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THE HINDU CHENNAI

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019 9EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

CMYK

M CH-CHE

NATION

Weather WatchRainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday

Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: INSAT/IMD (Taken at 18.00 Hrs)

Forecast for Wednesday: Heavy to very heavy rainfall likely overcoastal Karnataka, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Konkan &Goa, Telangana, Rayalaseema, interior Karnataka, Kerala & Mahe,Chhattisgarh, central Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry andKaraikal.

city rain max min city rain max min

Agartala............. 7.6....33.0....24.0 Kozhikode............... 18.2....31.0....24.0

Ahmedabad...........—....33.0....22.0 Kurnool .......................—....31.0....22.0

Aizawl...................—....26.0....17.0 Lucknow......................—....31.0....18.0

Allahabad..............—....31.0....20.0 Madurai .................. 30.0....32.0....23.0

Bengaluru ........ 38.9....28.0....20.0 Mangaluru ...................—....29.0....23.0

Bhopal ..................—....28.0....20.0 Mumbai .................... 9.8....28.0....24.0

Bhubaneswar.........—....31.0....24.0 Mysuru ................... 20.0....28.0....19.0

Chandigarh ...........—....31.0....16.0 New Delhi ...................—....32.0....17.0

Chennai ........... 25.7....28.0....24.0 Patna ..........................—....31.0....22.0

Coimbatore ........ 0.8....28.0....21.0 Port Blair................ 10.0....30.0....24.0

Dehradun ..............—....30.0....14.0 Puducherry ............... 4.1....28.0....23.0

Gangtok................—....20.0....14.0 Pune....................... 42.4....29.0....21.0

Goa.................. 33.7....32.0....24.0 Raipur ........................... ....28.0....22.0

Guwahati ..............—....31.0....21.0 Ranchi .........................—....28.0....20.0

Hubballi ................—....26.0....21.0 Shillong.......................—....24.0....13.0

Hyderabad ............—....29.0....22.0 Shimla.........................—....21.0....11.0

Imphal ............... 3.6....29.0....18.0 Srinagar.......................—........ —........ —

Jaipur ...................—....32.0....19.0 Thiruvananthapuram...... 3.0....33.0....24.0

Kochi ............... 17.6....30.0....23.0 Tiruchi.................... 26.0....30.0....23.0

Kohima .................—....24.0....14.0 Vijayawada ............... 6.6....27.0....25.0

Kolkata .................—....32.0....25.0 Visakhapatnam ........ 26.8....27.0....25.0

(Rainfall data in mm; temperature in Celsius)

Pollutants  in  the  air  you  are  breathing Yesterday

CITIES SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE

In observation made at4.00 p.m., Varanasi, UttarPradesh recorded anoverall air quality index(AQI) score of 276indicating a severe level ofpollution. In contrast,Eloor, Kerala recorded ahealthy AQI score of 30.

Ahmedabad..... ..— 130 .21 ..196 .123 ....*

Bengaluru ....... ..2 .45 108 ....32 ...46 ....*

Chennai .......... 11 .32 .58 ....69 .....— ....*

Delhi .............. ..5 .75 .26 ..260 .299 ....*

Hyderabad ...... ..5 .40 .35 ....88 .....— ....*

Kolkata........... 12 .57 .29 ..220 .129 ....*

Lucknow ......... ..2 .30 .50 ..328 .....— ....*

Mumbai .......... ..5 .22 110 ....32 ...52 ....*

Pune............... 87 ...8 .68 ....36 ...34 ....*

Visakhapatnam 26 .45 .56 ....24 ...28 ....*

Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good (Readings indicate average AQI)

SO2:  Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system,

making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air

particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues

and monuments.

NO2:  Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by

reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.

CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to

critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause

dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death.

PM2.5  &  PM10:  Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes,

nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced

lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature

death in people with heart or lung disease

Deepavali  is  a  time  whenmost  Indians  spare  no  ex­pense to be with their fami­lies. But not this year. The re­luctance  to  spend  on  airtravel this festival season hasdampened celebrations andis  making  airlines  nervous,who are forced to lower air­fares to fi��ll up their planes.

Data from the travel portalYatra.com  shows  that  fareson  key  metro  routes  aredown  by  30%,  while  this  isusually  a  time  airlines  hikeairfares  due  to  a  huge  de­mand and are able  to makeup for losses piled up duringthe lean months of July, Au­

gust  and  September.  OnMonday,  full­service  carrierVistara  even  launched  its‘grand international sale’ fordestinations  like  Bangkok,Dubai, and Singapore for re­turn fares starting at ₹��14,999.

‘Industry­wide trend’“The slowdown is beginningto  bite  us.  The  demand  forair  travel  is  not  growing  ascompared to  the same timelast  year.  As  a  result,  ouryields (average fare per pas­senger  mile)  are  lower.  Idon’t see this improving forseveral months to come. Thisis  an  industry­wide  trend,”said  a  top  offi��cial  at  one  ofthe  leading  airlines  in  the

country on the condition ofanonymity.

DGCA’s  monthly  datashows  domestic  traffi��cgrowth  rate  was  at  (­)4%  inApril;  it  rose  to  6%  in  Juneand then again fell to 1.18% inSeptember.  While  the  clo­sure  of  Jet  Airways  in  mid­April  was  to  be  blamed  for

many  months,  industry  in­siders  say  by  August  its  im­pact had diminished.

“Demand is stagnant dueto  a  slowing  economy.  Eco­nomy  class  is  really  strug­gling. This  is  a very  serioussituation as airlines dependon peak season to make upfor losses in other seasons,”

said  another  senior  execu­tive of another airline.

Data  shows  that  airfaresbooked  15  days  before  thedate of travel have droppedon Delhi to Chennai route by44% from ₹��5,571 last year to₹��3,071  this  year,  Delhi  toPune by 30% from ₹��5,219 lastyear  to ₹��3,631  this year and

22%  on  Chennai­Delhi  from₹��5,688 to ₹��4,382.

The Hindu spoke to Minis­ter of Civil Aviation HardeepSingh  Puri  on  this  crisis  inthe  aviation  sector,  and  hesaid, “No,  low  fares are notdue  to  an  economic  slow­down.  Is  any  plane  goingempty,  not  at  all.  LCCs  arecompeting against each oth­er and dumbing down fares.” 

However, both the airlineexecutives quoted above saidthat  “competitive  pricing  isan  outcome  of  weakdemand”.

“People  are  being  morecautious than they have beenin the past. But going by theprevailing  last  minute  farerise trends, we could expecta rise in fares as we get closerto  the  booking  dates.”  saidYatra.com’s Sharat Dhall. 

Fares on key metro routes are downby 30% at a time when it usually peaks

Jagriti Chandra

New Delhi

Airlines hit as Deepavali travel fails to take off��

The  Uttar  Pradesh  govern­ment has granted the statusof State fair to the DeepotsavMela to be held in Ayodhyaduring Deepavali. 

The festival, in which ov­er 5.5 lakh lamps will be liton October 26, will be heldat an estimated cost of ₹��133crore,  government  spokes­person  Shrikant  Sharmasaid. 

With the change, the Melawill now be planned by theDistrict Magistrate of Ayod­hya. Earlier, the Tourism De­partment organised it. 

The  decision  was  takengiven the “international sta­tus”  of  the  festival  and  onthe  proposals  sent  by  theDistrict Magistrate in lettersdated January 15 and July 3,the government said.

The  BJP  governmentplans  to  organise  a  grandDeepavali  celebration  inAyodhya.

Last  year,  the  festivalshowcased the Korean con­nection  to  the  town,  andSouth Korea’s fi��rst lady KimJung­sook  was  the  chief

guest at the event.Restrictions  under  Sec­

tion 144 of CrPC have beenimposed  in  Ayodhya  untilDecember 10 in anticipationof the Supreme Court’s ver­dict  in  the  land  disputecase.

special correspondent

LUCKNOW

Ayodhya ‘deepotsav’given State Fair tag

The  Supreme  Court  onTuesday  allowed  NirvaniAkhara,  one  of  the  Hinduparties in Ayodhya title dis­pute, to fi��le a note seekingright  to  manage  the  wor­ship  of  deity  as  the  ‘She­bait’,  a  person  who  takescare of the deity and man­ages its daily aff��airs.

The  Nirmohi  Akharahad  fi��led  the  suit  seekingShebait right in 1959. BothNirmohi Akhara and Nirva­ni  Akhara  have  contestedeach other's stand. 

Nirvani Akharaseeks right to‘Shebait’

Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi

The Alaknanda HydropowerCompany  (AHC)  has  takenthe  Union  Water  Ministryand  the  Uttarakhand  Stategovernment to court follow­ing a 2018 notifi��cation by theNational  Mission  for  CleanGanga (NMCG), a Union Wa­ter  Ministry  body,  that  re­quires  hydropower  compa­nies  located  on  the  Ganga’stributaries  to  release  morewater  than  from  previous

years.  Located  on  the  Alak­nanda river — a major sourceriver for the Ganga — the 330MW  project  was  commis­sioned in 2014 and is amongthe  19  hydropower  projectsfunctioning  along  variousstretches of the Ganga and itstributaries.

‘Financially detrimental’Company  offi��cials  said  thatthe  notifi��cation  was  fi��nan­cially  detrimental  to  thecompany  and  that  the  go­

vernment ought  to be com­pensating  it  for  the  lossesthat would accrue due to thenotifi��cation.

“The  matter  is  in  thecourt. Any losses to the com­pany have to be reimbursedby the State government (Ut­tarakhand) as this is a changein law,” G.V.K. Reddy, chair­man,  GVK  Group,  told  The

Hindu in  a  text  message.AHC is run by GVK Power &Infrastructure Ltd.

The  2018  e­fl��ow  notifi��ca­

tion specifi��es that the upperstretches of the Ganga wouldhave to maintain 20% of themonthly average fl��ow of thepreceding  10  days  betweenNovember and March, whichis the dry season; 25% of theaverage during the “lean sea­son”  of  October,  April  andMay; and 30% of the monthlyaverage during the monsoonmonths of June­September.

This  would  require  exist­ing and upcoming projects tochange  their  design  to  ac­

commodate  greater  fl��ows.Companies  are  reluctant  torelease water because it im­pedes power generation. 

The  2018  order  by  theNMCG gave companies threeyears — until October 2021—to  make  necessary  changesbut site visits to 11 companiesby  the  Central  Water  Com­mission, which is tasked withmeasuring  fl��ows,  showedthat most companies did notneed  to  make  major  designchanges  comply  with  the

new requirements. The com­pliance  date  was  thereforeadvanced to 2019. 

An NMCG offi��cial, who didnot want to quoted, said thatGVK  had  claimed  losses  ofnearly ₹��4,000 crore, adding,“We  have  had  some  meet­ings  at  the  Prime  Minister’sOffi��ce and the government isconsidering making good thelosses.  We  will  have  to  seehow the case proceeds.” Mr.Reddy  did  not  confi��rm  thisnumber to The Hindu.

The order requires hydropower companies situated on the river’s tributaries to release more water than previous years

Jacob Koshy

NEW DELHI

Power fi��rm takes Water Ministry to court over Ganga notifi��cation 

IAF carries out twin fi��ring of BrahMos NEW DELHI

Two BrahMos surface-to-

surface missile tests were

conducted as part of routine

operational training at the

Trak Island in the Andaman &

Nicobar group of islands on

October 21 and 22, the IAF

said on Tuesday.

IN BRIEF

ED custody of HDILpromoters extendedMUMBAI

A special Prevention of

Money Laundering Act court

on Tuesday extended the ED’s

custody of Housing

Development Infrastructure

Limited’s (HDIL) directors

Rakesh Wadhawan and his

son Sarang till October 24.

Services in some public sec­tor  banks  were  partially  af­fected on Tuesday with twounions  observing  a  nation­wide one­day strike to prot­est against the Centre’s pro­posed merger of banks andbanking reforms.

The  strike,  called  by  theAll­India  Bank  EmployeesAssociation (AIBEA) and theBank Employees Federationof India (BEFI) saw the parti­cipation of 3 lakh employeesand  led  to  about  20  lakhbanking instrument, inlcud­ing  cheques  worth  around₹��15,000  crore  not  beingcleared,  AIBEA  general  se­cretary C.H. Venkatachalamsaid.

Clerical staff�� stay awayMr. Venkatachalam said thestrike  aff��ected  services  as“clerical  and  subordinatestaff��”  stayed  away  fromwork.  The  unions  had  an­nounced in September thatthey would hold the strike to

stop the merger of 10 publicsector banks. 

Mr.  Venkatachalam  saidthe unions would seek sup­port from other unions andOpposition parties ahead ofthe winter session of Parlia­ment.  He  said  the  govern­ment  representatives  whomet  the  union  leaders  onMonday had said  the work­ers’  issues  would  be  ad­dressed  after  the  merger,but  the  unions  did  not  ac­

cept  it  as  the  merger  itselfwas the bone of contention. 

“Merger of the banks is to­tally unwarranted in India aswe need more banking ser­vices  and  opening  of  morebranches  to  serve  the  peo­ple.  Past  mergers  have  re­sulted in closure of branch­es. Recovery of the huge badloans  is  the  top  priority  ofthe  banks  and  mergerswould change the priority,”he said.

We will seek support from Opposition parties, say leaders

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Bank employees taking part in the strike at Azad Maidan inMumbai on Tuesday. * EMMANUAL YOGINI

Banking services partially hitas unions protest merger bid

No govt. jobs for thosewith over 2 childrenGUWAHATI

Two years after it adopted a

population policy, the Assam

Cabinet on Monday decided

to make government jobs out

of bounds for people with

more than two children. The

policy will come into effect

from January 1, 2021.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The Gujarat Anti­TerrorismSquad  on  Tuesday  said  ithas  arrested  the  two  mainsuspects who allegedly mur­dered  Hindu  Samaj  Partyleader  Kamlesh  Tiwari  inLucknow on October 18.

The  two  suspects  werenabbed from Shamlaji nearthe  Gujarat­Rajasthan  bor­der  and  they  were  on  theway to Gujarat after havingreached Shahjahanpur fromNepal, police said.

The  two  were  identifi��edas  Ashfaqhussain  Jakirhus­sain  Shaikh,  34,  and  Moi­nuddin  Khurshid  Pathan,27. While Shaikh is a medi­cal representative, Pathan isa food delivery boy, the pol­ice said. Both are residentsof Surat.

The  ATS  said  the  twowere  apprehended  on  thebasis of technical and physi­cal surveillance mounted ontheir  family  and  acquain­tances. 

The  primary  investiga­tion of the accused revealed

that they had committed thecrime “in retribution to pur­ported  statements  by  thedeceased,” the ATS said.

In  2015,  Tiwari  had  shotinto  the  limelight  after  hemade some controversial re­marks, following which sev­eral  Muslim  groups  heldhuge  protests  demandingaction against him.

Six  persons,  includingtwo Muslim clerics from Bij­nor in west U.P., have beendetained  for  allegedlyscripting the conspiracy be­hind the murder.

Kamlesh Tiwari’s killersarrested in GujaratThe two are residents of Surat

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW

The two were on their wayto Gujarat after reachingShahjahanpur. * PTI

A former  BJP  MLA’sdaughter,  who  had  lefthome  alleging  torture  bythe  family,  returned  onTuesday. 

“We  found  her  at  a  vil­lage  near  Raver  of  Maha­rashtra  ...  There  was  nosettlement  between  thetwo sides,” said Umesh Ti­wari, T.T. Nagar City Supe­rintendent of Police. “Shehad run away on her ownaccord  and  returned  thesame way,” he said. 

On  October  16,  formerMLA  from  Bhopal  CentralSurendranath  Singh  hadfi��led a complaint claiminghis “mentally ill” daughter,Bharti Singh, had gone mis­sing. Days later, Ms. Singhreleased a video online al­leging torture by her familyfor a decade, including ad­ministration  of  sleep­in­ducing injections.

On  Monday,  Mr.  Singhtold  The Hindu that  hisdaughter  was  a  victim  of“love jihad”, in which Con­gress leaders had a hand.

Ex­BJP MLA’sdaughterreturns home

Staff reporter

Bhopal