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HYDERABAD, SUNDAY APRIL 18, 2021; PAGES 10+16 `5

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SNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

On April 15, during her hungerstrike demanding the TRS govern-ment release notification for recruit-ment, Sharmila made serious com-ments against Sakshi, the mediahouse owned by her brother's fam-ily.

If nothing else, the recent com-ments by YS Sharmila indicate thatthe gap between her and her broth-er, Andhra Pradesh Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy, has widened.

If indeed this is true, it’s tragic andtotally unexpected. In fact, anyonewho knew the family of late chiefminister YS Rajasekhar Reddy never

expected this. YSRCP top leaders had con-

firmed that the decision of Sharmilato float a new political party inTelangana was opposed by Jagan.This could be more or less con-firmed by the fact that Sakshi, thevernacular daily, did not give unduecoverage to Sharmila after sheannounced that she would be float-ing a new political party.

This too was taken as an indica-tion of the widening gap betweenSharmila and Jagan.

To put to rest all rumours, theirmother YS Vijayalakshmi, in a pressnote, tried to clarify that there are nodifferences between Jagan andSharmila.

Throwing caution to windamid rising Covid-19cases, on March 24, 20

people came to Telangana fromMaharashtra to celebrate a festi-val. These 20 people were joinedby 30 locals from Telangana in avillage in erstwhile district ofAdilabad. The district sharesborders with Maharashtra, whichhas become a hotspot in the sec-ond wave. Soon five personsbegan exhibiting symptoms. Tendays into the celebrations i.e. onApri l5th, five persons went toPHC and got tested forCoronavirus. All of them turnedout to be positive.

The surveillance teams thenbegan tracking how these 5 peo-ple were infected in that village.During this tracking, the teamswere taken aback as they found

that 34 other persons also testedpositive. These persons in turnspread to 4-5 villages and byApril 12, 433 people were infect-ed. In just 12 days, the infectionspread to 433 people, reflectingthe speed of the virus.

Sources pointed out that thelocals were warned against hold-ing such a gathering in the midstthe raging pandemic as it couldprove to be catastrophic.However, some local leadersopposed the move to stop cele-bration of the festival, saying itwas very important for them.

Festivals and gatherings are abig thing, but human lives aremore important. However, thisoutbreak had wreaked havoc onthe healthcare system. Earlier thisweek, RIMS Adilabad reportedshortage of beds.

Covid cases jump to record of 4,446Telangana continues to recordsuccessively higher dailyCovid tallies with each pass-ing day, and on Saturday, thestate registered 4,446 newcases and 12 deaths.

The previous daily high of3,840 new cases and ninedeaths were reported onFriday. Twelve persons suc-cumbed to the virus duringthe 24-hour period ending 8p.m. on Friday.

PNS n HYDERABAD

In a decision that should bringrelief to Covid patients and theirfamilies, manufacturers ofRemdesivir injection have reducedits maximum retail price, follow-ing the Centre's intervention.

Remdesivir is used intravenous-ly to treat COVID-19 infection,caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus,in hospitalised adults and childrenaged 12 years and older whoweigh at least 88 pounds (40 kg).

According to a note sent to thePrincipal Health Secretaries of allStates and Union Territories by theNational Pharmaceutical PricingAuthority, the revised prices ofmajor brands of Remdesivir injec-tion 100mg/vial would be nowavailable in the range of Rs.899 toRs.3,490.

Civic bodies ordered totake up sanitation oncampaign modePNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State governmenthas issued instructions that willkeep urban local bodies (ULBs) ontheir toes with regard to sanitation.Among other things, authorities ofULBs have been told to focusmore on places of public congrega-tions in view of the alarming surgein Covid cases.

Accordingly, markets, bus sta-tions, recreational centres and otherareas involving public congregationwould be disinfected in a compre-hensive manner at regular intervals.

The Department of MunicipalAdministration and UrbanDevelopment has issued instruc-tions to all the municipal corpora-tions and municipalities withemphasis on the overall upkeep anddaily sanitation in ULBs.

It may be a coincidence, buthuman nature being what itis, doubts creep in the minds

of keen political observers. In Andhra Pradesh, three

prominent political leaders goout of the way to criticise ChiefMinister YS Jaganmohan Reddy,son of YS Rajasekhar Reddy andnow in Telangana, two promi-nent leaders have begun makingwild allegations against YS

Sharmila, daughter of YSR, thelate chief minister. Surprisingly,these leaders, both in AndhraPradesh and Telangana, had beencounted among the staunch sup-porters and ardent followers ofYSR. They were also consideredto be very close to formerCongress MP KVPRamachandra Rao.

ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

The second wave of corona issevere across the country becauseof the mutations of the virus, par-ticularly the double mutation, andthe surge in cases is mainly becausepeople are not taking due care, saidDr.Srinivasa Rao, TS Director ofPublic Health.

At a media conference in hisoffice here on Saturday, Dr SrinivasaRao said that it was a matter of con-cern that 4,446 cases -- the highestsingle-day spike so far -- were reg-

istered in the State on Friday, whileover two lakh cases were registeredacross the country.

The situation warranted people

to voluntarily observe lockdown forthe next four to six weeks, consid-ering the distinct possibility of thevirus spreading more rapidly in thecoming days, he said.

The State government couldtackle the first wave effectivelywith the cooperation of people. Butafter the first wave people hadbecome complacent under thenotion that the pandemic hadreceded, he said. People did notlearn any lessons from the first waveand let down their guard, thoughthe virus has become more virulentinfecting people faster.

Fake IAS officernabbedPNS n MANCHERIAL

A second year B Tech student,who claimed to be an IAS officerand collected Rs 80 lakh onpromise of providing govern-ment jobs to 29 persons, wasnabbed by the Mancherial policeon Saturday. The police laterrecovered two cars and a motor-cycle, name plate, dress, driveruniform, seven registers and Rs2.50 lakh in cash from theimposter.

Addressing media persons atthe DCP office here on Saturday,DC Uday Kumar Reddy identifiedthe accused as Barla LakshmiNarayana (22), son of Sankaraiah.The accused, B Tech third yearstudent in Sidhdhartha College inHyderabad, was picked up fromhis residence at Lekhalapalli inBirpur mandal.

SONU SOOD TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID,SAYS HIS SPIRIT IS ‘SUPER POSITIVE’

Sonu Sood has tested positive forCOVID-19 on Saturday, the actorinformed his fans in an Instagram

post. Sonu Sood, who was made thebrand ambassador for Punjab's COVIDvaccination programme by ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh earlier thismonth, shared that even though he hascontracted the virus, his "mood and spiritare super positive." His also shared amessage for his fans in his post that read:"Covid - positive. Mood and spirit - super positive. Hi every,this is to inform you that I have tested positive this morningfor COVID-19”.

POPULAR TAMIL ACTOR, COMEDIANVIVEKH, DIES IN CHENNAI AT 59

Popular Tamil actor and comedian Vivekhdied this morning in the hospital, hoursafter he was admitted after a cardiac

arrest. The 59-year-old was reportedlycritical in a Chennai hospital after a cardiacarrest on Thursday morning. He wasbrought in unconscious at 11 am, wasresuscitated, subsequently underwent acoronary angiogram and then angioplasty. Amedical bulletin said he was critical on ECMOsupport, which pumps and oxygenates bloodoutside the body, but died at 4:35 am Saturday. On Thursday, Vivekhhad taken his first Covid vaccine shot at a public event in thepresence of Tamil Nadu's Health Secretary to promote vaccination.

GENERAL MOTORS INDIA LAYS OFF1,419 WORKERS AT ITS PUNE PLANT

General Motors India on Friday laidoff 1419 workers at its Talegaonplant. According to a report

from ETAuto, the Indian subsidiaryof the US carmaker sacked allworkmen at its Talegaon plant,which is situated on the outskirtsof Pune by invoking section 25 ofthe Industrial Dispute Act. Sourcesclose to the matter say the EmployeesUnion is likely to challenge this movelegally. This move reportedly may extend a legal battlebetween the automaker and its employees on the windingof its Talegaon plant.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Covid situation inDelhi has become ‘veryserious and worrisome’,and oxygen, remdesivirand tocilizumab forpatients are in short supply,Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal said on Saturday.

The number of Covid cases are ris-ing with 24,000 fresh cases reportedin the last 24 hours. A day before,19,400 cases were reported, he said.The chief minister said he spoke to

Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan andrequested him for sup-plies of oxygen, remde-sivir and tocilizumabfor Covid patients.

Kejriwal said that thenumber of beds are also

running out fast and thegovernment is trying to ramp it up.

In the next 3-4 days, the governmentwill add 6,000 more beds, including1,300 at Yamuna Sports Complexand 2,500 at Radhaswami Satsangpremises, he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress Working Committeeon Saturday accused the centralgovernment of "colossal misman-agement" in the war against theCOVID pandemic and cautionedof an "unprecedented catastro-phe" unless urgent corrective meas-ures are taken.

The highest decision-makingbody of the Congress, chaired byparty chief Sonia Gandhi, met herevirtually to discuss the COVID-19situation in the country and sug-gest measures to the governmentto tackle the crisis.

Addressing a press conferenceafter the meet that lasted over two-and-a-half hours, Congress' seniorspokesperson P Chidambaramsaid concrete suggestions made byCWC members would be sent toPrime Minister Narendra Modithrough a letter by former prime

minister Manmohan Singh."We charge the central govern-

ment with colossal mismanage-ment of the war against the pan-demic," a CWC statement said,while accusing the central govern-ment of failing on 14 differentfronts in handling the pandemic.

195 testing positiveevery hour in Telangana

Jathara in Adilabad ledto biggest outbreak

Price of Remdesivirreduced to Rs 899

No shortage of beds, oxygen in Staten People should stick to Covid

norms as second wave moresevere due to mutations

n Tests to be stepped up to identifypositive patients quickly

n Next 4-6 weeks crucial

n Mask up until June, 70% ofpopulation now wearing masks

Differences between YS Jagan, Sharmila widen

Why strong followers of YSRtarget his son and daughter

CWC says nation faces‘unprecedented catastrophe'

Pilgrims returning from theKumbh Mela in

Uttarakhand's Haridwar will dis-tribute coronavirus as "prasad" intheir states, Mumbai's mayorsaid today as coronavirus casesravage the country especiallyMaharashtra - the worst-affect-ed state in India.

Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation's mayor KishoriPednekar also added that they areconsidering quarantining thepilgrims on their return toMumbai. They must also bearthe expenses of their quarantine,the Mayor added.

"Those returning from KumbhMela to their respective states willdistribute corona as 'prasad'. Allthese people should be quaran-tined in their respective states attheir own cost. In Mumbai also,we're thinking of putting themunder quarantine on theirreturn," Ms Pednekar said, ANIquoted her as saying.

Hundreds of thousands ofdevotees gathered for the KumbhMela on the banks of the riverGanga for a holy dip, escalatingconcerns about an exponentialrise in Covid cases amid a coun-trywide spike in infections.

PNS n HARIDWAR

Hours after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi appealed thatKumbh Mela in Uttarakhand'sHaridwar "should only be sym-bolic" amid an unprecedentedincrease in daily coronaviruscases across the country, SwamiAvdheshanand Giri of JunaAkhara - one of the top seers inthe country - has announced anearly end to the month-longmega festival.

"Our first priority is the pro-tection of the people of India(against Covid). In view of thecoronavirus pandemic, we haveperformed the visarjan of allGods. This is the end of Kumbhfor Juna Akhara," he tweeted inHindi.

Top seer ends Kumbh Melaafter PM's request

‘They’ll distribute Covid as prasad’:Mumbai Mayor slams Kumbh pilgrims

10

Celebrity couple J.Loand A-Rod

split, saying“we are

better asfriends”

No vaccinationtoday at Govt centres

88% polling inNagarjuna Sagar PNS n HYDERABAD

About 88% polling was recordedin the bye-election to theNagarjuna Sagar Assembly con-stituency till 7 pm on Saturday.Polling was peaceful.

Voting took place without anyinterruptions with voters queuingup to exercise their franchise inan orderly manner.

Polling began at 7 am and con-cluded at 7 pm. According to pollofficials, COVID-19 safety proto-cols were followed at pollingbooths.

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

About 195 people are testing pos-itive for Covid-19 every hour inTelangana or one person is turningpositive every 18 seconds. Thehourly average of the new cases inTelangana touched a new high with4,666 new cases being reported onFriday. Nearly 3.25 persons are test-ing positive for coronavirus everyminute.

On April 1, 40 people were test-ing positive every hour. The havocof the second wave took Telangana'sofficial tally to 3.46 lakh.

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Covid situation inDelhi ‘very serious’

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | APRIL 18, 2021

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PNS n HYDERABAD

The Singareni CollieriesCompany Limited (SCCL) onSaturday synchronised anoth-er 28 MW solar power plantat Mandamarri in Mancherialdistrict with the TSTransco.This power plant is part of the300 MW solar power plantsbeing installed by Singareni. Afew days ago, the SCCL hassynchronised 15 MW solarpower plant at Mandamarri

with the Transco.Singareni Director

(Operations) SChandrashekhar and Director(Electrical and Maintenance)D Satyanarayana and otherunion leaders performed pujabefore switching on the powerplant and synchronised it withthe Transco grid. With this, 43MW of solar power out of 90MW was synchronized tillnow.

Out of 300 MW solar power

plant installation, 30 MW eachfrom Manuguru andRamagundam, 39 MW fromIllandu and 10 MW fromSingareni thermal power planthas already been synchronisedin addition to synchronisationof 43 MW of solar power.

Congratulating officials fortheir initiative in synchroniz-ing the power plant withTransco, SCCL Chairman andManaging Director N Sridharsaid the works pertaining to

installation of 47 MW plantsunder the second phase and81 megawatts plant under thethird phase would be complet-ed by October 2021.

The SCCL would be savingRs.120 crore electricity chargesevery year by installing thesolar power plants and effortswere on to install another350 MW floating power plantson Manair Dam inKarimnagar district, officialssaid.

One of the building blocksof the Mission Karmayogi

is the Capacity BuildingCommission, whose mem-bers were notified recently.Training the civil servant is aformidable challenge becausethe intersection of politics,people, program orientationand distinct characteristics oflocal places prevent formationof general theories.

One way to get over the lackof universal rules is to use theexperiential knowledge of civilservants; however, individualexperiences of civil servantsare often random and incon-sistent, and of little use inpreparing training material.Craftwork provides a middleground between generic pre-scriptions and idiosyncraticindividual experiences of civilservants.

If craftwork provides anadequate description of theactivities of civil servants,understanding the ways inwhich craft knowledge isacquired and transmitted isexpected to provide usefulmaterial to train civil ser-vants. First, the skill of the

craftperson is tacit, that is, theaccomplished craftperson can-not readily describe her exper-tise. Second, the true skill ofcraft is specialized in natureand comes only with time andpractice, typically obtainedunder the tutelage of a personwho has previously masteredthe craft.

Therefore, even when thereis a natural talent, the develop-ment of the talent to the levelof craft usually involves someform of training.

Similarly, civil servants pos-sess tacit knowledge, which isrevealed in their effectiveaction and works as follows,"the mind of the proficientperformer (civil servant)seems to group together situ-ations sharing not only thesame goal or perspective butalso the same decision, actionor tactic. At this point not onlyis a situation, when seen assimilar to a prior one, under-stood, but the associated deci-

sion, action or tactic simulta-neously comes to mind".

The challenge is to translatethe direct experiences of civilservants to case studies. Thesedocumented experiences areexpected to help other civilservants to decide in similarand new settings.

Furthermore, experiencesare contextual, values-ladenand subject to interpretation.Professor Niraj Verma pro-vides one way to make directexperiences more useful forother civil servants.

Trainers, in order to makeconnections between differentexperiences, have to explicit-ly identify the nature of simi-

larities between them or underwhat circumstances the simi-larity is valid, that is, the waysin which X and Y are similar,or under what circumstancesthe similarity is valid.

Like craftwork, expertise indecision-making for civil ser-vants comes only with timeand practice. This requires adifferent sort of training at dif-ferent stages of career.

Stuart and Hubert Dreyfusproposed a model in 1980,based on their research at theUniversity of California,Berkeley, Operations ResearchCenter, for the United StatesAir Force Office of ScientificResearch. The model consists

of a phenomenological five-step learning process toprogress from novice (proba-tioner) to an expert.

The Dreyfus learning modelstarts with the novice (PhaseI), progressing to advancedbeginner (Phase II), compe-tence (Phase III), proficiency(Phase IV), and finally, exper-tise (Phase V).

Mastering a set of context-independent generalized rules

(e.g. public administration,welfare policies) and the skill(e.g. program management)characterizes a novice (proba-tioner).

Probationers can followthese without the benefit ofany prior experience, and per-formance is judged solely onthe basis of application ofguidelines.

After returning from fieldtraining, during Phase II, theprobationer advances to thenext stage and begins tounderstand how rules can beapplied under different con-ditions or in differing con-texts. Subsequently, duringdistrict postings civil ser-vants are exposed to a grow-ing number of cases or situ-ations, which allow them toadapt rule application to dif-ferent features or aspectsrather than follow rules rigid-ly.

After their district tenurescivil servants learn to deal

with increasingly complexcases, organizing the informa-tion by adopting a perspectiveand responding to the fea-tures and aspects that the per-spective makes important.Expertise is achieved onlyon the basis of a great deal ofexperience of real-life andvarying situations and final-ly, the expert responds intu-itively, not on a considerationof which rules to apply.

The challenge for trainersis to document and bench-mark the decision-making ofcivil servants who havereached competence, profi-ciency, and expertise levels.

This is an intractable issuebecause several civil servantsare exposed to experienceswithout being affected bythem; accordingly, the transi-tion to higher levels does notalways correspond withseniority.

Around 50 years ago, theAdministrative Reforms

Commission had noted that,"unalloyed generalism withwhich we have been familiarand which is loosing its valid-ity in several fields is progres-sively declining in impor-tance".

Therefore, civil servantscannot remain generalists orall-rounders their wholecareer - they have to developconcentrations (not special-ization) in at least 2-3domains.

One way of developingconcentration is by trainingcivil servants to connect theright experience with theright theory. Importantly, theright theory would enablethem to make innovativedecisions.

(Author has a PhD fromUSA and a DLitt from

Kanchi University. The arti-cle is based on his researchand practice and views are

personal)

DR. SAMEER SHARMA

The task ahead for the Capacity Building CommissionCivil servants possess tacit knowledge,which is revealed in their effective actionand works: "the mind of the proficientperformer seems to group togethersituations sharing not only the same goal orperspective but also the same decision”.

Singareni synchronises 28 MWsolar plant with TSTransco grid

Continued from Page 1

The Commissioners of ULBsshould take up sanitation andrelated activities in a campaignmode. All cities and townsshould be covered in a periodof four days. TheCommissioners could makeuse of Pattana Pragathi fundsfor the purpose, the depart-ment said on Saturday.

The foregoing instructionswere issued after KT RamaRao, Minister for MA&UD,held a review.

All the Commissioners ofmunicipal corporations andmunicipalities, includingZonal Commissioners andDeputy Commissioners of

Greater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation, should followthe instructions scrupulously,the department said in itsmemo to all the ULBs.

All the Commissioners ofmunicipalities and municipalcorporations in the State wereinstructed to pay special atten-tion to steps intended to keepcities and towns clean andneat. The Commissioners havebeen told to ensure cleanlinessof markets, bus stations, parks,commercial streets etc., byrecourse to disinfectant spray- one per cent of sodiumhypochlorite solution - at reg-ular intervals to maintain pub-lic health. Arvind Kumar,Principal Secretary of

MA&UD, shared with theCommissioners a protocoldesigned to ensure generalupkeep and sanitation inULBs. The protocol includessanitation on a daily basiswith focus on vulnerable areas,ensuring a proper arrange-ment in place in terms of staffand vehicles for lifting of entiregarbage generated on a dailybasis without any leftovers atgarbage vulnerable points,hotspots etc. Appropriate peri-odicity must be established forlifting of garbage from thesepoints. Disinfection shouldfollow immediately after thegarbage is lifted. Spraying ofdisinfectants should be takenup in all places of public con-

gregation. The Commissionershave been asked to keep suffi-cient stocks of disinfectantmaterials, specially sodiumhypochlorite. All the sanitationstaff be equipped with protec-tive gears, hand gloves, sanitis-ers etc. Officials should assessrequirements and hire extravehicles on the basis of need.Arvind Kumar said that dumpyard facilities and intermedi-ate transfer station facilitiesshould be upgraded so as notto give scope for any issues inlifting of entire garbage gener-ated. All graveyards should beprovided with proper facilitieslike water, lighting, to avoidany issues in disposal of thedead.

Continued from Page 1

Still, Dr. Srinivasa Rao said,there was no need for panic asthe state government was tak-ing measures to bring theCovid second wave undercontrol, including scaling upof testing, tracing, and treat-ment facilities to tackle thepandemic.

The DPH emphasised thatthere was no shortage of beds,medicines, oxygen, ventilatorsor medical personnel in gov-ernment hospitals. Hence,people should go straight tothe designated governmenthospitals for free treatment.There was bed shortage inonly about 15 to 20 corporatehospitals. In all, 1,935 privatehospitals were offering Covidtreatment, he said.

Out of 100 every Covidpositive patients, 80 per centexhibited no symptoms andsuch people need to self-quarantine at home quaran-tine; 10 per cent showed mildsymptoms, and they could betreated at home, he said. Only7 to 8 per cent of infected peo-ple were being hospitalizedwith severe symptoms.

Dr.Srinivasa Rao said thaton Friday alone 1,26,235 testswere done in the State and the

positivity rate was 2.98 percent - almost double the 1.63per cent recorded on April 1.In a matter of 15 days, the pos-itivity rate had doubled as peo-ple were not adhering toCovid-appropriate behaviourof wearing masks, maintain-ing physical distance, follow-ing hand hygiene and notstepping out of home unlessabsolutely necessary.

The DPH said on an aver-age 1.03 lakh tests were beingdone per day and they wouldbe further increased to quick-ly identify positive patientsbefore they spread the infec-tion to others. Since coronawas largely air-borne thesedays, unlike during the firstwave, before a Covid patientwas identified, the whole fam-ily was getting infected, hesaid. In the first wave, against18,232 beds available, therewas only 40 per cent occupan-cy. Now the bed strength inthe State was 38,252 and itwould soon be increased to53,556. Of the 116 govern-ment hospitals, five wereCovid-dedicated hospitals inthe GHMC area alone.

He said that Remdesivirinjection/medicine should notbe taken indiscriminatelyunless warranted.

Continued from Page 1

"We regret to say that thenation is paying a very heavyprice for the thoughtlessnessand unpreparedness of theNDA government to tackle thegravest disaster that has hit thecountry and has affected mil-lions of families claiming1,75,673 lives so far," it said.The working committee meet-ing, attended by ManmohanSingh and former Congresschief Rahul Gandhi, besidesgeneral secretaries and othersenior leaders, said it is ashame that the country withthe world's largest vaccinemanufacturing capacity hasearned the odium of beingamong the most affected coun-tries in the world.

"With a heavy heart, wecaution the people that unlessurgent corrective measures aretaken the nation faces anunprecedented catastrophe.May wisdom prevail," theCWC statement said.

Chidambaram said severalCongress leaders including

Sonia Gandhi, ManmohanSingh and Rahul Gandhi havemade valuable suggestions onhow to tackle the situation. Allof them would be collated bytomorrow and sent to the cen-tral government. The CWCalleged that that the govern-ment failed to create sufficientpublic awareness that a waningpandemic could be a precursorto a second wave that may bemore devastating than the firstwave. It also alleged that theCentre failed to rapidly scale upthe production and supply ofthe two approved vaccines inIndia by providing sufficientfunds and other concessions."The government failed to uni-versalise vaccination afterhealth workers and front lineworkers had been vaccinated inPhase I. "It failed to get rid ofpre-registration and bureau-cratic control over the vaccina-tion programme," the state-ment alleged. The oppositionalso faulted the government fornot leaving the vaccine roll-outto state governments and overvaccine wastage.

Continued from Page 1

It has to be mentioned herethat KVP took great pridewhen he was described as ‘thesoul of YSR’, such was theaffection they had for eachother. KVP is still close to theYSR family. It is this proxim-ity to the YSR family that iscreating the doubts amongpolitical observers. They won-der why close followers ofKVP and staunch loyalists ofYSR keep on criticising Jaganand Sharmila.

YSRCP rebel MPRaghurama Krishnam Rajuwas considered a very loyalfollower of YSR and also veryclose to KVP. Raju still main-tains very good relations withKVP, while going to immensetrouble to berate Jagan.

Former MP and now TDPleader Sabbam Hari was alsoa staunch loyalist of YSR andvery close to KVP. He alsotakes every opportunity tolevel wild allegations againstJagan.

Likewise, former MPVundavalli Arun Kumar isalso a staunch follower ofYSR and very close to KVP.

Vundavalli is known to crit-icise Jagan some times, andpraise him at other times.

In Warangal district ofTelangana, former ministerKonda Surekha and her hus-band Konda Murali, a formerMLC, were staunch followersof YSR and are still very closeto KVP. Konda Murali onThursday alleged thatSharmila offered him and hiswife crores of rupees if they

joined her proposed politicalparty. Another interestingthing is all these leaders por-trayed themselves to bestaunch supporters of Jaganwhen he launched his politi-cal party. It is not known whythey hold so much antago-nism against the AP ChiefMinister these days.

Continued from Page 1

As many as 4,000 police per-sonnel, including centralforces, were deployed for theby-poll. Election officials hadset up as many as 346 pollingstations. The by-poll for theNS constituency was necessi-tated by the death of sittingTRS legislator NomulaNarsimhaiah in Decemberlast. The ruling TRS nominat-ed Nomula Bhagat, son ofNarsimhaiah. The saffronparty fielded P Ravi Kumar,while the Congress put up itssenior leader K Jana Reddy,who had served as Leader ofOpposition in the previousLegislative Assembly. Reddy

lost from the same con-stituency in the 2018Assembly polls.

The Nagarjuna Sagar by-poll result would be an acidtest for the ruling TRS, resur-gent BJP and the rump of theCongress, with all three par-ties keen on proving theirmight, latent or manifest; as awin or defeat in the NS by-poll may require modifica-tions in the strategies they areplanning to adopt for theAssembly polls in 2023.

Although candidates fromother parties and indepen-dents are also in the fray forthe Assembly segment, thecontest would be mainlyamong the three parties.

ML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

There will not be anyCovid vaccination onSunday April 18 in theGo-vernment CovidVaccina-tion Centre’s(GCVCs) across thestate. However, vaccina-tion will be continuedfrom Monday as per theschedule, according toDr Srinivasa Rao,Director , Public Health.

Apparently there isshortage of vaccine.

Earlier in the mediaconference, Dr SrinivasaRao said they wereexpecting expecting 2.7lakh doses by Saturdaynight. The officials how-ever did not offer anyreason for not adminis-tering the vaccine onSunday.

No vaccinationtoday at Govtcentres in state

Civic bodies ordered to take up sanitation...

CWC says nation...

No shortage ofbeds, oxygen...

Why strong followers of YSR targets...

88% polling inNagarjuna Sagar

Differences between YSJagan, Sharmila widen Continued from Page 1

Vijayalakshmi emphasisedthat there was difference ofopinion between the siblingsand not differences.

In this backdrop, Sharmila’ssatirical comments againstSakshi’s electronic media dur-ing her deeksha at the DharnaChowk at Hyderabad caughtattention.

“Enough with your cover-age. Sakshi channel won't givecoverage for us anyway,”Sharmila had said.

Usually, TDP leaders makesuch kinds of commentsagainst Sakshi. The commentsmade by Sharmila against

Sakshi indicate that the differ-ences between Sharmila andJagan have increased. It maybe noted that Sakshi media didnot give coverage to Sharmila’smeetings at Lotus Pond withher followers and also herSankalpa Sabha atKhammam. If indeed differ-ences exist between Sharmilaand Jagan, they may be ablessing for their politicalopponents, especially theTelugu Desam Party. TDPleaders have already startedshooting barbs at Jagan, say-ing that when he did not dojustice to his own sister andfamily, how he could do jus-tice to women of the State.

Price of Remdesivir reduced...Continued from Page 1

Presently, the prices ofRemdesivir range betweenRs.2,800 and Rs.5,400. Thepopular brands are Remdac,

RemWin, Redyx, Cipremi,Desrem, Jubi-R and Covifor.

The NPPA communica-tion said that the voluntarydownward price revision bythe drug manufacturers fol-

lowed the efforts of the UnionGovernment for enhance-ment of availability and afford-ability of Remdisivir requiredto treat Covid patients withsevere symptoms.

Fake IAS officer nabbedContinued from Page 1

The police nabbed him on acomplaint filed by TallapalliRamesh and Sweta, whoaccused the fraudster of collect-ing Rs 3 lakh from them onpromise of providing themgovernment jobs.

Two separate cases were reg-istered against him with theMancherial police. On thedirections of RamagundamCommissioner VSatyanarayana, Uday KumarReddy's team arrested BarlaLakshmi Narayana here onSaturday morning.Lakshminarayana completedpolytechnic diploma and laterjoined second year of engineer-ing at the college in Hyderabad.He appeared for Railway JEexaminations, but failed toclear it. However, he lied to thevillagers stating that he had gotposting in the railways.Credulous villagers trusted andeven felicitated him.

While pursuing BE course,he worked as a sales executive

with SBI Cards division.During March-June 2020, hestayed in the village duringthe lockdown. Several timeshe visited Secunderabad in aneffort to cement the impres-sion he had created amongthe villagers that he wasemployed with the railways.During his travel toSecunderabad, he used tohire the car of Ramesh ofBirpur village.

He told Ramesh that he wasemployed as DE inMancherial Railway Stationand lied to him that he hadalmost cleared the CivilServices examination.

Later, he hired Ramesh ashis driver on a monthly salaryof Rs 25,000 and lied to himin December 2020 that he wasposted as JC in Mancherial ashe had cleared Civil ServicesExamination. He also hiredan apartment in KrutikaApartments and shifted hisresidence. Later, he hiked thesalary of Ramesh to Rs 45,000on the pretext of making his

service permanent. He alsogot name plate designed bear-ing the letters Collector. Heappointed Mahender ofRebbenapall i vi l lage ofDandepalli as his PA. He alsogot fixed police siren to hisvehicle. Therefore, the driverand PA trusted him fully andbelieved he was an IAS offi-cer.

The accused then askedthe PA and the driver tobring to him people familiarwith them so that he couldplace them in at least 20-30government jobs and fixedthe fees for such help as Rs 3-5 lakh each.

The driver and PA passedon the information to theirnear and dear ones who calledon the fake IAS officer, alongwith their certificates. DuringDecember 2020 and March2021, he collected at least Rs80 lakh and purchased twocars, one Bullet motorcycle, ahouse under construction inJagityal. He spent the rest ofthe sum lavishly.

Amajor fire broke out in a chemical company in Jeedimetlaindustrial area on Saturday morning. No casualties werereported. According to the police, the fire spread to the plastic

drums filled with chemicals which led to thick fire and smoke. Thecompany workers, who noticed the flames, alerted the police andthe fire department. Panic prevailed in the area for some time due tothe chemical explosions. Two fire engines were rushed to the spotand the flames were doused in about two hours and the worth ofthe property damaged is to be estimated. In another incident, aminor fire broke in a scrap godown at the industrial areas inMailardevpally on the city outskirts. None were hurt in the incident,as the warehouse was shut. Police suspect an electrical short circuitled to the fire mishap. Officials said around 1 am, local residentsnoticed the fire and thick smoke from the warehouse which issurrounded by residential colonies. A fire engine was rushed to thespot, but with the fire not dying out, another fire engine too joinedin the firefighting. The warehouse was full of plastic scrap material,due to which thick smoke engulfed the surrounding areas, triggeringpanic among the residents.

In a first-of-its-kind in India,RGIA is offering the luxuryof driving the ultra-modern,

state-of-the art, cars rightafter your landing at theairport. Helping you drive instyle from the airport andgoing around the city ofNizams, 4 Wheel - located atthe arrivals of GMR Hyderabad International Airport, offers you arange of luxury cars. You can choose your ride from a long list ofcars that includes Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, Jaguar F Type,Lamborghini Gallardo, Lexus ES 300h, Audi A3 Cabriolet, MercedesBenz E 250, BMW 3GT, BMW 7 Series, Ford Mustang, Volvo S 60,Maserati Ghibli, Toyota Fortuner, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz to name a few.The options for rental include chauffeur drive and self-drive andwhat's more, it can be booked well in advance before you land atthe RGIA. Just a phone call/click away, all the cars available aresanitized after every trip to ensure the safety of the travelers.

In view of the surge in Covid cases, Gandhi hospitalsuperintendent Dr. Raja Rao on Saturday urged the residents ofthe city to not venture out of their houses. Superintendent told

them that they should not go to hospitals unless it was needed. Hesaid the power to contain the spread of the virus lies in the hands ofthe people of the city and the state.He warned the people that thevirus might infect if they visit the hospitals for unnecessary reasons.Citing that there is no scope for the imposition of lockdown in thestate, he said that the people should impose self lockdown in thestate. He said that they had admitted 150 people into the hospital onFriday alone and added that the hospital had only 350 beds, makingit clear that all the patients admitted by them were in the need ofICU treatment and added that they had adjusted the beds byworking hard till night.

CITY LIGHTSFire breaks out at chemical company and scrap godown

Hyderabad Airport introduces luxury drives from the airport

Stay indoors, Gandhi Hospital superintendent urges residents

Rachakonda Commissioner launches last ride services

Rachakonda Commissioner of Police has launched the last rideservices which will be operated in the Rachakonda PoliceCommissionerate limits. Mahesh Bhagwat lauded the efforts of

Feed the Needy NGO who is operating the service. He stated thatduring the first wave, 210 cremations were done through thisservice, out of which 160 are Covid. Of these 160, 30 are Covidhome deaths. He appreciated the group of 10 techies which includesSai Teja, Srinivas Bellam, Pradeep, Prashant, Vinay, RamanjeethSingh, Pradeep and Surendra for offering such a humane service.CP Rachakonda stated that the vehicle will be stationed at Uppal PSand whoever in an unfortunate situation requires the service, maycall the Rachakonda Covid Control Room on 9490617234.

HYDERABAD I SUNDAY I APRIL 18, 2021hyderabad 03

PNS n HYDERABAD

Research in agricultural uni-versities is vital to make agri-culture sustainable and to dou-ble the income of the farmers,said Telangana Governor, DrTamilisai Soundararajan.

She emphasised the need toconverge the traditionalknowledge and modern tech-nology in agriculture to makethe farming sustainable and toensure the food security of thegenerations to come.

The Governor, in her capac-ity as the Chancellor, wasaddressing the 5thConvocation of the Professor

Jaya Shankar Telangana StateAgricultural University, here,in a virtual mode on Saturday.

Referring to the goals ofAtma Nirbhar Bharat, DrTamilisai stated that sustain-ability and self-reliance in agri-

culture sector were also vital torealise the objective of Self-Reliant India.

The Governor said that theCovid pandemic had onceagain highlighted the need topromote organic farming on amassive scale to protect thenature.

Citing the findings of arecent survey carried out bythe Raj Bhavan in select prim-itive tribal areas in BhadradriKothagudem district, she saidthat people belonging to prim-itive tribal group, Kondareddy,were not cultivating their landsthough they were having landsand huge backyards.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Pubs across the city that onceemerged as Coronavirushotspots have begun to fallback into the clutches of thevirus.

With the implementation ofCovid norms going for a toss,people who throng the pubs forecstasy are soon contractingthe virus. In fact, the behaviourof the public visiting the pubsdoes not conform to Covidprecautions.

Youth are visiting pubs notonly on weekends but also onweekdays. In fact, the numberof such persons visiting pubsdaily is on the raise. The spurtin Covid-19 is directly pro-portional to the visitors tothese facilities.

People will forget about thepandemic once they step intothe pubs. Once they enter the

pubs, wearing of masks,observing physical distance,mingling with all freely, danc-ing with each other in the armsof each other, yelling and otherincidents take place undertipsy conditions. The revellersforget that they are extending

an open invitation to the pan-demic with their pub culture.

Daily 200 to 300 visit thepubs in Rangareddy, Medchaland Hyderabad districts.Partying will continue therefrom evening to early hours ofthe next day. The craze from

customers to pubs in BanjaraHills, Jubilee Hills, Hi-Tech city,Punjagutta, Film Nagar andother areas is very high.

In this backdrop, manage-ments of pubs instead of imple-menting the Covid precau-tions have thrown them towinds. People while away theirvaluable time at pubs for hourstogether. They indulge inembracing and kissing eachother, throwing self-regulationto winds. As a result, the num-ber of Covid-19 cases isincreasing. Recently, 10 per-sons who enjoyed themselvesvisiting a pub contracted theinfection.

A software employee Madhuwho is in the habit of visitingpubs along with friends visit-ed a pub three days ago. Themanagement is not seriousabout implementing Covid-19 rules. People visiting here

found to be not serious aboutprecautions. They yell andamuse themselves. If any one ofthe visitors has had the infec-tion, there is risk of spreadingit to others. On the whole, thepubs have become hotspots tospread infection.

Currently, Madhu and hisfriends are under quarantine attheir homes, while one of theirfriends who accompaniedthem to the pub tested positivefor the virus.

People regard the pubs areno safe zone as these facilitiesthrew the ‘No Mask-No Entry’rule to winds. With an eye tomake a quick buck, the pubshave not been observing anyprecautions. The managementsallow guests inside withouttaking any precautions. It isadvisable for the government toclose them till the pandemicsituation has improved.

Pubs re-emerge as virus hotspots

PNS n HYDERABAD

Andhra Pradesh Chief MinisterYS Jagan Mohan Reddy's sisterYS Sharmila on Saturday stageda protest against state govern-ment demanding to fill upgovernment job vacancies inthe state.

"I am sitting on a hungerstrike against the governmentof Telangana for failing torelease notification to fill upgovernment jobs," Sharmilasaid. "This strike is to createpressure on the government toput the issue of unemployment

as their top priority and makesure that they create jobs forthe unemployed youth," addedSharmila.

Speaking about theTelangana state Public ServiceCommission, she said, “TheTSPSC must originally consistof one chairperson and 10committee members. But inTelangana, the system is beingmanaged by only one person.The government must fill inthese positions first so that thereal reason behind the unem-ployment issue in the statecomes to the limelight."

Groom-to-be kidnapped in outskirtsPNS n HYDERABAD

A youngster, who recently gotengaged, was allegedly kid-napped from King's Colony inMailardevpally on the city out-skirts early on Saturday morn-ing.

Police officials suspect ayoungster who was in love withthe victim's fiancee could be

behind the kidnap. The victim, Nadeem Khan,

28, who was on his way homeon his motorcycle, was stoppedby a group of youngsters whopicked up an argument withhim and forcibly took himaway.

Sources said Khan wasrecently engaged with a girl inthe presence of the elders of

both families. Police suspect that another

youngster, reportedly in lovewith the girl, could have kid-napped him.

Based on a complaint fromNadeem's family, a case hasbeen booked and investigationis on. Police officials are inves-tigating in all possible reasonsbehind the kidnap.

Agri universities play vital rolein sustainable agriculture: Guv

PNS n HYDERABAD

A father sold away his two-months-old son for monetarygain. The incident came tolight after the child's motherlodged a complaint with thepolice.

According Rajendranagarto police, Syed Haider andShahana Begum, resident ofMM Pahadi, have a two-month-old baby.

For the past two or threedays, Haider who is un-employed since lockdown hasbeen arguing with his wife forselling away the infant andbringing things home.

The mother ShahanaBegum approached the policewith suspicion on her hus-band as the child went miss-ing suspiciously.

The wife had lodged acomplaint with theRajendranagar police allegingthat her husband had sold herson for Rs 30,000 to buygoods into the house.

Two-months-old child sold away by father for 30K

PNS n HYDERABAD

Rangareddy regional RTCauthorities have been initiat-ing series of measures to keepthe pandemic at bay at theMGBS in Hyderabad.

Besides ensuring peoplewear masks and sanitising allplatforms, the sanitary staffersclear garbage daily and disposeit of safely. Sanitisers havebeen made available at entrypoints and near platforms.

The MGBS operates over3,000 buses to various desti-nations. Therefore, the RTCauthorities are implementing

the Covid precautions in a bigway. Daily the bus drivers,conductors and employeesworking in the region arebeing sensitised. Regionalmanager Vara Prasad said thatthe employees should alwayswear masks while on duty. Theconductors should alwaysclean their hands from time totime with hand sanitisers.

Meanwhile, Sairam, seniorcustomer relations managerfor MGBS and Jubilee Bus sta-tion, said that all the arrange-ments to rule out any incon-venience to commuters isruled out.

TSRTC authorities takemeasures to fight virus

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Rachakonda Cybercrimepolice nabbed a Nigeriannational and his accomplicefrom Uttar Pradesh on chargesof cheating people in the guiseof sending gifts and foreigncurrency on social mediaon Saturday.

The arrested perso-ns are Henry Opera,31, a football coachand a native of Nigeria,and Suraj, 29, an auto-rickshaw driver.

According to the police,Henry who came to India onmedical visa for a surgery, ma-rried a woman from Karna-taka and settled here andjoined as part time footballcoach, where he met his fellowNigerians who committedonline frauds.

“Henry adopted the samemodus operandi to earn easymoney and joined them. Theyfraudulently procured thebank accounts to carry outtheir transactions,” police said.

In December 2020, theycheated a person from city

on the pretext of send-ing gift and foreigncurrency and fabri-cated a story thatparcel was caughtby customs people at

Delhi, and to get itreleased made the victim

transfer money into bankaccounts provided by Suraj.

Following a complaint fromthe victim, the police bookeda case and with the help ofclues traced and nabbed thesuspects. They were producedbefore the court for remand-ing in judicial custody.

Cops nab Nigerian for cheating people

Man gets 3 years RI for attempting to rape minor girl

RAILWAYS TO FINEPEOPLE SANS MASK

Railways on Saturdayannounced that a fine of up to

Rs 500 will be imposed onthose for not wearing masksat rail premises as well for

those who not wearing masksin trains. The order on face

masks has been issued for aperiod of six months till

further instructions.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A special court for child abusecases in Nampally on Fridaysentenced a man to three years

of rigorous imprisonment formolesting and attempting torape a minor girl five years agoin SR Nagar. The convictedperson was Sheik Riyaz, 35, an

auto-rickshaw driver fromSanjay Nagar in Yousufguda.

In January 2017, Riyaz tres-passed into the house of the 16-year-old girl in the absence of

her parents and molested andtried to rape her. She resistedhis attempts and escaped.

Based on her complaint, theSR Nagar police booked a case

and subsequently arrestedRiyaz. Police CommissionerAnjani Kumar on Saturdayappreciated the investigationofficer and team.

8th battalion police practiceCovid norms as they preach PNS n HYDERABAD

The eighth battalion policepersonnel at Kondapur is ren-dering yeoman service to peo-ple, besides the regular polic-ing acts, in reining in theCovid-19 for the past one yearand has set an example for oth-ers to emulate. The battalion isearning plaudits from othersfor its special services in con-trolling the pandemic situa-tion.

The battalion, raised duringthe post 1980-communal riots,has a force of over 1,400. It notonly provides security to theVIPs during their visit to thecity, but also protects historicstructures and other places oftourist importance.

The battalion members areon security duty at GandhiHospital, which is a Covid-19nodal treatment centre, TIMSin Gachibowli, besides at var-ious other isolation and treat-ment centres. The battalionalso serves as the police train-ing academy.

Ever since the pandemicbroke out in the city in Marchlast year, the battalion hasbeen rendering untiring ser-vices and doing everything tocheck the pandemic. On onehand the battalion takes care ofthe law and order duties andon the other, it is implement-ing the measures to check the

spread of the virus. Besidessensitising people on Covid-19, the battalion membersensure that everyone wearsmasks compulsorily. Theycounsel those who do notwear the masks. They are alsosensitising people on how tosafeguard their health.

Besides preaching, the bat-talion members also practicewhat they preach. The battal-ion campus is home to over3,500 to 4,000 persons, includ-ing 1,400 personnel of thebattalion.

Last year 500 recruitsreceived training, while theirnumber has come down to 466this year at the battalion. But,only 132 had tested positive forthe virus. That too, those wholive off the campus tested pos-itive. It stands as a good exam-ple how strictly the Covidprecautions are being imple-mented on the campus.

Those who do not wearmask are denied entry into the

battalion campus. Thermalscreening is compulsory tostep into the campus. Insteadof going out to buy essentialcommodities, the battalionauthorities struck a deal withwholesale traders, who bringthe commodities inside thecampus. After sanitising themfully, the commodities arebeing distributed.

The battalion quarters havebeen divided into eight sec-tions for the purpose of sani-tisation. The punishment tothose who violate Covid-19rules is rather stern in the cam-pus. According to the battal-ion commandant MuraliKrishna, with the support ofhigher authorities like DGPMahender Reddy and others,absolute care has been taken torule out covid-19 cases in thebattalion campus. The pan-demic has taught some lessonsto the people, especially mak-ing the people become strongboth physically and mentally.

‘TS managing TSPSC with only one person’

Continued from Page 1

The GHMC area has beenrecording highest cases with598 cases on Friday, i.e. 25people are testing positive forCovid 19 in the city everyone hour. Over the past oneweek, every hour 133 peoplehave tested positive for coro-navirus on an average --from April 10 to April 16 inTelangana. At present, 15 ofthe 33 districts are reportingmore than 100 cases whichequates to 4 cases everyhour.

There are 33,514 activecases in the state -- the high-est ever active caseload sincethe start of the pandemic.

195 testing positive every hour in TS Covid cases jump to record of 4,446Continued from Page 1

This is the highest fatalities ina day during the second waveof the pandemic. While thecumulative death toll stands at1,809, the case fatality rateremains stable at 0.52 per centagainst the national average of1.2 per cent.

The state capital regionand surrounding districtscontinue to bear the brunt offresh covid outbreaks TheGHMC region reported 598cases, while adjoining districts

of Medchal-Malkajgiri andRangareddy recorded 435 and326 cases, respectively.

Nizamabad district, bor-dering Maharashtra, remainsa hotspot with 314 new infec-tions reported from here.Kamareddy and Nirmal dis-tricts adjoining Nizamabadreported 184 and 160 cases,respectively.

Sangareddy reported 235new cases followed by 180 inJagtiyal, 149 in Karimnagarand 148 in Khammam. Therewere 136 cases in Warangal

Urban, 129 in Mahbubnagarand 121 in Mancherial.

According to a media bul-letin issued by the state healthdepartment on Saturday, thenumber of active casesjumped to 33,514 from 30,494the previous day.

The numbers include22,118 persons who are inhome or institutional isola-tion. While the recovery ratedipped further to 89.8 percent, it remained above thenational average of 87.2 percent.

hyderabad 04HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | APRIL 18, 2021

PNS n PATANCHERU

A couple was killed in a roadaccident on the NationalHighway in Patancheru onSaturday. According toPatancheru CI VenugopalReddy, Sridhar (34), a nativeof Datta Jogipeta village inRamadugu mandal ofKarimnagar district, was stay-ing with his wife Deepika(28), and a three-year-olddaughter at Shantinagar inPatancheru town.

Sridhar was working inthe local Mylan pharmaindustry while Deepika wasa software engineer at TechMahindra.

The couple was going on atwo-wheeler towardsPatancheru when a tipper hittheir vehicle from behind onthe national highway nearAlwin Colony.

Sridhar died on the spotwhile Deepika succumbedto injuries at a hospital.

Police said a case was reg-istered and is being investi-gated based on a complaintlodged by their family mem-bers.

Coupleknocked down by tipper

Sridhar and Deepika during theirhappy days (file photo)

‘All tanks in Mahbubnagar distwill be filled with PRLIP water’PNS n MAHBUBNAGAR

Boasting of development of theState in general andMahbubnagar district, in par-ticular, Minister for Excise,Sports, Culture and Tourism VSrinivas Goud said all thetanks in the district would befilled with the water after thecompletion of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift IrrigationProject (PRLIP) water.

He inaugurated RythuVedikas and other develop-ment works in several villagesin Devarakadra constituencyand Moosapeta mandal inMahbubnagar district onSaturday. He inauguratedRythu Vedika in Janampetaand a paddy procurement cen-tre. Additional classrooms,which were built at a cost of Rs20 lakh at Moosapeta mandalheadquarters, were opened.

Addressing the farmers, hesaid that many changes havetaken place in the state after theformation of Telangana.Earlier, sarpanches could notbe held accountable to the

people as most of the villageshad been deprived of electric-ity and irrigation and drinkingwater problems. But now, thereis either an electricity problemor an irrigation and drinkingwater shortage. Even duringthe summers, ponds are beingfilled with irrigation water.Similarly, 1,000 Gurukuls wereset up across the State. "We areproviding milk, eggs and nutri-tious food to women and chil-dren through Anganwadi cen-

tres," he said.He said that in the past six

years, Rs 8 crore has been spenton pensions in the villages. Hesaid that the government wasdepositing monthly funds inthe accounts of gram panchay-ats as part of the developmentof villages.

The minister called uponthe youth to focus on ruraldevelopment and bring prob-lems to his notice. TheMinister distributed KalyanaLakshmi cheques to sevenbeneficiaries.

MLA Ala VenkateshwarReddy said that check damshave been constructed in allthe villages in the constituen-cy. He clarified that steps werebeing taken to modernise theNizalapur village pond.

ZPTC Indraiah Sagar, MPPKalavati, Moosapeta sarpanchAnnapurna, Mandal RythuBandhu coordinatorRaghupathi Reddy, AgricultureDepartment assistant directorYashwant Rao, officials andpublic representatives werepresent.

Minister for Excise, Sports, Culture andTourism V Srinivas Goud addressing ameeting in Mahbubnagar district onSaturday Minister for Education Sabhita Indra

Reddy speaking at a programme inHyderabad on Saturday

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

Commissioner of PoliceRachakonda Mahesh MBhagwat conducted an onlinemeeting with all officers of therank of SHO, Inspector andabove to discuss and giveinstructions about variousissues on hand for theRachakonda police.

He cautioned all the officersin the wake of the surge inCovid cases in the public as wellamong the police personnel. He

advised those, who were hospi-talised and incurred expendi-ture to avail the facility extend-ed by the government, to claimRs 1 lakh towards Covid treat-ment.

As far as the byelections inJalpally and Lingojiguda areconcerned, the Commissionerof Police instructed the officersof LB Nagar zone to be alert. Hereviewed the bandobastarrangements, hypersensitivelocations monitoring by localofficers especially those belong-

ing to LB Nagar police station,Saroornagar police station,Balapur police station,Pahadisherif police station forthe byelections. He instructedthe officers to carry on enforce-ment to curb illegal activitiesand form Flying Squads for theproper conduct of elections.

As the holy month ofRamzan has commenced, theCommissioner of Policeinstructed all officers to be vig-ilant on the Covid norms to befollowed in the places of wor-

ship by interacting with com-munity leaders and PeaceCommittees for celebrating thefestivities in a safe manner. Heinstructed all officers to ensurevisible policing and swift actionwherever and wheneverrequired to avoid untowardincident.

He reviewed that vaccinationdrive for Rachakonda policewhere nearly 5,822 police per-sonnel have received their firstdose while 250 yet to get thedose.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The TPCC has appointed com-mittees for Warangal andKhammam MunicipalCorporation elections. MLC TJeevan Reddy will be the con-vener for the WarangalMunicipal CorporationElections Committee andTPCC working presidentPonnam Prabhakar will be theconvener for KhammamCorporation ElectionsCommittee.

The Warangal MunicipalCorporation ElectionsCommittee—T Jeevan Reddy(convener), D Sridhar Babu(Co-convener), N RajenderReddy (DCC president)Ponnala Laxmaiah (formerminister), Konda Surekha (for-mer minister), Konda Murali

(former MLC), DonthiMadhava Reddy (formerMLA), Vem Narender Reddy(former MLA), S Rajaiah (for-mer MP), Errabelli Swarna(former mayor), NamindlaSrinivas ( PCC general secre-tary), E Venkatram Reddy, KSrinivas and all sitting corpo-rators will be ex-officio mem-

bers of the committee.Khammam Municipal

Corporation ElectionsC o m m i t t e e — P o n n a mPrabhakar (Convener), BhattiVikramarka, P Durga Prasad(DCC president), RenukaChowdhary (former UnionMinister), P Balram Naik (for-mer Union Minister),Sambhani Chandrasekhar (for-mer minister), PotlaNageshwara Rao (formerMLA), Javed Ahemd (CityCongress president), DeepakChowdhary (City Congressworking president), ParuchuriMurali Krishna, PuchakayalaVeerabhadram, JammulaSarath Kumar Reddy, M RadhaKrishna, Kotha Seetharamuluand all sitting corporators willbe ex-officio members of abovecommittee.

TPCC appoints panels forWgl, Khammam Corpn polls

PNS n WARANGAL

Minister for Panchayat RajErrabelli Dayakar Rao exhort-ed important party leaders inWarangal East Assembly con-stituency to work unitedly toensure the victory of partycandidates in 24 wards of theMunicipal Corporation in theEast constituency in the forth-coming elections.

He was addressing them atthe TRS office inHanmakonda on Saturday.

He asked them to take thegovernment’s welfare anddevelopment schemes and aseries of development pro-jects worth Rs 25,000 crore,initiated recently by Ministerfor Municipal Administrationand IT KTR, to the peopleduring the campaign.

He asked them to explain tothe people the false propagan-da of the BJP and the tricksemployed by it to dupe thepeople. He asked them toimpress on the people thatTRS alone can do good tothem.

Telangana State PlanningBoard vice-chairmanBoinapalli Vinod Kumar, MP

Banda Prakash, MLCs KadiamSrihari, Baswaraj Saraiah,MLA Nannapaneni Ravinder,former MP Gundu Sudha

Rani, former Mayor GundaPrakasa Rao, Errabelli PradipRao and others were present atthe meeting.

Ensure victory of TRSnominees: Errabelli

Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao asked them to take the government’s welfare and development schemes and aseries of development projects worthRs 25,000 crore, initiated recently by Minister for MunicipalAdministration and IT KTR, to thepeople during the campaign.

117 filenominationsfor Khammammunicipal pollsPNS n KHAMMAM

In all, 117 candidates havefiled their nominations forthe Khammam MunicipalCorporation elections on thesecond day of receiving nom-inations on Saturday. Theyfiled 137 nomination paperswith many candidates sub-mitting over two sets of nom-ination papers. The totalnumber of nominations filedon Saturday was 141.

TRS candidates have sub-mitted 81 nominations,Congress candidates 24, BJP22, CPM 3 and TDP 2. Nonominations were filed by theCPI yet while nine indepen-dent candidates have submit-ted their nominations.

PNS n JAYASHANKAR BHUPALAPALLY

In spite of second wave of thepandemic is so virulent, theofficials have failed to provideat least one ventilator to pro-vide treatment to patients inemergency situations. Dailyscores of cases are surfacing inthe district.

Several have been question-ing the sincerity of the officialsfollowing mysterious disap-pearance of ventilators pur-chased during the first phase ofthe pandemic spending lakhsof rupees of tax payers' money.

Therefore, in case of emer-gencies the patients have to berushed to either to Warangal orto Hyderabad. In fact, the gov-ernment has failed to set upisolation centres in the district.As a result, several villages arebecoming containment zones.

So far, three deaths due to

the pandemic have occurred inthe district. Several doctorspredict doom for the people ofthe district if the officials fail toswing into immediate action toaddress the problem of venti-lators.

Since the district sharesboundaries with Chhattisgarhand Maharashtra, where thenumber of infection is on therise every day, there are nocurbs placed on the travel tothese states leading to criticismof the state government and thebureaucrats.

Daily at least 50 new casesare surfacing in the district.The number of cases in the dis-trict has crossed already 1000so far. The affected have beenfacing problems in availingtreatment since the authoritieswound up the covid treatmentfacilities at Area Hospitals inChityala and Mahadevpur andthe isolation centres at Harita

Hotel and Singareni AreaHospital.

Many Covid patients arebeing driven on to streets asthere is no facility to provideamenities to treat them underhome quarantine facility. The20-bed quarantine facility atChityala is rendered useless forwant of facilities there. Doctorstreating the patients have been

recommending treatmentunder home quarantine facil-ities. As a result, families ofthose who tested positive forthe virus are facing difficulties.

The population ofBhupalapalli district headquar-ters will be around one lakh.For want of ventilators, theyhave to go to Warangal orHyderabad. Unable to affordcost of treatment in privatehospitals, the Covid-19 patientshave to put their lives in highrisk. Officials have declaredGangapuri village as contain-ment zone with 27 villagerstesting positive for the virus.The village panchayat is pro-viding the essential commodi-ties to the affected families.Similarly, the officials declaredNagaram as containment zonefollowing 30 villages contract-ed the infections there. InTekumalla, 22 people testedpositive for the virus, while 13

in Manchiniparti tested posi-tive for the virus. In Yedapallivillage of Mahadevpur mandal,50 contracted the infections. InMajidpalli under Kaleswarampanchayat, 27 positive casessurfaced. The officials declaredKaleswaram as containmentzone. In Mahadevpur, Pulugulaand Kaleswaram mandals,which share border withMaharashtra, the number ofpositive cases are on the rise.

Villages have been voluntar-ily declaring lockdown. Even asthe villages suffer from lack ofbasic services, the sarpanchesof affected villages accuse offi-cials of not visiting them.

Two ventilators purchasedby Chityala civil hospital havegone missing. The officials arenot in a position to say whathappened to them.

There are allegations that themedical and health authoritiesof the district have been feed-

ing in-charge district collectorKrishna Aditya with wronginformation on Covid situa-tion. The in-charge collectorwas told that a 30 beds havebeen reserved for Covidpatients in Chityala AreaHospital and two ventilators areavailale for treatment ofpatients in emergencies. Infact, not a single ventilator isfound there. Only 20 bedshave oxygen supply. In fact, noteven one bed is brought to usein the facility.

Since Mulugu andBhupalapally districts areunder the administration of asingle collector, there is lackof effective supervision tomonitor Covid-19 situation.

Elected people representa-tives urge the in-charge dis-trict collector to provide 10ventilators to the district andrevive the erstwhile isolationcentre.

Amid scarcity, two ventilators go missing in Bhupalapally

Harish Raoreleases third listPNS n SIDDIPET

Minister for Finance T HarishRao released the third list ofTRS nominees for theSiddipet municipal polls hereon Saturday.

Following are the partynominees, who will enter thefray—Kemmasaram Praveenfrom 26th ward, TaslimaBegum from 33rd ward, EdlaArvind Reddy from 22ndward, Pathuri SulochanaSrinivas Reddy from 15thward, Paskula Sateesh from9th ward and DharmavaramBrahmam from 38th ward.

Cricket betting racket busted

Rachankonda CP reviews arrangements

K VENKATESHWARLU

n HYDERABAD

Anything is possible in politicsand Communists are noexception in this regard. TheCPI has extended its supportto the TRS in Nagarjunasagarby-elections, along with theCPM. According to sources,both the CPI and CPM cameto an understanding inextending support to the rul-ing TRS to face the BJP in thestate keeping the main oppo-sition party Congress asidestating that the Congress hasno strength to control theBJP’s unexpected surge in thestate.

In contrast, the CPI’s stu-dent wing All India StudentFederation (AISF) state winghas announced on Saturday itwill wage movements not onlyagainst the BJP led Centralgovernment, but also againstthe State government.

The AISF disclosed thiswhile announcing a new com-mittee to the OsmaniaUniversity that will wagemovements against the Stateand Central governments ifthey failed to change theirstep-motherly treatmenttowards universities. The AISFstate wing made it clear that itwill intensify movements toprotect the government uni-versities.

The CPI student wingalleged that both the State andCentral governments havebeen weakening the universi-ties without solving their prob-lems and not appointing theVice-Chancellors and mak-ing the universities as centresof problems.

AISF state president NAStalin and secretary RavishivaRamakrishna alleged that boththe Central and State govern-ments are hatching conspira-cies to destroy the universityeducation system. As a part ofit, they are not appointing reg-ular VCs, teaching and non-teaching staff and not allocat-ing adequate funds to the uni-versities in the budget, theypointed out. They alleged thatthe credit of transforming theuniversities as the centers ofproblems goes to both the TRSand BJP governments.

Speaking to The Pioneer,AISF state organising secretaryRN Shankar said that AISFwill fight against the TRS gov-ernment’s apathy towards uni-versities though the CPI hasbeen extending its support tothe TRS.

“As a student wing, we havefreedom and autonomy totake the decisions. The AISFhas been fighting against theCommunist government inKerala”, he pointed out.

On Saturday, OsmaniaUniversity CommitteeExtended Council meetingheld at Dr Raj Bahadur Hall ofMaqdhoom Bhavan under theaegis of AISF state president LKranthi Raj and AISF stateorganising secretary RNShankar, state vice-presidentPutta Laxman, OU leaders-- VUday Kumar, B Lingaswami,N Shiva Shankar, D Nikhil, PSandeep, Sai, Suman --andothers participated.

The committee announcedMD Suner Pasha as presidentof AISF Osmania Universitywing and Kranthi Raj as gen-eral secretary.

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

District Superintendent ofPolice Ravilala Venkateswarluhas asked the elders of variousreligious faiths to give widepublicity to Covid-19 precau-tions and ensure that the peo-ple implement them as thereis spurt in pandemic cases inMahabubnagar district sound-ing alarm bells.

He pointed out that 495tested positive for the virus ona single day on Friday, sig-nalling danger for thedistrict.

A d d r e s s i n gelders of vari-ous faiths atthe policehead quartershere onSaturday, theSP said thatthe eldersshould protectthe society to dogood to all, keepingaside their personal prefer-ences.

If precautions are notimplemented, strict curbs like-ly to be placed, he said point-ing out how the economy ofthe state affected due to impo-sition of lock down last year.He said that society cannotafford another dose of lockdown.

Quoting scientists, the cur-rent virus is also air-borne, hesaid adding that the spurt inthe infections not only affectsthe public health but also theeconomy.

Implementing precautionslike wearing masks, personalhygiene, the virus can be putat bay. Any negligence in this

regard is likely to destroylives of people, he said.

He assured the people atlarge that the police woulddeal with the public in a sen-sitive manner. Observing self-regultions will not help fam-ilies but also society at large.

He pointed out that thepolice department lost 84officers to the pandemic lastyear. In spite of it, the policewill continue to protect soci-ety.

Advising all, including thepolice, to receive vac-

cine, he said thatthe vaccine

boosts immu-nity toencounte rthe virus.

H ethanked theelders of var-

ious faithstaking part in

the meeting andappealed to them

that, "Let us put our bestfoot forward to rein in thevirus."SP Administration NVenkateswarlu, DSP GSridhar laid emphasis onobserving precautions for us,for the sake of ourfamilies andfor the sake of society.

Heads of various faiths inthe town assured the author-ities that they would strive toimplement the governmentsuggestions to ensure thatthe people of the district keepthe virus at bay.

DSP Sriram Kumar, inspec-tors Som Narayan Singh,Rajeshwar, Maheshwar,Suresh, Srinivas, AppalaNaidu and others were pre-sent on the occasion.

SP seeks religiousheads’ cooperationto keep virus at bay

BJP chief callsupon people toget vaccinatedPNS n KHAMMAM

BJP State unit president andKarimnagar MP BandiSanjay Kumar called uponthe people to adopt self-reg-ulation practices to protectthemselves as the Coronasecond wave is spreadingfast. He was vaccinated forthe first time at the vaccina-tion camp set up at the RTCHospital here on Saturday.

Speaking on the occa-sion, he advised the peopleto take proper precautions asCorona cases have been onthe rise for the past few days.He said the BJP govern-ment at the Centre wasworking effectively to com-bat the virus.

AISF to fight againstTRS government

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

As a part of expanding com-munity CCTV cameras net-work across the RachakondaCommissionerate, Ministerfor Education Sabhita IndraReddy and RachakondaCommissioner of PoliceMahesh M Bhagwat inaugu-rated 106 community CCTVcameras, which wereinstalled under MeerpetPolice Station limits at a costof Rs 38,00,000 on Saturday.These cameras will be con-nected to the CommandControl Room.

Addressing the pro-gramme, Sabitha IndraReddy said that it was agreat initiative where the cit-izens with the help of policecame forward and installedCCTV cameras for the secu-rity of all citizens. Sheappealed to the public to joinhands for a safer Rachakondaand also appealed to localpublic representatives toensure the installation ofmore cameras in the remain-ing colonies.

Sabitha termsCCTV camerasas third eye

MUNICIPAL BYPOLLS IN JALPALLY AND LINGOJIGUDA

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

The sleuths of SpecialOperation Team (SOT)Bhongir zone of RachakondaCommissionerate, along withthe Bhongir town police, bust-ed the online cricket bettingracket and apprehended fourpersons, including two organ-isers, and seized cash, bike allworth of Rs 1,50,000 from theirpossession.

The accused were identifiedas Manda Shiva Kumar Reddyand Akula Naresh. Thyeplanned to organise illegalonline cricket betting in view ofthe 14th IPL season. Accordingto their plan, they downloadedan illegal online cricket bettingapp DREAM EXCHANGE ontheir mobiles. Subsequently,

they contacted known persons,including Mandava VinayKotha Jani and others, andabetted them to participate inonline cricket betting offeringthem double payment on bet-ting money. The activity wasbeing organised from the cardécor shop of one Naresh ofBhongir town.

According to organisers, thepunters participate in the ille-gal activity by betting money ondifferent odds i.e., toss winning,ball to ball scoring, dismissal ofbatsmen by the bowlers andteam winning. Before thebeginning of the match, onreceipt of the information fromthe accused, the punters keepready to participate and whenthe match is started, they startbetting money from Rs 5,000

onwards. This illegal activitywas started on April 9.

The accused organised theillegal online cricket bettingfrom the car décor shop onApril 16 during a matchbetween the Chennai SuperKings vs Punjab Kings. Thesleuths of SOT Bhongir withtown police raided and caughtthe four persons red-handedand seized the booty.

The arrests were made underthe supervision of Mahesh MBhagwat, Commissioner ofPolice, RachakondaCommissionerate, G SudheerBabu, Additional Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda,under the guidance of SurenderReddy, Superintendent of Police(NC Special Operations Team),Rachakonda.

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | APRIL 18, 2021 nation 05

The Jharkhand HighCourt on Saturday

granted bail to RJDpresident Lalu Prasad inDumka treasury case ofthe multi-crore rupeesfodder scam, paving wayfor his release from jail.The bail was allowed toPrasad by Justice Aparesh

Kumar Singh.The court directed him neither to leave the countrywithout permission nor change his address and mobile numberduring the bail period.Prasad had acquired bail in three other casesof the fodder scam and was waiting for judgement in the instant caserelated to illegal withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from the Dumkatreasury in 90s to come out of the jail. The septuagenarian RJDsupremo was airlifted to AIIMS New Delhi in January last in view ofhis bad health.

Jharkhand HC grants bail to Lalu in Dumka treasury case

ABJP delegationon Saturday

urged BengalChief Electoral

Officer Ariz Aftab totake note of apurported audio clip-- in which ChiefMinister MamataBanerjee is heardproposing a rallywith the bodies of

Cooch Behar firing victims - as "such a move could lead to moretension" in the state amid the ongoing lections.Senior BJP leaderSwapan Dasgupta, who led the delegation to the CEO office here,told reporters that he has apprised Aftab of the conversation thatapparently took place between Banerjee and the TMC's Sitalkuchinominee, and pointed out that it could lead to untowardsituations in the next

BJP urges EC to scan‘Mamata audio clip'

Abirthday celebrationturned into a tragedy for a

group of friends as four chil-dren and two womendrowned in a dam in Igatpuritehsil of Maharashtra'sNashik district, police said onSaturday. The incidentoccurred at Valdevi dam nearVadivarhe village on Friday

evening, they said. "A group of nine friends, mostly minors, hadgone to the dam to celebrate the birthday of one of them. Whileclicking a group photo, some of them fell into the dam water. Whilesix of them drowned, three others were safe," a police official said.Soni Game (12), whose birthday was being celebrated there by thegroup, is among the deceased, he said. The other victims wereidentified as Khushi Maniyar (10), Jyoti Game (16), HimmatChaudhari (16), Nazia Maniyar |(19) and Aarti Bhalerao (22), policesaid.

B’day bash turns tragic as 4kids, 2 women drown in dam

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday paid

homage to former prime minis-ter and socialist leaderChandrasekhar on his birthanniversary. Chandrasekharwas respected across partylines for his simplicity and

commitment to social empowerment, Modi said in a tweet. A tower-ing leader from Uttar Pradesh, Chandrasekhar became the primeminister briefly between 1990-91 after the fall of the V P Singh-ledgovernment at the Centre. Born in 1927, he joined theCongress in the 1960s, but was jailed during the Emergency for histrenchant criticism of the Indira Gandhi-led government for clampingdown on civil liberties Chandrasekhar was one of the leading opposi-tion leaders who joined hands against the Congress in the 1977 LokSabha polls after the Emergency was lifted.He passed away in 2007.

Modi pays homage to formerPM Chandrashekhar

INDIA CORNER

PNS nMUMBAI

NCP leader andMaharashtra ministerNawab Malik on Saturdayalleged that the central govern-ment has asked export companiesnot to supply Remdesivir medicineto the state.

He also said that the BJP, whichis in power at the Centre, was moreinterested in winning electionsthan tackling the coronavirus cri-sis.

The BJP hit back saying thatMalik should either give proof orapologise for levelling "false" and"baseless" allegations, and said heshould step down from the post.

Malik's allegations come daysafter the Centre banned the exportof Remdesivir injections in view ofa sudden spike in demand due tothe surge in COVID-19 cases.Remdesivir is listed for use in seri-ous coronavirus patients in theClinical Management Protocols forCOVID-19 as an investigationaltherapy.

Taking to Twitter, Malik, thestate minority affairs minister,said, “It is sad and shocking that

when Government of Maharashtraasked 16 export companies for

Remdesivir, we were toldthat the Central gov-

ernment hasasked

themn o tto supplythe medicine toMaharashtra. These com-panies were warned, if they did,their license will be cancelled."

He said this was a dangerousprecedent and under these circum-stances, the state government willhave no choicebut to seizethe stock ofRemdesivirf r o mt h e s e

exportersa n dsupply itto theneedy.

In his ear-lier tweets, he said, “There are 16export oriented units in the coun-

try that have 20 lakh vials ofRemdesivir. Since exports are nowbanned by the government, theseunits are seeking permission to sellthis medicine in the country, butthe central government isdenying the same.” “Thegovernment says it should besold through seven compa-

nies that are pro-ducing it.

These seven compa-nies are refusing to take responsi-bility. This is a decision making cri-sis.

“While there is a requirement ofthis medicine and availability too,a quick decision is the need of the

hour. This problem must besolved and the vials

must be suppliedto the govern-

m e n thospi-tals ina l l

states

imme-diately,”

the NCPleader added.Speaking to

reporters later, Maliksaid, "Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray wastrying to speak to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over phone (on

the issue), but was told that he(PM) is on a tour of WestBengal...This shows that the BJPis more interested in winningelections than tackling this cri-sis."

When contacted, state BJPspokesperson Keshav Upadhayereacted sharply saying, "Insteadmaking such wild and baselessallegations, Nawab Malik shouldprovide proof or else he shouldapologise. It is high time thatMaha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)stops the blame game and doesits job of handling the pandem-ic.”

BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkaralso said that Malik should pro-vide proof of his allegations thatCentre has asked the Remdesivirexporters not to sell their med-icine in the state.

In a video message, he said,“Malik just said that the Centrehas pressurised Remdesivir com-panies not to sell their exportablestock in Maharashtra or they willface action. I want Malik to pro-vide proof of it or he shouldresign from his post as stateminority affairs minister.”

PNS n BHOPAL

As the coronavirus pandemicrages in Madhya Pradesh,there is also an increase in thenumber of the urns containingashes of the dead being kept atthe Bhopal's only crematoriumwhere the last rites of COVID-19 patients are allowed, anoffice-bearer of the cremato-rium said on Saturday.

Bhadbhada Vishramghat'smanagement committee secre-tary Mamtesh Sharma toldPTI that more than 150 urnscontaining ashes are current-ly kept in the lockers at the cre-matorium even as the numberof lockers is being increased tocreate the space for the storageof at least 500 urns.

Bhadbhada Vishramghat isthe only Hindu crematoriumin Bhopal where cremation ofCOVID-19 victims is allowed.However, people are also goingto other crematoriums becauseof the rise in COVID-19deaths, he said.

“More than 150 urns arecurrently kept in lockers here.On average, 10 to 15 urns arecurrently being kept in thelockers here every day due to

the rising number ofdeaths…This is for the firsttime when such a large num-ber of urns are being kept inthe lockers,” Sharma said.

He said the renovation ofthe Bhadbhada Vishramghatwas halted due to the pandem-ic. “We are now creating thespace for 500 lockers to keep theurns containing ashes. An addi-tional locker room is also beingconstructed to deal with the sit-uation,” Sharma added.

He said at least a dozen urnskept inside the lockers con-tained ashes of those peoplewho had died "during the firstwave of COVID-19", but theirkin never turned up to collectthem. Sharma claimed approx-imately 1,100 bodies have been

cremated at the Vishramghatso far this month. "Of them,around 800 bodies were cre-mated with the COVID-19protocol, Sharma said. Hecaimed that 81 bodies werecremated at the Vishramghaton April 16.

“Of these 81 bodies, 69were cremated as per theCOVID-19 protocol. Of these69 bodies, 46 bodies werefrom Bhopal while the rest 23were from other parts ofMadhya Pradesh,” Sharmasaid.

On the other hand, thestate government put thenumber of COVID-19 fatali-ties in Bhopal on Friday at 4out of the total 60 reportedacross the state.

Bhopal crematorium: Urnscontaining ashes pile up

PNS n JABALPUR

Two persons were arrested inan ATM cash withdrawal fraudamounting to Rs 92.39 lakh inMadhya Pradesh's Jabalpurdistrict, police said on Saturday.

The police have arrestedShakir Hussain (30) andInzamam-ul-Haq (24), bothresidents of Harayana's Nuhdistrict, while three otheraccused are at large, city super-intendent of police (Omti) R DBharadwaj said.

The police have seized 86ATM cards of various banks,three PAN cards, threeAadhaar cards, a cheque book,Rs 11,500 cash and threemobile phones from theaccused, the official said.

The fraud came to light aftera manager with the State Bankof India (SBI) lodged a com-plaint with the police thatsome Axis Bank customerswere allegedly withdrawingmoney from SBI ATMs and

later making false complaints tothe bank to refund the moneythough they had already with-drawn the sum from ATMs, hesaid.

The accused had withdrawncash in 134 transactionsbetween April 2 and 12 fromdifferent SBI ATMs, he said.

The accused would alleged-ly switch off the power of theATM when the cash came out,while holding it in the tray, theytook the money and laterswitched on the machine,which would display a failed

transaction, the official said.The accused would then

complain, asking for a refundfrom the bank whose ATMthey had used, following whichthe bank would transfer theamount to their accounts, hesaid.

The men targeted ATMsthat gave them an open accessto power switches, so thatwhen one of them is withdraw-ing the money, another accusedcould turn off the machine andput it back on again, the offi-cial added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

COVID-19 vaccines do notstop one from getting infect-ed but instead help in curingthe disease faster and reducingits severity, said health anddevelopment economistProfessor Anup Malani.

He also said that reinfectioncan be one of the reasonsbehind the recent surge incases in the country.

Malani, a professor at theUniversity of Chicago LawSchool and the university'sPritzker School of Medicine,has been leading a series ofCOVID-19 serosurveys incities and states across Indiawith economic development-focused think-tank IDFC.

In an interview with PTI,

Malani said, "I fear this is thebiggest misunderstandingaround India and even inother countries today. Previousinfection and vaccines do notstop you from being infected.That was never how immuni-ty worked. Instead, naturaland vaccine-acquired immuni-ty is helpful because it helpsyou clear the infection fasteronce you are infected."

"This has two benefits – it

helps you avoid death or otherserious health harm from theinfection, and it helps reducethe probability you will infectsomeone else. So it is possibleto be reinfected, but the harmsof the infection will be lower,"he said.

The level of reinfection inthe population depends onthe prevalence of the infectionand the prevalence of immu-nity, natural or vaccineacquired, Malani said.

"The level of reinfection isdriven up by more activity(like large gatherings), anddown by immunity rates.What may be going on in Indiais that activity recentlyincreased at a faster rate thanimmunity. This is the mostoptimistic interpretation of

the surge,” he said. IndianCouncil for Medical Research(ICMR) Director GeneralBalram Bhargava earlier thismonth had said that reinfec-tion of cases are around oneper cent.

"We have studied the data ofreinfection cases in India.Globally, reinfection cases arearound 1 per cent,” he had said.

India is battling to a mas-sive surge in COVID-19 cases.

The number of new coron-avirus cases hit a record dailyhigh since the outbreak of thepandemic with 2,34,692 newinfections being reported in aspan of 24 hours, pushing thenationwide COVID-19 tally to1,45,26,609, according tohealth ministry data updatedon Saturday.

Vax helps in reducing severity of Corona

MP: Two held for ATMcash withdrawal fraud

PNS n MUMBAI

An offence has been registeredagainst an assistant policeinspector (API) for allegedlyraping a colleague on a falsepromise of marriage in Dongriarea of south Mumbai, policesaid on Saturday.

The matter came to lightwhen the lady officer lodged acomplaint of rape and cheatingagainst the accused, who isposted with a police station in

south Mumbai, an official said.The complainant has alleged

that the accused had promisedto marry her and raped her, theofficial said.

An offence has been regis-tered under sections 376 (rape)and 420 (cheating) of the IPCand relevant provisions of theScheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes (Preventionof Atrocities) Act, he said,adding that further probe isunderway.

Cop booked forraping colleague

PNS nMUMBAIA 42-year old Tanzaniannational was arrested earlyon Saturday and cocaineworth around Rs 1.8 crorewas recovered from him atAgripada in SouthMumbai, police said.

The arrest was made bythe Anti Narcotics Cell(ANC) of the Mumbaicrime branch, they said.

"The Azad Maidan unitof the ANC had received atip-off, following which itlaid a trap near Dr MalmidaRoad in Agripada in theearly hours of Saturday andcaught the accused, whowas found roaming suspi-ciously in the area," a seniorpolice official said.

The accused, identifiedas Danny Amani Emsufu,is a resident of Kharghar inneighbouring NaviMumbai, he said.

Cocaine worthRs 1.8 croreseized

PNS n NEW DELHI

A Delhi court has granted bailto actor-activist Deep Sidhu,who was arrested in connec-tion with the Red Fort violenceon Republic Day.

Special Judge NeeloferAbida Perveen granted reliefto the accused on Friday on apersonal bond of Rs 30,000and two sureties of a likeamount.

Sidhu was arrested onFebruary 9 in connection withthe Red Fort violence onRepublic Day during a farm-ers' tractor parade against theCentre's three new agriculturelaws.

The court noted that theaccused was in custody sinceFebruary 9, 2021, with 14days of remand in police cus-tody.

It said that a police plea forfurther incarceration for thesole purpose of voice samplingwas not justifiable.

“The prosecution's caserests largely and on the con-tents of video recordings andfootage available and accessi-ble to all on social media sitesin public domain, and there istherefore a remote possibilityof the accused-applicant beingable to interfere with the con-tent on such platform,” thejudge said.

Rejecting the prosecution'scontention that the accusedmight abscond if released onbail, the court said, “Theaccused as per the own case ofthe prosecution is a well-

known public figure with deeproots in society and suchapprehensions are capable ofbeing allayed by imposingstricter conditions.”

It further said, “It wouldviolate and infringe the funda-mental right to life and liber-ty guaranteed to the accused,if the accused is denied bail inthe present case on suchnature of accusations andmaterial only on the groundthat the investigating agency isyet to establish the identity ofthe several other members ofthe unlawful assembly.”

While granting the bail, thejudge directed the accused todeposit his passport with theinvestigating officer andappear before the police sta-tion as well as the court as andwhen required.

“He shall not influence,threaten, intimidate witnessesnor tamper with evidence inany manner whatsoever,” thecourt said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Country's cyber securityagency CERT-In has cautionedWhatsApp users about certainvulnerabilities detected in thepopular instant messaging appthat could lead to breach ofsensitive information.

A "high" severity rating advi-sory issued by the CERT-In, orthe Indian ComputerEmergency Response Team,said the vulnerability has beendetected in software that has"WhatsApp and WhatsAppBusiness for Android prior tov2.21.4.18 and WhatsApp andWhatsApp Business for iOSprior to v2.21.32."

The CERT-In is the nation-al technology arm to combatcyber attacks and guardingthe Indian cyber space.

"Multiple vulnerabilitieshave been reported inWhatsApp applications whichcould allow a remote attacker

to execute arbitrary code oraccess sensitive information ona targeted system," the adviso-ry issued on Saturday said.

Describing the risk in detail,it said that these vulnerabilities"exist in WhatsApp applica-tions due to a cache configu-ration issue and missingbounds check within the audiodecoding pipeline."

"Successful exploitation ofthese vulnerabilities couldallow the attacker to executearbitrary code or access sensi-tive information on a targetedsystem," it said.

Red Fort violence: Courtgrants bail to actor-activist

PNS n NEW DELHI

Former KarnatakaChief Minister H DKumaraswamy onSaturday said he hastes ted p os i t ive forcoronavirus.

"I request everyonewho came in close con-tact with me over thelast few days to isolatethemselves and gettested," the 61-year-old JD(S) leader tweet-ed. For the last fewdays, Kumaraswamyhad been campaigningfor the party candi-date in Basavakalyan,w hich i s going tobypoll today.

He had got himselfinoculated with thefirst dose of COVID-19vaccine on March 23.

Cyber agency cautionsWhatsApp users

PNS n LUCKNOW

A shortage of hospital beds inLucknow seems to have kept a65-year-old COVID-19 patientwaiting for proper treatment.

The family mem-bers of the woman claimed thatshe could not be admitted to ahospital as no beds were avail-able in the capital city of UttarPradesh.

"My grandmother cannot beadmitted as there is no bed inany hospital in Lucknow.Despite calling the helplinenumber, there is no concreteresponse. The oxygen level,which was 66, has now dropped

to near 40. It is an alarmingsign," the grandson of thewoman said. He said another ofhis relatives has an oxygenlevel of 65, but her treatmentcould not be started as the RT-PCR report is awaited.

A few days ago, there was ashortage of oxygen cylindersupply in a city hospital.According to sources in thehospital, the daily requirementof oxygen cylinders is around60, but only 20 were supplied."However, as the issue figuredin the social media and pres-sure was exerted on the suppli-er, the situation improved," hesaid.

JDS leaderKumaraswamytests Covid+

Shortage of hospitalbeds in Lucknow

Minister says Centre blocked Remdesivir supply to Maha

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | APRIL 18, 2021money 06

MONEY MATTERS

Mindtree, a globaltechnology services and

digital transformationcompany guiding its clientsto achieve faster businessoutcomes, announced itsconsolidated results today

for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2021, as approved by its boardof directors. "We are proud to deliver another strong quarter, driven bysignificant traction in our client portfolio globally, leading to revenuegrowth of 5.2%, EBITDA of 21.9%, and an order book of $375 M at theend of Q4. Our journey of profitable growth and seamless deliveryduring the pandemic year has been made possible by the resilience ofMindtree Minds, the commitment of our leadership team, and above all,the continued support of our clients," said Debashis Chatterjee, ChiefExecutive Officer and Managing Director, Mindtree. "The final dividend of?17.5 per share announced today reinforces Mindtree's commitment toenhance shareholder value. For the year, we delivered revenues of$1,076.5 M and margin expansion of 680 bps, while increasing ourorder book by 12.3%. As we enter FY22, we are confident that continuedclient demand for our transformative services, a strong order book, andour strategic investments position us well to deliver double digit growthand sustain EBITDA above 20%."

Mindtree reports robust revenuegrowth of 5.2% q-o-q in USD

HDFC Bank onSaturday reported a

15.8 per cent rise in itsconsolidated net profit atRs 8,434 crore for thequarter ended March2021. The private sectorlender had registered anet profit of Rs 7,280crore in thecorresponding quarter ayear ago. "Consolidated

advances grew by 13.6 per cent from Rs 10,43,671 crore as onMarch 31, 2020 to Rs 11,85,284 crore as on March 31, 2021," HDFCBank said in a regulatory filing. The consolidated net profit for theyear ended March 2021 was Rs 31,833 crore, up 16.8 per cent overthe previous fiscal year. Total income (consolidated) increased to Rs40,909.49 crore for the January-March quarter of FY 2020-21 fromRs 38,287.17 crore in the year-ago period. The full-year income(consolidated) in 2020-21 rose to Rs 1,55,885.28 crore from Rs1,47,068.28 crore in the preceding year. On the asset front, the bank'sgross non-performing assets as of March 31, 2021 stood at 1.32 percent of the gross advances, slightly up from 1.26 per cent in the year-ago period. In absolute value, the gross advances were worth Rs15,086 crore at the end of FY21, down from Rs 12,649.97 crore. NetNPAs were 0.40 per cent (Rs 4,554.82 crore) as against 0.36 per cent(Rs 3,542.36. Provisions for bad loans and contingencies wereraised to Rs 4,693.70 crore for the reported quarter from Rs 3,784.49crore parked aside in the year-ago period. "The bank also continues tohold provisions as on March 31, 2021 against the potential impact ofCovid-19 based on the information available at this point in time andthe same are in excess of the RBI prescribed norms," HDFC Banksaid. The bank held floating provisions of Rs 1,451 crore andcontingent provisions of Rs 5,861 as on March 31, 2021.

GlenmarkPharmaceuticals

on Saturday said itswholly-owned armGlenmark LifeSciences has filedpreliminary papersfor an initial publicoffer with marketregulator Sebi.Glenmark LifeSciences has filed a

Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi) for an initial public offer, accordingto a regulatory filing. The offer comprises fresh issue of up to Rs1,160 crore and an offer for sale of up to 73,05,245 equity sharesof Rs 2 each of Glenmark Life Sciences Ltd, by GlenmarkPharmaceuticals Ltd, the filing said. The board of directors ofGlenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd during its meeting on April 16approved the offer for sale of up to 73,05,245 equity shares of Rs2 apiece as part of the IPO. The IPO will be subject to marketconditions, receipt of applicable approvals and otherconsiderations, the filing said.

HDFC posts 16 pc rise in Q4net profit at Rs 8,434 crore

Glenmark Pharma arm filespapers for IPO with Sebi

Pharma exports growat 18% to 24 bn in ’21

PNS n HYDERABAD

Pharma exports from Indiawitnessed over 18 per centgrowth to USD 24.44 billionduring the last financial yearagainst USD 20.58 billion inFY20, Pharmaceut ica l sExport Promotion Councilof India (Pharmexcil) said onSaturday.

"We have observed a bigleap in our exports in themonth of March 2021 whichis USD 2.3 billion (figures forMarch are provisional) and ishighest among the exports ofall the months of this finan-cial year, the growth rate forthis monthis 48.5 per centagainst the exports in March2020 (USD 1.54billion),"Udaya Bhaskar, DirectorGeneral of Pharmexcil saidina release.

Growth rate seems rela-

tively big as the exports ofMarch 2020 was cruncheddue to lockdown across theworld and supply

chain disruption, he wasquoted as saying.

When the global pharmamarket is negatively grownby 1-2 per cent in 2020,there is a big surge indemand for Indian madegenerics owing to its qualityand affordability, the officialsaid adding Drug formula-tions and Biologicals is thesecond largest Principalcommodity being exportedby India.

The Pharma exports bodyis expecting big growth inIndian vaccine exports inthe coming years and thegovernment policy on PLI(pro duct ion L inkedIncentive) scheme will alsohelp the domestic pharma to

grow by reducing importdependence and developexport potential in the daysto come as most of thecoun-tries are looking at India forAPIs ( active pharmaceuticalingredient) he said.

North America is thelargest exporting region forIndian pharmaceuticals withmore than 34 per cent share.

Country wise exports tothe US, Canada and Mexicohave recorded a growth of12.6, 30 and 21.4 per centrespectively.

South Africa being thesecond largest exportingcountry,

recorded a big jump of 28p er cent growth whi leEurope was the third largestexporting region which hasrecorded approximately 11per cent growth over previ-ous year.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Industry body FICCI has writ-ten to Chief Ministers of 25states urging them to avoidimposing partial or total lock-down in the wake of freshsurge in Covid cases.The industry body also arguedthat the economy has barelybegun to turnaround from theimpact of the earlier lock-downs and such decisions nowwill push the push the econo-my into downward spiral.

In the letter written to stateCMs by FICCI President UdayShankar, the chamber hasacknowledged the need tobreak the Covid chain but hassuggested the strategy to focusmore on ramping up covidtesting, awareness drive andenforcement of Covid appro-priate behaviour rather thanlockdown.

"The population may besensitised about the Covidappropriate behaviour likewearing masks, physical dis-tancing and personal hygiene.Support may be taken byinvolving volunteers from the

schools, colleges and theNGOs. Strict compliance toCovid protocol may beensured with suitable penaltiesfor violations," the letter states.

FICCI has represented to theUnion Government to open upthe vaccination for all the peo-ple above 18 years of age togive a massive push to the vac-cination drive as there is noshortage of vaccines and theinoculation capacity can beincreased with the participa-tion of the private sector.

The state government willhave to play a major role toencourage people to come for-

ward for vaccination and buildcapacities with the help ofprivate sector for the expectedjump in inoculation, FICCI hasurged states.

Vaccination camps in thecolonies and societies withthe help of Resident WelfareAssociations (RWAs) will alsohelp push the vaccinationdrive, the letter added.

The letter has been writtento CMs of 25 states and UTsincluding Delhi, Goa,Puducherry, West Bengal,Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan,Haryana, J&K, Odisha, Kerala,Gujarat, Assam, Tamil Nadu.

Case against lockdown:FICCI writes to 25 CMs

PNS n NEW DELHI

The operating margins ofsugar companies are likely tomoderate in FY22 due to high-er production cost and reducedexport subsidy, ratings agencyICRA said in a statement.

Besides, benefits fromimproved distillery perfor-mance was also cited by theagency as a factor that mightmoderate operating margins.

"In the medium term, thegovernment support measuresfor higher diversion of sugarfor ethanol production wouldreduce the sugar surplus andsupport in improving thedemand supply dynamics ofthe industry on a sustainablebasis," ICRA said.

As per the agency, domesticsugar production is expected toincrease by 10 per cent to 30.2million MT in SY2021 andoutstrip consumption by

around 4.2 million MT.ICRA expects sugar exports

at around 5.5 million MT sup-ported by the export policyand the closing stocks are like-ly to remain higher than nor-mative sugar stock levels of 6-6.5 million MT at around 9.5million MT for SY2021 season.

However, the stocks areexpected to be lower than theprevious season at around 11.0million MT. "Given the sugarsurplus scenario in the domes-tic market, any significantincrease in the sugar prices isruled out in the near term.However, the higher diver-sion of sugar towards ethanol

and the remunerative pricingof ethanol is expected to resultin an improved distillery per-formance in FY2022," saidSabyasachi Majumdar, SeniorVice President & Group Head,ICRA.

"This is likely to be offset bythe higher cane costs in FRP-based states, the lower recov-ery rates in UP in SY2021(despite SAP being retained atprevious year levels) resultingin higher cost of productionand the decline in the exportsubsidy by 44 per cent Y-o-Yand result in moderation ofoperating margins for sugarcompanies in FY2022."

PNS n NEW DELHI

Warning of a possible "thirdwave of Covid-19", MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray on Saturday appealedto India Inc. to make all-outpreparations to counter it rightnow and ensure it doesn't hit thestate's industry andeconomy.Urging the corporatehouses and industrialists to col-laborate with the state govern-ment to combat the current andupcoming crises, Thackeray saidIndia Inc. could contribute imme-diately by setting up Covid carefacilities on their plants andpremises and plans 'Covid-com-patible workplaces' for thefuture."Presently, the state is in direneed of oxygen, and currently theentire production is being utilisedfor medical purposes. Given thenumber of new patients comingup daily (around 60K daily), weneed a lot more oxygen for whichthe industries can help out,"Thackeray said, in an interaction

with some of the leading businesshouses and corporate groups.Health Secretary Dr. PradeepVyas said that the state is conduct-ing 3-lakh tests per million pop-ulation and though the death rateis low, the infections are very high.He requested the industries tostart setting up small oxygenplants in their premises to absorbnatural oxygen based on newtechnologies and provide theentire production (oxygen) formedical purposes. The meetingwith Thackeray was attended byleading India Inc. players likeNiranjan Hiranandani, UdayKotak, Deepak Mukhi, HarshGoenka, Naushad Forbes, SulajjaFirodia, Sameer Somaiya, S. N.Subramanian, Salil Parekh, NeelRaheja, Sanjeev Bajaj, AnantGoenka, Baba Kalyani, AnantSinghania, B. Thagarajan,Banamali Agarwal, Ashwin Yardi,Sunil Mathur, Sanjeev Singh,Ashish Agarwal, representativesof FICCI, CII and others indus-try bodies.

PNS n WASHINGTON

Two influential US lawmakershave applauded the Indiangovernment's move to increaseforeign direct investment in theinsurance sector from the exist-ing 49 per cent to 74 per cent,saying it will further deepenbilateral trade and investment.

India's Parliament lastmonth passed the InsuranceAmendment Bill 2021 toincrease the foreign directinvestment (FDI) limit in theinsurance sector. “We are veryencouraged by the inclusion ofa proposal to raise the limit onforeign direct investment in theIndian Insurance sector from49 per cent to 74 per cent,"Congressman Brad Shermanand Steve Chabot said.

"This long-awaited reformholds the promise of expand-

ing insurance coverage forIndian consumers and busi-nesses, promoting both finan-cial inclusion and economicresilience in India,” they said.

Sherman is the DemocraticCo-Chair of the House Caucuson India and IndianAmericans. Chabot is theRepublican Co-Chair of theCaucus.

In a letter to the Indian

Ambassador to the US, TaranjitSingh Sandhu, the two law-makers said that such a moveproposed in the recent annu-al budget would also increasethe availability of capital to sup-port India's ambitious infra-structure goals.

Finally, in addition toadvancing Indian economicdevelopment, this reformwould further deepen US-

India trade and investmentties at a critical moment forbilateral relations.

“Considering these bene-fits, we urge you to take allavailable steps to ensure thatthis reform is expeditiouslyimplemented law withoutrequirements that wouldundermine its efficacy and itsconsistency with internation-al norms,” the two lawmakerssaid in their letter to Sandhu.

According to Berman andChabot, given the opportuni-ty to increase their invest-ments in the Indian market, USinsurers will be able to expandtheir offerings of innovative,competitively priced insuranceproducts - serving existingdemand and stimulating newdemand - and thereby helpimprove Indian public safety,health, and security.

US lawmakers welcome India's moveto increase FDI in insurance to 74 pc

PNS n MUMBAI

Drone technology deliv-ery platform Skye AirMobility on Friday said ithas appointed formerIAF official S Vijay as itschief operating officer(COO).

Bringing on boardWing Commander (retd)S Vijay will help the com-pany accelerate its ambi-tious plans of startingdrone deliveries in thedomestic market, thefirm said in a statement.

It added that his richexperience in the field ofdrone technology willprovide strategic leader-ship to Skye Air Mobilityas the company eyesoverseas growth oppor-tunities in the dronesegment.

Skye Air namesex-IAF official S Vijay as COO

PNS n NEW YORK

NASA has picked ElonMusk's SpaceX to develop thefirst commercial lander andtake the next two US astro-nauts to the moon, the USspace agency said on Friday.

The contract is worth $2.9billion and is part of NASA'sArtemis programme, whichaims to return astronauts to themoon by 2024 as a steppingstone to the first human mis-sion to Mars, DPA newsagency reported. SpaceX hadbeen competing againstAmazon founder Jeff Bezos'private space company BlueOrigin and defence contractorDynetics. Musk tweeted"NASA Rules!!" in response tothe decision.

The SpaceX Starship, whichis designed to land on themoon, will include a spaciouscabin and two airlocks for

moonwalks, NASA said. The goal is to eventually

develop a fully reusable launchand landing system that can beused for space travel to desti-nations including the moonand Mars. The mission will seefour astronauts launched onNASA's Orion spacecraft intolunar orbit, where two of themwill transfer to the SpaceXhuman landing system fortheir final journey to themoon.The two astronauts will

explore the lunar surface foraround a week before return-ing to Earth.

They will be the first peopleto walk on the moon for morethan 50 years. At least one ofthe two will be a woman.NASA also aims to bring thefirst person of colour to themoon's surface as part of theArtemis programme.

he US brought 12 astronautsto the moon between 1969 and1972.

SpaceX wins $2.9 bn NASAcontract to build moon lander

PNS n NEW DELHI

The department for promo-tion of industry and internaltrade (DPIIT) has notifiedthe PLI scheme for ACs andLED lights and said that selec-tion of companies to avail theincentives would done to sup-port manufacturing of compo-nents which are not made inIndia presently.

It said that mere assembly offinished goods would not beincentivised and companiesinvesting in basic/core compo-nents would get a higher pri-ority.

Earlier this month, the gov-ernment approved a produc-tion linked incentive (PLI)scheme for white goods - AirConditioners (ACs) and LEDLights - with a budgetary out-

lay of Rs 6,238 crore. It will beimplemented over 2021-22 to2028-29.

According to the notifica-tion of the DPIIT, theEmpowered Group ofSecretaries chaired by CabinetSecretary will monitor thePLI scheme, undertake peri-odic review of the outgo underthe scheme, ensure uniformi-ty of all PLIs and take appro-priate action to ensure that theexpenditure is within the pre-scribed outlay.

DPIIT notifiesPLI scheme forACs, LED lights

PNS n MUMBAI

JACK&JONES has timeand again enthralledwith its quirky collec-tions, making a mark inthe fashion fraternity.Keeping up with the tra-dition, JACK&JONESannounces the mostawaited collaborationwith PAC-MAN.

J A C K & J O N E Slaunches a limited edi-tion collection withPAC-MAN. This specialcollection comprises of arange of uber-cool print-ed tee-shirts that show-case different elements ofthe game, right from thePAC-MAN logo to theflashing ghosts.

JACK&JONEStakes youdown memorylane with thePAC-MAN

Operating margins of sugar firmsexpected to moderate in '22: ICRA

Prepare for third wave:Thackeray to India Inc

PNS n NEW DELHI

ICICI Lombard GeneralInsurance Company onSaturday reported 23 per centrise in net profit at Rs 346 crorefor March quarter 2020-21.

The non-life insurer hadposted a net profit of Rs 282crore in the correspondingperiod of 2019-20.

The gross direct premiumincome (GDPI) of the compa-ny stood at Rs 3,478 crore in thequarter under review as com-pared to Rs 3,181 crore in theyear-ago period, ICICI

Lombard said in a statement.For the full year 2020-21, theprofit after tax or net profitincreased 23.4 per cent to Rs1,473 crore from Rs 1,194 crorein the preceding fiscal year.

GDPI of the company stoodat Rs 14,003 crore in last fiscalyear as compared to Rs 13,313crore in 2019-20, it said.

"Solvency ratio was 2.90x atMarch 31, 2021 as against 2.76xat December 31, 2020 andhigher than the minimum reg-ulatory requirement of 1.50x.Solvency ratio was 2.17x atMarch 31, 2020," it said.

ICICI Lombard Q4 profit

rises 23% at Rs 346 cr

sundaymagazine

98Lokas 2: What Exists Above virus gets younger

HYDERABAD, April 18, 2021

Alarm bells have reached a fever pitch with more and more COVID-19 cases beingreported in the younger segment

Stories have disseminated consciousness ofour past cultures since times immemori-al. Whether through cave paintings ororal narrations, the earliest mode of pass-ing traditions, history, customs, and ritu-

als through generations has been only throughstorytelling. Before written language was discov-ered, even certain work skills were passed fromfather to son through stories. The reason is sim-ple, anything woven into a story is unforgettable.

Storytelling is a powerful tool that has mas-sive lasting impact. When we listen to stories orread them, they boost our feelings of trust, com-passion, empathy and positively influence oursocial behaviour. Storytelling has a unique abilityto build connections. When we hear a well-toldstory, your brain reacts as if we are experiencingit ourselves. We respond to stories because theycultivate a sense of togetherness. Thus, storiesthat tell us about our past or what we have inher-ited from our ancestors make us feel, we are partof something bigger than ourselves.

WHAT IS HERITAGE? Heritage is the complete scope of inherited

traditions, monuments, objects, and culture.Most significantly, it is the range of contemporaryactivities, meanings, and behaviour that we drawfrom them. Heritage includes, but is much morethan just preserving, excavating, displaying, orrestoring a collection of old things.

Heritage is tangible as well as intangible.Monuments, artifacts, books, archived records ofevents are tangible while traditions, lifestyles andmannerisms are some of the intangible elementsthat we inherit. We can explore heritage throughexcavations, conservation, restoration and displayof concrete objects. However, history of songs,recipes, cuisine, nuances of language, dances,dress and other conventions of legacy need to beperceived and appreciated. An excellent mode ofkeeping the history of heritage alive, generationafter generation, is through stories. For what ishistory but story telling?

Let’s see how some of the palpable as well asabstract elements of heritage have benefitedthrough telling stories.

ARCHITECTUREOld forts and castles, mansions and monu-

ments are natural source for stories, myths, andtales. When I visited Chittorgarh fort, one of themyths I heard was about how the religious fer-vour of Meera Bai, the Princess of Mewar, hadkept intact her chamber in the huge palacethough the rest of the royal residence had beenflattened. Obviously, I went back and read upeverything available about the history of thepalace and fort. I discovered more such myths.

In The Pillars of the Earth, author Ken Follet

describes in great detail how a 12th centurycathedral is built. He makes a tale of its unusualarchitecture, politics and weaves civil war, famineand religious strife around it.

Bimal Mitra’s Bengali novel Saheb, Bibi,Golam made into the famous film, Sahib, BibiAur Ghulam is set in a zamindari mansion thatresonates with the culture of the period. Hisentire story is about the feudal and patriarchaltraditions which emanate from the mansion.

Another story like that is Shatranj Ke Khilariabout the nawabi culture that has been filmed inthe old palaces of Lucknow.

CUISINEAn amazing story that revolves around food,

its concoction, history and influence is LikeWater For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Tita, thetragic protagonist of the story, is only able toexpress herself when she cooks. The chapterseven carry recipes. They fascinated me and I evencooked some of them. The stories about foodgave me a wonderful view of regional cuisine.

Another book that has enamoured me is TheFlavour of Spice by Marryam H Reshi that glori-ously celebrates spices. Reading her book, Iembarked upon a delightful foray into the her-itage of Indian cooking as she traces history ofspices as far back as possible.

WAY OF LIFEReading Gone With The Wind by Margaret

Mitchell gives the reader an excellent insight intolifestyles, dresses, social customs and attitudesprevalent in southern parts of USA during theAmerican Civil War in the 1800s. The book hasbecome a reference point for scholars of thatperiod.

Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy brings usthe perfume of courtesans and old-world charmof the pre-independence period. It gives us apeep into lifestyles, notions and sentiments of abygone culture.

DRESSDramas written by playwrights such as

Shakespeare, Kalidas or Anton Chekov, whenstaged, are a feast for costume designers. Theydisplay the fashions worn during a specific peri-od in a certain parts of the world where the dra-mas are set. However, stories are created not onlyby writers but are also told by raconteurs.

When the Ramcharitra Manas or Meghdootis recited there are vivid descriptions of garments,headdresses and weapons which make themcome alive through mental visuals for the listen-ers. History and heritage of dresses come aliveonly through these descriptions. We can thencompare them and find out what of that heritagestill remains in our fashions today.

MEANS OF TRANSPORTRead Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and

we find out about chaises, stagecoaches, barouch-es, phaetons, and curricles. What about 20,000Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne to knowabout submarines or fictional wonder vehiclessuch as the muggle car from the Harry Potterseries?

Pather Panchali by written byBibhutibhushan Bandhopadhya and put on cellu-loid by Satyajit Ray shows its protagonist’s obses-sion with the train that passes his village. Sincehis only travel experience had been on a bullockcart, the speeding train enthralled him.

TRADITIONSDickens’ A Christmas Carol is a wonderful

cameo on the traditional Christmas spirit.Similarly, Sense and Sensibility by Austen profilesthe Victorian custom of older men marryingyoung girls. Emily Bronte’s novel WutheringHeights is all about how social class creates con-flicts among its characters.

Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan, JhumpaLahiri’s Namesake and The Lowlands are excellentprofiles of traditions and rituals in different partsof India. Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger givesinsights into class disparities of an India of adecade ago. Chitra Divakaruni’s Palace of Illusionstakes the reader back to the rituals of theMahabharata period of Indian history whileBefore We Visit the Goddess is about multi-gener-ational bonds, that rise from the countryside ofBengal, India and sweep into the streets ofHouston, Texas.

NUANCES OF LANGUAGEMark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

is a wonderful study of the use of dialect by dif-ferent social classes in nineteenth centuryAmerica. In fact, introducing dialect into literarywriting goes back to Chaucer. Non-standardspellings and slang are used often in literature todelineate characters and give them identity.

Evolving language is one of true measures ofheritage. Do you remember Eliza Doolittle inGeorge Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion? If only learn-ing the correct dialect could make a flower girlinto a lady of consequence, how important canlanguage be in the reconstruction of society?

Ruskin Bond often uses regional nuances anddialect to create atmosphere and build his charac-ters. Many of his stories are set in the terai of theHimalayas and his villagers often use words intheir own dialect in dialogues.

With such eminent authors to light up mypath, I have included many features of heritage inmy books to build ambience, build charactersand bring authenticity to my storytelling. In all

my historical fiction books, I create the historicalperiod through visual pen pictures of the dress,cuisine and traditions of the period and place. InThe Curse of Nader Shah, I have exposed NaderShah’s obsession with the colour red on his gar-ments and his creation of the four-cornered hat,the kulah-e-naderi. In The Legend of GenghisKhan, I have described the wide range of knivesthat the Mongols always carried on their beltsand their varied purpose. Padmavati has numer-ous regional words sprinkled across the story forthe sake of authenticity.

My latest book, The Cursed Inheritance focus-es on the city of Kolkata and its cultural nuances.The zamindari mansions that dot the cityinspired the setting of this cozy mystery inside adilapidated yet grand mansion of Kolkata, calledSarkar Bari. I describe egg concoctions beingcooked that are special to Kolkata as well as acoal stove built inside an iron pail, a commoncooking implement in Bengal.

Kolkata is one of few cities which still has thehand-pulled rickshaws. Mentioned numeroustimes in my new book, is Kolkata’s iconic vehiclethough the protagonist also empathises with theemaciated pullers and their livelihoods. I havechronicled the tradition of celebrating the festivalof Durga Puja in the mansions of old zamindarifamilies in this novel. Belief in tantric practicesand demons as guardians of treasures is one theregional features of rural Bengal which has beenexploited to the hilt.

Stories, narratives, and storytelling are centralaspects of all cultures and thus, a part of heritage.For the storytelling to become an effective propa-gator of cultural history, it must engage the listen-er or reader, and provide a narrative that is bothcognitively and emotionally compelling. Peopleare natural storytellers. They tell narratives abouttheir experiences and the meanings that theseexperiences have in their lives. All cultures andsocieties also possess their own stories or narra-tives about their past and their present, andsometimes about their view of the future. Thememories and retelling of the past provide asense of security in an uncertain world. Stories,both written and verbal, are veritable source forthis history.

Stories are a thread of timelessness that runsthrough a rapidly changing environment. Hence,stories revolving around heritage bring a specialsense of belonging and of continuity. It reducesglobal conflict and brings empathy for co-exis-tence. All said and done, storytelling is one of thedominant means of preserving heritage and pass-ing down of values and traditions that make theglobal social fabric stronger.

The writer is an author and poet. Her book,The Cursed Inheritance, has

been recently published

To move from the Bhulok to Bhuvalok(Astral Plan), from Tamas to more Rajas,

we need to work on controlling our senses

Stories are an excellent mode of keeping the history of heritage alive, writes SUTAPA BASU, as sheshares her impressions on the importance of making heritage a part of contemporary storytelling

I personally think thatif you deny something

or if you hidesomething you're

inadvertently admittingit's wrong

— Amber Heard

F R O M T H E I N S I D E

TELLING THE TALE OF HERITAGE

WE RESPOND TOSTORIES BECAUSETHEY CULTIVATE A

SENSE OFTOGETHERNESS.

THUS, STORIESTHAT TELL US

ABOUT OUR PASTOR WHAT WE HAVE

INHERITED FROMOUR ANCESTORS

MAKE US FEEL, WEARE PART OFSOMETHING

BIGGER THANOURSELVES

sundaymagazine

spirituality 8HYDERABAD, April 18, 2021

THAT MAN HAS REACHEDIMMORTALITY WHO IS

DISTURBED BY NOTHINGMATERIAL

— SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

HIDDENSOULSPRAMOD PATHAK

As the second round of Corona scare grips the worldas many had predicted, mass hysteria of gargantuanproportions seems to be building up again.

Psychologists may call this reaction a paranoia that seemsto affect large sections of the people all over the world. AndCorona is not the only worry. US is worried about the gunpurchases reaching alarming levels as a sizeable section ofAsian Americans are in some kind of an insecurity syndrome.Worry and fear are all at the top of the mind as death seemsto be lurking round the corner. The situation is eerily sim-ilar to the Corona scare round 1 suggesting that experienceis not always a good teacher. Rather, it accentuates the pastbehaviour many times over. Against this backdrop, we onceagain need to ask the same questions that were raised dur-ing the previous round. The responses are of the same trialand error nature. To add to the woes some new questionshave cropped up. Is this a different Corona? Does the vac-cine has the answer? Difficult to say but history seems to berepeating itself. As the scare mounts and the toll counts riseto alarming levels, there is a need to have a relook at the entirescenario and examine things in totality. And things may notappear to be as simple as they look. Yes, it has impacted lives,ruined families and caused death and destruction of enor-mous proportions. Yes, it has shattered economies andcrashed GDPs. But there is another side of the story. It hasraised the number of billionaires in both developed and devel-oping countries and there are some in the queue to gradu-ate to the trillionaire status. It has pushed the growth of e-commerce companies astronomically while online platformsrose in geometric proportions. Investors now realise thatputting money in Pharma stocks yields big dividends, andrather fast, even though there is no sure medicine in sight.It also threw quacks and charlatans in thousands sermon-ising on dos and don’ts on the social media. YouTube hasbecome the most handy tool for the propaganda brigade whoare delivering unsubstantiated pearls of wisdom almost atthe same pace as the speed of the spread of the virus. Quiteinterestingly the biological virus seems to have acquired traitsof computer virus. So we are told that this time the vaccineprovides immunity for some months rather than a lifetime,as it used to be earlier. The connection between computerand Corona seems interesting as there is an uncanny rela-tionship between people having stakes in computers andPharma. It is not just the medical angle. An interesting aspectis that one voice of dissent on the social media meets withsystemic campaign from troll brigade that makes sure thatsuch voices are lost in the din. That apart, there are manyintriguing aspects to ponder. But we must understand thatwhile exercising utmost caution helps us, getting scared helpsothers who have something to gain from our fear. Fear is abig industry these days and marketing negativities pushesdemand of goods and services that are often not required.Making a fast buck is seldom done through fair business.As Mario Puzo wrote in The Godfather — Behind every greatfortune there is a crime. Corona is certainly bad, but cash-ing in on Corona is rather worse.

Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com

We, human beings, are pro-grammed to fear. Why blameGod for this? What do we do

with our children? We instil disciplinein them by scaring them. This processof scaring into submission is reinforcedthroughout one’s life. If a growing childis not paying proper attention to hisstudies, his parents may paint a verydark picture of his future. Then, thereis law to be afraid of for everyone. Asa result, we are all insecure withoutexception. The thought of insecuritycomes regularly, which makes us care-ful, cautious and fearful.

In short, we are programmed to beinsecure. How else can a world with itsseven billions plus population coexist?This is the cosmic design, which is tostop us from acting irresponsibly bybeing fearful. Unknowingly, we con-tribute to instil fear in others.

This is not all, we are also pro-grammed to think that in spite of all thetalk about God, if He exists at all, willnot protect us. What good is God to usif, He will not protect us. Is our secu-rity not a major concern for us. Thisfeeling is a big factor in people not hav-ing faith in God. On the other hand, weare told that God will punish us if westray, though this is factually incorrect,because giving punishment is done bydivine authorities, based on ourbad/sinful acts. God stays away fromsuch administration of justice except inrare cases like that of Ravana. At thattime, God chooses to perform manyfunctions like re-establishing dharma.(Bhagavad Gita 4.7) This programmingis also part of the cosmic design.

There are two kinds of people inthe world — those born with predom-inantly divine and demonic qualities.(16.6) There is always friction between

them. The demonic try to cause harmto the world by their cruel acts. (16.9)Those with divine endowments are cru-cial for the proper functioning of theworld. That is why God and His divineestablishment favour them. There arethree categories of such divine souls.The first one consists of just good peo-ple, who do mostly good acts not want-ing to harm anyone.

The next or higher lot is of goodpeople, who also do public service. Forthis reason, God does intervene in theircases by protecting them by extricatingthem from harmful situations, causedby their bad acts done earlier.Remember, these souls must haveerred like the rest of us human beings.God has to help out; He does. God doesmuch more for His devotees — thehighest category He puts them in the“yogakshemam” group — (9.22). Godhelps in getting what one does not haveand provides security of what one has.This is how the two higher groups of

people are assured of not ending upbadly (6.40) or never perishing. (9.31)

So what did we learn? That the pro-gramming of being fearful or having thefeeling that God will not protect doesnot have to be permanently inched intous, it can be changed. However, thereare conditions, as mentioned earlier. Ifwe have qualified, then, we need not beso fearful or anxious; we can come tothe level of being cautious, careful, etc.,which is necessary for our own good.This is when peace descends. Oneknows in his heart that he is never aloneand helpless; God is with Him. (6.7) Heenjoys God’s protection. God is real; Heis no longer a figment of imagination.

Every time a fearful thought comesin the mind then one thinks that he isnot alone; God is with him; He will pro-tect. Gradually, the earlier program-ming will change from negative to pos-itive and life will be much better.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reachedat spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com

It is believed that it is only whenyou have suffered enough andbuilt a resolve to change, do youset an opportunity to get birthon the Bhulok or Earth. This is

supposed to be true for most of thelokas and for movement from one tothe other, either upwards or down-wards. Only the Earth dimension pro-vides the infrastructure for the rele-vant criss-cross Visas. This is theKarma loka, where there is opportu-nity to go against your nature andqualify for the better.

Higher loka beings descenddownwards often to fulfil their owncompletions and final attainments.Many gurus are obligated to take therebirth to uplift their disciples andhelp them gain completion. They doso to manipulate a change in theirgunas through example setting, moti-vation, counselling and sharing theirgyan.

The latest and one of the greatestwas the Mahaguru whose KarmaBhumi was Gurgaon and afterlifeheadquarters is Najafgarh. Whilemost prophets came with a small con-tingent of a few, he brought along hun-dreds of beings from higher lokas toaccomplish his mission.

I have in the vision state visited afew lokas but never connected the dotsand never pondered on the subject.Unfortunately my experience waslimited and though theory not mynormal choice, but in this case I hadto resort to borrowing a few pagesfrom the ancients and so thesethoughts are a mixture of my realisa-tions combined with those of others.

Before we come to our own to dolist, let us look at the ladders that standparallel to the snake. What are thehigher lokas? What qualifications arerequired? What can we do to get high-er on the ladders?

Let us imagine ourselves standingat a mid-landing of a staircase.Climbing is greater effort and needsagility. For those who like to soundprofound call it Purusharth .Technically, you cannot climb up theladder to higher lokas, you need tofloat up.

In order to move from the Bhulokor Earth plane to ‘Bhuvalok’ or ‘AstralPlane’ or from the Mooladhara Chakrato the Swadishthan Chakra, from theEarth element to the water element,from the predominantly Tamas tomore Rajas we need to work on con-trolling our senses.

Remember this is a world ruledand perceived by senses. Our sensesdo not offer us more than 5% to 10%of reality. Between the Bhuvarlok andthe Swalok or Swarg, the difference isquite huge.

At the Bhuvarlok, we have aslightly different set of off loadsbecause this is a loka of intellect, mem-ory, relationships, heroic attitudes, andemotions. On the other hand it is alsoa loka of attainment.

And then Swarlok is a placewhere you can spend your cosmic cur-rency earned and stored. It is a placeof immense pleasure and beauty.Seva leads to Swarg or beyond. It’s aplace where spiritual understandingand aspirations begin. People learndetachment and how to focus on thepurpose of the self. They also preparefor rebirth on Bhulok when spiritualassets dwindle. They get born askings and queens or administratorsand dominating personalities maybeas celebrities as well. If they are phil-anthropic and kind, they retain theirloka status. If not they catch a snakeride. If they are those who out doexpectations, the ethereal ladderappears and the ascent is in order.

The ascent is to the Anahta chakra

or the ‘Maharlok’ which lies beyondthe ‘Dhurv Tara’ or the Pole star.Mahar is the land of the wise and bal-anced with qualities of selfless service,compassion and self-love. However,inactivity and observer capability isstill one loka away. Birth on Earthcomes as teachers, reformers, saintlypeople, healers etc.

Karmas are not doable at the levelof these higher lokas. When onequalifies beyond devotion and beliefsand attains the status of knowing orGyan, one becomes an invited residentof the ‘Janalok’. In the microcosm, thisloka is at the level of the VishudhiChakra. One needs to be a sincerepractitioner of spirituality and dispas-sion to qualify for a seat here. Till youharbour emotions, don’t attain Gyanor intuitive knowledge, you can readabout this loka but not live here. Thesenses especially the sense of soundand hearing needs to be history at thispoint.

When self-respect turns to self-reverence, when one feels the justifi-cation of self-worship, one takesbirth, if and when one needs, onBhulok as a spiritual leader and anaspirant to a higher loka. WhenDuality becomes an amalgam andwisdom hands the baton to observer-ship or Sakshibhav, one gets catapult-ed to the ‘Tapalok’. This is the loka ofDivya Bhakti and reflection of oneselfas divinity. You cease to be judgemen-tal and identify as one with the uni-versal consciousness. As this is a placeof the third eye in the body, one hasstarted the journey to shift con-sciousness.

There are 3 centres between theTapalok and the Satyalok. Above theAjna Chakra are 3 chakras includingthe Sahasra, the location for finalemancipation.

It is believed that above theSatyalok are lokas like Vaikunth,Goloka, Shivalok etc. It is possible thatthe Bhramlok and these are paralleland variable due to the inherentnature the being has evolved into.

Gurudev once shared with me inconfidence that when we die in ourafterlife, we have to first pass throughthe Dhruv Tara or the pole star to getto where we belong. He also men-tioned that we come across crossroads,and at these crossroads, one side hasvery bare looking places, while theother has very aesthetically lovelylooking places. And he warned thatthe bare ones are the higher ones, andwe should avoid getting stuck due toour sense of sight.

So choose wisely in this life andin your afterlife.

The writer is the author of Hingori Sutrasseries of spiritual books

Corona: Fearis the key

LOKAS 2: WHAT EXISTS ABOVE

We are programmedThe programming of fear, or that God is not there to protect us,can be changed through faith, writes AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

In order to move from the Bhulok to Bhuvalok (Astral Plan), from Tamas tomore Rajas, we need to work on controlling our senses, writes HINGORI

In the hollow emptiness within, a darkpassage to seemingly nowhere, I searchfor myself, or perhaps dismiss myself in

the perfect burial ground that one’s con-sciousness could serve. The more inward Ilook, the more beyond me the vision wantsto travel. Whereto, if not Krishna’s feet orthe sound of His Flute that beckons manyhearts. The outcome is peace when I treadwith faith, and frustration when I digress toalleys not in His name. That alternatingpeace and frustration is because I amhuman. In that lies both my hope and dis-appointment.

Why Krishna, and not simply empti-ness? Buddhist proponents may argue. Or,another name to fill the void such as Jesusor Mohammed, that few minority religiousminds in India might be provoked to ask. Inraising those questions, the adult mindremains minor. For all of us, whether inyour heart or mine, are trying to fill thevoid with energy. In my case, it is Krishnaenergy. The big personal journey insidewould be best served without the myopiclens of religion, and instead with an intu-itive eye of the seeker. It is in Krishna con-sciousness that this pen flows.

“Among the mountains, I am theHimalayas.” said He.

We are all trying to climb successivepeaks that we see. Any relative comparisonamong the peers is useless. Glorious peaksfor a few could be futile plateaus for others.Within us those subjectively defined heightsare measured and more importantly, aclimbing process where life is felt and lived.

I saw the peak of a woman, and in hertrue love, my elixir. The energy that flowsin true love is the same, whether it is forGod or a person. If I could not be con-sciously in God’s love round the clock, thenI needed her love. May be, through her loveonly, could I hope to reach the higherrealms in my spiritual world that was con-

ceived from His Flute.Indeed, from atop that peak, one of love

and not marriage, I saw Krishna more rele-vant. So, I decided to talk to Him throughmy writings, in a more inspired version ofmyself and in His own language of creation.In humility, I called my spirit to drop ink onpaper floor. Then, with abandon, I dancedupon it. Krishna must be merry in the heav-ens too.

As I wrote in my book, ConversationsWith My Love: Creativity is God. In it, wefind ourselves; His scheme, how he fulfills;Promises He makes, Ours’ that He keeps;Many through progeny, follow the creativepath; I found other way, I came to write.

Another peak climbed, and yet not highenough. Krishna was not always there tokeep me drowned or submerged in Him. Hehad not yet granted me that fortune.

“Krishna, wither those clouds, that hidethe next peak, and not my limbs,” said I,and continued, “before I leave my pot ofearth behind, present yourself Master.”

“Climbing shall not end. Know this,that with every step of yours howsoevermade, I will make one towards you.”Replied the Master.

In that leap of faith I continued. Theonly glimmer of light in the dark passagewithin. The light of Krishna energy, that Inurtured from emptiness, dropping off allthat was useless in the climb towards thenext peak.

I conjured up Krishna’s idol of white,spotless marble. Ganges flowed down Hisentire length and out through the door thatmy soul had opened. “It is my birthday,mate,” said He, “of your Venusian heart, tellme which void shall I fill?”

My Lord, in your presence, and whenyour eyes meet mine, there is no void any-more. The ocean fills all empty spaces. Onlydepths remain unexplored, now that I havetaken the dive. Call the mermaid with YourFlute and ask her to pull me deeper.

The writer is the author of book,Conversations With My Love

IN KRISHNA’S LOVE

IT IS BELIEVED THATABOVE THE

SATYALOK ARE LOKASLIKE VAIKUNTH,

GOLOKA, SHIVALOKETC. IT IS POSSIBLE

THAT THE BHRAMLOKAND THESE AREPARALLEL AND

VARIABLE DUE TOTHE INHERENT

NATURE THE BEINGHAS EVOLVED INTO

Each one of us, whether in heart or mind, is trying to fill the voidwith energy. In my case, it is Krishna energy, says RAJIV KAPOOR

special 09HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | APRIL 18, 2021

The unexplained COVID related deathsin children less than one has rungalarm bells all around the globe. Tomake things even worse, a heartwrenching video of a woman from

Brazil, who lost her toddler to COVID becauseof the late diagnosis is enough to give you a peekinto how alarming the situation really is.

Hospitals full, ICU wards on waiting list andoxygen cylinders running off the shelves, the trau-matic situation has left people in distress.Finding a bed in hospital has become a stroke ofluck. There’s nothing else we could imagine withthe nation witnessing not less than 2,00,000 casesa day in the second wave of COVID.

And in the middle of all this chaos, the dev-astating fact is more and more children are test-ing positive, as compared to last year, and withincreased complications. This has been a causeof worry for parents, who took a sigh of reliefthinking that their young ones are immune to thevirus. But, experts say this was never the case.Though the positivity rate was extremely low, thatwas mainly because of children being asympto-matic.

“This has been a wrong perception. Childrenwere never immune. They were asymptomatic.However, their caseload was relatively low, it ishard to speculate why at the moment,” Dr SisirPaul, Director and Head of Department ofPediatrics, Madhukar Rainbow Children'sHospital, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, tells you.

With the studies still being at a nascent stage,doctors attribute the mutated strain as one of themain reasons of the high positivity rate in chil-dren. Not to mention complacency also has a roleto play.

“There’s no denying that people have becomecomplacent. However, we speculate that themutated strain is the reason behind the increasedpositivity rate. We can’t say whether children wereimmune, but yes cases were relatively low. Lastyear, we were working with 50 per cent capaci-ty, but now it is full,” Dr Praveen Khilnani,Director — Pediatric Critical Care, SeniorConsultant Pediatric Critical Care &Pulmonology, Madhukar Rainbow Children'sHospital, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi, says.

The silver lining, however, is that the mor-tality rate in the young people is less than 10 percent. And children, specifically, are experiencingnot-so-severe symptoms. “Children are oftenexperiencing fever, cough and cold, sore throat,body ache and, in some cases, faster breathing.The recovery rate, fortunately, is between eightand 10 days,” Khilnani tells you.

However, there is a varied picture now withthis episode of the disease. The common symp-toms have changed and children are now report-ing gastrointestinal issues. “We have seen caseswhere some children are reporting diarrhoea andvomiting, with no fever or cold. The clinical pic-ture has changed. Even children as young as oneare symptomatic now. To know the exact reason,it will require a lot more detail, but on the faceof it, yes mutations have taken place and can bethe reason behind the increase in cases,” Paulexplains.

He adds that the hospital hasn’t reported anycasualties in children yet, but the situationaround the globe is worse. “We have been for-tunate enough to have seen moderate cases. Somerequired ICU, but ventilators were nowhere in thescenario. This gives a ray of hope. However, hav-ing said that the situation is grim. Events like elec-tions, malls and theatres opening up and KumbhMela hold a possibility to become the reservoirsof the virus. Given such a hard situation, we can’tafford to put down our guards,” Paul says.

While many doctors doesn’t suggest mask-ing up children below the age of five, what can’tbe compromised at any cost is following all theother precautions. “Avoid outside contact. Don’tlet your relatives visit you, more so if you havetoddlers at home. Don’t call several house helps.Meet and greet sessions can wait, COVID won’t.Be on optimum guard. If you see any symptoms,self-isloate, even if its normal flu. Since, there hasbeen a change in weather, children may fall sick.However, don’t ignore the symptoms, think of itas COVID,” Paul opines.

Dr Sumit Gupta, Pediatrician, Columbia AsiaHospital, Ghaziabad, agrees with Paul and saysthat the surge in cases might be because of themutant virus.

“We have received around 50 per cent rise incases of COVID in children since the end ofMarch and more than half of them show symp-toms. More than 60 per cent of all OPD cases inchildren are suspected COVID. There is an acuterise in number especially in Ghaziabad. The factthat more children are getting infected in thiswave of the disease may have to do with the muta-tions in the virus, which has brought in manychanges in the disease and its manifestations thistime. Since many children are showing symptoms,we have to closely monitor them if they developmultisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C)and toxic syndrome, which may happen in severecases,” Gupta tells you.

Experts tell you that MIS-C is a post-COVID complication that can result in swellingof joints, rashes, fever, diarrhoea and bloodshoteyes in children.

“About 50 per cent children that have beenadmitted to our hospital has, at least, one adultin the family who have tested positive. It is veryrare that a child alone has tested positive. So, itis not the children, but their family members whogot infected first. But having said that, kids havebeen, unknowingly, spreaders of the virus.Because until last year they were mostly asymp-tomatic,” Khilnani tells you.

Several data collected from a Chinese studyof Covid-19 in children has confirmed that morethan half of the children participated in the sur-vey showed mild symptoms of fever, cough, sorethroat, runny nose, body aches and sneezing;while around a third showed signs of pneumo-nia, with frequent fever, a productive cough andwheeze but without the shortness of breath anddifficulty breathing as seen in more severe cases.

Dr Manish Mannan, HOD — Paediatrics &Neonatology, Paras Hospitals, Gurugram, tells youthat contrary to the prior belief with the risingcases it is clear that the amount of infection in chil-dren is the same as in adults. “It’s just that whenthey do get the infection they get much mildersymptoms. Children are predominantly affectedin their upper airways so they get cold-like symp-

toms. The perception that children are lessaffected as compared to adults is also because ofthe fact that the virus needs a protein on the sur-face of a cell (a receptor) to get into the inside ofa cell and start causing problems. A report fromBBC stated that the Coronavirus seems to use theAngiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE-2)receptor for infecting others. It may be that thechildren have less ACE-2 receptors in theirlower airways (lungs) than in their upper airways,which is why it is their upper airways that are pre-dominantly affected, causing less severe issues inthem. With that being said, the amount of infec-tion in children has risen considerably as com-pared to the first wave but is still not same as thatin adults presently,” Mannan tells you.

Another scary fact is the reports that suggest

children under the age of one might be at a high-er risk of severe illnesses with COVID.

“Toddlers may be at a higher risk of suffer-ing from severe illnesses because of the imma-ture immune systems. There are chances that theymight develop breathing issues. However, as it isbeing said, it is too early for us to make a state-ment,” Gupta says.

In the absence of a proven vaccine for chil-dren, experts emphasise on the fact that there’snothing much one can do except for followingthe guidelines laid out by the Government.

While, it is not recommended for childrenbelow five to wear masks, the World HealthOrganisation suggest children who are in generalgood health can wear a non-medical or fabricmask, if at all. This provides source control, mean-ing it keeps the virus from being transmitted toothers if they are infected and are not aware thatthey are infected. The adult who is providing themask should ensure the fabric mask is the cor-rect size and sufficiently covers the nose, mouthand chin of the child.

Children with underlying health conditionssuch as cystic fibrosis, cancer or immunosup-pression, should, in consultation with theirmedical providers, wear a medical mask. A med-ical mask controls spreading of the virus and pro-tection to the wearer, and is recommended foranyone who is at higher risk of getting serious-ly ill from COVID-19.

“The only advice to the families is to stay backhome and bring back the guard. Even for theolder patients who have been vaccinated, we urgethem to keep on following the precautionsbecause vaccine alone won’t help. You have to beon optimum guard anyway,” Khilnani says.

VIRUS GETS YOUNGERAlarm bells have reached a fever pitch with more and more COVID-19 cases

being reported in the younger segment, with fatalities. MUSBA HASHMI talks todoctors and experts to see what can be done

GOLDEN RULES n Keep children indoors

n If an elder tests positive, makesure he isolates himself

n Avoid inviting your relatives toyour place

n Mask, sanitiser and socialdistancing still holds as much

importance, even if you arevaccinated

n Avoid taking children out to play,even if you do make sure yourchild doesn’t mix with otherchildren

n Eat healthy and fresh food

IT IS A WRONGPERCEPTION. CHILDRENWERE NEVER IMMUNE.THEY WERE, IN FACT,

ASYMPTOMATIC.HOWEVER, THE CASELOAD

LAST YEAR WASRELATIVELY LOW. IT IS

HARD TO SPECULATE WHYAT THE MOMENT

— DR SISIR PAUL,

DIRECTOR & HEAD OF

DEPARTMENT — PEDIATRICS,

MADHUKAR RAINBOW CHILDREN'S

HOSPITAL, MALVIYA NAGAR,

NEW DELHI

Half of the eightworkers shot todeath at an

Indianapolis FedEx facility by a for-mer employee before he killed him-self belonged to the Sikh religiouscommunity, leading an advocacygroup to urge a probe of possible racialor ethnic hatred as a factor.

Law enforcement officials saidFriday they have yet to determine whatmotivated the gunman, 19-year-old Brandon Hole, whowas white, to carryout Thursdayn i g h t ’ sr a m -

page, at aFedEx operations center

near Indianapolis InternationalAirport.

The attack in Indiana's state capital,the third most populous city in theMidwest, was the latest in a spate of atleast seven deadly mass shootings inthe United States over the past month.

It came a little over a year after Holewas briefly placed under psychiatricdetention by police when his motherreported her concerns that he was con-templating "suicide by cop," accordingto the FBI. A shotgun was

seized fromhis home.FBI agents who inter-

viewed the teenager lastApril found no criminalviolation at the time anddetermined he possessedno "racially motivated vio-lent extremism ideology,"said Paul Keenan, specialagent in charge of the FBI'sIndianapolis field office.

But the New York-based SikhCoalition, a civil rights advocacygroup, called for a full investigationinto "the possibility of bias as factor"in the FedEx killings.

Four members of the Sikh faith- three women and a man -

were among thedead in

Thursday night’s shooting spree, andat least one Sikh individual waswounded, said Gurinder Singh Khalsa,a businessman and leader of the localSikh community who said he wasbriefed by victims’ families.

Singh Khalsa also told Reuters themajority of employees at the FedEx siteare Sikhs, whose religion originated inthe Punjab region of the Indian sub-continent.

He said the FedEx center wasknown for hiring older members of the

local Sikh community who did notnecessarily speak fluent English.

The Sikh Coalition's exec-utive director, Satjeet

Kaur, said more than8,000 Sikh-

Americans livein Indiana.

scopekaleid backpage HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | APRIL 18, 2021

The global Covid-19 deathtoll passed three million onSaturday as the pandemic

continues to speed up despitevaccination campaigns, leadingcountries like India to imposenew lockdowns to fightspiralling infection numbers.It is the latest grim milestoneafter the novel coronavirussurfaced in central China inDecember 2019 and went on toinfect more than 139 millionpeople, leaving billions moreunder crippling lockdowns andravaging the global economy.An average of more than12,000 deaths were recordedglobally every day in the pastweek, shooting the overall tollpast three million at around0830 GMT on Saturday,according to an AFP tally.For comparison, three millionpeople is more than thepopulation of Jamaica orArmenia, and three times thedeath toll of the Iran-Iraq warwhich raged from 1980-1988.And the pandemic is showingno sign of slowing down: the

829,596 new infectionsreported worldwide on Friday isthe highest number yet,according to AFP's tally.The daily average of 731,000cases registered over the lastweek is also close to being arecord.India's capital New Delhi wentinto a weekend lockdownSaturday as the world'ssecond-most populous nationrecorded 234,000 new casesand 1,341 deaths.

India now has three times thedaily cases of the UnitedStates, the world's worst-hitnation, and families areclamouring for drugs andhospital beds.Hopes that South Asiancountries might have seen theworst of the pandemic havebeen dashed, with Indiarecording over two million newcases this month alone andBangladesh and Pakistanimposing new shutdowns.

PNS n ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN

Two Russian cosmonauts anda NASA astronaut toucheddown Saturday on the steppeof Kazakhstan following ahalf-year mission on theInternational Space Station,footage broadcast by theRussian space agency showed.

Russia's Sergei Ryzhikovand Sergei Kud-Sverchkov aswell as NASA's Kate Rubinslanded on barren land at 0455

GMT around 150 kilometres(90 miles) southeast of thetown of Zhezkazgan.

The Soyuz descent modulecarring the trio landed uprightafter descending through acloudless sky on a fine springday in central Kazakhstan, aRoscosmos TV commentatorconfirmed.

Molecular biologist Rubins,42, and former military pilotRyzhikov, 46, are completingtheir second missions in space

having both made their ISSdebuts following launches inJuly and October of 2016respectively.

Kud'-Sverchkov, 39, anoth-er ex-military man, is complet-ing his first mission.

For the last decade, thepopulation of the space stationhas typically varied betweenthree and six as crews thatblasted off from Russia'sBaikonur cosmodrome inKazakhstan came and went.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk'sSpaceX last year broke themonopoly that Russia andBaikonur had held on mannedlaunches since the mothballingof the US shuttle programmein 2011, beginning a newchapter of spaceflight from USsoil.

As a result the number ofcrew on board will reach 11next week with the arrival ofNASA's SpaceX Crew-2 mis-sion.

After more than adecade of experiment-ing, a trio of Malaysian

farmers say they have foundthe right concoction of nutri-ents and treatments to suc-cessfully grow Japanesemuskmelons, one of theworld’s most expensive fruits.

The farmers at Malaysiancompany Mono PremiumMelon regularly rub the mel-ons with a soft cloth or glove,a practice called "tama-fuki"said to enhance their flavour,and play classical music overspeakers in the greenhouses,which is believed to stimulategrowth.

"Every single Japanesemelon that you see in our

farm is almost like an art-piece," said Seh Cheng Siang,

director and co-founder ofMono, at the company's farmin Malaysia's administrativecapital Putrajaya.

Since the last century,farmers in Japan have beenperfecting the art of cultivat-ing these melons, which areprized for their taste andprecise spherical shape, andare sold in high-end shops asluxury items.

In attempting to matchthis quality, the farmers havehad to contend withMalaysia's hot and humidtropical climate, a world awayfrom the more temperateconditions in Japan.

Double-masking can bepotent to protect people

Coronavirus deaths cross a staggering 3 mn globally

PNS n HAVANA

Raul Castro confirmedhe was handing over theleadership of the all-powerfulCuban Communist Party to ayounger generation at its congressthat kicked off on Friday, ending sixdecades of rule by himself and olderbrother Fidel.

In a speech opening the four-day event,Castro, 89, said the new leadership were partyloyalists with decades of experience working theirway up the ranks and were "full of passion and anti-imperialist spirit."

Castro had said at the last party congress in 2016it would be the last one led by the "historic generation"who fought in the Sierra Maestra to topple a U.S.-backeddictator in the 1959 leftist revolution. He already hand-ed over the presidency to protege Miguel Diaz-Canel, 60,in 2018.

The congress is the party's most important meeting, heldevery five years to review policy and fix leadership.

"I believe fervently in the strength and exemplary nature

and comprehension of my compatriots, and aslong as I live I will be ready with my foot in thestirrups to defend the fatherland, the revolutionand socialism," Castro told hundreds of partydelegates gathered at a convention center inHavana.

The congress is a closed-door event butexcerpts are being broadcast on state television.

Castro, who launched a raft of social and eco-nomic reforms to open up Cuba after inherit-ing the leadership from Fidel in 2008, hailedDiaz-Canel as one of the new generation of lead-

ers. Castro's olive green military fatiguescontrasted with the civil get-up of hisprotege, who is widely expected tosucceed him as party first secre-tary, the most powerful positionin Cuba's one-party system.

PNS n WASHINGTON

A new study by theUniversity of North CarolinaHealth Care shows that wear-ing two face coverings cannearly double the effective-ness of filtering out SARS-CoV-2-sized particles, pre-venting them from reachingthe wearer's nose and mouthand causing COVID-19.

The findings published inJAMA Internal Medicine alsostates that the reason for theenhanced filtration is notabout adding too many lay-ers of cloth but eliminatingany gaps or poor-fitting areasof a mask.

"The medical proceduremasks are designed to havevery good filtration potentialbased on their material, butthe way they fit our faces isn'tperfect," said Emily Sickbert-Bennett, PhD, associate pro-fessor of infectious diseases atthe UNC School of Medicineand lead author of the study.

To test the fitted filtration

efficiency (FFE) of a range ofmasks, UNC researchersworked with James Samet,PhD, and colleagues in theUSEPA Human StudiesFacility on the campus ofUNC-Chapel Hill. Therethey filled a 10-foot by 10-foot stainless-steel exposurechamber with small salt par-ticle aerosols and hadresearchers don combina-tions of masks to test howeffective they were at keep-ing particles out of theirbreathing space.

Each individual mask orlayered mask combinationwas fitted with a metal sam-ple port, which was attachedto tubing in the exposurechamber that measured theconcentration of particlesentering the breathing spaceunderneath the researcher'smask. A second tube mea-sured the ambient concentra-tion of particles in the cham-ber. By measuring particleconcentration in the breath-ing space underneath the

mask compared to that in thechamber, researchers deter-mined the FFE.

"We also had theresearchers in the chamberundergo a series of range-of-motion activities to simulatethe typical motions a personmay do throughout theirday -- bending at the waist,talking, and looking left,right, up and down," saidPhillip Clapp, PhD, aninhalation toxicologist in theUNC School of Medicinewho has been testing maskFFE with Sickbert-Bennettsince the pandemic began.

According to their find-ings, the baseline fitted filtra-tion efficiency (FFE) of amask differs from person toperson, due to each person'sunique face and mask fit. Butgenerally, a procedure maskwithout altering the fit isabout 40-60 per cent effec-tive at keeping COVID-19-sized particles out. A clothmask is about 40 per centeffective.

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Singer and actress JenniferLopez and former New YorkYankees baseball star Alex

Rodriguez called off their engage-ment because “we are better asfriends,” announcing the breakupon Thursday just months afterdenying their four-year relationshipwas on the rocks.

“We have realized we are betteras friends and look forward toremaining so," Lopez, 51, alsoknown by her nickname J.Lo, andRodriguez, 45, known as A-Rod,said in a joint statement.

"We will continue to worktogether and support each other onour shared businesses and projects,”Lopez and Rodriguez said.

One of the biggest celebrity cou-ples in the United States for the pastfour years and sometimes known inthe media as J-Rod, Lopez andRodriguez said they would largelyremain mum about the split out of respect for their children fromprevious relationships.

“We wish the best for each other and one anoth-er’s children. Out of respect for them,the only other comment wehave to say is thankyou to

everyone who has sent kind wordsand support,” Lopez and Rodriguezsaid.

In March, they denied reportsthey had split, saying they were"working through some things."

At the time, celebrity websiteTMZ, the New York Post's Page Sixand multiple entertainment sitescited unidentified sources close to thecouple as saying the pair had calledoff their engagement.

Rodriguez and the "Love Don'tCost a Thing" singer, who sang at U.S.President Joe Biden's inauguration inJanuary, began dating in early 2017and announced their engage-ment in March 2019.

Celebrity couple J.Lo and A-Rod split,saying “WE ARE BETTER AS FRIENDS”

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CASTRO ERA IN CUBATO END AS RAUL CONFIRMS

HE'S RETIRING