˝#ˆ$˝˚!%ˆ&ˇˆ#&’˝(&$˜˙ˆ)˜(€¦ · Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and...

12
Full Story on page 05 Retired officers are ruling the roost in the Telangana Government. As many as 54 retired officers have been in key and top positions in the state government for years after their retirement, denying promotions to their deserving in-service juniors. Of these officers, 11 are retired IAS officers and three retired IPS officers, while one is retired IFS officer. This apart, several HoDs (heads of departments) contin- ue to cling on to their posts for years even after retirement. Retired officials are calling the shots at all levels in the gov- ernment -- right from HoD level in various government departments to Chief Minister's Office and even the Legislature.This has resulted in severe resentment among in- service officers who say that blue-eyed babus of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao are forcing them to retire with- out getting promotions by occupying top positions even after their retirement. As many as 31 retired HoDs in various departments contin- ue to hold on to their posts by securing extensions after retire- ment, with some of them man- aging multiple extensions. Retired IAS and the first Chief Secretary of Telangana State, Rajiv Sharma is serving as Chief Advisor of Telangana since his retirement as CS in November 2016. In the CMO, retired IAS officer S Narsing Rao is serv- ing as principal secretary since the formation of Telangana State in 2014.Retired IFS offi- cer K Bhoopal Reddy is serv- ing as the Secretary, CMO since 2014, while N Siva Sankar has been serving as senior consultant in the Finance Department long after he retired in the same department as secretary. Retired IAS offi- cers KV Ramanachari, AK Goel, AR Ramalaxman and BV Paparao are serving as govern- ment advisors since the forma- tion of Telangana State in 2014. Retired IES officer (Indian Economic Officer) GR Reddy is also serving as government advisor. Facebook post leads to firing in Bengaluru, 3 killed At least three people were killed after police opened fire to quell a mob that went on a rampage, irked over a social media post allegedly put out by a Congress legislator's rela- tive, as a city locality wit- nessed arson andviolence. "Three people have died (in police firing)," Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant told PTI. Further, 110 people have been arrested in connection with the incident at Pulakeshi Nagar here. Scores of persons, including around 50 police- men, were injured in the vio- lence that erupted on Tuesday night and continued till the wee hours of Wednesday, apparent- ly prompted by the 'communal- ly sensitive' online post. The Congress MLA's resi- dence and a police station were among those targeted by the angry mob, prompting the gov- ernment to issue a stern warning that rioting and law and order issues will not be tolerated. Telangana Industries Minister K. T. Rama Rao on Wednesday said that social media cannot turn into an instrument for antisocial behaviour. The minister took to Twitter to share his thoughts after violence over a social media post rocked parts of Bengaluru overnight. "Goes to show you how danger- ous spreading fake news in social media can be," tweeted Rama Rao, who is the son of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. Rama Rao, who is also the president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), requested all social media users to be responsible. He urged them not to indulge in propaganda and stop spreading fake news. A Facebook mes- sage posted alleged- ly by a relative of a Congress MLA triggered vio- lent protests in Bengaluru on Tuesday night. KTR urges social media users to be responsible NSUI activists try to storm Pragati Bhavan, held Scores of National Students Union of India (NSUI) activists were rounded up on Wednesday after they made a vain bid to storm Pragati Bhavan to regis- ter their protest against the state government's announce- ment of the schedule for com- mon examinations. The NSUI activists wore PPE kits, but alert police personnel on security duty at the CM’s official residence took them into custody. Shocking details are emerging in the cyberfraud case involv- ing 22-year-old Chaitanya who was picked up in Anantapur on August 4 on a complaint from Tollywood singer Sunitha, after he had claimed to be her nephew and collect- ed money from several people on promise of getting them a ''chance" to act in movies. Subsequent investigations revealed that the accused had impersonated the singer, cre- ated fake social media accounts, and cheated a woman fan of the singer to the tune of Rs 1.7 crore. Chaitanya created fake facebook accounts to execute malicious activities by referring to himself as the singer's manager/co-singer. In February, the accused had organised an event in the name of the singer at Sanapa Village near Anantapur. Besides, he claimed to have carried out several social wel- fare activities, concerts in her name to increase viewership for his pages on social media and to trap her admirers. According to sources, sev- eral others similarly cheated by him have started lodging com- plaints against Chaitanya. While going into these com- plaints, the police have appealed to all those who have been cheated or other- wise victimised to provide details. The woman fan of the singer has lodged a complaint with the Rachakonda Cyber Crime Police, stating that Chaitanya had cheated her to the tune of Rs 1.70 crore. Sunitha's fan cheated of Rs 1.7 cr; accused trapped many Electronic sliding doors, win- dows with double-glazed safe- ty glass, Braille signages, emer- gency talk-back mechanism, passenger surveillance system, and information and destina- tion boards. These are some of the spec- ifications the Railways has demanded from private oper- ators in trains that they will be running on the Railways net- work. A draft specification for private trains, shared by the Railways on Wednesday, also says these trains would provide noise-free travel to passengers and be capable of running at a speed of 160 km/hr. The train shall be designed so that they can operate safely at a maximum speed of 180 kmph during testing. Train shall be capable of accelerating to a speed of 160 kmph from 0 kmph in a maximum of 140 sec- onds on level track, says the draft. These trains will be fitted with an emergency brake which can bring them to a standstill in less than 1,250 m when travelling at 160 kmph, it says. It also says that the trains should be designed for a life of 35 years. Each coach shall have min- imum four electrically/pneu- matically powered, plug type doors, two on each side, it says. The door mechanism shall have safety provision whereby the train shall not start unless all doors have been closed and electrically locked. Sliding doors, coach surveillance, alarms in pvt trains Personal protective equipment (PPE) have now become a cashcow for corporate hospi- tals that routinely fleece Covid- 19 patients. These hospitals have been extorting huge amounts towards PPE as part of the bills, which are rarely itemised. There are complaints that in several cases patients have being charged nearly Rs 50,000 towards PPE for just five days in hospital. In many cases, patients are being charged for as many times as the nurses visit them each day. That is not all. The same costs are included in the bills of all the patients admit- ted in the ward at the time. Reveals Saipraneeth Reddy, whose father (a COVID patient) died a few days back, "If there are two nurses and they come to see the patients in a particular ward three times, then each patient in the ward (five beds) will be charged for three PPE kits for both the nurses. When my father was in the hospital, they charged Rs 920 for ward. So, the hospital would have earned Rs 9,200 per day from one ward. And this is just for the nurses. People in the city are heaving a sigh of relief with the GHMC area registering 479 fresh cases on Wednesday, even as Medchal and Ranga Reddy reported 172 and 162 cases respectively. That is, while the cases in GHMC limits are on the decline, those on the outskirts continue to cause concern. In March, 74 cases were reported, of which six proved fatal. In April, 527 cases were reported, resulting in the death of over 50. PPEs minting money for private hospitals The number of unemployed in Telangana State has almost doubled since January. The rate of unemployment has climbed to 9.1 from 5.3 in January, according to a survey of the Indian economy conducted by the CMIE. The unemploy- ment rate at the national level is 7.4. The CMIE sample sur- vey involved 1,74,405 families, with its personnel reaching the families through mobile phones during the past four months in the state.

Transcript of ˝#ˆ$˝˚!%ˆ&ˇˆ#&’˝(&$˜˙ˆ)˜(€¦ · Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and...

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Retired officers are ruling theroost in the TelanganaGovernment. As many as 54retired officers have been inkey and top positions in thestate government for yearsafter their retirement, denyingpromotions to their deservingin-service juniors.

Of these officers, 11 areretired IAS officers and threeretired IPS officers, while oneis retired IFS officer.

This apart, several HoDs(heads of departments) contin-ue to cling on to their posts foryears even after retirement.

Retired officials are callingthe shots at all levels in the gov-ernment -- right from HoDlevel in various governmentdepartments to ChiefMinister's Office and even theLegislature.This has resulted insevere resentment among in-service officers who say that

blue-eyed babus of ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raoare forcing them to retire with-out getting promotions byoccupying top positions evenafter their retirement.

As many as 31 retired HoDsin various departments contin-ue to hold on to their posts bysecuring extensions after retire-ment, with some of them man-aging multiple extensions.

Retired IAS and the firstChief Secretary of TelanganaState, Rajiv Sharma is servingas Chief Advisor of Telanganasince his retirement as CS inNovember 2016.

In the CMO, retired IASofficer S Narsing Rao is serv-ing as principal secretary sincethe formation of TelanganaState in 2014.Retired IFS offi-cer K Bhoopal Reddy is serv-ing as the Secretary, CMOsince 2014, while N Siva Sankarhas been serving as seniorconsultant in the FinanceDepartment long after heretired in the same departmentas secretary. Retired IAS offi-cers KV Ramanachari, AKGoel, AR Ramalaxman and BVPaparao are serving as govern-ment advisors since the forma-tion of Telangana State in 2014.

Retired IES officer (IndianEconomic Officer) GR Reddyis also serving as governmentadvisor.

Facebook post leads tofiring in Bengaluru, 3 killed �( � 8�<��23�3

At least three people werekilled after police opened fireto quell a mob that went on arampage, irked over a socialmedia post allegedly put out bya Congress legislator's rela-tive, as a city locality wit-nessed arson andviolence.

"Three people have died (inpolice firing)," Bengaluru PoliceCommissioner Kamal Pant toldPTI. Further, 110 people havebeen arrested in connectionwith the incident at PulakeshiNagar here. Scores of persons,including around 50 police-men, were injured in the vio-lence that erupted on Tuesdaynight and continued till the weehours of Wednesday, apparent-ly prompted by the 'communal-ly sensitive' online post.

The Congress MLA's resi-dence and a police station wereamong those targeted by theangry mob, prompting the gov-ernment to issue a stern warningthat rioting and law and orderissues will not be tolerated. ���������� ������ ���� � ������ ���������������������� �������������

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Telangana Industries MinisterK. T. Rama Rao on Wednesdaysaid that social media cannotturn into an instrument forantisocial behaviour.

The minister took toTwitter to share histhoughts after violenceover a social media postrocked parts of Bengaluruovernight.

"Goes to showyou how danger-ous spreadingfake news insocial media canbe," tweetedRama Rao, whois the son of

Chief Minister K.Chandrashekhar Rao.

Rama Rao, who is also thepresident of the TelanganaRashtra Samithi (TRS),requested all social mediausers to be responsible. He

urged them not to indulgein propaganda andstop spreading fakenews.

A Facebook mes-sage posted alleged-

ly by a relative of aCongress MLAtriggered vio-lent protests inBengaluru onT u e s d a ynight.

KTR urges social mediausers to be responsible

NSUI activists try to stormPragati Bhavan, held�( � :B����8��

Scores of National StudentsUnion of India (NSUI) activistswere rounded up on Wednesdayafter they made a vain bid tostorm Pragati Bhavan to regis-ter their protest against thestate government's announce-ment of the schedule for com-mon examinations.

The NSUI activists wore PPEkits, but alert police personnel onsecurity duty at the CM’s officialresidence took them into custody.

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Shocking details are emergingin the cyberfraud case involv-ing 22-year-old Chaitanya whowas picked up in Anantapuron August 4 on a complaintfrom Tollywood singerSunitha, after he had claimedto be her nephew and collect-ed money from several peopleon promise of getting them a''chance" to act in movies.

Subsequent investigationsrevealed that the accused hadimpersonated the singer, cre-ated fake social mediaaccounts, and cheated awoman fan of the singer to thetune of Rs 1.7 crore. Chaitanyacreated fake facebook accountsto execute malicious activitiesby referring to himself as thesinger's manager/co-singer.

In February, the accusedhad organised an event in thename of the singer at SanapaVillage near Anantapur.Besides, he claimed to havecarried out several social wel-fare activities, concerts in hername to increase viewershipfor his pages on social media

and to trap her admirers. According to sources, sev-

eral others similarly cheated byhim have started lodging com-plaints against Chaitanya.While going into these com-plaints, the police haveappealed to all those whohave been cheated or other-wise victimised to providedetails.

The woman fan of thesinger has lodged a complaintwith the Rachakonda CyberCrime Police, stating thatChaitanya had cheated her tothe tune of Rs 1.70 crore.

Sunitha's fan cheated of Rs 1.7 cr; accusedtrapped many

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Electronic sliding doors, win-dows with double-glazed safe-ty glass, Braille signages, emer-gency talk-back mechanism,passenger surveillance system,and information and destina-tion boards.

These are some of the spec-ifications the Railways hasdemanded from private oper-ators in trains that they will berunning on the Railways net-work. A draft specification for

private trains, shared by theRailways on Wednesday, alsosays these trains would provide

noise-free travel to passengersand be capable of running at aspeed of 160 km/hr.

The train shall be designed sothat they can operate safely at amaximum speed of 180 kmphduring testing. Train shall becapable of accelerating to aspeed of 160 kmph from 0kmph in a maximum of 140 sec-onds on level track, says the draft.

These trains will be fitted withan emergency brake which canbring them to a standstill in lessthan 1,250 m when travelling at160 kmph, it says.

It also says that the trainsshould be designed for a life of35 years.

Each coach shall have min-imum four electrically/pneu-matically powered, plug typedoors, two on each side, it says.

The door mechanism shallhave safety provision wherebythe train shall not start unlessall doors have been closed andelectrically locked.

Sliding doors, coach surveillance, alarms in pvt trains

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Personal protective equipment(PPE) have now become acashcow for corporate hospi-tals that routinely fleece Covid-19 patients.

These hospitals have beenextorting huge amountstowards PPE as part of the bills,which are rarely itemised.There are complaints that inseveral cases patients havebeing charged nearly Rs 50,000towards PPE for just five daysin hospital.

In many cases, patients arebeing charged for as manytimes as the nurses visit themeach day. That is not all. Thesame costs are included in thebills of all the patients admit-

ted in the ward at the time.Reveals Saipraneeth Reddy,

whose father (a COVIDpatient) died a few days back,"If there are two nurses andthey come to see the patientsin a particular ward threetimes, then each patient in theward (five beds) will be

charged for three PPE kits forboth the nurses. When myfather was in the hospital, theycharged Rs 920 for ward. So,the hospital would have earnedRs 9,200 per day from oneward. And this is just for thenurses.

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People in the city are heavinga sigh of relief with theGHMC area registering 479fresh cases on Wednesday,even as Medchal and RangaReddy reported 172 and 162cases respectively.

That is, while the cases inGHMC limits are on thedecline, those on the outskirtscontinue to cause concern.

In March, 74 cases werereported, of which six provedfatal. In April, 527 cases were

reported, resulting in thedeath of over 50.

PPEs minting money for private hospitals������������������ ��� ���������������

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The number of unemployed inTelangana State has almostdoubled since January. The rateof unemployment has climbedto 9.1 from 5.3 in January,according to a survey of theIndian economy conducted bythe CMIE. The unemploy-ment rate at the national levelis 7.4. The CMIE sample sur-vey involved 1,74,405 families,with its personnel reachingthe families through mobilephones during the past fourmonths in the state.

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

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The River Godavari is in spateon account of heavy rains lash-ing the area and the flow of theriver picked up momentum atthe bathing ghat inRamannagudem in the districtfor the past two days. SinceMonday morning, the floodlevel to the river is on the risegradually and the flood level inthe river at intake well inKamalapuram in Mangapetamandal of the district isincreasing since Wednesdaymorning. The Water ResourcesDepartment officials predictthat the flood level in the riveris going to increase further.

The Bogota water falls,streams and other minor chan-nels are emptying themselvesinto the River Godavariincreasing its flood level. Thisis attributed to heavy rainslashing the upper reaches of the

river for the past two days caus-ing significant rise in waterlevel in Kaleswaram reservoirand barrage nearTupakulagudem.

The officials alerted the peo-ple living in low-lying areas.The water level at Mangapetapushkar ghat has also

increased. As a result, peopleand farmers living in coastalarea of the river have been tak-ing precautions.

The Pedda Cheruvu locatedbetween Timmampet andAbbayigudem village is over-flowing the sluices to the delightof the tank ayacut farmers. The

tank irrigates at least 500 acresof ayacut lands in Timmampet,Cherupalli, Malluru andKottamalluru villages and pro-vides irrigation facility for atleast two crops. On account ofheavy inflows into RiverGodavari due to rains in upperreaches of the river, the flood

level in the river has increasedand crossed 9.05 metre mark,the CWC officials said.

The Laknavaram Lake inGovindraopet mandal is readyto overflow the sluices. Thewater level in the lake reached33 feet mark. If the water levelwere to increase by another halffeet, the water will overflow thesluices. The lake continued toreceive floods from upperreaches. The paddy transplan-tation has been through in theayacut lands of LaknavaramLake. Farmers are jubilant at theprospects of reaping bumperharvest since the lake is fullwith water up to the brim.

Meanwhile, Moranchavagu,Jeedivagu and other streams inJayashankar-Bhupalpally andMulugu districts are in fullflow. The Jampannavagu nearSammakka Saralamma templeat Medaram is also in fullswing.

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Water for irrigation would beprovided to the last the acreunder Nagarjuna Sagar Project(NSP) in this Vaanakalam sea-son, Transport Minister P AjayKumar said on Wednesday.The Minister, along with PalairMLA K Upender Reddy, WyraMLA L Ramulu Naik andSathupalli MLA SandraVenkata Veeraiah, releasedwater from Palair reservoirfor crops under Sagar ayacut,at Palair in the district.

Speaking after releasing thewater, Ajay Kumar said that asthe present water storage inNagarjuna Sagar reservoir hadtouched 225 tmc, ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao was requested to allowrelease of water for crops inSagar ayacut. Following theChief Minister's consent, about24.61 tmc water was plannedto be released on Warabandibasis (Rotational method forequitable distribution of avail-able water) in seven phases tothe crops.

The water would be suppliedfrom Wednesday to September3 continuously and again for

nine days from September 10onwards. Water would be sup-plied to the last acre in the aya-cut and farmers need notworry about water availability,he noted.

It would take two days forthe water to reach the crops inthe tail-end area in Sathupalliand officials need to monitorthe water supply, Ajay Kumarsaid while directing the offi-cials concerned to ensureenough supply of fertilisers as

the farmers have started agri-culture activities in the district.

Zilla Parishad Chairman LKamalraj, Rythu BandhuSamithi district coordinator NVenkateswar Rao, NSPSuperintendent EngineerSumathi Devi, RWSSuperintendent Engineer KSrinivasa Rao, IrrigationDepartment ExecutiveEngineer Narsimha Rao andJoint Director AgricultureVijaya Nirmala were present.

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In one of the highest dailyjumps in Coronavirus infec-tions, Telangana reported 1,897new cases that increased itstotal tally to 84,544 while ninemore fatalities during the last24 hours took its death toll to654, officials said onWednesday. A spike in thenumber of new cases inGreater Hyderabad and sur-rounding districts led to thejump in daily count while thevirus spread slowed down inother districts.

The state capital saw 479 newcases during the last 24 hoursending 8 pm on Tuesday. It hadreported 338 of the 1,896 newcases the previous day. MedchalMalkajgiri and Rangareddybordering Greater Hyderabadreported 172 and 162 casesrespectively. Sangareddy, anoth-er district which shares borderswith the state capital, reported107 new infections.

Thus, Hyderabad and sur-rounding districts togetheraccounted for nearly 50 per

cent of the new positive cases.After a sudden spike in newinfections a day earlier, sever-al districts reported a slow-down. Karimnagar, forinstance, saw 64 new cases asagainst 121 a day earlier. Thenumbers came down from95 to 87 in Warangal Urban,85 to 38 in Jogulamba Gadwal,71 to 48 in Kamareddy and 60to 44 in BhadradriKothagudem.

According to the media bul-letin released by the Director ofPublic Health and Family

Welfare, the new cases werereported from all 33 districts.The corona fatality rate in thestate stands at 0.77 per cent asagainst the national average of1.99 per cent. Officials said53.87 per cent of the deceasedhad comorbidities. A total of 39testing laboratories and 323rapid antigen testing centresconducted a record 22,972 testsas against the state's target of5,600. The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) bench-mark is 140 tests per million perday. �( � <���B�<B�'

Accompanied by DistrictCollector Harichandana andMaktal MLA Ram MohanReddy, SC and STCommission ChairmanYerrolla Srinivas onWednesday visited Dhanwadamandal to gain first handknowledge of conditions ofJoginis there.

Condemning the heinouspractice, Srinivas felt that itwas said that the despicablesystem is still continuing evenin the current Internet age.The state governments havebeen passing laws prohibitingthe practice, yet there is no letup in the problem. The Joginsin this region are as young as20 years, he said expressingconcern over the continuing of

the practice. He asked district Collector

to take disciplinary actionagainst sarpanches if any girlwere to be converted intojogini. Under any circum-stances, lands allotted toJoginis should be given posses-sion to them. He asked her toprovide them livelihood club-bing all Jogins into a group.Extending pension to Joginis,educational benefits to themshould be done uncondition-ally, he felt.

If Joginis were to be treatedas untouchables, cases wouldbe registered against such per-sons under the SC and STAtrocities (Prohibition) Act.He congratulated those w howork for the eradication of thesystem and for improvingtheir living conditions.

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The efficacy and safety levelsof the vaccine developed byRussia for treating COVID-19patients is not predictable inthe absence of data, a topofficial of theCSIR-Centre forCellular and MolecularBiology said on Wednesday.

His remarks come in thebackdrop of Russian PresidentVladimir Putins announce-ment that his country hasdeveloped the worlds first vac-cine against coronavirus.

Director of CCMB, RakeshK Mishra said if people are

"lucky" then the Russian vac-cine will work.

"Both efficacy and safety of

the vaccine are still unknown.They havent conducted prop-er trials, which is stage-III tri-als. That is when you get toknow the efficacy, when it istested on a large number ofpeople and should wait for twomonths to see whether they geta viral infection or not.

Doesnt look like they havecarried out (large scale test-ings) because if you have doneit, then show us the data. Youcannot keep it confidential,"Mishra told PTI.

He noted that the vaccineought to be carefully evaluat-ed before it goes to people and

any country or company notreleasing the data with respectto vaccine was bad.

"It (Russian vaccine) is notsafe.. normally in any countrythis should not be allowedunless the vaccine goes tostage 1, 2 and 3 trials.

I think the Russian govern-ment passed a law recently, acouple of months back, thatthey have to fast track the vac-cine preparation," the CCMBofficial said.

CCMB is Indias premierresearch organisation centre.

Asked about the progress ofvaccines being developed by

Indian pharmaceutical compa-nies, Mishra said the data per-taining to Stage-I and II are yetto be published and it isexpected that they may comeby the end of August or firsthalf of September.

"I will not be surprised if thisfirst stage and second stageresults are encouraging,because many vaccines havepassed it. The real test is instage-III," he pointed out.

Putin has claimed that thevaccine has proven efficientduring tests, offering a lastingimmunity from the coron-avirus.

4!�@�� ������5� �����<���������+���5���:::Continued from Page 1

Pant said Naveen, who alleged-ly posted the social mediapost has been arrested andappealed for peace.

Chief Minister B SYediyurappa said the "attack onthe residence of MLAAkhanda Srinivasa Murthyand the DJ Halli police stationand riot are condemnable."

"Already given directionsto initiate stringent actionagainst the criminals (and)the government has initiatedall the measures to contain vio-lence," he said.

The attack on police, mediapersons and common citizens

was unpardonable. The gov-ernment will not tolerate suchinstigation and mischief, headded. On Tuesday night,irked by the social media post,hundreds of people went on arampage and set DJ Hallipolice station on fire. Theytorched many police and pri-vate vehicles, smashed thebelongings of MLA Murthyand those of his sister. AnATM was smashed into pieces.

To disperse the mob, policeresorted to lathi charge, lobbedtear gas shells and later openedfire, killing three people.

One of the victims has beenidentified as Yasin Pasha.

The victim's father Afzal

told reporters that his son was'innocent.' "My son operated ameat shop in the area and hadgone for dinner when thepolice opened fire and he died.He is innocent and was notinvolved in any arson," hesaid. He claimed that someoutsiders, who came in hordesand damaged property, wereresponsible for the violence.Meanwhile, curfew has beenimposed in the affected areasin and around DJ Halli and KGHalli. Legislator Murthyappealed against violence.

Shivaji Nagar CongressMLA Rizwan Arshad tooappealed to the people tomaintain peace and harmony.

Continued from Page 1

They also charge for the PPEof doctors, including dieti-cian and physiologist, whonever visited my father. Thecharges for a single PPE is Rs1,850 for ICU - why the dif-ference, I fail to understand."

Confirming the same,Jagan Goud, president ofTelangana Private HospitalPublic Problem SolutionAssociation, says, "Many hos-pitals have been chargingvery high for the PPE kits. Insome cases, they don't evendisclose the break-up. A sin-gle PPE kit can be used for awhole day by the staff, andthat is the standard practice.’

PPEs minting money for...�������������������;;;�Continued from Page 1

' � �������������(���� ���� � ��� ����# ���$�� ���� �� ������ �" �������������� ���$����#�� �������� G������������&��: (��� �����#�� ����������������$� #����������"�� ������������(������ �#� ( ��� ������$����������������� ������ ��� ���#����������' ����� "���� �� �����5>DH������ ' �����������������7��#�� � �����;�� ���������" ����� �����������I�� ������������1)--)&�7��#�� ����������"������"�� ���$�������$���%�� ���� �

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�6%���������!�5"� ����������:::Continued from Page 1

Three people lost theirlives in the riots and policefiring, and 60 police person-nel were injured in the violentincidents of stone peltingand attacks by rioters.

#��A�!����������)��������":::Continued from Page 1

\The NSUI activists, led bytheir president Balmuri Venkat,challenged the release of theexamination schedule anddemanded postponement of allcommon entrance tests.

Later, addressing a gathering,Balmuri Venkat said that coro-na cases were rising with eachpassing day.

Yet, the state governmentwas not paying attention to theconduct of tests and was notbothered about the lives of stu-dents. Although a petitionchallenging the commonexaminations was pendingbefore the High Court, the stategovernment had adamantlyannounced the examination

schedule.This is not the first time that

protests have been held atPragati Bhavan by disgruntledpolitical activists.

On July 8, the policedetained youth for standingoutside Pragati Bhavan with aplacard asking "where is KCR".

It was the time when ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raowas operating from his farm-house briefly after some CMOstaffers had tested Covid-19positive.

The youth, said to be aworker of the Youth Congress,suddenly appeared at the gateof 'Pragati Bhavan' holding aplacard, which read "Where isKCR. He is my CM. It's myright to know."

�5� ���� �����!�!��������55�!�:::Continued from Page 1

Provision shall be made forpassengers to open doors topermit evacuation from astopped train in an emer-gency, the draft says.

There shall be an internaland external manual releasemechanism on one door perside in each coach. All win-dows shall be provided withdouble-glazed safety glass, itsays.

Stressing the need for haz-ard-free environment forusers, the draft also says thatadequate handholds shall beprovided throughout the car.

����������������Continued from Page 1

In May, the cases multipled to1,015 and the deathsincreased to over 100.Following relaxation in lock-down norms and winding upof containment zones, peoplemoved as they liked in the city,leading to June reporting11,080 cases. The deathscrossed 200 mark. In July,there was a spike in the cases,the total number of casescrossed 26,082 mark. The deathtoll was put at 500. In August,in the first 10 days, over 4,502cases were reported. After July,the state government hasincreased the number of rapidantigen tests to 20,000 a day.

������?��<�!���� ��<�:::Continued from Page 1

It all began when the accusedgave her a number, claimingit belonged to the singer.After chatting with the per-son she believed was her idolSunitha, the woman trans-fered Rs 50,000 sought in thename of a trust named“Anandha cherlayam, Kerala”.

"The accused fraudsterminted money from the vic-tim stating various reasonslike personal, financial prob-lems, father's health, mother'sproblem, her son's highereducation purpose andincome tax in different trans-actions at different timessince 2019 Feb to till Julymonth 2020, cheated aroundRs1.7 crores approximately,"said police.

In one instance, the com-plainant had transferred themoney on the promise of thefraudster's WhatsApp textthat she has some land inUSA and after selling the landshe would return the amount.

While retired babus rule the roost, officers sulkContinued from Page 1

Even additional secretary inthe Finance Department, GSRammohan Rao is also contin-ued in the same post on exten-sion after his retirement.

Retired IAS officer PSatyanarayana Reddy wasappointed as commissioner ofcivil supplies after his retire-ment. Retired IAS officer VAnil Kumar is serving asendowments commissionerafter his retirement from thesame post. Among retired IPS

officers, former DGP AnuragSharma is serving as advisor,home department affairs.Retired IPS officer AK Khan isserving as advisor, minorityaffairs department.

Retired IPS officer TPrabhakar Rao was given anextension soon after his retire-ment on June 30.

Legislature secretaryNarasimha Charyulu is servingin the same post after hisretirement in 2019.

Even additional collectorsworking in districts were given

extensions after their retire-ment.

They include S Padmakar(Siddipet), Y Surender Rao(Mancherial), S Dayanand(Warangal urban), RMahender Reddy (Warangalrural).

Retired RDO was appointedas special officer, GADA(Gajwel Area DevelopmentAuthority). Gajwel is the homeconstituency of KCR.

The key portfolio of irriga-tion engineer-in-chief is han-dled by retired officer C

Muralidhar Rao. Interestingly,he was given extension by thegovernment of undivided AP.After bifurcation, theTelangana government hasgiven him six extensions so far.In the latest extension orders,even his tenure was not spec-ified, indicating that he will becontinued in the same post fora few more years.

Even the CMDs of TSSPD-CL and TSNPDCL GRaghuma Reddy and A GopalRao are serving in these postson extensions.

�� �<+8 ;;;Continued from Page 1

The months of April andMay accounted for the high-est unemployment rate in thecountry. Barring the availabil-ity of essential commoditiesand other emergency ser-vices, almost all spheres ofactivity came to a grindinghalt because of the pandem-ic. Although the lockdownhas been lifted, daily wageearners bore the brunt of theunemployment. Majority ofwage earners were employedin the unorganised sector.They did not get job in Apriland May. Many families weredependent on succourextended by government,philanthropic, public and civilsociety organisations for theirsurvival. The two successivemonths recorded the highestunemployment rate of 23.5.After lifting of the lockdown,the month of June recordedunemployment rate of 11,while July recorded 7.4. Theunemployment rate in urbanareas was pegged at 9.15 percent, while 6.66 per cent inrural areas.

Page 3: ˝#ˆ$˝˚!%ˆ&ˇˆ#&’˝(&$˜˙ˆ)˜(€¦ · Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond

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Eighty two-year-old Rani wasthe centre of attraction onWorld Elephant Day at theNehru Zoological Park here onWednesday.

The day was celebrated withzoo authorities treating all fiveelephants to a scrumptiousbuffet, including a cake madeof ragi and rice decorated withfruits, vegetables, sprouts andcorn. The animal keepers andincharge of the elephants alsolaid out for the pachydermstreats like sugar cane, pineap-ple, jaggery, coconut and greengrass.

It was a special occasion forthe five elephants - one maleand four females. Zoo author-ities inscribed names of the ele-

phants on cakes specially madefor the occasion. Zoo curatorN Kshitija said all elephantswere in good health. She said

the day was celebrated with anobjective to create awarenessand educate people. Rani, thesenior most elephant, was the

centre of attraction at the cel-ebrations. While 3 elephantsare aged 50, the fourth one is34, and Rani is 82-years-old.

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With the Covid pandemiccasting shadow on Muharram,Hyderabad may miss tradition-al 'Bibi Ka Alam' procession.

With religious gatheringsbanned under the Covidguidelines by the Union HomeMinistry, this historic city maynot see the annual processionfor the first time in more than400 years.

Though leaders of the Shiacommunity and public repre-sentatives have urged the gov-ernment to allow the proces-sion, the authorities are notlikely to give permission.

Thousands of people partic-ipate in the historic processiontaken out every year on 'Youm-e-Ashoora' or the 10th day ofMuharram, which may fall onAugust 30 -- depending on thesighting of the moon.

Thousands take part in theprocession marking the mar-tyrdom of Imam Hussain, thegrandson of Prophet Muham-mad, in the battle of Karbala.

'Bibi Ka Alam' is carried ona caparisoned elephant as theprocession with hundreds ofself-flagellating mourners pass-es through parts of the old city,including Charminar, whilethousands of people line theprocession route.

'Bibi Ka Alam' is said to con-tain a piece of the sacred woo-den plank on which SyedaFatima, the daughter of Prop-het Muhammad, was givenher ablution before burial.

It is said to have been brou-ght from Iraq during theQutub Shahi period.

Shia leaders demanded thatthe centuries-old traditionshould not be disturbed.

They said that 'Bibi KaAlam' should be allowed to betaken on an elephant whileenforcing other Covid norms.

Moulana Syed NisarHussain Hyder Agha soughtpermission for organizing theprocession.

The officials, however, arg-ued that the procession withelephants may attract a largegathering. Home MinisterMohammed Mahmood Alisuggested the use of a camel tocarry the 'Alam'.

Police Commissioner Anja-ni Kumar is expected to take afinal decision on the proces-sion in a day or two.

Officials said the installationof the 'alams' at the 'ashoorkhanas' will be allowed andpeople will be permitted tomake their offerings whilemaintaining social distancing.

Telangana has 11,866 ashoorkhanas, the majority of themin Hyderabad. Over centuries,the local customs and tradi-tions in different parts of thekingdom came to be associat-ed with 'Azadari' or mourning.

In parts of Telangana,Hindus observe Muharram intheir unique and distinct style.

With more than 2,00,000Shias, city is home to the sec-ond-largest Shia community inIndia, after Lucknow.

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Due to the increasing cases ofCovid-19, the pressure of workon doctors and medical staffhas also increased.

In such a situation, doctors,nurses and other medical per-sonnel have to wear masks,gloves and PPE kits to protectthemselves from the virus. Inthis sequence, a huge amountof biomedical waste is accu-mulating from hospitals,which has become a problemfor those living near hospitals.

Residents around GandhiHospital are very upset withthis waste as large amount ofbiomedical waste is accumu-lating in the Gandhi Hospital,which is becoming a threat tothe people

The biomedical waste hasbeen piling up in the premis-es of the hospital for over onemonth as the contract for dis-posal of the biomedical wasteexpired a month ago.

The garbage that has beenaccumulating for a long timeis smelling bad due to whichpeople of the surroundingarea are annoyed and they arenot able to tolerate the odour.

It is being told that thehospital management removesbiomedical waste after everytwo days, but due to the expiryof contract to dispose thewaste, the garbage is dumped

there for the many days. Thepile of garbage is producingfoul smell and people living inthe vicinity, especially thosewho reside at Padmarao Nag-ar, say that the piled up wastehas been emitting reekingsmell. They have appealed tothe authorities over the issue.

Responding to the problem,Gandhi Hospital Superintend-ent Prof Raja Rao said that thebio-medical waste is beingfilled in special bags after pro-cessing them using sodiumhypochlorite. There is no sco-pe for the virus to be presentin the waste. The same organ-isation would be given thecontract again. He soundedoptimistic, that the problemwould get over very soon.

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The death of a 14-year-oldorphan girl who was sexuallyassaulted in a private orphan-age home in Ameenpura ofSangareddy district broughtto the fore the lapses of govern-ment officials in monitoringthe private child care institu-tion (CCI) and lack of properpolicy for Protection of vulner-able children.

The minor girl who was onventilator since a few days hadbreathed her last onWednesday morning inNilofuer Hospital.

The incident came to lightwhen the girl was sent to rela-tives' house due to lockdownand returned to stay in theorphanage. However theorphanage denied admission

and insisted for Covid-19 tests.Later relatives handed overthe girl to other relatives inBowenpally.

They smelled somethingfishy and approached a privatedoctor who suggested takingher to government hospitalsuspecting that it is a sexualassualt case.

The government doctor con-firmed the sexual assault andinformed the police who reg-istered an first investigationreport (FIR).

The police have arrested NVenugopal Reddy, 51, a donor,Ch Vijaya, owner and wardenof Maruthi Orphanage andher brother Jayadeep.

According to statistics thereare around 130 CCIs inMedchal district, 70 inRangareddy district and 80CCI in Hyderabad.

Speaking regarding the sameAnde Venkateshwarlu statecoordinator of BachpanBachao Andolan opined thatwe have to retrospect thatwhether these many CCIs arenecessary. "Rather thanencouraging the private CCIs,government should take theresponsibility and monitor the

CCI. Only one person in a dis-trict made responsible to lookafter all these CCI which isnearly impossible. Childrenfrom different districts andstates are staying in oneorphanage but local authoritiesdo not know about their exis-tence. This has to be changed,"said Venkateshwarlu.

He further added thatDistrict level committee shouldbe strengthened and villagelevel committees should beformed.

Explaining further anotherchild rights activist Phillipssaid, "District inspection com-mittee, child welfare commit-tee and district child protectionunit has completely failed toprotect the child. He added thatthe system has to be strength-ened. Database of the childrenwho are staying in orphanageshould be maintained so that itwill help in monitoring them."

Children coming to welfarehostels and orphanage are verydifferent. Children who arepsychologically and physicallydisturbed will come to orphan-age. Their needs are totally dif-ferent from the others addedPhillips.

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The South zone task forceteam on Wednesday arresteda fake travel agent and seized4 Indian passports, severalvisas, fake job offer lettersfrom his possession.

The accused identified asSikander Khan, 40, went toDubai in 2012 and stayed oneyear. Meanwhile, he gainedknowledge on the procedureto process visa to countries.

Although he was arrestedseveral times he didn't mendhis ways. The accused andseized material handed overto Kalapather Police.

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The Punjagutta Police havebooked case against three per-sons for threatening the staff ofa hospital posing as vigilanceofficials (VO) on Wednesday.

According to the compla-inant Dr GV Praveen Kumar,a 45-year-old person infectedwith Covid-19 who was alsosuffering with pneumonia wasadmitted in the hospital. Thehospital has explained com-plexity of case to the patient’sson Shiva Kumar. He agreedand treatment was successful.

"After the hospital dis-charged the man, Shiva alongwith two other personsShravanthi Kasaram and VijayKumar claiming to be officialsfrom the vigilance departme-nt entered into the Covid

wards, took videos and post-ed them with false news onsocial media. Shiva Kumardemanded Rs 1 lakh from thehospital to remove the videosfrom social media. Further hethreatened to lodge a com-plaint with Health Depart-ment and would make themcancel the Covid license," thecomplainant Dr Praveen said.

The complainant approac-hed the Panjagutta police andlodged a written complaintfollowing which the policeofficials booked a case onWednesday.

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Employees ser ving atOsmania General Hospitalunder contract and outsourc-ing basis staged a protest inthe hospital premises onWednesday demanding theauthorities to release theirsalaries which are overdue forthe past four months.

Contending that they arerisking their lives at this hourof Coronavirus pandemic,the protesting employeesexhorted the government tohike their wages at least now.

In spite of salaries beingpaid on time in such crisis sit-uation, their salaries are beingdelayed. Stating that they areworking under severe work

pressure, they felt that thestate government is playingwith their lives.

Therefore, the protestingemployees demanded theTelangana government tohike wages on the lines of thehike in wages effected forcontract and outsourcedemployees working inOsmania General Hospital.

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Th Dabeerpura Police onWednesday booked a caseagainst Bharatiya Janta YuvaMorcha Secretary LadduYadav for comments againstMajlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT)spokesperson Amjed UllahKhan. After MBT leader raisedobjection to the silence of theauthorities over the controver-

sial banner, the police officialsremoved banner at MJ Market.

A video of Laddu Yadav,who installed the bannerthreatening MBT leaderAmjedullah Khan went viralon social media.

Condemning the sameKhan lodged a complaint withpolice who booked a caseagainst Laddu Yadav underrelevant sections.

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The Habeebnagar police onWednesday have taken 5 per-sons into custody and regis-tered a case against a womanon charges of selling her two-month-old baby to a familyfor Rs 45,000.

According to the com-plainant, Abdul Mujahed, thefather of baby, he marriedAbdul Zoya Khan a year agoand was blessed with a baby.Few days ago the couplequarreled with each otherand due to their differencesthey are living separately.

"When the complainantapproached his wife for com-promise he came to knowthat she sold the baby tomediators Shaik Mohammadand Tabussum Begum for Rs45,000. They inturn sold thebaby to Ayesha Jabeen," saidNarender, Goshamahal ACP.

The complainant contact-ed mediator over phone tohand over the baby. Themediators although agreed tohand over the baby, but theyhowever failed to do so.

Following which the com-plainant lodged a complaintwith Habeebnagar Police whobooked a case and investigat-ed it and nabbed six personsincluding the mother of thebaby in connection with sell-ing of baby. All accused weresent to judicial custody.

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With a provocative social me-dia post triggering violence inBengaluru, Telangana DirectorGeneral of Police M MahenderReddy and Hyderabad PoliceCommissioner Anjani Kumaron Wednesday cautioned peo-ple against posting inappropri-ate content online.

The police chief requestedpeople to be cautious whileposting any content on socialmedia.

"A malicious social mediapost has led to mindless vio-lence in Bangalore resulting inloss of life and properties.Public are requested not to cir-culate any inappropriate con-tent in social media which islikely to adversely affect pub-lic order and peace in the soci-ety," the DGP said.

He said Telangana Policewere closely watching roundthe clock for anti-social ele-ments circulating such mali-cious content in social media.

"All the SHOs and othersenior Officers have beeninstructed to register specificcases in every such instanceand initiate strong and strictaction against such offenderswithout fail. I request the pub-lic to partner with police tomaintain the highest stan-dards of safety and security inTelangana," he added.

Anjani Kumar has alsourged people to be very cau-tious before posting anythingon social media. "We will takevery firm legal action for anyirresponsible post. We cannotallow under any circumstancesour city to get a bad name," hetweeted.

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IT and Industries MinisterKT Rama Rao on Wednesdaychaired a meeting of Group ofMinisters (GoM) to draftTelangana food processingpolicy and logistics policy.The policies are aimed topromote food processing andlogistic industries in a big wayin Telangana state.

KTR emphasised the needfor a food processing policyand a logistics policy to pro-mote the food processingindustries which will ensurefinancial empowerment offarmers and employmentopportunities for youth inthe State. He said the group ofministers has examined thesepolicies along with incen-tives being offered by otherStates as well as other coun-tries, and have come up withproposals to offer subsidiesand incentives to develop thefood processing industry inthe State.

The Group of Ministersmeeting chaired by MinisterKT Rama Rao was held todiscuss the food processingand logistics policies apartfrom preparing necessaryguidelines at Pragathi Bhavanhere on Wednesday. Speakingon the occasion, Rama Raosaid following the innovativemeasures taken by ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao, lakhs of acres in the Statewere freshly brought undercultivation under Krishnaand Godavari Rivers. Hepointed out that crops being

cultivated in each village,mandal and district, werebeing mapped across the Statefor comprehensive informa-tion on agricultural opera-tions. "With the construc-tion of new irrigation projectsand subsequently increasedcultivation area, the produc-tion of crops especially paddy,cotton, maize, pulses andspices has increased signifi-cantly after the State forma-tion," he added.

The Minister stated thatdue to implementation of thesheep and fish distribution

schemes, there has been a sig-nificant increase in number ofsheep and production of fish.He said the State was experi-encing water revolution andwas in the process of witness-ing another Green Revolution(agriculture), followed by theBlue Revolution (fisheries),the Pink Revolution (meatproduction) and the WhiteRevolution (milk). "Thoughthe State was witnessing anincrease in crop production,we do not have the capacity tofully process them. There is

an urgent need to promotefood processing industry," hesaid.

Minsters S Niranjan Reddy,Talasani Srinivas Yadav,Errabel l i Dayakar Rao,Koppula Eeshwar, SabithaIndra Reddy and SatyavathiRathod, Telangana StatePlanning Board vice chair-man B Vinod Kumar,Government Chief AdvisorRajiv Sharma, Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar, PrincipalSecretaries and senior offi-cials, attended the meeting.

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The municipal elections forHyderabad, Warangal andKhammam and GraduateMLC elections for Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal andMahbubnagar-Hyderabad-Rangareddy are fastapproaching.

The ruling parties in theState and Centre -- TRS andBJP, have already launchedefforts to win big in these elec-tions. However, the Congressparty is yet to start any effortsin this regard. These electionswill be held in the limits of 7erstwhile districts and 11 par-liament constituencies and 78Assembly constituencies.

A Congress leader on con-dition of anonymity said thatthe ruling TRS is reaching outto the people in GHMC,Khammam and Warangal,where municipal electionswould be held, in the name ofdevelopment. TRS workingpresident KT Rama Rao iskeen on winning these munic-ipal elections. It may berecalled that KTR is busy inlaying foundation or openingflyovers in GHMC limitsalmost on every day basis.

On the other hand, BJP is alsokeen on these municipal elec-tions as they want show theirstrength this time. As part of it,the BJP split the city party into6 zones (including Medchal-Malkajgiri and part ofRangareddy district) and is like-ly to appoint six chiefs to thesezones to strengthen the party.

However, the Congress hasno such plans it seems. It maybe recalled that Congress wontwo divisions out of 150 divi-sions in the city. Anotherleader said that the party hasto do something or else it willnot get even those two divi-sions this time as TRS and BJPparties are silently doing theirground work.

However, the Congress ishopeful of winning graduateelections as it won Karimnagar-

Nizamabad-Medak. Already, some leaders have

started projecting themselvesas candidates for graduateMLC constituencies hopingthat graduates are against rul-ing TRS. However,Mahbubnagar-Hyderabad-Rangareddy graduate con-stituency present MLC NRamchander Rao is from BJP.N a l g o n d a - K h a m m a m -Warangal graduate constituen-cy MLC is Palla RajeshwarReddy from TRS.

The same leader said thatthe party fared better only inLok Sabha elections but diddismal performance in all elec-tions. The party has to chalk-out an action plan now only todo some good performance orelse the results would be sameas last elections.

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Contributions under Gift-a-Smile programme of KT RamaRao, MunicipalAdministration Minister, havestarted pouring in response tothe call given by him to donateliberally to purchase ambu-lances. On Wednesday,several MLAs, ZPChairperson, TRSleaders gavecheques towards their contributionto the programmeto KTR whilesome others gavethem to PanchayatRaj Minister ErrabelliDayakar Rao.

Bhupalapalli MLA GandraVenkata Ramana Reddy andhis spouse Gandra Jyoti, chair-person of WArangal Rural ZP,contributed funds for pur-chase of one ambulance, sim-ilarly, Parakala MLA Dharma

Reddy contributed the sumequvivalent to the cost of anambulance. TRS leadersVaddiraju Ravichandra,Kakulamanu Lakshman Raoalso contributed sums equiv-alent to the cost of ambu-lances.

KTR appreciated the contri-butions from the arty

leaders anddescribed it as anexample of theirp h i l a nt h ropy.Errabelli DayakarRao, Woman andChild Welfare

Minister SatyavatiRathod described t

he response from partyleaders as their commitmentto public service.

Earlier, Dayakar Rao,Vardhannapeta MLA AruriRamesh gave their contribu-tions to KTR. MahabubabadMP Maloth Kavita and otherswere present.

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AICC Secretary Challa VamshiChand Reddy threw a chal-lenge at ruling TelanganaRashtra Samithi (TRS) leadersto participate in a debate onPothireddypadu andSangameswaramprojects on AndhraPradesh. In anopen letter toChief Minister KChandrashekharRao, he said that heis prepared to inter-act with any number ofTRS leaders on the issue ofriver water sharing with theneighbouring State of AndhraPradesh. "While the Telanganagovernment has failed to ful-fill any promise that it hasmade to the people of the State,the Chief Minister seems to beinclined to benefitRayalaseema region of AndhraPradesh. The Chief Minister'sindifferent attitude towardsthe water theft of AP gives riseto many questions," he said.

He alleged thatit is conspicuously

evident that KCR isdeliberately not

responding on this issue.His interest in calling for animpromptu, insignificant andinappropriate cabinet meet-ing on 5 August in order toavoid attending the apex coun-cil meeting that was scheduledon the same day clearly indi-cates his evil intentions,Vamshi said.

The truth behind KCR'sstratagem to attend apex coun-cil meeting only after 20 Augustclearly tells us that he wants to

favour a smooth and successfultendering of Raayalaseema liftIrrigation project, scheduledon 19 August, and subsequent-ly make the apex council meet-ing redundant. He recalled thatduring 2017 when he was MLAof Kalwakurthy, he has partic-ipated in a debate with the pre-sent-day Agriculture MinisterSingireddy Niranjan Reddyabout the extension of sub-canal D-82 of KalwakurthyLift, and amicably solved theproblem. "I saw to it that thedebate was fruitful respectingthe TRS leader," Vamshi ChandReddy wrote.

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Governor Dr Tamil isaiSoundararajan onWednesday exhorted thecommerce and industry lead-ers to intensify their efforts inmitigating the crisis causedby Covid-19 pandemic andsupport the government.Shesaid that the commerce andindustry sector was showinglot of resilience in overcom-ing the crisis and has beensustaining the livelihoods ofthe millions of people.

The Governor was partic-ipating as the chief guest inthe video conference organ-ised by the Federation ofTelangana Chamber ofCommerce and Industry(FTCCI) f rom the R ajBhavan, here, on the topic of"Strategic interventions ofCentral and State govern-ments for the mitigation ofCovid-19 Crisis."

Referring to the strategicinterventions by the Central

government, Tamil isaiSoundararajan pointed outthat Prime Minister NarendraModi has taken 'right deci-sions at the right time' to con-tain the spread of Covid-19and thus saved many pre-cious lives. The Governorsaid that the India, whichfaced the shortage of PPE kitsand other equipment, is nowexporting PPE kits, N95masks, ventilators and otherlife saving medicines to var-ious other countries through

the sustained efforts of thegovernment.

"India is conduct ingaround 7 lakh Covid-19 testsa day and it will soon achievethe target of carrying out atleast 10 lakh tests a day. Thegovernments are implement-ing three-pronged strategyof aggressive testing, compre-hensive tracing and efficienttreatment, " she added.Suggesting the new mantra oftesting, testing and more test-ing, Dr. Soundararajan said

that early detection; contacttracing and isolation wouldreduce the risk of Covid-19spread.

Expressing anguish overthe non-compliance of pre-ventive measures like main-taining physical distance andmandatory wearing of maskeven by a section of politi-cians, the Governor said thatwearing of masks wouldeffectively prevent the spreadof virus by at least 80 percent. "Rs 20 lakh crore reliefAtma Nirbhar package, spe-cial emphasis on MSME andagriculture sectors and wel-

fare of migrant labourerswere some of the major inter-ventions of the governments,"she pointed out

FTCCI presidentRamakanth Inani urged theGovernor to impress uponthe governments to chalkout roadmap for economicrevival soon. He said thatFTCCI in association withthe FICCI and ASCI has setup a think tank titled Centrefor Monitoring Covid toresearch, analyze and createawareness on different areasrelated to Covid-19 inTelangana.

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A 49-year-old police constable work-ing in Saidabad police station limitsof Hyderabad commissionerate suc-cumbed to Covid-19 on Tuesday latenight.

According to the sources he hadheart problems. A year ago he under-went a heart surgery and also suffer-ing with hypertension.

The police constable tested positiveon August 3 and was admitted in aprivate hospital after getting treatedfor almost 10 days. Since day one, hiscondition was critical and was onventilator support.

He was shifted to Gandhi Hospitalfor Covid-19 treatment Tuesday.While undergoing treatment hebreathed his last on Tuesday latenight.

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The ruling YSR CongressParty on Wednesday sus-pended its senior leaderand former chairman ofAndhra PradeshTechnology ServicesKoyya Prasad Reddy fromthe party, following allega-tions of land grabbingusing the name of RajyaSabha MP V VijayasaiReddy.

The disciplinary com-mittee of the YSRCP,which heard large scalecomplaints against PrasadReddy, announced hissuspension from the partyafter due inquiry.

An official statementby the party said that thesuspension of PrasadReddy, who hails fromVisakhapatnam, cameinto immediate effect.

Among the charges lev-elled against PrasadReddy was that he mis-used the name of YSRCPgeneral secretary VVijayasai Reddy to settleland deals in Vizag.

In a stern warning, theYSRCP central office toldall the party leaders torefrain themselves fromland dealings and landgrabbing and from misus-ing the names of the partyMPs or any other leader.

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The Stree Nidhi employeesworking under the purviewof the Panchayat Raj andRural DevelopmentDepartment have con-tr ibuted their one-daywages to the ChiefMinister 's Relief Fundamounting to Rs 4,00,491.Errabelli Dayakar Rao onWednesday presented acheque for the same to KTRama Rao, Minister forindustries, when he calledon him at Pragati Bhavan.KT Rama Rao and DayakarRao appreciated their ges-ture. The Stree Nidhi Bankhas 425 employees. Theycontributed their one-daywages to the CMRF.

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The flood level in RiverGodavari at Bhadrachalam ison the rise due to heavy rainsin the upper reaches of theriver. The water level atBhadrachalam is rising as RiverIndravati is emptying its floodwater into River Godavari.The water level in the reservoiron Tuesday night was mea-sured as 25 feet. Around 12noon on Wednesday, it

increased further to 29.5 feet.As many reservoirs were up tothe brim in the upper reaches,water is being dischargeddownstream. The WaterResources Department author-ities predict more flooding tothe river. However, the author-ities placate the feelings ofpeople living in low lying areasthat the flood level is notalarming and will becomealarming only when waterlevel crosses 40 feet mark.

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The Hyderabad SchoolsParents' Association (HSPA)has submitted a few changes inthe National Education Policy2020, to the Ministry of HumanResource Development.

As per the association, allthe schools, irrespective oftheir segment, have beenincreasing their fees exponen-tially over the years to anextent where it has becomealmost unsustainable for many.

The HSPA suggested, "Allprivate schools must form anSchool ManagementCommittees like any public

school and have an SDPreviewed and endorsed by theSMC on a continuous basis.They must also transparentlyreport their annual auditedfinancial statements and otherreports submitted to theIncome Tax Department, theSMC and the public. The SMCmust endorse the statement forit to be valid. The financial dis-closure standards must be thesame as for Section 8 compa-nies. The SDP and the financialstatements shall be freely andpublicly available."

They also suggested publicdisclosure of all information byall the schools. "Parents should

be able to make informedchoices while admitting theirchild to a school. To achievethis, all relevant information ofschools must be available in thepublic domain; this will includeinformation in addition towhat is available as a part of theaccreditation process, includingfees structure, facilities, learn-ing outcomes, details of teach-ers and their qualifications,and other matters relevant tothe decision making of the par-ents on choosing a school fortheir child.” They furtherrequested ministry to proposea regulatory mechanism toregulate school fee.

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Heavy rains have been fore-cast for parts of AndhraPradesh for the next fourdays. According to a bulletinissued by the IMD, heavyrains will lash parts of theState for the next four days asa low pressure area is likely toform over north west Bay ofBengal on Thursday.Following the warning, StateDisaster ManagementAuthority has urged peopleresiding in low lying areas tobe alert and take necessarysafety measures.

According to IMD, thecyclonic circulation will formbetween 4.5 and 5.8 km abovemean sea level over northwestand adjoining west central Bayof Bengal, off Odisha andnorth Andhra Pradesh coasts.The State DisasterManagement Department stat-ed that there is possibility ofheavy rains on August 13(Thursday) in certain places ofVisakhapatnam and EastGodavari districts.

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Presumptive Democratic pres-idential nominee Joe Biden onTuesday picked Sen. KamalaHarris, D-Calif., as his runningmate, a historic decision thatelevates the first Black womanand first Asian Americanwoman to run for vice presi-dent at a moment when thecountry is grappling with itsracial past and future.

Biden's announcement,made in a text and tweet,aligns him with a former pres-idential rival whose most elec-tric campaign performancecame when she criticized hisrecord on school integrationduring a debate.

The decision is the mostconsequential of Biden's pres-idential campaign and hasmajor implications not only forthe November election but forthe future of the DemocraticParty. Biden, 78 years old byInauguration Day, would be theoldest president ever and hassaid he considers himself "atransition candidate." Thechoice places Harris, who wasa more vibrant and energeticpresence on the campaign trailbut was also at timesunsteady,at the forefront of theparty's future as, potentially, the

first woman vice president.Harris will now become a ves-

sel for Democratic hopes for adiverse party empowered bywomen, as well as for Republicanattempts to funnel a barrage ofattacks that have so far beenlargely unsuccessful when wagedagainst Biden alone.

Harris, 55, is the daughter ofIndian and Jamaican immi-grants. The first-term senatorpreviously served as SanFrancisco district attorney andCalifornia attorney general.She developed a close friend-ship with Biden's late son Beau,a relationship that Biden saidhe reflected upon in making hisdecision.

The move puts Biden, whoserved as vice president to thenation's first Black president, in

a history-making role in nam-ing Harris as the first womanof color nominated for theposition. He also has pledged,if elected, to name a Blackwoman to the Supreme Court.

While Harris, who droppedout of the Democratic presi-dential primary in December,was an early front-runner inthe vice-presidential sweep-stakes, there were still lingeringconcerns about the sting of thedebate moment on her chances- until Tuesday afternoon.

"Joe Biden here. Big news:I've chosen Kamala Harris asmy running mate," Biden wrotein an email to supporters."Together, with you, we'regoing to beat Trump."

The pick followed a finalpublic push from Black

activists, athletes and actorswho urged Biden to pick aBlack woman - and threatenedthat his candidacy would bedoomed if he didn't.

"My advice was sought," saidRep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., atop Biden ally who had urgedhim to pick a Black woman andsaid that Biden called himTuesday morning to informhim of the decision.

"I talked to him [Biden]over the past several days morethan I talked to him all year,"he said.

The months-long processbefore the decision includedvetting nearly a dozen womenas potential nominees. Bidenon Tuesday informed some ofthe others that they were notchosen.

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Leading Indian-Americangroups and individuals, includ-ing former Pepsico chief IndraNooyi, have hailed the nomi-nation of Indian-origin SenatorKamala Harris as DemocraticVice Presidential candidate,saying it was a "great choice"and a "moment of pride" for theentire community in the US.

However, there were alsosome community memberswho questioned Ms Harris'scontribution towards the Indo-US ties and said they would notbe swayed by identity politics.

Presumptive Democraticparty Presidential nominee JoeBiden on Tuesday named 55-year-old Kamala Harris as hisVice Presidential running mate,making history by selecting thefirst black woman to competeon a major party's Presidentialticket. Kamala Harris, whosefather is an African fromJamaica and mother an Indian,is currently the US Senatorfrom California.

"This is a great choice for ourcountry," tweeted Ms Nooyi,who is seen as a role model bymillions of women across theworld.

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Opposition Congress andJD(S) in Karnataka onWednesday extended com-plete support to the state gov-ernment in establishing peacein violence-hit parts of the cityand demanded immediateaction against the culprits.

Leaders of both the partieshave said that there are reportsraising apprehensions that thiscould have been a 'pre plannedconspiracy'.

"I condemn both violentincidents that erupted in KavalByrsandra & also the socialmedia post that instigated themob. I humbly request bothHindus & Muslims of the areatoA stay calm, maintain peace& live in harmony," Leader ofopposition Siddaramaiahtweeted.

Noting that he spoke to theBengaluru PoliceCommissioner on the matter,the Congress leader assured fullsupport to the Karnataka gov-ernment in establishing peace.

"Our experience tells us thatonly innocents suffer in thecommunal riots. I urge leadersfrom both the religions to dis-cuss and resolve the issue ami-cably & restore peace in thearea," he added.

Condemning the violence,

state Congress chief D KShivakumar said, no one shouldtake law into their hands andwe extend complete coopera-tion to the government in tak-ing action as per law.

"Causing destruction topublic property cannot beaccepted... I have also heardfrom the media about theprovocative tweet. Whoeverhas done it, it is wrong, theentire incident is wrong,"he said.

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Responding with scepticism toRussia's approval of a COVID-19vaccine, several scientists aroundthe world, including in India, sug-gest it hasn't been tested proper-ly given the time constraint andthere may not be enough evi-dence to prove its efficacy.Announcing the breakthroughon Tuesday, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin vouched for thesafety and efficacy of the vaccine,named Sputnik V, and said oneof his daughters has alreadyreceived a shot.

While the country hopes tostart mass-producing the vaccineby October and plans to offer thefirst doses to essential workers,many in the science communi-ty seem unimpressed. Theannouncement should be takenwith a pinch of salt , said Indian

immunologist Vineeta Bal.Unless some data are out in theopen for people to see, includingclinical trial phases and numbers,it is hard to believe that vaccineefficacy studies are successfullyconducted between June 2020and August 2020, Bal, an immu-nologist from the Indian Instituteof Science, Education andResearch in Pune, said.

Are they talking about con-trolled human challenge studies?If yes, that evidence is also use-

ful to examine protective effica-cy, she noted.

Florian Krammer, a professorat the US-based Mount Sinai'sIcahn School of Medicine, ques-tioned the safety of the vaccine.

"Not sure what Russia is up to,but I certainly would not take avaccine that hasn't been tested inphase 3. Nobody knows if it's safeor if it works. They are puttingHCWs (health care workers) andtheir population at risk,"Krammer said on Twitter.

Indian immunologist SatyajitRath agreed with Krammer.

Russian authorities seem to bedepending on the generation of'neutralising' antibodies in Phase2 clinical trials for deciding thatthe vaccine candidate works, hesaid. A neutralising antibodydefends a cell from an infectiousparticle by neutralising any effectit has biologically.

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NCP president Sharad Pawaron Wednesday said he gives"absolutely no importance tohis grand-nephew ParthPawars recent demand for aCBI probe into the case ofactor Sushant Singh Rajput'sdeath, and also termed theyoung leader as immature.

Sharad Pawar also said hehas faith in the Mumbai Police,but added that he will notoppose if someone still wantsthe central agencys investiga-tion into the case.

Rajput, 34, was found hang-ing at his apartment in subur-ban Bandra on June 14.

"We attach absolutely no

importance to what my grand-nephew says. He is immature...Ihave clearly said that I have 100per cent trust in theMaharashtra Police. But ifsomeone still wants a CBIprobe into it, then there is noreason to oppose that too," theNCP chief said.

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A PIL has been filed in theSupreme Court seeking direc-tions to the Centre to formu-late guidelines for identifyingminority groups at the statelevel to ensure they get thebenefit of the schemes meantfor them.

The PIL filed by BJP leaderand advocate Ashwini KumarUpadhyay has also challengedthe validity of Section 2(f) ofthe National Commission forMinority Education InstitutionAct 2004, for not only givingunbridled power to the Centrebut also being manifestly arbi-trary, irrational and offending.

The plea, filed throughadvocate Ashwani KumarDubey, said denial of benefits

to the "real" minorities andarbitrary and unreasonabledisbursements under schemesmeant for them to the absolutemajority, infringes upon thefundamental right under theConstitution.

"Direct and declare that fol-lowers of Judaism, Bahaism &

Hinduism, who are minorities inLaddakh, Mizoram,Lakshdweep, Kashmir,Nagaland, Meghalaya,Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab andManipur, can establish & admin-ister educational institutions oftheir choice in spirit of theTMA Pai Ruling," the plea said.

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The government has receivedover five lakh applicationsunder the 'PM SVANidhi'scheme which aims to providestreet vendors loans of up to Rs10,000 to restart their businesspost the COVID-19 lockdown,according to an official state-ment issued on Wednesday.

The Union Housing andUrban Affairs Ministry said thePM Street Vendor'sAtmaNirbhar Nidhi schemehas generated considerableenthusiasm among the streetvendors.

The number of loan sanc-tioned and applicationsreceived under 'PM SVANidhi'scheme have crossed one lakhand five lakh respectively with-in 41 days of commencementof the lending process.

Under the scheme, vendors

can avail a working capital loanof up to Rs 10,000 which isrepayable in monthly instal-ments in a year.

"The PM SVANidhi envis-ages bringing 'banks at thedoor steps' of these 'nano-entrepreneurs' by engaging thenon-banking financial compa-nies (NBFCs) and the micro-finance institutions (MFIs) aslending institutions in addition

to scheduled commercialbanks — public and private,regional rural banks, cooper-ative banks, SHG banks etc,"the statement said.

Onboarding vendors on dig-ital payment platforms is a veryimportant component to build-ing their credit profile and helpthem become part of the for-mal urban economy, it stated.

Last week, the ministry had

launched the "Letter ofRecommendation module"through which street vendors,who don't have identity cardsor certificate of vending, canalso avail benefits underscheme.

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The nomination of US senatorKamala Harris, who has herconnections with Chennai, asthe vice- presidential runningmate for the AmericanPresidential elections 2020, is amoment of pride for Indiansand Tamil Nadu, said statedeputy chief minister OPanneerselvam. Reacting toTuesday's announcement,Panneerselvam recalled herroots and conveyed his heartywishes. "It is a moment of pridefor Indians and TamilNaduespecially, as Kamala Harris, thefirst Indian senator, whosemother hails from TN hasbeen nominated as the VicePresidential candidate by theUS Democratic party.

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Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu on Wednesday stressed onthe need to provide a compre-hensive, authentic and objectiveaccount of the historical eventsand said stories of the valour andsacrifices made by freedomfighters from across the countryshould be highlighted in the text-books.

Speaking at the release of abook 'Netaji — India'sIndependence and BritishArchives' authored by KalyanKumar De, he underlined theneed to make the younger gen-eration aware of India's history.De is an associate member of theNetaji Subash Bose-INA Trust.

The vice president said therewere many shades and facets offreedom movement which needto be taught to the younger gen-eration.

“Many people from differentparts of India made sacrifices forour independence. Their storiesshould also be highlighted,” hesaid according to an officialstatement. Referring to the

prominent role played by SubhasChandra Bose in the freedomstruggle, Naidu said his dynam-ic and courageous leadershipduring the freedom movementwill continue to be a majorsource of inspiration to the peo-ple, particularly the youth.

Stating that the revival ofIndian National Army (INA)made it a force to reckon with,Naidu said as the documents inthis book indicate, the Britishwere quite alarmed at the risingtide of public sympathy for theINA. It was one of the main con-tributing factors in the country's

freedom struggle. Referring to the International

Youth Day on Wednesday, thevice president called upon theyouth to take inspiration fromthe life of Netaji and strivetowards building a 'new' India.

Regretting that even sevendecades after Independence, thecountry continues to face manychallenges on different fronts, heasked the youth to be at the fore-front of building a new India,which is free of poverty, illitera-cy, corruption, caste, gender dis-crimination and where everyIndian has equal opportunities.

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West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee onWednesday claimed that theunemployment rate in the statehas been reduced by 40 per centat a time when the country iswitnessing an all time high of 24per centA joblesssness.

Moreover one lakh unem-ployed youths in the state will beprovided with soft loans andsubsidies to become self reliantunder the government's 'KarmaSathi Prakapla', she said onInternational Youth Day.

"Today is #International-YouthDay. #GoWB is commit-ted to empowering the youth. Anew scheme 'Karma SathiPrakalpa was launched by#Bengal Govt. One lakh unem-ployed youth will be provided

soft loans and subsidies to makethem self-reliant," she tweeted.

"When the unemploymentrate in India is at an all-time highof 24%, unemployment rate in#Bengal reduced by 40%," sheadded. Banerjee said she ishopeful that like in the past, thehardworking and talented youthof Bengal will lead the countryto a bright future.

Page 6: ˝#ˆ$˝˚!%ˆ&ˇˆ#&’˝(&$˜˙ˆ)˜(€¦ · Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond

One can easily recallumpteen instances ofMLAs changing their ide-ological and political loy-alties for reasons best

known to them. Leaders who defect jus-tify it as “the wish of the people.” Whenthe floor-crossing happened for the firsttime in Haryana, when an MLAswitched party thrice in a day, the term,Aaya Ram Gaya Ram (party-switching)gained prominence in the politicaldiscourse — right from the chaupals tothe Central Hall of Parliament — butwas brushed aside as an “aberration.”Slowly but steadily, the practice gainedground. Who can forget Bhajan Lal, theformer Chief Minister of Haryana, whomigrated to the then newly-elected rul-ing party at the Centre, lock, stock andbarrel and retained his position?

The practice was subsequently pol-ished and upgraded by leaders of allhues. One could go on counting thenumber of luxury hotels that have beenused by parties to house their MLAs onnumerous occasions. What happenedin Rajasthan says it all. The MLAs, whoenjoyed a comfortable stay in hotels atdifferent locations in Haryana,Rajasthan and Gujarat, were convincedthat if they went to their home State andtheir constituencies, they would not beable to resist the temptation of lucra-tive offers that would be waiting out-side to change hands.

What normally should be consid-ered as a humiliating slur by any dig-nified individual is now taking shapeas an “unwritten” but “acceptable” codeacross the board and has become a par-liamentary practice in Indian democ-racy. Every major political party hastried this on several occasions. Onewonders how these MLAs would reactif Mahatma Gandhi walked into theirroom and asked them, “kaise hain aap?(How are you?)” The Rajasthan episodeis almost over and nobody condemnedthe happenings, not even those whohave risen on several occasions toexpress their concern regarding theattack on constitutional values. I findtheir silence amazing.

What’s even more surprising is thatthose, who usually come up with jointstatements expressing concerns aboutwhat they consider “Constitutionalimpropriety, an attack on secular val-ues and ethical lapses”, never come upto denigrate this unethical and immoralpractice that makes fun of democracyand lowers the esteem of the electedrepresentatives themselves. It is ashameless strategy that should notfind a place in a vibrant, functionaldemocracy.

Why isn’t there all-round con-demnation of the Rajasthan drama of

MLAs being herded from onehotel to the other — under strictState security — as unconstitu-tional, unethical and immoral?Even known groups of retiredbureaucrats — who suddenlyappear on the scene to showcasetheir concerns about the erosionof social cohesion, religiousamity and constitutional propri-ety — never thought it fit tocondemn this derogatory prac-tice of herding of elected repre-sentatives. Do they find thispractice to be in sync with theConstitutional framework andin consonance with moral andethical considerations?

In 1922, Gandhiji had writ-ten in a letter that Swaraj wouldnot bring happiness to his peo-ple. He had said that four thingswould weigh heavily against it.Three of them were injustice,burden of administration andtreachery of the rich. Thefourth, that surprised me themost when I came to knowabout it, related to “defects ofelections.” How could he writeabout defections in 1922? I wastold the Mahatma had studiedthe British election system verythoroughly. Gifted with aprophetic futuristic vision, hecould anticipate the shape ofthings so accurately.

I often wonder whether theMLAs in Rajasthan, whoenjoyed a comfortable all-expenses-paid stay in luxuryhotels, even remember thatthey are inheritors of the lega-cy of Mahatma Gandhi, Lal

Bahadur Shastri, RajendraPrasad and other stalwarts of thefreedom struggle. These worthyelected representatives are, infact, panch parmeshwars ofdemocracy. They are occupyinga seat, the incumbent of whichis bound to the Constitution byan oath of affirmation.

One wonders how many ofthem are aware of that eternaleye-opener sentence byMahatma Gandhi: “If, instead ofinsisting on rights, everyonedoes his duty, there will imme-diately be the rule of orderestablished among mankind.”Are such herded stays part ofthe duty of the elected represen-tatives? Do they not realise thatthey are being presented inpublic as weaklings, who wouldnot be able to resist monetarytemptations if allowed to moveout of the hotel?

If these worthies could sittogether with their family mem-bers, including their children,and seek their opinion on beingmade a part of the “pliablegroup”, one is confident theywould get the right advice. Nochild would like his parent to betreated as a saleable commodi-ty. Many of them may have reador attended speeches where ref-erences were made to a queryput before Mahatma Gandhi:What is your message to thepeople? He replied, “My life ismy message.” Would our MLAsbe in a position to tell their chil-dren that they could derivestrength from their experi-

ences? It appears that everyone— right from the ChiefMinister to the Speakers; theparty in power to those in theOpposition; and all others whomatter — have their interpreta-tions of the Constitution andConstitutional propriety. It isworthwhile to recall that underthe Government of India Act of1935, elections were held in1936-37 in various provincesand provincial Governmentswere formed. All Ministers ofthe then Congress Governmenthad resigned in November1939. Gandhiji was ever vigilant,he consistently expressed hisopinion on how legislators andMinisters should be performingtheir new duties and theyshould always think about thewelfare of the people. He was, ina way, educating the legislatorsand Ministers in those dayswhen his overarching presenceon the scene itself was a deter-rent against anyone breaking thenorms: “The holding of anyoffice in the CongressGovernment must be in thespirit of service, without theslightest expectation of person-al gains.”

Our distinguished legisla-tors can ponder over Gandhianthoughts: “There is a beauty andan art in simplicity which hewho runs may see. It does notrequire money to be neat, cleanand dignified. Pomp andpageantry are often synony-mous with vulgarity.” It is indeeda pity that our young ones are

witnessing a political world inwhich — exceptions apart —elected representatives,Ministers and legislators haveforsaken the Gandhian philos-ophy, ideas and dreams. Theyare doing all this knowing itfully well that it would hurt theMahatma’s memory.

When reports emerge oflegislators’ assets multiplyingby a factor of say 500, the com-mon man’s reaction is obvious— it would definitely be devoidof respect, confidence or a con-nect. In 1937-39, those whobecame legislators and Ministerswere men and women whohad entered the freedom strug-gle — not a political party buta national movement thatoffered only sacrifice, toil, suf-ferings and jail terms. Electionsand legislative positions camejust by chance. But allurementswere still there and senior lead-ers were alert to guide and to“examine the utility value of thelegislators.”

And for the Ministers, theguidelines were: “The Ministersare [the people’s] servants. Theycan do nothing against theexpress wishes of the people.They will not stay in office a daylonger than the people wish.”There is much more for theChief Ministers, Ministers andthe legislators to ponder over.Are the Gandhian ideas totallyout of bounds for those who stillswear to be the inheritors of hislegacy? If not, how could theyignore Gandhiji’s words anddeeds? “This office-holding is astep towards either greater pres-tige or its total loss. If it is notto be a total loss, the Ministersand the legislators have to bewatchful of their own personaland public conduct. They haveto be, like Caesar’s wife, abovesuspicion in everything. Theymay not make private gains forthemselves or their relatives orfriends.”

The least people expectfrom their legislators is that theydo not surrender courage ofconviction that a citizen can beproud of, particularly thosewho are in public life and areexpected to enjoy the trust andconfidence of their electors.They must ultimately be true tothe people. They must not sub-jugate themselves to the whimsand fancies of those who wishto retain power or gain powerat any cost.

There is a lot for the elect-ed representatives to whomGandhiji advised not to “arro-gate to themselves greaterknowledge than those experi-enced men who do not happento occupy the ministerial chairs.”Obviously, this applies equallyto every elected person.

(The writer works in education and social cohesion)

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Sir — There are huge amounts inunclaimed deposits at post-officesand many of these account hold-ers may have even died. There arechances of fraud happening, withunscrupulous persons stakingclaim to such deposits. TheDepartment of Posts should sendletters to account holders whohave not operated their accountsin, say, the last three years andgive them reasonable time toeither renew or close them. If noresponse is received, all suchunclaimed money may be frozenin some fixed account, which maybe allowed to be withdrawn bylegal heirs after careful verifica-tion.

Madhu AgrawalNew Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Atmanirbhar raksha”(August 11). With a view toboost defence manufacturing inIndia, Defence Minister RajnathSingh announced a ban on arange of defence imports.Defence manufacturing underthe Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme

is estimated to save about fourlakh crore rupees. No matterhow lofty the goals appear, thefact is that India’s defence sectorsuffers from a few drawbacks.

Already, projects worth �3.5

lakh crore under the Make inIndia scheme are stuck in thepipeline. Projects are often notcompleted on time. Recently,India became a global exporterof arms but we ranked 23rd in

the list of major arms exportersfor 2015-2019 and 19th for 2019.

Another grey area is thequality of products. The ammu-nition supplied by the OrdinanceFactory had damaged tanks,

field guns and caused fatalities.The French company that man-ufactures Rafale fighter planeshad expressed doubts about themanufacturing quality ofHindustan Aeronautics (HAL)during the defence deal. HAL-made Jaguar and Mirage-2000shave caused many fatalities.While defence manufacturingunder Atmanirbhar Bharat looksambitious to make India self-reliant in defence manufacturing,there’s a long way to go. TheGovernment must overcomeexisting challenges.

Venu GS Kollam

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Sir — Back-to-back fire cases atCOVID-19 facility centres are awake-up call for theGovernment. All such tragicevents have proved that thosebearing the responsibility ofsafety regulations have paid lipservice. Exemplary action is theneed of the hour, or else suchcases will continue to occur.

AmanVia email

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The Delhi Government recently announced itselectric vehicle (EV) policy aimed at fasteradoption of cleaner vehicles in the national

Capital. This policy is on the same lines as theCentre’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing ofElectric Vehicles or FAME-II scheme, 2019. UnderDelhi’s EV policy, purchase incentives will be givenworth �30,000 for e-autos, e-rickshaws, goods car-riers and up to �30,000 and �1.5 lakh for e-two-wheelers and e-cars respectively, depending on theirbattery capacity. This will be in addition to the exist-ing incentives provided by the Centre.

The good thing about Delhi’s EV policy is itsdetailing but it falls apart when it comes to fund allo-cation. FAME-II offers an incentive of �1.5 lakh toelectric four-wheelers with an ex-factory price capof �15 lakh and it also has a provision for an incen-tive of �50,000 for three-wheelers, including e-rick-shaws and �20,000 for e-two-wheelers. E-buses canclaim subsidy up to �50 lakh at a rate of �20,000KWH battery capacity.

Given the incentives being offered, two ques-tions should be considered. First, are EVs environ-mentally sustainable? Second, are they viableoptions for the Indian economy in the long-run?The answers to both these questions are debatable.

To produce an Internal Combustion Engine(ICE) vehicle, 10 metric tonnes of CO2 are releasedin the atmosphere and it is the same for an EV with-out the battery. Manufacturing of a 30 KWH bat-tery releases 5.3 metric tonnes of CO2 while man-ufacturing a 100 KWH battery releases 17.5 met-ric tonnes of CO2. A petrol/diesel car emits an aver-age of 5.2 metric tonnes of CO2 in a year whereasthe average usage emission from EV is 2.02 metrictonnes per year. EVs are non-polluting (at the levelof the vehicle), and by design, if and only if, renew-ables are used as the power source. This is an unlike-ly phenomenon in the near future as a wide spec-trum of allied infrastructure needs to be built aroundEVs to ensure renewable use for charging.

More than 90 per cent incentives (especially fortwo-wheelers and three-wheelers) are availed bylead-acid type batteries and they are environmen-tally hazardous. These batteries were already in highdemand and competitive against the fossil fuel atleast for slow vehicles. Even e-rickshaws were a hitmuch before the FAME scheme was announced.Over-incentivising lead acid batteries can signifi-cantly harm the environment.

Coming back to the economics of EVs, FAMEcorrectly identified that the cost of batteries is amajor price differential but failed to investigate intri-cate details behind such a difference. It is a com-mon mistake often made while evaluating eco-friendly solutions. EVs should not be compared withICEVs or regular car engines in totality. EVs are acombination of an engine and life-time fuel where-as ICEVs are valued only for the engine. Anyonebuying an EV is essentially pre-owning fuel for alifetime. Both EV and ICEV engines are compara-ble and cost the same. Providing an incentive to EVsis against fair competition norms and gives an undueadvantage to the EV producer, which ultimately isgoing to hurt the technological advancement of theautomobile industry as a whole.

Plus, about 40-50 per cent of the cost of man-ufacturing an EV accounts for reliable fuel storagei.e. the Li-ion batteries. These are the best storageoptions available but highly unsustainable. The rawmaterial required for manufacturing is limited andconcentrated in a very few countries. Not only that,

a significant tendency is observed to cap-ture such reserves through mergers andacquisitions. The raw material compris-es approximately 60 per cent of the totalcost of manufacturing Li-ion batteries. So,the price is not likely to decline if we usemore of these batteries, unlike what wehad observed for other electronic itemslike computers, solar panels and LEDs.The price of these batteries will increasein future if demand exceeds a certain limitas the price of raw materials will rise. Forinstance, the price of lithium increasedfrom $8,500 per tonne in 2015 to $17,000per tonne in 2018. Similarly, the price ofcobalt rose from $30,000 per tonne to$95,000 per tonne between 2015 and 2018.These increases were in anticipation of agrowing EV market but later their pricedropped on its dismal performance. Indiadoes not have any lithium reserves, sup-ply chain or an ecosystem to manufactureLi-ion batteries in order to ensure a steadysupply. So EVs are not an economically-viable option for the country.

Both FAME and the Delhi EV poli-cy talk about setting up public EV charg-ing stations around Delhi’s congestedroads. This would require vast swathes ofpublic land to serve a handful of wealthyowners and violates the basic principlesof public good. Plus, parking is a majorissue in Delhi, so allowing public charg-ing is only going to legitimise capture ofsidewalks. Also, charging an EV in theblazing summer sun in Delhi is neitheradvisable nor safe.

The China factor: Li-ion batteriesaccount for almost 50 per cent of the costof an EV. While China has a thriving lithi-um chemical, battery cathode, battery celland EV supply chain, India has none.China dominates the battery supply chainand around three-quarters of the globalbattery cell manufacturing capacity is inour neighbouring country. On top of that,

Chinese companies have unparallel con-trol over battery raw materials and pro-cessing facilities. At present, almost all Li-ion batteries used for EVs are importedfrom China. This means incentives aimedat Indian manufacturers are directlygoing to Chinese battery producers. Forexample, buying a �15 lakh EV (with Li-ion batteries) in India means a transfer of�7.5 lakh to China, including �3 lakh ofthe taxpayers’ money. The amount couldgo up to �1 crore for an e-bus. Strategically,too, over-dependence on China is danger-ous and given the current geo-political sce-nario, it is not advisable to take such riskysteps.

The way forward: FAME or otherState Government clean vehicle schemesare an excellent platform to promoteindigenous production of EVs. Theyshould stick to the principles ofAtmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat to pro-mote localised production at global stan-dards and stop incentivising unsustainablemeans of storage technologies.

Unbundling of EVs: Separating thevehicle from its fuel, i.e. batteries, is a nec-essary condition for the development ofthe EV market in India. At present, EVshave a low-capacity engine with super-expensive fuel options. This is an absurdarrangement and makes a mockery of faircompetition. It is like British Petroleumselling cars for their oil or Ford diggingoil wells for their car, leading to inefficien-cy in both the segments.

Make it consumer-centric: At pre-sent, EVs are policy-centric. They hard-ly consider consumers as end-users andrather aim to cater to the needs of devel-opment activists. Consumers need flex-ibility in choosing a fuel source, mileage,durability and so on. Their mobilityrequirement also varies from a few kilo-metres to hundreds of kilometres in onerun. They possess varied tastes, concerns

and limitations. Unless consumers aregiven such flexibility and choices, EV salesin India won’t pick up. For a typical mid-dle class/upper middle class family, a caris an aspiration and an investment withreasonable resale value. At present EVshave no resale value, hence, it is unjusti-fied to expect a customer to invest hard-earned money in an untested, risky tech-nology in the name of pollution controlwhile there is no definite proof that it isa cleaner energy option.

Competing alternatives: The FAMEpolicy is biased towards EVs, whichmight be discriminatory against otherenvironment-friendly mobility optionslike hydrogen fuel cell buses. We alreadyhave experience in running CNG busesand we can run hydrogen cell variants, too.These buses can be manufactured in Indiawithout any fuel constraint as hydrogenis the most abundant element in the uni-verse and multiple renewable sources caneasily be used to generate it. Apart frombeing zero-emission, it does not have toface logistical challenges like EVs. In a nut-shell, FAME is pumping �10,000 crore ofthe taxpayers’ money into an industrywhich is strategically counterproductiveand not even environment-friendly. Thispolicy should immediately be replacedwith a guideline which uses a broader def-inition of e-mobility, encourages innova-tions in sustainable storage that rely on theAtmanirbhar Bharat ethos.

The worst is the increasing tenden-cy to use public money for the elite. If pol-lution is a concern, then why not giveinduction cookers to the poor or ban dieselgenerators? Automobiles do not requireState backing, consumers will automati-cally adapt to EVs if they fit in with theirrequirements.

(The writer is Fellow, IndiaDevelopment Foundation. Views expressedare personal)

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If the Centre’s biggest agenda is therevival of the economy, then it canonly be achieved by implement-

ing the Atmanirbhar BharatAbhiyaan. We may get some idea ifwe analyse the progress of our neigh-bouring nation, China. In 1987, itsGross Domestic Product (GDP) wasalmost equal to India’s GDP at $279billion. Then, in December 1978,Deng Xiaoping announced the“Open Door Policy” and it was amajor turning point for the Chineseeconomy. Beijing experienced 15per cent growth year on year at a timethe global economy was not evengrowing, dipping to a rate of three percent.

This brought China from the

32nd position in global exports tofirst position in 2013. The ChineseGovernment checked all the rightboxes, whether it was a lower taxregime, industry-friendly wage rules,cheap capital, free land or evenallowing the misuse of patent andknowledge laws.

When multinational corpora-tions (MNCs) realised that manufac-turing costs in the US and Europewere skyrocketing due to the highcost of manpower, land and theirstringent pollution norms, they beganlooking for alternative locations andevaluated a few South Asian countrieslike Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand,China, Indonesia and many more.

They ignored India due to theLicence Raj, stiff labour laws, unclearpolicy on land acquisition, poorpower supply, lack of skilled man-power, a closed foreign trade policyand many more such hurdles. Wewere one of the lowest-ranked nationson the Ease of Doing Business index.

Upon the evaluation of all SouthAsian countries, it was found thatChina was best suited for movingmanufacturing business from the

US and Europe, as it had a huge pop-ulation which could be skilled andbrought into the workforce. It hadhuge tracts of land, too, for setting upmanufacturing bases.

Now, given the global angeragainst Beijing due to the spread ofthe Coronavirus contagion, nationsare looking to shift their manufactur-ing businesses and supply chains outof China. This is another opportuni-ty for India to attract global business.But we need to check all the rightboxes like Beijing did.

It might take time, maybe five-sixyears minimum to savour the fruitsof an atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharatinstead of the very next quarter likemany people are hoping. If we wantto act on self-reliance, we need tofocus on all segments of manufactur-ing, starting from big manufacturingcompanies to the Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises (MSME), whichcan feed the former.

However, unless we invest inResearch and Development (R&D),unless we create products that are bet-ter and more economical than prod-ucts made around the world and in

China, we can’t sell them in internalor global markets. If we want to makeAtmanirbhar Bharat more than a slo-gan, then we need to provide capital-rich global players an equal footingfor their investment and have an openand consistent trade policy; an easyland acquisition policy; cheap andskilled labour and a consistent powersupply.

According to the Government,the five pillars of the AtmanirbharBharat Abhiyaan focus on the econ-omy, infrastructure, the system, avibrant demography and the creationof internal demand. An economy isthe sum total of many small compo-nents of business, starting from theconsumer, markets, traders, banks,utility companies, manufacturers,Government policies and institu-tions. Hence, any leakage of resourceswill not bring about effective use ofthe same.

Infrastructure always remains atalking point in our country but noone has ever worked seriouslytowards developing it. As a result ofthis, many infrastructure projectshave been delayed by as much as 20-

25 years. It is difficult to believe thatprojects conceptualised at a cost of�20 crore in 1968 cost �200 crore in2010 and are still pending. If we arereally interested in an AtmanirbharBharat, then fiscal self-discipline ismandatory and it must start fromGovernment departments. Plus, weneed to fix responsibility for time andcost overruns in order to get workdone on time. India still lacks goodinfrastructure and AtmanirbharBharat will not be possible if we don’tconnect all the dots.

Consistent Government policieson trade and taxation are key to cre-ating any manufacturing base as ittakes time to reap the benefits of thesame. The Government mustannounce policies for 15-20 yearswhich can’t be changed by any newGovernment of the future. Projects ofnational importance must not bescrapped or altered by a new set ofMinisters.

Another key component thatmust be aligned is demography.Though India is a democratic coun-try and everyone has the right to fol-low their own free will, if we want

to make India atmanirbhar, then weneed to have a “India First” policy.

Self-reliance is not a short race,rather it is a marathon and can becompleted only when all engines startfiring in the desired direction and insynchronisation with each other.Start-ups can act as a catalyst and bestakeholders in manufacturing, ser-vice delivery and a support elementin creating a consensus among themasses for this mega project.

The Government will act as theagent to expedite and bind the entireprocess by easing policies around it.Involve all stakeholders and giveadequate compensation to them. Ifthis is implemented, then it can be thebiggest employment generator, forexearner and a huge support to theIndian economy.

To achieve a $5 trillion economyfrom a $2.8 trillion one in about fiveyears, we need to achieve a growthrate of more than 15 per cent perannum. It can be done only by firingall engines of growth, includingMSME and big industries.

(The writer is Associate Professor,JNU)

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Multi Commodity Exchange ofIndia on Wednesday said it willlaunch a liquidity enhance-ment scheme in the newlylaunched segment 'options ongoods' with gold mini contract.

The liquidity enhancementscheme, popularly known asmarket making, will start fromSeptember 1, MCX said in acircular.

"The Exchange, based on acompetitive bidding process,will appoint the lowest (qual-ified) bidder in terms of 'bidincentive amount' as a singledesignated market maker forthe product till the schemeremains in force. The maxi-mum incentive bid amount isRs 40 lakh per month,” theexchange circular added.

The Securities and ExchangeBoard of India had allowed aliquidity enhancement schemein 2018. Under the scheme,brokers and other marketintermediaries are given incen-tives to bring in liquidity and

generate investor interest insecurities for a specified peri-od of time. MCX, which hadlaunched options on futures ingold in 2017, had successfullyexperimented with marketmaking in the contract inApril-October 2018.

The average daily turnoverin the gold options on futures,which was around Rs 82 croreduring six months prior tointroduction of the market

making in the contract, shot upto Rs 791 crore during the six-months of the market making.

The options on goods seg-ment is much easier a productfrom traders' perspective andmarket making is likely tobrighten the prospects of goldmini contract, particularly dueto unprecedented interest inbullion trading due to theglobal rally to record in gold,MCX said.

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Drug firm Natco Pharma onWednesday reported a 14.49per cent decline in its consol-idated net profit to Rs 122.1crore for the quarter endedJune mainly on account ofmargin pressure on formula-tions.

The company had posted anet profit of Rs 142.8 crore forthe corresponding period ofthe previous fiscal, NatcoPharma said in a BSE filing.

Total income of the compa-ny stood at Rs 582.1 crore forthe quarter under considera-tion as against Rs 513.3 crorefor the same period year ago,

it added.During the quarter, the com-

pany faced margin pressure on

both domestic and internation-al formulations, Natco Pharmasaid.

"In spite of lower marginsduring the first quarter, thecompany is confident of itsbusiness for remaining part ofthe financial year based on theorder book and earnings out-look. The company expects agrowth of over 25 per cent inits earnings for FY2020-21compared to prior year," itadded.

The board of directors hasapproved an interim dividendof Rs 1.25 per equity share ofRs 2 each for FY2020-21 , thefiling said.

Shares of Natco Pharmawere trading at Rs 843.60 perscrip on BSE, down 2.57 percent over previous close.

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German lender DeutscheBank on Wednesdayannounced a capital infusionof Rs 2,700 crore into its Indiaoperations for expansionacross segments.

This is the second time inless than two years that thebank has infused money intolocal operations consisting of17 branches, after the Rs 3,800crore investment in early2019.

Banks have to set asidecapital for every new loan thatthey make and also when theloan slips into non-perform-ing territory.

A bank statement said thefresh capital will be used tosupport further expansion ofDeutsche Bank India across allof its businesses, includingcorporate banking, invest-ment banking, and interna-

tional private banking thathave been consistently grow-ing over the years.

Its chief country officerKaushik Shaparia said theincremental capital injectionshould be seen as a strong val-idation of the lender's confi-dence in the business modeland potential in India.

It is also “demonstrative ofour intent to further deepenour presence here”, he said,adding that the recent monthshave thrown up opportunitiesto work ever more closelywith clients and support themwith services and advice insteering through the toughenvironment.

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The United PlantersAssociation of Southern Indiahas strongly objected to anymove to tinker with the importduty structure, saying it will becounter-productive for the teagrowing sector.

UPASI president A RNagappan said that the indus-try employs 2.12 lakh growersand 11.65 lakh workers, ofwhich more than 70 per centare women and hence veryimportant from the inclusivegrowth model pursued by theGovernment of India.

Nagappan's reaction comes

in the wake of reports that teaTraders/Packeteers in thecountry have sought duty freeimports of tea, in the contextof marginal increase in teaprices due to lower produc-tion.

In a statement, he said thatIndian tea production till Junewas lower mainly due to theinitial lockdown measuresintroduced to control thespread of Covid-19 pandem-ic.This has led to someincrease in the prices sincemid-June 2020, which wasvery much needed for thesustenance of this agro indus-try.

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The country's largest ironore miner NMDC onWednesday hiked rates ofthe mineral by Rs 300 to Rs2,950 a tonne with immedi-ate effect.

Iron ore is the key rawmaterial used in steel making.Any change in its prices hasa direct impact on the rates ofsteel.

In a filing to BSE, NMDCsaid it has increased theprice of lumps or high-gradeiron ore by Rs 300 to Rs2,950 per tonne, and that ofiron ore fines or inferiorgrade ore by Rs 300 to Rs2,660 a tonne.

The revised prices excluderoyalty, District Mineral Fund(DMF), DMET, cess, forestpermit fee, and other taxes,the company said. It addedthat the new rates are effec-tive from August 12, 2020.

The last revision, effectiveJuly 31, was announced onAugust 3, when NMDC hadfixed the price of lumps at Rs2,650 per tonne and of finesat Rs 2,360 a tonne.

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India's fuel demand is begin-ning to flatline after showingsigns of returning to life, asconsumption dipped 11.7 percent in July, official datashowed.

Fuel consumption, abarometer of economic activ-ity in the country, hadslumped by over 45 per centin April as nationwide lock-down halted most vehiculartraffic and shut industries.However, with easing of lock-down restrictions, thedemand picked up in Mayand June with month-on-month increase in consump-tion numbers.

However, mini-lockdownsimposed by states to containthe spread of coronavirusseemed to have stopped thisrecovery, with fuel demandfalling 3.5 per cent in Julyover the previous month.

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State-owned CIL onWednesday said it has sought15 per cent distance-basedfreight concession fromIndian Railways for trans-portation of domestic coal tocustomers located at a dis-tance of 701 to 1,400 km fromits mines. The move is aimedat broadening the client baseand bring in more customersunder import substitutionplans, CIL said in a statement.

Out of 126 coal-basedthermal plants linked withCIL, 14 plants located over1,400 km distance are eligiblefor the freight concessionpresently.

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In efforts to have a singlesource for all non-financial dis-closures by corporates, a gov-ernment-appointed panel hasmade various proposals onbusiness responsibility report-ing, including putting in placetwo formats for disclosinginformation.

The committee, constitutedby the Ministry of CorporateAffairs in 2018, has proposedthat the BusinessResponsibility Report shouldbe called as the BusinessResponsibility andSustainability Report (BRSR).

This would help betterreflecting the "intent and scopeof reporting requirement," thereport said.

As per the report, reportingmay be done by top 1,000 list-ed companies in terms of theirmarket capitalisation or asprescribed by markets regula-tor Sebi.

"The reporting requirementmay be extended by MCA

(Ministry of Corporate Affairs)to unlisted companies abovespecified thresholds ofturnover and/ or paid-up cap-ital," it noted.

The panel has suggestedtwo formats for disclosures --a comprehensive format and a"lite version" -- and also calledfor implementation of thereporting requirements in agradual and phased manner.

Smaller unlisted companiesmay adopt a lite version of theformat, on a voluntary basis, itadded.

The committee on BusinessResponsibility was constitutedfor finalising business respon-sibility reporting formats forlisted and unlisted companiesunder the National Guidelineson Responsible BusinessConduct (NGRBC).

Among others, the panel hasrecommended that the BRSRcould be integrated with MCA21 portal as that would ensurethat all information alreadyfiled on the portal by compa-nies would be automaticallyfilled while filing the BRSR.

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Tata Power on Wednesdaysaid its consolidated net prof-it rose by 10 per cent to Rs268 crore for quarter endedJune on the back of reducedexpenses.

The company had posted anet profit of Rs 243 crore dur-ing the same period a yearago, Tata Power said in a BSEfiling.

During April-June, thecompany reported a totalincome of Rs 6,540 crore ascompared to Rs 7,874 crore inthe year-ago quarter.

Total expenses during thequarter under review stood atRs 6,555 crore as against Rs7,228 crore in the year-agoperiod.

In a separate statement, thecompany said, it was able tomaintain stable performancedespite lower profits fromSolar EPC businesses main-ly on account of lower financ-ing cost and stable perfor-mance across all clusters.

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Bharat Forge on Wednesdayreported a consoldiated loss of127.3 crore for the quarterended June 30. The companyhad posted a consolidatedprofit of Rs 171.9 crore inApril-June period of the previ-ous fiscal, Bharat Forge said ina filing to the BSE.

The company's income dur-ing April-June period declinedto Rs 1,199.2 crore from Rs2,372.7 crore in the year-agoperiod. The spread of COVID-19 has severely impacted busi-ness in many countries, includ-ing India, and there has beensevere disruption to regularbusiness operations due to lock-down and other emergencymeasures, Bharat Forge said.

The group has made assess-ment of liquidity, recoverablevalues of its financial and non-

financial assets, including car-rying value of its subsidiaries,and has concluded that thereare no material adjustmentsrequired in the interim finan-cial results. However, theimpact assessment of COVID-19 is a continuous process,given the uncertainties associ-ated with its nature and dura-tion, it said. "The impact ofglobal health pandemic mightbe different from that estimat-ed as at the date of approval ofthese financial results. Thegroup will continue to closelymonitor any material changesto future economic condi-tions," the filing said.

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Thermax Ltd on Wednesdayreported a consolidated netloss of Rs 15.27 crore for thequarter ended June 30.

It had posted a Rs 62.76crore net profit during the cor-responding quarter of the pre-vious financial year, ThermaxLtd said in a BSE filing.

The company during April-June 2020 reported a totalincome of Rs 685.86 crore. Ithad posted a total income of Rs1,414.01 crore in the year-agoquarter.

Its total expenses duringthe June 2020 quarter stood atRs 708.35 crore. It had stood atRs 1,323.96 crore a year ago.

In a statement, it saidThermax Group ManagingDirector and Chief ExecutiveOfficer M S Unnikrishnan willretire on August 31, 2020,after serving the company for13 years in the capacity.

Ashish Bhandari, whojoined as the firm's joint MDon April 7, 2020, will succeedhim as the new MD & CEO.

"The group's operations andfinancial results for the quar-ter were adversely impacted bythe lockdown imposed to con-tain the spread of COVID-19.

The operations graduallyresumed with requisite precau-tions during the quarter withlimited availability of work-force and disrupted supplychain," according to the filing.

It added that the results for

the June 2020 quarter aretherefore not comparable withthose for the previous quarter."The group continues to mon-itor the economic effects of thepandemic while taking steps toimprove its execution efficien-cies and the financial out-come."

Thermax ChairpersonMeher Pudumjee said, "Onbehalf of the board and thefamily, I thank Unnikrishnanfor his association withThermax for 28 long years."

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Largest cement manufacturerUltratech Cement has lined upinvestment of Rs 1,500 crore inFY21 in multiple initiatives, itschairman Kumar MangalamBirla said on Wednesday.

The company is also target-ing to increase its annualcapacity to 118 million tonnesfrom 114.8 million tonnes cur-rently, he informed the compa-ny's shareholders during its vir-tual annual general meeting.

Birla, who heads the diver-sified conglomerate AdityaBirla Group, said periods ofturmoil create champions,adding that Ultratech has the

capacity, leadership acrossmarkets and a strong balancesheet to emerge as one.

"Your company has plannedtotal capex cash outlay of Rs1,500 crore for a range of keyinitiatives," he informed theshareholders.

This will include spends on

installing 66 MW of waste heatrecovery systems (WHRS), 1.2million tonnes per annumbrownfield cement capacityaddition in West Bengal andBihar, pending work for phase2 of Bara grinding unit in UttarPradesh, coal block develop-ment in Madhya Pradesh, newready mix concrete plants andother plant upkeep capex, hesaid.

The consolidated cementcapacity will stand augmentedto 118 million tonnes perannum, and green powercapacity will increase to 185MW for WHRS and over 350MW for solar and wind power,he said.

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The GST intelligence officialshave detected over Rs 17crore tax evasion by a majorcement manufacturer inSatna and arrested one of itsdirectors, according to anofficial statement issued onWednesday. They also con-ducted multiple searches inthe states of Madhya Pradeshand Uttar Pradesh fromAugust 5 to August 11 at var-ious premises belonging tothe cement manufacturerlocated at Maihar, Satna andtheir registered dealers anddistributors, it said.

“Searches have indicatedthat substantial quantities ofcement and clinker have beensupplied clandestinely with-out payment of Goods &Service Tax (GST) in thestates of MP and UP,” thestatement issued by theDirectorate General of GSTIntelligence (DGGI), Bhopalzonal unit. The searches wereconducted at Maihar, Satna,Allahabad, Kushinagar, Agra,Kanpur and New Delhi. Inall, 28 searches were conduct-ed during the one-week longoperation, it said.

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e enjoyed making art,he made a lot of fanart that stemmed fromhis love for them, andto his surprise, hiswork was reposted by

celebrities like AmandaCerny and Kat Grahamamong others. AryamanSingh, all of 18, decided toand succeeded at perfectinghis art of graphite pencil andcolour pencil portraits amidthe lockdown and is nowalso making money out of it,because why not! “I neverthought I’d make money offthis someday. After celebsreposted my work, I begangetting requests from friendsand followers on Instagram,and after a few of them, Iasked myself, ‘Why notmonetise it’ and that’s how itall started,” shares the BBA1st year student, who hopesto be a businessman one day.

Then there’s HarikaBantupalli, who’s morethings than one — a digitalnomad who’s a writer, editor,gourmand, teacher, andmore. She’s one who isalways trying her hand atdifferent skills and this lock-down, it was Digital Art.“Earlier, I’d draw or doodle abit on paper and then scan itand illustrate and makephone covers, etc., formyself. It was during thelockdown that I received myiPad and began exploringproper digital art using theApple pencil,” says Harika.Now that she’s taught herself well enough, she is mak-ing money out of it. “SinceI’m already in the field ofediting where I offer proof-reading, formatting services,

mentoring, coaching towriters, etc., I now haveadded Digital art for

book covers too, as part ofmy package underharika.ink,” she adds.

Yashwanth Busani startedwall art as a hobby. He deco-rated his home and sharedpictures of the same withfriends who loved it andasked if he could do thesame for them too. He laterbegan getting more andmore requests from well-wishers and their friends.“That’s when I was asked‘why do it for free?’ andthat’s how it turned mone-tary. I never saw this com-ing, but the lockdown didgive me more time andthought to polish my art,and make money from it too,” says the IT profes-sional.

Now meet the sistersbehind Mehraan Collection— Mehak Sisodia andSimran Sisodia whose brandis a combination of boththeir names. They were likeany two normal siblings whowatched a lot of videos aboutclay art and one day decidedto try their hand at them.What started out as a funDIY project with polymerclay, translated into some-thing creative and beautiful,and they are now spreadingtheir love for statement jew-elry through their home-grown brand. “We makestatement handmade ear-rings and pendants withPolymer Clay. We also cus-tomize as per client require-ments. Each design is madein small batches and we donot mass produce. We takeorders via Instagram or ouronline store on InstaMojo.Shipping is done throughour courier partners. If youplace an order from ouronline store, MojoExpress

takes care of the shippingand if the order is placedthrough any other platformDTDC takes care of theshipping, as simple as that,”explains Simran, the older ofthe two siblings.

“During the lockdown,despite all the noise andmental disturbances, wewere fortunate enough tohave found our happy place,”Simran adds. The siblingduo soon hopes to take it bigand venture further into cre-ative jewellery.

Srinidhi Mateti, another18-year-old, who, like mostteenagers with a flair forcard making and more, usedthe period during the lock-down to focus on letteringand decided to combine artwith letter words, phrases,quotes, illustrations and alsotried adding her photogra-phy skills to make money offher love for them all. Thesecombined, and boom, shehas been receiving commis-sions for customised workafter people saw and lovedher work on Instagram. “Irecently discovered gouche -a kind of paint, consideredthe love child of wateracrylics, and the artwork hasbeen coming out great. I’vebeen receiving more workever since,” shares Srinidhi,who is still discovering herskills, honing them, and isyet to zero-in on what shewants to pursue as a career.

The lockdown sure hasgiven several artists likethem and more a lot of timeto reflect upon what they’vealways seen as a hobby andhelped them discover thatthere is so much more thatthey could do than justderiving joy and funout of it.

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f there is oneaspect of entre-preneurshippeople want toget right, it isleadership.

Because with the rightleadership you can getyour workforce to reachheights they didn’t thinkthey could achieve. And tobe a good leader, you haveto make learning a priority.Kanthi Dutt, a youngentrepreneur fromHyderabad has launched abrand new book titledRediscovering path to suc-cess, which promises tohold you to the y-junctionsof your life helping youknow the why’s and how’sof life-altering decisions.The foreword for the bookhas been written by noneother than politicianRenuka Chowdhury!

“I always believe that weshould rediscover our-selves with the ever-chang-ing environment and attainsatisfaction in whicheverpath we are travelling. Soit’s important to re-discov-er at different stages in life,hence the book,” shares the author of the book.‘Rediscovering path to suc-cess’ has the right balanceof facts, stories, inspiration,actions, and somehowleave you changed after-

ward. The book offers youa chance to learn aboutKanthi’s path to success atsuch a young age and pointof view helping to changeperspectives and also lead-ing to unexpected oppor-

tunities — it can inspiresomeone to launch a start-up, pivot to a new businessmodel or even alter a lifeapproach.

“My book will help myreaders grow both in life

and in business in order tobecome a successful entre-preneur. Self-discovery isthe key to success. In thisbusy urban lifestyle, weoften miss doing that! Thisbook is guaranteed tochange your life forever.

Not only will it teach youall the do’s and don’ts ofthe entrepreneurial life, butit will also teach you howto be a better socialite,”adds the business tycoon.

As an entrepreneur, yourultimate goal is to takeyour business idea towardssuccess which cannot hap-pen overnight. There is noend to learning in theentrepreneurial business.Every industry keeps onchanging and growingwith time. To match upwith the pace and survivalin the industry, this book isa must-read!

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kaleidoscopicjourney acrossBali, Hong Kong,Kyrgyzstan,Myanmar,Thailand and

Vietnam captures thediverse landscapes, texturesand people of Asia. Theexhibit is live in an onlineexhibition titled ‘DiverseAsia’ and is available onview till August 23.

The pictures are capturedby Ajit Rana, who swears bytwo philosophies in life -taking the road less travelledand following your heart.His photography is drivenby a passion for nature,

food, human emotions anddifferent cultures. The pre-sent exhibition is an exam-ple of Ajit’s travels over thelast couple of years in Asia,which offers a rich palette ofchoices making each coun-try a unique experience.

From the tropical luxuri-ance of Myanmar to thesparse landscapes of thehigh plateau of Central Asia,from the modern skyscrap-ers of Hong Kong to Hanoi’snarrow frontage buildings,one is faced with shifts ofshape, colour and people.

Equally unique is Bali,with its extraordinary out-pouring of Hindu heritage

temples and sculptures, stud-ded within a largely MuslimIndonesia. The diversity livesin Asia’s landscapes, cities,natural habitat and most ofall it’s people. Each culturehas an ancient history andtraditions that stem from anauthentic heritage.

The exhibition on theIndia International Centrewebsite aims to give a flavourof the diversity of the region,without any pretences. Asper the photographer, no sin-gle exhibit collection can dojustice to even one of thecountry’s richness, let alonewhat is arguably the world’smost varied continent.

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Page 10: ˝#ˆ$˝˚!%ˆ&ˇˆ#&’˝(&$˜˙ˆ)˜(€¦ · Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond

ctress Kareena Kapoorand her husband,actor Saif Ali Khan,announced onWednesday that they

were expecting an addition totheir family.

“We are very pleased toannounce that we are expect-ing an addition to our family !!Thank you to all our well wish-ers for all their love and sup-port. Saif and Kareena,” saidthe announcement issued onWednesday afternoon by thestar couple through theiroffice.

Saif and Kareena tied theknot on October 16, 2012. Thecouple have a son Taimur, whowas born on December 20,2016.

Interestingly, the announce-ment from the couple came onWednesday, which happens tobe the birthday of Bollywoodactress Sara Ali Khan, Saif ’sdaughter from his first wed-ding with actress AmritaSingh.

ctress Swara Bhaskar says herfans will get to see her per-forming some high-octaneaction sequences as a cop inan upcoming digital project.

Talking about the series,titled Flesh, Swara said, “Human andchild trafficking is one of the mostdamning realities of the world and it’simportant that we keep highlighting theissue through the fictional content thatwe create.”

“I am honoured to be a part of Fleshand given the opportunity to workwith the team was an absolute plea-sure. For the very first time in mycareer, I will be seen essaying the roleof a cop which I am hoping will beappreciated by fans. They will witnessme performing some high-octaneaction sequences,” added the actress.

The web series, which is a crime-thriller, also stars Akshay Oberoi,Vidya Malvade and MahimaMakwana. Flesh is written by PoojaLadha Surti and is directed byDanish Aslam.

The series will stream on ErosNow from August 21.

ore details areemerging fromRheaChakrabortys callrecords whichshow that the

girlfriend of late Bollywoodactor Sushant Singh Rajputwas also in touch with sever-al celebrities like superstarAamir Khan, ShraddhaKapoor, Rakul Preet Singh,Aditya Roy Kapoor, RanaDaggubati, Sunny Singh anddance maestro late SarojKhan.

Rhea is being investigatedby the CBI and theEnforcement Directorate(ED) along with her familymembers in connection withthe death of Sushant SinghRajput on the basis of theBihar Police complaint filedby Sushant’s father K.K.Singh.

According to the calldetail records of Rhea, shehad called Aamir Khan oncewhile the superstar revertedto her in the form of threeSMSs.

There has been muchdebate over the silence ofBollywood’s three Khans(Salman, Shahrukh andAamir) in Sushant’s deathcase till date. And now,Aamir Khan’s name has beenfound in Rhea’s call records.

According to the CDR,Rhea made 569 calls toShruti Modi, Sushant’s for-mer manager and the lattercalled her 222 times.

Rhea was also in constanttouch with Sushant’s housemanager Samuel Miranda.The CDR showed that shecalled him over 259 timeswhile the latter called her 28times.

The call records showedthat Rhea had made 30 callsto actor Rakul Preet Singhwhile the latter called her up14 times. The two alsoexchanged two SMSsbetween them.

The CDR also revealedthat Rhea has calledAashiqui 2 fame star AdityaRoy Kapoor 16 times whilehe made seven calls to her.

Similarly, she called upShraddha Kapoor thricewhile the latter called her uptwice.

The actor was also intouch with Sonu Ke Titu kiSweety actor Sunny Singh.Rhea had called her seventimes, while the latter calledher back four times.

Similarly, Rana Daggubati,who starred in the Baahubalifranchise, was also in touchwith Rhea who had calledhim seven times and hecalled her back four times.

Dance maestro Saroj Khanwho passed away last monthwas also in touch with Rhea.According to call records,Rhea called Saroj Khanthrice while the latter calledher back twice and the twoalso shared one SM.

The CDR furtherrevealed that Rhea wasalso in touch withMahesh Bhatt. In themonth of January thisyear, the twoexchanged 16 callsamong themselves.Nine calls weremade to Bhatt byRhea while hecalled her seventimes. The ED hasrecorded the state-ment of Rheatwice, her brotherShowik thrice, herfather Indrajit once,her ex-manager ShrutiModi thrice, Sushant’shouse manager SamuelMiranda twice, herChartered AccountantRitesh Shah once, Sushant'sCA Sandeep Sridhar onceand Sushant’s sister MituSingh once.

On Monday, a CBI team also recorded the statement of Sushant’s father and his elder sisterRani Singh.

��

Hyderabad Thursday August 13 2020

FUN

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REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

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CALVIN AND HOBBES

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Yesterday’s solution

restler-turned-movie starDwayneJohnson clungto the top sloton the list of the

world’s highest-paid maleactors for a second straightyear, according to anannual tally released byForbes magazine onTuesday.

Johnson, also known byhis ring name The Rock,earned $87.5 million fromJune 1, 2019 to June 1,2020, Forbes said, includ-ing $23.5 million fromNetflix Inc to star inmovie thriller Red Notice.He also benefited from hisProject Rock fitness wear

line for Under ArmourInc.

Ryan Reynolds, who co-stars with Johnson in RedNotice, came in second inthe Forbes ranking of malestars. He earned $20 mil-lion for that film, plusanother $20 million forNetflix movie SixUnderground, the maga-zine said, part of his $71.5million total for the one-year period.

Actor and producerMark Wahlberg, star ofNetflix action comedySpenser Confidential, fin-ished third with $58 mil-lion. Next on the list wereactors Ben Affleck with$55 million and Vin Diesel

with $54 million.Akshay Kumar, the only

Bollywood star in the top10, landed in sixth placewith earnings of $48.5 mil-lion. Most of his incomecame from productendorsements, Forbes said.

Rounding out the listwere Hamilton creatorLin-Manuel Miranda,actors Will Smith andAdam Sandler, and mar-tial-arts star Jackie Chan.

The figures are pre-taxand do not include deduc-tions for fees given toagents, managers andlawyers, Forbes said. Themagazine releases a sepa-rate list of highest-paidactresses.

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s Nani-starrer V headed for adirect-to-web release? At least

that’s what the buzz is pointingat. Despite repeated assurances

from Nani that the film will see atheatrical release, multiple

reports doing the rounds indicate producerDil Raju has clinched a handsome OTT dealfor the film, which is a win-win situation forboth the parties. The film is believed to drop

in the first week of next month.With the film held back from release after

its Ugadi deadline couldn’t be met due to thelockdown triggered by the pandemic, the

rapidly escalating interest rates pushed Rajuto explore the digital offers on the table,

word on the street has it. At the same time,some other unverified reports indicate thatOTT release is just another rumour and as

the film is Nani’s landmark 25th, the makersare still looking at a theatrical roll out. Amidall this though, the makers chose to remain

mum-not even releasing a statement (till wewent to press time).

An action thriller, directed by MohanKrishna Indraganti, V, co-stars

Sudheer Babu, Nani, AditiRao Hydari, Jagapathi

Babu, Vennela Kishore,Nassar and Srinivas

Avasarala.

ctor Ali Rezaadmits that hisfilm career got amuch-neededimpetus after hisstint in reality

show Bigg Boss last year,where he emerged as one ofthe favourite contestants. Herecounts fondly how theshow’s superstar hostNagarjuna slowly walkedtowards him after the season,informing him that “there issomething exciting lined upfor you and you will get acall in two days”. “Wild Dogdirector Ahishor Solomonrang me two days later and

first learned about my BiggBoss experience. He wantedto know whether I was inter-ested in playing only leadroles or have any leaningtowards supporting roles aswell. I told him I’m okaywith any role as long as it’s agood one. He asked me tocome down to his officeafterward before offering mea significant part in WildDog. He didn’t even auditionme, as he was impressedwith the monologue I per-formed on the show,” Rezatells us animatedly in aninterview.

Not just Wild Dog andPrakash Raj-starrer RangaMarthaanda, Bigg Bosshelped him bag a Hindi-Telugu web series suspensethriller for ZEE5, The ExpiryDate, where he is playing oneof the leads alongside TonyLuke (Hindi movie Badlafame). “I’ve also signed aHindi web film with a newproduction house. Thenthere is a music video I willbe shooting from the 17th ofthis month,” he shares.

The experience of sharingscreen space with Nagarjunain Wild Dog, he maintains,was wonderful. “Sir is verycool and down-to-earth. Henever made us feel that wewere working with a super-star. My conversations withhim mostly centered on fit-ness, his eating habits, skinand hair etc,” he smiles.

Right now, Reza is lookingforward to gauging the reac-

tion of audiences for his gigin Palasa 1978 directorKaruna Kumar’s MetroKathalu for aha. His rolealongside Sana’s forms one ofthe four stories of the anthol-ogy drama. “My episode istitled Ghatana. I play a rolewho meets with an accidentafter he comes out of a cine-ma hall. A small storyunfolds from there. I can’treveal more as the episode’sduration is only 20 minutesbut it’s a situation that canhappen to anyone at anytime. When Karuna garunarrated the story, Ifound it natural and wasimmediately drawntowards it,” he notes.

Metro Kathalu was shotwhen coronavirus positivecases in Hyderabad began tospike exponentially but thathardly dissuaded Reza fromaccepting it. “When themakers asked me whether Ihave any reservations aboutshooting, I promptly repliedwith a no. COVID-19 neverscared me. Instead of gettingscared and hunkered downat home, I wouldn’t haveminded if I got infected,” hedeclares.

As the drama marks hisdebut on an OTT platform,Reza is excited and at thesame time confident about itwinning the audience’s love.“With the advent of OTT,actors like me can be a part ofshows where we get to playthe lead roles and enrich ourcraft further,” he points out.

Before Bigg Boss, theHyderabad-lad has been apart of a string of films whichdidn’t lead him anywhere inTelugu cinema land-scape. While con-ceding that itdid botherhim, heexpresseshappi-

nesswhere he is right nowafter starting his career14 years ago with “ajunior artiste kind ofmodel role” inNagarjuna-starrer Boss.The experience ofbeing part of smallfilms which had littletakers made his wiser.It is the reason why hewants to associatewith big films playingkey supporting rolesfor a certain timeperiod. “The idea isto get more visibili-ty and acceptancefrom people beforebranching out tolead roles again,” hereveals his plans, sign-ing off.

��

���������Hyderabad Thursday August 13 2020

ctor Sanjay Dutt has been diagnosedwith lung cancer, it was revealed onTuesday. The news was confirmed bytrade analyst and film industry insiderKomal Nahta on Tuesday night.

“Sanjay Dutt diagnosed with lung can-cer. Let’s pray for his speedy recovery,” tweetedNahta on his verified Twitter account,@KomalNahta.

According to reports, Dutt will fly to the US fortreatment soon. Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, asthe news spread that the 61-year-old actor mayhave cancer, Dutt had taken to social media tourge well-wishers not to worry or unnecessarilyspeculate.

“Hi friends, I am taking a short break fromwork for some medical treatment. My familyand friends are with me and I urge my well-wishers not to worry or unnecessarily specu-late. With your love and good wishes, I will beback soon,” he tweeted on his verifiedaccount, @duttsanjay.

Dutt’s health came into focus last Saturdayevening when he was rushed to hospital inMumbai after complaining of chest discom-fort and breathlessness. The actor had sub-sequently been discharged from hospital.

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ancer survivors,actress ManishaKoirala and former cricketerYuvraj Singh,have taken to

social media to penwords of encouragementand prayers forBollywood actor SanjayDutt, who has beendiagnosed with lungcancer.

Manisha Koirala isnot only a good friendof Sanjay Dutt but hasbeen his frequent co-star since the earlynineties.

On Wednesday,Manisha Koirala took toher verified Twitteraccount and wroteto Dutt, who isfondlyreferred toas Baba in theindustry,“Saddento hearabout yourhealth chal-lenge dearbaba @duttsanjay.. but I know you aretougher !! There has

been tremendous strug-gles in your life and you overcame them,

this too shall be yetanother win ..

praying foryour well-being.”

FormercricketerYuvrajSingh on

Wednesdaytweeted

on his verifiedaccount: “You are,

have and always will bea fighter @duttsanjay. Iknow the pain it causes

but I also know you arestrong and will see thistough phase through.My prayers and bestwishes for your speedyrecovery.”

Shortly before that in the afternoon, theactor had taken to social media to informhis fans and well-wish-ers that he is taking ashort break from workdue to medical treat-ment.

According to reports,the 61-year-old actorwill fly to the US fortreatment soon.

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ilmmakerNishikant Kamatis unwell andadmitted to hospi-tal in The city. Thefilmmaker is

reportedly battling liver cir-rhosis and his condition iscritical.

The 50-year-old filmmakerhas battled liver cirrhosis inthe past, which has relapsedagain, according to a reportin spotboye.com.

Kamat isknownfor

directing Bollywood filmslike the Ajay Devgn-Tabustarrer "Drishyam", IrrfanKhan-starrer "Madaari" andthe John Abraham starrers"Force" and "RockyHandsome", among others.

He has also directed criti-cally acclaimed Marathi filmslike his debut directorial"Dombivali Fast" and "LaiBhaari". He also featured asan actor in the Marathi film"Saatchya Aat Gharat" and his

2016 directorial "RockyHandsome".

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early two weeksafter he saidthat he and hisfamily membershave testedcoronavirus

positive, SS Rajamouli onWednesday revealed thathe and the family have nowtested negative. Taking toTwitter once again, he notedthat they’ve completed two

weeks in quarantine and aredevoid of any symptoms.“Completed 2 weeks of quar-antine! No symptoms. Testedjust for the sake of it... It isnegative for all of us... Doctorsaid we need to wait 3 weeksfrom now to see if we'vedeveloped enough antibodiesfor plasma donation! (Sic),”the director, whose fame tran-scended boundaries courtesy

his two-part costume dramaBaahubali, shared the infor-mation. Filmmakers like PuriJagannadh and HarishShankar immediatelyexpressed their relief on theircolleague testing negative.

Before the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdownwas announced in March,Rajamouli was working on hisambitious period drama RRR,

starring Jr NTR and RamCharan. He was at the fore-front along with others whenit came to getting the consentof permission from Telugustates governments to resumeshootings in June. While theindustry did get the go-ahead,a surge in positive cases inGHMC limits meant thatRajamouli and Co. had toabort their plans.

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�� � � ������earing up for therelease of Palasa 1978director KarunaKumar’s MetroKathalu tomorrow,aha think-tank, in its

bid to ramp-up productionactivities further, has given con-sent to another anthologydrama. Prasanna, VaralaxmiSarath Kumar, Kannada Kishore,Gayathrie, AbhiramiVenkatachalam, ShantanuBhagyaraj, Rohini andJayaprakash are spearheadingthe show.

A source close to the develop-ment tells us that the show hasrecently moved to floors inChennai in adherence with allthe COVID-19 guidelines. “It’s afour-episode anthology dramabeing shot in Telugu. All thefour episodes will run with asimilar theme. SujathaNarayanan and Devasena areproducing it, while three direc-tors Barath Neelakantan, SivaAnanth and Sarjun KM aremanning the director’s chair.”

Barath andSarjun have

directedTamil

films like K13 and Airaa, whileAnanth has made his directorialdebut with Siddharth-starrerChukkalo Chandrudu in Teluguin the noughties.

The source further adds thatthe show’s shoot is likely to bewrapped up by mid-September,with aha planning to slot it foran October drop.

The anthology show will be along list of shows that aha isbanking on to emerge as a one-stop destination for Teluguentertainment, particularly webshows. They’ve recently agreedto bankroll the screen adapta-tion of Archana Sarat’s novelBirds of Prey - The Hunt Begins,to feature Sarath Kumar in thelead. A psychological crimethriller that deals with thetheme of child abuse and how itaffects the children, PradeepNayyar, Goutham VasudevMenon’s former associate, isdirecting it.

— NG

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Chennai Super Kings CEOKasi Vishwanathan feels

their talisman Mahendra SinghDhoni, who has not played anycompetitive cricket since lastyear’s World Cup semifinal, willbe part of the franchise in2021 and 2022 IPLs.

The 39-year-oldDhoni is set for a returnto competitive cricket inthe upcoming IPL, to beplayed in the UAE fromSeptember 19 toNovember 10.

“We can expectMS Dhoni to be partof both (IPL 2020and 2021) andprobably foreven the nextyear —

2022,” Viswanathan was quot-ed as saying by indiatoday.in.

“I am getting updatesthrough the media only, saying

he has been training inJharkhand in indoornets. But we don’t have toworry about the skipper,boss. We don’t worryabout him at all.

“He knows hisresponsibilities and hewill take care of himselfand the team.”

N Srinivasan, thevice-chairman andmanaging direc-

tor of IndiaCements, own-ers of the CSK

franchise, in January saidthat Dhoni would beretained by the team forthe 2021 IPL mega-auc-

tion.CSK have planned a short

training camp at their basefrom August 16 to 20.

While CSK are hoping toleave for the UAE on August21, Vishwanathan confirmed

that all the players will assem-ble in Chennai on August 14.

“It will be a skill-based plustraining camp. It can’t immedi-ately start off with skills becausethey are coming back after along off,” he said.

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The Indian football teamwill not see any action

this year with the Asianqualifying matches for the2022 FIFA World Cup onWednesday getting post-poned to 2021 owing to theCovid-19 pandemic.

The Asian FootballConfederation post-poned all men’s qualifiersscheduled in Octoberand November for the2022 World Cup and the2023 Asian Cup. India’slast international matchwas the joint qualifyinground match againstOman in Muscat inNovember last year,which they had lost 0-1.

Though out of con-tention for a place in thenext round of World Cupqualifiers, India are still inthe reckoning for a spot inthe 2023 Asian Cup. Theywere scheduled to playQatar at home on October

8 followed by matchesagainst Afghanistan(home) and Bangladesh(away) in November.

A third-place finishin the group will helpIndia get a direct berth inthe third round of thequalifiers for the 2023Asian Cup.

Both FIFA and AFCstated that the decisionwas taken keeping inmind the safety of all par-ticipants during theCovid-19 pandemic.

The games will berescheduled in 2021.

India are currentlyfourth in Group E withthree points from fivegames. Qatar top thetable with 13 points withOman a point behindthem in second.

Eight group winnersand four best runners-upwill progress to the con-tinent’s 12-team finalqualifying stage for theWorld Cup.

(�- ��"�$, Sri Lanka andUnited Arab Emirates are thetwo back-up countries beingzeroed in on by the ICC, in caseIndia is unable to host next year’sT20 World Cup.

While there is still one yearto go before the mega eventwhich was set to be held inAustralia this year but got post-poned due to Covid-19.

According to a report inESPN Cricinfo, “Sri Lanka andthe UAE are among the back-upvenues for the 2021 men’s T20

World Cup, should the Covid-19 pandemic make India anuntenable host.”

The ICC confirmed lastweek that India will host nextyear’s tournament as scheduledin the original FTP while thisyear’s postponed edition inAustralia goes ahead in 2022.

However it is a standardprotocol to have back-up venueslisted for any global event.

“Identifying potential back-up venues is standard practicefor every ICC event, but it takes

on extra significance in this timebecause of the nature of the pan-demic.

“India is currently the third-worst-hit country in the worldin terms of cases, according tomost data studies, with over 2million cases so far and over45,000 deaths.

“The current situation hasforced the BCCI to relocate theIPL to the UAE, and only ten-tative plans are in place for thedomestic season,” the websitefurther stated. PTI

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Serena Williams had to fightfor a winning return from

her six-month coronavirus lay-off on Tuesday, defeating lowlyranked Bernarda Pera in threesets at the WTA Top SeedOpen tournament in Kentucky.

Serena, who beforeTuesday had not played acompetitive game since a FedCup appearance in February,came from behind to defeatAmerican world number 60Pera 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in two hoursand 15 minutes at the TopSeed Tennis Club inLexington.

Venus Williams startedher campaign with a straightsets wins over VictoriaAzarenka in a a battle of for-mer World No 1 players.The 40-year-old Americanwon 6-3, 6-2 and set up anexciting encounterbetween the Williamssisters in the secondround.

Rising Americanstar Coco Gauff hadto work hard for herstraight-set win overqualifier CarolineDolehide, winning7-5, 7-5 whileCanadian quali-fier LeylahF e r n a n d e zknocked outseventh seed

Sloane Stephens in their open-er.

This week’s tournament— the first WTA event in theUS since the Covid-19 pan-demic — is taking place with-out spectators.

Williams, 38, later revealedthat the sedate surroundingshad suited her game.

“It was a really calm atmos-phere, it was really chill,”Williams said. “I can’t say I dis-liked it. I didn’t mind it at all. I’vebeen through so many things inmy career and this was totallydifferent. I think I won todaybecause I was calm for once inmy career. Kind of reminds meof junior days. Something nos-

talgic about that. I kind ofenjoyed it.”

The 23-timeGrand Slam singleschampion lookedto be flirting withan early exit inthe second set,but recovered

from 0-40 downat 4-4 before hold-

ing and eventuallywinning the set.

“I just knew Icould do better,”Williams said. “It

was an interestinggame. I just had toget used to hergame a little bit.She played real-ly well.”

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Education technology com-pany Unacademy, which is

already one of IPL’s sponsors,is eyeing the league’s titlesponsorship rights now and isset to submit its bid to replaceChinese mobilephone companyVivo this season.

A BCCI offi-cial confirmed thatUnacademy has picked up thebid papers but refrained frommaking any commentsbeyond that.

“I can confirm thatUnacademy has shown inter-est and picked the bid papers.I have heard they will be sub-mitting a bid and are prettyserious. So Patanjali if they

bid, will have competition,”the senior official told PTI.

Vivo, which annually paid�440 crore, dropped out astitle sponsor this year due tothe Sino-India border stand-off.

The BCCI is now lookingat a lesservalue —between �300to 350 crore

— for a period of four monthsand 13 days.

The off icial saidUnacademy is a part of IPL’scentral sponsorship pool withother companies like Dream11and Paytm.

“Yes, Unacademy isalready in IPL’s central spon-sors’ pool from 2020 to 2023,”the BCCI official said.

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The Pakistan Cricket Board isis furious at former captain

Mohammad Hafeez for hisapparent breach of the biosecu-rity protocol imposed by theEngland and Wales CricketBoard for the ongoing awayseries.

The former skipper, who isnot a part of the Test squad isthere for the limited overs leg.

On Wednesday, Hafeeztweeted a picture of himself withan elderly lady from the golfcourse adjacent to the teamhotel despite strict instructionsthat they shouldn’t interact withanyone outside the bubble.

A source close to thePakistan team said Hafeez’sbreach of protocol had upseteveryone as all players hadbeen told specifically to avoidinteraction with anyone outsidethe bio secure bubble, since thecourse is open to the public in

Southampton. Hafeez put him-self in trouble when he posteda tweet of himself and the ladyterming her as inspirational.

The ECB medical team isaware of the breach of protocoland Hafeez will most likelyhave to isolate himself for fivedays and then undergo two neg-ative Covid-19 tests before herejoins the team again.

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Sevilla qualified for thesemi-f inals of theEuropa League on

Tuesday after LucasOcampos’ late header brokeWolverhampton Wanderers’hearts, while ShakhtarDonetsk thumped Basel 4-1to join the Spaniards in thelast four.

Five-time competitionwinners Sevil la faceManchester United inCologne on Sunday thanksto a brilliant header fromArgentine Ocampos withless than two minutes left onthe clock which gave them adeserved 1-0 win, whileShakhtar take on Inter Milanon Monday in anotherintriguing tie.

Sevilla dominated theirEnglish opponents over thecourse of the match, as atired-looking Wolves’

dreams of European gloryended with a whimper.

“I am very proud of myplayers. We needed to havelots of patience against avery good team,” said Sevillacoach Julen Lopetegui,whose team are now unbeat-en in 19 matches in all com-petitions, to BT Sport.

“We have ambition wework very hard... but we aregoing to play againstManchester United... thebiggest team in world foot-ball.”

Premier League outfitWolves thought they wereset to make the perfect startin the 11th minute when

Adam Traore set off on asensational surge towardsgoal from his own half andwas chopped down in thearea by Diego Carlos.

However, RaulJimenez, who hadscored all of his pre-vious eight penaltiesfor Wolves, sent aweak spot-kicktowards YassineBounou, who couldhardly believe hisluck as he batted theMexican’s tame shot aside.

There were claims thatBounou had left his linewhile Sevilla players seemedto enter the area before the

penalty was taken, but in anycase, that was to be Wolves’last shot on target of thematch as chances becamehard to come by.

In Gelsenkirchen,Shakhtar booked theirspot in the last fourwith a commandingwin over Basel thatwill give Inter Milansomething to thinkabout ahead of theirsemi-final clash on

Monday.“I’m feeling amazing

because we have workedhard and we trust we canreach the f inal,” saidgoalscorer Junior Moraes.

“If you want to test your-self, you have to play againstteams at this high level.”

The Ukrainian side gotoff to a flyer thanks toBrazil-born Moraes, whoheaded home Marlos’ cornerwith less than two minuteson the clock, and they neverlooked back from that pointon.

Taison put Shakhtar twoahead 20 minutes later whenhis deflected shot flashedpast Basel’s bamboozledgoalkeeper Dorde Nikolic.

Alan Patrick put theresult beyond doubt fromthe penalty spot with 14minutes left after Taison’sburst into the box was endedby a clumsy challenge fromBasel defender YannickMarchand.

Shakhtar rounded off afine display in the 88thminute when right-backDodo combined with Tetebefore smashing home asuperb finish.

Ricky van Wolfswinkel’sclose-range strike for Basel aminute into stoppage timemade no difference to athumping defeat for theSwiss.

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Serving a ban for not report-ing corrupt approaches,

Bangladesh’s premier all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is like-ly to return to the national fold

for a tour of Sri Lanka later thisyear, with his suspension endingon October 29.

The southpaw was bannedfor two years, one year of it wassuspended, for failing to reportcorrupt approaches by an alleged

bookie during the IPL.Bangladesh’s tour of Sri

Lanka is more or less con-firmed and given the schedule,Shakib could feature in the pro-posed three-match T20 series.

“I think Shakib being out

for a year is not that much dif-ferent to the rest of our squadwho have been out for six orseven months as well,”Bangladesh head coach RussellDomingo was quoted as sayingby ESPNcricinfo.

“We are hoping all the play-ers are fit. Obviously, there arestandards that they need toattain in terms of fitness level.We have to organise a bit ofgame time for Shakib, as well asfor all the players.”

&����*��&(,Former Englandcaptain Michael Vaughan pre-dicted the hosts will sweep thethree-test series against Pakistandespite the absence of talis-manic all-rounder Ben Stokesfor the last two matches.

Stokes was part of theEngland team which pulled offa thrilling three-wicket victo-ry in the first Test at OldTrafford.

“He (Stokes) plays a big, bigrole in that dressing room,”Vaughan wrote in a blog,although he had no doubtsabout the depth in the Englandsquad.

“Even though Ben Stokes isout I think England will be toostrong. England will win theseries 3-0, that’s my prediction.”

He also felt England mightrest veteran quick JamesAnderson in the second Testbeginning on Thursday.

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Rajasthan Royals’ fieldingcoach Dishant Yagnik has

tested positive for Covid-19,the IPL team announced onWednesday, making it the firstsuch case among the leaguefranchises ahead of their depar-ture next week to this year’stournament venue, the UAE.

Yagnik is currently in hishometown Udaipur and has

been advised to get admitted tohospital for his 14-day quaran-tine.

“Post 14 days, Dishant willbe undergoing two tests as perthe protocols of BCCI. Onreturn of two negative reports,he will be allowed to join theteam after self isolating for 6days and receiving 3 furthernegative tests upon his arrivalin the UAE,” said Royals in astatement.

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