HYDERABAD, FRIDAY OCTOBER 16, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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MONEY 82ND ROUND OF STIMULUS TO PROVIDE

LIMITED SUPPORT TO GROWTH: MOODY'S

ANALYSIS 7WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

SPORTS 12KXIP HAS THELAST LAUGH

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TO HEADLINE AADHYAAFTER THE FIRST

NARRATION: DIRECTORPage 11

8

Zojila tunnel toconnect Srinagarwith Leh

5

Theatres openafter sevenmonths in COVID-19 shadow

2

KPS Menon, a distinguisheddiplomat

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woman, who was allegedly locked inside a toilet for over a year by herhusband in Haryana’s Rishpur village, was rescued by Women

Protection and Child Marriage Prohibition Officer Rajni Gupta along withher team. Talking to the media, Rajni Gupta said that she acted uponinformation and rescued the woman on Wednesday. “It is being said thatshe is mentally unstable, but it is not true. We have talked to her and itwas apparent that she is not mentally unstable. We cannot confirmwhether she is mentally unstable ornot, but she was locked in the toilet.We rescued her and washed her hair.We have filed a police complaint.Police will take action accordingly,”she added.

HUSBAND LOCKS WOMAN IN TOILET FOR A YEAR, RESCUED

‘DISBANDED MUSLIM REGIMENT ALIE’: VETERANS WRITE TO PM, PREZ

Acase has been registered against three people for performing stuntson a ledge of a high-rise building in the western suburb of Kandivali

in Mumbai. A video of dangerous stunts being performed on the ledgeof the top-most floor of the 23-storey Bharat SRAbuilding went viral on social media. While one ofthe men is seen performing stunts, two othersare seen shooting the video, which was lateruploaded on Instagram. The video shows ayoung man sipping an energy drink, sitting onthe edge of the 23rd floor of the building. He thenjumps on to the ledge next to it, barely two feet inwidth, and performs a handstand as hisassociates film the stunt.

Scientists from Britain's University of Oxford have developed a rapidCovid-19 test able to identify the Coronavirus in less than five

minutes, researchers said on Thursday, adding it could be used in masstesting at airports and businesses. The university said it hoped to startproduct development of the testing device in early 2021 and have anapproved device available six months afterwards. The device is able todetect the coronavirus and distinguish it from other viruses with highaccuracy, the researchers said in a pre-print study. "Our method quicklydetects intact virus particles," saidProfessor Achilles Kapanidis, at Oxford'sDepartment of Physics, adding that thismeant the test would be "simple,extremely rapid, and cost-effective".

Awidely circulated social media post denigrating India's Muslim soldiersmay adversely affect the armed forces' morale, besides fuelling

communal hatred in the country, a group of 120 retired officers havewarned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind.Invoking national interest, they urged an immediate probe into theantecedents of people behind this particular post andwarning to social media platforms Facebook and Twitteragainst "enabling" the spread of the hoax. In a letter datedOctober 14 that was shared with the media, the veteransdubbed "outright falsehoods" the contents of the postwhich refer to a "Muslim Regiment" that was "disbanded"after refusing to fight Pakistan in the 1965 war. The letteralso addressed the three service chiefs, among others.

MAN PERFORMS STUNT ON SOCIALMEDIA AND GETS NOTICED

OXFORD SCIENTISTS DEVELOP 5-MINUTE COVID-19 ANTIGEN TEST

HYDERABAD

WEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated October 15, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Ashwin (Adhik) & Krishna Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Amavasya: 12:59 am (Next Day)

Nakshatram: Hasta: 02:58 pm

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 10:34 am – 12:01 pm

Yamagandam: 02:55 pm – 04:22 pm

Varjyam: 09:56 pm – 11:19 pm

Gulika: 07:40 am - 09:07 am

Good Time: 11:35 am – 01:00 pm

Amritakalam: 09:43 am – 11:07 am

Abhijit Muhurtham:

11:38 am – 12:24 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Scattered thunderstormsTemp: 28/22Humidity: 85%Sunrise: 06.09 amSunset: 05.53 pm

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao hasinstructed the officials con-cerned to take up relief andrehabilitation measures on awar-footing to help people hitby heavy rains and flash floods.He said that in all the sub-merged areas, rice, pulses andother essential commodities,food and three quilts per houseshould be distributed fromthe government side.

The CM sanctioned Rs 5crore to enable GHMC to take

up relief works in Hyderabadcity limits. He declared that Rs5 lakh would be paid ex gratiato the family members of eachof those killed in floods. Hesaid new houses would bebuilt for those whose hous-es had been destroyedand financial aid wouldbe given towards repairsto those whose houseshad been partially dam-aged. The CM clarified thatin the case of housesthat had been builton nalas (stormwater drains) and

washed away in flood waters,new houses would be built ona government land.

KCR instructed officials thatwater should be drained out of

all low-lying areas andcellars of apartments

on a war footingand power supplyrestored. He cau-

tioned that power supplyshould not be given in areaswhere there is still water log-ging and in apartmnents withinundated cellars as it would bedangerous. Even if it meansinconvenience for a day or two,power supply should berestored only after draining thewater. The CM urged people tocooperate in this matter.

The CM observed that,going by the flood situation inHyderabad, colonies built with-in FTL limits were flooded.

People were facing problemsdue to water entering the cel-lars of their apartments.Adequate measures shouldhave taken while constructingthe apartment to ensure thatthere can be no inundation ofcellars.

Govt seeks Rs 1,350 croreimmediate aid from CentreTS Govt pegs rain havoc loss at Rs 5,000 crore

Political slugfest over cityflood ahead of GHMC pollsL VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

As Hyderabadis roll up theirsleeves to get back to business,an intense political slugfesthas begun among politicalparties over the "known, buthidden" contributors to themassive flooding of the city,obviously with an eye on theGHMC elections whichare round the corner.

Each party is try-ing to put the blameon the other forflooding of thecity, saying thatthey had failedto check nala(storm waterd r a i n s )e n c r o a c h -ments during their regime,due to which there is flooding

in Hyderabad whenever heavyrains occur.

Incontestably, campaigningfor GHMC polls will be cen-tred on city flooding this time,with all other, othewise impor-tant issues taking a backseat.All told, the glaring factremains that, regardless of theparty in power, the administra-tion has always failed to

remove nala encroachments inthe city, with politiciansfocused only on 'vote bank pol-itics'.

Hyderabad witnessed simi-lar massive flooding anddestruction in August 2000,when the Telugu Desam Partygovernment, headed by ChiefMinister N ChandrababuNaidu, was in power in theundivided AP. Naidu thenconstituted the 'KirloskarCommittee' to study and makerecommendations to the gov-ernment on measures to betaken to prevent flooding inHyderabad in the future.

The committee studied thereasons behind the floodingand, in its report submitted in2003, pointed out that 13,500illegal structures had come upon 390 km of drains.

Advantage Hyd: Fastest-everrecovery for a metro cityNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

The skies were largely clear andlife seemed almost normal in70 per cent of the rain-hit partsof Hyderabad on Thursday.This is possibly the fastest everrecovery for any metropolitancity that has witnessed suchrecord rainfall over two days.

Except for some low-lyingareas in Charminar, LB Nagar,Secunderabad zones, businesswas usual in all of the city'szones.

PNS n HYDERABAD

There was mild tension forsome time at Medipalli villagein Yacharam mandal ofRangareddy district whenirate residents tried to obstructruling party MLA fromIbrahimpatnam ManchireddyKishan Reddy, who had come

there to offer pujain the Medipalli

Cheruvu, onT h u r s d a y.People threwchappals and

stones onKishan Reddy’scar, bemoan-ing that thel e g i s l a t o r

never botheredto come to the

village to address the concernsof people who are going tolose their lands for the PharmaCity.

The people arrested villageleaders much before thearrival of the MLA. The localSI Suresh then kicked theagitators. Angered at thepolice action, the villagersthrew chappals and stones.The police then resorted to alathicharge to control the sit-uation. In another incident,ruling TRS MLA from UppalBethi Subash Reddy faced anembarrassing situation whenhe tried to console the flood-affected people on Thursday.Upon seeing the MLA, peoplespit fire on him, saying ‘Wewill die while writing yourname’.

MLAs facepublic ire

PNS n HYDERABAD

The last date to apply for reg-ularising plots in unapprovedlayouts under the LandRegularisation Scheme 2020has extended up to October31, 2020. The TelanganaGovernment has recievedrepresentations seekingextension due to recent heavyrains. Besides, there have dis-ruptions in internet servicesand power supply at severallocations due to which manypeople have not been able tofile their applications.

Last date forLRS extendedtill Oct 31

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Central government willborrow up to Rs 1.1 lakh-crore on behalf of the states tobridge the shortfall in GST col-lections, the Finance Ministrysaid on Thursday.

A slowdown in the economysince last fiscal has resulted ina drop in the Goods andServices Tax (GST) collections,upsetting the budgets of stateswhich had given up their rightto levy local taxes such assales tax or VAT when GST wasintroduced in July 2017.

To make up for the shortfall,borrowing from the marketwas proposed.

In a statement, the Union

Finance Ministry said stateswere offered a special windowto borrow Rs 1.1 lakh-croreover and above their existinglimits, to bridge theshortfall.

"Under theSpecial Window,the estimatedshortfall of Rs 1.1l a k h - c r o r e(assuming allStates join) will beb o r -

rowed by Government of Indiain appropriate tranches," thestatement said. "The amount soborrowed will be passed on tothe States as a back-to-back

loan in lieu of GSTCompensation Cess

releases."The release, howev-

er, did not say who willservice the interest and

principal payments.The Centre borrowing

on behalf of states is like-ly to ensure that a

single rate ofborrowing is

c h a r g e dand thisw o u l dalso be

easy to administer.The borrowing, the state-

ment said, "will not have anyimpact on the fiscal deficit ofthe Government of India."

"The amounts will be reflect-ed as the capital receipts of theState Governments and as partof the financing of its respec-tive fiscal deficits," it said.

Borrowing of the shortfall bythe Centre will avoid differen-tial rates of interest that indi-vidual states may be chargedand will be an administrative-ly easier arrangement, it added.

"It may also be clarified thatthe General Government(States+Centre) borrowingswill not increase by this step,"it said. "The States that get the

benefit from the SpecialWindow are likely to borrow aconsiderably lesser amountfrom the additional borrowingfacility of 2 percent of GSDP(from 3 per cent to 5 per cent)under the Aatma NirbharPackage."

When the GST was intro-duced in July 2017, states werepromised a 14 percent incre-mental revenue over their lasttax receipts in the first fiveyears of the GST rollout. Thiswas to be done through a levyof a cess or surcharge on lux-ury and sin goods, but the col-lections on this count have fall-en short with the slowdown inthe economy since last fiscal.

GST shortfall: Centre to borrow on behalf of States

NAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

Even before Hyderabadiscould come to terms withheavy rains and flash floods,people in the Financial Districtarea of Gachibowli have beenwitnessing 'micro quakes' forthe past two days.

Experts believe that this isdue to the hydroseismicity, fol-lowing the heavy rains thatlashed the city.

Residential colonies in thearea as well as the IndianSchool of Business (ISB)reportedly felt tremors.National GeophysicalResearch Institute (NGRI)shared that the tremors, withtheir recorded magnitudearound 0.5 to 0.8, were simi-lar to those felt recently inBorabanda.

NGRI chief seismologist DSriNagaesh shares, "We haveset up two stations in andaround My Home Vihangaand IIIT-H. We want to seewhere the third location is.While there is nothing toworry about, these tremorswill be felt for a week or so inthe future. We have askedpeople not to panic."

Talking about the reasonwhy these micro quakes hap-

pened, he added: "Incidently,the annual rainfall ofHyderabad is 80 cm and themonsoon rainfall of the city is60 cm. Till October 14 thisyear, we have received at least50% more rainfall than usual.Whenever we get more thannormal rainfall, the excesswater enters the pores of theserocks and thus there are slighttremors that happen. This iscalled hydroseismicity."

The expert suggested: "Weneed better city planning if wedo not want this happeningagain in the city. We cannotbuild apartments where thereshould be lakes. One should-n't mess with nature."

Tremors felt inFinancial District PNS n HYDERABAD

A large portion of the historicShahpur Fort in Telangana'sJangaon district collapsed onThursday.

Three adjacent houses weredamaged by the crashingdebris of the fort. However, noone was injured as the residentshad vacated the houses aftercracks in the fort widened fol-lowing heavy rains during thelast few days.

A video of the Fort's collapse

went viral on social media.Locals can be heard screamingas the dilapidated structurecaved in.

Popular as Qila Shahpur,the hill fort is inRaghunathapalli mandal ofJangaon district.

It was built in the 1690s bySardar Sarvai Papanna Goud,who, along with nearly 4,000men, had attacked Warangal in1708 after the death of MughalEmperor Aurangzeb.

Historic Shahpur Fort collapses

Centre’s SOPs forcultural eventsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Culture Ministry releaseda new set of SOPs onThursday for organising cul-tural programmes with ade-quate safety measures, makingit mandatory for artistes andcrew to furnish a valid Covid-negative test certificate, bar-ring entry of visitors andpatrons without masks andallowing seating on only 50per cent seats for the audience.

The Standard OperatingProcedures are to be followedby the management of the-atres and host institutions aswell as the entertainment orcreative agencies, artistes,crew or any other person whohire an auditorium or any

other open/closed space forcultural events, the ministrysaid.

It said digital no-contacttransactions should be pre-ferred to issue, verify, or payfor tickets, and contact detailsof all customers should betaken at the time of bookingof tickets to facilitate contact-tracing. No cultural activityshould be allowed in contain-ment zones, it added.

"It is advisable for all exter-nal artistes and crew mem-bers, including those engagedin providing lighting, sound,make-up, costume etc. to pre-sent a valid COVID negativetest result to relevant author-ities at the host institution.

Rescue operations in Tolichowki on Thursday

Incontestably,campaigning forGHMC polls will becentred on cityflooding this time,with all other,othewise importantissues taking abackseat

n KCR writes to Modi,details losses

n Sanctions Rs 5cr toGHMC for relief works

n Announces Rs 5 lakh compensationfor families of those killed in floods

n Promises new houses, repairs forvictims

Whenever we get morethan normal rainfall,the excess waterenters the pores ofthese rocks and thusthere are slighttremors that happen.This is calledhydroseismicity.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020

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Atennis match was beingplayed at Hyderabad

under the patronage of MirOsman Ali Khan, the lastNizam of Hyderabad.

He noticed a young lady,known to him, watching thematch and asked her to sit byhis side. He ordered an ice-cream for her and when itwas brought to him, theNizam sent it back thricesince the quantity was ‘toolarge’. The Nizam got itreduced further and further,until only a mouthful was left.

The lady was AnujeeMenon and the incident wasnarrated by late KPS Menon,to tell how thrifty the Nizamwas. However, to the Nizam,‘Menon was a just man’.

A distinguished writer anddiplomat, KPS Menonworked as Undersecretary tothe Resident during theNizam’s rule.

Recalling his time inHyderabad, Menon describedthe city as a place where “allthe forces of waning empirewere there; autocracy, feudal-ism and paramountcy – andthrough them, the voices ofpeople”.

Kumara PadmaSivasankara Menon was bornin Kottayam of Kerala onOctober 18, 1898.

A member of the IndianCivil Service, he wasAmbassador at China and theSoviet Union and played amajor role in the implemen-tation of Non-AlignmentPolicy along with JawaharlalNehru.

Menon was fond of storiesof gods and ghosts in hischildhood and the charactersof mythological stories nar-rated to him by his motherbecame his living compan-ions according to him.

KPS had a superstition —that he had a “black tongue”or “evil eye”. He believed thatwhen he said something goodabout any person or a thing,some misfortune will befallthem. Once, when headmired poultry of a friend inColombo, within two days,not even a single fowl was left.

In 1953, Joseph Stalin diedwithin 17 days of Menon’sstatement to journalists thatthe Russian dictator was inexcellent health.

This scared the HungarianPrime Minister Rakosi, whorequested Menon not tospeak well of his health any-where. Menon felt sorrymany times for obliging thePrime Minister, because his-tory proved that Rakosi wasresponsible for the miseries ofHungarians by thoroughlyRussifying and Stalinizingtheir country.

According to Menon, adiplomat says “yes” to mean“Perhaps” says “Perhaps” to

mean “No” and never says“No”. He foresaw about hisbecoming a diplomat whilehe was still a student inMadras.

After obtaining his degreefrom Madras University, in1918, Menon left for Oxfordand joined the Christ ChurchCollege and was always proudof being an Oxonian. In 1921,he got a first at Oxford in hispost-graduation and a fewweeks after that he found hisname at the top of the list ofsuccessful candidates forIndian Civil Service examina-tions.

Back in India, he was post-ed in the Madras Presidencyas Assistant Collector. Hemarried Anujee, daughter ofthe well-known reformer SirSankaran Nair in 1923.

Once on his way to Ceylon,Menon met Sarojini Naidu inBombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel. Apoem which was written byher and dedicated to himtitled “To KPS from my Bath”was always cherished by him.

In Ceylon, he was intro-duced to Nehru, who camethere to address a publicmeeting. Menon wrote “HadNehru asked me to followhim, I could not have said‘No’ and perhaps I mighthave missed the privilege ofserving Nehru as the first for-eign secretary in IndependentIndia”.

During the war withChina, Menon worked asAgent General for India.There he had a memorableassociation with the famousand formidable Soong Sisters:Soong-Chia-Ling, Soong-Mei-Ling and Soong-Al-Ling.They married the three mostpowerful figures of China

between the revolutions from1911 to 1948 — Sun-Yat-Sen,Chiang-Kai-Shek and HHKung, who became presi-dents of that country.

Menon’s association withthem resulted in his earliestdispatches to the Governmentof India, known as the “Songof Soongs”. In the middle ofhis stay in Chungking, thewar time capital of China,Menon performed an adven-turous overland journey fromIndia to China which lastedfor 120 days.

Menon met VK KrishnaMenon in 1946 at the UNGeneral Assembly, after hewas appointed as ChiefAdvisor to Indian delegationto the San FranciscoConference. KPS first reac-tion to VKKM was one of“vague irritation”. Theyargued over a speech pre-pared by KPS forVijayalakshmi Pundit. Whenthis was brought to the noticeof Nehru, he reacted “So thetwo Menons could not get onwith each other!”

A member of the IndianCivil Service, Menondescribed it as the “SteelFrame of the BritishGovernment of India”. Tohim, Communism was a per-petual bugbear and Congressis of communal and section-al dissensions.

He was of the opinion thatthough the Nehru-era hadsurvived, its glory had faded.

This was reflected in hispreface to the enlarged edi-tion of “Many WorldsRevisited”, a book on hisassociation with Nehru invarious capacities, but he wasno longer in a position toview or present India in suchrosy colours, subsequently.

According to him, theimposition of Emergency inIndia could not stop the con-tinuation of “bizarre” period,an era of politicking and theGeneral Elections of 1977restored demagogy morethan democracy.

The result of the happen-ings was that Menon had toremain a “bemused, bewil-dered and sometimes anindignant spectator”. Menonpassed away on November21, 1982 at the age of 84 years.

(Source: Book by JohnHughes, Pulitzer Prize win-

ning journalist)

KPS Menon— adistinguished diplomat

VANAM JWALA

NARASIMHA RAO

CHIEF PUBLIC RELATIONS

OFFICER OF CHIEF MINISTER

OF TELANGANA

KPS had a superstition — that he hada “black tongue” or “evil eye”. Hebelieved that when he said somethinggood about any person or a thing,some misfortune will befall them.Once, when he admired poultry of afriend in Colombo, within two days,not even a single fowl was left

L VENKAT RAM REDDY

n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao hasadvised farmers in the state tocultivate paddy in 50 lakhacres and other crops in 15lakh acres for the 2020-2021summer season. KCRsaid that farmers had followedregulatory farming methodscent per cent during the rainyseason and cultivated the cropssuggested by the government.He wanted them to do thesame during the summer sea-son too. Agriculture officershave been asked to suggest tofarmers which crops theyshould cultivate, district-wise,mandal-wise and cluster-wise.

The Chief Minister held areview at Pragathi Bhavan hereon Thursday on the RegulatoryFarming Policy. AgricultureMinister Niranjan Reddy, StateRythu Bandhu Samithi presi-dent Palla Rajeshwar Reddy,Government’s Chief AdvisorRajiv Sharma, Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar, AgricultureSecretary Janardhan Reddy,CMO officials SmitaSabharwal, Priyanka Verghese,Agriculture University VCPraveen Rao, Horticulture MDVenkatramreddy, JD ShobaRani and others participated.

At the recent AgricultureOfficers’ meeting, the CM hadsought reports on district-wise

cultivation under regulatoryfarming. Accordingly, officialsfrom the AgricultureDepartment have prepareddistrict-wise estimates relatingto crops that could be cultivat-ed during the summer season.

A detailed discussion tookplace at the meeting onThursday to finalise the cropsthat should be cultivated andtheir extent. It was decided togo in for paddy cultivation in50 lakh acres, Bengal gram in4.5 lakh acres, groundnut infour lakh acres, chilli and othervegetables in 1.5 to 2 lakh acres,maize in one lakh acres, sesamein one lakh acres, green gramin 50 to 60,000 acres, blackgram in 50,000 acres, sun-flower in 30 to 40,000 acres,mustard seed, safflower andmillets and other such crops in60 to 70,000 acres. The CMsaid seeds and fertilisersrequired for the cultivation ofthese crops were kept ready.

The CM urged farmers tocultivate the crops suggested byagriculture officials and thusensure a good price for theirproduce. The RegulatoryFarming Policy should be anongoing process, the CM saidand instructed officials to pre-pare cards district-wise, man-dal-wise and cluster-wise withall statistics on crop cultivation.

KCR told the AgricultureDepartment that once plan-ning of seeds for a season wasover, the action plan for thenext season should begin. Hewanted Rythu BandhuSamithies to play an active role.The CM said that by the com-ing of Dassera, a majority ofrythu vedikas would be con-structed. Thereafter, it wouldbecome easier to coordinate

farming activities.“Any new policy or system

will not become a habit in oneday or with one attempt. It isdue to regular process that the

new method would become aregular practice. It should beput in farmers' mind repeated-ly that they would benefitmore through the new system;then there would be awarenessamong them,” the CM said.

Maize cultivation not goodOfficials at the meeting

opined that cultivation ofmaize is not advisable due tothe uncertainty prevailing onthe price and marketing frontsof the corn. They said it wouldbe better if the governmentadvised farmers against culti-vation of maize. It was estimat-ed that corn would not fetchabove Rs 900 per quintal price.

In this context, the CM sug-gested that farmers shouldtake a call on whether to cul-tivate maize, given the risksinvolved. Only farmers readysell their corn whatever beprice should go for maize cul-tivation, the CM added.

MENU FOR FARMERS

Paddy in 50 lakh acres,other crops in 15 lakh acresRegulatory Farming Policy an ongoing process, says KCR

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao at a review meeting in Pragathi Bhavan on Thursday

Continued from Page 1

In all, 20,540 families wereimpacted in Secunderabadzone, while in LB Nagar zone9,746 families were hit.

Although IMD’s weathermodels had predicted 3-4 cmthroughout the day going up to13 cm, the rainfall was farmore than forecast. Yet, the citymanaged to recover quickly,thanks to the foresight of theTelangana government, whichhad invested in the DisasterResponse Force, apart fromtaking up desilting anddeweeding of all nalas (stormwater drains) and in areasprone to water stagnation.Hyderabad reaped the costbenefits of investing in DRFand has become the first cor-poration in the country tohave one such dedicated forcethat has delivered.

The DRF were personnelwere placed at 18 strategicplaces in each zone in order toquickly attend to any emergen-cies. Presently 8 DRF teamsare involved in rescue opera-tions at Tolichowki,Habsiguda, IDA Uppal, BNReddy and Chandrayangutta.While typically the DRF winghas about 300 persons, due tothe natural disaster, another300 personnel from variouswings were pooled in and theyall have been relentlessly work-

ing over the past 48 hours, withpriority being given to rescueoperations, followed byremoval of fallen trees andwater stagnation.

According to EV&DMDirector ViswajeetKampati,“Within 48hours, wewere able to pull back most ofthe city online. Nearly 70-80percent of the city has beenrestored to normalcy. The restof the low-lying areas neartanks, about 15-20 colonies likeNadeem Colony, BR ReddyNagar are only left. Rest wehave cleared the main roads, 95per cent tree falls have beencleared and the traffic is mov-ing freely. As for the pendingwork, we will clear it bySaturday and bring the cityback to its feet in the next 48hours completely”.

The DRF team, set up about

2 years ago under the aegis ofK T Rama Rao, received 313complaints since October 13;of which 234 were cleared. Thisis the fastest recovery for thecity; for, in Mumbai, whichwitnessed rain of such magni-tude, it took the authorities 9days for recovery.

Hyderabad is located at 542meters above the sea level,while Mumbai is at 14 meters;so, the water relatively recedesquickly as the city is at a high-er level. Moreover, tides play akey role in draining water.Hyderabad is landlocked andif people do not obstruct thefree flow of water, the city willsee a fastest recovery.

With IMD issuing weatheralerts, notices were issued topeople living in dilapidatedbuildings ahead of time, butpeople were not ready to leavequickly. In some cases, GHMCeven resorted to forceful evac-uation to avoid human lifedamage. The city also benefit-ed immensely from de-siltingof drains during the Covid-19-induced lockdown. To ensurefree flow of rain water thismonsoon, the GHMC took updesiltation works.

Pre-monsoon de-siltingensures free flow of water indrains and nalas to preventflooding of low-lying areas,stagnation of water on roads,and traffic problems.

Advantage Hyd: Fastest everrecovery for a metro cityContinued from Page 1

The disturbing fact is that173 km of that drainage net-work is connected directly tothe Musi river, which meanswater flow has been seriouslyimpaired.

The report has gathereddust since then, with succes-sive state governments reduc-ing it to a statistical referencepoint. In 2005, then Congressgovernment, led by ChiefMinister YS Rajasekhar Reddy,stated that it required Rs 700crore to clear the encroach-ments in line with theKirloskar Committee recom-mendations. It is this lack-adaisical attitude that has ledto a steady increase in thenumber of encroachments somuch so that today they num-ber over 30,000.

Of course, there are politi-cal implications of removingthe encroachments. Local rul-ing party leaders stronglyoppose the move, saying itwould dent their vote bank. AsGHMC elections were sched-uled in 2009, then YSR gov-

ernment refused to take polit-ical risks by ordering demoli-tion of the illegal structures onnalas. The subsequent ChiefMinisters in the Congress gov-ernment, K Rosaiah and NKirankumar Reddy tooignored the issue on politicalgrounds.

After the Telangana Statewas formed and KChandrasekhar Rao took overas Chief Minister in June2014, he announced thedemolition of all illegal struc-tures in the city, come whatmay. He started with thedemolition of illegal struc-tures in Ayaappa Society, soonafter raising hopes that thedrive would be extended toclear nala encroachments aswell. But KCR too stopped thedemolition drive all of a sud-den as the GHMC polls werescheduled in January 2016.The TRS won the GHMCpolls with a record majority onthe strength of its promise todevelop Hyderabad as a glob-al city by creating world-classinfrastructure and stormwaterdrainage system.Historic

Shahpur Fort...Continued from Page 1

It is said that the Fort wasblown up by the forces led byDil Khan, then deputy governor of Hyderabad.Papanna Goud later rebuiltthe Fort.

Continued from Page 1

The CM told officials thathenceforth, while giving per-missions to apartments, thereshould be a regulation thatmeasures should be put inplace to prevent water stagna-tion in the cellars.

The Chief Miniter held ahigh-level review at PragathiBhavan here on Thursday onthe situation following heavyrains and floods in the State.

He reviewed the relief andrehabilitation measures takenso far and instructed officialsabout the measures to be takenin the days ahead.

There was a special discus-sion on Hyderabad, where theimpact has been heavy.

The officials outlined thelosses suffered in their depart-ment’s jurisdiction due toheavy rains and floods:

Govt seeks Rs 1,350 crore immediate aid... Due to heavy rains and flash

floods all over the state, 50people died, including 11 inHyderabad. Crops in 7.35 lakh acres inthe State was submerged.Even if there is 50 per cent ofdamage to crops, the losswould be tune of Rs 2000crore. Under GHMC limits, for thefirst time after 1916, 31 cmsof rain was recorded in oneday. As a result of this,several places in GHMC weresubmerged in water.Especially those colonies,which were, constructedwithin the tanks FTL limits.Since water reached the cellarareas of the apartments,people faced problems. InHyderabad, 20,540 houses in144 colonies at 72 placeswere trapped with the

floodwater. 35,000 familieswere affected. Flood effectwas more in LB Nagar,Charminar, Secunderabad andKhairatabad Zones. InHyderabad, 14 houses weretotally damaged and 65houses partially. GHMC andNDRF teams are doing therelief operations. BT roads in445 places and NationalHighways at 6 places weredamaged. Roads restorationwas going on at all theseplaces. In Hyderabad 72rehabilitation centres wereopened where temporaryshelter was given to peoplealong with food. Since waterinundated the homes, dailymeal is served to 1.10 lakhpeople.

Along with the GHMC, rainsand foods have adverselyaffected 30 towns. 238colonies were flooded. Roadswere damaged at 150 places. Floodwater entered 9 sub-stations under Transco limits,15 sub Stations under SPDCLand 2 under NPDCL limits.Water was drained out at allthe places on a war-footing.The work is going at someother places. Wherever thewater is drained, powersupply was resorted. Powerwas restored at the placeswhere trees and branches fell.At several places, especiallyon the banks of Musi River,transformers and electricpoles were washed away. Theprimary estimates suggest

that the Electricity Departmenthas suffered a loss of Rs 5crore. All over the state, 101 tankswere breached. 26 Tankbunds were damaged. It isestimated the loss for thewater resource departmentwas Rs 50 crore Panchayat roads weredamaged at 475 places, roadsbreached at 269 places; theloss on this account isestimated at Rs 295 crore. R&B roads were damaged at113 places. The loss was Rs184 crore under R&B limitsand Rs 11 crore under theNational Highway Authoritylimits. The Chief Ministerdeclared that the as perprimary estimates, the statesuffered Rs 5,000 crore lossdue to heavy rains and flashfloods.

Dimensions of the havoc

Political slugfest...

Last date for LRS extended...Continued from Page 1

So far more than 19.33 lakhapplications have beenreceived, including over 2.58lakh on Thursday. ChiefMinister K Chandrashekar

Rao, along with Minister forPR&RD Errabelli DayakarRao, Minister for MA&UDKT Rama Rao and ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumarreviewed the situation andapproved the extension.

GST shortfall: Centre to borrowon behalf of states Continued from Page 1

To make up for this, theCentre suggested that thestates can borrow againstfuture compensation receipts.

The Finance Ministry hadearlier this week stated that 21states have accepted one of thetwo borrowing options sug-gested by the Centre.

The borrowing option was,however, not acceptable tostates ruled by the Congressand Left. The surcharge oncars and other luxury goodsand tobacco products variesfrom 12 percent to 200 percenton top of the highest GST rateof 28 percent. It was due toexpire in June 2022. This hasnow been extended beyond2022. Interest on the bor-

rowed amount would be thefirst charge on the cess, whichgets collected beyond the fiveyears. The next charge wouldbe 50 percent towards theprincipal amount which getsborrowed, that is Rs 1.10 lakh-crore and then the remaining50 percent would be towardsCovid-19 affected compensa-tion. Under the GST structure,taxes are levied under 5, 12, 18and 28 percent slabs. On topof the highest tax slab, a cessis levied on luxury, sin anddemerit goods and the pro-ceeds from the same are usedto compensate states for anyrevenue loss. The payment ofcompensation to states becamean issue after revenues fromthe imposition of cess starteddwindling since August 2019.

TS adds 1,432new Covid casesPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana has slashed thenumber of daily Covid-19tests in the last few dayswhich has resulted in fewercases being reported. Duringthe last 24 hours ending 8 pmon Wednesday, the authori-ties conducted 38,895 testsagainst daily average 55,000to 60,000 samples tested overthe last couple of months.There was no official wordfor conducting fewer tests. Asa result of the drop in thenumber of tests, the state isconsistently reporting a dailycount of less than 2,000 cases.On Thursday, the statereported 1,432 positive cases.

Centre’s SOPsfor cultural...Continued from Page 1

The test should have beenconducted within 7 daysprior to the event.Management/creative agencymay provide a mobile testingunit at the venue if feasible.

"It is advised to keep use ofprops to the minimal andavoid procurement of anynew equipment than alreadydesignated in the premises.iii. Production houses mustensure that minimum crewvisits the premises. It is advis-able that trials and fittingsrelated to costumes be doneat the artist's residence.Nuances such as look testmay be shared over video," itsaid. For viewers wearingmasks is mandatory andphysical distancing is to befollowed at all times.

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020 hyderabad 03

The Corps of Electronicsand Mechanical

Engineers (EME) of theIndian Armycommemorated its 78thyear of raising at the EMEWar Memorial,Secunderabad onThursday. Lieutenant

General TSA Narayanan, Commandant MCEME and ColonelCommandant, Corps of EME paid homage to soldiers of Corps ofEME who laid down their lives to uphold the honour and pride of thecountry. The occasion commemorated the soldier craftsman'ssolemn pledge to uphold the traditions and legacy of Indian Army.

CITY LIGHTS

Army's EME commemorates its 78th year of raising at Sec’bad

The seat allotmentorders for candidates

who participated in thephase-III admissions ofDegree Online Services,Telangana (DOST) 2020were released onThursday.A total of74,984 candidatesexercised their weboptions in phase-IIIadmissions and 57,695 seats were allotted. As many as 9,368candidates were not allotted fresh seats due to insufficient weboptions. Candidates who received seat allotment order in phase-IIImust self-report online till October 26.All candidates who reservedseat by online self-reporting in phase-I, II, III and special phaseadmissions must report to their respective colleges between October30 and November 4. It is mandatory to retain the self-reported seat,DOST Convener Prof R Limbadri said.

Seat allotment orders released for DOST phase-III admissions

As many as 80children afflicted with

cancer celebrate 89thbirthday of formerPresident late Dr APJAbdul Kalam onThursday. Rather thancelebrating the birthdayof one of their own,these kids were rejoicingin celebrating the 89thbirthday of formerPresident late Dr APJ

Abdul Kalam, who has a huge fan following among the younggeneration, particularly the children.These students were beneficiariesof the free treatment provided by the peediatric oncology ward of theMNJ cancer Institute. The celebrations were organised by AkarshanaSathish, a 9-year-old studying in Hyderabad Public School atBegumpet. Dr N Jayalatha, Director on MNJ cancer institute also tookpart in the celebrations along with doctors and nurses.

Cancer-afflicted kids celebrate Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s birthday

Relief teams help rain-hitstate get back to its feetPNS n HYDERABAD

Relief operations were under-way on Thursday in capital cityand other places in Telanganain the wake of heavy rains thatcaused inundation of low-lyingareas, damage to property andalso standing agriculture crops.

Telangana Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar said that therelief teams were working onThursday to pump out waterfrom localities where waterstagnation was reported, tohelp citizens there and torestore normal traffic. He said61 relief centres were operatio-nal and that more were beingadded wherever required.

About 1.5 lakh food packetswere being supplied andAnnapurna subsidised foodcanteens in the city wereutilised in the areas where

water stagnated, he said. Therelief camps would continuefor a couple of days, he added.The rainfall was unprecedent-ed in and around GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) and thatthe government machinerywas successful in containinghuman loss and loss of prop-erty, he said.

Many colonies in Hyderabadand suburbs remained underwater on Thursday while Armyand the National DisasterResponse Force personnel con-tinued rescue and relief workin the flood-hit areas.

Clear skies provided respiteto the city battered by heavyrains in the intervening nightof October 13-14 but the areasabutting overflowing lakes andnalas remained inundatedwhile traffic on damaged high-

ways is yet to be restored.Personnel of Army, NDRF

and DRF of Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation contin-ued rescue and relief works inthe worst-affected areas. Peopletrapped in marooned houseswere being shifted to safeplaces through boats.

While a few colonies inChandrayangutta in the oldcity of Hyderabad, Chaderghatand Moosarambagh on thebanks of Musi river, Uppal andVanasthalipuram on the cityoutskirts are still under theflood waters.

Following release of surpluswater from Himayatsagarupstream, Musi river was flow-ing at Moosarambagh, flood-ing adjacent areas.

Officials were working tosave Palle Cheru lake frombreach at Mailardevpally. Sand

bags were arranged to strength-en the embankment. RangaReddy district collector AmoyKumar and Cyberabad PoliceCommissioner VC Sajjanarwere supervising the efforts.

Several colonies in Uppal,Boduppal, Ramanthapur,Peerzadiguda and Ghatkesaralso remained inundated. Roadconnectivity to many areas inthe city remained disrupteddue to inundation. Traffic isalso yet to be restored on thehighways. Authorities weretrying to repair Hyderabad-Bengaluru highway which wasbadly damaged at Gaganpahad.

The state government hasdeclared two-day holiday onWednesday and Thursday toall private institutions, offices,non essential services withinORR with work from homeadvisory.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Continuing his inspection ofrain-affected areas for the sec-ond day on the trot, MunicipalAdministration and UrbanDevelopment Minister KTRama Rao visited Sri RamNagar, Patel Nagar and otherareas in Musheerabad andAmberpet on Thursday.

Accompanied by localMLAs and officials, theMinister interacted with resi-dents and checked whetherthey were being extended basicfacilities.

The Minister appealed toresidents to be alert and cau-tious and consume only boiledwater as a precautionary mea-sure. The Minister has direct-ed the GHMC officials to takeup extensive sanitation worksand ensure there is no spreadof seasonal and communicablediseases.

The Minister along withChief Secretary SomeshKumar reviewed the rescueand relief measures beingtaken up in the city in view ofthe rains. In colonies where thesituation is under control and

rain water level receded, theMinister directed health offi-cials to extend medical treat-ment at community halls using104 ambulances. To this effect,instructions were issued tothe health department todeploy health and paramedicalstaff as required.

The Minister specificallydirected officials to ensureprovision of drinking waterand food in the colonies.

Responding to the Minister,the officials informed that50,000 food packets were dis-tributed in different colonies.

To estimate the losses suf-fered due to rains, all thedepartments were directed towork in coordination withGHMC and submit a report.

For taking up preliminaryrepair works at the lakes,GHMC was directed to workin coordination with irrigationdepartment. Apart fromHyderabad, the Minister want-ed a detailed report on thecalamity in the districts andlosses suffered. MAUDPrincipal Secretary ArvindKumar was asked to submit areport on this.

Minister inspects rain-affectedareas, calls for sanitation drive

Varsities in citymight postponeexams further PNS n HYDERABAD

Jawaharlal Nehru Technol-ogical University, Hyderabad(JNTUH) and OsmaniaUniversity (OU) on Tuesdayhad announced that exams totake place on October 14 and15 will be rescheduled due tothe torrential rains.

However, looking at the sit-uation, the Universities maypostpone the exams further.Dr Gopal Reddy, Registrar ofOsmania University shares,"We may have to delay theexam scheduled on October16 as well and looking at thesituation, we will take the callfor further examinations."

While the academic sched-ule might not get disrupteddue to the rains, Dr AGovardhan, Rector ofJawaharlal NehruTechnological University,shares, "We might have tolook at the examinationschedule for the second andthird year student's last aca-demic year's final exams.However, for the counselingof the EAMCET candidateswho qualified this year most-ly will finish on time."

Water Board: Disinfect storagetanks before consuming waterPNS n HYDERABAD

With the heavy rains lashingthe city, the water in storagetanks would be contaminatedwith flood water. Cleaning thetanks and mixing bleachingpowder before refilling thetank with the water is consid-ered the best way of disinfect-ing as per the HyderabadMetropolitan Water Supplyand Sewerage Board officials.The Water Board is also dis-tributing chlorine tablets forpurification of water beforeconsuming.

Additionally, HMWSSB iscarrying out double waterquality testing in GHMC lim-its. Minister KT Rama Rao onThursday stated that theHMWSSB has increased test-ing of water samples apartfrom distribution of chlorinetablets.

Additionally, drinking wateris being provided though waterpackets and water cans in

rehabilitated areas. HMWSSBMD Dana Kishore instructedthe officials to hire more freetankers to supply water torain-affected colonies andasked the officials to supplywater bubbles where tankerscan't be reached.

Meanwhile, drinking waterpipelines adjacent to theNallacheruvu were broken onthe Warangal Highway. As a

result, fresh water supply wascut off to some parts ofPeerzadigua and UppalMunicipality. Dana Kishorevisited the spot to review thesituation on Thursday."Authorities have been direct-ed to carry out pipelinerestoration works immediate-ly and supply water to theflood-hit people through watertankers," Dana Kishore said.

TS Governor living up to her reputation

PNS n HYDERABAD

Living true to her reputationas the peoples Governor, DrTamilisai Soundararajan onThursday set another exampleby attending numerous callsfrom the patients seekingmedical advice.

The Governor patientlyanswered the calls for medicalhelp and advice by manycallers at her telemedicineservice offered on Thursdayevening in the wake of rainand flood situation in theState.

The calls ranging from kid-ney failure to common coldand symptoms of Covid-19,back pain, infertility, and uri-nary incontinence werepatiently answered by theGovernor as part of thetelemedicine service from theRaj Bhavan, here on Thursday.

Besides offering the expertmedical advice and sugges-tions, the Governor also triedto motivate them to face thesituations boldly and followthe healthy practices as per thedoctors' suggestions to over-come the ailments.

The patients were pleas-antly surprised by theGovernor's affectionate greet-ings in Telugu and her assur-ing words. Responding to arequest for help from onewoman about the failure of

two kidneys of her husband,Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajandirected the Raj Bhavan offi-cials to follow up the requestand coordinate with the gov-ernment for necessary help.

Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan offersmedical aid through telemedicine

Philanthropists respond to the Governor's call In response to the call given bythe Governor Dr TamilisaiSoundararajan, a couple oforganisations donated in cashand kind to the Indian RedCross Society, TelanganaBranch, to help the rain-affectedpeople in the state."We need to rise to the

occasion and help the needyand other displaced people whowere affected by the heavy rainsand the consequent flooding inmany areas of the city andstate," the Governor added.

2 held withgutka worthRs 63 lakhPNS n HYDERABAD

The Commissioner's TaskForce North zone teamarrested two persons involvedin illegal transport and sale ofbanned tobacco products andseized gutka worth Rs. 63.96lakh from them on Thursday.Seven others involved in thecase are absconding, thepolice said.

Acting on a tip off, theteam nabbed Mirza FazilHussain Baig, 36, ofYakutpura, and DastagirAbbas Miya, 50, a native ofMaharashtra. City PoliceCommissioner AnjaniKumar said the nine-membergang was smuggling gutkainto the city from Bidar in theneighbouring Karnataka.

"After transporting thecontraband into the city, theywere storing it in a godown.After identifying the localretailers and gutka addicts,the same was sold to them ata higher price," he said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Previous year trends suggestthat housing sales across topcities in festive quarter most-ly saw an uptick - anywherebetween 5 to 10 per cent overthe preceding quarter. This islargely because the festive sea-son is considered most auspi-cious for property buying inIndia and developers also rollout various schemes and offersto fuel the fervour.

The years 2016 and 2017were a marked contrast - fes-tive quarter sales in these yearsactually reduced against thepreceding quarter, mainlybecause of structural reformsincluding Demo, RERA andGST. This year, the top sevencities can cumulatively witness

a 35 per cent jump in housingsales in the ongoing festivequarter (October toDecember) against the July toSeptember period.

In Hyderabad, we expect a20-24 per cent jump in hous-ing sales in Q4 2020 against the

preceding quarter, when near-ly 1,650 units were sold.

Despite spiraling Covidcases in the second quarter of2020, residential sales rose sig-nificantly. This provides suffi-cient reason to expect a signif-icant increase during the

upcoming festive season,which will prompt many fence-sitters to avail the best deals onoffer. Developers have pulledout all the stops to attractbuyers, announcing schemesfor festive season - many ofwhich result in an actual reduc-tion in the cost of acquisition.

These offers come with anexpiry date - when the housingmarket regains enoughmomentum, they will be with-drawn. Most end-users willaim to use this period to theiradvantage. The prevailing low-est-best home loan interestrates coupled with limited-period government incentivessuch as reduced stamp dutyand registration charges inmarkets like MMR are addedflavors to the festive treat.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Following the incessant rainsin the city, roads caved atmetro pillars. The situation atMoosapet Metro station wasalarming as water gushed overthe medians. A team of tech-nical experts from L&THyderabad Metro Rail Ltd(HMRL) visited the locationand concluded that all the pil-lars are absolutely safe andsteady.

As per the L&T HMRLofficials, "There is a caving ofthe carriage way due to inun-dation of road sub structure.The wash away of layers is dueto run off coming from IDLCheruvu upstream, crossing

across the national highwayroad and metro station,through RCC culvert. Thismerges with the downstreamcanal inside the adjacentgraveyard". L&T HMRL offi-cials said that the road substructures were washed awayat many areas in the city, andthis incident is similar.

The caved area is cordonedoff and Moosapet station'sArm-B entry as well as exit istemporarily closed sinceThursday morning for inspec-tion. The L&THMRL offi-cials said that the structureswill be restored to normalcy atthe earliest. HRDCL engi-neers are attending and recti-fying the issues.

Metro structuresare safe: HMRL

Rain brings back fever and flu NAMRATA SRIVASTAVA n HYDERABAD

As the rains lashed the city sev-eral hospitals, especially privatemultispeciality hospitals, weregot affected.

Sharing the issues faced bythe hospitals, ManagingDirector of a multispecialityHospital, Faiaz Khan, shares,"We are facing difficulties inacquiring oxygen cylindersand medicines. The problem isnot of supply or high demand,the issue is transport. For nowseveral hospitals have storage.However if the rains continue

for long it might get a bit dif-ficult for us."

However that's not the onlyissue the health sector is facing.A few days of heavy rain andthe city is already feeling underweather with many lining upat the doctors complaining offever and chills.

The rain has brought backfever and flu in the city. Severalpeople have been complainingof the same, shares JaganGoud, President of TelanganaPrivate Hospital PublicProblem Solution Association.

He says, "Many people havebeen reporting sick in the

state, and as the pandemic isgoing on people are scared tak-ing the same. Most of them arehaving common flu but that isenough to make people panic."

Adding to that SiddharthRao, who has been activelyhelping people who need plas-ma connect to the donors,shares, "I have been advisingpeople to isolate themselves assoon as they get fever or coldfor twelve days at least. In sev-eral cases doctors are advisingfor Antigen testing. But, ifyou are healthy and don't haveany pre-existing issues, you cantreat yourself at home."

Housing sales to rise this festive season

JNTU-H onlineconvocation tobe held todayPNS n HYDERABAD

Keeping in mind the currentpandemic situation and alsoin view of the torrential rains,Jawaharlal Nehru Techno-logical University convoca-tion will be held online thisyear on Friday.

The ceremony, which willbe presided over by GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan, willsee the graduation of 78, 395students.

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020 hyderabad 04

Kishan pulls up civic officialsPNS n HYDERABAD

Minister of Home AffairsKishan Reddy, paid a visit tolow-lying areas in Hyderabadthat were flooded after heavyrain. He said the situation ofHyderabad in 40 years hasnever been so bad. He furthersaid that the people living inthese areas are experiencing alot of problems with a lack ofbasic amenities.

Finding the trees andgarbage lying on the nalas, theUnion Minister got incensedand ordered the GHMC toremove them immediately. Heasked the civic body officials toprovide free food to the peopleaffected by f loods. Hepromised the affected personsto extend compensationpayable to them from theCentre. He exhorted the stategovernment to extend imme-diate assistance to the people inthe affected areas.

He sought a primary reportfrom the Telangana govern-ment on damages caused byintense rainfall in the state,especially capital Hyderabad,for three days since Monday."The state government mustprovide us (Centre) the prima-

ry report on the damage causeddue to the heavy rain. Manyplaces in the Telugu-speakingstates (Andhra Pradesh andTelangana) have been facing alot of problem due to flood,"Kishan said, adding PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and

Home Minister Amit Shahhave assured them of provid-ing all kind of support.

He further said he visitedvarious low lying areas ofHyderabad on Thursday andlistened to the problems of thepeople living there. "They saidthe drains are overflowingbecause of heavy rain, andthat water is entering theirhouses. The people living inthese areas are facing problemsbecause of the lack of basicamenities. This situation arosebecause of the failure in thedrainage system. I appeal to thestate government to fix thedrainage system," he said andadded that he had spoken tothe Collector as well. TheUnion Minister also said thatfour teams of National DisasterResponse Force have reachedHyderabad and have been res-cuing people who are stuck inwaterlogged homes.

While visiting some of the

heavily affected areas inHyderabad after Tuesday’sheavy rains, Union Minister ofState for Home Affairs GKishan Reddy admonishedlocal authorities for not payingheed to residents’ concerns.Kishan Reddy pulled up offi-cials of the Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation(GHMC), the revenue depart-ment as well as the HyderabadDistrict Collectorate.

The Minister expressed hisanguish over not a single stategovernment official accompa-nying him while he was on avisit to the flood hit areas of thecity. The Union Minister, whowas on a visit to several floodhit areas in NarayanagudaNagar and Khairatabad areas,said that the state governmenthas failed to come to the res-cue of the victims. He demand-ed the officials to step up thepace of execution of reliefmeasures.

Uttam accuses KCR of‘hiding’ death figures PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee (TPCC) presidentand MP N Uttam KumarReddy on Thursday demand-ed the Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao to visitflood-hit areas of

Hyderabad and take imme-diate measures to help theaffected families. He alsoaccused the TRS Governmentof hiding the number of deathsdue to floods across theTelangana State.

Speaking to media personsafter visiting BS Makhta andother f lood-hit areas ofKhairtabad constituency,Uttam said at least 30 peoplewere feared killed, thousandsof families have lost their prop-erty and valuables worth croresof rupees and hundreds of peo-ple are forced to abandon theirsubmerged houses and live inrelief camp or at their relatives'houses. However, the devasta-tion has not changed thebehaviour and attitude of KCR.Instead of holding a review onthe flood situation, KCR had a

review meeting on horticul-ture. He asked whether thesubject of horticulture wasmore important than the livesand properties of citizens ofHyderabad. He compared KCRwith the Roman emperor Nerowho was playing the flute

when Rome was burning.Just like Nero, KCR did notshow any concern towards thesufferings of common peopleboth due to his ineffectivenessand insensitive attitude.

Uttam said that the devasta-tion caused due to floods wasnot only due to unprecedent-

ed rainfall, but it was primar-ily due to the failure of TRSGovernment in managing thecivic infrastructure, especiallythe storm water drains."Minister KTR's claim of TRSgovernment spending Rs.67,000 crore on Hyderabad'sdevelopment in the last sixyears is ridiculous. Nothing hasbeen done to repair, maintainor upgrade the storm waterdrains. The Monsoon ActionPlan has just remained onpaper. Almost all roads turnedinto pools whenever it rainedfor a few hours.

HYDERABAD FLOODS

Follow these steps to revive your flood-damaged carNAMRATA SRIVASTAVA

n HYDERABAD

As the water recedes, peoplehave been stepping out of theirhouses to check in their vehi-cles. However, according tothe experts, one shouldn't tryto start their cars without let-ting the water completely outof the vehicle.

Javed Mohammed, an autoentrepreneur from the city,urged people to call for theauthorities rather than startingthe vehicle yourself. He wroteon Twitter, “If your car has sub-merged, don't try to start. Callthe authorised service centerand get serviced properly. If thecar is totally flooded claiminsurance."

Giving an insight about thematter, Shaik Salauddin, StatePresident of Telangana FourWheeler Drivers Association,

said, “Water can damage everysingle component inside a carincluding the engine and trans-mission. If you try to turn theengine on and more waterenters, the problem can onlyget worse. If you have a wet/dryvacuum cleaner, you canremove the puddles quickly oryou can use towels to soak upthe water and remove it fromthe cabin. If you are using a

vacuum cleaner, make sure it isnot a regular one as you couldget electrocuted in the process.”

Do's and Don'ts Don’t try to restart the carThis cannot be stressed any-more. Water can damage everysingle component inside a carincluding the engine and trans-mission. If you try to turn theengine on and more water

enters, the problem can onlyget worse. When water dam-ages the engine and the pistonsdon’t compress or move likethey normally should, it iscalled “hydrolock” and it isextremely common in floodedcars. If your car is hydrolocked,you can expect the cost ofrepairs to be extremely highand in severe cases, the carcould completely be destroyed.

Remove the water quickly –The longer you let water sit inyour car, the more damage itcan cause. The wiring andmechanical components arethe first things that can getdamaged so you will have towork fast. If you find puddlesof water in your car, you willhave to get rid of them as soonas possible. If you have awet/dry vacuum cleaner, youcan remove the puddles quick-

ly or you can use towels to soakup the water and remove itfrom the cabin. If you areusing a vacuum cleaner, makesure it is not a regular one asyou could get electrocuted inthe process.

Hydrolocking- is probably theworst-case scenario for yourvehicle. When water entersthe engine through the airintake, it normally causessevere damage to the pistonsand cylinders. The worst thingyou can do in this situation isturn on the engine – unless youwant a completely totaled car.

Rust – As mentioned earlier,water and metal do not makefor a great combination. Seeingthat your car is predominant-ly made from metal, rusting isa major problem after it hasbeen flooded. Make sure that

all metal surfaces, especiallythose that are exposed, areproperly dried or repainted sothat rust is kept away.

Electrical Issues – Unless youwant to experience an electricshock, you might want to stayaway from all electrical compo-nents in the car until they arecompletely dried out. Wires areoften the first thing affected bya flooded car and only a pro-fessional mechanic should beallowed to work on them forrepairs.

Moving parts – The brake,clutch, and accelerator areimportant parts of any car andthey are often also the first toget damaged in a f lood.Because these parts are movingcomponents, water can find itsway into them easily and dam-age them quickly.

Minister for Tourism Srinivas Goud shares a lightmoment (right) during his visit to Mahbubnagardistrict. On the occasion, the Minister took part ina series of developmental programmes in the city,including release of fishlings in Kotta Cheruvu.

SURPRISE VVISIT

Collector escapesunhurt in mishapPNS n HYDERABAD

Bhongir District CollectorAnita Ramachandran escapedunhurt when a speeding lorryrammed the vehicle in whichshe was traveling atNandanam village in the dis-trict. The Collector wasreturning to her office in

Bhongir after inspecting dam-ages in several villages. Thelorry coming in the oppositedirection hit the Collector'sSUV. No one was injured.Anita Ramachandran later leftfor the District Collectorate byanother car. Bhongir ruralpolice filed a case and took upinvestigation.

Cong confident ofwinning big in by-pollPNS n HYDERABAD

Former Minister MohammedAli Shabbir on Thursdaydemanded the StateGovernment to take immedi-ate measures to prevent thespread of epidemics inHyderabad and other rain-hitareas of Telangana due toheavy rains and flood situa-tion.

He was speaking to mediapersons at Narsingi duringthe filing of nomination byCongress candidate ChSrinivas Reddy for DubbakAssembly by-election. ShabbirAli said that the devastationcaused due to floods wasamong the worst disastersHyderabad has ever witnessed.He said that the damage couldhave been minimised if theState Government would've

taken all precautionary mea-sures on time.

"Water has stagnated inalmost all the areas ofHyderabad and other rain-hitareas. This might lead tospread of vector borne diseaseslike Malaria, Dengue, etc.,Therefore, measures should betaken on a war-footing basis toclear the stagnated water fromthe residential areas. Foggingand anti-larval operationsshould also be taken up at alarge scale," he said.

"Experts have alreadywarned of a possible secondwave of Covid-19 in the com-ing weeks in view of the win-ter season. The recent rainshave aggravated the situation,doubling the threat. Peoplegetting infected with malaria,dengue or viral fever are moreprone to Covid-19 infection.”

‘Most Liveable City' turned into‘Most Dreaded City': CongressPNS n HYDERABAD

While Congress party shapedHyderabad city into 'The MostLivable City' and a global des-tination during its rule, ChiefMinister K ChandrashekarRao has turned it into the mostdreaded city in his seven yearrule, alleged AICC spokesper-son Dr Dasoju Sravan.

Expressing ire over thealleged neglect of TRS govern-ment in dealing with the heavyrains in Hyderabad, Dr DasojuSravan questioned,"Hyderabad city has con-tributed Rs 7 lakh crore to stateexchequer in the past sevenyears but the city's infrastruc-ture has been completely debil-itated. Where has all thatmoney gone" People are com-pletely devastated and do noteven have essential commodi-ties and food to eat. Why isKCR still not reviewing therelief measures or announcingcompensation? What is theMunicipal Minister KTRdoing? Why is he fearing tovisit the flood areas withoutsecurity and oversee reliefmeasures?"

"This is not the first timeHyderabad has received heavyrains. Though theMeteorological department

warned of heavy rains, the gov-ernment did not take any pre-ventive steps or set up a con-trol room to monitor the situ-ation. While the city was beingwashed away, CM reviewed the'Haritha Haram' onWednesday and only afterextensive devastation, did CMhold a review on rains onThursday afternoon. Even thiswas done, after the PrimeMinister and The Presidentinquired about the situation.Municipal Affairs Minister KTRama Rao who makes tallclaims about Hyderabad'sdevelopment was nowhereseen in relief operations. Onlyafter the damage was done, hevisited selected areas, that tooflanked by DGP under tightsecurity? Why is he fearing tointeract with people who are

devastated with floods? TRSGovernment has turned theglobal city Hyderabad which isconsidered as 'Most Livablecity' into the dreaded city"said Dr Dasoju Sravan speak-ing at Gandhi Bhavan inHyderabad on Thursday.

Sravan visited flood affect-ed areas in Khairatabad andother areas early in the morn-ing. Moved by the plight of res-idents for low lying areas inseveral areas, he urgedCongress cadres to partici-pate in relief measures."Residents across the city aresuffering severely due to rainsand floods. Neither TRS cor-porators nor AIMIM corpora-tors are visible. Even TRSMLAs are nowhere to be seen.Congress cadres across thecity should come forward andparticipate in relief measuresand help residents in theirlocality in whichever way pos-sible. In many localities peopledo not even have food to eat asthere is no power and allessential commodities havebeen washed away. RahulGandhiji also inquired aboutthe situation in Hyderabadand directed Congress cadresto take up relief activities. Iurge all Congress workers tostand by Hyderabadies at thiscritical time," he appealed.

PNS n HYDERABAD

CPI national leader Dr KNarayana on Thursday allegedthat illegal construction onnalas led to flooding inHyderabad. He said that therewas a nala from Vikarabad toIbrahimpatnam from theNizam era. However, illegalconstructions on that nalacreated obstructions to the freeflow of flood water. "I didpadayatra demanding the thengovernment to remove theillegal constructions on thenala and also submitted areport conducting a compre-hensive survey. On the otherhand, Kirloskar in 2002,Oyens in 2007 and JNTUconducted a survey after theformation of separateTelangana state. They alsoestimated that Rs 12,000 crorewas needed to repair the same

nala," he said. Narayanablamed MIM party leaders forillegal constructions. "No gov-ernment is asking MIM aboutthese illegal constructionsbecause they are maintaininggood relations with everyparty which is in power.However, the governmentescaped from its responsibili-ty stating that the oppositionparties would do ruckus if theyremove illegal constructions.The flood problems will besolved only with the removalof illegal constructions onnalas," Narayana said.

CPI blames MIMfor encroachments

Don't encroachroads, nalas:Harish RaoPNS n HYDERABAD

Finance Minister T HarishRao on Thursday urged thepeople not to construct hous-es by encroaching roads andnalas and asked them tobehave responsibly. Whilevisiting inundated areas inNalsabgadda andNarayanareddy colony inSangareddy town onThursday, Harish Rao saidthat these sorts of problemswill arise due to obstructionof flood flow nalas.

The government hasextended financial assistanceand essential goods to thepeople who lost their resi-dences. He said that drainwater works are pending inthese areas due to encroach-ments. The authorities haveto remove the encroachednalas immediately. Doublebed room houses will begiven to the people, who losetheir houses, Harish Rao said.

Later, Harish Rao launcheda scathing attack on Congressand BJP leaders by statingthat they are waging a fight inDubbak by-elections for thesake of second place. Whileinducting State BJP DalithMorcha Council memberYellaiah and 150 BJP activistsin TRS party at his residencein Siddipet on Thursday,Harish said that the mikeshad not worked when TPCCChief N Uttam Kumar Reddycame to Dubbak for cam-paign. The Congress is resort-ing to election campaignswith non-local leaders andactivists. There are no localpeople in their public meet-ings, he alleged. He askedUttam to reveal whether hecould have raised the 'JaiTelangana' slogan if therewas no TRS and KChandrasekhar Rao.

Cheruku Srinivasfiles nominationPNS n DUBBAKA

As many as 18 persons,including Congress nomineefor Dubbak by-electionCheruku Srinivas Reddy, filedtheir nominations onThursday. Srinivas Reddy,accompanied by his key aides,presented his nominationpapers to Returning OfficerChennaiah at his office inDubbak. A record 46 persons

have filed nominations so farfor the by-election. As many as32 of them are Independentswhile the remaining are fromsmall recognised parties.Though followers of BJP can-didate M Raghunandan Raofiled a nomination on hisbehalf, he will file another setof nomination on Friday, thelast day for nominations. Nocandidates from Left partieshave filed nominations.

Rain fear greater than Covid for citizensK VENKATESHWARLU

n HYDERABAD

Nature's fury doubled its wrathupon the city earlier this week,keeping the city and civicauthorities on high alert.Torrential downpour, roadsresembling ocean fronts, vehi-cles stranded on water loggedstretches, menacing rush ofwater into low lying colonies,and imminent alarm bells forareas abutting the Musi riverwere common concerns acrossthe metropolis, which receivedover 10 centimetres of rain atminimum across various local-ities.

The thunderstorm whichcontinued from the previousday, only intensified towardsthe evening, after a deceptive

respite for a brief while in themorning hours. However, theheavy downpour literally madepeople forget about theCoronavirus scare. Peopleacross the state were in the gripof fear due to heavy rains. Inmany places, there was poweroutage.

The deep depression madestreets of Hyderabad resemblerivers. Especially, people livingin low-lying areas had sleeplessnights. People living in apart-

ments too had to face similarproblems as the flood waterentered the cellars. People liv-ing in apartments had nochance to come out from theirflats and those who went outhad no chance to enter.

Rama from LB Nagarrecalled the two-day horrorand said, "I was really afraid ofthe heavy downpour inHyderabad thinking what willhappen if the rain continues onthe third day too." Amidstthese conditions, the peopletotally forgot about the novelCoronavirus. Everyone wasspeaking about record rainand its repercussions in theirareas. Ravi Naik, a native ofRamanthapur, said that he did-n't see such heavy rain so far."I took all precautionary mea-

sures regarding Coronavirus allthese days and stayed awayfrom the virus. However, thesetwo days, I literally forgotabout Corona. It was all aboutheavy rain," he said.Venugopal Reddy fromBoduppal said that the floodwater enter into his residence."Everywhere there is water inmy area but there is no drink-ing water. I have no option toget drinking water from theshop at least," he said.Ramulamma, a resident ofTarnaka, said that the electric-ity authorities, who used torespond immediately, kepttheir land phones aside whenthey tried to inquire about thepower restoration. She saidthat they passed more than 24-hours without power cuts.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kishan Reddy inspecting the flood-hitareas in Hyderabad on Thursday

nation 05HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020

INDIA CORNER

Veteran sports journalist andcricket commentatorKishore Bhimani died at the

age of 74, family sources said onThursday. He is survived by hiswife Rita and son Gautam who isalso a well-known TV ersonality."He had suffered a cerebral

attack a few days back and wasundergoing treatment," a family source said. Bhimani was one of themost recognised English voices of the 1980s. Following his death, apall of gloom descended on the country's sports fraternity, withtributes coming in from all quarters."RIP Kishore Bhimani..he wasone of the good Old Fashioned Crkt writer who took Crkt writingslike a player who takes to playing ...Condolences to his Spouse Rita& Son Gautam.. GodBless All Always.. Fondly," legendary Indianspinner Bishan Singh Bedi tweeted.

Veteran sports journalist, cricketcommentator Bhimani dies

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Thursdaylaunched a campaign to

tackle air pollution in the nationalcapital and urged people to turnoff the engines of their vehicleswhile waiting at traffic signals.He said the government willlaunch a massive campaign --'Red light on, Gaadi off' -- tomake people aware of efficacy of the action and to ensure itssuccess. "Red light on, gaadi off. Delhi starts this today as a part ofour campaign “Yudh, pradushan ke virudh” in our bid to tacklepollution. Let's all pledge to turn off our vehicles at red lights. Everysingle effort will contribute in reducing pollution," he tweeted.Addressing an online media briefing, the chief minister said thatthere are one crore vehicles registered in the city.

Kejriwal urges people to turn offvehicles while waiting at signals

Scientists, including thosefrom the National Instituteof Hydrology (NIH), have

found an increased probability ofhigh arsenic levels in well watersin parts of India where previously arsenic hazard was generallynot considered to be a majorconcern. Arsenic in drinkingwater obtained from wells is thecause of severe health outcomes, including premature deaths fromcancers and cardiovascular disease in many parts of the world andparticularly in the Indian subcontinent, the researchers said.Based on recent reported rates of household groundwater use for

rural and urban areas, they estimate that about 18–30 million peoplein India are currently at risk of high exposure to arsenic throughtheir drinking water supply.

Scientists identify new potentialgroundwater ‘arsenic hotspots'

The Supreme Court Thursdaysought the Centre's responseon a PIL for regulating OTT

platfor ms such as Netflix andAmazon Prime by anautonomousbody. A bench comprising ChiefJustice S A Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notices to thecentral government, Ministry of Informa tion and Broadcasting andInternet and Mobile Association of India. “We will issue notice,” theapex court said while hearing the plea filed by advocates ShashankShekhar Jha and Apurva Arhatia seeking a proper board/institution/association for the monitoring and management of content ondifferent OTT/Streaming and digital media platforms. None of theOTT/Streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5,and Hotstar have signed the self-regulation.

SC notice to Centre on PIL toregulate OTT platforms

PNS n NEW DELHI

Cinemas in several parts of thecountry opened after almostseven months on Thursday,ushering in a new era of ‘con-tactless' movie watching in theshadow of a pandemic withalternate seating, 50 per centcapacity and packaged snacks.

While theatres and multi-plexes will remain closed instates like Maharashtra, TamilNadu, Kerala and Chhattisgarh,they will open in several places,including Delhi and parts ofMadhya Pradesh and Gujarat,with stringent dos and don'tsin keeping with the newCOVID-19 normal.

It was a quiet reopeningwith few people venturing war-ily to watch a mix of regional,English and Hindi reruns suchas “Chhichhore”, “Thappad”,“Tanhaji” and “The Spy”.

While PVR will resumecommercial screenings onFriday, Cinepolis and INOXstarted showing films fromThursday with an emphasis onsafety measures, includingstringent sanitising and socialdistancing.

“Yes, you heard that right!We are open now! See you atthe big screen! Cinemas willnot be functional in a few statesuntil further notice,” CinepolisIndia said in a tweet.

“Sanitisation and deep clean-

ing with WHO recommendedchemicals is done at regularintervals to keep your sur-roundings safe,” the tweet fur-ther read.

PVR Cinemas, India's largestfilm exhibitor with 845 screensin 176 properties across 71cities, on Wednesday said 10states and four union territorieshave given their go-ahead forthe reopening of cinemas.

Accordingly, PVR startedoperations in 487 screens. The

hope is is that other states willsoon give their green signal too.

The Ministry of HomeAffairs allowed theatres toreopen from Thursday with upto 50 per cent of their seatingcapacity. They have to strictlyfollow the central government'sStandard operating procedures(SOPs).

The SOPs mandated by theUnion government includeone seat distance in halls, 50per cent capacity, masks at all

time, proper ventilation and airconditioner temperature set-tings at above 23 degreesCelsius.

Besides mandatory temper-ature checks, masks, pedal-operated touch-free hand sani-tisers, multiplexes have gonedigital with e-tickets instead oftraditional paper tickets, self-check in with QR codes, shar-ing of the auditorium's seatchart and location of the seatand online ordering of foodand beverages.

Though the MHA has givenits go-ahead to resuming cin-ema and theatre activitiesunder Unlock 5.0, it has left itto individual states to take afinal call.

With producers reluctant torelease new films, cinemashave to deal with the doublewhammy of COVID fears andold content and have their fin-gers crossed as they rolled outa different kind of movie goingexperience.

It will take a while beforenew content returns to theatresas the release of majorBollywood movies “83”, aboutIndia's cricket world cup victo-ry, and “Sooryavanshi”, the lat-est in Rohit Shetty's cop dramastarring Akshay Kumar havebeen pushed to Christmas andnext year, respectively.

Cinephiles who want torewatch or catch up on movies

they missed watching on thebig screen can also enjoyRajput's "Kedarnath",Ayushmann Khurrana-starrers“Shubh Mangal ZyaadaSavdhan” and “Dream Girl”,crime drama “Malang” andAkshay Kumar-Vidya Balan-Pannu starrer space drama“Mission Mangal” besidesHollywood hits “Bloodshot”,“Lion King”, “Ford vs Ferrari”and “Knives Out”.

An INOX spokesperson inKolkata said two of its facilitiesopened today in accordancewith all the directives issued bythe Centre, including e-ticketsand contactless QR-basedentries. Those with feversymptoms were being turnedaway.

Other facilities will gradual-ly open too, she said but didnot specify a timeframe.

The show timing, intermis-sions and exits are staggeredand guests encouraged tomaintain a six-feet distancefrom other families and groupsat all the times.

SVF cinemas, which owns13 multiplexes in Kolkata, willopen its doors from Fridaywith all the standard protocols,contactless ticket purchase,making alternate seatingarrangements and regular useof sanitisers and disinfectantsbefore and after shows, aspokesperson said.

THEATRES OPEN AFTER SEVENMONTHS IN COVID-19 SHADOWPNS n NEW DELHI

Underlining that India's influ-ence in the international arenais growing continuously, Israelienvoy Ron Malka has saidthat the country's strategicposition on global mattersincluding in West Asia andparticularly towards Israel iskeenly watched by other coun-tries and is also being replicat-ed by many.

He said Israel's deepeningrelation with India is having apositive impact on its ties withother countries, including inthe Arab world, as the Indo-Israel collaboration in variousareas is showing to them howfriendship with Israel can bemutually beneficial.

In an interview with PTI,Israel's Ambassador to IndiaMalka further said that theestablishment of cordial tiesbetween Israel and Arab coun-tries, such as the United ArabEmirates and Bahrain, showsthat the world is realising thatPalestinians must come out oftheir "fantasies" and recognisethe Jewish state. "Peace is theway (forward) and we shouldfind a way for peace and livetogether, especially with neigh-bours. The world expectsPalestinians to be more realis-tic to internalise the fact thatIsrael is there and it is there tostay and Israel is willing to gofor peace," he said.Malka saidthe world now understands

that "there is no conflictbetween Israel and the Muslimworld or between Israel andthe Arab world. There is a localterritorial conflict betweenIsrael and Palestinians, noth-ing more than that."He allegedthat some political organisa-tions tried to pretend as if therewas a conflict between Jewsand Muslims, but this was notthe case. Malka said it was upto India to decide whether itwants to play an active role inthe West Asia peace process,but its "dehyphenationapproach policy" has alreadyestablished the country's "biginfluence" with the world real-ising that they can also be"friends and strategic part-ners" with Israel. "India as a

whole is becoming strongerand stronger and that is some-thing that we also want to see.India has a very important roleto play in the internationalarena as a whole and India isreally becoming stronger andstronger and more influentialplayer in international arena,and also in West Asia.

"What India is doing, whatIndia is saying, what India'sstance is, of course, it is impor-tant to many countries. Indiais a very important and influ-ential country in the world," hesaid.

Malka's remarks followagreements signed last monthfor the United Arab Emiratesand Bahrain to establish formalties with Israel.

Other countries replicatingIndia’s approach: Israeli envoy

PNS n MUMBAI

With the Maharashtra govern-ment allowing reopening oflibraries from Thursday aspart of its 'Mission BeginAgain', many of these establish-ments in Mumbai are workingout modalities to resume oper-ations after over a six-month-long break.

Authorities of some librariessaid that in view of the pan-demic, they would implementmeasures like allowing only alimited number of peopleinside at a time and restrictingthe entry of senior citizens andchildren. As per the guidelinesissued by the government, allthe state-run and privatelibraries have been allowed toreopen.

A librarian in suburbanMumbai said the reopening oflibraries was long-pending.

"We used to get phone callsfrom our members askingwhen the operations of thelibrary would resume as mostof the activities have already

restarted in June," she said.Manjiri Vaidya of Shridhar

Vasudev Phatak Library affil-iated to the Vile Parle-basedLokmanya Seva Sangh told

PTI that the library wouldstart functioning fromMonday. "We held a meetingtoday to discuss the standardoperating procedures (SOPs)issued by the government.Children and senior citizenswill not be allowed inside thelibrary and the list of SOPs willbe displayed on the noticeboard," she said. "We will allowonly five members inside at atime and request them to leaveat the earliest so that othermemberscan enter. We willalso note down the names ofthese members at the time oftheir entry after carrying outtheir COVID-19 screening,"she added.

Visti Balaporia, president ofthe Asiatic Society library insouth Mumbai said the man-aging committee will meet onFriday to discuss the process ofreopening.

Libraries gear up to reopen doors

PNS n MUMBAI

Following the fake TelevisionRating Points (TRP) scam,the Broadcast AudienceResearch Council (BARC) onThursday announced a tem-porary suspension of weeklyratings of news channelsacross languages.

The council intends toreview and augment the cur-rent standards of measure-ment to improve on "statisti-cal robustness", and the exer-cise will result in a "pause" inthe weekly ratings for up to 12weeks, an official statementsaid. At least five people havebeen arrested by the city police

which busted the scam earli-er this month.

Those arrested include newschannel employees, while thepolice is also questioning exec-utives of Arnab Goswami-ledRepublic Media Group withregard to the case. RepublicMedia Group has denied anywrongdoing.

The audience estimatesgiven by BARC influence adspends, and the total size of thead placements was pegged atRs 32,000 crore annually bythe police. The police allegethe ratings were being riggedby inducing the homes wherethe monitors were placed.

BARC temporarilybans weekly ratings

PNS n CHENNAI

Top actor Rajinikanth onThursday paid Rs 6.56 lakhproperty tax, including penal-ty, for his marriage hall andsaid an appeal should havebeen made to the city corpo-ration and the "mistake" ofrushing to court could havebeen avoided.

Greater Chennai Corporation said the actor paid Rs6,56,000 towards propertytax for his marriage hall atKodambakkam. The Rs sixlakh plus tax for 2020-21 firsthalf year includes "late paypenalty" of Rs 9,386, the civicbody said, adding it was paidby way of a cheque.

"Raghavendra Mandapamproperty tax...we shouldhave appealed to the corpo-ration.Mistake could havebeen avoided.

#Experience is a lesson,"the actor said on his Twitterhandle in an apparent apolo-getic tone, a day after theMadras High Court warnedof imposing costs.

Rajini paystax,admitsmistake

PNS n NEW DELHI

The doubling time of the coro-navirus infection has sharplyimproved from 25.5 days inmid-August to nearly 73 daysnow, the Health ministry saidon Thursday.

Doubling time for COVID-19 is the number of days ittakes for the count of cases todouble. In a statement, theHealth ministry said 81,514new recoveries were added inthe last 24 hour. With this, thetotal number of recoveries arenearly 64 Lakh (63,83,441).

"India has come a long wayfrom registering a doublingrate of 25.5 days in mid Augustto now registering a doublingrate of nearly 73 days (72.8days)," it said.

The ministry said this is theresult of collaborative action bystates/UTs under the Centre'sstrategy of comprehensive andhigh countrywide testing,prompt and effective surveil-lance and tracking, quick hos-pitalization and effectiveadherence of the Standard

Treatment Protocol issued bythe Union Government.

This is also the combinedoutcome of the selfless serviceand dedication of doctors,paramedics, frontline workersand all other COVID-19 war-riors, it said.

"Higher number of single-day recoveries is also reflectedin the continuous increase inthe national recovery rate,which has crossed 87 per cent,"it said. Ten states and UTsaccount for 79 per cent of thenew recovered cases.Maharashtra has contributedmore than 19,000 to the single-day recoveries followed byKarnataka with more than8,000 recoveries, the ministrysaid. The total coronaviruscases mounted to 73,07,097and the death toll climbed to1,11,266 with the virus claim-ing 680 lives.

Coronavirus doubling timeimproves, says Health Ministry

Doubling time forCOVID-19 is thenumber of days ittakes for thecount of cases todouble

PNS n BARABANKI (UP)

An 18-year-old Dalit womanwas found dead in an agricul-tural field in Uttar Pradesh'sBarabanki, police said onThursday.

Police said the incidenttook place at a village underthe Satrikh police station areaand it seemed the victim wasstrangled.

More details will be knownonly after getting the post-

mortem examination report,police said.

The father of the womanhad informed police onWednesday evening that shehad gone to the fields but didnot return home. Later, fam-ily members found her dead,ASP R S Gautam said.

The family is suspectingrape. Further details will beknown only after receiving theautopsy report, the ASPadded.

PNS n PATNA

Lok Janshakti Party presidentChirag Paswan Thursday madeit clear that his parting ofways with Chief MinisterNitish Kumars JD(U) had"nothing to do" with sharing ofseats for the assembly electionsin Bihar, whose politics hisparty has "always beenopposed to". Paswan said hisparty had fought the Lok Sabhapolls last year in alliance withthe JD(U) because of the "com-pulsions" brought by the returnto the NDA of Kumar, whose

party he accused of workingagainst LJP candidates in thegeneral elections in violation ofthe coalition dharma.

The 37-year-old, whorecently lost his father RamVilas Paswan, the LJP founder,also alleged that the Bihar

Chief Minister had behaved ina haughty manner when theformer Union minister hadcalled on the JD(U) chief lastyear with the request to accom-pany him for filing of nomina-tion papers for Rajya Sabha.

"Nitish Kumar recentlyremarked mockingly that myfather could not have got elect-ed to the Rajya Sabha withoutthe JD (U)s support, since wehad only two MLAs. He shouldremember that my father waspromised a Rajya Sabha berthby Amit Shah himself", Paswansaid.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Over 70 people who hadgathered at the Krishi Bhawanin central Delhi to protest thethree recently enacted central

farm laws were detained bythe Delhi Police, officials said.Police said 77 people weredetained before they couldstart their protest at 12 pm.Further action will be taken,they added.

Dalit womanfound dead

Nitish insulted my father: Chirag

Farm laws: Over 70 peopledetained

Authorities of some libraries said that in viewof the pandemic, they would implementmeasures like allowing only a limited numberof people inside at a time

Israel's deepening relation with India ishaving a positive impact on its tieswith other countries, including in theArab world, said Israeli envoy RonMalka

While theatres and multiplexes willremain closed in states likeMaharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala andChhattisgarh, they will open in severalplaces, including Delhi and parts ofMadhya Pradesh and Gujarat

The Advanced TowedArtillery Guns System(ATAGS) programmebegan in 2012 spear-headed by the Defence

Research and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO), with twostrategic partners — the BharatForge Limited (BFL) and TataPower Strategic EngineeringDivision (SED). The DefenceAcquisition Council (DAC) hadratified procurement of 150ATAGS in August 2018, howev-er, the process of developingthem started way back in 2013and concluded by 2017. Thehowitzer gun system was devel-oped in a record time of 30months and has gone throughextensive trials over the last fouryears and performed admirablywith remarkable consistency.

The ATAGS is one of the mostadvanced and perhaps the world’sfirst gun which is capable ofdelivering Bi-Modular ChargeSystem (BMCS) zone-seven pro-pellants. With a firing range of 48km — a record of sorts in the 155millimeter/52 calibre family —the ATAGS is an appendage to theindigenously developed 155 mil-limeter/45 calibre artillery gunDhanush.

Dhanush is a derivative of theFH-77B 155mm/39 calibre towedhowitzer, previously built by theSwedish defence contractorBofors. The Indian Army pro-cured a total of 414 Swedishhowitzers between 1987 and 1991.Dhanush howitzers have a max-imum effective range of 38 km insalvo mode as compared to the 48km of the ATAGS.

The India made ATAGS con-sists of a duel power systemwhere hydraulics is used formobility and gun in/out actionwhereas electrical power is usedfor the Gun Laying andAmmunition Handling System(AHS). The system is configuredwith an all-electric drive thatensures maintenance-free andreliable and secure operationsover a long period of time. Thegun system has automatic settingup, laying with a high-end InertialNavigation System (INS) andautomated AHS which loads shell,charge and primer simultane-ously with a manual back up forthe laying system. The gun sys-tem’s hydraulic drive provideseffective manoeuvrability in dif-ferent terrains — on roads, cross

country, in the desert and inhigh altitude areas. The highpower Auxiliary Power Unit(made in India) also renderseffective self-propelled speed,rapid deployment and shortresponse time.

The ATAGS has greater than95 per cent indigenous compo-nents. The complete supplychain, from raw materials toend product, lies within thecountry, making it a trueembodiment of ‘Make in India’in defence system. The ATAGSgun system comprises of 7,463components of which 4,977 aremanufactured parts involvingabout 30,000 manufacturingprocesses and more than2,00,000 inspection parame-ters.

The project is now in theTechnology Readiness Level(TRL) stage 10 (as per theDRDO TRL stages), after beingput through mandatory trialsover the last five years. Earlierthis month, it entered into itslast stages of trial — viz thePreliminary Staff QualitativeRequirements (PSQR) trial,which is done prior to itsinduction into the arsenal sys-tem. The gun has already beenthrough a rigorous pre-PSQRtrial with the users and DRDOteams. In these trials, the BFLdeveloped gun system fired atotal of 130 plus rounds, most-ly in zone seven, and the feed-back was that the system haslived up to the parameters.

The gun fielded by TataAerospace and DefenceLimited succeeded in firing 99

rounds. At the 100th roundwhich was fifth of the rapid-fire practice, the gun tubesheared off, triggering the firstunfortunate incident. Thecause is currently being inves-tigated. Some experts blame iton ammunition, while the oth-ers want to zero in on the tubeand the immense pressure ithas been made to withstand. Itmust be noted that the gunswhich have till now firedalmost 2,000 rounds betweenthem can easily tolerate pres-sure levels up to 560 megapas-cals and are the only ones tofire munitions in zone seven.As part of the process, aninvestigation to identify andrectify the causes behind the“shear and structural strain” isa must. It would be detrimen-tal to the cause of‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ to delayor disrupt the processes ofdevelopment of the ATAGS.

The ATAGS is the firstweapon platform which hasbeen designed and developedfrom scratch and can boast ofbeing truly Indian. Developedby the DRDO and the twomajor Indian industry part-ners, nurturing a well-net-worked ecosystem of Indianvendors and sub-vendors, theATAGS symbolises nationalpride. We own the design, itsIP and all the data that con-cerns the overall weapon sys-tem. Foreign assistance is cost-ly and it will be foolhardy notto build on the successes thatwe have already achieved sofar, notwithstanding minor

setbacks. Most of the guns coming

from the US, France, Germany,Israel and the Czech Republicthat have undergone trials,have encountered similar inci-dents at lower zones of firinginvolving lower pressure. Thus,blaming higher pressure inATAGS is a bit far-fetched. Itis worth mentioning that noneof these guns were fired in zoneseven and neither fired asmany rounds as the ATAGS.

It is a good opportunity toexamine the quality and effica-cy of the ammunition basketbeing produced in India as weare relatively new in makingartillery munitions, fuses andcharges (BMCS in this case).Given the extremely high pres-sure, every part of the muni-tion, be it the shell, drivingbands of the projectile or thefuse which has to withstandextremely high angular veloc-ity, every component mustrespond in a zero error man-ner. All said and done, preci-sion and expertise come withreal-time experience and trials.It is unlikely that a foreign ven-dor will part with core tech-nologies or requisite data tomake India aatmanirbhar. Inthe nation’s interest and withthe singular objective of givingmore teeth to the Army, let uslearn to take such incidents inour stride and resolve to forgeahead. India’s ATAGS mustsucceed.

(The writer is former DeputyChief of Army Staff. Viewsexpressed are personal.)

The ban on using generators in the National CapitalRegion when air quality levels hit hazardous highsmust have been thought up by someone who lives

in a ground floor apartment. Or that must have beenthe line by someone living in a penthouse on the 13thfloor of a high-rise apartment block and would havecost the equivalent of half a million US dollars. Whilethe overall electricity situation has improved in Delhidramatically over the past decade, there are still power-cuts in Gurugram and Noida, both cities are home tomillions who have spent their life savings on fancy apart-ments. To be then told that they will have to climb 12,13

or 14 stories because the lights are out because there is an illogical ban on gensetsand even if they manage the climb up, then to have no internet or possibly even runtheir kitchens, thanks to almost everything running on electricity. This is not to argueagainst the continuing incompetence of electricity providers in being unable to assureguaranteed 24-hour electricity in India, although that situation is improving but the imprac-ticality of this decision has to be made clear to the powers that be.

This also highlights how authorities are charging at windmills while ignoring the ele-phant in the room as farmers in Punjab and Haryana continue to burn fields, many withpolitical patronage. There are several causes for why the farmers burn their fields froma lack of cheap labour to changing crop patterns, but it is contingent upon the Governmentto at least give them subsidised equipment to remove the stubble. Hundreds of croresof rupees have been collected as a green cess over the past few years and that moneyshould be deployed to resolve this problem instead of sitting in the bank. This couldgive impetus to agricultural equipment manufacturers as well as improve the electrici-ty situation in multi-storey buildings. Yes, poor air quality is a serious problem in thecapital but we must not end up cutting off our nose to spite the face. Not allowing gensetsin the current time is a stupid idea that will inconvenience more people than it will helpin solving the pollution crisis. Setting strict pollution norms for generators will help more.

If the intention behind incarcerating former Jammu andKashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti for over 14 months was

to break her spirit, then the Government has clearly failedto do so. For hours after her release, she went beyondwhat the National Conference leaders, Farooq and OmarAbdullah, pledged to do as part of what they call a unit-ed Gupkar Declaration, namely restoring the special sta-tus of the erstwhile State. She wanted a political reso-lution of the Kashmir issue in its entirety and though shehad joined hands with the Abdullahs for a larger cause,she seems determined enough to carry on her move-

ment and reclaim her space in conversations. It remains to be seen whether her grand-standing is meant to blunt Farooq Abdullah’s recent belligerence against the Centre andhis wild missive that China could help in restoring Kashmir’s special status or whethershe is genuinely trying to reclaim lost political space and emerge as a power player. Isshe negotiating her own role as a pivot in the changed apparatus? At some level, all theleaders know that a retraction of the status would be almost impossible, considering thateven major world powers have endorsed India’s position of acting within its constitution-al space. Besides, they would have to challenge Kashmir’s changed status in the SupremeCourt. Interestingly, there is less mention of Article 370 per se as such but an emphasison the Centre’s “onslaught” on Kashmir’s “identity.” The message clearly is to get as manyparties as possible on common ground and set an agenda acceptable to all. This way allcan stand up to the Centre and challenge it head-on rather than being scattered and direc-tionless. Mehbooba, incidentally, is the last of the Valley’s mainstream political leaders tohave been set free after they were charged under the Public Safety Act (PSA) ostensiblybecause of their track record of incendiary speeches that, the Government thought, wouldprovoke people against the abrogation of Article 370. The fact is, the Government mis-calculated their appeal greatly and disregarded that they were politically elected leaderswho had been in alliance with New Delhi, acted as a buffer between the Centre and themilitant movement and still had enough ground support, one that has prevented theGovernment from propping up alternate structures and leaders. Besides, for all the filters,curfews and lockdowns in Kashmir, militancy hasn’t abated and remains a draw for dis-enchanted youth. And for all its promises of bridging the trust deficit by accelerating devel-opment, economic revival or civil engagement, without the participation by locals and theirendorsement, Kashmir’s integration with the mainstream is increasingly looking like anexercise in political egoism, a tool that is more disempowering than engaging, a punish-ment for history than an incentive for moving on. Politically, too, the BJP has been at thereceiving end of non-cooperation, what with a spike in hitback killings of BJP leaders andsarpanches, the latter seen as extensions of Central authority. Only 7,528 of the 19,582panch and sarpanch seats in Kashmir went to polls in 2018. Yet a majority of the electedare hiding out in hotels in Srinagar for fear of being attacked for participating in an elec-toral process that the Centre initiated. The BJP had hoped to build an alternative politicalpyramid with friendly leaders at the local level and devolving power to them. But that wasnot to be. Over 12,000 seats are still empty affecting local administration and despite thechanged status, nobody is ready to engage till all known elected representatives are freedfrom detention. With credible leaders redefined as public enemies, as bad as militants,and basic rights and connectivity denied to locals, there is confusion, disenchantment andfatigue everywhere, one that can congeal to become a violent force if left to fester. Perhaps,that’s the reason why the Government has changed its tactics and is returning the peo-ple’s representatives to them as it were. It is even expected to hold elections in the remain-ing panchayat seats by the end of the year, risk any outcome and build connect strate-gies from there. For the political vacuum is costing it heavy and only lionising the likes ofthe Abdullahs and the Muftis. It is with this larger agenda that a seasoned politician likeManoj Sinha was made the new Lt Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.A low-key politician, his mission is to work out ways of connecting with people withoutdisturbing the BJP’s overall schematics in the Valley and even negotiate with all the polit-ical parties. The Government has realised that it cannot make any claim of transformativeintent till it gets some kind of mediatory presence of local parties. The BJP’s attempts toraise the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP), drawing rejects from the PDP and NC,lacks credibility. The Government could meet the old leaders half way, involving them ina reconciliation process on the condition that they wouldn’t play a dual strategy with Pakistan.Some could be amenable to working the middle ground over time. But first, it should restorenormalcy and mainstream internet connectivity. The youth are already feeling punishedfor being left out of the digital education revolution and we cannot let them be radicalised.E-commerce and online filing of tax and other financial transactions have been badly hit.The economy is in shambles with disruptive clampdowns affecting the supply chain andthe services sector. Even the traditional performing sectors like the apple trade, tourismand handicrafts have wilted and there is nothing that seems worthy of big ticket invest-ment. There must be an enabling climate or Kashmir could slip into a deeper trough, worsethan ever imagined.

Mehbooba returns

Defying protocolsSir — Maharashtra GovernorBhagat Singh Koshyari and ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray arein an open war of words aboutthe re-opening of temples in theState. Koshyari, mockingly askedThackeray if he had turned “sec-ular”, provoking the latter toremind Koshyari that the word“secular” is in the Constitution hehad sworn to protect when hetook oath of the office in RajBhavan. Additionally, the CMsaid that he did not need hisHindutva credentials certified bya puppet. However, this isn’t thefirst time when a Governorappointed by the Centre has beenat odds with the StateGovernment. But what wasshocking in this case was theintemperate language used by theGovernor, who in an attempt todo his bit for the BJP defied pro-tocols. The Governor is behav-ing like the agent of the CentralGovernment to harass the StateCM by playing dirty politics.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

Single exam systemSir — It is surprising to see stu-dents scoring 100 per cent in sub-

jects like Hindi as some StateBoards have literally made amockery of the whole scoringsystem. A similar exam follow-ing the pattern of the NationalEligibility Cum Entrance Test(NEET), Joint EntranceExaminations (JEE) andCommon Aptitude Test (CAT)will be a good solution to selectthe right candidate rather thanjust banking on the senior sec-

ondary board examination sys-tem. And the National EducationPolicy 2020 (NEP) rightly pro-poses a single national school-leaving exam to resolve thisissue. Politics should be kept outfrom such crucial issues. Andhopefully, all States will come onboard and accept it for the larg-er interest of the students and theeducation sector. We cannothave these appalling cut-offs

year after year with students fromcertain Boards getting the ben-efit of entering top colleges inDelhi University.

Bal GovindNoida

Next on the hot seatSir — Preparations for BiharAssembly elections are at a peakand it will be taking place in

unprecedented circumstancesover three phases, starting fromthe last week of October till thefirst week of November. It will bethe first State to conduct polls afterthe outbreak of the pandemic. ForChief Minister and Janata Dal(United) leader Nitish Kumar, itis a chance to convince his peo-ple that he is still good enough todeliver after having failed to han-dle the Corona outbreak and thereturnee migrants’ crisis. For theRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chiefLalu Prasad, this is a chance toprove that his son has it in him tocontinue his political movementand more importantly, that he isstill a leader who matters inreshaping the political discourse.It will be interesting to see howLok Janshakti Party (LJP) leaderChirag Paswan performs in theelections, now when his mentorand father Ram Vilas Paswan haspassed away. Will Chirag upholdhis father’s legacy or will he endup squirming for seats with JD(U)and BJP? Overall, Bihar electionspose a serious challenge for allpolitical parties and only time willtell which one wins.

Mohd Najib Patna

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

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionHYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020

06

Aatmanirbharta in defenceDespite the minor setback with the indigenous ATAGS programme, India must

forge ahead in the nation’s interest and of course for the Army’s sake

(Robert) Destro will lead US effortsto promote dialogue between thePeople's Republic of China and theDalai Lama or his representatives;protect the unique religious, culturaland linguistic identity of Tibetans.

US Secretary of State—Mike Pompeo

Structural reforms are urgently needed

In yet another shocking incident of sexual assaultreported from Uttar Pradesh, a 17-year-old girl wasallegedly thrashed and raped inside a Government

college hostel in Jhansi. The incident took place onOctober 11 during the UP Provincial Civil Services (PCS)preliminary exam 2020 at the Jhansi College. The vic-tim, a class 10 student, alleged in her complaint thataround a dozen students of the college forcibly tookher inside the campus where one of them raped herwhile others filmed the gruesome act and even robbedher of `2,000.

On the same day, in yet another incident, a womanwas gang-raped and her five-year-old child murderedin Ojha Baraon village in Bihar's Buxar district. Thewoman and her child were on their way to a bank whenthey were abducted by a few men. The woman was thengang-raped. She was later tied up with her son andthrown into a river. Locals came to their rescue whenshe shouted for help, but the child had died by then.

These two cases are among the ones that were

reported but many such crimes go unreported as eithervictims or their family fear social backlash. Rape is thefourth most common crime against women in India.In such terrifying times, structural reforms are urgent-ly needed. The Government should not let the situa-tion continue to worsen.

MN Musaeed Mumbai

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

Yet another silly idea

The PDP leader intends to pivot the larger alliance of all Kashmiriparties for a resolution of the Kashmir issue in totality

The ban on generators is yet another one in the long list ofsilly ideas to control pollution that skirt the central issue

J P SINGH

THE PROJECT ISNOW IN THE TRL

STAGE 10 AND HAS ALREADY

BEEN THROUGH A RIGOROUS

PRE-PSQR TRIALWITH THE USERS

AND DRDO TEAMS. IN THESE TRIALS, THE BFL

DEVELOPED GUNSFIRED A TOTAL OF

130 PLUS ROUNDS,MOSTLY IN ZONESEVEN, AND THEFEEDBACK WAS

THAT THE SYSTEMHAS LIVED UP TO

THE PARAMETERS

Delhi is trying to combat pollution. For this, we havelaunched a new campaigncalled, Red light On, Gaadi

off. I request everyone to join the campaign.

Delhi CM—Arvind Kejriwal

We cannot afford to let ourguard down, especiallyconsidering the fact thatthe paddy harvesting is on,as also the Governmentprocurement.

Puunjab CM—Amarinder Singh

Sourav Ganguly and I talkabout it most days and weare already planning whenwe can catch up once heand the team get over here(Australia).

Australian cricket chief—Earl Eddings

S O U N D B I T E

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

Win some, lose some

SAMVAD SAMMELANS ARE OUR POLITICAL PROGRAMMES

AND WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO EXPLAIN TO FARMERS

THAT THE FARM LAWS HAVE GREAT BENEFITS.

—SPOKESPERSON OF PUNJAB BJP

ANIL SAREEN

NO MINISTER HAD THE TIME TO MEET FARMERS

EARLIER WHILE AN ARMY OF (BJP) MINISTERS IS

CONDUCTING VIRTUAL RALLIES IN PUNJAB.

—FORMER UNION MINISTER

HARSIMRAT BADAL

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recent-ly announced two special offers for CentralGovernment employees, which she hopes can

also be suitably modified and extended for StateGovernment staff and availed even by private sec-tor workers employed in the organised sector. Inshort, the Centre announced a fresh stimulus forthe ailing economy, focussing on demand. Thisincludes optional use of the Leave TravelConcession (LTC) facility for spending on con-sumer items, one-time restoration of festivaladvance and additional capital expenditure by theCentre and States. However, the alternative for LTCcould be a damp squib as the condition of higherspend may not find many takers.

As per the announcements, CentralGovernment employees can choose to get someready cash if they forego their LTC entitlement forthe block year of 2018-2021. In addition, everyCentral Government employee, irrespective of rank,will get a prepaid Rupay card loaded with 10,000.Swipe it for any expenditure by March 31, 2021 (nocash draw) and repay the advance in 10 monthlyinstalments. No interest, no tax on deemed bene-fit. Under the LTC scheme, Central Governmentemployees get reimbursement of the cost of somepersonal travel undertaken by them and their fam-ily members. For civilian staff, it is a trip to theirhometown once in two years and to anywhere with-in the country in the next block of two years. Fordefence personnel, it is the annual hometown visitand in the alternative year to anywhere in India inlieu of hometown travel. There are similar provi-sions of LTC benefits for the judicial and legisla-tive branch of the State with a different set of enti-tlements and rules.

The current LTC block year is 2018-2021.During this four calendar years’ period, a civilianCentral Government employee can avail reimburse-ment of fare for two trips from his place of duty,one in 2018-19 and another in 2020-21. Both tripscan be to his hometown or one to the hometownand the other to anywhere else in India.

The concession admissible for a particularblock of two years, which is not availed during thattime period, can be availed in the first year of thenext block. So, if someone hasn’t availed LTC dur-ing January 2018-December 2019, he can do so byDecember 2020. Likewise, the LTC due for 2020-21 can be availed by December 2022, subject to cer-tain conditions.

To promote tourism to remote areas, theGovernment has been allowing its staff to use theirhometown LTC to visit specified remote areas. Ithas been allowing air travel to these areas to eventhose employees who are not normally permittedto travel by air at Government cost. This has beena hugely popular move. This special scheme hasnow been extended up to September 25, 2022. Theconversion of hometown LTC is allowed for trav-el to the North-Eastern States, Sikkim, Jammu &Kashmir, Ladakh, Andman & Nicobar Islands. Airtravel to these destinations is permitted for all work-ers. Also, such trips in lieu of hometown LTC arepermitted even by private airlines as an exceptionbecause the rule is that a trip at Government costmust be by Air India only. (Those Government ser-vants whose hometown and place of posting arethe same are not allowed this conversion.)

Whenever a LTC journey is undertaken, theGovernment allows 10 days’ earned leave to beencashed. A total of 60 days’ earned leave encash-ment with LTC is allowed during the whole ser-vice. Employees get earned leave of 30 days everyyear and if not availed cannot be accumulated

beyond 300 days.The Finance Minister has announced

that an employee can choose not to trav-el on the LTC for block year 2018-21 andinstead get some tax-free cash in lieu.Category I/II/II employees entitled forbusiness class air travel/economy class airtravel/rail travel will get up to `36,000,`20,000 and `6,000, respectively foreach family member who forgoes oneLTC, subject to the following conditions.

The employee must produce proof ofhaving spent 1,08,000/`60,000/`18,000by March 31, 2021 through digital meanson buying Goods and Services Tax(GST)-invoiced goods/services with aminimum GST of 12 per cent.

The employee must also produceproof of having spent the entire amountof 10 days’ earned leave by March 31,2021 through digital means on buyingGST-invoiced goods/services with aminimum GST of 12 per cent. Spendingless means pro rata cut in the actual cashbenefit to be disbursed.

Most processed, packaged fooditems, healthcare, medicinal items, toi-letries, cosmetics and so on attract 12 percent GST. Telecom services bills, insur-ance premia, both life and general insur-ance, ULIPs and so on attract 18 per centGST. Then, of course, there are the “singoods” in the high GST bracket. So evenwithout buying any expensive whitegoods/gadgets/car, it should be possible— except for some very frugal souls —to produce eligible GST invoices formonthly average spending of less than`21,600/`12,000/`3,600 for CategoryI/II/III employees from now till March2021. The few who might struggle to getsufficient invoices may buy goods for oth-ers. Petty invoices don’t even carry thebuyer’s name and there are limits to howmany checks can be there to stop misuse.

There have been intermittent sugges-

tions in the past that the Governmentshould give some lump sum cash in lieuof LTC benefit and save itself the hassleof processing the LTC claims. Moreover,not all of them are genuine. Long ago,many employees in an office were foundto have submitted fake LTC claims forlong distance travel by road. The trip wasactually not undertaken as there was noentry of the quoted private bus havingcrossed various toll booths. Dozens weredismissed from service in a severe dis-ciplinary action. After that, theGovernment made a rule that road trav-el by private bus would not be eligible forLTC reimbursement.

Cases of LTC claims based on fakeair travel — even by some high publicfunctionaries — forced some offices tointroduce the provision for submissionof proof of the actual trip in case of airtravel, like some photographs and so on,all of which can also be manipulated inthis age of technology. Some private air-lines used to misuse the LTC to includeeven hotel stay and so on in the packagedfare because only the fare is reimbursed.All other costs of boarding and lodgingat the destination are expected to beborne by employees. To overcome thisfraud, the Government introduced stan-dard LTC fares and restricted travel to AirIndia only (except for the North-East andso on). Frauds by a few dishonest end upmaking life miserable for everyone, withthe Government being forced to comeout with stricter regulations. CheckingLTC fraud is an administrative hassle andsome argue that it is better to uncondi-tionally give cash in lieu of LTC. So far,this argument has not carried weight fortwo reasons.

First, the Government wants employ-ees to rejuvenate themselves throughtravel and promote domestic tourism.Second, LTC is not availed by everyone.

There are many who don’t find time andmany others who find that they cannotafford non-fare expenses during travel.If the Government decides to give cashin lieu of LTC, it would give it to every-one, even to those who would not haveavailed of LTC on their own. For them,the cash equivalent is a bonanza.

The Central Government hopes thatthe State Governments and the privatesector will take a cue and offer similarschemes, with the Centre promising notto tax the cash equivalent of the LTC.Many States limit their LTC scheme totravel within the State and so the finan-cial impact would also be limited. For pri-vate sector employees, tax concession onLTA can be a big incentive. All they haveto do is produce GST invoices for threetimes the LTA. Spending three times theLTA by March 2021 may not be burden-some for most. Typically, the LTA is equalto one month’s salary and so one is beingasked to spend three months’ salary byMarch to save income tax on LTA. Ofcourse, there is the option of buying forothers. In a country like ours, govern-ments put riders and creative mindsinvent workarounds.

Giving cash in lieu of LTC or givingtax concession on LTA subject to certainminimum spending of a certain type willcertainly boost short-term consumptiondemand. Some of it would be mere dis-placement of expenditure that wouldhave happened with or without the con-cession. This surrender of outbound LTCtravel till December 2022 would negative-ly impact the travel and tourism indus-try which is already floundering. It is ademand swap; the present with thefuture, FMCG with travel and tourism.It is like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

(The writer is a retired IAAS officer,and former Special Secretary, Ministry ofCommerce and Industry)

This surrender of outbound LTC travel would negatively impact the tourism sector, which isalready floundering. It is a demand swap; the present with the future, FMCG with tourism

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

Lockdowns andterminal decline

ALLISTER HEATH

The pandemic will accelerate the fall of theWest unless we abandon our irrational

approach to the virus

SUBHASH CHANDRA PANDEY

LTC IS NOTAVAILED

BY EVERYONE.THERE ARE

MANY WHO DON’TFIND TIME ANDMANY OTHERS

WHO FIND THATTHEY CANNOT

AFFORD NON-FAREEXPENSES

DURING TRAVEL. IF THEGOVERNMENT

DECIDES TO GIVECASH IN LIEU OF

LTC, IT WOULDGIVE IT TO

EVERYONE, EVEN TO THOSE

WHO WOULD NOTHAVE AVAILED

OF LTC ON THEIR OWN.FOR THEM, THE CASH

EQUIVALENT IS A BONANZA

Please, please, Prime Minister, do not lock the UK down again.Do not listen to the unidimensional, anti-economic, risk-aversegroupthink from Sage. Ignore Sir Keir Starmer and Sadiq

Khan’s shameless politicking. A “circuit-breaker” is doublespeakfor another lockdown, and cannot be a sustainable answer: Thevirus would only be temporarily suppressed, with transmissionbouncing back as soon as the restrictions were lifted again. A viciouscircle of stop-go lockdowns would be a catastrophic indictmentof Government policy, an admission of total defeat, a victory offear and emotion over reason. We would no longer be a free soci-ety tolerating an exceptional, temporary shutdown to allow our scan-dalously unprepared establishment to learn to manage a terriblesituation. Instead, we would have transitioned to a world of per-manent emergency, a wartime society whereby individual rightsand lives were permanently suppressed for an ill-defined, ever-shifting “national interest.” A new principle would have becomeestablished: That the Government has the right and even the oblig-ation to lock us down at the first sign of any new epidemic, evenone that doesn’t truly threaten the survival of our society. The mainrationale for a “circuit-breaker” — that it would buy yet more timefor “one last push” on testing, the app, tracing and a vaccine —is tragically delusional. Even the French and Germans have failedto introduce effective testing and tracing, suggesting that the endeav-our may be an elusive El Dorado, at least for now.

Yes, a few deaths might be avoided by spreading out ICU admis-sions to our hopelessly ineffectual National Health Service. Yes,a few others — maybe even up to 20,000 in a best-case sce-nario — might be saved as a result of multiple lockdowns if aneffective vaccine suddenly, miraculously materialises by April 2021.But, in reality, most deaths would not be avoided, merely delayed,and there will be plenty of additional fatalities caused by the lock-down itself — including out of despair — to set against that.Unemployment would have surged, tens of thousands more busi-nesses ruined, family and community life laid to waste, and immensemisery created. What kind of society is ready to destroy so muchto save so little?

If he agrees to the lockdown fanatics’ every demand, BorisJohnson’s legacy would have been to sweep away the Eurocrats,and cut back on the juristocrats, just to replace them with a newmedicocracy. A gang of well-meaning scientists and doctors wouldbe empowered to impose their narrow vision of the good on therest of us, the first therapeutic, zero-risk State in world history.

But public health experts don’t have the full perspective. Wecan’t go on like this for much longer. The first lockdown probablyincreased our debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio by 20percentage points; adding yet another 20 per cent over the win-ter would weaken us severely. We could survive that, of course,but what firepower would we have left when the next calamity hitsus? What about another virus? And the one after that? Or whatabout the next bad flu season? We would be all but bankrupt by2030, with a Dollar, Sterling and Euro crisis on our hands.

Lawrence Summers, the economist, estimates the cost ofCOVID will reach 90 per cent of the GDP for America alone — amind-boggling $16 trillion or $2,00,000 per family. This is “fourtimes larger than the output loss of the Great Recession, twice thecost of all wars since 9/11, and roughly the cost of climate changein the next 50 years.” We need to find ways of minimising thiscost for future pandemics, or we will be condemned to impover-ishment, social decay and geopolitical decline.

This latter point is ably demonstrated by the InternationalMonetary Fund’s latest forecasts. It expects the UK to suffer a 9.8per cent fall in GDP this year, identical to France, better than Italyor Spain. Germany and America will shrink but by less.Astonishingly, however, China’s economy will actually grow thisyear. This pandemic has accelerated many trends, not least thetransfer of power from the West to the East. South East Asian coun-tries are among the few to have kept the costs of the virus to man-ageable levels, and China is laughing.

Britain and the West have two choices. We could relearn tolive with death, as we did in the post-World War years when bigflu epidemics killed tens of thousands. The alternative is to embracethe South Korean approach. We will need to invest a fortune inpandemic preparedness and technology, and pounce on the nextvirus as soon as it emerges. Ruthless, brutal quarantining, isola-tion and hugely superior tracking and tracing will be necessary.

Can we do it? Would we have to give up too much privacyand liberty? Are we nearing the twilight of the West, defeated byits fragility, its inability to cope with the kind of virus that our fore-bears shrugged off? If we don’t get our act together, this will notjust be Asia’s century but also the West’s last as any kind of bea-con to the rest of the world. Boris Johnson needs to show thatBritain, for one, hasn’t yet given up.

(Courtesy: The Telegraph)

The United Nations (UN)Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) 3 seeks to ensure health

and well-being for all as a social capi-tal. SDG 3, more specifically SDG 3.1,aims to reduce the global MaternalMortality Ratio (MMR) to less than 70per 1,00, 000 live births by 2030. As perthe World Health Organisation(WHO), maternal death is the demiseof a woman while pregnant or within42 days of termination of pregnancy,from any cause related to or aggravat-ed by the pregnancy or its management.As per the goal laid down in the

National Health Policy 2017, the targetfor MMR per 1,00,000 live births by2020 is 100.

Figures from a special bulletinreleased by the Office of the RegistrarGeneral’s Sample Registration System(SRS) in July this year show that MMRin India stood at 113 in 2016-18.Although it has seen a reduction from122 in 2015-17 and 130 in 2014-2016,the number is way behind the SDG tar-get. The most disturbing figure comesfrom Assam where MMR is at 215.However, if one compares it to the 2012-13 data of the State, it has been signif-icantly brought down from 301.Nevertheless, given India’s SDG com-mitment, immediate intervention isneeded to bring down the ratio further.

As recently as July, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi delivered the keynoteaddress virtually at the high-level seg-ment of the United Nations Economicand Social Council (ECOSOC) session,wherein he highlighted that India’sdevelopmental motto of “Sabka saath,sabka vikaas, sabka vishwas (Together,

for everyone’s growth, with everyone’strust)” resonates with the core SDGprinciple of leaving no one behind. Healso emphasised that India’s success inimproving the socio-economic indica-tors of its vast population has a signif-icant impact on global SDG targets.Hence, addressing individual healthindicators like MMR is certainly criti-cal in improving the country’s publichealth and meeting targets set by theSDG.

The role of individual States is alsocritical. For example, it is important fora State like Assam with a high MMR totackle the problem on a priority basis.According to an Epidemiological studyof maternal death in Assam, data showthat 21.3 per cent of the deaths weredue to haemorrhage, 17.3 per cent dueto pregnancy-induced hypertensionand 10 per cent due to sepsis. Bloodloss of 500 ml or more within 24 hoursafter birth is known as postpartumhaemorrhage. Such deaths can bebrought down significantly by develop-ing a robust blood transfusion system,which provides universal access tosafe and adequate blood. The annualblood collection in Assam in 2018-19was 2,34,488 units whereas the Stateneeded 2,42,000 units against the totalnumber of hospital beds in 2019. As pera State-wise ranking, which maps theannual requirement to actual collectionsof blood units, Assam comes at the bot-tom five. With 82 blood banks in theState, it is regrettable that shortage ofblood remains an area of concern.

Another crucial aspect is the qual-ity of the blood available. The NationalAIDS Control Organisation revealedthat around 1,342 people contractedHIV infection due to blood transfusionin 2018-19 pan India. This informationraised several questions on the existingblood transfusion system in the coun-try. An effective solution to ensure avail-ability of safe blood involves shifting to100 per cent voluntary help and doingaway with replacement donation.Recruitment of donors becomes one ofthe most crucial features of blood trans-fusion services and a system support-ed by healthy, responsive and motivat-ed voluntary blood donors can signif-icantly reduce the associated qualityissues. The percentage of voluntarydonation in Assam is 47.9 per cent,which is way below the national aver-age of 71.9.

Another problem that exists in adeveloping country like India is afragmented blood transfusion system.For effective operation of the 3,321blood banks in the country, it is imper-

ative that there is transparency andguaranteed quality systems. But ensur-ing surveillance of 3,321 blood banksfor effective operation is not practical-ly feasible. However, empirical datafrom developing countries show thatadopting a centralised hub and spokemodel can help in accessing safe bloodto a great extent.

Sadly, such a centralised bloodtransfusion system is currently non-existent in India, even though it pre-vents wastage of extra blood collected,particularly now that bulk transfersbetween banks have been permitted bythe National Blood TransfusionCouncil. It enhances access, too, asblood can be redirected from the hubsto wherever there is a shortage. In caseof emergencies, the collection of bloodbecomes simpler, too. A hub and spokemodel and a 100 per cent non-remu-nerative blood donation structure willhelp India and States like Assam toreduce the MMR burden.

(The writer is a public policy con-sultant, Chase India)

Assam must fix its high MMR burden soonA hub and spoke model and a 100 per cent non-remunerative blood donation structure will help India and Assam reduce deaths

SAYANTANI CHATTERJEE

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

The Nepal Government hasdone nothing to change itsanti-farmer policies. The wayit favours businessmen oversugarcane farmers is oneinstance of crony capitalism.The Government mustensure that the economicequality and social justiceenshrined in the Constitutionalso reflect in practice. (The Kathmandu Post

editorial)

HONOUR THY

FARMER

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020 money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Global stock markets and USfutures declined Thursday ashopes U.S. leaders will agree

on new economic aid before theNov. 3 presidential election faded.London and Frankfurt openedlower. Shanghai, Tokyo and HongKong also declined. Wall Street'sbenchmark S&P 500 indexdropped 0.7% on Wednesdayafter Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he and congressionalleaders were “far apart” on new aid for the struggling U.S.economy. Consumer spending, the main U.S. economic engine,weakened after earlier additional unemployment benefits expired.Mnuchin “added another nail to the coffin on pre-electionstimulus,” said Jingyi Pan of IG in a report. In early trading, theFTSE 100 in London fell 2% to 5,817.13 and Frankfurt's DAX lost2.7% to 12,674.63. The CAC 40 in France retreated 1.6% to4,861.66. Thursday brings a European Union summit that BritishPrime Minister Boris Johnson had set as a deadline to get aa tradeagreement after the United Kingdom left the bloc.

Global stocks follow Wall Stlower as stimulus hopes fade

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) hasarrested the director of

an Ahmedabad-basedbiotech compa ny oncharges of money launderingin connection with an allegedco-operative bank fraud, theagency said on Thursday. Itsaid Niketa Baldevbhai Dave, director of Pentium Infotech Ltd andHiram Biotech Ltd, has been arrested under the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act (PMLA) and a local court in Ahmedabadsent her to ED custody till October 17. The central probe agencysaid in a statement that Dave, another director of these firms-Pratik R Shah- and others allegedly "committed fraud of Rs 25.25crore with the Ahmedabad People's Cooperative Bank Ltd (APCBL)"and were first booked by the CID-crime branch of the GujaratPolice in May, 2009. Probe found that Shah and Dave had "passeda board resolution on February 25 authorising the latter to sign,deal, sell, transfer and dispose non-agricultural land held in thename of Hirak Biotech Ltd (located at Sachana)."

ED arrests Ahm-based directorunder money laundering charges

Hyundai Motor India onThursday said its SUVCreta has crossed two

lakh cumulative exportsmilestone. The companyships Creta and various othermodels from its Chennai-based plant to around 88countries. "Launched in 2015, Creta established its supremacy as ahighly aspirational brand among customers globally. Themagnanimous two lakh export milestone achieved by the model isa testimony of Hyundai's undeterred focus and commitment to'Make in India,' Made for the world," HMIL MD and CEO SS Kimsaid in a statement. The automaker's plant in Tamil Nadumanufactures global quality products for both domestic andinternational markets, he added. Last year, HMIL exported1,81,200 units with 792 customised variants according to country-specific preference and demand, the company said. With an exportshare of 26 per cent (2019) in passenger car exports from India,Hyundai remains a significant contributor to the Indian automobileindustry and the government's Make in India initiative, it added.

Hyundai Creta crosses 2 lakhcumulative exports mark

PNSn NEW DELHI

The government's secondround of stimulus will spurconsumer spending in the nearterm but support to econom-ic growth will be minimal,Moody's Investors Service saidon Thursday.

After a long clamour for fis-cal stimulus, the governmenthad on October 12 come upwith measures with direct fis-cal support to people and statesand to generate demand.

These included a leave trav-el concession (LTC) cashvoucher scheme and specialfestival advance for govern-ment employees and Rs 12,000crore interest-free loan to statesand Rs 25,000 crore addition-al capex.

The stimulus, amounting toRs 46,700 crore, or about 0.2per cent of real gross domesticproduct (GDP) forecast forFY 2021, "highlights limitedbudgetary firepower to supportthe economy during a verysharp contraction," Moody's

said.The new stimulus aims to

boost consumer spending dur-ing the festive season and toincrease capital expenditures.

"Even when combined withthe government's fiscal stimu-lus earlier in 2020, the size ofthe measures remains modest.In total, the two rounds ofstimulus bring the govern-ment's direct spending oncoronavirus-related fiscal sup-port to around 1.2 per cent ofGDP," the rating agency said.

This compares with an aver-age of around 2.5 per cent of

GDP for BAA-rated peers as ofmid-June. "India's very weakfiscal position has constrainedits scope for discretionary stim-ulus spending in response tothe coronavirus shock,"Moody's said projecting gener-al government debt burden topeak at around 90 per cent ofGDP this year, up from about72 per cent of GDP last year.The large debt burden is drivenby chronically wide fiscaldeficits. Moody's said weakergovernment revenue, driven bythe economic contraction andreduced corporate tax rates

announced in September 2019,would widen the general gov-ernment deficit to around 12per cent of GDP in the currentfiscal. "While the latest stimu-lus will spur consumer spend-ing over the near term as coro-navirus-related restrictionscontinue to be eased andIndia's festive season begins,the support to growth will beminimal," it said. The govern-ment expects the new stimulusto add around 0.5 per cent ofGDP – a small boost comparedwith the forecasted 11.5 percent drop in real GDP in 2020-21, it said. Moody's said con-

sumer confidence hasremained subdued even asIndia has emerged from a verystringent nationwide lock-down, which drove a 24.5 percent contraction in privateconsumption in the April-Junequarter, compared with theprevious year. The number ofcoronavirus cases in India isstill elevated and the relaxationof restrictions on educationalestablishments, entertainmentfacilities and gatherings fromOctober 15 raises the risk ofspread, which could weighfurther on consumer senti-ment.

2nd round of stimulus to providelimited support to growth: Moody's

The stimulus, amounting to Rs 46,700 crore,or about 0.2 per cent of real Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) forecast for FY 2021,"highlights limited budgetary firepower tosupport the economy during a very sharpcontraction," Moody's said

Kia Motors India on Thursdaysaid it has launched a specialedition of its SUV Seltos,

priced between Rs 13.75 lakh andRs 14.85 lakh, to mark themodel's first year in the country.The Seltos anniversary edition isbased on HTX trim and comeswith petrol and diesel engine options. The 1.5-litre petrol trim withmanual transmission is priced at Rs 13.75 lakh, while petrolautomatic is tagged at Rs 14.75 lakh. The diesel manual on theother hand is priced at Rs 14.85 lakh. The anniversary editioncomes with various exterior and interior changes over the regularSeltos. The length of the anniversary edition has been increasedby 60 mm and it also comes with various features like black alloys,eatherette seats, remote engine start for manual transmission aswell. "The launch of Seltos in 2019 laid a strong foundation for Kiaas a brand in the country," Kia Motors India Managing Director andChief Executive Officer Kookhyun Shim said in a statement. TheSeltos with its features, design, quality, engine options andperformance set new benchmarks and redefined the mid-SUVsegment, he added.

Kia Motors launches Seltosanniversary edition at Rs 13.75L

PNSn WASHINGTON

Facing the twin task of fight-ing the coronavirus pandemictoday and building a bettertomorrow, the world is experi-encing a new Bretton Woodsmoment, IMF ManagingDirector Kristalina Georgievasaid Thursday.

“Today we face a newBretton Woods moment. Apandemic that has already costmore than a million lives. Aneconomic calamity that willmake the world economy 4.4per cent smaller this year andstrip an estimated USD 11trillion of output by next year.And untold human despera-tion in the face of huge disrup-tion and rising poverty for thefirst time in decades,” she said,addressing the annual meetingof the IMF's Board ofGovernors. “Once again, weface two massive tasks: to fightthe crisis today and build a bet-ter tomorrow,” she said.

She said what was true atBretton Woods, when allies atthe end of World War II gath-ered for a conference to createthe institutions that would useeconomic cooperation to pre-vent future conflicts, remainstrue today.

Prudent macroeconomicpolicies and strong institu-tions are critical for growth,jobs and improved living stan-dards, she said. Strong medi-

um-term frameworks for mon-etary, fiscal and financial poli-cies, as well as reforms toboost trade, competitivenessand productivity can help cre-ate confidence for policy actionnow while building much-needed resilience for the future,she added. “We know whataction must be taken rightnow. A durable economicrecovery is only possible if webeat the pandemic. Health

measures must remain a prior-ity. I urge you to support pro-duction and distribution ofeffective therapies and vac-cines to ensure that all coun-tries have access,” Georgievasaid. She also urged countriesto continue support for work-ers and businesses until adurable exit from the healthcrisis. “We have seen global fis-cal actions of USD 12 trillion.Major central banks haveexpanded balance sheets byUSD 7.5 trillion. These syn-chronised measures have pre-vented the destructive macrofinancial feedback we saw inprevious crises,” she said.

‘World facing new Bretton Woods moment’An economic calamitywill make the worldeconomy 4.4 per centsmaller this year andstrip $11 trillion ofoutput: IMF MD

PNSn NEW DELHI

Domestic stock markets suf-fered their worst day in threeweeks on Thursday withbenchmark indices snappinga rally that lasted 10 straightdays, as a record number ofnew COVID-19 infectionsin parts of Europe spookedinvestors across the globe.The Sensex index dropped1,097.98 points - or 2.69 percent - to 39,696.76 at theweakest level during the ses-sion, and the broader Niftybenchmark dropped to aslow as 11,666.30, down304.75 points - or 2.55 percent - from its previousclose.A selloff in IT andfinancial stocks pulled themarkets lower. The Sensexended 1,066.33 points (2.61per cent) lower at 39,728.41,and the Nifty settled at11,680.35 for the day, down290.70 points from its previ-ous close - their worst single-day loss since September 24.On the other hand, Tata Steel,Hero MotoCorp, Hindalcoand JSW Steel, up 1.15-2.52per cent each.

Sensextumbles 1,066points

PNSn NEW DELHI

Union Minister Nitin Gadkarion Thursday launched the firstblasting for construction relat-ed work at the 14.15 km Zojilatunnel, one of the longest inAsia, that will provide all-yearconnectivity between Srinagarvalley and Leh.

The project holds strategicsignificance as Zojila Pass is sit-uated at an altitude of 11,578feet on the Srinagar-Kargil-LehNational Highway and remainsclosed during winters due toheavy snowfall. At present it isone of the most dangerousstretches in the world to drivea vehicle and this project is alsogeo-strategically sensitive.

Initiating the blast in a vir-tual ceremony, Road Transport,Highways and MSMEsMinister Gadkari termed it a"moment of pride" for India.

He said the re-modelling ofthe project will result in savings

to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore tothe public exchequer withoutany compromise on safety,security and quality.

Blasting means blowing upor breaking apart somethingsolid with explosives.

The tunnel will provide all-weather connectivity betweenSrinagar valley and Leh(Ladakh plateau) on NH-1,

and will bring about an all-round economic andsocio–cultural integration ofJammu & Kashmir.

It involves construction ofa 14.15-km long tunnel at analtitude of about 3,000 m underZojila pass (presentlymotorable only for six monthsin a year) on NH-1 connectingSrinagar and Leh through

Drass and Kargil."This tunnel when complet-

ed will be a landmark achieve-ment in the history of modernIndia. It will also be of greatimportance to the Defence ofthe country, in view of the factthat massive military activitiesalong our borders in Ladakh,Gilgit and Baltistan regions aretaking place," the governmentsaid.

Zojila Tunnel project shallbring to fruition, 30 years ofoverwhelming public demandof Kargil, Drass and Ladakhregion, the statement said and

added that the project willmake the travel on Srinagar-Kargil-Leh Section of NH-1free from avalanches, wouldenhance safety and wouldreduce the travel time frommore than 3 hours to 15 min-utes. The project was re-award-ed this year to MeghaEngineering & InfrastructureLtd (MEIL) which hademerged as the lowest bidderquoting Rs 4,509.5 crore for theproject. The other two biddersin the race were Larsen &Toubro and Ircon InternationalJV.

Zojila tunnel to connect Srinagar with LehThe project holds strategic significance asZojila Pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578feet on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh NationalHighway and remains closed during wintersdue to heavy snowfall

PNSn MUMBAI

Irdai Chairman SubhashKhuntia has urged healthinsurance providers to devel-op disease-specific productswhich could help policy hold-ers in preventing different ail-ments. “I would urge insurersto develop more disease-spe-cific products like for diabet-ics or for heart or kidneyrelated issues,” Khuntia said ata health insurance summitorganised by CII.

Under such focussed prod-ucts, insurance companies canbring together medical expertsto make aware policy holderson steps to be taken to preventvarious diseases, he said.

The chairman said theinsurance sector, for too long,has concentrated on tertiarycare or hospitalisation andnow there was a need to focusmore on primary and sec-ondary care, the outpatientcare and more on to have pre-ventive care.

Irdai for disease -specific products

PNSn NEW DELHI

Adani Green Energy Ltd(AGEL) on Thursday said ithas transferred 205 MW solarassets to its JV business withFrench energy major TOTALSA for about Rs 1,632 crore.

In a BSE filing, the compa-ny said it had earlier formeda 50:50 JV with TOTAL for2,148 mega watt (MW) solarpower assets in India.

"The JV has today(Thursday) completed anoth-er acquisition as per JV agree-ment, by way of transfer of205 MW of operating solarassets for an enterprise valu-ation of Rs 1,632 crore. Withthe acquisition, the totaloperating renewable portfo-lio under the JV stands at2,353 MW," it said.

Adani Greentransfers 205MW solarassets to JV PNSn NEW DELHI

Electric vehicle maker Ampereon Thursday announced itstie-up with eBikeGO andsecured an order from the e-mobility start-up for supply of2,000 electric scooters.

The developments comeclose on the heels of Amperebagging an order of 3,000 e-scooters from Bengaluru-based scooter rental start-upBounce last week.

Ampere Electric is a part ofdiversified engineering compa-ny Greaves Cotton.

"Our partnership witheBikeGO is a significant steptowards catering the increasinglast-mile delivery demandsfrom leading e-commerce plat-forms in the country," saidAmpere Electric ChiefOperating Officer P Sanjeev.

He added that the firm hasestablished a strong technolo-

gy and service support toenable fast-growing electricvehicle (EV) subscription plat-forms such as eBikeGO.

"The initial order from themfor 2,000 Ampere electricscooters is just the beginning,we can see this partnershipgoing a long-way ahead," headded.

Redefining the future oflast-mile deliveries, there hasbeen a considerable rise indemand for home deliveries,

and this partnership perfectlysuits last-mile logistics deliverysupport required by e-com-merce players, said the compa-ny. With this tie-up, Ampereelectric strengthens its pres-ence in the fast-growing busi-ness-to-business (B2B) sharedmobility service segment, itadded. "As an EV start-up, ourendeavour is to provide cleanmobility solutions, Ampere isone of our trusted partners inour growth journey," saideBikeGO founder and ChiefExecutive Officer Irfan Khan.

Ampere ties up with eBikeGO,secures order for 2K scooters

PNSn NEW DELHI

Jaguar Land Rover India onThursday said it has launchedits iconic SUV Defender in thecountry with price starting atRs 73.98 lakh (ex-showroom).

The latest version of themodel comes with a 2-litreturbocharged petrol engineand would be available intwo body styles in thecountry. The price of newDefender 90 (three-door)starts from Rs 73.98 lakh,while Defender 110 (five-door) is tagged at Rs 79.94lakh onwards (ex-show-room). Deliveries ofDefender 110 have begun,while that of 90 will com-mence from the first quar-ter of FY22.

"So far, under LandRover, we had theDiscovery product pillarand Range Rover productpillar available in India.With this launch, the third

product pillar, Defender,is now available," JLR IndiaPresident and ManagingDirector Rohit Suri said.

This, in many ways, com-pletes the Land Roverbrand story, he added.

The new Defender willmake its place in the heartsof many people with a curi-ous mind, love for authen-tic adventures, passion fortravel and who dare andwish to go above andbeyond in life, Suri noted.Such individuals transcendbarriers of age, gender, pro-fession, with their free-spirited nature and fearless-ness, just like the newDefender, he said.

It would be sold throughthe company's 27 dealer-ships across the countryand the customers wouldbe able to choose from 170individual accessories andfour distinct accessorypacks, the company said.

Land Rover Defenderdebuts in India

PNSn NEW DELHI

A high-powered committee,which is looking into refundsfor PACL investors, onThursday asked investorshaving claims of up to Rs7,000 to rectify errors intheir application forms byOctober 31. A portal hasbeen made operational forsuch investors to view statusof their claim applications.PACL, which had raisedmoney from public in thename of agriculture and realestate business, was found bySebi to have collected morethan Rs 60,000 crore throughillegal CIS over a period of 18years. A panel, headed byretired Justice R M Lodha,has been set up to managerefunds for investors whoinvested money in PACL.

PACL: Investors told to rectifyerrors

The initial order fromthem for 2K scootersis just the beginning,we can see thispartnership going along-way: Sanjeev

ccording to aHarvard study, 5.2million medicalerrors occur inIndia annually.Experts believe

that most of these errors aredue to a lack of clear com-munication and proper med-ical data during emergencies.Currently, in India, there isone doctor for every 1,445Indians, which is below thenorms suggested by theWorld Health Organization.Clinical documentation hasalways been critical forhealthcare professionals forbilling, insurance, medico-legal purposes and analyticsto achieve better patient care.For our Indian healthcaresystem to scale and support abillion-plus population, weneed widespread adoption ofthe Electronic MedicalRecords.

Observing the lack of anysuch system in India, RustomLawyer, Co-founder of

Scribetech, the companythat has steadfastly devot-

ed two decades to revo-lutionising medical

documentation forthe UK’s National

Health Servicelaunched his lat-

est offeringAugnito in theIndian mar-

ket.He tellsus about

Augnito, its benefits and itsfuture in India.

Born out of the need todisrupt our traditional busi-ness model of medical tran-scription at Scribetech,Augnito is an advancedspeech to text AI built forhealthcare professionals,which is a powerful enablerfor Electronic MedicalRecords adoption in hospitals, thus leading to better clinical outcomes andpatient care.

What is Augnito? Rustamexplains, “Augnito is a prod-uct truly “made in India” forthe world market. It wasdeveloped after 7 years ofR&D with leading academicsusing the latest science ofdeep learning. We have usedHuman Centred Designprinciples to understand theneeds and challenges of doc-tors which are very unique tothe Indian context anddesign solutions aroundthem. We are the only com-pany in India providing suchadvanced voice technology inthe healthcare domain.Simply put, our biggest USPis our out-of-the-box accura-cy which has been tested andproven against the voiceengines of global technology

leaders, which is the rea-son leading hospital

systems in ourcountry areadoptingAugnito.Mobility is a key

differentiator.Being a cloud based

service with availabilityacross different OS and

devices, Augnito is availablefor the doctor everywhere.”

Clinical documentationhas always been critical for

healthcare professionals forbilling, insurance, medico-legal purposes, and analyticsto achieve better patient care.With Augnito, doctors canproduce twice the number ofreports at the same time withclose to 100% accuracy,which allows them to focusmore on patient care and hasa direct impact on the bot-tom line. Rustom says withthe adoption of Augnito, alarge healthcare group of2,000 beds could save poten-tially Rs 20-30 crore a year.

Speaking about its futurein India, Rustom says, “Wehave recently been awardedthe Abdul Kalam Fellowshipfrom Government of India asthe industrial partner foradvanced research in thehealthcare space along withProfessor PushpakBhattacharya of IIT Bombay,who is one of the leading sci-entists in AI in the country.In the next five years, we seeAugnito as the voice interfacedriving software in hospitalsacross the country — it’s a bitlike “Intel inside”. We nowhave an illustrious strategicadvisory board with the likesof Ishaat Hussain (formerFinance Director of Tata Sons& chairman & board mem-ber of many Tata companieslike TCS) and Maciej Kraus(Venture Investor andStanford Lecturer). Webelieve India will be one ofthe best laboratories for AIbecause we have a massivemarket and a young, dynam-ic population of computerscientists, engineers anddesigners who have the con-fidence to build world classsoftware products made inIndia for the world. We arejust getting started!”

A

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

FridayOctober 16, 2020

In the face of a pandemic,what India needs right

now, is better health care,over other reforms. The

country lacks properclinical documentation,

which is critical forhealthcare professionals

for billing, insurance,medico-legal purposes andanalytics. Saying what theIndian healthcare system

needs is widespreadadoption of the ElectronicMedical Records, Rustom

Lawyer, Co-founder ofScribetech, talks to

K RAMYA SREE abouthis brainchild Augnito

REVOLUTIONISING

MEDICALDOCUMENTATION

IN INDIA

BORN OUT OF THE NEED TO DISRUPT OURTRADITIONAL BUSINESS MODEL OF MEDICALTRANSCRIPTION AT SCRIBETECH, AUGNITO ISAN ADVANCED SPEECH TO TEXT AI BUILT FORHEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS, WHICH IS APOWERFUL ENABLER FOR ELECTRONICMEDICAL RECORDS ADOPTION IN HOSPITALS,THUS LEADING TO BETTER CLINICALOUTCOMES AND PATIENT CARE.

Honouring the Hippocratic Oathhe medical fra-ternity has beencaught at itsmost vulnerable,in the recentglobal pandemic,

thanks to the high-exposureoccupational hazard itoperates under. And yet,doctors have taken much ofthe stress and strain ofCovid19 on their chin, so tospeak, putting their ownhealth in peril, rightfullyearning the moniker ofCorona warriors.

One such Corona warriorwas Dr KVR Prasad whosuccumbed to the dreadeddisease in July after fightingthe virus valiantly for threeweeks. The 85-year-olddoctor had continuedattending on patients at hisclinic-cum-nursing home,despite pleas from his fami-ly, consisting of mostly doc-tors. In fact, SrideviNursing Home which hefounded in 1972 in SitaphalMandi was the first privatenursing home ofHyderabad, which startedwith 15 beds and went upto 150 beds.

“But he paid little heed toour warnings, as he wasused to seeing upto 100patients a day since the last55 years and genuinelybelieved that their needswere larger than his andcontinued seeing patientsuntil June, when he devel-oped a sore throat andfever, and then passed awayof Covid-related complica-tions on July 2nd,” says hisson Dr K Hari Prasad, pres-ident Apollo Hospitals.

While the family was leftgrieving and then mullingover ways of honouring hismemory and keeping thelate doctor’s Hippocratic

legacy alive, inspiration wasalready around the corner.

Hari Prasad, himself acancer survivor and authorof the highly inspiring self-motivation bookI’mpossible, had founded theHES (Health EducationSports) Society in Februarythis year, as part of his phil-anthropic initiatives, andafter his own life-changingexperiences with cancer.Having been addicted totobacco, and being obese,hypertensive and diabetic toboot, he had a challengingroad map ahead, after beingafflicted with leukaemia.But armed with lifestyle

changes of diet and exer-cise, and shedding thetobacco addiction, Dr Harimanaged to lose about 50kilos in a span of two years.Not only did he overcomeall these odds, but was alsofully cured of the rare bloodcancer.

“All three streams of lifeare close to me, health(being a doctor myself),education (always wantingto give back to this sector)and sports (being a RanjiTrophy cricketer), so thosewere my first lines ofthought, while founding aphilanthropic society,”shares Dr Hari, often

regarded as the pioneer ofemergency medical care inthe country. In fact, hetransitioned to full-timemanagement/administra-

tion of the Apollo groupwhile setting up dedicatedemergency services acrossApollo units across thecountry.

So the Prasad family con-sisting of siblings, all thechildren and grandchildrendid some brainstormingtogether and decided thatthe first initiative would beto support meritorious andneedy medical studentsunder the aegis of Dr K.V.R.Prasad MemorialScholarship, in the memoryof the noble doctor, whowas bound by theHippocrates oath of medi-cine, a rarity these days.

“Beginning with thisyear, the scholarship willsponsor the entire tuitionfee over four years for everyeligible candidate everyyear. The eligibility criteria

are qualifying in NEET(Undergraduate) (NationalEligibility and EntranceTest) and a merit seat in anygovernment medical collegein Telangana. Also, the fam-ily net income should beless than Rs 1 lakh perannum,” shares Dr Hari.

For the year 2020, Ms CShreya from Karimnagar

was chosen in Septemberfrom among 70 applicantsto be conferred with the DrKVR Prasad MemorialScholarship on meritgrounds. Shreya hadsecured a seat in KakatiyaMedical College after quali-fying in NEET and herfather had an annualincome of Rs 95,000 perannum. Needless to say,Shreya is hugely inspired bythe late Dr Prasad’s dedica-tion to his patients andaspires to keep his motto of“patients first” close to herheart.

For now, the HES Societyis self-funded, by Dr Hariand his family members,each of whom makes adonation every month. “Allthe sales proceeds from mybook go to the fund and Iand my family membersmake a voluntary donationevery month. While itscompletely close-knit and afamily affair for now, I alsoplan to open the societyfunding to the public andexternal resources after get-ting the necessaryincome tax exemp-tions,” adds Dr Hari.

While the educa-tion initiative hasbeen addressed forthis year, health and

sports are the next twoareas which will get theHES attention. “We areplanning to promote Covid-awareness by distributingmasks, sanitisers and withaudio-visual aids in villagesacross Telangana soon.Besides this, we will also tryto look after the medicalneeds of one needy patientevery year,” shares Dr Hari.

Sports being close tohim, young sportspersonsshowing potential but notbeing able to afford sportsequipment/gear and coach-ing fees, will also be finan-cially supported, startingwith one person every year.I had started playing RanjiTrophy cricket while still inschool but I didn’t have anyfinancial issues then, butnot everyone is lucky. Iwould love to sponsor abright cricketer, but it canbe also be any other sport,not only cricket,” He adds.

Clearly, nothing isI’mpossible for the doctorand his causes….much toemulate from.

T

SWATI SUCHARITA, Senior journalist

SRIDEVINURSING HOME,WHICH DR KVRPRASADFOUNDED IN1972 INSITAPHALMANDI, WASTHE FIRSTPRIVATENURSING HOMEOF HYDERABAD,WHICH STARTEDWITH 15 BEDSAND WENT UPTO 150 BEDS.

Rustom Lawyer

Shreya receiving the scholarship from Ms Poornamamba, the late doctor’s wife

Dr KVR Prasad

Dr K Hari Prasad

10

Hyderabad Friday October 16 2020

PAR

TY

what’s brewing?

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

GLAMOUR,DANCE &RITUALS

In some great news forthose looking for waysto celebrate upcoming

festivities post lifting ofthe lockdown, Country

Club, in association withVajram, Bangalore, will be

hosting Asia's biggest-ever Navrati Utsav 2020,while also unveiling its

Country Club VIP card inthe presence of popular

actress and anchorSimran Ahuja.

l Kavitha Jain

l Swathil Kushi l Sunitha

l Krupa

l Kingshuk Nag and Swati

l S

upriy

a S

ikka

l Shivani Mohan

l Priya l Soumitra Pahari

l Akansha

l R

ajee

v R

eddy

l A

nany

a

Ph

oto

s b

y S

V C

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ry

A TASTY EVENING

To beat the monsoon blues, Mercure Hyderabad KCP hosted a special ‘Ladies Day

Out' to help women unwind, and chill in a safe environment. The evening wasfun-filled with the ladies and couples, relishing and indulging in exquisite snacks

along with exotic tea and coffee, while maintaining proper social distancing and otherprecautions.

Tamannaah to discuss her isolationperiod on her social media pages

fter com-pleting her14-day iso-lation peri-od inHydera-

bad, Tamannaah hasflown back to herhometown Mumbaion Wednesdayevening. She laterposted a video on herInstagram page whereshe is welcomed byher family members.In a video shot by oneof her close associ-ates, the actress isseen expressing herjoy visiting her home.

“It’s just been so crazyand I’m so gratefulthat it’s all over anddone with. And now Ican finally get back toliving life and doingeverything. I’m goingto be putting up a lotto tell people whatI’ve gone through,”she said.

After cuddling herlittle dog for a while,she added that shenever thought shewould be returningback to home thissoon.

“I was hoping that Iwould spend a lot of

time at work but I’mhappy to be back. I’llstay at home to spendsome good time, feelgreat and get back towork. I just want tothank everyone whohas sent all the wish-es. I am perfectly finenow and I am goingto work towardsbuilding my staminaand energy,” shenoted.

The actress wasshooting for aha’s cor-porate thriller inHyderabad when shestarted experiencingsymptoms of COVID-

19 earlier this month.After undertaking themandatory tests,she was diag-nosed asCOVID- 19positive. Shewas dis-chargedfrom thehospital36hourslater.

ast month RenuDesai announcedher acting come-back with an unti-tled web series.Turns out, the web

series plan has been droppedand the makers decided tomake the same story as a fea-ture film, titled Aadhya. Tomark the directorial debut ofad filmmaker MR KrishnaMamidala, the film is a jointproduction venture betweenDS Rao and S Rajanikanthunder DSK Screen- SaiKrishna productions.

To be made as a pan-Indiaproject, the female-centricfilm features Sai Dhansika,Nandini Rai, Hindi-Marathi

actor Vaibhav Tatwawaadi,Dinesh Tej and Gitika Ratanin supporting roles.

Speaking to The Pioneer,

Krishna said the web seriesplan is still on but it boilsdown to the situation nextyear. “If cinema halls startattracting patrons like before,we will consider releasing itas a feature film. Else, we willstick to the web series plan.We are flexible that way,” hesaid.

While he is cagey aboutrevealing the plot, saying thathe will announce moredetails at the muhurat dateon Dasara, he did tell us thatRenu agreed to headlineAadhya after the first narra-

tion itself. “The story droveus this far. She is excitedabout the project. It is set on

a lavish scale and it will be abig project. We are planningto roll in Hyderabad fromnext month. We are in theprocess of zeroing in onsome more places forother portions,” hepointed out.

Aadhya, incidental-ly, is the name ofRenus’ daughterfrom ex-husbandPawan Kalyan.When askedwhether it wasintentionalfrom his end,the directorclarified,“The title hasa relation tothe film’sconcept.There areno otherreasonsbehind it.Aadhyameans AdiShakti: Thepower ofwoman.Once theaudiencewatches thefilm, they willfeel the title isapt for thestory.”

The film is set on a lavish scale and it will be a big project. Thefilm’s name Aadhya, incidentally, is the name of Renus’

daughter from ex-husband Pawan Kalyan, but the title has arelation to the film’s concept, finds NAGARAJ GOUD

11

Hyderabad Friday October 16 2020tollywood

L

aving resumed last month inHyderabad in adherence withall safety protocols, SekharKammula’s anticipated next,Love Story, starring NagaChaitanya and Sai Pallavi, has

shifted to Armoor once again. Earlierthis February, the filmmaker shot por-tions involving the lead pair, RajeevKanakala and Devayani there. “Thepresent schedule is an extension of thelast month’s resumption. In between,we had frequent breaks of two days;some actors couldn’t come fromChennai and then the clouds openedup. We are looking to wrap up thetalkie portions by the weekend, leav-ing us to shoot a song which will beshot at a convenient time atAnnapurna Studios, Hyderabad,” one of the producers of the film,Rammohan Rao, tells us.

Love Story, a romantic musicaldrama which traces the journey of ayoung adult and a woman from theirrespective villages in Telangana toHyderabad to chase their dreams, is ajoint production venture betweenSunil Narang, Rammohan Rao andKammula.

Amid buzz that the pro-ducers are planning for a

Valentine’s Day releasenext year, Rammohaninsists they haven’tthought of a release dateyet but is quick to addthat they will assess theground reality beforemaking a call. “The film’scopy, however, will be

ready by November-end,” he states.

— NG

Love Storyback toArmoor

H

Virataparvam

to resumefrom nextmonth

ore than sevenmonths after it waspaused due toCOVID-19 pandem-ic, Rana Daggubatiand Sai Pallavi-star-

rer Virataparvam is set toresume now. The film was 10

days away from a wrap whenthe pandemic forced the unitto take an inordinate break.While the initial plan wasto complete pending por-tions in Hyderabad andVikarabad, it looks likethe latter is out of theequation now. “The filmwill resume fromNovember first week.Hyderabad will host theouting for 10 days. Theprincipal cast-Rana, SaiPallavi, Priyamani andNaveen Chandra-will take

part in the shoot,” said film’sproducer Sudhakar

Cherukuri when contacted.Set in ’90s backdrop,

Virataparvam, a socio-politicalcommentary laced with a lovestory, sheds light on the Maoistmovement, specifically themoral dilemma that prevailedback then. It features animpressive roster of prominentsupporting actors such asNandita Das, Sai Chand,Easwari Rao, Zarina Wahab,Rahul Ramakrishna andNagineedu in key roles.

— NG

RENU GARU AGREEDTO HEADLINE AADHYA

AFTER THE FIRSTNARRATION: DIRECTOR

M

A

Shreyas ET new project with singer Manoopular playback singer and

voiceover artist Mano akaNagoor Babu is playing oneof the leads in Money direc-

tor Siva Nageswara Rao’scomedy entertainer Crazy

Uncles. Composer-turned-actor RaghuKunche and Raja Ravindra are playingother lead roles in the film, which sees

Sree Mukhi as the leading lady. Thefilm is being developed for OTT plat-form Shreyas ET founded by Shreyas

Srinivas.The platform has also green-lit a

couple of other ventures as well. Whileone, to be directed by Pora Pove fame

L Srinivas, will feature comediansSrinivas Reddy and Vennela Kishore,

the other, titled Goldman, is headlinedby Sampoornesh Babu. Debutant

Srikanth is directing it.The platform will also be associated

with an eight-episode web series titledGodavari Kathalu. Kalyani Malik has

been signed as the composer for it. Allthese new projects will be launched on

the auspicious occasion of Dasara.

P

KL Rahul 387 runs

Kagiso Rabada 18 wickets

HYDERABAD | FRIDAY | OCTOBER 16, 2020

12

MOTION PICTURE

DUGOUTWhen I used to play, manyplayers carried drinks for me nowwhen deserved players are in thefield it's my duty do return favours.It isn’t about me playing or not, itis about my team winning

I have been working really hardto get my pace up. Been workingon my braced leg and my frontarm. Happy to get some pacebehind it but you obviously needto get it in the right area

The courage he (Deshpande)showed, the line and length hebowled was amazing. He tookthe very important wicket ofStokes and from there themomentum changed for us

We are not in the greatestposition at the moment, sowe need to move on fromthis and hopefully comeback with a big game inthree days' time

TODAY

Live from 7:30pmSTAR SSPORTS 11

VVSS

POINTS TABLEP W L NRR PTS

1 DC 8 6 2 +0.990 12

2 MI 7 5 2 +1.327 10

3 RCB 8 5 3 -0.139 10

4 KKR 7 4 3 -0.577 8

5 SRH 8 3 5 +0.009 6

6 CSK 8 3 5 -0.390 6

7 RR 8 3 5 -0.844 6

8 KXIP 8 2 6 -0.295 4

Indian skipper Virat Kohli played his 200th game for RoyalChallengers Bangalore on Thursday @RCBTweets

Rajasthan Royals co-owner and brand ambassador Shane Warnespends time with budding cricketers at Royals camp in RajasthanRoyals UAE Academy @rajasthanroyals

Rajasthan Royals pacer Jofra Archer spends quality time with hisparents in Dubai @rajasthanroyals

IPL SHOULD BAN KOHLI AND ABD: KLOn the eve of their high-profile IPL match between RCBand KXIP, captains Virat Kohli and KL Rahul engagedthemselves in a hilarious chat show, which was shownLive. During the Puma India Instagram Live chat show,the batting stars talked about various things, includingpossible changes in review rules. But the best part camewhen Kohli asked Rahul, “What is that one rule whichyou like to change in the T20 format, to youradvantage?” “I would ask IPL to ban you (Kolhi) and ABde Villiers for the next season,” replied Rahul to the thelaughter of Kohli. The KXIP captain on a serious note,also demanded that if a batsman hits a big six, which isover 100 metres, it should be given more runs.

VIRAT’S BATTING SUPERSTITIONTeam India and RCB captain Virat Kohli, whether it isinternational cricket or IPL matches, is always seenplaying in white shoes. He himself explained why hecomes out to bat wearing white shoes. DuringInstagram Live, he told Manchester City footballer PepGuardiola that I like to play in white shoes. It is likesuperstition for me. Virat said, “I love playing in whiteshoes, batting specially. It's more of a superstition forme. When I bat, it's my zone and time to be absolutelyclose to myself and perform,” said the 31-year-old, whomade his international debut in 2008.

PTI n ABU DHABI

An explosive batting line-upand a lethal-at-death bowl-

ing attack will give defendingchampions Mumbai Indians adefinitive edge over KolkataKnight Riders when the twoteams clash in an IPL game hereon Friday.

The defending championsare on a roll having won their lastfour games, while there are prob-lems aplenty for KKR, who weredecimated by RCB by 82 runs intheir last game.

For KKR, questions remainas to whether their key spinnerSunil Narine, who has been oncereported for suspect bowlingaction, will play or not. He hadmissed the game against RCBeven as KKR hoped for an “earlyresolution” to the issues sur-rounding his controversialaction.

In the event of Narine miss-ing out again, Mumbai will fancytheir chances even more at theSheikh Zayed stadium, whereskipper Rohit Sharma has scoredboth his half-centuries this sea-

son.Sharma (216 runs),

on his day, can pummelany attack to submis-sion and particularlyenjoys playing againstKolkata. When the two teamsmet last, Mumbai rode on hisbelligerent 80 to register a 49-runwin.

Apart from Sharma, theMumbai top and middle-order is in good form —be it Quinton De Kock(191 runs) orSuryakumar Yadav (233runs), who would like tocontinue in the samevein.

M u m b a iIndians coachM a h e l aJ a y a w a r d e n ewould be pleasedwith the likes ofHardik Pandyaand swashbuck-ling KieronPollard, whohave beenl a u n c h i n ginto the

opposition attack withtheir big-hitt ingprowess along withKrunal Pandya.

Given the trio’sabilities, they can rip

apart the KKR attack, especiallyone sans Narine.

On the bowling front too,Mumbai looks a settled unitwith Trent Boult and JaspritBumrah providing early break-

throughs. They are comple-mented by Australian JamesPattinson and the trio hasaccounted for 31 wickets.

Spinners RahulChahar and Krunal will

be again looking tocontain the KKR bat-ters.

Meanwhile, thebiggest drawback forKKR is the inconsis-tent performance oftheir batsmen, par-

ticularly AndreRussell, who hasjust managed ameagre 71 runs

from sevengames.

There was talk of Russellbeing promoted up the order, buthe continues to bat down andhasn’t done justice to his abilities.

Kolkata also possesses anumber of batsmen who can takeany attack to cleaners. It compris-es the young and elegantShubman Gill, England’s WorldCup-winning captain EoinMorgan, Nitish Rana and skipperDinesh Karthik, but they havenot got going barring the oddgame.

The management would behoping that come Friday, theyfire in unison to reduce pressureon young guns Rahul Tripathiand Tom Banton.

KKR bowlers did well tofashion narrow victories againstKings XI Punjab and ChennaiSuper Kings, but were profligateagainst RCB.

KKR may also look to playKuldeep Yadav, who wasdropped after playing just threegames, in place of a third pacer.

He can come in handy alongwith mystery spinner VarunChakravarthy, who was econom-ical in the game against RCB.

ABU DHABI: The pitches in theUAE are getting slower witheach passing day but MumbaiIndians head coach MahelaJayawardene is keen to persistwith their pace-heavy attack.

A lot of teams are relyingon their spinners now as theball has started to stop a bit afterpitching, forcing the batsmen tomuscle the ball around insteadof timing it.

“I cannot say that right nowbecause the fast bowlers stillhave a bigger role to play in thiscompetition — be it in thePowerplay, middle overs andthe backend,” Mahela said whenasked if they would re-thinktheir strategy against KKR.

“So, trying to keep that bal-ance as long as they are mak-ing contributions, penetratingthrough opponent batting line-up, it does not matter what kindof surfaces we play on,” he said.

The former Sri Lankanbatsman said the quality of theirfast bowling, led by JaspritBumrah, creates enough oppor-tunities for them.

“We have got very goodspinners, who are operatingright now within the playingeleven. There are a few guyswho are at the wings, who wemight look at giving certainpositions and match-ups. Ifthe conditions suit, we will lookinto that but right now, I amhappy with the combination wehave and the way they haveoperated,” said Mahela. PTI

AFP n LONDON

England’s prospects of returningto the finals of the Nations

League suffered a big hit as GarethSouthgate’s side lost 1-0 at hometo Denmark on Wednesday, whileKylian Mbappe gave World Cupholders France a 2-1 victory inCroatia and Portugal won withoutCristiano Ronaldo.

Harry Maguire was sent off forEngland in the first half atWembley for two clumsy yellowcards, and Christian Eriksen thenconverted a 35th-minute penaltyon the occasion of his 100th capto put the Danes ahead.

They held on to inflict a firsthome defeat on England in twoyears, with the hosts also havingyoung Chelsea full-back ReeceJames sent off for dissent after thefinal whistle.

“He is a top player, he is a mas-sive part of what we do,” Southgatesaid in defence of Maguire, whohas struggled for Man Unitedsince his involvement in a brawl onthe Greek island of Mykonos inAugust.

“He is having a period whereis having a lot of stick thrown hisway and he is big enough to dealwith that.”

England got to the four-teamfinals of the inaugural NationsLeague last year but their chancesof getting there again this time are

very much in the balance withBelgium two points ahead ofSouthgate’s team and the Danesatop League A, Group 2.

Belgium won 2-1 in Icelandon Wednesday with RomeluLukaku scoring twice. They hostEngland in Brussels on November15.

In Zagreb, PSG star Mbappemissed an open goal early on butgot the winner in the 79th minuteas France beat Croatia 2-1 intheir latest re-run of the 2018World Cup final.

Antoine Griezmann had putFrance ahead with Nikola Vlasicequalising in the second half forCroatia before around 7,000 fans.

Les Bleus have still never lostto Croatia and are level withPortugal on 10 points at the top ofLeague A, Group 3.

DOUBLES FFOR JJOTA, LLEWAPortugal, winners of the inau-

gural Nations League, shrugged offthe absence of Ronaldo because ofa positive Covid-19 test as theybeat Sweden 3-0 in Lisbon.

Liverpool’s Diogo Jota set upBernardo Silva for the openerthen scored two of his own, oneeither side of half-time.

Meanwhile, the prolific RobertLewandowski scored a brace asPoland beat Bosnia andHerzegovina 3-0 in Warsaw. KarolLinetty got the other goal andPoland are top of Group A, a pointabove Italy and two ahead of theNetherlands.

The Dutch came from behindto draw 1-1 with Italy in Bergamo,with Donny van de Beek nettingfor Frank de Boer’s side afterLorenzo Pellegrini put Italy ahead.

PTI n DUBAI

Opener Shikhar Dhawansays his teammates at Delhi

Capitals know it will be a jobwell done whenever the ball ishanded to the lethal pace duo ofKagiso Rabada and AnrichNortje.

In the IPL on Wednesday,the Capitals registered a thrilling13-run victory over RajasthanRoyals on the back of an incred-ible death overs bowling by theirpace attack comprising Rabada,Nortje and rookie TusharDeshpande.

Nortje (2/33) was breath-takingly fast, bowling in the mid150 kmph. He gave away justfour runs and took a wicket inthe 18th over and Rabada (1/28)followed that up with a three-run over for a wicket.

“Nortje and Rabada aregreat bowlers, Rabada is a leg-end, and when they both bowlas a partnership, it is lethal,”

Dhawan, who took over thecaptaincy duties from an injuredShreyas Iyer, said at the post-match press conference.

“They have been takingearly wickets and when webring them back during thedeath overs or the middle overs,we know they will do the job.

“We are fortunate to havethis class of bowling. The spin-ners have also been doing theirjob. The way (Ravichandran)Ashwin has been performingafter the injury has been great.Everyone is performing andthat is a sign of a good team,” headded.

The Royals’ bowlers pro-vided their team with a brightstart, giving away just 32 runsin the last five overs. JofraArcher returned with the bestbowling figures as he finishedwith 3-19.

However, the batsmen onceagain failed to live up to thebilling, losing wickets at regularintervals and spin bowlingcoach Sairaj Bahutule rued thelack of substantial partnerships.

“Well, I think partnershipswere pretty important, the startwe got through Jos Buttler andBen Stokes, we did not need tolose these many wickets andespecially that run out of RiyanParag,” Bahutule said.

“The most important partwas the wicket of Stokes and therun-out was very crucial, wecould have probably avoidedthat and if Sanju stayed at thewicket, we could have taken thegame a bit deeper and got theseruns,” he added.

We always know Rabada and Nortjewill get the job done: Dhawan

MATCHES 25

MUMBAI INDIANS 20

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS 06

Stats: Faisel FFeatures

MI start favourites against KKR Mahela wants to continuewith pace-heavy attack

Srikanth sails intoDenmark quartersODENSE : Ace Indian shuttlerKidambi Srikanth stormed intothe Denmark Open quarterfi-nals with a straight-game winover Canada’s Jason AnthonyHo-Shue here on Thursday.

The fifth seeded Indiantook 33 minutes to get the bet-ter of his Canadian opponent21-15, 21-14 in the men’s singlessecond round of the $750,000Super 750 tournament.

“It was close until 11 in bothgames. I’m just happy that Icould continue that formthroughout the match. I had tobe alert to get back his shots,”Srikanth told BWF.

The 27-year-old will nextface world No 2 Chou TienChen of Chinese Taipei, whobeats Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen21-8, 21-16 later in the day.

Talking about Chou TienChen, Srikanth said: “He’s beenplaying well the last few years. It’sdefinitely a match where I canunderstand where I’m at. That’sthe whole idea of playing thistournament.

“He hits hard, he’s someonewho has an overall game, he hasa hard smash, he knows when toattack and when to defend. Hehas matured. It’s always goodwhen you play a top 4 player.”

Maguire sees red in England’s defeat

MI pacer Jasprit Bumrah chats withteammate James Pattinson @mipaltan

Anrich Nortje celebrates with KagisoRabada after taking wicket IPLT20

PTI n SHARJAH

Kings XI Punjab finally put upa disciplined effort with thebowl to restrict Royal

Challengers Bangalore to 171 forsix in their must-win IPL matchhere on Thursday.

Skipper Virat Kohli top-scoredwith 48 off 39 balls in his 200thgame for RCB but it was ChrisMorris’ 25 off 8 in the death oversthat took the team to a competi-

tive score.The final over bowled by

Mohammad Shami went for 24runs and could well prove to be thedifference on a pitch which is notthe batting beauty it was at the startof the tournament.

Notwithstanding Shami’s way-ward 20th over, it was a muchimproved bowling effort from ateam that has been leaking runs inthe death overs game after game.

KXIP conceded only 25 runs

from over 16-19 before Morris andIsuru Udana hammered Shami forthree sixes.

After Kohli chose to bat, KXIPexperimented by opening thebowling with Glenn Maxwell (0/28in 4 overs). He was slog swept byhis Australian teammate and closefriend Aaron Finch on the finalball.

Other opener DevduttPadikkal (18) also went for hisshots with his best hit of the nightbeing the whip off Shami that wentfor a six over deep square leg.

However, both Padikkal andFinch could not build on theirstarts. Padikkal was foxed by aslower one from left-arm pacerArshdeep Singh to be caught atcover, while Finch missed a fast leg-break from M Ashwin, leavingRCB at 62 for two in the seventhover.

With Kohli looking good at theother end, AB de Villiers wasexpected to come in at his usualnumber four spot but with two leg-spinners in operation, left-handedbatsman Washington Sundar wassent ahead of the South African.

The move did not work as hestruggled to 13 off 14 balls.

KXIP, whose bowling has beenthe weakest link, did rather wellfrom 11-14 overs conceding just 20runs to put pressure on the oppo-sition.

RCB needed to move on andsouthpaw Shivam Dube providedthe timely strike, dispatching RaviBishnoi to consecutive sixes toamass 19 runs from the over.

Following Dube’s dismissal inthe 15th over, De Villiers finallyjoined Kohli for the late assault,which was eventually provided byMorris.

KXIP has the last laugh

RCB skipper Virat Kohli plays a shot against Kings XI Punjab IPLT20.com

RCB 171/6 (20 OVERS); KXIP 177/2 (20 OVERS)

Tracing Tushar Deshpande’s journey fromParsee Gymkhana to IPL via Shivaji ParkMUMBAI: From standing in along selection queue for aspir-ing batsmen at the iconicShivaji Park Gymkhana toshining on his IPL debut as apacer, Mumbai rookie TusharDeshpande has come a longway.

The 25-year-old bowlerheld his nerve to help fashiona 13-run victory for DelhiCapitals against RajasthanRoyals on Wednesday night.

“In 2007, I along withthree-four boys had gone forselection for BPL loop acad-emy of Shivaji ParkGymkhana from Kalyan.There was a big queue forbatsmen, around 40-45 play-ers were lined up and 20-25batsmen were padded up.

“... And the bowler linehad only 15-20 aspirants.It was around 3.30PM and the selec-tion was till 6-6.30.

“I thoughtwith so manyplayers linedup for bat-ting, I won’t geta chance, but at thesame time I was notkeen to return

empty handed and hence Istood in the bowler’s line,”Deshpande recalled onMarathi chat show Coffee,Cricket Aani Barach Kaahi.

The speedster, whoclaimed figures of 2-37 fromhis four overs on his IPLdebut, has also played a partin Mumbai winning its firstVijay Hazare Trophy title inmore than a decade.

Continuing about theselection trial, he added, “Tillthen no one had told me thatI bowl quicker than the aver-age boys. The bowler linemoved fast, and after mynumber came, I fortunately

got the new ball. “Imarked the run-upand bowled a ball. Itwas a superb bananaout-swing and even

kicked after land-ing. Paddy sir( P a d m a k a rShivalkar) said:

‘well bowled,b o w l

t h esameb a l l

again’.“I didn’t

even know

who he was, but I bowledagain, bowled 6-7 balls andwas shortlisted,” he recalled.

“The same process wenton for the second and thirdday. After Paddy sir andSandesh Kawle sir gave meconfidence, I decided to playfor the Gymkhana andbecome a pacer,” he quipped.

Mumbai CricketAssociation (MCA) apexcouncil member KhodadadYazdegardi remembered howdespite suffering a break-down during a police shieldgame, Deshpande came backstrongly.

“A year before last he wascalled for trials with Kings XIPunjab. But in two weeks’time the Ranji season wasstarting. I got a call from himsaying he won’t be going forthe trails as Ranji was startingand he would like to play thepolice shield game.

“He played that game, butwhile bowling broke down,and was out for a month. Buthe always kept faith in him-self that he would recover andplay again. He is mentallyvery strong,” Khodadad, whois an office-bearer of ParseeGymkhana, told PTI. PTI