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MONEY 8‘HIGHER OFFTAKE BY FCI CAN BOOSTPROCUREMENT AGENCIES LIQUIDITY'

ANALYSIS 7CHINA THE EMERGING

RING MASTER OF NEPAL?

SPORTS 11SLOW AND STEADY WINDIES

BUILD THEIR LEAD

VIJAYAWADA, SATURDAY JULY 11, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

}RADHESHYAMIT IS!

Page 12www.dailypioneer.com

RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 249*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

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VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

5

PM bats for solar energy, says it's ‘sure, pure and secure'

8

Karnataka CMunder home quaranatine afterstaff test positive

4

Rahul Gandhi seeks cancellationof varsity exams

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Month & Paksham:Ashadha & Krishna PakshaPanchangamTithi : Shashthi: 01:32 pmNakshatram: Uttara Bhadrapada:

Full NightTime to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 09:07 am – 10:44 amYamagandam: 01:58 pm – 03:36 pmVarjyam: 04:15 pm – 06:02 pmGulika: 05:52 am - 07:29 amGood Time: (to start any important work)

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Villagers banish Covid-19patient’s family to cattle shed

Jagan’s Arogyasri cover forCovid-19 puts KCR in a fixL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Inadvertently, AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy has puthis Telangana State counter-part K Chandrasekhar Rao inquite a fix.

While Jagan’s decision toextend Arogyasri cover toCovid-19 treatment in privatehospitals has been welcomedacross AP, it has brought pres-sure on KCR to follow suit.

Jagan's decision provided abig relief to the people fromthe economically backwardsections, government employ-ees and pensioners, who arepart of the beneficiaries of thescheme. They can now availcashless Covid treatment freeof cost even in corporate hos-pitals. The entire expenditurewill be reimbursed to the hos-pitals by the AP government.

Jagan's decision receivedwide appreciation from allquarters and fuelled similardemand in Telangana fromemployees, pensioners oppo-sition parties and various civilsociety organisations. Butimplementing the scheme inTelangana is easier said thandone — the State govern-ment already owes Rs 500crore in Arogyasri dues to pri-vate hospitals. Naturally, pri-vate hospitals are refusing toextend any treatment cov-ered by Arogyasri to anypatient, let alone a Covidpatient.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Not caste or religion, but theCovid-19 pandemic has result-ed in a new form of untouch-ability in rural pockets ofAndhra Pradesh.

In the latest incident atEthamanuvalasa village underPanchipenta Mandal inVizianagaram district, aCovid-19 patient’s familymembers and relatives wereostracised by the villagers.

The Covid patient’s familymembers (15 people, includ-ing children and women) havebeen forced to take shelter ina cattle shed on the outskirtsof the village after being social-ly boycotted by the villagers.

According to sources, NRao, a migrant worker, came

to the village from Hyderabad.He stayed with his familymembers in the village.

Later, Rao tested positive forthe virus a few days ago and hewas shifted to Covid-19 carecentre. However, the familymembers of the patients were

neither shifted to a quarantinefacility nor to a hospital.

Suspecting that the familymembers of the Covid-19patient may spread the virus,the villagers banished themfrom the village and theyasked them to stay in the cat-tle shed located on the out-skirts of the village.

“Only Covid-19 familymembers can understand thekind of social stigma we facethese days. It’s painful anddepressing. We are not in aposition to prepare food forourselves as we have no ration.We have been staying in thecowshed for the past twodays,” the family members of Covid-19 patient told newsmen.

l Nirmala, Shekhawat and others asked to release funds PNS n VIJAYAWADA

A delegation led by AP FinanceMinister BugganaRajendranath Reddy on Fridaymet various Union Ministersand top bureaucrats in theCentral Government and urgedthem to release grants pendingto the State besides providingadditional funds in wake of theCovid-19 pandemic.

The delegation met UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, MoS, Finance,Anurag Thakur, Minister ofJalshakti Gajendra SinghShekhawat, MoS Home AffairsG Kishan Reddy, Niti AyogCEO Amitabh Kant and NitiAyog Advisor Avinash Mishraand discussed various pendingprojects and issues relating toPolavaram project.

Buggana requested the

Union Finance Minister forearly release of pending grantsfrom the Centre. In particular,he pointed out that the localbody grants, recommended

by the 14th FinanceCommission, amounting toRs 1,597.27 crore, were pend-ing release to the state.

CORONA WARRIOR

Muslim sanitises temples, churches; charges just Rs 2SUMIT ONKA n VISAKHAPATNAM

When the world is in grip ofdistressing negative news sincethe outbreak of theCoronavirus pandemic, somepeople’s selfless deeds for thesociety, endangering their livesbrings positivity to all.

One such person is a Vizag-based young Muslim man whohas sanitised over 450 places ofworship of all faiths includingtemples and churches.

MGM Khan, (27), a lawyerby profession and mountaineerby passion, always actively par-ticipates in social works. He is

practicing law at the HighCourt and Vizag district court.

The Coronavirus pandemic

has prompted him to indulgein a very noble work that is notonly keeping the thousands of

devotees safe, but blurring reli-gious boundaries as well.

“What about the safety ofour neighbours and otherplaces?” Khan’s mother askedhim when he sanitised hishome one day to make it virusfree. This one question drovehim into the voluntary saniti-sation work.

His journey into this nobleact began with some of hisneighbouring houses andmosques during Ramzan.

He says that it was then hethought to himself why onlymosques and not other place ofworship.

This thought was enough for

him to end up doing sanitisa-tion of over 450 religiousplaces, including 250 templesand other churches and agurudwara till July 10.

Asked about fear of catchingthe virus, he said, “I am amountaineer. So, I know theimportance of safety gears. I dosanitisation, putting on PPEand other required things tokeep myself safe. There couldbe lapses by humans. But, theAlmighty has kept me safe sofar.”

Managements of many tem-ples and churches are callinghim to sanitise their premises.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh reported asingle day high of 1,608 coro-navirus cases on Friday, tak-ing the overall tally past25,000 to 25,422.

The death count also wit-nessed a new single day highof 15, making it an overall 292so far while 981 patients weredischarged from hospitals inthe last 24 hours, according tothe latest government bul-letin. According to govern-ment statistics, 11,15,635samples were tested till date,resulting in 25,422 positivecases, with a positivity rate of2.28 per cent.

In all 13,194 patients hadrecovered and been dis-charged from hospitals, leav-ing 11,936 active cases in thestate.

Record 15deaths, 1,608new cases in AP

Pithani under ACBlens, aide arrested

ESI SCAM

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)authorities, who busteda major multi-croreracket in theEmployees StateInsurance (ESI) inthe state andarrested formerminister and TDPDeputy Floor Leaderin the Assembly KAtchannaidu, are now clos-ing in on another former min-ister Pithani Satyanarayana.

On Friday, the ACB author-ities arrested Murali Mohan,former personal secretary ofPithani, from his office in theState Secretariat.

He is presently working as asection officer in the municipaladministration department.

The police are also on thelookout for Pithani’s

son Venkata Suresh,who is said to haveplayed a key rolein the scam.

The ACBauthorities had

already registeredan FIR against

Pithani’s son and for-mer personal secretary after

gathering evidence.Interestingly, both Suresh

and Murali Mohan had filedanticipatory bail petitions in thestate High Court, apparentlysensing arrest.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The Vizag city police on Fridayarrested two of a six-member gang,who reportedly kidnapped JamiSuresh, a realtor and his advocateSLN Raju in a bid to extort moneyfrom him. The arrested were iden-tified as Pallapu Prasad alias KarnataPrasad, resident of Guntur districtand P Ramreddy alias PrathapReddy, resident of Chinamushivadaarea in Vizag city.

Vizag City Police CommissionerRajeev Kumar Meena said that the

Endangered pangolinfound in residential area PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Forest officials rescued a pan-golin from the residential areaof Gopalapatnam in Vizag cityon Friday. The pangolin wasspotted by locals at SriRamnagar Colony Block-I ofGopalapatnam in Vizag city inthe wee hours of Friday andthey alerted the forest depart-ment.

Initially the locals at theGopalapatnam area mistook itfor a crocodile due to theexoskeleton. As word spread,people gathered to catch aglimpse of the pangolin, a high-

ly protected species under theWild Life protection Act.

The forest officials said thatthe pangolin was found near awashroom of a house of the SriRamnagar Colony. Some resi-dents in the area were scaredafter seeing the animal as theyhad no idea about it andassumed that it may harmhumans.

State unable to even savedoctors, alleges NaiduPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of theOpposit ion NChandrababuNaidu onF r i d a yslammed theJaganmohanR e d d yGovernment,accusing it ofpushing thestate into a hope-less situation whereit could not save the lifeof a doctor who fell victimto coronavirus in Tenalitown in Guntur district.

Naidu recalled that thedoctor emotionally pleadedfor better treatment so that

he would be able to live totake care of his children and

family members but,unfortunately, no

timely help wasprovided.

In a state-ment, Naidusaid that thesad state ofaffairs in the

State was evi-dent from how

the GovernmentD o c t o r s '

Association has writtento the Chief Secretary, say-ing that they would not beable to work where therewas no respect for theirprofession.

Bodies of Covidvictims dumpedinto pit withearthmoverPNS n VIJAYAWADA

In yet another incident ofinhuman disposal of bodies ofCovid-19 victims in AndhraPradesh, municipal authori-ties in Nellore dumped thebodies in a pit using an earth-mover.

A video, which went viralover social media, showsmunicipal workers taking outdead bodies from an ambu-lance and throwing them onthe front portion of a JCB. Thebodies were then dumpedinto a pit in Penna river.

With the incident caught oncamera leading to public out-rage, Nellore district collectorM.V. Sheshagiri Babu onFriday ordered a probe.

Rebel MP Rajumoves HighCourt againstpolice casesPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Facing a series of criminalcases filed against him by rul-ing party MLAs in variouspolice stations, rebel YSRCPMP from NarsapuramRaghurama Krishnam Rajuon Friday moved the HighCourt seeking quashing ofthe cases.

Raju filed two separatequash petitions in the HighCourt — one against thecases filed against him inBhimavaram and the other inPoduru police stations,appealing to the court to seethat the cases are quashedand no action be taken withregard to the cases.

AP Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy presents a memento to UnionFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in New Delhi on Friday.

The Covid patient’sfamily members (15people, includingchildren and women)have been forced to takeshelter in a cattle shedon the outskirts of thevillage after beingsocially boycotted bythe villagers

Realtor kidnapped for Rs 5cr ransom

YS JJaganmohan RReddy K CChandrasekhar RRao

3

33

33

33

3

33

Buggana in Delhi to getCentre release dues to AP

two accused, habitualoffenders, are kingpins inthe case and committed the

crime with the help of fourother members of the gang.

8,21,493Coronaviruscases in

INDIArise from 7 to

8 lakh in 3 days

2,82,765active cases

5,16,206recovered

22,144deaths in India

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VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020 vijayawada 02

EGGRATES

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HYDERABAD 310VIJAYAWADA 342VISAKHAPATNAM 349RETAIL PPRICE `3.60

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

State tops in EGS implementationPNS n VIJAYAWADA

In a major achievement settingprecedent for other States,Andhra Pradesh tops in thecountry in the implementationof the Mahatma GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme (MGN-REGS). The State contributes14 per cent of country’sachievement in terms of gen-eration of person days’ work,according to sources.

It is for this achievementthat the Panchayat Raj andRural Development depart-ment in the State requestedthe Centre for five crore moreperson days’ work in additionto the 21 crore in the currentf iscal. Commissioner(Panchayat Raj and RuralDevelopment) Girija Shankar

said that due to Covid-19induced lockdown, the work-ers are opting for MGNREGSworks. He said that around 27lakh people have attendedMGNREGS works in the Stateon Thursday alone.

Shankar explained that asworkers came back from citiesand left jobless during thelockdown period, they start-ed taking part in MGNREGSworks in their respective vil-lages. The workers also

included those working inhospitality services, whichinclude hotels, restaurantsamong others.

He said that the reversemigration also increased thedemand for jobs and workers

opted for MGNREGS works."Apart from giving over 2.2lakh job cards, officials alsoactivated many job cards,which remained inactive forsome time due to variousreasons,” he said.

l Shankar explained that asworkers came back from citiesand left jobless during thelockdown period, they startedtaking part in MGNREGS worksin their respective villages.The workers also includedthose working in hospitalityservices, which include hotels,restaurants among others. Hesaid that the reverse migrationalso increased the demand forjobs and workers opted forMGNREGS works

l It is for this achievement that thePanchayat Raj and Rural

Development department in the Staterequested the Centre for five crore

more person days’ work in additionto the 21 crore in the current fiscal

l Commissioner (Panchayat Rajand Rural Development) Girija

Shankar said that due to Covid-19induced lockdown, the workers are

opting for MGNREGS works. He saidthat around 27 lakh people have

attended MGNREGS works in theState on Thursday

MURDER OF YSRCP LEADER MOKA BHASKAR RAO

Police twisted facts toimplicate Kollu, alleges TDPPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Telugu Desam Party officialspokesperson K Pattabhi Ramon Friday alleged that Krishnadistrict police twisted factsand submitted a 'f lawedremand report' to implicateTDP BC leader and formerMinister Kollu Ravindra underpressure from YSRCP leaders.

Pattabhi Ram objected tothe police claim that theyarrested the main accusedChinta Chinni, ChintaNancharaiah and ChintaKishore on July 2 when theyhad actually surrendered at thePedana Police Station on June29 evening itself. They surren-dered within seven hours onthe same day after YSRCPleader Moka Bhaskar Rao wasmurdered.

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Friday, hedemanded that KrishnaDistrict Superintendent ofPolice M Ravindranath Babusubmit the CCTV footage ofPedana and Guduru PoliceStations. It was a fact that themedia reports, including pro-government, clearly gave visu-al details of how the threeaccused first surrendered at thePedana police station on theday of murder, and how theywere brought to Guduru PoliceStation later. But the remandreport was full of glaring anddeliberate errors.

He said the remand reportnarrated that after the YSRCPleader was murdered at 11.30

am on June 29, the mainaccused ran away from thespot and then rode a bullet andwent towards Pedana road.Then, at 11.40 am, they report-edly called one Rizwan, whogave the phone to KolluRavindra, who was stated tohave congratulated thembefore giving further direc-tions.

The police should explainhow within 10 minutesbetween 11.30 am and 11.40am, the accused could committhe murder and then go out ofthe Bandar town far away intothe fields on Pedana road fromwhere to speak to KolluRavindra. The remand report

narrative was undoubtedly fullof fiction and not based onfacts. It was all clearly aimed atimplicating the TDP BC leader.

Pattabhi Ram asserted thatwhen murder took place, KolluRavindra actually visited theoffices of District Collector andthe SP to complain againstYSRCP irregularities in VillageSecretariats. Between 11.40am and 12.40 pm, KolluRavindra was at the SP office.Unfortunately, the remandreport stated that KolluRavindra spoke to the murderaccused from the SP chambers.From this, it was evident howmuch eager the police were toplease their political bosses.

l Pattabhi Ram objected to the police claim that they arrested themain accused Chinta Chinni, Chinta Nancharaiah and ChintaKishore on July 2 when they had actually surrendered at thePedana Police Station on June 29 evening itself. They surrenderedwithin seven hours on the same day after YSRCP leader MokaBhaskar Rao was murdered

Threehospitalisedfor snakebitePNS n VIJAYAWADA

The first snakebite incidentwas reported in Krishna dis-trict in the rainy season. Asmany as one farmer and twofarm labourers were bitten bya viper in Movva mandal ofKrishna district on Friday. Asthe sowing season has start-ed, farmers are busy in tillingand sowing. G Chintaiah(35), Mariyamma and oneanother were working inChintaiah’s farmland when aviper bitten them.

Initially, they were provid-ed home remedies for thesnakebite as the situationworsened they were rushed tothe government hospital inMovva. With the timely treat-ment of Dr S SivaramaKrishna, they reportedlyrecovered and were stated tobe out of danger.

CCL Executive Chairmandonates Rs 1.11 crore PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Challa Rajendra Prasad,Executive Chairman of CCLProducts, donated Rs 1.11crore to the DisasterManagement Fund of AndhraPradesh to fight against theCovid-19 pandemic.

Rajendra Prasad met ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy at his camp office inTadepalli and handed over a

cheque for Rs 1.11 crore. TheCCl Products is an export-ori-ented instant coffee manufac-turing company located inDuggirala of Guntur district.It has another manufacturingunit near Sullurpet and alsomarkets its products in thecountry under the brand name‘Continental Coffee’. The com-pany also has its manufactur-ing units in Vietnam andSwitzerland.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In view of the increase in theCovid-19 positive cases acrossthe State, measures have beentaken to improve the facilities atQuarantine Centres, Covid CareCentres, along with Districtand State Covid Hospitals, dis-closed MT Krishna Babu, StateCoordinator for Covid Control.

Addressing the media atCovid Command ControlCentre here on Friday, KrishnaBabu said Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy conducteda detailed review over the Covidsituation in the State and hasgiven directions to improve thequality of food being suppliedto the inmates and ensure prop-er sanitation by deploying suf-ficient number of sanitary work-ers.

Keeping the protein require-ment of the patients, the dietwas designed and the menu willbe displayed in all centres.Towards this initiative, the Stategovernment is spending up toRs 500 per person on a singleday.

He further stated that a thirdparty survey was conducted atall the Quarantine Centres andCovid Care Centres across theState taking feedback on sani-

tation arrangements, qualityand quantity of food, paymentof bills, availability of medicalpersons and in- charge officer.

Based on the feedbackreceived, all the DistrictCollectors and Joint Collectorshave been asked to improve thefacilities wherever the issueswere identified. In fact, thefeedback from the inmates isregularly being taken on a reg-ular basis and all the agenciesand contractors providing foodand sanitation have been direct-ed to maintain quality of ser-vices and warned of actionagainst the defaulting agencies.

Krishna Babu said that theissue of pending bills has been

taken to the notice of the ChiefMinister to which he has direct-ed the Finance Department toclear all the pending bills relat-ing to sanitation, food andequipment supply.

In addition to these, 76 CovidCare Centers across the Statewill house 45,240 beds, ensur-ing the availability of at least3,000 beds in each district totake care of the asymptomaticcases and mild cases.Furthermore, each district issanctioned with an amount ofRs 1 crore for improving med-ical infrastructure, which will bemanaged by medical teamswith nursing and paramedicalteams.

Scientists worry dengue may aggravate Covid-19PNS n NEW DELHI

As dengue season sets in acrosslarge parts of India with theonset of the monsoon, scien-tists warn that COVID-19 andthe mosquito-borne diseasehave overlapping symptomsand worry the country's health-care infrastructure won't beable to cope with this doublewhammy.

The impact of a dengue-COVID-19' season wouldentail two different diagnostictests and extract a huge toll onpatients too, each disease mak-ing the other more complicat-ed to deal with and perhapsmore fatal.

While the number ofCOVID-19 cases races towardsthe 8,00,000 mark with

7,93,802 cases on Friday and21,604 fatalities, the incidenceof dengue is also high.

Based on 2016-2019 data,virologist Shahid Jameel esti-mated that India gets about

100,000 to 200,000 confirmedcases of dengue each year.

According to the NationalVector Borne Disease ControlProgramme (NVBDCP),1,36,422 dengue cases were

diagnosed in 2019 and an esti-mated 132 people died.

The virus is endemic andpresent around the year insouthern India, and in mon-soon and early winter in north-ern India, Jameel, CEO atDBT/Wellcome Trust IndiaAlliance, a public charity thatinvests in building biomedicalsciences and health researchframework, told PTI.

Both COVID-19 and havesymptoms such as high fever,headache and body pain.

The dengue season mayaggravate the COVID-19 situ-ation as both viruses may sup-plement each other, warnedDhrubjyoti Chattopadhyay,virologist and vice chancellor ofthe Amity University inKolkata.

This situation is not yet wellstudied. But the informationavailable from South Americais dangerous and found to cre-ate a major challenge to theirmedical infrastructure, he said.

The effect will be very crit-ical. As major symptoms areoverlapping, simultaneousinfection will be much morefatal. Weakened immune sys-tems will help the other to bemore fatal.

Once the dengue seasonstarts, added virologistUpasana Ray, the infectionspreads aggressively due tohigh prevalence of its mosqui-to vector, aedes aegypti.

Each season, we experienceheavy loads in the hospitalwards due to dengue outbreakand those times it gets almost

unmanageable. So, have wethought about what will hap-pen when we have two men-aces to handle together? Bothof them have overlappingsymptoms. Are we geared todistinguish if a person hasdengue or COVID 19? askedthe senior scientist, CSIR-IICB,Kolkata.

The challenges are many.Almost each patient with a

three-day fever would need toundergo a test for dengue andanother for the SARS-CoV-2virus which causes COVID-19.

Considering the currentnumbers of COVID-19patients, will our hospitals havebeds available for denguepatients? Or will only severedengue cases be handled athospitals? she asked.

Challa Rajendra Prasad, Executive Chairman of CCL Products, hands over acheque for Rs 1.11 crore to Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy to fightagainst the Covid-19 pandemic at Tadepalli on Friday

Govt takes steps to improvingamenities at Quarantine Centres

Fraudsters useGeetha Arts totrap modelsPNS n HYDERABAD

The Cyber Crime Police ofHyderabad have registered acase against an unknownperson, who claimed to be anemployee of Telugu movieproduction company ‘GeethaArts’, and tried to dupe aspir-ing models and actors.

“The fraudster created anInstagram account claimingto be a costume designer atGeetha Arts. He approachedmodels and actors, claimingthat they were soon startinga Tamil film and to send himmoney if they wanted a rolein it,” said KVM Prasad, ACP,Cyber Crimes.

At least three personsapproached the managementand alerted them about thefraudster. Realising that thereputation of the companywas at stake, Satya Gamidi,the executive producer ofthe company, lodged a com-plaint with the Cyber CrimePolice. The Cybercrimepolice booked a case and areinvestigating.

Prostitutionracket bustedPNS n HYDERABAD

Three women were rescuedfrom a prostitution racket,which was busted by theCyberabad SpecialOperations team at AyyappaSociety in Madhapur here onThursday night. Officialsnabbed one customer duringthe raid, sources said.

"The organisers, who areabsconding, have beenprocuring young womenfrom neighbouring Statesand clandestinely organisingprostitution in a residentialcolony here in Hyderabad.They reportedly conductbusiness online throughsocial media platforms andshare images before making'the meet' happen" policesaid. Following a tip-off, theCyberabad SpecialOperations raided thepremises and nabbed them.They were handed over to theMadhapur law and orderpolice station for furtherinvestigation.

Dube encounter draws parallels with Cyb encounterPNS n HYDERABAD

The killing of gangster VikasDubey and some of his hench-men in a series of allegedencounters in Uttar Pradesh isreminiscent of a similar incidenthere in which four people,accused of rape and murder ofa veterinary doctor, had met asimilar fate in December 2019.In the Cyberabad incident, all thefour accused were killed at onego in an exchange of fire.

Police in both the casesclaimed that the suspects'snatched' their weapons andopened fire at them forcingthem to retaliatory action 'in self-defence.' Dubey was shot deadon Friday by police, who claimhe was trying to flee after the carcarrying him from Ujjain over-turned on the outskirts ofKanpur.

He was the sixth man to diein a police encounter after theambush he allegedly master-minded in Kanpur's Bikru villagepast midnight on July 2, killing

eight policemen who had cometo arrest him. Earlier, five mem-bers of Dubey gang were killedin separate encounters.Surprisingly in both the Kanpurand Cyberabad encounters, theaccused were not handcuffedwhile they were being taken invehicles before the alleged retal-iatory firing took place resultingin their deaths.

The snatched weapons were in

'unlocked' position and the slainaccused were not handcuffedwhen the firing took place, theCyberabad Police CommissionerVC Sajjanar had earlier saidwhen asked whether they werehandcuffed. According toCyberabad police on the night ofNovember 27, 2019, the fouraccused kidnapped the womanveterinarian and killed her aftersexually assaulting her, and then

shifted the body in a lorry toChattanpalli near here where itwas burnt under a culvert. Theywere arrested on November 29.

They were killed in police fir-ing on December 6, 2019 atChattanpalli when they weretaken to the scene of crime nearthe culvert, under which thecharred remains of the 25-year-old veterinarian were found onNovember 28, to recover herphone, wrist-watch and otherspertaining to the case.

The Cyberabad police hadclaimed that its personnel resort-ed to 'retaliatory' firing aftertwo of the accused opened fireafter snatching their weaponsbesides attacking them withstones and sticks, resulting ininjuries to two policemen. TheTelangana government had setup a Special Investigation Teamto probe the killings. InDecember last year, the SupremeCourt appointed a three-mem-ber inquiry commission headedby former apex court judge V SSirpurkar to probe the case.

Rajamouli posted asSpecial Officer for CovidPNS n VIJAYAWADA

AV Rajamouli, IAS officer, whois waiting for posting, has beenposted as the Special Officer,Hospital Preparedness & Ex-officio Secretary to theg o v e r n m e n t ,Department ofHealth, Medicaland FamilyWelfare (HM &FW).

N e e l a mSawhney, the ChiefSecretary to the gov-ernment, has issued post-ing orders to Rajamouli to thiseffect here on Friday.

It may be recalled thatRajamouli was the Secretary inthe Chief Minister Office whenN Chandrababu Naidu was atthe helm. After JaganmohanReddy became the ChiefMinister, Rajamouli was kept

aside for almost a year and wasgiven posting on Friday as aSpecial Officer for Covid. He isa native of Krishna district, a BTech graduate from AndhraUniversity with specialisation in

Instrumentation. He wasthe topper in Civil

Services-2003 exami-nation and was firstposted in UttarPradesh.

As the SpecialOfficer, Rajamouli

shall exclusively mon-itor the arrangements of

all State and District CovidHospitals. The government hasundertaken several measures,including strengthening of sur-veillance for prevention, con-tainment and control of Covid-19. As a part of containment,the government has set upCovid Care Centres andQuarantine Care Centres.

Youth duped by fraudsterPNS n HYDERABAD

In yet another e-Commercescam, a youngster was dupedby fraudsters posing as Armypersonnel, who were promis-ing to sell a used car.According to police, the victimfrom Madhapur area, saw anadvertisement on an e-Commerce site about a car forsale for Rs 2 lakh and contact-ed the number.

"An unidentified mananswered the call and intro-duced himself as an Army offi-cial from Maharashtra and

shared a vehicle’s pictures onWhatsApp," said police,adding that he first asked thevictim to deposit Rs 2 lakhinto his account for sendingthe car in the Army courier,which the latter did.

"A few days later, hereceived another call asking formore money. The victim thengot suspicious and approachedthe Cyberabad Cyber crimepolice," added officials.Following the complainant, acase was booked and an inves-tigation was taken up to traceand nab the scamster.

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020 vijayawada 03

Ensure welfare schemesreach eligible, orders CMPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy instructed officials toensure that no eligible personis left out from availing of anywelfare scheme implementedby the government.

During a review meeting onthe implementation of variouswelfare schemes held here onFriday, the Chief Minister saidthat one month grace periodwas given to the eligible per-sons for various schemes toavail the benefit. He directedofficials to verify the applica-tion and see that all eligiblepersons get the benefits.

Following are the schemes,which were being imple-mented by the government-YSR Vahana Mitra (June 4),Jagananna Chedodu (June10), YSR Nethanna Nestham(June 20) , YSR KapuNestham (June 24)-YSRVahana Mitra was advancedby four months and YSRNethanna Nestham was givensix months ahead due to theCorona pandemic.

YSR Nethanna Nestham waslaunched on December 24under which every weaver,who owns a loom will be givenfinancial assistance of Rs

24,000. Due to Covid-19, thesecond round was given sixmonths in advance. Any eligi-ble person, who did not get thebenefit, was asked to apply

within one month. The ChiefMinister has asked officials toclear applications of all eligiblecandidates, who missed onJune 20.

Adivasis to getRoFR pattas onAug 9: JaganPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy directed officials to set-tle the claims of Advisasis ontheir rights of forest land andmake arrangements to dis-tribute the same to them onAdivasis Day on August 9. Hewas reviewing the implemen-tation of the Recognition ofForest Rights (RoFR) andclaims of Adivasis on the for-est land at his camp office hereon Friday. Deputy CM PamulaPushpa Srivani and officials ofthe Revenue, Tribal Welfaredepartments attended themeeting. The Chief Ministerinstructed officials to providecultivate rights to every Adivasi,who is eligible for it. “An actionplan should be prepared todevelop the cultivable landafter the Adivasis were givenpattas,” he said adding that theyshould also be advised on thevarieties of crops to be cultivat-ed in those lands.

Following are the schemes, which werebeing implemented by the government-YSR Vahana Mitra (June 4), JaganannaChedodu (June 10), YSR NethannaNestham (June 20), YSR Kapu Nestham(June 24)-YSR Vahana Mitra was advan-ced by four months and YSR NethannaNestham was given six months aheaddue to the Corona pandemic

Continued from Page 1

This is not the first timeJagan's decisions in AP havecreated pressure on KCR andfuelled similar demands inTelangana. When Jaganmerged APSRTC into stategovernment last year, it fuelledsimilar demand in Telanganawhich led to TSRTC employ-ees going on strike for nearlythree months last year.

KCR was the first CM inthe country to announcesalary and pension cuts forstate government employeesand retired staff in March thisyear citing financial crisison account of corona. Jagantoo followed suit.

However, Jagan restored fullsalaries from May in AP, lead-ing to Telangana governmentemployees and pensioners toodemanding full salaries.

This forced KCR’s hands,and he had little option but torestore full salaries and pen-

sions from June.What is causing more

embarrassment to KCR isthat people are questioninghim that when Jagan, who isheading a revenue-deficit

state like AP, can implementso many welfare schemes forall sections and adoptingemployee-friendly policies,why can't the TS ChiefMinister who is heading a

revenue-surplus state likeTelangana do the same.

Though the Telangana gov-ernment has fixed a cap onthe treatment for Covid-19 inprivate hospitals, not one of

them is following this rule. Ifthe Telangana governmentitself reimburses the treat-ment cost like in AP, therewill be no trouble for peoplefor poorer sections andemployees, pensioners.

It’s not just the ultimatebenef iciar ies who aredemanding that KCR emulateJagan — BJP leaders went astep ahead and demandedthat the state governmentimplement the AyushmanBharat scheme of the Centrein Telangana.

“KCR has rejected theCentral government schemesaying that the Arogyasri isbetter than AyushmanBharat. Now, he is refusing toinclude Covid-19 in theArogyasri scheme,” said BJPstate president Bandi Sanjay.

Several BC associationstoo have been requestingKCR to bring Covid-19 intothe purview of Arogyasri likein AP.

Jagan’s Arogyasri decision puts KCR in a fix

State unable to even save doctors...Continued from Page 1

“Many unsavoury incidentshave taken place. ThePrakasam District Medicaland Health Officer was madeto stand for coming late for thereview meeting. AnantapurDMHO was personally humil-iated. The DMHOs ofSrikakulam and Nellore werebeing forced to go on leave,”Naidu said in his statement.

The TDP chief said no exgratia was given to the kin ofthe doctors who died inVijayawada, Tenali and Nellore.

“Unfortunate things are takingplace across the state. Doctorswere forced to stage a dharnain Visakhapatnam for masks.Lab technicians protested inOngole demanding personalprotection kits. Just for askingfor mask, Dalit doctorSudhakar was beaten in themiddle of the road with lathisand humiliated. Indecentvideos were leaked on DrAnitha Rani in Chittoor,”Naidu said.

He deplored that instead ofrescuing people by encourag-ing frontline warriors, the

YSRCP Government was busyindulging in irregularities andscams everywhere. “On onehand, Coronavirus cases arerapidly increasing in the Statewhile on the other, scams andcorrupt activities by the rulingparty leaders were growing inall programmes and projects ata greater speed. At least now,the Government should leaveits adamant attitude and startgiving compensation to doc-tors and staff who died in theline of duty. PPE kits should beprovided to all the frontlineworkers,” Naidu said.

Continued from Page 1

He pointed out that theearly release of these funds tothe state will ensure uninter-rupted delivery of essentialservices to the citizens, espe-cially in view of the addition-al support that the local bod-ies require to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Buggana said that a totalamount of Rs 3,832.89 crorewas due to the state towardsGST compensation.

With regard to Polavaramirrigation project reimburse-ment, he wanted the Centre toreimburse the balance amountof Rs 3,805.62 crore to the stategovernment at the earliest.Buggana requested the UnionFinance Minister to intervenefor the early release of balanceamount of Rs 700 crore for thedevelopment assistance toBackward Districts. Referringto revenue deficit grant, herequested the early release ofthe balance amount of Rs18,830.87 crore, as claimed bythe state government.

In his meeting with Ministerof Jal Shakti Gajendra SinghShekhawat, Buggana under-

lined the need to set up revolv-ing fund and reimburse thefunds spent by the state gov-ernment on Polavaram project.

"We requested the UnionMinister to reimburse the fundsspent by the state government.In order to avoid delay, we sug-gested setting up a revolvingfund that would make it easierto withdraw funds immediate-ly after spending on Polavaramproject. In the normal course,the Jal Shakti Ministry recom-mends to NABARD and thento Finance Ministry for pay-ment which takes a longertime,” he said.

“If the Polavaram ProjectAuthority has a revolving fund,it would be easy to get thefunds from it. We also dis-cussed new projects,Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi,Rayalaseema irrigation pro-jects, drinking water projectsconcerning districts ofGoavadari, Prakasam, YSRdistrict," BugganaRajendranath explained.

"Streamlining the processof reimbursement by authoriz-ing NABARD to provide adirect line of credit as a"Revolving Fund" with the

PPA," he pointed out.In the interest of realisation

of the benefits under thePolavaram project by the farm-ers, he requested the UnionMinister to direct the con-cerned for early reimburse-ment of Rs 3,805.62 crorealready incurred by the APState government.

He also wanted the UnionMinister authorise NABARDfor raising credit for Rs 15,000crore, required for the projectactivities, in the current finan-cial year.

In his meeting with KishanReddy, Buggana requested himto ensure that the provisions inthe AP Reorganisation Actare implemented.

The State Finance Ministermet Niti Ayog CEO AmitabhKant and Advisor AvinashMishra and requested them torecommend funds for variousprojects in the state.

The Finance Minister wasaccompanied by PrincipalAdvisor to AP GovernmentAjeya Kallam, Special ChiefSecretary (Water Resources)Adityanath Das, PrincipalSecretary, Finance DepartmentS.S. Rawat.

Buggana in Delhi to getdues to AP released

Muslim sanitisestemples,churches;charges just Rs 2

Continued from Page 1

“I was advised not to do sani-tisation of temples and church-es by some of members of mycommunity. But, my under-standing of Quran and Hadithis doing good work formankind can never be a sinfulact. A few temples were alsohesitant initially, but my workbrought about a change intheir hearts. So, I have contin-ued my work spending aboutRs 83,000 towards the sanitisa-tion spray and PPEs. I have sin-gle-handedly sprayed about2,900 litres of a mixture of sodi-um hydrochloride, ammoniumchloride and camphor.”

He has set an example formany youth inspiring some ofthem to carry sanitisation work.Many organisations have comeforward to offer him monetaryhelp recognising his work, butKhan has turned them downpolitely. Extending his services,he is sanitising the old agehomes too, bringing smiles tothe faces of elderly persons whoappreciated the work beingdone by Khan saying howchildren are also least botheredabout their parents.

Rebel MPRaju movesHC againstpolice cases

Continued from Page 1

The High Court admittedthe petition and posted the caseto a later date for hearing.Apparently, the MP feared thatthe police might arrest him inthe criminal cases, so as to trou-ble him for revolting against theYSRC leadership. It may bementioned that state housingminister Ch Sriranganath Rajuhad filed a case against Raju inPoduru police station andBhimavaram MLA GranthiSrinivas in the local police sta-tion. Both of them accused theMP of abusing them in foullanguage and calling them“pigs”. They also alleged thatRaju had sought to create casteconflicts in the West Godavaridistrict leading to law andorder issues.

Endangered pangolinrescued from residentialarea in Vizag

Continued from Page 1

Normally, pangolins stay in a forest area anddue to the recent gas leakage incidents, this par-ticular beast may strayed into the residential areain the city. Deputy Forest Range Officer K Ramusaid that the pangolin was taken to a veterinar-ian at Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Vizag.“If it is found to be in good health, we will releasethe animal into the forest,” he said. Indian pan-golin is an endangered species in India. It is alsothe world’s most hunted as well as most traf-ficked animal, forest officials said.

Towns go for self-imposed lockdownPNS n HYDERABAD

Following rise in number of Coronapositive cases in the state, many townsare going for self-imposed lock-down. Imposing self lockdown cur-few on the market, traders and ven-dors in the towns have decided to runtheir businesses between a scheduledtime.

The measure was taken to curb thespread of Covid in densely packedareas. Already many villages acrossthe state opted for self-imposed lock-down. Now Peddemul mandal inVikarabad district joined the list by

going for self-imposed lockdown onFriday. Earlier, towns likeDevarakonda declared self-imposedlockdown due to rise in number ofCorona positive cases. In Vikarabaddistrict, shop owners, hotels, dhabhas

and others in Peddemul mandalheadquarters have decided to closetheir shops voluntarily for one week.The traders urged the public repre-sentatives to extend their support inthis regard as the mandal headquar-ter registered three Corona positivecases.

Also, traders in Arvapalli, a man-dal headquarter of Jajireddygudemhave decided to close their shops forfew days to keep Coronavirus at bay.Meanwhile, Devarakonda townpolice urged people not to venture outunnecessarily as Corona cases areincreasing manifold in the state.

Villagers banishCovid-19 patient’sfamily to cattle shed

Continued from Page 1

“We do not go out to buy groceries orvegetables to avoid the questioning gazeof people. Even the traders do not wantus to come there,” they added. The fam-ily members of the Covid-19 patient arerequesting the officials of the Medical andHealth and Police departments to shiftthem to a quarantine centre immediate-ly as they may die of hunger if they stayin the cattle-shed for some more days.

Pithani under ACB lens,aide arrested

Continued from Page 1

The High Court reserved its orders on their peti-tions. Pending the outcome of their plea, Sureshhas gone underground. The former minister,however, alleged that the ACB authorities were tar-geting his son in the ESI scam only as part of polit-ical vendetta against him. “They registered a caseagainst my son by intimidating the other arrestedso as to target me personally,” Pithani said. Statingthat making recommendations was part of politics,the former minister said his son had not indulgedin any wrongdoing. “The cases are all part of polit-ical witch-hunt,” he claimed.

Triage Centreto functionfrom July 11PNS n VIJAYAWADA

District Collector MD Imtiazinformed that people infect-ed with Covid-19 virus andwish for home quarantinewill be tested at the TriageCentre and permission willbe granted based on theircondition. The Collector vis-ited the Triage Centre set upat Bishop Azaraiah Girls HighSchool here on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion,he said that the Triage Centrewill start functioning fromJuly 11 and people, who optfor home isolation, tests willbe conducted from 1 pm to5 pm with the advancedmedical equipment. ECG,BP, fever, oxygen levels, chestX-Ray and blood tests will beconducted. Based on thereport, they would assess ifthe infection is mild or severe.After the assessment, thepatient will be given medi-cines for 10 days and themedical officer and ANMswill visit once in 10 days andexamine the patient.

He said that home isolationis recommended to peoplebelow 50 years and as per thetest report. If the infection issevere, they would be referredto the hospital. At the TriageCentre there would be twodoctors, four nurses, four tech-nicians and a data operator.

PD Act invokedagainst ganja peddlerPNS n HYDERABAD

In an effort to root out drugsmuggling activities from theR a c h a k o n d aCommissionerate to create asense of safety and securityamong the family system andto ensure that college goingstudents and youth do not tofall prey to the drug mafia, theRachakonda Commissionerof Police invoked the PD Actagainst a gang member forillegal possession and trans-porting ganja from AndhraPradesh to Hyderabad andMaharashtra.

The detained person, 22-year-old VarthyavathBhaskar and his associate,Kethavath Prakash, havebeen running travels busi-ness ‘MY CAR RENTALSERVICE’ at Hayathnagar.They used to rent cars tocustomers at Rs 3,000 perday.

One of their customers,Ramavath Pandu, proposedto the duo, to form a gang totransport ganja f romVisakhapatnam and sell it inMaharashtra and Hyderabadfor higher prices. All thethree accused invested equal

amounts in the business andalso shared profits equally.

They were caught by thepolice in March 2020 andtwo cases were registeredagainst them at police sta-tions under the limits ofR achakonda Pol iceCommissionerate. Policeseized 100 kgs of ganja andRs 30,000 cash and a car,which was used for trans-porting ganja from theirpossession.

With a view to preventinghim from committing suchillegal activities and to preserv-ing public health, the preven-tive detention orders wereinvoked against him byMahesh Bhagwat,Commissioner of Police,Rachakonda, on Friday, whilehe was detained at CentralPrison, Cherlapally.

Continued from Page 1

Nellore Revenue DivisionalOfficer (RDO) Hussain Sahebhas been appointed as the spe-cial officer to conduct theinquiry.

"A video of the burial ofthose who died of Covid-19 inNellore district is going viral. Thedistrict collector has ordered aninquiry. As Nellore RDO andsub-divisional magistrate, I havebeen appointed as the investiga-tion officer. I am conducting aninquiry and after completion ofthe same will submit my reportto the collector," Hussain Sahebsaid.

Leader of opposition and for-mer Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu tweetedon Friday that he was pained tosee bodies of Covid-19 victimsin Nellore being disrespectfullythrown into a single pit using anearthmover. "This is happeningtime and again. TheJaganmohan Reddy govern-ment must offer an apology tothe grieving families who wishedfor a respectful departure fortheir loved ones," tweeted theTelugu Desam Party (TDP)chief.

This is the third such incident

in the state in two weeks. On July6, municipal authorities inTirupati used a JCB excavator tolift the body of a Covid victimfrom an ambulance and dumpit into a pit.

Health workers pushed thebody onto the excavator, whichcarried it to a pit and dumpedthe body in it. The municipalauthorities defended the movesaying the body weighed near-ly 180 kgs. Tirupati MunicipalCommissioner P.S. Girisha saidthey had to bury the body as theattempt by the municipal staff tocremate it had failed.

In a similar incident in Palasatown of Srikakulam district onJune 26, body of a Covid victimwas shifted from his house to thecremation ground on a JCBexcavator. In another incident inthe same district, Covid victim'sbody was transported in a trac-tor. Taking a serious note of theincidents, the government hassuspended six officials.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy hadexpressed anguish for the inhu-man act of transporting themortal remains of Covid-19patient through JCB excavatorand ordered the immediate sus-pension of the officials.

Bodies of Covid victimsdumped into pit...

Continued from Page 1

Vizag City PoliceCommissioner Rajeev KumarMeena said that the two accused,habitual offenders, are kingpinsin the case and committed thecrime with the help of four othermembers of the gang

The commissioner saidPrathap Reddy is known to thevictim Jami Suresh. The accusedPrathap and Prasad are friendsfor many years and involved inseveral criminal activities. Theduo hatched a plan to kidnap toextort money from Suresh, hesaid.

The victim Jami Suresh wasalso involved in criminal activ-ities in the past. They plannedto kidnap Suresh and extortmoney from him, as theybelieved that he had made a lotof money illegally. They believedthat he would not inform thepolice since he wouldn’t be ableto explain the source of his ill-gotten wealth,” said the commis-sioner.

On June 25, Prasad came tothe city along with his family andstayed in a lodge. According tohim, after committing the crime,he would leave Vizag with hisfamily to avoid suspicion.

Before the kidnapping, theduo conducted a dry run forsome days and on July 5, theykidnapped Suresh near DRMoffice and took him to a placenear Parawada in Vizag city.

They beat up Suresh badlyand demanded Rs 5 crore incash from.

The badly injured Sureshpromised to pay them Rs 30lakh, that too by selling goldornaments.

But when they went to theirhome, his wife refused to partwith the gold since he had soldgold many times. Meanwhile,Suresh's son, seeing the injurymarks on his father, called up100 (Police Control room). Afternoticing that call, the kidnappersfled from the spot.

The police traced and arrest-ed the two accused.

Realtor kidnapped for...

Agriculture brings moreprofits than aqua culturePNS n VIJAYAWADA

To mark the National FishFarmers Day, a webinar wasconducted by ICAR-CentralInstitute of FreshwaterAquaculture, Bhubaneswar, onFriday which was attended byMVS Nagi Reddy on behalf ofAndhra Pradesh farmers.

The webinar was attendedby Dr JK Jena, Deputy DirectorGeneral, ICAR, New Delhi, DrSD Tripathi, former Vice-Chancellor, CIFE, Mumbai,Dr N Sarangi, former Director,CIFA, Bhubaneswar, and DrSK Swain, Director, CIFA,Bhubaneswar.

Speaking on the occasion,Nagi Reddy insisted that unlessand otherwise economical suc-cess is there, farmers will notadopt the technology.

He stressed that there is noalternative to Indian MajorCarps in aquaculture as regardssustainability. He urged thepolicymakers to implement theprogrammes that help inincreasing fish consumption inthe country. “Unlike shrimp,entire fish produced in thecountry must be sold in domes-tic market. Hence, there is noalternative than increasingdomestic consumption. Due tothe disruption of transport sys-tem during Covid-19 lock-down, it was not possible to sell

fish in other markets. Now fishis marketed at a rate of 25 to 30per cent of normal market. Asa result, farmers are incurringheavy losses. A huge amount offish is retained in ponds beingunable to harvest,” he disclosed.

“On an average, carp farm-ers are losing Rs 10 per kg asagainst Pangas farmers, whoare incurring loss of Rs 5 perkg. Present market crisis hasresulted in spite of proactiveand supportive roles paid bythe Central and State govern-ments. Increasing productionlevels in fish without puttingefforts to increase fish con-sumption will lead to stillworse situation as in someagriculture sectors,” he said.

“Fish production is increas-ing in most of the States in thecountry. Production costs areincreasing. Profitability reducedto minimum levels. This ismaking sustainability a bigquestion mark. Farmers migrat-

ed to fish culture because ofmore profits than paddy cul-ture. Now the situation hascome that profits in aquacultureare at par with agriculture. Weneed not surprise it may beeven less than paddy culture infuture. Other farmers mademention about diversification ofindigenous species, availabilityof quality seed, improvisedvehicles for fish transport, cul-tivation of genetically improvedfish,” he said.

“Unlike shrimp, entirefish produced in thecountry must be soldin domestic market.Hence, there is noalternative than incre-asing domestic consu-mption. Due to thedisruption of transportsystem during Covid-19 lockdown, it wasnot possible to sell fishin other markets. Nowfish is marketed at arate of 25 to 30 percent of normal market.As a result, farmersare incurring heavylosses. A huge amountof fish is retained inponds being unable toharvest,” he disclosed

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020 nation 04SHORT READS

Karnataka CM underhome quaranatineafter staff test positiveBENGALURU: Karnataka ChiefMinister B S Yediyurappa hasbeen home quarantined and hisoffice-cum- residence heresealed after some of the staffthere tested positive forcoronavirus. According to aclose aide of the CM, his office-cum- residence 'Krishna' hasbeen sealed for five days forsanitisation after some stafftested positive for the virus.This is the second time theoffice has been shut. About amonth ago, the building wasclosed for disinfection after arelative of a police constableposted there was infected bythe virus. In a statement onFriday, 77-year-old Yediyurappasaid, "I am going to dischargemy duties from home fromtoday for the next few days inview of some of the staff in theoffice- cum-residence Krishnatesting positive for Covid-19."

Delhi HC seeks AAPgovt reply on schoolfee controversy

26 more BSFpersonnel test positivein MeghalayaSHILLONG: Twenty-six morepersonnel of the BSF havetested positive for COVID-19in Meghalaya, taking thenumber of infections in theborder-guarding force in thestate to 91, Chief MinisterConrad K Sangma said onFriday. They are all posted atthe Border Security Force(BSF) frontier headquarters inUmpling, which has beendeclared a containment zone.A senior health official saidmore tests will be conductedamong the BSF personnel.Around 300 personnel andtheir families reside within thecampus, while nearly 50personnel along with theirfamilies live outside thecompound, a BSF official said.The state now has 121 activeCOVID-19 cases, the chiefminister said. So far, 45patients have recovered fromthe disease.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt has sought the AAPgovernment's response on aschool's plea challenging itscircular directing all schools notto deny ID and password foronline classes to students whodid not pay fees due to financialconstraints. Justice Jayant Nathissued notice to the Delhigovernment's Directorate ofEducation (DoE) and sought itsstand on the plea which haschallenged its April 18 circularwhich says only tuition feesshall be charged from parentsduring the COVID-19 lockdown.In its order passed on July 8,the high court asked the privateschool to follow certain stepsbefore denying ID andpassword for online educationfacility. It said such facility canbe denied to those studentswho have not paid fees despitehaving no financial difficulties.

Scientific, medical journals adopt new processesto review, publish studies faster: ExpertsPNS n NEW DELHI

Under pressure from the flood ofstudies submitted to them dur-ing the COVID-19 pandemic,medical and scientific journalsare adopting new processes,including seeking help of volun-teer rapid reviewers, to scrutinisethe research articles and expeditethe process by which they arereviewed, experts say.

Citing an example of the cur-rent burden on journals, HowardBauchner, Editor-in-Chief of theJournal of the American MedicalAssociation (JAMA), noted thatfrom January to June, 2020 over11,000 manuscripts were submit-ted to the publication, com-pared to about 4,000 submittedduring the same period in 2019.

When a study manuscript issubmitted to an academic jour-nal, as part of the peer-reviewprocess, experts in the field areasked to evaluate its scientificvalidity, offer insight into itsimpact, and provide opinion ofits worthiness for publication.

"The substantive evaluation by,and opinions from reviewerswith subject matter knowledgeand with methodological andstatistical expertise are invaluablein assessing the scientific rigorand plausibility of study findings,"Bauchner and his colleaguesnoted in an editorial published inJAMA last month.

However, experts, includingRitu Dhand, Vice President,Editorial, Nature Journals, saidthe pandemic has made the

process even more challenging."This volume and the speed

with which research is being pro-duced is certainly challenging forall parties involved in the assess-ment and publication ofresearch," Dhand told PTI in anemail.

Jennifer Zeis, Director,Communications at the NewEngland Journal of Medicine(NEJM) noted that the peer-review duration has shrunk.

"The process has not changed

for COVID-19, other thanreview deadlines are expedited,"she said in an email.

Many experts say this need forspeed amidst the pandemic isleading to faulty research gettingpublished.

For instance, two COVID-19studies were retracted from thehigh profile journals The Lancetand NEJM in May, after morethan 100 scientists questionedtheir validity.

Commenting on the retrac-

tions, Elisabeth Bik, a microbiol-ogist and leading expert in theanalysis of images used in pub-lished studies, said these could bethe result of hastened reviewingof research manuscripts.

"Normally peer-review takesmonths, and now it takes in somecases a day or a week," Bik, whois based in the US, said.

Editors at JAMA, includingBauchner, mentioned a similarshrinking of timelines for edito-rial evaluation and peer-reviewfrom what used to take months.

With the willingness ofexternal peer reviewers to pro-vide rigorous analysis withintwo to three days, they said thejournal on select occasionscould publish studies within 10to 12 days of submission by theauthors.

"Rapid publication can onlybe done if authors, scientificeditors, and manuscript editorsare available to review andrevise the manuscript every dayduring that period," the JAMAeditors noted.

PNS n JAIPUR

Taking a cue from the CBSE, theRajasthan government is plan-ning to cut short the syllabus forthe current academic session onthe basis of number of workingdays of schools.

The state government hasdirected the Rajasthan Board ofSecondary Education (RBSE)and the Rajasthan State Councilof Educational Research andTraining (RSCERT) to form acommittee and review the syl-labus.

"Due to the coronavirus pan-demic, the number of workingdays of schools has reduced sothe Directorate of SecondaryEducation, Bikaner has directedthe Board of SecondaryEducation Ajmer and RSCERT,Udaipur in this regard to take adecision to cut the syllabus ineducation and students' interest.Soon, a final decision will betaken," School EducationMinister Govind Singh Dotasara

said. He said the Directorate ofSchool Education releases aworking days calendar everyyear but it is yet to be released forthis academic session.

Instructions have been givento the Rajasthan board forreviewing the syllabus of class-es 9 to 12 and the RSCERT toreview the syllabus for classes 1to 8. They will form a commit-tee and review the course, hesaid. According to the School

Education Department, thenumber of working days fromJuly 2019 to March 2020 was 207,including 27 workdays in July. Ifthe schools remain closed afterJuly, then workdays will furtherreduce. The Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)has rationalised the syllabus forclasses 9 to 12 for the academicyear 2020-21 by up to 30 per centto make up for academic losscaused due to COVID-19.

COVID-19 EFFECT:

Rajasthan govt planning to cutshort school syllabus for this year

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Council for Indian SchoolCertificate Examinations(CICSE) on Friday announcedresults for class 10 and 12 examseven as it decided against bring-ing out a merit list this year inview of "exceptional circum-stances".

The board had to cancel itspending exams in view of thespike in COVID-19 cases andthe result has been calculated onthe basis of an alternative assess-ment scheme decided by it.

As per the results announced,a total of 2,06,525 candidateshave cleared the class 10 exams,known as the Indian Certificateof Secondary Education (ICSE),while 1,377 candidates havebeen unsuccessful. The class 12exams, called the Indian SchoolCertificate (ISC) exam, havebeen cleared by 85,611 candi-dates while 2,798 students havebeen unsuccessful.

"Given the exceptional cir-

cumstances, this year CISCEwill not be publishing a merit listfor either the ICSE or ISC year2020 Examinations," CICSEChief Executive and SecretaryGerry Arathoon said. "This yearhas been an exceptionally diffi-cult year for everyone due to theCOVID-19 pandemic and themultiple national and states' lock-downs, coupled with many otherrelated problems," he added.

The board had last weekannounced an alternate assess-ment scheme for the two class-es after the pending exams werecancelled in view of a spike inCOVID-19 cases.

CISCE declares class 10,12 results; no merit list

Vikas Dubey's killing raises handcuffingissue vis-a-vis SC guidelinesPNS n NEW DELHI

The alleged encounter killing ofdreaded gangster Vikas Dubeyon Friday has kicked up dust overhis not being apparently hand-cuffed by the police, against thebackdrop of the Supreme Court'sdisapproving the practice in var-ious orders, calling it “inhu-man, unreasonable, over harshand arbitrary”. The police, on theother hand, has all along beensupporting handcuffing at vari-ous judicial forums on theground that the practice has beenquite helpful in ensuring that adreaded accused or convict doesnot flee the custody.

The apex court has from timeto time issued a slew of directiveson the procedure to be followedwhile handcuffing an undertri-al, maintaining that the insuranceagainst escape does not compul-sorily require handcuffing.

According to police, Dubeywas killed after he tried to escapefrom the spot in Bhauti during

his transit from Ujjain to Kanpurand their car met with accident.

It said the gangster snatched apistol from one of the policemeninjured in the accident and wasshot when he opened fire whiletrying to flee, an account beingquestioned by opposition partiesin Uttar Pradesh. Six policemen,including two from the Specialtask Force, were hurt in the acci-dent and the exchange of firearound 6 am, an official said.

With this incident, the debateover handcuffing criminals whiletaking them from one place toanother has ensued once again.

The apex court in 1995 heldthat minimal freedom of move-ment cannot be cut down byapplication of handcuffs or otherhoops.

It had categorically stated thathandcuffing of prisoners withoutjudicial consent was illegal.

“We clearly declare -- and it

shall be obeyed from theInspector General of Police andInspector General of Prisons tothe escort constable and the jail-warder -- that the rule, regardinga prisoner in transit prison houseand Court house, is freedomfrom handcuffs and the excep-tion, under conditions of judicialsupervision we have indicatedearlier will be restraints with ironsto be justified before or after,” theapex court said.

Woman wanted in goldsmuggling case bookedunder UAPA: NIAPNS n KOCHI

A former woman employee ofthe UAE consulate, key sus-pect in the gold smuggling bidthrough diplomatic baggage,has been booked under theUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act, the NIAinformed the Kerala HighCourt.

Making the submissionwhile opposing the anticipato-ry bail application of SwapnaSuresh, who is on the run, thecounsel for the Centre andthe National InvestigationAgency (NIA) said she hadcriminal antecedents and thatshe was 'involved' in arrangingdiplomatic papers for thesmuggling of the gold seizedby the Customs recently.

Custodial interrogation ofthe woman was required toascertain her role, the counsel

for the NIA, which has beenasked by the Centre onThursday to probe the smug-gling bid throughThiruvananthapuram inter-national airport, said.

After hearing the submis-sions, Justice Ashok Menonadjourned till next Tuesday theplea of Suresh.

The judge declined theprayer of the petitioner seek-ing interim protection againstarrest.

Cong demands judicialprobe by sitting SC judgePNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Fridaydemanded a judicial probe by asitting Supreme Court judgeinto the entire episode involvinggangster Vikas Dubey to bringout the truth about those whohad granted protection to himand the alleged political-crimi-nal nexus in Uttar Pradesh.

Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said at apress conference that the killingof the gangster in an encounterraises several questions andsought answers on who were thepeople sitting in echelons ofpower who were granting pro-tection to criminals like him.Dubey was shot dead Friday bypolice, who claim he was tryingto flee after the car carrying himfrom Ujjain overturned on theoutskirts of the city.

"Congress demands that theunholy nexus between organ-ised crime and the ilk of VikasDubey with those sitting in theechelons of power be probed bya sitting Supreme Court judge,"Surjewala said at a press confer-ence. Congress general secretary

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alsodemanded a judicial probe by asitting SC judge into the entireKanpur episode in which eightpolicemen were killed by Dubey.

"The Congress demands ajudicial inquiry by a sittingSupreme Court judge thatshould conduct a probe into theentire Kanpur incident andbring out its truth before people."The truth about those who nur-tured and protected criminalslike Vikas Dubey should comeout. Till the time this truth andthe nexus between politiciansand criminals does not comeout, justice will not be done tothose eight policemen who werekilled by him," Gandhi said.

HC refuses to entertain pleaagainst law final yr online examsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court Fridayrefused to entertain a petitionchallenging the Bar Council ofIndia's (BCI) notificationdirecting the universities acrossthe country to conduct finalyear law examinations throughonline mode.

The petition filed by two lawstudents claimed that sincethe law colleges were not ableto complete the syllabus andconduct classes due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, theycould not be permitted holdexaminations.

A bench of Justices HimaKohli and SubramoniumPrasad, which was conductingthe hearing through video con-ferencing, said the concernsraised by the petitioners referto the issues that are pan-India and it cannot go into it asone of the petitioner student isnot studying in a university

over which the Delhi HighHourt has jurisdiction.

When the court expressedits view that it was not inclinedto entertain the petition in itspresent form, the petitioners'counsel sought permission towithdraw the plea.

The high court allowed thestudents to withdraw the peti-tion and granted liberty toapproach the Supreme Court.

The petition was filed by twolaw students, a final year stu-dent in the Delhi University'sCampus Law Centre-I and athird year law student inKarnataka University's five-year LLB course. Besides theBCI's notification, the plea alsochallenged the DelhiUniversity's June 27 notificationon conducting online examina-tions for final year students.

PNS n PATNA

Four alleged Maoists were killedearly on Friday by security per-sonnel in Bihar's WestChamparan district, close to theIndia-Nepal border, in an oper-ation that also led to the recov-ery of sophisticated weaponsfrom a hideout, a top official ofthe Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)said here. According to SanjayKumar, IG, SSB, Patna, the gunbattle took place at around 4.45am and one security personnelwas injured by a bullet.

"We had received specificinformation about a group ofMaoists hiding at the forest sur-rounding the Valmiki TigerReserve. Accordingly, an opera-tion was planned taking in theloop the police station con-

cerned, Lokeria in Bagaha," theofficial told PTI over phone.

Kumar said the Maoist groupwas led by Ram Babu Sahni aliasRajan, who fled the scene,though his deputy 'Bipul' besidesthree others were killed in theencounter. A search operationwas underway to nab Sahni, theSSB official stated.

"The recoveries include an

AK-56 rifle, three SLRs and a .303rifle. Gunshots were fired by theMaoists and one of these hit theforearm of SSB jawan Rituraj,though he is out of danger,"Kumar added. Meanwhile, inMunger district, which is sever-al hundred kilometres away, nax-als struck at a village where theykilled two persons by slitting theirthroats, a police officer said.

PNS n ITANAGAR

Four members of a family,including an eight-month-oldbaby, were buried alive as a mas-sive landslide hit their house inArunachal Pradesh's PapumPare district in the early hours ofFriday, even as the state grappledwith a series of earthfalls due toincessant rains, officials said.

The landslide that occurredaround 2.30 am in Tigdo villageburied the house with all theoccupants sleeping, Papum PareDeputy Commissioner (DC)Pige Ligu said.

The bodies were retrievedfrom the debris by police andNDRF personnel with the helpof locals, he said.

The house belonged to TanaNeka and the deceased were histwo sons, daughter-in-law and

grandchild, Ligu said. However,Neka and his wife are safe as theylive in another house, he added.

Those killed were identified asTana Martin (22), his wifeYabung Lindum, daughter TanaYasum (eight months) andbrother Tana John.

With this, the death toll due

to monsoon-related incidents inthe state has climbed to 11. ChiefMinister Pema Khanduexpressed grief over the deathsof the four persons. Heannounced an ex-gratia amountof Rs 4 lakh each to the next ofkin of the deceased, which willbe released immediately.

Justice killed in UPCM's ‘encounterraj': TMCPNS n KOLKATA

Senior TMC leader and MPMahua Moitra came downheavily on the UP governmenton Friday over the killing ofgangster Vikas Dubey, assertingthat justice is the "only thingkilled" in CM Yogi Adityanath's"encounter raj". Dubey waskilled in an encounter earlier inthe day, after a police vehiclecarrying him from Ujjain inMadhya Pradesh to Kanpur inUttar Pradesh met with anaccident in the Bhaunti area ofKanpur district and he tried toflee. "It is the job of the courtsto deliver justice. Shocking thatIndia under @BJP has confusedthe two," Moitra said in a tweet.

4 of family buried alive in landslide asArunachal grapples with incessant rains

Four Maoists killed in Biharclose to the Indo-Nepal border

NGT seeks reporton dumping ofsolid municipalwaste in J-KPNS n SRINAGAR

The National Green Tribunalhas directed the authorities inJammu and Kashmir to file anaction taken report on allegeddumping of solid municipalwaste in the Wullar Lake.Hearing an petition filed bysocial activist Raja MuzaffarBhat, the NGT directed the col-lector of Baramulla districtand the PCB of Jammu andKashmir to file a factual reportand an action taken report bythe next date of hearing onOctober 15. "In view of the alle-gation and photographsannexed, we find it necessaryto require a factual and actiontaken report from the membersecretary of state WetlandAuthority," the tribunal said.

"This volume andthe speed withwhich research isbeing produced iscertainly challeng-ing for all partiesinvolved in theassessment andpublication ofresearch," Dhandsaid

The apex court hasfrom time to timeissued a slew ofdirectives on theprocedure to befollowed while hand-cuffing an undertrial,maintaining that theinsurance againstescape does notcompulsorily requirehandcuffing

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

Pak shells borderareas in Rajouri, Armypersonnel killedJAMMU: A 36-year old Armypersonnel was killed in aceasefire violation by thePakistan Army along the Lineof Control (LoC) in Rajouridistrict of Jammu and Kashmiron Friday, officials said.Pakistani troops opened fireand shelled forward postsalong the LoC in Nowsherasector in the early hours.Havildar Sambur Gurung wasinjured in the firing and rushedto a hospital where hesuccumbed to injuries. Indiantroops guarding the borderlineretaliated, resulting inexchanges, they said. Adefence spokesman said,"Havildar Sambur Gurung wasa brave, highly motivated and asincere soldier. The nation willalways remain indebted to himfor his supreme sacrifice anddevotion to duty".

Prohibitory order onfake social media postsnot extended: Govt

HC rejects SharjeelImam's plea on extn oftime to probe UAPA caseNEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt Friday dismissed a pleaby JNU student Sharjeel Imam,arrested in a case related toalleged inflammatory speechesduring the protests against CAAand NRC, challenging a trialcourt order granting more timeto police to conclude theinvestigation. Justice VKameswar Rao pronounced theverdict through videoconferencing and said thedetailed order will be uploadedon the court's website. "I havedismissed the petition," thejudge said. The Delhi Policehad opposed Imam's pleasaying there was no infirmity inthe trial court's April 25 orderby which the agency wasgranted three more months,beyond statutory 90 days, tocomplete the investigation inthe case under the stringentUnlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA).

MUMBAI: The Maharashtragovernment on Friday informedthe Bombay High Court that theprohibitory order againstspreading of incorrect or falseinformation on social mediaamid the COVID-19 pandemichas ended and no extensionhas been given to it. AdvocateGeneral Ashutosh Kumbhakonitold a division bench ofJustices A A Sayed and M SKarnik that the order dated May23 passed by the deputycommissioner of police(Operations) under section 144of the Code of CriminalProcedure (CrPC) had been ineffect only till June 8. "Thesame has not been extendedafter June 8 and presently thereis no prohibitory order inplace," Kumbhakoni said. Thecourt was hearing two publicinterest litigations challengingthe legality of the prohibitoryorder.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India saw yet another record sin-gle-day jump of 26,506 COVID-19 cases pushing its tally to7,93,802 on Friday, while thedeath toll climbed to 21,604 with475 people succumbing to theinfection, according to the UnionHealth Ministry data.

The number of tests for detec-tion of COVID-19 has crossedthe 11-million mark. Accordingto ICMR, a cumulative total of1,10,24,491 samples have beentested up to July 9 with 2,83,659samples being tested onThursday.

The number of recoveriesstands at 4,95,512 while there are2,76,685 active cases of coron-avirus infection presently in thecountry, the updated data at 8 amshowed. "Thus, around 62.42 percent of patients have recoveredso far," an official said.

The total number of con-firmed cases included foreigners.

Of the 475 new deaths report-ed, 219 are from Maharashtra, 65

from Tamil Nadu, 45 from Delhi,27 from West Bengal, 17 fromUttar Pradesh, 16 fromKarnataka, 15 from Gujarat, 13from Andhra Pradesh, 9 fromRajasthan, eight from Bihar,seven from Telangana, six fromAssam, five each fromHaryana,Madhya Pradesh,Jammu and Kashmir andPunjab, four from Odisha andone from Chhattisgarh, Goa,Jhakhand and Meghalaya.

Of the total 21,604 deathsreported so far, Maharashtra

tops the tally with 9,667 fatalitiesfollowed by Delhi with 3,258deaths, Gujarat with 2,008, TamilNadu with 1,765, Uttar Pradeshwith 862, West Bengal with 854,Madhya Pradesh with 634,Rajasthan with 491 andKarnataka with 486.

The COVID-19 death tollreached 331 in Telangana, 287 inHaryana, 277 in AndhraPradesh, 183 in Punjab, 154 inJammu and Kashmir, 115 inBihar, 52 in Odisha, 46 inUttarakhand and 27 in Kerala.

With 26,506 new cases India's Covidtally report record single day spike

Rahul Gandhi seekscancellation of varsity examsPNS n NEW DELHI

Defence PNS n NEW DELHI

Congress leader Rahul Gandhion Friday demanded cancella-tion of university exams andurged the UGC to promotestudents on the basis of pastperformance during the coro-navirus pandemic.

Accusing the UniversityGrants Commission (UGC)of creating confusion, Gandhisaid it is unfair to conductexaminations during theCOVID-19 pandemic and theUGC should listen to the voiceof students.

"COVID has harmed manypeople. Students in schools,colleges and universities arebeing made to suffer. "Whilethe IITs and colleges have can-celled exams and have promot-ed students, the UGC is creat-ing confusion. UGC shouldalso cancel the exams andpromote students on the basisof past performance," he saidin a video message.

Gandhi participated in the'SpeakUpforStudents' cam-paign by the Congress party

and posted a short video mes-sage on Twitter.

"It is extremely unfair toconduct exams during theCOVID-19 pandemic.

"The UGC must hear thevoice of students and acade-mics. Exams should be can-

celled and students promotedon the basis of past perfor-mance," he also tweeted.

The Congress has launcheda campaign in favour of stu-dents, demanding cancellationof exams during the pandem-ic and urging their promotion.

SC refuses to entertain pleafor moratorium on school feesPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Fridayrefused to entertain a plea by par-ents from different states seekingdeferment/moratorium onschool fees for the COVID-19lockdown period and askedthem to approach the high courtsfor relief.

The top court said it was afact-intensive situation as prob-lems in each state are differentand observed that it would astroke of genius if petitioners cansolve everybody's problems.

A bench of Chief Justice S ABobde and Justices R SubhashReddy and A S Bopanna said:“Fee hike issue should have beenraised before the state HighCourts. Why has it come to theSupreme Court? It's a fact inten-sive situation.

"Problems in each state are dif-ferent. Parties are involving juris-diction of this court as anomnibus case. But these are factintensive situations in each stateand even each district.”

Advocates Balaji Srinivasan

and Mayank Kshirsagar said thePunjab and Haryana High Courthas allowed schools to chargehiked fee. The bench told thecounsels, then the petitioners canfile an appeal against that orderof Punjab and Haryana HighCourt.

“It would be a stroke of geniusif you can solve everybody'sproblems,” the bench said.

The top court said that it is notinclined to interfere at this stageand the petitioners may with-draw plea and approach thehigh courts. Parents of school

going children from differentstates have moved the top courtseeking declaration of moratori-um or deferment of payment ofschool fees during the COVID-19 induced lockdown.

The plea also sought that theCentre and all states be asked todirect the private unaided/aidedschools to only charge the pro-portionate fees based on actualexpenditure towards the conductof the online virtual classes andno other fees from the studentssince April 1 till the commence-ment of physical classes.

“The Petitioners belonging todifferent states of the countryhave come together being con-strained to approach this Courtseeking inter alia the protectionof fundamental right to life aswell as education guaranteedunder the Constitution of India,1950 which the children & stu-dents enrolled up to the Class XIIof various Indian states are beingdeprived of due to superveningfactors namely, the ongoing pan-demic- COVID-19 period...,”the plea said.

Delhi manages to control Covid spike but expertscautious, say dip in cases has to be sustainedPNS n NEW DELHI

The national capital's COVID-19count crossed the grim one lakhmilestone this week but thenumber of active cases is dippingas is the positivity rate while therecovery rate is going up, raisinghopes of the epidemic curve flat-tening if the trends continue. Astesting is significantly ramped up,the death rate, too, has fallenmarginally and the projectedexplosion of cases hasn't hap-pened. The signs are undoubted-ly good but these are just babysteps as Delhi moves ahead in itsfight against the COVID-19pandemic, cautioned experts.

It is early days yet, they said,stressing the urgent need to con-tinue with social distancing,masks, hand hygiene and otherdos and don'ts to ward off theinfection. Lowering the guardcould lead to cases surging again.

“We can say the curve seemsto be flattening, though thisvirus is novel and can spring a

surprise," a senior doctor at thefrontline of the fight in a privatehospital said on the condition ofanonymity.

“The dip in cases is encourag-ing but it would be prudent tohave multiple data points creat-ed over the next two weeks tobetter map the trends and to beable to say the curve has flattened.In order to draw an inferenceabout effective containment, thedecline that is being observed has

to be sustained over a period oftime,” added Dr Samiran Panda,head of ICMR's Epidemiologyand Communicable Division.

Several experts are encouragedby the trend of average fresh casesper day and the slide in positiv-ity rate over the last fortnight.

On March 1, the city record-ed its first COVID-19 case. Morethan three months later, thenumber of cases is 1,07,051 with3,258 fatalities, according to the

Health Ministry on Friday.However, 82,226 cases haverecovered and 21,567 cases arestill active. The number of activefigures is the lowest in 28 days.

The peak came on June 23when the city recorded 3,947fresh cases. For three days afterthat, there were 3,000 cases a day.But then the figures dipped.

From June 27 to July 3, theaverage fresh cases per day was

2,494 compared to 3,446 casesthe previous week. The trend hascontinued -- July 4 (2,505), July5 (2,244), July 6 (1,379), July 7(2,008), July 8 (2,033) and July 9(2,187). The positivity rate inDelhi has been consistently goingdown as well - from 31 per centin the June 8-14 week to 11 percent in June 29-July 5 week,according to official figures.

"So, from 3,947 peak cases sofar on June 23, the average freshcases in the last several consec-utive days have shown a fall, hov-ering between 1,379 and 2,889.Also, the positivity rate has comedown. But we need both thesemetrics to come down over a sus-tained period of time,” said thedoctor at the private hospital.

"Things are looking up anddata trends have been veryencouraging,” said MaheshVerma, head of a panel set up bythe Delhi government tostrengthen the preparedness ofhospitals to battle the coron-avirus.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Fridaysought response from Centre,Kerala and 13 other states ona plea challenging the barbar-ic practices to ward off wildanimals terming them as ille-gal and unconstitutional andviolating Article 14 and 21 ofthe Constitution.

The plea filed by an advo-cate has also sought issuance ofguidelines for creation ofStandard OperatingProcedures (SOP) to tacklesuch incidents and filling up ofvacancies in forest forces acrossthe country.

A bench of Chief Justice S ABobde and Justices R SubhashReddy and A S Bopanna issuednotice to Centre and 13 states

including Kerala and soughttheir responses.

The petition sought declara-tion of the practice of usingbarbaric means/snares/shavedsticks/explosives to ward offwild animals as illegal, uncon-stitutional, and violative ofArticles 14, and 21 of the

Constitution.Petitioner Subham Awasthi

in his plea has referred to anincident of Kerala, where apregnant elephant recentlydied after eating a pineapplestuffed with firecrackers,offered to her allegedly bysome locals.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A Delhi court Friday granted bailto 82 foreign nationals fromBangladesh who were chargesheeted for attending TablighiJamaat congregation hereallegedly in violation of visanorms, indulging in missionaryactivities illegally and violatinggovernment guidelines issued inthe wake of COVID-19 out-break.

Chief Metropolitan MagistrateGurmohina Kaur granted therelief to the foreigners on fur-nishing a personal bond of Rs10,000 each. Till date, 371 foreignnationals from 31 different coun-tries, who were charge sheeted inthe case, have been granted bailby the court.

The police had in June filed 59charge sheets, including supple-mentaries, against 956 foreign-ers belonging to 36 different

countries in the case. Theaccused who were granted bailFriday will file their plea bargain-ing applications on Saturday, saidadvocates Ashima Mandla,Mandakini Singh and FahimKhan, appearing for them.

Under plea bargaining, theaccused plead guilty to theoffence, praying for a lesser

punishment. The CriminalProcedure of Code allows forplea bargaining in cases wherethe maximum punishment is7-year imprisonment; offencesdon't affect the socio-econom-ic conditions of the society andthe offence is not committedagainst a woman or a childbelow 14 years.

HC suggests VCfacility forprisoners, familiesPNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court Fridaysuggested to the jail author-ities to consider the require-ment of prisoners for havingvideo conferencing with theirfamily for the duration whenphysical meetings in jails aresuspended due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Thecourt made it clear it was notpassing any direction as it wasconscious of the fact that theresources are limited. Thecourt made the recommen-dation while hearing a plea byBhushan Steel's former chieffinancial officer Nittin Johari,who was arrested by the SFIOfor alleged fraudulent activ-ities, seeking direction toTihar Jail authorities to allowhim to meet his family andlawyers through video con-ferencing.

DELHI AIRPORT:

Lounge manager, colleaguearrested as fired employeealleges sexual harassmentPNS n NEW DELHI

A 42-year-old general managerof a lounge at the Delhi airportand his 37-year-old colleaguewere arrested on Thursday aftera woman employee accusedthem of sexual harassment atworkplace, police said.

The lounge is operated by atenanted privately-run thirdparty operator.

The 26-year-old womanworked as a Food and BeveragesAssistant in the lounge atTerminal-3 of the Indira GandhiInternational Airport, they said.

In her complaint filed onTuesday, the woman said thatshe was sacked from the job thesame day, and alleged sexualharassment by the lounge's gen-

eral manager and the duty man-ager, police said.

According to the com-plainant, the two allegedly usedto harass and threaten her thatshe will be fired if she raised avoice against it. The woman waseventually thrown out of her jobafter she refused their sexualadvances, the complaint stated.

PCI seeks replies fromUP, HP over allegedtargeting of journalistsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Press Council of India onFriday sought replies from thegovernments of Uttar Pradesh,Chhattisgarh and HimachalPradesh in connection withseparate incidents of allegedtargeting of scribes over theirreporting on problems faced bythe people during the COVID-19-induced lockdown. In a state-ment, the Press Council of India(PCI) said it takes suo motu cog-nizance regarding alleged target-ing of journalists during theCOVID-19 lockdown period inUttar Pradesh.

An FIR has been lodgedagainst four journalists inGopiganj police station inBhadohi district of UttarPradesh, and in a separate inci-dent, a notice has been issued to

Vijay Vineet, a reporter, andSubhash Rai, Editor-in Chief ofJansandesh Times, for reportingon issues that concern the plightsof people during the lockdownperiod, the PCI said. Since thematters concern free functioningof the press, the PCI Chairmanhas viewed it with concern andcalled for comments from thegovernment of UP.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Over 8.8 crore visits by patientshave been recorded sinceFebruary 1 at over 41,000 healthand wellness centres (HWCs)made operational under thegovernment's flagshipAyushman Bharat scheme, TheUnion health ministry said onFriday.

This is almost equivalent tothe number of footfalls record-ed in the previous 21 months -- from April 14, 2018, to January31, 2020, -- despite restrictionson the movement of peopleduring the lockdown periodthis year, it said in a statement.

In the last five months, 1.41crore individuals were screenedfor hypertension, 1.13 crore fordiabetes and 1.34 crore for oral,breast or cervical cancer, theministry said.

Despite the challenges posedby the COVID-19 pandemic,

medicines were dispensed toabout 5.62 lakh hypertensionpatients and 3.77 lakh diabetespatients at the HWCs in Junealone, according to the state-ment. As many as 6.53 lakh yogaand wellness sessions have alsobeen organised at HWCs sincethe COVID-19 outbreak.

Health and wellness centresform the primary pillar of theAyushman Bharat scheme envis-aging to the provisioning of uni-versal and comprehensive pri-mary healthcare through the

transformation of 1,50,000 sub-health centres and primaryhealth centres into HWCs by2022. Giving an example of thecontribution being made byHWCs in the fight againstCOVID-19 in Jharkhand, theministry said that as part of astatewide intensive public healthsurvey week, HWC teamsscreened people for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severeacute respiratory illness (SARI)symptoms and facilitated coro-navirus testing.

KERALA ELEPHANT TRAGEDY:

SC seeks reply of Centre, 13 Stateson plea against barbaric practices

TABLIGHI JAMAAT:

Delhi court grants bail to 82 B’desh nationals

"Problems in eachstate are different.Parties areinvolvingjurisdiction of thiscourt as anomnibus case. Butthese are factintensive situationsin each state andeven each district.”

“We can say thecurve seems to beflattening, thoughthis virus is noveland can spring asurprise," a seniordoctor at the front-line of the fight ina private hospitalsaid on the condi-tion of anonymity

"COVID has harmed many people.Students in schools, colleges anduniversities are being made to suffer."While the IITs and colleges havecancelled exams and have promotedstudents, the UGC is creating confusion.UGC should also cancel the exams andpromote students on the basis of pastperformance," he said in a video message

8.8 cr footfall recorded at healthcentres under Ayushman Bharat

After the publication ofmy last column on June27, several readers haverequested me to elabo-rate further as to how

television breeds passivity. Hencethis piece. Before proceeding fur-ther, one needs to be clear as towhat is meant by passivity. At thevisible level, it is reflected in the lackof active response leading to theabsence of intervention to ensurefollow-up action even in caseswhere one is deeply moved — suchas the arrest of the culprit who pre-pared the explosives-packedcoconut that so savagely killed thepregnant elephant in Kerala on May27. Even if, however, there had beensuch intervention, it might not nec-essarily have indicated the absenceof passivity.

The entire issue has to be seenin the context of Erich Fromm’s dif-ferentiation in his book, To Have orto Be?, between passive and activestates of mind and activity relatedrespectively to “having” and “being”modes of existence. According tohim, the “having” mode of exis-tence, marked by alienated activi-ty, makes for passivity. “In alienat-ed activity,” he writes, “I do not real-ly act; I am acted upon by externalor internal forces.” An importantmanifestation as well as an ingre-dient of the “having” mode of exis-tence is a situation in which “myrelationship with the entire worldis one of possessing and owning,one in which I want to makeeverybody and everything, includ-ing myself, my property. This ten-dency becomes so pronouncedthat it extends even to people, andone talks of “My doctor”, “Myemployer”, “My boss” and so on.

Fromm makes it clear that pas-sivity does not mean the absence ofactivity but activity prompted byexternal forces in contrast to thatarising from the autonomousdynamics of the perpetrator’s innerself. One, therefore, can be in a pas-sive state even when engaged inhectic exertion if the latter isprompted by a force outside one.Similarly, physical inaction does notmean passivity if it goes withautonomous inner activity. Frommassociates the active, as opposed tothe passive state, with the “being”mode of existence. The latter has asits “prerequisites independence,freedom and the presence of criti-cal reason. Its fundamental charac-ter is that of being active, not in thesense of outward activity, of busy-ness, but of inner activity, the pro-

ductive use of human powers. Tobe active means to give expres-sion to one’s faculties, talent, tothe wealth of human giftsthrough which — though invarying degrees — every humanbeing is endowed. It means torenew oneself, to grow, to flowout, to love, to transcend theprison of one’s isolated ego, to beinterested, to list, to give.”

The “being” mode of exis-tence is characterised by non-alienated activity. “I experiencemyself,” says Fromm, “as the sub-ject of my activity. Non-alienat-ed activity is a process of givingbirth to something, of produc-ing something and remainingrelated to what I produce. Thisalso means that my activity is amanifestation of my powers, thatI and my activity are one. I callthis activity productive activity.”

The question is: How doestelevision promote the “having”mode of existence? It is a tech-nological device for transmittingimages and sound over ether. Itsevolution as a cultural mediumhas been largely determined byits symbiotic relationship withthe consumer culture, which ismarked by self-indulgence andcompulsive, competitive andconspicuous consumption,fanned by unbridled advertising,association of personal worthand social status with a high levelof consumption and the spreadand intensification of the com-petitive spirit, a critical factor incapitalism. It is the result of anew phase in the evolution ofcapitalism in which the marketplays a dominant role in the sys-tem, and which, in turn accountsfor an unprecedented emphasison ensuring higher turnover andsurplus. Marketing has emergedas a specialised field and adver-tising as its cutting edge.Television, which has givenadvertising a reach and impact

it never had before, has becomethe principal vehicle of the con-sumer culture.

The consumer culture,which determines the content oftelevision, including advertising,spawns passivity because itundermines an individual’sautonomy. Advertising plays acritical role. In many cases, onewould not even have known ofa product’s existence but for itbeing advertised. Nor would onehave bought a product if adver-tising had not promoted it inglowing terms. The act of buy-ing it is thus an externally-induced passive exercise.

It is not just one act of buy-ing. Advertising not only pro-jects commodities as irresistibleobjects themselves but also theirpossession as an indication ofone’s worth and status — forexample by projecting that onlya person of a certain class canown a certain brand of suit or astratospherically-priced car.Given the ubiquity and theaudio-visual appeal of advertise-ments, other criteria of statusand worth such as scholarshipand superior creativity in thearts, for example, writing andpainting, get relegated. Anincreasing ability to buy thingsand enjoy services becomes theprincipal goal of a progressive-ly large mass of people and, asa consequence, the definingquest of the consumer culture.

This defining quest of theconsumer culture makes forpassivity as it is mainly external-ly-driven by advertising. Theprocess is reinforced by a com-pulsion internal to the psyche ofpeople which reinforces thecompulsive, competitive andconspicuous consumption thatis a hallmark of the consumerculture. In The Fear of Freedom,Fromm shows how a feeling ofinsecurity comes inexorably

upon a person with his/hergrowing awareness ofhimself/herself separate fromthe surrounding nature andpeople.

According to him, thisawareness “remained very dimover long periods of history,” andthe process of its growth, whichhe calls “individuation,” “seemsto have reached its peak inmodern history in the centuriesbetween the Reformation andthe present.” Stating that thesame process is found in the lifehistory of the individual, he saysthat despite biological separa-tion, the child “remains func-tionally at one with the motherfor a considerable period.” It islinked to her by what he calls“primary ties”, an expression healso uses to signify the ties con-necting “the member of a prim-itive community with his clan ornature, or the medieval manwith his clan or social caste.”Their existence implies a “lackof individuality but they also givesecurity and orientation to theindividual.”

In the case of the child,he/she slowly becomes aware ofhis/her separateness fromhis/her mother and others, withphysical, mental and emotion-al development. This leads to theemergence of an “organisedstructure guided by the individ-ual’s will and reason”. He adds,“If we call this organised andintegrated whole of the person-ality as the self, we can also saythat the one side of the growingprocess of individuation is thegrowth of self-strength.” Theother side is a growing feeling ofaloneness which leads to a grow-ing feeling of insecurity given themany dangers that beset a per-son in every society. This feelingof insecurity is ever-present inmarket capitalism which is thematrix of the consumer culture

and in which the market dom-inates the system and compe-tition is war with no holdsbarred. Thus, corporations arestalked by the fear of beingtaken over or run to theground by other corporationsand individuals by that of los-ing their jobs or of uncertainfutures in their own corpora-tions taken over by new mas-ters.

The way to overcome afeeling of loneliness and inse-curity is, Fromm states, to“relate spontaneously to theworld in love and work,” in thegenuine expression of “one’semotional, sensuous and intel-lectual capacities,” becomingone with man, nature andhimself “without giving upthe independence and integri-ty of one’s individual self.”Unfortunately, conditionsunder market capitalism hin-der the adoption of such acourse. The several ways —including resort to sadisticand masochistic relationships— in which people seek toovercome their feeling of inse-curity, include compulsiveacquisition of possessions andconformism.

According to Fromm,“Incorporating a thing, forexample by eating or drinking,is an archaic form of possess-ing it.” An infant’s form of tak-ing possession is by swallowinga thing. Referring to manyforms of swallowing, includingsymbolic incorporation,Fromm says, “The attitudeinherent in consumption isthat of swallowing.” And swal-lowing under the influence oftelevised advertising is yetanother example of how theidiot box and the consumerculture promote passivity.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and author)

Like every other sector, the film industry, too, hasstarted adapting itself to the new normal of a post-pandemic world. So though it sells dreams, fan-

tasy and larger than life experiences on the big screen,filmmakers have now decided to restrict their cast andcrew to local talent and shoot projects within the coun-try in small, contained sets. And since Bollywood hasso far thrived on the grandeur of locales and the panoram-ic outdoors — Yash Chopra’s romance with Switzerlandbeing almost legendary — it is now going “vocal aboutlocal” as well, choosing unique backdrops at home. Itis here that the Ministry of Tourism and Culture is chip-ping in to do its bit to help the industry that has used

its soft power to promote destinations and cultures. It has allowed filmmakers to shootat more than 3,000 Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-approved historical monuments.It has also put in place a mechanism to fast-track requisite clearances from various Ministriesand departments. To cite an example, locations involving archaeological sites in metrocities required clearances from the ASI, the Home Ministry, Ministry of Environment andForests and several other departments in the metropolis as also the police and its trafficwing. In addition to this, scripts and locations had to be vetted in advance along with thespecifications on the number of shooting days. Perhaps this has been one of the biggestreasons why our monuments and museums have never featured in films to the extentthat story-tellers wanted them to. In comparison, foreign locales seemed attractive becauseof the local tourism boards’ incentives such as tax credits, cash rebates, refunds, fee-freelocation scouting et al. It took a pandemic for the Tourism Ministry to be rational aboutearning revenues. So it is now allowing single-window clearances, including facilitatingsome from various departments and States. Applications will be online and approvals maycome within 15-20 days.

In the end, the locale is just a prop and packaging, what sells is content. While pop-ular cinema in India has largely been aspirational, many of our contemporary hits haveactually celebrated the local milieu. Be it Ladakh for 3 Idiots, Kashmir for Lakshya, Delhifor Rang De Basanti or Bajrangi Bhaijaan and the slew of small town stories around Lucknow,Allahabad, Kanpur and Jaipur, each city and town has emerged as a distinct characterand layered the stories with heartfelt warmth. Qutub Minar, Taj Mahal and the fort palacesof Rajasthan have all featured prominently. But Shah Rukh Khan’s Paheli will be remem-bered for that scene at a stepwell in Rajasthan. If some unknown wonders and sites couldbe filmed, it would be the best campaign for domestic tourism. Not many of us will betravelling abroad anyway. As for Switzerland, there’s always our Northeast.

UP gangster Vikas Dubey may not have anyonemourning his death in a stage-managed accidentcum encounter, responsible as he was for many

killings, the last being of eight policemen. But does thissit easy on the conscience of the police, which has putout the most outrageous and improbable theory of hisattempt to escape, one that triggered it to open fire? Isit not its job to deliver the culprit for courts to decide?Does it not indicate that the political patrons of Dubeyand their protector policemen had too much to lose hadthe don spilled details of the unholy politician-criminalnexus that has entrenched itself in the State in a mutu-ally self-serving manner? Does this not damage Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath’s image of a no-nonsense leader with zero tolerance for corrup-tion and mafia, for good, considering he was personally supervising Dubey’s case? Or isit that his individual will stands no chance in front of systemic imperatives, which his party,too, has endorsed? Dubey himself was sensing that he would be eliminated, what withthe police announcing a bounty on his head and five of his aides killed in orchestratedscenarios. So he surrendered, to negotiate a longish jail term for the right to live. But hisprotectors and creators were scared that with all the media attention on his arrest, he couldhave just spilled the beans or leaked prized information. So they got rid of him. This hasteis troublesome for the simple reason that had the police followed processes and built asolid case on his killing of their colleagues in Kanpur, they could have anyway got the deathsentence for him. Even assuming that some among the forces had tipped Dubey aboutan impending raid, which he used as a trap to ambush the cops, the UP police could haveused his past crimes to justify the severest penalty. Why did it feel so disadvantaged andcompromised as to ignore the provisions of the law and shoot to kill? Unless the men inuniform were told to play executioner. The sad part is that the focus has now shifted fromDubey, the criminal, to Dubey, the victim of police excesses. And nobody is even discussingthe heinous nature of his crimes. This, too, is then an equal travesty of justice.

According to the UP police, while Dubey was being transported back to the State, oneof the cars in the convoy overturned. Taking advantage of the situation, he allegedly attempt-ed to snatch a weapon and flee the scene, following which the police opened fire and shothim. If the narrative sounds familiar, that is because it is. Most of Dubey’s aides died insuch “encounters” after “attacking” the police and trying to “escape.” It matters little whythe policemen “conveniently” forgot to secure their weapons as per rules, did not hand-cuff Dubey or how he managed to escape from an upturned car with all doors shut. Thepolice theorists also forgot to factor how a car that skids on a smooth tarmac doesn’tleave tyre marks. In the end, many questions will be left hanging like aerosols that disin-tegrate beyond a certain point in time. Who were the political leaders who promoted themobster’s criminal empire and his clout? Which all policemen in the force are in cahootswith criminals? The fact that deputy SP Devendra Mishra, who was among the eight police-men killed, had warned his seniors of Dubey’s hold over the justice system but was ignoredspeaks a lot about the don’s clout. Which netas are involved with criminals in the State?Dubey, who has been patronised by the ruling BJP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) atvarious times, had of late tried to curry favour back with the BJP. Apart from intensifyingcaste wars for votebank consolidation, he was also a quick facilitator of land and busi-ness deals that political parties, their sponsors and bureaucrats found attractive. So, whois the UP Government trying to protect? India is a democracy after all and even criminalswith such intimidating rap sheets like Dubey’s have a right to justice, representation andbeing heard in a court of law. Besides the Supreme Court has declared encounter killingsas unlawful. But it is very obvious that the Adityanath administration and senior Ministershave given their tacit approval to this “encounter culture” which abounds in the State asdoes police impunity. And with the killing of Dubey, one wonders if Adityanath is indeedserious about flushing out criminals and cleaning up the police at the same time. If we donot break the politico-police-criminal axis, cleansing is not possible. In a society governedby the rule of law, the death of a policeman cannot be avenged by encounters of crimi-nals. Considering the scale of Dubey’s crimes and the involvement of Government offi-cials and politicians, the State Government should have entrusted the probe to an inde-pendent and impartial agency immediately after the arrest of the don and his henchmen.But it seems the Government, too, is trying to protect someone, somewhere and has giventhe police a carte blanche. Will we ever know?

Encounter the truth

Rough ride

Sir — Private companies, whichsolely pursue profit, cannot beexpected to have a charitableapproach towards society or thecountry. So it will not come asa surprise if the private owners,approved by the Government,come up with arrangementsthat will serve only the privi-leged classes and exclude thecommon people with theirrevised fare structures. Classbarriers exist in every sphere oflife, be it hospitals, schools orhigher educational institutions,residential apartments and hotelsamong others. Thus, one couldexpect the tradition of exclusionto continue with the privatisationof the Indian Railways.

Having already made thedecision to privatise 109 pairs ofroutes, the least the Governmentshould do is to make sure that thenumber of existing trains orroutes is not reduced. The enjoy-ment of the elite should not comeat the cost of the lower and mid-dle classes for whom railways areoften the lifeline for travel.Adequate alternatives should beavailable so that people, who can-not afford the prices set by the

private players, do not have todiscard railway travel altogether.The Government of a “welfarestate” like India should alwaysremember that providing serviceat an affordable rate to the weak-er section of the populace mustbe its priority. This cannot becompromised.

Kajal ChatterjeeKolkata

Overhaul education

Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “No lessons to be learnt” (July10). While the CBSE’s decisionto reduce the syllabus up to 30per cent is welcome, one fails tounderstand the very purpose ofeducation when students will notlearn anything about secularism,

Partition and citizenship amongother subjects.

Are curricula only meant tohelp the students pass the exam-inations? For the students, text-books are just an assemblage offacts that need to be memorised,only to be forgotten later in life.Our pedagogical systems aredisconnected from lived realities.It is time to evolve teaching

methods that encourage stu-dents to apply facts to real-lifeproblems while encouragingthem to seek knowledge. The sadreality is that concepts like sec-ularism and federalism are notreally practised anymore.

Bhavik JainVia email

The race is on

Sir — With TikTok beingbanned in India, various socialmedia apps have been rushingto take its place. One of the topcontenders is Instagram, whichhas showed its intension to fillthe gap with a new app called“Reels.” With thousands of con-tent creators, who had amassedmillions of followers, beingstranded overnight due to a banon TikTok, it will be interestingto see if Reels will be able to cap-ture the same market. For influ-encers, the challenge will be todirect their loyalists to newerplatforms. They will have toregain what they have lost.

Juhi SinghVia email

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

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionVIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020

06

Passivity and its causes

HIRANMAY KARLEKAR

It is the defining quest of consumer culture that makes for passivity as it is mainlyexternally-driven by advertising. How then do we overcome the feeling of insecurity?

Both (India and China) arepowerful nations yet nei-ther one can destroy theother one. So both willhave to live side by side.

Tibetan spiritual leader—Dalai Lama

I don’t think there is anythingcalled an outsider or aninsider. It is aboutfavouritism, that’s the wordthat should be used. And this exists everywhere.

Actor—Divya Dutta

The magnitude of this pan-demic, which has touchedvirtually everyone in theworld, clearly deserves acommensurate evaluation,an honest evaluation.

WHO chief—Tedros A Ghebreyesus

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

A new education paradigm is needed

This refers to the editorial, “No lessons to belearnt” (July 10). The ostensible reason for theCentral Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s

removal of topics such as secularism, citizenship andfederalism from its syllabi for classes IX to XII is30 per cent reduction in the study load of studentsduring the Coronavirus pandemic. But the choice oftopics for deletion from course materials raises ques-tions about the motivation behind the move. Theboard’s justification, that it was meant “to reducethe exam stress of students due to the prevailinghealth emergency situation and prevent learninggaps” begs the question as to why the topics need-ed to be learnt.

The CBSE has not made clear the rationalebehind dropping some subjects as “dispensable”while retaining others as “indispensable.” There isa strong case for every student to have exposure toIndia’s composite culture — its heterogeneity,diversity and pluralism. It helps in the cultivation of

tolerance as a virtue. What children learn in theirimpressionable age moulds and colours their wholelife. Nonetheless, it is some consolation that the “ban-ishment” of key components of what we cherish asliberal education is “temporary,” a one-time measureand the expunged contents have not yet been replacedby new content, propagating a constricted vision ofIndia and the world.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

New film locales

It is the job of the courts todeliver justice. It is the jobof the police to deliver theaccused. The only thingkilled in Yogiji’s encounterraj is justice.

Senior TMC leader—Mahua Moitra

The UP police theory on why it killed Vikas Dubey doesn’t standto reason. The politico-criminal nexus will never be exposed

The Tourism Ministry has allowed the film industry to shoot at ASIsites and monuments. A good move to promote domestic travel

Stop population explosion

IT’S THE JOB OF COURTS TO DELIVER JUSTICE. IT’STHE JOB OF THE POLICE TO DELIVER THE ACCUSED.

INDIA UNDER THE BJP HAS CONFUSED THE TWO.—TMC MP

MAHUA MOITRA

THERE IS NO NEED TO SHED TEARS OVER THEKILLING OF DUBEY IN AN ENCOUNTER. WHY IS THEPOLICE ACTION BEING QUESTIONED?—SHIV SENA MPSANJAY RAUT

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

When the world’s population reached five bil-lion on July 11, 1987, it was observed asthe “Five Billion Day” by the United

Nations (UN). Taking inspiration from this, the thenGoverning Council of the United NationsDevelopment Programme (UNDP) for the first timein 1989 launched an initiative to observe July 11 asthe World Population Day to draw attentiontowards the urgency and importance of related issues.As population explosion began to take centrestageas a cause of serious concern, the themes of theWorld Population Day focussed on the health prob-lems faced by childbearing women and the impor-tance of family planning, gender equality, poverty,maternal health and human rights. With the cur-rent global population at 7.8 billion and estimatedto touch nine billion by 2050, the massive surge inpopulation is identified to be the causal factor ofdevelopmental concerns in several countries. Itbecomes more conspicuous for developing and less-er developed countries. Therefore, World PopulationDay assumes paramount importance because it high-lights the problems of population explosion and rais-es awareness about the effects of over-population onthe environment and the planet. This year’s themeis to raise awareness about safeguarding sexual andreproductive health needs and vulnerabilities ofwomen and girls during the COVID-19 pandem-ic. This is very timely and significant because manypregnant women succumb to poor reproductivehealthcare. A study by the UN Population Fund(UNFPA) revealed that 800 women die every dayduring the process of childbirth. The research high-lighted that if the lockdown continues for six months,with continued major disruption to health services,then 47 million women in low and middle-incomecountries might not have access to modern contra-ceptives. This would, in turn, lead to seven millionunintended pregnancies. This could lead to a risein gender-based violence, female genital mutilationand child marriages and thus threaten the transfor-mative results attained thus far in raising the healthconditions of women.

India’s concerns: The concerns for India on thisWorld Population Day are clear. It has just two percent of the world’s landmass and 16 per cent of theglobal population. Between the Census of 2001 and2011, the country added 18 per cent more peopleto its population — translating to around 181 mil-lion. It is the second-most populous country in theworld with an estimated population of around 1.37billion by 2019. According to the PopulationDivision of the UN Department of Economic andSocial Affairs, India is expected to add nearly 273million people in the next three decades and sur-pass China’s population within the next seven years.In this context, the importance of sexual and repro-ductive health of women and planned parenthoodunderscores some major concerns for the country.

Birth rate and death rate: These are importantfactors for the population explosion in India. Thedeath rate and birth rate was almost the same upto the mid-20th century, which meant a slow rateof growth of population. However, with gradualimprovement in healthcare facilities, level of edu-cation, availability of proper nutrition and diet, peo-ple began to live longer and the death rate began todecline. This mismatch in birth and death rate result-ed in faster growth of the population in the last fewdecades. As on 2020, India has a registered birth rate

of 18.2 per 1,000 population and death rateof 7.3 per 1,000 population.

Poverty and illiteracy: These factorsalso contribute immensely to the popu-lation explosion. In particular, children inrural areas are considered a blessing andsupport for parents in their old age, whilein poorer families, more children meanmore wage earners. On the other hand, thelevel of girls’ education has a directimpact on fertility, as it is evidenced thatthe fertility rate of illiterate women tendsto be higher than that of those who are lit-erate. Lack of education prevents womenfrom having full knowledge about the useof contraceptives, of the consequences offrequent childbirth as well as of theirreproductive rights. On the other hand,educated women understand their rightsand choices of contraception, are oftenvocal against early marriage and choosenot to have many children. In India, female(39 per cent) illiteracy was almost twicethan male illiteracy in 2011.

Family planning and other socialfactors: Even after 69 years of the creationof the National Family PlanningProgramme, the pattern of family plan-ning has not changed much in the coun-try. The National Family Health Survey(2015-2016) revealed that the use of con-doms declined by 52 per cent over eightyears and vasectomies fell 73 per cent.Added to this, women still lack thepower to negotiate and choose if they arewilling to get pregnant or wish to give birthto a baby, whether it is a boy or a girl.Preference for male children by familiesis still prevalent in the overwhelming patri-archal society in the country. In thisprocess, a woman ends up being pregnantmultiple times and producing many chil-dren till a male child is born.

Total Fertility Rate: TFR is the aver-age number of children born to womenduring their reproductive years. For the

population to remain stable, an overallTFR of 2.1 is needed. Hence, a TFR of 2.1is known as the replacement rate. India haswitnessed a steady decline in its TFR,which touched 2.3 in 2016. However, thereis a huge variation across States and theincome level of people. Poorer States likeBihar (3.2), Uttar Pradesh (3.1), Jharkhand(2.7) and Rajasthan (2.7) still have TFRsabove 2.5, while the poorest household hasa TFR of 3.2 children per woman com-pared to 1.5 children per woman fromaffluent families. This shows that popu-lation growth is more concentrated in eco-nomically weaker sections of society andpoorer regions of the country.

High youth unemployment: Indiahas the highest youth population in theworld, i.e. around 28 per cent of the totalpopulation. This youth potential is oftenreferred to as the “demographic dividend”which means that if the youth available inthe country are equipped with quality edu-cation and skills training, then they willnot only get suitable employment but canalso contribute effectively towards the eco-nomic development of the country. Everyyear around 25 million people enter theworkforce, but only seven million are ableto secure jobs, resulting in huge unemploy-ment rates. Around 18 per cent of theyoung labour force is unemployed in thecountry today and around 33 per cent ofthe total youth are not in employment,education and training (NEET), which isthe highest in the world. This hugeunemployed and NEET category of youthare turning the demographic dividend intoa “demographic disaster” for India.

The way forward: Population growthconstantly acts as a hurdle in effectivelyaddressing the problem of poverty, hungerand malnutrition and in providing a bet-ter quality of health and education, withlimited resources. COVID-19 has accen-tuated these challenges and also raised

concerns on the timely attainment of theUN Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). It is, therefore, important tounderstand that in order to have a betterfuture for all on a healthy planet, attain-ment of the SDGs is critical.

Family planning is an effective tool toensure a stable rise in the population,which in turn is crucial for the achieve-ment of some of these SDGs. TheGovernment at all levels — Union, Stateand local, citizens, civil societies as well asbusinesses — must take the responsibili-ty to promote awareness and advocate thesexual and reproductive rights of womenand encourage the use of contraception.This would go a long way in ensuring thatevery child who is born would prove tobe an asset for the country, as all theresearch shows that investing in familyplanning and well-being measures havesignificant benefits over per Rupee spentvis-à-vis other investments.

Additionally, the key stakeholdersneed to be committed to well-researchedplanning and implementation on how toharness the population growth for themaximum economic benefit of the soci-ety and country. Providing adequate edu-cation and training to the young popula-tion would make them productive, effec-tive and competent, thereby makingthem key contributors to economicgrowth. The World Population Day, 2020,is an opportune time to discuss theseimportant issues and raise awarenessabout safeguarding sexual and reproduc-tive health needs and vulnerabilities ofwomen and girls during crises like thepandemic, so that corrective measures canbe taken to overcome these challengestowards the vision of New India and anAtma Nirbhar Bharat.

(Balwant is Research Director, Simi isCEO and Editorial Director and Kumar isDirector, IMPRI)

With the global population estimated to touch nine billion by 2050, the huge surge isidentified to be the causal factor of developmental concerns in several countries

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

EIA 2020 needsmore teeth

KOTA SRIRAJ

The draft notification should have brought intougher measures but it has notable weak points

that severely undermine its very purpose

BALWANTMEHTA

SIMIMEHTA

ARJUNKUMAR

ACCORDING TOTHE POPULATIONDIVISION OF THEUN DEPARTMENT

OF ECONOMICAND SOCIAL

AFFAIRS, INDIA ISEXPECTED TO

ADD NEARLY 273MILLION PEOPLE

IN THE NEXTTHREE DECADES

AND SURPASSCHINA’S

POPULATIONWITHIN THE NEXTSEVEN YEARS. IN

THIS CONTEXT,THE IMPORTANCE

OF SEXUAL ANDREPRODUCTIVE

HEALTH OFWOMEN AND

PLANNEDPARENTHOOD

UNDERSCORESSOME MAJOR

CONCERNS FORTHE COUNTRY

The new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Draft Notification,2020, that seeks to replace the 2016 version, could not have comeat a better time as both the environment and humans are in the

throes of suffering. The abuse of the environment by the human racehas led to nature striking back in the form of zoonotic diseases suchas COVID- 19. The writ of mankind has run large and in the processhas played havoc with the delicate balance between various ecologi-cal features of our planet. In India as well, in the name of economicdevelopment, ill-conceived projects from the environmental perspec-tive have continuously overreached into the realm of nature and com-promised the ecological well-being of our nation. This has been allowedto happen due to the absence of a robust EIA mechanism that focuss-es on a stringent appraisal of a project before its launch and which notonly assesses its environmental sensitivity but also measures the respon-sibility shown by the project designers towards the local/indigenouscommunities that stand to be impacted by it. India direly needs to haverigorous regulations which ensure that the “polluter pays” rule is appliedstrictly in letter and spirit. It also needs to be ensured that the environ-mental clearance (EC) certificate is not abused as a licence to pillagethe environment in the name of development. But all said and done,such an ideal EIA still remains a pipe dream in the country.

The EIA was started in India in 1977-78 for the evaluation of riverprojects. Since then it has come a long way but interestingly, even todaythere is a high number of instances where projects have caused immenseharm to the environment, humans and wildlife alike. How these pro-jects passed the EIA and obtained an EC is a pertinent question thatneeds urgent answers. The recent Oil India Limited (OIL) gas well blowoutat Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia district is an apt example of how theenvironment is getting adversely impacted in the absence of a robustEIA mechanism. The disaster has caused huge damage in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park situated just 900 metres from the well and tothe Maguri-Motapung wetland as well, killing birds and endangered wildlife.Houses, farms, trees and water are covered with a film of oil right nextto the place where three rivers join to form the transboundary Brahmaputrariver. The whole area is experiencing repeated seismic tremors. Yet ithas been allowed to continue operations with impunity. That such bla-tant violation of environmental laws is being done by a public sectorundertaking is nothing short of a disgrace and a mockery of the con-cept of EIA. Yet another example is the LG Polymers Plant inVisakhapatnam from where the Styrene gas leak occurred on May 7,leading to disastrous consequences. It has since emerged that the plantwas operating without the requisite clearances for the last two decades.Sadly, there are many more such examples which raise the questionas to who is actually granting these projects permission to operate.

The EIA is essentially the bedrock of Indian environmental conser-vation and needs to be firmly anchored to the concept of “precaution-ary principle” or put simply, the creation of foresight to grasp the con-sequences of our actions on the environment and humanity. This “fore-sight” is sorely missing and needs to be urgently built into our EIA sys-tems so that the hidden cost of economic development is not painful-ly paid every time an environmentally insensitive project is cleared. Inconditions such as these, the EIA 2020 draft notification should havebrought in tougher measures to filter projects on the basis of the threatperception to the environment, but surprisingly it has notable weak pointsthat severely undermine the very purpose of EIA.

The draft notification allows for post facto clearance, which meansthat even if a project has come up without requisite approvals and envi-ronmental clearances, it can still continue to operate. This feature isquite unacceptable as it will create a rash of projects that will operatewithout critical clearances. Additionally, the draft makes a curious pro-vision that not only undermines the environment but is also directly detri-mental to the very fabric of our democracy as it neglects consultationwith local communities by limiting public consultation pertaining to theimpact of a proposed project. This amounts to silencing the opinion ofthe common man and therefore undermining his/her democratic rights.The draft has listed a series of projects which have been exempted frompublic interaction. These are area development projects, modernisa-tion or irrigation projects, highway projects and, of course, projects per-taining to defence and national security.

Although the last-mentioned projects are understandably out of theambit of public consultation due to security considerations, the rest ofthe projects mentioned on the list do not deserve to be exempted frompublic participation and debate. With loopholes such as these, the draftcannot build on the 2016 version and may even undermine some ofthe good work done under the earlier version of the EIA. The Governmentmust relook at some of the worrying features of the draft 2020 so thatthe future of Indian environment and humanity stand a chance againstthe onslaught of so-called economic development that is parallelly erod-ing the environment.

(The writer is an environmental journalist)

The recent border issues raised byNepal show structural deficien-cies in building trust and willing-

ness to keep relations with Indiahealthy. The self-centred politicisationof centuries-old peaceful ties exposesthe darker side of Nepalese PrimeMinister KP Oli. He has not onlyderailed the prospects of peace andcooperation between Nepal and India,but his hollow projection of national-ism, solely based on anti-Indiamanoeuvring, exhibits his short-sight-edness to serve vested interests in thepolitical and diplomatic space ofNepal. This includes his growingcloseness and frequent interactionswith China.

On the other hand, Nepal’s ruling

Communist Party (NCP) has intensi-fied its demand for Oli’s resignation forfailing to contain COVID-19, derail-ing the economy, endangering the rightto freedom, including that of thePress, and accusing India of conspir-ing against him politically. Amid allthis, Oli can be seen misusing hispower to influence the office of thePresident in unilaterally issuing ordi-nances to ease the process of splittinga party to protect his position as PrimeMinister in case his party splits.

Although the StandingCommittee of the NCP has lashed outat Oli for misusing his power andaccusing India, Oli has turned a deafear to such calls and is openly enter-taining Chinese assertiveness in thedomestic and foreign affairs of Nepal.If reports in the Nepalese media are tobe believed, it is Oli’s arrogance that hasdriven his pro-China campaign, at thecost of destroying friendly ties withIndia. While Oli’s new-found love forChina is a challenge to India, a pro-active and meddling Beijing is a big-ger concern for Nepal itself.

Even though China has penetrat-ed the Nepalese political space, Oli is

not paying heed since recent moves bythe Chinese Ambassador in Nepal areaimed to protect his interests.Ambassador Hou Yanqi has beenmeeting with the members of the NCPto keep Oli in office. Her direct meet-ings with the Prime Minister arecherry on the cake for China. However,Yanqi attracted criticism after sheheld a one-on-one meeting with thePresident of Nepal on June 5, a daybefore the Standing Committee of theNCP was to decide on Oli’s fate. Whilethe agenda of the meeting was notrevealed, it is clear that China wishesOli to continue as the Prime Minister.

On his part, Oli is hell-bent onbringing a Chinese-style one-party rulein Nepal. Members of the CommunistParty of China were invited to providetraining to the Central Committeemembers of the NCP before its secondconvention was to begin inKathmandu on February 15. At theconvention, NCP allegedly passed aresolution to amend the Constitutionto make Nepal a “People’s Democracy”from the existing “People’s multi-party Democracy.” In case, the NCPpushes to remove the word “multi-

party” from the Constitution, it willfurther lead the country towards a one-party rule.

This pro-China inclination may beconsidered an independent sovereignact of a country. But allowing Chineseintervention in the political affairs ofNepal is dangerous. While the high-handedness of Yanqi is not a hiddenfact, pumping of Chinese fundsthrough the Madan BhandariFoundation, named after a lateCommunist leader seen as a source ofOli’s political aspirations, needs to beseen.

It was Yanqi who had convincedOli and his administration to sign aextradition treaty during Xi Jinping’svisit to Nepal last October. While thetreaty was not signed due to internalopposition, Oli gifted a Treaty onMutual Legal Assistance in CriminalMatters on the lines of the extraditiontreaty to China. The treaty has not onlyjeopardised the fate of 13,000 Tibetansliving in Nepal but Kathmandu hasalso risked violating the pact with theUNHCR to protect the rights ofTibetan refugees.

The frequent meetings between

the Chinese officials and officers of theNepal Army give a clear understand-ing of the Chinese mindset in Nepalfor two reasons. One, the army hasalways been looked upon as the moststable institution in Nepal. No matterthe political party in power, a stablerelationship with the army will provebeneficiary for Chinese interests inNepal. Two, in the last three years, thesecurity cooperation between Chinaand Nepal has moved from minimalto an advanced level. To promote tiesin the security sector, China andNepal have continued to strengthencooperation through the exchange ofvisits of security personnel, joint exer-cises and training, disaster preventionand reduction, personnel trainingand supply of arms and ammunitionto the Nepalese army.

Also, the Chinese business com-munity in Nepal has been defyingdomestic laws of the host country, butlocal political support has kept it safe.Thamel, a tourist spot in the heart ofKathmandu known for lavish restau-rants and hostels, has a complete areaallegedly owned by the Chinese. Theyare known to lease properties from

Nepali owners on a maximum bid andrun these hotels and restaurants withall-Chinese staff, who allegedly visitNepal on tourist visas. Similar cases offraud have come into the publicsphere where Chinese-run hotels inNepal accept payments through theChina-owned WeChat app. Meaning,the Chinese tourists do not make cashtransactions in local currency or onlocal online payment platforms.Therefore, revenue contribution by theChinese tourists has negative implica-tions for the Nepalese tourism indus-try.

In December 2019, 122 Chinesenationals were arrested by the NepalPolice for their involvement in cyber-crimes and bank frauds. Later, thesecriminals were deported at the requestof the Chinese Government and toprovide an explanation to the media,the police claimed that it had failed toframe charges against them. China isknown to have little respect for the lawsof other countries but local supportfrom the Prime Minister’s office isindeed a sell-off. It is believed that Olihad personally attempted to avoidembarrassing China by deporting

these criminals. In February, the edi-tor of a leading English daily in Nepalwas also forced to resign after thenewspaper ran an op-ed on theCoronavirus and questioned theChinese Government’s intentions inhiding its spread.

For years, leaders in Nepal havepropagated a neutral position betweenIndia and China, knowing the impor-tance of both the neighbours in trade,transit and security. They have alsounderstood the geographical compul-sions of a landlocked Nepal, but withhis hollow acts of ultra-nationalism,Oli has merely served his personalaspirations.

In reality, a Chinese-style politicalsystem in Nepal will be a curse onNepal’s long fight for democracy,where thousands had sacrificed theirlives. Nepal has examples of Chinesedebt-traps in Sri Lanka and Africa andbrain-washing in Pakistan. Therefore,it is time for the people to question theGovernment, especially Oli, for turn-ing a blind eye to Chinese high-hand-edness.

(The writer is ICSSR DoctoralFellow at the CSAS, JNU)

RISHI GUPTA

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

It is time for the people to question the Government, especially KP Oli, for turning a blind eye to Chinese high-handedness

China the emerging ring master of Nepal?

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Sensex sheds 143 pts on weak global cuesMUMBAI: Equity benchmarkSensex dropped 143 points onFriday, dragged by losses infinancial stocks and negativecues from Asian peers. The30-share index ended 143.36points, or 0.39 per cent, lowerat 36,594.33. The NSE Niftyshed 45.40 points, or 0.42 percent, to close at 10,768.05.Axis Bank was the top loser inthe Sensex pack, skiddingover 3 per cent, followed byIndusInd Bank, Titan, HDFC,ICICI Bank, ONGC and HDFCBank. On the other hand,Reliance Industries, SunPharma, HUL, Bharti Airtel andTCS were among the gainers.According to traders, domesticbenchmarks followed thenegative trend in other Asianequities as concerns over afresh spike in COVID-19 casesand its impact on economicrecovery weighed on investorsentiment.

Torrent Power seeksshareholders' nodto raise Rs 2,000 cr New Delhi: Torrent power willseek shareholders' approvalnext month for raising up toRs 2,000 crore throughissuance of NCDs. The specialresolution for issuance of nonconvertible debentures (NCDs)by way of offer or invitation,up to an aggregate Rs 2,000crore, on a private placement,is listed on the agenda of theannual general meetingscheduled for August 6,according to a regulatoryfiling. It said the approval ofmembers is sought for raisingthe amount within the overallapproved borrowing limit ofthe company. The funds areproposed to be raised fromqualified institutional buyers orbanks other than scheduledcommercial banks,companies, bodies corporate,Foreign Portfolio Investors orvarious funds (like pension,gratuity etc.)

Tata Motors reportsdecline in groupglobal wholesalesMUMBAI: Tata Motors onFriday reported a 64 per centdecline in group globalwholesales, including that ofJaguar Land Rover (JLR) to91,594 in June quarter of thecurrent financial year overyear-ago. Global wholesales ofall Tata Motors' commercialvehicles and Tata Daewoorange in Q1FY21 were at11,598 units, lower by 89 percent over Q1FY20, TataMotors said in a regulatoryfiling. Global wholesales of allpassenger vehicles in Junequarter of the current fiscaldropped 49 per cent to 79,996units over the same quarter ofthe previous fiscal, it said.Global sales of JLR stood at65,425 vehicles in the Junequarter, it said adding thatJaguar wholesale units duringthe period were 17,971vehicles, while Land Roverwholesales for the quarterwere 47,454 vehicles.

PNS n NEW DELHI

T-Hub, an initiative by theTelangana government for star-tups, on Friday said it hasjoined hands with the Ministryof Electronics and InformationTechnology (MeitY) andDigital India for helping hard-ware and IoT startups acrossthe country.

T-Hub will lead DigitalIndia's Scale Up program forhardware and Internet ofThings (IoT) startups acrossIndia, a statement said.

The aim is to help providescale up opportunities to thestartups and make them readyin terms of product, investmentand new market access, itadded.

About 10-15 startups withleading-edge solutions inmobility, energy, agriculture,aerospace, manufacturing,

consumer, healthtech,medtech, smart cities andlogistics and supply chain sec-tors will be shortlisted.

The call for application forthe program will commence inJuly 2020, and startups will beshortlisted after an extensivescreening process, it added.

"India has already devel-oped a reputation for its exper-tise in the software technolo-gy space. We are beginning to

see startups emerging in thehardware space that are solv-ing important problems.

"Schemes such as FAME IIand Manufacturing-Hub plansby the Indian government hasalready laid a strong founda-tion," Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub and chief innovation offi-cer of the state of Telangana,said.

He added to further fuel thegrowth of hardware and IoT

startups in India, T-Hub haspartnered with MeitY to takethe ecosystem to the next levelso that innovative startups canscale-up strategically.

"T-Hub brings its maturedacceleration programme withaccess to customers, investorsand specialised mentors," hesaid. The batch of startupswill go through regular inter-ventions through bootcampsand dedicated mentoringorganised by T-Hub.

During the program, star-tups will get exposure todesign/enhance their hard-ware, the statement said.

In addition, they will receivementorship in areas such aspricing, go-to-market strategiesand fund raising, amongst oth-ers. As part of the program, theshortlisted startups will alsoreceive equity-free grants, itadded.

T-Hub partners with MeitY, DigitalIndia for helping hardware startups PNS n LONDON

Britain and India will be the"energetic champions" of freetrade to boost small business-es, UK Foreign SecretaryDominic Raab said on Fridayas he pitched the two nationsas leaders in tackling chal-lenges posed by the coron-avirus pandemic.

Addressing the Annual UK-India Day during India GlobalWeek 2020 on Friday, thesenior Cabinet ministeracknowledged India's help atthe height of the coronaviruspandemic with “vital suppliesof paracetamol”.

“Britain and India will beenergetic champions of freetrade, to boost small busi-nesses, to cut the cost of livingfor consumers and to create thejobs of the future,” said Raab,addressing the event held vir-tually given the coronaviruslockdown. “As leaders in the

international COVID-19response, the UK and Indiaalso co-authored the G20Action Plan, providing animmediate package of USD200 billion of global support tothe most vulnerable countriesaround the world.

"A vaccine created byBritish scientists and manu-factured in India, if success-ful in clinical trials, willreach one billion peopleacross the developing world,

thanks to Oxford Universityand India's Serum Institute,”he said.

The UK has committed313 mil l ion pounds toresearch and developmentto support the developmentof a possible vaccine toCOVID-19, and British phar-ma giant AstraZeneca isleading the developmentwork with Oxford Universityand the Serum Institute ofIndia.

UK, India 'energetic champions'of free trade: Dominic Raab

Dominic Raab

Britain andIndia will beenergeticchampions offree trade, toboost smallbusinesses,said UK ForeignSecretary

PNS n ISLAMABAD

The US has imposed a ban onPakistan International Airlinesflights for at least six months,citing dubious pilots' licenses,according to a media report onFriday.

On Tuesday, the EuropeanUnion Aviation Safety Agency(EASA) ordered its 32 memberstates to bar Pakistani pilotsfrom working, followingreports of fake licenses beingissued to them.

The decision has been takenafter 262 Pakistani pilots weregrounded, whose licences theAviation Minister Ghulam

Sarwar Khan had termed“dubious” in the NationalAssembly.

The Express Tribune report-ed quoting sources that the US

authorities have notified thenational carrier of the banthrough an email. They addedthat the special flight licencesobtained by the PIA had also

been revoked.The US officials said that the

ban had been imposed becauseof the recent issue of suspect-ed pilots' licences in PIA.

PIA was allowed to operate12 direct special flights to theUnited States of which the air-

line had operated seven flights.The paper reported that the

permission for the remainingfive flights had now beenrevoked, according to thesources.

Pakistan has already sus-pended licenses of 34 more PIApilots after the national flagcarrier terminated the servicesof 52 employees on variouscharges, including fake degrees.

The dubious license issueemerged after the preliminaryprobe report of the Karachiplane crash blamed the pilotsand the air traffic control forthe tragedy that killed 97 peo-ple.

US bans PIA ops over dubious licences issue

PNS n MUMBAI

The COVID-19 pandemic islikely to have a positive impacton the cash flow from opera-tions (CFO) of state procure-ment agencies (SPAs) in thecurrent financial year, due tohigher offtake by the FoodCorporation of India, accord-ing to a report by India Ratingsand Research.

The higher offtake by FCI isin response to various welfareschemes announced by thegovernment that resulted inthe liquidation of SPAs' unsoldinventory and debtors, the rat-ing agency said in the reportreleased on Friday.

In view of the COVID-19pandemic and the resultantlockdown, the government hasannounced various welfareschemes to alleviate the stressfaced by the poor, it said.

Under the PM Garib KalyanAnn Yojana, free distribution

of 5 kg of foodgrains and 1 kgof pulses per person per monthfor the next three months wasannounced in March 2020 forthe 80 crore beneficiaries cov-ered under the National FoodSecurity Act, it added. Thisscheme has now been extend-ed up to November-end.

As all such welfare schemesare being routed throughFCI, Ind-Ra said, the same

would free up the storagespace available with FCI,thereby making them readyto accept fresh produce com-ing in from various SPAs, itsaid.

Ind-Ra expects that thiswould reduce the inventoryholding and consequentdebtors at SPAs and accord-ingly facilitate the liquiditythrough CFO generation.s

PNS n REWA

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday said India hasemerged as the most attractiveglobal market for clean energyand maintained self-reliance inelectricity is a key componentof the Centre's 'AatmanirbharBharat' campaign.

Launching a 750 MW solarproject in Rewa in MadhyaPradesh through video-confer-encing, Modi also said thestate will emerge as a majorhub for clean and cheap powerin the country.

"Solar energy is sure, pureand secure and the country isnow among the top five solarpower producers in the world,"he said.

The Rewa solar power plant

will not only supply power toMadhya Pradesh, but also tothe Delhi Metro, Modi said.

Rewa Ultra Mega Solar(RUMS) project is Asia's largestsuch power facility and DelhiMetro will be one of its insti-tutional customers outside thestate.

Modi said self-reliance inelectricity is integral for

'Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant)Bharat', adding solar energywill play an integral part inachieving this objective.

The world is in a dilemmaon whether to focus on theenvironment or on the econo-my, Modi said.

However, India has shown tothe world that the environmentand economy are not at odds,

but are complementary to eachother, the PM said.

The country has successful-ly demonstrated this in imple-menting programmes likeSwachh Bharat, LPG connec-tions to the poor (underUjjwala scheme), CNG andelectricity-based transporta-tion, among others, he said.

He said solar energy is sure,pure, and secure and will be amajor source of power in the21st century.

"It is sure because the sunwould shine throughout theworld; it is pure because solarenergy rather than pollutingthe environment, helps replen-ish it; it is very secure as it isa symbol of self-dependenceand fulfils energy require-ments," he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Leading stock exchange NSE onFriday said it will accept goldbars produced by the domesticrefiners for settlement of thegold futures contracts traded onits platform.

For this, the exchangelaunched NSE RefinerStandards (NRS) for BIS -Standard Gold- which will beeffective from Friday, July 10.

"The NSE Refiner Standardsfor BIS – Standard Gold wouldenable the acceptance of gold

bars produced by the domesticrefiners in India, for settlementof the gold futures contractstraded on the NSE platform,"the exchange said in a state-ment.

Until Thursday, NSE accept-ed serially numbered gold barsproduced by London Bullion

Market Association (LBMA)approved refiners for settlementof the gold contracts traded onthe commodity derivatives seg-ment of the exchange.

The introduction of NRSfor BIS – Standard Gold- willfacilitate greater participationfrom the domestic market play-ers in the exchange tradeddeliverable bullion commodityderivatives by widening thescope of acceptable bullioncommodity for delivery on theplatform, the National StockExchange (NSE) said.

NSE to accept gold barsproduced locally

Maha Hotelsassetsdeclared fraudPNS n NEW DELHI

Public sector Punjab & SindBank on Friday said it hasdeclared NPA account MahaAssociated Hotels, with out-standing dues of Rs 71.18crore, as fraud and reportedthe matter to the RBI.

Further, the lender said itis in the process of filingcomplaint/FIR with CentralBureau of Investigation(CBI).

Pursuant to the applicableprovisions of Sebi regula-tions and the materialitypolicy of the bank, "it isinformed that an NPAaccount Maha AssociatedHotels Pvt Ltd with out-standing dues of Rs 71.18crore having provisioning ofRs 44.40 crore has beendeclared as fraud andreported to RBI as per reg-ulatory requirement", thebank said in an exchange fil-ing.

Engineering firms' Q1revenue to take a hit PNS n MUMBAI

The COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown and subse-quent shortage of labourersduring the first quarter of thefiscal is likely to push manyengineering firms into lossesas revenue has been impacteddue to execution challenges,Emkay Global FinancialServices said in a report.

According to the agency,engineering companies havinga diversified profile and whichhave been able to continuewith the execution, though atmoderate levels, are likely to bebetter placed, but would see adecline in their profit after taxas compared to Q1 FY2020.

"First quarter of this fiscalmay turn out to be a forget-table quarter for engineeringand capital goods sector as thelockdown has severely impact-ed execution for over twomonths for several companiesin the sector," it said.

While factories and con-struction work resumed inseveral states mid-Aprilonwards, lower demand andworkforce challenges led to lit-tle execution. The agency fur-ther said that few of the com-panies under its coverage areexpected to see a lower impacton revenue as parts of theirbusiness were active, whichhelped moderate the overallrevenue decline.

Unichem Labsgets nod forspasticityrelief tabletsPNS n NEW DELHI

Drug firm UnichemLaboratories on Friday said ithas received approval fromthe US health regulator tomarket its Baclofen tabletsindicated for alleviation ofspasticity resulting from mul-tiple sclerosis.

The company has receivedabbreviated new drug appli-cation (ANDA) approval tomarket its Baclofen tabletsUSP 10 mg, 20 mg from theUnited States Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA),Unichem Laboratories said ina BSE filing.

The product is a genericversion of NovartisPharmaceuticals Corp'sLioresal tablets in the samestrengths, it added.

The tablets will be com-mercialised from the compa-ny's Ghaziabad plant,Unichem Laboratories said.

Baclofen tablets are indi-cated for the alleviation ofsigns and symptoms of spas-ticity resulting from multiplesclerosis, particularly for therelief of flexor spasms andconcomitant pain, clonus,and muscular rigidity, itadded.

PNS n MUMBAI

Top five private sector banksmay see their slippages doubleto 5 per cent this fiscal due to thepoor loan offtake and the mora-torium-driven contraction innet interest margins, warns areport. These five banks--HDFCBank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank,Kotak Mahindra Bank,IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank--collectively control a quarter ofthe system and three-fourths ofthe private banking space,according to a report by IndiaRatings on Friday.

"We forecast FY21 slippagesto nearly double to around 5per cent for these banks from2.3 per cent in FY19 and 2.7per cent in FY20, even thoughnet slippages would be lower ifrefinancing remains a chal-lenge, resulting in a 4 per cent

contraction in their net inter-est margin," says the report.

As loan demand remainstepid, banks are parking theirexcess liquidity in low yieldingalternatives such as govern-ment bonds and top-rated cor-porate securities due to their

higher credit risk perception andwidening duration spreads, evenas deposit inflows have beenrobust.

On the other hand, growth indeposits for these top five pri-vate banks in FY20 was 18.8 percent which was 18.5 per cent inFY19, while loan growthdeclined to 15 per cent from19.1 per cent during this peri-od. Additionally, the ReserveBank has injected Rs 1.7 lakhcrore of liquidity into the systemover the last six months throughopen market operations andsecondary market purchases.

PNS n NEW DELHI

German luxury carmakerMercedes-Benz on Fridayreported a 55 per cent declinein sales in the first half of theyear at 2,948 units in Indiaamid COVID-19 related chal-lenges.

The company had sold 6,561units in the January-June peri-od last year.

Mercedes-Benz India said itwitnessed positive momen-

tum in June 2020 sales, whichshowed first signs of a gradualrecovery buoyed by a rejuve-nated SUV portfolio thataccounted for 57 per cent of

total sales in the month.Commenting on the perfor-

mance, Mercedes-Benz IndiaManaging Director and CEOMartin Schwenk said, "We areglad to witness a slow move-ment from previous monthsand we expect this trend togather momentum."

He further said, “Run-out ofsome of the key BS-IV volumemodels and also COVID-19related restrictions lead tosales challenges in H1."

Top 5 pvt banks stare at NPAs doubling to 5% in FY21Mercedes-Benz India H1 salesdown 55 pc at 2,948 units

Decision has beentaken after 262Pak pilots weregrounded, whoselicences weretermed as“dubious”

‘Higher offtake by FCI can boostprocurement agencies liquidity'

PM bats for solar energy, says it's ‘sure, pure and secure'

Rupee skids 21 paise to endat 75.20 against US dollarPNS n MUMBAI

The Indian rupee weakened by21 paise to close at 75.20against the US dollar on Friday,tracking lower equities asinvestors seemed moving awayfrom riskier assets amid wor-ries over mounting COVID-19

cases. Further, the strongerUS dollar against key rival cur-rencies also put pressure on thedomestic unit.

The dollar index, whichmeasures the American cur-rency's strength against a bas-ket of major currencies, was at96.7910, up 0.09 per cent.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the rupeeopened weaker at 75.16 a dol-lar against the previous day'sclose of 74.99. During the ses-sion, it swung between a highof 75.12 and low of 75.33before settling at 75.20, show-ing a loss of 21 paise.

SHIKHA DUGGAL

The preparation and con-

sumption of Mithai is an age-

old tradition in India. A busi-

ness of savouries is always

filled with immense taste and

flavour. Poornima Mittal is

one self-made entrepreneur

who defied all odds to fulfil

her aspirations and make a

mark for herself in the city.

She is the founder of

Mirchi.com, a marketplace

exclusive for sweets and

snacks, empowers sellers,

both big and small, to directly

showcase their unique prod-

ucts under one roof.But her life was not a bed of

roses, it had always been a

challenge from the very start.

She moved back to Hyderabad

from the U.S (where she was

staying) and was managing

her team here in India. In

addition to that, working late

nights along with being a

mommy, began to get the bet-

ter of her. Apart from all of

this, she had no experience

with e-commerce, packaging,

or shipping. But a simple yet

ambitious woman found

solace in her small venture

and the brightening idea

behind it.“Women are full of spirited

energies, and I am using my

privilege to help other women

out there who dream of

becoming a change-maker but

can’t move forward due to

financial constraints or family

restrictions. We all must fol-

low the motto” ‘Each for

equal’ to awaken the spirit of

sisterhood,” opines Poornima.

At Mirchi.com, she attempts to

bring the products of these

talented individuals for all to

enjoy. “When I first ventured into

this business, I was eager to

learn and network with fellow

homemakers. I researched a

lot about my idea and figured

what holds a woman back to

follow her dreams and so

decided to create a new

ecosystem for them. We are a

team of 10 individuals now,

who work collectively. At

times it does get extremely

difficult for me to manage

both office and household

chores but I eventually learnt

to conquer these challenges,”

tells the founder. Aimed at helping women

during their entrepreneurial

journey, the initiative hopes to

bring up-scaled ventures for

them where they can also dis-

tribute India’s best sweets and

savouries. Speaking about the

impact of COVID-19 on her

business she tells us that it has

reduced their business’s pro-

duction capacity. “The busi-

ness is now slowly gaining

momentum amidst unlock 2.0

but the economic crisis spread

has affected the power of pur-

chasing as we,” she informs.

Having little expectations

from the upcoming festivals

now, Mirchi.com is imple-

menting new services such as

a gifting section. Talking

about her marketing strategy,

she says, “We segregate a list

of our clients and understand

their choice of product mix

they would like to have. We

have a high brand recall, we

are always at par with our

competitors.”

Keeping the spotlight on an

inclusive environment for sell-

ers, Mirchi.com seems to

be an impressive start-up

ensuring women entrepre-

neurs have equal access to the

investment business. To keep

her going, apart from this,

Poornima Mittal practices

aerobics at home to continue

to focus on her life.

Dared to make her dream a reality

When I first ventured into

this business, I was eager to

learn and network with fellow

homemakers. I researched a lot about

my idea and figured what holds a

woman back to follow her dreams and

so decided to create a new ecosystem

for them. We are a team of 10

individuals now, who work collectively.

At times it does get extremely difficult

for me to manage both office and

household chores but I eventually learnt

to conquer these challenges.— POORNIMA

osing a job is oneof the most stress-ful experiences.Whether you’vebeen laid off,downsized or

forced to take an early retire-

ment, not only does it affect

your pocket and other

finances but it may also take a

toll on your mental and emo-

tional health.We don’t do a job merely to

make a living. For many, it is

so much more. It’s not only a

medium to complete our

career goals but it also shapes

our perspective towards peo-

ple, changes how we see and

interpret the world and influ-

ences our decisions to a great

extent. It helps us explore our-

selves, our interests and

potential. Suddenly, finding

oneself out of work can be

hurtful or depressing. One

might even start questioning

one’s own identity and poten-

tial, even losing self-belief and

confidence at times.Given such testing times

like today with a pandemic at

hand, when the market is

starved of funds and adequate

resources, it has become even

harder for millennials to plan

their way ahead. And due to

so much uncertainty, while

many are facing pay cuts,

many have already lost their

jobs.Talking about my personal

experience, I really miss the

feeling of seeing my account

getting credited at a particular

time each month. I under-

stand the pain and distress

people are feeling upon losing

jobs at the moment. The

prospect of not knowing when

your next paycheck will come

is a daunting one.

Well, it’s never the best feel-

ing if you lose a job. However,

that doesn’t mean you give up.

In fact, it means that now is the

time to work harder than ever

and look for that silver lining.

Here are some ways to effec-

tively stay motivated when

you’re unable to find a new job.

DON’T GIVE UP

It’s time to dust yourself off,

get your act together and get

back in the game. Give yourself

some recovery time to get over

the shock, but then, get seri-

ous. Give yourself some love

and reaffirm what you already

know. Think about it: is this

your opportunity to change

your career (and life)?

FOCUS ON YOUR

FUTURE

Experts suggest that creating

a plan for your future is a good

way to start. Think of the

things you can do and how

you’re going to get your next

job. Focussing on the future

will help you get a new job

much faster than concentrating

on the past and any mistakes

you may have made.

ASK FOR SUPPORT

FROM YOU FRIENDS AND

FAMILY

Unemployment doesn’t just

affects you, it affects your

entire family as well. Instead of

keeping the problem to your-

self, ask for support from your

friends and family members.

Your support group will help

you get through this awful part

of your career and propel you

forward.

STAY HEALTHY

Mental and physical health

are interlinked. It is highly rec-

ommended not to host a pity

party for yourself, daytime TV

and junk food. Being physically

fit as well as mentally strong

will help you remain focussed

on the challenge at hand. Now

is a good time to indulge in

some online workouts or

healthy cooking experiments.

Doing something other than

job-hunting will serve you well.

STAY POSITIVE

I know it is not easy but it is

possible. Getting into a nega-

tive cycle will probably be the

most counter-intuitive thing to

do at the moment. Instead of

allowing yourself to feel nega-

tively about your job loss, you

can list everything you did well

at your recent job and use it to

keep yourself positive while

looking for a new job or

opportunity.

LOOK FOR OPPORTUNI-

TIESEvery challenge brings its

own set of opportunities. You

might not be able to see them

at the moment but keep look-

ing irrespective. Some of the

world’s biggest businesses start-

ed during some sort of crisis,

The Great Depression,

Subprime and others.

EXPLORE A HOBBY

While you are at home, find-

ing work, dig in what you real-

ly like and develop the hobby

as you have the time to do it,

which you never had or had

limitations for. This will help

you explore a new reason to

keep yourself occupied and

happy. Hobbies related to art

also help you be at peace and

have a stable mind.

TAKE A SHORT TRIP

Well, during a lockdown it is

suggested to take a trip only if

safe, otherwise it’s good to

space out between two jobs, as

it gives an individual a clarity

of thought and helps to be

more productive at the same

time. The job you will be

applying for might come your

way when you are not waiting

for it but approaching it.

READ MORE

While I know, it sounds

cliche, reading e-books, blogs

and books definitely help your

mind to declutter and create

space for you to perform. Read

motivational stories and books

like The Secret, F@ckKnows,

and other such.

TAKE AN APTITUDE

TEST

When on a break, or no job

mode, it’s better to go back and

explore the reason why you

ended up where you are.

Aptitude tests are available

online and are super effective,

as it helps you to believe in

yourself again and guide you to

what are the different avenues

you can do/ be at rather sulk-

ing over the same.

UNLEARN AND LEARN

Unlearn the negative aspects

of yourself and learn a new

course on writing, digital man-

agement, website making, pro-

file building. There are over

1000s of different digital cours-

es available on Google. Get

certified while you are looking

for a new job. As you have

something to look forward to

your day which is time bound!

(The author is Devashree

Sharma Tiwari, co-founder,

The Glutton and The Owl.)

L

Time for some

SELF-LOVEWith so much

uncertainty around and

people losing jobs, it’s

hard finding a new

one. Here are some

ways to effectively stay

motivated and reaffirm

what you already know

SaturdayJuly 11, 2020

Follow us on@TheDailyPioneerfacebook.com/dailypioneer

10

Vijayawada Saturday July 11 2020 what’s brewing?

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

Vivek Anand Oberoito play mysteriouscharacter in his next

ctor VivekAnand Oberoihas been ropedin to play apivotal role in Iti: Can

You Solve Your OwnMurder?

“I’m playing a characternamed Prabhu Singh,who is one of the mostpivotal characters in thefilm. It’s a role that I’venever played before. This film is a mysterythriller, so let’s leave restof my character also tosome mystery,” saidVivek.

The actor is also pre-senting and producingthe whodunit thriller bywriter-director Vishal

Mishra.“When Vishal narrated

the story to me and tookme through the plot-lineand the story arch, I justinstinctively knew that Ihad to produce it. I’vealways wanted to backhigh concept ideas andVishal had just the perfectconcept for me,” saidVivek.

Vishal said that castingVivek in Iti: Can YouSolve Your Own Murder?was a no-brainer and theactor had been his firstchoice.

“Vivek Oberoi is anactor par excellence andhas proved the samethroughout his careerthrough his acclaimed

performances in Saathiya, Company,Shootout at Lokhandwalaand more. I needed anexceptional actor forPrabhu Singh because heis the most pivotal char-acter in the film. Also,Vivek has never done arole like this before, so itwould be very refreshingto see him in this charac-ter onscreen,” said thedirector.

Actress Sushmita Sen’s brother Rajeev Sen will make hisBollywood debut with Iti: Can You Solve YourOwn Murder?

The movie is expectedto go on floors bySeptember-October 2020.

Bollywood celebs to revealsecrets on new show

A

ilmmakerMira Nairwill beadapting the2020Pulitzer

Prize finalist New YorkTimes story and pod-cast The Jungle Princeof Delhi as a dramaseries.

Written by EllenBarry, the story delvesinto the history of theroyal family of Oudh,who lived in a ruinedpalace in Delhi andclaimed to be the heir to

the fallen kingdom.Nair is attached to

direct the project andwill also executive pro-duce. Amazon Studioshas secured the rights todevelop the dramaseries. The Jungle Princeof Delhi will narrate apersonal story of a dis-placed family, setagainst the backdrop ofthe Partition of India.

“Barry’s beautifullywritten tale of the Oudhfamily revealed deepertruths rooted in the vio-lence and trauma of the

partition of India,” saidCaitlin Roper, head ofscripted entertainmentat The New York Times.

Nair has received aBAFTA, AcademyAward, and GoldenGlobe nomination forher work previously.She is known forSalaam Bombay!,Mississippi Masala,Monsoon Wedding,Vanity Faira, TheNamesake, TheReluctantFundamentalist and TheQueen of Katwe.

Mira Nair to direct

JunglePrince of

Delhi series

F

ollywood celebritieslike Kareena KapoorKhan, Sara AliKhan, AnanyaPanday, TaapseePannu and

Jacqueline Fernandez willreveal interesting bits of theirlives in a new interactive quizshow titled Super Fan.

“I think all of us celebritiesare known by our fans, and Istrongly believe that. I havealways said that I am what Iam because of my fans. I am

so happy that I have beenable to connect with all myfans and it has been greatthat I got this opportunity toget to know each other bet-ter, through this show. I hopemany people are able to getthe answers to all my ques-tions right, and I also hopethat there is not just one, butmany Super Fans of Bebo,”said Kareena.

The Flipkart Video showalso presents an opportunityfor select fans to win a

chance to personally connectwith their Bollywood idols.

Ananya hopes her fanshave fun finding out moreabout her because “I havethoroughly enjoyed thisexperience. I want to thankthem for all the love andaffection I have received. Tome they are all my SuperFans and I love them.Sending a big virtual hug toall my fans out there”.

B

11VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JULY 11, 2020

NYON: Barcelona and BayernMunich will meet in the quar-ter-finals of the ChampionsLeague should both sides makeit through, Friday’s draw for thefinal eight confirmed.

Both teams still need tocomplete their last-16 ties, withBayern almost there having won3-0 away to Chelsea in the firstleg, while Barcelona are due tohost Napoli after a 1-1 draw inItaly.

Meanwhile, if Man City canfinish the job in their last-16 tieagainst Real Madrid, Pep’s teamwill go on to a quarter-finalagainst either Juventus or Lyon.City won 2-1 in Madrid in thefirst leg in March, while Juventusmust overturn a 1-0 deficit fromthe first leg of their last-16 tieagainst Lyon.

Postponed in March as thecoronavirus pandemic took over,all remaining last 16 second legsare due to be played on August7 and 8. The winners willadvance to the Final Eight,which will be held as a uniquestraight knockout tournament inLisbon due to the difficultiescaused by the coronavirus.

The draw threw up thepossibility of a Clasico semi-final, with Barcelona andMadrid on collision course tomeet in the last four should bothmake it that far.

The other side of the drawis clearer. First-time quarter-finalists RB Leipzig will meetAtletico Madrid, runners-upto city rivals Real the last timethe Champions League finalwas played in Lisbon in 2014.

The winners of the Leipzigvs Atletico quarter-final will faceeither Paris Saint-Germain orAtalanta in the last four.

The quarter-finals will beplayed between August 12 and15 in the Portuguese capital,with matches shared betweenBenfica’s Estadio da Luz andSporting’s Estadio Jose Alvalade.

The semi-finals are sched-uled for August 18 and 19, withthe final on August 23 at theEstadio da Luz. AFP

Spielberg: Red Bull have given “adefinite no” to four-times F1 worldchampion Sebastian Vettel’s hopesof returning to them next year,team boss Christian Horner saidon Friday.

The German, who is out ofcontract with Ferrari at the end ofthe season and facing an uncertainfuture, had said on Thursday hewould say yes to a Red Bull driveif one was offered.

Vettel won his titles with RedBull from 2010-13 and remains ongood terms with the Austrianenergy drink brand’s senior man-agement. “We had a brilliant timewith Seb,” Horner told Sky F1 tele-

vision during practice for theStyrian Grand Prix at Austria’s RedBull Ring. “He will forever be a partof our history.

“We didn’t expect him to be onthe market this year and our com-mitment is to our existing drivers.We think we’ve got a great pairingin Max (Verstappen) and in Alex(Albon). We think that has greatpotential for the future as well.

“So unfortunately it’s notsomething we are going to be ableto accommodate. That is a definiteno, I’m afraid. Sebastian I think isaware of that.”

Agencies

Verona: Inter Milan allowedyet another game to slip fromtheir grasp as Veronasnatched a late equaliser tohold them to a 2-2 draw onThursday.

Antonio Conte’s sideappeared to have done thedifficult part when they camefrom behind to lead 2-1 earlyin the second half only forMiguel Veloso to level forVerona with five minutes left.

That means Inter stayfourth with 65 points, havingbeen overtaken by Atalantaafter their 2-0 win overSampdoria on Wednesday,and are 10 adrift of leaders

Juventus with seven games toplay. Verona are ninth with43.

“It’s disappointingbecause we deserved to winthe match and instead we

have lost more importantpoints,” said Conte.

“The fact that we havelost 20 points from leadingpositions must give us pausefor thought. We’ve lost somany points in a stupid way— if we hadn’t, the tablewould look very different.”

Since the Serie A restart,Inter have been held 3-3 athome by Sassuolo after con-ceding twice in the last 10minutes and on Sunday theylost 2-1 to visitors Bolognaafter leading 1-0 and missinga penalty — a performancewhich left Conte fuming. AP

AFP n BIRMIGHAM

Manchester United weregiven a controversialhelping hand by VAR

in their 3-0 win at Aston Villa,while Tottenham suffered freshfrustration at the hands of thereview system in their 0-0draw at Bournemouth onThursday.

United were far too strongfor lowly Villa, but their open-ing goal came from a dubiouspenalty that left the hostsfuming.

In the 27th minute,United midfielderBruno Fernandes spuninto Ezri Konsa beforetumbling in the areadespite little evidence of a foulby the Villa defender. Thepenalty stood after a VARreview and Fernandes slottedhome his eighth goal sincejoining from Sporting Lisbonin January.

United doubled their leadin first half stoppage-timewhen 18-year-old MasonGreenwood scored his fourthgoal in three games with afierce finish. Paul Pogba got thethird in the 58th minute, theFrance midfielder bagging hisfirst goal of an injury-hit sea-son with a low curler from 18yards.

Fifth placed United moveto within one point of fourthplaced Leicester in the race toqualify for the ChampionsLeague.

United, unbeaten in theirlast 17 games in all competi-tions, are the first team inPremier League history to winfour consecutive matches by amargin of three or more goals.Second bottom Villa are fourpoints from safety and haven’twon in six games since therestart.

There was more VAR con-troversy at Dean Court, withTottenham left in danger of

missing out on European com-petition for the first time sincethe 2009-10 season.

Jose Mourinho’s side wereoff-key for long periods, butcould feel hard done by after

Josh King’s push on HarryKane in the penalty area wentunpushed despite a VAR reviewin the first half. Just a week afterTottenham were the victims ofa harsh VAR decision in their

loss at Sheffield United,Mourinho felt they were thevictims of another bad mistakeby the replay official.

“The same referee who didthe VAR decision against

Sheffield United, MichaelOliver. Opinions matter, It’s notonly mine. Everybody knowsthat’s a penalty and when I sayeverybody, I mean everybody,”Mourinho said.

SOUTHAMPTON: Seasoned Englandpacer Stuart Broad on Friday said hefelt “frustrated, angry and gutted”after being dropped from the openingTest, adding that he sought clarifica-tions over his future in the team.

The hosts opted to go for JamesAnderson, Mark Wood and JofraArcher alongside stand-in captainBen Stokes and spinner Dom Bess,leaving out Broad from the first Testwhich started at Ageas Bowl onWednesday.

B r o a d ,who isEngland’s sec-ond highestwicket-takerof all timewith 485scalps, lastmissed ahome Testeight years agowhen he wasrested againstWest Indies in 2012.

“I found out about 6pm the nightbefore the game. Stokesy told me justthat they’re going with extra pace inthese conditions,” Broad said on SkySports Player Zone.

“I’ve been frustrated, angry andgutted — because it’s quite a hard deci-sion to understand. I’ve probablybowled the best I’ve ever bowled in thelast couple of years. I felt like it was myshirt having been in the team throughthe Ashes and going to South Africaand winning there,” he added. PTI

IANS nWORCESTER

Former Pakistan tweaker andteam’s current spin bowling

coach Mushtaq Ahmed on Fridaystated that players have respond-ed well to the new regulations putforward by International CricketCouncil (ICC) in the wake ofcoronavirus pandemic.

The Pakistan cricket team iscurrently in England, acclimatis-ing themselves ahead of theirmuch-anticipated series whichincludes three Tests and as manyT20Is starting August.

The visitors are currentlyunder a 14-day quarantine peri-od, following which they willtravel to Derbyshire on July 13.

They had started their prepara-tions for the series with a two-dayinter-squad scenario-based prac-tice match played on July 5-6 atWorcester.

“Despite the Covid-19 relat-

ed challenges, the players havebeen exceptional so far,” Mushtaqtold pcb.com.pk. “We are trying tomake them familiar with the pro-tocols and they have respondedwonderfully well. Players are cop-

ing with the new regulations withregards to shining the ball as well.

“Historically, spinners haveused saliva to shine the ball nowthey are being taught new meth-ods in lieu of the revised ICC rulesand regulations.

“What makes me really happyis that the players and support staffare working together on teamgoals and objectives and I am surein due course the players will befully aware and ready for the newchallenges as we prepare for whatis expected to be a tough seriesagainst a strong English team intheir own backyard.

“I am confident we have theplayers that can not only competebut also win the series.”

Karachi (PTI): The PakistanCricket Board has managed torope in a sponsor for the nation-al team ahead of its England tourbut it had to settle for a far lessamount than what it envisaged.

According to a reliable source,PCB has decided to sign a one-year contract with Transmedia, acompany which has been buyingvarious sponsorship and mediarights for the last few years.

“Transmedia has offered 600million rupees for a three-yeardeal for the main logo on Pakistanteam’s jerseys and kits. The Boardafter facing disappointment onseveral fronts has now decided tosign a one-year deal for ̀ 200m ona pro-rata basis,” the source said.

Real-Juve, Barca-Bayernclashes in the offing

AFP n NYON

Manchester United couldfind themselves facing

English rivalsWolverhampton Wanderersin the semi-finals of theEuropa League in Germanyin August, after Friday’s drawfor the latter stages of thetournament put the teams ona collision course.

While the ChampionsLeague is to be completedwith a straight knockoutmini-tournament in Lisbon,the Europa League will beplayed to a conclusion withan identical format inGermany.

The Europa League finalwill be played in Cologne onAugust 21. The quarter-finalsand semi-finals will be playedas one-off ties with Cologne,Duisburg, Duesseldorf andGelsenkirchen all hostinggames.

Before that, all last-16ties must be completed. OleGunnar Solskjaer’s United,who have been in fine formsince the Premier Leagueseason resumed last month,are effectively already throughto the last eight having won5-0 away to Austrian sideLASK in the first leg.

Assuming they progress,the 2017 Europa League win-

ners will take on eitherIstanbul Basaksehir or FCCopenhagen in the quarter-finals on August 10 or 11. TheTurkish side beatCopenhagen 1-0 at home inthe first leg in March.

Meanwhile, Wolves drew1-1 away to Olympiakos inthe first leg of their last-16 tie.They are due to host therecently-crowned Greekchampions in the return andwould then need to beatSevilla — who have won theEuropa League and its pre-cursor, the UEFA Cup, arecord five times — or Romain the quarter-finals.

There are three Germanteams left in the EuropaLeague, including BayerLeverkusen. They won 3-1away to Rangers in the firstleg of their last-16 tie and willbe confident of advancing tothe last eight.

Leverkusen is barely 40kilometres from Cologne,where the final will be played.They would play either InterMilan or Getafe in the quar-ter-finals.

Only six of the eight last16 first-leg matches wereplayed in March. The othertwo ties — Inter vs Getafe andSevilla vs Roma — will bedecided as one-off matcheson neutral ground.

English, German clubs onopposite ends of UEL draw

Man Utd continues winning run after Bruno opens scoring from controversialpenalty decision; Kane denied again in goalless draw for Spurs

VAR dominates Premier League results

Liverpool: Liverpool captainJordan Henderson has beenruled out of the rest of thePremier League champions’campaign after the midfield-er sustained a knee injury intheir midweek win atBrighton, manager JuergenKlopp said on Friday.

Klopp was forced to with-draw Henderson 10 minutesfrom fulltime after a collisionwith Yves Bissouma but theGerman said the 30-year-olddoes not require surgery.

“It is the best possible ofthe bad news. He does not

need surgery,” Klopp said. “Hewill not play again this season.

I’m pretty positive he will bewith us for the new season, heis a quick healer.

“We all felt for him, awfulmoment. We knew immedi-ately. Hendo is an animal hefights for everything. He dealswell with pain but in thismoment, he knew somethinghad happened. It was a com-plete mood killer.

“The boys were happywith the result but then theboys realised Hendo was hurt.No surgery needed is the goodnews. He will lift the trophy, hedeserves to lift trophy.” AP

Henderson season is over: Klopp

“In the world, everybodyknows that is a penalty.And I say everybody, Imean everybody.”

— JOSE MMOURINHO(SPURS MMANAGER)

“Anybody who hasplayed the game knowswhat (Bruno) Fernandesis trying to do. He doesthe turn and he gets itwrong. He puts his studon Konsa’s shin. Itchanged the game.”— DEAN SSMITH ((ASTON

VILLA BBOSS)

“The performance of thereferee was like my team,not so good.”

— CARLO AANCELOTTI(EVERTON MMANAGER)

Slow andsteady Windiesbuild their leadAFP n SOUTHAMPTON

The West Indies are building a handy leadover England on the third afternoon of the

first #raisethebat Test, moving 5-31 in hand atthe Ageas Bowl. Responding to 204 all out theywere 5-235 at tea on Friday, with Roston Chaseand Shane Dowrich sitting on an unbrokenstand of 49. Spinner Dom Bess took two of thefour wickets to fall on the day, carrying morethan his share in the most batsman-friendly con-ditions of the match to date.

The West Indies began on 1-57, 147 shortof England’s mark, with Kraigg Brathwaite andShai Hope chipping another 42 off the deficitin the first hour of play.

Hope earned a reprieve just before thedrinks break, a Jofra Archer lbw chalked off afterthe paceman overstepped for a no-ball.

England were not made to pay for that error,with Hope aiming a big drive at Bess just a fewdeliveries later and sending a sharp slip catchin Stokes’ direction.

The arrival of Shamarh Brooks lifted therun-rate, with the new batsman helping him-self as Archer and Bess offered some loose fare.

Brathwaite was looking resolute at the otherend, converting his overnight 20 into the first-half century of the match from 113 balls.

It was also his first Test 50 since July 2018but his hopes of progressing towards three fig-ures ended when Stokes pushed him on the backfoot and rapped him high on the knee roll. Hewas given out for 65 by Richard Kettleboroughand when he called for the review the dismissalwas upheld on two counts of ‘umpire’s call’.

Broad ‘frustrated,angry, gutted' atbeing dropped

Red Bull dash Vettel's hopes of a return Verona snatch late 2-2 draw vs Inter

Spinners are being taught new methods to shine ball: Mushtaq PCB forced to sell logorights for lower price

New Delhi: ManchesterUnited playmaker BrunoFernandes on Friday wasrewarded for his fine run inthe English top-flight as hewas named the PremierLeague’s player of the monthfor the second time in a row.

Fernandes had earlierwon the prize for June aswell. In doing so Fernandesemulated compatriotCristiano Ronaldo, who hadachieved the same feat in2006 during his trophy-ladenstay at Old Trafford. PNS

BRUNO EMULATESRONALDO’S FEAT

Manchester United's Paul Pogba, centre, celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's third goal against Aston Villa AP

With their stadium devoid of fans due to coronavirusrestrictions, Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank

Hawks have come up with an imaginative replacement: dancingrobots. Before their most recent Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB) game against Rakuten Eagles on Tuesday, over 20 robotsdanced to the team's fight song on a podium in the otherwiseempty stand. Two different robots, including SoftBank'shumaniod robot 'Pepper' and others on four legs like a dog,stamped and shimmied in a choreographed dance that is usuallyperformed by theHawks' fansbefore games inthe 40,000capacity FukuokaDome. Some ofthe robots woreHawks caps andwaved flagssupporting theteam. Severalpeople also tookto social mediasites to share the videos of these unusual supporters of theteam. Here's one such clip posted on Twitter. Since being shared,the post has gathered over 63,000 views - and the numbers areonly increasing. From being horrified to impressed, peopleshared various comments to express themselves.

‘Screaming banned’ on roller coasters!

Notre Dame spire willbe restored ‘as it was’The spire of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was

destroyed in a fire last April, will be restored according to theoriginal Gothic design, the Elysee Palace announced on Friday. Ina statement, the Palace said that French President EmmanuelMacron announced the decision, putting an end to speculationthat the spire would be rebuilt in a modern style, the BBCreported. Macron had previously hinted he was in favour of a"contemporary gesture". But the Elysee said that the process ofdesigning a modern spire, with an international competition forarchitects, couldhave causedunnecessarydelays. "ThePresident truststhe experts andapproved the mainoutlines of theproject presentedby the chiefarchitect whichplans toreconstruct the spire identically," it added in the statement. Theannouncement followed a meeting of France's national heritageand architecture commission (CNPA). When the 13th century roofof the Paris cathedral caught fire during restoration works in April2019, it sparked a vast outpouring of emotion, as well asdonations from across the world.

Many people might find it tricky keeping quiet through anentire roller coaster ride, but one Japanese theme park

wants you to do that - and more. Fuji-Q Highland near Tokyore-opened last month after its virus shutdown. It asked ridersto avoid screaming when they go on its rollercoasters, tominimise spreading droplets, and instead "scream inside yourheart". And to encourage people to play along, it's gettingriders to put on their most "serious face" for the ride photo.They can share their photo online in the #KeepASeriousFacechallenge, andthose who dobest will be givenfree day passes.But it's all part ofmeasures beingtaken by themeparks to givecustomers theconfidence to return after the shutdowns, and assure themtheir safety is being taken seriously. In response tosuggestions that it was impossible not to scream on arollercoaster, the park previously released a video of twoexecutives riding in silence, to show it can be done. In thesurreal video, both executives are seen formally clad and inmasks - one of them is even wearing a full suit and tie. Heslowly adjusts his hair after the roller coaster plunges downand looks almost bored by entire exercise.

15th Century Chineseencyclopedia sells for $9M

Dancing robots replace fansNEW

S

MostRead Apair of volumes from a 15th century Chinese encyclopedia sold

for more than 1,000 times their estimated price when theyfetched a high bid of more than $9 million. Paris-based auctionhouse Beaussant Lefevre said the volumes from the YongleDadian, the encyclopedia commissioned by Yongle Emperor, thethird ruler of the Ming Dynasty, sold for more than $9 million in aTuesday auction. The volumes had been expected to sell for up to$9,000, the auction house said. The Yongle Dadian was compiledby more than 2,000 scholars working from 1404 and 1408, andthe original wascomposed of 22,877chapters, making itthe largestencyclopedia knownto history. Theauction house saidthe two volumesauctioned Tuesdaywere copiescommissioned by theJiajing Emperor in1562. Only 400 volumes from the encyclopedia are known to stillexist -- about 4 percent of the original encyclopedia -- and 24 ofthem are housed at the British Library. Beaussant Lefevre said oneof the volumes sold in Tuesday's auction was about the lakes ofChina and the other holds descriptions of funeral rites.

12

Vijayawada Saturday July 11 2020tollywood

an-India starPrabhas’ next withJil fame RadhaKrishna Kumar hasbeen titled RadheShyam. On Friday,

the title was unveiled with afairy-tale-like first look wher-ein the lead pair of Prabhasand Pooja Hegde is seen in anembrace as a sea storm formsaround them in a fiery land-scape. The love-up dance poseagainst a dramatic backdropof Italy’s landmark historicalmonuments like the Coloss-eum and the Roman Forumsent Prabhas’ fans into tizzy.Within minutes of the bigreveal, the hashtag #Prabhas-20FirstLook took a top spot onTwitter trends nation-wide.

“This is for you, my fans!Hope you like it,” Prabhaswrote in an Instagram postwhile Pooja Hegde labeledRadhe Shyam as “Our beauti-ful film has a beautiful name...here’s our much awaited firstlook.”

In a press release, the mak-ers revealed that 70 per cent ofthe shoot has already beenwrapped up and the newschedule will kick-start oncethe COVID-19 crisis ends.

A romantic drama set in

Europe, the film, set to releasenext year, is being shot inTelugu and Hindi simultane-ously, while it will be dubbedinto Tamil and Malayalam.The film will also mark veter-an actor and Prabhas’ uncleUV Krishnam Raju’s daughterPraseeda making her debut asa producer. She is jointly pro-ducing it along with UVCreations Vamsi and Pramod.She is representing her dad’sbanner Gopi Krishna Movies,the production house of whichis presenting the film.

Besides the alreadyannounced names ofBhagyashree, Priyadarshi,Sachin Khedekar, MurliSharma, Kunal Roy Kapur,Sathyan (Tamil) and SashaChettri, the fresh nameswhich made it to the support-ing category list includesBeena Benarji and RiddhiKumar. The music director’sname though hasn't beenannounced. Meanwhile,Prabhas, Anushka Shetty andRana Dagubbati took a tripdown memory lane to cele-brate the five year anniversaryof S S Rajamouli’s Baahubali,which changed the landscapeof Indian cinema with its suc-cess.

RADHESHYAM

IT IS!

P

According to a source close to theproduction house,

the project would'vegone in front of the

cameras by now ifnot for COVID- 19

outbreak, findsNAGARAJ GOUD

he director-actorduo of MohanaKrishnaIndraganti andNaga Chaitanyais set to team-up

— more than three yearsafter they first thought ofjoining forces. Pooling inresources for the projectare Sahu Garapati andHarish Peddi under theirShine Screens. Accordingto a source close to the pro-

duction house, the projectwould’ve gone in front ofthe cameras by now if notfor COVID- 19 outbreak.

The source chips in,“Indraganti committed todo a film for Shine Screenslong back. He proposed thename of Naga Chaitanya forthe project. With the pro-duction house alreadyenjoying a great relationshipwith the actor, having pro-duced his super hit Majili

last year, the project was setin motion immediately. Thefact that Chay is also anadmirer of Indraganti'sbody of work was anotherreason. The untitled filmwill be a mature love storywhich traces the journey ofcouple post marriage. LikeIndraganti’s earlier films, itwill be set in a believablespace.”

The source further adds,“The initial idea was to

begin this film straightafter Indraganti complet-ed V and Chay wrappedup Love Story but dueto coronavirus, the planhad to be aborted. As ofnow, it’s kept on hold. Itwill happen in the futurethough. Yes, Chay iscommitted to do a filmwith Vikram Kumar upnext, but he’d also be hon-ouring his word to ShineScreens.”

T

Shine Screens to bringtogether the combination of

CHAY-INDRAGANTI

Aadi Saikumar signs aninvestigative crime-thriller

adi Saikumar,who is reelingunder continu-ous flops, hassigned a pan-India movie,

which will be followed upby sequels. To launchdebutant S Balaveer as adirector, the film is aninvestigative crime thriller

incorporated with fantasyelements. SVR is produc-ing the film, which will behigh on VFX. Aadi willplay a role which has acomic touch it. Havinginvested close to two yearson the pre-production, themakers are planning toroll with Chapter One ofthe series pretty soon.

Aadi’s next release willmostly be Sashi, a lovestory wherein he is playinga role with multipleshades. Srinivas Naidumakes his directorialdebut with the flick.Sometime back, he alsogreen-signalled debutantSai Raj’s new-age romanticcomedy.

A

havya Creations chiefV Ananda Prasad onFriday announced thetitle of his next withAnand Deverakondaand Varsha Bollama as

Middle Class Melodies. He alsoindicated the film, which marksthe directorial debut of VinodAnantoju, is wrapped up and thefirst copy is ready.

He said, “Middle ClassMelodies is our effort to associatewith content-rich cinema. Thestory unfolds in Guntur back-

drop, which is why it has beenshot over there, in surroundingareas and in Kolakaluru. Thecharacters speak the localdialect. We initially consideredreleasing it during the summerbut due to the pandemic, we hadto change our plans.”

The film is a romantic comedy-drama with a lot of fam-ily emotions woven into thescript. It centres on Anand’s aimin life and how his dreams arepegged back due to familial andlove reasons. Vinod promised

that the audiences will be able to identify with the characters he wrote. “Anand’s role will be in complete contrast to whathe essayed in Dorasani,” henoted.

Featuring ChaitanyaGarikapati, Divya Sripada,Goparaju Ramana, SurabhiPrabhavathi, Prem Sagar andPrabhavathi Varma in support-ing roles, the film, written byJanardhan Pasumarthi, is aSweekar Agasthi (C/OKancharapalem fame) musical.

Anand croons Middle Class Melodies

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he filming of Oye!helmer AnandRanga’s secondproject — a webseries — has com-menced in

Hyderabad. Speaking to us,the soft-spoken director saidthe show, Exchange of Fire,will be a nail-biting copdrama. “As of now I can con-firm that Prakash Raj andSampath Raj will be seen inpivotal roles, with the formerplaying a cop. The series willcontain eight episodes, witheach episode running into 45minutes. The idea is to wrapit up by October-end. Theshooting is progressing inadherence with the guide-lines issued by the Telanganagovernment,” he said.

The project marks megas-tar Chiranjeevi’s daughter

Sushmita’s maiden tryst withproduction under Gold BoxEntertainment. On how ittook shape with Sushmita,Ranga noted, “I’ve been try-ing to do this show since last

year. She was looking tomake something on the web,so it just happened that Ipitched her script. Thingsbegan to materialise soon.”

— NG

Prakash Raj andSampath headlineExchange of FireT