PNS n HYDERABAD

Actor Prakash Raj has said thatthere is a 'deeper meaning' behindhis resignation from Tollywood'sinfluential industry body, MovieArtists Association (MAA).

Thanking the members who hadsupported him and his panel in thejust-concluded MAA elections, theacclaimed character actor tweeted:

"Hi my dear MAA members whostood by us ... There is a deeper

meaning behind my resignationfrom the MAA."

Prakash Raj lost to actor-produc-er Manchu Vishnu in a bitterly con-tested election and then announcedon Monday that he was quitting theMAA. "We will NEVER let you alldown ... will explain very soon ...you will be proud of us," he added.

VIJAYAWADA, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

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KRMB to ask TS, AP to handover Srisailam, Sagar projectsML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

The stage is set for implementingthe gazette notification on thejurisdiction of Krishna andGodavari River Management Boardfrom October 14.

KRMB Chairman MP Singh andother officials met officials of theIrrigation Department of Telanganaand Andhra Pradesh at Jal Soudhaon Tuesday and proposed to takeover the common projects ofSrisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar inthe Krishna Basin for regulatorypurposes.

The Board, which heard theconcerns of both the States relatedto utilisation of water and genera-tion of power from the two com-mon projects, decided to regulatethe release of water. “It requestedTelangana and Andhra Pradesh to

hand over the two contentiousprojects so that it can guide theStates on the operational proce-dure,” said Telangana Irrigationofficials.

Telangana Irrigation DepartmentSpecial Chief Secretary RajatKumar, who attended the meetingalong with the Engineer-in-Chief

and other officials, said thatTelangana has requested the Boardto delay the implementation ofnotification for some time till theconcerns raised by it, particularlyregarding 50:50 allocation ofKrishna water, were addressed.

At present Telangana gets 299tmc ft and AP 512 tmc ft.

The Board, keeping theTelangana State’s request, is believedto have said this would be a tran-sition period and implementationof the gazette notification would bein a phased manner.

The KRMB would formally writeto the State governments about itsproposal to regulate the release ofwater from both Srisailam andNagarjuna Sagar projects and thegeneration of power from the hydelpower stations.

The report of the KRMB wouldbe discussed with Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao and theTelangana government woulddeliberate on the proposals ofKRMB and submit its comments.“The process of dialogue and fur-ther discussions will continue withthe Board,” officials said.

Stage set for implementation of gazette notification on KRMB, GRMB jurisdictionSNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

Even as coal imminent powercuts due to coal shortage stareAndhra Pradesh in its face, theState government has decided toimpose restrictions on electricityusage by industries. While powercuts are back in rural tracts, it islearnt that if the coal supply doesnot improve urban areas may alsowitness power cuts in the next fewdays.

In some districts, local officialshad issued orders restricting elec-tricity usage by industries in theevenings from 6 pm to 10 pm.With this, industrialists werelearnt to have feared that morerestrictions might follow if the coalsupply situation did not improve,affecting their production whichhas already been impacted due tothe Covid crisis.

The total thermal powerinstalled capacity of AP is 5010

MW for which the State-run ther-mal stations have coal fuel supplyagreement with MahanandiCoalf ields Ltd (MCL) andSingareni Collieries Company Ltd(SCCL). The annual coal linkagewith MCL is 17.968 million met-ric tonnes and 8.88 million met-ric tonnes with SCCL.

The coal supplies to thermal

stations across the country gotaffected and nearly 80,000 MT/day deficit is seen now.

OUTAGES IMMINENT

CM opens new 'Boondi' complex at TirumalaS BHANU PRAKASHn TIRUPATI

Chief Minister YS Jagan MohanReddy, as a part of his two-dayTirumala tour, inaugurated the new'Boondi' complex near the Tirumalatemple on Tuesday. The 'Boondi',required for the preparation of theworld-renowned Tirupati 'LadduPrasadams', will be prepared in thenew complex located on the south-ern side of the Srivari temple in thehill town. Tirumala TirupatiDevasthanams (TTD) was prepar-ing only 45,000 Tirupati 'laddus' perday till 2018.

The number of 'laddus' preparedand distributed at the hill templeshot up to 3.75 lakh per day after thethen former chief minister ofAndhra Pradesh Dr YS RajasekharReddy inaugurated a new 'BoondiPotu. The potu was built and donat-ed by the then TTD Trust Boardmember and India CementsChairman N Srinivasan at a cost ofRs 10 crore. As pilgrim footfall to thehill town went up substantiallyduring the last decade, the demandfor the Tirupati laddus also rose.

TTD approved proposals to scale upladdu production to 6 lakh laddusper day by establishing an addition-al 'Boondi potu'. Following TTD'sresolution, Trust Board member NSrinivasan once again built anddonated the new 'Boondi' complexconstructed at a cost of Rs 12 crore.The new building set up in an areaof 8,541 square feet and keeping inmind about the health of the potu

workers TTD has installed 40 ther-mic fluid stoves which are flameless.Earlier, due to overheat that emergedout from these LPG stoves, the Potuworkers faced some health issues. Inorder to increase the laddu produc-tion capacity to 6 lakh per day andto safeguard the health of Potuworkers, TTD felt the need for a new'Boondi' complex with modernequipment.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Three Maoists were killed in anencounter with the police on theAndhra Odisha Border (AOB) onTuesday. The encounter between thepolice forces and the Maoists tookplace in the Tulasipahad forest areain Malkangiri district on the AndhraOdisha border, resulting in thedeath of three Maoists, according toOdisha DGP.

According to reports, the Maoistsopened fire on the security forceswhile conducting a combing oper-ation in the Tulsipahad forest areaof Malkangiri district on theAndhra-Odisha Border on Tuesdaymorning and blasted land mines.The authorities said that the policewere injured in the incident.

The Odisha DGP later claimedthat three Maoists were killed in thefiring by police forces that includedtwo women. The deceased wasidentified as a member of theMaoist AOB SJDC Malkangiri-Koraput-Visakhapatnam BorderDivision. Police sources said arrange-ments were being made to evacuatethe SOG jawan in a helicopter as hewas injured in the incident.

Meanwhile, the combing opera-tions continued in the forest area.However, more details on theencounter are yet to come.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Arjuna awardee and internation-al archer Vennam Jyothi Surekhareceived a grand welcome at theGannavaram Airport when shearrived on Tuesday from theUnited States. She won three silvermedals in singles, mixed doublesand women doubles in the com-pound event of the WorldChampionships held in the UnitedStates in September 2021.

Sports Authority of AndhraPradesh (SAAP) coaches, officials

and the players greeted and wel-comed the ace archer fromVijayawada. Later, SAAP Vice-Chairman and MD Dr NPrabhakar Reddy felicitated rSurekha at the SAAP head office.He said Jyothy Surekha madeIndia proud by winning three sil-ver medals in the world champi-onships. He said Surekha is aninspiration to the players andsports lovers with 36 internation-al medals to her credit and winningthe Arjuna award at a very earlyage.

MARTHI SUBRAHMANYAMn VIJAYAWADA

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP)Andhra Pradesh political affairs co-in-charge Sunil Deodhar is facinga rebellion within the party withsenior leaders launching a cam-paign to remove him from the post.

The BJP senior leaders argue thatSunil Deodar has become a hurdlefor the expansion of the party in AP.Some of the BJP leaders have takenthe issue of 'Sunil Deodhar' to thenotice of BJP national president J PNadda but did not get the expect-ed response from him. Now, theyare preparing to meet Union HomeMinister Amit Shah and nationalgeneral secretary B L Santosh toapprise them of the issue.

According to a BJP senior leader,Sunil Deodhar's unilateral attitudehas caused some senior leaders tofeel humiliated. Sunil's recent com-ments that BJP has become a 'park-ing zone' to those who joined theparty after quitting the TeluguDesam Party (TDP) have caused aflutter. His comments made someleaders furious, including MPs,Sujana Chowdary, CM Ramesh,and T G Venkatesh, and forced

them to expedite efforts for theremoval of Sunil from in-chargepost.

A BJP leader said, "The BJP isusing a function hall owned bySujana Chowdary. But Sunildescribed the MP as a 'parkingzone' which caused a commotion inthe senior leaders. His commenthurt the feelings of those whojoined the BJP after quitting theTDP."

Hurt by the comments of SunilDeodhar, some BJP senior leadersheld a conference virtually anddecided to make vigorous efforts toremove Sunil from the post. Thesenior leaders believe that if SunilDeodhar is not removed from thein-charge post, no leader will jointhe party, a BJP leader told ThePioneer.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The AP government has filed a writpetition in the division bench of theAndhra Pradesh High Court chal-lenging the judgment given by thesingle bench in the 'Navaratnalu -Pedalandariki Illu' scheme. The peti-tion is likely to be heard on May 20.The court turned down the plea toadmit the house motion moved bythe government on Saturday owingto the transfer of Chief Justice ArupKumar Goswami.

The stay order issued by Justice MSatyanarayana Murthy on October8 resulted in the quashing of certainguidelines contained in the GO Ms.Nos 99, 367 and 488.

In his order, Justice SatyanarayanaMurthy raised a serious concern onthe allotment of one cent of land inmunicipal areas and 1.5 cents in vil-lages, saying that such small sites wereinadequate for housing, posing envi-ronmental, health and fire hazards.

PNS n NEW DELHI

An expert panel of India's Centraldrug authority has recommend-ed granting emergency use autho-risation to Bharat Biotech'sCovaxin for children and adoles-cents in the 2 to 18 years agegroup with certain conditions,sources said on Tuesday.

3 Maoists killed inencounter on border

Coal shortage forces AP govt tomull power curbs on industries

Faced with rebellion in State BJP,Sunil Deodhar to meet Amit Shah

AP govt files plea againstorder on housing scheme

Emergency useof Covaxin for2-18 age grouprecommended

Prakash Raj says ‘there’s a deepermeaning’ behind quitting MAA

Kannada, HindiSVBC channelslaunchedTIRUPATI: The ChiefMinister launched theKannada and Hindi versionsof Sri Venkateswara BhaktiChannel (SVBC) at Tirumalain the presence of Sr iSubudendra Thirtha Swamyof Mantra laya Sr iRaghavendra Swamy mutt.All the annual religious eventsand fest iva ls such asNityotsavams, Varotsavams,Pakshotsavams, Masotsavams,Samvatsar-otsavams includingSrivari Brahmotsavams, reli-gious discourses, Parayanams,documentaries on importantpilgrim centres are being tele-casted on SVBC for the sakeof global devotees of SriVenkateswara Swamy.

Surekha returns toa rousing reception

AMIT SHAH, NEW ERA NOW IN J&KBECAUSE OF YOU, SAYS NHRC CHIEF

Union Home Minister Amit Shah propelled a "new era inJammu and Kashmir", the country's human rights bodychief Arun Mishra said today. At an event addressed by

both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, JusticeArun Mishra also said it had become the "norm" to accuseIndia of human rights violations, spurred by internationalforces. "It is for you, Shah, that a new era has now begun inJammu and Kashmir," Justice Mishra said, speaking at thestart of the event to mark 28 years of the National HumanRights Commission (NHRC), which he heads.

ISRAEL URGES UNITED NATIONS TO HOLDIRAN TO ACCOUNT FOR NUCLEAR MOVES

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Tuesday on theUnited Nations Security Council to take action against Iranover its escalating nuclear programme. Bennett spoke at a

conference in Jerusalem, where he suggested that Iran'sconduct is every nation's problem, and subject to globalaccountability. After talks between Tehran and world powers onreviving the nuclear deal stalled earlier this year, Iran hasbreached limits set by the accord. It has been enriching smallamounts of uranium to its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade purity as its stockpile continues to grow.

BJP’S MANOJ TIWARI HURT IN PROTESTOUTSIDE ARVIND KEJRIWAL'S HOME

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari was injured this afternoon in aprotest outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal'shome. Visuals showed the 50-year-old BJP leader

surrounded by supporters who were trying to help him.Tiwari was examined and treated by doctors at the Safdar-jung Hospital and was discharged after he was found to benormal. Tiwari was protesting against the Delhi governm-ent over the ban on Chhatth gatherings in the city. Beforethe protest, his office had posted a video where he is seenappealing people to join the demonstration.

PAK TERRORIST ARRESTED IN DELHI,‘BIG PLAN FOILED,’ SAYS ASTHANA

Ahead of the festive season, the Delhi Police Special Cellfoiled a big terror plan with the arrest of a Pakistaninational from Laxmi Nagar today and seized an AK-47 rifle

from his possession. According to the police, the accused wasliving with a fake identification of an Indian national and hadobtained the Indian identity cards through forged documents.The special cell operation was monitored by the Commissionerof Police Rakesh Asthana. "It is a good catch by special cellahead of the festive season. A big terror plan has been foiledby our team," Asthana said.

Govt asks CIL to raisecoal supply to powerplants during Puja

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

It has been a long battlefor supremacy over thetinsel world among

major castes in the Telugustates. For, such suprema-cy is considered essentialto influence the generalpublic for political pur-poses.

The just-concluded elec-tions of the Movie Artistes'Association (MAA) have clear-ly sent a message that the tin-sel town too is under thetremendous influence ofcastes. Although MAA elec-tions were held on Telanganasoil, the outcomes are signifi-cant for the future of politicsin the neighbouring AndhraPradesh.

As for the latest MAA elec-tions, there were two groupsthat challenged each other:one, backed by mega star K.Chiranjeevi; and the other,propped by dialogue king M.Mohan Babu, considered to bea 'sweet enemy' of Chiranjeevi.Both have been shadow-box-ing for years against eachother.

The 'non-local' feeling wasinjected into the minds of900-plus members of MAAwith the sole intention of tar-geting Prakash Raj, who has

drawn accoladesfrom all quarters for hisstellar performances onthe silver screen allthrough his career. He

had to swallowbitter pills in the form of

personal accusations madeby opponents just because hewas fielded by Chiranjeevi.The opposite side's nomineewas Vishnu Manchu, son ofMohan Babu. Groups opposedto Chiranjeevi united andvowed to defeat Prakash Rajunder any circumstances.

It is pertinent to note herethat Chiranjeevi's brother,Pawan Kalyan, is currentlyperceived in political circles asan arch rival of AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy.

Pawan Kalyan has neverhesitated to bare his desire tounseat Jagan at the next avail-able opportunity. The personwho was pitted against PrakashRaj for the president's post ofMAA, Vishnu Machu, is avery close relative and son-in-law of paternal uncle of APCM Jaganmohan Reddy. Thepresence of brother-in-law ofthe Chief Minister in the fray,and that too againstChiranjeevi's man, generated

much heat in the film world aswell as among the generalpublic.

The media's attention toowas focused on these electionsas if it were on par with theGeneral Elections or theAssembly polls. Chiranjeevi(Kapu caste) has been target-ed by two other dominantcastes Kamma & Reddy.Mohan Babu belongs toKamma caste, but his sonVishnu is married to a Reddygirl from YSR's family. Hewas considered to be the rep-resentative of both castes byvirtue of being son-in-law of aReddy family.

The fielding of Vishnu isseen by observers as a strate-gic move to defeat the contes-tant backed by Chiranjeevi --

an iconic film personalitybelonging to Kapu caste.

Three political parties viz.YSRC, TDP and Jana Sena inAP are engaged in politicalgames, each driven by its ownstrategy.

The Kapu community,comprising other groups aswell, is considered to be a verybig force that could draw theattention of its own people. Butit lacks leadership that is strongenough for the community tomount the political ladder. Astrong force comprising theaforesaid groups could regis-ter its presence in the 2024elections and thereafter with apossible political combinationof 'anti-YSRC' political forces.

Sensing possible dangerfrom a unified Kapu commu-

nity in polls hereafter, bothYSRC and TDP are movingforward strategically to fore-close such options. The YSRChas initiated scathing attackson Jana Sena chief PawanKalyan on select issues, includ-ing allegations relating topolygamy in his personal life.The Jana Sena cadre registeredtheir protests against the rul-ing party's campaign.Noticeably, three ministersviz. K. Kanna Babu,M.Srinivas Rao (AvanthiSrinivas )and VellampalliSrinivas were MLAs of thePraja Rajyam Party (PRP),founded by Chiranjeevi, elder

brother Pawan Kalyan, in2009. Those three MLAs hadworked also with Pawan, whoheaded the youth wing of PRPin those days and his contribu-tion in their victories was notruled out by them. AfterChiranjeevi merged his partywith then ruling Congressparty, they continued in thatparty for a while, but laterjoined YSRC founded by YSJaganmohan Reddy. Giventheir past, they are deemed thebest weapons against Pawan.YSRC needs to dilute unityefforts in the Kapu communi-ty, though currently it enjoysmaximum support from thesame caste.

In the case of TDP, the sit-uation may be slightly differ-ent. The TDP too had enjoyedsupport of the same caste dur-ing its rule.

This implies that the partygetting the support of theKapu caste would most likelyemerge victorious at the hus-tings. TDP has to garner sup-port from the Kapu caste onlyin the wider context of defeat-ing YSRC 'for the sake of thestate'.

The Reddy and Kammacastes have ruled the combinedAP for decades and those two

parties strongly want the samesituation to continue forever byhaving a secret understanding:'either me or you, but no oneelse between us'.

On the same lines, MAAelections reflects the politicalsituation in AP.

The Kapus' influence overthe tinsel town has been min-imised by this outcome astwo strong castes are at thewinning side! The same situ-ation may play out on a larg-er canvas by the time of theelections in AP in 2024.

The influence of castes overthe film world down the linemakes an interesting reading.The Reddy caste ruled theTelugu film field during theinitial decades of the filmindustry. Film personalitieslike H.M.Reddy, B.N.Reddy,B.Nagi Reddy and K.V.Reddyleft their own impressions onthe field. Slowly, the situationturned to let Kammas takecontrol.

Since then the Kammacaste has been ruling theTelugu film industry. Theinfluence of the Kapu castesuddenly encircled the filmworld with the emergence ofpopular hero Chiranjeevi.

So, it has been feeling of

getting the lost glory for theKamma caste with the thump-ing victory of VishnuManchu, while the 'non local'tag worked against PrakashRaj.

Legendary actor and thefirst actor in south Indian filmindustry who took one rupeeper film in the early '40s,Chittoor V. Nagaiah headedthe Nadigar Sangham(filmactors' association) in Madrasthen.

A simple call given by abeloved leader in whom peo-ple repose confidence willyield the desired results. Afterbeing disturbed by theCongress regime in the early'80s, then Chief Minister ofKarnataka RamakrishnaHegde made a humble appealto the people of the state, ask-ing them to either give himmajority seats if they want hisrule or defeat him withouthesitation.

The electorate ofKarnataka responded over-whelmingly to this call andgave him majority seats in theKarnataka Assembly. In thatway, the bells of BasavanaGudi(the Assembly seat fromwhich he contested) rang in aresounding manner!

M D RATNA KUMAR

Senior Journalist

The Reddy caste ruled the Telugu film

field during the initial decades. Film

personalities like HM Reddy, BN Reddy,

B Nagi Reddy and KV Reddy left their

own impressions on the field. Slowly,

the situation turned to let Kammas ta-

ke control. Since then, Kammas have

been ruling the Telugu film industry.

PIN

POINT

Will the caste factor of MAA elections play out in AP's future politics?

US Navy chief to visit ENCPNS n VIJAYAWADA

US Navy's Chief of NavalOperations, Admiral MichaelGilday, who reached India onMonday as part of his five-daytour, will visit Vizag-head-quartered Eastern NavalCommand (ENC).

He is on a five-day officialvisit to India, from October 11to 15. During the visit, AdmiralGilday will interact with India'sChief of Naval Staff AdmiralKarambir Singh, in addition toother high-ranking govern-ment of India officials.Admiral Gilday is scheduled tovisit Indian Navy's WesternNaval Command in Mumbaiand Eastern Naval Commandat Visakhapatnam where hewould interact with the respec-tive Commanders-in-Chief.Admiral Gilday is also sched-uled to embark the USNCarrier Strike Group off the

East Coast of India along withan Indian delegation.

India and USA have tradi-tionally maintained close andfriendly relations. The defencerelationship between the twocountries has been one ofmutual trust and confidence,which has transformed afterthe accord of major 'DefencePartner Status' to India in June2016. In addition, both coun-

tries have concluded certainfoundational agreements,which includes the DefenceFramework Agreement, signedin 2015, which lays a blueprintfor collaboration between thedefence establishments of bothcountries, the LogisticsExchange Memorandum ofAgreement (LEMOA) signedin 2016, which is a foundation-al agreement facilitating reci-procal logistics supportbetween the Armed Forces ofboth countries, theC o m m u n i c a t i o n sCompatibility and SecurityAgreement (COMCASA)signed on September 6, 2018,which facilitates information-sharing between the ArmedForces of both nations andmore recently, the BasicExchange CooperationAgreement (BECA), whichenables sharing of geospatialinformation between Ministry

of Defence and NationalGeospatial Agency (NGA),USA.

The Indian Navy closelycooperates with the US Navyon numerous issues, whichinclude operational interac-tions such as the MALABARand RIMPAC series of exercis-es, training exchanges,exchange of White ShippingInformation and SubjectMatter Experts in variousfields, all of which are coordi-nated through the medium ofExecutive Steering Group(ESG) meetings conductedannually.

In addition, warships fromboth Navies regularly makeport calls at each other's ports.Both Navies have also beencooperating towards exploringnew avenues for collaborationwith a shared aim of a 'Free,Open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

AP govtfiles pleaagainst ...Continued from Page 1

He observed that the Statedid not follow the WorldHealth Organisation's(WHO) housing and healthguidelines which providedevidence-based recommen-dations for healthy housingand the interventionsrequired. The Judge directedthe government to form acommittee comprisingexperts from the CentralPollution Control Board andthe Ministries of Housingand Urban Affairs and Healthand Family Welfare to exam-ine the issues pertaining toallotment of house sites andsubmit a report in a month.

Coal shortage forces AP govtto mull power curbs on...Continued from Page 1

AP Genco thermal stationsalso got affected with poorcoal supplies and the stocksavailable in the thermal sta-tions dwindled to low levels,sufficient to meet produc-tion needs for just one day.

As a result, these stationsare now able to generate 2,000to 2,200 MW only against thepossible 3,700 MW, creatinga def icit of 1,500 to1,700 MW.

It is learnt that at leastthree months' time is requiredfor improvement in coal sup-plies across the country.

APGenco is receiving only40,000 metric tonnes onlyfrom MCL and SCCL againstthe requirement of 70,000

metric tons to run thermalstations at 85 percent PlantLoad Factor (PLF).

Andhra Pradesh has beenmeeting the grid demand ofabout 185 to190 MU daily.The daily demand is met bythermal stations, hydel andrenewable power systems.Due to the coal shortage, APpower utilities are facing sup-ply shortage of at least 40MUof power which is being man-aged by spot purchases. Dueto the present demand andthe shortage of coal in the lastfew days, the power purchasecost from the market hasgone up manifold.

"Unless there is animprovement in the coal sup-ply situation, there won't beimprovement in the overall

scenario of power supply inthe State. It's not just AndhraPradesh, the entire country isfacing a similar situation,"pointed out a senior official ofthe State Energy department.

Currently, three units ofRayalaseema Thermal PowerStation, two of Dr NTTPSand one unit of SriDamodaram SanjeevaiahThermal Power Station areshut down either for annualoverhauling or coal short-age.

In the hydel power, twounits of Machkund, one ofUpper Sileru and two units ofLower Sileru have also beenshut due to technical reasons.

To run at 85 percent PlantLoad Factor (PLF), around70,000 MT of coal is required.

Prakash Raj says ‘there’s a...Continued from Page 1

The actor had quit the tradebody because he was upset overwhat he perceived as "region-alism" during the election andthe 'tukde tukde' gang issuebeing raked up in the cam-paign.

A native of Karnataka, themulti-lingual actor said hewould remain a "guest" in theindustry because that is whathis rival panel and its support-ers want him to be.

During the bitter campaign,the Vishnu panel and its sup-porters opposed Prakash Raj'scandidature because he's anon-Telugu. Prakash respond-ed by stating: "My self-respectas an artiste does not permitme to continue in the MAA."He clarified that he would

continue to act in Telugu filmsand maintain his relationshipwith the film industry and hisfans.

In the election held onSunday, Vishnu was electedMAA president defeatingPrakash Raj by 109 votes. Thefinal results declared onMonday showed that Vishnupolled 383 votes while his rivalgarnered 274 votes.

The Vishnu panel also wonall the key posts, barring theexecutive vice-president, whichwas bagged by actor Srikanthof the Prakash Raj panel. Andof the 18 slots for executivecommittee members, Vishnu'spanel bagged 10 and PrakashRaj supporters got the remain-ing eight seats.

After Prakash Raj announc-ing his resignation, Vishnu

appealed to him not to act inan emotional and hasty man-ner. "You are an integral part ofour family. I need your ideasand we need to work together.I request you not to reply backto me now. I will meet you soonand we will discuss. I love uncleand please don't be hasty," theyoung actor wrote to PrakashRaj.

Addressing a news confer-ence on Monday, Vishnu saidhe would not accept the resig-nations of Prakash Raj andNaga Babu, brother of megas-tar Chiranjeevi, who had alsoannounced his resignation.Chiranjeevi, in fact, had sup-ported Prakash Raj.

Naga Babu said he waspained to see regionalism andintolerance rocking the apexbody of Tollywood.

KRMB to ask TS...Continued from Page 1

In the meeting held with theGRMB on Monday, both theStates agreed for the Boardtaking over Peddavagu medi-um irrigation project inKhammam with an ayacut of2,000 acres in Telangana andabout 13,000 acres in AndhraPradesh.

The Board’s mandate isadministration, operationsand maintenance but the pro-ject would be under the con-trol of the State governmentsfor now. The States wouldcontinue to operate the pro-ject with their own staff.

Meanwhile, KRMB saidthat all the direct outletsunder Srisailam andNagarjuna Sagar in the secondschedule would be broughtunder its jurisdiction and itrequested the State govern-ments to come forward tohand over the direct outlets.

The KRMB subcommitteewhich studied the projects inthe Krishna basin said that inthe first phase 29 outletsunder five projects could bebrought under the purview ofthe board. In other areas, theStates have objections and sothey could not be taken overimmediately. It also prepareda detailed note with project-wise staff, offices, machineryand equipment. The directoutlets under Srisailam inTelangana are Left BankPower House, KalwakurthyLift Irrigation first pumphouse, Nagarjuna Sagar HeadWorks, Right and Left canal,main hydel electric station,AMRP lift, Nagarjuna SagarTail Pond, Head Works andelectricity block, PulichintalaHead Works, electricity block,Sunkesula under KC Canaland cross-regulator underBRDS and Tummilla LiftIrrigation.

Faced withrebellion in State...Continued from Page 1

.They decided to approachAmit Shah and J P Naddato explain the unsavouryattitude of Sunil. However,some leaders proposed tohold a press conference toexpose Sunil Deodhar'sattitude but some of themconvinced them not to doso. Recently, a BJP MP tele-phoned BJP State presidentSomu Veerraju but he didnot respond.

A senior BJP leader toldThe Pioneer that AP affairsin-charge Sunil Deodharhas been taking unilateraldecisions and not takingthe senior leaders into con-fidence for the last fewmonths. "He takes deci-sions on his own and getsthem implemented throughMadhukar Reddy and SomuVeerraju. His attitude andbehaviour did not go downwell with many senior lead-ers," a BJP leader said.

A senior BJP leader ofEG district said that if com-pared to Ravindra Raju,t he f u nc t i on i ng ofMadhukar Reddy is verypoor. Sunil Deodhar andMadhukar Reddy shouldbe removed from theirposts so that the senior

leaders could work freely,he felt.

Moreover, the call givento t he c a d re by Su n i lDeodhar to hold celebra-tions for the completion ofone year in office as Statepresident by Somu Veerrajuyielded no response. MPGVL Narasimha Rao isbeing given importance inUP but 10 percent of thatimportance is not beinggiven to BJP MPs in AP, asenior leader deplored.Interestingly, a BJP MPb e l ong i ng to t heRayalaseema region is dis-regarding Sunil Deohharwhich exposes the internalsquabbles in the BJP.

There are also allegationsagainst Union MinisterMuralidhar who is the in-charge of political affairs ofBJP in AP but his silenceled to a tussle among theleaders. Since the UnionMinister did not have timeto look into the AP affairs,he has given the responsi-bility to Sunil Deodhar."Sunil Deodhar, MadhukarReddy, Somu Veerraju, andGVL Narasimha Rao havebecome a group and aretaking decisions which areonly implemented in theparty.

Emergency use of Covaxin...Continued from Page 1

If approved by the DrugsController General of India(DCGI), it will be the secondCovid-19 vaccine after ZydusCadila's needle-free ZyCoV-D to receive EUA for use inthose below 18 years.

Hyderabad-based BharatBiotech, which completed thephase 2/3 trials of Covid-19vaccine Covaxin for use inchildren aged between 2 and18 years, had submitted thedata to the Central DrugsStandard ControlOrganisation (CDSCO) for itsverification and subsequentapproval for emergency useauthorisation (EUA) for thejab in the beginning of thismonth.

The Subject ExpertCommittee (SEC) on Covid-19 examined the data anddeliberated on the EUA appli-cation on Monday.

"After detailed delibera-

tion, the committee recom-mended grant of marketauthorisation of the vaccinefor the age group of 2 to 18years for restricted use inemergency situations subjectto the certain conditions,"the SEC recommendationsstated.

The recommendationshave been forwarded to theDCGI for final approval.

If approved by DCGI, itwill be the second vaccineafter Zydus Cadila's needle-free Covid-19 vaccineZyCoV-D to receive EUA foruse in those below 18 years.

Bharat Biotech had pre-sented its proposal for grantof market authorisation of itsWhole Virion, Inactivatedcoronavirus Vaccine(BBV152) in the 2 to 18 yearsage group for restricted use inemergency situation alongwith the interim safety andimmunogenicity data of phase2/3 clinical trial conducted.

The committee noted thatthe interim safety data of thephase 2/3 clinical trial wasreviewed in a meeting onAugust 26, sources said.

The overall geometricmean titre (GMT) for the pae-diatric population is compa-rable with GMT of the adultpopulation in phase -3 effica-cy study, the recommenda-tions stated.

After detailed deliberation,the committee recommendedthe grant of market authori-sation of the vaccine for the2 to 18 years age group forrestricted use in emergencysituations subject to certainconditions, they stated.

According to the condi-tions, the firm should contin-ue the study as per theapproved clinical trial proto-col and provide updated pre-scribing information/pack-age Insert (Pl), Summary ofProduct Characteristics(SmPC) and Factsheet.

Kannada,Hindi SVBCchannels...Continued from Page 1

Apart from the festivals,many spiritual and devo-tional music, dance, bha-jans are also promoted viaSVBC which is now avail-able in Hindi and Kannadaversion. MPs Gurumurty,Mithun Reddy, PrabhakarReddy, Minis ters VSr inivasa R ao, PRamachandra Reddy, TTDChairman Y V SubbaReddy, EO Dr KS JawaharReddy, Additional EO andSVBC MD Sri AV DharmaReddy,SVBC Chairman DrSaikr ishna Yachendra ,SVBC CEO Sri SureshKumar Among others DIGKrantirana Tata, CollectorSr i Harinarayana, andother district administra-tion officers, were alsopresent.

Retail inflation falls to 4.35%in Sept; lowest in 5 monthsPNS n NEW DELHI

Retail inflation fell to a five-month low of 4.35 percent inSeptember from 7.27 percentin the year-ago period asprices of vegetables and otheritems declined, according togovernment data released onTuesday.

The moderation inConsumer Price Index-basedinflation is in line with theassessment of Reserve BankGovernor Shaktikanta Daswho recently projected sub-stantial softening of retailinflation.

The CPI inflation was at 5.3percent in August and at 7.27percent in September 2020.Previously, the CPI was low at

4.23 percent in April 2021.As per the data released by

the National Statistical Office(NSO), the inflation in foodsegment eased to 0.68 percentin September, significantlydown from 3.11 percent in thepreceding month.

The data showed that infla-tion in the vegetables basketcontracted 22.47 percent inSeptember compared to adecline of 11.68 percent inAugust. The rate of price risewas also lower in fruits, eggs,meat and fish, and pulses andproducts segments.

However, the inflation washigher in the case of fuel andlight at 13.63 percent inSeptember compared to 12.95percent in August.

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh DirectorGeneral of Police Gautam DSawang has said that ‘Octopus’(Organisation for Counter-Terrorist Operations) hasachieved the top place in theseventh joint anti-terroristoperations exercise organisedby the National SecurityGuards at Manesar inHaryana. It is a proud momentfor the AP police, he said.

During a press conferenceon Tuesday, DGP Sawang saidthat an 18-member Octopussquad picked from variousranks had gone to the NSG’sManesar base in Septemberand took part in the competi-tions. For the first time,Andhra Pradesh police wonthe overall championship byscoring more marks than NSGand other elite special forces.

A Papa Rao, who is a headconstable with Octopus, wonthe best all-rounder award atthe individual level, said theDGP.

The DGP said that theGreyhounds' forces are readyto showcase their talent inter-nationally as well, he said.

Speaking further, the DGPsaid that Chief Minister YSJagan Mohan Reddy also sug-gested re-locating the Octopusforces. Octopus forces willnow also be serving in districtcentres. The Centre is also inthe process of givingGreyhounds and Octopus

forces. AP Octopus is provid-ing excellent training in thefield of night firing and thereare a total of 500 Octopus offi-cers in various ranks across thestate.

The DGP also raised con-cerns over the baseless allega-tions made about the heroin

seizure at Mundra Port inGujarat. He said that the Stateof AP had nothing to do withthe heroin seized at the port.The matter has been madeclear many times, but allega-tions are still being madeagainst the Ston the State.Central investigative agenciesare probing the case and we(AP police) are also in touchwith them. A few political par-ties are making contentionsand this kind of criticism isbringing a bad name to theState, he rued. It is also creat-ing unnecessary doubts in theminds of the people andyouth. On a stern note, heclearly warned those elementsto refrain from making suchbaseless statements. “We areissuing notices to some ofthem as they are making alle-gations without knowing thefacts,” he said.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu onTuesday strongly criticised theYSRCP government for'harassing' NREGS contractorsdespite their good contribu-tions to the rural developmentand poverty alleviation pro-grammes.

Naidu said the governmentwas not implementing thecourt orders to pay theNREGS bills. Because of thepolicies of CM JaganmohanReddy, the investors were notcoming forward to set upindustries and contractorswere not coming forward totake up works in AndhraPradesh.

In a statement here, Naidusaid that a contractor namedRanjit attempted suicide inEluru following non-paymentof his bills for a long time now.The government should ensureproper medical care for him.Only a few days ago, a differ-ently abled contractor tried toend his life in Anantapur dis-trict because of governmentharassment. It was not correct

to harass and cause mentalagony to contractors who com-pleted works under theNREGS programme.

Chandrababu pointed outthat most of these persons,who contributed to ruraldevelopment, belonged to theSC, ST and BC communities.It was condemnable on thepart of the ruling YSRCP tofinancially crush these weak-er section persons. The courthas issued orders for payingpending bills with 12 percentinterest. But, the governmentwas not taking any action. Atthe same time, the fundsreleased by the Centre werediverted.

The TDP chief said that theCentral government told thecourt that the NREGS Centralfunds have been released tothe State. The Centre alsotold the court that the AP gov-ernment has informed it aboutthe closure of the investigationinto the NREGS works.However, the State govern-ment told the court that theinvestigation was still going onand that it had not received theCentral funds.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy, on behalf of the Stategovernment, presented silkrobes to Goddess KanakaDurga appeared as SarasvatiDevi on the auspicious MoolaNakshatra day as part of theDasara Navaratri celebrations.The Chief Minister visited theKanaka Durga temple onTuesday to present the silkrobes at around 3 pm as a reg-ular practice stipulates pre-sentation of robes on MoolaNakshatra day.

The CM, who was dressed intraditional attire, was accordeda ceremonial ‘Poorna KumbhaSwagatam’, a traditional wel-come by Sri Durga MalleswaraSwamyvarla Devasthanampriests and officials. The CMwas adorned with traditionalheadgear by the temple priests.The CM carried the silk robeson a platter over his head amidstvedic chants to the accompani-ment of Nadaswaram andMelam to the temple.

The Chief Minister, afterreaching the temple was wel-comed by EndowmentsMinister Velampalli Srinivas

Rao, Temple Trust BoardChairman Pyla Somi Naidu,MLA Malladi Vishnu, Mayor RBhagyalakshmi, Temple EO DBramarambha, temple chiefpriests and other temple offi-cials.

Chief priests ChintapalliAnjaneya, V Ramnath, TVenkateswara Rao, Vedicscholars RV Somayajulu, KNarasimhamoorthy and PriestK Gopalakrishna blessed theChief Minister Jagan and pre-sented the CM with goddessDurga portrait and prasadam.

Endowments Principal

Secretary Dr G Vani Mohan,Endowments CommissionerHarijawaharlal, Ministers PerniVenkataramaiah, Kodali SriVenkateswara Rao, K KannaBabu, Muttamshetti SrinivasRao, Women’s CommissionChairperson Vasireddy Padma,CM programme coordinator TRaghuram, MLC KalpalathaReddy, MLA KolusuParthasarathi, K Anil Kumar, SRamesh, Jogi Ramesh,Vallabhaneni Vamsi, DNageswara Rao and YSRCPleaders were present on theoccasion.

PNS n TIRUPATI

As part of the ongoing festiv-ities at the temple of LordVenkateswara here, LordMalayappa on the sixth day onTuesday blessed the devout onHanumantha Vahanam asVenkatadri Ramudu.Immense significance isattached to HanumanthaVahanam as he symbolisesSaranagati Prapatti and altru-istic devotion. The ‘VahanaSeva’ took place atKalyanotsava Mandapambetween 7 am and 8 am.

Special rituals dominatedthe proceedings in the eveningin connection with ‘SarvaBhoopala Vahana Seva’ thatwas observed as an alternativeto the customary procession of

golden chariot in tune withthe TTD’s decision to carryout the celebrations within themain temple complex inadherence to COVID-19 pro-tocols.

Depicting the supremacy ofLord Malayappa Swamy as‘controller of the worlds’, thedeity along with His twoConsorts Sridevi and Bhudeviwas taken on a celestial rideon the ‘SarvabhoopalaVahanam’. The term‘Sarvabhoopala’ means‘Emperor of Entire Universe’.The entire fete was performedin Kalynamandapam insidethe temple premises.

TTD Trust Board ChairmanYV Subba Reddy, EO K SJawahar Reddy and other TTDstaff participated in the fete.

CM Jagan presents silk robes toGoddess on Moola Nakshatra day

Lord blesses devoteesas Venkatadri Ramudu

Govt ‘harassing’ NREGScontractors, alleges Naidu

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

On Day 6 of the Navaratri fes-tival on Tuesday, the presidingdeity of Kanaka durga templeatop the Indrakeeladri hillappeared to the devotees asSaraswati Devi. She is theGoddess of Knowledge andMusic & Arts and is as theVagdevi, the Goddess ofSound, Speech, Consciousnessand Wisdom. Maa Saraswathiappears with white dress, seat-ed on white lotus and with fourhands in one hand holding abook, in one hand playingveena (a musical instrument)in one hand Japa Mala thisrepresenting the power ofmeditation & spirituality andin the other handKamandalam (A pot withsacred water) representing cre-ative and purificatory powers.

Saraswati Devi is alsoreferred as Sharda Devi. Awhite swan is her vahanam(vehicle) so that she is knownas Hamsa vahini. On thisnavaratri fifth day especiallySaraswathi devi is wor-shipped and all students aretraditionally required to studyon this day and start study ofsomething new on the sameday. Small children underfive years old start to writetheir first alphabet which is

called ‘Vidyarambham’. Gurus(teachers) are worshippedtoday as embodiments ofSaraswathi. Offering honey isvery important in Saraswathipooja, as honey representsperfect knowledge. ‘Payasam’is offered as ‘prasadam’ onthis day.

It is usually MoolaNakshatram which isMahasaraswathi Nakshatramand Devi is decorated asMahasaraswathi, it is withthe help of Saraswathi theYudha tantra was designedand planned and DEVI wonthe war against MahishasuraChintamani saraswathi,Gnyana Saraswathi, NeelaSaraswathi, GhataSaraswathi,Kini Saraswathi,Antariksha Saraswathi,

Maha Saraswathi are theseven forms in whichSaraswathi is spread in theuniverse. Saraswati devikilled Sumbha andNishumba with her ‘Gnana’and so Devi is decorated asSaraswati.

On the auspicious MoolaNakshatra day, which is thebirthday of the presidingdeity, devotees thronged thetemple to seek blessing of theGoddess. The queue lines arejam packed with devotees.On the other hand, ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy visited the temple tooffer silk robes to the deityand the additional securityarrangements were beefedon the way to the templefrom the ghat road and theofficials were monitoringthe arrangements time andagain.

Officials came under crit-icism on the arrangements atKanaka Durga temple asVijayawada MP KesineniSrinivas Rao’s (Nani) vehiclewas stopped by the police atthe foothill of the Indra kee-ladri hill. The MP Naniexpressed ire over not follow-ing the protocol and allow-ing other vehicles with VIPstickers. Later, he along withhis family members, came upthe hill on foot and had dar-shan of the presiding deity.

GODDESS APPEARS AS SARASWATI DEVI ON DAY 6

Officials come under fire aspolice stop Kesineni’s vehicle

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Cricket Association(ACA) secretary V DurgaPrasad was on Tuesday sackedafter he was found guilty ofmisconduct and actingagainst its interests.

It may be recalled that VPrabhu Prasad, vice-presi-dent of Krishna DistrictCricket Association (KDCA),approached the apex councilof the ACA, contending thatthe KDCA is not implement-ing the Lodha reforms.

With no direction fromthe ACA apex council andwithout taking the legal opin-ion of ACA counsel, DurgaPrasad, filed objections forimplementation of Lodha

reforms in districts and fur-ther questioned the powers ofombudsman. KDCA alsoraised an objection to theapplicability of the Lodhareforms to the districts.

Durga Prasad, in his capac-ity as secretary of ACA,actively participated in theprocess of filing of nomina-tions by the contestants byaccompanying them to theelection officer, Satyanadh,for which election he has noconnection at all.

V Prabhu Prasad of KDCA,having come to know this vio-lation by Durga Prasad,approached the ombudsmanand sought his intervention.

A Yella Rao, secretary ofKDCA, was examined before

the ombudsman. Later, theparticipation of Durga Prasadin KDCA general body meet-ings, appointment of elec-tion officer, conduct of elec-tions and accompanying thecontesting candidates to theelection officer during theprocess of filing of nomina-tions has been established.

Taking into considerationthe respective claims of VPrabhu Prasad and DurgaPrasad and based on the cru-cial evidence of Yella Rao, theombudsman has concludedthat V Durga Prasad secretaryACA acted in a way that wasdetrimental to the welfare ofACA as well as against theorders passed by him andsacked him.

ACA secretary Durga Prasadsacked for misconduct

PNS n AMARAVATI

TDP former minister AlapatiRajendra Prasad on Tuesdayaccused the Jaganmohan Reddygovernment of trying to mis-lead even the court by gettinga petition filed on the housingprogramme without even theknowledge of the petitioner.

Rajendra Prasad said thatpetitioner Podili Siva Muraliwas now saying that he hadintention of filing such a peti-tion and that his certificates andidentity documents were justtaken for processing his hous-ing application. It was now clearthat the government was just

going to betray the poor peo-ple in the name of giving 30lakh house sites.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, the TDP leaderpointed out that the petitionerhas given his documents toYSRCP local MLAAnnabathuni Sivakumar forprocessing his applicationunder the poor people's hous-ing programme. The rulingparty MLA obviously used thepetitioner's documents to file acase against the housing pro-gramme in the court. But now,the petitioner's video was tellinga different story and he clear-ly said that he didn't want to

approach the court at all.Rajendra Prasad deplored

that the ruling YSRCP leadersand MLAs were stooping tovery low levels to cheat thepoorer sections of people. Thegovernment itself was trying toget the housing programmestalled in the court and then itwanted to blame the TDP forthat. The Jagan regime wascheating its own party cadres bymisusing their names to filefalse cases in the courts. Byresorting to such mean tactics,the government had exposed itsown incapability to constructhouses for the poor any morein the State.

The TDP leader further saidthat the YSRCP leaders com-mitted huge corruption in thedistribution of houses. Over Rs150 crore public money waslooted in just 500 acres in theTenali assembly constituency.Even Rs 2,000 crore out of thetotal Rs 3,700 Cr released by theCentre for housing programmewas diverted to other pro-grammes. The CM was givingsevere blows to the peoplethough they had given him 151MLAs innocently believing inhis countless promises.

Rajendra Prasad said thatover Rs. 6,000 Cr funds wouldbe required for the Jagan

Government to construct hous-es for the poor from October25. The Government waspresently not in a position tospend even 6 paise. The rulingparty leaders were not in thehabit of giving benefits to thebeneficiaries but they wouldpocket all the funds withoutany concern.

The TDP leader accusedCM Advisor SajjalaRamakrishna Reddy of tellinglies on each and every pro-gramme. Now, Sajjala shouldclarify how their governmentspent Rs 10,000 crore on hous-ing when it had allocated a bud-get of just Rs 5,600 crore.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leaders of the AndhraPradesh Employees’ Unionhave warned the State govern-ment that if their pendingproblems are not resolved,they would go on protest.They demanded that the Stategovernment immediately solvetheir problems like payment ofsalaries and pensions on 1st of

every month, cancellation ofCPS, PRC, and other issues.

After the meeting withGovernment Advisor SajjalaRamakrishna Reddy, theunion leaders spoke to themedia persons on Tuesdayand said that SajjalaRamakrishna Reddy hadassured that a meeting will bearranged with the officersconcerned within two days to

get the issues resolved.The union leaders

demanded regularisation ofcontract employees and sup-port the families of the Coviddeceased. The union leadersdemanded the release of thepending PRC as a Dasara gift.They said that if theirdemands are not fulfilled,they would stage a protestagainst the government.

Govt misleading court on housing: TDP

Stir threat by govt staff

Head constablebooked for cheatingjob seekersPNS n HYDERABAD

The Narsingi Police appre-hended a head constable whoconned innocent people byclaiming to provide govern-ment jobs and collected Rs1.68 crore from victims.

The arrested person hasbeen identified as Boya ShaikShavali, 42, a head constable,residing at Gandipet.

According to the police,Shaik claimed that he wasclose to former and the pre-sent Chief Minister of AP andshowed his pictures with theCMs. "He used this as hismodus operandi to con inno-cent people who are in searchof government jobs and tookhuge amounts of money,"said the Narsingi Police.

Police officials received acomplaint from a victim whopaid Shaik Rs 10 lakhs afterhe was promised a job in APGENCO. Shaik took theamount through cash andonline transfer to his wife'saccount as well. However,when the victim asked himfor progress on his promise,Shaik kept dodging the ques-tion and finally stoppedanswering his calls.

‘Octopus’ adds another feather in cops’ cap

04VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021

PNS n ONGOLE

Prakasam District CollectorPravin Kumar has directedthe officials concerned to expe-dite the process of identifyingeligible beneficiaries for EBCNestham and JaganannaThodu schemes.

The Collector on Tuesdayinspected the village secretari-ats and Rythu Bharosa Kendras(RBK) at Rajupalem andEethapalem village inKothapatnam mandal. Heenquired about the implemen-tation of various welfareschemes. He said that EBCNestam and Jagananna Thoduwelfare schemes would belaunched soon and asked theofficials and secretariat staff tocomplete the process of iden-tifying beneficiaries soon.

The Collector asked the staffto convince more dairy farm-ers to supply their milk toAmul Dairy, explaining thebenefits which they would getby doing so. He also asked thesecretariat staff and officials toseek the help of people’s repre-sentatives in the area for that.

He also directed the officialsto keep the required stocks ofurea and other fertilisers to besupplied to the farmers. TheCollector observed the distri-bution of seeds through kiosksand he himself distributed

seeds to the farmers. He askedthe officials to take steps tocomplete the construction ofbuildings for village secretari-at and RBK.

The Collector then asked thestaff to take steps to take upCovid vaccination survey. Heinspected the vaccinationprocess in the secretariat andasked the staff to ensure that allpeople who have attained 18years of age receive the vaccine.

The Collector responded pos-itively to the appeal of the farm-ers for early disbursal of croploss compensation. DistrictAgriculture Committee chair-man Alla Ravindra Reddy, man-dal parishad president AnjiReddy and Tahsildar VijayaLakshmi accompanied theCollector.

Meanwhile, the Collectordirected the officials to ensurethat 100 percent biometric is fol-lowed in Ongole division. TheCollector, addressing a telecon-ference with the officials onTuesday, said that the village sec-retariat staff should follow bio-metric attendance. All the vol-unteers should go to the secre-tariats and give biometric at leastthree times in a week.

Pravin Kumar said that thereare 10,000 village secretariatstaff and 17,000 volunteers in thedistrict and all should follow thebiometric system attendance.

He directed the Tahsildars,MPDOs and EOPRDs to inspectthe secretariats. He asked theofficials to resolve within 21 daysthe applications seeking rationcards, pensions and house sites.Ensure that such applications arenot pending for a long time, heasked them.

He directed the officials con-cerned to strive hard to achieve100 percent Covid vaccinations."Ensure that all should take thefirst dose of vaccine. The vacci-nation process should be expe-dited keeping in view the pre-dicted third wave", he told theofficials.

The Collector said that vac-cination is less than 60 percentin Chimakurthi andKothapatnam mandal andasked the officials of the areato take steps to expedite thevaccination. Regarding theconstruction of houses, 60,000people had started construc-tion of houses in the district.He asked the officials to takesteps to complete the ground-ing of the house at the earliest.Title deeds of the housesshould be given to the ownersunder one-time settlement andthe needed survey for the pur-pose should be taken up, hesaid. Joint Collector K SViswanathan and other offi-cials were among those whoattended the meeting.

PNS n GUNTUR

Joint Collector (Revenue-Rythu Bharosa) A S DineshKumar has asked the bankersto extend loans to the peopleas the Coronavirus pandem-ic has crippled many sectors.

Addressing the CreditOutreach Programme attend-ed by the officials of variousbanks here on Tuesday, theJoint Collector said that theCovid situation adverselyaffected various sections ofsociety. “If the bankers sanc-tion loans liberally, people canrevive their businesses,” hesaid.

The JC said that 90 percentof self-help groups of womenand farmers are paying theirloans in time so that thebankers could extend loans tomore people.

Lead bank managerRambabu said that during thepast five years, financial trans-actions of Rs 60,000 crore hadbeen carried out in the banksin the district. "Significantly,transactions of Rs.1 lakh crorehave been carried out in thedistrict until September in thecurrent financial year,” he

informed. The banks wouldwork with the objective ofextending loans to the com-mon people to help them dobusinesses, the lead bankmanager said, adding that Rs100 crore-worth loans arebeing sanctioned to the ten-ant farmers in the district.

MEPMA managing direc-

tor Vijaya Lakshmi urged thebankers to sanction loans forthe construction of TIDCOhouses, supply of milk toAmul Dairy and other suchprogrammes. State SLCBchairman and Union Bank ofIndia Chief General ManagerV Brahmananda Reddy madeit clear that more loans couldbe extended to the farmersand women if the borrowersrepay their loans.

Loans worth Rs 200 weredisbursed during the pro-gramme. IndustriesDepartment managerYesudasu, NABARD DDMKRD Karthik, SBI DGMRavi Mohan Saksena, CGGBBank chairman T KameswaraRao, Bank of Baroda RMAmarnath Reddy, and IOBZM P V Prasad were amongthose who were present.

PNS n NELLORE/SRIKAKULAM

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP)leaders have come down heav-ily on TDP for its diversionarypolitics at a time when Aasaraamount is being distributed towomen groups across the State.

Speaking to the media onTuesday, Minister for WaterResources P Anil Kumar saidat Nellore that the State govern-ment had credited over Rs6,440 crore into the accounts of78 lakh women beneficiariesunder the Aasara scheme.

While Chandrababu Naiducheated women on loanwaivers, Chief Minister YSJagan Mohan Reddy had kepthis poll promise and formallyreleased the second tranche ofweek-long Aasara at Ongole onOctober 7.

TDP is resorting to cheappolitics to divert the attention

and dilute spirit of Asarascheme, promised by YS JaganMohan Reddy to clear all debtsof SHGs in four phases. So far,Rs 12700 crore was spenttowards this scheme.

He said that the previousgovernment betrayed womenby failing to clear all the out-standing loans and furtherdiscontinued the zero-interestloan scheme, adding a burdenof Rs 3000 crore. The ministersaid that the previous TDP

government has failed to pro-vide even a single house to thepoor and in return tried to bur-den them with TIDCO hous-es, and further stalling thegovernment housing project bygetting stays from the Court.Chandrababu is an occasionalvisitor to the State only to pur-sue cheap politics.

At a separate press confer-ence, Minister for AnimalHusbandry Seediri AppalaRaju lambasted Chandrababu

Naidu for trying to divert thepositive vibes of Aasara andblaming the government onthe drug mafia even though ithas no connection. He said thatTDP friendly media houseshave tarnished the State’s imageeven after NIA had clearlymentioned that the seizeddrugs at the Mundra port arein no way related to AndhraPradesh. As the issue got sub-sided, the Opposition leadersbrought a stay from the Courtobjecting to the housing pro-ject.The Minister said thatTDP leaders have alwaysapproached Courts and stalledevery initiative that primarilybenefits women. He said thatwomen were abandoned andassaulted in the TDP regime.However, the current govern-ment has been striving hard forwomen's empowerment andprioritising their welfare.

PNS n GUNTUR

Reiterating that Chief MinisterY S Jagan Mohan Reddy isaiming to make women finan-cially self-reliant, Minister forHousing CherukuvadaSriranganadha Raju said thatRs 620.99 crore was disbursedin the district under YSRAasara scheme and the RepalleAssembly constituency hadgot Rs.49.08 crore under thescheme and Nagaram mandalgot Rs 7.99 crore.

A programme was organ-ised in the VelagapudiRamakrishna MemorialCollege at Nagaram village inRepalle constituency onTuesday in which the ministerand MP MopideviVenkataramana participated.

Addressing the programme,the minister said that as per theelection manifesto, the YSRAasara scheme was beingimplemented. He said thatunder the YSR Aasara schemeRs 6,500 crore worth moneywas disbursed to the beneficia-ries across the state and thegovernment is giving top pri-ority for the uplift of women.Making women self-reliant isthe objective of the govern-ment, the minister said.

“The government is givingpriority to the education andhealth sectors. All the govern-ment schools are being devel-oped at par with the corporateschools. 2000 diseases wereincorporated in the YSRAarogyasri scheme. A medicalcollege hospital will come upin every Parliamentary con-stituency. The government willcontinue to implement welfareschemes as long as the womenof the state continue to extendsupport to Chief Minister Y SJagan Mohan Reddy”, the min-ister said.

MP Mopidevi Venkataramana said that Chief MinisterY S Jagan Mohan Reddy thegovernment is extending wel-fare scheme benefits in the

name of women to empowerwomen. In order to encouragesending children to school,Amma Vodi schemes are beingimplemented. Books, uniformsand a school bag are being dis-tributed to the students study-ing at the government schools.He appealed to all sections ofpeople to continue their sup-port to Chief Minister Y SJagan Mohan Reddy. DistrictCollector Vivek Yadav and ZPchairperson Henry Christinaalso spoke.

Earlier, the minister, MP, ZPchairperson, MLA MNagarjuna and Collector par-ticipated in the foundationstone laying programme forthe construction of village sec-retariat at the Nagaram village.

PNS n ONGOLE

Superintendent of PoliceMalika Garg inspected roadsafety and highway vehiclesand issued directions to thestaff on the precautions to betaken to check road accidents.The SP inspected the modernequipment installed in theroad safety and highwaymobile vehicles.

Speaking on the occasion,the SP said that it is imperativefor all to strive to take all pre-ventive measures to check roadaccidents. She directed thehighway safety officials to reg-ulate traffic on the highwayduring the peak hours. Shedirected them to carry outpatrolling on the accident-prone areas.

“Face wash programmesshould be held to the vehicledrivers during the night toensure that the drivers should

not be in a state of drowsy atthe driving wheels. Take stepsto ensure that the Dhaba hotelsare closed by the stipulated

time. The highway safety staff

should reach the accident areaas early as possible and shift the

road accident victims to near-by hospitals”, the SP said.

The SP underlined the needto create awareness among the

drivers against going at highspeed and the consequences.Additional SP B Ravichandra,DSP Mariyadasu and trafficDSP Mallikharjun Rao accom-panied the SP.

Later, the SP attended thereview meeting conducted bythe DGP (L&O) Ravi ShankarAyyannar and Road SafetyAuthority Chairman ADGPKrupanand Tripathi virtually.The DGP (L&O) reviewed themeasures being taken to con-tain road accidents. The DGPasked the SP for suggestions onthe preventive measures to betaken to check road accidents.The DGP asked the SP toinstall sign boards, light sys-tems, painting works and othersuch indicators to check theroad accidents.

SP Malika Garg told theDGP (L&O) that a specialdrive ‘No Accident Day” isbeing carried out in the district.

TDP resorting to diversionarypolitics, say YSRCP leaders

POLITICALSTUDENTS

Former minister Mandali Buddha Prasad on presents a book titled 'TeluguBhasha Katha' to Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan after inviting the latter to thewedding ceremony of his son Venkatram, on Tuesday.

Identify beneficiaries forwelfare schemes: Collector

Banks urged to sanction loans liberally

CM aiming to make womenself-reliant: Housing Minister

PNS n HYDERABAD

A local court at Bhongir onTuesday convicted a manaccused of abetting a teenager'ssuicide and sentenced him toundergo three years rigorousimprisonment.

According to the police, theaccused, Cheruku Harikanth,25, was a neighbour of thedeceased 19-year-old girl. Theteenager used to help her fatherin his shop at Yadagirigutta,while Harikanth, who used towork in an adjacent shop usedto tease and flirt with the teensaying that he is in love withher and would marry her.

"When her parents got toknow this, they reprimandedhim on several occasions.Despite warnings, he continuedharassing the girl, claiming

that he was in love with her andwould marry her, to which thegirl nurtured a soft spottowards him," said the investi-gating officer, S RajashekarReddy.

However, Harikanth mar-ried another girl while keepingthe teen at bay. On September,13, 2016, when the teen ques-tioned him as to why he mar-ried another woman,Harikanth reprimanded her

and called her shameless forstill waiting on him, addingthat it was better she killed her-self.

Vexed on her life, she wentto her house, doused herself inkerosene and set herself ablaze.Neighbors rushed her to thearea hospital, Bhongir whereshe informed the police, thereason behind her suicide. Onthe same day, she succumbedto her burn injuries.

The Yadagirigutta Policearrested the accused andremanded him to judicial cus-tody. On completion of inves-tigation, a charge sheet wasfiled in the court and duringtrial on Tuesday, the courtjudge, convicted the accused,Harikanth, to undergo threeyears RI and imposed a fine ofRs 1,000 on him.

Youth gets 3 years in prison for abetting minor's suicide

SP inspects road safety, highway vehicles

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Cyberabad Police,investigating the multi-crore Sun Pariwar pyramidscheme scam, has formedan auction committee to sellthe properties of the group.

The police said that thecommittee would auctionthe properties of the groupand distribute the sale of theproceeds to the depositorsof the Sun Pariwar group.

Officials asked the mem-bers to furnish their indi-vidual data as required bythe committee when calledupon to do so.

The police also said thatthe members could proac-tively call or furnish thedetails through WhatsAppon 7901099438,7901125032 and7901125120.

On December 14, 2018,the Cyberabad policearrested Ravinder, a govern-ment teacher-turned CEOof Sun Pariwar and PMounika, a director of thecompany, for allegedlydefrauding about 1,500 vic-tims in the name of aninvestment scheme thatoffers over 6 percentmonthly interest on theprincipal amount.

Cops form panel to oversee auction of Sun Pariwar assets

PNS n HYDERABAD

A youngster involved in acheating case fell to his deathfrom a building, reportedlywhile he was trying to escapefrom the police at Asifnagaron Tuesday morning.

According to the Police,the man, a resident ofAsifnagar, was involved in acase at Dundigal police sta-tion. He had collected moneyfrom some persons on thepretext of sending them toDubai. A police team fromDundigal had come to arresthim on Tuesday.

On noticing the police,the man reportedly tried toescape and fell of the build-ing. He died on the spot.

Youth falls off building trying to evade cops

85 persons jailed for drunk driving in Cyb PNS n HYDERABAD

A total of 85 persons, whowere caught by theCyberabad Traffic Police oncharges of drunk driving andwithout driving licences, havebeen sent to jail for durations

ranging from one day to 26days. According to the trafficpolice, the 85 persons whowere sentenced to imprison-ment were among 209 per-sons caught for drunk drivingand without driving licenceduring regular vehicle check-

ing between October 4 and 8at various places across theCyberabad PoliceCommissionerate and pro-duced before the court. Thecourt imposed a total fine ofRs 2 lakh on violators of thedrunk driving rule and Rs 1.2

lakh on those without a dri-ving license.

The driving licenses of allthe persons caught drunkwere being sent to theRegional Transport Authorityconcerned for suspension ofthe license, officials said.

Man gets life term for rape and murderPNS n HYDERABAD

The MetropolitanSessions court here onTuesday sentenced a manto undergo life imprison-ment for kidnap and rapeof a minor girl on June 25,2018. The convict iden-tified as Yedla Ramesh, 47,a resident of AdarshNagar in Saifabad haskidnapped a minor girlfrom the same localityand raped her. A casewas registered and he wassent to remand. Duringthe investigation, theaccused found guilty andthe same was proved inthe court by investiga-tion officer and SaifabadACP Venugopal Reddy.The additionalMetropolitan SessionsJudge has sentenced himto undergo life imprison-ment and ordered him topay a fine of Rs 20,000.

nation 05VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021

Most colleges in Pune remain closed;await instructions from Maha govt

Most colleges in Maharashtra's Pune city remained closed on Tuesday, despite the orderissued by the civic authorities permitting them to reopen for physical classes, an officialsaid.Colleges are exercising caution and waiting for clear instructions from Savitribai Phule

Pune University (SPPU) and the state government, the official said. The Pune MunicipalCorporation (PMC) had last week issued an order allowing physical classes at colleges in its limitswith students and staffers who have been fully vaccinated. "We are waiting for clear instructions

from the state higher education department and SavitribaiPhule Pune University, as most colleges are affiliated to it,"said Sudhakar Jadhavar, general secretary of MaharashtraState Principals Federation. The number of students who havetaken both doses of the vaccine is less, he said, adding thatthere are at least 450 colleges in the PMC limits. "We haveasked all colleges to conduct a survey of students who havebeen fully vaccinated. We have also asked educationalinstitutions to sanitise college campuses and complete thepreparatory work, as we are expecting a circular from the stategovernment about reopening of colleges," Jadhavar said.

West Bengal on Tuesday soaked in the festive spirit of Durga Puja on 'Mahasaptami', asdevotees began the day with traditional rituals and revellers made a beeline for popularmarquees across the state. Since early morning, banana plantains - 'Nabapatrika'

(symbolising Lord Ganesha's wife) - were taken for a ritual dip to water bodies, with mostpreferring the river Ganga.Worshippers then offered 'Pushpanjali' (floral libations) to GoddessDurga amid chanting of ‘mantras' (hymns).However, COVID-19 protocols went for a toss at mostplaces, as people were seen thronging Durga puja pandals in the city and neighbouring Salt Lake,

doing away with sporting face masks and maintaining socialdistancing. The West Bengal government had recently issuedadvisories, asking revellers to maintain health safetyguidelines to prevent a rise of Covid cases. Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, who inaugurated several community DurgaPuja pandals over the last few days, had also urged people towear masks. The Calcutta High Court has ordered that allDurga Puja pandals in West Bengal be made no-entry zonesfor the public, as was directed last year, to curb the spread ofCOVID-19 due to crowding.

Durga Puja: Bengal celebrates‘Mahasaptami' with customary rituals

Maha: 34 people fall sick afterchemical vapours leak out of factory

At least 34 people fell sick after vapours of a chemical leaked from an industrial unitin Ambernath town of Maharashtra's Thane district on Tuesday morning, anofficial said. Following the leakage, a number of people residing near the chemical

factory complained of breathlessness, irritation in eyes, nausea and other health issues, ThaneMunicipal Corporation's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said. Thesulphuric acid leaked around 10 am in the unit located in the Maharashtra Industrial Development

Corporation (MIDC) of Ambernath, he said.Later, 34 people, who complained ofbreathlessness and other health issues, wererushed to the Central Hospital in Ulhasnagar,the official said. They are currently beingtreated at the hospital and are out of danger,he said. After being alerted, local policeand firemen rushed to the site and theleakage was plugged, the official said. Aprobe was on to ascertain the cause of thechemical leakage, he added.

INDIA

CORNER

PNS n NEW DELHI

Slamming those who engage in"selective interpretation" ofhuman rights with an eye onpolitical gains and loss, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saidon Tuesday that such conductharms human rights as well asdemocracy.

Speaking at the 28th founda-tion day of the NationalHuman Rights Commission(NHRC), Modi said the coun-try should be wary of such peo-ple who try to dent its image inthe name of raising the issue ofhuman rights violations.

In his speech, Modi high-lighted a number of measurestaken by his government toempower the poor, womenand persons with disabilitiesand prevent injustice againstthem, before launching ascathing criticism of those whochoose to see human rightsviolations in some incidentsand not in others.

“There is another aspectassociated with human rightswhich I want to speak abouttoday. In recent years, somepeople have begun interpreting

human rights in their ownways prioritising their interests.

"They see human rights vio-lation in one incident but can-not see it in another incident ofsimilar nature. Such mindsetharms human rights a lot,” hesaid.

He added, “Human rightssuffer a great deal when theyare looked at through a polit-ical prism and consideredaccording to political gainsand loss. Such selective conductharms democracy a great dealtoo.” Though Modi did not

name any person or organisa-tion, the ruling BJP has beencritical of a section of humanrights groups, including thosewith a global presence, claim-ing they have highlighted casesof alleged rights violationsselectively and in a one-sidedmanner to target the govern-ment. The prime ministerstressed that duties are equal-ly important as rights and theyshould not be discussed sepa-rately as they complement eachother.

Highlighting his govern-

ment's efforts during COVID-19 to help the poor, includingproviding free grains and cashtransfer to the elderly andother vulnerable sections, Modisaid a pandemic in such a bigpopulation has triggered insta-bility in society in the past butIndia proved all apprehensionswrong with its work for therights of the common man.

"India on the one hand hasbeen courageously fighting aonce-in-a-lifetime global pan-demic while on the other it hasensured that the basic rights ofevery individual are respected,"Modi said.

"I feel proud that even at thepeak of COVID-19, 80 croreIndians got access to free foodgrains," he said, adding that themantra of 'sabka saath, sabkavikas, sabka vishwas, sabkaprayas' guarantees humanrights to every person.

He also touched on pro-farmer steps like cash transferand crop insurance and saidproduction of crops hit arecord during the crisis due tothese efforts as farmers are nolonger forced to take debtsfrom others.

He cited a number of mea-sures taken by his governmentduring the last seven years todeliver basic needs like toilets,cooking gas, electricity andhomes to the poor and said thisgives rise to their aspirationsand makes them more aware oftheir rights.

Modi said the concept ofhuman rights is closely relatedto the dignity of the poor andwhen their basic needs like toi-lets, housing, bank accounts orcooking gas are taken care of,then they also grow moreaware of their rights.

He said by making a lawagainst 'triple talaq', his gov-ernment has bestowed newrights on Muslim women.

While noting that his gov-ernment has provided 26-week maternity leave toworking women, a right notavailable in many developedcountries, opened more sec-tors for them to work andenacted a more stringent lawagainst rape, he also spokemeasures taken for trans-genders, children andnomadic and semi-nomadiccommunities.

PM Modi slams ‘selective'interpretation of human rights

PNS n NEW DELHI

Social service organisationsand human rights defendersshould strongly condemnpolitical violence and terrorismas apathy on this issue engen-ders "fundamentalism", NHRCChairperson justice (retd)Arun Kumar Mishra said onTuesday.

In his address during anevent at Vigyan Bhawan here tomark the foundation day of theNational Human RightsCommission (NHRC), he alsounderlined that it has becomevery common for externalforces to level false allegationsagainst India of human rightsviolations and this should be

opposed.Noting that a large number

of people have lost their livesto political violence globally inthe last century, he said itwas unfortunate thatpolitical violence has"still not stopped" inthe country andabroad.

The event wasattended by PrimeMinister NarendraModi, Union HomeMinister Amit Shahand other dignitaries.

"India has the spirit of'Sarvadharma Sambhav' (har-mony of religions). Everyonehas freedom to build a templeor mosque or a church. But in

many countries, such libertiesare not there," the NHRC chiefsaid.

Lamenting that humanswere hell-bent on

d e s t r o y i n ghumanity, he

said, in the20th century alarge numberof people havedied due to

political vio-lence globally."It is unfortu-

nate that politicalviolence has still not

stopped in the country andabroad ('Desh-videsh mey raj-naitik hinsa aaj bhi samaptnahin hui hai')," he said.

The NHRC chairperson alsosaid that "killers of innocentpeople cannot be glorified".

"Calling such... terrorists,freedom fighters is inappropri-ate, ('Aise... aatankwadiyon koswatantra senani kehna anuchithai')," he said, without elabo-rating.

"Social service organisationsand human rights defendersshould strongly condemnpolitical violence and terror-ism. Apathy on this issue,engenders fundamentalismand history will never forgiveus for this," Mishra said.

Time has come, when "weshould resolutely oppose it"and at least raise a voice againstthis violence, he said.

PNS n LAKHIMPUR KHERI (UP),

Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra joineda large gathering of farmersfrom various states in Tikoniavillage here on Tuesday as partof last prayers in honour of thefour deceased farmers and ajournalist, who were killed inthe recent violence.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha andBKU leaders, including RakeshTikait, Darshan Singh Pal,Joginder Singh Ugrahan,Dharmendra Malik besideslocal farm union leaders alsoarrived in the village to paytributes during the 'antimardas' to the deceased, whowere mowed down by speed-ing vehicles on October 3 dur-ing a protest. Vadra along withother Congress leaders reachedthe venue around 1 pm.

Samajwadi Party leaders,including district presidentRampal Singh Yadav, Dr R AUsmani and others were alsoamong those who reached topay tributes and RLD presi-dent Jayant Chaudhary isscheduled to arrive later in theday. No political leader has

been allowed to share thestage, as announced earlier.

On the stage set up at thesprawling ground, familymembers of deceased farmerDaljeet Singh and GurvinderSingh of Bahraich district,Nachhatar Singh andLavpreet Singh of Kheri dis-trict, brother and daughter ofdeceased journalist RamanKashyap of Nighasan (Kheri)sat holding photographs ofthe deceased persons. Heavysecurity arrangements havebeen deployed in and aroundthe programme venue.

Lucknow Commissioner,ADG, IG and other seniorofficers were camping inTikonia monitoring the pro-gramme.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The BJP launched ascathing attack on RahulGandhi and Priyanka GandhiVadra on Tuesday over theirsilence on atrocities againstDalits in Congress-ruledstates. Citing allegedincidents of atrocitiesagainst members of theScheduled Caste (SC)communities in Rajasthan,Maharashtra andJharkhand, the BJP saidthose who projectthemselves as championsof Dalit rights are ignoringsuch incidents. Addressinga press conference at theparty headquarters here,BJP spokesperson SambitPatra said, "Both RahulGandhi and Priyanka GandhiVadra project themselves aschampions of Dalit rightsbut why are they silent onatrocities against scheduledcastes in Rajasthan andother states?" He wonderedwhy the leaders fromvarious political parties,who went on "politicaltourism" in Uttar Pradesh inthe wake of the LakhimpurKheri incident, do not visitthe Congress-ruled stateswhen incidents of atrocitiesagainst Dalits are reportedfrom these states.

BJP hits out atRahul, Priyanka

PNS n LAKHIMPUR KHERI

The Uttar Pradesh Police tookMoS Home Ajay Mishra's sonAshish to the Crime Branchoffice here on Tuesday forinterrogation in the LakhimpurKheri violence case, a day aftera court sent him to three-daypolice custody, an official said.Chief Judicial MagistrateChintaram on Monday hadgranted three-day policeremand, with the conditionthat Ashish Mishra would not

be harassed and his lawyerwould remain present duringinterrogation. He was arrestedon Saturday night inconnection with the October 3Lakhimpur Kheri violence inwhich eight people, includingfour farmers, were killed. Thepolice had demanded a 14-dayremand of Ashish, but got athree-day remand beginningOctober 12 and it will end onOctober 15, senior prosecutionofficer (SPO) SP Yadav hadtold reporters.

Ashish Mishra taken to CrimeBranch office for interrogation

Call to condemn political violence, terror

PNS n SRINAGAR

There is no requirement foradditional troops or lessen-ing their numbers at theLine of Control (LoC) inJammu and Kashmir andthe Indian Army is vigilantand will not allow any infil-tration into the valley, asenior Army officer saidhere on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters atthe Sher-i-KashmirInternational ConventionCentre (SKICC) here afterthe send-off ceremony for300 students from Jammuand Kashmir who willattend various courses inthe Mewar University inRajasthan under OperationSadbhavana, General offi-cer Commanding (GoC) ofthe Srinagar-based 15Corps Lt Gen. D P Pandeysaid militants across theborder will try to make last-ditch efforts to infiltrateinto the Indian side beforethe onset of winter. "This isa last-ditch opportunity forour inimical agents across(the LoC) to ensure thatthey can push terroristsand terrorist groups. Wehave been getting inputs.There have been two infil-tration attempts in Uri andRampur sectors, whichwere not only foiled, butthey were neutralised andeliminated.

PNS n NEW DELHI

It is "unprofessional" and"unbecoming" for a lawyer torefuse to attend the court dueto a strike or boycott by the BarAssociations as they cannotdisrupt court proceedings andput the interest of their clientsin jeopardy, the Supreme Courthas said.

The top court furtherobserved that an advocate is anofficer of the court and enjoysa special status in the society.

A bench of Justices M RShah and A S Bopanna madethe observation while hearinga case in which the advocatesin the Rajasthan High Courtwent on strike on September27, 2021.

"...it is unprofessional as wellas unbecoming for a lawyer torefuse to attend the court evenin pursuance of a call for strike

or boycott by the BarAssociation or the Bar Council.It is further observed that anAdvocate is an officer of thecourt and enjoys a special sta-tus in the society; Advocateshave obligations and duties toensure the smooth functioningof the court; they owe a duty totheir clients and strikes interferewith the administration of jus-tice," the bench said.

"They cannot thus disruptcourt proceedings and put theinterest of their clients in jeop-ardy. Despite the law laid downby this Court in the aforesaiddecisions and even the concernexpressed by this Court againstthe strikes by the lawyers, thingsdid not improve...," it said.

The apex court took note ofthe submission of Bar Councilof India Chairman MananKumar Mishra that BCI hasissued the notice to the Bar

Association of the High Courtof Rajasthan at Jaipur.

The senior advocate statedthat there was a call to boycottonly one court.

The apex court said eventhat also cannot be tolerated.

"To boycott only one courtwill hamper the independenceof the judiciary and there may

be a pressure on the particularjudge whose court is boycottedand it may lead to demoraliza-tion of the judiciary," the benchsaid. The bench issued noticeto the President, Secretary andthe Office Bearers of the BarAssociation of the High Courtof Rajasthan at Jaipur to showcause why contempt proceed-

ings may not be initiatedagainst them.

The matter is listed for nexthearing on October 25.

The apex court directed theRegistry to serve noticesthrough the Registrar Generalof the High Court of Rajasthanat Jaipur.

"The Registrar General ofthe High Court of Rajasthan atJaipur is directed to see that thenotices upon the office bear-ers/President/Secretary of theBar Association of the HighCourt of Rajasthan at Jaipur isserved upon them well intime," the bench said in itsOctober 4 order.

Referring to its earlier deci-sions, the top court said that togo on strike by the BarAssociation and the lawyers isabsolutely contemptuous andjust contrary to the earlierdecisions of this Court.

PNS n JAMMU

A wreath-laying ceremony washeld in Rajouri on Tuesday topay tributes to the five soldierswho were killed in a fiercegunfight with terrorists inPoonch district of Jammu andKashmir. Naib Subedar (JuniorCommissioned Officer)Jaswinder Singh, Naik MandeepSingh, Sepoys Gajjan Singh,Saraj Singh and Vaisakh H werepart of an Army search party thatcame under attack from theterrorists during the operationon Monday.All five were criticallyinjured and later succumbed totheir injuries. A solemn

ceremony was held at a militarycamp at Rajouri where wreathswere laid by senior Army officersand civil dignitaries to payhomage to the fallen soldiers, adefence spokesperson said.The Indian Army salutes thesacrifices of its soldiers who laiddown their lives in the service ofthe motherland, he said."The nation will always remainindebted to our bravehearts fortheir supreme sacrifice anddevotion to duty," he said.The spokesperson said that themortal remains of the fivesoldiers will be sent to theirrespective hometowns onWednesday.

J&K: Wreath-laying ceremony held for5 soldiers killed in Poonch encounter

PNS n BENGAL

A fire broke out on Tuesdayon the 14th floor of Nabanna,the West Bengal secretariat,where Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee's office issituated, an official said.

Four fire tenders werepressed into service to put outthe "smoke, which was firstspotted around 11.55 am", hesaid. The smoke was believedto have originated from atelephone tower equipment,the official said. The statesecretariat was closed on theoccasion of Durga Puja.

Fire breaksout at BengalSecretariat

PNS n COIMBATORE

The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) was carryingout searches in the houses ofsuspected supporters ofMaoists here and nearbyPollachi, police said onTuesday.

According to police, NIAsleuths conducted thesearches at the house ofDinesh, a dentist who wasarrested by the Kerala Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) inFebruary last for his suspect-ed Maoist connections andlodged in a prison in theneighbouring state sincethen.

Similarly searches were

carried out at the residenceof Danish, who was alsoarrested for his allegedinvolvement in variousUAPA cases and has beensince jailed in Kerala, policesaid. Further, NIA officialssearched the house ofSanthosh, reportedlyinvolved in Maoist activitiesand absconding for the lastfive years, at Angalakurichiin nearby Pollachi, they said.

A good number of policepersonnel were posted infront of the houses where thesearches were on.

Searches were also beingconducted in other locationsin the state including inTheni.

PNS n JAMMU

Security forces continued amassive search operation onTuesday in a forest area con-necting the twin border dis-tricts of Rajouri and Poonchin Jammu and Kashmir,where five soldiers includinga Junior CommissionedOfficer (JCO) were killed ina gunfight the previous day,officials said.

There was no fresh contactwith terrorists during theongoing operation in thedense forest areas ofSurankote in Poonch andnearby Thanamandi inRajouri, the officials said.

PNS n BENGALURU

Ahead of the working com-mittee meeting, clamourseems to be growing for RahulGandhi to take over asCongress president, as itsKarnataka unit chief D KShivakumar on Tuesday said itis the unanimous voice of theparty workers from across the

country."Whole country, Congress

workers, want Rahul Gandhito take up the responsibility.We have been putting pressureon him since he resigned. Theunanimous voice of theCongress workers from acrossthe country is Rahul Gandhi(should take up the mantle ofthe party)," Shivakumar said.

‘Party workers wantRahul to be Cong prez’

NIA raids premises of‘Maoist supporters’

Massive searchops to neutraliseterrorists hidingin J&K

Lakhimpur violence: Priyanka, farmerunion leaders take part in 'antim ardas'

Lawyers can't disrupt court proceedings: SC

‘No need for more troops orlessening their numbers at LoC’

India along with its sharehold-ing in Air India ExpressLimited (AIXL) and 50 percentin the ground handling jointventure AISATS will pass on tothe new owner. TheGovernment will absorb thebalance debt of `46,262 crore,which will be transferred to aspecial purpose vehicle (SPV)set up by it — Air India AssetsHolding Limited. When adjust-ed against non-core assets suchas land and buildings worth`14,718 crore that will also beparked in the SPV and the cashamount of `2,700 crore fromTatas, the net liability on thegovernment comes to `28,844crore.

Apart from 141 planes andcontrol of 4,400 domestic and1,800 international landing andparking slots at domestic air-ports, as well as 900 slots at air-ports overseas, Tatas will alsohave the ownership of iconicbrands like Air India, IndianAirlines and the Maharaja.

Tata Sons owns 84 percent share in Air Asia whichhas a market share of 5.2 per-cent, and 51 percent stake inVistara which has a marketshare of 8.3 percent. Togetherwith Air India's market share of13.2 percent, Tatas could be incontrol of 26.7 percent marketshare and be the second biggestplayer after IndiGo.

Years after it earned the tag

of 'The Maharaja', Air India'sfortunes plummeted and itstarted incurring heavy losses.Air India has been in losses eversince its merger with domesticoperator Indian Airlines in2007. According to theMinistry of Civil Aviation,since 2009-10, the Governmenthas pumped in `1.10 lakhcrore to support Air India.During 2019-20, the airlineincurred an operational loss of`8,743.59 crore. In 2020-21, AirIndia reported a provisionaloperational loss of `6,555.66crore.

Air India (originally TataAir Services) was convertedinto a public company after theWorld War II and renamed AirIndia Limited in 1946.International services startedbetween Bombay (Mumbai)and Cairo, Geneva, andLondon, and Air IndiaInternational Limited wasformed in 1948. This is the yearwhen the Nehru Governmentpurchased a 49 percent stake inthe company. India nation-alised all Indian airlines andcreated two corporations —one for domestic services andthe other for international.

Senior Tata was deeplydistressed by the decision of theNehru Government to nation-alise the Air India "through theback door" and even suspect-ed that the airline was deliber-

ately bad-mouthed so that itcould be acquired after itsvalue came down, letters writ-ten by JRD Tata reveal. He shotoff a telegram to Nehru, whichsaid. "I can only deplore thatsuch a vital step should havebeen taken without giving usa proper hearing.

“(Former Tata Steel CEORussi) Modi and I were calledby (then CommunicationsMinister) Jagjivan Ram only tobe informed of theGovernment's decision tonationalise the industry.Although I told him that I hadprepared and brought withme an alternative scheme,which in my humble judge-ment was better calculated toachieve the Government'sobjective, the minister soughtour advice only on questions ofcompensation and the like,” hesaid.

Tata continued as chair-man of Air India till 1978,when his services were uncer-emoniously terminated by thenPrime Minister Morarji Desai.Desai sent a terse letter to Tatainforming him of theGovernment's decision toappoint former Air ChiefMarshal PC Lal as the chair-man of Air India.

(The writer is a SpecialCorrespondent with ThePioneer. The views expressed arepersonal.)

RENEWABLE ENERGY A REALITYSir — The world is facing an energycrunch as the supply of natural gas, coaland other energy sources fails to ade-quately satisfy demand. Natural gasprices have risen multifold. India’s powerplants are also running on critically lowcoal stocks. As a developing country,India's leadership role in sustainableenergy and water security has toucheda new high. The state-of-the-art technol-ogy is taking shape and the world'sbiggest Hybrid Renewable Energy Parkin Gujarat's Kutch is one such step in theright direction.

In the coming years, energy storagewill play a key role in making renewableenergy a firm source of power and fur-ther reducing the landed cost of renew-able electricity. Additionally, with theadvent of electric vehicles, using renew-able energy in the charging infrastruc-ture will further boost the growth of theindustry. With the Government’s sup-port, developers getting long term visi-bility in terms of project pipeline andactual off-takers witnessing value inadopting solar electricity, India is poisedto secure its renewable future. It will betough going for industries to survive withlimited stock of coal until the suppliesare restored.

CK Subramaniam | Mumbai

CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER CONFLICTSir — The 13th round of corpse com-mander-level talks between India andChina did not yield any creative solutionto the ongoing border tussle between thetwo countries. The mounting tension onthe border keeps us all on tenterhooks.It is quite sad and disheartening to readthe news of the uncertainty prevailing atthe Line of Actual Control (LAC) inLadakh. Indians who live near the bor-der have always been bearing the bruntof the border clashes. Most of them havebeen living under fear and discomfort.The cold and contemptuous attitude ofChina in initiating the process of genuinedisarmament and disengagement seemsto ruin the hope of reviving peace and

harmony on the border.Mobilising more troops and weapons

systems on the LAC and blaming eachother will not help both sides to evolvea creative and lasting solution for thisongoing face-off. Both sides will have torealise the fact that an aggressive militaris-tic move will not yield a permanent solu-tion for this ongoing scuffle. If a warbreaks out between the two countries itwill have devastating and irreparabledamage on both sides. The Governmentsof both the countries and some samari-tans from their military wings must comeforward to augment the process of estab-lishing peace and harmony at the border.

Prabhakaran Vallath | Kozhikode

SAVE THEM BEFORE THEY’RE GONESir — Assam's Kaziranga National Parkis home to the one-horned rhinoceros.These animals are on the brink ofextinction. It is common knowledge thatpoaching is the biggest threat to any ani-mal — endangered or otherwise. Thehorns of Rhinoceros are thought to beof medicinal use, and the one — horned

rhinos are considered exclusive to India.India is home to approximately 80 percent of the world's Rhino population.Recently, nearly 2,500 horns of the rhi-nos that were stored by the AssamGovernment’s treasuries were put to fireby the authorities in Kaziranga, and theevent was given wide publicity.

Rightly so because apparently theGovernment wanted to send a messageor two to the poachers that if it can burnso many horns at once, then it onlymeans the horns have no medicinal orornamental value whatsoever. Thesehorns were seized from poachers andfrom the deceased rhinos. Countries likeChina have revoked the ban on the useof “medicinal parts” of Rhinoceros longago. The problem lies in India's closeproximity to China. The wholeNortheast and northern part of WestBengal are always on high alert becauseof their international borders.

Ganapathi Bhat | Nagpur

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

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VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021

06

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

The Tatas have companies like Tata Engineering, Taj Sats and IHCL amongothers, which can benefit from Air India’s infrastructure, assets and slots

THE TATAS WILLNEED TO PUT INTHOUSANDS OF

CRORES OFCAPITAL TO CLEAN

UP THE BALANCESHEET; PAY OFF

LIABILITIES AND REVIVE THE AIRLINE

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

RAJESH KUMAR

Film buffs are overcome with grief at thepassing of actor Nedumudi Venu. The voidleft by his passing will never be filled.

Nedumudi Venu was looked up to as a cul-tural icon. He was a versatile actor who playeda variety of parts; he has made an impres-sion. The ease with which he acted was aston-ishing. A born actor, Nedumudi Venu had quitean unlimited range; the memorable roles heplayed in over 500 films in an acting careerspanning 50 years presented a range of

human conditions and experiences. He hadthat indefinable something that made him anactor par excellence. True-to-life acting washis forte and nuance of expression was histrademark.

He had a twinkle or a glint in his eyedepending on the traits of the character, theskin of whom he entered and infused with life.His chuckle struck a chord with the audience.He excelled in popular box-office hits and ‘par-allel cinema’ alike. As Siddhan Aashan inSarvakalashala, Chellappanasari in Thakara,Andrews in Irakal, Maharaja Udayavarma in HisHighness Abdullah, Sreekrishnan in ThenmavinKombathu, Appukkutty Nair in Devasuram,Bhagavathar in Sargam, Ravunni Nair in OruMinnaminunginte Nurunguvettam and ashundreds of other characters, NedumudiVenu has immortalised himself and lives amongus and will live among posterity.

G David Milton | Maruthancode

Veteran actor bids adieu

Air India lands withits original parents

It is indeed a “Ghar Wapsi” forthe debt-laden Air India after68 years as Tata Sons has wonthe bid to take over 100 per

cent of the Government’s stake inthe national carrier. The formal-ities to complete the handover toTata is expected to be completedby December this year. The realtest of Ratan Tata’s business acu-men will be to bring back the air-line on track but it won't be easyeven though there are synergiesbetween group companies and theIndian airline. The ailing airlinewas originally launched as Tata AirServices under the leadership ofphilanthropist Jehangir RatanjiDadabhoy Tata in 1932. A fewyears after India’s independence in1953, the Government purchaseda majority stake in the airline com-pany. And thus Air India wasnationalised.

To be fair, Air India has goodassets, infrastructure, slots andbilateral agreement. The Tatashave companies like Tata engi-neering, Taj Sats and IHCL amongothers which can benefit with AirIndia. The Tata’s will need to putin tens of thousands of crores ofcapital to clean up the balancesheet; pay off liabilities that comewith the airline; and to fix, grow,and bring the airline to a pointwhere it can be a meaningful andan effective global competitor.

This was the third attempt tosell the national carrier and thistime the Centre went all out,deciding to offload its entire stakelock, stock and barrel to the high-est bidder. Initial attempts to dis-invest the carrier faced trouble, fol-lowing which the process wasstarted again in January 2020 butthe COVID-19 pandemic createdhurdles. In April 2021, theGovernment asked potential bid-ders to put in financial bids. As thebidders were unenthusiastic aboutcertain clauses, the Governmenthad in October last year amend-ed the clause relating to the trans-fer of Air India's debt to the newinvestor, giving bidders flexibili-ty to decide on the quantum ofhumongous debt they want toabsorb.

Of the `18,000 crore, theGovernment will get ̀ 2,700 crorein cash, while the remainingamount will be debt transferred tothe new entity. With this, the entire100 per cent shareholding of Air

SOUNDBITEOur worst fears arecoming true. WithPakistan-backedTaliban taking overAfghanistan, terror-ism is increasing in Kashmir.

Former Punjab Chief Minister

—Amarinder Singh

From November,international visitorsmay enter Thailandwithout quarantineif they are fully

vaccinated and arrive by airfrom low-risk countries.

Thailand Prime Minister —Prayut Chan-o-cha

I hope I can continuethe grand legacy ofthe mainstream menof Hindi cinema onnational television.

Actor—Ranveer Singh

Modi ji, why are you silent? We needjust one word ofsympathy from you.That should not bedifficult!

Congress leader —Kapil Sibal

We are humanbeings who are giv-ing out our best eachand every day. Trybeing a decent per-

son instead of spreading abuse.

RCB batsman —Glenn Maxwell

Despite all the big talk on girl child welfare, especially by loudmouth politi-cians, 60 girls die of child marriage every day around the world, six of themin South Asia. These shocking revelations come from a report by 'Save the

Children', which was released on October 11, the International Day of the Girl Child.The study claims that young girls married at an early age succumb to pregnancy

and childbirth. According to the report, in South Asiaalone, 2,000 young girls die every year and 22,000globally. Beyond South Asia, the number of suchdeaths in East Asia and the Pacific is 650 a year.In Latin America and the Caribbean, 560 girls dieof early childbir th issues. The situation is worse inWestern and Central Africa where child marriageis the norm. Almost half of the deaths are report-ed from there. This is despite the fact that due tothe collective effort of the United Nations and theGovernments around the world, 80 million child mar-riages have been prevented in the last 25 years. The

report warns that 10 million girls are now at risk as they are expected to marryby 2030 in their early years.

This is a side-effect of the Coronavirus pandemic, which has stripped people oftheir sources of income. They are thus marrying off their daughters early. The younggirls are also at the risk of domestic violence as they are often burdened with house-hold chores and punished for minor mistakes. The report notwithstanding, the plightof the girls getting married early is far worse. Often such marriages are a compro-mise where the groom is much older than the girl. They often face violence and sex-ual exploitation from their family members. Even if they survive the pregnancy andchildbirth, their health takes a heavy toll often leading to lifelong weakness and men-strual disorders. In India, especially in States like Rajasthan and Haryana, the situ-ation is much worse and with the skewed sex ratio, girls are pushed into the mar-riage at an early age. The Prime Minister had rightly taken up the cause of ‘Beti BachaoBeti Padhao’, but not much happened after that as the drive lost steam somewhereon the way. The campaign just ended being a slogan on the truck backs. It is hightime to start it with renewed vigour and in right earnest.

The current power crisis is entirely man-made and eminently avoidable if planningand efficiency had been the buzzwords. The situation is alarming, with coal stocksrunning low and Coal India and NTPC and Indian Railways putting their heads togeth-

er to reach coal to the power companies. It is no secret why the crisis came upon thecountry. The Covid-19 lockdown anyway witnessed a surge in demand. The subse-quent unlock added to it, not only for residential but industrial power as well. In August2021, India consumed 124 billion units of power, an escalation of 17 per cent over 2019.Two, India’s coal imports in the last two months fell by a third, on account of interna-tional prices of coal increasing because of higher demand from China. As a result, powerplants using imported coal stopped or curtailed generation. Three, thermal power plantsdid not accumulate adequate coal reserves in the first two quarters of the current finan-

cial year. Four, heavy rainfall in coal-bearing areas inAugust and September added to the woes by reduc-ing the supply of coal from the mines. India plungedinto a crisis. On October 4, for instance, the powerMinistry reported a gap of over four gigawatts betweenpeak demand and available power supply.

Who shoulders responsibility and why was thereno advance planning in April-May anticipating ademand surge and problems on account of the com-ing monsoon? It is Coal India's primary responsibil-ity because it has the job of overseeing the supply ofcoal. Coal extraction is a tricky business. The com-

panies just cannot excavate coal and sit on it. The production has to be moderated accord-ing to offtake because coal cannot be stockpiled. There is a risk of it catching fire. Extendedmonsoon or heavy rains can affect offtake from open-pit mines; that is what happenedin the last few weeks. Coal India’s track record in this regard has never been outstand-ing. It has grown reliant on shallow, open-pit mining for most of its production. It mustright away update its expertise in deep-mining techniques. Issues related to efficiencyended up in coal blocks allocated to CIL being given away to private players. It has alsoto adapt to new realities like the changing economics of coal power as renewable ener-gies become cost-competitive and coal faces growing scrutiny as the prime source ofpollution. On the other hand, the States’ din over power scarcity is not matched by theirindifference to clearing outstanding coal dues. The State boards and generation com-panies owe Coal India Rs 21,619.7 crore. Some States also make questionable deci-sions like refusing to extend power purchase agreements with thermal power plants andpurchasing expensive power from spot exchanges. The power plants that did not antic-ipate coal supply problems and failed to stock up are equally to blame. The coal inven-tory will gradually improve but the power situation may stabilise early next year provid-ed the lessons from the current mishap are learnt in time.

Crisis lurks

Marriage perilsUnless the perception of a girl child being ‘paraya

dhan’ is disposed, kid marriages will continue

PICTALK

Devotees celebrate Durga Puja at the 112-year-old samiti in Kashmere Gate RANJAN DDIMRI/ TTHE PPIONEER

The anticipated demand surge was not dealt with beforehand, leading to an energy crunch

Making sense of asocialist’s life journey

A DALIT WAS BEATEN TO DEATH IN

RAJASTHAN. WHY IS THE CONGRESS HIGH

COMMAND SILENT OVER IT?

—BSP CHIEF

MAYAWATI

FIVE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN HELD IN

CONNECTION WITH THE CASE. GET UP FROM

SLEEP BEHEN JI.

—CONGRESS LEADER

ALKA LAMBA

Jayaprakash Narayan (popularly called‘JP’) was one of the most charismat-ic leaders of India. He represented arare confluence of selflessness and

courage of conviction. In his Marxistyears, the followers saw JP as ‘Lenin ofIndia’ after the Quit India movement of1942. In the evening of his life, studentsand youth conveyed their admiration bycalling him ‘Loknayak’. It is due to hisunparalleled roles in Indian politics andsociety for five decades from 1930s to1979 that the life-journey of JP continuesto provide a fascinating narrative acrossgenerations of activists and scholars.

At the same time, it has been a per-plexing fact that Jayaprakash was alwaysperceived in contradictory ways. Forexample, Acharya Vinoba Bhave andother Sarvodaya associates called him asaint , while DK Barooah, the presidentof Congress (Indira) characterised him afascist with corrupt supporters.

‘The Dream of Revolution - A biog-raphy of Jayaprakash Narayan’ by BimalPrasad and Sujata Prasad (2021, Gurgaon,Penguin Random House) is an out-standing book about a worshipper of free-dom and revolution for at least four rea-sons. First of all, the father (an eminentacademician) — daughter (a distin-guished senior bureaucrat) team, repre-senting two different generations and twodifferent orientations, knew JP intimate-ly for decades.

Secondly, it contains distillation ofseveral volumes of works about the ideasand initiatives of JP in a readable book ofjust ten short chapters. Thirdly, it address-es some of the most controversial aspectsof JP’s ideas and initiatives with severalauthentic texts and letters. Finally, it sig-nifies the inter-play between a) the teach-ings of Gandhi and Vinoba; b) politics ofJawaharlal Nehru, the socialists andIndira Gandhi; and c) changing impera-tives of democratic nation-building inshaping the lives of Jayaprakash andPrabhavati.

The book is worth reading becausethe two authors have set an admirableexample of objectivity and self-restraint.They have not shied away from a criticalassessment but remained quite moderatewhen it comes to discuss the qualities ofJP in comparison with other historians.

Reading ‘Dream of Revolution’ was anilluminating experience for an activist ofthe JP movement days like me as it is nota hagiography of ‘Bharatratna LoknayakJayaprakash Narayan’. It is a well-docu-mented life-story of JP — the rebel-extra-ordinarily written in a unique style whereoften just a single sentence evokes a fewhundred images. Let me present a fewexamples of the power of prose from thisbook. Here are three such lines from threeseparate chapters about his socialist pol-itics days: 1) ‘One of the most trenchantcritiques of Jayaprakash Narayan’s poli-tics came from his wife Prabhavati.’ (Ch.4, p. 53); 2) ‘Jayaprakash viewed the tran-

The book addresses some of the most controversial aspects of JP’sideas and initiatives along with several authentic texts and letters

IT IS IMPORTANTTO CONVEY THAT

AFTER GETTINGTO KNOW

JAYAPRAKASHNARAYAN WITH

THE HELP OF THIS BOOK, ACONCERNED

READER MAY BETEMPTED TO ASK

WHY THERE HAS BEEN

SUCH UNFAIRPORTRAYING

OF GENTLEJAYAPRAKASH BY

A NUMBER OF HIGHLY

INFLUENTIALPEOPLE

Don’t bother your pretty head about it’ is the prevailing mediatake on the risk of the volcanic eruption on La Palma in the CanaryIslands turning into a mega-tsunami disaster. The media defi-

nitely over-hyped that risk when it was first suggested twenty yearsago, so now they have to work the other side of the street. But theoriginal story still has legs. The eruption is now more than two weeksold, but the explosions and lava flows are still increasing. Part of themain cone of Cumbre Vieja (old summit) collapsed some days ago.La Palma and its neighbour El Hierro, the westernmost islands of theCanaries, are so volcanic that similar cone collapses have removedabout half of their above-water mass during the past million years.The volcanoes constantly rebuild the islands, too, so massive land-slides are a normal part of their geology. That’s why volcanologistJoan Martí, when asked if the flank of Cumbre Vieja might slide intothe sea and cause a huge tsunami, replied that "it is possible, but itis not likely." But there will eventually be another collapse on La Palmaand then a tsunami, maybe tomorrow, maybe in 100,000 years or

so. The original scientific article warning of a possible mega-tsuna-mi from La Palma was written by Steven Ward and Simon Day in 2001.

They estimated that the giant waves generated by a flank collapsewould hit the Moroccan and Spanish coasts in two to three hours,and make it all the way across the Atlantic to strike the Brazilian, USand Canadian coasts in nine hours. Hundreds of metres high at first,the tsunamis waves would probably be down to one hundred metresby the time they reached Spain, and perhaps only 25 metres high whenthey struck the North American coast from Florida to Newfoundland.But that’s still a lot. Or so Ward and Day estimated — whereuponother scientists immediately piled in to insist that they had got thegeology wrong, or the volcanology, or the rate at which tsunami waveslose height over long distances. What the media have missed is thatall the basic facts were correct: the relatively frequent massive slides(one every 100,000 years in the Canaries, on average), the tsunamisthat follow, and the immense damage they do. The odds that this par-ticular volcanic eruption will cause a mega-tsunami are less than onein a hundred, maybe one in a thousand. Even if a tsunami from LaPalma did reach the Americas, the wave height might be less thanone metre. But the risk of unpredictable, life-altering events is real.We can do nothing about flank collapses on volcanic islands excepthave a good early warning system, but they are only common in theHawaiian Islands, the Canary Islands, and the Indonesian archipel-ago. Then there’s asteroid strikes, global plagues, nuclear winters,but let’s stick with volcanoes. Just east of the Rocky Mountains inthe west-central United States, Yellowstone has staged three long-lasting ‘super-eruptions’ at 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 631,000 yearsago. Each time it covered the surrounding states with volcanic asha metre thick, coated the entire continent with enough ash to kill mostgreen plants, and boosted over a thousand cubic km. of pulverisedrock and gas into the atmosphere. That blocked much of the incom-ing sunlight for the next six to ten years and caused a ‘volcanic win-ter’, with 3 or 4°C lower average global temperature. If that happenedtoday, it would cause global crop failures and mass starvation.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘The Shortest History of War’.The views expressed are personal.)

In politics, certain poignantmoments give incrediblesupport to the opposition

parties and adversely affect theruling party in a state. TheSingur moment for TrinamoolCongress chief MamataBanerjee, former Tamil Naduchief minister J. Jayalalithaa’slavish spending on her adopt-ed son’s wedding in 1995 forthe DMK, the Belchi momentfor Indira Gandhi, and RajivGandhiji’s insult to AndhraPradesh chief minister T.Anjaiah are some examples.

The recent Lakhimpurincident where eight people,including four farmers, werekilled is one such moment thathas come at a most inconve-nient moment for the UttarPradesh chief minister YogiAdityanath just five monthsbefore the Assembly polls.

The Supreme Court has takena suo motu notice of the inci-dent as an added support forthe opposition.

The opposition has beenfanning the year-long farmer’smovement against the threefarm laws passed byParliament last year. The UPgovernment has come intothe firing line because of Yogi’sreluctance to take concreteaction against the alleged cul-prits, including the UnionMinister of State Ajay Mishra’sson Ashish, the primaryaccused. One of the four farm-ers was allegedly shot dead bythe minister’s son. The othershave been reportedly run overby the vehicles of his convoy.

Further, the decision of theUP government to detain theopposition leaders, includingCongress General Secretary

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, SatishMishra of BSP, and AkhileshYadav of Samajwadi Party,among others, has given a talk-ing point to the opposition.

Former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi vented his frus-tration by tweeting: "All theinstitutions of this countryhave been hijacked by theRSS-BJP. While no action hasbeen taken against the homeminister’s son, there is a sys-tematic attack on farmers ofthe country. Opposition lead-ers are not allowed to even visit

Lakhimpur Kheri. Only in adictatorship, such things hap-pen." Many other leaders,including West Bengal CMMamata Banerjee, Tamil NaduChief Minister MK Stalin,NCP chief Sharad Pawar,Chattisgarh CM BhupeshBaghel, and others, also criti-cised the State Government.

The political fallout is like-ly to be heavy for the BJP if theopposition parties manage tosustain the Kheri movementuntil the elections early nextyear. Opposition parties andthe BKU plan to intensify theagitation by building a narra-tive around the LakhimpurKheri violence. SamajwadiParty president AkhileshYadav has announced theparty’s ‘victory rath yatra’ fromOctober 12. BSP chiefMayawati has directed the

party cadre to reach out to thefarming community.

Secondly, the Kheri inci-dent will emerge as a poll issuehurting the BJP, which won amassive mandate in 2017. Italso depends on how quicklythe BJP manages the damagecontrol before the polls.

UP is very crucial as theBJP won a massive mandate in2017. The incident happenedwhen Yogi was trying to takesome pro-farmer steps such aswithdrawing stubble burningcases and a substantial increasein sugar cane prices. But theKheri incident appears to havewashed away the gains. TheUP Government has constitut-ed a one-member judicialcommission.

Lakhimpur is the largestdistrict of UP’s Terai regionwith the dominance of the

Sikh farmers’ community thatsettled there after migratingfrom Pakistan. It is 80 per centrural, with most of the popu-lation surviving on sugarcanefarming. The district is dom-inated by Brahmins, followedby Muslims and Kurmisamong non-Yadav OBCs.

Thirdly, the farmer’s agita-tion is likely to spread to moreareas. Opposition parties andthe BKU plan to intensify theagitation by building a narra-tive around the Lakhimpurviolence. So far, it has impact-ed the UP border, but now ithas spread to Central UP.Thirdly, the UP Congress hasbeen looking for an opportu-nity for revival. The Kherimoment is one such that couldhelp if Congress plays its cardswell. The party has been out ofpower since 1989 and has a

feeble presence in the State.The negative side of this is thatCongress’ revival may hurtother players like the SP andthe BSP, thus further dividingthe Opposition parties. Theimpact would be dramatic ifthe opposition came togetherand planned a collective actionagainst the BJP. Right nowthere are too many oppositionblocks.

Fourthly, this is an oppor-tune moment for the Gandhisiblings to prove their leader-ship. If they can improve in UP,their overall fortune mightalso become better.

The Lakhimpur incidentwill continue to be a develop-ing story until the Assemblypolls. Defeating the BJPdepends on how the opposi-tion plays its cards or it wouldbe a self-goal.

The political fallout is likely to be heavy for the BJP if the Opposition manages to sustain the protest against the violence until elections

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMNVOLCANIC ISLANDS AT BOILING POINT

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

(The writer is a retiredprofessor of sociology at

Jawaharlal NehruUniversity. The views

expressed are personal.)

The Lakhimpur Kheri moment

KALYANI SHANKAR

(The writer is a senior journalist. The views

expressed are personal.)

GWYNNE DYER

sition to socialism not a straightroad, but a tangle of conflictingpaths.’ (Ch. 5, p. 83); and 3) ‘Therecriminatory atmosphere in partymeetings singed Jayaprakash.’(Ch.6, p. 113).

Here are three other sentencesabout his orientation towardssome systemic challenges: 1)‘Jayaprakash’s utopia was not pred-icated on the idea of party-lessdemocracy alone, but on a newkind of economic structure basedon voluntary limitations of wants.’(Ch. 7, p. 131); 2) ‘Through therumble of history and politics,Jayaprakash’s life oscillated con-stantly between the quotidian andthe monumental — and that’swhat makes it so special.’ (Ch. 7,p. 143); and 3) ‘Stripping away theaccretions of myth enveloping theNaxalite movement, Jayaprakashargued that the ground for violencewas prepared by persistence ofmerciless exploitation, chronicpoverty and accumulated injus-tices.’ (Ch. 8, p. 156).

Now we can move to read sim-ilar power-packed lines about themost crucial period just beforehisepoch-making leap for ‘TotalRevolution’ (1974): 1) ‘Indira’scarefully drafted reply to the issues

raised by Jayaprakash was patient,conciliatory, even a little wistful.’(Ch. 8, p.167); 2) ‘One wonders ifa sense of dread shot throughIndira upon Prabhavati’s death. Forwith her death, the voice of mod-eration in Jayaprakash’s life alsodied.’ (Ch. 8, p.169); and 3) ‘Theyear 1973 closed not with a revo-lution but certainly the intimationsof one.’ (Ch. 9, p. 170).

Let us conclude this exercise byunderlining a few examples fromthe last two chapters — ‘Hope inDark Times’ (Ch. 9) and ‘TheDeath of a Dream’ (Ch. 10): 1)‘November 1974 was a definitivemonth in the history of the move-ment.’(p.185); 2) ‘Friends ofJayaprakash and Indira tried tobring about a truce, but failed.’(p.187); 3) ‘It took some amountof persuasion to coax Jayaprakashback to Delhi to champion theanti-Indira front.’ (p. 195); 4)‘Indira handed over control toSanjay and his hand-picked cabalof pugnacious bullies.’ (p. 196); and5) ‘As the storm clouds gathered,no one bothered to seekJayaprakash’s opinion. In a sense,it was history repeating itself, withhis predicament not very differentfrom Gandhi in 1947.’ (p. 215)

It is important to alert thatafter getting to know JP with helpof this contribution of BimalPrasad and Sujata Prasad, a con-cerned reader may be tempted toask why there has been suchunfair portraying of gentleJayaprakash by a number of high-ly influential people. Why was helabelledas a person with ‘woollythinking’, a confused mind leadinga frustrated life,’ hazy, naive, andunrealistic thinking’, ‘a poor judgeof Indian politics and politicians’,giving respectability to Hinducommunal forces, and head offorces of counter-revolution.

In any case, the evaluation ofJP by the father-daughter team isclose to the mesmerizing descrip-tion of Sisyphus by Albert Camus.Sisyphus (a rebel in the Greekmythology) was condemned bygods to roll a rock up to the top ofa mountain, only to have the rockroll back down to the bottom everytime he reaches the top. But didSisyphus smile when he reachedthe top with the rock? I have seenour Sisyphus smiling without prideof power or arrogance of successbefore passing away to becomeundeletable part of the collectivememory of the people of India.

ANAND KUMAR

We can do nothing about flank collapses,except have a good early warning system

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Gold in the nationalcapital on Tuesdayrose by Rs 129 to

Rs 46,286 per 10 gramamid rally in internationalprecious metal prices andrupee depreciation,according to HDFCSecurities. In theprevious trade, theprecious metal hadsettled at Rs 46,157 per10 gram. In contrast,

silver dipped Rs 120 to Rs 60,369 per kilogram from Rs 60,489 perkilogram in the previous trade The Indian rupee depreciated 6 paiseto 75.42 against the US dollar in opening trade on Tuesday. In theinternational market, gold was trading higher at USD 1,757 perounce and silver was flat at USD 22.56 per ounce. "Gold pricestraded firm with spot gold prices at COMEX trading 0.19 per cent upat USD 1,757 per ounce on Tuesday," according to HDFC Securities,Senior Analyst (Commodities), Tapan Patel.

Homegrownauto majorTata Motors

on Tuesday saidit will raise USD1 billion (Rs7,500 crore) inits passengerelectric vehiclebusiness at avaluation of upto USD 9.1billion from TPGRise Climate.Tata Motors Ltd

(TML) and TPG Rise Climate have entered into a binding agreementunder which TPG Rise Climate along with its co-investor ADQ, willinvest in a subsidiary of Tata Motors that will be newly incorporated, thecompany said in a statement. TPG Rise Climate along with co-investorsshall invest Rs 7,500 crore in compulsory convertible instruments tosecure between 11-15 per cent stake in this company translating to anequity valuation of up to USD 9.1 billion, it added.

Tata to raise $1 billion inpassenger EV biz from TPG

Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Salaeyes Rs 1,000-cr topline

The 120-year-old KottakkalArya Vaidya

Sala, amongstthe most popularnameplates inthe world ofAyurvedasystem, has setan ambitiousgrowth targetsfor the next twoyears withrevenue morethan doubling

from last year level and touching Rs 1,000 crore-milestone by FY'24.The ayurveda firm - the largest in terms of name, brand recall andrevenue - expects to close FY'22 with revenue of over Rs 500 crore, agrowth of over 25 per cent over the pandemic-hit last year and morethan double the net income at around Rs 45 crore. "We entered theFMCG space after a lot of market research, after which we piloted a fullyAyurveda-based toilet soap under the label of Vibha which was arunaway success. This prompted us to expand the soap range with aslew of variants including baby soaps beauty soaps; shampoos,sanitisers, hand-washes, pain killer sprays, choornams, among otherswith over two dozen SKUs," chief executive GC Gopala Pillai told PTI athis headquarters in Kottakkal. On the revenue front, he said the thesecond wave has massively increased demand for Ayurveda medicinesleading to higher production and sales, while revenue from servicesplunged due to the pandemic. The institution runs a 191-room nursinghome nearby with 300 beds facility. He said currently room occupancyhas improved to around 60 per cent as travel curbs are still in force insome for or other -- a low number for an institution where waiting wasover six months on peak monsoon season.

Gold jumps Rs 129; silverdeclines Rs 120

PNS n NEW DELHI

Airlines can operate domes-t ic f l ights without anycapacity restriction fromOctober 18 onwards, theMinistry of Civil Aviationannounce d on Tues daykeeping in mind the "pas-senger demand for air trav-el".

The carriers have beenoperating 85 per cent oftheir pre-COVID domesticservices since September18, according to the min-istry's order.

The capacity cap stood at7 2 . 5 p e r c e nt b e t we e nAugust 12 and September18, 65 per cent betweenJuly 5 and August 12 and50 per cent between June 1and July 5.

On October 9, the Indiancarr iers operated 2,340domestic flights, which is71.5 per cent of their totalpre-COVID capacity.

The ministry stated in itsorder that "it has been

de c ide d to re s tore t hescheduled domest ic airoperation with effect fromOctober 18, 2021, withoutany capacity restriction".

The order noted that thedecision was taken "after areview of the current statusof s c h e du l e d d om e s t i coperations viz-a-viz pas-senger demand for air trav-el".

When the government

resumed the scheduleddomestic flights on May 25last year after a two-monthbreak, the ministry hadal lowed the carr iers tooperate not more than 33per cent of their pre-Coviddomestic services.

The cap was graduallyincreased to 80 per cent byDecember 2020.

T h e 8 0 - p e r c e nt c apremained in place till June

1 this year.The May 28 decision to

bring down the cap from80 to 50 per cent fromJune 1 onwards was taken"in view of the suddensurge in the number ofact ive COVID-19 casesa c r o s s t h e c o u nt r y,decrease in passenger traf-fic and the passenger load(occupancy rate) factor",the ministry had said.

PNS n BOSTON/WASHINGTON

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman discussed invest-ment opportunities, reforms inIndia and other related issuesduring her meeting with lead-ers of global corporations, whosaid they were upbeat aboutinvesting in the country.

Sitharaman arrived in theUS on Monday to attend theannual meet of the WorldBank and IMF in Washingtonas well as G20 FinanceMinisters and Central BankGovernors (FMCBG) meet-ing.

During the official visit tothe US, Sitharaman is expect-ed to meet US TreasurySecretary Janet Yellen.

After arriving in New York,Sitharaman travelled to Bostonwhere she will meet investorsduring a roundtable hosted byFICCI and US-India StrategicPartnership Forum (USISPF)and executives of global corpo-rations and also address stu-dents at Harvard University.

Prominent among thosewho met the minister inBoston were JohnConnaughton, co-managingpartner, and Stephen Pagliuca,

co-chairman, Bain Capital;Edmund DiSanto, ExecutiveVice President, ChiefAdministration Officer andGeneral Counsel of AmericanTower Corporation (ATC);Prahlad Singh, President andCEO of Perkin Elmer and DrJohn Ardill and Senior VicePresident of ExxonMobil.

Expressing their confidencein the Indian economy and theongoing reforms, the corporateleaders said that they wereupbeat about investing in thecountry.

Sitharaman also attended adinner hosted by LawrenceSummers, former Treasury

Secretary, along with othereminent experts in the fields ofeconomics, public policy,finance, and development.

The finance minister eluci-dated the intent of the countryto be more inclusive in devel-opment and growth, PrahladSingh said after his meetingwith Sitharaman in Boston.

In a wide-ranging discussionwith the minister, Singh statedthat some of the best sciencegraduates and skill sets thatPerkin Elmer as a companyleverage, come out of India.

Singh said that India'shealthcare industry is ripe forinvestment.

Singh added that amid theCOVID-19 pandemic, prod-ucts that have been developedin the company's facilities inGoa are being used and export-ed outside the country for usefor COVID-19 testing.

So that's really a very goodexample of how we can use andleverage the inclusive growththat the Finance Ministerpointed out and what the coun-try has been doing for using thecapabilities and skill sets fromIndia for our development as acompany but also from thecountry's perspective.

During the meeting,Sitharaman mentioned gov-ernment incentives and initia-tives towards promoting inno-vation in life sciences andresearch and development inthe pharma sector.

In her meeting with DiSanto,the minister highlightedreforms including NationalMonetisation Pipeline (NMP)for private sector investmenttowards new infrastructurecreation in brownfield infra-structure assets.

Opportunities in India steer-ing foreign collaborations andattracting Foreign DirectInvestment in the next five

years under NMP throughinvestment in strategic sec-tors, including telecom, formedpart of discussion, the financeministry said.

ATC, which has 76,000 tow-ers in India, aims to expandoperations in the telecommu-nications sector by addinganother 4,000 towers.

So we'll make an incremen-tal investment in the ordinarycourse even in the pandemicthat'll bring us to 80,000 (tow-ers), he said.

ATC India is among thepassive telecom infrastructureproviders in India and is anindirectly-held subsidiary ofAmerican Tower Corporation.

"I see that the moves that thegovernment of India has maderecently has sent a very pow-erful message to the world ofwestern investors, indicating anew receptivity and a new sys-tem that I think does encour-age the opportunity," DiSantossaid after his meeting withSitharaman.

The reforms, cast India in avery favourable light and wel-coming light when it comes tobringing in investment,onboarding businesses,"DiSanto said.

Fin Minister discusses reforms inIndia with corporate leaders in US

India calls for IPR waiver in WTOPNS n NEW DELHI

Commerce and IndustryMInister Piyush Goyal onTuesday called for waiver ofIntellectual Property Rights(IPR) in World TradeOrganisation (WTO) and dis-mantling new trade barriers inthe global fight against theCOVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, India andSouth Africa had submittedthe first proposal, suggesting awaiver for all WTO memberson the implementation of cer-tain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectualProperty Rights (TRIPs)Agreement in relation to theprevention, containment ortreatment of COVID-19.

In May this year, a revisedproposal was submitted by 62co-sponsors, including India,South Africa, and Indonesia.

The agreement on TRIPcame into effect in January1995. It is a multilateral agree-ment on intellectual property(IP) rights such as copyright,industrial designs, patents andprotection of undisclosedinformation or trade secrets.

Our response to the pan-demic needs to ensure equi-table access to vaccines andother COVID-19 related

health products by ensuringquick resolution of the supplyside constraints. One of theways to demonstrate this is byaccepting the TRIPS waiverproposal, Goyal said, in hisaddress to the G20 Trade andInvestment MinisterialMeeting in Naples, Italy.

He also pitched for activelyresolving new trade barrierslike vaccine differentiationsor COVID passports, whichimpose mobility restrictionsand impede the movement ofpersonnel needed for deliver-ing critical services.

COVID-19 crisis is a pow-erful reminder of our inter-connectedness, and the need

for a coordinated global strat-egy to overcome such anunprecedented public healthsituation, he said.

The minister also said thatbesides focusing on facilitatingfree flow of goods, G20 coun-tries should make health ser-vices accessible and moreaffordable by the citizens of theworld by enabling free flow ofhealth services. Commentingon the ongoing talks in WTOabout fisheries subsidies, Goyalsaid countries engaged in dis-tant water fishing should stopsubsidizing their fishing inhigh seas and gradually reducetheir fishing capacities, partic-ularly, for overfished stocks.

No curbs on domestic flights from oct 18

Govt asks CIL to raise coal supplyto power plants during PujaPNS n NEW DELHI

The government has askedstate-owned Coal India Ltd(CIL) to augment the coalsupply to power producers to1.55-1.6 million tonnes (MT)per day around the DurgaPuja period, and to furtherscale it to 1.7 MT per day afterOctober 20, according to asource.

The development assumessignificance in the wake of thecountry's power plants grap-pling with coal shortages in thecountry at a time when the fes-tival season has already begun.

"Yesterday (Monday), therewas a meeting in Delhi andCoal India was asked to do(supply of) 1.55-1.6 milliontonnes (of coal to power sec-tor) per day around Puja time;and after October 20, the pub-lic sector undertaking is sup-posed to do 1.7 MT per day,"the source privy to the devel-opment said.

The coal dispatches by CILto the power sector on Mondaystood at 1.615 MT.

In a country where 69 percent of the total electricitygeneration is coal-based, CILempowers the nation's powersector. Around 80 per cent ofCIL's total supplies are catered

to the power sector, accordingto a recent report of the firm.

The source said the powerplants are getting the amountof coal that is required for gen-eration but the stocks are notbuilding up as they did notreplenish them.

The coal stocks at powerplants will start building upfrom November 1 onwards, thesource said.

"They (power plants) didn'treplenish their stocks. Many ofthem took that risk. So, theyare paying for it now," thesource added.

Coal India Ltd (CIL), hesaid, had 100 million tonnes ofthe fuel stock at the end of thefinancial year 2020-21.

"Why did that stock accrueis because people (powerplants) did not take their des-ignated supplies. They thoughtthat why to waste money rightnow when there is no require-ment," he said. CIL had onMonday said it has scaled upthe supply of coal to power util-ities across the country to 1.51MT per day during the pastfour days of the current month,and stressed that it is buildingup adequate evacuation logis-tics to transport the dry fuel.

The average supply to coal-fired power plants duringOctober so far has been 1.43MT per day, which has nowbeen augmented to 1.51 MT inthe past four days.

Rupee declines16 paise to 75.52PNS n NEW DELHI

Falling for the third day in a row,the rupee weakened further by16 paise to end at 75.52 againstthe US currency on Tuesday,weighed down by a stronggreenback in the overseas mar-ket and firm crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the local cur-rency opened at 75.41 and wit-nessed an intra-day high of75.16 and a low of 75.66 againstthe US dollar in the day trade.The local unit finally settled at75.52 a dollar, down 16 paiseover its previous close.

On Monday, the rupee slid by37 paise to close at a 15-monthlow of 75.36 against the US dol-lar.

Brent crude futures, the glob-al oil benchmark, advanced0.29 per cent to USD 83.89 perbarrel.

The dollar index, which

gauges the greenback'sstrength against a basket of sixcurrencies, was trading 0.02per cent up at 94.33.

"The Indian rupee toucheda low of 75.67, a level last seenon June 25, 2020. The dollarindex stayed calm while dol-lar demand from oil importersand hedgers dragged the rupeelower. Market participantsshould keep eye on crude oil,Dollar index and US Treasuryyields for short term move-ment," said Dilip Parmar,Research Analyst, HDFCSecurities.

Parmar further said thatthe medium-term trend forUSD/INR remains bullishwhile short-term profit book-ing can't be ruled out after ver-tical rise. "The pair is havingsupport in the area of 75.30 to75, while continue to faceresistance in the range of 75.90to 76," he noted.

Govt promoting ethanol productionPNS n NEW DELHI

Road Transport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari onTuesday stressed on the needto divert excess sugar stock forethanol manufacturing as pro-vision of subsidies on exportsof sweetener will not be per-missable after December 2023under the WTO regime.

Addressing a webinar onalternative fuels organised byindustry body ISMA, the min-ister said the government ispromoting ethanol manufac-turing in a big way and assured

that it will procure all ethanolproduced in the country.

With increased supply ofethanol, Gadkari said thegovernment plans tointroduce flex fuelengine vehicles inthe country.

With the rolloutof flex-fuel vehicleson 100 per cent bio-ethanol, the demandfor ethanol will immediate-ly jump by 4 to 5 times, headded.

The minister also askedsugar mills to set up their own

ethanol pumps, which arebeing permitted by the govern-ment. "It is under our purview

that we can take thedecision for making

mandatory flexengine for thepetrol vehicles.So, that canincrease the

demand of ethanolin Indian market,"

Gadkari said.Stating that the government

is giving permission for theethanol pump, the ministertold sugar mills that they can

establish their own pumps."Now there is a policy and

my own sugar factory, also myson has taken the permission,"he added.

Gadkari said the govern-ment is providing export subis-dy to the tune of Rs 3,000 to Rs6,000 crore to sugar mills forliquidating surplus sugarstocks.

"Due to our commitments tointernational organisationssuch as WTO, these subsidieswill not be permissable afterDecember 2023," he pointedout.

Government accords Maharatna status to PFC PNS n NEW DELHI

The government has accordedthe 'Maharatna' status to state-owned Power FinanceCorporation (PFC), a move thatwill pave the way for the com-pany's greater financial andoperational efficiency, accord-ing to a company statement.

"Government of Indiaaccorded the prestigious'Maharatna' status to state-owned Power FinanceCorporation (PFC), thus givingPFC greater operational andfinancial autonomy," the com-pany said in the statement.

An order to this effect wasissued on Tuesday by theDepartment of PublicEnterprises, under the Ministryof Finance.

Incorporated in 1986, PFC isthe largest infrastructurefinance company dedicated tothe power sector under theadministrative control of theMinistry of Power.

The grant of 'Maharatna'status to PFC will impartenhanced powers to PFC'sboard while taking financialdecisions.

The Board of a 'Maharatna'

CPSE can make equity invest-ments to undertake financialjoint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries and under-take mergers and acquisitionsin India and abroad, subject toa ceiling of 15 per cent of thenetworth of the concernedCPSE, limited to Rs 5,000 crorein one project.

The board can also structureand implement schemes relat-ing to personnel and humanresource management andtraining. They can also enterinto technology joint venturesor other strategic alliances.

Union Power and New &Renewable Energy Minister RK Singh congratulated andremarked that the "confermentof the 'Maharatna' status is thereflection of the government'sconfidence on PFC's strategicrole in the overall developmentof the power sector and anendorsement of its sterling per-formance."

He added that this newrecognition will enable PFC tooffer competitive financing forthe power sector, which will goa long way in making availableaffordable and reliable 'PowerFor All 24x7'.

Official: Concorstrategic salenot happeningthis fiscalPNS n NEW DELHI

The strategic sale ofContainer Corporation ofIndia (Concor) is not hap-pening in the current fiscal asthe railway land usage poli-cy is yet to be finalised, asenior official said.

Department of Investmentand Public AssetManagement (DIPAM)Secretary Tuhin KantaPandey said it takes about ayear from the date of issue ofExpression of Interest (EoI)for the conclusion of anystrategic sale.

For Concor, the post pri-vatisation rail land usage pol-icy is yet to be finalised by theMinistry of Railways andhence the EoI could not beissued.

Container Corp is not hap-pening this year. Fromexpression of interest to con-clusion, it takes about ninemonths to one year. We werehoping that the expression ofinterest will be issued but thatis linked to the land policy.

Grip Invest inks US$ 5 million asset financing deal with HoK PNS n NEW DELHI

Grip Invest, a digital platformfor facilitating new-age asset-backed investments, onTuesday said it has enteredinto a USD 5 million (about Rs37.7 crore) asset financingdeal with House of Kieraya(HoK), known for furnitureand lifestyle rental brand,Furlenco.

The deal will enable HoK toaccess additional furnitureassets to support the rapidgrowth they are witnessing in

terms of new users, a state-ment said. Furlenco hasrecently formed HoK, a corpo-rate brand that includesFurlenco and its sub-brand -UNLMTD, along withFurbicle - a re-manufacturedfurniture brand.

"We are seeing unprece-dented growth that hasexceeded our expectations.Our partnership with Grip willhelp fuel the asset demand thatis coming on the back of ouraggressive growth and expan-sion plans.”

apsee Pannulaunched her pro-duction houseOutsiders filmsearlier this year.The production’s

first film, Blurr, also wrappedup the shooting earlier thisyear and the backdrop ofNainital and Mall road wasused in the film. In the latest

developments, it has beenrevealed that the film teamwanted real locations and soa lot of heritage sites havemade it on the film too.

According to reports thefilm team is set to shoot atthe picturesque hill station ofRamgadh which has breath-taking views ofthe valley and

snow-capped Mukteshwarmountains. Since the direc-tors and producers want thereal locations the film wasshot at chosen accordingly.

The film was also shot atthe Famous Writer’s bunga-low, Ashok Vatika whereRabindranath Tagore suppos-edly wrote a part ofGeetanjali and MahadeviVerma resided and wrotemany of her creations.

Quite a few heritage sitesalso were chosen for thebackdrop for the movie andalso some houses older than100 years are in the film.

Written by Pawan Sonyand Ajay Bahl, Zee Studiosand Tapsee Pannu’s OutsiderFilms, and EchelonProductions’ Blurr is a psy-chological thriller set to be

released in 2022.

9

what’s brewing?Vijayawada | Wednesday October 13, 2021

enowned poetAkhil Katyal’spoem in praise ofShah Rukh Khanand the diversecharacters he has

played over the years is a hitamong his friends, col-leagues, and fans. Everyonefrom Masaan directorNeeraj Ghaywan, screen-writer Kanika Dhillon toactor Swara Bhasker havepraised the poem onTwitter.

The poem read, “Wokabhi Rahul hai, kabhi RajKabhi Charlie toh kabhiMax Surinder bhi wo,Harry bhi wo Devdas bhiour Veer bhi Ram, Mohan,Kabir bhi Wo Amar hai,Samar hai Rizwan, Raees,Jehangir bhi. Shayad isliyekuch logon ke halak meinfasta hai, Ki ek Shahrukhmein pura Hindustan basta

hai (He is sometimesRahul, sometimes Charlie,

sometimes Max; he isalso Surinder,

Harry,

Devdas, Veer, Ram, Mohanand Kabir. He is Amar,Rizwan as well as Raees andJehangir. Maybe that’s why hebothers some people; all ofHindustan resides withinhim).”

Neeraj Ghaywan wrote thelyrics of the Dil Se title songwhile praising Akhil’s poem.The lyrics went, “BandhanHai Rishton Mein, Kaaton KiTaarein Hain, Patthar KeDarwaaze Deewaarein, BeleinPhir Bhi Ugti Hain, AurGuchchhe Bhi Khilte Hain,Aur Chalte Hain Afsaane,Kirdaar Bhi Milte Hain, VoRishtey Dil Dil Dil Thay. Loveyou @iamsrk! Dil se.”

Screenwriter KanikaDhillon commented, “Yassss…how beautifully n aptlyput… ek Shahrukh meinpoora Hindustan basta hai!@iamsrk.”

Swara dropped a heart andsparkles emoji in reaction tothe poem on Twitter.

Several film industry per-sonalities have extended theirsupport for Shah Rukh,whose son Aryan was arrest-ed for his alleged connectionto a drug-related caselastweek.Aryanis yetto get

bail in the case and his nextcourt hearing is scheduled forWednesday.

He is currently in judicialcustody and lodged at theArthur Road prison inMumbai.

Many including SussanneKhan, Hrithik Roshan, PoojaBhatt and Sanjay Gupta haveoffered support to SRK andhis family on social plat-forms.

Actor and friend, SalmanKhan was among the firstones to visit Mannat after thearrest of Aryan.

Soon after, MaheepKapoor, Neelam Kothari,Seema Khan and others alsopaid a visit to support GauriKhan and Shah Rukh.

ctor NawazuddinSiddiqui, whorecently scored anInternationalEMMY nominationfor his performance

in Sudhir Mishra’s Serious Men,has said that more than nepo-tism, the film industry has aracism problem.

Nawaz was speaking abouthis co-star in the film, IndiraTiwari, whom he hopes will getanother lead role after SeriousMen. That, he said, will be thereal victory.

He told a news agency inHindi, “Sudhir saab hasimmense knowledge about cin-

ema, and his thought process isvery practical. He cast her asthe heroine, and I can guaran-tee you that there is so muchracism in our industry, I will bevery happy if she is cast as thelead again. Sudhir Mishra didit, but what about the headhonchos in charge? More thannepotism, we have a racismproblem.”

He continued, “I foughtagainst it for many years, and Ihope that dark-skinned actress-es are made heroines; it’s veryimportant. I’m not even talkingabout skin colour; there is abias that exists in the industrywhich needs to end for better

films to be made… I wasrejected for many yearsonly because I’m short andI look a certain way,although I can’t complainnow. But there are so manyother great actors who fallprey to this kind of bias.”

Nawaz, who broke ontothe scene with his perfor-mance in Anurag Kashyap’sGangs of Wasseypur Part II,has become a poster childfor Indian streaming, hav-ing appeared in projectssuch as Sacred Gamesand Raat AkeliHai, in addition toSerious Men.

ctress Kareena Kapoor has saidshe will raise her sons, Taimurand Jeh, to not differentiatebetween people. The actormade the statement while talk-ing about the LGBTQ commu-

nity. The actor, speaking with a filmmagazine, pointed out that she doesn’tlike the community being referred to as‘different.’ She said she believes everyone

is the same and wants her sonsto share the same ideology.

“Even calling them (thosefrom the LGBTQ communi-

ty) ‘different’ is somethingI don’t like. We are one.That’s the whole idea.Why are people evensaying that ‘this is differ-ent?’ No! We’re all thesame na with ourhearts, lungs, and liverso why are we seeingthem in any otherway? That’s the way Ithink and that’s theway I’ll always bringup my boys to thinkalso,” Kareena told anews agency.

Addressing theLGBTQ com-

munity, shesaid, “I loveyou guys! Ilove the factthat you

always shower me with somuch love. I’m all fortransparency and bothSaif and I are peoplewho live life transpar-ently and have friendsall over the world fromthe LGBTQ communi-ty. We are open-heart-ed and open-mindedand that’s the way Ilook forward to bring-ing up my children.We talk to them aboutissues pertaining to thecommunity and I feelthat’s how it should be.”Kareena was last seen inGood Newwz, withAkshay Kumar, DiljitDosanjh and KiaraAdvani. The actor willstar in Laal SinghChaddha next. Led byAamir Khan, the film isthe Indian adaptation ofthe Hollywood filmForrest Gump, whichstarred Tom Hanks. Whilethe filming began in 2019,the shoot came to a stand-still owing to the pandem-ic. Kareena resumed theshoot for the film after thelockdown eased and waspregnant with her secondson, Jeh.

Nawazuddin: Not nepotism, racismbigger problem in Bollywood

Blurr shot at real locations, severalheritage sites made it to the film

R

A

A

T

Kareena will talk about theLGBTQ community with sons

Bollywood retweets viral poemsupporting Shah Rukh Khan

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

FUN

AISHWARYA D

ave you ever wonderedif robots are a versatileinvention that humansmade? No doubt theyare one of the best cre-ations made. Today,

robots can be seen assisting notonly in restaurants but also in themedical field. They especiallycome in handy for the ‘recon-struction’ procedure.

Dr. Mallikarjun Reddy, SeniorConsultant, Urology at theCitizens Specialty Hospital, speaksexclusively to The Pioneer regard-ing the emerging problems ofPediatric Urology. He gives usspecific insights on UretericReconstruction Surgery.

So what exactly is reconstruc-tion? It is a process through whicha tube is connected to the kidneyand the bladder during surgery.This can be done to either one orboth kidneys.

The process is a significantlycomplex one that needs a lot ofevaluation and identification ofthe problem before beginning thereconstructive surgery. Most ofthe time, these problems pick upin the foetus when the child isinside the womb.

Dr. Reddy performed a RoboticUreter

ReconstructiveSurgery on

an 18-

month-old baby boy recently, whowas diagnosed in the utero withleft hydronephrosis, a conditionwhere swelling occurs on a kidneydue to a build-up of urine when itcannot drain out from the kidneyor bladder due to a blockage. It isone of the most common urologi-cal problems seen in the agegroup.

The baby was allowed to feedorally just 4 hours after thesurgery and was discharged in 48hours.

The doctor explains, “It was avery critical surgery as the organsin children are very small, 1/4thto that of adults. An importantpoint to be noted for RAS is mini-mal or no scarring, as scars fromurological procedures can affectthe child physically and mentally,given they have their whole lifeahead of them”.

The first general precaution tobe taken after the child is born, isto check him or her appropriately.Second, if the child is older, anddevelops symptoms like regularstomach ache, has a high fever,urinary infection, PUJ obstruc-tion, ureteric obstruction at thebladder level, where children tendto leak urine without their knowl-edge and always wets their under-pants, parents must be prompt inseeking medical opinion. Thenthe child’s kidneys and bladder arechecked, to see if it’s a result ofchronic constipation or kidneytumors.

All these things need to belooked at, before going ahead withthe surgery. These kinds of prob-lems need to be corrected to func-tion and stabilise the kidney prop-erly, once the child tends to grow.Robotic surgery would be of greathelp here.

When asked about the experi-ence working with robotic assis-tance, Dr. Reddy says, “I havebeen part of pediatric urology forthe past 20+ years now. Earlier, itwas open surgery, then camelaparoscopic, and now we havefurther refinements of roboticssurgery. This robotic-assistedsurgery comes from a da Vinci XIrobot that actually has an instru-ment inside, which makes surgerymuch easier than laparoscopic.With the help of a robot, theresults of the surgery are muchaccurate and successful. Now theinstruments have become smaller,because of which we can operateon much smaller children withease. The surgical outcome of thechildren from these robots aremuch superior to laparoscopic”.

The question now arises if it'stime we all shift to robotic surg-eries. Well, robotic surgery is usedin the last part of the treatment.The doc says, “The first and themain thing would be to take anultrasound which is reasonableand quite effective. The cost of therobotic procedure may be higher,but the success rate is much high-er than normal surgery: with arobot, you can have one surgeryinstead of two possible surgeries.The recovery of the child is muchfaster in robotics in comparisonto any kind of open surgery.”

After shifting to robotics, it wasnoticed that the children havemuch lesser pain and they recoverin a day or two, which is fasterthan laparoscopic. “The reasonsare unknown, but the kind of pre-cision we get when we do thesurgery with a 3D magnificationgives much more precision to thesurgery so that the childrenimprove much faster than throughany other surgical modality. So itis worthwhile that everyonemakes use of robotic surgery,especially for children.” However,the doctor says, until and unless aneed for such a surgery arises,care must be taken to avoidsurgery if it is not necessary.

On a concluding note, he says,“There were no actual challengesfaced when compared to laparo-scopic surgery, because this makesthe surgery easier, the outcomesare better, and the child recoversfaster. There will be 2-3% sideeffects, which are inevitable —whether it is open, laparoscopic orrobotic — because it is an inher-ent problem, apart from the surgi-cal issue.”

He believes that with theadvanced technologies availabletoday in India, children sufferingfrom such issues can get the latestmedical treatments, and there is aneed to sensitise parents about theearly detection and timely treat-ment of such diseases.

SHIKHA DUGGAL

n social psychology,the idea of the ‘sur-vival of the fittest’ isa theory that hasmany names. Itapplies Darwin’s

theories of the jungle. BearGrylls’ Into the Wild is alsolike a highly competitive jun-gle where only the ‘fittest’ andcompetent are likely to sur-vive. From the very own PMof our country, NarendraModi, the ‘thalaiva’ of thesouth industry, Rajinikanth,and the best action-hero thatis ever there, Akshay Kumar— all three lived to tell thetale. Now it was time for AjayDevgn to excel!

Life in the jungle is full ofsurprises and the Singham

actor Ajay Devgn of the enter-tainment industry got to feel itup close. While on this adven-turous journey in Discovery+exclusive, the actordeveloped rou-tines at site,just as wewould athome. Torainfor-est,milesawayfromthenearesttown intheIndianOcean, boththe explorerswere in extremelyremote areas. Theynavigated in the jungle, and

now give us some coolinsights on the trailer launchwith the forest expert himself— Ajay and Bear take us on a

petite jungle voyageof their own.

We got toknow that

there wasa DIYraft thatboththe sur-veyorshad tomakeuse of.

How didthat hap-

pen?“Believe it or

not, we didn’tfind a raft. There

was only one way totravel by water and we decid-

ed to make one. Whatever rawmaterials we could find, weused it. I had no clue aboutwhat I was doing on earth!”recalls Ajay.

Usually, when one imaginesif he or she is let alone on anisland, the answer is moreoften than not romantic, how-ever, Devgn cries out the ex-soldier’s name, as it was onlyhe who knew all the nitty-grit-ty of the tropical forests.Shooting action sequences fora movie and shooting live fora tropical rain forest mission,drastic difference, explains theactor. “Well, you can see, thereare no re-takes and rehearsals.We were taking chances onthe spot! You are in theunknown, in the wild — any-thing could have happened.Bear knew something about it;I was completely alien aboutwhat was going on. A fright-ening yet fun episode wasshot,” he added.

An experience of a lifetime,Bear Grylls chose to travelaround India due to its assort-ment, its civil liberties, therocky terrains, etc. They setout to venture on a one-of-its-kind island that was nothinglike a ‘paradise’- there were alot of reefs and very little freshwater. The climate was so hot!Bear revealed there were timeswhen the circumstances in thejungle would get too intimi-dating, however, Ajay Devgnnever backed off!

While watching the trailerwe hear a scary line from theexpert stating — if you see ashark, stay calm and don’tmove’. That was how randomit got in the waters of theIndian ocean for both the voy-agers. Yet, Grylls makes itknown to us that the superstarstill had the humility for thewild, despite countering suchalarming situations. His ner-vousness didn’t turn into ego,said Bear. “I may not havememories of wild, clingingback to my childhood, howev-er, since the time I have joinedthe movies, I have shot inrainforests, backwaters andthe mountains – that has beenmy fondest memories fromthe untamed till date,” Ajaysigns off.

What’s new!

City-based NGO, HelpingHand Foundation, whichhas been working for the

economically weaker sections inthe health domain for over twodecades, has now forayed intobudget community health homecare services in a non-profit modelunder the brand HHF Health.

According to the NGO, post-Covid, there has been a spurt indemand for several community-level home health care services.

Many patients are looking atend-to-end health services at thedoorstep for ease of access and thefear and anxiety of visiting hospi-tals and clinics in the pandemic. A survey was done by the NGOlast month, in which family mem-bers of about 200 plus patients,who underwent critical care treat-ment were interviewed and theresult has revealed that 80% of thepatients are looking for cost-effec-tive home care solutions as theyare financially exhausted by thetime the patient is discharged fromthe hospital.

HHF Health will bring to thedoorstep a wide range of low cost,

high-quality community healthservices with compassion, whichwill include doctor on call or visit,nursing and bedside care, physio-therapy, labs and diagnostics (In-house), pharmacy, ambulances,medical equipment, rehabilitationcare, mainly targeting the middleand lower-middle-class segments.

Under Home Care services doc-tors will provide both online andon-site services, apart from nurs-ing, bedside care and physiothera-py too. The nursing care will helppatients who need IV fluids andInjectables, wound dressing, bedsore care, foley catheter replace-ment, riles tube feeding and otherroutine bedside care right fromseasonal diseases to chronic ones.

The home care initiative will beparticularly beneficial to patientssuffering from Covid under homeisolation, post-Covid, stroke, trau-ma, and patients who need dailydressing to wounds and infectivelimbs like diabetic foot, gangrene,cellulitis, patients who have devel-oped bedsores, and others who areincapacitated due to chronic ill-ness.

LOW-COST HEALTHCARE

AT HOME IS HERE

Designers Shivan and Narreshunveiled #IconoScapeSeriesthrough an evocative display of

their latest collection that romanticisesa whimsical reverie and exacerbateselegance for the new world. The annu-al showcase brings to life five diverseprints namely Farrago, Jaiscape,Iconomash, BotanEye, and Wilding.

Designed for the global millenniaand the effervescent, the latest seriesblossoms into freedom through fash-ion as it narrates a distinct design lan-guage defined by Purity, Art, and Sextranslated into the brand’s five iconicholiday lifestyles: Swim (snail), Resort(peacock), Cruise (dolphin), Safari(elephant) and Ski (reindeer). Anunderlying sentiment of escapismevokes the passionate desire for traveland fashionable joie de vivre, even athome, as each design brings to life thethriving vision of the brand through apotpourri of powerful and playful sil-houettes in rich, earthy undertones.

ICONIC DESIGNSFOR

THE NEW NORMAL

Bahwan CyberTek (BCT)Group announced its uniquecareer relaunch programme

that will provide women oncareer breaks with full-time jobopportunities. The program willpromote diversity in the technolo-gy space and encourage womenwho put their careers on hold forvarious reasons to re-enter theworkforce.

Candidates selected throughthis program will have access tomentors and other opportunitiesto upskill and learn on the job.BCT has also developed family-friendly HR policies and intro-duced flexible work schedules tohelp women balance their person-al and professional commitmentswith ease.

CAREERRELAUNCH FOR

WOMEN LOOKINGTO RE-ENTERWORKFORCE

The city witnessed the gala launch ofthe most promising made in IndiaCrypto exchange, BITSZ, earlier this

week. Popular Actress Niddhi Agerwaljoined Team BITSZ for the grand launch,along with other notable personalitiesfrom the city.

Addressing the audience at the launch,Niddhi Agerwal said, “As a business stu-dent myself, I completely understand thebenefits of investing in cryptocurrencies.BITSZ, as a platform, stands out for usersdue to the concept of providing 100%insurance. I learnt today that despite beingindependent, 33% of women alwaysinvolve a man in their family to makedecisions in investments. I would like toencourage both men and women to comeforward and invest in cryptocurrencies. Itis a safe and great investment to make. Iam excited to be part of the launch of thisunique platform.” Congratulating TeamBITSZ, Niddhi wished them all successahead.

SAFE CRYPTOEXCHANGEPLATFORM

LAUNCHED INHYDERABAD

Nutreco India, a globalleader in animal andaqua nutrition in

association with the RobinHood Army (An NGO)organised a unique initiativeon the occasion of WorldFood Day to ‘Feed theFuture’ providing nutritiousbalanced food to underprivi-leged children in Hyderabad.As a part of this programover 100 underprivilegedkids were provided withhealthy food in the slum areain Miyapur, Hyderabad. Theevent was attended by Dr.Saurabh Shekhar, GeneralManager – Nutreco SouthAsia; Dr. Chandani Parihar,Marketing Head; Ms. RoopaKandi, Mr. SrikrishnaGouda, and Ms. SanthosiReddy.

Every year, Nutreco Indiacelebrates World Food Dayto raise awareness about the‘future of food’ addressingthe most basic human need.In line with their purpose ofFeeding the Future, the ini-tiative aims to provide peoplewith nutritious and protein-rich food while safeguardingthe essential food cycle.Nutreco India works relent-lessly towards the purpose ofFeeding the Future most sus-tainably. The company isrunning a 2-week campaignfocusing on reducing foodwastage in the country andensuring balanced protein-rich food for all.

FEEDINGTHE FUTURE

The Covid pandemic has takenthe lives of many, leaving sever-al families devastated. Many lost

their breadwinners, making their lifecome a sudden halt.

To help such families, AquaSecurity, an Israel-based leadingpure-play cloud-native securityprovider with Indian operations atHyderabad, has recently concluded its

first-ever Aquathon, a global employ-ee well-being initiative.

Proceeds of the initiative will godirectly to Covidrelief support forIndia, focused on helping the familieswhose breadwinners have succumbedto Coronavirus.

Aquathon aims to give back to thecommunity while building a strong,healthy, and united workforce. Aqua

employees across the world raisedfunds for an Indian non-profit organ-isation by registering their step-countfor seven days and to raise funds forCovid relief in India.

The initiative drove phenomenalparticipation from the Aqua Securityteam across 12 countries. Over 150employees participated in the initia-tive and clocked over 11 million

steps. Aqua Security matched thefunds raised by employees. and raiseda total of rupees 6 Lacs, to be donatedto Nirmaan Organisation (a non-profit entity) and its Covid reliefefforts in India.

Nirmaan supports the underprivi-leged in education, skill development,entrepreneurship, and social leader-ship.

SUCCOUR ANDSTRENGTH TO

FAMILIES RAVAGEDBY COVID

VENTURING, CAPTURINGAND CONQUERING THE WILD

“THEREWERE NO

RETAKES, WE WERETAKING CHANCES ON THE

SPOT! BEAR KNEWSOMETHING ABOUT IT; IWAS COMPLETELY ALIEN

ABOUT WHAT WASGOING ON.”

ROBOTICS MAKINGCOMPLEX SURGERIES

PAINLESS ANDSUCCESSFUL

I

H

WednesdayOctober 13, 2021

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

PTI n SHARJAH

Eyeing a maiden IPL title,the fancied DelhiCapitals will face anoth-er litmus test in the form

of a Kolkata Knight Riders unitbrimming with optimism whenthe two sides lock horns in thesecond qualifier here onWednesday.

Delhi Capitals failed in theirfirst big test when they lost toChennai Super Kings in the first

qualifier and another defeat willmean there will be no moreexamination for the strongsquad, led by India wicketkeep-er Rishabh Pant.

Two-time winners KKRwill no doubt take confidencefrom their victory against RoyalChallengers Bangalore inMonday’s eliminator that dashedVirat Kohli’s hopes of winningan IPL title with his longstand-ing franchise. If the emphasis ison momentum and peaking at

the right time then KKR willdefinitely fancy their chances intheir next outing, notwithstand-ing their opponents’ resourcesand depth in lineup.

DC, who topped the leaguestage with as many as 10 wins fora total of 20 points, are wellaware of the task that awaitsthem. Since Australian greatRicky Ponting took over as theircoach, Delhi Capitals havegrown from strength to strengthas they finished second runners

up in the 2019 edition beforereaching the summit clash lastyear.

This year there aim is to doone better and win the title.

They are one of the mostbalanced sides in the tourna-ment with a formidable battingline-up and a potent pace attackthat is aided by seasonedspinners includingRavichandran Ashwin.

In Shikhar Dhawan,Prithvi Shaw and ShreyasIyer, Delhi boast of a solidtop order. Pant, along withShimron Hetmyer, look afterthe middle order, even as theymissed the injured MarcusStoinis’ prowess.

Dhawan (618) was the sec-ond highest run-scorer in 2020and has already raked up 551this season. His opening part-ner Shaw is also coming off agood game against CSK.

On the bowling front, theSouth African pace duo ofKagiso Rabada (2020 purple capwinner) and Anrich Nortje hasproved to a dream pair, havingscalped 52 wickets together in2020.

Then there is speedsterAvesh Khan, who has taken 23wickets so far in this season ofthe tournament, and he will backhimself to add to his tally againstKKR.

DC have posted five wins inthe UAE leg of the tournamentbut one of their defeats here hascome against KKR, and whatbetter opportunity for them toexact revenge than in the IPLplayoffs.

It is easier said than donethough, with Eoin Morgan’sside enjoying a massive reversalof fortunes in the Gulf afterenduring a disastrous first halfin India earlier this year.

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 13, 2021 sports 11

INDIA FFACE MMALDIVES IIN SSAFF’SHIPS MMATCHMale: Unbeaten still but hugely disappointing sofar, a beleaguered India face hosts Maldives in theirlast round-robin league match of the SAFFChampionships here on Wednesday, knowing wellthat nothing less than a win will save them fromelimination. A draw or a loss will send India out ofreckoning for the final of the regional tournamentand that will be the worst result for India in recentmemory, which could also raise questions abouthead coach Igor Stimac’s continuation at the helmof affairs.The worst performance for seven-timechampions India before this edition was the third-place finish in 2003 and the country has either wonor finished runners-up in 11 previous editions.

INDIA QQUALIFIED FFOR UUBER QQUATERFINALS Aarhus (Denmark): Indian women teamprogressed to the quarterfinals of the Uber Cupwith a convincing 4-1 victory over Scotland asshuttlers Aditi Bhatt and Tasnim Mir registeredconfident singles wins, here on Tuesday. India arenow sitting second in Group B with two wins fromas many matches. The Indian team had beatenSpain 3-2 on Sunday when top player SainaNehwal was forced retire from her match due to agroin issue. Taking the court first, Malvika Bansodlost to Kirsty Gilmour 13-21 9-21 before Aditi gotthe better of Rachel Sugden 21-14 21-8 to level thescores.

THAKUR PPARTICIPATES IIN CCLEAN IINDIA DDRIVENew Delhi: Sports Minister Anurag Thakurparticipated in the Clean India drive at thepremises of the Humayun’s Tomb along withvolunteers here on Tuesday morning.Organised aspart of the pan-India month-long cleanlinesscampaign by the sports ministry to collect andremove garbage (mainly plastics), the drive hasbeen initiated to mark ‘Azadi ka AmritMahotsav’.Speaking on the occasion, Thakur saidthrough this campaign “we are not only organisingclean India drive but also generating awarenessabout clean and healthy surroundings.”

AMANDEEP LLEADS SSTRONG FFIELDChandigarh: Amandeep Drall leads a strong fieldof Indians who are fresh from their Europeansojourn as they tee off in the 10th leg of the HeroWomen’s Pro Golf Tour at the Chandigarh GolfClub here on Wednesday. Amandeep, who has hada good season on the Ladies European Tour AccessSeries with a few Top-10 finishes, will be joined byVani Kapoor, who had a modest season. GaurikaBishnoi had some very good finishes too, whilePranavi Urs and rookie Durga Nittur are also backafter playing in Europe..

KHALIN JJOSHI LLEADS AAT JJAIPUR OOPENJaipur: Khalin Joshi sank an eagle and nine birdiesto fire a scorching nine-under 61 for the firstround lead at the Jaipur Open, here on Tuesday.The Bengaluru golfer had two bogeys. RookieKartik Sharma of Gurugram and M Dharma,another Bengaluru-based pro, struck error-freerounds of eight-under 62 consisting of an eagleand six birdies each to hold joint second position.Joshi sank some tough par putts at the start whichenabled him to judge the speed of the greens. Hegot going with consecutive birdies on the 12th,13th and 14th before recovering from the bunkerfor a birdie on the 17th followed by another birdieon the par-5 18th. After making the turn at animpressive four-under, Joshi pushed ahead with abirdie from close range on the second. His bogeyon the third was negated by birdies on the fifth,sixth and seventh, all converted from a range ofeight to 15 feet. The icing on the cake in hisextraordinary round was the eagle on the par-5eighth hole where he drained a 10-footer.

SINGLES

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former captain Mahendra SinghDhoni will not charge any fee for

mentoring the Indian cricket team dur-ing this month’s T20 World Cup in theUAE and Oman, BCCI PresidentSourav Ganguly told PTI on Tuesday.

The iconic former captain wasbrought in as mentor by the BCCI lastmonth when it announced the squadfor the mega-event, scheduled to startOctober 17. “Dhoni will not chargeanything to mentor the Indian team,”Ganguly said. The 40-year-old Dhoniretired from international cricket lastyear, his last India game being the 2019World Cup semi-final, which the team

lost to New Zealand.It is believed that Dhoni was

brought in for his experience in devis-ing near-perfect white ball strategies. Heled his franchise Chennai Super Kingsinto the IPL finals on Sunday.

One of the most successful captainsin the history of Indian cricket, the enig-matic wicketkeeper-batter led India totwo world titles -- the 2007 T20 WorldCup in South Africa and the 2011 ODIWorld Cup in India.

The reticent player’s retirement,announced by him through an insta-gram post on August 15 last year, hadtaken the cricket world by surprise andhe has not spoken even once about itafter that.

IANS n NEW DELHI

After Royal ChallengersBangalore’s IPL 2021

campaign came to an end fol-lowing a loss to KolkataKnight Riders in theEliminator at Sharjah, outgo-

ing captain, Virat Kohli onTuesday posted an

emotional messagefor the RCB fans.

Kohli hadannounced beforethe start of the UAEleg of the leaguethat this will behis last seasonas leader of thefranchise.

“Not theresult we wanted but

I am so proud of thecharacter shown by theboys throughout thetournament. A disap-pointing end but wecan hold our headshigh. Thank you toall the fans, man-agement & the sup-port staff for yourconstant support,”Kohli wrote on

Twitter.Despite stepping

down as RCB captain,Kohli reiterated that hewill continue playingfor the franchise aslong as he plays in theIPL.

On Monday,Royal Challengersfailed to defend the138 runs their bats-men managed, whichextended their

long wait to lift anIPL trophy.

The closestthey came towinning the tro-

phy in recent times was in 2016 whenthey lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad inthe title decider. Overall, Kohli led

RCB in 140 matches in the last 11years. He won 66 of those games andlost 70 as skipper of the franchise.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Delhi Capitals speedster Avesh Khan hasbeen asked by the BCCI to stay back

in the UAE after the IPL to join India’s T20World Cup squad as a net bowler.

The 24-year-old is the second fastbowler, after Kashmiri pace sensationUmran Malik, who has been asked to jointhe team and if BCCI sources are to bebelieved, the lanky fast bowler could wellmake it to the standby list by the timeWorld Cup starts on Sunday. India willopen their campaign on October 24 againstPakistan. “The national selectors havedecided to also include Avesh in the mix.As of now, he will be a net bowler but ifthe team management feels, he can beupgraded,” a BCCI source close to the selec-tion committee told PTI on Tuesday.

Avesh bowls at an express pace and inthis edition of the IPL, he has picked 23wickets for the Capitals with DC still alivein the competition.

PTI n DUBAI

Indian opener Shafali Vermadropped a place to be second

among batters while her com-patriot Smriti Mandhana isstatic at the third position in theICC Women’s T20 rankingsreleased on Tuesday.

Verma has 726 ratingpoints in her kitty whileMandhana has 709 points.

Australia’s Beth Mooneyclimbed a spot to top the chartwith 754 points.

The Australians dominatethe ranking chart as besidesMooney, two other from thecountry -- skipper MegLanning and Alyssa Healy (6th)-- feature in the top 10.

New Zealand’s SophieDevine and Suzie Bates are fifthand seventh respectively.

After the first T20I againstIndia was washed out, Mooneyreturned with scores of 34 and61 as Australia emerged victo-rious in the multi-format series.

Mooney was originally notpart of the squad but came in

as a replacement for RachaelHaynes, who had to bow outowing to an injury.

Mooney’s teammate SophieMolineux too made signifi-cant gains in the latest rankingsupdate, breaking into the top 10

for bowlers after climbing 12spots to be placed at No. 9.

Molineux scalped threewickets in the series at aneconomy of 5.60 that helpedrestrict India to below-parscores in the last two games.

Among other Indians,Rajeshwari Gayakwad, whoended up as the leading wick-et-taker of the series with fivewickets in two innings, rose tothe 12th spot. AshleighGardner broke into the top 10to occupy the 10th spot in theall-rounders’ list, thanks to herfine display with the ball thatsaw her finish the series asAustralia’s leading wicket-taker.

Georgia Wareham, whofinished with three wicketsand 23 runs in the three games,jumped 14 spots to a career-high 48.

AP n INDIAN WELLS

Top-seeded KarolinaPlisova was upset by

Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3 7-5 at the BNP Paribas Open.

Haddad Maia got intothe main draw as a luckyloser. She lost in the finalround of qualifying and gotin when No 29 seed NadiaPodoroska withdrew with athigh injury. Haddad Maiainherited Podoroska’s first-round bye and then beatMayir Sherif in the secondround.

Ranked 115th, theBrazilian reached the roundof 16 at a WTA 1000 event

for the first time.On a windy day at the

Indian Wells Tennis Gardne,Pliskova held serve to tie the

second set 5-5. Haddad Maiaheld and then broke Pliskovain the final game to wrap upthe win in just over twohours.

No 10 Angelique Kerberdefeated 20th-seeded DariaKasatkina 6-2 1-6 6-4.

No 16 seed BiancaAndreescu, the 2019 cham-pion, lost to 18th-seededAnett Kontaveit 7-6 (5) 6-3.

On the men’s side, No 6Casper Ruud outlasted LloydHarris 6-7 (4) 6-4, 6-4 andNo 10 Diego Schwartzmanbeat Daniel Evans 5-7 6-4 6-0. No 16 Reilly Opelka lost to23rd-ranked GrigorDimitrov 6-3 6-4.

PTI n BENGALURU

Sports companies GamePlay andAarka Sports on Tuesday

announced the launch of the M SDhoni Cricket Academy (MSDCA)in Bengaluru.

The academy, which has beenset up in Kada Agrahara inBidarahalli will commence opera-tions from November 7 and regis-trations are currently open, officialsof the companies said at a press con-

ference. Deepak S Bhatnagar, ownerof GamePlay, said, “With the launchof the M S Dhoni Cricket Academyin Bengaluru, children who aspireto make it big in cricket will have thebest of the infrastructure and world-class coaching facilities to pursuetheir dreams.”

With this alliance, children inthe region will get an opportunity tolearn modern coaching methodol-ogy from MSDCA and their accred-ited BCCI coaches, Bhatnagar said.

Mihir Diwakar of Aarka Sportssaid the MSDCA was formed withthe sole objective to provide plat-form to aspiring cricketers in thecountry through a structured pro-gramme that equips our playerswith the skills they need to succeedin cricket and in life.

“Our unique and groundbreaking coaching programme isbuilt around the core values ofintegrity, teamwork, enjoyment,professionalism and adaptability,”Diwakar said.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Ayush Dabas of Haryana and 16-year-old Rupal Chaudhary of Uttar

Pradesh emerged as the fastest maleand female quarter-milers in the thirdNational Open 400m Championshipshere on Tuesday.

Dabas ran his second sub-47 sec-ond one-lapper in a fortnight, backingup his 46.58 second effort in NationalU-23 Championships here onSeptember 28 with a victory in 46.86seconds in the men’s final on Tuesday.

He was pushed by Tamil Nadu’sSurendar Selvamani who was the onlyother sprinter to stop the clock below

48 seconds. Yet, it was 16-year-oldRupal who was the cynosure of all eyes,with her girls U-18 triumph coming ina personal best time of 53.73 seconds.She bettered her previous best of55.37 seconds, clocked during theNational Junior AthleticsChampionships in Guntur in 2019.

There was also an emotional winfor Jammu and Kashmir’s AbrarChoudhary in the boys U-20 final.With a determined effort, he turned thetables on Pankaj (Rajasthan), who wasthe fastest in the heats. There was someconsolation for Rajasthan as RahulKumar Githala claimed the boys U-18crown in 48.33 seconds.

‘Thank you’; Kohli pens heartfeltpost as RCB bow out of IPL 2021

PTI n DUBAI

Virat Kohli has given RoyalChallengers Bangalore the kind

of profile that very few cricketers cangive even though he couldn’t end hisleadership stint the way he wouldhave liked, feels the legendary SunilGavaskar.

Kohli’s dream of winning an IPLtitle with RCB ended in heartbreakafter Kolkata Knight Riders beatthem by four wickets in the elimina-tor on Monday.

Gavaskar said not all scripts arewritten in the manner players wantthem to. Kohli had announced thathe would step down as RCB skipperafter the end of the 14th edition of thelucrative league.

“He has given RCB that kind ofprofile, that brand recognition thatvery (few) cricketers have given totheir franchise,” Gavaskar told ‘StarSports’.

The former India captain com-pared Kohli’s last match as RCB skip-per with Donald Bradman andSachin Tendulkar farewells.“Everybody wants to finish on a high.But these things never always happenaccording to your or fans’ wishes.Look at what happened to Sir DonBradman. Just four runs were need-ed in his last innings and he gets outfor a zero.

“Sachin Tendulkar would havewanted to finish with a hundred, hegot 79 (Tendulkar scored 74) in

Mumbai, his 200th Test match. 79 isnot bad but somebody who is usedto making hundreds would havewanted to get those extra 21 runs andthen end his Test career there,”Gavaskar added.

Sharing his thoughts on Kohli’sfailure to lift an IPL trophy, Gavaskarsaid Kohli had an ever-lasting impacton the team and mentioned the 2016season when he amassed close to1000 runs in a single edition. “Thescript is not always written that way.Not everybody has this great fortuneof going on a high. But can one everdispute what he has done for RCB?He has done magnificently.

“There was one year when he got973 runs, 27 runs short of 1000 runs.Nobody has done it, nobody lookslike ever getting to 1000 runs.”

Since taking over as RCB’s cap-tain in 2013, Kohli has led the teamto the play-offs four times, includingthe last two seasons, and the final in2016.Kohli led RCB in 140 matches,winning 66 and losing 70. Fourgames did not produce any results.

ROAD TO QUALIFIER 2

HEAD TO HEAD:

Matches: 27Kolkata Knight Riders won: 15Delhi Capitals won: 11Tied: 1

vDelhi Capitals beat KolkataKnight Riders in Super Over aftermatch ended in a tie

THIS SEASON’S MATCHES:

vDelhi Capitals defeated KolkataKnight Riders by 7 wickets atAhmedabadvKolkata Knight Riders beatDelhi Capitals by 3 wickets atSharjah

FOR THE RECORD:

vVarun Chakravarthy with 16wickets in 15 matches is theleading wicket taker for KolkataKnight Riders this season.vShikhar Dhawan with 198 sixesin 299 innings of 3, needed justtwo more sixes to become theninth Indian and 63rd batsmanoverall to complete a doublecentury of sixes in Ywenty-20cricket.vDelhi Capitals have won three,lost two in the last five matchesplayed against Kolkata KnightRiders.

DELHI CAPITALS:

vBeat Chennau Super Kings by 7wickets at MumbaivLost to Rajasthan Royals by 3wickets at MumbaivBeat Punjab Kings by 6 wicketsat MumbaivBeat Mumbai Indian by 6wickets at ChennaivTied with Sunrisers Hyderabadat Chennai (won in Super Over)vLost to Royal ChallengersBangalore by 1 run atAhmedabadvBeat Kolkata Knight Riders by 7wickets at AhmedabadvBeat Punjab Kings by 7 wicketsat AhmedabadvBeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by8 wickets at Dubai vBeat Rajasthan Royals by 33runs at Abu DhabivLost to Kolkata Knight Ridersby 3 wickets at SharjahvBeat Mumbai Indians by 4wickets at SharjahvBeat Chennai Super Kings by 3wickets at Dubai vLost to Royal ChallengersBangalore by 7 wickets at DubaivLost to Chennai Super Kings by4 wickets at Dubai ( first qualifier)

KOLKATA KINGHT RIDERS:

vBeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by10 runs at ChennaivLost to Mumbai Indians by 10runs at ChennaivLost to Royal ChallengersBangalore by 38 runs at ChennaivLost to Chennai Super Kings by18 runs at MumbaivLost to Rajasthan Royals by 6wickets at MumbaivBeat Punjab Kings by 5 wicketsat AhmedabadvLost to Delhi Capitals by 7wickets at AhmedabadvBeat Royal ChallengersBangalore by 9 wickets at AbuDhabi vBeat Mumbai Indians by 7wickets at Abu DhabivLost to Chennai Super Kings by2 wickets at Abu DhabivBeat Delhi Capitals by 3 wicketsat SharjahvLost to Punjab Kings by 5wickets at Dubai vBeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 6wickets at Dubai vBeat Rajasthan Royals by 86runs at SharjahvBeat Royal ChallengersBangalore by 4 wickets at Sharjah(Eliminator)

FAISEL FEATURES

Avesh Khan set to joinTeam India as net bowler

Dhoni won’t charge any fee for beingmentor of Indian team: Ganguly

Verma drops a spot to 2nd, Mandhanastatic at 3rd in ICC T20 batters rankings

Dhoni Cricket Academylaunched in Bengaluru

Top-seeded Pliskova upset in 2 sets at Indian WellsAyush Dabas, Rupal Chaudharyemerge fastest quarter-milers

Kohli has given RCB a profile that very few can givetheir franchise: Gavaskar

DC FACE LITMUS TESTAGAINST RECHARGED KKR

ollywood singer Shaan,actor and reality TV judge,who gave iconic hits likeTanha Dil, Jab Se TereNaina, Chand Sifarish, andmore, has joined the cast

of Ilaiyaraaja’s Hindi-Telugumusical Music School.

Bollywood actorsSharman Joshi andShriya Saran have beenroped in to play thelead roles in the film.Shaan, we’re beingtold, has signed up toplay the role ofSaran’s character’sex-boyfriend in thefilm, and will also

be singing a song! The movie covers the pressure of

the unimaginative education systemon children, which aims only tomake them doctors or engineers,leaving no time for art or sport.

Ilaiyaraaja, the prolific composerand lyricist has written 12 originalsongs for the project.

It is being produced by YaminiFilms. We also know that Broadwaychoreographer Adam Murray is onboard.

Actors Suhasini Mulay, BenjaminGilani, Prakash Raj, Telugu comedi-an Brahmanandam, Vinay Varma,Mona Ambegaonkar, GracyGoswamy, and Ozu Barua will beseen playing pivotal roles in the film.

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Vijayawada | Wednesday October 13, 2021 tollywoodTEAM MAHA SAMUDRAM TAKES

PART IN GREEN INDIA CHALLENGE

he unit of Maha Samudram planted saplings at the JRCconvention Center, Jubilee Hills, ahead of the film’srelease on October 14.

Actors Siddarth, Aditi Rao Hydari, director Ajay Bhupati, RaoRamesh, and others took part in the challenge.Appreciating the efforts of Rajya Sabha MP Joginpally SantoshKumar for initiating and taking forward GIC, they encouragedtheir fans and well-wishers to take this novel initiative forward.Meanwhile, GIC co-founder Raghava presented the film unit withthe Vruksha Vedam book.

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K RAMYA SREE

he film Most EligibleBachelor is all set to hit bigscreens on October 15 andAkhil, the lead actor of thefilm, seems to be the mostexcited one of the lot, as his

film will be releasing after two wholeyears.

Recently, Naga Chaitanya, PoojaHegde, and Akhil assembled togetherfor the promotion of Most EligibleBachelor. The event was also graced byAllu Arvind and Allu Bobby.

Most Eligible Bachelor, written anddirected by Bommarillu Bhaskar, pro-duced by Bunny Vasu and Vasu Varmaon GA2 Pictures, is a romantic comedyfilm. Both Pooja and Akhil will be seenin new avatars that they haven’t triedearlier. The plot follows the relationshipbetween Harsha (Akhil), an NRI, andVibha (Pooja), a stand-up comedian.

In this film, Akhil faces all the prob-lems an eligible bachelor face in his life.Speaking about his character and thefilm, Akhil shares, “Everyone wants tohave a better life. The film opens upyour mind as it discusses why there is acommunication gap between a couplein their married life, and where oneneeds to put in real efforts. The contentstemmed from the experiences ourdirector had gone through.”

Akhil says he genuinely feels there isa Harsha in every boy, "who goesthrough this journey from a boy to aman, in search of what his soul wantsand the age where he attains maturity.This film covers all those aspects,” heshares.

MEB is all set to have a grand releasethis week across Telugu states. An elat-ed Akhil shares, “A film of mine isreleasing after a two-year gap. I feellucky to release my film on an auspi-cious day — Dasara. This is a filmwhere you can laugh out loud. It is alight-hearted entertainer that will toucheach soul with its climax.”

When asked what kind of storiesimpress him the most and how he over-comes the confusion while finalisingscripts, he says, “I will okay a story thatinterests me at that moment. I might beconfused between an action or a love

story, but I always go withmy instincts. In the cre-ative process, if weconnect to something,we have to do it, iswhat I believe in. Ilike action films alot, but I connect-ed to the story ofMEB, that’s why Itook up this pro-ject. I wouldn’tconsider that asconfusionbetween anaction film ora love story, Iwould con-sider that asa connec-tion withthe script.”

Akhilsays healwayswanted todo a goodfilm withcomedy and a lovestory, and that he was ableto fulfill this wish with MEB.“The film is not a romanticdrama, it also drives home amessage. That is the biggeststrength of this film and allthat credit has to go to ourdirector,” says he.

Speaking about hisweaknesses andstrengths and how hetries to improve him-self as an actor, Akhilshares in a conclud-ing note, “If we wantto progress as anactor, looking atyour weakness ismore importantthan overloadingstrengths. For me, Ihave to performwhatever the directorwants. The responsi-bility in this industryis very high and Ihave to work 10times harder to provemyself.”

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Working for MahaSamudram was a blissful

experience: Aditi he much-anticipated October 14 release of MahaSamudram has got Aditi Rao Hydari, who plays thecharacter ‘Maha’ in the Ajay Bhupathi film, allprepped up for the anticipated rounds of promotionsthat the cast is expected to do.

Aditi told a news agency that her character is “asimple, bubbly girl who is all easy”. “Maha,” she added, “teachesdance to children and is the sole bread earner of the family.”

Speaking about what attracted her to the film, Aditi said: “Iwas approached by my director. I was greatly impressed by hisconviction. His story narration made me realise his vision. Icould not say no at all, as he had been too good to me. WhenI said I had some prior commitments, he assured me this

movie was going to be made only with me. I almost criedwhen he followed up for my dates.”

About the film’s other cast members, Aditi said theyincluded seasoned actors such as Sharwanand,

Siddharth, Rao Ramesh and Jagapathi Babu. “I amso lucky to have them share the screen in such agreat project,” said the actress, who was mostrecently seen on Netflix in the Hindi mysterythriller, The Girl on the Train.

How was it to working with Sharwanand andSiddharth? “What I like the most about both isthat they do not appear like stars at all,” Aditisaid. “Siddharth is such a talented person. He

has a deep knowledge of all the departmentsof filmmaking. He does his homework, helooks into the direction and music and stillis so humble. Sharwa is a calm and peace-

ful person, and so positive all the time.”On whether she felt stressed duringthe shoot, Aditi said: “Apart from

the pandemic tension, the shootwas all fun. Siddharth, Sharwa,Ajay, all of us had a great andpositive time together. The tech-nical team was so good thatthey arranged our sets within alimited time. It was blissful forus all to work for this movie.”

There’s also talk doing therounds that Aditi is signinganother movie with AjayBhupathi. Without going

into the specifics, Aditisaid: “With all my directors,I have acted in two of their

films. So, I hope it hap-pens with Ajay too. I

would love to bedirected by him

again.”

n some heart-breaking news,Telugu producerMahesh Konerudied of cardiacarrest on Tuesdayat his residence

in Hyderabad. MaheshKoneru was known to be aclose confidant of theNandamuri family includ-ing, Jr NTR, Kalyan Ramand Bala Krishna.According to reports, hewas just 40 years old. Underhis production companyEast Coast Productions,Mahesh had producedrecent Telugu films like 118,Thimmarusu, and MissIndia. Mahesh started hiscareer as a film journalistand quickly became a pub-

licist and marketing strate-gist for Telugu films Kancheand Baahubali series.Besides this, he was also thedistributor of Tamil hitsnamely Bigil and Master inTelugu states.

After hearing news ofMahesh’s demise, Jr. NTRtook to Twitter to share hisgrief at the death of hisfriend. He wrote: “With theheaviest of heart and inutter disbelief, I am lettingyou all know that my dear-est friend @smkoneru is nomore. I am shell shockedand utterly speechless. Mysincerest condolences to hisfamily and his near anddear (sic).”

In August, Mahesh’s latestTelugu project Sabhaku

Namaskaram was officiallylaunched. The film will starAllari Naresh in the leadrole. Shocked by the suddendemise, several Telugucelebrities took to Twitterto offer their condolences.Raashi Khanna wrote: “Lifeis so unpredictable. Rest inpeace @smokenru garu(sic).” Filmmaker HarishShankar wrote: “It’s unbe-lievable. Such a wonderfulfriend and a human being.We always had plans ofworking together and this isnot fair buddy. Don’t knowwhat to say for this sadden-ing and shocking news RIP@smkoneru (sic).” Reactingto the news, Rakul PreetSingh wrote that it’s veryterrible and sad.

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I

Producer Mahesh Koneru dies ofcardiac arrest, Tollywood shocked

“SIDDHARTH

IS SUCH A TALENTED

PERSON. HE HAS A DEEP

KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THE

DEPARTMENTS OF

FILMMAKING. SHARWA IS A

CALM AND PEACEFUL

PERSON, AND SO

POSITIVE.”

Akhil: MEB is a light-hearted storythat drives home a message

B

B-wood singer Shaan joins Ilaiyaraaja’s Music School