42-lakh mark scientists aregrappling with the pivotal issueof antibodies and trying tounderstand how they impacton the progression of the dis-

ease.But the jury is still out there

with several studies and

hypotheses but no consensusyet. The only thing that can besaid with any degree of uncer-

tainty is that antibodies is a signthat the person has alreadybeen infected with the novelcoronavirus, the scientists said.

Immunologist Satyajit Rathsaid he would prefer to waitand see where the evidence

goes. Antibody presence initself tells us nothing about dis-ease progression in individuals,said the scientist from NewDelhi's National Institute ofImmunology (NII).

������������� ��� ���������������������� �� ��� �����:����:�!�� �����!��;���:�<��=, ��* � +�������

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao onMonday cleared thename of renownedpoet and short storywriter Rama ChandraMouli of Warangaldistrict for the KalojiNarayana Rao Awardfor 2020.

The prestigious award willbe presented to Mouli at a pro-gramme to be held onSeptember 9 in connectionwith the birth anniversary of

‘Praja Kavi’, Padma VibushanKaloji Narayana Rao.

The Telangana state govern-ment felicitates poets, short

story writers, intelli-gentsia and litterateursannually by present-ing them with theaward.

Mouli retired as aprofessor of an engi-

neering college atWarangal. His popular worksof poetry include Deepasikha,Smruti Dhara, Antardahanam,Antara and Asampurna.

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Two doctors in the OsmaniaGeneral Hospital have beenreinfected with Covid-19.

The two doctors are doingtheir residency in general

medicine at the OGH. This is in addition to the

two cases already reportedin Telangana. The two casesof reinfection were alsoapparently of medical per-sonnel.

Page 2: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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Vice President MVenkaiah Naiduon Monday sug-gested that milkbe included eitherin breakfast ormid-day meals toimprove the nutri-tional levels ofchildren. Naiduspoke to UnionWomen and ChildDevelopment Minister SmritiIrani in this regard, an officialstatement said.

Irani assured Naidu thatthe Central governmentwould consider recommend-ing to all the states to includemilk in the mid-day mealscheme. Earlier in the day,Secretary, Department ofAnimal Husbandr y andDairying Atul Chaturvedi

called on the vice presidentand briefed him about variousmeasures being taken to helpthe poultry and dairy sectorsto tide over the problems inthe wake of COVID-19 pan-demic, the statement said.

He informed Naidu that thegovernment was encouragingentrepreneurship in the poul-try sector and providing sup-port by way of incentives and

policy intervention. He alsosaid the Department ofAnimal Husbandry wouldconsider recommending tothe Ministry of Finance theneed to restructure loans forthe poultry industry.

Chaturvedi also apprisedNaidu of the stepping up ofprocurement by milk cooper-atives in the organised sector.The government is providingan interest subvention of twoper cent per annum to coop-eratives on working capitalloans, the statement said.Also, an additional incentiveof two per cent interest sub-vention is being given in caseof timely repayment. On thesuggestion of the vice presi-dent, the secretary assuredthat the government wouldconsider extending a similarfacility to private dairies, itsaid.

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Notification for the by-electionto Dubbaka Assembly con-stituency is likely to be issuedin the third week of September.The by election is likely to beheld along with BiharAssembly elections. The TRShas focussed its attention onwinning the Dubbaka seat.Following death of sitting TRSMLA Solipeta RamalingaReddy, the by election wasnecessitated.

According to the sources,the TRS leadership is likely togive the part ticket to Sujata,widow of late RamalingaReddy's or to his son SatishReddy. Since the monsoonsession of the state legislativeAssembly commenced fromMonday, TRS president andChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao is likely toannounce the candidate forDubbaka by election on thefloor of the state legislativeAssembly.

Ramalinga Reddy, who wasa journalist, contested as TRScandidate to the Assembly

from Dommata constituencyin 2004 and 2008 and fromDubbaka constituency in 2009,2014 and 2018. He won allelections barring the 2009 elec-tions. His nearest rival wasCheruku Mutyam Reddy in allelections barring the 2018polls. Mutyam Reddy who quitCongress and joined the TRSat the time of elections in2018 died September in lastyear. Mutyam Reddy's sonSrinivas Reddy is also aspiringto contest from Dubbaka con-stituency as TRS candidate

and has already embarked oncampaigning.

The Dubbaka constituencyis in close proximity to highprofile constituencies ofGajwel, represented by theChief Minister, and Siddipet,represented by FinanceMinister T Harish Rao. HarishRao has been touring Dubbakaconstituency extensively andholding meetings with partyworkers mandal wise. Hisobjective is to ensure that theparty cadre remains in tact andwinning the hearts of the dis-

gruntled elements among theparty. He is also concentratingon party leaders and activistsjoining the TRS from otherparties to weaken the rivals.

Meanwhile, M.Raghunandana Rao from BJPwho had contested the previ-ous election and lost to lateRamalinga Reddy is tryingonce again and started visitingthe constituency. He is promis-ing better compensation forland oustees of Mallannasagar.He was quoted as saying thathe would quit within sixmonths if he could not getcompensation on a par withthe oustees at Gajwel andSiddipet.

Telangana Jana Samithi(TJS) led by Prof. Kodandaramhas also announced that itwould contest the elections,stating that the seat was allot-ted to them in the previouselections as part of the jointcontest. Congress party hasalso announced that it wouldcontest the by-election. KVenkateswara Reddy from theparty has been acting as in-charge for the constituency.

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Telangana reported 1,802new Covid-19 cases, takingthe tally to 1,42,771 whilenine more deaths pushed thetoll to 895, the state govern-ment said. GHMC account-ed for the most number ofcases with 245, followed byRangareddy (158),Karimnagar (136) andSiddipet (106) districts, abulletin said on Monday,providing data as of 8 pm onSeptember 6. The cumulativerecovered cases stood at1,10,241 while 31,635 areunder treatment. As many as36,593 samples were tested onSeptember 6. Cumulatively,17,66,982 samples have beentested. The samples tested permillion population was47,594, the bulletin said.

The Congress has timeand again gotParliament stalled for

days. In 2015, Congress MPsstalled both the Upper andLower Houses, not to raise thecomplex problems the coun-try faces or to protect itsinterests, but because a courtissued summons to SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi inthe National Herald case.

Congress MPs stalledParliament and accused theNarendra Modi governmentof resorting to vindictive pol-itics against their party.

When the court issuedsummons to Sonia and Rahul,motives were attributed tothe Modi Government.

Ever since the Congresswas routed in 2014, its MPshave been directing theirindignation at Parliament.

Courts, right from lower tohigh courts, opined that therewas prima facie evidence ofirregularities indulged in bySonia and Rahul in theNational Herald case.

The EnforcementDirectorate had to attachproperties worth hundreds ofcrores.

In fact, Congress lent Rs 90crore to a firm calledAssociated Journals Limited.Firstly, under the People’sRepresentation Act, it is acognizable offence for a polit-ical outfit to extend loan to acompany. The purpose of theloan was cited as to bring outthe National Herald newspa-per.

Secondly, Sonia and Rahulfloated the ‘Young IndiaCharitable Trust’. They togeth-er held 76 percent of theshares, while their trustedlieutenants Motilal Vora andOscar Fernandez held theremaining 24 per cent.

Nobody knows the activi-ties of the charitable trust. Butit got all shares of theAssociated Journals trans-ferred to it for a paltry sum ofRs 50 lakh.

The 1938-foundedAssociated Journals owned

properties worth several thou-sands of crores at many places.It was clearly evident that theobjective of Sonia and Rahulwas to take possession ofthese assets. Shareholders ofAssociated Journals were keptin the dark over its takeover byYoung India.

Former Law MinisterShanti Bhushan and formerSC judge Markandey Katjupleaded ignorance of transferof their shares. During theCongress regime, severalassets were illegally trans-ferred to the AssociatedJournals Limited.

In today’s India, such irreg-ularities are intolerable.

If ED attaches properties ofYoung India, acquired illegal-ly, the Income-Tax depart-ment wonders how can YoungIndia be treated as a charita-ble trust. The Young IndiaTrust is on the verge of losingits identity as a charitabletrust for indulging in businessactivities.

Such irregularities hadtaken place during Congressrule, but they rarely came topublic’s notice.

However, for Congressmen,if anyone files cases ques-tioning irregularities and if acourt consequently servesnotices to their leaders, its‘vindictiveness’ and an oppor-

tunity to stall Parliament. There are many instances of

the Congress trying to stallParliament on trivial issueslike Sushma Swaraj helpingLalit Modi after 2014 elec-tions, Modi accusing theCongress of being hand-in-glove with Pakistan and overpurchase of Rafale warplanes.

Since 2014, Congress hasfilibustered Parliament activ-ity on one pretext or the other.

Rahul Gandhi calling the

PM a thief provoked the peo-ple who rejectedthe party in2019. Evenafter this, theCongress didnot learn its les-son and mend itsbehaviour.

The people welcomed theabrogation of Article 370, butthe Congress stalledParliament.

Knowing well that theCitizenship Amendment Actwas not detrimental to theinterests of the citizens of thecountry, the Congress createdunrest in society disruptingthe House proceedings.

Surprisingly, the Congress,which has no regard for anaugust institution like theParliament, is alleging thatQuestion Hour is being dis-pensed with in the monsoonsession of Parliament com-mencing from September 14.

It is everyone’s knowledgethat MPs obtain valuableinformation from the gov-

ernment making use of theQuestion Hour. But

under emergency sit-uations, there havebeen instances ofdoing away with the

Question Hour. In fact,this has happened six times.

During the Emergency too,Question Hour was not held.

Currently, an emergencysituation prevails in the coun-try.

The MPs and employeeswho work in Parliament willbe present at the monsoon ses-sion to discharge their consti-tutional obligations. Undersuch a scenario, the govern-ment has decided to conveneLok Sabha and Rajya Sabhafor four hours each day to getemergency Bills passed andordinances promulgated.

In view of Coronavirus, thegovernment has decidedagainst sparing one hour forQuestion Hour. The govern-ment sent letters to presidingofficers of both the Housesand to the Opposition parties.

Attributing motives to it is notadvisable.

If the past five years are anyindication, there have been afew instances of either theCongress or the Oppositionparties making good use ofQuestion Hour.

During 2015-19, only 40per cent of the time of theQuestion Hour was used, whilethe Opposition parties squan-dered the remaining time.

There have been instancesof the Opposition servingnotices to the Chair, urgingcancellation of Question Hourin favour of discussions onimportant problems of theday.

During the past five years,Question Hour should havebeen held for 332 hours, butwas held for only 133 hours.

Now, the Opposition isaccusing the Modi govern-ment of stifling their voice bycancelling Question Hour.

The people are well aware ofwho has stifled the voice thatquestions.

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The government gaveenough indications of its moveto abolish VRO system afterthe VROs were instructed tohand over all the recordsincluding original, photostatcopies, online copies, printedand handwritten copies avail-

able with them, to the tahsil-dars by 3 pm. Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar directed col-lectors of all districts to ensurecompliance of orders on sur-render of revenue records byVROs by Monday evening.

Meanwhile, the TS Cabineton Monday approved the draftRevenue Bill that will be intro-

duced in the Assembly.The government will debate

the new Revenue Bill onSeptember 10 and 11 andenact the new Revenue Act.

Passage of the Act in theAssembly will be a formality asthe Government enjoys anoverwhelming majority in theHouse.

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Continued from page 1

The new Revenue Act will bewatertight. In fact, it will have nocomparison in the country. Wewill introduce the Revenue Billin the House on September 9,”the Chief Minister said.

He said that tahsildars willregister agriculture lands whilesub-registrars would be con-fined to registration of non-agri-culture lands.

The Chief Minister said thatthe government would issueanother passbook to farmers,this one containing details of thelandowners family tree.

He confirmed that Ministershave been directed to come tothe House “fully prepared andwith full information to counterthe opposition”.

“We did a lot for the peopleand we have to highlight thiswell in the House,” KCR said.

The Chief Minister alsoexuded confidence that theTRS candidate will win theforthcoming Dubbaka by-elec-tion with a majority of at leastone lakh votes. “Don’t believesocial media messages as socialmedia has now become anti-social media now,” he said.

KCR also exuded confidencethat the TRS will win anythingbetween 94 to 104 wards in theGHMC whenever elections areheld. “The Congress tally will godown and there would be noimpact of the BJP in the GHMCelections. However, BJP voteshare would increase marginal-ly. It may, at best, win one or twowards,” the TRS chief said.

He added that three surveysconducted so far overwhelm-ingly favoured the TRS.

Referring to the spread ofCoronavirus infections, theChief Minister squarely blamedPrime Minister Narendra Modifor the situation. “Modi didn’tlisten to my advice. I asked Modito give time and allow labour-ers to return to their nativeplaces before implementing thelockdown,” he said.

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“Passengers were veryhappy with the sanitisationmeasures, maintenance ofphysical distance etc, andmostly, they behaved respon-sibly,” said NVS Reddy.

In Phase-II, fromSeptember 8 onwards, ser-vices will commence onCorridor 3 (Nagole toRaidurg) while in Phase-IIIfrom September 9 onwards, allthe three Corridors (C1, C2and C3) would be made oper-ational, HMRL officials said.

Continued from page 1

The HSTDV is capable ofpowering missiles to attain aspeed of around Mach 6 orsix times the speed of sound,the officials said, adding onlya very few countries like theUS, Russia and China havesuch a capability.

The HSTDV operates on ascramjet engine, as againstthe ramjet engine which isused on most missiles. Theramjet engines operate atsupersonic speeds of up toMach 3.

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Among the substancesseized were ganja (cannabis,48 kg), ganja oil (500 litres),LSD strips (1,100) andMDMA, or Ecstasy (980tablets). The police alsorecovered 450 grams ofMDMA crystals and 25grams of brown sugar.

Substances recovered fromthe south-east were ganja(187 kg), ganja oil (950grams) and hydroganja(which is grown indoors).

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Of the 300 and more prop-erties, a majority are locatedin Bachupally, Qutbullapurmandal of Rangareddy dis-trict, followed by Loyapallyand Bodakonda,Ibrahimpatnam, Hyderabad,Warangal, Nizamabad andother areas. The attachedassets are believed to belongto fugitives who wereinvolved in various whitecollar crimes like ponzischemes.

Presence of nAbs in suffi-cient concentrations and forlonger period is the most like-ly indicator of protection of theindividual from next expo-sure leading to illness i.e.Covid-19, she explained.

Bal also noted that there isno consensus on what levels ofnAbs are 'protective' from the

public health perspective or toensure that plasma therapy islikely to be useful.

Different sero-survey testshave been conducted in Indiain the last few months with theaim of indicating the actualnumber of infected cases in thecountry.

A sero-survey involves test-ing the blood serum of a group

of individuals for the presenceof antibodies against that infec-tion to know who has beeninfected in the past and hasnow recovered.

Surveys carried across met-ros suggest that Covid-19 casesare far more than actuallyreported. According to Rath,one of the many problems inlooking for easy patterns in the

serological evidence is thatnot everyone is using the sameantibody tests.

In fact, all antibody tests inthe market are not against thesame viral protein target, andsome investigators use only onetarget, others use more. And itis possible that tests differ intheir sensitivity, Rath told PTI.

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Continued from page 1

His novel Kaala Nalikacreatively described theprogress of the movement forTelangana. Minister for cul-ture V Srinivas congratulat-ed Rama Chandra Mouli forbeing shortlisted to receivethe Kaloji Award.

Continued from page 1

Though all ministers andMLAs had masks, the protec-tive gear was seen hangingaround their necks instead ofcovering their mouths andnoses.

Speaker P Srinivas Reddyhad earlier asked all membersto undergo mandated testsand use face masks. He sug-gested the members not toshare food with others andavoid touching iron and steelfurniture on the Housepremises. All the memberswere mandated to produceCovid test

results before entering thehouse.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA), probingBhima-Koregaon case, hassummoned revolutionaryTelugu poet Varavara Rao'stwo sons-in-law as witnesses.The agency has asked Englishand Foreign LanguagesUniversity (EFLU) professorK. Satyanarayana and seniorjournalist K.V, Kurmanathto appear before it in Mumbaion September 9.

The duo has been sum-moned as witnesses undersections 91 and 160 of theCriminal Procedure Code.“NIA notice adds to our fam-ily distress at the time whenVaravara Rao's health condi-tion is not very good and thepandemic is fast spreading inMumbai. I was summoned toMumbai in these terribletimes,” said Satyanarayana.He recalled that the PunePolice had raided his flat inAugust 2018 on the pretext ofcollecting evidence againstVaravara Rao.

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Continued from page 1The ministers and members

who spoke for the motion recalledthe former president's role in theformation of Telangana State.The CM later moved a separatemotion to condole the death ofDubbaka legislator who passedaway due to illness on August 6.

The Assembly also mournedthe deaths of former memberswho died recently. Before begin-

ning the session, the Speakerannounced the Dos and Don’tsfor members and others whoenter the Assembly premises inview of the coronavirus pandem-ic. Srinivas Reddy said all themembers should get their bodytemperature examined every dayand if anyone is suffering fromcough, cold or fever, they shouldrefrain from coming to theAssembly.

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Curiosity over whether peoplehad been infected withCoronavirus unknowingly, haspushed the demand for anti-body tests among city dwellers.

Corporates and individualshave started seeking antibodytests to check whether theyhave been infected at somestage or need to be extra care-ful to prevent the infection.

Major diagnostic labs andeven hospitals said there is anactive interest among people tofind out if they have antibod-ies or not. At present major labsin the city are conducting anti-body tests for Rs 650 to Rs1,200. An executive at a diag-nostic center in the city saidthat they are conducting morethan 500 tests per day but itvaries from branch to branch.

As there are no clear instruc-tions either from the State orCentral government, diagnos-tic labs are using antibodytests to cash in on the curios-

ity among the public about theinfection.

M Nithin Kumar who gothis Covid test done in a privatelaboratory said, "They havecharged me Rs 3,000 for homesample collection. After my 17days of isolation, I was toldthere is no need for a test. But

I was curious to know if anti-bodies were formed and Ideveloped immunity. For Rs650, I got the test done and wasinformed about the presence ofantibodies."

Diagnostic centers are con-ducting two kinds of Covidantibody tests - a complete

antibody test and IgG antibodytest. Testing positive on eitheronly indicates that the personwas exposed to the infection atsome point in the past.

"Hundreds of people aremaking requests for antibodytests. They mostly prefer theIgG test. Some are coming in

the morning. This test doesn'trequire the patient to be fast-ing, so they can submit theblood samples any time in theday," said a private lab techni-cian.

If only IGM is positive, thereis ongoing infection. If IgG ispositive, the person was alreadyinfected and cured. If both IgGand IgM are negative, the per-son is not exposed to virus.

Dr A Manjunath, a generalphysician said, "For infec-tions, we see two kinds of anti-bodies IgG and IgM. IgMantibodies indicate acuteinfection and are producedduring recent infection inbody. After infection is goneand proper immunity is devel-oped, IgG antibodies are pro-duced. IgM antibodies inCovid typically develop after7 days and some may takemore time. IgG antibodieswill take 14 to 21days and itwill persist up to 3months.Antibody tests cannot tellwhether a person is infected atthe time the test is conducted".

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Engineering Agriculture andMedical Common EntranceTest for engineering aspirantstudents is going to be helpacross the state on September9, 10, 11 and 14. This year,1,43,165 candidates have reg-istered for one of the state'sbiggest entrance examination.

Keeping in view the specialcircumstances due to the pan-demic, the authorities are mak-ing sure they double check allthe preparations. Talking aboutwhat special precautions arebeing taken, Dr A Govardhan,Registrar of JNTUH shares,"We have made sure that everyexam centre is sanitised thor-oughly before hand. The examswill be conducted in two ses-sions - morning and evening.Hence, each centre will besanitised twice. We havealready made sanitiser avail-able at the centres, however ifthe students want they cancarry their own sanitisers."

Just like JEE Mains andNEET, JNTUH authoritieshave also made sure that allstudents can write the exams inthe nearest centres to theirhomes. They are also in talks

with the RTC officials to see ifsome buses can be used to helpthe students commute safely totheir examination centres.

"There is a set of instructionsthat we have released for thestudents. We have asked themto take all precautions likemasks, gloves and others. Allthe candidates should bring asigned declaration stating thatthey have not tested positive forthe Coronavirus or identified asa potential carrier of the Covid.The declaration will be provid-ed along with the hall ticket.Students will have to show theform to the security guard atthe entry into the exam venueand submit it to the invigilator.Every year we take the thumb

print of the students as mark ofattendance and also to makesure that there is no forgery.However, this year due to thepandemic, the students' photo-graph will be captured by acamera at their respective com-puters, which will then bematched with the photographon the hall tickets," DrGovardhan added.

The city traffic police offi-cials are also geared up for theexaminations. AdditionalCommissioner of Police,Traffic, Anil Kumar, says, "Wewill make all the necessaryactions to make sure that thereis no jams near the centres. Weare also planning to look at theparking facilities."

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In a time when transport work-ers are finding it difficult tomake ends meet, severaldepartments of state govern-ment, including PanchayatiRaj, Minority Welfare, DistrictWater Management andCommercial Tax, have failed tomake the payment of hiredvehicles for the past one year,some even more than that.

Many drivers' payment andextension has been kept onhold without any intimation tothem. Somesh Medaboina, adriver, who is waiting to bepaid by the officials, shares,"The department hires vehicles

at Rs 33,000 per month. I havebeen requesting them to payfor my vehicles for five monthsnow, and when I ask them torelease my pending bills theyask me to go to Secretariat andget my files cleared by theFinance Department. I havegone to the Commercial Taxdepartment office at least fourtimes, and Secretariat at leasttwo times. They have to pay meRs 1,65,000 for my vehicle."

The problem isn't just limit-ed to the city. Several vehicleowners in the rural Telanganahaven't been paid for morethan a year, curbing the spec-ulation that the pandemic is thereason for payment delays. GRaja Goud, a commercial ver-

hicle owner in Kamareddy,shares, "I have one four-wheel-er, which was used for the elec-tion duty - back in 2018. I havebeen going to the local author-

ities for payment ever since.However, each time I go theysay that the government hasn'tapproved the bill yet. Like me,there at least 70 more drivers

in the district." To run hiskitchen and keep his family fed,Raja has been taking money oninterest. Another issue that isbothering the vehicle owners is

that the government officialsare using their personal vehi-cles for official work and tak-ing the payment for it. This hassubstantially affected the vehi-cle owners' business. S Raju,General Secretary of TelanganaFour Wheeler Drivers'Association, Nalgonda district,says, "In Nalgonda, at least 85drivers have not been paid. Thegovernment officials are notsuppose use their vehicle andcharge the government for it."

As per Shaik Salauddin, theState President of TelanganaFour Wheeler Drivers'Association, at least 1000 vehi-cle owners are stuck in thestate, with no payment formore than 10 to 15 months.

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A newborn baby girl wasfound abandoned on the road-side near maternity hospital inKoti under Sultan BazaarPolice Station limits onMonday.

According to the police,the baby was found on theroadside at Esamiya Bazaar byGHMC workers who alertedthe Sultan Bazaar police. Thepolice shifted the baby tomaternity hospital at Koti, fortreatment.

"We have booked a caseunder section 317 IPC (expo-sure and abandonment of a

child under twelve years, byparent or person having careof it) and investigating, saidSultan Bazaar Inspector KSubarami Reddy.

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Municipal Administration andUrban Development Minister,KT Rama Rao formallylaunched the online and MeeSeva services of LandRegularisation Scheme (LRS).

Releasing the special posterdesigned to create awarenessamong people, the Ministerappealed to the general publicto make good use of the LRSto regularise, unauthorisedand illegal plots.

To ensure planned and sus-tainable development, the Stategovernment has decided todeny registration of plots pur-chased in such unauthorisedlayouts hereafter to ensureplanned sustainable develop-ment. However, only layoutsand plots with registered sale

deed or title deed existing as onAugust 26 this year will be con-sidered for regularisation onpayment of prescribed charges.

For regularisation of theirplots, the applicants shouldsubmit an online application atMee-Seva centre in prescribedformat along with relevant

documents before October 15.They should also pay registra-tion fee of Rs 1,000 in case ofindividuals and Rs 10,000 incase of layout developers.

If approved, the applicantshave to pay all the prescribedcharges before January 31,2021.

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Kushaiguda Police have takenlocal Congress leaders intocustody for protesting infront of Sub-Registrar Officeat Kapra by raising slogansagainst the government.

According to KushaigudaPolice, on Monday at around11:30 am, some Oppositionparty leaders gathered infornt of Sub-Registrar Officeat Kapra without prior per-mission and started raisingslogans against the govern-ment that they were unable topay the raised amount onnew layout regulation scheme(LRS).

The protestors who were

taken into custody were iden-tified as - TPCC secretary ofUppal constituencySingireddy SomashekharReddy, senior Congressleader Bojja Raghavareddy,State Congress vice presi-dent Kamasani Seetharam,Cherlapally Congress vicepresident Singi ReddyVenkat, SC Cell State Co-ordinator Pathi Kumar, Kapradivision president AdepuSrinivasulu, SC CellChariman of KapraJonnapally, Minority chair-man SK Server.

The protesters were takenin to preventive custody toavoid any untoward incident,said Kushaiguda Police.

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A notorious house burglarinvolved in 10 cases underthe limits of Cyberabad andHyderabad Commissioner-ates was arrested on Monday.The police officials recoveredproperty worth Rs 16.7 lakhsincluding 30 tulas of gold and829 grams of silver orna-ments from him.

The arrested person iden-tified as Avula Kiran Kumarwas involved in 10 cases in aspan of three months.

While KPHB police wereperforming night patrollingon early hours of Monday,they noticed a suspiciousperson and apprehended himat Addagutta Society inKPHB Colony along with aniron rod. After investigation,he disclosed his name asAvula Kiran Kumar and con-fessed to 10 house burglaryoffences in span of 3 months.

The police also arrested MSrinivasulu, who helped theaccused to dispose the booty.

According to police, AvulaKiran Kumar was earlierinvolved in 90 house burglar-ies. He further confessed thathe has disposed the stolenproperty of another 60 tulasof gold ornaments through areceiver M Srinivasalu toknown jewellery shop own-ers which is yet to be recov-ered.

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The CCS Police on Mondayarrested a couple for cheatingthirteen job aspirants to atune of Rs 10 lakhs under theguise of providing jobs inMNC companies.

The prime accusedKamatam Sanjay Kumar, agraduate along with his wifeKamatam Yamini lured manyjob aspirants assuring them toprovide jobs.

According to the policearound thirteen members whowere duped by the couple

approached the police andlodged a complaint. "The vic-tims stated that the couple col-lected Rs 50,000 from each ofthem under the guise of pro-viding training and job," saidK Manoj Kumar, Inspector ofPolice, CCS.

However, they did not paytheir salaries nor returnedtheir deposited money andabsconded in the month ofDecember 2019 added ManojKumar. Following a credibleinformation, the police arrest-ed the accused couple and sentto judicial custody.

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Mayor Dr Bonthu Rammohanalong with MLA KaleruVenkatesh visited AmberpetCircle and inspected the cre-matorium at Amberpet as partof Amberpet Junctionimprovement works and pro-posed road link road from AliCafé to Nagole Metro here onMonday.

After inspecting the grave-yard at Amberpet, the Mayorinstructed the GHMC engi-neering officials to developand beautify the graveyardand improve basic amenities.

Later the Mayor, MLA and

officials inspected the junctionimprovement works atAmberpet and proposed 150feet link road from Ali Café toNalla Cheruvu via NagoleMetro Depot. The Mayorasked the officials to submitthe report within a week.

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The police booked a caseagainst a dentist on charges ofsexually abusing his niece.

The dentist, abused the20-year-old girl who wasstaying in his house for edu-cation purposes. The sus-pect had been abusing the girlfor quite a long time but itcame to light only a few daysago when the girl musteredcourage and approached theCyberabad She Team andcomplained. Following this,the girl was rescued and acase of rape was booked.

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Hyderabad CricketAssociation (HCA) presidentand former Indian cricket cap-tain Mohammad Azharuddinon Sunday approached UppalPolice alleging that he was ver-bally abused by the HCA trea-surer Surender Agarwal.

Azharuddin in his com-plaint alleged that a false pro-paganda was spread againsthim in the association."Azharuddin alleged thatAgarwal abused one umpireYousuf and him in filthy lan-guage over some internal

issue," said Uppal Police.Meanwhile HCA treasurer

Agarwal said he did not abuseYousuf. “I’ve done nothingwrong nor abused anyone. Ijust asked Yousuf to follow afew procedures,” he said.

It is learnt that the formercaptain had been facing arevolt within the associationafter he decided to appointretired Supreme Court JudgeDeepak Verma as Ombuds-man of the association. Thedecision was opposed by theother four members.

The Uppal police havebooked a case under Section504 (Intentional insult withintent to provoke breach of thepeace) and 506 (Punishmentfor criminal intimidation) ofIndian Penal Code againstAgarwal. Further investiga-tion is underway.

Page 4: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

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Shocked over the state govern-ment’s sudden decision, all theVROs across the state handedover the revenue records to theTahsildars on Monday. All theVROs in the state wereinstructed to hand over therecords to the Tahsildars con-cerned with immediate effect.The government took thisdecision on Monday ahead ofintroducing the new RevenueBill during the ongoingAssembly session.

With the State governmentabolishing the VRO systemamidst increasing complaintsof corruption, there is no clar-ity yet on whether the VROswill be shifted to other depart-ments or not. However, theVROs were irked with thegovernment’s move. Theyseemed like they distancedfrom the Revenue Department.

The Chief Secretary SomeshKumar directed the Collectorsto complete the process of col-lecting revenue records fromthe VROs by 3PM onSeptember 7. He also directedthe Collectors to send a reportby 5PM on Monday itself tohim on the status of theprocess. In fact, followinginstructions from the Stategovernment, VROs made abeeline for Tahsildar’s offices indistricts to submit revenuerecords available with them toTahsildars of their respectivemandals. Tahsildars handedover the records to Collectorsbefore 5PM on Monday.

On Sunday itself, the VROsconducted a state-level meet-ing in Hyderabad. While wel-coming the new Revenue Act,VROs asked the governmentnot to detach them from theRevenue Department and

brand them as ‘corruptemployees’. A VRO fromRangareddy district on condi-tion of anonymity said that thegovernment has to ensure theirwelfare by providing job secu-rity. He also lamented thatgoing to other departmentsfrom the Revenue Department

will certainly be a trouble forthem.

Another VRO fromMahbubnagar said that he waspained at the state govern-ment’s decision. He said thatthe government should havepunished the corrupt VROs. “Iam habituated with this job

while working in the depart-ment for the last 15 years. Ihave to learn new things nowif I get transferred to anotherdepartment,” he said.

A VRO from Nalgonda dis-trict said that the governmentbranded VROs as corruptemployees. “I am ready to goto any department instead ofstaying with a corrupt employ-ee brand in the RevenueDepartment. Anyway I will getmy salary whatever the depart-ment it may be. I will be freedfrom maintaining land recordsas it is not that easy. Somehow,I am feeling happy and insome way I am not because Imay miss the access with thefarmers, who feed the nation.It's quite natural to anybody todigest the development”, hesaid.

On Monday, the VROs andVRAs handed over theirrecords in concerned Tahsildaroffices. Hustle bustle sceneswere witnessed at the Tahsildaroffices with the VROs andVRAs handing over the rev-enue records to the Tahsildars.One has to wait and see as towhat decision the governmentwill take in regard to VROs.

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Pan-India superstar Prabhason Monday adopted 1, 650acres of Khajipalli UrbanForest Block near Dundigal.The adoption took place underaegis of Rajya Sabha memberJ Santosh Kumar and ForestMinister Allola IndrakaranReddy. Prabhas and MPSantosh along with ForestMinister laid foundation Stonefor Eco Park and viewed theforest on from a temporaryview point. The Urban EcoPark will be named in thememory of Prabhas' fatherUVS Raju. Prabhas donated Rs2 crore and he would con-tribute more based on theprogress and requirements.

Forest Department is goingto convert a small portion ofthe Forest into Urban ForestPark while rest of the forest isgoing to be conservationzone. Kahajipalli reserve for-est is known for its medicinalplants and it's extended in 3compartments. The ForestDepartment is going to fencethe entire 1,650 acres andimmediately start develop-

ing Eco Park. Constructingpark gate, see through wall,walking track, view point,Gazebo, medicinal plant cen-tre would be constructed inthe first phase.

All the steps to preventencroachment of Forest landare also being taken up byForest Department. Prabhasstated that he was inspired byhis friend, Rajya Sabha MPJoginapally Santhosh Kumar toadopt Khajipalli forest areaand would donate more in

instalments, depending on theprogress of the work. Herequested the ForestDepartment to develop thereserve forest so that it wouldcreate an additional lung spacein HMDA limits and developa Eco park. The actor told thathis participation to help soci-ety through "Green Challenge"and adopting reserve forest hasgiven him immense satisfac-tion. Prabhas thanked RS MP,Forest Minister and Forestofficials.

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The Business AdvisoryCommittee (BAC) that methere on Monday under theChairmanship of AssemblySpeaker Pocharam SrinivasReddy and attended by ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao, CLP leader BhattiVikramarka and MIM FloorLeader Akbaruddin Owaisihas announced the tentativeschedule of the Monsoon ses-sion of the State Legislature.

The Assembly and Councilwill work till September 28with four holidays during thesession. The Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao assuredthe BAC to run the house fur-ther if need arises. The govern-ment will introduce the newRevenue Bill on September 9.

While question hour will be

limited to six questions andwill be of only one hour dura-tion, the zero hour will be lim-ited to half an hour. The pro-ceedings on the second day –Tuesday – will include govern-ment businesses and resolu-tions. The Assembly will not beworking for four days duringthe entire session, onSeptember 12 (Saturday) andon 13, 20 and 27 beingSundays. Bhatti Vikramarka,who opposed the shuttingdown of media point, demand-ed discussions on issues suchas Covid-19, sharing ofKrishna river water with AP,the Telangana Layout andBuilding RegularisationScheme, sanction of universi-ties, belt shops, podu cultiva-tion, demolition of old secre-tariat, SC, ST and BC sub plansand new education policy. TheState government, however,

has already agreed to discussany issue in detail and hasmade it clear that it was readyto extend the session further toaccommodate meaningfuldebate on pertinent issues.

Bhatti asked KCR to givefour days time to study theRevenue Act after the intro-ducing the Revenue Act in theHouse. However, the ChiefMinister questioned Bhatti asto what is the need of four daystime. Then Bhatti replied thatthe government took threeyears to introduce the newRevenue and questioned thegovernment why doesn’t thegovernment give a mere fourdays time to study it.A verbalspat took place between theChief Minister and Bhattiregarding media point. Bhattiquestioned the Chief Ministeras to how the government willlift the media point.

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The Congress LegislatureParty (CLP) on Mondaydecided to raise several issuesincluding Covid-19, filling upof vacancies in various govern-ment hospitals in the state andothers. The CLP also decidedto raise illegal projects onriver Krishna(Sangameshawara Project,Rayalaseema Lift IrrigationProject, GO No.203,Expansion of Pothireddypadyhead regulator), Hyderabadroads, LRS and BRS, borrow-ing of thousands of crores ofrupees as loan from varioussources/ordinance.

The meeting was heldunder the leadership of CLPleader Mallu BhattiVikramarka on Monday anddecided to raise several issuesin the monsoon Assemblysession. The CLP decided toraise the issues regarding,sanction of new universities,not appointing of regular VCs

and encroachment of primelands pertaining to OsmaniaUniversity, failure of the gov-ernment in filling up of thou-sands of vacancies in differentdepartments in the state andunemployment relief(Unemployment benefit); fail-ure of government double bedroom houses; excisepolicy(banning of belt shops,permit rooms etc); purificationof land records and also irreg-ularities; failure of govern-ment in allotment of 3 acreland to the SC and STs; con-stitution of pay revision com-mission, convert the CPS toold pension scheme and otherproblems of the employees;regarding podu cultivation inagency areas and protectingand implementation of forestrights act.

Also, it decided to highlightthe issue of sale of primelands in the state with specialreference to lands situatedand around Hyderabad atthrow away price and others.

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People have been coming outslowly shedding fear for thevirus as the number of thosewho test positive forCoronavirus is on the rise witheach passing day. Moreover, allmarkets have been functioningand there were no signs of vil-lagers imposing compulsorylockdown in their region. Aspeople are coming out, theirtransport needs are on the rise.

As a result more and moreRTC buses are being plied onroads. The occupancy ratiowhich was only 20 per cent hasnow increasing close to over50 per cent. Currently, theoccupancy ratio is put between43 and 46 per cent.

The revenue earned fromticket sales has become a

source of encouragement forthe transport undertaking.The RTC earns Rs 3.3 crorerevenue by way of sale of tick-ets as against Rs 1 crore perday earlier. Earlier, the cityused to account for the high-est number of Corona posi-tive cases. Subsequently, thecases under the GHMC lim-its have come down and thosein the districts close to thecapital city - Medchal andRanga Reddy - haveincreased.

Currently, the number ofcases in these areas has comedown. Elsewhere in the state,the cases are on the rise in dis-tricts. In Siddipet district, ear-lier one or two cases per dayused to be recorded. Now, atleast 100 cases per day arebeing reported.

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Dealing with a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) filed onCoronavirus issue, a divisionbench of the Telangana HighCourt directed the state gov-ernment to take steps foreffective implementation ofhelpline number '104' in theinterest of the public especial-ly the Covid-19 patients.

The division bench com-prising the chief justice of theJustice RS Chauhan andJustice B.Vijaysen Reddy laterposted the matter toSeptember 24 of this monthfor further hearing. The peti-tion was filed by 24 year oldcity based advocate SmritiJaiswal, a resident ofKundanbagh in Begumpet ofthe city. In her petition, shetold the HC that the state gov-ernment had failed in theproper maintenance of theCovid 19 helpline number104.

She urged the HC to declarethe ineffective and unproduc-tive handling over the numberby the authorities of the stategovernment as illegal andunconstitutional. She alsourged the HC to pass orders to

the authorities concerned toimplement StandardOperating Procedures (SOPs)and Protocal in order to be fol-lowed by the Covid-19helpline executives to assistand guide any person whosefamily friend or neighbour isfound Covid-19 positive. Shealso urged the HC to issueorders to the state governmentto have a fully functionalhelpline that provides realtime updates of informationregarding the availability ofbeds testing kits and ambu-lances in the area that thecaller belongs to.

‘Set aside GO No131’

City based well knownNGO Forum for GoodGovernance filed a PIL in HCurging it to set aside the GO131 issued by the MunicipalAdministration and UrbanDevelopment Department ofthe state government onAugust 31 last month forimplementation of LRS for theapproval of unapproved andillegal layouts in both ruraland urban areas of the state.The petition is expected tocome up for hearing duringthe next couple of days.

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Dr Murali Krishna, the pro-moter of Murali KrishnaMulti-specialty Hospital atEluru was arrested by the III-Town Police late on Sundayon charges of illegally run-ning a Covid-19 treatmentcentre and allegedly beingresponsible for a few deaths. A case to this effect was reg-istered a few days ago againstthe private hospital and DrMurali Krishna. The accusedwas later produced before amagistrate who sent him forremand till September 18.

He was later shifted to theBhimavaram Sub-Jail follow-ing a thorough medicalexamination as per proce-dures. The Murali KrishnaMulti-Specialty Hospital wasin the eye of a storm recent-ly when it was raided by ateam of local authoritiesunder the supervision ofMedical and Health Officer.

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Police Commissioner PPramod Kumar has urgedpeople who recovered fromCovid-19 to come forward todonate plasma to save thelives of virus positive patients.He released posters to spreadawareness on plasma dona-tion at his office here onMonday.

Speaking on the occasion,he said that they had set upa Covid-19 control room tocoordinate with plasmadonors and seekers. “Thecontrol room under thesupervision of AdditionalDCP Giriraju and RI Nageshwill collect the information ofthe donors and make it avail-able for the people in erst-while Warangal, Karimnagar,Khammam and Adilabad dis-tricts. People who need plas-ma can contact theWhatsApp number9491873930 to get details ofthe donors,” he added. Healso said that the Covid-19control rooms in the districtsof north Telangana werelinked to this control room inWarangal.

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The Maoists and police devisestrategies and counter strate-gies to gain upper hand overeach other in Agency areas ofthe state has stirring up a lotof interest among all. Thepolice have been combing theforest areas to frustrateattempts of the Maoists tocarry out recruitments.Significantly, in this backdropthe DGP spent five days tour-ing several Agency districtsand effected crucial changes inpolice department.

After 2005, the Maoistshave lost their presence in thestate. But they recouped dur-ing the lockdown period sig-nificantly. In January andFebruary this year, the Maoistaction teams enteredMancherial, JayashankarBhupalapalli Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Khammam dis-tricts from Chhattisgarh fol-lowing Operation Prahar. Thepolice felt that was temporary.But the Maoists began spread-

ing their party activities ratherclandestinely to the surprise ofthe Police Department.

The lockdown periodproved to be a blessing in dis-guise for the Maoists. Theyraised donations to the partyand acquired other parapher-nalia. The police registeredcases against some people'sorganisations for helping theMaoists recruit tribals. InSiricilla, some Maoist sympa-thisers were caught red-hand-ed collecting donations to theMaoists. On July 15, the policecame face to face with Naxaldalam, led by Mylarapu Adellualias Bhaskar, in forest areas ofTiryani mandal. Exchange offire had taken place.

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Agriculture Minister SNiranjan Reddy on Mondayreleased Siri City Compostorganic manure in to themarket at a function held atTourist Plaza here andexhorted farmers to patron-ise the Siri brand organicmanure. He asked officials tosensitise farmers on the useof it. The compost will beavailable at 600 TelanganaAgros centres in the state. Onthe pretext of reping bumperharvest, farmers have beenmade to use chemical fertilis-ers more sidelining the use oforganic manure.

Last year, the farmers used8.5 lakh tonnes of urea, thisyear 10 lakh tonnes wouldappear to be insufficient, hecompared. The agriculturedepartment is keen on sensi-tising farmers on applica-tion of fertilisers to fields, hesaid asking officials toarrange district wise pro-grammes to sensitise farmers.

This year, green manurewas applied in 12 lakh acresacross the state. From nowonwards, soil tests would beconducted twice a year andthe farmers would be issuedsoil health cards. Applicationof more and more chemicalfertilisers has been renderingvegetable and horticulturalcrops toxic.

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With some nurseries sell-ing seeds and plants,claiming to be hybrid vari-eties, that fail to germinate,the state government hasmade it compulsory fornurseries to get registeredbringing them under thepurview of the law.Horticulture Departmenthas been entrusted withthe supervision. Hereafter,the plant nurseries aresupposed to act responsi-bly as the government islikely to extract compensa-tion from them if seeds orsaplings fail to grow.

The 27-page GO listedout stringent rules to pro-tect interests of farmers.Earlier, the governmentinvoked the PD Act againstthose who supplied spuri-ous red chilli seeds tofarmers in Khammam dis-trict. Because of the spuri-ous seeds problem, thegovernment made it clearwhen the nurseries shouldsell the seedlings and thepunishment they wouldreceive in case of irregular-ities.

The governmentreleased the TelanganaRegistration of NurseryRules-2017 amending theAndhra PradeshHorticultural NurseriesRegistration (Regulation)rules of 2012. The fee fornurseries, which have lessthan 4 lakh saplings, is Rs500 and for others the feeis fixed as Rs 1,000.

The nurseries shouldrecord details like source ofprocurement of seeds, billdates, lot number, batchnumber, seed test results,date of manufacturing,expiry date, date of sowingthe seeds and the details ofsale of seedlings.

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Election for the post ofMaharashtra LegislativeCouncil's deputy chairpersonwill be held on Tuesday, thecouncil's chairman RamrajeNaik Nimbalkar said after thestate legislature's two-day mon-soon session began on Monday.

The opposition BJP, howev-er, called for postponing the

election in the wake of theCOVID-19 crisis.

"Members are aware thatthe important post is lyingvacant. The election for thesame will be held on Tuesday,"Nimbalkar said in theCouncil, and added that nom-inations for the election willbe scrutinised at 5 pm onMonday.

Leader of Opposition in theCouncil Pravin Darekar said theelection should be postponed.

"We had said (during ameeting of the businessadvisory committee) thatthe election should not beheld at this juncture giventhe COVID-19 crisis. Youcan see that several mem-bers are not present in theHouse today. All thesemembers will be deprived

of their rights," Darekar said.He noted that elections of all

local governing bodies havealso been postponed in thewake of the COVID-19 pan-demic.

"We can postpone this(deputy chairpersons) electiontoo," the BJP leader said.

The council chairman, how-ever, maintained that it is hisprerogative to schedule the elec-tion and it will be held onTuesday.

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The COVID-19 recovery ratein India has risen to 77.31 percent with 69,564 patients recu-perating from the disease in 24hours pushing the total num-ber of recoveries to 32.5 lakh,the health ministry said onMonday. The case fatality ratehas further dropped to 1.7 percent, it said.

According to the ministry,five states are contributing 60per cent of the total caseswith Maharashtra at the topaccounting for 21.6 per centcases, followed by AndhraPradesh with 11.8 per cent,Tamil Nadu 11 per cent,Karnataka 9.5 per cent andUttar Pradesh 6.3 per cent.

Maharashtra also con-tributed 26.76 per cent of theactive cases in the country, fol-lowed by Andhra Pradesh11.30 per cent, Karnataka11.25 per cent, Uttar Pradesh6.98 per cent and Tamil Nadu5.83 per cent.

These five states combinedpresently contribute 62 percent of total active cases, theministry said.

"On a continuous upwardtrajectory, India's total recov-ered cases have crossed 32.5lakh today, with 69,564patients being discharged inthe last 24 hours. This hasresulted in the recovery ratetouching 77.31 per cent," it saidin a statement.

In the last 24 hours, AndhraPradesh recorded the highestrecoveries at 11,915. Karnatakaand Maharashtra saw 9,575and 7,826 recoveries respec-tively. Tamil Nadu witnessed5,820 people recuperatingfrom the disease and UttarPradesh 4,779 recoveries dur-ing the same period, it said.

"These five states together

contributed 57 per cent of therecoveries in the last 24 hours,"the health ministry said.

It said various calibratedand focussed actions undertak-en within the umbrella strate-gy of 'test, track and treat' haveenabled early identification ofcases through aggressive andwide-scale testing.

"Better ambulance servicesand seamless point-to-pointmanagement of patients tofacilitate their timely hospital-isation before their health dete-riorates has led to a high num-ber of COVID-19 patientsrecovering and being dis-charged from the hospitals,"the ministry said.

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Amid the COVID-19 pan-demic, Rajasthan ChiefSecretary Rajeeva Swarup onMonday asked senior officialsto hold video conferences inplace of normal official meet-ings in the secretariat.

Taking the initiative amidthe rising number of coron-avirus cases and also to savetime, the chief secretary heldthe first video conferencewith officials to review thestatus of silicosis cases in thestate today.

Silicosis is a lung diseasecaused by breathing in tinybits of silica, a common min-eral found in many types ofrock and soil. Mines andquarry workers are prone toit due to exposure to silicaparticles over time.

Normally, official meet-ings in secretariat are held inthe conference hall and com-mittee room.

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At least 10 fishermenwere missing afterfour boats capsized inrough seas offMalappuram district,police said onMonday. One boatwith six fishermenfrom nearby Ponnani coast issaid to have capsized nearNattika in Thrissur district.

"The Coast Guard has beenpressed into action to rescuethe fishermen," the police said.

In another incident onPonnani coast, two fishermenwere missing after their fibreboat overturned in mid-sea,they said. Rescue operationshave begun.

In yet another incident,three out of five fishermenwho put out to the sea fromnearby Tanur coast have swumto safety off Parappanangadi.

A search is on for the twofishermen who were missing,

the police said. The CoastGuard officials reported thatanother fishing boat that setout to sea from Ponnani coastwith six fishermen was strand-ed in mid-sea near Ernakulamdue to engine failure. Anotherboat from Vellayil inKozhikode sank but the fish-ermen swam to safety earlyMonday, Coast Guard officialssaid.

The Marine enforcement istaking stock of the situation.

On Sunday, weathermensaid Kerala may experienceheavy rains and winds due tothe low pressure formed in theArabian sea.

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Karnataka Chief Minister B SYediyurappa on Mondaydescribed his government'scrackdown against drug ped-dling and substance abuse inthe state as unprecedentedand said there was no questionof protecting anyone involvedin the menace.

"It (investigation/crack-down) is going on with regardto drug menace, there is noquestion of protecting anyone.

For the first time in thecountry we have taken strongsteps against it," Yediyurappasaid.

Speaking to reporters here,he said the intention is to stopthe menace that is causingharm to youngsters and stu-dents, and authorities will takeall necessary steps for it.

Earlier in the day, HomeMinister Basavaraj Bommaisaid, investigation into drug

related cases is on, and that hehas directed the DirectorGeneral of Police to go for jointoperations with neighbouringstates against the menace, ifnecessary.

Police and authorities havein recent days arrested sever-al people in connection withalleged drug peddling andsubstance abuse in the state,and have seized ganja, hash oil,cannabis, MDMA, amongother things.

The recent arrests made bythe Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB), had also unearthedalleged links of drug peddlerswith Kannada actors andmusicians.

The central crime branchpolice investigation into thecase has led to several arrestsincluding actress RaginiDwivedi and high-end partyplanner Viren Khanna, amongothers.

Noting that a central team isvisiting the state to assess theflood damage, Yediyurappasaid he will be holding a meet-ing with them and discuss thesituation. "...they will be visit-ing different parts of the stateaffected by floods and comeback and hold discussionswith the Chief Secretary.

We are going to seek relieffor the loss, about Rs 4,500 toRs 5,000 crore.Once the teamcomes, we will get the clear pic-ture," he added.

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Putting an end to speculationabout him joining the Congressafter being released from jailrecently, Dr Kafeel Khan saidthat he is a doctor and wouldlike to remain so.

He was recently releasedfrom Mathura jail after theAllahabad High Court quashedhis detention under the strin-gent National Security Act(NSA). The court had orderedhis immediate release, assertingthat his speech at the AligarhMuslim University (AMU) did-n't promote hatred or violence,rather gave a call for nationalintegrity. Dr Khan, who ispresently in Rajasthan, toldPTI over phone that he will "notjoin any political party".

"I am a doctor and would like

to remain the same," he said andexpressed a desire to visit flood-hit areas of Bihar and help thevictims.

He said that when his releasewas delayed after the AllahabadHigh Court order on September1, it was feared that the UttarPradesh government was

preparing to implicate himagain in a case.

"Because of the apprehensionthat I could be implicated in anyother case by the Uttar Pradeshgovernment, Congress GeneralSecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra had helped me onhumanitarian grounds," he said

but made it clear that it shouldnot be construed as he is goingto join the Congress.

Dr Khan said there has beenno discussion regarding politicswith Priyanka Gandhi, nor hashe got any indication as suchfrom the Congress leader.

"As there is a Congress gov-ernment in Rajasthan and thedistance from Mathura toBharatpur is of just 20 minutes,Priyanka Gandhi offered me tocome to Bharatpur".

He thanked the Congressgeneral secretary saying it wasdue to her he got "security" inRajasthan. Dr Kafeel said thathe has written a letter to UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath urging him to rein-state him to his post atGorakhpur Medical College sothat he can serve the people.

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Chennai, The Tamil Nadu gov-ernment should defer reopen-ing of wildlife parks, zoos andsanctuaries across the state tak-ing advantage of the COVID-19pandemic and allow naturalrejuvenation of biodiversity,experts suggest.

The COVID-19 crisis couldbe converted into an opportu-nity not only to carry out envi-ronmental reforms to benefitthe people and the state but alsostrengthen the environmentand make the economy moresustainable in the coming years,they said.

The state government haspermitted numerous activities

in Tamil Nadu under 'Unlock 4;,to encourage economic devel-opment. On August 30, ChiefMinister K Palaniswami whileannouncing the extension of thelockdown till this month-end,pronounced further relaxations.

He however, said schools, col-leges, cinema halls, swimmingpools, amusement parks, beach-es, zoological parks, museumsand tourist spots would not bere-opened until further orders.

"The closure of tourism activ-ities due to COVID-19 crisis,especially in reserve forests andprotected areas i.e. nationalparks and sanctuaries, in TamilNadu, should be extended atleast till the end of this year sothat the natural rejuvenation of

forests and biodiversity cancontinue to prevail for somemore time," Dr P Durairasu,Principal Chief Conservator ofForests (PCCF), Head of ForestForce, Tamil Nadu, said.

Prof. L Venkatchalam, anenvironmental economicsexpert from the MadrasInstitute of DevelopmentStudies here, said the govern-ment could mull introducing

long-term measures like "GreenGDP," considered as an indica-tor of "economic welfare."

"The currently measured stateGDP cannot be treated as aproper indicator of economicwelfare as the GDP measure-ment does not make necessaryadjustments for changes in thevalue of the environment," heclaimed.

Elaborating, he said the totalturnover of the knitwear indus-try in Tiruppur in the state wasRs 50,000 crore in 2018-2019,which is included as 'income' inSGDP estimation.

However, the un-quantifiedenvironmental damage costsinflicted by the industrial activ-ities on society, in terms of

health cost, cost on agricultureand allied activities, and cost ofbiodiversity loss, as well asenvironmental defensive expen-diture (EDE), in terms of hos-pitalisation cost or additionalfertilisers to improve soil qual-ity, will amount to several thou-sand crores of rupees which arenot quantified and netted outfrom the SGDP, he said.

As the current SGDP doesnot indicate if the economy ismoving on an environmental-ly sustainable path or reflectstrue economic welfare of thesociety, periodical estimate ofeconomic value of non-marketecosystem services, environ-mental damage costs, and EDE,should be resorted to.

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The Supreme Court asked theCentre on Monday as to whyit has not banned the use oftunnels for disinfecting peoplefor COVID-19 despite takingthe stand that spraying ofchemical disinfectants is phys-ically and psychologicallyharmful.

A bench headed by JusticesAshok Bhushan, R SubhashReddy and M R Shah wasinformed by Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta that the HealthMinistry has not issued anyadvisory or guideline on use ofultraviolet lights for disinfec-tion of humans for COVID-19management.

He said that spraying of anychemical disinfectant is alsophysically and psychologicallyharmful for humans.

The bench then asked theSG that when the use of disin-fectant tunnels is bad then whythe Centre was not banning it.

Mehta said that appropriatedirections will be issued in thisregard.

The bench was hearing a PILfiled by one Gursimran SinghNarula, who has sought direc-tions to the Centre to forthwithban the installation, produc-tion and advertisement of dis-infection tunnels involvingspraying or fumigation ofchemical disinfectants onhumans.

The plea has also sought

forthwith ban on spraying orfumigation of organic disinfec-tants and exposing human toultraviolet rays for the purpos-es of disinfecting them.

The Centre in its affidavitsubmitted that as public healthand hospitals are state subject,it is for the States/ UnionTerritories to implement theguidelines issued by the HealthMinistry and the role of gov-ernment of India is limited toproviding necessary guidance

and financial support.It said that on June 9, an

expert committee meeting washeld under the chairmanship ofDirector General of HealthService to review the use of dis-infectant tunnels, variouschemicals and spraying of dis-infectant along with the effica-cy of such use of spraying/fog-ging.

The Centre said that thecommittee has reiterated thatspraying of individuals with thedisinfectants (such as tunnels,cabinets, cambers) is not rec-ommended as it would notdiminish the infected person'sability to spread the virusthrough droplets or contact.

The affidavit, filed byundersecretary in the Ministryof Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW), said the commit-tee further observed thatspraying disinfectants is not recommended in bothhealth-care and non-healthcare settings.

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The Congress on Mondayaccused the ruling BJP ofpoliticising the death of actorSushant Singh Rajput, termingit a new low in Indian politics.

Congress chief spokesper-son Randeep Surjewala con-demned the party and saidRajput's death wasbeing politicised todeflect attentionfrom the prob-lems faced bythe people inBihar.

"This is a newlow in the newIndia of BJP andPrime MinisterNarendra Modi," Surjewalasaid at a virtual press confer-ence.

He alleged that Bihar wasravaged by floods and reelingunder acute misery with thegovernment having "abdicat-ed its responsibility".

Congress leader in LokSabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury demanded thatthe Central Bureau of

Investigation (CBI) shouldconduct an impartial probeinto the death of the actor,unmindful of the politicalimplication of the case.

"Mr CBI and his masters,how many days will berequired to unearth the mys-tery of the death of great actor

Sushant Singh Rajput,already media trial has

been continuing infull swing whicheven can dwarf thejudicial trial.

"We will cer-tainly expect frompremier investigat-

ing agency CBI thatimpartial investiga-

tion will be conductingon the sensational death ofSushant Singh Rajput,unmindful of its politicalimplication (sic)," Chowdhurytweeted.

Surjewala claimed Biharhas rampant unemploymentwith over 4,00,000 unfilledposts, and the people of thestate have a dearth of rations.There are no opportunities forthe youth, he added.

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Baghpat (UP), Sep 7 (PTI) AnFIR has been lodged againstunidentified people forallegedly creating a WhatsAppgroup of school students andpositing obscene pictures andvideos in it, police said here onMonday.

Vikram Singh, principal of aprivate English-mediumschool in the city gave a com-plaint at the Baraut police sta-tion on August 31, alleging thatsomeone created a “biology

group of Class 10” on August28 and after adding students,posted obscene pictures andvideos in it, a district policespokesperson said.

A photo of a schoolteacherwas used as the group's display

picture and its administrator(s) asked for photos of a largenumber of students, he said.

When the students startedgetting obscene pictures andvideos, they told their parents,who informed the school,which found the group fake.

Police said prima facie itappeared to be the work ofthose associated with theschool as they had a picture ofthe biology teacher, whichthey used in their display pic-ture, as well as everyone'sphone number.

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Online classes for students of standards IX to XII of theMadhya Pradesh Board ofSecondary Education could not begin on Mondayfollowing an order from theboard for cancellation of theclasses.

Notably, the board's chair-person Radheshyam Julaniyaon Sunday evening said theacademic session for classesIX to XII through onlinemode will begin fromMonday with telecast ofaudio-visual lessons onDoordarshan from 7 am to10 am.

Later in the night, theboard's secretary AnilSuchari issued an orderwhich said, "The telecastfrom 7 am to 10 am is beingcancelled. Thus, the classeswill not be held."

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Page 6: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

An honest attempt by 23senior leaders of theCongress to assess thereasons for the party’s

steady decline over the last sixyears, and to present a plan for itsrevival, has been rebuffed by theGandhis and the coterie surround-ing them. This does not augur wellfor the party.

While it has faced many inter-nal dissensions and conflicts overpersonalities and policies, this iscertainly the biggest existentialcrisis that it has faced in a long timebecause it has become rudderlessand a sense of hopelessness hascrept into the rank and file.

Looking at the manner inwhich these voices were drownedin the last Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) meeting, it isclear that the Gandhis, who run theparty as a private limited compa-ny, and their sycophants, will notallow honest introspection.

There is a set pattern toresponses to calls for inner-partydebate when a member of theNehru-Gandhi family is at thehelm. Such moves are seen as arevolt and any talk of collectiveleadership and inner-party elec-tions is regarded as blasphemy.Then there are demands that arebandied about with the blessingsof the family, when a member ofthe family is not the head of theparty. These slogans were raised byfamily loyalists when PVNarasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesariand others were party presidents.

Going by this yardstick, thesignatories to the letter to theCongress president have reallydone something that is sacrilegiousbecause they seek internal debateand democracy when a Gandhi isat the helm. These senior leadersdecided to abandon the Congresstradition of beating around thebush. Instead they did somestraight talking, however bitterthis may sound to the party pres-ident. Referring to the majorreverses suffered by the party, thesignatories said they had wit-nessed “a steady decline” of theCongress Party “reflected in suc-cessive electoral verdicts” in Stateand general elections in 2014 and2019. They said “the reasons aremanifold and need to be immedi-ately identified. Otherwise, theCongress Party will find itselfmarginalised, both in the States,which is already apparent, as wellas at the national level.”

Even more significant isthe readiness of these signato-ries to do honest diagnosis andto search for answers and solu-tions. The letter bluntly tells theparty president the truth aboutthe worrying erosion of theparty’s support base, speciallyamong the youth. Analysing theparty’s electoral performancesince 2014, these leaders pointout that over the last six years,India had added 187 millionfirst-time voters. However, theCongress Party did not attractthese voters because “the youthvoted overwhelmingly for Modiand the BJP.” They pointed outthat the voteshare of the BJP,which had slumped to just78.40 million in 2009, rosesharply to 176 million in 2014and 229 million in 2019. Thiswas in sharp contrast to the per-formance of the Congress Party,which bagged 123 million votesin 2009 and was around this fig-ure (119.40 million) in 2019.

However, despite this disas-trous performance by the party,the signatories lament that theCongress Party “has not under-taken any honest introspectionto analyse the reasons for thecontinued decline.” In otherwords, these leaders are sayingthat the lack of introspectionbodes ill for the future of theparty.

The leaders have made aseries of suggestions. They wanta vigorous nation-wide mem-bership drive and elections at alllevels. Further, in view of thegravity of the challenges facingthe party, it is “imperative” tourgently establish “an institu-tional leadership mechanismto collectively guide the party’srevival”. In other words, there is

need for a collective leadershipat this juncture. Just domi-nance of a single family will notdo.

These are suggestions thatare coming from well-meaningleaders of the party and there isno malice. How can the partytake exception to the sugges-tions made in this letter? Also,they have not said this becausethey are pro-BJP as alleged ini-tially. None of these leaders havein the past shown any fascina-tion for Narendra Modi or theBJP.

But the Nehru-Gandhishave always shunned internaldebate. On May 15, 1999,Purno Sangma, Sharad Pawarand Tariq Anwar raised someimportant questions at a meet-ing of the CWC. There was araging debate about Ms SoniaGandhi’s citizenship status atthat time and that was the cen-tral issue in the Lok Sabha elec-tion. Mr Sangma directly askedher to clarify as to whether shehad dual citizenship of Indiaand Italy. He said he was puttingthis question to her in order toknow the facts so that partyworkers across the countrycould quash the rumours beingspread by the party’s opponents.Ms Gandhi refused to answerthe question. Instead sheresigned as party president,forcing the party to dismissPawar, Sangma and Anwarfrom the party. The NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)led by Atal Bihari Vajpayeewon that election comfortably.The Congress Party’s vote sharein that election was 28.30 percent. In 2019, this dropped to19.50 per cent.

Coming back to the pre-

sent, if these 23 leaders are mar-ginalised, what will theCongress be left with? Amongthose who have been identifiedby the media as signatories tothis letter are Ghulam NabiAzad, Veerappa Moily, PJKurien, Anand Sharma,Bhupinder Singh Hooda, KapilSibal and Prithviraj Chavan.

PJ Kurien joined theCongress in his student days in1959 and can claim 60 years ofassociation with the party. Hehas been in Parliament since1980. Veerappa Moily became aCongress MLA in Karnataka in1972 and has been a staunchCongressman for 50 years.Ghulam Nabi Azad’s associationwith the Congress is of similarvintage, having become secre-tary of a block Congress com-mittee in 1973.

It is sad to see the intentionsof individuals like Moily, Azadand Kurien, to name a few, whohave spent a lifetime in theparty, being doubted. At thisrate, their attempts to revive theparty will just be a cry in thewilderness and the Congresswill continue to shrink and loseits relevance.

The response of SoniaGandhi, Rahul and Priyanka tothese developments does notaugur well for the Congress.The signatories to the letterconstitute sane, sincere, credi-ble voices. By rebuffing them,the Gandhis are taking theparty further into the mire. Thiswill have tragic consequencesfor the Congress and, moreimportantly, for Indian democ-racy.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal)

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Sir — At a meeting of theShanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO), DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh told hisChinese counterpart that Indiawould not cede an inch of land.He stressed that India is deter-mined to protect the integrity andsovereignty of the country at allcosts. Chinese Defence MinisterWei Fenghe told Singh that rela-tions between the two countrieshad been seriously affected by theborder issue and the responsibil-ity for the border standoff layentirely with the Indian side.

The latest conflict betweenIndian and Chinese troops on thesouthern bank of Pangong Tsoraises concerns over escalation atthe Line of Actual Control. Chinaassumes that India is working atthe behest of the US. It even thinksthat if it fights a war with India,the US may join in and both ofthem may jointly counter it.Leaving China stunned, Indiashowed the audacity to carry outa pre-emptive strike against it. Infact, neither of the countrieswants a military conflict. Butboth are prepared for a large-scalemilitary conflict. The militarybuild-up and aggressive posturing

by both sides have raised the spec-tre of an armed conflict thatcould prove to be mutuallydestructive. Both the troops mustavoid ranting about battle-readi-

ness and inflicting heavy losses onthe enemy. The continuing stale-mate makes diplomatic interven-tions critical. Both the countrieshave the ability to resolve their

border disputes bilaterally, sothey must take the border disputesto the negotiation table.

Venu GSKollam

�������������������Sir — This refers to the news item,India replaces Brazil for 2nd Covidspot, The Pioneer, September 7.India has crossed four millionCoronavirus cases and overtakenBrazil to become the world’s sec-ond worst-hit country. But this isno surprise. India has beenrecording the most daily cases inthe world since August and hashad the world’s worst-recordedcase trajectory since August-end.The most important figurethrough any pandemic, however,is the number of lives lost to it.India’s case fatality rate of 1.7 percent is significantly better than theglobal average of 3.2 per cent. Ahard lockdown was one of the fewconcepts that had unanimousscientific backing. The Centre saysthat it bought us time to strength-en our healthcare infrastructure.This claim, though, will be put tothe test in coming weeks. Savinglives from this point will gettougher by the day, and how theGovernment handles this willdetermine how well India hasfared against the virus.

N Sadhasiva ReddyBengaluru

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Faced with a dwindling tax revenue since thelast financial year of 2019-20, the issue of“full” and “timely” compensation for the

shortfall in States’ tax revenue (their own collec-tion plus the amount received as their share inindirect tax collected by the Centre as per theFinance Commission’s devolution formula) vis-à-vis a given benchmark, has been a bone of con-tention between the Centre and the States. It hasacquired gargantuan dimensions during the cur-rent year with the Coronavirus pandemic forc-ing a collapse of businesses, cutting across almostall sectors (barring essential items) and in turn,leading to a steep fall in tax collection of boththe Centre and States. During 2020-21, the gapbetween what can be arranged from a tax pooland compensation requirement of the States isestimated to be �2,35,000 crore (during 2019-20,this was �70,000 crore). The compensation toStates is intertwined with the Goods and ServicesTax (GST) in vogue since July 1, 2017. The GSTCompensation Act, 2017 provides for compen-sation to the States for five years (2017-18 to2021-22) for the loss of revenue to be calculat-ed as the difference between their actual collec-tion (including transfer of their share in indirecttax collected by the Centre) and the amount theywould have got with annual growth at 14 per centover the 2015-16 level under the erstwhile dis-pensation (Central Excise Duty (CED)/servicetax/sales tax/Value Added Tax (VAT) plus otherlocal taxes).

To ensure this, the Union Government hadalso passed an amendment to the GSTCompensation Act (2018) to levy a cess on thesupply of certain goods and services. The cessis levied on demerit goods (those which fall inthe highest tax slab of 28 per cent — other slabsbeing five per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per centbesides the exempt category) such as automobiles,tobacco, drinks and so on with a proviso to usethe proceeds for compensating States. The cesswas to remain in force for five years in sync withthe Centre’s obligation to compensate States forthat period. The rationale behind keeping thesearrangements in place for five years was that atthe end of this transition i.e. 2021-22, the GSTdispensation would have acquired the much-needed “vitality” and “resilience” to yield suffi-cient resources for the States to meet their bud-getary requirements within a prudential limit setunder the Fiscal Responsibility and BudgetManagement Act (FRBM) thereby obviating theneed for any extra support beyond 2021-22.

During the first two years, viz. 2017-18/2018-19, collection from the cess was high-er than the shortfall in tax revenue faced by States.As a result, there was surplus of about �47,000crore in the cess pool as on March 31, 2019. Thishelped the Centre meet the impending challengeduring 2019-20 when cess proceeds were only�95,000 crore against compensation requirementof �1,65,000 crore.

During the current year, against compensa-tion requirement of �3,00,000 crore, cess proceedsare estimated to be about �65,000 crore leadingto a shortfall of �2,35,000 crore. In this backdropand with the States unwilling to relent on theirclaim for compensation in full, the Centre is talk-ing of what in legal jargon is termed as forcemajeure (unexpected circumstances). Put sim-ply, the latter has expressed its inability to payinvoking an event beyond control or what theFinance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, hasdescribed as an “act of God” (the Coronavirus).

The issue was discussed during a marathonmeeting of the GST Council on August 27, 2020.

Ruling out a hike in tax rates or theCentre making good the shortfall fromeither the Consolidated Fund of India(CFI) or borrowing against its balancesheet, Sitharaman presented twooptions for consideration by the States.

Under option one the Centre, inconsultation with the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI), will provide a specialwindow to the States to borrow �97,000crore (this is the amount attributable toimplementation of the GST, while therest is apportioned to the pandemic —as informed by the Revenue Secretary,Ajay Bhushan Pandey) at a “reasonable”rate of interest. The loan won’t be treat-ed as debt in the books of the StateGovernments and will be amortised(both principal and interest) from thecess collection. An additional FRBMlimit of 0.5 per cent of State GrossDomestic Product (SGDP) will beallowed.

Under option two, the States willborrow the entire GST compensationgap of �2,35,000 crore (includingCOVID-19 impact portion) from themarket. The collection from the cesswill only pay for the principal amount.As regards the borrowing treatment,only an amount up to �97,000 crorewon’t be treated as debt. No addition-al FRBM limit is allowed under thisoption.

The GST Council also decided thatthe above borrowing arrangementwould be for the current fiscal and areview would be done at the beginningof the next financial year.

By putting the above options, theUnion Government has made fourthings abundantly clear. One, it is notlegally bound to pay the compensationwhen there is no money in the cesspool; second, it won’t borrow on its bal-ance sheet but is willing to help Statesraise a loan; third it does not want thetax pool to fully cover the cost of ser-vicing the loan and fourth, the cess ondemerit products will continue beyond

2021-22. On option one, it can’t be fault-ed. The two provisions in law, namelyone relating to compensation and theother levy of cess (and collection there-of) have to be viewed in conjunctionwith each other. In other words, the dis-charge of the constitutional obligationto compensate States for the loss of rev-enue would be possible only when thereare enough funds available in the cesspool. Since the pool is denuded, theCentre is under no obligation to pay(this position is even confirmed by theAttorney-General). By the same logic,there is no case for it to borrow on itsbalance sheet and pay to the States.

Even so, going for it will have a cat-astrophic impact on its budgetaryposition. Already, the Centre hasincreased its borrowing programmefrom the budgeted level of around�8,00,000 crore by 50 per cent to�12,00,000 crore. This does not include�90,000 crore towards additional allo-cation for MGNREGA and employ-ment schemes for migrant labourers.Now, if it has to borrow �2,35,000 croreto cover deficit in the cess pool, its totalborrowings will gallop to �15,25,000crore or eight per cent of the GDP —more than twice the budgeted 3.5 percent.

Apart from casting a shadow onIndia’s ability to protect its macro-eco-nomic fundamentals and inviting thewrath of rating agencies by way ofdowngrade, borrowing by the Centreon such a mammoth scale will crowdthe market, harden yield and increasethe cost of borrowing by States even fortheir normal borrowing programme(apart from making things difficult forthe private sector).

In this backdrop, the proposal putforward by Sitharaman to help Statesraise loans at reasonable rates makessense. However, disingenuous bureau-crats in the Finance Ministry havedesigned the borrowing options in amanner so as to make it unviable for the

States. Under option one, the loan willbe available at low interest rate andthere won’t be any burden of servicingon them but this covers only 40 per centof the shortfall. So, they will be forcedto think of option two.

Under this option, States can raisea loan for the full amount of the deficiti.e. �2,35,000 crore but the Centre won’tfacilitate this. They will have to borrowfrom the market at a higher rate. Noadditional FRBM limits for these bor-rowings will make them less credible,thereby adding to the cost of raisingthem. Adding salt to injury, States willhave to bear interest cost from theirown resources as the cess pool will onlypay for the principal amount.

The Centre should stop this skull-duggery. It makes no sense to make adistinction between a shortfall arisingfrom the GST implementation or thepandemic. Whatever may be the cause,the fact remains, there will be deficit of�2,35,000 crore in the cess pool and allof it needs to be addressed. The Statesshould get to borrow this amountfrom the “special window” at a lowinterest rate and the cost of amortisingit (principal plus interest) must be fund-ed from the cess pool.

The cess on demerit products willhave to continue beyond 2021-22 tillsuch time the loan-related liabilities arefully cleared. However, this will requirethat States refrain from pursuing theirdemand — made before the 15thFinance Commission — for continuingwith compensation for three moreyears (beyond 2021-22) as that willjeopardise the chances of servicing thisloan. Meanwhile, both the Centre andStates should endeavour to remove allvoid in GST implementation to achievethe desired buoyancy in tax revenue,thereby obviating the need for contin-uing with the compensation mecha-nism.

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy analyst)

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Water is the fundamentalrequirement for sustaininglife, agriculture and the over-

all economy. With an exponential risein the world population and diversi-fied use of water, coupled with defor-estation and increasing climacticvagaries, fresh water sources are undertremendous pressure globally. Duringthe last 100 years, there has been a sixto seven-fold increase in the demandfor fresh water.

However, at the macro level,though the availability of fresh water

is constant, at the micro level, due tooverexploitation and indiscriminateuse, lopsided planning in human set-tlements, changes in the hydrologicalcycle and pollution, water resources aredwindling very fast. Though we haveplenty of rainfall in India to rechargethe aquifers, it is unevenly distributedand unsustainably used to meet thedemand for agriculture and industry.According to the Central GroundWater Board, more than 70 per centdistricts are water-stressed and manycities and towns are critical from thepoint of view of availability of safedrinking water. And on top of this, 70per cent of the agriculture sector usesgroundwater for irrigation. In a nut-shell, “blue” as well as “green” watermanagement has been suffering a lot.

Many experts have been raisingred flags about the impending watercrisis for the last many years but var-ious Government bodies have made

fragmentary attempts which did notbring much relief on the ground. Oneclassic case of failure was the watershedscheme which succeeded in verysmall patches and that, too, with thehelp of people in villages, who werefeeling the pinch of scarcity. One suchexample was in Hiware bazaar in theAhmednagar district of Maharashtrawhere community-based water man-agement tremendously boosted agri-culture and milk production, drawingback the people who migrated toMumbai after recurrent drought.

Now, the Centre has created theJal Shakti Ministry to tackle the issueof water scarcity in the country in afocussed and planned manner. ThePrime Minister announced the launch-ing of the Jal Jeevan Mission with aprojected expenditure of more than�3.5 lakh crore. For the first time, theJal Shakti Ministry is dealing with mostmatters relating to water in different

Ministries in an integrated manner.The first priority of the Ministry wasto ensure potable water to 15.70 crorehouseholds as out of 18.93 crorehomes in the country, only 3.23 crorehad tap water in 2019. It was startedas a peoples’ programme and involvedcitizens in water resources manage-ment at every level, right from supply,to reuse, to recharge.

The guidelines issued under the JalJeevan Mission stressed on servicedelivery and involved the people atevery step of its execution. The GramPanchayats, Self Help Groups (SHGs),NGOs and Village Water andSanitation Committees were involvedin planning, implementing, managing,operating and maintaining their ownwater supply systems.

This bottom-up approach hasstarted paying dividends and 84.84lakh households were given tap waterconnections. The programme is pick-

ing up fast as now one lakh families arebeing covered daily. The Ministry, dur-ing 2019-2020, provided safe drinkingwater to 71 lakh people in arsenic-con-taminated areas and 5.35 lakh peoplein fluoride-contaminated areas. Oneof the innovative technologies tomonitor water supply and use was theuse of “sensor-based Internet of Thingssolution” in which a smart watermeter tracks the quality, regularity ofwater supply, quantity and quality ofwater. It also tracks flow across distri-bution channels and thus helps inchecking leakage and minimisingwater wastage.

According to Water MinisterGajendra Singh Shekhawat, in thepost-lockdown period, 32 lakh house-holds were provided with piped waterby July 28 under the Jal Jeevan Mission,which also helped in creating employ-ment for over 42,000 people in sixStates. Under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan,

the Ministry has started a massivewater conservation movement with thehelp of communities in 1,592 water-stressed blocks in 256 districts. Itfocussed on water conservationthrough rain water harvesting, reno-vation of traditional water bodies, ren-ovating and maintaining bore wellsand watershed management andafforestation activities.

The experts on groundwater areworking in most of the water-stresseddistricts of the country. One of themost outstanding achievements ofthe Modi Government was the SwachhBharat Mission (SBM). More than sixlakh villages were declared open defe-cation free and 60 crore people werehelped, with more than 10 crore toi-lets constructed.

In phase two, the objective is toconsolidate and perpetuate the gainsof the SBM, including waste manage-ment. Under the PM’s Krishi Sinchai

Scheme, more than 21.7 lakh hectareswere irrigated during the last threeyears.

Apart from this, innovations andinternational cooperation on watermanagement need to be pursued vig-orously. However, a major shift is nec-essary to revamp forest managementwith water management in order toensure water in our aquifers, dams andrivers. Without integrating forestrywith water management, the goals ofclimate change cannot be achieved.The additional benefit will be in theform of regeneration of minor forestproduce primarily animal foods andmedicinal plants. There is no bettertime to focus on changing the objec-tives in COVID-19 times. Will theEnvironment Minister, PrakashJavadekar, take the initiative in thisdirection? One hopes so.

(The writer is a former civil ser-vant)

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Terming the 23.9 per cent fallin economic growth in Junequarter alarming, formerReserve Bank GovernorRaghuram Rajan has saidbureaucracy should come outof complacency and takemeaningful action.

The current crisis requires amore thoughtful and activegovernment, he said, adding“unfortunately, after an initialburst of activity, it seems tohave retreated into a shell.”

"The sharp decline in eco-nomic growth should alarm usall. The 23.9 per cent contrac-tion in India (and the numberswill probably be worse whenwe get estimates of the damagein the informal sector) com-pares with a drop of 12.4 percent in Italy and 9.5 per cent inthe United States, two of themost COVID-19-affectedadvanced countries,"Rajan

wrote in a post on hisLinkedIn page.

He further said the bureau-cracy needs to “be frightenedout of their complacency andinto meaningful activity. Ifthere is a silver lining in theawful GDP numbers, hopeful-ly it is that''.

Rajan, currently a professorat the University of Chicago,

said the COVID-19 pandem-ic is still raging in India, so dis-cretionary spending, especial-ly on high-contact serviceslike restaurants, and the asso-ciated employment, will staylow until the virus is contained.The eminent economist point-ed out that the government'sreluctance to do more todayseems partly because it wants

to conserve resources for a pos-sible future stimulus.

"This strategy is self-defeat-ing," he opined.

Citing an example, Rajansaid if one thinks of the econ-omy as a patient, relief is thesustenance the patient needswhile on the sickbed and fight-ing the disease. "Without relief,households skip meals, pulltheir children out of school andsend them to work or beg,pledge their gold to borrow, letEMIs and rent arrears pileup… Essentially, the patientatrophies, so by the time thedisease is contained, the patienthas become a shell of herself,"he noted. The former RBIGovernor further said nowthink of economic stimulus asa tonic. "When the disease isvanquished, it can help thepatient get out of her sickbedfaster. But if the patient hasatrophied, stimulus will havelittle effect," he said.

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With digital payments con-stantly growing, financial ser-vice providers need to collab-orate with fintech developersto build "resilient front-ends"to safeguard consumer interestin view of rising cyber frauds,a top finance ministry officialsaid on Monday.

Speaking at a Ficci event on'FinTech', K Rajaraman,Additional Secretary in theFinance Ministry, said an areathat "needs to be highlighted iscyber security and fraud pre-vention. Now that there is anexplosion in the use of digitalplatforms. A lot of the activi-ties of fintech have beenfocused on how to provideresilient front-ends for thefinancial services providers".

Financial service providersmust not hesitate to actuallycollaborate with fintech (finan-cial technology) innovatorsfor beefing up cyber securityand fraud prevention, he said.

Citing an example of recentcyber attack on New Zealand'sstock market, he said, cybersecurity should get continuousattention from all stakeholders.

Last month, NZX suffered

an apparent overseas cyberattack forcing the governmentto activate the country'sNational Security System.

The challenge needs to behandled by "not just one set ofstakeholders, but a wide vari-ety of stakeholders, and Ibelieve that the fintech inno-vators have a critical role in thisregard", he said.

Rajaraman also said thatthe pending KYC (Know YourCustomer) issue is being sort-ed out with the RBI and theDepartment of Revenue.

"...the last mile issues inKYC need to be sorted out bythe regulators, especially oncKYC (central KYC), video

KYC, eKYC. We have beenintensively interacting withthe RBI and the Department ofRevenue to enable these issuesto be sorted out quickly," hesaid.

The applications of fintechare not only about digital pay-ments but also feature a lot ofother initiatives such as wealthtechnology, for instance, henoted.

"For example, he said, theinvestments by Indians in thesavings and financial marketshave been slowly rising, but alot more work has to be donein ensuring that the ordinarycitizen is able to invest effort-lessly in the capital markets.!+������ �������# � �� ��

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The Finance IndustryDevelopment Council (FIDC),a representative body of non-banking finance companies, onMonday urged FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanto drop additional provision-ing requirements for NBFCson accounts restructuredunder the one-time loanrestructuring scheme.

In August, the Reserve Bankof India (RBI) allowed one-time restructuring of corporateand personal loans due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Underthe scheme, lending institu-tions have to make an addi-tional provisioning of 10 percent for accounts whererestructuring plans are imple-mented.

In a letter to the financeminister, FIDC also said non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) have been mandatedto follow Indian AccountingStandard (IND-AS) norms onprovisioning for credit lossesand these provisions are muchhigher than the RBI norms.

"IND-AS norms requireprovisioning to be done forcredit losses on historical aver-age and own experience ofrespective lenders and, there-fore, all accounts are ade-quately provided for. We sug-gest that the additional provi-sioning requirement may be

dropped for restructuredaccounts for NBFCs," FIDCsaid in the letter. Last week,Sitharaman held a reviewmeeting with the heads ofbanks and NBFCs on the one-time debt recast scheme.

The minister had askedbanks and NBFCs to roll outloan restructuring schemesfor COVID-19-related stressby September 15 and provideadequate support to the bor-rowers following the lifting ofmoratorium on repayment ofdebts. She also urged lendersto immediately put in place aboard-approved policy for res-olution of stress loans.

Under the debt recast frame-work, only those borroweraccounts shall be eligible forresolution that were classifiedas standard, but not in defaultfor more than 30 days with thelending institution as onMarch 1, 2020.

FIDC has requested to

include under the scheme allthe standard accounts in the 0-90 day bucket.

"Given that the micro andsmall enterprises have unevencash flows and even prior toCOVID-19, were having via-bility issues, we seek your con-sideration of this scheme for allthe standard accounts in the 0-90 day bucket so that thewider spectrum of customerscan benefit from it," the indus-try body said. FIDC furthersaid that currently, the loansgiven for passenger vehiclesand tractors, both used in thebusiness and/or commercialapplications, are excluded fromthe coverage of the EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS).

"We request inclusion ofpassenger vehicles to self-employed customers and trac-tors to small and marginalfarmers within the ambit of thescheme," it said.

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Global stock markets weremixed on Monday after WallStreet turned in its biggestweekly decline in more thantwo months.

London and Frankfurtopened higher while Shanghai,Tokyo and Hong Kong slid. USfutures were lower.

Investors have been encour-aged by hopes for a coronavirusvaccine and central bank infu-sions of cash into strugglingeconomies. But forecasterswarn the rise in prices might beoutrunning uncertain econom-ic activity as case numbersrise in the United States andsome other countries. Some arere-imposing anti-disease con-trols that disrupt business.

“The question now iswhether there will be a sus-tained unwinding in this forthymarket, or if conviction aboutfresh central bank liquidityand fear of missing out kicks in

once again,” said Mizuho Bankin a report. One possible signthe decline might be tempo-rary: demand for governmentbonds and other assets consid-ered safe havens in an extend-

ed down market “has not comeflooding back in," MizuhoBank said.

In early trading, the FTSE100 in London rose 1.3% to5,874.89 and Frankfurt's DAXadded 1.2% to 12,992.49. TheCAC 40 in Paris was 1% high-er at 5,016.76.

On Wall Street, futures forthe benchmark S&P 500 indexand the Dow Jones IndustrialAverage were 0.6% higher.

On Friday, the S&P 500 slid0.8%. The Dow lost 0.6% andthe tech-heavy Nasdaqdropped 1.3%.

In Asia, the ShanghaiComposite Index lost 1.8% to3,292.59 after Chinese cus-toms data showed Augustexport growth accelerated to9.5% over a year earlier while

imports edged lower.Shares in China's most

advanced semiconductor man-ufacturer, SMIC, fell 22.9% inHong Kong following newsthat Washington is consideringlimiting its access to US man-ufacturing technology. Thecompany has denied sugges-tions it assists China's militarydevelopment.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyoshed 0.5% to 23,089.95 whilethe Hang Seng in Hong Konglost 0.4% to 24,589.65.

The Kospi in Seoul advanced0.7% to 2,384.42 while Sydney'sS&P-ASX 200 shed 0.3% to5,944.80. India's Sensex opened0.2% lower at 38,288.95. NewZealand and Singaporeadvanced while Jakartadeclined.

Wall Street's slide Friday fol-lowed a Labor Departmentreport that showed US hiringslowed to 1.4 million lastmonth. That was fewest jobsadded since the economy start-ed bouncing back from the ini-tial shock of the pandemic. TheUnited States has recoveredabout half the 22 million jobslost to the pandemic.In energymarkets, benchmark US crudeoil for October delivery fell 62cents to $39.15 per barrel inelectronic trading on the NewYork Mercantile Exchange. Thecontract lost $1.60 to $39.77 onFriday. Brent crude forNovember delivery, the inter-national standard, declined 62cents to $42.04 per barrel inLondon. It shed $1.41 the pre-vious session to $42.66.

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Indian womenhave topped the listof number of expa-triate femalesworking in the gov-ernment sector inOman, accordingto an official data.

According to the2020 StatisticalYearbook data from NationalCentre for Statistics andInformation (NCSI) Oman,the number of Indian womenemployed in the governmentsector topped the list with4,604 followed by 3,090Egyptian women for the year2019, the Gulf News reported.

According to the data,Indian women comprised 37per cent of the total Indianworkforce employed in thegovernment sector in 2019.

Even though the numbersmay seem miniscule in com-parison to the total number ofOmani women employed inthe government sector, whichis 83,175, it carries weight inthe context of expatriatesworking in governmentoffices, the daily said.

Sudanese women were thirdon this list, and non-Omani

Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) women were thefewest, with only 36 employedin the public sector in Oman.

Nationalities that figure inthe list of workforce in thegovernment sector apart fromOmanis are Indians,Bangladeshis, Pakistanis,Egyptians, Sudanese,Jordanians, other Arabs, GCCand other nationalities.

In the private sector thereare additional nationalitieslike Filipinos, Ugandans, SriLankans, Nepalese andTanzanians. Topping the listamong expatriate womenemployed in the private sectorare Bangladeshis with 41,376,followed by 38,684 othernationalities. Filipinas are thirdin this list with 33,687, with27,683 Indian women, placedfourth.

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Fugitive diamantaire NiravModi's extradition case relat-ed to the estimated USD 2-billion Punjab National Bank(PNB) fraud and moneylaundering charges broughtby the Indian governmentopened for a five-day hearingin a UK court on Monday.

The 49-year-old jeweller,who has been behind bars ina London prison since hisarrest in March last year,appeared via a videolinkdressed in a dark suit andsporting beard as the secondleg of the trial got underwayat Westminster Magistrates'Court here.

Representatives from theCentral Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) and theEnforcement Directorate(ED) were in court andlogged into the remote courtnetwork to observe the UK'sCrown Prosecution Service(CPS) present their casebefore District Judge SamuelGoozee.

The hearings this week areear-marked to complete thosearguments after the Indiangovernment had submittedadditional “corroboratoryevidence”.

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German luxury carmakerAudi's entry-level SUV Q2 isexpected to hit Indian roadsby the second half of Octoberor early November as thecompany looks to cash in onfestive season demand bybringing in the volumemodel, according to a seniorcompany official.

For this model, Audi Indiais utilising the government'sprovision of allowing a totalof 2,500 cars to be importedand be sold here in Indiawithout the need for under-going the process to meetlocal regulatory requirementsas long as the model has cer-tification from the EU orJapan. The company will betargeting younger first-timeluxury segment customersapart from its existing oneswho are looking for a replace-ment. "While we were mov-ing from BS-IV to BS-VI wehad only a few models avail-able. The volume model isjoining the bandwagon withthe Q2 now and there areothers to follow as well. Wehave finally been able to getthis product for India, whichwas launched worldwidequite sometime back," AudiIndia Head Balbir SinghDhillon said.

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After building a 'digital layer'(Jio Platforms) on top of theexisting 'physical layer' of retailshops, Reliance Industrieswould over the next four yearsfocus on adding a third 'layerof commerce' and monetize theexisting investments, BofASecurities said.

RIL is also looking to lever-age the users' digital footprintand earn incremental revenuesfrom digital ads, digital lend-ing and even engagements likeplay along with IPL, KBC, etc,it said in a report.

Over the next 3-5 years,RIL is expected to have 500million mobile users, offerbroadband services to 20-25million households, and caterto 12-15 million small busi-nesses.

"In the last 4 years, with Jio,RIL has been able to build a'digital layer' on top of theexisting 'physical layer' of retailshops across electronics, gro-cery, and apparel as well asdepth and width of India.

"We believe the next four

years, RIL's focus would be toadd a third 'layer of com-merce' and monetize the exist-ing investments across differ-ent formats," the brokeragesaid.

Jio has 388 million sub-scribers at the end of FY20.

Reliance has tied up withWhatsApp to deliver groceryitems from local Kirana storesto customers.

"RIL's approach of owningthe 'pipe' as well as the 'services'offered on the pipe shouldhelp it keep the subscriberbase captive and apart from thecore telco and retail offerings,the company could also offerother services," it said.

For instance, entertainmentofferings would help RILimprove stickiness. Jio maynot fully monetize this butwould keep users captive tocross-sell other offerings.

RIL is also focusing on lever-aging tech to offer ed-tech,health-tech, agri-tech services.

"We also believe gaming willpick-up in India as the coun-try has young population mix,"it said.

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India has initiated a probe intothe alleged dumping ofVitamin C, used by pharma-ceutical firms for the produc-tion of medicines, from Chinafollowing complaint by adomestic manufacturer.

Bajaj Healthcare Ltd hasfiled the application beforethe commerce ministry's inves-tigation arm DGTR, seekinginitiation of the probe.

The company alleged thatthe domestic industry isimpacted due to the dumpingof Vitamin C from China PRand has requested for the

imposition of anti-dumpingduty on the imports, accordingto the notification ofDirectorate General of TradeRemedies (DGTR).

On the basis of prima facieevidence submitted by the

applicants, "the authority, here-by, initiates an investigation,"it said.

In the probe, the directoratewill determine the existence,degree and effect of any allegeddumping in respect of theproduct from China.

If DGTR will find that thereis dumping and it is impactingthe domestic manufacturer, itwill recommend the amount ofanti-dumping duty, which iflevied, would be adequate toremove the injury to thedomestic industry.

While the DGTR recom-mends the duty, the financeministry imposes the same.

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Vodafone Idea Ltd onMonday unveiled a newbrand identity, as thestruggling telco lookedto rediscover itself postthe apex court's rulingon past statutory dues.

VIL, which had about280 million subscribers as ofJune, said that Vodafone andIdea brands will now be called'Vi'.

"A brand with its eyes set onthe future, it is built for andaround customers... The inte-gration of two brands is a cul-mination of the largest telecomintegration in the world," VILsaid in a statement communi-cating its new unified con-

sumer brand identity andpositioning through a virtuallaunch on Monday.

Elaborating on the newbrand, Ravinder Takkar, MDand CEO Vodafone Idea said,"Vodafone Idea came togeth-er as a merged entity two yearsago. We have, since thenfocussed on integrating twolarge networks, our peopleand processes."

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Follow us on

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TuesdaySeptember 8, 2020

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People like tolaugh, laughtercan make one’sday merrier! My

idea of clubbing satire alongwith my videos was due tomere acceptance that it canbe digested well by the audi-ences without any allegedinsinuations and immenserelevance. A bit of sarcasm,wit, and exaggeration is pureentertainment. If you take alook around, many globalcomedians also poke fun atlocals with delight. They callit a spoof. I draw my influ-

ences from there to makeuse of humour to spreadawareness and my comedybegan to draw attention tomany of the explosivedebates going around.

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Humour is a tricky busi-ness! You got to hit thepunchlines very quicklykeeping your recipient’s dig-nity intact. The same peoplewho laugh at one joke can

get offended by the next.Why am I here? It’s pureentertainment and a sourceof joy for me, there are nohidden agendas attached. Ihave never enjoyed depre-cating humour — why doyou have to belittle some-body else to higher yourstakes. Yes, around us thereare atrocities galore, but Iam speaking the truththrough my videos withouthurting anybody’s senti-ments.

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I believe women are thecreators behind IITians, civilaspirants, etc., working inshadows trying to supportthe society in every possibleway. They may not have adirect impact, but they dothey take care of all theresponsibilities back at home— they are the backbone.They don’t share the samespotlight or receive appreci-ation but they deserve it all!

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There can be two faces tothis coin, where there areplenty of your supportersstanding in solidarity withyou — there also happens tobe a set of trolls. Acrossnumerous comments, thereis misogyny, sexism, toomuch criticism, crime cul-ture, and aggression. Theydon’t take a moment tothink about how their state-ments might affect the influ-encer, how they could affectsomebody’s self-esteem,thereby making celebritiesor influencers censor theircontent for future posts toavoid feeding the trolls. Iadvise upcoming socialmedia influencers to be pre-

pared for it because alongwith success come thesescrewing metrics attachedtoo. My idea of handlingsuch situations is to engagein a conversation, I don’twish to suck up the hate inexchange for fame.

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Comedy is in a period ofextraordinary flux, there arealso increasing fears aroundpolitical comedy and cen-sorship but I love the pro-gressive culture of stand-upcomedians. The certainty intheir craft is more sociallyconscious today. It’sextremely difficult to per-form in front of a live audi-ence with the pressure oflanding your punchlines.Nevertheless, I am a contentcreator who has the libertyof editing her puns and ask-ing for multiple takes. I amsatisfied being a content cre-ator leveraging the socialclout by creating a positiveimpact.

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The viral video of class2025 where you can see mecalling out names like‘Quarantina Joshi’,‘Lockdown Singh Rathore’,etc. remains my mostfavourite piece of content.One of the primary reasonsis because my young ladhelped me develop thishilarious video. And, within45 minutes of posting it, myphone was buzzing withnumerous calls from acrossthe nation telling me howmy video was floatingamong netizens’ WhatsAppprofiles making me realisethat the power of decentcontent and I, have arrived.

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��� ����������� ���our skinny best friendseems to eat twice asmuch as you. Butyou’re still over-weight. Why? Fordecades, experts

thought they had the answer —too many calories and notenough exercise. But the latestscientific research is turningthose assumptions down.Differences in our individualbiology — our genetics, hor-mones or psychology — all playa crucial role.

The show Why Do I Put onWeight follows five volunteerswho go on diets tailored to theirbodies and brains. They’re justlike us, normal people whoexperience weight gains andlosses. Combining science withengaging personal stories, thisexperiment might change theway you think about diet. If youthought long term weight losswas impossible, you need torethink.

Given the current situation,people are dealing with a lot ofphysical and mental health chal-lenges. The show Why Do I Puton Weight talks about the differ-ent factors behind weight gain.What’s your take on that?

We always think weight gainis a food related problem but inreality there are various otherfactors that play a role in fat gainand loss process, such as genet-ics, biology, stress, psychology

and more. And given the situa-tion, the health challenges haveincreased because the gyms wereshut, there weren’t any properplaces to exercise, no properroutine and no sleep schedule.So, these are some of the reasonsbehind our weight gain.

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My first advice would be toalways keep a check on thestress levels as it’s very impor-tant to be stress free. Even inthis show we have discussed fac-tors that affect your health. Yourattitude, emotions, mental state,psychological well-being, every-thing matters in the weight lossjourney. It is also important tohave a proper routine and stopbinge eating. During the lock-down most of us had a lot oftime in our hands, so we con-sumed a lot of junk food in freetime, which affects your health.So it is very important to have amindful approach towards thediet. In turn, we should addmore of fruits, raw veggies, sal-ads, and nuts in our diet.

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It is a reality; the fact is thatactivity and some kind of exer-cise is very important. Butnowadays people have madeexercising a mere trend. Andnow we all have a sedentarylifestyle, mostly working ongadgets. Hence there is less ofbody movement. Such a lifestyledemands frequent movementand regular exercises. There aredifferent kinds of exercises onecan opt for — Yoga, pilates,HIIT, cardio and others.

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With the advent of advertis-ing and marketing, the foodindustry always tries to manip-ulate and tempt people to trytheir products which areclaimed to be healthy by them.However, I think homemadeand natural foods are more sus-tainable, affordable and nour-ishing comparatively. All theseprocessed foods with preserva-tives sold in the name of healthare the reasons why we gainmore fat in our body. Hence,homemade food is the bestchoice.

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Our generation is not veryactive as our ancestors were.

Earlier we didn’t have househelps, or lifts in building, peo-ple used to walk long distances,that’s the reason our ancestorslived a very active life.However, our lifestyle is com-pletely different, we get every-thing at the tap of a button.This results in less movementwhich means higher need toexercise. If we don’t exercise,our muscles loosen up result-ing in further complications.As we sit in one position, ourback and abdomen musclestend to weaken. I personallybelieve in yoga, its verystrengthening. But one can alsotry variation of workoutsbetween cardio, HIIT and yogaas workout in any form isimportant.

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The utmost important thingis to consume right food andhealthy drinks. Anotherimportant thing is get propersleep as it determines yourattitude, mood and mentalhealth. Next is to maintainyour stress levels and be awareof it. Lastly, its self-love. Don’tcompare yourself, yourlifestyle with others and nevergive out negative statementsfor your body. Your body isyour house and power store.

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Page 10: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

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Yesterday’s solution

ctress Radhika Aptefeels the nepotismconversation is com-plicated, and not justrelated to the filmindustry.

“I don’t want to be a part ofthis discussion, really,” Radhikatold IANS when asked aboutthe ongoing nepotism discus-sion, adding, “It is not justabout the insider and the out-sider. It is a larger discussion.There is not one answer to it.As a society, we have supportednepotism a lot and it’s not justthe film industry. In order tochange everything, we all needto change how we look at it,”she added.

Talking about how difficult it is to make a name inBollywood, the actress said, “Ithink it’s difficult for both theinsider and the outsider to besuccessful. Success is not justabout being born into a family.It is a complicated answer. Idon’t think it’s easy to answerthat.”

Earlier in an interview toIANS, Radhika shared that shedoes not want to get stuck insomething convenient or besatisfied, and she is not chasingfame.

“I’m not here for fame. I dolike the perks sometimes, but Idon’t take success and failureseriously,” Radhika told IANS.

Radhika entered the industrywith a small role in the 2005release Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi!,and went on to do films likeShor In The City, Kabali,Phobia, Badlapur and the shortfilm Ahalya.

The actress is credited forbreaking the stereotypicalimage of the Bollywood hero-ine with her roles in Phobia,Badlapur, Manjhi: TheMountain Man, Lust Stories,Sacred Games, Pad Man andGhoul.

�����=�����?,���5�(2�������������(.�(�(�6����

���� ��*������ ����� ��

��# ����� #�alaika Arora

finally confirmed

on Monday that

she has tested

positive for

Covid-19, after

speculative reports did the

rounds that she has con-

tracted the coronavirus.

Malaika shared the news

officially on Instagram.

Revealing that she has been

infected by the virus, she

added that she is asympto-

matic and is quarantined at

home. “Today I have tested

positive for coronavirus but

I want to inform you all that

I am feeling fine. I am

asymptomatic and following

all the required protocols

and will be quarantined at

home as instructed by my

doctors and authorities. I

request all of you stay calm

and safe. Thank you for all

your support. Much love

Malaika Arora,” Malaika

wrote. News of Malaika

being infected started doing

the rounds shortly after her

good friend Arjun Kapoor

announced on Sunday that

he had tested Covid positive.

imachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai

Ram Thakur said here on Monday

that as per security assessment and

threat perception in respect of

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut,

the state will provide her security

during her stay in her native state.

The Chief Minister also thanked the MHA

for extending CRPF security cover to her.

He said that a team of Central Reserve

Police Force commandos headed by an

Assistant Commandant along with support

staff was on way to Manali, where Kangana

is currently staying.

Ahead of her visit to Mumbai in light of

her recent verbal spat with Shiv Sena MP

Sanjay Raut, the Ministry of Home Affairs

has granted ‘Y’ category security to Kangana

Ranaut, sources earlier said.

����(�62������

���7����2���7

��.�6��'(���?&�

ctor Tiger Shroff on

Monday announced

that he is making his

singing debut with

upcoming track

Unbelievable.

The 30-year-old actor shared

the news on Instagram, while

posting the motion poster for

the track.

“Always wanted to sing and

dance to my own song, but

never really had the courage to

take it forward. Spent a lot of

time exploring and working

this lockdown and discovered

something new,” Tiger said.

“Its been an unbelievable

experience, and i’m excited to

share this humble effort with

you soon #YouAreUnbelievable

#TeaserOutSoon,” he added.

Produced by Big Bang

Music, the track has been

penned by DG Mayne and

Avitesh, with Tiger lending the

vocals. Filmmaker Punit

Malhotra, who worked with

Tiger in Student of the Year 2,

has directed the music video

with choreography by Paresh.

On the acting front, Tiger

was most recently seen in

Baaghi 3, which released

countrywide in March

this year.

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Page 11: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

fter his 16-minuteromantic shortfilmManasanamahatranscendedboundaries, pock-

eting awards at Los Angeles-based Independent ShortAwards, CKF InternationalFilm Festival and at theWhite Unicorn InternationalFilm Festival among otherfestivals, director DeepakReddy is now looking at acareer in feature filmmaking.The Pioneer has learned thathe has been signed on by theprestigious UV Creations fora film, which will roll some-time next year.

A source close to thedevelopment says, “UVbelieves in promoting newtalent and the likes ofSujeeth Sign and Radha

Krishna prove it. Impressedby Manasanamaha, UVapproached Deepak to helma film for them sometimeback. The fact that the pro-duction house earned thereputation of not compro-mising on the budgetbesides offering carteblanche to narrate thestory the way a film-maker fancies meantthat the Kurnool-laddidn’t think twice toaccept the offer.”

The source adds thatthe film’s genre details areguarded right now and theofficial announcement isaround the corner.— NG

�� ��� ����������4��/�+ �������

t seems Satyadev’s solocareer has got a shot in thearm after the success ofUma Maheswara UgraRoopasya. After agreeing toheadline the Kannada hit

Lock Mocktail Telugu remake withTamannaah (the Telugu title beingGurthunda Seetakalam), the actor hasnow landed another solo film. He willbe teaming up with Mahesh Koneru’sEast Coast Productions and Srujan

of S Originals for a new venturetitled Thimmarasu. Sharan

Kopisetty, who directed Nikhil-starrer Kirrak Party, will be sit-ting in the director’s saddle forthe project, a concept-drivendrama, whose further details,the makers said, will be revealed

at a later date.Satyadev also needs to shoot

for debutant Vishwak Rao’s unti-tled period film which centers

on the events surroundingSkylab in the late ’70s.

It is a slice of lifedrama high on

humourand emo-tions.

��

Hyderabad Tuesday September 8 2020���������

@�46.�6�&�����.�"�.������" � )�46

6�&�����������3ith four solo hits in arow, Adivi Sesh hasbecome one of themost sought-afteractors in Telugu cin-ema. Instead of

rushing, the actor has taken itslow; scripting his own filmsand green-lighting stories thathe feels will be sure-fire at theticket counters. He was shoot-ing for Major, directed by SashiKiran Tikka, earlier this sum-mer in Hyderabad when thelockdown induced by coron-avirus suspended the shoot.Participating in a #AskSesh ses-sion over the weekend onTwitter, the suave actor hasinformed that the film, a biopicbased on the life of MajorSandeep Unnikrishnan, a

National Security Guard commando, who had led theBlack Tornado operation tosave hostages in the 26/11 Taj Hotel attack in Mumbai, is back on sets.

When a follower wanted to

know about the impact thepandemic will have on the box-office as soon theatres reopen,Sesh expressed confidence that“everything will be back to nor-mal”. “Just a matter of time,” heobserved.

Stating that his next afterwrapping up Major will beGoodachari 2, Sesh informedthat the script work of the spythriller is a work in progress.

Shedding light about a crazi-est fan moment he encoun-tered, he added, “#Japanese fansflew to Hyderabad to see me,and went to every filming loca-tion of my last three movies.Don’t know if it’s crazy but itwas really sweet (sic).”

A fan of celebrated filmmak-er Christopher Nolan, Sesh

admitted that he considered fly-ing out of the country to watchthe auteur’s recent release Tenetbut common sense prevailed. “Iactually considered flying toanother country to watch it.And then I told myself ‘Whatthe hell is wrong with you?’”Sesh quipped about the time-bending espionage thriller.

Sesh also said that hisfavourite 007 is Pierce Brosnanand he “would love to do adeep meaningful love story” inthe future. He further said thathe is not a horror-genre fan. “Ihate horror movies. Don’twatch. Don’t act (sic),” hedeclared.

To a question on when he isgoing to tie the knot, Seshrevealed, “Not yet (sic).”

��"�� )��3"��3�� �A��"����@�"��� )�4���"8��@�66�9��)��."23"���7����3�� �����.�3"���3���2����@��5�����3������3��66������"�@��5�� ���)����

ekhar Kammula’santicipated venture,Love Story, starringNaga Chaitanya andSai Pallavi, was 15days away from

completion when the pandemicforced the shoot to halt earlierthis March; disrupting the mak-ers late summer release plans.And now after six months, theunit has resumed filming inHyderabad on Monday with asong on Chaitanya. Shekarmaster is choreographing it.

In a statement, the makersinformed that from keeping the crew to a maximum limit of 15 members to maintainingsocial distance on sets, donningmasks to performing periodictesting, the unit is adhering to all the safety protocols listedout by the government. Theyfurther informed the shoot will be wrapped up in the

ongoing schedule and the unit will not depart sets untilthe day’s filming has beenwrapped up.

Love Story, a romantic musical drama which traces the journey of a young boy and a girl from their respectivevillages in Telangana toHyderabad to chase theirdreams, is a joint productionventure between Sunil Narang,Rammohan Rao and Kammula.Telugu streamer aha hasalready acquired the digitalrights of the film four monthsago for a fancy sum.

Pawan CH is debuting as acomposer with the film.

��� ����������������� �����FG4+��� ��� ���

�3����6�����84����+."���"@"������2���6���� �

�����:����������������������� �����ctor AnaparthiNagaraju, whoplayed Lava in theevergreen classicLava Kusa (1963),passed away in

Hyderabad on Monday dueto respiratory complica-tions. He was 71.

Nagaraju was under 10when he played Lava inLava Kusa, headlined bylate actors NTR and AnjaliDevi. The film, which tookfive years to be completed,released to a rousing recep-tion in 1963, completing175-run in 18 centres inthe erstwhile AndhraPradesh. It was honouredwith the National FilmAward for Best FeatureFilm in Telugu later. It wasalso the first full lengthcolour film in Telugu.

While Nagaraju playedsupporting roles in otherTelugu and Tamil films, hewas always remembered forhis portrayal as Lava.

He also played theyounger self of NTR infilms like Indrajeet,Bheeshma and TigerRamudu among sevenother films. Some of hissupporting turns as anadult alongside NTRinclude Bhama Vijayamand Sri Krishna Satya. Allin all, he acted in nearly 50films of NTR. He playedNarada in nearly 10 films.

In the last years of hislife, he devoted himself toSai Baba at a temple atGandhinagar, Hyderabad.He is survived by threedaughters and a son, all ofwhom are married.

������0 #-!

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Page 12: ˇ ˝ˇ˜ -, ,! ˇ(˜ $!-˜ ˜ˇ!( · 2020. 9. 7. · India on Monday successful- ... the CM chose to ignore it. ... property worth Rs 16.7 lakhs

@�����������*�+ �'��� *�'��+�,����-.�/0/0

*�, ��#�%> IPL franchiseRajasthan Royals is likely to missits premier all-rounder BenStokes during the first part of theT20 event as the World Cup-winner is currently in NewZealand to be with his ailingfather Ged.

Stokes left for Christchurchin the middle of the Test seriesagainst Pakistan last month afterhis father, a former All BlacksInternational, was diagnosedwith brain cancer.

“As per quarantine rules inNew Zealand, Ben has just com-pleted his 14-day isolation peri-od after reaching New Zealand.Now he will be meeting hisfather and obviously he wouldlike to spend some quiet time

with his family in this time ofcrisis,” a source privy to devel-opments in the franchise toldPTI. Stokes has been bought byRoyals for �12.5 crore.

“It is only logical that if hehas just completed his quaran-tine, he would not be availablefor the first part of the IPL andthat is completely understand-

able. The franchise will noteven call Ben as this is not pri-ority at the moment. Let himspend quality family time andany discussions on his availabil-ity can happen only after that,”the source added.

It is understood that thefranchise will “wait” for Stokesto get back to the managementand only if the cricketer con-firms his availability for thesecond half, it will take thingsforward.

The 29-year-old has played67 Tests, 95 ODIs and 26 T20Internationals. He had a majorrole in England’s World Cup tri-umph besides an epic match-winning hundred in an AshesTest match in 2019. PTI

�-�������

Ansu Fati became the youngest goalscor-er in the history of the Spanish nation-

al team on Sunday by scoring in Spain’s 4-0 win over Ukraine.

Aged 17 years and 311 days, Fatiscored in the 32nd minute at the Alfredodi Stefano Stadium, when he cut in from theleft and curled into the bottom corner.

It came after a spell-binding openinghalf an hour from the youngster, whose dri-ving run had already earned a penalty forSergio Ramos to convert.

Ramos then headed in to make it twobefore Fati made history on his first start forSpain, beating the country’s previousyoungest scorer, Juan Errazquin, whoscored three goals aged 18 againstSwitzerland in 1925.

Manchester City’s new signing FerranTorres made it four late on as Spain regis-tered their first victory in this season’sNations League to go top of League A’sGroup 4.

Fati is now the youngest player to scorefor Spain, for Barca in La Liga and theyoungest to score in the Champions Leagueas well.

In Basel, Germany’s wait for a win inthe Nations League continued with a 1-1draw against Switzerland.

Germany looked in control after IlkayGundogan’s 14th-minute goal but slowlyallowed Switzerland back into the gamebefore Silvan Widmer leveled for the hosts.

Since 2018, Germany has played sixgames in the first two editions of the NationsLeague and won none of them, despite scor-ing the opening goal in its last four match-es in the competition.

�-�� ������

The way Novak Djokovic was play-ing on the tennis court in 2020 —before and after (even during) the

shutdown caused by a pandemic —something extraordinary had to happenfor him to lose a match.

And it did.On Sunday at the 2020 US Open,

already being played in eerie circum-stances in New York, the world No 1 wasknocked out of the tournament. The rea-son? Not him playing bad tennis. Not hisopponent having an incredible day.Djokovic was disqualified without evena set being complete because he hit theball at a line judge.

The Serbian tennis star seeminglyaccidentally struck one of the line judgeswith a ball in frustration during his last-16 match against Spain’s Pablo CarrenoBusta.

Against the unseeded Carreno Busta,Djokovic was doing what he does best inthe first set: play efficient tennis withoutover-exerting himself and waiting topounce on mistakes from his opponent.At 4-5, on the Spaniard’s serve, it seemedas if that moment had arrived. Djokovichad three set points and Carreno Bustawas on the brink of losing the first setwithout having actually played all thatbadly. The set would have been over butfor an incredible challenge. Down 0-40,Carreno Busta hit a forehand that wascalled out, but Hawkeye showed it wasa hair’s breadth inside the baseline.

Carreno Busta fought through thatgame to keep the set on serve. The frus-trations were starting to show forDjokovic as he angrily smashed the ball

into the side of the court.In the 11th game of the set, Djokovic

was down 0-30 when he slipped and fellon the court while landing on his leftshoulder. He slumped to the court on hisknees in pain, and a trainer had to comeout to attend the injury mid-game.

After receiving treatment, Djokovicwas striking the ball alright but 0-30 soonended up becoming a break of serve. TheSpaniard had a chance to close out the

first set but as the players started to maketheir ways to their chairs, the momentthat will be talked about for a long timeunfolded.

�����������Djokovic appeared to be looking the

other way when he pulled the ball fromhis pocket and smacked it in the direc-tion of the official, it hitting her full tossin the throat.

The official cried out and began gasp-ing for air as she collapsed to the ground.Her struggle to breathe properly wasclearly heard on the broadcast.

Djokovic and officials rushed over toher to check if she was okay and placedhis hand on her back as she struggled tobreathe. After a few minutes she got upand walked off the court looking dazed.

Around ten minutes of discussionsthen ensued between Djokovic and thetournament referee Soeren Friemel alongside other officials, during which the topseed pleaded his case. He was heard say-ing “game penalty, set penalty, (there are)many options.”

The umpire then declared thatCarreno Busta had won by default.Djokovic shook hands with his opponentbefore leaving the court.

�������������� ��������Usually in a tennis match, abuse of

rackets or balls or unsportsmanlike con-duct result in a point penaltyschedule being invoked. There aremultiple sections in the official rule-book that spell out such behaviourapart from a Point Penalty

Schedule.“The first code violation is a warn-

ing, the second comes with a point penal-ty, and the third comes with a gamepenalty-with the offending player subjectto default at the referee’s discretion at anytime should the code be violated againthereafter. However, when a situationsuch as Sunday’s arises in a match, thePoint Penalty Schedule may be bypassedin favor of an immediate default,” the USOpen tournament website stated in areport.

'�������'*> England’s wicketkeeper batsman JosButtler will miss the final T20 match against Australiaon Tuesday to be with his family, the country’s cricketboard announced on Monday.

The 29-year-old, who hit a match-winning unbeat-en 77 in the second T20, left England’sbio-secure bubble on Sunday eveningfollowing the team’s six-wicket victo-ry over the arch-rivals.

As a member of the Test team,Buttler spent two months in the bio-secure bubble for the red-ball seriesagainst West Indies and Pakistanbefore joining the white-ballteam for Australia’s tour ofEngland.

“Buttler, subject to test-ing, will return to the bio-secure bubble on Thursdayahead of the first ODI of theRoyal London Series atEmirates Old Trafford onFriday,” the statement read.PTI

��%� �3���

Virat Kohli has been able to“disconnect” from the

underwhelming seasons that heand Royal ChallengersBangalore have endured in theIPL and there is a welcome“sense of calm” as he prepares tolead the side this year, somethinghe last felt in 2016.

“The 2016 IPL, we all lovedto be a part of (it). Since then,this is the most balanced I havefelt about (the) squad,” theIndian skipper said on RCB’sYoutube show Bold Diaries,sharing his thoughts on theupcoming edition startingSeptember 19.

Kohli said that both he andAB de Villiers feel that thiscould be the “breakthrough sea-son” when tables will turn for thefranchise which has flattered todeceive on many occasions.

“I (have) never felt so calmgoing into a season before. He

(ABD) is coming from a verydifferent space and he is enjoy-ing his life and is very relaxedand fit as ever. I feel I am in amuch better space, much morebalanced, when it comes toenvironment of (the) IPL,” thestraight speaking RCB skippersaid.

This is the first time he feelsthat he isn’t carrying any bag-gage.

“Disconnecting with thingsthat have happened in the past

and not taking that baggage, aswe have done that way toomany times,” he responded to aquery on what has changed forhim this season.

“Just because we have abunch of players that are soskilled, people like seeing themplay is the reason people havehad so much expectation aswell.”

Kohli said adding to hisconfidence is the presence ofSouth African pacer ChrisMorris, Australian white-ballskipper Aaron Finch and hisunknown compatriot JoshPhilippe, a 23-year-old wicket-keeper-batsman.

“Morris brings in a lot ofbalance. Aaron Finch is some-one who has experience of play-ing international cricket for awhile. Some of the youngsterswe have picked this time arequite exciting too like JoshPhilippe, a very exciting player,”the skipper said.

New York: Jennifer Bradyclasped her hands, threw backher head, closed her eyes andsoaked in the biggest moment ofher tennis career.

“Wow,” she said, describingthe moment. “Just wow.”

The 25-year-old led a con-tingent of players — two of themAmericans — into their first USOpen quarterfinals on Sunday,beating former championAngelique Kerber 6-1, 6-4 with

a dominant serve and forehand.Shelby Rogers later joined

her with a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6)victory over two-timeWimbledon champion PetraKvitova. It’s Rogers’ secondGrand Slam quarterfinal overalland first at Flushing Meadows.

“It’s so special,” Rogers said.She now plays two-time

major champion Naomi Osaka,who won the US Open two yearsago and advanced to the quar-

terfinals by beating No 14 seedAnett Kontaveit 6-3, 6-4 onSunday night. Rogers has beat-en Osaka all three times they’veplayed. A bracket lacking six ofthe top eight women in the rank-ings because of injuries andcoronavirus concerns has givenup-and-comers a chance to seizethe moment. Nobody has doneit better than Brady, who has yetto drop a set and has lost only19 games in her four matches.

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England players PhilFoden and Mason

Greenwood were senthome and dropped forTuesday’s game againstDenmark after breachingcoronavirus rules inIceland. Foden andGreenwood both madetheir England debuts in the1-0 victory over Iceland inthe Nations League onSaturday.

But they will return toEngland from Reykjavikrather than traveling toCopenhagen on Mondayafter social media videowas published in Icelandpurporting to show theplayers meeting womenfrom outside the team bub-ble. “Unfortunately thismorning it was brought tomy attention that two of theboys have broken theCovid-19 guidelines in

terms of our secure bub-ble,” England coach GarethSouthgate said.

“So we had to decidevery quickly that theycouldn’t have any interac-tion with the rest of theteam and and wouldn’t beable to travel to training.”

Southgate said theplayers did also not join therest of the squad for break-fast on Monday. “Theyhave been naive,” saidSouthgate, who was unableto confirm if the 18-year-old Greenwood and 20-year-old Foden had leftthe team hotel in Iceland.

“We are very clear thatno other members of ourparty have been in contactwith those two players.That’s why they couldn’t goto breakfast this morningor join us for training. Weare very clear we have fol-lowed all the guidelines inthat regard.”