c m y k c m y k

Vol. 84 No. 129 Established 1938 | 20 PAGES | `6.00deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews, twitter.com/deccanchronicle

TABLOIDFilm hosp. set givento Covid facility

Hamilton winsSpanish GP

Scotland renewsindependence call

WORLD|10 SPORTS|12

COUNTER POINT

Max: 38.5OCMin: 26.4OC RH: 32%Rain: Nil

Forecast: Rain very likelyin evening. Max/Min

temp. 38/26ºC

WEATHER

ASTROGUIDEPlava; Uttarayana

Tithi: Chaitra Bahula Chaturdasitill 9.56 pm

Star: Ashwini till 8.25 pmVarjyam: 3.56 pm to 5.44 pm

Durmuhurtam: 12.38 pm to 1.29 pm; 3.11 pm to 4.02 pmRahukalam: 7.30 am to 9 am

HIJRI CALENDARRamzan 27,1442 AH

PRAYERSFajar: 4.40 am

Zohar: 12.22 pmAsar: 4.40 pm

Maghrib: 6.44 pmIsha: 7.57 pm

SUNSET TODAY 6.39 PMSUNRISE TOMORROW 5.47 AM

MOONRISE TOMORROW 4.16 AMMOONSET TODAY 4.46 PM

IFTAR: 6.44 PM (TODAY) SEHRI: 4.17 AM (TOMORROW)

RAMZAN TIMINGS

SHORT TAKES

Aussie borders toshut indefinitely

Melbourne: AustralianPrime Minister ScottMorrison on Sunday

announced that the coun-try’s borders will remain

closed indefinitely for therest of the world to protect

Australians from Covid-19strains. Only citizens and

permanent residents havebeen allowed to enter thecountry under some strict

Covid-19 border rules.

Nirav plea: UKjudge to decide

London: Fugitive diamondmerchant Nirav Modi,

whose extradition to Indiawas ordered in April by UKHome Secretary Priti Patel,filed an application for per-

mission to appeal againstthe order in the High Court

in London. The CrownProsecution Service con-

firmed an appeal was lodg-ed but a HC judge who willmake a decision on the ma-

tter is yet to be assigned.

China probedweaponising CV

London/Melbourne:Chinese military scientistsinvestigated weaponisingCoronaviruses five yearsbefore the Covid-19 and

may have predicted aWorld War III fought with

biological weapons,according to reports refer-

ring to documents obtainedby US State Department.The documents show thePLA commanders making

the sinister prediction.

Saudi calls for Indo-Pak talks

Islamabad: Saudi Arabiaemphasised the importance

of dialogue betweenPakistan and India to

resolve outstanding mat-ters, including Kashmir.

Pakistan Foreign Office onSaturday night released ajoint statement between

Pakistan and Saudi Arabiaafter Prime Minister ImranKhan held high-level talks

with Crown PrinceMohammad bin Salman.

THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIAHYDERABAD I MONDAY I 10 MAY 2021

Himanta is Assam CM,Central job for Sonowal Sarma stakes claim, to take oath today; AJP backs choiceMANOJ ANANDGUWAHATI, MAY 9

Senior BJP leaderHimanta Biswa Sarma,who was unanimouslyelected as the leader of theBJP Legislature Partyhere on Sunday, is all setto take the oath of office asAssam’s next ChiefMinister on Monday.

Union agriculture minis-ter and BJP centralobserver Narendra SinghTomar made thisannouncement inGuwahati on Sunday,after earlier asking hisparty’s legislators to pro-pose any other name ifthey wished.

“J.P. Nadda has sent meand Arun Singh to felici-tate and conduct this meet-ing to choose the nextchief minister for Assam.Sarbananda Sonowal andother leaders proposed asingle name — HimanataBiswa Sarma. Sarma willbe the next Chief Ministerof Assam,” Tomar said atthe BJP legislature partymeeting.

Sarma will take the oath

on Monday as the 15thChief Minister of Assam.

Earlier, Sarma’s namewas proposed by outgoing

Chief Minister Sarbana-nda Sonowal and secondedby BJP state party chiefRanjeet Kumar Dass and

newly elected HaflongMLA Nandita Garlosa.The AGP legislature party,which held a meetingSunday, also announcedthat it would support theleader elected by the BJPlegislature party.

On Sunday evening,Sarma met AssamGovernor Jagdish Mukhiand formally staked claimto forming the new gov-ernment.

Earlier Sunday, Sonowaltendered his resignationto the Governor, who asper tradition asked him tocontinue in office till theformation of the next gov-ernment.

While there is nothingknown officially yet onwhat Sonowal will bedoing next, there is consid-erable speculation herethat he may be elected tothe Rajya Sabha soon, andsources say that he istipped for a berth in theUnion Cabinet.

The state administrationhas started preparationsfor the oath taking cere-mony at SankardevKalakshetra.

BJP’s Chief Minister-designate Himanta Biswa Sarma(left) being greeted by former Assam CM SarbanandaSonowal after being elected the party’s LegislatureParty leader in Guwahati on Monday. — PTI

Deploy 50,000 MBBS gradstemporarily, suggests KCRDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

In a bid to give a much-needed break to thefatigued medical andhealth staff in the state,Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao onSunday directed officialsto make use of the servicesof 50,000 odd MBBS gradu-ates for a brief period oftwo to three months.

The Chief Minister alsodirected the financedepartment to immediate-ly release the pending `28crore because of which thetwo superspecialty hospi-tals, one each in Warangaland Adilabad, remainedincomplete for more thana year now.

Of the `300 crore allocat-ed for both the hospitals,the Centre gave a grant of`240 crore but the stategovernment could not pro-vide its matching grant tillnow.

The equipment waslying idle and though ITminister K.T. Rama Raoannounced the issue oforders releasing `30 croreto Adilabad RIMS sometime back, the financedepartment is yet toarrange the funds.

The Chief Ministerinstructed officials to takeimmediate measures toappoint 729 staff in boththe hospitals put together.

Chandrashekar Rao helda review on Covid-19 con-tainment operations atPragati Bhavan withMinisters T. Harish Raoand E. Dayakar Rao alongwith Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar and othersenior state officials.

Significantly, the offi-cials informed the ChiefMinister of the availabili-ty of adequate oxygen andremdesivir injections inthe state. They said 7,393beds are available in gov-

ernment hospitals, includ-ing 2,470 beds fitted withoxygen supply and 600with ventilators.

■ Page 3: Weightage to begiven in govt jobs

7 die due to lack ofoxygen in Koti hosp.SANJAY SAMUEL PAUL I DCHYDERABAD, MAY 9

At least seven Covid-19patients at the King KotiHospital, a dedicatedCovid facility of the stategovernment, were fearedto have lost their livesfrom lack of adequate oxy-gen supply on Sunday.

The oxygen tank at thehospital began showinglow pressure starting 3 pmon Sunday. An oxygentanker truck that was toarrive by then to refill thehospital tank was delayedas the driver reportedlylost his way near Jadc-herla.

As panic spread over thenon-arrival of the tanker,the Narayanguda policegot into the act, traced thetruck and guided the dri-ver to the hospital.

By then, the drop in thepressure in the oxygenlines at the hospital led toseven patients losing theirlives.

Narayanguda inspectorG. Bhupati said the tankerreached the hospitalaround 3.30 pm.

According to some hospi-tal staff, four Covid-19patients died in the ICU Award, two in ICU B, whilethe seventh patient whowas in the male isolationward also succumbed asthe pressure in the oxygenline dropped.

The dead included fourpatients who were agedbetween 35 and 45 years, itwas learnt. A policemanon duty at the hospitalalso said that seven peoplewere believed to have losttheir lives on account ofpoor oxygen supply.

■ Page 3: Attendantsrushed to get cylinders

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

The eight lions in theNehru Zoological Park inthe city that contractedCovid-19 and are on thepath to recovery, have alsobeen battling nematodeinfestation in their guts forquite some time, due to theextremely polluted waterin the Mir Alam Tank abut-ting the zoo, that flowsthrough the Lion SafariPark and other areas of thezoo before exiting thepremises through a nala.

It may be recalled thatthe eight lions in the safari

park in the zoo caughtCovid-19 in April lastweek, becoming the firstwild animals in India,albeit in captivity, to havecontracted the disease andbecoming the first suchknown cases in the coun-try.

Though the lions in thesafari park area of the zooare provided with cleandrinking water in saucerpits, often they also con-sume some of the waterfrom Mir Alam Tank thatflows through their enclo-sure.

This has been resultingin them needing to be

dewormed at regular inter-vals, something that couldhave contributed to theiroverall well-being.

Director of Zoos inTelangana, Dr SidhanandKukrety said, “We havebeen giving the lions

deworming medication,just like people give totheir pets.” The impact ofthe highly polluted MirAlam Tank water that isstrongly laced with sewageand other industrialwastes, is such that thelions in the safari parkneed to be dewormed atleast one in two weeks.

“The frequency ofdeworming for lions in thesafari park is higher thanthose in some other enclo-sures in the zoo for otheranimals,” he said.

It is not just the repeateddeworming of the lions inthe safari park that now

plagues the zoo. After thelast rains when Mir AlamTank water overflowedinto the zoo, a large pondnear the safari area sawwater hyacinth infestationtoo. The zoo officials arenow working to remove thehyacinth to preserve thewater quality of the pond.

Dr Kukrety said that zooofficials and staff are keep-ing constant watch on ani-mals that might be exposedto the Mir Alam Tankwater and are providingthe required treatment tothe animals as preventivemeasures to stop themfrom falling sick.

Mir Alam water makes lions sick in zooBig cats in Safari Park routinely need deworming after drinking tank waterUNENDING | PLIGHT

Gov. allows CBI charges onfour Trinamul ex-ministers

2 first-time BJP MPs skipswearing-in as WB MLAsRAJIB CHOWDHURI | DCKOLKATA, MAY 9

Two first-time BJP MPs,who also contested andwon the Assembly elec-tion in West Bengal, havenot taken their oath asMLAs apparently in fearof losing their berths inthe Lok Sabha. They areNishith Pramanik andJagannath Sarkar.

Their unexpected move,that has raised eyebrowswithin the BJP, came at atime chief minister

Mamata Banerjee’s pro-tege-turned-adversarySuvendu Adhikari hasemerged as a strong con-tender for the post of theLeader of the Opposition,racing ahead of anotherfrontrunner, Mukul Roy,the national vice-presi-dent of the party.

While Mr Pramanik isan MP of Cooch Behar inNorth Bengal, Mr Sarkaris an MP of Ranaghat inNadia. Fielded along withthree other MPs — BabulSupriyo, a Union minis-

ter, Locket Chatterjee andSwapan Dasgupta — bytheir party in theAssembly polls, MrPramanik won fromDinhata in the district andMr Sarkar was elected atRanaghat while the otherthree lost.

They were, however,conspicuous by theirabsence at the oath-takingceremony for MLAs in theAssembly on May 7.

■ Page 2: Speculations rifeabout intention of MPs

DC CORRESPONDENTKOLKATA, MAY 9

West Bengal governorJagdeep Dhankhar hasgiven his “sanction forprosecution” to theCentral Bureau of Invest-igation to chargesheetfour former TrinamulCongress Cabinet minis-ters — Firhad Hakim,Subrata Mukherjee,Madan Mitra and SovanChatterjee — in the high-profile Narada sting oper-ation case.

Interestingly, except forMr Chatterjee, the otherheavyweights contestedand won the Assemblyelection this time, becom-

ing MLAs again. Amongthem, Mr Hakim and MrMukherjee are also due totake the oath from MrDhankhar as Cabinet min-isters, among a list of 43for the swearing-in cere-mony at Raj Bhavan onMonday morning.

It is pertinent to notethat the rules require theinvestigating agencies toseek the permission ofboth the governor and theAssembly Speaker for theprosecution of state minis-ters and MLAs respective-ly.

In this case, the CBI hadnot sought permissionfrom the outgoingSpeaker, who holds the

post till a new Speaker iselected, or even the pro-tem Speaker.

This means the CBI’saction and the governor’ssanction for prosecutionmight be open to a legalchallenge.

The list of 43 ministers tobe sworn in on Mondayincludes former statefinance minister AmitMitra, who is likely toreturn to that post andbecome finance ministerfor the third time despitethe fact that had not con-tested the Assembly pollsthis time.

■ Page 2: 16 new faces inWest Bengal Cabinet

DRDO ANTI-COVIDDRUG TO BE MADEEASILY ACCESSIBLETO PATIENTS

FOR SECOND YEAR,NO PRAYERS FOR IDIN CONGREGATIONS

PATHRI RAJASEKHAR I DCNELLORE, MAY 9

The Defence Researchand Development Orga-nisation’s (DRDO) anti-Covid drug will be madeavailable next week tothose who are in need,bringing major relief tothousands of people whoare struggling for breathin Covid hospitals andundergoing treatment inhome isolation.

Dr G. Satheesh Reddy,secretary, department ofdefence research anddevelopment, and chair-man, DRDO, said that10,000 sachets of the newanti-Covid drug — 2 DG2-deoxy-D-glucose — thatwas developed by a defe-nce lab will be releasedeither on May 11 or 12.

The Drugs ControllerGeneral of India hadapproved the anti-Coviddrug developed by DR-DO’s Institute of NuclearMedicine and Allied Sci-ences (INMAS) in collab-oration with Dr Reddy’sLaboratories (DRL), Hyd-erabad, for emergencyuse. Against this back-drop, Dr Satheesh Reddytold this newspaper thatthe 2 DG will be availablein sizable numbers afterthree weeks while point-ing to large-scale produc-tion in the offing.

Responding to a ques-tion on the effectivenessof 2-DG on the new Covidstrains that emerged inthe second wave as thetrials were conducted inthe first phase, Dr Reddyasserted the drug candeal with any strain.

“2-DG accumulates inthe virus-infected cellsand prevents virusgrowth by stopping viralsynthesis and energyproduction. Its selectiveaccumulation in virallyinfected cells makes thisdrug unique,” Dr Reddymaintained.

■ Page 3: 51% patientscured in 3 days: DRDO chief

People crowd the Charminar area on the last Sunday ofRamzan, ahead of Id-ul-Fitr. — DEEPAK DESHPANDE

● ● IT MAY be recalled thatthe eight lions in the safaripark in the zoo caughtCovid-19 in April lastweek, becoming the firstwild animals in India,albeit in captivity, to havecontracted the disease.

● ● THE LIONS often drinkwater from Mir Alam Tankthat flows through theirenclosure even thoughdrinking water is provided

ATHER MOIN I DCHYDERABAD, MAY 9

It is the second year in arow the city will not seecongregational Id-ul-Fitrprayers at idgahs tomark the end of Ramzanin Telangana.

The Telangana StateWakf Board has refra-ined from making arra-ngements for the congre-gational prayers inmajor idgahs in the city.

Speaking to this news-paper, home ministerMohammed MahmoodAli said that in the lightof the directives of theHigh Court on combat-ing the spread of Covid-19 and the restrictionson gatherings imposedby the Chief Secretary, itwas decided not to arra-nge mass prayers at idg-ahs. He appealed to thefaithful to perform pra-yers at nearby masjids.

He appealed to themanaging committeesand mutawallis of themasjids to arrangerepeat Id prayers.

■ Page 3: No prayers atidgah: Wakf chief

G. Satheesh Reddy

● ● AN OXYGEN tankertruck that was to arrive bythen to refill the hospitaltank was delayed as thedriver reportedly lost hisway near Jadcherla.

● ● THE OXYGEN TANK atthe hospital started show-ing low pressure from 3pm. The new oxygentanker managed to reachthe hospital only at 3.30 pm

CITY pg 2DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

There are a lot of com-monalities between for-

mer minister EtalaRajendar, who was oustedfrom the Telangana stateCabinet as health ministerand T. Devender Goud, theonce strong Telugu Desamleader and former homeminister of combinedAndhra Pradesh. Both areintelligent, articulate,super-rich and even havean almost similar physiquereflective of their fitnessand discipline. Both hailfrom politically-strongbackward communities.Goud was considered a

powerful leader in the N.Chandrababu NaiduCabinet and had enormousinfluence on his boss. He

faced difficult times whilein the Opposition. Therewas an aura around himthat he would be a formida-ble force in the region andcould cause irreparabledamage to the TeluguDesam if ever he decided toquit the party. Finally,when the moment came, hewas all alone as he walkedout of the TD. After a briefbrush with a political outfitof his own that joined thebogey of the separateTelangana state forces, hemerged the party withChiranjeevi’s PrajaRajyam. Finally, after the

misadventure, he wentback to the TD fold and“managed” to become aRajya Sabha member. Helater went into politicaloblivion and his health didnot permit him to play anactive role in politics. Now,the time has come forRajendar to take the most-calculated move post hisouster from the Cabinet.Amid rumours that he mayeven consider floating anew party, which has itsinherent risks, political cir-cles are curious to know ifhe would, instead, join theBJP.

Rajendar madeto eat humble pie

Cricket pitches APbabu into troubleThe new-found love of

Praveen Prakash,principal secretary toChief Minister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy, for the “sta-tus” feature in WhatsApplanded him in an embar-rassing situation theother day. Praveen has oflate been sharing his pho-tos with comments onWhatsApp. On Sundaylast week, he put two pic-tures of him watching theIndian Premier Leaguematch between Mumbaiand Chennai the previousday. He commented that itwas a memorablemoment because therewere just 150 people at theArun Jaitley stadium atFeroze Shah Kotla, Delhi,against the original seat-ing capacity of 30,000. Itwas also meant to estab-lish how privilegedPraveen was to beamong the limitednumber of VVIPs.Within no time, peo-ple started sharinghis photo in variousg roups

including the ones operat-ed by governmentemployees. Many werenot enthused. There werecomments expressing dis-may that the top officialchose to enjoy a cricketmatch when the statereeled under the worst-ever pandemic spread.Some even objected to thegovernment treating hisweekend stay in Delhi as“on duty” and paying himtravel expenses.Apparently having takena hit, the senior babuchanged his status. Thistime too, he could howev-er not avoid exhibitinghis love for the sport. Thenew photos showed himbowling to his son in the

s p r a w l i n gbackyard of

his officialresidence in

AP Bhavan, N e wDelhi.

Telangana state munic-ipal and IT minister

K.T. Rama Rao had thelast laugh in the infamousouster of health ministerand senior TRS leaderEtala Rajendar from theKCR Cabinet. First, theparty has given clear sig-nals that leaders, no mat-ter how big and powerful,will not be spared if theycovertly or overtlyopposed the eventualanointment of Rama Raoas Chief Minister.Rajendar, known for hisproximity to finance min-ister and Chief MinisterK. Chandrashekar Rao’snephew T. Harish Rao,was clearly ill at ease eversince the Rama Rao campstepped up the ‘KTR asCM’ campaign. Rajendarmade his discomfort

known to the public withseveral terse statementsin the past. However,pushed to the wall,Rajendar came out openlyin support of dynasticpolitics in regional par-ties. Referring to regionalparties across the coun-try, he said the son ordaughter of the regionalparty founder is the natu-ral heir. In the case of theTRS also, he had neverobjected to Rama Rao tak-ing over as ChiefMinister, Rajendar said.The explanation was soconvincing among therank and file of the TRSthat the others who aremurmuring in privateabout Rama Rao’s mete-oric rise are also likely tosquirm in their chairsand fall in line.

● ● WHEN THE momentcame, he was all alone ashe walked out of the TD.After a brief brush with apolitical outfit of his ownthat joined the bogey ofthe separate Telanganastate forces, he mergedthe party with Chiranjeevi’sPraja Rajyam.

It was Goud then, it’s Etala now

Jagan lands in a troll tsunamiIt It could be out of convic-

tion or compulsion. ButChief Minister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy has landedhimself in a troll tsunamiafter he tweeted in supportof Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. It all start-ed with the Prime Ministerstarted calling up ChiefMinisters of states wherethe “second wave” wassevere and reviewing thepreparedness. Immediatelyafter the tele-talk,Jharkhand’s Hemant Sorentook a dig at Modi, sayingthe Prime Minister insteadof listening to the ChiefMinisters and trying tounderstand the ground

realities, turned the tele-talk mostly into a soliloquy,a la the Mann ki Baat.Soren tweeted this at 9 pmon May 6, to which Jaganreacted at around 3 pm thenext day and went on togive sermons to “brother”Soren to not indulge in“such types of politics”.

Such criticism would weak-en the country, Jagan ruledand called for uncondition-al support to the PrimeMinister. Hell was let looseand twitter was floodedwith trolls against Jagan.Many taunts were not fromthe usual Telugu Desambrigade. Given the angerbeing directed at the PrimeMinister on social mediathese days, it was only nat-ural that the ChiefMinister got brickbats fromthe general public. Finallycame the retort fromSoren’s Jharkhand MuktiMorcha. It tweeted that theentire country knew ofJagan’s compulsions and

that they too prayed for his“well-being”. The JMMattached a newspaper clip-ping of the CBI courtadjourning a petition seek-ing cancellation ofJagan’s bail.

Speculations rife aboutintention of the MPsFROM PAGE 1

This immediately fuelledspeculation about theirintentions. Sources saidthe two have requested theparty’s leadership to allowthem to continue as LokSabha MPs than as MLAs.

The party has not takena final decision on themyet, as both have sixmonths' time to chooseone of the two posts. If MrPramanik and Mr Sarkaropt to stay as MPs, theBJP’s tally of MLAs willgo down to 75 from 77,with byelections beingheld for their Assemblyseats. Similarly, if theychoose to take the oath asMLAs later, the BJP’s tallyof MPs will decrease from18 to 16, with their LokSabha seats up for byelec-tions too.

Suvendu Adhikari,meanwhile, appears to be

the BJP’s favourite face asLeader of the Oppositionto take on the Trinamulsupremo in the Assembly.The biggest advantagethat has put Adhikariahead of Roy.

Known for his fiercespeech, Adhikari also hasbeen credited with moreyears of experience inserving as an MLA, atleast twice, than Mr Roy,who has become an MLAfor the first time in his lifeby winning fromKrishnanagar North inNadia. Besides, his pastlinks with the RSS inschool life and the supportof at least 50 BJP MLAsfor him are seen as hisplus points, according tosources. On the otherhand, Roy, who was ini-tially considered a suit-able face for the post withthe support of a section ofBJP central leaders, met a

senior TMC leader in theAssembly on May 7 butskipped the first meetingof the newly electedMLAs and claimed that hewould make his standclear later. This instantlytriggered speculationabout his possible returnto the TMC. Roy howevertweeted on Saturday: “Myfight would continue as asoldier of the BJP torestore democracy in ourstate. I would requesteveryone to put the con-coctions and conjecturesto rest. I am resolute inmy political path.”

Judging the situation,the BJP parliamentaryboard has appointed twocentral observers - Unionlaw minister RaviShankar Prasad and BJPgeneral secretaryBhupendra Yadav - for theelection of Leader of theOpposition in the state.

Helping patients breatheDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

If food was the major con-cern for the Covid-19 affect-ed persons during the firstwave of pandemic last year,during its second wave,availability of oxygenseems to be the cause of bigworry.

Seetha Anand Vaidyam,who has been busy trying toarrange oxygen concentra-tors for those in need, says,“We started with three, andare awaiting the arrival of30 more from the UnitedStates, bought with fundsraised by our volunteers.”

“The first three we boughtwere six litre concentra-tors, probably not the bestin terms of capacity butstill of great help for thosewho need oxygen support athome after discharge fromhospitals,” she says. Whilethree are making rounds inthe Old City of Hyderabad,two others are being lent toanyone in need as soon asthey become available.

“After seeing a message onsocial media on the need to

have oxygen, a womanimmediately spread theword among her colleaguesin an IT company, andraised enough money tobuy 30 concentrators whichare on their way toHyderabad,” Seetha Anandsays. Of these, 20 will beused in Hyderabad, while 10will be used in Bengaluru,“where the situation is evenworse,” she adds.

“Refilling a 10-litre cylin-der is now costing `1,500 to`2,000. A new cylinder costsanywhere between `25,000

and `30,000 now. It takesabout six hours for anattendant to stand in linethese days to get a refill,imagine what that personmight be going throughduring this period.Concentrators are a betteroption if we can havethem,” she says.

“We have received somefunds from individuals toan account in the US fromwhich will be used to buymore concentrators,” shesays. Thanks to an inter-view in TAL (Touch A Lifefoundation) radio, a secondfund raiser is on in the USfor which money is beingpooled for buying more oxy-gen concentrators, she says.

While ensuring thatCovid-19 hit people canbreathe easy, AnandaFoundation set up bySeetha Anand is also in theprocess of providing dryrations for a month topriests, nearly 100 of themat Veda Bhavan in the city.“We do not have anyemployees and everyonewho joins hands is a volun-teer,” Seetha says.

Neta’s Natter

● ● HELL WAS let loose andtwitter was flooded withtrolls against Jagan. Giventhe anger being directed atthe Prime Minister onsocial media these days, itwas only natural that theChief Minister got brick-bats from the public.

STORIES OF HOPE

Ananda foundation volunteers distributing dry rations to the needy.

Seetha Anand Vaidyam isbusy trying to arrange oxy-gen concentrators.

16 new faces in W. Bengal CabinetFROM PAGE 1

There will also be 16 newfaces like Manas Bhuniya,cricketer Manoj Tiwari,retired IPS officerHumayun Kabir and SeuliSaha. In 2011, Mr Bhuniyabecame a minister whenhe was in the Congress,which was an ally of theTMC then. Ten MLAs willbe ministers of state(independent charge)while nine others will beministers of state work-ing under a Cabinet min-ister. On Sunday after-noon Raj Bhavan said:“Hon'ble Governor of theState of West Bengal ShriJagdeep Dhankharaccorded sanction forprosecution in respect of

(1) Shri Firhad Hakim, (2)Shri Subrata Mukherjee,(3) Shri Madan Mitra and(4) Shri Sovan Chatterjee,for the reason that all ofthem at the relevant timeof commission of crimewere holding the positionof Ministers.”

It said: “Governor is thecompetent authority toaccord sanction in termsof law as he happens to bethe appointing authorityfor such Ministers interms of Article 164 of theConstitution. The sanc-tion came to be accordedby the Hon’ble Governorafter CBI had made arequest and made avail-able entire documentationrelevant to the case to theHon’ble Governor and he

invoked his powers underArticles 163 and 164 of theConstitution, being thecompetent authority toaccord such sanction.”

According to RajBhavan: “The impressiongenerated in some quar-ters of the media thatsanction has come to beaccorded because thesepersons at the relevanttime were Members of theWest Bengal LegislativeAssembly is factuallyuntenable. The premise ofthe sanction as indicatedis that these persons at therelevant point of time ofcommission of crimewere holding the positionof Ministers in theGovernment of WestBengal.”

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MARCH 9

Former member of ParliamentKonda Vishweshwar Reddydonated 13 Everflo PhilipsRespironics oxygen five-litreconcentrator machines to theYagnya Foundation, run by agroup of alumni of the OsmaniaMedical College at Maa SharadaHospitals and the Institute ofHolistic Healthcare, inVikarabad. These machines willhelp the hospital provide oxygento Covid-19 patients. Usage ofthese machines will be free ofcost for all patients.

Speaking on the occasion,Reddy said it was unfortunatethat while there was a raginghealth emergency in the state,the former health minister andincumbent health minister werefighting with each other over

land issues. It is time for ChiefMinister K. Chandrashekar Rao,who is also holding the healthministry, to focus on the fightagainst Covid-19 and not with

people with whom he has politi-cal differences, he opined.

Vishweshwar Reddy remindedthe CM of the word he gave onSeptember 9 last year in the

Assembly regarding addingCovid-19 treatment to theAarogyasri scheme. “WhenAndhra Pradesh can cover Covidin all hospitals underAarogyasri, or newly electedChief Minister of Tamil NaduM.K. Stalin has decided to reim-burse all patients for the treat-ment of Covid, why is Telangananot taking a step to ensure peo-ple’s treatment costs were paidby the government,” he said.

Reddy asked why the govern-ment was not imposing a state-wide lockdown, when the Covidcases were going up and severalstates across the country hadchosen to impose a lockdown.

Earlier, Reddy gave a demon-stration on how to use the oxy-gen concentrators to the hospitalstaff. Yagnya Foundation mem-bers led by Dr Rajashekarthanked him for the donation.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9.

President of HyderabadManagement Association,Sanjay Kapoor, passed away onSaturday aftera a 13-day battlewith Covid-19.

He was 56 and is survived byhis wife, two daughters, hisparents and a sister.

Sanjay Kapoor was knownfor his experience in sales,marketing and techno-com-mercial operations of compa-nies in industrial products,software services, medicalequipment, and transporta-tion business.

CITY pg 3DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

IN BRIEF

BALU PULIPAKA I DCHYDERABAD, MAY 9

The daily Covid-19 casesin Telangana state may beon a slide, much on thelines predicted last weekby the state health depart-ment and the government,but the number of peoplebattling for their lives, bein the ICUs of variousgovernment and privatehospitals in the state, oron supplementary oxygen,paints a grim picture ofthe actual situation on theground.

One in six of all Covid-19patients in a critical con-dition in India were inTelangana state as onSunday evening, whileone in nine in the countryrequiring supplementarywere also from the state.

It was just a day ago thatUnion minister of healthDr Harsh Vardhan saidthat 1.34 per cent of theactive caseload in thecountry was in intesnsive

care units, and 3.7 per centof them are on oxygensupport. As per the latestactive caseload availableat the time of writing thisreport on Sunday evening,these figures translate to50,071 patients in ICUbeds, and 1,38,255 oxygenbeds.

With 8,344 patients inICUs in the state, andanother 14,285 on oxygenbeds, the revelation by DrHarsh Vardhan translatesinto one in six Covid-19patients in the country’sICUs and one in nine onoxygen beds, being in

Telangana state.Such is the pressure on

ICU and oxygen beds inTelangana from Covid-19patients, that as per thelive bed availability statuson the Telangana statehealth department web-site, all 851 ICU beds dedi-cated to Covid-19 patientsat Gandhi, Chest, KingKoti, Nizam’s Institute ofMedical Sciences (Nims),and Telangana Institute ofMedical Sciences, werefull. Of the 1,984 oxygenbeds at these hospitals, asmany as 1,579 were occu-pied as of 8 pm on Sunday.

However, the ‘live’ bedstatus available ath t t p s : / / h e a l t h . t e l a n -gana.gov.in/ does notappear to be reliable andup to date as the lastupdated time for each hos-pital, whether govern-ment or private, are allover the chart, with someindividual hospital lastknown updates beingmore than six hours old.

From page 1

The parents of one suchdeceased patient, whomanaged to procure anoxygen cylinder, desper-ately implored the hospi-tal staff to use the cylin-der to provide oxygen tothe patient, despite thehospital staff saying theperson had passed away.

Attendants of severalpatients rushed to get oxy-gen cylinders in autorick-

shaws and on two wheel-ers to save the lives oftheir loved ones beingtreated at the hospital.

The search for cylindersin the last minute meantthat some of themreached the hospital withone only late in the night.

The Government Dist-rict Hospital at King Kotidedicated to treating Co-vid-19 patients, has 300oxygen and 50 ICU beds.

Oxygen tankers going

missing, or losing theirway, has been a recurringissue in different places.

Officials in AndhraPradesh launched a fran-tic search for an oxygentanker that ostensiblywent missing. It was latertraced to a dhaba, wherethe driver had taken abreak after a long journeyto Guntur. The tanker wasto provide oxygen to 440patients at the GunturGeneral Hospital.

TS has every 6thCovid ICU patient Data on bed availability not done live

A man helps wheel his father, a Covid-19 patient who is on oxygen support, to theKing Koti Hospital on Sunday. — DEEPAK DESHPANDE

Medicos excited, fearfulon joining Covid dutiesHARLEEN MINOCHA | DCHYDERABAD, MAY 9

Though they are excitedto join the medical force,hundreds of medical stu-dents are not convinced ofthe feasibility of doing soas Covid-19 continues itsdance of death.

After the government’sorder directing final yearMBBS students in govern-ment medical colleges toreport to duty late Fridaynight, students are gear-ing up to lift some burdenoff the shoulders of doc-tors in hospitals.

The Director of MedicalEducation on Fridaydirected students whohave appeared for theirfinal MBBS exams inApril under the KalojiNarayana Rao Universityof Health Sciences toreport to the superintend-ents of their teaching hos-pitals and join duty. Oncethe final exam results areannounced, they will con-tinue to work as housesurgeons. The stipend willbe paid from the day theyformally join as housesurgeons, the order said.

The Centre hadannounced on Mondaythat it would allow med-ical interns to be deployedfor Covid managementduties under the supervi-sion of senior doctors.

However, most studentsthis correspondent spoketo, on condition ofanonymity, said that whilethey were ready to servethe public, they alsoexpected facilities fromthe government, in viewof the Covid-19 spread.

A medical student fromNizamabad said, “It isinevitable that we will beexposed to the virus oncewe join duties. We will be

expected to treat mild andmoderate cases, but weare not sure that we willbe provided with goodPPEs and other protectiveapparatus.”

A student from OsmaniaMedical College (OMC)said that thet were notsure whether they wereready amidst a pandemic,saying that they had notbeen trained as such. “Weare awaiting furtherorders on when to startserving, but are we capa-ble of giving treatment forsuch a deadly disease,”the student said.

Another OMC studentwished that the govern-ment paid them a stipendbefore exam results wereannounced. “It is only fairthat we demand what is

our due. We are alsoexposing ourselves tosuch a disease that hastaken the lives of lakhs ofpeople in the country. Atleast pay us for our servic-es,” he said.

A PG final year studentwho has recently passedout told this newspaperthat they had been askedto resume duties and theirresidency year has beenextended for the first timein a century “e deserve atleast `75,000-`80,000 assalary. With the residencyextended, our stipend isbetween `35,000-`40,000,”

PG medical studentsalso requested the govern-ment to arrange foraccommodation facilitiesfor their families, in casethey were to get infected.

Konda chides KCR over land row

Former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy donates oxygen concentra-tors to the Yagnya Foundation of Osmania Medical College alumni.

Attendants rushed to getcylinders for patients

A family prepares to rush an oxygen cylinder it brought in an autorickshaw to apatient in King Koti Hospital on Sunday night. — SANJAY SAMUEL PAUL

THREE HELD FORSELLING VITALDRUG IN BLACK

BOY SCALDEDBY HOT WATERFROM INHALER

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

A gang of three, includ-ing a worker at a med-ical store, have beennabbed by Central ZoneTask Force on Sundayfor possessing illegallyprocured remdevisirinjection vials. Officialsseized two vials andthree smartphones fromtheir possession.

The accused have beenidentified as Y. PraveenKumar, 30, G. Raju, 22,an employee of JyothiMedical Hall, and M.Rajender, 24.

Praveen and Rajenderhad lost their jobs dur-ing the lockdown period.Noticing the demand forremdesivir (Covifor)injections, they hatcheda plan and sought Raju’shelp in illegally procur-ing these vials. Theythen sold Covifor toknown customers for`35,000 per vial.

“Accused Praveen andRajender had been wait-ing for a customer tocome and collect injec-tions. Based on a tip off,Task Force personnelnabbed and handedthem over to Nallakuntapolice for further inves-tigation,” a police offi-cial said.

51% PATIENTSCURED IN 3 DAYS:

DRDO CHIEF

NO PRAYERS ATIDGAH: WAKF CHIEF

HYD MANAGEMENTASSOCIATION PREZ

DIES OF COVID

From page 1

He said 51 per cent of thepatients were cured withinthree days during the thirdphase of clinical trials andothers within 5 to 7 days afteradministering the drug, whichcan be used for moderate tosevere Covid patients.

It is a generic molecule and itcan be produced in any coun-try, he informed. On produc-tion plans, he said they havebeen discussing bulk produc-tion and they would come outwith an action plan within thenext two or three days.

He praised the DRDO scien-tists for their concern towardsthe people and country andtheir outstanding contributionthrough scientific solutionsfor Covid infected.

Dr Sateesh Reddy said theywere coming out with light-weight oxygen gas cylinderswith regulator and non-returnable valve with featuresto save oxygen and it would bevery useful to those using it athome. He added that they werealso developing software todetect Covid infection usingartificial intelligence with thehelp of a Chest X-Ray.

From page 1

Health staff is availableround the clock withrequired medicines, theysaid. However, Rao saidthat remdesivir injectionsshould be made availablein private hospitals also.

The Chief Ministerasked the officials toinvite applications fromthe 50,000-odd medicalstudents who have com-pleted MBBS and arequalified. Nurses, labtechnicians, pharmacistsand other para medicalstaff should also be imme-diately engaged and paidrespectable salary.

Rao also announced thatthe temporary staff who

came forward to serveshould be given weightagemarks when they applyfor government jobs.

Those interested canapply by logging intohttps://odls.telangana.gov. i n / m e d i c a l r e c r u i t -ment/home.aspx, he said.

Aid for the poorThe CM decided that

five kgs of rice per personfor two months would bedistributed free to allwhite ration card holdersin the state and the num-ber of private teachersbeing extended state helpof `2,000 per month and25 kgs of rice would beenhanced from 1.2 lakh totwo lakh.

Weightage to begiven in govt jobs

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

The Covid-19 vaccinationdrive will resume on Mondayfor all those seeking their sec-ond dose shots in the state.

The health department,which restricted the vaccina-tions till May 12 for only thoseeligible to get their secondshots, has said that startingMonday, doses of bothCovishield and Covaxin willbe available at all governmentvaccination centres in thestate.

It may be recalled that onSaturday, the first day of thedrive restricted only for thosegetting the second shots, manycentres did not have Covaxinleading to arguments betweenvaccination centres’ staff andthose who lined up to get theirshots.

Asked how people can knowwhich vaccination centre willhave which of the two vac-cines, Director of HealthServices Dr G. Srinivasa Raosaid on Sunday that all centreswill have both vaccines. Thevaccination drive for the sec-ond shot seekers will be basedon spot registration and willcontinue till May 12.

NAVEEN KUMAR I DCHYDERABAD MAY 9

Lack of staff and techni-cians in several govern-ment hospitals inTelangana is creating aserious situation ofstocked up ventilators andother medical supplies notbeing able to be put to useand eventually turningwaste.

This is stated by func-tionaries of the Health-care Reforms Doctors’Association (HRDA).

Speaking to DeccanChronicle, associationpresident Dr K MaheshKumar said there existeda shortage of medical staffeven as the state has thenecessary infrastructure.

“We do not have a bio-medical engineering wingattached to the healthdepartment to maintainand repair the in-stockventilators. Many ventila-tors provided by the PMCares fund need smallrepairs but we lack bio-medical engineers to fix

them.”Many such costly

machines are thus keptaside. These can be put touse if we fix the snags.Why can’t we engage bio-medical experts? Moreimportant than buyingmore machines is to main-tain and use the ones thatare available,” saidKumar.

Corroborating this, Dr

P.S. Vijayender, convenerof the Telangana doctors’federation, said regardlessof the condition of unusedventilators, a biomedicaldepartment should be inplace.

“The state governmenttook the services throughcontractors and theystopped work due to non-payment of fees. I heardthat at Gandhi Hospital

and in Telangana Instituteof Medical Sciences(Tims), the medical equip-ment sent by PM Cares arekept unused due to lack ofstaff to operate them.While the management ofGandhi Hospital claimsthey have 10-20 ventilatorbeds available, “patientsare asked to go to privatehospitals upon arrival,”he said.

Dr Kumar said accord-ing to his information,Tims has about 250 venti-lators available but nostaff to use them. “50 percent work at a hospital isdone by doctors by pre-scribing medicines andoperating on them when itcomes to treating a patientand the other 50 per cent isdone by the nursing staffand ward boys. Due tostaff crunch, the patientremains unattended.”

“Our demand is for thesemanagements to fill all theposts, by sanctioning themtemporarily or hiring per-manent employees,” theHRDA president said.

Ventilators lie unused in hospsFunded by PM Cares, equipment lies idle due to lack of staff

Ventilators gather dust at the MahbubnagarGovernment Hospital. — BY ARRANGEMENT

● ● SUCH IS the pressureon ICU and oxygen bedsthat all 851 ICU beds dedi-cated to Covid-19 patientsat Gandhi Hospital, ChestHospital, King KotiHospital, Nizam’s Instituteof Medical Sciences andTelangana Institute ofMedical Sciences, werefull, the government said.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

A team of ContinentalHospital, Gachibowli,led by Dr Anjul Dayal,saved a nine-year-oldCovid-19 child, who sus-tained severe burns inan accident duringsteam inhalation.

The child had suffered25 per cent burns involv-ing the lower limbs. Amulti-disciplinary teamat the hospital’s paedi-atric intensive care unittreated the child forburns and for Covid-19.

Dr. Dayal cautionedpatents: “When steaminhalation is being givento a child, it should beunder supervision ofelders, with all precau-tions to prevent spillageof hot water.”

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao onSunday received a patfrom Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for mak-ing valuable suggestionson containing the spreadof the Coronavirus.

The Chief Minister ini-tially spoke to Unionhealth minister Dr Harsh

Vardhan and suggestedchanges in the vaccina-tion guidelines. He want-ed the Centre to includesuper spreaders in the pri-ority list for vaccination.

He was referring to cabdrivers, bus conductors,delivery personnel andworkers who commuteevery day.

According to a ChiefMinister’s Office pressrelease, the Prime

Minister called Rao andthanked him. “Your sug-gestions are good and wewill implement them. Ithank you for the goodsuggestions,” Modi toldthe Chief Minister whourged the former to sup-ply more oxygen andremdesivir.

The Prime Ministerresponded positively tothe request.

KCR gets a pat from ModiSECOND SHOT

VACCINE DRIVERESUMES TODAY

Sanjay Kapoor

FROM PAGE 1

The home minister urged ser-mons to accommodate sepa-rate congregations in masjidsdue to Coronavirus restric-tions and ensure prevention ofspread of the virus. WakfBoard chairman MohammedSaleem said there will be no Idprayers in idgahs. He said fol-lowing guidelines issued bythe government, Wakf Boardhad not made arrangements inIdgah Mir Alam, IdgahMadannapet and others. Heappealed to the public to main-tain physical distance andother safety precautions onthe occasion of Id-ul-Fitr.

Islamic scholar MoulanaAbdur-Raheem KhurramJamai said they were inunprecedented times and hadto ensure public safety.

CITY/AP pg 4DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die untothe Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. (Romans 14:8)

Mrs. IRIS JOSEPHW/o Late Joseph Jacob

(Retd Teacher Stanley Girls’ High School)Those we love,don’t go away,

they walk beside us every dayunseen, unheardbut always near,

still loved, still missed,always dear.

Remembered by:Daughters, Sons in law, Grand Children, Near and Dear

(S/2122/D00149)

BIRTH REMEMBRANCE

Late Smt. KIRAN BAMMI DOB: 10.05.1945

W/o Late Ashwani Kumar Bammi“Happy Birthday to you in Heaven”

“WE MISS YOU”Inserted by:

Anil Bammi, Vikram Bammi, TamannaPuri, Puneet Bammi, Arti Bammi,Rajiv Puri and Grand Children.

(S/2122/D00163)

PAGDI

Pagdi Ceremony of Smt. MEENA B RAWLYANI

W/o. Sri Baliram KhiyaramAt our residence from 5pm to 5.30pm,

Today through Zoom (Demise on 07-05-2021).

In profound grief:Shri Baliram Khiyaram,Sons with Families &

Entire Rawlyani Biradri (All near & dear)

(S/2122/D00165)

20th DEATH ANNIVERSARY

Late Smt. ASHA BHANDARI A Bouquet of beautiful memories

sprayed with million tears.Wishing that God could have spared

you just for a few more years.The family chain is broken, but memories live forever.

Deeply mourned by:Kamlesh Bhandari & Family,

Anup Bhandari & FamilyMonika Dhir & Family

(S/2122/D00164)

SHRADHANJALI

KATEPALLI VISHWANATHAMDOD: 01-05-2021

May His Soul Rest in peaceMourned by:

Katepalli SrinivasuluKatepalli Chandrakala

(S/2122/D00159)

6th ANNIVERSARY

Hajee. M. Abdul WaheedS/o Late MD Meeran

Proprietor of Cochin coir syndicateHyderabad & Chennai

Defence ContractorDOB: 1/6/1935 DOD: 10/5/2015Phone: 6301614636, 9391316251

Inserted By: WAHEED FAMILY & SON

(S/2122/D00148)

13th DAY CEREMONY

Sri. KONDAPALLY MURALI NAIDUDOB: 31.07.1975 DOD: 28.04.2021

You will remain in our hearts for ever wemiss you every moment of our lives.

Inserted by: Family MembersH.No. 16-2-147/25/B, Anand Nagar,

Malakpet, Hyderabad.Phone: 8801943336

(A/2122/D00007)

Born6th August 1941

Called to Glory10th May 2020

IN FOND REMEMBRANCE OF

H. SRINIVAS REDDY D.O.D: 02.05.2021

10th Day ceremony held on 10.05.2021(Monday) at 12:00 PM, at ourResidence, Saidabad, Colony, Hyd.

Inserted by: H. Suryavathi (Wife)Son - Daughter-in-lawDaughter - Son-in-law

Grand Children,Hanumanthugari Family Members

Friends & RelativesPh: 9307776668

10th DAY CEREMONY

OBITUARY

Dr. M. Balakrishna ReddyGaru (85)

(Retd. Agricultural Scientist, APAU) Left for heavenly abode on May 1, 2021

A fatherly figure with many adorablefriends, he lived a full life with

Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildrenwho will miss him dearly.

We wish to follow his legacy of universal compassion and humility

Smt. Bharati Mitta and FAMILY MEMBERS

“I will dwell in the house of theLORD forever.” Psalm-23:6

JOHN VARGHESEDOB: 25-02-1926 DOD: 10-05-2019OTTELIL HOUSE, MAVELIKARAYOUR SWEET MEMORIES LIVE

IN OUR HEARTS FOR EVER.Inserted By:

Sorrowing Family

2nd DEATH ANNIVERSARY

PULI SHARATH KUMAR | DCKARIMNAGAR, MAY 9

Having sacked former seniorminister Etala Rajendar fromthe cabinet, Telangana RashtraSamiti has launched “MissionHuzurabad and Manthani”.Under it, officials brought in byRajendar in the two respectiveconstituencies of erstwhileKarimnagar district are nowbeing transferred.

The process of transferringofficials started from the policedepartment in Manthani con-stituency from Saturday night.However, the maximum officialsissued notices of transfer fromvarious departments are fromHuzurabad constituency.

Huzurabad RDO Ben Shalomhas been shifted to Hyderabadand Ch. Ravinder Reddy toNarsapur in Medak district.Tahsildars working in variousmandals of Huzurabad con-stituency, including Bhav Singhand Jyothi Varalakshmi, havebeen transferred to RajannaSircilla district; and Narayanaand Kanakaiah to Peddapallidistrict.

Earlier, when an official wastransferred, the governmentclearly mentioned the place ofnew posting. But in the present

transfers, only the names of dis-tricts have been given.

Government has also trans-ferred MPDOs (mandalparishad development officers)in Huzurabad constituency.Kodimyal MPDO Ramesh hasbeen brought into Huzurabad,Metpally MPDO Kalpana toJammikunta, Korutla MPDOSrinivas to Veenavanka, andWarangal Rural MPDO Pallavito Kamalapur mandal.

Transfers have also beeneffected in the police depart-ment following the ouster ofRajendar.

ACP Sundaragiri Srinivas Raohas been moved to DGP head-quarters. Circle inspectors ofJammikunta Rural andJammikunta town SadanKumar and Ch. Vidyasagar; andtheir Huzurabad counterpartRamesh has been attached to

Karimnagar range DIG.They have been replaced by J.

Suresh, who was working atSSC in Karimnagar as CI ofJammikunta Rural. V. Srinivasof special branch has beenbrought in as Huzurabad CI.Dharmapuri CI RamchanderRao has been transferred toJammikunta town.

In Manthani, state govern-ment has prepared a list ofpolice officials closely associat-ed with Peddapalli zillaparishad chief Putta Madhukar,who is facing allegations ofbeing involved in murder of theadvocate couple. They too arebeing transferred to otherplaces.

Manthani circle inspectorMahendar Reddy has beentransferred to WarangalCommissionerate, Mutharamsub-inspector Narasimha Rao totask force in Ramagundam,Ramagiri SI Mahendar toBasanth Nagar inRamagundam, and Manthani SIOmkar has been transferred toMulugu district.

Transfer of officials from thetwo constituencies makes itclear that the TRS governmentis tightening its grip onHuzurabad and Manthani con-stituencies.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

The BJP has demandedan enquiry into ChevellaMP Ranjith Reddy's busi-nesses and his associa-tion with former healthminister EtalaRajendar's illegally occu-pied assigned lands ofDalits and backwardclasses.

Party spokesperson K.Krishna Sagar Rao in amedia statement here on

Sunday said that it was aknown fact that RanjithReddy and Rajendarwere partners since longand Reddy was closelyassociated with all deal-ings of the former minis-ter.

He stated that there aremedia reports of possi-ble wrong-doing ofRanjith Reddy in con-nivance with Rajendar,who is now facing multi-ple charges of land grab-bing, occupying assigned

lands and criminal con-spiracy.

The BJP demands thatChief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao con-stitute a high-levelenquiry commissionwith a sitting High Courtjudge on all those minis-ters and MLAs, who arefacing serious allega-tions of corruption,encroachment, violationof land regulations andland grabbing, the BJPspokesperson said.

Need to counselAdivasis on jabsDC CORRESPONDENTDAMMAPET(KOTHAGUDEM), MAY 9

Lack of proper aware-ness among Adivasis onthe Covid-19 vaccina-tion is evident as veryfew of them turn up atvaccination centres.Aswaraopet MLAMecha Nageswara Raohas expressed concernover this situation.

“The district medicaland health departmentshould concentrate onspreading awarenessamong the adivasis onthe vaccination pro-gramme. I called theDMHO and urged himto do this. Registrationon websites is a prob-lem for them and thegovernment should findother ways to enlistthem for vaccination.Persons from othermandals are cominghere for vaccination.”

There are 34 hamletsunder Patwarigudem

revenue village inDammapet mandal ofBhadradri-Kothagudemdistrict. Some 21,000people live in these butonly ten persons haveturned up at the vacci-nation centres from thehamlets of Katkuru andPusukunta. So far, firstdose vaccine wasadministered to 4,450persons in these vil-lages. Meanwhile, thespread of a news that avaccinated person diedhas caused worry am-ong the adivasis. Ang-anwadi worker PaddamNagamani died in Asw-araopet area after vac-cination. Doctors statedthat the death was dueto other ailments.

People from other ma-ndals including Kotha-gudem and Chunchup-alli under Parwarigud-em primary health cen-tre came to the vaccination centres inthis area and got vacci-nated.

Work on the Moosapet-Kaithalapur flyover has slowed down reportedly due to adelay in acquisition of land along the route. Besides underground pipelines andcables have not been shifted away from the path of the flyover. — R. PAVAN

TRS kicks off ‘MissionHuzurabad, Manthani’Officers, cops seen as Etala loyalists transferred

DASYAM SAYS TRSBOOSTING WELFAREOF MINORITIESDC CORRESPONDENTWARANGAL, MAY 9

The TRS government isgiving a big boost to thewelfare of minorities und-er the leadership of ChiefMinister K. Chandrashek-ar Rao, said Chief WhipDasyam Vinay Bhaskar,crediting him with the id-ea of celebrating all festi-vals in Telangana offic-ially. There are about 35 m-osques in Warangal Westconstituency to which6500 gift packets have beenallotted for Ramzan gifts.

Probe Ranjith’s deals:BJP

THIRD ‘OXYGEN EXPRESS’ FROM CITY LEAVES FOR ODISHAHyderabad, May 9: Thethird ‘Oxygen Express’of South Central Rail-way (SCR) started fromSanathnagar new goodscomplex here on Sunday.

Containing fivetankers, the Oxygen

Express is proceeding toMeramandali (MBMB)in Angul, Odisha, wherethe empty tankers will befilled with liquid medicaloxygen.

The Railways startedoperating these trains to

meet oxygen require-ments in different partsof the country. Underthis initiative, tankersfilled with liquid oxygenare being transportedthrough Ro-Ro (Roll on-Roll Off) service. — INN

● ● IN MANTHANI, state govern-ment has prepared a list ofpolice officials closely associat-ed with Peddapalli zillaparishad chief Putta Madhukar,who is facing allegations ofbeing involved in murder of the advocate couple. They tooare being transferred toother places.

Incomplete project

CITY/AP pg 5DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

SHORT TAKES

YSRCP GOVT VINDICTIVE, FILING

FALSE CASES: TDDC CORRESPONDENTVIJAYAWADA, MAY 9

Former Minister and TeluguDesam politburo memberYanamala Ramakrishnudu onSunday slammed the YSRCongress government for fil-ing ‘false cases’ against TDchief N. Chandrababu Naiduwith the ulterior motive ofdiverting public attentionfrom its failure to control theCovid-19 second wave. Hestrongly objected to filing thecase as the TD chief was onlyalerting the government onthe origin of the dreadedN440K virus in Kurnool dis-trict.

Ramakrishnudu demandedthat the AP governmentexplain whether it was readyto slap cases on national mediaorganisations and scientistsfor sounding alert on N440K.He demanded that the CMwake from his deep slumberand start instilling hope in theCovid-hit people.

The TD leader stated thatinstead of taking remedialmeasures based on theseremarks, the YSRC govern-ment played its usual politicsof vengeance by filing a falsecase once again against theformer CM. He flayed that themistakes made by the JaganMohan Reddy regime hadbecome a curse for the AP peo-ple amid the devastatingspread of infections.

He deplored that the peoplewere paying a heavy pricebecause of the CM’s inefficien-cy and negligent attitude. Hepointed out that the medicalexperts had been soundingalarms on the intensity of thesecond wave, but Reddy turneda deaf ear to all such caution-ary advice.

Ramakrishnudu said thatthe filing of a criminal caseagainst Naidu would onlyexpose the faction mindset ofReddy. He claimed that Centrefor Cellular and MolecularBiology conducted studies onthe new virus strain and over50 medical organisations published reports on theN440K variant. He recalledhow the Telangana High Courtalerted their state governmentto take advance measures asthe new virus strain was striking terror in AndhraPradesh.

SUSPENSION OFFIRST DOSE AWORRY IN AP

DC CORRESPONDENTVIJAYAWADA, MAY 9

The suspension of the firstdose Corona vaccination, dueto shortage of the vials and thepressing need to first attend tothe needs of those who alreadygot the first jab, is a matter ofworry among people amid theswift surge in Covid-19 infec-tions. The government made itclear that it will give priority tocompletion of the second doseto those who have already gotthe first dose. Some 53,58,712people in the state got the firstdose of Covid vaccine and theywere getting the second jabwhen the shortage for vaccinesarose and the governmentstopped fresh vaccinations.

Those mainly above age 45are fearful of a swift spread ofCoronavirus infection due tothe absence of vaccination andare seeking a governmentreview of the decision.

According to reports, only17,96,000 persons got the sec-ond dose vaccination against atotal of 53,58,712 who earliergot their first dose of the vac-cine. The rest are waiting fortheir turn.

Initially, people were hesitantto take the vaccine jab due tofear of side-effects, small orbig. Now, in the second wave, they are rushing to vac-cine centres to get the jabs.This increased the demand for both Covaxin andCovishield.

According to reports, some78,22,769 people in the age-group of 45-60 in 13 districts ofAP were in the line for vaccina-tion, of which only 53,58,712got the first dose and 24,64,057have to get their first dose. Thedecision to vaccinate onlythose requiring the seconddose has put some 24.50 lakhpeople to the risk of contract-ing the virus in the absence ofvaccination.

Earlier the government hadannounced vaccination to peo-ple above 45 years and recentlyextended the vaccination tothose between 18-45 years fromMay 1. This created hopeamong the youngsters and themiddle-aged that they wouldget protection from the pan-demic spread. But the stategovernment made it clear thatthe vaccination will be provid-ed to only second dose benefici-aries across the state on a pri-ority basis in the immediateterm.

The Kaleshwara-Mukteshwara Swamy temple in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district has become a desolate place as the village is following a voluntary lockdown to curb the virus.

Crowds thin at holy spotDespite partial reopening, few visitors at Kaleshwaram templeANUDEEP CEREMILLA I DCWARANGAL, MAY 9

The Kaleshwara-Mukteshwara Swamy tem-ple in JayashankarBhupalpally district,which is usually bustlingwith devotees, has becomea desolate place becausepeople are staying awaydue to the pandemic. Thevillage is following a vol-untary lockdown to stopthe spread of the virus.

Sarpanch Vennapureddy

Vasantha said on Saturdaythat 17 positive cases hadbeen identified, 13 of thesefrom SP Colony alone.“Being a Shiva shrine, itwas frequented by devo-tees from Telangana,Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra andChhattisgarh whichresulted in the rapidspread of the virus.Hence, we decided thatimposing a lockdown wasthe best way to counter thesituation,” she said.

Temple priests

Krishnamurthy andPhaneeder Sharma said,“Devotees visiting theKaleshwaram temple, pop-ularly known as DakshinaKashi, first bathe in theriver Godavari, the conflu-ence of the three rivers,

Godavari, Pranahitha andSaraswati, and worshipthe holy waters. Theywalk to the main templeand perform rituals in thesanctum sanctorum,kalasarpa pujas,Navagraha pujas,Kumkumarchana in theParvati temple and alsoaksharabyasams in theSaraswati temple.”

The Kaleswaram templewhich was completelyclosed for a few daysbecause of Coronavirus, ispartially open now with

darshan being allowedfrom 6 am to 1 pm.However, devotees are notcoming in large numbers.

In addition, the Godavariis deserted as the priestswho perform pujas, ritualsand offerings into theriver, voluntarily declareda lockdown till May 20.

The temple inns, rentedrooms and private lodgesare empty. Hotel and shopowners are worried aboutwhen the pandemic willend and their businessesbounce back.

Local bodies go for self-lockdown Business activities are restricted, temples have been closedCOVID | CURBS

IREDDY SRINIVAS REDDY I DCHYDERABAD, MAY 9

Though the state govern-ment is averse to a com-plete lockdown despite thegrowing number ofCoronavirus positivecases, local civic bodiesseem to be more cautiousand are imposing self-lock-down to contain the spreadof pandemic.

According to sources,more than 65 per cent ofvillages in the state havevoluntarily imposed lockd-owns to control Covid-19cases and consequent deat-hs in their respectiveareas. Several municipaland mandal headquartersand villages have restrict-ed business timings from 5o’clock in the morning to12 noon.

Yadadri Municipalityhas decided to close downall shops except emer-gency services. People inmany villages in Palakidu,Chityala, Narayanapuramand Survelu mandals areobserving voluntary lock-down. Businesses in thetown of Kodad and nearbyvillages have also beenlocked down. A voluntarylockdown is also being im-plemented in Munagala,Choutuppal mandal andChoutuppal municipality.

In undivided Warangaldistrict, more than 60 vil-lages closed down them-selves from 12 noon to 5 am

the next day. `Those vio-lating the norms are leviedfines between `1,000 and`5,000. Up to 28 contain-ment zones have been setup in region.

Partial lockdown isbeing implemented inParakala, Bhupalpally,Vardhannapeta and Etur-unagaram. In Jangaon,Warangal, Hanamkonda,Narsampet and Mahbub-abad areas, trade and com-mercial activities are alsoallowed only till 12 noon.

In undivided Karim-nagar district, nearly 80per cent of the villages in63 mandals are under self-lockdown. In the district,Durshed, Mugdhmapur,Bommakal, Cherlaboot-pur, Kottapalli Haveli andRamadugu mandals, apartfrom 26 villages in Gang-adhar zone and all villagesin Thimmapur, Manakon-dur and Shankarapatnammandals are locked down.

In Jagtial district,Malayalam, Raikal,Allipur, Birpur-Tungurand Kodimyala mandalsare observing self-lock-down. Shops are open from6 am to 11 am inKonaraopet, Chandurthiand Rudrangi mandals inSircilla constituency.Business and commercialestablishments in thetown of Sultanabad in thePeddapalli area are opentill noon. Garrepally,Odela, Kalva Srirampurarea are exercising self-

lockdown and Julapallimandal in Ramagundam12th division, is alsoobserving self-restraint.

In Ranga Reddy district,partial lockdown has beenself-enforced inMaheshwaram, Chevellaand Vikarabad areas. Thelocal authorities havedecided to implement thelockdown in Maheshw-aram municipality from 12noon to 6 am. The samewas decided in Ameerpet,Kalvakol and Tummalur.

There are self-declaredlockdowns in Kandukur,Kothaguda and Kandukurmandal. The situation issimilar in TukkugudaMunicipality. InShankarapalli mandal, afence has been put up onthe boundaries at Jana-wada and Kondakal Tandavillages. Mominpeta ispracticing lockdown at thecentre of the mandal.

In old Adilabad district,lockdowns are being obse-rved at Mamada, Ponkal,Laxmanchanda, Wadyaland Kanakapur. Lockdownis being observed also in

Khanapur mandal head-quarters, Khanapur Muni-cipality, Pembi, Kademmandals, Boath mandal,Ichoda, Asifabad, Basara,Chennur Municipalityand Kotapalli areas.

In the undivided Kham-mam district, Dumm-ugudem, Charla, Kalluru,Chennur, Mathira, Pen-uballi, Karepally, Errap-alem, Bonakal and Enkoormandals are undergoingpartial lock-down. Theyare also in self-defense inCharla, Pinapaka, Aswap-uram, Karakagoodem, Ell-andu, Mulkalapally, Dum-mugudem, Gundala, Alla-palli, Kothagudem andPalvancha in Bhadradridistrict. The villagers ofPalmedu erected a fence across the road toprevent traffic fromCharla to Palmedu(Chhattisgarh).

Restrictions continue inthe old Nizamabad dis-trict's Bhimpur, Ratnapur,Pipalkoti and Karanji (T)mandals. Wire fences havebeen put up around the vil-lage to prevent the entry ofoutsiders. Villagers arealso patrolling the fields tocreate awareness amongthe people. Special checkposts have been set up toprevent any vehicles fromentering the villages.

State borders are beingclosed along with villageboundaries. Control meas-ures are being taken inNizamabad and Nirmal

districts. Krishna, Naray-anpeta and Damaragiddamandals of Narayanpetdistrict in the old Palam-uru district along theKarnataka border, as wellas Gattu, Katidoddi andAija mandals in Jogul-amba Gadwal district havecome to a standstill. Thepolice and revenue depart-ments have set up specialcheck posts at Krishna(Devasuguru), Jalalpur,Sindhanur, Nandini andBulgeral on the state bor-der. Buses from Hyderabadand Mahbubnagar toRaichur have been rest-ricted to Krishna mandal.

Many prominent templesin the state are also beingclosed. Darshans are stop-ped for devotees in templesincluding Vemulawada Ra-jarajeshwara Swamy tem-ple, also known as Dak-shina Kashi, JogulambaTemple, Yadadri Narasim-ha Swamy temple, Meda-ram Sammakka, Saralam-ma Temple, Kuravi Veera-bhandraswamy, Bhadra-kali in Warangal and Shw-etarka temples in Kazipetare under lockdown. Onlyregular poojas are per-formed in Kondagattu,Odela Mallanna, Alampur,Jogulamba, Manyamko-nda and Polepalli temples.Nithya Annadanam hasbeen stopped at the templeof Basara Saraswati. AtBhadradri, only 5 to 8 amfor regular internal poojasand not for devotees.

BALLEDA NAGESWARARAO I DC

KADAPA, MAY 9

A ruling YSR Congressleader, C. NageshwarReddy, the general powerof attorney (GPA) holderof the white baryte minein the district where 10workers were killed in anexplosives mishap onSaturday, is said to beenjoying official patron-age despite gross viola-tions in mining opera-tions over the last fewyears.

Nageshwar Reddy is afollower of MydukurMLA Raghurami Reddyand is a brother of VeeraNarayana Reddy, whocontested BrahmamgariMatham elections.

A report submitted byDistrict Collector Ch.Harikiran, a copy ofwhich is available withDeccan Chronicle, is self-explanatory. It mentionsthat the GPA holder was ahabitual offender, floutedall norms of mining, usedexplosives without per-mission and transportedore in violation of miningrules. Inquiries revealedthat the local mining offi-cials visited the site atleast twice in 2019 andlast year again and rec-ommended terminationof the lease after findingthat the lives of workersat high risk.

But, senior officials atthe Directorate of Minesand Geology, for reasonsbest known to them, sleptover the recommenda-tions, which contributedto the ghastly incident,though indirectly.

The mining officialsnoticed that the lives ofworkers were in gravedanger as there were noseparate inlet and outletfor entry and exit of wor-kmen who were forced touse crane buckets to gointo the mine and comeout, “which is a highlydangerous condition.” Itwas also found during theinspection that the venti-lation system was not pro-vided by the lessee asspecified in the ApprovedScheme of Mining.

According to theCollector’s report, theAssistant Director, Mines,Kadapa, submitted areport after visiting themine on October 16 and18, stating that the lesseehad been conducting und-erground mining withouttrained personnel. Heexcavated excess quanti-ties beyond the annualapproved quantity from2013-14 onwards and evenviolated the crucial En-vironmental ProtectionAct-1986 by carrying outmining without environ-mental clearance and con-sent for establishment.

Ruling YSRC MLC CRamachandraiah, whosewife is the original leaseholder of the mines, toldthis correspondent thatthe GPA holder executedan agreement on a `100non-judicial stamp paper,indemnifying the originallease holder in case ofaccidents. When contact-ed, Ramachandraiah saidhis family had alreadyapplied to the minesdepartment for transferof lease to the GPA holder.

Meanwhile, Director ofMines Venkata Reddy toldDeccan Chronicle that thelease operations would besuspended and a criminalcase would be bookedagainst the persons invol-ved in transporting theblasting material. Kadapa

district mines assistantdirector Ravi Prasad saidthe families of the 10workers killed in Saturd-ay’s blasts would be com-pensated at the rate of `10lakh each.

ILLEGAL EXPLOSIVES,OFFICIALS’ APATHYCAUSED MISHAP

Collector’s probereport blamesYSRC for blast

TD activist killedin clash with YSRCDC CORRESPONDENTKURNOOL, MAY 9

A 42-year-old man waskilled by his politicalrivals at Nidjur village inKurnool mandal on Satu-rday night. The deceasedwas identified as KuruvaSreenivasulu, an activeworker of Telugu Desam.His sister-in-law was also seriously injured inthe clashes that occurredbetween YSRC and TDP workers over therecent MPTC election dis-putes.

Tension prevailed in thevillage after the murder-ous clash. It was learntthat at least 10 families ofthe accused locked their

houses and left the villageon Sunday. The relativesof the deceased protestedin front of the houses anddemanded immediatearrest of all the accused.

It is learnt that the sis-ter-in-law of the deceasedcontested as an MPTCcandidate in Nidjur.Counting of votes is yet tobe taken up. Meanwhile,disputes arose betweenher family and rivalsbelonging to YSRC.

On Saturday night heat-ed arguments ensuedbetween the two groups,which led to the killing ofSreenivasulu. The YSRCmen allegedly attackedtheir rivals with chillipowder and sticks.

Muslims offer prayers at Macca Masjidon Shab-e-Qadar with Covid protocolsDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, MAY 9

The Laliat-ul-Qadr, alsoreferred as Shab-e-Qadar,the night of power andblessings, was observedacross the city with reli-gious fervour by Muslimswhile maintaining Covid-19 protocols. The 27thnight of the holy month ofRamzan is consideredsacred when the ‘Quran’was revealed to ProphetMohammed.

To mark the occasion,special prayers wereorganized at most of themasjids in the city, includ-ing the historic Maccamasjid, where imamMaulana Hafez LateefAhmed led the prayers,and at Shahi masjid,Public Garden.

No special programmeswere held, unlike normaldays on this occasion.However, imams werefelicitated in severalmasjids who completedthe recitation of the

Quran in Taraweehprayers. After Masjidsclosed down as the night

curfew was imposed.After Isha and Taraweeh prayers, many

masjids closed down asthe night curfew wasimposed.

DC CORRESPONDENTKADAPA, MAY 9

In the wake of a shockingmishap which claimed 10lives and left manyinjured, public debate hasturned to those responsi-ble for the explosion ofgelatine sticks at thewhite barytes quarry atMamillapalle inKasinayana mandal inKadapa district onSaturday.

Police, revenue, minesand geology and pollutioncontrol departments aregenerally responsible foroverseeing blasting oper-ations in quarries andmines. The mines depart-ment officials were repor-tedly well aware that ille-gal mining was brazenlytaking place at the quar-ry. Also, the police andthe revenue departmentsturn blind eye to thoserunning explosives busi-nesses without any per-mits or licences. The pol-lution control board offi-cials do not seem to knowwhich quarries are oper-ating without environ-mental permits.

First of all, primeresponsibility rests withthe department of mines.It is a common practicethat those in possessionof licence mineral extrac-tion licences sell themaway to the highest bid-der illegally. Officials aresaid to be in cahoots withthe illegal miners andlook the other way evenas ore worth crores ofrupees is illegally extract-ed and sold. They also donot check if those operat-ing mines have properenvironmental permits.

While Mangampet isfamous for gray barytesin Kadapa district, whitebarites are available insmall quantities in areasincluding Vemula andVempalle. This ore is usu-ally mined underground.The mines in Vemula andVempalle areas have notbeen operational for thepast few years due towater seepage in theunderground minesadjoining the Puliv-endula branch canal. It isalleged that some minersare illegally extractingthe ore and are using per-mits issued in the nameof non-operative mines tosell it in the market.

In the case of those sell-ing explosives, dealersmust have specialisedvehicles to transport safe-ly. Those engaged in ille-gally selling explosivesreportedly brought thegelatine sticks in a nor-mal vehicle not fit for thepurpose, which apparent-ly led to the mishap.

failure of police andrevenue officials to checkthe activities of such ille-gal dealers was a mainreason for unfortunateincidents such as the oneon Saturday.

Political interferenceand corruption is citedfor the officials turningwilful partners in thecrime.

● ● IN ADDITION, theGodavari is deserted asthe priests who performpujas, rituals and offeringsinto the river, voluntarilydeclared a lockdown tillMay 20.

● ● PARTIAL LOCKDOWN isbeing implemented in Par-akala, Bhupalpally, Vardh-annapeta and Eturunag-aram. In Jangaon, Waran-gal, Hanamkonda, Nar-sampet and Mahbubabadareas, trade and commer-cial activities are alsoallowed only till 12 noon.

Muslims offer prayers at the historic Macca Masjid on Shab-e-Qadar, also known asthe night of power, in Hyderabad on Sunday. — DC

BOLARAM HOSPTO BECOMECOVID CENTRE T.S.S. SIDDHARTH | DCHYDERABAD, MAY 9

The Secunderabad Cant-onment Board (SCB) is toconvert the Bolaram Ge-neral Hospital into a full-fledged Covid-19 hospitalby the end of this week.

As additional measuresto keep the dreaded virusat bay, the board has pro-cured two vehicles tospray sodium hypochlo-rite in the wards. Eachward has been equippedwith a sanitiser station.

Speaking to DeccanChronicle, J. MaheshwarReddy, vice-president ofSCB said “We have 30-odd beds in the hospitaland we are in the processof enhancing it to 50.This would enable peopleacross economic strata touse the services.”

Not just the hospital,officials are also workingon keeping the wards ofthe board, sanitised, toprevent the spread of thepandemic.

EDIT pg 6DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

The Supreme Court order constituting a National Task Force (NTF) for,among others, making an assessment and recommendations on theavailability and distribution of medical oxygen and essential drugsand medicines for the entire country gives the Union government an

opportunity to make quick amends to the lapses it committed in preparing thenation for the second wave of the pandemic Covid-19.

The cabinet secretary is the convenor of the NTF which has 12 membersdrawn from the bureaucracy, academics and the healthcare industry. Thecourt would want the NTF to commence its work immediately and determinethe modalities for oxygen supply within a week, reflecting the desperation ofthousands of people suffering from the lack of healthcare facilities felt acrossthe country. The court has also tasked them with anticipating the require-ments of the nation to face a third wave of the pandemic, which the principalscientific adviser to the government has already warned is on its way. TheUnion and state governments and their agencies have been told to provide

complete and real time data for facilitating theNTF’s work while all private hospitals andother healthcare institutions have been askedto co-operate with it.

While repeatedly assuring all stakeholdersthat it has no plans to enter into the executivedomain of the government, the apex court hassaid the constitution of the NTF will facilitate apublic health response to the pandemic basedon scientific and specialised domain knowl-edge and “enable the decision makers to haveinputs which go beyond finding ad-hoc solu-tions to the present problems”.

The ball is now in the government’s court,contrary to a section of the cheerleaders of the NDA dispensation screamingthemselves hoarse, saying the court’s directive goes against the constitutionalscheme of things. True, the court has stepped in to fill a vacuum people havefelt but it has made it clear that it is for the government to take “appropriatedecisions” on the task force’s recommendations though it said the body shallsubmit its recommendations to the court also. True also that the Constitutionvests all the executive power with the Union council of ministers headed bythe Prime Minister, who also heads the National Disaster ManagementAuthority, constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

The court must, however, have been disappointed with the response of thegovernment when it asked for a plan to address the pressing issues people faceduring the pandemic, and hence the decision. That several high courts werealso forced to intervene to ensure supply of oxygen and life-saving drugs mayhave also prompted the Supreme Court into taking a pro-active position.

The government must take the court’s intervention as a call to assume thepower and responsibility in a decisive manner and act. It must ensure that theNTF gets the best help from all concerned so that it comes up with readilyactionable plan which will help address the mess the nation finds itself in now.Quibbling over constitutional niceties can wait till the pandemic is over.

10 MAY 2021

No more bickering, enablenew anti-Covid task force

The government musttake the court’s

intervention as a callto assume the power

and responsibility in adecisive manner and

act. It must ensurethat the NTF gets the

best help from all concerned...

It’s now a “ThirdWorld War”. In thenineteenth century,Prussia’s Maj. Gen.Carl von Clausewitz

had said: “War is a merecontinuation of policy byother means”. That iswhat the People’sRepublic of China is nowengaged in -- waging warin order to dominate theworld.

We have now enteredthe third year of this epiccampaign, which beganin 2019 on a low key. TheChinese strategy was sim-ple — to subdue withoutshooting — and to bringIndia to its knees. Thishas now turned into aconflagration. New Delhiwas totally unpreparedand last year, as thethreat of the pandemicrose, it got caught up inhealth issues and couldn’tput adequate infrastruc-ture in place. This monu-mental misjudgment ledto vast numbers ofIndians shivering downtheir spine, failing asusual to read Chinesemalice.

It’s not just India. Theworld is in the midst of along-drawn, protracted“Third World War”, thefirst salvo of which wasfired by Beijing’s dictator-for-life Xi Jinping fromWuhan in 2019, to fulfilthe Communist Party ofChina’s twenty-first cen-tury ambition of becom-ing the planet’s numerouno power.

The seeds were sown atWuhan, President Xi’sfavourite venue to show-case his country’s newglobal ambitions. Rem-ember the “Wuhan spirit”of 2018 — when PrimeMinister Narendra Modimet the Chinese strong-man in the aftermath ofthe Dokalam standoff ear-lier that year? The primetarget was, of the West,and specifically theUnited States; but Beijingthen changed coursetowards the secondarytarget, India; decimatingDelhi’s health and re-sources through a second-wave warhead that pene-

trated through the fragilefirewall of Lutyens’Delhi’s diplomatic gulli-bility, political vulnera-bility and strategic inabil-ity to retaliate against theCPC’s malice. This notonly brought Delhi down,forcing it to kowtow to theworld for aid and help,but now threatens thevery existence of India’sdemography.

As fatalities rise acrossthe land and corpses pileup, the killer epicentre ofthe war has ferociouslyrevived across the wholeof India, wreaking havocof the kind not seen byIndians before. Without abullet fire or a bombdropped, the flames ofwar are about to sendIndia’s economy and itshealth systems into theICU. India’s defence anddiplomacy are on a psy-chological ventilator,with the polity embar-rassed and bruised forgoing into an avoidableand premature celebra-tion to declare victoryover the China-originvirus pandemic.

New Delhi’s enormousmisjudgment in assessingthe incendiary punch ofthe conflagration hassunk a nation of 1.3 billioninto an unprecedentedstate of pessimism andpanic, dejection and dep-ression. India also miscal-culated the swift coursechange of the “ThirdWorld War”, becauseunlike all belligerents inprevious conflicts inhuman history, its masskilling spree without mili-tary mobilisation doesn’thave any visible or defi-nite contours.

The deathly blow of theChinese-origin virus(Covid-19) is far worsethan the physical devasta-tion and destruction thatIndia faced in either theFirst or the Second WorldWar. The outreach of thisvirus has been more dev-astating than the poisongas in the First WorldWar (used by Britain,Germany and Austria-Hungary in the trenchesadjacent to the Franco-

German border andbeyond) and the subse-quent reduced use bycombatants in the SecondWorld War following thepublic revulsion causedafter the 1914-1918 war.

In the twenty-first cen-tury, however, theChinese-origin virus hasalready affected around320 million people global-ly and is now on anuncontrollable overdrive.Having afflicted 20 mil-lion-plus Indians andkilling over 200,000 ofthem, this silent chemi-cal-biological killer isinfecting around 400,000people in India every sin-gle day, with around3,500-4,000 succumbingevery day. The funeralpyres are everywhere, notjust in crematoria: ambu-lances, alleys, parks, carparks, riversides are see-ing corpses lit before thelast rites.

Compared to the twoworld wars of the twenti-eth century, which werelargely fought in Europeand other parts of theplanet, this is the first“world war” in whichIndia is one of the princi-pal battlegrounds. Makeno mistake. Even at theheight of the bloodshedbetween the belligerents,the First World War was aEuropean war, leading to30 million deaths. It hap-pened mostly on theEuropean heartland,Russia, Turkey, Mesopot-amia and East Asia, inwhich a maximum of 40nations were directlyinvolved or affected.

The 1939-1945 SecondWorld War, however,killed 60 million people,double that of the FirstWorld War, with the dev-astation centred mostly inEurope, the Soviet Union,North Africa, SoutheastAsia, East Asia and thePacific islands. MainlandIndia survived a directassault, along with most

of the African continent,Australia, plus North andSouth America.

Compare these with theChinese-virus killer of theThird World War! It hasspared no one, except per-haps the country of its ori-gin, as is being claimed bythe CPC in its centenaryyear. Hence, of the 223countries (sovereign,semi-independent, auto-nomous, dependents) inthe world, all are underattack except one! Isn’t ita World War of one(among 223) against 222?

In the midst of thiscalamity comes the“offer” of proposed assis-tance to India from Mr Xi,who is also the CPC’s gen-eral secretary! ShouldIndia accept it? As far asBeijing is concerned, wecan emulate what thenPM Manmohan Singhhad done in 2004, in theaftermath of the tsunami,to politely refuse anyassistance, at least fromthe CPC. India can seek oraccept aid or help fromany of the remaining 222,but not from the one thatis actively trying to turnthis country into a vassalstate at a time of its dis-tress. China has alreadyproved that it is an exis-tential threat to a largenumber of countries. Nowthe “Third World War”looms large, with thethreat of the airborne“Made in China”germ/virus hoveringover the planet.

You don’t have to lookvery far for evidence ofthe Hans’ mischievousthought and intent. OnWeibo, see the image of aChinese rocket launchpositioned next to a photoof Covid-19 victims beingcremated in India. Thetext read: “Lighting a firein China versus lighting afire in India”. This nasty,nefarious image was pub-lished by an account ofthe official Chinese lawenforcement agency —CPC Central Political,Legal Affairs Commis-sion — that has millionsof Weibo followers. Itshows the Chinese rejoic-ing at the sight of funeralpyres of Indian victims ofthe “Third World War”.Will nemesis catch up oneday?

The writer is an alumnus

of the National DefenceCollege. The views

expressed are personal.

Compared to thetwo world wars of

the twentieth century, which

were largelyfought in Europe

and other parts ofthe planet, this is

the first ‘worldwar’ in which Indiais one of the prin-

cipal battlegrounds

India, world in middleof a ‘Third World War’

In a series of severe policing moves, Israel did not endear itself to its newallies in the region like the UAE and Bahrain, both signatories to normali-sation agreements with Israel last year, besides old enemy Hamas, which

rules in the Gaza Strip. Israeli police appeared to block the right to worship forMuslims in the Al Aqua mosque in Jerusalem, their religion’s third holiestsite. The Israel police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at stone-throwingPalestinian youth on Friday injuring about 205 Palestinians and 18 policemenand also clashed with protesters outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturdaywhich, as the “Night of Destiny”, is also the holiest night in the Muslim holymonth of Ramadan.

Weeks of unrest followed by two days of high tension from police actiondescribed as “security moves” by the police chief may be traced back not onlyto competing historic claims to east Jerusalem, which houses holy shrines ofJudaism, Islam and Christianity but also to rising anger over the possible evic-tion of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarra as their land is beingclaimed by Jewish settlers. This relates to an old phenomenon in Israel’splanned demographic change of territories occupied since the 1967 war.Israel’s supreme court is to hold a hearing on the case pertaining to EastJerusalem on Monday.

There were also claims of a rocket from Hamas falling in an open area onSunday and a retaliatory aerial Israeli strike at a Hamas military post. Theincidents does no credit to Israel even as Benjamin Netanhayu’s governmentis still in place though Yair Lapid of the cenrtist Yesh Atid party has beenasked to explore forming a new coalition government. The US, Europe and UNare calling for calm even as Israel’s Arab allies are condemning the latestmoves which, naturally enough, are seen as obstructing Muslims when theyare going for Ramadan prayers. In oppressive policing action, Israel may beblithely blowing away the gains made in its peace moves that helped alleviateold enmities in the region.

Israel mars own peace gains

April may be a cruel month butMay heralds the beginning ofthe holiday season. For somereason, the English prefer to

go abroad at the only time the weatheris tolerable — in the summer months. Itwas in the late nineteenth century thatParliament decided to have a summerbreak. The issue was the pollution ofThames. It stank. Members wanted thewindows open due to the heat but thatbrought in the stink. So they decided toabandon the Westminster Palace forthe summer. That brought summerholidays all around.

And now the traffic lights are backagain — to guide you whetheryou can travel to a particular

country or not. Australia and NewZealand have made it to the “green”traffic lights, including others likeIceland, along with very few othercountries. Which means that the Britscan travel there without having toquarantine for 10 days at a hotel chosenby the government when they return .But countries like India — and some ofits neighbours like Nepal and Pakistanfall into the “red” list. Thus while we

know that right now there is a travelban between the two countries — if anyBritish citizen wants to travel to India-they need to quarantine for ten days ina hotel upon their return, plus all thetests they have to undergo. Some peo-ple are deeply unhappy that theserestrictions are still in place, despitethe vaccine. But that is our “Brave NewWorld” — perfect only for armchairtravellers !

So we still have rules of how manyothers you can meet and howclosely they must be related. For

instance, six members of two familiescan meet, etc. But it is only around thethird week of June that many of theserestrictions are going to be removed —we hope that we can last that long! Butof course getting back to “normal” willcome with fresh caution as undoubted-ly a life free of Covid and its manymutations is still far away. So while the“traffic lights” may turn green, manyof us will still hang on to our masks.

Even so, it is not all pleasure and nowork. May is also the month when localelections take place. Plus this year, voteto the Scottish Parliament. Municipal

elections in England were cancelledlast year due to our first (of many butwe did not know it then) lockdowns.

Mind you, despite all the difficul-ties the country has beenthrough, the Prime Minister is

still riding high. Perhaps it is the opti-mism that he exudes — with the tou-sled hair and Houdini-like escape me-chanisms. Throughout his career, hehas got away with much, much morethan any one else, and he carries noguilt for any wrong or fault he has com-mitted. He apologises and carries on, aformula that has worked wonderfully.

Normally, the government party doesnot do well in the four yearly local elec-tions as they are out of sync with gen-eral elections. But “lucky” Boris isemerging triumphant all over theEnglish regions. The Labour Partyunder its leader Sir Keir Starmer (arare Knighted MP) was hoping toreverse their losses in the North wherethey were supposed to have a "RedWall". It had crumbled in the last gen-eral election. Alas, it cannot be rebuiltby Sir Keir, and Boris has once againmanaged to convince voters that he is

their best good news guy.

In London though things are differ-ent, the mayor of London has a four-year term. Boris was twice the

mayor of London. But in 2016, SadiqKhan, the Labour candidate, capturedLondon. He has already had a bonusextra year due to the postponement ofthe election. Now he has won, andextended his stay for three more years.Thus he becomes not only the firstminority ethnic candidate to continueto head one of the biggest cities in theworld but now will establish the envi-able distinction of having been mayorfor a eight years. So come 2025 - preparefor Sadiq to turn his mind to leadershipof the Labour Party and take a gambleon becoming the first minority ethnicPrime Minister of UK. Of course hemay be running against Rishi Sunak orPriti Patel as the Conservatives’ primeministerial candidate. Who could havethought even 10 years ago, such a thingcould happen?

And meanwhile a quick note onthe publicity outreach of the twoduchesses. Both Kate and

Meghan are doing their best to stayin the limelight. Who would havethought the ever productiveMeghan Markle even had a book inher, and this time it seems to be acute little children's book. She hascome up with one called The Bench,dedicated to her husband Harry —but written for her son.Undoubtedly a money spinner —good or bad — it means that nowwe all know what gift to buy a toddler.

One person who may not buy itwill be the Duchess of Cambridgefor reasons which are far too wellknown, especially after Oprah. Butthe competition is heating up — asWilliam and Kate have their own“YouTube” channel now. While thetwo duchesses continue their duelat dawn, from safely across thepond… one wonders, what next?

Kishwar Desai’s latest book, TheLongest Kiss: The Life And Timesof Devika Rani, has just been pub-

lished and she is the Chair of theTrust that set up the world’s first

Partition Museum in Amritsar

Kishwar Desai

Indian summeron UK’s red list;

royal duchesses induel of creativity

Subhani

AbhijitBhattacharyya

London Diary

DECCAN CHRONICLE

KAUSHIK MITTER K. SUDHAKAREditor Printer & Publisher

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Hyderabad: 36, Sarojini Devi Road, Secunderabad - 500 003, Ph: 040-27803930-4; Fax : 040-27805256Vijayawada: No.C-3 & 4 Patamata, Industrial Estate, Auto Nagar, Vijayawada (A.P.), Ph: 0866-2555284/2555287; Telefax: 0866-2555234Visakhapatnam: Survey No.1/3A Beach Road, Near Kailasagiri Ropeway, Sector-9 MVP Colony,Visakhapatnam - 530 017 (A.P), Ph: 0891-2552333/2552334; Fax: 0891-2755285Rajahmundry: Vemagiri, Dhawaleswaram Rd, Rajahmundry, Ph: 0883-2417618/2417208; Telefax: 0883-2417208Anantapur: Thapovan colony, Bangalore By-Pass Road, Anantapur - 515004, Ph: 08554-276903; Fax:08554-276904Karimnagar: Survey No.1341, Vavilalapally Colony, Jagityala Road, Karimnagar - 505 001, Ph: 0878-2228908; Telefax: 0878-2220433Nellore: Survey No.527/2, Burranpur Village, Venkatachalam (M), Chemmudugunta Panchayat, Nellore,Ph: 0861-2348581/82; Telefax: 0861-2348580Chennai: SP-3 Developed Plot, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai - 600 032, Ph: 044-22254747/ 48/50/51;Advt Fax: 22254765/22254766/42305325Coimbatore: 77, Vivekananda Road, Ramnagar, Coimbatore - 641 009, Ph : 0422 2231255Gram: CHRONICLE Postal registration no: No. H/SD-348/2006-08

VACCINATE FASTI am a student who losttwo years of academic life.Teachers must be treatedas frontline warriors andbe vaccinated first.Registration of patientsfor vaccination is timeconsuming for nurses.Why not use teachers forthis work?.

Flora MozesHyderabad

It is very clear by now that we needto vaccinate not less than 50 percent to 60 per cent of our popula-tion to stop this pandemic. We aretalking of over 120 crore jabs. Westarted with approximately 25 lakhvaccinations per day, which was toincrease to 50 lakh a day by the endof April. As things stand, we areaveraging about 20 lakh today.

Shashi KaranHyderabad

VACCINATION CENTREThe Telangana state governmentannounced that all those eligiblefor the second dose of vaccine willbe administered the same at allgovernment vaccination centres. Iam a senior citizen who visited acentre in Hafeezpet for the same.They told me there that onlyCovishield was available and forCovaxin I was directed toKondapur government hospital. Iurge the government to give prop-er directions so that at least seniorcitizens won’t face such problems.

Balakrishnan VishwanathanHyderabad

Value ofrare coins

HYDERABAD, MAY 9.The City Crime Branch officials

investigating the discovery ofrare gold coins, dug out earth inthe house of the waddar inMubarakpur village, inVikarabad, and found the vesselin which the remaining goldcoins were preserved. On examin-ing the gold coins, the officialsrealised the value and importanceof their recovery.

The officials informed the Stateand Centre Archaeologicaldepartments about their findings.Mr. V.V. Krishna Sastry,Assistant Director, Archaeologyand Museums, A.P. examined thecoins and determined the periodat 14th centre A.D. The coins inthe denominations of ‘pagodas’and ‘half pagodas’ bore theimages Shiva-Parvathi,Gandabherunda (a bird with twonecks) and some floral designs onone side and inscriptions inDevanagari script on the other.

50 YEARS AGO IN

LETTERS

NATION pg 7DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

SHORT TAKESU.P.: 67 NEW VENTILATORS

LYING UNUSEDFirozabad (UP), May 9: Atotal of 67 new ventilators arelying unused at the 100-beddedCovid-19 isolation ward set upat a medical college here, asenior doctor has said.

When contacted, ChiefMedical Superintendent DrAlok Kumar Sharma said thatlast year, the medical collegehad got 96 ventilators underthe PM-CARES Fund, and inall there are 114 ventilatorsavailable at the medical col-lege. Of these, 25-30 ventilatorsare being used to provide treat-ment to patients.

He added that of the 67 venti-lators, which are kept in astore room of the hospital,around 60-62 are in workingcondition.

Kumar, however, did not elab-orate on the rest of the ventila-tors.

Principal of the medical col-lege, Dr Sangeeta Aneja said,that the state medical depart-ment has been informed that67 ventilators are there in thehospital.

In a letter to the state healthdepartment, it was alsorequested that if there is aneed of a ventilator in anynearby district, then it couldbe sent there.

“Currently, we have ventila-tors, and they will be usedwhen required. For operationof ventilators, technicians areneeded, which we do not havein adequate numbers,” shesaid.

KOTA COPS GET75 WEDDINGS PUT

OFF IN A DAYKota, May 9: Over 75 wed-

dings were postponed in a dayin Kota Rural district afterpolice reached out to familiesas part of a campaign to com-ply with the lockdown whichhas been enforced in the stateto contain rising Covid cases.

During a field visit of DIGRavidutt Gaur, two beat con-stables of Kota Rural Police,Asharam of Digod police sta-tion and Navneet of Kaithunpolice station, informed himthat they had persuaded threefamilies to call off weddingsscheduled for this month, DSPand CO (Itawa) VijayshankarSharma said.

The beat constables weregiven a reward of Rs 1,100each, he said.

The DIG then directed offi-cials to conduct meetings atgram panchyat level in pres-ence of influential locals andpublic representatives to per-suade families to cancelupcoming weddings, Sharmasaid.

Under the supervision ofKota Rural SP SharadChoudhary, the campaign waslaunched at gram panchyatlevel on Saturday morningwith beat constables and SHOsinteracting with families,resulting in postponement ofmore than 75 weddings in asingle day, the DSP said. ”My sister Manisha was sup-posed to get married on Fridaybut a beat constable came earlymorning and convinced us tocall off the wedding. It hasnow been postponed to afterthe coronavirus pandemic,”said Rinkesh Kumar.

TEN STATESACCOUNT FOR OVER

71% OF CASESNew Delhi: Maharashtra, Ka-rnataka and Delhi are among10 states that account for 71.75per cent of the 4,03,738new Covid-19 cases registeredin a day, the Union HealthMinistry said on Sunday.

The other states in the list of10 are Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Uttar Pradesh, AndhraPradesh, West Bengal,Rajasthan, and Haryana.

Maharashtra has reportedthe highest daily new cases at56,578. It is followed by Karna-taka with 47,563 while Keralareported 41,971 new cases.

A total of more than 30.22crore tests have been conduct-ed so far across the countrywhile the daily Covid-19 posi-tivity rate stands at 21.64 percent, the ministry said.

Maharashtra, Karnataka,Kerala, Tamil Nadu, UttarPradesh, Rajasthan, AndhraPradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu,Chhattisgarh, West Bengal,Haryana, Bihar and MadhyaPradesh cumulatively accountfor 82.94 per cent of India'stotal active cases, the ministrystated. “The National Mor-tality Rate has been falling andcurrently stands at 1.09 percent,” the ministry said.

Besides, 4,092 deaths werereported in a span of 24 hours.

Ten states account for 74.93per cent of the new deaths.Maharashtra saw the maxi-mum casualties (864).Karnataka follows with 482daily deaths.

BHASKAR HARI SHARMA | DCNEW DELHI, MAY 9

Delhi chief ministerArvind Kejriwal hasextended the lockdown inthe national capital byanother week, making therestrictions stricter. EvenDelhi Metro services havebeen suspended this time.The lockdown will be ontill 5 am on Monday, May17. Mr Kejriwal said theextension was meant toensure that the city doesnot let its guard down eventhough the Covid-19 num-bers have dropped margin-ally. “The positivity ratehas gone down but still wecan’t afford leniency. Weneed to extend to lock-down,” the CM said.

There will be a total pro-hibition of wedding cere-monies at public places.Marriages can be held athomes or in the courtswith not more than 20 peo-ple, under an order issuedby the Delhi DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA). “There will be acomplete prohibition onmarriage ceremonies atpublic places, banquethalls, hotels and similarplaces during this period,”it said.

The service providers orowners of hotels, ban-quets, marriage halls,sound systems, DJs, andcatering services will haveto return the advance pay-ments for marriages dur-ing the lockdown or haveto mutually agree on alater date for the cere-monies, the order said.

Mr Kejriwal had alsowritten to the Unionhealth minister, urginghim to direct the SerumInstitute of India andBharat Biotech to increasetheir monthly supplies toDelhi to 60 lakh doses fromMay to July.

While the positivity rate,which stood at 35 per centin mid-April, has droppedto 23 per cent, doctors sayeven this is very high andthere is a need to com-pletely break the chain oftransmission.

Delhi’s cumulativeCovid-19 vaccination cov-erage exceeded 38 lakhdoses, the Delhi govern-ment said on Sunday.

The Delhi health depart-ment says it has vaccinat-ed 2,75,540 people of the 18-44 age group so far and hasa stock of 2,74,460 vaccinedoses for this age group.

Deputy CM ManishSisodia has, meanwhile,ordered an inquiry intoreports that 23 Covid-19patients had gone missingfrom Hindu Rao Hospital;and has instructed thehealth department to sub-mit its report by Monday.

AAP MLA Atishi said,meanwhile, that Delhi hasso far received 5.5 lakhdoses for 1the 8-44 catego-ry, over 43 lakh for the 45-plus, and healthcare andfrontline workers. “Wehave now 4.65 lakh dosesavailable for 45-plus peo-ple, and healthcare andfrontline workers; and 2.74lakh doses for the 18-44group,” she said. The totalnumber of cases in Delhihas reached 13,10,231 — ofwhich 87,907 are activecases. The total number offatalities is 19,071. The cityrecorded a positivity rateof 23.34 per cent and a casefatality rate of 1.46 percent. This will be the fo-urth week of the lockdownimposed as the Covid-19numbers in the nationalcapital skyrocketed.

Delhi extends lockdown byanother week, tightens curbsKejriwal says extension is to ensure that Capital does not let guard down

DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, MAY 9

India recorded 3,66,317fresh cases on Sunday.The numbers havedeclined marginally overthe past three days afterhitting a peak of 4,14,554on Thursday. Deaths con-tinued to surge with3,747 fatalities reportedon Sunday. Howeverthere were early signs inthe data that the secondwave in the countrycould be reaching itspeak. Several states tooimposed lockdown orstrict curbs asCoronavirus catastrophecontinues.

Maharashtra reported56,578 cases whileKarnataka had 47,563.Kerala, Tamil Nadu andUttar Pradesh were theother top contributors.

Rajsthan recorded 159deaths and 17,921 coron-avirus cases on Sunday,taking the death toll to5,665 and the infectiontally to 7,56,707

Haryana reported13,548 new coronaviruscases, taking the casetally to 6,15,897 while12,639 recoveriesbrought the active num-ber of cases in the stateto 1,16,867. Haryanarecorded 151 Covid-19deaths in the last 24hours, according to thehealth bulletin.

In Uttar pradesh thenumber of new cases ofCovid-19 continued todecline while recoverieswent up in the state onSaturday, health officialssaid. At least 26,847 freshcases were reportedwhile 34,721 people weredeclared free of coron-avirus infection in thelast 24 hours. During

this period, total 2,23,656Covid tests were con-ducted in the state.

In a first of its kinddata released by the gov-ernment, on Covidpatients requiring criti-cal care, shows thatnearly 50,000 people arecurrently in ICUs whileover 14,000 on ventilatorsupport.

Meanwhile, Centreissues advisory on man-agement ofMucormycosis fungalinfection in Covid-19patients

Mucormycosis, a fun-gal infection being foundin Covid-19 patients withuncontrolled diabetesand prolonged intensivecare unit (ICU) stay, mayturn fatal if uncared.

Delhi, Uttar Pradeshand Haryana extendedtheir ongoing lockdownstill May 17 to curb theunprecedented surge ofCovid-19 cases anddeaths.

Tamil Nadu, Rajasthanand Puducherry willalso have a two-weekshutdown startingMonday, while inKarnataka's stringentlockdown will come intoeffect on Monday tillMay 24. On Saturday,Kerala came under anine-day complete lock-down. This means thatfrom Monday, a majorityof the country will beunder either a strictlockdown or lockdown-like curbs.

M a h a r a s h t r a ,Karnataka and Delhi areamong 10 states thataccount for 71.75 percent of new Covid-19cases registered in a day,the Union health min-istry said in its Sundaymorning update.

Centre advises onfungal infectionmanagement

Major share forBPL in C’garh’snew vax policyRABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURY | DCRAIPUR, MAY 9

The revised adult vacci-nation policy set to beannounced byChhattisgarh govern-ment very soon has pro-posed to give a majorshare to members ofbelow poverty line (BPL)families in the thirdphase of inoculationlaunched in the state onMay one, sources said onSunday.

The proposed policy hasdivided people in the agegroup of 18-44 to be inocu-lated in the third phase ofvaccination into four cat-egories and quotas foreach category of thesepeople have been fixed, asenior officer in theChhattisgarh healthdepartment told thisnewspaper unwilling tobe quoted since he wasnot authorised to speak tomedia.

The four categories ofpeople created in the pro-posed revised vaccinationpolicy are BPL, abovepoverty line (APL),Antyodaya and frontlineworkforce, sources said.

Sources revealed BPLhas been given a share of52 percent in the vaccina-tion drive, while APL,

Antyodaya and frontlineworkforce have beengiven quotas of 12 per-cent, 16 percent and 20percent respectively.

Chhattisgarh is the firststate to fix quotas for peo-ple in the third phase ofvaccination in the state.

In a related develop-ment, Chhattisgarh chiefminister Bhupesh Baghelon Sunday announced toinclude journalists andlawyers in the frontlineworkforce.

“Journalists, lawyersand their families willalso get priority in vacci-nation like frontlineworkers”, Mr Baghelannounced.

People with comorbidi-ties, food providers, veg-etable vendors, anganwa-di workers, mitanis(health workers), pan-chayat secretaries,‘Kotwar-Patel’ and publicdistribution system man-agers and vendors havealso been included in thelist of frontline workers.

The Chhattisgarh highcourt has earlier directedthe state government tocome out with a freshadult vaccination policyafter setting aside theexisting policy whichgave priority toAntyodaya card holdersin the vaccination drive.

SRIDHARKUMARASWAMI | DCNEW DELHI, MAY 9

The Union Governmenton Sunday said a whop-ping 6,738 OxygenConcentrators, 3,856Oxygen Cylinders, 16Oxygen GenerationPlants, 4,668 ventilatorsand about three lakh vialsof anti-Covid drugRemdesivir have beendelivered to the country sofar from abroad, addingthat it was promptly allo-cating and distributingthe supplies. This comeseven as foreign aid contin-ued to pour in fromBritain, Japan, Canada,South Korea, Kuwait,China and other nations.

Chinese AmbassadorSun Weidong tweeted onSunday evening, “Thefirst batch of 100 Oxygenconcentrators, 40 ventila-tors, and other anti-epi-demic supplies donated bythe Red Cross Society ofChina (RCSC) arrived inIndia today by a Chinesecargo flight fromChengdu. RCSC alsodecided to provide US$one million in cash assis-tance to the Indian RedCross Society through theInternational Federationof the Red Cross and RedCrescent Societies to helpIndia fight against Covid-

19.” The Chinese envoyadded, “Nothing in theworld is more preciousthan people's lives.Actions of RCSC shine thehumanitarian spirit ... ”.

Meanwhile, SpiceXpress,the air cargo arm of air-line SpiceJet, said it hadairlifted 9,600 oxygen con-centrators from Beijing,Wuhan, Nanjing and HongKong to Kolkata and Delhion Sunday. The airlinesaid it has airlifted morethan 27,000 oxygen con-centrators from the USA,Hong Kong, Singapore andChina so far.

On British support,MEA Spokesperson Arin-dam Bagchi tweeted, “Ta-king forward our Compr-ehensive Strategic Part-

nership. Consignment of 3O2 generators & 1,000 ven-tilators arrives from UK.Each generator has capac-ity to produce 500 litres ofO2/min, enough to treat 50people at a time. Deeplyvalue the contributionfrom our close friend.”

Earlier on Saturday, 100oxygen concentratorswere sent by Japan as apart of the first batch ofthe emergency assistanceto India. Japan is provid-ing India with 300 oxygenconcentrators and 300 ven-tilators and announced itwill continue to extendfurther support.

Canada also announcedthat it is sending up to25,000 vials of the antivi-ral drug remdesivir

(brand name Veklury) andup to 350 ventilators fromits National EmergencyStrategic Stockpile to helprespond to the critical sit-uation across India.Canada is also providingsupport throughUNICEF’s response to thepandemic in India withthe urgent provision of1,450 oxygen concentra-tors. This support is in“addition to Canada’s $10-million support to theCanadian Red CrossSociety, which is support-ing the Indian Red CrossSociety’s procurement ofessential supplies andmedicines”. The CanadianArmed Forces are airlift-ing these supplies to India.

On South Korean sup-port, the MEA tweeted, “Avalued partner in ourextended neighbourhood.First consignment of 30oxygen concentrators &200 oxygen cylinders withregulators arrives fromthe Republic of Korea.Welcome this supportfrom our Special StrategicPartner.”

A total of 282 Oxygencylinders and 60 Oxygenconcentrators alsoreached India fromKuwait and another 60 MTof liquid oxygen, 800 oxy-gen cylinders and two con-centrators is also on itsway from the Gulf nation.

Patients on oxygen support wait outside the Covid-19 facility of the Chest Disease Hospital in Jammu, on Sunday.— PTI

India gets 6.7K O2 concentrators, 16generation plants as aid from abroad

New Delhi, May 9:Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday spoke tothe chief ministers ofPunjab, Karnataka, Biharand Uttarakhand on theCovid-19 situation intheir states, officialsources said.

Modi has been speakingto state chief ministersand lieutenant governorsof union territories forthe last few days to assesthe pandemic situationthere and offer sugges-tions.

Chief ministers havealso briefed him on themeasures being taken bythem to deal with the rag-ing second wave of thepandemic.

India recorded 4,03,738fresh Covid-19 cases in aday, which pushed thetally to 2,22,96,414, accord-ing to the Union HealthMinistry data updated onSunday.

The death toll climbedto 2,42,362 with 4,092 dailydeaths, the data updatedat 8 am showed. — PTI

PM speaks to CMsof 4 states on Covid

New Delhi, May 9: Withthe second wave of theCovid-19 pandemic rav-aging the country and con-cerns being raised about apossible third wave,experts caution that thenext wave could be lesssevere if people keep fol-lowing Covid-appropriatebehaviour and a large por-tion of the population isvaccinated.

According to the UnionHealth Ministry data rele-ased on Sunday morning,India recorded 4,03,738fresh Covid-19 cases in thelast 24 hours, pushing thecountry's cumulative tallyto 2,22,96,414, while the de-ath toll climbed to 2,42,362with 4,092 daily deaths.

There has been a sharpsurge in infections overthe past couple of months,making the second wavemuch worse than the firstone that began in early2020 and peaked in the lastquarter of that year beforethe tally hit a trough in thefirst quarter of 2021.

Several experts believethat a casual approachthat followed the trough ofthe first wave could be apossible reason for thepandemic raising its headagain, though others arealso putting the blame onthe new mutants and vari-ants of the virus beingmore virulent.

K. VijayRaghavan, Pri-ncipal Scientific Adviser,

had said on Wednesdaylast week that the thirdwave was inevitable and itwas necessary to be pre-pared for new waves, butclarified two days laterthat the “insidious asymp-tomatic transmission” canbe stopped if prescribedguidelines about precau-tions, surveillance,containment, treatmentand testing are followed.

“If we take strong meas-ures, the third wave maynot happen in all places orindeed anywhere at all. Itdepends on much howeffectively guidance isimplemented at the locallevel in the states, districtsand cities everywhere,” hesaid. According to experts,

in a few months when theimmunity people havedeveloped naturally orwith the help of vaccina-tion fades, the virusstrikes again and the onlything that can stop thevirus from bouncing backis how people are guard-ing themselves.

“Early this year, as thenew cases receded, peoplestarted interacting as ifthere was no virus. Theimmunity had alreadystarted declining. Theyorganised mass gather-ings, they stopped wearingmasks, giving the opportu-nity to the virus to strikeagain,” said Dr AnuragAgarwal, director, Inst-itute of Genomics and Int-

egral Biology, New Delhi.“While we anticipate a

third wave, we cannot saywhen exactly it will comeor how severe it will be.But if people keep follow-ing Covid-appropriate be-haviour in coming monthsand we are able to vacci-nate a large number ofpeople, the third wavecould be less severe,” DrAgarwal added.

While the sudden surgein the number of casesduring the second wavehas led to panic amongpeople, what is adding totheir fear is the constantthreat of new mutants ofthe virus and how thesemutants could potentiallyharm them. — PTI

Vaccination a shield against virusExperts say only Covid-appropriate behaviour can fight diseaseCOVID | BLUES

Relatives mourns after the death of family memberdue to Covid-19, as Coronavirus cases surge in thenational capital , at LNJP Hospital in New Delhi. — PTI

Family members along with medical workers shift aCOVID19 patient to Level-3 ward of Swaroop Rani NehruHospital in Prayagraj, on Sunday. — PTI

● ● MODI HAS beenspeaking to state chiefministers and lieu-tenant governors ofunion territories forthe last few days toasses the pandemicsituation there andoffer suggestions.

A consignment of three oxygen generators and 1,000ventilators arrives from the UK. Each generator canproduce 500 litres of oxygen per minute, enough totreat 50 people at a time. — PTI

RAJIB CHOWDHURIKOLKATA, MAY 9

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Sundayurged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in yet anotherletter not to levy the centraltaxes and duties on a list ofemergency medical equip-ments and drugs for Covid-19treatment.

The TMC chief called for thewaiver as the statewide dailyspike in Covid-19 cases rose to19,441 with 124 fresh deaths inthe last 24 hours.

Ms Banerjee wrote, “I amwriting to you regarding acritical issue on facilitatingaugmentation of medical sys-tem including infrastructure,equipment, medicine and oxy-gen, necessitated due to sud-den spike in the number ofCOVID cases in the country ingeneral and also in WestBengal. We all are trying ourbest to face new challengesand making all efforts to chan-nelize resources from differentsources, including ensuringavailability of life savingdrugs and oxygen for Covidtreatment.”

She pointed out, “A largenumber of organizations, indi-viduals’ and benevolent agen-cies have come forward todonate oxygen concentrators,cylinders, cryogenic storagetanks, tankers and tank con-tainers and Covid drugs. Dona-tions from these organizationswill greatly supplement theefforts of the state govern-ment in meeting the huge gapin demand and supply.”

NATION pg 8DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

IN BRIEF

MAMATA SEEKSGST WAIVER FOR

COVID DRUGS

Patna, May 9: RashtriyaJanata Dal founding presidentLalu Prasad, who is out on bailafter spending more thanthree years behind bars, onSunday held a much-awaited“virtual interaction” withworkers of his party backhome in Bihar. Prasad, whorecently walked out of a jail inRanchi after the JharkhandHigh Court granted him bailsin all the fodder scam caseswherein he has been awardedpunishments, spoke from NewDelhi. The septuagenarian,who suffers from multiple ail-ments including diabetes, car-diac and renal problems, hasbeen convalescing at his resi-dence in the national capitalupon release. His younger sonTejashwi Yadav also spoke onthe occasion.

CONTEMPT NOTICEON RAJ OFFICIALS

FOR SALARY ISSUENew Delhi: The SupremeCourt has issued notice toRajasthan government educa-tion officials seeking theirreply as to why contemptaction not be initiated againstthem for non-compliance of its2019 order, directing reim-bursement of 70 per cent ofsalary paid to teachers of agovernment-aided schoolwhich was shut in 2011.

A bench of Justices RFNariman, B.R. Gavai andHrishikesh Roy said,“Absolutely they have donenothing” and issued notice onthe contempt plea filed by atrust, which used to manage aschool, and sought theresponse from the officialswithin four weeks. “Issuenotice, returnable in fourweeks. Personal presence ofthe alleged contemnor(s) isdispensed with for the timebeing,” the bench said in itsorder passed on May 6.

New Delhi, May 9: TheDefence Ministry said onSunday it has issued anorder to the Armed ForcesMedical Services (AFMS)to recruit 400 retired med-ical officers of the ArmyMedical Corps (AMC) andthe Short ServiceCommission (SSC) on acontract basis for maxi-mum 11 months.

India has been badly hitby the second wave ofcoronavirus infectionsand hospitals in severalstates are reeling undershortage of health work-ers, vaccines, oxygen,

drugs and beds.The Defence Ministry’s

statement noted: “Underthe ‘Tour of Duty’ scheme,400 ex-AMC/SSC medicalofficers, released between2017 and 2021, are expectedto be recruited on contractbasis for a maximum peri-od of 11 months.”

These medical officerswill be paid a fixed month-ly lump sum amount,which will be calculatedby deducting the basicpension from the salarydrawn at the time ofretirement, it said.

If there is any additional

pay for specialists, it willbe given on top of thislump sum amount, itadded. “The amountwould remain unchangedfor the term of the con-

tract and no otherallowances would be paid.The medical officers to berecruited are required tobe medically fit as percivilian standards,” it

mentioned.The AFMS has already

deployed additional doc-tors, including specialists,super specialists and para-medics, at various hospi-

tals, to deal with the sec-ond wave of the Covid-19pandemic. The SSC doc-tors of the AFMS have alsobeen granted extension tillDecember 31, which hasaugmented the strength by238 more doctors.

India recorded 4,03,738fresh Covid-19 cases in aday, which pushed the tallyto 2,22,96,414, according tothe Union health ministrydata updated on Sunday.

The death toll from thepandemic climbed to2,42,362 with 4,092 newfatalities, the data updatedat 8 am showed. — PTI

DefMin to hire 400 retired medical officersDecision was taken to strengthen defence forces’ medical team to fight CovidEMERGENCY | MOVE

Himanta: A leader whowas guided by ambition

BJP’s rise shows tectonicshift in W. Bengal politicsSANJAY BASAK | DCNEW DELHI, MAY 9

The emergence of the BJPas the main and indeedthe only Opposition partyin West Bengal willchange the politics of thestate for some time tocome. With the completedecimation of the Left andCongress and with theBJP taking its tally fromthree to 77 seats, it seemsclear that nearly 38 percent of Bengali voters hadbacked the Hindutvabrand of politics.

The perception that thevote for the TMC was avote for Muslims was setrolling after Ms Baner-jee’s huge electoral victo-ry. A senior BJP leaderwho did not want to beidentified claimed thatafter the stunning victory,“Muslim appeasement inBengal is all set to peak”.

He said: “Muslims hadvoted for Didi en bloc. Shehas to return the favour.”

BJP MP Mr RakeshSinha tweeted: “The prob-lem is not with the modeof worship or followers ofa particular religion, butwhen people vote as a reli-gious community, itdefeats the very basicprinciple of democracy. Isit not happening in Indiandemocracy?”

On the West Bengalresults, Mr Sinha said:“Wakeup call: Minorityveto in electoral politicswill be devastating for oursecular democracy.”

Some felt that to neu-tralise the “threat”, TMCsupremo Mamata Baner-jee may have to continuewith her “Chandi Paths”and identity as a “HinduBrahmin woman”.

However, the CPI(M-L)’sDipankar Bhattacharyafelt the only way to count-er the politics of “bigotry”is to govern properly.

He said: “Mamata hasgot a huge mandate, sheshould not indulge in anysectarian optics butcounter the BJP’s commu-

nal agenda with her gov-ernance.”

Mr Bhattacharya alsonoted that what workedwell against the BJP washer call for “Bengali iden-tity”, adding that theTMC’s “Joi Bangla” slo-gan had prevailed over thecommunal calls.

The post-poll clashes inWest Bengal were aglimpse of the politicalroute that lay ahead. RSSmouthpiece Organiser,reporting on the Bengalviolence, stated: “Here is afirst-person account froma Hindu resident of theNew Town area who hasnow fled West Bengal. Shesays Muslims are break-ing down and lootingHindu shops, draggingHindus out of their homesto beat them up. No newschannel will show this inthe name of secularism.Even Covid-19 patientswho are thought to havevoted for the BJP have tofall at their feet and payhafta to save dyingpatients in the hospitals.”

BJP general secretaryKailash Vijayvargiya twe-eted: “TMC Muslim goonsare beating up womenworkers in Kendamari vil-lage, Nandigram.”

Senior RSS leader

Bidyut Mukherjee’sremark in the RSS mouth-piece clearly indicated theagenda the saffronbrigade intends to pursue.

Mr Mukherjee askedswayamsevaks to protectvictims and stay by theside of Hindu society. “Atthis time, it is our greatestduty to calmly stay by theside of Hindu society... Weshall have to prepare toprotect Hindu society,” hedeclared.

“Make no mistake, fromthree to 77 seats is a hugegrowth, despite the twoper cent loss in voteshare.

The RSS, which came toBengal in the late 1930s,have spread all over. TheRSS’ contribution to thisstaggering growth of theparty cannot be under-mined,” a senior BJPleader said. Some reportssay the RSS has nearly1,000 shakhas in the stateand is still growing.

Another senior saffronleader took umbragewhen asked about thecommunal agenda WestBengal could witness fol-lowing the rise of the BJP.“This I don’t understand.Why isn’t minorityappeasement seen as com-munal?” he asked.

On the party toeing amajoritarian line, heargued that when the BJP“speaks of developmentfor all, it concerns 80 percent of Hindus and 20 percent of minority commu-nities,” he said. He asked:“Can this be termed as amajoritarian agenda?”

A TMC leader, acknowl-edging the “danger” thatdivisive politics mightcontinue, also said theChief Minister was“determined” to counterthe BJP agenda with hergovernance. With BJPbreathing down her neck,the CM will have to tacklethe Covid-19 crisis, focuson the state’s health sec-tor as well as educationand, more important,tackle the economy andrising unemployment.

Northeast’s go-getter laid his own path for Assam’s top postMANOJ ANAND | DCGUWAHATI, MAY 9

For 52-year-old HimantaBiswa Sarma, a journeyfrom youth leader toAssam chief minister hasbeen of a crusader whofought his battle againstall odds and succeeded inachieving his goal.

Sarma joined the BJP inAugust, 2015. Once AssamChief Minister TarunGogoi’s most trusted lieu-tenant, Sarma joinedhands with the BJP, creat-ing ripples through therank and file of the thenruling Congress. His movecame ahead of the stateAssembly elections inApril, 2016, in which hefought on the BJP ticketand won by a margin of85,935 votes.

Regarded as a big factorin the party’s wins in the2016 Assembly polls andthe 2019 Lok Sabha pollsas well as the handling ofthe challenges of the anti-CAA agitation and the

pandemic, the formerCongress leader is also thespearhead of the party’seffort to increase its pres-ence in the north-east.

Apart from handlingalmost all the importantdepartments, except homewhich was under Sono-wal, the former Congressleader also served as theconvenor of North EastDemocratic Alliance, theBJP’s special purposevehicle for expanding itsinfluence in the north-east. As NEDA convenorSarma emerged as a trou-ble-shooter for the BJP inthe northeast — be it thepolitical crisis of Manipuror Nagaland, he wasrushed by the BJP leader-

ship to overcome the situ-ation. Sarma not only res-cued the Manipur govern-ment from the politicalcrisis but also succeededin strengthening the stakeof the saffron party in theChristian states likeNagaland and Meghalayaas well.

Sarma started his politi-cal career very early withAll Assam Students’Union (AASU). He waselected to the body ofKamrup Academy as theassistant general secre-tary for the first time in1982-83. This was the firstelection he ever won.

In 1987-88, Himanatabecame AGS in the CottonCollege Students’ Unionand went on to become theGeneral Secretary thricein 1988-89, 89-90 and 91-92.

His first electoral victo-ry was registered in 2001from Jalukbari on aCongress ticket. He latercontested from the sameseat in the next two con-secutive elections in 2006

and 2011 and won. In 2002,Sarma was made the min-ister of state (MoS) in theagriculture department.Later on in 2006, hebecame the health minis-ter and was given the port-folios of health and educa-tion in 2011.

An ambitious Sarma hadfirst made his dream ofbecoming the chief minis-ter public in 2011 and laterbegan openly revoltingwhen the chief ministerlaunched his son GauravGogoi. In July 2014, Sarmaclaimed support of 52 ofthe Congress party’s 78MLAs and staked claim tobecome the CLP leader,which was soon turneddown by AICC vice-presi-dent Rahul Gandhi.

Some senior Congresslegislators who had earli-er backed Sarma did notjoin his cavalcade to theRaj Bhavan. Later, Hima-nata and 28 otherCongress MLAs went tothe Governor and ten-dered their resignation.

Tezpur fire

Fire-fighters try to extinguish a fire in Tezpur Chowk Bazaar in Assam on Sunday. Over 300 shops were gutted inthe fire that possibly started due to a short circuit. — PTI

GST waiver on vaccineswill make it costly: FMNew Delhi, May 9:Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onSunday virtually ruledout exempting Covid vac-cines, medicines and oxy-gen concentrators fromGST, saying such anexemption will make thelifesaving items costlierfor consumers as manu-facturers will not be ableto offset the taxes paid oninputs.

Currently, domestic sup-plies and commercialimports of vaccinesattract a 5 per cent Goodsand Services Tax (GST),while Covid drugs andoxygen concentratorsattract a 12 per cent levy.Congress working presi-dent Sonia Gandhi hadlast month demanded thatall life-saving drugs,equipment and instru-ments required to treatCovid-19 patients must beexempted from GST.

West Bengal ChiefMinister MamataBanerjee has also made asimilar demand.

“If full exemption fromGST is given, vaccine

manufacturers would notbe able to offset theirinput taxes and wouldpass them on to the endconsumer/citizen byincreasing the price,”Sitharaman said in aseries of tweets.

“A 5 per cent GST rateensures that the manufac-turer is able to utilise ITCand in case of overflow ofITC, claim refund. Henceexemption to the vaccinefrom GST would be coun-terproductive withoutbenefiting the consumer.”

The tweets, 16 of them inall, were in response toBanerjee's letter to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.India is facing the world'sworst outbreak of COVID-19 cases with more than 4lakh new daily COVID-19cases being reported overthe weekend. More than2.42 lakh people in Indiahave died from the virusinfection. Public healthsystem is buckling underthe weight of surginginfections and deaths withseveral parts of the coun-try reporting a shortage ofhospital beds, medical

oxygen, medicines andvaccines.

To buttress her point onlevy of GST on importedgoods, Sitharaman saidthe Centre and statesequally split collectionsmade from levy ofIntegrated GST (IGST).Further 41 per cent of theCentral GST revenue isdevolved to States. So outof a collection of `100, asmuch as `70.50 is theshare of the states. Fromthe GST collected on vac-cines, half is earned bythe Centre and the otherhalf by the States.Further, 41 per cent ofCentre’s collections alsoget devolved to the States.So states end up receivingalmost 70 per cent of thetotal revenue collectedfrom vaccines. “In fact, anominal 5 per cent GST isin the interest of thedomestic manufacturer ofvaccines and in the inter-est of the citizens,”Sitharaman said.

Mamata Banerjee earli-er in the day wrote toModi seeking exemptionfrom GST. — PTI

ANTI-BJP FRONTIS NOT POSSIBLEWITHOUT CONG.,SAYS RAUTBHAGWAN PARAB | DCMUMBAI, MAY 9

Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut on Sunday saidthat a united frontagainst the BJP cannotbe formed without theCongress. He said thatthe Congress willremain central to anysuch initiative at thenational level.

“The Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) is anideal alliance in thecountry and there is aneed for such an allianceon the national level. Adiscussion has been heldwith NCP chief SharadPawar on this matter.But no alliance can bemade without takinginto account the Cong-ress,” Mr Raut said.

However, he said thatthe Congress needs toimprove its strength inthe country. “The Cong-ress performed well inAssam assembly polls,but it could not come topower. They also recei-ved some success inKerala and TN, he said.

The pain over thedownfall of theCongress is equallyintense. If the situationis like this today, wherewill the Congress be inthe 2024 electoral sce-nario? If the Oppositiontries to form an alliancetogether, who will repre-sent it? It should beunanimously decidedand the Congress shouldalso agree to it, said theSena Rajya Sabha MP.

Mr Raut has beeninsisting that Mr Pawarshould lead the UnitedProgressive Alliance(UPA). Mr Raut had ear-lier said that the UPA is‘paralysed’ now andhence a non-Congressleader like Mr Pawarshould lead it at thenational level. His state-ment has invoked anangry reaction from theCongress leaders, whichasked whether the Senaleader was a spokesper-son of Mr Pawar.

DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, MAY 9

The Central governmentis all set to appoint a reg-ular CBI director by May14. While several namesare doing the rounds,Gujarat cadre IPS officerand present director gen-eral (DG) of the BorderSecurity Force (BSF)Rakesh Asthana is thefront-runner for the postof the next CBI chief.

The CBI director is cho-sen by a high-poweredcommittee of the PrimeMinister, Leader of thethe Opposition and ChiefJustice of India (CJI) orany judge of the SupremeCourt nominated by theCJI.

“The meeting of theselection committee isexpected to be held eitheron Tuesday or Wednesday.The new CBI director willbe appointed by May14,”sources said.

The government onFebruary 3 appointedPraveen Sinha, a 1988-batch Gujarat cadre IPSofficer, as the acting chiefof the CBI.

Mr Sinha is currentlyposted as additionaldirector in the CBI.

According to sources,several other senior IPSofficers of the 1984, 1985

and 1986 batch are also inthe running for the toppost, including Y.C. Modi,who is currently headingthe NationalInvestigation Agency(NIA), Arun Kumar,director general (DG) ofthe Railway ProtectionForce, Kerala cadre IPSofficer Loknath Behraand H.C. Awasthi , DG(Uttar Pradesh).

The Supreme Courtrecently asked the Centreto consider convening themeeting of a high-pow-ered committee forappointment of CBIdirector at the earliestobserving that in-chargearrangements for the postcannot go on. A bench ofJustices L. NageswaraRao and Vineet Saran wasinformed by the Centrethat meeting of the com-mittee “will be convenedafter May 2”.

● ● A senior BJP leaderclaimed that after thestunning victory ChiefMinister MamataBanerjee will have toreturn the favour toMuslims, who voted enbloc for her party.

● ● CPI(M-L)’s DipankarBhattacharya says sheshould not indulge in anysectarian optics butcounter the BJP’s commu-nal agenda with her gov-ernance.

● ● Senior RSS leaderasked swayamsevaks toprotect victims and stayby the side of Hindu society.

● ● An ambitious Sarmahad first made his dreamof becoming the chiefminister public in 2011and later began openlyrevolting when the chiefminister launched his sonGaurav Gogoi.

SHAHAB ANSARI | DCMUMBAI, MAY 9

The National Inves-tiga-tion Agency (NIA) onSaturday took over theinvestigation into theseizure of natural urani-um worth over `21 crorein Mumbai.

An NIA spokespersonon Sunday said theagency has re-registeredthe case under theAtomic Energy Act.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS)had arrested two per-sons — Jigar JayeshPandya and Abu TahirAfzal Choudhary — onMay 5 night and seized7.1-kg uranium worth`21.30 crore from them.After the arrest, theATS lodged an FIR.

Soon after the recoveryof uranium like-sub-stance from Pandya, theMaharashtra ATS firstsent it for scientificanalysis to BARC. Thereport was received onMay 5, and upon confir-mation that the seizedmaterial was indeed nat-ural uranium, a casewas booked.

● ● AFMS has alreadydeployed additional doctorsat various hospitals, to dealwith the second wave of theCovid-19 pandemic. The SSCdoctors of the AFMS havealso been granted extensiontill December 31, which hasaugmented the strength by238 more doctors.

NIA TAKES OVERURANIUM CASEINVESTIGATION

Centre to appointCBI boss, Asthanais the front-runner

● ● Shiv Sena leader,however, said thatthe Congress needs toimprove its strengthin the country.

● ● The Supreme Courtrecently asked theCentre to consider con-vening the meeting ofa high-powered com-mittee for appointmentof CBI director at theearliest observing thatin-charge arrange-ments for the post cannot go on.

OUT OF JAIL, LALUCHATS WITH CADRE

IN VIRTUAL MODE

Jhajjar, May 9: The HaryanaPolice is probing an allegationthat a woman from WestBengal, who died at a hospitalhere had been raped by twomen she had accompanied to afarmers' protest site at theTikri border. Police on Sundayformed a special investigationteam after the woman's fatheralleged she was raped whenshe had gone to the borderpoint with some members ofan outfit which is supportingthe protest against theCentre's new farm laws. Sixpeople, including the twoprime accused, have beennamed in an FIR registered inthe case following a complaintfrom the father on Saturday, anofficial said. The FIR has beenregistered under variousIndian Penal Code sections,including gangrape.

WOMAN RAPED BYTWO WHO TOOK

HER TO TIKRI

WORLD pg 9DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

Covid: Spain endsstate of emergencyMadrid, May 9: Spainhas lifted a state ofemergency in placesince October to fightthe pandemic, allowingSpaniards to travelbetween regions for thefirst time in months.

“I was fed up with notbeing able to get out ofMadrid,” jewellerydesigner Blaca Vallssaid on Saturday, echo-ing the relief of many inthe country over the eas-ing of restrictions.

“I felt frustrated,locked down, with nofreedom,” added the 46-year-old who plans to goto Galicia, in northwestSpain, next weekend tocelebrate a birthday.

Argentina Enriquez, a37-year-old Mexican stu-dent, said she was impa-tiently waiting to headto the countryside toenjoy barbecues withfriends, play the guitarand go for walks.

“Just being together...a lot of emotions,” shesaid.

Although the emer-gency measure, whichexpired at midnight(2200 GMT Saturday)will lead to more free-doms, it is a headachefor the country’s 17regional governmentsresponsible for healthcare.

The state of emer-gency provided themwith a legal frameworkto impose measures —such as nighttime cur-fews or a ban on non-

essential travel betweenregions — that limitedfreedoms.

Except for a few daysover Christmas whenthe restrictions werelifted, people have notbeen able to travel toother regions, go on hol-iday, or see family.

Discouraged by thesurge in infections afterChristmas, the authori-ties did not loosen inter-nal travel restrictionsduring Easter week,normally a peak travelperiod in Spain.

But what reallyangered Spaniards wasthe fact that foreigntourists were able topour into the country onholiday while they werebanned from travellingto the beach or visitingloved ones.

While intra-regionaltravel bans have endedand curfews have beenlifted, not all of therestrictions are beingrelaxed in Spain, one ofEurope’s hardest-hit na-tions with nearly 79,000deaths and 3.5 millioninfections. — AFP

MACRON LOOKSTO REPAIRECONOMY

Paris, May 9: PresidentEmmanuel Macron’splans for bringing Fra-nce out of the pandemicaren’t just about resusci-tating long-closedrestaurants, boutiquesand museums. They arealso about preparing hispossible campaign for asecond term.

A year before the nextpresidential election,Macron is focusing onsaving jobs and revivingthe pandemic-batteredFrench economy as hiscountry inches out of itsthird partial lockdown.

The centrist presi-dent's ability to meet thechallenge will be signifi-cant for his politicalfuture and for Francewhich is among theworld's worst-hit nationswith the fourth-highestnumber of reportedCovid-19 cases and theeighth-highest death tollat more than 1,06,000.

While he has not offi-cially declared his candi-dacy, Macron has madecomments suggesting heintends to seek reelec-tion. And he has pushedrecent legislation o nissues that potentialrivals on the right andthe left hold dear, fromsecurity to climatechange.

Pollsters suggestMacron, who four yearsago became the youngestpresident in French his-tory, has a good chanceof winning the presiden-cy again in 2022 despitehis government's oft-criticized managementof the pandemic and ear-lier challenges to hispolicies, from activistsprotesting what they seeas social and economicinjustice to unionsangry over retirementreforms.

The coronavirus reop-ening strategy Macronunveiled this monthcalls for most restric-tions on public life to belifted June 30, when halfof France's population isexpected to havereceived at least one vac-cine shot. With up to 3million people in Francegetting vaccinated eachweek, the governmentplans to allow outdoorareas of restaurants andcafes, as well as muse-ums and nonessentialshops, to resume operat-ing on May 19. — PTI

Some countries have no vaxN’djamena (Chad), May9: At the small hospitalwhere Dr. OumaimaDjarma works in Chad'scapital, there are nodebates over whichCoronavirus vaccine isthe best.

There are simply no vac-cines at all. Not even forthe doctors and nurseslike her, who care forCovid-19 patients in Chad,one of the least-developednations in the worldwhere about one third ofthe country is engulfed bythe Sahara desert.

“I find it unfair andunjust, and it is somethingthat saddens me,” the 33-year-old infectious dis-eases doctor says. “I don’teven have that choice. Thefirst vaccine that comesalong that has authorisa-

tion, I will take it.” While wealthier nations

have stockpiled vaccinesfor their citizens, manypoorer countries are stillscrambling to securedoses.

A few, like Chad, have yetto receive any. The WorldHealth Organisation saysnearly a dozen countries— many of them in Africa— are still waiting to getvaccines.

Those last in line on thecontinent along with Chadare Burkina Faso,Burundi, Eritrea andTanzania.

“Delays and shortages ofvaccine supplies are driv-ing African countries toslip further behind therest of the world in theCovid-19 vaccine rolloutand the continent now

accounts for only 1% ofthe vaccines administeredworldwide,” WHO warnedon Thursday.

And in places wherethere are no vaccines,there’s also the chancethat new and concerningvariants could emerge,said Gian Gandhi,UNICEF’s COVAX coordi-nator for Supply Division.“So we should all be con-cerned about any lack ofcoverage anywhere in theworld,” Gandhi said, urg-ing higher-income coun-tries to donate doses to thenations that are still wait-ing.

While the total of con-firmed Covid-19 casesamong them is relativelylow compared with theworld's hot spots, healthofficials say that figure is

likely a vast undercount:The countries in Africastill waiting for vaccinesare among those leastequipped to track infec-tions because of theirfragile health care sys-tems. Chad has confirmedonly 170 deaths since thepandemic began, butefforts to stop the virusentirely here have beenelusive.

Although the capital’sinternational airport wasclosed briefly last year, itsfirst case came via some-one who crossed one ofChad's porous land bor-ders illegally.

Regular flights fromParis and elsewhere haveresumed, heightening thechance of increasing the4,835 already confirmedcases. — AP

Variant fuelling India’sCovid explosion: WHOSwaminathan lamented that India has let down its guardGeneva, May 9: A Covid-19 variant spreading inIndia is more contagiousand may be dodging vac-cine protections, contribut-ing to the country’s explo-sive outbreak, the WorldHealth Organisation’schief scientist saidSaturday.

In an interview , SoumyaSwaminathan warned that“the epidemiological fea-tures that we see in Indiatoday do indicate that it’san extremely rapidlyspreading variant”.

India on Saturday for thefirst time registered morethan 4,000 Covid-19 deathsin just 24 hours, and morethan 4,00,000 new infec-tions.

New Delhi has struggledto contain the outbreak,which has overwhelmed itshealthcare system, andmany experts suspect theofficial death and casenumbers are a gross under-estimate.

Swaminathan, an Indianpaediatrician and clinical

scientist, said the B.1.617variant of Covid-19, whichwas first detected in Indialast October, was clearly acontributing factor to thecatastrophe unfolding inher homeland.

“There have been manyaccelerators that are fedinto this,” the 62-year-oldsaid, stressing that “a morerapidly spreading virus isone of them”.

The WHO recently listedB.1.617 — which countsseveral sub-lineages withslightly different muta-tions and characteristics --as a “variant of interest”.

But so far it has stoppedshort of adding it to itsshort list of “variant ofconcern” — a label indicat-ing it is more dangerousthan the original version ofthe virus by being moretransmissible, deadly orable to get past vaccineprotections.

Several national healthauthorities, including inthe United States andBritain, have meanwhile

said they consider B.1.617 avariant of concern, andSwaminathan said sheexpected the WHO to soonfollow suit.

“B 1.617 is likely to be avariant of concernbecause it has some muta-tions which increase trans-mission, and which alsopotentially could make (it)resistant to antibodies thatare generated by vaccina-tion or by natural infec-tion,” she said.

But she insisted that thevariant alone could not beblamed for the dramaticsurge in cases and deathsseen in India, lamentingthat the country appearedto have let down its guarddown, with “huge socialmixing and large gather-ings”.

Mass election rallies heldby Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and otherpoliticians have forinstance partly beenblamed for the staggeringrise in infections.

But even as many in

India felt the crisis wasover, dropping mask-wear-ing and other protectionmeasures, the virus wasquietly spreading.

“In a large country likeIndia, you could havetransmission at low levels,which is what happenedfor many months,”Swaminathan said.

“It was endemic (and)probably graduallyincreasing,” she said,decrying that “those earlysigns were missed until itreached the point at whichit was taking off vertical-ly.” “At that point it's veryhard to suppress, becauseit's then involving tens ofthousands of people andit's multiplying at a rate atwhich it’s very difficult tostop.”

While India is now tryingto scale up vaccination torein in the outbreak,Swaminathan warned thatthe jabs alone would not beenough to gain control ofthe situation.

— AFP

Dubai to ship aid for free to IndiaDubai (United ArabEmirates), May 9: Dubai’slong-haul carrier Emirateswill begin shipping aid fromthe World HealthOrganisation and othergroups into India for free tohelp fight a crushing out-break of the Coronavirus,the airline said Sunday.

The offer by Emirates,which has some 95 flightsweekly to nine cities inIndia, initially involves aidalready in Dubai but mayexpand across the carrier’snetwork as time goes on.

That could mean majorsavings for aid groups as air-freight costs have skyrocket-ed amid the pandemic.Demand for flown cargostands at record levelsworldwide.

Emirates made theannouncement at Dubai’sInternational HumanitarianCity, already home to a WHOwarehouse that's been cru-cial to the distribution ofmedical gear worldwide. AWHO worker on a forklift

moved boxes of tents madein Pakistan and rolls of netshades from South Koreapreparing for the initialflight planned for Thursday.That will be used to con-struct field hospitals forIndia's overwhelmed healthcare system.

Nabil Sultan, the division-al senior vice president forEmirates SkyCargo, said theinitial priority would beshipping aid out of Dubai,rather than elsewhere fromits network. While airfreightcosts stand at record prices,Sultan said offering freeshipping for aid to India nowwas important for an airlinethat has flown to the SouthAsian country since the car-rier’s founding in 1985. “

Our relationship withIndia in particular goes along way and at times likethis, I think it's absolutelyessential that we make surethat essential commoditiesget to India and to the Indianpeople,” Sultan said. “This isthe time for us to give back.”

As India has grown into aneconomic power, so hasEmirates and its base ofDubai InternationalAirport, the world’s busiestfor international travel. Theairline serves as a key linkin East-West travel.Passenger numbers fromIndia for Emirates, just

under 3 million in 2008, grewto 5.5 million a decade later.That’s some 10 per cent ofEmirates overall annual pas-senger load, with more com-ing from the surroundingcountries on the subconti-nent.

Millions of Indians alsolive in the United Arab

Emirates and comprise akey part of its labor force.Then came the pandemicand the fierce outbreak nowburning through India.

Infections have surgedthere since February, fueledby variants and the govern-ment's permission for mas-sive crowds to attend reli-gious festivals and politicalrallies. On Saturday alone,India reported over 4,00,000new cases and more than4,000 deaths.

Since the pandemic began,India has reported 21.8 mil-lion cases and nearly 240,000deaths, though experts sayeven those figures likely areundercounts. The UAEbanned in-bound passengerflights from India in lateApril, though cargo flightscontinued and passengerplanes return with theirseats now empty. Emiratesalready had been shippingin masks, gloves and otherprotective gear, as well asdiffusers as oxygen remainsin short supply. — AP

UAE banned in-bound passenger flights from India in late AprilCOVID | HELP

People wait to board a ferry to their hometowns ahead of the Id al-Fitr festivities amid Covid-19 pandemic inMunshiganj, Bangladesh on Sunday. — AFP

A homeless woman shares a piece of bread with her dogafter she received a food kit from a government programaiding those affected by the Cornavirus pandemic, in Quito,Ecuador, Saturday. — AP

●● The state of emer-gency provided themwith a legal frame-work to impose meas-ures — such as night-time curfews or a banon non-essential trav-el between regions —that limited freedoms.

S. AFRICA SEES 4CASES OF INDIAVIRUS VARIANT

Johannesburg, May 9:South African HealthMinister Zweli Mkhize hassaid that four cases of theIndian variant of coron-avirus have been detectedin the country, but therewas no cause for panic asall such cases were quaran-tined.

“The four cases ofB.1.617.2 (Indian variant ofcoronavirus) have beendetected in Gauteng (2) andKwaZulu-Natal (2) and allhave a history of recentarrival from India. Allcases have been isolatedand managed according tothe national Covid-19 casemanagement guidelinesand contact tracing hasbeen performed in order tolimit the spread ofthis variant,” Mkhize said in a statement onSaturday.

The minister’s statementwas released amid growingconcerns in the last fort-night about the Indianvariant spreading after thecrew of two ships travel-ling between the two coun-tries tested positive for thevirus. “We reiterate thatthere is no need for panic,as the fundamentals of thepublic health response(testing, contact tracing,isolation and quarantine)have not changed,” Mkhizesaid.

“It is important to empha-sise that variants candevelop at any time in anycountry so they do not haveto be imported. The worldis still grappling with theCoronavirus pandemic,with surges in one territo-ry bound to spill over intoother territories.

“We are all deeply con-cerned about the threat of'variants of concern' andthese reports demonstratethat the issue is complicat-ed,” the minister said.

Mkhize said travelrestrictions will need to bebalanced against the scien-tific realities in order toprotect the economy.

— PTI

SHORT TAKES

VAX LIVE CONCERTRAISES $302 MN,

EXCEEDS GOALLos Angeles, May 9: TheGlobal Citizen fundraising con-cert advocating the importanceof vaccine equity has pulled in$302 million, exceeding thegoal for the organisation’s cam-paign.

Global Citizen announcedSaturday that the funds raisedin helped procure more than 26million doses at the Vax Live:The Concert to Reunite theWorld. The organisation saidmoney was garnered throughseveral philanthropic and cor-porate commitments.

President Joe Biden, PrinceHarry and Jennifer Lopez wereamong the big names who tookpart in the event, which wasrecorded May 2 and airedSaturday. ABC, ABC NewsLive, CBS, YouTube andiHeartMedia radio stationswill broadcast the concertstaged at SoFi Stadium inInglewood, California.

Selena Gomez hosted theshow, which was attended byseveral thousand fully-vacci-nated concertgoers whocheered on performances byEddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, JBalvin, H.E.R. and Lopez, whoenjoyed a duet with her mom.

Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen,Jimmy Kimmel, Sean Pennand David Letterman served asspecial guest speakers.

Vax Live was one of thelargest concert gatherings inSouthern California since theCoronavirus pandemic roiledthe world more than a year ago.

Organisers called the eventthe country's first large-scalemusic event for a Covid 19-com-pliant audience.

SINGAPORE SENDSOVER 500 OXYGEN

CYLINDERS TO INDIA Singapore, May 9: A Sing-apore-based education founda-tion has dispatched more than500 oxygen concentrators toIndia to save the lives of coro-navirus patients in theremotest corner of the coun-try.

Global Schools Foundation(GSF) reached out to SewaInternational — a huge net-work of social initiativesacross India — to tap theirdeep local resources and getthese oxygen concentrators tothe small towns and villagesdeep inside the country.

These concentrators are inaddition to the first shipmentof 200 oxygen cylinders senton an urgent basis as part of alarger consignment on boardthe Indian Navy warshipAiravat.

We are saving lives in Indiaby sending life-saving equip-ment such as Oxygen concen-trators and cylinders. Theycan be used within hospitalsor at venues of social organi-sations or community centres,said Atul Temurnikar,Chairman of GSF.

It is our duty to ensure wereach this benefit to theremotest corner of India andGSF would do whatever it canto assist in Covid-reliefmeasures,” he said onSaturday.

India has been dealing withshortages of Oxygen tanks asthe second wave of Covid-19hit the country hard.

India on Sunday reported4,03,738 fresh Covid-19 cases,which pushed the tally to2,22,96,414, according to theUnion health ministry data.

The death toll climbed to2,42,362 with 4,092 dailydeaths.

WORLD pg 10DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

IN BRIEF

SLAIN JUDGEGETS CLOSER TO

SAINTHOODRome, May 9: An Italianjudge murdered by the mafiain Sicily takes a step towardssainthood Sunday, almostthree decades after beingdeclared a martyr by popeJohn Paul II. The beatificationof Rosario Livatino will takeplace in the cathedral in Agri-gento, the Sicilian town nearwhere he was gunned downaged 38 on September 21, 1990.

In a preface to a new bookabout the judge, Pope Francishailed him as a “righteousman who knew he did notdeserve that unjust death”.

Livatino, who prayed inchurch every day before goingto court, had been involved ina mass trial against mafiosoand was about to launch a newcase when he died.

He was found in a ditch bythe roadside a few miles fromhis home. He had refusedarmed protection.

Many of his notes were laterfound to be marked STD, for“sub tutela Dei”, a Latin invo-cation meaning “under theprotection of God” whichjudges of the Middle Agesused before taking officialdecisions. The notes alsoshowed he asked God’s forgive-ness for the risks his workexposed his parents to, once helearned that the bosses of theCosa Nostra had him in theirsights. When John Paul II vis-ited Livatino’s parents in 1993,he said the judge was “a mar-tyr for justice and indirectlyfor the faith”.

Peshawar: A Pakistani policeofficial was killed when someunidentified terrorists openedfire on a patrol vehicle inKhyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince on Sunday.

The terrorists attacked thepolice mobile van while it wasdoing a routine patrolling onIndus highway in LakkiMarwat district, StationHouse Officer of local policestation Naveed Nawaz said.

While Assistant SubInspector (ASI) MuhammadShah was killed in the attack,two terrorists were gunneddown in the retaliatory firing,he said. In another incident,Counter-Terrorism Depart-ment (CTD) police arrestedthree wanted terrorists inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa'sBannu district. The membersof the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan outfit werewanted in several cases,including suicide attacks onpolice stations, extortions andtarget killings, police said.

Attacks on Pakistan govern-ment installations by militiain Khyber Pakhtunkhwaprovince are quite common. inJanuary, a police man waskilled in Karak district forescorting a team of healthcare workers, who were sup-posed to administer polio vac-cine to children in the highly-conservative and Pashtun-dominated area which bordersAfghanisatan. — Agencies

FIRE AT SYRIANOIL REFINERY

EXTINGUISHEDDamascus, May 9: Firefigh-ters extinguished a blazeSunday in a distillation unit atone of Syria’s two oil refiner-ies, Syrian state TV reported.

No one was hurt, but the firecaused some damage to thefacility, a refinery official said.The TV named the cause ofthe fire as crude oil leakagefrom one of the pumping sta-tions at the Homs Oil Refineryin the central province ofHoms. The fire came amid aseries of mysterious attackson vessels and oil facilities inSyria over the past months.The war-torn country hasbeen suffering from fuel short-age in recent months.

Head of Homs Oil RefinerySuleiman Mohammed toldstate TV that the distillationunit that caught fire is one offour at the refinery.

In addition to the refinery inHoms, Syria has another onenear the coastal town ofBanias. Both are government-run and operating.

Syria’s oil resources aremostly outside of governmentcontrolled areas. Syria con-trols some small oil and gasfields but most of the largefields in the east are controlledby US-backed Kurdish-ledfighters. This has made Dam-ascus reliant on Iran for fuel.

The US sanctions have tar-geted a network that spannedSyria, Iran and Russia respon-sible for shipping oil to theSyrian government. — AP

London, May 9: TheScottish National Partywon its fourth straightparliamentary election onSaturday and insisted itwill push on with anotherreferendum on Scotland’sindependence from theUnited Kingdom eventhough it failed by one seatto secure a majority.

Final results of Thurs-day’s election showed theSNP winning 64 of the 129seats in the Edinburgh-based Scottish Parliament.The result extends theparty’s dominance ofScottish politics since itfirst won power in 2007.

Other results from SuperThursday’s array of elec-tions across Britainemerged Saturday, includ-ing the Labour Party’s vic-tory in the Welsh parlia-mentary election.

The election with thebiggest implications wasthe Scottish election, as itcould pave the way to the

break-up of the UnitedKingdom.

SNP leader andScotland’s first minister,Nicola Sturgeon, said herimmediate priority wouldbe steering Scotlandthrough the coronaviruspandemic and that thelegitimacy of an inde-pendence referendum

remains, SNP majority ornot.

This is now a matter offundamental democraticprinciple, Sturgeon said. Itis the will of the country.

UK Prime Minister BorisJohnson, the leader of theConservative Party, wouldhave the ultimate authori-ty whether or not to per-

mit another referendumon Scotland gaining inde-pendence. Johnson appe-ars intent on resistinganother vote, setting upthe possibility of renewedtensions between his gov-ernment and Sturgeon’sdevolved administration.

Johnson wrote in theDaily Telegraph newspa-

per published Saturdaythat another referendumwould be irresponsibleand reckless in the cur-rent context as Britain em-erges from the pandemic.

He has consistentlyargued that the issue wassettled in a September2014 referendum, when 55per cent of Scottish votersfavoured remaining partof the UK.

Proponents of anothervote say the situation haschanged fundamentallybecause of Brexit, withScotland taken out of theEuropean Union againstits will. In the 2016 Brexitreferendum, 52 per cent ofthe UK voted to leave theEuropean Union while 62per cent of Scots voted toremain.

Sturgeon said it would bewrong for Johnson tostand in the way of a ref-erendum and that the tim-ing is a matter for the Scot-tish Parliament. — AP

After 300 yrs, Scotland getsready to divorce EnglandScottish National Party wins polls, pushes for 2nd plebiscite for independence

BACK STORY● England and Scotland became one kingdomafter Scottish Parliament ratified the Treaty ofUnion in 1706 to merge both the kingdoms,which were ruled by one king for 100 years.

● Scottish King James VI became the Englishmonarch in 1603 as England’s Queen

Elizabeth I died without any children.● The East India Company, which colo-nialised India, also played a role in theintegration of Britain and Scotland byharming the interests of Scotish traders,

who were opposing the union.

Beijing, May 9: The rem-nants of an out of controland China’s biggest rocketre-entered the Earth’s atm-osphere with most of itsparts burned up and disin-tegrated over the IndianOcean near the Maldives,the country’s space agencysaid on Sunday, endingdays of fevered specula-tion over where the debriswould hit.

The remnants of China’sLong March 5B rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmos-phere at 10.24 am Beijingtime and fell into an opensea area at 72.47 degreeseast longitude and 2.65degrees north latitude,China’s Manned SpaceEngineering Office said.

The coordinates put the

splash down in the IndianOcean, close to the Mald-ives, Hong Kong-basedSouth China Morning Postreported, adding that mostof the remnants burnedup during the re-entry.

US and European track-ing sites had been moni-toring the uncontrolledfall of the rocket.

Monitoring serviceSpace-Track, which usesUS military data, also con-firmed the re-entry.

“Everyone else followingthe LongMarch5B re-entrycan relax. The rocket isdown,” it said.

“@18SPCS confirms thatCZ-5B (LongMarch5B)(48275 / 2021-035B) reen-tered atmosphere 9 May at0214Z and fell into the

Indian ocean north of theMaldives at lat 22.2, long50.0. That’s all we have on

this re-entry; thanks forthe wild ride,” it said.

The US Space command

confirmed the re-entryinto the atmosphere of therocket over the Arabianpeninsula, but said it wasunknown if the debris hadhit land or water.

“The exact location ofthe impact and the span ofdebris, both of which areunknown at this time, willnot be released by USSpace Command,” it said.

Harvard astrophysicistJonathan McDowell, whotracked the tumbling rock-et part, wrote on Twitter,“An ocean reentry wasalways statistically themost likely. It appearsChina won its gamble Butit was still reckless. Therocket, carrying the coremodule for China’s Tiang-ong Space Station, blasted

off from the WenchangSpacecraft Launch Site onthe southern island provi-nce of Hainan on April 29.

The large rocket stagethat deorbited was morethan 33 metres (108 feet)tall and weighed morethan 20 tonnes, making itthe sixth largest object tore-enter the Earth’s atmos-phere, according to theAerospace Corporation, afederally funded researchorganisation based inCalifornia. Very little ofthe rocket stage’s masssurvived re-entry, howev-er, with the majority hav-ing burned up as it enteredthe Earth’s dense atmos-phere at a speed of about 8km per second, the Postreport said. — PTI

China’s rocket debris falls into Indian OceanRemnants of rocket burned up as they reentered atmosphere near the Maldives SPACE | ALERT

Washington, May 9: USspace agency Nasa on Sun-day slammed China forfailing to meet “responsi-ble standards” regardingits space debris, hoursafter remnants of thecountry’s largest and anout of control rocket disin-tegrated over the IndianOcean near the Maldives.

Reacting to China’sspace programme, Nasa

administrator Bill Nelsonsaid: “It is clear that Chinais failing to meet responsi-ble standards regardingtheir space debris. “Space-faring nations must mini-mize the risks to peopleand property on Earth ofre-entries of space objectsand maximize transparen-cy regarding those opera-tions,” he said in a state-ment. — AP

NASA DENOUNCES CHINA OVER ‘IRRESPONSIBLE STANDARDS’

Kabul, May 9: The deathtoll in a horrific bombingat a girls’ school in theAfghan capital has soaredto 50, many of thempupils between 11 and 15years old, the InteriorMinistry said on Sunday.

The number of wound-ed in Saturday’s attackhas also climbed to morethan 100, said InteriorMinistry spokesmanTariq Arian.

Three explosions out-side the school entrancestruck as students wereleaving for the day, hesaid. The blasts occurredin a mostly Shiite neigh-borhood in the west of thecapital. The Talibandenied responsibility,condemning the attack.

The first explosion camefrom a vehicle packedwith explosives, followedby two others, said Arian,adding that the casualtyfigures could still rise.

In the capital rattled byrelentless bombings, Sat-urday’s attack was amongthe worst. Criticism hasmounted over lack ofsecurity and growingfears of even more vio-lence as the US and Natocomplete their final mili-tary withdrawal fromAfghanistan.

The attack targetedAfghanistan’s ethnicHazaras who dominatethe western Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood,where the bombingsoccurred. Most Hazarasare Shiite Muslims.

The area has been hit byviolence against minorityShiites and most oftenclaimed by the IslamicState affiliate operatingin the country. No one hasyet claimed Saturday’sbombings.

The radical SunniMuslim group hasdeclared war onAfghanistan’s Shiites.Washington blamed IS fora vicious attack last yearin a maternity hospital inthe same area that killedpregnant women andnewborn babies.

Soon after the bombing,angry crowds attackedambulances and evenbeat health workers asthey tried to evacuate thewounded, health ministryspokesman GhulamDastigar Nazari said.

He had implored resi-dents to cooperate andallow ambulances freeaccess to the site.

Bloodied backpacks andschool books lay strewnoutside the Syed Al-Shahda school. In the mo-rning, boys attend classesin the sprawling schoolcompound and in theafternoon, it’s girls’ turn.

Residents in the areasaid the explosion wasdeafening.

Naser Rahimi said heheard three separateexplosions, and immedi-ately thought that thesheer power of the blastsmeant the death tollwould almost certainlyclimb. — AP

Death toll soarsto 50 in Kabulschool bombing

● Three explosionsoutside the schoolentrance struck as stu-dents were leaving forthe day on Saturday.

● The blasts occurredin a mostly Shiiteneighborhood in thewest of the capital.The Taliban deniedresponsibility, con-demning the attack.

London, May 9: SadiqKhan has been re-electedas Mayor of London for asecond term after beatinghis closest rival with avote share of 55.2 per centversus 44.8 per cent in anelection that was closerthan expected.

Labour Party candidateKhan, 51, defeated hisConservative Party rival,Shaun Bailey, after win-ning a total of 1,206,034votes as against 977,601when both first and sec-ond preference votes fromThursday’s mayoral elec-tion were fully countedovernight on Saturday.

The Pakistani-originformer Labour member ofParliament was the firstMuslim mayor of aEuropean capital citywhen he was first electedin 2016. The mayoral pollwas due last year but waspostponed by a year at thepeak of the coronaviruspandemic in 2020.

“I am deeply humbledby the trust Londonershave placed in me to con-tinue leading the greatestcity on earth,” said Khan.

“I promise to strainevery sinew, help build abetter and brighter futurefor London, after the darkdays of the pandemic andto create a greener, fairerand safer city for allLondoners, to get theopportunities they needto fulfil their potential. Iam proud to have won anoverwhelming mandatetoday,” he said, speakingat his City Hall office.

Khan reiterated his pre-vious pledge to be amayor for all Londonersand work to improve thelives of every single per-son in this city.

Rival Bailey said he hadbeen “written off ” by poll-sters, journalists andother politicians butLondoners didn’t writeme off ”.

His victory is one of thefew positives for theLabour Party as the partyheld on to its dominancein the London Assemblyas well.

However, overall thelocal election perform-ance has been largely dis-mal for the Oppositionparty as it lost many ofits strongholds. TheConservatives havegained control of around12 councils. — PTI

Sadiq wins London Mayor post again

London, May 9: Fugitivediamond merchant NiravModi, whose extraditionto India was ordered lastmonth by UK HomeSecretary Priti Patel inthe estimated USD 2-bil-lion Punjab NationalBank (PNB) scam case,has filed an applicationfor permission to appealagainst the order in theHigh Court in London.

The Crown Prosecution

Service (CPS) confirmedan appeal has been lodgedbut a High Court judgewho will make a decisionon the matter is yet to beassigned.

The matter has not beensent to a judge for consid-eration on the papers, theAdministrative Divisionof the Royal Courts ofJustice in London saidthis week.

In the first instance, a

High Court judge willmake a decision on thepapers submitted for theappeal and determine ifthere are any grounds foran appeal against theHome Secretary’s deci-sion or the WestminsterMagistrates CourtFebruary ruling in favourof Modi’s extradition toIndia to face charges offraud and money launder-ing. — PTI

New York, May 9: Ashooting in New York’sbustling Times Square onSaturday injured a four-year-old girl and twowomen, in the latest inci-dent of gun violence inthe city, police said.

The shooting took placejust before 5 pm local time(9 pm GMT), at the inter-section of 7th Avenue and44th Street, a NYPDspokesperson told AFP.

The three victims werea four-year-old child in astroller, who was hit inthe leg while her familywas buying toys, a 46-year-old woman hit in thefoot, and a 23-year-old

tourist from Rhode Islandhit in the leg.

They were hospitalizedin Manhattan, and theirlives were not in danger,said New York police com-missioner Dermot Shea,at a press briefing.

Shea said the threebystanders — who did notappear to know eachother — stumbled into anargument between two tofour men, at least one ofwhom fired a gun. Noarrests had been made byearly evening. Policeissued an appeal for wit-nesses and released sur-veillance camera footageof a wanted man. — AFP

3 hurt in TimesSquare shooting

Bangkok, May 9: Myan-mar’s junta has labeled ashadow government oflawmakers and politiciansousted in a February coupand a people’s defenseforce that is being set up toconfront security forces asterrorist groups.

The government ofnational unity was estab-lished by elected legisla-tors who were barred fromtaking their seats whenthe military seized powerand detained civilianleader Aung San Suu Kyiand others.

The junta has previouslyaccused them of treason,and the announcement onstate TV on Saturday saidthey were being brandedterrorists because of theirparticipation in a civil dis-obedience movement — apopular revolt against themilitary takeover that hasseen people taking to thestreets daily despite thelethal use of force byauthorities.

More than 700 protestersand bystanders have beenkilled by security forcessince the Feb. 1 coup,

according to several detai-led estimates. The juntahas said the death toll isabout one-third of that,and that the use of lethalforce was justified to endwhat it called rioting.

Last week, the shadowgovernment announcedthe formation of thePeople’s Defence Force,which would serve as aprecursor to a FederalUnion Army of democrat-ic forces including ethnicminorities.

The National UnityGovernment has the back-

ing of several major eth-nic minority groups whofor decades have beenseeking greater autonomyand who maintain theirown guerrilla forces. Thetwo most important arethe Kachin in the northand the Karen in the east,both of which are activelyengaged in combat withthe government’s militaryforces. Since the coup, stu-dents and factory workershave fled to territory con-trolled by the ethnic guer-rilla forces to take mili-tary training. — AP

Moscow, May 9: RussianPresident Vladimir Putinmarked the anniversaryof the end of World War IIin Europe with a speechwarning that Nazi beliefsremain strong.

Speaking to the annualmilitary parade here,Putin on Sunday decriedattempts to rewrite histo-ry, to justify traitors andcriminals, on whosehands lies the blood of

people. “Unfortunately,many of the ideologies ofthe Nazis, those who wereobsessed with the delu-sional theory of theirexclusiveness, are againtrying to be put into serv-ice,” he said.

The anniversary of NaziGermany’s defeat, whichRussia calls Victory Day,is the country’s most sig-nificant secular holiday.

— AP

Washington, May 9:Former US PresidentBarack Obama’s dog Bodied Saturday after abattle with cancer, theObamas said on socialmedia.

Bo, a Portuguese waterdog, was a gift to theObamas from the lateSen. Edward M. Kenn-edy, D-Mass., a key sup-porter of Obama’s 2008presidential campaignwho became close to thefamily. Bo helped Obamakeep a promise to daugh-ters Malia and Sashathat they could get a dogafter the election. A com-panion dog, Sunny, join-ed the family in August2013. Both were constantpresences around theWhite House and popu-lar among visitors, oftenjoining the Obamas forpublic events. — AP

A file photo shows for-mer US president BarackObama’s pet Bo climbingthe stairs of Air ForceOne at Andrews AirForce Base, Md. for aflight to Chicago. — AP

OBAMA DOG BO,ONCE WH STAR,DIES OF CANCER

Re-elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hugs his wife Saadiya after the result decla-ration at City Hall, in London, on Saturday. — AP

Nirav Modi’s appeal against extradition stuck in UK HC

● Labour Party candi-date Khan, 51, defeat-ed his ConservativeParty rival, ShaunBailey, after winning atotal of 1,206,034 votesas against 977,601when both first andsecond preferencevotes from Thursday’smayoral election werefully counted overnighton Saturday.

● The mayoral pollwas due last year butwas postponed by ayear at the peak of thecoronavirus pandemicin 2020.

Ousted MPs are terrorists: Myanmar Putin sees Naziideas in Europe

PAK POLICEMANKILLED IN KP

MILITANT ATTACK

pg 11HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

New Delhi, May 9: AsIndia suffers the world'sworst outbreak of Covid-19 cases, global anddomestic corporate giantsare pitching in resources,from airlifting medicalequipment, making med-ical oxygen and setting uphospitals to supplement apublic health systembuckling under the weightof surging infections anddeaths.

Amazon and Google aswell as Indian firms TataSons, Reliance IndustriesLtd and Adani Group haveset up Covid hospitals, air-lifted cryogenic tankersfrom abroad for transport-ing medical oxygen andcontributed funds to aidthe Covid battle, going bycompany announcementsand industry sources.

While Google CEOSundar Pichai last monthannounced $18 milliondonation, Amazon said1,000 Medtronic ventila-tors will be delivered toIndia. Microsoft said itwould work to provideIndia with 1,000 ventila-tors and 25,000 oxygenconcentration devices.

Mukesh Ambani-led

Reliance Industries twea-ked manufacturing at itsoil refineries to produceover 1,000 tonnes of med-ical grade liquid oxygenper day. It has also set up1,875 hospital beds for freetreatment of Covidpatients in Jamnagar inGujarat and in Mumbai.

India's largest steelmaker JSW has stoppedmaking some steel prod-ucts to produce hundredsof tonnes of oxygen forhard-hit areas. It said itwas building large Covidcare centres around itsplants, so that they can beserviced via a pipeline.

While Wipro and AzimPremji Foundation con-verted one IT facility inPune into a 430-bed inter-mediary care Covid hospi-tal, Infosys has set up a100-room Covid hospitalin Bangaluru in associa-tion with NarayanaHealth, providing freecare to the poor.

Cipla supported Maha-rashtra government insetting up Covid isolationward, Vedanta is settingup a field hospital in DelhiNCR and AdaniFoundation set up hospi-

tals in Gujarat and evenconverted the AdaniVidya Mandir school inAhmedabad into an emer-gency Covid Care Centrewith oxygen support andcatered food.

Tata Group made about5,000 beds available toCovid patients through itsgroup companies and ITCset up a 200-bed makeshifthospital in KishoreBharati Stadium for Covidpatients in a record 72hours.

State Bank of India setup 1,000-bed makeshifthospitals, 250-bed ICUfacilities and 1,000-bed iso-lation facilities across thecountry, while Coal IndiaLtd set up the largest num-ber of Covid beds totalling2,000, including 750 oxy-gen and 70 ICU beds.

Tata Group also import-ed 1,000 cryogenic con-tainers to transport liquidoxygen, supplying 900tonnes of oxygen per dayto state hospitals.

Tech Mahindra suppliedmedical equipment toover 20 hospitals and L&TGroup committed 22 oxy-gen generators to needyhospitals. — PTI

COCO LIU & ZHEPINGHUANGMAY 9

Zhang Yiming builtByteDance Ltd into theworld's most valuable pri-vate company via a stringof blockbuster apps likeTikTok that challengedFacebook and otherincumbents on their ownturf. His latest target:Alibaba.

The 38-year-old AI cod-ing genius, searching forByteDance's next big act,has set his sights onChina's $1.7 trillion e-com-merce arena. The co-founder has hired thou-sands of staff and roped inbig-name sponsors likeXiaomi Corp impresarioLei Jun to drive what hecalls his next "majorbreakthrough" into globalbusiness--selling stuff toconsumers via its addic-tive short videos andlivestreams. That endeav-or will test not just Zhang'smagic touch with app cre-ation and ByteDance's AIwizardry, but also investorreception ahead of one ofthe tech world's most hotlyanticipated IPOs.

His startup is alreadystarting to make waves inan industry long con-trolled by Jack Ma's

Alibaba Group HoldingLtd and JD.com Inc. It soldabout $26 billion worth ofmake-up, clothing andother merchandise in 2020,achieving in its maidenyear what Alibaba'sTaobao took six years toaccomplish. It's shootingfor more than $185 billionby 2022. Douyin, TikTok'sChinese twin, is expectedto contribute more thanhalf of the firm's $40 bil-lion domestic ad sales thisyear, driven in part by e-commerce.

"Short video platformshave so much traffic thatthey can basically do anybusiness," said ShawnYang, managing directorof Blue Lotus CapitalAdvisors. "Douyin is notonly in ads, but also live-streaming, e-commerce,local life services and

search. This has a lot ofroom for imagination."

A burgeoning e-com-merce business could helpthe firm surpass its $250billion valuation when itgoes public, counteringconcerns around Beijing'scrackdown on the coun-try's internet behemoths.Preparations are said to beunderway for a listing thatwould be one of theworld's most anticipateddebuts. While ByteDancewon't handle sales or mer-chandise itself, it hopes tosell more ads to mer-chants, boost traffic andtake a cut of business.

The internet giant is alate entrant to China'ssocial commerce scene,where influencers toutproducts to fans like aGen-Z version of theHome Shopping Network.

The format, pioneered byAlibaba as a marketingtool in 2016, developed alife of its own last yearwhen Covid-19 spurreddemand for at-home enter-tainment. Last year,Alibaba's Taobao Live gen-erated over 400 billionyuan ($62 billion) of grossmerchandise value.

ByteDance is countingon its artificial intelli-gence-driven, interest-based recommendationsto help its e-commercebusiness catch up.

ByteDance's ambitionsaren't limited to Alibaba.The firm has also startedto let users book hotelsand restaurants throughDouyin, offering lifestyleservices similar to super-apps like Meituan andTencent's WeChat.

Douyin's e-commerceforay in China may offer aroad map for TikTok,which has begun testingthe waters in online shop-ping through tie-ups withWalMart Inc and Cana-dian e-commerce firmShopify Inc. In December,Zhang told global employ-ees that e-commerce, whencombined with live-strea-ming and short videos,offers an even biggeropportunity outsideChina. — Bloomberg

Industry backs up effortsto contain second wave

ByteDance aims to challenge Alibaba

MARK BURTONMAY 9

Copper soared last week toan all-time high, continu-ing a sizzling rally that'sseen prices double in thepast year.

The previous copperrecord was set in 2011,around the peak of thecommodities supercyclesparked by China's rise.This time, investors arebetting that copper's vitalrole in the world's shift togreen energy will meansurging demand and evenhigher prices. Copperfutures rose as high as$10,440 a tonne in Londonon Friday.

What's the big dealabout copper?Through human history,copper has played a criti-cal role in many of civi-lization's greatest advan-

ces: from early monetarysystems to municipalplumbing, from the rise oftrains, planes and cars tothe devices and networksthat underpin the informa-tion age.

The reddish brown metalis mostly unrivalled as anelectrical and thermal con-ductor, while also beingdurable and easy to workwith. Today, a vast array ofuses in all corners ofheavy industry, construc-tion and manufacturingmean it's a famously reli-able indicator for trends inthe global economy.

The copper market wasone of the first to react asthe Covid-19 coronavirusemerged in Wuhan, withprices slumping by morethan a quarter betweenJanuary and March lastyear. Then as China'sunprecedented steps tocontrol the domestic

spread of the virus startedto yield results, copper rap-idly rebounded—and ithasn't looked back since.

But it's not just Chinadriving the rally. While thecountry accounts for halfof the world's copper con-sumption and has playedan integral part in copper'ssurge, demand there hasactually softened this year.Yet prices continue todrive higher.

Why is copper surging?It's partly due to evidenceof recoveries in othermajor industrialeconomies, with manufac-turing output surging inplaces like the US,Germany and Japan.

But investors have alsobeen piling into copper ona bet that global efforts tocut carbon emissions aregoing to mean the worldneeds a lot more of the

metal, putting a strain onsupply. New mine produc-tion may be slow to arrive,as mines are hard to findand expensive to develop.

Electric vehicles containabout four times as muchcopper as a conventionalcar, and vast amounts ofcopper wiring will be need-

ed in roadside chargers tokeep them running.Bringing electricity fromoffshore wind farms tonational power grids isalso a copper-intensiveexercise.

What does it mean forthe economy?There are mounting con-cerns that the broad rallyin everything from lumberto steel will force centralbankers to step in to stopinflation in raw-materialsmarkets spiralling out ofcontrol.

In turn, the stellar eco-nomic rebound that's driv-ing the commodities rallymay start to stall as busi-nesses are hit by higherinterest rates, compressedmargins, and waningdemand from consumers.

Could the rally fizzleout?

In the case of copper, thereare some signs that spotdemand is starting to cool,particularly in China, andsome analysts and traderssay the record prices aren'tjustified by today's funda-mentals.

The view among policy-makers is that the rise incommodities prices willprove short-lived, as con-sumers will focus theirspending on services andexperiences as economiesopen up, easing the strainon demand for commodi-ties-intensive items suchas second homes, electron-ics and appliances seenduring lockdown.

For copper though, it'snot just about strongdemand today. In fact, a lotof expected spending onrenewables and electric-vehicle infrastructure isyet to really materialise.When it does, it could

transform the outlook forcopper usage in developedcountries.

How high could coppergo?Trafigura Group, theworld's top copper trader,and Goldman Sachs Groupboth say prices could hit$15,000 a tonne in the com-ing years, on the back of aglobal surge in demanddue to the shift to greenenergy. Bank of Americasays $20,000 could even bepossible if drastic issuesarise on the supply side.

The copper market itselfmay also be facing a bigshift. Trafigura predictsthat demand growth inChina will be eclipsed byrising consumption in therest of the world over thecoming decade, in a dra-matic reversal of therecent trend. That couldhelp underpin a new

Copper just smashed past a record. Here’s what you need to know

NCLT starts proceedings on creditor plea

Ahluwalia Contractsin insolvency soup

RAHUL SATIJAMAY 9

Cadila Healthcare Ltdplans to submit trial datafor its Covid-19 vaccine byend of May and is lookingfor an approval in June, anewspaper reported citingSharvil Patel, managingdirector of Cadila.

The Phase-III clinical tri-als of the ZyCoV-D vac-cine will be representativeof its efficacy against

many known variants, asdifferent ones have sur-faced in this wave, Pateltold the FinancialExpress. It is by far thelargest trial being done in

the country right now andthe company has recruit-ed more than 28,000 volun-teers, he said.

Cadila is also workingtoward getting approval toadminister the vaccine tochildren above the age of12 years, the report said,citing one person it didn'tidentify. The Ahmedabad-based firm has tested theZyCov-D vaccine on morethan 1,500 children as partof its ongoing Phase-III

trials. No other vaccinehas been tested for chil-dren, according to thereport.

Once the company getsapproval, Cadila plans tomake up to 240 milliondoses per annum at itsfacilities at Ahmedabadand Vadodara, the reportsaid. Initially, it plans tosupply vaccines to India,and eventually, exportthem to other countries.

— Bloomberg

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, MAY 9

The Bombay High Courthas directed the govern-ment not to take anycoercive action againstjewellers till June 14,2021 for storing or sellingnon-hallmarked gold jew-ellery. The governmenthad made hallmarkingmandatory from June 1.

The Nagpur bench ofBombay High Court washearing the appeal filedby the All-India Gemsand Jewellery DomesticCouncil (GJC) and oth-ers. The court stayed"coercive action" till itfurther heard the matteron June 14.

The GJC had contendedthat the new regulationwith effect from June 1 islikely to result in greathardships to around 5lakh jewellers in India.There are at least 488 dis-tricts which do not havehallmarking centres andthe Covid restrictionsprevent a person fromtravelling from one dis-

trict to another for hall-marking purposes.

Further, there are 6,000crore jewellery pieceswhich need to be hall-marked. Within the timeavailable it is not possi-ble to get all these pieceshallmarked. Any breachof the regulation is pun-ishable with maximumimprisonment of oneyear.

"The court has in themeanwhile, directed thatno coercive action shallbe taken against the jew-ellers under Section 29(2)of the BIS Act, 2016, tillthe next date of hearingon 14th June 2021. This is

a big relief to the jew-ellers who shall now befully protected from anyactions from BIS eventhough they may wish tostill go ahead withmandatory hallmark-ing," said Saiyam Mehra,vice-chairman, GJC.

According to AshishPethe, chairman, GJC,court has seen the hard-ship of jewellers and hastaken note of the con-tention that in propor-tion to the large numberof jewellers in India, thepercentage of hallmark-ing centres available inIndia is just about 34 percent.

Jewellers get HCreprieve on hallmarking

New Delhi, May 9: TheNational Company LawTribunal (NCLT) has initi-ated insolvency proceed-ings against constructionfirm Ahluwalia ContractsIndia Ltd for defaulting onpayments to an opera-tional creditor.

The New Delhi-basedNCLT bench allowed theinsolvency plea filed by A2Interiors Products Pvt Ltdagainst Ahluwalia Con-tracts, claiming default ofRs 14.10 crore, andappointed an interim reso-lution professional.

Ahluwalia Contracts hadengaged A2 InteriorsProducts for interior, fur-nishing and allied civiland electrical works atvarious project sites. Ithad supplied materials toAhluwalia Contracts aspart of various workorders issued for six proj-ects at different locationsin the country, accordingto the NCLT order.

It had raised invoicesagainst each work order,which were duly receivedby Ahluwalia Contracts,however, it failed torelease the full payment.

Later, in May 2019, A2Interiors had issued anotice to AhluwaliaContracts under theInsolvency & BankruptcyCode (IBC) demanding Rs12.54 crore along withinterest, which was reject-ed by Ahluwalia Contractsin its reply and raised dis-putes.

Following this, A2Interiors approached theNCLT under section 9 ofIBC, which allows opera-tional creditors to file aninsolvency plea, claiming

a total outstanding debt ofRs 14.10 crore againstAhluwalia Contracts.

This was opposed byAhluwalia Contracts, con-tending it as not maintain-able, on the grounds thatit is arising out of differ-ent work orders, whichcannot be claimed underone single application andof different service innature and each contractgives rise to separatealleged debt.

It also alleged that theapplicant has concealedcertain facts and docu-ments and not disclosedall work orders executedbetween the parties.

However, the operationalcreditor said that thoughit was for work order forsix different projects butthe corporate debtor is aPrincipal Contractor. Italso submitted that nonotice of dispute wasraised by AhluwaliaContracts prior to thenotice of demand issuedby it.

An NCLT bench com-prising members

Sumitapurkayastha andDeepti Mukesh said:"Considering the docu-ments on records and sub-missions made, it isobserved that there existsan operational debt whichis due and payable by thecorporate debtor."

It further observed thatonce the work is completeand the final bill is raised,the retention moneybecomes due and payable.

Though the corporatedebtor has raised disputeprior to the issue of thedemand notice withregards to non-completionof work on time, defectivework and invoices raisedbut has itself admittedthat retention money ispayable.

While admitting A2Interiors' plea, the NCLTobserved that the corpo-rate debtor had admittedto the debt and the saidhas become due as pertheir own statement intheir email, leaving noscope for any further adju-dication.

— PTI

Cadila eyes nod for Covid vaccine by June

FC BUREAUNEW DELHI, MAY 9

Amid the rampantspread of Covid19, thefinance ministry, onSunday, released over Rs8,900 crore as grants amonth in advance forpanchayats. Though thepayment was scheduledfor June, the ministrydecided to release it inMay in view of the pre-vailing Covid19 situa-tion. The amount s willbe distributed among 25states, in which the high-est share of over Rs 1,441crore has been granted toUttar Pradesh, followedby over Rs 861 crore toMaharashtra.

"The Department ofExpenditure in financeministry released anamount of Rs 8,923.8crore to 25 states for pro-viding grants to theRural Local Bodies. Thegrants of Rs 8,923.8 croreare meant for all thethree tiers of PanchayatiRaj Institutions - village,block and district,” afinance ministry state-ment said.

GOVT RELEASES`8,900 CR FOR

PANCHAYATSquickBITES

INDICATORS %Sensex 49206.47 0.52Nifty 50 14823.20 0.67S&P 500* 4,232.60 0.74Dollar (`) 73.51 0.36Pound Sterling (`) 102.30 0.33Euro (`) 88.76 0.11Gold (10gm)* (`) 47,185▲474 1.00Brent crude ($/bbl)* 68.29 0.29IN 10-Yr bond yield 6.015 0.00US 10-Yr T-bill yield* 1.545 -0.016

* As of Friday/Saturday

Hero MotoCorpextends plants’shutdown to 16thHero MotoCorp said it isextending the shutdown of itsplants across India by anotherweek till May 16 in view of theprevailing Covid-19 situation.The shutdown also includes theGlobal Parts Center in Neem-rana and R&D facility the Centreof Innovation and Technology inJaipur, Hero MotoCorp said.Last month, the company hadannounced temporary stoppingof operations at all its six manu-facturing units in India.

Over 2,100 PSBbranches closedor merged in FY21

As many as 2,118 branches of10 public sector banks haveeither been closed or mergedwith other banks in the last fis-cal, according to an RTI reply.The highest number of 1,283branches of Bank of Barodawere either closed or merged,according to information pro-vided to an RTI query filed byNeemuch-based activistChandrashekhar Gaud. Nobranch of Bank of India andUco Bank was closed last fiscal.

Amara Rajaresumes ops atAndhra plantsAmara Raja Batteries Ltd saidit has resumed operations at itsplants at Nunegundlapalli andKarkambadi in Chittoor districtof Andhra Pradesh on Saturday.The resumption of productionwas done after the AndhraPradesh High Court suspendedthe orders passed by the And-hra Pradesh Pollution ControlBoard. The firm said the recenttemporary disruption will nothave any material impact on itsoperations or order book.

FPIs pull out over`5,900 crore fromequities last weekForeign portfolio investorshave pulled out Rs 5,936 crorefrom equities in the first weekof May amid worries over theCovid second wave and its fall-out on the economy. FPIs hadpulled out Rs 9,659 crore inApril after infusing money inthe preceding six months. Iffears of Covid-19 persistamong investors, then furtherredemptions cannot be ruledout, Himanshu Srivastava ofMorningstar India, stated.

ExplainerPrinted & Published by K. Sudhakar on behalf of Deccan

Chronicle Holdings Limited, Printed atDeccan Chronicle Press at Deccan

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GAMES pg 12DECCAN CHRONICLE | HYDERABAD | MONDAY | 10 MAY 2021

SHORT TAKES

HHaarraarree:: Pakistan were on thebrink of a second successive

innings win against Zimbabwedespite a fighting performanceby Regis Chakabva on the third

day of the of the second and final on Sunday.

Bad light ended play withZimbabwe on 220/9 in their fol-

low-on innings, 158 runs shortof making Pakistan bat again.

Chakabva made 80 asZimbabwe made their highesttotal of a series in which they

have been outclassed. Chakabva followed up his topscore of 33 in the first innings

by making his team’s only half-century in the two matches.

Pakistan fast bowler Hasan Alitook a career-best 5/27 as the

host nation were bowled outfor 132 in the first innings.

BBrriieeff ssccoorreess:: PPaakkiissttaann 551100//88ddeeccll.. vs ZZiimmbbaabbwwee 113322

(Chakabva 33, Hasan Ali 5/27)& 222200//99 (Chakabva 80,

Shaheen 4-45, Nauman 5-86).

RRaajjkkoott:: Young Saurashtra pacerChetan Sakariya’s father

Kanjibhai Sakariya died due toCovid-19 at a hospital in

Bhavnagar on Sunday.He was 42 and was battling theinfection for the past few days.

The Saurashtra CricketAssociation condoled the

demise, saying “Everyone atSaurashtra Cricket Association

is deeply saddened on the sad demise of cricketer

Chetan Sakariya’s father.“...Saurashtra Cricket

Association conveys heartfeltcondolences to Chetan and

prays to the Almighty to giveenough strength to everyone in his family to bear the loss

and grant eternal peace to thedeparted noble soul,” the crick-

et body said in a statement.The 22-year-old Chetan playedfor the Rajasthan Royals in this

year’s IPL. — PTI

Pakistan on vergeof second victory

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: CommonwealthGames silver medal-winning

Indian boxer Mandeep Jangramade a positive start in theprofessional circuit, beating

Argentina’s Luciano Ramos inhis debut bout in Florida, USA.

Jangra travelled to USA twomonths back for training.

The boxer won his first profes-sional bout against Ramos in afour round unanimous decisionin the super welterweight cate-

gory on Saturday. Jangra hassigned up with Florida-based

Pro Box Promotions.The 27-year-old, who is also asilver medallist from the 2013

Asian Championships, was sup-posed to fight on March 19 but

that bout was put off.“I’m so excited for a great runin the pro ranks and hopefully

win a world championship withmy team,” said the boxer, who

is training with Americancoaches Asa Beard and Marc

Farrait. — PTI

Maiden pro boutwin for Manpreet

Sakariya losesfather to Covid

MMaaddrriidd:: Aryna Sabalenka is gladshe changed her mind aboutplaying at the Madrid Open.

Two weeks after nearly with-drawing from the tournament

because of a muscle injury,Sabalenka was standing on cen-

ter court with the winner’s tro-phy in her hands on Saturday.

Sabalenka defeated top-rankedAsh Barty 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 for her

10th WTA title and first on clay.In the men’s final, 2018 champi-

on Alexander Zverev will faceeighth-seeded Matteo

Berrettini.Sabalenka’s victory, coming two

weeks after she was hurt in aloss to Barty in the Stuttgartfinal. “To be honest, after the

final in Stuttgart I was injured, Icouldn’t even move, I really

wanted to withdraw from here,”she said. — AP

LLooss AAnnggeelleess:: Another historicnight from Russell Westbrook

helped the Washington Wizardsto a 133-132 overtime victory

over the Indiana Pacers onSaturday.

Westbrook notched the 181sttriple-double of his career on

Saturday, tying OscarRobertson for the most in NBA

history.He finished with 33 points, 19

rebounds and 15 assists, drain-ing the go-ahead free-throwswith one second left in over-

time then blocking a potentialgame-winning shot from

Indiana’s Caris LeVert as timeexpired.

“That’s Russell, he’s an incredi-ble player and person,” said

Wizards coach Scott Brooks. — AFP

Sabalenka winsMadrid Open title

Westbrook doesit for Wizards

Auckland, May 9: All New Zealand cricketers andcoaches, who were involved in IPL 2021, have arrivedhome safely by private jets in two groups after theindefinite suspension of the T20 league midway intothe season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

They arrived on board a Bombardier Global Expressprivate jet via Tokyo in the first of two charteredflights repatriating the Kiwis after the league was sus-pended.

On Sunday, former Black Caps captains BrendonMcCullum and Stephen Fleming were among the sec-ond group of cricketers to touch down here.

Meanwhile, five-time champions Mumbai Indians onSunday said that all foreign players and support staffof their team have reached their respective destina-tions safely.

A total of 14 foreign players and support of MI haveleft India after the cash-rich tournament had come to ahalt on May 4.

PPBBKKSS DDOOMMEESSTTIICC PPLLAAYYEERRSS AARREE HHOOMMEE

All the Indian members of the Punjab Kings team havereached home safely after the suspension of the IPL,the franchise said on Sunday.

“Following the suspension of the IPL 2021, all PBKSteam members have reached home safely while a feware quarantining outside India before they head backto their respective countries,” the club said in a state-ment on twitter. — PTI

NZ PLAYERS REACH HOMEAFTER IPL’S SUSPENSION

New Delhi, May 9:Australian great IanChappell feels the suspen-sion of IPL is a reminder ofcricket’s vulnerability anddoes not rule out the Covid-19 pandemic forcing a post-ponement or shifting ofthe upcoming T20 WorldCup from India.

The 2021 edition of thelucrative T20 league wassuspended earlier thisweek after four players —Sunrisers Hyderabad bats-man Wriddhiman Saha,Delhi Capitals spinnerAmit Mishra and KKR’sVarun Chakravarthy andSandeep Warrier — testedpositive for Covid-19 in thebio-bubble.

“The suspension of the2021 IPL tournamentbecause of surging Covidinfections and deathsamong the public, and anumber of participantstesting positive, was areminder of the game’svulnerability,” Chappellwrote in his column forESPNcricinfo.

India, which is grapplingwith a devastating secondwave of the pandemic withcases rising by over 4 lakheveryday, is scheduled tohost the T20 World Cup inOctober-November.

“In the current disas-trous climate, the suspen-sion of the IPL could alsoproduce a precedent. It

may lead to the World T20event, programmed forIndia later in the year,either being postponed ormoved.”

Chappell recalled a fewincidents that led to thedisruption of the game inthe past. “In the past, tourshave been aborted andmatches abandoned for avariety of reasons. Manyof these involved back sto-ries, some of which weretragic and others amus-ing.”

The 77-year-old recollect-ed how poor weather dur-ing the 1970-71 Boxing DayTest between Australianand England led to the firstever One-DayInternational. “In 1970-71the MCG Boxing Day Testbetween Australia andEngland was abandonedwithout a ball beingbowled after heavy rainruined any chance of acompetitive match.” — PTI

T20 Cup could bedelayed: Chappell

Male (Maldives), May 9:Star opener DavidWarner and cricketer-t u r n e d - c o m m e n t a t o rMichael Slater havedenied reports of theirinvolvement in a drunkenbar brawl in Male, whereAustralian cricketerscompeting in the now-sus-pended IPL are waiting toboard a flight home in afew days’ time.

According to the DailyTelegraph, Warner andSlater got into a late nightphysical altercation aftera heated argument at theTaj Coral Resort wherethey are in quarantine.

But Warner, who cap-tained SunrisersHyderabad before beingreplaced by KaneWillaimson just beforethe suspension of IPL dueto multiple Covid-19 casesinside the bio-bubble, andSlater, also a formerAustralia opener, said“nothing happened”.

“There is absolutelynothing to the rumourmill Buzz. Davie and I aregreat mates and absolute-ly zero chance of (having)a fight,” Slater was quot-ed saying byfoxsports.com.au.

Warner also said:“There has been nodrama. I don’t knowwhere you get thesethings from. Unless youwere here and have gotconcrete evidence youcan’t write anything.

“Nothing happened.”— PTI

Male/New Delhi, May9: It was a chaotic Sundayfor Indian football asBengaluru FC’s AFC Cupplay-off against EaglesFC was postponed and theteam asked to leave Malefor violating Covid-19 pro-tocols, while all Group Dfixtures in the same eventwere also put off afterATK Mohun Baganreported two positivecases.

The Asian FootballConfederation did notgive any reason for post-poning the matches but itis understood that thedeadly resurgence ofCovid-19 in many Asiancountries is behind thedecision.

It all started withBengaluru FC’s play-offmatch against Eagles FC,scheduled here on May11, being left in doubtafter the host country’ssports minister asked theISL side to leave citingbreach of Covid-19 proto-cols.

“Bengaluru FC’s 2021AFC Cup playoff stageclash against Eagles FChas been postponed untilfurther notice, as con-firmed by the AsianFootball Confederationon Sunday. The club ismaking all arrangementsto get all its players andstaff home at the earli-est,” BFC said in a state-ment.

“Bengaluru FC wouldlike to place on record anunconditional apologyfor a health and safetybreach, involving onemember of staff and twoplayers, in the Maldives,on Saturday,” it added.

The exact nature of theviolation by BFC, whichis captained by Indiaskipper Sunil Chhetri,was not specified but

sports minister AhmedMahloof termed it as“unacceptable”.

The sentiment wasechoed by BFC ownerParth Jindal, who apolo-gised and promised strictaction against the errantplayers and support staff.

“Unacceptable behaviorfrom @bengalurufcbreaching the strictguidelines from HPA(Health ProtectionAgency) & @theafcdot-com. The club shouldleave Flag of Maldivesimmediately as we can’tentertain this act,”

Mahloof tweeted from hisofficial handle.

“We have informed FAMthat we cannot hold thematch, and asked them tomake arrangements for@bengalurufc’s depar-ture. We will be in furthercorrespondence withAFC through@MaldivesFA to postponethe group stage.”

The minister’s tweetscame after reportsemerged that some play-ers of the side were seenroaming Male’s streets inviolation of the quaran-tine protocol.

Also, two ATK MohunBagan players — PrabirDas and SK Sahil — test-ed positive for Covid-19,hours before their groupmatches in Maldives werepostponed by the conti-nental football governingbody.

“Participating clubswho have travelled toMaldives will be requiredto arrange for theirreturn home while adher-ing to the Covid-19 healthand travel protocols putin place by the country,”the AFC said in a state-ment. — PTI

Maldives mayhemNew Delhi, May 9: TheDelhi Police recorded thestatements of the victimsof Chhatrasal Stadiumbrawl that led to the deathof a wrestler here, officialssaid on Sunday.

The police said the clashtook place over vacating aflat in Model Town area.

Two-time Olympic medal-ist Sushil Kumar, who hasbeen named in the FIR inthis case, is abscondingand efforts are on to tracehim. Raids are being con-ducted in Delhi/NCR andneighbouring states, apolice officer said.

The victims alleged thatKumar was present at thespot when the incidenttook place, he said.

A 23-year-old wrestlerdied and his two friendsgot injured after they wereallegedly brutally assault-ed by other wrestlersinside Chhatrasal Stadiumof the city on the interven-ing night of Tuesday andWednesday.

According to the police,the brawl took placebetween Kumar, Ajay,Prince, Sonu, Sagar, Amitand others in the parkingarea. Thereafter, policeregistered the case undersections of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) and theArms Act at the ModelTown Police Station.

“The crime scene and allthe five vehicles wereinspected. During theinspection, a double barrelloaded gun with five live

cartridges was found inone Scorpio and two wood-en sticks were also recov-ered from the spot.

“All the five vehicles andweapons of offense wereseized. The crime scenewas further inspected byforensic experts of FSL,Rohini,” AdditionalDeputy Commissioner ofPolice (northwest)Guriqbal Singh Sidhu hadsaid.

The police had appre-hended one Prince Dalal(24), a resident of Jhajjarin Haryana, and seized onedouble barrel gun from hispossession.

“It was not a case of tres-passing. The accused tookthe victims inside the sta-dium where they assaultedthem in the parking area.Kumar was present at thespot when the incidenthappened, however, policeare investigating his rolein the assault,” an officialsource had said. — PTI

Police hunt onto trace Sushil

London, May 9:Manchester City’sPremier League title cele-brations were put on holdagain as ManchesterUnited fought back to win3-1 at Aston Villa onSunday.

Pep Guardiola’s sidemissed a chance to sealthe title when they lost 2-1to Chelsea on Saturday.

City could have startedthe party if second-placedUnited lost at Villa Park,but their arch-rivals keptthe leaders’ champagneon ice with a second-halfescape act.

Trailing to BertrandTraore’s first half rocket,United equalised throughBruno Fernandes’ penal-ty before MasonGreenwood and EdinsonCavani netted to leaveCity frustrated.

City, with three matchesto play, are now 10 pointsclear of United, who havefour games left.

United host Leicester onTuesday and Liverpool onThursday, with a defeat ineither of those matchesguaranteeing the title forCity, who are next inaction at Newcastle onFriday.

The Europa Leaguefinalists would love tokeep City waiting as longas possible as they bid to

earn a runners-up finish,which would be theirhighest end-of-seasonposition since OleGunnar Solskjaer tookcharge in December 2018.

But treble-chasingCity’s blistering form hasturned the title race into

a procession since thenew year and it is only amatter of time beforetheir coronation is con-firmed.

They will have to waitanother 48 hours at leastdue to the latest display ofUnited’s fortitude.

Villa took the lead in the24th minute throughTraore, who turnedsharply in the penaltyarea and shrugged offVictor Lindelof beforesmashing a superb strikeinto the top corner froman acute angle.

But Solskjaer’s teamhave been experts at sec-ond-half comebacks thisseason and Paul Pogbawon a 52nd minute penal-ty when Douglas Luizneedlessly bundled overthe United midfielder.

City’s Sergio Aguerohad missed a penaltyagainst Chelsea with arisky ‘Panenka’ chippedeffort, but Fernandes wasfar more clinical as hesent Villa keeperEmiliano Martinez thewrong way from the spot.

Greenwood put Unitedahead four minutes lateras he swivelled pastTyrone Mings on the edgeof the area and drove alow finish past Martinez’sweak attempted save.

United suffered a blowwhen their captain HarryMaguire limped off aftercolliding with Anwar ElGhazi.

But Cavani wrapped upthe points with a glancingheader from MarcusRashford’s cross in the87th minute. — AFP

Barcelona, May 9:Lewis Hamilton claimedhis fifth successiveSpanish Grand Prix onSunday ahead of RedBull’s Max Verstappenafter a Mercedes pit-stopmasterstroke.

Hamilton moved on to98 career wins after asurprise second changeof tyres hoodwinkedRed Bull to lift him 14points clear ofVerstappen in the driv-ers’ standings.

Valtteri Bottas tookthird with CharlesLeclerc’s Ferrari infourth.

Hamilton had set offfrom pole for the 100thtime but was beaten tothe first corner byVerstappen, withLeclerc dishing out thesame treatment onBottas on turn two.

On lap eight Yuki

Tsunoda’s Sunday drivein Catalonia came to apremature end when hisAlpha Tauri came to agrinding halt.

Verstappen held off

Hamilton comfortablyon the restart on lap 11,with Leclerc continuingto split the twoMercedes.

With a third of therace completed the firstround of pit stopsbegan, with all eyes onwhich of the front twowith less than a secondbetween them wouldblink first.

Verstappen it was whocame in on lap 25, butthe pit stop was slow bya couple of seconds inanother minor butpotentially criticalerror by the Red Bulltitle pretenders.

The Mercedes pit wallpulled Hamilton in for alightning stop a few lapslater as they pinnedtheir hopes on freshermedium tyres makingthe difference towardsthe finish. — AFP

Kolkata, May 9: BCCIpresident Sourav Gangulyon Sunday said that theIndian team, sans the topplayers, will tour Sri Lankain July for a limited oversbilateral series.

Big names such as skipperVirat Kohli and vice-cap-tain Rohit Sharma will notbe part of the tour as theywill be engaged in a mar-quee five-match Test seriesin England.

“We have planned a whiteball series for the seniormen’s team during themonth of July where theywill play T20 Internationalsand ODIs in Sri Lanka,”Ganguly said in an interac-tion.

Asked how will India seg-regate the two teams,Ganguly said that it will bea different side, whichwon’t have anyone from theoutfit that will be in theUnited Kingdom at thattime.

“Yes, it will be a team of

white ball specialists. It willbe a different team,” theformer India captain said,making it clear that thecricket board also has thepreparation of white ballregulars in mind.

There will be at least 5 T20Internationals and may bethree ODIs in Sri Lanka.

India’s tour of Englandwill end on September 14and with the schedule ofthe remainder of IPL yet tobe chalked out, the BCCIwould want the likes ofShikhar Dhawan, HardikPandya, BhuvneshwarKumar, Deepak Chahar,Yuzvendra Chahal to bematch ready.

“The BCCI president isvery keen that all our topplayers are match readyand since England doesn’thave a white ball leg themonth of July can be uti-lized well,” a BCCI sourcesaid while explaining thelogic behind the tour.

— PTI

WARNER ANDSLATER DENYBAR BRAWL

Bengaluru FC told to leave Male for violating Covid protocols

Bengaluru FC's Sunil Chhetri during a training session in Male. BFC are in theMaldives for the AFC Cup. — BFC

Madrid, May 9: AtleticoMadrid held on to theirSpanish League leadagain, this time by earn-ing a draw against LionelMessi’s Barcelona at theCamp Nou Stadium.

Last week, they benefit-ted from a Barcelona set-back to remain at the top,and on Sunday they willneed Real Madrid to stum-ble to avoid losing firstplace.

Atletico drew withBarcelona 0-0 on Saturdayto fend off the Catalanclub’s charge. It willdepend on Sevilla to holdoff Madrid when theymeet on Sunday; ZinedineZidane’s team would takethe lead with a home win.

“I’m not watching thesematches, it’s not some-thing that is good for me,”Atletico coach DiegoSimeone said.

Saturday’s draw keptAtletico two points infront of Barcelona withthree rounds to go.Madrid were three pointsback but would take thelead with a victory onSunday because they holdthe head-to-head tiebreak-er against their cityrivals. — AP

Red Devils delay City’s title party

GANGULY CONFIRMS INDIAWILL TOUR LANKA IN JULY

ATLETICO HOLDBARCA TO KEEPSPANISH LEAD

WRESTLER || MURDER CASE

Manchester United’s Edinson Cavani celebrates afterscoring against Aston Villa in an EPL match at VillaPark in Birmingham on Sunday. — AFP

Lewis Hamilton celebrates after winningthe Spanish GP onSunday. — AP

Mercedes masterstrokehelps Hami deny Max

Sushil KKumar

In the current disastrousclimate, the suspensionof the IPL could alsoproduce a precedent. Itmay lead to the WorldT20 event, programmedfor India later in theyear, either being post-poned or moved.

— IAN CHAPPELLAustralian legend

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No. 9 Alwal Village, Vallabh Nagar Taluk, Medchal Malkajgiri Dist.Telangana and Published at 36, S.D. Road, Secunderabad-3.

RNI Registration No. 3081/1957. Editor: Kaushik Mitter