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CELEB TALKS 10MARDAANI 2 WILL SEE WOMENSTAND UP AGAINST EVIL: RANI

ANALYSIS 7GANDHIGIRIIN REAL LIFE

SPORTS 12CAN’T TAKE PROTEAS

LIGHTLY: RAHANE

VIJAYAWADA, TUESDAY OCTOBER 1, 2019; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

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RANCHI DEHRADUNHYDERABAD

*Late City Vol. 1 Issue 336*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

YS Jaganmohan Reddy presenting ‘pattu vastralu’ to Lord Venkateswara at tirumala on Monday

SEEKING DDIVINE BBLESSINGS

}FELT THE PRESSURE OF

DOING A FEMALE-CENTRIC FILM

Page 11{

All is wellwith NMDCsourcing,asserts RINL

CM to launchVillage Sectin EGtomorrowVIJAYAWADA: ChiefMinister will launch VillageSecretariat at Karapa villagein East Godavari district onOctober 2.

The CM will leave forKarapa, near Kakinada, fromTadepalli and inaugurate apylon. Later, he will visitstalls arranged on high schoolpremises and participate in apublic meeting. Later, in theday, he will leave forVisakhapatnam to attend for-mer Union ministerKruparani's son KranthiKumar's wedding.

VISAKHAPATNAM: RINL,the corporate entity ofVisakhapatnam Steel Plantstrongly refuted the allega-tions made by CPI leader JVSatyanarayana Murthy thatthe management of RINLpicked up a confrontationwith NMDC.

RINL management termedthe allegations as "baselessand lacks substance". It isclarified that RINL andNMDC have been maintain-ing excellent relationship withregard to supply of iron ore.

"At time, supply of iron orefrom NMDC mines inChhattisgarh gets disruptedduring the breakdown of KKline. In those times, RINLgoes for alternative sourceslike NMDC mines inKarnataka, Odisha MiningCorporation mines in Odishaand in extreme emergenciesthrough tender," said DeputyGeneral Manager, BSSatyendra.

JAGAN GOVT MAKESEMPLOYMENT HISTORYPNS n AMARAVATI

Andhra Pradesh governmenton Monday appointed over1.26 lakh employees, said to bethe first of its kind in thecountry in terms of numbers ina single recruitment drive,under a new governance initia-tive of Village and WardSecretariats, being launchedon October 2.

"This should be written ingolden letters in the country'shistory. Never before were thesemany permanent governmentjobs created in one go any-where in the country andemployees recruited in a recordtime of just two months", ChiefMinister Y S JaganmohanReddy said.

While over 21 lakh candi-dates applied for various postsin these Secretariats, that woulddeliver about 500 public ser-vices, a total of 19.50 lakhappeared for the written exam-inations from September 1 to 8.

Of the 1,98,164 candidatesqualified in these examina-tions, 1,26,728 have been givenjobs, including 31,640 in urbanareas.

The Chief Minister initiatedthe process of handing overappointment letters to the qual-ified candidates at a function inVijayawada on Monday.

The Village and WardSecretariats would become fullyfunctional across the state fromDecember first week, heannounced on the occasion.

Each Secretariat would have10-12 employees related todepartments like panchayat rajand rural development, rev-enue, medical and health, ani-mal husbandry, power, agricul-ture and social welfare in ruralareas and municipal services inurban areas.

Besides, there would be awoman police and women andchild welfare assistant in eachSecretariat to take care of

women protection and coun-selling. "About 500 public ser-vices will be delivered throughthese Secretariats with the helpof village and ward volunteers.We have already appointedover 2.8 lakh village and wardvolunteers for this purpose",Jagan said. He stressed onensuring corruption-free deliv-ery of government servicesand exhorted the newly-recruited staffers to treat thisnot merely as a job but a ser-vice.

He said a social audit wouldbe conducted periodically toensure transparency and

accountability and bring incredibility to the system. Jaganpointed out that henceforth,recruitment examinationswould be conducted every yearfrom January 1 to 31 to fill upvacant government posts in dif-ferent departments.

In all, 11,158 VillageSecretariats and 3,786 WardSecretariats (in urban areas) areproposed to be opened acrossthe state. Ministers PeddireddiRamachandra Reddy, BotchaSatyanarayana, V Srinivas, PVenkataramaiah, Kodali SriVenkateswara Rao and othersattended the event.

Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy giving an appointment letter to a girl in Amaravati on Monday

l Appoints 1.26 lakh persons in one recruitment drive

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Even as IMD's local weatherreport forecasts a cloudy skywith light rain from October 2,Andhra Cricket Association(ACA) and district administra-tion have made elaboratearrangements to ensure smoothconduct of the Test betweenIndia and South Africa at Dr YSRajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Stadium here fromOctober 2 to 6.

IMD's local weather reportsuggests that there could becloudy sky with light rain fromOctober 2 and chances of rainremain high from October 5.

A total of seven committees

has been formed by the ACAwith the District Collector, VVinay Chand, City Police ChiefRK Meena, and GVMC

Commissioner G Srijana on it.Vizag will be hosting the first

match of the India- SouthAfrica Test series. This will be

the second Test match to beplayed in Vizag stadium withthe first one played betweenIndia and England in 2016.

Vinay Chand said the pitchand outfield were duly covered.As the stadium has an excellentdrainage system, the matchwill commence one after therain stops. Even if its cloudyweather, the match will com-mence under floodlights, headded. In a bid to encouragestudents to watch the TestMatch in Vizag, the ACAauthorities decided to give freeentry to students during the fivedays of the match. Guardians ofstudents have to purchaseRs100 ticket for the entry into

the stadium, said President ofACA, P Sarath Chandra Reddy.

Meena said that the stadiumwill be put under tight securi-ty and they will be deployingover 900 personnel under thethree-tier security arrange-ments inside and outside thestadium and also deployed spe-cial teams at Hotels, where theplayers of the teams are staying,he added.

There will be traffic diversionof the heavy vehicles and goodscarriers during the match from7.30 am to 6 pm. A total of6,227 tickets were sold so farand one can purchase the tick-et for the match during thematch days also.

G RAVI KIRAN n VIJAYAWADA

It's time to make merry for tip-plers. Liquor shops announceddiscounts on all varieties ofbooze to clear the stocks onMonday, the last day for sale byprivate dealers.

As restrictions on the quan-tity will also be implemented atthe government wine shopswhich will become operationalfrom Tuesday, people procuredhuge quantities of liquor.

Though they tried hard toclear the stocks, the dealerscould not succeed so they wereforced to offer discounts.

When the GovernmentOrder on the closure of wineshops was issued, the dealersstopped procuring stocks fromthe Excise department. As perthe rules, they have to handover the stock on the closingday but they will not be paid forthat stock by the Excise depart-ment. They have taken onlypremier brand liquor in recentdays, which can be sold easily.

L Eswar Rao, a wine shopdealer, said "Government wineshops will be opened fromOctober 1 onwards and the

sales will be done throughthem only. Our time is over. Asper the rule, we have to handover the stock to them, but wewon't get paid for them.Already, we have lost business.How can we lose these stocks?That is why we have offered dis-counts on sales and peopleresponded overwhelmingly."

Both young and old peoplepurchased large quantities ofliquor. As there is a limitationon purchases at the wine shopsrun by the government, the cus-tomers were also planning toprocure more liquor on theclosing day. G Harish, a young-ster, said, "We have come toknow that the governmentliquor shops will run only from11 am to 8 pm. In addition tothis, they will sell only threebottles of any one brand andquantity. We thought the dis-counts offered by wine dealersare good and so we decided topurchase them. We have pur-chased liquor bottles of differ-ent brands and stocked them athome."

It appeared as if the cus-tomers were giving a farewellparty to wine dealers.

PNS n PANAJI

Police investigating the circu-lation of racy posters canvass-ing for a 'nude party' in a Goabeach village, on Monday saidno such event was on the cardsand that the scam was con-ceived by a techie dropout whowas short of money. Accordingto Superintendent of Police(Crime) Pankaj Kumar Singh,the accused Armaan Mehta aresident of Katihar district inBihar, had planned to swindlemoney from people wanting toattend the fictitious event bycharging them a pre-eventfee.

Mehta was arrested after amulti-state chase by the CrimeBranch of the Goa Police,which had been tasked toinvestigate the origins of thenude party posters, whichwent viral on the social medialast week.

"He downloaded a few pic-tures from the Internet andedited them using a mobileapp. His plan was to create asensation and cheat hisprospective customers. Whenhe started getting a huge num-ber of calls from India andabroad including Dubai, hegot panicky and switched offhis phone," Singh said.

Goa ‘nude party’ a hoax: Police

PNS n KAKINADA

In a major mishap in a fire-cracker unit, five women work-ers sustained serious burninjuries and four others minorinjuries at G Medapadu villagein Samalakota mandal underPeddapuram Assembly con-stituency in East Godavari onMonday.

The incident occurredwhen the women wereengaged in making of Diwalicrackers as the festival is fastnearing at G Medapadu about21 kilometers from Kakinada.

According to sources, theexplosion occurred when thewomen were engaged makingof illuminating crackers in theunit.

Soon after the incident, allthe nine were shifted to a pri-vate hospital in Kakinada formedical aid,

According to PeddapuramDSP A Srinivasa Rao, who vis-

ited the place of incident andthe hospital where the womenundergoing treatment, saidthat the condition of five ofthem serious as they sustainedmore than 50 percent burninjuries. The rest sustained 20to 40 percent burns, the DSPsaid.

State minister for

Agriculture K Kanna Babuvisited the injured in the hos-pital and assured all possiblehelp from the StateGovernment.

Peddapuram MLA NChinarajappa, who was awayin Vijayawada, rushed toKakinada and visited theinjured in the hospital.

5 women hurt in cracker blast

Agriculture minister K Kanna Babu and district officials seen at the hospital inKakinada where the injured women are undergoing treatment

LIGHT RAIN FORECAST

Visakhapatnam ready for India-Proteas Test tomorrow

GOVT TO SELL LIQUOR FROM TODAY

Tipplers make merry asbooze come at a discount

Anurup Singhgets gallantryawardl For rescuingfisherman duringcyclone PhethaiPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

For rescuing seven fishermenoff the Vizag coast during fly-ing helicopter despiteunfavourable weather warningduring cyclone Phethai in2018, Defence Minister,Rajnath Singh awardedTatrakshak Medal (Gallantry)to Commandant AnurupSingh. He is currently servingas Vizag Chetak flight com-mander. Rajnath Singh award-ed gallantry and meritoriousservice medals to the IndianCoast Guard (ICG) personnelon September 24.

Due to cyclone Phethai,the fishermen had abandonedthe capsized boat and soughtrefuge on the oil rig,located 91nm south of Vizag. A rescuerequest was received.

There was large uncertain-ty due to the prevailingextreme weather conditions.However, the officer volun-teered to fly the helicopter inthe marginal weather whichwas on the extremities of theaircraft operating envelope.The operation had to be exe-cuted precisely to ensure safe-ty and success in such adverseweather wherein multiple tripshad to be undertaken and alsoentailed landing on the unfa-miliar oil rig which was expe-riencing raging seas.

Risking his life, the com-mandant made a safe landingand rescued the seven fisher-men in two sorties and land-ed them at ICSG Kakinada.

21 dead as bus overturns in GujaratPNSn GUJARAT

At least 21 people died and 50others injured when a packedprivate luxury bus overturned inBanaskantha district of NorthGujarat on Monday evening, saidofficials. The accident took placeat Trishulia Ghat, a hilly patch onthe Ambaji-Danta road nearAmbaji town of Banaskanthadistrict, around 160km from

Ahmedabad. The private luxu-ry bus, carrying around 70 pas-sengers, overturned at Trishulia

Ghat after the driver lost controlof the vehicle due to heavy rainin the area, said Banaskantha dis-trict SP Ajit Rajian. Expressinggrief over the accident, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, tweet-ed, "Devastating news fromBanaskantha. I am extremelypained by the loss of lives due toan accident. In this hour of grief,my thoughts are with thebereaved families."

Banks toremain closedfor 11 days inOctoberPNS n HYDERABAD

Banks in Telugu States willremain closed for 11 days inOctober. Banks will remainclosed on October 2 onaccount of Gandhi Jayanti.Further, they will not do busi-ness on October 7, a Sunday,on October 7 because of SriRamanavami, and October 8for Dasara. Again on October12 and 13, banks will remainclosed because of secondSaturday and Sunday. OnOctober 20 for Sunday. Againon October 26, 27, 28 and 29they will remain closed.October 26 is fourth Saturdayand October 27 is Sunday andalso Diwali. On October 28and 29 for Goverdhan Pujaand Bhai Dooj festivals.

PNS nWASHINGTON

Saudi Arabia's crown princewarned in an interview broad-cast on Sunday that oil pricescould spike to "unimaginablyhigh numbers" if the world doesnot come together to deter Iran,but said he would prefer a polit-ical solution to a military one.Speaking to the CBS program"60 Minutes," Mohammed binSalman, the kingdom's de facto

ruler, also denied that he orderedthe killing of journalist JamalKhashoggi by Saudi operativesnearly a year ago, but said he ulti-mately bears "full responsibility"as the leader of his country.

While Khashoggi's deathsparked a global uproar and tar-nished the crown prince's repu-tation, the Trump administra-tion's tense standoff with Iran,Saudi Arabia's arch-foe, hasmore recently dominated U.S.

policy toward Riyadh, especial-ly after the Sept. 14 attacks on theheartland of the Saudi oil indus-try. "If the world does not takea strong and firm action todeter Iran, we will see furtherescalations that will threatenworld interests," the crownprince said. "Oil supplies will bedisrupted and oil prices willjump to unimaginably highnumbers that we haven't seen inour lifetimes."

Saudi prince warns of ‘unimaginabe’ oil prices

HC notice toTS on landallotmentPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana High Courton Monday issued notices tothe state government andothers concerned to respondto a PIL filed chal-lenging its deci-sion to allo-cate two acresof prime landt oDharmadhikariof Sri SaradaPeetham of Visakhapatnamdistrict in Andhra Pradesh.The land was allotted to thePeetham by state govern-ment vide GO no. 71 on June22, 2019 at a nominal rate ofRe 1 per acre. The land is sit-uated at Survey no. 240 ofKokapet area in Gandipetmandal of Rangareddy district.

Indian cricket team practicing in Visakhapatnam on Monday

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated September 30, 2019 5:00 PM

ALMANACTODAY

Month & Paksham:Ashwini& Sukla Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Tritiya: 01:54 pm

Nakshatram: Swati : 02:21 pm

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 03:03 pm – 04:32 pm

Yamagandam: 09:07 am – 10:36 am

Varjyam: 07:36 pm - 09:06 pm

Gulika: 12:05 pm - 01:34 pm

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 06:20 am - 07:48 am

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:43 am - 12:29 pm

VIJAYAWADAWEATHERForecast: Mostly CloudyTemp: 30/25Humidity: 82%Sunrise: 06.06Sunset: 06.05

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019

Garbage seen littered at Lawson’s Bay beach in Visakhapatnam on Monday -PPhoto: Tirupathirao G

A SSTINKING FFEELING

region 02A man without faith is like a drop thrown outof the ocean bound to perish. Every drop in the

ocean shares its majesty and has the honour ofgiving us the ozone of life.

— MAHATMA GANDHI

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

As promised by the ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy to cut down the liquorconsumption in the State, 300shops run by the AP BreweriesCorporation will start func-tioning in the district fromTuesday. The district in the pri-vate sector had 403 shops bothin the rural and urban sectorsin the old licensing system.

Shops will open from 10 amand close sharp at 9 pm. It was10 pm for the shops and 11 pmfor the bars in the past.

Each rural shop will have asupervisor, two salesmen anda watchman and in the limitsshops will have one supervisor,three salesmen and one watch-man.

As per the new rules, eachperson would be given threebottles so that belt shops couldbe curbed.

``We will remove the sales-men and supervisor if theguidelines are violated withregard to the timings or forgiving excess of quantity,'' saidan official from the prohibitionand excise department.

He said there will be norefrigerators and those buyingbeer would have to chill it in

their homes. Similarly, nonewould be allowed to open thebottles at the shops or drink inthe public.

Sources said there will bedrastic cut in the sales due tothe new rules and timings.Tipplers working in the indus-trial sector return to the cityonly after 9 pm and by the timethey reach the shops, theywould be closed.

Similarly chronic alcoholicsseen purchasing liquor before8am on their way to officeswould also be forced to changetheir habits.

Traders said though the beltshops would be curbed, somepan shops would have thestocks to sell during odd hoursand dry days.

Women, particularly wivesof the daily wage earners were

all happy with the new devel-opment.

``We hope liquor sales willbe controlled and slowlyphased out. Liquor is eatinghalf of our daily income,'' saida woman worker Sarita fromArilova Colony on Mondayevening. Meanwhile, liquorshops cut down the excessrate they were charging abovethe MRP to clear the stocks.

Government liquor shops to open from today

YSRCP victimising Kodela kin, charges Chandrababu

RS 10 CRORE WORTH STOCK IN 300 SHOPS

New wine shops at Hanumantuvaka junction getting ready in Visakhapatnam on Monday

PNS n NARASARAOPET

Opposition leader NChandrababu Naidu onMonday accused the YSRCPgovernment of harassing for-mer Speaker Kodela SivaPrasada Rao leveling false alle-gations and foisting false casesagainst him. Moreover, theYSRCP leaders indulged infalse cases against him thatKodela pocketed furnitureworth Rs 1 lakh out of greed.

Speaking after paying trib-utes to Kodela at a meetingheld to condole his death,Naidu, who breathed fireagainst the Jagan government,alleged that the YSRCP leaderswere taking revenge on Kodelaeven after his death.

The YSRCP activists demol-ished a cement base, built infront of the TDP office here, toerect statue of Kodela, he saidcalling it as an atrocious andhugely condemnable move.

Is it wrong to erect a statueof Kodela in front of the partyoffice in recognition of his ser-vices to the party, he won-dered.

The ruling party is misusingthe police to meet its politicalgoals, he alleged. Moreover,the government is not accord-ing permission to erectKodela's statue. He questionedwhether the YSR statues erect-

ed across the State have per-mission at all.

Pledging full support toKodela family, he vowed to setup a trust in memory ofKodela. He asked his partyworkers to forge ahead deriv-ing inspiration from him.

Coming down like a ton ofbricks on Jagan, he said thatthe people have been witness-

ing how the administrationwould be if a criminal were tobecome a Chief Minister.

He condemned the attitudeof Jagan, who claims to be awithout a blemish, while treat-ing everyone else as corrupt.He said that the CM is notdoing anything good for theState.

He said that the YSRCPgovernment is not paying billsdue to contractors and wereasking them to join YSRCP.

Moreover, the YSRCP lead-ers were behaving in a high-handed manner. At least, 500families were forced to leavePalnadu, he said charging theYSRCP leaders with embark-ing on a single-point agenda ofpulling down his house- theLingamaneni Estate.

PNS n KAKINADA

A 25-member team, led byDharmadi Satyam of BalajiMarines that left forKachchaluru to salvage theill-fated Royal Vasishta hasdropped five anchors at theaccident spot. One of theanchors reported to havestruck something heavy.

Heavy rains in East andWest Godavari districts causedobstruction to salvage opera-tions till now.

Earlier, the team armed withiron ropes, heavy ropes, reversepunts, proclainers reached theKachchaluru and dropped fiveanchors into the river leadingto one of the anchors hitting aheavy object. The team saidthat it would not be able to sayanything about the right now.

Intense boat salvaging oper-ations are underway. The policehave made elaborate securityarrangements to rule out anyinterruption to the work.

It may be recalled the EastGodavari government award-

ed the Rs 22.50-lakh contractto Satyam to salvage the boat.Officials barred people fromgathering near the place andimposed Section 144 there.

The team requisitioned 800meter wire rope, two anchors,three Leyland roes, 10 jockeysand other paraphernalia. In all,25 fishermen are taking part inthe operations. The boatremained trapped at a depth of210 meters.

A boat and a punter havebeen located at the accidentspot. A crane and a proclain-er have been positioned on the

river bank at a distance of 700meters from the accident spot.

The plan is to salvage theboat by dropping anchors fromboat and the punts without get-ting t he team's feet wet.

While 26 persons of the 77tourists survived the tragedy,36 bodies have been identified.Many bodies were still fearedto have been trapped in the ill-fated boat.

Relatives of those whosebodies still remained trappedwaited on the banks of theriver for 12 days and returnedto their native places.

Operations to salvage capsized boat under way

Jagan created history in providing jobs: AvanthiPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Tourism Minister M SrinivasaRao (Avanthi) and a host oflocal leaders are all praise forChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy for creating large scaleemployment in the State in theform of employing youth in thevillage secretariat.

The minister was chief guestat AU Convention Center fordistributing appointment let-ters to the people who wereshortlisted for the village sec-retariat jobs here on Monday.

Speaking on this occasion,the minister said by creatingvillage secretariat jobs andward volunteers, the govern-ment would be able to providetransparent and effective gov-ernance to the people.

Chairman of VMRDADronamraju Srinivas Rao saidJagan had become a role-modelfor other Chief Ministers.

"Jagan also fulfilledMahatma Gandhi's GramaSwarajyam by focusing on thelocal governance,'' SrinivasaRao said

Government chief whipBudi Mutyala Naidu asked theyouth to dedicate themselves to

the new jobs should fulfill themission of chief minister JaganMohan Reddy.

Collector V Vinay Chandsaid notification was issued onJuly 26 for 19 types of jobs inthe village Secretariat.Examination was conducted in406 centers. Around 7,724 can-didates were called to submittheir certificates for verificationand of them 6, 243 reported

and 4,362 were selected."We have asked them to

report to the respective depart-ments of village secretariat onOctober 1 for counseling andjoin the services at 7am onOctober 2,'' the Collector added.

Anakapalle MP Dr BSatyavathi, MLAs KaranamDharmasri, GudivadaAmaranath, Tippala NagiReddy, A Adeep Raj, K

Bhagyalakshmi, P UmaShankar Ganesh, GVMC com-missioner G Srijana, joint col-lector L Siva Sankar, Joint col-lector-2 K Suryakala and offi-cers of various departmentswere present.

In Vizianagaram, DeputyChief Minister and ministerfor tribal welfare PamulaPushpasrivani distributed offerletters to the selected candidates.

Tourisim Minister M Srinivasarao, MP and MLAs seen at a function held at AU Conventiojn Hall on the beach road,Visakhapatnam on Monday where appointment letters were given to the youth selected for village secretariat posts

10 gamblersarrested by CityTask FocrceVISAKHAPATNAM: Thecity task force personnel raid-ed Sagarnagar Colony in thecity under PM Palem PoliceStation and arrested 10 personswho were playing cards formoney on Monday. They wereidentified as Manne SatishKumar, Manne Venkata HariPrasad, Poodi Madhu,Vuppuluri Govinda Rao,Maddila Giri Babu, VuppadaSrinu, Vaikuntam Tirupathi,Addepalli Appala Raju,Pothala Rambabu andMadugula Murali.

Red Cross goldmedal for VZMcollectorV I S A K H A PA T N A M :Collector Dr M Jawaharlalreceived gold medal from theGovernor BiswabhushanHarichandan for the serviceshe rendered to the Red CrossSociety in Vizianagaram. Themedal was given to him at afunction held in Vijayawadaon Monday. The collector wasinstrumental in collectingfunds for the Red CrossSociety building and organiz-ing several blood donationcamps in the district duringlast couple of years. Red CrossSociety secretary K Satyamcongratulated the collector forthe gold medal.

Maoists’ bodies Buried; No claimants for 3PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Bodies of all the five slainMaoists Ajay, Bimala, Budri,Ramesh and Bhuma, wereburied on Monday by theDistrict Police, as per NHRCguidelines.

While there were noclaimants for three of them, thebodies of Bimala and Budriwere identified by their rela-tives.

Based on a radio messagesent by the district police to allpolice stations in Chhattisgarh,Bimala's mother Sodi Idmi ofChutubai village and BemalaPanda uncle of Budri fromGutipalli village, both fromBijapur district of Chhattisgarh,arrived at Narsipatnam onTuesday, and identified thebodies of the slain Maoists.

Nobody has called on behalfof Ajay, Ramesh and Bhuma.

``Since 72 hours haveelapsed, we buried all the fivewith permission of Bimala'smother and Budri's uncle, asper NHRC guidelines, '' saidASP of Chintapalli SatishKumar.

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Nestle India, commemoratingten years of its flagship initiativethe Nestlé HealthyKidsprogramme has positivelyimpacted lives of 12,000 bene-ficiaries in Vishakhapatnam.

The Nestlé Healthy KidsProgramme has been devel-oped with a focus to raisenutrition, health and well-ness awareness among ben-

eficiaries. It contributestowards overall developmentof beneficiaries as well asencourages healthier lifestylein the communities, by arm-ing them with knowledgethat impacts them in ameaningful way.

The programme is beingconducted since 2009 and ishelping raise awarenessregarding good nutritionaland best cooking practices,good hygiene and promotingphysical fitness. The pro-gramme is implementedthrough two modes, one ispartnership with six regionaluniversities and the second iswith NGO Magic Bus IndiaFoundation.

Nestle Healthy Kids impacts 12000 kids in Vizag

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

City boys Priyam Tated and VK Vaishnav have clinched goldmedals in two different cate-gories in the first Inline WorldFigure Skating Championshipheld in Spain. Four skatersfrom Visakhapatnam districthad participated.

The world tourney, whichsaw contestants from 24 coun-tries, was held from September27 to 29 at Leganes, in the sub-urbs of Madrid.

The four participants includePriyam Tated, who securedfirst rank in the junior catego-

ry, Vaishnav VemamKancharapu, clinched firstplace in Espoir category, RiyaSaboo (junior category) and Sai

Sri Swetha Suresh (cadet cate-gory), both of whom rankedfifth. The winners were givena trophy along with the gold

medals."I am extremely happy at this

achievement. It is a presti-gious world championship,where we emerged winnersamong several internationalcontestants," said Priyam.

As per VisakhapatnamRoller Skating Association,Priyam, Riya and Vaishnav areAsian medal winners, where-as for Swetha, it is the firstinternational championship.16-year-old Priyam Tated, withsix international and 28 nation-al medals and a total of 64medals, has also won theNational Child Award

(Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya BalShakti Puraskar - 2019) con-ferred upon by the President ofIndia.

"These skaters had reallyput in their effort and supportfrom the district, state associ-ation and federation has playeda vital role behind their success.We have bright future for skat-ing in general and artistic skat-ing in particular. We are nowpreparing for the upcomingAsian championship to be heldin China in 2020. Italian coachhas been training them," saidIndian team coach PSatyanarayana.

Vizag boys clinch gold in World Figure Skating

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Chief Vigilance Officer ofVisakhapatnam Port Trust andDredging Corporation of IndiaVVS Sreenivas (IRSME) wasfelicitated on the eve of comple-tion of his tenure here onMonday. PL Haranadh, DeputyChairman of VisakhapatnamPort Trust and J. Pradeep Kumar,newly appointed Chief VigilanceOfficer, Heads of department,senior officers praised his out-standing ideology in taking for-

ward the Visakhapatnam PortTrust in all activities and hisinnovative action in Vigilancedepartment.

VVS Sreenivas, recollectedthe activities taken up by himduring his tenure and stated thateach and everyone should bekind towards one another andwork hand in hand for thedevelopment of VPT. Hethanked the Management andthe Team of VPT Officers for allthe support throughout histenure.

PNS n VIZIANAGRAM

Dr Emandi Sankara Rao, MD& CEO of IFCI Ltd. andChairman of IFCI SocialFoundation inaugurated 50Kw grid connected RooftopSolar plant in PhiladelphiaCommunity Hospital, Salur atThe Leprosy Mission TrustIndia (TLMTI) on Monday.

RK Gupta and V AnishBabu interacted with patients,doctors and paramedical staffof the Hospital.

Surjit Pal, Suprintendent, TheLeprosy Mission PhiladelphiaCommunity Hospital,Salur andhis team expressed gratitude to

IFCI Social Foundation for thissupport.The installation of Solarplant would help the Hospital inreducing power cost which willin turn be utilised for service toleprosy patients.

IFCI Social Foundation (ISF),

is functioning as the CSR arm ofIFCI Group. ISF has reached outin several States as it bids to "beone of India's premier CSRInstitutions and strive to makesustainable social impact withinclusiveness".

ISF pioneers rooftop solarplant in Vizianagram

The YSRCP activistsdemolished a cementbase, built in front of theTDP office here, to erectstatue of Kodela, he saidcalling it as an atrociousand hugely condemnablemove

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Outgoing CVO ofVPT felicitated

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019 vijayawada 03There is nothing so powerful as fasting and prayer thatwould give us the requisite discipline, spirit of self-

sacrifice, humility and resoluteness of will without which therecan be no real progress

— MAHATMA GANDHI

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Telugu Desam Party's(TDP) fact-finding committeehas warned ruling YSRCPMLA and Kapu CorporationChairman Jakampudi Rajaover his alleged land grabbingactivity in Visweswarayapuramvillage of Malikipuram mandalin East Godavari district. TDPChief N Chandrababu Naiduhas appointed a fact-findingcommittee comprising formerministers PithaniSatyanarayana, GollapalliSurya Rao and Palakollu MLANimmala Ramanaidu. Thecommittee visitedVisweswarayapuram village onMonday and extended its sup-port to the victims whoselands were allegedlyencroached upon byRajanagaram MLAJakkampudi Raja.

Raja is the first MLA to facesuch charges, after ChiefMinister Y S JaganmohanReddy has warned the partyleaders and public representa-tives, in his first Cabinet meet-ing. The CM has warned thathe won't spare any such activ-ities by people's representativesof the ruling party. Womenmembers of the victim familieshave approached former CMChandrababu Naidu andhanded over their representa-

tion to him, seeking protectionfrom MLA Jakkampudi Raja.

Former minister LateJakkampudi Rammohan Rao'swife Vijayalakshmi has soldaway the said land, which is inan extent of 1.70 acres, locat-ed in Visweswarayapuram, in1994 to the farmersCheluboyina Veera Raghavuluand Chelluboyina Babu Rao.However, following a steeprise in land prices, now the pre-sent MLA Jakkampudi Rajahas been bringing pressure onthe two farmers to return theland along with the encroached

plot. The trees in the land were

also cut away and the MLAtried to take possession of theland. When the family mem-bers of the victims -Chelluboyina Prakasha Raoand Chelluboyina Bulli Satyam- have tried to raise objectionover the alleged encroach-ment, the Malikipuram policeregistered cases against thevictims and they were sent toRajahmundry Central Jail. Thishas become a weapon to theOpposition TDP and Jana Senaas former CM Chandrababu

Naidu and Janasena chiefPawan Kalyan have alreadytaken up the issue.

It may be noted that formerminister Jakkampudi's broth-er-in-law Komula SaiChakravarthi tried to encroachupon the same land in August,2018. However, the locals reg-istered a protest. The victimslodged a complaint with theMalikipuram police, and thepolice directed them toapproach the court as it is acivil dispute. The case hasbeen pending in the Razolecourt.

The Rajanagaram MLA hasbeen allegedly exerting allkinds of pressure over the vic-tims and threatening them tovacate the land. The victimsalso submitted a representationto Deputy Chief Minister PilliSubhash Chandra Bose, seek-ing justice to them.

However, MLA JakkampudiRaja has a different version totell on the issue. "The disput-ed land is different from ours.The accused in the case are try-ing to divert the issue," MLARaja explained, and also justi-fied the act of cutting trees bystating that the land belongs tohis family. "Please verify thesurvey numbers of our landand their land. We have everyrecord with us," the MLA clar-ified.

TDP panel warns Kapu leader over land grab row

PNS n AMARAVATI

Jana Sena president PawanKalyan has charged theYSRCP government withembarking on destructive pro-grammes like pulling downhouses, throwing construc-tion workers out of jobs, com-pelling ASHA workers to hitthe streets to achieve theirdemands, filing cases againstopponents, putting state cap-ital at Amaravati in abeyanceand annulling the PPAs asagainst launching new pro-jects, laying foundation stonesand signing MoUs.

In a message posted insocial media on Monday, hewondered whether the regimewith such a mindset would beable to take notice of the pre-

vailing power shortage at all. Because of bountiful rains,

the daily power demand inSeptember was put at 150 mil-lion units, as against 190 mil-lion per day last September.But, the daily power generationin AP was put at 55 millionunits per day forcing the ruraland urban areas to plunge intodarkness. In spite of reductionin daily demand, the peoplesuffered black outs, he added.

Moreover, the governmentsays that although the capac-ity of AP Genco andAPTransco improved, it failedto address power shortage.

He put the power genera-tion on Sep 29 from all sourcesput together - thermal, hydelandnon-conventional energy -at 55.315 million units.

Govt failed toaddress powercrisis: Pawan

G RAVI KIRANn VIJAYAWADA

Outsourcing sanitary staff atPushkar Ghat, Padmavati Ghatand Prakasam Barrage in thecity, have not been paid theirsalaries for the last fourmonths. The contractorclaimed that the VijayawadaMunicipal Corporation (VMC)is yet to release the salaryamount to about 250 workerssupplied by her.

The workers, who clean riverghats and other places regular-ly are said to be running theirhomes by borrowing money athefty interest rates.

Sri Lakshmi, a worker, said,"Salaries have not been paidto us for the last four months.The contractor says is sayingshe didn't get payment fromVMC. We are taking handloans at high-interest rates.Now, paying interest on debtshas become a huge burden onus."

The salaries of outsourcingemployees are being delayedregularly.

Contractor Surya Kumariclarified, "Only three months'salaries are pending. I havealready paid the salary for onemonth. As this is the festivalseason, we are unable tomobilise money. So, I amunable to pay them the salaries.

I have requested the officials ofthe department concerned toclear the dues as early as pos-sible."

The budget for these work-ers comes from the Tourismdepartment as maintenance ofthe ghats is under the purviewof the Tourism Department.The funds will be arrangedthrough the District Collector.

Chief Medical & HealthOfficer Dr Arjuna Rao said,"Salary payment for sanita-tion staff is delayed. We haverequested the Collector to takeup the issue with the Tourismdepartment and see that pay-ment is done at the earliest.Already, the Collector has writ-ten a letter to the Tourismdepartment and very soon,

the budget will be allocated.VMC will arrange funds to paythe salaries."

Meanwhile, it is learnt thatthe contractor is not extendingESI or PF facilities for theseworkers. While the Tourismdepartment pays Rs 11,000per worker, here one is hired atRs 8,000 per worker. ThoughChief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy has increased the salaryof sanitation workers to Rs.18,000, it is not being imple-mented.

CMOH Dr. Arjuna Rao said,"As of now, we have no instruc-tions to pay Rs 18,000 to theseworkers."

Sri Lakshm said, "If we revealall payment details and com-plain about anything, we willhave to lose our jobs. A unionleader has promised to seethat our salaries are paid reg-ularly, but he sought Rs 2,000per worker in return. Thissums up our plight."

Denied pay, VMC outsourcing sanitary staff live on loans

Kanna lamentsdubbingBJP as TDPmouthpiece

PNS n AMARAVATI

BJP state unit presidentKanna Lakshminarayana onMonday lamented that whenthe TDP was in power theBJP was called YSRCP'smouthpiece, while theYSRCP is calling it now as theTDP's mouthpiece for point-ing out the loopholes inJagan's administration.

Revolting against the BJPfor having pinpointed omis-sions and commissions ofthe ruling party would not seta good precedent, he said.

He welcomed administra-tive decentralization withAmaravati as the state's cap-ital and setting up the state'shigh court in Kurnool.

Workers were driven ontothe streets for want of workfollowing shortage of sand.To come to their rescue, hesaid that he would seek almsas a mark of protest. Similarly,on October 11 he is going tovisit Polavaram project.

The government failed toevolve a solution to the sandshortage problem, he criti-cised.

Minor boy kidnapsniece, cops rescuetwo-month babyPNS n VIJAYAWADA

A minor boy kidnapped histwo-month cousin and with-in hours police traced himand rescued the baby safelyhere on Monday.

Challa Amarnath andKamala Kumari belong toYanamalakuduru. They had ababy born on July 24. KamalaKumari had come to heraunt’s house for post-deliverycare. The aunt’s 17-year-oldson demanded money forhis own expenses. But, bothladies rejected his request.

Out if frustration andintending to teach them a les-son, the boy decided to kid-nap the two-month old baby,whom he took in a bag.Kamala Kumari noticed themissing of baby and herbrother and complained tothe police along with herhusband and other relatives.

Penamaluru policewatched CCYYV footage andspotted the accused. Withinan hour, they traced himand chided him. He informedthat he had left the baby in abag in the fields ofPeddapulipaka. The policereached the spot along withaccused and rescued babysafely. Commissioner ofPolice appreciated the team,which rescued the baby safe-ly.

HDFC Bank,IOCL launchfuel credit cardPNS n VIJAYAWADA

HDFC Bank Ltd. and IndianOil on Monday launched aco-branded fuel credit cardfor users from non-metrocities and towns. IndianOilHDFC Bank Credit Card willbe available on both RuPayand Visa platforms. As part ofthe national launch in 135outlets, here it was unveiledat M Narayan Prasad PetrolPump by Ashok Guntha,Cluster Head, HDFC Bankand Sourav Lai, DivisionalOffice Retail Head, IOCL.They said that this was oftheir commitment to takedigital forms of payments tothe smaller towns and cities.Fuel consumption in India isrising and smaller cities andtowns are major drivers ofthis growth, they said.

Tributes paidto scribePNS n VIJAYAWADA

Transport Minister PerniNani, MLAs GaddeR ammohan and JogiRamesh paid tributes tovideo journalist Murali whodied in an accident onSunday midnight inVijayawada. The ministerassured that the govern-ment will take care of thefamily of Murali by provid-ing financial assistance.

Murali met with an acci-dent while going home aftercompleting his duty. Aspeeding lorry hit himwhile crossing the road ona bike.

He died on the spot. Post-mortem examination wasconducted on Murali's bodyat the New GovernmentHospital. The ministerpromised financial assis-tance to the family.

Women members of the victimfamilies have approached former CMChandrababu Naidu and handed overtheir representation to him, seekingprotection from MLA Jakkampudi Raja

The budget forthese workerscomes from theTourism departmentas maintenance ofthe ghats is underthe purview of theTourismDepartment. Thefunds will bearranged throughthe DistrictCollector

PICTURE MAIL TVS XL 100Comfort hits city roadsPNS n VIJAYAWADA

TVS Motor Company onMonday announced thelaunch of T VS XL100Comfort i-Touchstart vari-ant.

The two-wheeler comeswith an electric start technol-ogy 'i-Touchstart' with inte-grated starter generator sys-tem. The variant will alsooffer an array of featuresincluding mobile chargingoption, motorcycle-like fronthydraulic suspension and 16"large wheels. The price startsf rom Rs 41,234 (Ex-Showroom, AP).

Speaking on the occasion,S Vaidyanathan, Vice President- Utility Products, TVS MotorCompany, said, "Today, two-wheeler users even in smallertowns face traffic issues. Hence

TVS has come out with asolution to help them managetheir daily routine and do

multiple short trips in aneffortless manner at an afford-able cost."

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Retired Tahsildar K SivaKumar received the presti-gious Governor Excellenceaward for conducting bestfund raising activities at RedCross East Godavari Districtfor the year 2018 - 2019. Hereceived it from GovernorBiswabhusan Harichandan atSS Convention Labbipet.

The Governor, who is alsopresident of the AP chapter ofthe Indian Red Cross Society,also presented awards to moti-vators from the AndhraPradesh State.

Siva Kumar has been in thepost of Mandal RevenueOfficer in Penugonda Mandalfrom 2009 to 2011. Prior toTahsildar he has worked inmultiple posts at KakinadaCcollectorate, Panchayat office,Mumidivaram village andagency areas like

Rampachodavaram in differentassignments.

After his retirement consid-ering his past achievementsduring his service he has asked

to join with Red Cross asadministrative officer. Laterthe Andhra Pradesh judiciarydepartment has appointed himas second-class magistrate for

Ramchandrapuram court (E.Gdist). Siva Kumar is workingwith EG Godavari district RedCross Chairman YD RamaRao.

Governor's Award for retired TahsildarK Siva Kumar hailed for fund raising activities at Red Cross in EG district PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Dredging Corporation of IndiaLimited (DCIL) andVisakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT)will be jointly observing VigilanceAwareness Week (VAW) - 2019from October 28 to November 2,under the auspicious of CentralVigilance Commission (CVC) tospread awareness against corrup-tion on the theme "Integrity - Away of life" to involve all sectionsof society in fight against corrup-tion.

In the run up to VAW, Inter-collegiate essay writing and elo-cution competitions in Englishand Telugu were conducted onthis theme jointly by VPT andDCIL on Monday.

As many as 85 students fromten-degree colleges acrossVisakhapatnam participated inthe competitions that com-menced with a mass integritypledge by the students, facultymembers and officers and staff ofVigilance Department of both

DCI and VPT. In addition to it,the students enthusiastically par-ticipated in the signature cam-paign against Corruption andtook online Integrity pledge, asenvisaged by Central VigilanceCommission. Winners will begiven prizes during the VigilanceAwareness Week.

Speaking on the occasion,VVS Sreenivas, IRSME, ChiefVigilance Officer, DCIL saidDCIL and VPT had commencedpreparatory activities forVigilance Awareness week earlyto ensure participation from awide spectrum of sections of

Society true to the spirit of theevent and emphasized the needto inculcate and nurture core val-ues like honesty, integrity, moralvalues in the students and appre-ciated the novel thoughts ofyoung speakers.

J Pradeep Kumar, the newChief Vigilance Officer of VPTexpressed his contentment overcontent and fresh ideas of stu-dents. He further stated that stu-dents, being future of our nation,should be encouraged to takepart in fight against corruptionby expressing their original andnatural thoughts.

DCIL and VPT to conduct competitions

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In order to clear extra rush ofpassengers, two special trainswill be run between MGRChennai Central - Santragachiand Puducherry - Santragachi.

Train No. 82622 MGRChennai Central - SantragachiSuvidha special train willdepart MGR Chennai Centralat 15:15 hours on October 2,2019 (Wednesday) and arrivein Santragachi at 19:00 hrs onThursdays.

En route, the train will stopat Gudur, Nellore, Ongole,Vijayawada, Eluru,Rajahmundry, Samalkot,Anakapalle, Duvvada,Kottavalasa, Vizianagaram,Palasa, Brahmapur, Khurda

Road, Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak,Balasore and Kharagpur sta-tions in both the directions.

These trains will have AC IITier, AC III Tier and SleeperClass Coaches.

Train No. 82620Puducherr y-SantragachiSuvidha Special Train willdepart Puducherry at 18:45hrs on October 12, 2019(Saturday) and arrive in

Santragachi at 04:30 hrs onMonday.

En route, the special trainwill stop at Villupuram,Chengalpattu, Tambaram,Chennai Egmore,Sullurupeta, Nayudupeta,Gudur, Nellore, Ongole,Chirala, Tenali, Vijayawada,Eluru, Tadepal l igudem,Rajahmundry, Samalkot,Duvvada, Kottavalasa ,Vizianagaram, Palasa,Brahmapur, Khurda Road,Bhubaneswar, Jajpur K Road,Bhadrak, Balasore andKharagpur stations in boththe directions.

The trains will have AC IITier, AC III Tier, Sleeper Classand General Second Classcoaches.

2 special trains to clear holiday rush

PNS n YADADRI

The officials of the YadadriLakshmi Narasimha Swamytemple have discarded over2,500 laddus as they developedfungus. The total loss to thetemple because of the discard-ing of laddus was put at Rs50,000.

The laddus, made 10 daysago, were kept in prasaadcounters, where these havedeveloped fungus because ofprevailing poor ventilationand severe rains.

Devasthanam officialsattribute laddus getting spoiled

because of poor ventilationand damp atmosphere becauseof rains. One year ago, similarsituation prevailed, but thetemple officials seem to havenot learnt their lessons.

2,500 Yadadriladdus spoiled

Two held forrobberyPNS n KOTHAGUDEM

The police have crackeda robbery case that tookplace in the first week ofSeptember with thearrest of two persons,Kothagudem DSP S MAli, said on Monday.

The accused were iden-tified as Md Aftab andIrkhar Ahmed of UttarPradesh.

They robbed Rs 54 lakhcash from a passenger onSep 5 on a bus at NKNagar. The duo wasnabbed at Regalla CrossRoad underLaxmidevipally police sta-tion on Sunday.

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019 telangana 04

Caption Excise Minister V Srinivas Goud and others releasing fish seedlings into Maddigatla tank in Bhutpoor mandal onMonday

FOR AA BBOUNTIFUL

Women employees of Telangana State Legislative Assembly celebrate Bathukamma in the Assembly premises in Hyderabadon Monday

BATHUKAMMA AAT TTS AASSEMBLY

Death is no friend, he is the truest of friends. Hedelivers us from agony. He helps us against

ourselves. He ever gives us new chances, new hopes. He islike sleep a sweet restorer.

— MAHATMA GANDHI

PNS n HYDERABAD

Metro authority shuts downgates at its stations if footfallsthere are low. For instance, theexit A and D at Bharatnagarstation has remained closedover two months. A bannerreads 'Please use next entry'.

When netizen JannuPraveen asked L&THRML onTwitter about the closure ofexits, it said that these exits hadlow footfalls. It further said thatthe measure saves energywhich the Hyderabad Metro iscommitted about. This howev-er did not go down well withmany netizens, who ventedprotested Metro prioritisingits profits over commuters'ease of use and ability to accessservices.

A Mounish Ravi said, "Howis Metro saving energy by clos-ing an entry point and how canaccess to a station be cut whenthe whole transportation sys-tem is supposed to be multi-modal. When it rains you letout water on to road and thentalk about saving energy andenvironment."

This lack of accessibility isnot just confined to closure of

exit points, but also usage oftoilets. A road user wanting touse the washroom at a Metrostation is made to shell out fourtimes more money than evena conventional pay-and-usefacility.

A pregnant woman, PRenuka, had to use washroomat the Assembly Metro stationafter she was dropped at theexit. "I wasn't aware which sidethe washroom was and sowhen I climbed the stairs, I

realised I had to swipe myMetro card to use the wash-room. I had to get down on theopposite side and swipe againbecause there was no exit nearthe washroom side. Thus, Ipaid Rs 20 for using the wash-room. I wonder how pregnantwomen and differently-ablepeople will even cross the roadwhen exits and entries areopened or closed forL&THMRL's conveniencewhile ignoring people's con-

cerns," she said.People have been asking

L&THMRL to reconsider itsdecision on closure of gates andaccessibility to washrooms.Transport researcher GS RChaitanya said, "L&THMRLnever told us gates will beclosed. Keep all gates open orgive notice in advance explain-ing reasons for doing so. MRTin Singapore does day-longannouncements if trains arestarting an hour late."

Metro keeps station doors closed due to low footfalls

ELDERLY AND DIFFERENTLY-ABLED BADLY HIT

PNS n HUZURNAGAR

Filing of nominations for theHuzurnagar by-election cameto a close on Monday withTDP's C Kiranmai and BJP'sKota Rama Rao filing theirpapers on the last day.

Now all eyes are on the out-come as the battlefield is wideopen for contestants to fight itout. Besides contestants ofmain parties of TRS, Congressand BJP, sarpanches and layersen masse filed their nomina-tion papers to contest the elec-tion as independents. However,the main contest will bebetween the TRS and theCongress.

TPCC President N UttamKumar Reddy holds the sway.The TRS did not open itsaccount at least once in theconstituency. Irrespective ofthe number of candidates leftin the fray, the main battlewould be between theCongress and TRS candidates.

The TRS is leaving no stoneunturned to wrest the seatfrom the Congress.Meanwhile, on Sunday, theTDP announced that the partywould contest the by-elec-tions. It also declared CKiranmai as its candidate.

The TDP, which enteredinto a grand alliance with theCongress in the Assembly elec-tions held in December lastyear, did not contest Lok Sabhapolls. The party's decision willbenefit TRS rather indirectly.

Moving away from Congress,the TDP perhaps wants tosend the message across that itwas not antagonistic to KCR.The YSRCP announced that itis not contesting the by-elec-tion.

In 2014, the YSRCP wonthree Assembly seats inKhammam district and a loneMP seat in Telangana.Subsequently, they joined theTRS. Because of the bonhomie

Jagan has had with KCR, theYSRCP abstained fromAssembly polls held in 2018and the subsequent LS elec-tions in Telangana. Duringthe recent Assembly electionsheld in AP, KCR tried hard hisbit to help YSRCP win the pollsensuring TDP's defeat.

Political analysts feel that theTDP is directly and YSRCP isindirectly supporting the TRSin Huzurnagar.

All eyes on Huzurnagar by-poll

This lack ofaccessibility is notjust confined toclosure of exitpoints, but alsousage of toilets. Aroad user wantingto use thewashroom at aMetro station ismade to shell outfour times moremoney than even aconventionalpay-and-use facility

Hyd police warn rumour-mongersPNS n HYDERABAD

The Hyderabad City Policehave warned of criminalaction against personsspreading rumours on socialmedia to instigate trouble. Ina message to the citizens, CityPolice Commissioner AnjaniKumar appealed to the pub-lic not to forward any unver-ified posts on social mediaplatforms. The message wasin the background of a fewquarters spreading picturesand fake news on the situa-tion in Kashmir.

"The purpose of these mis-chief makers is to create lawand order problem in the cityof Hyderabad. They are usingpictures and videos of inci-dents which have nothing todo with our country . In thename of Kashmir, they arecirculating old pictures ofIraq and Afghanistan," hesaid. He appealed to all cit-izens not to get carried awayby such motivated and preplanned conspiracies."Criminal cases will bebooked if you forward suchimages," he said.

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

The T-Wallet services to beintroduced in fair-priceshops across the state willbenefit 506 ration dealers inthe district and helps themaugment their income.

The T-Wallet services willtake digital services closer tothe people. With the help ofthe service, people cantransact business worth lessthan or equal to Rs 2,000 byvisiting the fair-price shops.The service will transformthe FP shops into mini-e-Seva kendras.

The FP dealers have beenimparted necessary train-ing. On the whole, there are2,37,114 food security cardsin the district. Civil SuppliesDepartment district manag-er Chandrasekhar, elaborat-ing on the T-Wallet ser-vices , said that the dealers were given spe-

cialised training on the useof the mobi le application on September14 with the help of the state-level project associativeDurga Prasad and Projectofficer Bhanu Shyam.

The mobile application isuseful in recharging mobilephones, cash transfer, pay-ment of DTH and electrici-ty bills, making travel andbus bookings, payment ofInternet monthly bills and soon. The state governmentgives commission to thefair-price shop dealers onthe basis of the transactionscarried out.

One more heldin ESI scamPNS n HYDERABAD

The Anti CorruptionBureau officials have arrest-ed another person in con-nection with ESI scam.

M Surendranath Babu, asenior assistant in the direc-tor's office, was arrested atRC Puram on Monday.

Surendranath, who hasbeen working unofficiallyfor six years, was accused ofplundering crores of rupeeswith no bills to run medicalcampus. According to ACBofficials, he has been accusedof forging false medical bills,threatening 12 pharmacistswho were working forDevikarani and Padma inthe director's office.

On Thursday, the ACBconducted raids at 23 placesin Hyderabad andWarangal, including the res-idence of IMS directorDevika Rani and others.An inquiry had revealedthat Dr Rani and other offi-cials were involved in sev-eral i rregularit ies that caused a loss of aroundRs 10 crore to the stateexchequer.

Chief Whip,Whip assumeofficePNS n HYDERABAD

Warangal West MLA DasyamVinay Bhaskar assumed officeas Government Chief Whipin his chambers at the StateLegislative Assembly onMonday. Ministers ErrabelliDayakar Rao, VemulaPrashanth Reddy, SatyavathiRathod, Warangal MPPasunuri Dayakar, formerDeputy Chief Minister andMLC Kadiam Srihari, RajyaSabha member BandaPrakash and others were pre-sent.

"We will give a fitting replyto the Opposition's allega-tions. I will work hard tomake sessions smooth bycoordinating with all politi-cal parties," he said.Meanwhile, Pinapaka MLARega Kantha Rao also enteredhis official chambers andtook charge as GovernmentWhip in the Assembly onMonday.

CJ flags off HC-MGBS Metroshuttle services PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana High CourtChief Justice RS Chauhanflagged off a shuttle servicesbetween the HC and MGBSMetro station at the courtpremises on Monday. Theservices will be operationalfrom Monday to Saturdayfrom 9 am to 6 pm.

The 15-minutes intervalservice will cater to HCstaff, litigants and lawyerswho come there in largenumbers ever y day.Speaking on the occasion,the Chief Justice requestedthe MD of HMRL NVSReddy to introduce similarser vices to al l districtcourts located in the TwinCities from the nearestMetro station.

PNS n SURYAPET

An 85-year-old woman onMonday filed nominationpapers from HuzurnagarAssembly seat protestingagainst officials inaction overnot giving pattadar passbookto her 100-acre land.

The woman, LakshmiNarsamma of Huzurnagartown, has been running frompillar to post seeking issue ofthe passbook for the past sev-eral months.

Along with the 85-year-oldwoman, some other residentsof Gurrampodu tribal hamletin Mattampalli mandal alsofiled their nominations. Theyaccused the revenue authori-ties of denying them pattas.

The Nizamabad patterntranscended to Huzurnagartoo. It may be recalled thatturmeric and red sorghumfarmers of Armoor mandal inthe recent Lok Sabha elections

en masse filed nominationsprotesting against the delay insetting up of turmeric boardand seeking MSP for their pro-duce. Earlier, fluoride affectedpeople of Nalgonda district setthe trend by filing nomina-tions en masse in 1990s.

While Congress nomineePadmavati filed another set ofnominations on Monday, TDPcandidate Kiranmayee alsofiled her papers.

85-year-old woman enters electoral fray

PNS n HUZURNAGAR

The BJP candidate forHuzurnagar by-election, KotaRama Rao has filed his nom-ination papers here onMonday. "The main contestwould be between theBJP and the TRS," hesaid addressing agathering after fil-ing his nomina-tions. He furtheraccused the rulingparty for not giv-ing B-form to a BCcandidate.

The Congress also didnot consider names of theweaker sections to issue theparty ticket. The BJP alonefielded a BC candidate fromthe seat. Rama Rao, whovowed to develop the con-stituency into a model con-stituency if elected, said thathis TRS rival Saidi Reddy isfrom Andhra. He said that the

by-election would lay a strongfoundation for the BJP victo-ry in 2023 elections.

When Padmavati, theCongress nominee whounsuccessfully contested fromKodad, apologised to the elec-

torate that she could notdevelop the con-

stituency becauseof several reasons,the BJP candidatedemanded her toexplain how shewould develop

Huzurnagar now. Claiming to be hail-

ing from an agriculturalfamily, he said that he was wellaware of the problems of theconstituency. He vowed to strivefor a medical college inHuzurnagar. He accusedMinister Jagadish Reddy ofusing the cess, collected fromindustries to the tune of Rs 300crore, for development ofSuryapet instead of Huzurnagar.

Both Congress,TRS denied ticketto BCs, says BJP

PNS n HYDERABAD

NASSCOM Foundation, in col-laboration with Arcesium,launched their first CapabilityCentre for Persons withDisabilities (PwDs) at Hyderabadon Monday. The centre will trainover 100 PwDs on various jobskills required in the industry. Thesuccess of the digital literacycentre, which skilled 1,000+ fam-ilies from Pedda Shapur area, hasprompted both the partners totake a step further into skillingPwDs around the local commu-nity of Musheerabad and centralzone of Hyderabad.

The Arcesium CapabilityCentre will train people withmobility impairment and hearingimpairment. V-shesh, a leadingorganisation in the space ofskilling persons with disabilities,

has been chosen as a trainingpartner. The students will beskilled in a variety of job roles suit-able for Tech, BFSI, Hospitalityand Retail industries. They willalso be trained all-inclusive softskills, interview skills, communi-cation skills, etc. Efforts are being

made to ensure that the center isentirely accessible, not just allow-ing for barrier-free access but alsomaking technology accessible tothe students.

Speaking at the CapabilityCentre launch, Jayesh Ranjan,Principal said, "The proven capa-

bilities of PwDs despite their lim-itations has always been a drivingforce for us. In our quest towardsinclusive development, we areworking towards the creation ofan all inclusive ecosystem withaccessible government buildings,creation of accessible IT parks,

etc., and providing multipleopportunities to the PwDs tobecome a part of the TelanganaGrowth story. I want more ITcompanies to take a leaf from thisinitiative of Arcesium and usetheir CSR funds for such initia-tives which can in return benefitthemselves". Arcesium will besupporting this cause as part oftheir CSR agenda and has com-mitted itself to create a betteremployment environment forPersons with Disabilities.

Sriram Sadras, Head, HumanCapital, Arcesium said "Arcesiumis committed to inclusive growthof community and this newcapability centre is a testament toour commitment. The PwDsform 5-6% of India's populationand a lot of them are highly tal-ented, with additional virtues ofpatience, persistence and loyalty."

Arcesium and NASSCOM to skill differently-abledBJP sole alternative to TRS: Union MinisterPNS n WARANGAL

Union Minister for Labourand Employment SanthoshKumar Gangwar on Mondayassured that the ESI scam-sters would be booked andstringent action will be ini-tiated against them. He wasresponding to a representa-tion of the local BJP leadersin Warangal in this regard.

Speaking on the occasion,the Minister accused thestate government for failingto keep a track on the ESIfunding pattern thoroughlythough the Central govern-ment was giving funds forthe health care of the work-ing class in the states.

Meanwhile, the Ministertook part in a programmeheld in Warangal in connec-tion with the abrogation ofArticle 370. Stating thatJammu and Kashmir is nowcompletely an integral partof the country, the Ministersaid the people of that stateare hailing the government'sdecision following the abro-gation of the Article 370.

On strengthening of theBJP in Telangana, theMinister said the people ofTelangana state have nowconcluded that the BJP wouldbe the only alternative to theruling TRS. He exuded con-fidence that the BJP will formthe government in 2023.

ACDS' culturalfest ‘Aaghaz'inauguratedPNS n HYDERABAD

Major General RK Singh,General OfficerCommanding (GOC),Telangana and Andhra SubArea (TASA) and Chairman,Army College of DentalSciences (ACDS) inaugurat-ed the two-day Inter CollegeCultural and Sports festival'Aaghaz 2019' organised byACDS on Monday.

The one-of-its-kind,Aaghaz is a festival of music,art, theatre, sports and liter-ature whichis a test of intel-lectual, oratory, artistic andcreative skills amongst theDental students acrossTelangana. It has provided aplatform for talent showcas-ing while basking in the cul-tural heritage, spirits and theenigma with myriad of exhil-arating events with loads ofexciting prizes to win.

Inaugurating the event,Major General R K Singh saidthat Aaghaz is a multifacetedcultural and sports eventwhich provides an opportu-nity forstudents to showcasetheir talentsindividually aswell as a team, mix with stu-dents from various other col-leges, make new friends andexchange notes and anopportunity to showcase theirCollege. He pointed out thatparticipating in such eventsitself is an honour and prideand is more important thanwinning. They were here tomake new friends and gainexperience and knowledgefrom each other and thereforeshould exhibit the best qual-ities of sportsmanship. Healso congratulated the ACDSorganising committee of theevent captained by DrSukhvinderBindra.

The Arcesium CapabilityCentre will train peoplewith mobility impairmentand hearing impairment.V-shesh, a leadingorganisation in thespace of skilling personswith disabilities, hasbeen chosen as atraining partner

n Protests against Revenueofficials for delay in issueof pattadar passbook

506 M'nagar FPdealers get T-wallet

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019 nation 05SHORT READS

Explosion in paintmanufacturing unit in AmritsarAMRITSAR: An explosion tookplace at a paint manufacturingunit located on Tarn Taran roadhere on Monday, police said.There was no casualty in theincident but adjoining buildingsdeveloped cracks due to theblast, they said. There was anexplosion in a container filledwith chemicals, police said,adding that investigations wereunderway to find out whatcaused it. A forensic team wason the spot, they said. Firefighters helped douse theflames, officials said.

Army defuses mortar shell along Indo-Pak border

INX Media case: HCrefuses to grant bail to ChidambaramNEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt Monday refused to grantbail to former finance ministerP Chidambaram in the INXMedia corruption case. JusticeSuresh Kait denied bail to theCongress leader, saying there isno chance of tampering withevidence but there is apossibility that Chidambaramcan influence witnesses.Chidambaram, who is incustody since his arrest by theCBI on August 21, did notapproach the trial court andhad directly filed the regularbail plea in the high court. Hewas arrested from his Jor Baghresidence here and is in TiharJail under judicial custody tillOctober 3. The CBI hadregistered an FIR on May 15,2017, alleging irregularities inthe FIPB clearance granted tothe INX Media group forreceiving overseas funds of Rs305 crore in 2007 duringChidambaram's tenure as thefinance minister. Thereafter, theED lodged a money launderingcase in this regard in 2017.

TMC leaderSabyasachi Dutta to join BJPKOLKATA: Senior TMC leaderSabyasachi Dutta, stripped ofhis powers for alleged anti-party activities, has said he willjoin the BJP on Tuesday in thepresence of its nationalpresident Amit Shah. Shah isscheduled to address a seminaron National Register of Citizensand Citizenship (Amendment)Bill at Netaji Indoor Stadiumhere. "I will join the BJPtomorrow at Amit Shah ji'sprogramme at Netaji IndoorStadium. The TMC is no longera party of the masses, it hasbecome a family enterprise,"Dutta told PTI over phone onMonday. The TMC MLA fromRajarhat-New Town, who wasseen hobnobbing with BJPleader Mukul Roy over the pastfew months, resigned from thepost of Bidhannagar MunicipalCorporation mayor in July thisyear.

Three of a familykilled in wall collapsein JharkhandDUMKA (JHARKHAND): Threemembers of a family died inAmjhar village of Jharkhand'sDumka district after a wallcollapsed on them followingheavy rain in the region,officials said. All three ofthem were sleeping when oneof the rain-soaked walls oftheir mud house collapsed onSunday night, killing them onthe spot, Dumka sub-divisional officer (SDO)Rakesh Kumar said. Thedeceased have been identifiedas Lakhu Marandi, his wifeLukhi and mother AmdarMurmu. Kumar said theDumka administration hasgiven 50 kg rice and Rs20,000 in cash to their familymembers and have assuredmore relief from the DisasterManagement Department.Three other houses in thearea have also been damagedby the incessant rain, he said.The dministration is providingfood grain, blankets, tarpaulinand other relief materials tothose affected by thedownpour, the SDO added.

JAMMU: The Army defused amortar shell fired by Pakistanitroops along the Indo-Pakborder in Pukhrani belt ofJammu region, officials saidMonday. Pakistan troops hadfired a 120 mm mortar alongthe border, which landed in asheep farm in Pukhrani area onSaturday but did not explode,they said. Army troops laterdefused it.

Have found that life persists in the midst of destructionand therefore there must be a higher law than that of

destruction. Only under that law would a well-orderedsociety be intelligible and life worth living.

— MAHATMA GANDHI

PNS n MUMBAI

In a setback for the Oppositionahead of the MaharashtraAssembly polls, NCP leaderNamita Mundada, who wasgiven party ticket to contestfrom Kaij, Vanchit BahujanAghadi (VBA) leaderGopichand Padalkar andCongress MLA KashiramPawara joined the BJP onMonday.

Padalkar, who lost the LokSabha polls earlier this yearfrom Sangli on VBA's ticket, islikely to take on senior NCPleader and former state deputychief minister Ajit Pawar inBaramati Assembly con-stituency.

Padalkar and Pawara wereinducted into the BJP inMumbai in the presence ofChief Minister DevendraFadnavis, party's state presi-dent Chandrakant Patil andcity unit head Ashish Shelar.

Mundada joined the saf-fron fold in Beed district in thepresence of BJP's Lok Sabhamember Pritam Munde andstate minister Pankaja Munde.

Her candidature from Kaij

seat in Beed was earlier thismonth announced by NCPchief Sharad Pawar for theAssembly elections, scheduledto be held on October 21.

During the 2014 state polls,she lost to BJP's SangeetaThombre from Kaij seat.

Her mother-in-law VimalMundada was a former stateminister from the NCP.

While inducting Padalkarinto the BJP, Fadnavis said, "Heis like a tiger, who shouldchallenge a major establishedleader. If he is ready, I will tryto field him from BaramatiAssembly seat."

Baramati has been a strong-hold of the NCP after Sharad

Pawar formed the outfit in1999. His nephew Ajit Pawarhas been representing the con-stituency for over a decade.

Kashiram Pawara, who wonfrom Shirpur seat on Congress'ticket, is a close associate ofparty MLC and former minis-ter Amrish Patel from Dhuledistrict.

After inducting him into theBJP, Chandrakant Patil said,"With Pawara, I am hopefulthat Patel will also join the BJPin coming days. We are plan-ning to hold one more suchfunction here to welcomesome more leaders."

PNS n BHADOHI (UP)

A case has been registeredagainst 40 people for alleged-ly raising derogatory slogansagainst UP Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath and othershere, police said on Monday.

The accused, including acandidate for the president'spost in the students unionelection of a local college,Luvkush Yadav, had allegedlyraised derogatory slogansagainst the chief minister andalso used foul language withthe staff at the district collec-torate last week, police said.

The accused were angryafter District MagistrateRajendra Prasad cancelled the

election to the students unionof Kashi Naresh GovernmentPost Graduate College due toheavy rains on Tuesday last.

The video of the incidentwent viral on Sunday afterwhich an FIR was lodged,police added.

40 booked for raisingslogans against Yogi

PNS n NEW DELHI

A PIL can be preferred forthose who are unable to cometo court, the Delhi High Courtsaid while dismissing anNGO's plea seeking disbursalof salaries to primary teachersof schools run by North andEast Delhi municipal corpora-tions.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice D N Patel and Justice CHari Shankar said the teacherscan always approach the courtif their salaries have not beenpaid to them.

"We see no reason to enter-tain this writ petition as a pub-lic interest litigation (PIL) onbehalf of those who are them-selves educated. Teachers canalways approach this court iftheir salaries are not paid to

them. They can always initiateaction in accordance with law,"the bench said.

The high court said a PILcan be preferred normally forpersons who are unable tocome to court either due toignorance or because of pover-ty viz. belonging to down-trodden class, illiterate persons,etc.

For such types of petitionersor public, the writ petition attheir behest is tenable in law, itsaid. "Those persons who areotherwise well educated, whoare teachers, and teaching oth-ers, can always approach theconcerned court over non-payment of their salaries oremoluments. Hence, we see noreason to entertain this writ

petition. With these observa-tions, this writ petition is here-by dismissed," the bench said.

The PIL was moved by NGOSocial Jurist on Friday, seekingdirections to North and EastDelhi municipal corporationsto disburse the salaries ofMarch and April to the pri-mary teachers and doctorsemployed by them.

It said while the teachershave not been paid for thesetwo months, in February theyreceived meagre amounts likeRs 4 and Rs 8 as salaries aftertax deduction.

The petition had contendedthat non-payment of the teach-ers' salaries would adverselyaffect the education of thou-sands of students studying inthe schools run by the two cor-porations.

PILs okay only for poor, illiteratewho can’t come to court: Delhi HC

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court Mondaysought response from the DelhiAssembly Speaker's office andthe Election Commission onthe pleas of ex-AAP MLAs,Anil Bajpai and DevenderSehrawat, who have challengedtheir disqualification.

A bench of Justice NaveenChawla issued notices to theoffice of Assembly SpeakerRam Niwas Goel, the EC andthe complainant -- AAP MLASaurabh Bhardwaj.

The bench posted the mat-ter for November 20.

The ex-AAP MLAs havechallenged in the high courttheir disqualification underthe anti-defection law. Thecourt had earlier dismissedtheir pleas seeking recusal ofthe Legislative AssemblySpeaker from the disqualifica-tion proceedings against them,saying it finds no reason toentertain the appeals.

The MLAs had challengedthe single judge's order whichdismissed their pleas for adirection to Goel to recusefrom hearing the petition fortheir disqualification.

The single judge, in its July

8 order, had said there was "noinfirmity" in the procedureadopted by the Speaker andrejected the MLAs' allegation ofbias as also the contentionthat he should have first decid-ed their application for recusalbefore going ahead with dis-qualification proceedings.

AAP MLA SaurabhBharadwaj on June 10 moveda petition in the DelhiAssembly and sought disqual-ification of its two rebel MLAs-- Anil Bajpai from GandhiNagar and Devinder Sehrawatfrom Bijwasan seat -- who hadbeen openly critical of theparty and had joined the BJPon May 3 and May 6 respec-tively.

PNS n KOLKATA

The Calcutta High Court islikely to pronounce its judge-ment on October 1 in theanticipatory bail plea of formerKolkata police commissioner

Rajeev Kumar in theSaradha chit fund scam casefollowing conclusion of hear-ing on Monday.

CBI lawyer Y J Dastoorconcluded his submissionsopposing Kumar's pre-arrestbail plea before a divisionbench comprising justices SMunshi and S Dasgupta.

The bench, which heardthe proceedings 'in-camera',adjourned the matter for theday after the CBI lawyer con-cluded his submissions.

Kumar's lawyers had con-cluded their arguments infavour of his pre-arrest bailplea on Thursday before thedivision bench.

His counsels had prayedfor 'in-camera' proceedingsin the case which the courtagreed to on September 25,directing that only those advo-cates who are related to the

case would be present duringthe hearing.

A pre-arrest bail plea byKumar was earlier rejected bythe Alipore District andSessions Court on September21.

The central probe agencyhas given multiple notices toKumar, who is currently theAdditional Director General inthe West Bengal CrimeInvestigation Department(CID), to appear before it forquestioning as a witness in themulti-crore Saradha chit fundscam.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The over 4.2 km-long GreyLine of the Delhi Metro, whichwill connect urban village areaof Najafgarh to the rapid tran-sit network, will be opened forservices on October 4, officialssaid on Monday.

The corridor consists ofthree stations -- Dwarka (inter-change with Blue Line), Nangliand Najafgarh.

"The Dwarka–Najafgarhcorridor of Delhi Metro will beformally f lagged off onOctober 4 by MoS(Independent) for Housing &Urban Affairs and CivilAviation Hardeep Singh Puriand Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal," a seniorDMRC official said.

The flagging-off ceremony is

slated to take place at MetroBhawan at 12.15 pm and pas-senger services on the sectionshall commence from 5 pm onthe same day, said Anuj Dayal,the executive director, corpo-rate communication of theDMRC.

With the opening of this sec-tion, the Delhi Metro networkwill expand to 377 km with 274stations, including the Noida-

Greater Noida Aqua Line,"The Grey Line is a stan-

dard-gauge section and out ofthe 4.295 km, 2.57 km is ele-vated and 1.5 km under-ground. With the opening ofthis section, the Dwarka metrostation is all set to emerge as aninterchange facility that willconnect the sub-city with thelocality of Najafgarh," Dayalhad said.

PNS n RAJNANDGAON

Security forces destroyed aMaoist camp after a gun bat-tle with ultras on Monday inChattisgarh's Rajnandgaon dis-trict, a senior official said.

The encounter took place inthe morning on a forested hillnear Pugda village when somejoint teams of various securi-ty forces were out on an anti-Naxal operation, RajnandgaonSuperintendent of PoliceKamlochan Kashyap said.

On getting a tip-off aboutpresence of a dozen Naxals attheir camp on the hill betweenPugda and Korcha villages,various joint squads of the

District Reserve Guard (DRG),Indo-Tibetan Border Police(ITBP), Chhattisgarh ArmedForce (CAF) and local police

launched the operation, hesaid.

When one of the patrollingteams was advancing through

a forest in Pugda, the rebelsfired at them from the hill,forcing the security men toretaliate, he said.

After heavy firing from boththe sides for a brief period,Maoists escaped into the denseforest, Kashyap said, addingthat there was no casualtyamong the security personnel.

Later, the security forcesdemolished the Maoist campand recovered a claymore mine(explosive), utensils, campingmaterial and a huge cache ofdaily use items from there, hesaid.

Search operation was stillunderway in the area, headded.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The names of over 100 hospi-tals found involved in mal-practices have been put up onAyushman Bharat's officialwebsite as part of the govern-ment's "name and shame" ini-tiative to create deterrenceamong healthcare establish-ments, Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan said onMonday.

Addressing the 'ArogyaManthan' organised on thefirst anniversary of AyushmanBharat-Pradhan Mantri JanArogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY),Vardhan said the governmentis also planning to implementa "name and fame" initiative tofelicitate hospitals performingwell under the scheme.

"As part of the government'szero-tolerance towards cor-ruption, names of 111 hospitalswhich have been de-empan-elled after they were foundinvolved in some kind offraudulent activity or mal-practices have been put up onthe official website of the AB-PMJAY as a part of our 'nameand shame' initiative.

"We are now also planningto implement a 'name and

fame' initiative to felicitatethose hospitals which are per-forming well under the schemeso that their best practices canbe emulated by others,"Vardhan said.

The 'Arogya Manthan' wasorganised by the the NationalHealth Authority (NHA), theapex body implementing thescheme.

The minister said a strongfraud prevention, detectionand control system is provingto be critical for PMJAY toensure that frauds are pre-vented and even if they areattempted, they are quickly

detected and strong action istaken.

Nearly 1,200 cases of fraudhave been confirmed andact ion has b een takenagainst 338 hospitals in theAB-PMJAY, Vardhan hadsaid, adding that FIRs havebeen lodged against six andpenalties amounting to overRs 1.5 crore have beenlevied.

Vardhan said 32 states andUnion territories have alreadyimplemented the scheme. Heexpressed sadness over theremaining four states whichhave not implemented the

scheme because of which itscitizens are not able to reap thethe scheme's benefits.

The health minister alsocongratulated the people whoplayed major roles in con-ceptualising and implement-ing the scheme according toPrime Minister's vision withthe use of technology and sci-ence to ensure that its bene-fits reach people living in theremote corners of the coun-try.

"These soldiers and innova-tive minds will discuss theachievements and the short-comings of the scheme whichwas launched last year. Theywill also deliberate on ways tomake it state-of-the art pro-gramme and strong ITenabled," he said.

With NHA's governingboard recently overhauling the

existing health benefits pack-ages and rationalising theircosts to remove any aberra-tions, most of the demands ofthe private sector has been met,he said.

Since the launch of PMJAYon September 23, 2018, morethan 47 lakh hospital treat-ments worth over Rs 7,500crore have been carried out.

Of the total amount utilised,55 per cent has been on tertiaryprocedures.

In addition, over 10 crorebeneficiary cards have beenissued and the governmenthas so far spent Rs 7,500 croreon treatment of patients underthe scheme.

As many as 18,073 hospitalsand healthcare providers havebeen empanelled across thecountry and of these, 53 percent are private.

Harsh Vardhan

111 hospitals have been de-empanelledafter they were found involved in somekind of fraudulent activity ormalpractices have been put up on theofficial website of the AB-PMJAY as apart of our ‘name and shame' initiative,said Union Health Minister

Namita Mundada

Rajeev Kumar

While inductingPadalkar into BJP,Fadnavis said, ‘Heis like a tiger, whoshould challenge amajor leader. If heis ready, I will tryto field him fromBaramati’

The bench postedfor Nov 20. Theex-AAP MLAshave challengedin the high courttheirdisqualificationunder the anti-defection law

HC seeks response ofDelhi Speaker, EC ondisqualification plea

Rajnath launches websiteof DefExpo 2020PNS n NEW DELHI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singhon Monday launched the web-site of the 11th edition ofDefEXpo, which will be held inLucknow in February next year,officials said. The event will behosted from February 5-8.

"The website, www.defex-po.gov.in, provides online ser-vices to exhibitors, besides host-ing informative content aboutthe product profile of DPSUs(Defence Public SectorUndertakings) and ordnancefactories," a senior official said.

The website enablesexhibitors to register and bookspace online as per theirrequirements on a first-come-first-serve basis, make onlinepayments, book conference

halls and venues for Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings,the Defence Ministry said in astatement. Exhibitors can availearly bird discounts by bookingspace on the website beforeOctober 31, it said.

Trade visitors will be able tobuy their tickets using the web-site for visiting the show dur-ing business days which will befrom February 5-7, the officialssaid. Entry for general publicwill be free on February 8.However, general visitors arerequired to pre-register on thewebsite.

Delhi Metro's Dwarka-Najafgarhcorridor to open on Oct 4

Yogi Adityanath

Rajnath Singh

Forces destroy Maoist camp in C'garh

NCP poll candidate, VBAleader, Cong MLA join BJP

HC verdict on Rajeevbail case likely today

Names of 111 hospitals put up onAB-PMJAY's site for ‘name & shame’

Gulalai Ismail, activist forwomen’s empowerment andPashtun human rights,escaped to the US inSeptember after four months

in hiding after denouncing the PakistanArmy’s alleged involvement in sexual vio-lence and disappearances. Expressinganxiety for her parents left behind, shesaid, “I do not see a prosperous Pakistanuntil the military establishment decidesit needs to go back to its barracks.”Unfortunately, the Army sees itself as theguarantor of a security state and thePashtun Tahafuz Movement, like theBaloch activists, is now in its crosshairs.

West Punjab-dominated Pakistan isnow in open conflict with activists fromBalochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,even Gilgit Baltistan. All are highlightingthe atrocities being perpetrated by thePakistan Army. Islamabad’s machinationsrecently made Pakistan-born Balochactivist, Baseer Naveed, stateless. Thougha permanent resident of Hong Kong, theexecutive director of the InternationalHuman Rights Council, Hong Kong(IHRC-HK) is now in danger of arrest,deportation or house arrest. After his sonwas killed in 2004, Naveed moved to HongKong in 2006 and took cases of enforceddisappearances in Pakistan to the UNWorking Group on Enforced andInvoluntary Disappearance (WGEID).

After an attempt to pick him up inThailand in 2016 failed, Naveed decided toseek Chinese citizenship with Hong Kongpassport, which was approved by theHong Kong Immigration in January 2018.As required, he surrendered his nationalidentity card and passport but the PakistaniConsulate-General retained his passport(now expired) at the behest of unseen mas-ters, his Renunciation Certificate ofPakistan Citizenship was cancelled, mak-ing him very vulnerable.

An elected member of the UN HumanRights Commission, Pakistan, has breachedArticle 15 of the Universal DeclarationHuman Rights that states, “Everyone hasthe right to a nationality” and “no one shallbe arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nordenied the right to change his nationality.”

Meanwhile, disappearances continue.On March 23, 2019, medical doctor ZafarSaleem was picked up by intelligenceagencies from Turbat, Kech, and releasedin a very critical condition in May 2019.In Karachi, doctors said his head injury,sustained as a result of torture, was fatal.Despite four months in hospital, he diedon September 2, 2019.

On September 4, 2019, UsmanMaqbool and his cousin Doda Rashid wereabducted from Pidrak, Kech, by ShahmeerAziz of Lashkar-e-Khurasan, an IslamicState affiliate. They left Maqbool’s minorson behind. Both men were handed overto the Frontier Corps and have since been

missing. On September 10,2019, activist Mir AliMohammad Chakranireturned home in Washuk dis-trict after attending a weddingwhen Armymen dragged himout in front of his family andsprayed him with bullets. Fivemembers of Chakrani’s familyhad been abducted previously;while four were released againsta ransom of `6.5 million, thefifth is still missing.

Newly wed HammalMurad and seven others wereforcibly abducted from TankGazzi in Mashkay, Awaran, inAugust 2019. On September 9,the Army brought Murad’sdead body home to show hisparents but took it back to theOoghaar military camp andburied it in an adjacent grave-yard. One abductee wasreleased the same day but thewhereabouts of the other six areunknown.

On September 16, 2019,Hani Gul, a student fromGwadar, told the media that sheand her fiancé, MohammadNaseem, were picked up byintelligence agencies fromKarachi, where they werestudying, and kept in torturecells for three months. At theVoice for Baloch MissingPersons’ protest camp in frontof Quetta Press Club, Hani Gulsaid that while she was released

after three months, her fiancéis still missing.

Meanwhile, four unidenti-fied bodies, discovered sepa-rately, were brought to CivilHospital, Quetta, where theywere declared unrecognisableand buried in Dasht onSeptember 16, 2019, by EdhiFoundation volunteers. Manymutilated bodies are routinelyburied every year even thoughPakistani courts have orderedthat DNA analysis must beconducted on all “beyondrecognition bodies.”

At the UN Human RightsCouncil (UNHRC) meeting inGeneva (September 9-27,2019), Baloch writer QambarMalik warned, “Islamic radi-calisation in Balochistan isbeing used by the Pakistaniauthorities as a tool to counterthe Baloch national strugglefor the right to self-determina-tion. These go together withthe enforced disappearancesand extra-judicial killing ofBaloch nationalists by thesecurity forces.” Malik saidthat the number of madrasas,which are a major source ofrecruits for the Taliban and theIslamic State, now exceeds thenumber of schools inBalochistan. Schools and uni-versities are under constantattack from Islamic militants.Activists from Sindh also

spoke of the grim atrocitiesinflicted on the people by themilitary, claiming that over300 people have disappearedsince February 2017.

The Government-estab-lished Commission of Inquiryon Enforced Disappearanceshas registered around 5,000cases of enforced disappear-ances since 2014, most ofwhich are still unresolved.Independent Pakistani andinternational human rightsorganisations claim that thenumbers are much higher.Nearly 20,000 have reportedlybeen abducted fromBalochistan alone; of thesemore than 2,500 have beenfound riddled with bullets andbearing signs of extreme tor-ture. In fact, before he becamethe Prime Minister, ImranKhan often stated in mediainterviews that Pakistan’s intel-ligence agencies were involvedin enforced disappearances andextra-judicial killings ofactivists in the country; hepromised to resign if he failedto end this practice and bringthose involved to account.

Samad Baloch, Secretary-General of the Baloch HumanRights Council, accusedPakistan of institutional viola-tion of human rights in theprovince, in Sindh, and KhyberPakhtunkhwa. Mehran Marri,

son of veteran Khair BakhshMarri, told the UNHRC thatPakistan continues to commit“genocide and human rightsviolations in Balochistan”, evenas it petitions the internation-al community about humanrights in Kashmir. Marri saidPakistan poses as internation-al policeman for safeguardingthe rights of Muslims aroundthe world but cannot dare seewhat is happening to theUighur Muslims in Xinjiangprovince because Beijing is a“partner-in-crime” inBalochistan.

At the UNHRC session,Pakistan failed to muster min-imum support for a resolutionagainst India for reorganisingits northern state of Jammu &Kashmir, while activists fromBalochistan, Sindh, Pakistan-held Kashmir and KhyberPakhtunkhwa clamoured for aUN investigation into thePakistani States’ crimesagainst humanity. Indeed, thePakistan Army has enjoyedtoo much impunity for osten-sibly serving Western strategicinterests. But now, it is appar-ent that it cannot provideWashington with a safe exitfrom Afghanistan.

(The writer is Senior Fellow,Nehru Memorial Museum andLibrary; the views expressedare personal)

The attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil facil-ities last month saw only a temporary hikein the price of crude oil across the world. But

the recent defeat of a Saudi Arabian military force,commanded by former Pakistani Army GeneralRaheel Sharif, by Houthi rebels inside its own ter-ritory with over 2,000 Saudi “affiliated” soldiers— a polite word for mercenaries — is proofenough that there is serious escalation of tension.The Yemeni rebels, who are funded and armed byIranians, have been in a proxy war for two decades

now. The Iranians blamed Saudi Arabia and its young Crown Prince, Mohammedbin-Salman, for the collapse of the nuclear deal between them and the US. Onthe other hand, the Saudis feel that Iran is encircling them by funding uprisingsin Yemen and Iraq. This can also be seen as a continuation of the centuries-longShia-Sunni schism in Islam where both nations are the biggest players. And ifthis clash escalates from its current nature to a full-blown explosion, there arerisks of hundreds of thousands dying. There is even the probability of nuclearescalation and, of course, the global economy is bound to be affected. As theSaudi Crown Prince warned, oil prices will shoot to “unimaginable” levels.

India will also find itself in a horrible quandary if the downhill slide to a waris not arrested. Our economy has benefitted from a historic period of lower oilprices, without which the current economic situation would have been even worse.We have extremely good ties and historically important relations with both Iranand Saudi Arabia, although there has been a dramatic improvement in ties withthe latter. India’s substantial Shia community, particularly in the erstwhile Stateof Avadh, have ties with Iran’s top leadership. Saudi Arabia has just promisedan investment of $100 billion for us. India’s stand during a potential conflict willbe interesting as it has a tough balancing act at hand. And after a relatively suc-cessful US tour, the current crisis will be a matter of immense concern for ForeignMinister S Jaishankar. But is there any need for a war in the first place? The factis that both Iran and Saudi Arabia are at the mercy of leaders who detest eachother, so the region has been a pressure cooker for decades. But Iran is feelingthe heat of sanctions and is of the view that there may not be much to lose. Tohit Saudi Arabia just as it plans to open up might be the best time to strike. Thelatter itself has seen bin-Salman purge the royalty of lackeys and hangers-on,sometimes violently and has few, if any, ways to have back-channel contactswith Iran. War should always be the last option but it seems horribly certain now.

If young climate activist Greta Thunberg isgiving a conscience call on what we aredumping on her generation, Mother Nature

knows best. For she makes us feel the dis-astrous reality of climate change all aroundus, radically altering our lives as we knew it.Aberrations, like the wettest September after102 years, are likely to become the “new nor-mal.” The frequency of extreme weatherevents is likely to increase, be it as unexpect-ed high and low temperature differentials ofsummer and winter or the frequent floods anddroughts. The calamity that ravaged most

parts of the eastern State of Bihar is only the latest in a string of freak nature out-bursts that have destroyed lives, land and crops in Maharashtra, Kerala and Assamthis monsoon. Bihar, for example, had a rain deficit of 20 per cent in the four-month monsoon period (between June and September), crucial for its food-grow-ing regions. Suddenly, the sputtering rain turned into a great deluge, dramatical-ly reducing the rain deficit to almost nil over the past three days. Distressing imagesof flooded streets, submerged railway tracks, boats ferrying people to safe places,though not new, pinched us under our skin simply because these are not pho-tos you associate with an Indian autumn. Even pure statistics are indeed star-tling: The number of floods in India rose to 90 in the 10-year period between2006 and 2015, up from 67 in the 10 years between 1996 and 2005, accord-ing to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. In the same vein, the death tollcontinued to rise — from 13,660 between 1996 and 2005 to 15,860 between2006 and 2015.

One of the key reasons for floods wreaking havoc in rural as well as urbanareas is the fact that overflow, consequent to a rise in water levels in rivers, doesnot find adequate diversionary channels. Clearly, the existing ones have eitheroutlived their utility in unforeseen circumstances or been shoved under the debrisof human material greed. Besides, fervid urbanisation has led to land reclama-tion in the most unscientific manner. In Bihar itself, while levels in the Ganga andKosi surged, stormwater channels were found to be clogged with plastics. Existingwetlands and flood plains could have stemmed the angry surge but have beentaken over by massive illegal construction on river banks and encroachments.The changing or constricted course of rivers and their tributaries have meant thatvast tracts of rural countryside and its villagers live in unpredictable scenariosas riverine refugees shift to temporary camps, lose standing crops, stare at abattered land, give up their traditional livelihood and economic activities for what-ever jobs are available. Some of them sink to deeper debts. The other alarmingreport is that all reservoirs across the country are full and are fast reaching theirsaturation limit. Gross mismanagement of dams is one area that needs to beaddressed as a shared concern than a show of territorial rights. Many times,despite early warning systems, States fail to release water at the apt time andinvolve themselves in a brawl. When water is released, coinciding with exces-sive rainfall, the flooding just worsens. Over the years, States have seriously takennote of the issue and have also taken corrective steps but there has to be anintegrated mechanism for the riverine ones. For there is only this much we cando in terms of disaster preparedness and management, which has improved great-ly, the rescue after cyclone Fani-hit Odisha being a good example. More than amillion people were evacuated into 9,000 shelters in just 24 hours. But Bihar justshowed us that while we may have excelled in one area, we are not complete-ly ready with preventive protocols. Reinforcing embankments is just a tradition-al and temporary way of handling flood pressure. Nothing substantial has beendone to address silt accumulation. Understanding sediment dynamics is impor-tant as a channel that is sediment-heavy may lead to overtopping of the banks.Any solution to this problem must first lead to an understanding of the river pat-tern, which differs from State to State and from season to season. Besides, floodmanagement strategies must be attuned to the specific parameters of the riversand predictive models with the help of technology should be used to plan analternative survival matrix. India’s vast plains are at great risk.

Tame the flood fury

Befitting reply

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Takeaways from UN” (October1). It just took less than six min-utes for Vidisha Maitra, FirstSecretary for India’s PermanentMission to the UN, to counterPakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan’s pack of lies at the UnitedNations General Assembly.Pakistan stood thoroughlyexposed in the eyes of the globalcommunity for its nuclear sabre-rattling and its thinly-disguisedagenda to instigate communaltensions in the neighbouringcountry. Khan’s appeal to the larg-er Islamist world that they shouldcome forward and help rescue theMuslims in Kashmir shows hismeanness. For Pakistan, the onlymatter worth talking about ininternational fora is Kashmir. ButIndia has been very firm in itsstand that it is totally its internalmatter.

That said, despite the discor-dant voices back home, PrimeMinister Modi has every right tofeel contented with his week-longstay in the US. He emerged as aclimate change champion bypromising to front-load India’sgreen energy commitments,

though the over-polluted andfilthy cities suggest we have a fairdistance to travel beyond declara-tory pronouncements. India maynot have become a better place in

five years but the Prime Minister’svisit to the US was indeed animage-booster.

KS Jayatheertha Bengaluru

Dangers of smoking

Sir — In his monthly radio address,Mann ki Baat, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi asked people toshun tobacco and said that e-cig-arettes had been banned to preventthe youth from falling into the newmethods of intoxication.

As modern technology striveshard to make our living morecomfortable and enjoyable,advanced technology, too, findsways to entertain people at theexpense of their health. The useof e-cigarettes, vapes, vape pensand e-hookahs has seen anincreased use among the youththough the Electronic NicotineDelivery System (ENDS) wasbanned long back. A myth doingthe rounds among them is alsothat e-cigarettes pose no danger.

Unlike conventional ciga-rettes, vapes do not let out anodour as fragrant chemicals areadded to it and these chemicalsare harmful to one’s health. Youngpeople are the asset of the nationand if they are not physically andmentally sound, they cannot lead.It is the responsibility of thosewho are aware of the ill-effects ofsmoking to wean others off thishealth hazard.

TK NandananChennai

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

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op nionVIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019

06

Human rights graveyard

SANDHYA JAIN

The Pakistan Army has enjoyed too much impunity for ostensibly serving Western strategicinterests. But now, it is apparent that it cannot provide Washington with a safe Afghan exit

The atmosphere of J&K isone of fear, and since itbecame a Union Territory,the Centre is threatening thelocal administration.

Congress leader—Ghulam Nabi Azad

The first responsibility thatan actor has towards theaudience is to give them anhonest portrayal. I think thathappens very rarely.

Actor—Shahid Kapoor

Known as the Mahatma, hisspirit and deeds not onlyinspired the people of Indiabut also left a precious spiritual legacy to the world.

Chinese official—Geng Shuang

S O U N D B I T E

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

The Mahatma’s ideals should keep guiding us

As the nation celebrates the 150th birth anniversaryof Mahatma Gandhi, it will be right to aver that heis fast losing relevance as one of those freedom

fighters who contributed the most towards ensuring thatthe nation achieves its free status. The country remem-bers Gandhi as a political and spiritual leader who playeda key role in the Indian independence movement. Nowafter seven decades of freedom, fingers are being point-ed against him for his lack of foresightedness. He isbeing criticised for his role in Partition. His detractorscontend that despite him having shown us the path ofnon-violence, when independence did finally come, itdid so awash with blood.

That the Hindu-Muslim divide showed its ugly sidesoon after independence is an indication of the politi-cal deviousness of the leaders of that era. Unfortunately,the situation is no different today. The current crop ofpolitical leaders can only harp on religious nationalismto keep communities at loggerheads. Although India con-tinues with its secular disposition, with the sort of pol-itics being enacted today, it is becoming extremely dif-ficult to place the pieces of the jigsaw together. The furyof Partition is being resurrected and, therefore, the mod-ern generation sees leaders of that era as “architects”of that shameful act. Attempts should not be made tore-write history by piecing together unverified facts. By

inciting public outrage against decisions that should actu-ally be seen as commitments towards prevailingdemands, the new generation is taking an unethical viewof the events of the past. Till the very end, divide andrule was a deliberate strategy for the British and anunwary nation of Hindus and Muslims fell victim to theempire’s guile. Gandhiji, on the other hand, lived forpeace, harmony and reconciliation and laid down his pre-cious life for the vindication of these ideals. The nationshould always be grateful to him.

Pachu MenonMargao

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Slowly but surely…Some fights get personaland there is nothing wrongwith that. Sometimes it isnice to get personal withsomeone.

BJP MP —Gautam Gambhir

Global warming means more extreme weather events and asBihar shows, there is a need for greater river management

...the world is heading to another huge conflagration in theArabian peninsula and the subsequent increase in oil prices

Gandhigiri in real life

ISI AND PAKISTAN ARMY TRAINED AL-QAEDA ANDOTHER GROUPS TO FIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN. THERE

WERE ALWAYS LINKS BECAUSE THEY TRAINED THEM.—PAKISTAN PRIME MINISTER

IMRAN KHAN

I THINK EVERYONE CAN SEE THROUGH THAT.PAKISTAN IS JUST SAYING (SORRY) THIS TO GETTHE FUNDS FROM THE US IN THE BEGGING BOWL.—BALOCH LEADER MEHRAN MARRI

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

On his visit to London for the Round TableConference of 1931, Mahatma Gandhi wasgrossly under-clothed to face the British

winter. Dressed in his trademark homespun loin-cloth, a sartorial choice picked to identify withIndia’s poorest, Gandhi went all the way to theBuckingham Palace to meet King George V. “TheKing was wearing enough for both of us”, heremarked later with characteristic humour whenasked if his clothing felt appropriate for such ameeting. When then British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill disparagingly referred to himas the “half-naked fakir”, he took it as a compli-ment!

Gandhi’s sense of humour was an insepara-ble part of his personality, as were his views onnon-violence, sustainable living, economical useof resources, role of mass media in a nation’s devel-opment and humane treatment to animals. Therewere multiple dimensions to his personality, muchbeyond the saintliness we usually associate withhim. Unfortunately, in the process of revering himas the Father of the Nation, we have unwittinglyburied a series of interesting facets of his thoughtand philosophy, rendering him a uni-dimension-al monotonous figure. This failure to keepGandhi alive as a living philosophy is responsi-ble for the young generation’s loss of interest inhim.

Popular yet misunderstood: If you ask ayoung Indian about Mahatma Gandhi, chancesare that he/she will fail to identify him as anythingbeyond a freedom fighter. Worrisomely, a num-ber of youngsters bred on a constant diet of socialmedia forwards even openly deride him, holdinghim responsible for a series of ills, including India’sPartition, failure to seek clemency for Bhagat Singhand for preferring Jawaharlal Nehru over SardarPatel. The problem lies in the fact that the Statehas failed to make Brand Gandhi relevant to thepeople. The Father of our Nation was much morethan a saint or a leader of a non-violent freedommovement. As a human being, he deeply under-stood this country and laid out a philosophy thatcovered all dimensions of our lives. Truth be told,never have Gandhi’s ideals been more relevant tothe world and to our country than they are today.As we face unprecedented challenges of violence,hate, environmental degradation, depletion ofresources and increasing chasm between the richand the poor, we desperately need Gandhi’s phi-losophy as a guiding light.

There is also an urgent need to rebrandGandhi to make him more palatable to the youngIndians. This needs to be done by popularisingthe unknown facets of his personality.

Rebranding the Mahatma: In 2006, aBollywood comedy called Lage Raho Munna Bhaidid more to popularise Gandhi among the youththan State-led programmes could do in 60 years.It did so by simplifying his teachings and exhibit-ing how they can make a real difference in ourdaily lives. However, we need more than a filmto realise this goal, we need to contemporiseGandhi for contemporary Indians and restore dig-nity to his brand.

Gandhi’s ideas on sagacious use of resources,blunting hatred with love and forgiveness, andinvesting in nature are key to this age of excess-es. His unknown love for music, his absolute ded-

ication towards fitness (who could havewalked 284 km to Dandi at the age of63?), his advocacy of eco-friendly prac-tices and his emphasis on humility andnon-violence need to be revived andadopted.

Environment and sustainability:Millions of young people took to thestreets across the world last weekdemanding concrete action from thecountries to curb and reverse climatechange. The explosion of the youthmovement ignited by Swedish activistGreta Thunberg reminded the worldabout how the human race has endan-gered itself through its unsustainableexploitation of natural resources. As wecelebrate Gandhi’s150th birth anniver-sary, it is pertinent to revisit his idealson environment and sustainability.

As an astute critic of greed-centricmodernity, Gandhi was very concernedabout the social order that exploited nat-ural resources for short-term and short-sighted gains. He wrote extensivelyabout our need to exercise collectiverestraint when it came to exploitingnature. What seemed like counter-fac-tual thinking at the time has nowbecome mainstream with climate changebecoming the single-greatest threat tothe future of human beings as a species.

Gandhi had astutely foreseen aworld running rampant with unre-stricted materialism and industrialism,a world where the natural resourceswould not be enough to sustain the bur-geoning population and its needs. It istime we understand the value of hisvision to the discourse on climatechange, environmental conversation,and sustainability.

Gandhian philosophy: The centraltenet of Gandhi’s philosophy was thatman should be at the centre of any devel-opmental roadmap. He believed that itwas essential to take the long-term view

of things into account to ensure ourprosperity and wellbeing. He advocat-ed using natural resources judiciouslywithout disturbing the ecological balanceof increasingly fragile ecosystems. Healso talked about a developmentalmodel where everyone could partake inthe progress. In his translation of JohnRuskin’s tract on political economy,Gandhi used the term sarvodaya, (wel-fare of all), which was to become the cen-tral basis of his beliefs and actions laterin life. He was a strong proponent of acommunity-based approach towardsenvironmental sustainability andbelieved that by keeping the welfare ofall human beings at heart, we will be ableto avoid exploitation of man and natureand uphold human dignity.

Although he did not present astructured model for the conservationof environment and sustainable devel-opment, we can form a picture of hisvision by linking his thoughts together.He was strongly for dencentralisation ofpower at all levels of society. He visu-alised sarvodaya at the national level,Gram Sabha at the local level andSwaraj (economic freedom) at the indi-vidual level. He firmly believed that thepower to change the world resided in theindividual and that by mutually interde-pendent cooperation, we would be ableto create a noble environment for all.Every individual is the trustee of thewealth generated by our collectiveefforts and we should always try to con-vert that into wealth of all for a betterworld instead of selfishly pursuing indi-vidual interests and personal gains. Byachieving inward change, we can affecta shift from a consumer society to a con-server one.

Energy crisis and sustainable trans-port: During the historic Dandi march,a supporter on a bike offered oranges toGandhi. He politely declined them and

told him to walk and avoid using thebike. This in many ways formed theessence of his thought. Gandhi was anadvocate of walking and cycling. In ret-rospect, his ideals seem far ahead of histimes, but relevant nonetheless.Indiscriminate use of fossil fuels has ledto global warming. Increasing use ofethanol and biodiesel from sugarcaneand corn will result in food shortage andincreased water consumption. We con-tinue to mindlessly consume unsustain-able resources. The solution lies intempering our wants and turning to sus-tainable transport as much as possible.Simple changes to our lifestyle, such aswalking and cycling, car pooling and theuse of non-conventional energy sourceswhen adopted on a large scale, can makea positive impact.

Water problems: When Kathiawarin Gujarat experienced drought duringthe Independence struggle, Gandhiurged the people to plant more trees,knowing very well that afforestation ona large scale can help curb water crisis.He also pushed for the practice of waterharvesting for irrigation to avoid foodshortages and famines, a suggestion thatwas well ahead of its time. As we wit-ness a major impending water crisis anddepletion of ground water resources,invoking Gandhi’s ideals seems to be thenatural recourse. Gandhi famously saidthat “If you want to change the world,start with yourself.” If we had paid heedto his words earlier, we wouldn’t be ina world where future generations areblaming us, and rightly so, for the worldwe are leaving them with. Unless indi-viduals rethink their consumer lifestyleand governments rethink developmentagenda to make them sustainable, therecan be no lasting peace and happiness.

(The writer is Director and CreativeStrategist at an advertising and consult-ing agency and Return of Million Smiles)

The popular yet often misunderstood Mahatma needs an image makeover as India’sfailure to keep him alive as a living philosophy is responsible for the loss of interest in him

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

Safe blood startswith altruism

IF YOU ASK A YOUNGINDIAN ABOUT

MAHATMA GANDHI,CHANCES ARE THAT

HE/SHE WILL FAIL TOIDENTIFY HIM AS

ANYTHING BEYOND AFREEDOM FIGHTER.

WORRISOMELY, ANUMBER OF

YOUNGSTERS BREDON A CONSTANT DIET

OF SOCIAL MEDIAFORWARDS EVEN

OPENLY DERIDE HIM,HOLDING HIM

RESPONSIBLE FOR ASERIES OF ILLS,

INCLUDING INDIA’SPARTITION, FAILURETO SEEK CLEMENCYFOR BHAGAT SINGH

AND FORPREFERRING NEHRU

OVER SARDAR PATEL

In spite of the technological and medical advances achieved overthe last millennium, it is still not possible to substitute any man-ufactured product for the transfusion of blood. The only source

of blood as a therapeutic product is another human being and it’snot without its own risks. Although, the more commonly discussedones are the transmission of infectious diseases like HumanImmunodeficiency Virus, Hepatitis B, C, malaria and syphilis, thereare other immune and non-immune reactions that can occur. Thesecan range from transient fever to life-threatening immunologicallymediated reactions or life-long sensitisation. The potential risk of trans-mission of infections can be reduced if it can be assured that thedonors who are the source of the blood do not carry infection.

The first line procedure is a donor interview, which when per-formed meticulously, can ensure that donors who are at potentialrisk of being in the window period can be determined and exclud-ed, most of the time. It is expected that the giver will be truthful anddivulge confidentially, information that may disqualify them as a can-didate. Appropriate information and counselling have to be provid-ed to the person who needs to be deferred. The blood collected fromscreened donors then needs to be subjected to various mandatorytests to ensure freedom from infections. The interview process isoften trivialised in many centres and observed in the breach duringmost blood donation camps, especially the “mega-camps” wherequantity often takes precedence over quality and safety.

The importance of a reliable contributor in the quest to ensuresafe blood is often taken for granted, not just in our country, but inthe South-East Asia region, which collects 15 per cent of the glob-al blood to cater to 26 per cent of the world’s population. Barring afew countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand, most countries still reporta significant proportion of replacement donors. According to the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO), voluntary non-remunerated blood dona-tion (VNRBD) means that a person gives blood, plasma or cellularcomponents and receives no payment for it, either in cash or kind.

Studies have shown that first-time voluntary contributors havea similar risk profile to replacement donors. It is only when the per-son has donated repeatedly over a period of at least two consecu-tive years, that it becomes possible to be confident about the reduc-tion in risk. The frequency of contribution depends on the commu-nity from which the person is selected and the existing regulatorynorms and guidelines for selection. In India the recommended timeinterval is 90 days between donation for males and 120 days forfemales. Developing a pool of repeat voluntary blood givers is nomean task. It requires careful planning, targetted and sustained cam-paigns in the community.

Currently, the process of creating awareness, motivating, recruit-ing and retaining of repeat VNRBD is the responsibility of the bloodbank. For an entity that is already struggling under the existing reg-ulations for operations and compulsions to keep costs down (thereis a prescribed cap on how much can be charged for blood), theresources allocated to this task — in terms of human resources,planning and implementation — are meagre. Sustained engagementwith contributors requires more than sporadic messages on elec-tronic media, posters or one-off TV advertisements. The State andnational blood transfusion services also have not been able to investconsistently to systematically develop awareness and conduct anationwide campaign. Although educational organisations facilitateblood donations, it is often to fulfil the letter of regulation (to con-duct one donation camp in an academic year) rather than to nur-ture a sense of altruism. Blood donation is not something that istalked about in our society. Most of the conversation lasts a coupleof days during the year — the International Blood Donor Day (June14) or the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day (October 1). Mostpeople only think about blood donation when their close relatives orfriends are in need of a transfusion. Unless they are fortunate to bein close proximity to a blood bank that has adequate supply, theywill go through a fairly traumatic experience of finding replacementdonors to ensure that the blood bank gets enough donors of anygroup in exchange for the units given to their patient. This memoryusually fades after the immediate demand is addressed. The lackof a dependable pool of repeat voluntary contributors and the absenceof commitment to donate regularly contributes to periodic shortageof blood in the hospitals.Unless we as a nation are willing to changeour mindset and be receptive to the idea of “giving without gettingin return” our blood banks and hospitals will continue to be caughtin a regular cycle of shortages and never wean off dependence onreplacement blood donors. It’s time we took the 2000 WHO sloganseriously: “Safe blood starts with me: blood saves lives.”

(The writer is Professor. Department of Transfusion Medicineand Haematology, Christian Medical College, Vellore)

Say they’re smug and superior. Say theirapproach to public policy makes youwant to tear your hair out. ……But

don’t call them worthless. At least, don’t doit in front of me. The people that I have methave been extraordinarily qualified. Theirintent is good. Their commitment is true.They are righteous, and they are patriots.And I’m their lawyer,” says the RepublicanAinsley Hayes in the popular TV show TheWest Wing. Ainsley’s words could come asa wake-up call to many who dismiss theGovernment and its leaders as “worthless”and often choose to undermine the workaccomplished as they run after mirage-likechampions of causes. Therefore, it is impor-tant to set the record straight. Over the lastfew weeks, so much has been said about cli-mate change, the environment and sustain-

ability, with Prime Minister NarendraModi’s participation at the United NationsClimate Action Summit in New York. OnOctober 2, the Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM) completes five years. Therefore, it isimportant to recall how sustainability andenvironmental consciousness have been atthe heart of several policy intervention.

It is also important to highlight thatthemes like cleanliness, toilet construction,sanitation, environmental impact ofLiquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylindersand solar energy have emerged at a globalstage consistently over the last five years,which is unprecedented. Therefore, it wouldbe prudent to discuss three major reformsof Swachhta, Ujjwala and Saur Urja (solarenergy) in this context.

When we talk about SBM, it is impor-tant to note how the mission has evolvedfrom a sanitation, open-defecation free(ODF) behavioural mass movement andurban waste-segregation initiative to free-ing the country from single-use plastic. FromMicrosoft founder Bill Gates to SulabhInternational founder Bindeshwar Pathak,the far-reaching impact of the SBM has beenassessed through different parameters, bothtangible and intangible. Pathak has rightlysaid that it took Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s courage and steady focus to bring an“unpalatable” yet fundamental subject liketoilet construction to the fore and make ita people-centric movement.

Some facts with regards to SBM mightbe known to us — the increase of rural san-itation coverage from 38 per cent in 2014to 99 per cent in 2019, construction of 110million toilets and 30 States and UnionTerritories becoming Open Defecation Free(ODF). Recent studies by UNICEF and theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have alsoascertained the effect of the SBM on theenvironment and in terms of money spenton information, education and communi-cation (IEC) activities. The studies conclud-ed that achieving the goal of ODF villageshas positively affected the quality of ground-water by reducing contamination. Thestudy found that non-ODF villages were“11.25 times more likely to have theirgroundwater sources contaminated (12.7times more from contaminants traceable tohumans alone).”

The findings of the Gates Foundationstudy are particularly interesting in the back-drop of the criticism received on the expen-diture on IEC-related activities. It says, “Anaverage person living in rural India wasexposed to between 2,500-3,300 SBM-

related messages over the last five years.”While the targeted communication throughIEC interventions is a tangible outcome,Modi’s consistent mention of the theme inhis Mann Ki Baat radio programme has alsocatalysed the necessary behavioural change.Yet, Modi, does not choose to stop at thispoint and gave a clarion call to make Indiafree of single-use plastic.

It’s well known that environmentaldegradation has a disproportionate impacton the poor and lack of access to resourcesis responsible for depletion, which furtherperpetuates poverty. The fact is that thisrenewed understanding has become an inte-gral aspect of India’s new development par-adigm.

Let’s consider indoor air pollution,which is known to cause asthma or bron-chitis. Several estimates suggest that the costof asthma treatment per year for 2015 was`139.45 billion. Part of this cost is on theGovernment, while the rest comes from out-of-pocket expenditure on healthcare. TheGovernment launched the Ujjwala Yojanaand has already distributed over eight croreLPG cylinders to facilitate a switch fromburning firewood in rural areas. Doing sohas already started to show a considerableimpact in reducing indoor air pollution,

which will further reduce the incidences oflung-related disorders, eventually savingmoney for both the Government and thepoor. There’s recognition of the linkagesbetween the environment and its conse-quences on health outcomes, be it access toclean fuel or improved sanitation. The socialbenefits of these programmes are not justlimited to environment preservation, as theywill yield rich dividends in terms ofimproved healthcare outcomes which willonly reduce the burden of disease.

India’s pollution woes are not just lim-ited to indoor air. Several of our major citiessuffer from poor air quality, while our riverstoo, have witnessed a steady increase in pol-lutants over the last couple of decades. Thefact that these changes can be catastrophicis well known and perhaps that explains oneof the world’s most ambitious renewableenergy initiatives.

The International Solar Alliance, aimedat reducing India’s global carbon footprint,was launched by New Delhi in 2015. It hasbeen joined by 121 countries, which showsthe extent of the impact that India has hadin shaping the global environmental conser-vation discourse. India’s target for solar gen-eration is an ambitious 450 gigawatt (GW)and the country is now making rapid strides

towards achieving the target of 175 GW by2022.

It is equally important to recogniseIndia’s push towards electric vehicles (EVs)to further reduce its carbon footprint. Be itthrough tax incentives for electric cars or thepush for electric buses, there’s a concentrat-ed effort by the Government to create arobust infrastructure that facilitates asmooth transition to a cleaner technology.

Though reducing our carbon foot-print will help address the problem of cli-mate change that affects the entire planet,moving towards EVs and reducing India’sreliance on coal-based power plants are crit-ical towards reducing air pollution in someof our major cities.

There are long-term benefits from allsuch interventions and these benefits are notjust limited to India and its citizens, but theyare global. While we may have several envi-ronmental activists, who find it convenientto consider development as a direct conflictwith environmentalism, India has managedto balance the two and carve out a practi-cal model of sustainable development.

(Bhasin is a New Delhi-based public pol-icy researcher and Chauthaiwale is a digitalcommunication and policy professional)

Walking the sustainable development talkAs the Swachh Bharat Mission completes five years tomorrow, it is vital to recall how sustainability and environmental

consciousness have been at the heart of several policy interventions of the Government

KEWAL KAPOOR

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019

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KARANBHASIN

PRERITA CHAUTHAIWALE

JOY MAMMEN

Repeat voluntary contributions are the only wayto reduce dependence on replacement donors

and meet shortage

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019 money 08

CAPSULE

Kalpataru bagsorders worth Rs 775 croreNEW DELHI: Kalpataru PowerTransmission Ltd (KPTL) onMonday said it has baggedorders worth Rs 775 crore intransmission and distributionsegment. According to acompany statement, KPTL andits international subsidiaryhave secured the orders fromthe government and privateclients. "These new orders willhelp us to strengthen our T&Dorder book particularly in Indiaand Bangladesh. Our totalorder inflows in FY19-20 hascrossed Rs 4,300 crore andadditionally we have a L1position of approximately Rs2,000 crore," KPTL's MD andCEO Manish Mohnot said.KPTL is engaged in powertransmission & distribution(T&D), oil & gas pipeline,railways, infrastructuredevelopment, civil contractingand warehousing & logisticsbusiness with a stronginternational presence inpower T&D. The company isexecuting several contracts inIndia, Africa, the Middle East,CIS, SAARC and Far East.

Vistara to start directDelhi-Patna flightfrom November 3NEW DELHI: Full-servicecarrier Vistara will start dailydirect flights between thenational capital and Patnafrom November 3. The airlinewould also have daily servicesbetween Varanasi andKhajuraho from November 5,according to a release."Introductory, all-inclusive,one-way economy fares startfrom Rs 3,099 for Delhi-Patnaand Rs 3,686 for Varanasi-Khajuraho," the carrier said inthe release on Monday. Theairline's Chief Strategy OfficerVinod Kannan said Patnacontinues to record double-digit growth in domesticpassenger traffic. "Vistara'sexpansion to these cities willcertainly help us to widen ourcustomer base that prefers afine flying experience on theirleisure or business travels," headded. A joint venturebetween Tatas and SingaporeAirlines, Vistara now connects30 destinations and operatesnearly 200 flights a day.

PMC Bank crisis ‘eye opener',RBI looking at lapses: ThakurPNS n NEW DELHI

Terming the Punjab andMaharashtra Cooperative(PMC) Bank crisis as an "eyeopener", Minister of State forFinance Anurag Thakur onMonday said the banking sec-tor regulator RBI is lookinginto various aspects, includinglapses on part of auditors.

The bank came under stressdue to alleged financial irreg-ularities forcing theReserve Bank of India(RBI) to impose restric-tion on the Mumbai-based lender.

"The role of regulatorsis very important but atthe same time the role ofauditors, directors, bankofficials is equally impor-tant. And what theyhave been doingfor last somany yearsand peopleresponsi-ble for it, It h i n kregulator

(RBI) is looking into this. Atthis stage, I would not like tosay much to that.

"But the kind ofmedia reports and

articles havecome, some ofthem are veryshocking. Ithink it is veryvery important,an eye openerfor the bankingsector... suchinstances should

not takeplace

at the outset. It also raises ques-tion mark on role of variouspeople whether it is regulator,auditors, directors and otherofficials," he said on the side-lines of an event organised byPunjab National Bank here.

Asked if the Ministry ofCorporate Affairs is also look-ing into the matter, Thakursaid the government will lookinto all the areas where everrequired because eventuallyit's going to impact commonman.

The central bank last monthput a slew of restrictions on theMumbai-based lender, creatingpanic among thousands ofdepositors.

Major restrictions includecapping withdrawal at Rs10,000 per customer duringthe six-month period, and

banning the bank from extend-ing new loans. The lender hasaround Rs 11,000 crore ofpublic deposits.

With regard to resolution ofbad loans, the minister said theNational Company LawTribunal should be the lastresort.

The bank should exploreother options for resolutionwhich is good for the bankersto recover more amount andalso for the various stakehold-ers.

He also said that the bank-ing sector will play a crucialrole in achieving aspiration ofUSD 5 trillion economy by2024-25.

Praising Punjab NationalBank (PNB) for standing tallduring tough times, Thakursaid, the credit should go to allthe stakeholders especially offi-cials of the bank.

He inaugurated the heritagemuseum showcasing thebank's journey of 125 yearsfrom its humble beginning inLahore to its new corporateoffice.

But the kind of media reports and articles havecome, some of them are very shocking. I think it isvery very important, an eye opener for the banking

sector... such instances should not take place at the outset.— ANURAG THAKUR, Minister oof SState ffor FFinance

Buyback rules eased for coswith housing finance wingsPTI n NEW DELHI

Capital markets regulator Sebihas eased its norms for buy-back of shares by listed com-panies, especially those havingsubsidiaries in housing financeand NBFC segments.

The notification comes afterthe board of Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)approved norms in this regardin August.

The repurchase of shares bylisted companies is governedby the Buyback Regulations ofSebi as well as the CompaniesAct.

Among the main condi-tions that the companies needto follow, the buyback offercannot exceed 25 per cent ofthe aggregate paid-up capitaland free reserves of the com-pany, but shareholders'approval is required through aspecial resolution in case thesize exceeds 10 per cent.

Also, a buyback is permittedonly if the ratio of the aggregateof secured and unsecured debtsowed by the company after thebuyback is not more than twicethe paid-up capital and freereserves, unless a higher debt-to-equity ratio is specifiedunder the Companies Act.

While Sebi takes intoaccount financial statementson standalone as well as con-solidated basis for evaluatingthe buyback thresholds, severalissues have been raised inthe recent past withregard to consideringconsolidated financialstatements for com-panies with sub-sidiaries having high-er debt due to theirpresence in businesseslike Non-BankingFinancial Company(NBFC) and housing

finance segments.Sebi's decision to amend its

regulations also follows a noti-fication by the CorporateAffairs Ministry permittinggovernment companies carry-ing out non-banking financeand housing finance activitiesto launch buybacks resulting inup to 6:1 debt to equity ratiopost the share repurchase.

After taking into account thefeedback to a public consulta-tion process launched in May,Sebi has decided to continue

with the current approach ofallowing buybacks

resulting in post-buy-back debt-to-equityratio of up to 2:1,except for compa-nies for which ahigher ratio hasbeen notified under

the Companies Act,based on both stand-alone and consolidat-

ed basis.

However, if the debt to equi-ty ratio on standalone basisdoes not exceed 2:1, butexceeds this threshold on con-solidated basis, buybackswould still be allowed if theconsolidated ratio is up to 2:1after excluding the subsidiariesthat are NBFCs and housingfinance companies regulatedby RBI or National HousingBank, the regulator said in anotification dated September19,

But, the standalone debt toequity ratio of all such exclud-ed subsidiaries should notexceed 6:1, as per the approvednorms, it added.

Earlier, Sebi had proposed tokeep this threshold at 5:1.

Under the new rules, thefinancial statements would beconsidered on both stand-alone and consolidated basis todetermine the maximum per-missible buyback size andother related requirements.

The notification comes after theboard of Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) approved normsin this regard in August

Sacked HK’s Cathay staff decry ‘Cultural Revolution' purgeAFP n HONG KONG

Former Cathay Pacific staffwho say they were fired forsupporting Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters accusedbosses on Monday of carryingout a "Cultural revolution"style political purge.

The Hong Kong-based air-line has had a torrid few weeksafter Chinese state media andauthorities blasted the compa-ny because some of its 27,000employees had taken part in -- or were sympathetic to -- anti-government protesters.

China's aviation regulatorbarred staff supporting protestsfrom working on flights to themainland or traveling throughits airspace, setting off chaosinside the company as it fran-tically tried to win backBeijing's favour.

Both the airline's CEO andChairman made surprisedepartures as bosses issuedrepeated warnings to staff not

to take part in the protests cur-rently engulfing the financialhub.

In recent weeks staff havedescribed deleting their socialmedia accounts, fearful thatcolleagues might inform onthem while Cathay announcedit had sacked multiple stafflinked to the protests.

On Monday, a group of for-

mer employees held a pressconference alongside officialsfrom the Hong Kong CabinCrew Confederation and flightattendant unions.

They said at least 26 peoplehad been fired from Cathay inprotest-linked terminations.

Hiding their identitiesbehind sunglasses and facemasks they described summa-

ry firings, often after beingshown screengrabs of theirFacebook and other socialmedia posts.

"It's regrettable to see CathayPacific encouraging staff toreport and criticise (others)internally," one woman, whogave her first name as Jackie,told reporters. "The situation isjust like in the CulturalRevolution." "Some crew wereshown posts and updates ontheir private social mediaaccounts and required to pro-vide an explanation with evi-dence. Others were handed

termination letters without anyaccusations," she added.

One woman, who gave hername as Chris, tearfullydescribed human resourcesasking her to explain threescreenshots, one of whichoffered an opinion on theprotests.

She said she was initially sus-pended and then fired.

"I wasn't given any explana-tion. I was just escorted out ofthe office. I was very furiousand devastated," she said.

In a statement, Cathay saidit had to abide by all regulations

placed on it in any jurisdictionswhere it operates, "includingthose prescribed by the author-ities in mainland China".

"We will ensure 100 percent compliance with all ourregulatory duties. Quite sim-ply, this is our licence tooperate; there is no groundfor compromise," the airlineadded.

The protests have also hitCathay's bottom line withAugust passenger numbersdown 11.3 per cent on last year,inbound Hong Kong trafficdown 38 percent and out-bound down 12 per cent year-on-year, the biggest falls in adecade.

Beijing's crackdown onCathay has heightened fearsamong many Hong Kongersthat the city's free speech lawsare increasingly under threat-- particularly within any com-pany that does business with-in the authoritarian main-land.

The Hong Kong-based airline has hada torrid few weeks after Chinese statemedia and authorities blasted thecompany because some of its 27,000employees had taken part in -- or weresympathetic to -- anti-governmentprotesters

Exports of e-cigarette bannedPTI n NEW DELHI

The commerce ministry onMonday said it has bannedexports of electronic ciga-rettes, e-Hookah and othersimilar devices.

The notification was issuedto comply with the govern-ment's ordinance issued onSeptember 18 to ban produc-tion, import, distribution andsale of electronic cigarettes.

"Export of electronic ciga-rettes including all forms of

Electronic Nicotine DeliverySystems, Heat Not BurnProducts, e-Hookah and thelike devices by whatever namecalled and whatever shape,size or form it may have...isprohibited," the DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Trade(DGFT) said in a notification.

However, it said the bandoes not conclude any prod-uct licensed under the Drugsand Cosmetics Act, 1940.

The ordinance issued onSeptember 18 bans e-ciga-

rettes, making the production,import, export, transport, saleor advertisements of such

alternative smoking devices acognizable offence, attractingjail term and fine.

First time violators willface a jail term of up to oneyear and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.For subsequent offences, a jailterm of up to three years or afine of Rs 5 lakh, or both,according to the ordinance.

The storage of e-cigarettesshall now be punishable withimprisonment of up to sixmonths or a fine of up to Rs50,000 or both.

DGCA actsagainst twoSpiceJet pilotsPTI n NEW DELHI

Aviation regulator DGCAhas suspended the flyinglicences of two SpiceJet pilotsfor four months for lapsesthat led to pressurisation fail-ure onboard a Hyderabad-Jaipur flight in June, accord-ing to a senior official.

The lapses of the crewjeopardised the safety of air-craft and its occupants, as perthe watchdog. A SpiceJetBoeing 737-800 plan made anair turn back due to pres-surisation failure on June 14this year.

The official noted that thecrew forgot to put the "bleedswitch to 'ON' position dur-ing cockpit preparation,departure briefiing and aftertakeoff checklist which result-ed into pressurisation failureduring climb".

Generally, bleed air switchis used to maintain cabinpressure.

Captain Sunil Mehta, whowas commanding the plane,and Captain Vikram Singhhave been suspended for fourmonths from the date of theincident, the official added.

Lupin’s erectiledysfunction tablaunched in USPTI n NEW DELHI

Pharma major Lupin onMonday said it has launchedits Sildenafil tablets used forthe treatment of erectile dys-function in the US market.

The company has launchedSildenafil tablets USP in thestrengths of 25 mg, 50 mg and100 mg after receiving approvalfrom the United States Foodand Drug Administration(USFDA) earlier, Lupin said ina filing to the BSE.

Clix Capitalraises $40 mnfrom existinginvestorsPTI n NEW DELHI

Clix Capital Services, a digital-lending NBFC, on Mondaysaid it has raised USD million(about Rs 280 crore) from itsexisting investors, includingAION Capital Partners, tofund growth plan.

The company is targetinga loan book of Rs 5,500-6,000crore by the end of the cur-rent fiscal as compared to Rs5,000 crore currently, ClixCapital Services said in astatement.

Augmenting the compa-ny's original capital base ofUSD 250 million (Rs 1,800crore), the latest round offunding will be used toexpand the business across itsvaried segments especiallyconsumer finance and digitalplatforms.

Clix has a presence across12 cities in India and envis-ages deeper penetration inthese markets, it said.

With the fresh equity infu-sion, Clix is planning to con-tinue its steady credit quali-ty-led growth, focussing onthe retail-lending segmentto achieve about 70 per centcomposition by March 2020,it said.

‘Current slowdownan opportunity togrow our books’PTI n MUMBAI

HDFC Bank on Mondayasserted there is no stress onits credit portfolio because ofthe slowdown and it sees thecurrent phase as an opportu-nity to grow its book.

Its managing director andchief executive Aditya Purialso informed that a searchpanel of the board announcedearlier will be formed byJanuary, to ensure the chosensuccessor to lead thebank can work withhim for 1-2 months.

The bank hadreported a 1.40 percent gross non- per-forming assets ratioin June quarter. Growth slip-ping to six-year low primari-ly on a slip in consumption hasraised concerns on the wayforward forbanking.

"We will grow, ourassets will grow, ourliabilities will grow,our swipes will grow,our number of cus-tomers will growand we arevery con-f ident,"Puri toldreportersh e r e ,replyingto ques-t i o n saround thee c o n o m i c

slowdown.He said that there have not

been retrenchments in theindustry which shouldmake a lender wary andemployment is growingoverall, and added thatauto majors may haveretrenched some tem-porary workers.

Listing out positives whichwill work in the economy'sfavour like the good monsoon,expectations of more divest-

ments and the sentimentturning positive with thetax cuts, he said the banksees this as a "majoropportunity" to grow.

"We see this as a majoropportunity as a bank and

we see no strain on ourcredit portfolio," he

said, adding it hasnot compromisedon its creditstandards and

is not lend-ing to

o v e r -l e v e r -a g e dpersons.

Maruti drives in mini SUVS-PRESSO at Rs 3.69 lakhPTI n NEW DELHI

The country's largest car makerMaruti Suzuki India (MSI) onMonday launched a mini SUVS-PRESSO priced between Rs3.69 lakh and Rs 4.91 lakh (ex-showroom).

The new model, which isbased on the company's fifthgeneration HEARTECT plat-form, comes with a BS-VIcompliant one-litre petrolengine with a claimed fuel effi-ciency of 21.7 km per litre.

S-PRESSO comes equippedwith both manual and auto gearshift (AGS) transmission options.

"Today, compact is the nat-ural choice of India's car cus-tomers. At the same time,today is the age of disruptions.We realised that entry levelcompact segment needs a freshdesign language," MSIManaging Director and ChiefExecutive Officer KenichiAyukawa told reporters here.

The company's engineersand designers have createdthis new mini SUV which isaggressive on the outside andcomes with bold and dynam-ic interiors, he added.

"Nothing like this has everbeen attempted before, on avehicle in this segment. It con-nects with today's aspirational

and passionate youth,"Ayukawa said. The model willdefine the next generation ofdesign for compact vehicles inthe country, he added.

The S-PRESSO has beendesigned, developed and vali-dated using Suzuki's globaldevelopment processes andwill be sold countrywidethrough the company'sARENA retail network,

Ayukawa said. "While working with their

counterparts in SMC, Japan,engineers from Maruti Suzukiworked on this car.Theyworked on it here in India, atour world-class R&D Center atRohtak," Ayukawa he added.

The model brings contem-porary and relevant globaltechnology to Indian cus-tomers, he added.

The new model, which is based on thecompany's fifth generation HEARTECTplatform, comes with a BS-VI compliantone-litre petrol engine with a claimedfuel efficiency of 21.7 km per litre.

We will grow, ourassets will grow, our

liabilities will grow, ourswipes will grow, our numberof customers will grow andwe are very confident

ADITYA PURI HDFC Managing Director

Enough seeds, fertilisersto meet rabi demand: MinPTI n NEW DELHI

There is sufficient supply ofseeds and fertilisers to meetthe demand of farmers for therabi sowing season begin-ning mid-November,according to anagriculture min-istry official.

The ministryhas estimatedthe country'stotal seedrequirement at149 lakh tonne andfertilisers at 319 lakhtonne for the rabi season of2019-20 crop year (July-June).

"We have enough supply ofseeds for the forthcoming rabi

sowing. We have about 169.67lakh tonne of various seeds,more than the requirement of149 lakh tonne for the rabi sea-son of this year," the officialtold PTI.

Wheat is the main rabicrop. The country has

about 140 lakh tonneof wheat seeds forthis year, against therequirement ofabout 122 lakh

tonne for the sameperiod.The second major

rabi crop is chickpea, avail-ability of which is 24 lakhtonne against the requirementof 21.06 lakh tonne for thisyear's rabi season.

t has often beennoticed that provi-dence and a quirkof fate has seen theemergence ofmany a poet and

author. Most from this genrehave made optimal use oftheir time when they fell sickand the doctor advised bed-rest for an extended period.

Philip Joshua, aSecunderabadi in letter andspirit belongs to this catego-ry. Confined to bed after sus-taining an injury a year ago,he decided to successfullytranslate a long cherisheddream — come up with acollection of original poems.

September 29 of this yearmarks a Red-Letter day in hislife as his maiden book ofpoems was released at a func-tion graced by luminaries.

The title Silences @61 ren-ders poetic justice as the poetwas 61 years of age when hebegan working on it.Unveiling the first copy, for-mer Hyderabad police com-missioner MV Krishna Raoleft the gathering in peals oflaughter with his subtle andperfect use of words filledwith wit and well-intendedhumour. He touched uponvarious pages from the bookand recalled his own anec-dotes. Krishna Rao contend-ed that Joshua’s accident thatgave life to his literary jour-

ney was an act of God.Like RK Laxman, whose

books and novels revolvedaround day-to-day life,Joshua’s collection makes thereader recall similar experi-ences as they can relate tomost topics that the poet hasdealt with. They include one-

self, family, various sectionsof society,festivities, celebra-tions and issues concerninghumanity like yearnings forharmony and peaceful co-existence.

In her address, former topcop and the first woman IPSoffice from AP cadre, Aruna

Bahaguna stated that the titlewas apt as ‘silence’ per sedenoted many things tomany people. She said Joshuahad done an excellent job asa poet with free usage ofverse.

In fact, what stands out isthat unlike a poet’s penchantto make use of superlatives,Joshua has used simple butlucid style interspersed withmetaphors here and there.

This drew appreciationfrom Prof Kota R Subbaram,who has a PhD from IITKanpur, and is a prominentliterary critic.

Joshua stated that the bookcomprised 61 poems to com-memorate his age and wasinspired by life as he saw andexperienced.

(Presently working as Headof corporate communicationsdepartment in NCC Limited

Formerly NagarjunaConstruction Company

Limited, his interests includephotography, freelance writ-

ing, and social service).

After starting the Geetham foundation, Iwitnessed that manystudents from slum areasand orphans were in need

of money tocontinue theirstudies. It is when I

started helping them. Everyyear, we are taking care ofmore than 30 students’education completely.

RAMTILAK CHERUKURI

THE TITLE SILENCES@61 RENDERS POETICJUSTICE AS THE POETWAS 61 YEARS OFAGE WHEN HE BEGANWORKING ON IT

i

hile education is afundamentalright, it is, however, not apossibility formany

children in India.Regardless of governmentschools and other facilities,many underprivileged stu-dents find it difficult to stayin school and continue theireducation because of pover-ty or lack of resources. Toprovide education for poorpeople, Hyderabad-basedRamtilak Cherukuri startedGeetham Cultural andSocial Organisation in 2012and helping poor kids topursue higher studies by

adopting them. Ramtilak is also the

Telangana State Chairmanfor National Human Rightsand Anti Corruption Force.Hailing from Guntur,Ramtilak completed hisdegree in Guntur and laterhe studied Diploma inHuman Rights.

Ramtilak says, “Mygrandfather is a musicteacher and he helped manylearn music. He inspired usto do something for society.After starting the Geethamfoundation, I witnessed thatmany students from slumareas and orphans were inneed of money to continuetheir studies. It is when I

started helping them. Everyyear, we are taking care ofmore than 30 students’ edu-cation completely. Apartfrom these students, we arealso distributing school kitsfor many underprivilegedkids across Telugu states.”

This foundation alsoperforms marriages of

physically handicapped people by providing finan-cial support to them.Ramtilak shares, “It is noteasy for physically handi-capped people to get mar-ried. We are helping themto overcome this problemby performing their mar-riages. Even after the mar-riage, we are helping them

to get jobs and stay strongfinancially. To date, we per-formed more than 10 mar-riages.”

Ramtilak’s efforts to erad-icate child labour is laudedby people from acrossTelugu states. Whenever hefinds any child labour atmechanic sheds or waterplants, he meets their par-ents and explains to themthe importance of educa-tion. Later, he adopts thosekids and takes care of theireducation. Through hisfoundation, he is also help-ing leprosy patients to getproper treatment.

Ramtilak says, “Everykids has their own talent.

But, they lack support fromtheir family members. Weare identifying the talentedpeople in various profes-sions and giving them therequired support to achievetheir goals.”

He informed that manypeople are dying due to noavailability of blood in righttime. He says, “We are con-ducting blood donationcamps and health camps allover the Telugu states. RedCross society and some cin-ema artists are helping us tospread our blood and healthcamps.”

He is striving againstworkplace harassment andbribing by working as

Telangana state chairmanfor National Human Rightsand Anti Corruption Force.He is also felicitating thehonest officers of variousdepartments to inspire others to be honest.

By recognising his services in various fields,Gandhi Peace Foundation of Nepal recently appointedRamtilak as peace ambas-sador for India and Nepal.

He shares, “We are plan-ning to undertake variousactivities for the bettermentof society. Our programmeabout traffic awarenessyielded good results andmany appreciated for ourwork.”

Hyderabad-based CherukuriRamtilak is helping

underprivileged students tocontinue higher studies by

adopting them besidesconducting various activities

for the betterment of society,finds V SATEESH REDDY

W

STRIVING FOR AVIBRANT SOCIETY

(From left): Babjee, MV Krishna Rao, poet Philip Joshua, Prof Kota V Subbaram and Aruna Bahaguna at the launch of Silences@61 in Secunderabad

When injury turns poeticEvery person has a

poetic side to them.

While some get to know

their inherent talent at a

young age, many turn

poetic due to the

circumstances. One

such Hyderabadi wrote

a book of poems at the

ripe age of 61. Why and

how did he do it? writes

SRIDHAR K PENNA

Have money, will handleit our way, say women

espect the moneythat you earnedas it is not easy toearn. We strugglea lot and sacrificea lot. So women

must not only know how tomanage their hard-earnedmoney, but also take chargeof it, says actress and modelGenelia Deshmukh, whileparticipating in a panel dis-cussion on FinancialLiteracy for Women organ-ised by Million Moms atPoorna Konvention Centre,Madhapur. This is an initia-tive to keep mothers healthy,fit and financially indepen-dent.

Dr Mani Pavitra,Founder of Million Moms

said this year’s focus wouldbe financial literacy forwomen. Until now wefocused on their health andfitness. The mother sacri-fices her life and career forthe family, but does not getthe respect she deserves.That should be reversed.“While women lead in allfronts, why should they lagin one area,” she asked. “Wehave planned this panel dis-cussion as an effort to closethe financial literacy gap,”she added.

“Besides the husband, ifthe wife is also financiallyliterate, it will be collectivewisdom. Two minds are bet-ter than one. This helps thefamily invest wisely.

Whatever I earned as anactress has been investedsmartly. Now that I haven’tworked for over eight years,I am reaping the benefits.My parents taught me howto handle finances and myhusband also respects it,” sheadded while debating on thesubject at the panel discus-sion.

Financial literacy is equal-ly important both for a manand a woman observed S.K.Joshi, chief secretary of thegovt of Telangana. Financialliteracy must be taught as asubject in school, he saidadding that governmentschemes are always focusedat women. “In my house, myfinances are handled by mywife. Though she sacrificedher career for my sake, shetakes care of the house andmanages the finances well.My daughter is also finan-cially literate,” he said.

The event saw many lumi-naries from the film worldlike Kalathapasvi K.Vishwanath, ParchuriGopalakrishna, KrishnaVamshi, Pragathi, Uttej,Bharani and others in atten-dance.

Earning money isnot easy for

anyone, be itAmbani’s or the

daily wagelabourers from

small villages. Itinvolves hard work,

sweat andsacrifices. Butmany families

follow a systemwherein the men

handle the finances,even if the womancontributes to themonthly income

r

TuesdayOctober 1, 2019

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eteran actor of Marathi and Hindifilms Viju Khote, who was popularfor his Kalia character from the 1975cult classic Sholay is no more. He was78.

Viju passed away early on Monday,family sources said. He is survived by his actorsister Shubha Khote, who was elder to him byfive years. Their father Nandu Khote was anoted stage actor too, and he worked in moviesduring the silent era.

Viju Khote made his big screen debut with YaMalak in 1964 and went on to do some of the

most remembered characters in the Hindifilm industry.

In a career spanning almost sixdecades, Viju worked in over 300 films,

including Phir Hera Pheri, Andaz Apna Apnafrom the modern era besides some television shows and ads.

Renowned for comedy roles, Viju was famed

for the evergreen reply to Gabbar Singh’s‘Kitne Aadmi The?’ in Sholay. Do, Sarkar wasthe bumbling sidekick was Kalia’s response,which said it all — that they failed their ganglord Gabbar Singh played by Amjad Khan.

He is also fondly remembered as the naiveRobert from the film Andaz Apna Apna andwas loved for his dialogue galti se mistakehogaya.

On television he is most remembered forhis role from the 1993 sitcom ZabaanSambhalke, the Indian version of the Britishsitcom Mind Your Language.

Viju played the character of Vittal BapuraoPote, a Maharashtrian who worked in a localNautanki. He often came to class in play cos-tumes.

His other work includes Golmaal 3, AjabPrem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Money Hai Toh HoneyHai, Halla Bol, Garam Masala, AamdaniAtthanni Kharcha Rupaiya, among others.

hahid Kapoor said he approaches

characters with fearless honesty, never

succumbing to the pressure of being

one of those actors who want to

manipulate the audience to be liked.

Shahid’s recent turn in Kabir Singh

ignited a debate about romance and the toxicity

in a relationship. While the film went on to

become one of the biggest grossers of the year, it

was also met with criticism for its hero-like por-

trayal of a flawed man.

“The first responsibility that an actor has

towards the audience is to give them an honest

portrayal. I think that happens very rarely.

Because of these kind of pressures, people are so

careful that ‘if I do this people will like me, if I do

this people won’t’.

“That’s manipulating the audience to like

you. I don’t want to be that kind of an actor,”

Shahid said. The actor said if sometimes audi-

ences react strongly towards his portrayal, it

encourages him.

“If that means that at certain points of time

they don't like me, I take that as a big compli-

ment. That’s what acting is all about.

You’re meant to play characters and

represent life the way it is.”

Shahid said even in reality, there

is no one who has loved him at

every point in his life.

“I must’ve gone through

phases where even my parents

probably really disliked me. If

I’m playing a character why

should I be not showing all

those facets? Why should

we create this bubblegum

reality which doesn’t exist.

Today a film which is so real

and raw is making Rs 280

crore.”“We need to wake up

and realise that the

audience wants to

see a little bit of

the truth. They

don’t want to

watch single

dimensional

films.”

riends actor James Michael Tyler says hedoesn’t see a reason to revisit the popularshow but if anything ever came up in thefuture, he would definitely bleach his hair again and reprise his characterGunther. He played the coffee shop

owner Gunther on the 90s sitcom Friends, whose10-year love for character Rachel Green (actressJennifer Aniston) was unrequited.

“She’s (Aniston) such a consummate professionaland a lovely, lovely human being,'” Tyler told DailyMail Australia.

“She’s very tender, open and honest, down-to-earth and grounded. She embodied the character ofRachel so perfectly.” “It was just a joy to work withher, as a fellow actor. She was very professionalon the set, always on time, always knew herlines and was also very generous as an actor.”

Despite the gushing comments, theMississippi-born star admitted there’s no reasonto film a reunion episode.

“I know that the creators of the showhave all said in the past, that

they’d wrapped up the showin the way that they want-

ed,” he said.

“And I have to agree with them on that. They tiedup a really good series, which at this point has agood beginning, middle and end, and myself...I don’t see a reason to revisit it, that’s just myopinion,” Tyler added.

“That being said, if anything ever cameup in the future, I would definitely bleach myhair again and reprise Gunther, as I really didlove that character.”

Gunther’s character was certainly not planned.“I never auditioned, I came on the first episode

of the first season pilot as an extra. I was a background performer,” he said.

“I did not have the nameGunther until the 33rd

episode which was midway through the

second season. Thewriters gave me oneword to say, ‘Yeah’, andit just kind of built upfrom there.

It was never intended tobe a character.”

V

F

uby Rose recently took to Instagram andshared a graphic video of an emergencysurgery she had to undergo following aserious stunt injury. The actress wrotethat she had left her with two herniateddiscs that were close to severing her spinal

chord, leaving her at risk of paralysis. She added thatshe was in “chronic pain” but could not feel her arms.

Referring to the video of the surgical procedure,Ruby joked, “To anyone asking why I let them videoit.. Did you not watch that Grey’s Anatomy episodewhere they left a towel in a patient?? Also, I wantedto see what happens when we go under.” Theactress also thanked her doctor, “I am forever inyour debt.”

According to People.com, Ruby had under-gone surgery after suffering from years of

back pain. She had said that she had evenquit smoking ahead of the procedure.

Ruby gained stardom when she wascast in season three of Netflix’s Orange

is the New Black. The actress hasbeen cast as Batwoman for The

CW. She will play the firstopenly LGBTQ superhero

to headline a TVseries. She had

previ-

ously said that she was “thrilled and hon-oured”, and an “emotional wreck” over thenews. However, the Australian actor hadto unfortunately delete her Twitteraccount due to fan backlash.

“Her being gay, it’s definitely part ofwho she is, and it’s definitely part of thestory and establishing why she’s not inthe military anymore. But the show isnot about a gay superhero. It’s about asuperhero,” Ruby had explained in aninterview, reports Daily Mail. The firstlook poster unveiled her black and redsuperhero costume.

Caroline Dries and Greg Berlantihave developed the show fromBerlanti Productions alongsideWarner Bros Television. Batwomanwill premiere in the USon October 6.

S

Vijayawada Tuesday October 1, 2019

10

celeb talks

BATWOMAN STAR RUBY ROSE

UNDERGOESEMERGENCY SURGERYAFTER STUNT INJURY

R

ctress Rani Mukerji, whois gearing up for the second installment of theMardaani franchise, saysthe film will see a womanstand up against evil,

against crimes committed on womenand take a bold and brave stand.

Rani is set to reprise the role ofthe fearless and committedSuperintendent of Police, ShivaniShivaji Roy in Mardaani 2.

Director Gopi Puthran says,“Rani as Shivani will be seen in amassive showdown with a 21-year-old villain who is an embodiment ofpure evil. He is a dangerous crimi-nal who targets women.”

The film marks the directorialdebut of Puthran, who was thewriter of the first Mardaani film.

The film will show that Rani willstand up against crimes on women.

Rani said, “The film will see awoman cop fighting a pure evil of aperson to end crimes againstwomen. As we all know, Navratristands for the victory and battle ofgood over evil across India.”

“Whether it is Goddess Durga’svictory over the demon

Mahishasura or Lord Rama’s victory over Ravana, Navratri’ssignificance is key to this assetlaunch. So, we decided to startthe journey of Mardaani 2 onthis auspicious occasion.”

Rani is thrilled that the “firstkey communication ofMardaani 2 is happening during Durga Puja that celebrates woman power in its truest and bravest form.”

She added, “Maa Durga took on the forces of evil and defeated it and Mardaani 2 willsee a woman stand up againstevil, against crimes committedagainst women and take a boldand brave stand.”

The film was shot extensivelyin Jaipur and Kota in Rajasthan.

Mardaani, released in 2014,was directed by Pradeep Sarkarand produced by AdityaChopra. The film tells the storyof a policewoman whose interest in the case of a kid-napped teenage girl leads herto uncover secrets of human trafficking by the Indian mafia.

A

MARDAANI 2 WILL SEEWOMEN STAND UPAGAINST EVIL: RANI

SHOLAY'S KALIA NO MORE

FRIENDS ACTOR: I DON'T SEEA REASON TO REVISIT IT

‘I DON'TWANT TO

MANIPULATEAUDIENCE

TO LIKE ME’

he combination ofVarun Tej and VenkyAtluri who’ve createdmagic with TholiPrema last year are setto reteam again? Well,

that’s what the word is in FilmNagar circles. Bringing themtogether, according to thebuzz, is none other thanleading producer DilRaju, who of late hasramped up his pro-duction and dis-tributionactivitieslike

never before. He was attachedto produce Tholi Prema to beginwith but backed out in the lastminute, before handing it overto fellow producer BVSN Prasad.

The film in question, said tobe a light-hearted romanticdrama, will go to floors in thesecond half of next year. Varun,

who is hot off the success

of Valmiki, will join the sets ofdebutant Kiran Korrapati’s long-in-the-development boxingdrama up next. He is also intalks with a couple of otherdirectors to squeeze in anotherproject before he allots dates toAtluri, who on the other hand, isoccupied with the pre-produc-tion of Rang De with Nithiin.

THE FILM IN QUESTION, SAID TO BE A LIGHT-HEARTED ROMANTIC DRAMA, WILL GO

TO FLOORS IN THE SECOND HALF OF NEXTYEAR. VARUN TEJ WILL JOIN THE SETS OF

DEBUTANT KIRAN KORRAPATI’S LONG-IN-THE-DEVELOPMENT BOXING DRAMA UP NEXT

opichand, who islooking forwardto the release ofChanakya, a spythriller in whichhe plays a RAW

agent, hoped that he contin-ues to be showered love andaffection by his fans in thefuture as well. “I got injuredwhile performing an actionsequence for Chanakya butfans kept enquiring about myhealth status and evenextended their speedy recov-ery wishes messages. I herebydeclare that I will give backthe love with Chanakya onOctober 5. It’s going to rock,”the actor thundered. He wasspeaking at a promotionalevent of the film in

Visakhapatnam over theweekend. “The film has allthe elements-fights, nice dia-logues-that you look forwardin a film of mine. Directorhighlighted the hero just theway a hero needs to be.”

Heaping praise on thefilm’s antagonist RajeshKhattar, who is making hisTelugu debut with the film,Gopi added, “He is knownfor his baritone and it wasdifficult to match to hisvoice during dubbing. I hadto report to dubbing studioearly in the morning to takeadvantage of that freshvoice. He is a terrific actoras well and I hope to seehim many more good filmsin Telugu.”

Vijayawada Tuesday October 1, 2019

G

11

tollywoodast seen in mys-tery thrillerSubrahmanya-puram, EeshaRebba is glad tohave bagged an

opportunity to headlinedirector Sreenivass Redde’scrime suspense thrillerRagala 24 Gantalalo. “Everyactress desires films thatcompletely revolve aroundthem but rarely do we getsuch stories. I’m lucky inthat aspect that I got to doRagala 24 Gantalalo. Thefilm required to be moreresponsible. Only after did Istart shooting for it, did Irealise how tough it is topull off a female-centricfilm. I’m there in everyscene of the film and thecharacter I play goesthrough a myriad of emo-tions, so there was pressurephysically and mentally,” shetells The Pioneer in anexclusive conversation.

It’s the twists and turns ofthe script that sealed thedeal for the Hyderabadi. “It’sa different kind of thriller.The viewers wouldn’t beable to foretell what happensnext. I generally visualisethe script when the directornarrates it to me and despitemy best efforts I couldn’t getone twist right,” she chor-tles, promising that it will bean edge-of-the-seat enter-tainer with thrills and chillsaplenty.

The actress is guardedabout revealing anythingabout the plot, feeling that itwill be spoiler alert of sorts.About her role though, she

adds, “I play Vidya, anorphan, who believes inhelping others. She takescare of an orphanage whereshe spends most of her time.A series of incidents leaveher emotionally and mental-ly shaken from her cocoonand how she faces it is whatthe film’s gist all about.”

Eesha, who believes inprepping for the part beforelanding on the sets, cher-ished working with Redde,who has carved a niche forhimself with his slow-bud-get rib-ticklers likeBommana BrothersChandana Sisters, YamagolaMalli Modalaindi, Tata BirlaMadhyalo Laila andAdirindayya Chandram.“My reactions to certainsequences needed to benoisy and such portionsdrain you out mentally. Infact, I heard that during themaking of Arundhati,Anushka fainted after enact-ing a challenging sequence.This is my first film where Ihad to scream and shriekout loud. Screaming for realand when you act, tend tobe naturally different. I did-n’t know whether I couldn’tget that real scream or Icouldn’t imagine myself insuch a situation like Vidya,but Redde sir bailed me outin such scenes with hisinputs and tactics. At placesas soon as ‘action’ wasuttered, he would scream hislungs out. Seeing him dothat, I would scream backout of fear. Initially, I wasshocked when he did thatbut he could capture my real

emotion on camera. No onewould employ such tacticsnowadays, right? That wayRedde sir belongs to oldschool and a fairly good oneat it,” she remembers fondlywith a smile.

The film also helped herdiscover that she can workmultiple days on the straightwithout a break. “Afterwrapping up this film, Irealised that I can get onwith work for 12-15 hoursstraight without a nap. I jug-gled between the sets of thisfilm in Hyderabad and myTamil film with GV Prakashin Chennai on a regularbasis, sleep deprived. I did-n’t feel the fatigue when Iwas on sets but once I hitthe bed, I would literallydie,” she concludes with ahearty laugh.

FELT

THE

PRE

SSUR

EOF

DOI

NG A

FE

MAL

E-CE

NTRI

C FI

LMEesha Rebbahas recentlybagged anopportunity toheadlinedirectorSreenivassRedde's crimesuspensethrillerRagala 24Gantalalo,findsNAGARAJGOUD

L

I play Vidya, an orphan,who believes in helpingothers. She takes care ofan orphanage where shespends most of her time.A series of incidents leaveher emotionally andmentally shaken from hercocoon and how she facesit is what the film’s gist allabout

— EESHA REBBAON RAGALA 24 GANTALALO

Gopi vows to return fans’ love with

CHANAKYA

PARICHAYAM LADSIGNS HIS SECOND FILM

fter his debut filmParichayam, releasedlast year, tanking at thebox-office, actor ViratKonduru has moved onto his next. The actor

told us that he has signed directorG Nithin’s film, which will bejointly produced by Santosh YKand Nimesh Desai under theirproduction houses The Monk and

Archie Films International. Thedirector is presently awaiting therelease of Ashwamedham inTelugu. He has also done a handfulof Marathi and Gujarati films inthe past. “The film is a revengedrama. However, it’s not in a com-plete commercial space,” Viratsaid.

The actor added the script hasn’tbeen fully developed yet. “We will

get the first draft of the script bythe second week of October. Weare planning to go in front of thecameras in December.”

Virat admits that he is stillproud of Parichayam. “I still lovethat film. I will probably be doinganother film with directorLakshmikanth Chenna soon,” heinformed.

— NG

A

ere is the first look ofRomantic, starring AkashPuri and Ketika Sharma.Producers Puri Jagannadhand Charmme Kaur haveunveiled the look on

Monday, saying that ‘romance is alwaysintense’ and hence the poster, which fea-tures the leading lady in a topless avataras she embraces Akash tightly. As ThePioneer reported last week, the freshschedule of the film commenced inHyderabad on Monday and will go onfor another 20 days. Prominent VFXtechnician Anil Paduri is turning direc-tor with a project, a love story pennedby Puri himself.

HFirst look

T

THOLI PREMAactor-director set

for an encore?

PTI n VISHAKHAPATNAM

There is a definitespring in AjinkyaRahane’s steps after

he ended a 17-Testrun of not scoring a

hundred, a numberwhich has proved

to be lucky forhim.

Rahane,India’s Test

vice-cap-tain, wasu n d e rp r e s -sure to

performin the West

Indies and he delivered withan 81 and 102 in the first Testin Antigua.

“You get to learn fromevery match and every seriesand I had to wait for twoyears, 17 Tests, for my Testdebut and for this century(in West Indies) I had towait for 17 Tests. I thinkthere was some co-ordi-nation,” said Rahane aheadof the first Test againstSouth Africa beginninghere on Wednesday.

“When I was playingfor Hampshire, I was

thinking, when I made mydebut, how my mindset wasbefore that. In these 17Tests, I was not getting a

hundred, I was going behind

getting a hundred and it was not com-ing.

“So, in the West Indies, my thoughtprocess was that I will not think of get-ting a hundred even once, whatever hasto be happen will happen. If a hundredhas to come, it will come,” said Rahanewho could not hide the excitement ofbecoming a father soon.

Rahane insisted that he did notwork too much on his technique to getback amongst the runs.

“From outside it may look easy,for me it was about believing in myability. Not thinking about the tech-nical stuff, it was all about how I makethe mental adjustment like handlingdifficult situations,” said the 31-year-old.

South Africa may not have theservices of star players like AB deVilliers and Dale Steyn anymore butRahane said India cannot afford totake the Proteas lightly. India ham-mered them 0-3 at home four yearsago.

“There are five Tests at home ver-

sus South Africa (three Tests) andBangladesh (two Tests). Because of theTest Championship, you cannot takeany team lightly. Even before the cham-pionship, we were not taking any teamlightly and since the points system isinvolved, every match is important.

“There is a big difference betweenwinning and drawing a Test in terms ofpoints. When you win home Tests andthen go away, there is an advantage thatyou have points.

“Also, the likes of Aiden Markramand Temba Bavuma did well in thewarm-up and Faf du Plessis is an expe-rienced campaigner. You can’t takethem lightly.”

The pitch for the game looks like aflat one with hardly any grass on it. Indiaare expected to play two spinners and asmany pacers.

“Depending on the conditions wewill decide the combination. Hanuma(who bats at 6) can also bowl some spinand that makes a difference. In India, wehardly see three pacers playing,” headded.

AFP n DOHA

Jamaican sprint queenShelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

surged to an unprecedentedfourth 100m crown and USlegend Allyson Felix brokeUsain Bolt’s Gold medalrecord tally as the returningnew mothers lit up the WorldChampionships here Sunday.

Fraser-Pryce and Felix,both racing in their firstmajor championships sincetaking time off from thesport to have children, lit upa pulsating day three of com-petition even if the actionwas played out inside a near-empty Khalifa Stadium.

The 32-year-old Fraser-Pryce, who skipped the 2017championships to give birthto her first child, delivered abarnstorming run to takethe 100m in 10.71sec.

Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith took Silver with atime of 10.83sec while IvoryCoast’s Marie-Josee Ta Louclaimed Bronze in 10.90sec.

“To be standing here asworld champion again afterhaving my baby, I am elated,”said Fraser-Pryce.

“The females keep show-ing up. We love to put on aperformance and for me I amjust really happy to comeaway with the win.”

The two-time Olympicchampion’s dominant dis-play was the highlight of aday three which also saw UStrack queen Felix win a

record 12th WorldChampionship Gold medal.

Felix only returned to thesport in July after a 13-month layoff which saw hergive birth to her daughterCamryn by emergency C-section last November.

The 33-year-old, whofailed to qualify for the indi-vidual 400m event in Doha,took Gold in the 4x400mmixed relay as the UnitedStates motored to victory ina world record time of 3min09.34sec.

Felix’s 12th gold medalbroke Jamaican legend Bolt’srecord tally of 11 WorldChampionship Gold medals.

Overall, she now has anincredible 26 medals, a daz-zling haul that also includessix Olympic Golds. Therewas another victory for areturning mother in the finalevent of the day, the women’s20km race walk, where

China’s 2016 Olympic cham-pion Liu Hong won Gold.

Liu, 32, who took amaternity break from 2017-2018, shrugged off steamyheat and humidity to lead aChinese sweep of the medalsin 1hr 32min 53sec andsecure her third world title.

Qieyang Shenjie took

Silver in 1:33:10 while com-patriot Yang Liujing wonBronze in 1:33:17.

Elsewhere Sunday, triplejump king Christian Taylorcompleted a superb hat-trickof World Championshiptitles after surviving nearelimination in a nerve-jan-gling final.

sport 12VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 1, 2019

PTI n VISASKHAPATNAM

South Africa’s most experienced spinner KeshavMaharaj wants to be as consistent as seasoned

Indian duo of Ravindra Jadeja and RavichandranAshwin during the upcoming three-Test.

The orthodox left-arm spinner with 94 wick-ets from 25 Tests had a successful county perfor-mance and is hoping to make life “uncomfortable”for the Indian top-order.

“It is nice that people speak highly of you. Lookat Jadeja and Ashwin. Ashwin has got a lot of vari-ations and Jadeja keeps it simple but the key is con-sistency and that make it uncomfortable for thebatsmen. I can (want to) emulate that going for-ward and do my job from one end,” said Maharaj,who is on his maiden Test tour of India.

Spin will hold key but reverse swing can alsoplay a huge role in the series, he said.

“You got to expect the ball to turn in the sub-continent and that is why people carry an extraspinner here. As far as bowling to Indian batsmengoes, you can only Test yourself against the best.The series will tell me how good I am and if Ibelong here in international cricket,” Maharaj said.

“Besides spin, reverse swing will be key. Everybowling unit everywhere in the world likes to utiliseif reverse swing is available. India have got strongbowlers including Mohammad Shami, who isunplayable at times. If it starts to reverse, then wehave also got amazing bowlers, who can utilise theconditions.”

The South Africa pace attack comprisesVernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.

India will be without the the services of theirlethal weapon Jasprit Bumrah, who was ruled outof the series due to a stress fracture in the lowerback. Maharaj said India will miss him badly.

“It is a big loss for India. He has turned thewhole Test side for India in terms of playing in var-ious conditions but lets face it India have enoughquality to replace him. Umesh Yadav is anotherworld class bowler.”

South Africa got a decent hit in the middle

AFP n KARACHI

Stylish batsman Babar Azamthrashed a swashbuckling hun-

dred to steer Pakistan to 305-7 inthe second day-night interna-tional against Sri Lanka onMonday as Karachi staged its firstODI in ten years.

The 24-year-old proved he iscurrently one of the best batsmenin limited overs cricket with a105-ball-115 to lift Pakistan to abig total after the home team wonthe toss and batted.

Azam, when on 54, becamethe fifth batsman to complete1,000 ODI runs in 2019 — behindIndia’s duo Virat Kohli and RohitSharma, and Australian coupleAaron Finch and UsmanKhawaja.

He added an innings building111 for the third wicket withHaris Sohail (40), as Sri Lankanbowlers toiled to break the stand.

It was only through an unfor-tunate run out that Sohail fell,leaving Azam to anchor theinnings. He square cut pacerLahiru Kumara for a boundary tocomplete his 11th ODI hundredoff 97 balls.

Azam was finally out at deepmid-on off Kumara, crackingeight boundaries and four sixes.

Iftikhar Ahmed battedaggressively for his 20-ball 32 notout — two sixes and as manyboundaries — as Pakistan made89 in the last ten overs.

Openers Fakhar Zaman (54)and Imam-ul-Haq gave Pakistana solid start of 73 before SriLanka’s best bowler, leg-spinnerWanindu Hasaranga, trappedImam for 31.

Hasaranga also had Fakharfor 65-ball 54 studded with sixboundaries and a six. Hasarangafinished with 2-63.

Skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed wasalso run out for eight while ImadWasim made 12.

While the first match wasrained off in Karachi on Friday,the third and final game will beheld in the city on Wednesday.

IANS n MELBOURNE

After helping Australia retainthe Ashes, pacer Pat

Cummins now wants to emu-late his good show in the short-est format of the game with aneye on the 2020 T20 World Cupon home soil.

The T20 World Cup is theonly major trophy that haseluded Australia’s male crick-eters.

Cummins, ranked No 1 inthe world, took 29 wickets inthe five-test Ashes which endedin a 2-2 draw and bowled themost overs by an Australian fastbowler in a Test series since theturn of the century.

“It was a really tense series,so it felt like every day’s play wasquite exhausting,” Cumminstold cricket.com.au. “I felt like Ineeded a break. Those last twoweeks I bowled close to 100overs. That was pretty taxing.But I’ve had a good week off, so

feeling pretty good now,” headded.

Talking about the T20World Cup, the 26-year-oldsaid: “The last year has been areal one-day focus leading intothe (50-over) World Cup. Ithink we'll see a shift,” saidCummins.

“We’ve got 20-odd gamesbefore that T20 World Cup.Personally I want to be in thatWorld Cup squad, so I want toplay as many of those games aspossible.

“There’s a lot I want to workon in T20 cricket, so it's goodthere’s more opportunity now toconcentrate on that with sixgames in a row (to start thesummer). I don’t feel like I’vehad that in a long time.”

Cummins has beenextremely consistent despitenot missing a single match inAustralia’s World Cup cam-paign and then taking part inthe gruelling Ashes.

DOHA: Top Indian woman javelin throw-er Annu Rani qualified for the final roundof the World Athletics Championships bysmashing her own national record hereon Monday.

The 27-year-old Annu sent the ironspear to a distance of 62.43m in her sec-ond round throw, bettering her earliernational record of 62.34m, which sheachieved in March, to book a place forTuesday's finals.

In the process, she became the first

Indian to reach the finals of the women'sjavelin throw in the WorldChampionships.

Annu finished third in Group A andqualified for the finals as the fifth best per-former of the qualification round.

Only two javelin throwers, Asianchampion Lyu Huihui (67.27m) of Chinaand Christin Hussong (65.29m) ofGermany, could cross the automaticqualification mark of 63.50m whileanother 10, including Annu, made up the

12, who will compete in the finals.Annu opened with a 57.05m before

coming up with her career-best throw inthe second round. She had a 60.50m inher third and final throw.

World leader and Asian Gameschampion Liu Shiying (63.48m) of Chinaand Ratej Martina (62.87m) of Sloveniafinished ahead of Annu in Group A, whilereigning Olympic champion Sara Kolakof Croatia was sixth with a best throw of60.99m. PTI

IANS n KOLKATA

When a SouthAfrican team in

transition take on Indiain the three-Test series

starting Wednesday, theywill be more relieved inthe knowledge that Jasprit

Bumrah will not pick upthe red cherry and come atthem than Virat Kohli pick-ing up the bat and sendingtheir bowlers on a leatherhunt.

Arguably one of thebest in the business,Bumrah has been ruled outof the series due to a minor

stress fracture in his lowerback. Needless to say, it was abody blow to the team man-agement as they lost a playerwho in 12 Test matches haspicked up 62 wickets, all onforeign soil including a hat-trick in the West Indies.

Sources in the team man-

agement have said that theBangladesh series is not in theradar as skipper Kohli andcoach Ravi Shastri wantBumrah to recover complete-ly and return to action asIndia also have an eye on the2020 World T20 in Australianext year.

Many have spoken aboutthe 25-year-old’s workloadtaking a toll on his body. Butthe overall picture which hascome to the fore is how doesthe bowling unit, spearhead-ed by the ace fast bowler, per-form without his services.

A young South Africanteam, thin on batting experi-ence after the retirement ofHashim Amla, might not testa strong Indian bowling bat-tery but it surely will lackteeth against the likes of Fafdu Plessis, Aiden Markramand Temba Bavuma overthree five-day rubbers despitehome conditions bringing

into play spin factor morethan pace.

Bumrah is yet to play athome and the injury has now

delayed his debut as he isunlikely to take part in theBangladesh series also. Butgoing by his exploits in 12

Tests, odds were that the sec-ond-ranked bowler in red-ball cricket would definitelyhave had an impact in theoutcome of the series, whichnow will rest on his supportcast led by veteran IshantSharma, who is perhaps bowl-ing like he has never bowledin his career.

Besides Ishant, a leanerand meaner MohammedShami will also look to shoul-der more responsibility andtake the load of spinnersRavichandran Ashwin,Kuldeep Yadav and RavidraJadeja, based on whoever isplaying.

It is also an opportunityfor Bumrah’s replacementUmesh Yadav to impress theselectors and team manage-ment and get back in thesquad after falling down thepecking order due to a seriesof underwhelming perfor-mances.

Bumrah's absence a call for Ishant, Shami to take lead

PTI n DUBAI

India go into the three-match homeseries against South Africa looking

to build on their early success in theICC World Test Championship, whilethe visitors open their campaign in thecompetition.

India’s 2-0 victory in the WestIndies series helped them grab the full120 points available for a series, theonly team to do so in three seriesplayed so far.

Sri Lanka and New Zealand drewtheir two-match series 1-1 and are on60 points each in the points table whileEngland and Australia are on 56 eachafter their five-match Ashes seriesended 2-2.

Each match of the India-SouthAfrica series, to be played inVisakhapatnam, Pune and Ranchi isworth 40 points since points in theWTC are evenly distributed over thenumber of matches in a series (two tofive), ranging from 60 points for eachmatch of a two-Test series to 24 foreach match of a five-Test series.

So, India can go up to 240 pointsby grabbing all the points at stake inthe series starting Wednesday. On theother hand, South Africa can joinIndia at the top of the table with 120points.

India look to buildon early success inWorld Test C’ship

PTI n VISAKHAPATNAM

Weather could play spoilsportduring the first Test between

India and South Africa starting hereon Wednesday with rains predicted onall five days.

It has been raining here regular-ly since the last one week and thereis an 80 percent chance of showers onthe opening day of the series opener.

There is 50 and 40 percent chanceof rain on day two and three and playcould also be affected on the final twodays.

The warm-up game betweenSouth Africa Board President’s XI inVizianagram, around 50 kms fromhere, too was affected by rain. No playwas possible on day one of the three-day game and start of day two wasdelayed due to a wet outfield.

Rain threat looms over 1st Test

Maharaj wants toreplicate Ashwin &Jadeja’s consistency

Babar liftsPak to 305-7

Time to prepare forT20 WC: Cummins

SHELLY, FELIX SEAL RECORD GOLDS

Annu qualifies for javelin throw finals

4x400m mixed relayteam finishes 7thPTI n DOHA

The Indian 4x400mmixed relay team fin-

ished seventh in the finalrace of the WorldChampionships with a sea-son best effort here.

The team ofMuhammed Anas, V KVismaya, Jisna Mathewand Tom Nirmal Noahclocked 3 minute 15.77seconds to finish seventh inthe field of eight countrieson Sunday.

It was just a tad slow-er than the 3:15.71 clockedby the Indian team whilewinning Gold in the AsianGames last year.

Anas began the race inlane number 8 and early inthe second leg, Vismayawas running last. Third legrunner Jisna collided witha second leg runner ofanother country after col-lecting the baton fromVismaya, leading to theloss of crucial time thoughIndia was at the last spot bythat time.

in the one-off practice gamedespite the rain with AidenMarkram (100), TembaBavuma (87) and Philander(47) getting some much need-ed in the middle. Maharajstruck thrice in that game.

“It was important that ourbatters got some time in themiddle. They have been work-ing on how to tackle Indianconditions and it is nice to geta hit.”

Can’t take Proteas lightly: Rahane