VIJAYAWADA, SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022; PAGES 12 `3

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ALMANAC

Updated: JUNE 17, 2022 5:00 PM

Forecast: Partly cloudy

Temp: 36oc

Humidity: 69%

Sunrise: 5:35 AM

Sunset: 6:42 PM

Month & Paksham:

Tithi: Panchami: Jun 18 02:59 AMto Jun 19 12:19 AM

Shashthi: Jun 19 12:19 AMto Jun 19 10:18 PM

Nakshatram: Shravana: Jun 17 09:56 AM

to Jun 18 07:39 AM

Dhanishta: Jun 18 07:39 AMto Jun 19 05:56 AM

Rahukalam: 9:01 AM to 10:39 AM

Yamagandam: 1:55 PM to 3:32 PM

Varjyam: 11:22 AM to 12:51 PM

Gulika: 5:46 AM to 7:23 AM

TTOODDAAYY

VIJAYAWADA WEATHER

PNS n AMARAVATI

Chief Minister YS Jagan MohanReddy held a review meeting onthe implementation of the jobcalendar and directed the officialsto prepare an action plan for therecruitment of posts, whichwere specified in the jobcalendar and not yet filled.

During the meetingheld at the camp officehere on Friday, the ChiefMinister said 39,654 postswere filled in the year 2021-22and reminded that 1.26 lakh per-manent jobs were created in thevillage and ward secretariats aftercoming to power. He said anoth-er 50,000 people were taken intothe government by merging RTC.

The Chief Minister directed theofficials to fill vacancies in the med-ical and health department by endof June, associate professor posts in

the higher education departmentby September and APPSC posts byMarch and said to prepare anaction plan in this regard. He saidthe state government has beenspending a lot of money on health

and education and there won'tbe many benefits if posts are

not filled in these sectors.He said the recruitmentof teaching posts in thehigher education depart-

ment including regularand contract jobs should be

transparent and effective anddirected the officials to prepareplans in this regard.

The Chief Minister instructedthe officials to prepare an actionplan for recruitment of Policeposts and said recruitmentshould be done regularly as perthe plan.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The State government on Fridayannounced the new bar policywhich will be in effect for threeyears from September this year.This means there will not be aliquor ban in the State in the com-ing few years.

SNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

Though it’s a foregone conclusionthat the YSRCP candidateMekapati Vikram Reddy will winthe Atmakur bypoll slated to beheld on June 23, the ruling partyhas set an ambitious target toachieve at least one lakh majorityof votes to prove a point that theYSRCP government’s popularity isstill intact.

Though it’s not a difficult taskfor YSRCP to achieve a lakh votesmajority as the main Oppositionhas stayed away from the bypoll,BJP is trying to make a mark bydenting the majority votes target ofthe ruling party as the campaign-ing has reached a feverish pitchwith the bypoll fast approaching.

Prepare action plan forjob recruitment: CM

ATMAKUR BYPOLL

YSRCP sets sightson 1 lakh majority

Rain in city brings relief todenizens from heat wave

AP govt announcesnew bar policy

22

2

ED cconducts rraid aat JJC PPrabhakar’shouse iin TTadipatri P3

An Army aspirant from Warangalwas killed and 13 others wereinjured in firing by RailwayProtection Force personnel, follow-ing fiery protests at theSecunderabad Railway Station onFriday by hundreds of army aspi-rants and their supporters, includ-ing students, against the controver-sial Agnipath yojana, which hastriggered nationwide violence.

Irate youth set fire to coaches ofseveral trains, railway stalls as wellas other railway property and van-dalised most of the station, reportDeepika Pasham, SiddharthSingh, K Venkateshwarlu andNaveena Ghanate of The Pioneer

The protesters, demandingimmediate scrapping of Agnipath,sat on the railway tracks. The RPFand TS Police personnel had atough time in bringing the situa-tion under control.

The agitators pulled out cargofrom the parcel van, dumped them onthe tracks, and set them on fire, lead-ing to disruption of train services.Coaches of Shalimar-bound EastCoast Express, Howrah to ManmadAjanta Express, Raipur Express, ICFTrain and Rajkot Express weretorched. The protesters forced the railpassengers to disembark and setablaze the coaches. Parcels and bikeswere dumped on railway tracks andtorched. Some of the protesters pelt-ed stones indiscriminately, hurtingmany common people. After this, theRailway Protect Force personnelopened fire.

The first casualty of the protestsin Hyderabad was Rajesh (19)from Warangal - an army aspirantwho was shot during firing by theRPF personnel. Hundreds of thoseaspiring to join the armed forcesfrom Warangal, Karimnagar,Vijayawada and Guntur took partin the protests. The protestors

were holding placards and bannersemblazoned with their sloganslike, "Justice for Army Aspirants","We want justice" and "BharatMatha ki jai". Some of the protest-ers told The Pioneer: "We haveappeared for the Army CommonEntrance Exam and we have ourhall tickets for the written test,which is being postponed. Now the

new scheme says we may not be eli-gible, so our future is game to theofficials. They must conduct examsand withdraw the Agnipathscheme." "It is absolutely fine if thepolice hit us hard. They havealready fired at one of our protest-ers. Now our fight is going to bestronger. We will fight for ourfriends who are suffering in hos-

pital", they added. Due to thewidespread rampage at the station,several passenger train serviceswere affected, apart from damageto railway property.

In all, 28 Mail/Express Trainswere Cancelled; 70 MMTS; eighttrains were diverted; 19 were partial-ly cancelled and for two expresstrains there was change in terminalstations, as per the situation at 8:00pm on Friday, according to SouthCentral Railway authorities.

Police personnel tried to reason withthe protesters saying that their careerswould be in jeopardy, but the protest-ers, including students; respondedsaying their life was "already underthreat with the new Agnipath schemeand so there would be no harm inarresting them or killing them".

When AR Srinivas, AdditionalCommissioner of Police (Crimes)suggested to the protesters that 10among them could discuss theirissues with senior Army officials, theyrejected it and maintained that theyall would go. The students said: "Wehave already submitted letters but wenever received a response fromthem.

FIERY PROTESTS OVER AGNIPATHn Army aspirants lay

siege to Sec’bad RlyStn; one dead, 13 hurtin firing by RPFpersonnel

n Coaches of trains,parcel vans and cargotorched on tracks

n 28 Mail/Express trainscancelled; 70 MMTSand 8 other trainsdiverted

VIGIL HHEIGHTENED AAT AAP RRAILWAY SSTATIONS PNS n AMARAVATI

Security has been stepped up at all major railway stations in Andhra Pradesh,including those in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, following arson in theSecunderabad railway station and destruction of railway properties in variousother parts of the country on Friday in protest against the Centre's 'Agnipath'scheme relating to recruitment in the armed forces. The Government RailwayPolice (GRP) apart, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the local police havealso been deployed at the major railway stations and yards in the State toprevent untoward incidents. Police said there have so far been no protests inAndhra Pradesh over the scheme. "We have launched a coordinated effort withthe RPF and the local police to beef up security. The situation is under control inthe State and we are maintaining a strict vigil," Additional Director General ofPolice (Railways) Kumar Vishwajeet told PTI here. He said the top officials wereconstantly monitoring the situation and taking necessary action. Additionalforces have been deployed at major railway stations like Guntur, Nellore,Narasaraopet, Kadapa and Rajamahendravaram as a precautionary measure.

2

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Heavy rain lashed Vijayawada cityon Friday morning giving themuch-needed relief to the peoplefrom a long heat wave. The rainbegan at around 8 am and contin-ued for over an hour, leaving theroads flooded at many low-lyingareas in the city.

The good news is that the IMDMeteorological Centre Amaravatihas given a weather warning ofthunderstorms accompanied by

lightning at isolated places overNorth Coastal Andhra Pradesh &Yanam, South Coastal AndhraPradesh and Rayalaseema in thecoming four days. Employees had toface inconvenience due to the sud-den downpour as many of themwere caught unawares while on theirway to the workplace. As the rain-water had stagnated on the road, themotorists had to face problemsnegotiating their way.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The eight national parties havedeclared a total income of Rs1,373.783 crore in financial year2020-21 with the BJP's share beingnearly 55 per cent of it, a non-gov-ernment electoral watchdog saidon Friday. The Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP), Congress, BahujanSamaj Party (BSP), NationalistCongress Party (NCP),Communist Party of India (CPI),Communist Party of India-Marxist(CPM), All India TrinamoolCongress (AITC) and NationalPeople's Party (NPP) are the eightnational parties recognised by theElection Commission (EC).

In a statement, the Associationfor Democratic Reforms (ADR)said the eight national partieshave declared a total income of Rs1,373.783 crore in financial year(FY) 2020-21, collected from allover India. Citing details submit-ted by the parties before the EC, itsaid the BJP has shown the high-est income amongst the nationalparties -- Rs 752.337 crore during

FY 2020-21. "This forms 54.764per cent of the total income of eightnational parties during FY 2020-21," it said. The Congress declaredthe second-highest income of Rs285.765 crore which forms 20.801per cent of the total income of thenational parties.

Between FY 2019-20 and 2020-21, the BJP's income decreased by79.24 per cent from Rs 3,623.28crore during FY 2019-20 to Rs752.337 crore during FY 2020-21,ADR said. The income of theCongress decreased by 58.11 percent from Rs 682.21 crore duringFY 2019-20 to Rs 285.765 croreduring FY 2020-21.

Between FY 2019-20 and 2020-21, the income of the TMC, NCP,BSP, CPI and NPP decreased by48.20 per cent, 59.19 per cent, 9.94per cent, and 67.65 per cent and62.91 per cent, respectively. Themaximum expenditure for theBJP has been towards election andgeneral propaganda -- Rs 421.014crore, followed by expensestowards administrative costs,which were Rs 145.688 crore.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Facing countrywide protests overthe Agnipath scheme, the BJP onFriday rallied its leaders to put upa stout defence of the new recruit-ment initiative for the armed forces,with its senior leader and DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh terming itas a "golden opportunity" for theyouth to serve the country.

The party leaders also lauded thegovernment's decision to raise theupper age limit for recruitmentunder the Agnipath scheme to 23years from 21 for this year. BJPpresident J P Nadda said it showsthat Prime Minister NarendraModi is fully seized of the concernsof the country's youth and is mak-ing efforts for their bright future.

The government on Thursdaynight increased the upper age limitfor recruitment under the Agnipathscheme to 23 years from 21 for2022 amid widespread protestagainst the new model for enrol-ment of soldiers into the three serv-ices. Appreciating the govern-

ment's decision to raise the upperage limit under the Agnipathscheme, Union minister PralhadJoshi said that this decision willinspire the youth of the country toshow courage and serve the nationthrough Agnipath scheme.

"Our 'Agniveer', dedicated to theservice of 'Bharat Mata', will proveto be an invaluable fund for thenation," he said. Amid protests,Union minister Anurag Thakurposted a video on his Twitter, inwhich he was seen interactingwith a group of youngsters in hisconstituency Hamirpur and clear-

ing their doubts about the scheme."Cleared the doubts and made

youngsters aware of the vision of theGovernment of India behind thisscheme," Thakur said while addingthat he informed them the Agnivpathscheme is an innovative attempt tomake youth serve the countrythrough the army and provide thememployment-skill opportunities.During the four years of job under theAgnipath scheme, Agniveers wouldget around Rs 20 lakh in salary besidesother benefits and a lump-sumamount of Rs 10-12 lakhs on comple-tition of tenure, Thakur said.

Put stout defence of Agnipathm BJP rallies its leaders

PNS n NEW DELHI

Each state must recognise its strengthand define a target as this is crucialfor India to become a USD 5-trillioneconomy, Prime Minister NarendraModi said on Friday.

The prime minister was chairingthe first three-day national confer-ence of chief secretaries, which con-cluded on Friday at Dharamshala inHimachal Pradesh. The conferencebegan on June 15.

According to an official state-ment, appreciating the extensive ses-sions, the prime minister said thedeliberations were useful in laying outa roadmap for the sectors.

"The prime minister said everystate must recognise its strength,define its targets and develop aroadmap to achieve the same. Thisis essential for India to become a 5-trillion-dollar economy," the state-ment said, quoting Modi.

In 2019, Prime Minister NarendraModi envisioned to make India aUSD 5-trillion economy and globalpowerhouse by 2024-25.

Urban areas will be key in futuredevelopment and employment gen-eration, the statement said, addingthat therefore, urban local bodiesmust be strengthened, and urbanplanning should be done innovative-ly.

To attract investment in the coun-try, the prime minister said the PM-Gati Shakti should be appropriatelyimplemented and urged that allvacancies across state governmentdepartments must be filled.

"The prime minister said the statesmust identify such vacancies undereach sector and fill them," the state-ment said. He also stressed the needfor improving the usage of technol-ogy in all government schemes andprogrammes and for creating inter-operability of data sets of the Centreand states.

He said that all new ideas andactionable points must be taken for-ward, incubated and institution-

alised. He said the need of the houris to perform, reform and transform.According to the statement, Modistressed that the Centre and stateswork together as Team India.

The action points and fresh ideasdiscussed at the conference must beimplemented without delay, headded.

Emphasising on minimum gov-ernment and maximum governance,the statement said the prime minis-ter stressed the need to ensuregreater ease of living in India. He alsosaid that decriminalisation of minoroffences should be taken up in mis-sion mode.

Modi said states must optimally

utilise the GeM portal for purchas-es made by their departments andlocal bodies, which would result intime and cost savings. According tothe statement, in order to achieve thegoals of the National EducationPolicy, the prime minister said thestates must try to integrateAnganwadis with primary schools.

Each state must recognise its strangth: PMTO MAKE INDIA USD 5-TRILLION ECONOMY

PNS n NEW DELHI

Against the backdrop of agitations invarious parts of the country over the'Agnipath' defence recruitment scheme,Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu onFriday said people have every right toprotest but there is no place for violencein a democracy. Damaging public

property would be harming the nation'sinterests, he said and called upon peo-ple to shun extremist tendencies.

Interacting with a group ofstudents from Jawaharlal NehruUniversity at his official resi-dence here, Naidu called uponpeople to protect the nation'sunity, sovereignty and integrity

and said that "hatred and intoler-ance are not part of Indian cul-ture". According to a statementissued by the Vice President'sSecretariat, Naidu reiterated thatIndia is the largest thriving par-liamentary democracy and followsthe principle of 'Sarva DharmaSambhava. There was no mention

in the statement whether the vice-president referred to any particu-lar case of violence.

He said the colonial rulers triedto create an inferiority complexamong Indians and urged the stu-dents to take pride in India's glori-ous civilisation. Replying to a vari-ety of questions from the students,Naidu said to be successful in life,it is important to aim high, workhard, and remain committed toachieving one's goals.

No place for violence in democracy: Naidu

8 national parties declared total incomeof Rs 1373.783 cr in FY 2020-21: ADR

IIT Hyd to offer M.Tech inOphthalmic Engineering PNS n HYDERABAD

IIT Hyderabad, in collaborationwith the L V Prasad Eye Institute(LVPEI), will be launching ablended Master of Technology(MTech) programme inOphthalmic Engineering throughtheir combined expertise in oph-thalmic care and engineeringand technology from this aca-demic year (August 2022).

The programme intends tocreate a pool of quali f iedOphthalmic Engineers who couldtake up the pressing challenges inEye care and develop technologyproducts. This unique, promisingprogramme is expected to createprofessionals who can take uptechnology challenges in ophthal-mology as a start-up.

Prof B S Murty, Director,IITH, said, "IITH has a richtechnology and innovationecosystem with the severaldepartments working on the cut-ting-edge areas. Eye care isamong the important areas ofsocial interest and technological

importance. Our faculty members are

already working with the leadinginstitute in the area, including LVPrasad Eye Institute. I am surethis programme would offer anexcellent platform for developingnew indigenous products in Eyecare, which aligns with thenational mission of AatmaNirbhar Bharat."

Dr Prashant Garg, ExecutiveChairman, LVPEI, said, "In addi-tion to the world-class eye careservices offered by LVPEI, theinstitute is also known for advo-cating public eye health, basic sci-ence research in eye care, capa-bility building of eye care person-nel, vision rehabilitation, andeye banking.

Renu John, Chair CIP, and DrK. Nithyanandan, ProgramCoordinator of OphthalmicEngineering, IITH, expressed,"Eye health and good visionhave profound implications onmany aspects of life, health,sustainable development, andthe economy.

First PhD scholar in HydPolice departmentPNS n HYDERABAD

The Department of Psychologyat Osmania University,Hyderabad, has awarded a PhD(Doctorate in Psychology) to SRavinder, ACP, CyberabadCommissionerate, for his thesisin psychology on "EmotionalIntelligence, Psychological Well-Being, Self-Efficacy And JobSatisfaction: A Study amongpolice personnel."

The present study's findingsrevealed that emotional intelli-gence, psychological well-being,and self-efficacy significantlyinfluence the job satisfaction ofpolice personnel.

The results suggest the need tobring awareness about emotion-al intelligence to police person-nel and conduct an emotionalintelligence training programmefor the personnel.

Security strengthened at

Bapatla, Ongole rly stations

P4

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

It is an undisputed factthat InformationTechnology and

Pharmaceutical industries,both powered by intellectualcapital, put Hyderabad onthe global map. The fact thatHyderabad hosts almost allglobal IT majors and is hometo not one or two, but threepharmaceutical companiesproducing vaccines for Covid-19 stands as testimony to thekind of knowledge-economythe city has become.

The world today acknowl-edges that future global eco-nomic growth will be drivenprimarily by knowledge andintellectual capital. As devel-oping countries aggressivelyaddress their infrastructuredeficit, knowledge and intel-lectual capital have becomethe new drivers for attractingglobal capital and hencegrowth. In this new economy,nothing is more important

than education - the buildingblock of intellectual capital.

It is in this context that theapathy shown by theTelangana Rashtra Samiti gov-ernment toward educationcomes as a total shock. It isunbelievable that Telanganaranked last among states inalmost all parameters in theNational AchievementSurvey-2021. In the survey ofstudents drawn from Classes3-10, Telangana is laggingbehind every State in thecountry. The performance ofour students is well below thenational average.

The reasons for this disas-ter are part of a deepermalaise. Even as the begin-ning of the new academic yearbrought cheers among stu-dents and teachers, a pletho-ra of problems awaited themfrom day one, including lackof basic facilities, poor infra-structure, dearth of teachers,

non-availability of textbooks,and lack of nutritious mid-daymeals. On top of it, the stategovernment's decision tointroduce English mediumfor students of Classes 1 to 8,without first imparting profi-ciency to the teachers in thenew medium, is agitatingboth students and teachers.

Although the new academ-ic year has begun, the govern-ment is yet to supply eventextbooks and uniforms. Theother basic need, especially forthe economically underpriv-

ileged students, is the mid-daymeal at school. The EducationDepartment claims that itfeeds 22,54,480 students in28,963 schools. But the qual-ity of food served has been anissue for years. Reacting tonews reports on broken riceand watered-down daal, theHigh Court issued notices tothe state government seekingreasons for paltry budgetaryallocations to the scheme.The state government, whichdoles out Rs 18 as subsidy foreach Rs 5 meal served under

the Annapurna scheme, paysjust Rs 4.97 and Rs 7.45 permeal for primary and upperprimary students respective-ly.

The salient feature of thisacademic year is the introduc-tion of English medium fromClasses 1 to 8 in all govern-ment and local bodies'

schools. The governmentboasts that a total of 1.04 lakhteachers were given trainingin English teaching. If Englishcan be mastered to the levelsof teaching with four days ofoffline instruction and fourZoom meetings, wouldn't stu-dents too be able to master thelanguage with a couple ofweeks of training? The gov-ernment committed a blunderby launching English mediumin schools without adequate-ly qualified teachers.

The issues confronted byIntermediate and technicaleducation are also equallybad. Higher education too isin a big mess. The govern-ment took its sweet time forappointing Vice-Chancellors,but they are unable to handleissues due to lack of funds aswell as scarcity of teachingand non-teaching staff.

The agitation by IIITBasara students for basic facil-

ities, enough teachers, ediblefood, and working doors ontoilets, among others, pointsto the pathetic conditions inour institutions deemed pre-mier. The students' cry forhelp is brushed off as "sillydemands" by the state'sEducation Minister. Instead,the police are used to silenceagitating students. Is it acrime to request the powers-that-be for laptops, betterfacilities, and required teach-ers? Instead of visiting theplace to pacify the aggrievedstudents, Ministers are takingto social media platforms toblurt out nonsense.

The neglect of education ismirrored by the steadydecline in the state's bud-getary allocation for the sec-tor since 2014. While theshare of Education in thestate's 2014-15 Budget was10.89 per cent, it was a mere6.24 per cent for 2022-23. The

neglect, nay, the utter disre-gard shown towardsEducation is so in-your -facethat the government doesnot even bother to pay itsteachers on time.

The state government,going by its highly irrespon-sible attitude, is determined todestroy public-funded educa-tion for obvious reasons.Government schools andsocial welfare hostels have allalong produced high-qualitymanpower, apart from writ-ers, and intellectuals; yet, theTRS government is bent uponputting an end to it. Peopleof the state should teach thisgovernment a lesson in thenext elections for the sake ofthe present and future gener-ations.

(The writer is the officialspokesperson for the

Bharatiya Janata Party'sTelangana unit)

KISHORE POREDDY

Although the new academic yearhas begun, the government is yet tosupply even textbooks anduniforms. The other basic need,especially for the economicallyunderprivileged students, is themid-day meal at school.

TRS govt bent upon destroying education

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The two-day Indo-Dutch pilotproject on AntimicrobialResistance (AMR) under theGovernment of India OneHealth project concluded on agrand note on Friday. Theteam held discussions with theDepartment of Microbiology,Siddhartha Medical College,Vijayawada, and theDepartment of VeterinaryMicrobiology, NTR College ofVeterinary Science, and SriVenkateswara VeterinaryUniversity, Gannavaram.

A 20-member delegationfrom the Netherlands compris-ing researchers, scientists andrepresentatives of pharma andother sectors held discussionswith the Government of APofficials on the plans for expan-sion of the AMR project andother health-related activities.

On a concluding day onFriday, a session called ‘ScienceMeets the Future’ was held atNTR College of VeterinaryScience, coordinated by Dr PAnand Kumar, Professor andHead, Department ofVeterinary Microbiology.

A few of the visiting scientistsspoke at the session. ProfStefano Mazzoleni spoke onbioengineering and new treat-ments, Dr Harry Wels, on inter-disciplinarity and Dr KeesVeldman spoke on rationalisingthe use of antibiotics in animalsand how to measure it.

During the lectures, the scien-tists interacted with medical andveterinary students and stressedthe need to work together underOne Health for societal benefit,human health, animal healthand environmental health. Bothmedical and veterinary studentsactively participated in the discus-sions.

Dr K Sarjan Rao, Dean ofVeterinary Science, SriVenkateswara VeterinaryUniversity, Dr B Sreedevi,Associate Dean, and Dr MarcelFloor, Counsellor for Health, theNetherlands Embassy, NewDelhi, spoke on the occasion.

In all, sixty second-yearMBBS students fromSiddhartha Medical College,and sixty second-yearVeterinary students of NTRCollege of Veterinary Scienceparticipated in the sessions.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

AB Venkateswara Rao onFriday assumed charge as theCommissioner of Printing,Stationery and Stores PurchaseDepartment. After assumingcharge, he told the media per-sons that he was very happy tobe back in service after a gapof three years.

Venkateswara Rao said hedid not completely understandthe printing and stationerydepartment. However “I don’tthink this is an insignificant orloop line post. The governmentwill make appointments asper its discretion and accord-ing to the requirements of the

department.”ABV said that the

G o v e r n m e n tPrinting Press atMutyalampaduhad a lot of impor-tance before thebifurcation of theState as textbooks andgazette notifications usedto be printed there. "However,with the latest technology, thisprinting press has lost its glory.But I will study the situationand see how best I can improvethe systems, after discussing itwith the employees here," andinteracted with the printingpress staff after taking charge.

The state government has

given a posting to thesenior IPS officer fol-

lowing the SupremeCourt order.Though he report-ed to duty on May19, he was not

given a posting tillWednesday. The

Supreme Court on April22 ordered that the State gov-ernment revoke ABVenkateshwara Rao's suspen-sion and directed that the stategovernment take him backinto service immediately.Meanwhile, ABV wrote to theChief Secretary twice and eventried to meet him personally togive posting orders.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Irrigation Minister AmbatiRambabu came down heavi-ly on Opposition chief NChandrababu Naidu for whathe called conspiring againstChief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy andspreading false propagandaduring his public gatheringsto mislead the public.

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Friday, theMinister said Naidu has beenspeaking out of frustrationand is irritating people withhis speeches and has evengone ahead by addressing theChief Minister without anyrespect.

He said that people havealready dislodged him frompower in 2019 for doing noth-ing to the State during histenure and saved AndhraPradesh by electing YSJaganmohan Reddy.

The Minister said thatChandrababu Naidu had for-gotten his role as anOpposition leader and is goingaround inciting the publicagainst the government. Hequestioned why peopleshould protest against theYSRCP government whenschemes like 'Amma Vodi','Cheyutha', 'Aasara' and 'RythuBharosa' were not implement-ed during TDP rule.

He said that ChandrababuNaidu has been deliberatelyspreading false propagandausing a few media houses todivert people from the gov-ernment’s welfare activities.

Speaking on Naidu’s

remarks on the volunteers'pay scales, he stated that thevolunteers are working with aservice motive and are receiv-ing honorarium instead ofsalaries and slammed Naidufor provoking them againstthe government.

Refuting the allegationsthat the government is illegal-ly providing water to BharathiCements and other industriesrelated to the Chief Minister,he said that any industry willtake their share of water aftergetting authorized permis-sions. He stated that YSJaganmohan Reddy hadindeed completed irrigationprojects like GandipetReservoir, Chitravati,Sarvaraya Sagar which wereneglected during the TDPrule.

He announced that NelloreBarrage and Sangam Barragewhich was named after for-mer minister MekapatiGoutam Reddy will be inau-gurated by the Chief Ministerin August this year. He chal-lenged the Opposition leaderto come to Assembly anddiscuss issues.

Naidu conspiringagainst CM: Ambati

2-day Indo-DutchAMR project ends

PNS n AMARAVATI

The National Human RightsCommission (NHRC) onFriday issued a notice to theDGP of Andhra Pradesh onthe alleged false case filedagainst a Dalit domestic maidwho worked in Chittoor jailsuperintendent VenugopalReddy's house.

Acting on a complaint sentby TDP leader Varla Ramaiah,the NHRC ordered the DGPto instruct an IG-level officerto hold an independentinquiry into the violation ofrights of housemaidUmamaheswari.

This is the first time that theNHRC has given such a seri-ous response to the extent ofissuing notice to the DGP. TheNHRC has also asked theDGP to send the IG's reportwithin four weeks.

Expressing concern, theNHRC said: "The allegationsmade in the complaint areserious in nature involvingfalse implication and illegaldetention of a woman by apublic servant. The case, there-fore, involves a grave violationof the Human Rights of thevictim and her family. Suchtypes of cases are viewed veryseriously by the Commission."

Way back on January 4 thisyear, Varla Ramaiah wrote tothe Chairperson of NHRCthat Andhra Pradesh hasbecome a hub for illegal deten-tions, house arrests, false cases,mid-night arrests, and custo-dial torture, police harass-ment, etc. The latest incidentwas the custodial torture of aDalit woman, Umamaheswari,by the Chittoor town police.

Ramaiah said that the policehad summoned

Umamaheswari to the policestation continuously for twodays and tortured her for atheft that she did not commit.Umamaheswari is working asa domestic maid at the houseof Venugopal Reddy, ChittoorJail Superintendent, Chittoor.

It was alleged that anamount to the tune of Rs. 2Lakhs went missing from the

house of Venugopal Reddy.The police allegedly torturedUmamaheswari to confess tothe theft that she did notcommit.

The TDP leader said thatlater, it was known that some-body in Venugopal Reddy'shouse had taken the amount.Even after knowing that,Umamaheswari was torturedin the police station.

Ramaiah told the NHRCthat the police have not onlyviolated the principles ofhuman rights but also wentagainst the judgments of theSupreme Court with regard toarrests and custodial torture.Against this backdrop, it isappealed to inquire and takestringent action against cul-prits for torturing a Dalitwoman in police custody.

NHRC issues notice to AP DGP

Happy to be back in service: ABV

21 new CCTV cams installed at Durga TemplePNS n VIJAYAWADA

Kanaka Durga Templeauthorities have been givingtop priority to the securityof the devotees visiting thetemple. After the Covidcurbs were relaxed by thegovernment, the number ofdevotees visiting the templehas increased reasonablyand the temple authoritieshave beefed up security

measures. The aut hor i t i e s have

installed 21 new CCTV

cameras at various places onthe temple premises in addi-tion to the existing 153CCTV cameras, taking thetotal to 174.

Temple Executive OfficerD Bramaramba said that thepolice suggested installingmore CCTV cameras forthe protection and securityof the devotees.

CCTV cameras are con-stantly monitored by the

temple staff in three shiftswith two operators per shift.

The EO further said thatto provide better services tothe devotees visiting thetemple, ‘Dial your EO’ willbe held on June 19.

She said that the devoteescould take part in the pro-gramme and give their com-plaints and valuable sug-gestions for providing betterservices to the devotees.

Continued from Page 1

The bypoll was necessitated due to the sud-den demise of sitting MLA and the then indus-tries minister, Mekapati Goutham Reddy inFebruary. While YSRCP has fielded GouthamReddy’s brother Vikram Reddy, BJP fielded itsdistrict unit president G Bharath Kumar Yadav.

Senior leaders like Minister PeddireddyRamachandra Reddy, MP MaguntaSrinivasula Reddy, Tirupati MP MGurumoorthy and a few ministers have beenpersonally taking part and monitoring thecampaigning besides election management.

Vikram Reddy has already completed around of door-to-door campaigns good willMekapati family commands in the region andthe sympathy factor due to the demise ofGoutham Reddy and welfare schemes will

work in the favour of YSRCP’s Vikram Reddy.BJP on its part has appointed a five-mem-

ber panel for the Atmakur bypoll. The panelconsists of MLC Vakati Narayana Reddy ashead and party’s State vice-president PSurendar Reddy, secretary A Kamala, Districtpresident G Bharat Kumar and senior leaderKandukuri Satyanarayana.

On June 18 and 19, a few national lead-ers are also expected to campaign on behalfof the BJP in Atmakur. Former MP and filmactor Jayaprada and former Union minister,Daggupati Purandeswari are expected to takepart in the campaign for BJP candidate. In the2014 general elections, Mekapati GouthamReddy won the Atmakur seat as a YSRCP can-didate with a majority of 31,412 votes againsthis nearest rival TDP’s Gunturu Murali KannaBabu. Goutham Reddy then secured around

55.98pf of the total votes polled. In 2019 heretained the seat though the vote margin haddropped to 22276 votes over his nearest rivalBollineni Krishnaiah of TDP. His vote sharehad also dropped to 53.22 pc of the total votespolled.

There are 2,13,330 voters eligible to exer-cise their franchise in the Atmakur bypoll.“Though Vikram Reddy is poised to win thebypoll, YSRCP leaders are not taking thebypoll lightly,” said a political analyst.

In the bypoll for Badvel in Kadapa districtheld in November last year, YSRCP candidate,Dr Dasari Sudha, who had polled a total of1,12,211 votes, won with a thumping major-ity of 90,533 votes with a whopping 76.25 voteshare over her nearest rival BJP’s PanathalaSuresh, who secured 21,621 votes and stooda distant second, lost deposit.

YSRCP sets sights on 1 lakh majority

Rain brings...Continued from Page 1

Vegetable and fruit vendors,who hit the city streets right fromthe morning, were not seen inmany parts of the city due to thesudden downpour.Many under-ground drains overflowed in thecity, creating inconvenience tothe people due to the suddenrain. VMC CommissionerSwapnil Dinkar Pundkar haspersonally swung into actionand directed the sanitation staffto ensure the clearing of thewaterlogged roads. With theIMD authorities releasing theweather bulletin forecastingmore rain, farmers started get-ting ready for the Kharif farm-ing activities. Normally, farmingactivity begins in the first weekof June in Krishna district.

AP govt...Continued from Page 1

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, in therunup to the 2019 polls asOpposit ion leader,promised a complete liquorban in the State if elected topower. However, the gov-ernment said there won't benew licences and the exist-ing number of 840 barsonly will continue.

The selection underthree categories of barl icences wi l l be donethrough the process of auc-tion-cum-draw of lots.

The upset price inNagara Panchayats havinga population of up to50,000 has been fixed at Rs15 lakh and Rs 35 lakh inmunicipalities having pop-ulations between 50,001and 5 lakh.

The upset price is Rs 50lakh in municipal corpora-tions having a population ofmore than 5 lakh.

Prepare action...Continued from Page 1

The officials informed theChief Minister that 39,654 postswere filled in the year 2021-22 ofwhich 39,310 posts were in themedical and health departments.They said 47,465 posts werenotified of which 83.5 per centwere filled in one year. They said16.5 per cent of posts, which wereabout 8 thousand posts are yet tobe filled with 1,198 posts are in themedical and health department.

DGP K V RajendranathReddy, Finance Special ChiefSecretary S S Rawat, Women andChild Welfare Principal SecretaryA R Anuradha, IrrigationPrincipal Secretary SashiBhushan Kumar, HealthPrincipal Secretary MuddadaRavichandra, Social WelfareSecretary M M Naik, CollegeEducation Commissioner PolaBhaskar, Andhra Pradesh HigherEducation Council Chairman KHemachandra Reddy, HomeDepartment Secretary HareeshKumar Gupta, GAD Secretary HArun Kumar and other officialswere present.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Authorities at the GandhiHospital confirmed one deathafter the police opened fireagainst the protestors duringthe unrest at the SecunderabadRailway Station on Friday.

As many as 13 persons havebeen injured and are currentlyundergoing treatment at thehospital. Dr Raja Rao,Superintendent, Gandhi Hospitalsaid, ̀ `14 injured persons fromSecunderabad Railway Stationcame to Gandhi Hospital casu-alty. One person was broughtdead, even then we tried to resus-citate, but he couldn't be revivedand was declared dead. Out ofthe remaining 13 persons, 2 weretaken up for surgery, one hadfractured femur and another hada chest injury. Remaining per-sons are having minor injuries

and all are stable, under obser-vation and are receiving support-ive treatment. The type andcause of injuries will be analysedby the concerned specialty doc-tors." The deceased has beenidentified as Damera Rakesh,aged 24 years.

The injured persons areJagannath Rangaswamy (20), KRakesh (20), A Srikanth (20), AKumar (21), G Parashuram (22),P Mohan (20), Nagender Babu(21), Vidhya Sagar (20), LakkamVijay (20), D Mahesh (21) andBharath Kumar (21).

Meanwhile, Health MinisterHarish Rao expressed his con-cern in this regard. He said, ̀ `Inthis hour of distress, directedGandhi Hospital to give propertreatment to 13 persons whowere injured during protest atSecunderabad Railway Stationagainst Agnipath Scheme."

The injured treated at Gandhi;two of them in critical state

vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

P Joshua took charge as thenew Superintendent of Police,Krishna district, on Friday.On the occasion, the SPexpressed happiness over beingposted as Krishna district SPand said he would strive tomake the district crime-free.He said the staff would alwaysbe at the forefront to addressthe problems of the people24/7, and women's safety willbe the top priority.

The SP said that we all arelucky to serve the people aspolice personnel and everyoneshould strive to serve the peo-ple in the district and keep thedistrict on top in serving thepeople. The police will takestern action against anti-socialelements and law & order vio-lators.

During the general transfers

of IPS officers in the State, PJoshua has been transferred toKrishna district and SPSiddharth Kaushal has beentransferred to Kurnool district.Additional SP N VenkataRamanjaneyulu, SpecialEnforcement BureauAdditional SP Asma Parheen,

AR Additional SP SVD Prasad,Training IPS Jagadish Adahalli,Sub-Divisional DSPs, policepersonnel and staff wishedthe SP Joshua on the occasion.

He then arranged a meetingwith police officers across thedistrict and made several sug-gestions.

Joshua takes charge as Krishna SP

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh GovernorBiswabhusan Harichandan hasbeen invited to attend theGuru Purnima celebrationsorganised by Satya Sai CentralTrust in Puttaparthi on July 13.

RJ Ratnakar, ManagingTrustee of Satya Sai CentralTrust, along with other mem-bers of the Trust , metGovernor Harichandan atRaj Bhavan on Friday andextended the invitation tohim and requested theGovernor to make it conve-nient to attend the pro-gramme as chief guest.

Ratnakar briefed theGovernor about the activitiesof Sri Satya Sai Central Trust

and said that the devotees ofSatya Sai Baba from all over theworld would attend the pro-gramme at Prashanti Nilayamin Puttaparthi, on the occasionof 'Guru Purnima' and takepart in the celebrations.

Governor Harichandan

appreciated the services pro-vided to needy people throughSatya Sai Central Trust and theeducational institutions man-aged by it.

RP Sisodia, Special ChiefSecretary to the Governor wasalso present on the occasion.

Satya Sai Trust invites Guv to ‘Guru Purnima’ fete

PNS n AMARAVATI

TDP national president andformer chief minister NChandrababu Naidu on Fridayaccused Chief Minister JaganMohan Reddy and his partyYSRCP MLAs of behaving like'extortionists and rowdies' toloot the State.

Naidu said the ruling YSRCPleaders acted like terrorists andcreated fear and panic among allsections of people. Even a smallshop owner was being threat-ened by the ruling party gangs.

The TDP chief addressed aseries of road shows inVizianagaram, Nellimarla andother places in Vizianagaram dis-trict on the third and final day ofhis 'NTR Sphoorti - ChandrannaBharosa' tours. At every publicmeeting, people from surround-ing villages arrived in large num-bers to listen to him.

Speaking on the occasion,Naidu asserted that Vijay SaiReddy and S.V. Subba Reddywere not sons of the soil inNorth Andhra and they had noright to show their dominationin that region. BotsaSatyanarayana knew only howto run 'a liquor business' andsuch a person was madeMinister for Education underthis mindless regime.

Naidu said that the Statewould regain its bright futureand the youth would get jobsagain only when Jagan Reddy

would step down from theChief Minister's chair. Botsashould be given Padmashree orPadma Bhushan for blamingparents for the massive failureof 10th class students this year.

Lashing out at the Jaganregime, Chandrababu Naidusaid: "It boasted of 'Nadu Nedu'.What happened to AmmaVodi? Still, the students havefailed. There are no scholarshipsand no Videsi Vidya. No AmmaCanteens. No ChandrannaBeema. All are gone. Everythingis gone in just three years."

Naidu said that the educationsector was totally destroyed inAP only because theGovernment had insulted andhumiliated teachers. Everyhuman society would respect aguru (teacher) on a par withone's father, mother and God.But, the Jagan regime disre-spected teachers by makingthem supervise queue lines atliquor shops.

Chandrababu Naiduexpressed surprise at how falsecases could be slapped onAshok Gajapati Raju, who hailsfrom the decent, generous, royalfamily of the Gajapatis. Theywere known for their liberaldonations and for setting up lotsof institutions and constructingmany temples.

The TDP chief said JaganReddy was trying to increaseRTC charges once again tomor-row or the day after. Already, allsections were unable to pay thesteeply hiked current charges.Excessively high rates of petrol,diesel, liquor and essential com-modities have made the com-mon man's life miserable.

Naidu warned the ChiefMinister and his party YCPMLAs would have to run awaylike in Sri Lanka. The people ofAP had no need to fear the'goonda' rule and they shoulddraw inspiration from NTRfilms like 'Bobbili Puli'.

YSRCP leaders behaving like extortionists: Naidu

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

NTR District Collector S DilliRao, who is also the chairmanof the Vijayawada GovernmentGeneral Hospital (GGH)development committee, hassaid that the GGH would bedeveloped as a role model toother hospitals in the State withthe help of the State govern-ment. “The GGH serves notjust the Vijayawada people,but also the people of anotherthree to four districts,“ he said.

The Collector andVijayawada Central MLAMalladi Vishnu handed over to

the GGH Superintendent Rs.15lakh-worth beds, oxygen cylin-ders, sanitisers, thermal scan-ners, N95 masks and othermedical equipment, donatedby the World Vision India andUnited Kingdom, here onFriday.

Speaking on the occasion,Dilli Rao praised the WorldVision India for its efforts toserve women, children anddisabled persons. “TheVijayawada GGH gives bettermedical services than corpo-rate hospitals. MRI, X-Rayfacilities are available round-the-clock. Heart surgeries are

also performed there by expertdoctors,” he added.

He asked the doctors andstaff to be available at the hos-pital and give all medical ser-vices to the poor people. Hemade it clear that the hospitalpremises and toilets should beclean and air-conditions shouldbe maintained properly. Therewas no scarcity of funds for thedevelopment of hospitals andprocurement of medical equip-ment and the State governmentwas ready to give necessaryfunds for health and medicalservices, he said.

MLA Malladi Vishnu said

that three more districtsdepended on the GGH and sev-eral injured persons werebrought to the hospital for treat-ment. Advanced medical ser-vices were being provided to thepatients by a team of expert doc-tors and the hospital had a goodreputation in the State, he said.

wGGH Superintendent Dr.Soubhagya Lakshmi, WorldVision India senior managerTabita Francis, technical spe-cialist B Sambasivarao,Premadhara organisation pro-gramme manager NandigamJoshi Babu and others werepresent.

GGH will be developed as a model hospital: CollectorWorld Vision India donates beds and medical equipment to the hospital

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Mylavaram MLA VasanthaKrishna Prasad has said thathis government can proudlyspeak about the developmentit has been brought about inthe State under the'Nadu–Nedu' programme andthe welfare schemes it hasimplemented. The officialsshould identify the eligiblebeneficiaries who have beenexcluded from welfareschemes, he said.

The MLA conducted theGadapa Gadapaku ManaPrabhutvam programme atObulapuram of Reddigudemmandal in the NTR district onFriday. Earlier, he visited theGoddess Mutyalamma Templeand performed special pujas

He conducted thedoor–to–door campaign toexplain the government’sschemes to the people by dis-tributing pamphlets. He visit-ed Meka Kanaka Durga’shome and interacted with her

family members. KanakaDurga said that her family hadgot Rs.1.18 lakh under variouswelfare schemes. Later, heenquired about the imple-mentation of various schemesfor the beneficiaries.

The MLA said that due tohis foreign tour, the Gadapa

Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvamwas delayed. “All the schemesare implemented transparent-ly and 'grama sachivalayam'staff take the schemes to peo-ple’s doorsteps irrespective oftheir political parties,” headded.

“Our Chief Minister YS

Jagan Mohan Reddy gives toppriority to welfare schemes aswell as development pro-grammes. No other State isimplementing such a systemin the Kharif,” he said.

He further said that as theState and the farmers weregearing up for the Kharif sea-son, the Water ResourcesDepartment released water tocanals. Most of the NTR dis-trict ayacut is underNagarjuna Sagar Project(NSP) canals and the officialsare ready to release water tothe canals on July 15, headded.

He said the State govern-ment supplied the seeds, fer-tilisers and other agriculturalmachinery through RythuBharosa Kendras (RBK) andpurchased the farmers’ pro-duce for a Minimum SupportPrice.

People’s representatives,mandal-level officers and'grama sachivalayam' staffaccompanied the MLA.

‘Nadu-Nedu' made development &welfare possible: Mylavaram MLA

DC makessurprise visitsto ‘wardsachivalayams'PNS n VIJAYAWADA

NTR District Collector S DilliRao, on Friday, made surprisevisits at 'ward sachivalayams'32, 33, 34 and 35 in the cityand verified the records.Heinspected the notice boardsthat display the beneficiary listsof the government’s welfareschemes and checked theattendance register.

The Collector said that the'sachivalayam' staff should beavailable at their offices to pro-vide various services to thepeople. The staff should createawareness among the peopleregarding development andwelfare schemes, he added.

He suggested that the staffshould behave politely andresolve people’s problems.'Ward sachivalayam' staffshould maintain the surround-ing areas clean and green andmonitor the removal of silt inthe drainages.

Attack on S’badrailway stationis unfortunate:Pawan KalyanPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Jana SenaP a r t y(JSP) chiefK PawanK a l y a nt e r m e dt h edestruc-

tion in the Secunderabad rail-way station unfortunate.

In a statement here onFriday, he said that the violentincidents which took place atthe Secunderabad railway sta-tion to protest the Agnipathrecruitment scheme causedanguish to him.

Pawan Kalyan conveyed hissympathies to the family of theyouth who was killed in policefiring. He wished the injuredto get well soon. He appealedto the officials to provide thebest treatment to the injured.

Meanwhile, Pawan Kalyanurged the Telangana state gov-ernment to take steps toresolve the problems of theIIIT (Rajiv Gandhi Universityof Knowledge andTechnologies) located atBasara. He appealed to thegovernment to respond to thedemands of studentsfavourably. The governmentmachinery should strive toachieve the objective for whichthe IIIT was established, hesaid.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Sleuths of the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) raided theresidence of TDP leader andformer MLA, JC PrabhakarReddy at Tadipatri inAnantapur district on Friday.At least 20 officers belongingto ED raided the house ofPrabhakar Reddy and con-ducted searches.

During the searches, it islearnt Prabhakar Reddy’sbrother and former minister JCDiwakar Reddy was also pre-sent.

It is understood that the EDraids are linked to an allegedscam unearthed by the StateTransport department in 2020in which the JC brothers andtheir family-run transportcompany were involved.

Simultaneous raids werealso conducted on the resi-dence of a Class one contrac-tor Chavva Gopal Reddy, whois a key aide of the JC broth-ers. ED teams are said to haveseized several incriminatingdocuments from them. Raidswere also conducted at thehouses of the JC brothers inHyderabad also.

State Transport departmentin February 2020 has

announced that it hasunearthed a major scam byPrabhakar Reddy’s family.They were alleged to have gotBharat Standard (BS) III vehi-cles illegally registered andbrought them to Anantapurfrom Kohima in Nagaland.

The then JointCommissioner Transport SAVPrasad Rao at a press confer-ence said a case was filed inAnantapur I Town PoliceStation with regard to 66 trucksplying in Anantapur andKadapa districts, that were not

BS-IV complaint.The BS-III vehicles were

allegedly illegally registered inKohima of Nagaland andtransferred to Tadipatri with-in two to 15 days with a NoObjection Certificate (NOC)from Nagaland.

ED conducts raid at JC Prabhakar’s house

Anticipatory bail plea of TDPleader Narayana kept on hold

DRM inspectsKoraput-Jeypore sectionPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Waltair Divisional RailwayManager (DRM) AnupSatpathy inspected theKoraput-Jeypore section andKoraput-Rayagada section ofthe Waltair Division onThursday and Friday. Hetook stock of various ameni-ties and facilities provided atthe stations enroute andongoing developmental activ-ities in that section.

He inspected stations andvarious establishments atimportant stations in the sec-tion. DRM inspected theKoraput, Manabar, Jeypore,Damanjodi, LakshmipurRoad, Tikiri and Rayagadastations thoroughly.

Vigorous inspection of rail-way track in the section,bridges, curves, level cross-ings and manned railwaygates was conducted byDRM. He also inspected therailway colonies and otherrailway establishments at thestations.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The unique free mass mar-riages programme,Kalyanamastu is scheduled totake place in all the 26 districtheadquarters across the Stateon August 7 in the auspicioushour between 8.07 am and8.17 am, said TTD EO AVDharma Reddy.

On Friday, the'Kalyanamastu MuhurtaPatrika' was taken on a proces-sion to Srivari temple fromBedi Anjaneya Swamy templein Tirumala. The 'MuhurtaPatrika' was placed at the holyfeet of Venkateswara Swamy toreceive His divine blessings

and special puja was per-formed.

Speaking to the media onthe occasion, the EO said,TTD had resumed this nobleprogramme after a decade. Sothis prestigious programmewill be observed initially at theentire district HQs acrossAndhra Pradesh on August 7.With the blessings of Srivaru,the poor parents who couldnot afford to perform themarriages of their children cannow execute without anyfinancial burden. Those whoare willing to enter the nuptialknot shall have to registerwhich opens from July 1onwards," he added.

State-wide Kalyanamstu on August 7: TTD EO

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Former minister and TDP leaderP Narayana has filed a petitionin the Andhra Pradesh HighCourt seeking anticipatory bailin the Amaravati capital InnerRing Road case. The courtadmitted the petition for hearingand after the arguments of bothparties are over on Friday and thejudgment was reserved by theHigh Court. Along withNarayana, RamakrishnaHousing chief Bobby,Lingamaneni Ramesh andLingamaneni Rajasekhar of theLingamaneni group have filed apetition for bail.

YSRCP MLA Alla

Ramakrishna Reddy has com-plained to CID officials that thealignment of Amaravati capitalInner Ring Road was tamperedwith. Based on that complaint,the CID registered a case. Thisincludes TDP chiefChandrababu Naidu as A1,Narayana as A2, LingamaneniRamesh as A3, LingamaneniRajasekhar as A4, Anjani Kumaras A5 and Heritage Foods as A6.A case has been registeredagainst them under Sections120B, 420, 34, 35, 36, 37, 166. FIRNo 16/2022. MLA RamakrishnaReddy alleged in his complaintthat there were irregularities inland acquisition between 2014 to2019.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Krishna district police Fridayaccorded a grand farewell to theoutgoing superintendent ofpolice Siddharth Kaushal at thePolice Parade grounds on Friday.The SP was transferred to theKurnool district. Several hun-dred police personnel participat-ed in the farewell programme.The SP received a guard of hon-our and spoke to the staff.

He said the police personnelrendered invaluable servicesin 11 months. He said, “I can’tforget your services and co-operations and will be in yourmind forever”. He said he was

able to maintain law and orderand prevent any untoward inci-dent during the agitations dueto the support and co-operationextended by the staff. Thepolice personnel felicitated theSP and his wife and bid farewellin a grand manner by follow-ing the traditions.

Outgoing SP gets a grand farewell from colleagues

04VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022

Security strengthened atBapatla, Ongole rly stations

PNS n BAPATLA

District Collector VijayaKrishnan has advised the farm-ers in the district to use com-post fertiliser and stop usingchemical fertilizers.

The district-level agricul-ture advisory board meetingwas held here in the Spandanaconference hall on Friday.Collector Vijaya Krishnan,MLA UmmareddyVenkateswarulu, ZP chairper-son Henry Christina and boardchairman M DasarathaMaharaja attended the meet-ing. They released a wall posteron 'Kharif in Advance'.

Speaking on the occasion,the Collector said that aware-ness should be created amongthe farmers to make farming aprofitable profession. TheCollector underlined the needto take up integrated farmingin a village in a mandal.Integrated farming should betaken up in 25 mandals on anexperimental basis, she said.

The Collector asked the farm-ers to give up farming in a rou-tine way and take up cultivationbased on fertile soil. Since thewater was released from theriver Krishna, the farmers could

commence farming activities forthe Kharif season, the Collectorsaid. The farmers should be edu-cated on the new variety ofseeds, she said.

The Collector asked the offi-cials to ensure that the farmersare sanctioned bank loans totake up farming activities andtake steps to ensure that thefarmers receive the benefits ofwelfare schemes being imple-mented for them. The officialsshould take steps to ensure thatall services are extended to thefarmers from the RythuBharosa Kendras.

She said that so far 1,714tenant farmers had been issuedthe CCR cards. Coordination

should be created between theland owners and tenant farm-ers, the Collector said. Thefarmers should be educatedextensively on the use of com-post fertilizers, she told theofficials.

Agriculture advisory boardchairman M DasharathaMaharaju regretted that thetenant farmers are using chem-ical fertilizers substantially toyield more produce. He askedthe farmers to give up the useof chemical fertilizers.

ZP chairperson Christinaasked the officials to worktowards the farmers gettingprofits in the farming. Shedirected the officials to make

available seeds to the farmersfor the Kharif. She remindedthat the farmers incurred loss-es previously due to fake seedsand directed the officials toensure that fake seeds are notsold in the market.

Steps are being taken toprovide more services throughthe RBKs, she said. MLCVenkateswarulu asked the offi-cials to help the farmers to gethuge profits by investing feweramounts. Joint Collector KSrinivasulu, DRO Peddi Roja,RDO G Ravindar, agricultureofficer Sk. Sattar and horticul-ture officer Krishna Reddyand other officials were pre-sent.

Farmers advised to use compost

PNS n ELURU

Eluru District Collector VPrasanna Venkatesh has direct-ed the officials to take mea-sures to curb road accidents inthe district and create aware-ness among the public on roadsafety.

Addressing the road safetycommittee meeting virtuallyon Friday, the Collector saidthat many lives are being lostdue to road accidents on theNational Highway, especiallydue to human errors such asnot wearing helmets, vehiclestravelling in the opposite direc-tion and violating road rules.

The Collector directed theofficials to explain the benefits tothe public of fastening seat beltsand wearing helmets. TheCollector directed the officials toidentify black spots on theNational Highway and displaywarning boards on the roads con-necting the National Highway.

He said that steps should be

taken to prevent auto-rick-shaws from being overloadedwith passengers. He said thatthere was a possibility of acci-dents due to parking of heavyvehicles on the road ratherthan at designated places onthe national highway at night,adding that highway patrollingofficers should take steps toensure that vehicles are notparked at ‘no parking’ areas.

The Collector asked theNational Highways officials totake steps to ensure that therewould be no potholes on thehighways. He said parking of

heavy vehicles on the roads inEluru city causes severe disrup-tion to traffic and steps shouldbe taken to ensure that heavyvehicles like buses are parkedon the outskirts of the city.

Steps should be taken toprovide immediate medicalassistance to road accidentvictims at the primary healthcentres along the nationalhighway. The Collector direct-ed the SE of the R&B depart-ment to carry out repairs onthe Eluru-Kaikaluru roadimmediately.

Superintendent of PoliceRahul Dev Sharma under-lined the need of conductingan awareness programmeeducating people on theimportance of wearing hel-mets and following trafficrules. R&B SuperintendentEngineer Nirmala, DMHODr Ravi, GGH SuperintendentDr AVR Mohan and otherofficials were among thosewho attended.

Officials directed to takesteps to check road accidents

The Collector directedthe officials to identifyblack spots on theNational Highway anddisplay warning boardson the roads connectingthe National Highway.

PNS n BAPATLA

Superintendent of Police VakulJindal has directed the policeofficials to expedite the inves-tigation into the SC and STatrocity cases and take steps todo justice to the victims.

SP Vakul Jindal conducted acrime review meeting onFriday in the district policeoffice with all district officersregarding the SC & ST atroci-ty cases under investigation.Speaking on the occasion, theSP said that the SC & STAtrocities (Prevention) Actcases should be investigated

expeditiously and necessarysteps should be taken to pun-ish the culprit and do justice tothe victims.

The SP also reviewed thecases registered so far under theSC & ST atrocity Act across thedistrict and inquired about theprogress of the respective cases,progress, arrest of the accused,and filing of charge sheetsafter a thorough scrutiny ofeach case file and investigation.

Vakul Jindal was given someappropriate instructions to theofficers regarding filing chargesheets in the SC & ST atrocityact cases. In the SC & ST

atrocity act cases, the castes ofthe victim certification shouldbe obtained from concernedauthorities, the inquiry should

be expedited and the chargesheet should be filed within thestipulated time.

The SP further directed

the officials to file a chargesheet in the concerned courtand as soon as the case isclosed and take steps to getSC no from the court. Thedistrict SP directed the offi-cials to review the SC & STatrocity act cases pendingstay order in the state Highcourt and take the requiredsteps to ensure that to vacatethe stay order and to contin-ue the further investigation.

On this occasion, SP VakulJindal said that the investiga-tion into the offences againstthe SCs and STs should bestarted immediately, action

should be taken against the cul-prits involved in the crime, thecharge sheet should be filedwithin the stipulated time andthe charge sheet should befiled in the concerned court assoon as possible.

He said that justice should bedone to the poor, weak anddowntrodden people by takingsteps to prove and punish theculprit. Bapatla SDPO ASrinivasa Rao, Chirala SDPO PSrikanth, SC & ST cell DSP AV Ramana, DCRB DSPG.Lakshmaiah and DSBInspector A Srinivas were pre-sent.

Hasten probe into SC & ST atrocity cases, officials told

463 kg ganja seized, 3 heldELURU: The police seized 463 kg of ganja, worth Rs 46.30 lakh andarrested three persons when being transported illegally in a lorry atKalaparru toll gate. SP Rahul Dev Sharma said that on a tip-off apolice team monitored by DSP GV Paideswara Rao and led by CI NDurga Prasad conducted a checking of vehicles at Kalaparru tollgate. The police found 463 kg of ganja being smuggled in a lorry.The police seized ganja worth Rs 46.30 lakh. The ganja was stuffedin 10 bags and was being taken to Sholapur of Maharashtra in thelorry. The police arrested Pune Vishnu, Shivaji Sukhdev Patil, andSrikanth Nanasho Shetti in this connection.

3 killed as milk van hits bikeAMALAPURAM: Three persons were killed when a motorcycle onwhich they were travelling hit a milk van at Mandapalli village inKothapet mandal in Konaseema district in the early hours on Friday.Police said that the deceased Appanna Satyavathi (55), herdaughter-in-law Venkatalakshmi ( 40) and grand-son Mahesh (20)went to Kothapet to meet Satyavathi’s son Nageswara Rao. Whenthey were going back to their native village Komarrajulanka, aspeeding milk van hit the bike, killing the three personsinstantaneously. The police registered a case and shifted the bodiesto the Government hospital in Kothapet.

S H O R T T A K E S

PNS n ELURU

Joint Collector P Arun Babu haswarned the doctors of register-ing criminal cases in case ofmaternity deaths. The JointCollector held a review meetingon the maternity death and heenquired with the doctors aboutthe reasons for the deaths.

Speaking on the occasion, theJoint Collector said that a 21-year-old woman and 25-year-old woman died atRamanakkapet PHC inMusunuru mandal and atSitannapalli PHC in Kaikalurmandal respectively during thedelivery.

The Joint Collector discussedwith the doctors of PHC, ASHAworks and ANMs on the rea-sons for their deaths. The JCdirected the district medicalofficer to take action if indiffer-ence of doctors and medicalstaff was found to the deaths oftwo women. Although toughmeasures are being taken to pre-

vent the maternity deaths andalso the deaths of newborns inthe district, it is a matter of con-cern that such incidents are tak-ing place in some areas.

It was suggested that the twodepartments should take appro-priate precautions to preventmaternal deaths in coordinationwith the Department of MedicalHealth and the Department ofWomen and Child Welfare onthe nutritional health conditionsof women from the time of con-ception, he said.

The Joint Collector said thatthe medical services should beprovided on time and nutritionshould be balanced to support

anaemia in all possible ways. Hesaid medical examinations andscanning procedures should becarried out on the health statusof pregnant women and riskshould be more vigilant towardspregnant women.

ASHA workers and ANMsshould visit pregnant women intheir area as per their job chartand make them aware of theirhealth conditions through pre-cautions, instructions and rele-vant PHC doctors. Arun Babudirected that steps be taken toprovide advice through special-ists as needed by paramedics topay special attention on min-imising maternal deaths.

JC warns of criminal casesin case of maternity deaths

PNS n BAPATLA/ONGOLE

The security at Bapatla andOngole railway stations hasbeen beefed up in the wake ofthe attack on Secunderabadrailway stations by agitators inprotest against the Agnipathscheme.

Bapatla SP Vakul Jindal per-sonally inspected the securityarrangements at BapatlaRailway Station in view of theongoing agitation against theAgnipath Scheme and instruct-ed the police officers and staffon RPF, GRP to be most vigi-lant and take all precautions.

Bapatla district SP VakulJindal said that in the wake ofthe attacks on the railway sta-tions across the country inprotest against the Centralgovernment’s Agnipathscheme, the security at the rail-way stations in the districtwas enhanced.

The SP reviewed the securi-ty of the railway stationsreviewed with the police offi-

cials. The SP told the media onFriday that the law & orderconditions in the entire districtis being monitored in the back-drop of agitations across thecountry against the Agnipathscheme which was newlylaunched by the Central gov-ernment regarding Armyrecruitments.

In view of maintaining peaceand tranquillity in the district,the security was tightened at allpublic areas, railway stations,and bus stands and deployedrequired forces to prevent anyunwanted incidents in the dis-

trict. The SP made it clear thatpermission would not be givento hold dharna in protestagainst the Agnipath scheme.

The SP warned that criminalcases would be registered Ifanybody tried to disturb thelaw and order situation andagainst the trouble mongers.The SP said that if a case is reg-istered involving violent inci-dents it would damage theirfuture as a character certificateshould be issued by the policedepartment. The SP said thata character certificate is a mustto join the government and

private jobs or for going toother countries.

Meanwhile, Prakasam dis-trict SP Malika Garg alsoreviewed the security arrange-ments for the railway stationsand other public places.

The SP said that security hadbeen beefed up in railway sta-tions, and bus stands by settingup police pickets. The SPwarned of registering criminalcases if anybody was involvedin violent incidents and thedestruction of public property.The police had also kept a vigilon the movements of old crim-inals and against those whohad history sheets. A strict vigilwas also kept on the leaders ofstudents’ unions, the SP said.

Malika Garg asked the stu-dents and youths not to be pro-voked by the messages beingspread on social media.Stringent action would be ini-tiated against those who spreadfalse and inciting messagesthrough social media, the SPwarned.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A contract employee with theDefence Research andDevelopment Laboratory(DRDL), who allegedly sharedconfidential information witha suspected Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) female han-dler, was arrested by theRachakonda Police here onFriday.

Acting on credible informa-tion, sleuths of SpecialOperations Team, LB Nagarzone, in a joint operation withBalapur police, arrested the 29-year-old suspect, DukkaMallikarjuna Reddy, who wasworking in the RCI Complex.He was suspected to haveshared confidential informa-tion related to DRDL-RCIComplex through social mediawith a woman, suspected to be

a female handler of the ISI,Pakistan's intelligence agency.The suspect, who did hisBTech and MBA, and hadposted on his Facebookaccount about his work withDRDL, was contacted by thewoman claiming to be NatashaRao. She trapped the gulliblesuspect introducing herself asan employee of UK DefenceJournal and that her fatherworked in the Indian Air Forcebefore shifting to theUK.During the subsequentconversations with NatashaRao, who apparently went byothers names too, includingSimran Chopra and OmishaAddii, Mallikarjuna Reddyshared confidential informa-tion and also shared his bankaccount details. He was incontact with her till Decemberlast year.

Hyderabad DRDL contractemployee arrested

Violence at Secunderabad: Cases booked against protestors

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Agnipath scheme is initiat-ed by the Central governmentand who will be responsible inthe Telangana state for theprotests against the Centre.Will these protestors get jobs infuture as there are FIRs filed onthem, one of the police officerquestions? The Railway policehave registered cases over theincident at SecunderabadRailway Station under Sections

143, 147, 324, 307, 435,427,448, 336, 332, 341, along withRead with 149

Cases registered under Indian

Railways Act 150, 151, 152Anuradha, Railway SP, said,

"We have registered a case on acomplaint lodged by RajaNurse, a Railway employee.The case is yet to be investigat-ed. It is unknown how many ofthem participated in theprotests. The value of propertydamaged has not yet beenassessed. We seized several carswith regard to protests. We willtake steps so that there will notbe any disruption to the trainsmovement. We will take neces-sary steps to prevent such situ-ations from happening again."

With so many cases regis-

tered on them, if in future theyshift to any other governmentjob also, the interview processwill not go ahead with suchcases on them. The students aretheir own destiny makersbecause now they have to keepmoving from the Police Stationto home, said a police officerfrom the Railway Station.

I have been here since morn-ing and tried to stop these stu-dents but they pushed us togeth-er. Did we see Army aspirants likethis anytime; this is surprising tome because we have huge respectfor the army as they have beenprotecting us since ages.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Thousands of police person-nel including teams of SpecialForces were deployed forsecurity in the wake of theunrest at SecunderabadRailway Station and also atGandhi Hospital.

The Railway ProtectionForce (RPF) was the first torespond to the agitation heldat the railway station. Whenthe protests started gettingviolent, the city police weredeployed in large numbersand other special forces werealso posted. The SpecialForces include Rapid Action

Force (RAF), Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) and per-sonnel from the TelanganaState Special Police (TSSP).

``About 500 police person-nel from city police and TSSPhave been deployed at the rail-way station to control the sit-uation. All of them areequipped with riot gear," saida senior police official. About300 personnel from TSSPwere also rushed to the spot.These personnel belonged tothe two battalions of TSSP sit-uated in Hyderabad - one inYousufguda and the other inKondapur.

Speaking to the Pioneer, an

officer from the Rapid ActionForce said, ``There are 200personnel from the RAF andabout 250 from the CRPFwho have been positioned atthe Secunderabad RailwayStation."Policemen and RAFwere also stationed at GandhiHospital in Secunderabadwhen it was confirmed thatone person is dead and thereare 13 people who are injuredand are undergoing treat-ment at the hospital. About120 members from the RAFand personnel from Citypolice as well as TSSP weredeployed at Gandhi Hospitalin the afternoon.

Thousands of cops deployed atSec’bad Station, Gandhi Hospital

People suffer hardshipsdue to lack of transportPNS n HYDERABAD

Students faced several prob-lems with regard to transportas Secunderabad bound busestook diversions and metroservices were stopped. Due toagitation, buses were notallowed inside theSecunderabad station. Railwaystaff were on roads withspeakers announcing thatbuses will be stopped atChilkalguda. "There were peo-ple running from main roadsto find out buses for their trav-el. Moreover, the buses werenot stopped at bus stops dueto diversion. Some rural peo-ple were seen sitting on theroads of Secunderabad area.

As usual passengers travellingto different destinations wereseen in a queue line withdoubts with regard to trainmovements. On the other hand peoplequickly picked autos whichcharged more than Rs 600 fornearby 5 to 10 km. Themetro officials immediatelysaid "Passengers are informedthat due to some disturbancein the city, all operations in allthree lines of HyderabadMetro Rail stand suspendedtill further notice. Passengers are advised to takecare and make alternativearrangements." Later around6:30 pm on Friday the metroservices were resumed.

nation 05VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022

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R No loudspeakers between 10 PM and 6 AMin religious places, pubs, restaurants: HC

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to strictly implementthe ban on the use of loudspeakers between 10 PM and 6 AM anywhere, includingreligious places, pubs and restaurants. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj

Awasthi and Justice Ashok S Kinagi directed the authorities to also carry out a drive tostop the misuse of loudspeakers, public address systems and music instruments andto submit an action-taken report to theCourt in three weeks. "The concernedauthorities are required to take appropri-ate action and they shall not permit use ofloudspeakers, public address system andother musical instruments producingsounds above permissible decibels from10 PM to 6 AM," the Court said. Duringthe earlier hearing of this petition, theCourt was told that the authorities hadillegally given "permanent licence" to someestablishments and religious places to useloudspeakers.

‘Covaxin proven safe for children of 2-18 years age group in phase III study’

Bharat Biotech International Ltd on Friday said its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has proven tobe safe, well-tolerated and highly immunogenic in children and adolescents of 2-18 yearsage group in phase II/III study. The company conducted phase II/III, open-label, and mul-

ticentre study to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of Covaxin in healthychildren and adolescents in the 2-18 years of age group between June 2021 to September2021, Bharat Biotech International Ltd(BBIL) said in a statement. "The studyhas been accepted and published inLancet Infectious diseases, peer-reviewed high impact factor journal," thecompany said. The clinical trial conduct-ed in the pediatric population has shownsafety, less reactogenic, and robustimmunogenicity. The data was submittedto the Central Drugs Standard ControlOrganisation (CDSCO) in October 2021,and received a nod for emergency use inchildren aged 6-18 years, it added.

15 nominations filed so far for July 18 Presidential election

Fifteen candidates have filed their nominations for the presidential election with thepapers of three of them rejected for want of proper documents, sources said onFriday. While 11 filed their nominations on the first day of filing the papers on June

15, three filed their nominations on Thursday and only one on Friday. One nominationwas rejected on the first day and two were rejected on the second day. The poll to electthe successor to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind will be held on July 18. The nominationprocess began on June 15 and willcontinue till June 29. Scrutiny of thenomination papers would be done onJune 30. Sources said one Sanjay SavjiDeshpande from Mumbai filed hisnomination on Friday for the topconstitutional post. On Thursday, AnandSingh Khuswah of Gwalior, PratelSureshchandra Laljibhai of Ahmedabadand Satya Narayan Prasad of Darbhangain Bihar filed their nominations, two ofwhich were rejected.

‘Govt working towards expanding NHnetwork to 2 lakh kilometres by 2025’PNS n NEW DELHI

The government is workingtowards expanding theNational Highway network to2 lakh kilometres by 2025,Union Road Transport andHighways Minister NitinGadkari said on Friday.

Addressing an event organ-ised by Indian Roads Congress(IRC), Gadkari also proposedthe setting up of 'InnovationBank' for new ideas, researchfindings and technologies tofocus on quality in infrastruc-ture development.

"Our government is dedicat-edly working towards expand-ing the National Highway net-work to 2 lakh kilometres by2025," he said.

The minister pointed outthat in the last eight years, thelength of National Highwayshas gone up by more than 50per cent -- from 91,000 km in2014 to about 1.47 lakh km

now.Noting that the government

is very committed to the devel-opment of the northeast

region, he said NHIDCL(National Highways andInfrastructure DevelopmentCorporation) is playing a vital

role in developing infrastruc-ture in this region.

"Till date, 2,344 km highwayhas been constructed at thecost of Rs 45,000 crore in theNorth East region," Gadkarisaid.

The minister said infrastruc-ture development has animportant role in fulfilling thevision of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to make Indiaa 5 trillion-dollar economy.

Innovation should be thefocus area for all engineers andIRC should develop a world-class state-of-art laboratorywith the help of IITs and glob-al institutions, Gadkari said.

There should be minimumcarbon footprints and exploita-tion of limited naturalresources during the construc-tion and operation phase, headded.

According to Gadkari, asustainable alternative for steeland cement should be found.

Criminal proceedings not short cut for other remedies: Delhi HCPNS n NEW DELHI

Criminal proceedings are not ashortcut for other remediesand criminal law cannot be setinto motion in a usual manner,the Delhi High Court has said.

The high court stated thatsummoning an accused in acriminal case is a serious mat-ter and the complainant has tobring on record material to sup-port the allegations to havecriminal law set into motion.

The observations were madeby the high court while quash-ing the complaint and sum-

moning order against a practic-ing lawyer for the allegedoffence of criminal breach oftrust on account of the absenceof material to prima facie estab-lish the commission of theoffence as alleged in the com-plaint.

The complainant real estatecompany, in the present matter,claimed that the petitionerlawyer illegally released to itsopponents' certain documentskept in an escrow account cre-ated in his name.

Giving relief to the lawyer,Justice Chandra Dhari Singh

said Criminal pro-ceedings are not ashortcut forother reme-dies. Thepetitioner isa practicingadvocate andhe has givenhis profession-al services tothe parties andthere is no materialon record to establishprima facie that he has commit-ted any offence as alleged in thecomplaint. Since no case of

criminal breach oftrust or dishonest

intention ofinducement ismade the sum-moning orderdated 27thN o v e m b e r2013 and the

complaint quathe petitioner is

liable to be quashed.Summoning of an

accused in a criminal case isa serious matter. Criminal lawcannot be set into motion as amatter of course. The com-

plainant has to bring on recordmaterial to support his allega-tions in the complaint to havecriminal law set into motion, thehigh court asserted in an orderdated June 10.

The high court said that theorder of the magistrate sum-moning the accused mustreflect the application of mindto the facts and the law and heis not a silent spectator at thetime of recording of preliminaryevidence before summoning ofthe accused .

He (Magistrate) has to exam-ine the nature of allegations

made in the complaint and theevidence both oral and docu-mentary in support thereof andwould that be sufficient for thecomplainant to succeed inbringing charge home to theaccused The Magistrate has tocarefully scrutinize the evidencebrought on record and may evenhimself put questions to thecomplainant and his witnessesto elicit answers to find out thetruthfulness of the allegations orotherwise and then examine ifany offence is prima facie com-mitted by all or any of theaccused, the high court said.

FURY OF YOUTH OVER AGNIPATH

PNS n BALLIA / ALIGARH /VARANASI

A man was shot dead in policefiring , trains went up in flames,and public and private vehiclesattacked, as railway stations andhighways turned into battle-ground in many states onFriday amid burgeoningprotests against Agnipath, thecontentious defence recruit-ment scheme.

Assurances by DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh, HomeMinister Amit Shah and theArmy chief failed to cut icewith hordes of angry youth,carrying bamboo sticks andstones, storming railwaypremises across cities and smalltowns and laying siege to high-ways, creating a security scare.

Raising slogans of 'BharatMata ki Jai' and 'AgnipathVapas Lo', youths vandalisedtrains and torched a railwaycoach in Ballia and damagedbuses at other places as protestserupted again in Uttar Pradeshon Friday over the Agnipathdefence recruitment scheme.

Police wielded lathis, lobbedteargas shells and took 100 peo-ple in custody in Ballia.

Officials said protests over

the recently announced schemetook place at 17 places acrossthe state, including Firozabad,Amethi, Varanasi, Unnao andDeoria.

A bus was set afire on theYamuna Expressway nearTappal in Aligarh and at leasttwo others damaged. Fourbuses were damaged in stonepelting on the Agra-LucknowExpressway in Firozabad.Protesters also targeted buses inVaranasi and Ballia.

Several trains were cancelledor held back by the Railways toprevent damage.

Additional Director Generalof Police (Law and Order)Prashant Kumar said arsonwas reported from Ballia andAligarh.

"In Ballia, youths set a bogieof a spare coach train on fire.Minor incidents were reportedfrom other places.

"Police officials haveexplained them the scheme.Through the public represen-tatives, the youths are beingtaken into confidence," theADGP told reporters.

A video showed the youthsraising slogans and vandalisingthe Ballia-Varanasi Memu andBallia-Shahganj trains.

They also pelted stones nearthe railway godown and target-ed private shops at the railwaystation platform.

Ballia Superintendent ofPolice Raj Karan Nayyar said,"Some students, while return-ing from the railway station,tried to break the windowpane of an empty train at thewashing pit and also set on firea bogey. RPF and policereached the spot as soon as theygot the news, and brought thefire under control," he said.

District Magistrate of BalliaSaumya Agarwal told PTI,"Around 100 persons havebeen taken into custody. Theyhave been identified usingCCTV footage and strictaction will be initiated againstthe accused. The situation isunder control, and there ispeace. Adequate force isdeployed."

Dharmendra Singh,younger brother of UttarPradesh Transport Ministerand Ball ia MLA DayaShankar Singh, said, "Unrulyelements pelted stones at thecamp office of Daya ShankarSingh and also damaged thehoarding put up at the officegate."

Rly stations, highways turn into battleground Maha: Cong, NCP demand

rollback of AgnipathPNS n MUMBAI

Calling the Agnipathscheme for recruitmentin the armed forces a"cruel joke" on the joblessyouth in the country, theCongress and NCP inMaharashtra on Fridaydemanded its rollback.

The two parties are con-stituents of the MahaVikas Aghadi governmentin the state along with ShivSena.

Maharashtra Congresschief Nana Patole said theUnion government was"pushing the youth intothe darkness of unem-ployment" after they com-plete four years of servicein the defence forces, asthe scheme contemplates.

The scheme is a "crueljoke on the youth" as itdoes not offer any securi-ty after four years of ser-vice, he said, adding thatit should be withdrawn."There should be no com-promise on national secu-rity and sovereignty. Oursoldiers are more impor-tant than a political party,"Patole added.

The NationalistCongress Party allegedthat the scheme was onlymeant to "tease" theunemployed youth, andthe BJP was not seriousabout finding a long-termsolution to the issue of

unemployment."Under the BJP rule,

the country is witnessingthe highest unemploy-ment ratio. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi hadpromised two crore jobsduring the 2014 elections.His government unfortu-nately made no concreteefforts in the past eightyears to generate sizeableemployment," said NCPchief spokespersonMahesh Tapase in a state-ment.

The Aagnipath schemelacks direction and fails tosafeguard long-term ser-vice prospects of theyouth, he said.

Modi had promised'One Rank-One Pension'to defence personnel, butthe new scheme has "norank and no pension" anddoes not even offer gratu-ity or provident fund,Tapase noted.

There is no roadmap forthe future of those whowould leave the armedforces after four years, headded.

"How and where willthe youth learn new skillspost retirement," the NCPleader asked.

The prime ministershould bring out a revisedscheme which will givelong-term, stable and per-manent jobs to the unem-ployed youth, Tapase said.

PNS n DELHI

Over 200 trains have been cancelled so far due toprotests against the Agnipath scheme for recruitmentin the defence services, the Railways said on Friday.According to zonal railways, 164 trains were cancelledin the East Central Railways (ECR), 34 in NorthEastern Railways (NER), 13 in Northern Railways (NR)and around three in Northeast Frontier Railways.Coaches of seven trains have so far been set ablaze byprotestors, officials said, adding coaches of three run-ning trains in the ECR and one empty rake in Kulharia,in the same zone, were damaged by protestors.One coach of a train was also damaged in the washingline at Uttar Pradesh's Ballia. So far, 64 trains wereshort terminated in ECR, they said. The SouthernRailways, in a statement, said all trains moving fromits jurisdiction towards destinations in Bihar and east-ern Uttar Pradesh will be short-terminated due towidespread agitations and arson there over theAgnipath scheme. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnawurged youths not to destroy railway assets. "I appeal tothe youth to not indulge in violent protests and notdamage the property of the Railways." The worst-hitEast Central Railways -- covering Bihar, Jharkhand andparts of Uttar Pradesh which have witnessed wide-spread protests -- has decided to "monitor" the opera-tions of some trains due to the agitations. The officialssaid they are keeping an eye on train movement andwill decide on their operation as the situation evolves.The trains being monitored are:

12303 Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express,12353 Howrah - Lalkuan Express18622 Ranchi - Patna Patliputra Express18182 Danapur - Tata Express22387 Howrah - Dhanbad Black Diamond Express13512 Asansol - Tata Express13032 Jaynagar - Howrah Express13409 Malda Town - Kiul Express.Under the ECR, the 12335 Malda Town-LokmanyaTilak (T) Express and the Howrah- New Delhi DurontoExpress have been cancelled, officials said.Several trains run by the Northeast Frontier Railwayspass through ECR jurisdiction and three of them havebeen hit by the widespread protests, the railways said.In the Northern Railway Zone, the biggest railway zonein the country, 13 trains have been cancelled.These include:15624 Kamakhya-Bhagat Ki Kothi Express,15623 Bhagat Ki Kothi Kamakhya Express,12565 Darbhanga-New Delhi Bihar Sampark Kranti Exp,15273 Raxual-Anand Vihar Terminal Satyagrah Exp, 02563 Saharsa-New Delhi train12273 Howrah-New Delhi Duronto Express12435 Jaynagar-Anand Vihar Terminal Garib Rath Exp One person was killed in police firing in Secunderabad,the first casualty of protests against the Agnipathdefence recruitment scheme that raged through severalstates for the third day on Friday with trains torched,public property vandalised and many thousands block-ing tracks and highways. Railway officials said damageto fixed assets is difficult to assess at the moment.

Railways cancels over 200 trains acrosscountry; seven trains affected by arson

Centre asks states toimplement haemodialysisprogramme in all districtsPNS n DELHI

To expand the Pradhan MantriNational DialysisProgramme's coverage, theCentre on Friday asked statesto implement the haemodial-ysis programme in all dis-tricts and also promoteperitoneal dialysiswhich is less restric-tive for patients andhas less technicaldemand.

Union HealthSecretary RajeshBhushan, chairing ameeting through video confer-ence with all states and UnionTerritories, advised extensiveuse of the Pradhan MantriNational Dialysis Programme(PM-NDP) portal to recorddetails of all beneficiaries avail-ing free dialysis services under

the programme.At the meeting, the progress

under the National HealthMission (NHM), EmergencyCOVID Response Package(ECRP)-II, Pradhan MantriAyushman Bharat Health

Infrastructure Mission(PM-ABHIM) and

15th FinanceCommission grantswas also reviewed,the health ministrysaid in a statement.

It also discussedways to expand the

National DialysisProgramme across the coun-try.

To prevent duplication andensure transparency, efficien-cy and interoperability underPMNDP, states were asked toensure registration using a14-digit unique ABHA ID.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Widespread violent protestand loss of public propertiesacross several States againstthe Centre's new "Agnipath"military recruitment schemego against the very core of legalprinciples and a slew of direc-tions passed by the SupremeCourt in its various judge-ments to curb such incidents.

In the past, the apex courtdealt sternly with thoseindulging in such incidents bydeprecating the "disconcertingrise" in violent protests anddemonstrations by privateentities and also has observedthat "Nobody has the right tobecome a self-a p p o i n t e dguardian of thelaw and forciblyadminister his orher interpreta-tion of the law onothers, especiallynot with violentmeans."

Some of theimportant direc-tions like indicting leaders ofthe organisations indulgingin violent protests leading todamage of properties, askinghigh courts to suo motu takecognizance of such incidents,and awarding compensation tothe victims have been wit-nessed in the last few yearsafter the apex court pro active-ly deliberated on the issue.

In recent years, wheneverthere are widespread inci-

dents of violence targetinggovernment policies, the exhi-bition of movies, social func-tions, and sections of peopleon moral grounds, the apexcourt has asked the authoritiesto fix the accountability onthose who damage the publicand private properties.

Despite a special law, thePrevention of Damage toPublic Property (PDPP) Act,1984, being in force but lack-ing in its teeth, the top courttook suo motu note of inci-dents of wide-scale violenceand loss of public properties in2007 and constituted twocommittees to give its recom-mendations.

On April 16,2009, the apexcourt took note ofthe recommenda-tions of two com-mittees led byJustice K TThomas, a retiredapex court judge,and noted juristFS Nariman andsaid that the sug-

gestions are extremely impor-tant and they constitute suffi-cient guidelines that need to beadopted.

The report of Justice (retd)KT Thomas Committee hadrecommended that the PDPPAct, 1984 must be amended toincorporate a rebuttable pre-sumption (after the prosecu-tion established the two facets)that the accused is guilty of theoffence.

Mob violence runsagainst very core of legal principles

SC ON DAMAGE TO PUBLIC PROPERTIES

The Narendra Modi Government has entered the last lap of its tenure. The pres-idential election, scheduled for July 18, will be the precursor to the danceof democracy in 2024. Presidential hopefuls have star ted filing nominations

though the major parties are yet to finalise the main players. As on Friday, thechances of the BJP getting its nominee elected as the First Citizen look bleak becausethe party does not have the numbers. Most of the BJP’s allies, who were with ittill the 2019 Lok Sabha election, have parted ways; the JD(U) in Bihar and theSAD in Punjab are no longer with the BJP. The Congress, the main Oppositionparty, is watching the developments from the sidelines. Party chief Sonia Gandhiknows well that the grand old party’s time has come and she is expected to dis-close her game plan in the next few days. She had brought the Congress back

to power in 2004 after the party suffered defeatsin the 1996, 1998 and 1999 general elections.There is no problem with her party’s electoralprospects if she succeeds in convincing otherOpposition leaders about the need to swim togeth-er for pinning down the BJP.

If the Congress chief could repeat her 2004performance, India is sure to get a new regime.Though TMC’s Mamata Banerjee has taken the ini-tiative to forge a rainbow alliance of parties fromvarious States, the front is likely to remain a non-starter. The names of presidential candidates thatfigured in the conclave held in New Delhi recent-

ly were neither inspiring nor encouraging. India needs a much better name to occu-py Rashtrapati Bhavan and it should not be based on family name, region, casteor community. It has to be noted that the Communists deputed sidekicks of theirnational leaders who are unlikely to win even a panchayat election in their homeStates. Reports coming from Hyderabad say that Chandrashekar Rao, in his bidto become the Prime Minister, is unlikely to join Mamata’s front. The Shiv Sena,NCP, AAP, DMK and other fringe players from Tamil Nadu, JD(U), JD(S) and TDPare the only players who are likely to feature in Mamata’s team. If only some ofthe major players offer to play the role of the sacrificial lamb, secularism couldbe saved in India.

The Government’s Agnipath scheme for the Indian military is well-intentioned. Itis aimed at cutting down the salary and pension bills. For the current fiscal, ofthe total defence budget of `525,166 crore, as much as `119,696 crore is ear-

marked for pensions of the three services. The overall revenue expenditure is ̀ 233,000crore, leaving less than `2 lakh crore for capital expenditure. Since the public exche-quer is already strained because of the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the accom-panying lockdowns, it is extremely difficult for the Government to allocate more resourcesfor capital expenditure. This is not a very satisfactory situation, given the persistenthostility of Pakistan and the increasing belligerence of China. Against this backdrop,the move to slash revenue expenditure was good, but the same cannot be said about

the manner in which the scheme was chalked outand announced. Evidently, there were inadequate con-sultations with various stakeholders; not manyretired servicemen were taken into confidence. EvenUnion Minister and former Army chief, Gen VK Singh(Retd), was reportedly not consulted for the scheme;this is inexplicable. There are regions and commu-nities which send a large number of jawans to thethree services. For two years, no recruitments weremade, resulting in resentment among those aspiringto become soldiers, sailors and airmen. They wereeagerly waiting for the recommencement of recruit-ment but what they got was Agnipath, a watered down

version of a military regular job — just four years of service.The Government called the new scheme “transformative” but the aspirants in Bihar,

Rajasthan and Haryana saw that as a cruel joke. They disrupted the movement of trainsand road traffic in several locations in Bihar; there were reports of train burning aswell. There are also protests in Haryana. The situation got very bad in Palwal whereSection 144 has been imposed and mobile internet services, SMS services etc havebeen suspended. In response to the first protests, the Government tweaked the Agnipathscheme, increasing the minimum age for recruitment. It also promised that after theirshort, four-year stint in the Army, Navy or Air Force, Agniveers would get priority inrecruitment to the Central Armed Police Forces and Assam Rifles (Assam Rifles, thougha paramilitary force, is officered by the Army). But all this seems to be too little andtoo late. At the heart of the widespread protests is the issue of unemployment: Thereare very few jobs in the market. Therefore, youngsters are keen to get hold of anyGovernment job; it offers security of tenure and in the case of lower ranks, much high-er salaries. But the primary purpose of the military is to protect the nation, not createjob opportunities. And one of the primary purposes of Government is to ensure thematerial wellbeing of citizens. It is the Central Government’s inadequacy on this frontthat is the root cause of the stir against the Agnipath scheme.

Govt walks Agnipath

THE WORLD MUST HELP UKRAINESir — The heads of France, Germany, Italyand Romania have reached Ukraine’s cap-ital, Kyiv, to meet with PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy. They have plannedthis trip ostensibly to talk to him, sharesympathy with him and assure him. Thevisit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,French President Emmanuel Macron,Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi andRomanian President Klaus Lohannis isnothing new; Ukraine has been receivingonly verbal support from them so far. Yes,these leaders will have to be appreciatedfor their courage since they reachedKyiv after traveling 650 km by rail viaPoland.

This is the first time that foreign lead-ers are visiting any war-torn region.Several major leaders, including AntonioGuterres, Anthony Blinken, Lloyd Austin,Nancy Pelosi, Justin Trudeau, UrsulaLyon, Boris Johnson, have already visit-ed the country. These visits can be com-pared to the visits of acquaintances to ahospital for getting to know the conditionof an admitted patient. The Ukrainian sol-diers are repeatedly pleading that they donot have the basic weapons to fight back.How long will it last? Soon Ukraine willbe annexed and Zelenskyy will either bekilled or taken hostage.

Jang Bahadur Singh | Jamshedpur

STEPS TO CONTROL TERRORISMSir — The decision by National SecurityAdvisor Ajit Doval to call for a meetingagainst the spreading tentacles of terror-ism could prove to be a laudable steptowards halting it. The significant virtu-al meeting comprised the five strong-mostdeveloping nations of the world, ie Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africa.The foundation of the robust and resilientrelations among these countries in everyaspect — whether it be communal rela-tions, educational relations, or suchlike —had laid down the introduction of a dif-ferent story in the world of terrorism.

Extermination of terrorism is a major

goal that each and every country is keento achieve. This zeal can be seen from thehistory of past deals and collaborationsregarding strengthening the utmost powerof weapons and ammunition acquisitionto further provide fuel to the ultimate mis-sion as can be seen from the instance ofthe Brahmos missile pact between Indiaand Russia. The summit highlighted thesignificance of the challenges that need tobe combated for reaching the ultimategoal of mission in these pandemic timesby implementing in certain innovativemeasures to proceed with the cooperativeethos in order to impede this global threat.

Sarthak Sharma | Ujjain

BCCI’S UNSPORTING DECISIONSir — Even though as of now the Indiancricket team is playing with the inclusionof young players against the Proteas inT20I but still there are other players likeArshdeep Singh and Umran Malik whoare yet to get a chance in the Playing XIto make their international debut. Sincethe Proteas are leading 2-1 in the ongo-ing series, Arshdeep and Umran may not

get a chance as per Rahul Dravid’s modeof selection for the remaining matches.According to Ganguly’s statement, theIndian team will make no more experi-ments with players who haven't debutedat the international level during the Irishseries.

He has a point since the ICC T20World Cup is fast approaching.Arshdeep, Umran and Rahul Tripathimay not get a chance to play even in theforthcoming Irish series since veteranslike Sanju Samson and Surya KumarYadav will be back in the team. Thisseems to be a totally unfair decision bythe BCCI chairman and the team’scoach. The hearts of Indian cricketlovers will definitely bleed over theBCCI’s decisions. Even for next month’sEngland white ball series, the teammanagement included only players whomay play in Australia for the ICC T20World Cup

Vijaykumar HK | Raichur

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

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VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022

06

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Tough battleThe major players are busy finalising their strategyfor the presidential and 2024 Lok Sabha election

PICTALK

Books and broken pencils representing the 2,280 children killed by gun violence, during a rally in Washington PTI

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

The scheme may be well-meaning but the variousstakeholders should’ve been properly consulted

It is really unfortunate to see so much vio-lence across our country of late. Theprotests against Agnipath recruitment

scheme are the latest in the series and it isreally heartbreaking to see bloody violence,arson, clashes and conflicts happeningaround us. Be it the Agnipath protests, protestsconnected to comments on prophetMuhammad, the Kerala gold scam protests,ED questioning Rahul Gandhi — what one isable to see is just conflict at the drop of a hat.Violence is not going to yield any result. Our

heads have to hang in shame as all this is hap-pening in a land where the greatest of preach-ers of peace and nonviolence was born.

To win freedom, the Mahatma didn’t insti-gate his people to follow the path of violenceor any other crooked way but simply non-vio-lence, truth and tolerance. There is a lot of dif-ference between the generation the Mahatmaled and that of today’s. Even though most ofthe people of that era were poor, uneducat-ed and unemployed, they didn’t resort tounwanted arson or clashes. Today’s ‘leaders’are neither seen with the followers nor do theyin reality feel the heat of these conflicts. Poorpeople, especially the youth, are just taken fora ride. They are misguided, instigated, incit-ed and brainwashed to the core only for thesepseudo leaders to achieve their selfishmotives.

M Pradyu | Kannur

Violence won’t yield anything

SOUNDBITEPakistan hasalways resorted toanti-India activi-ties. It’s trying tobleed us with athousand cuts.

Defence Minister—Rajnath Singh

Pakistan andIndia have a longhistory of war,conflict. Today,we have seriousdisputes.

Pak Foreign Minister—Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari

We are looking

into this (in-flight

protest against

Pinarayi Vijayan)

and will take

action soon.

Civil Aviation Minister

—Jyotiraditya Scindia

I’d like to thankall the(Barcelona)coaching staff forthe opportunity.

Footballer—Dani Alves

The world is pretty

messed up right

now; I’m glad we

can talk about it on

our show.

Actor—Jack Quaid

pain. Progress in zoologicaland veterinary sciences hasdebunked his ideas.Nevertheless, the belief thatanimals are not in the sameleague as humans and the lat-ter could do anything withthem is still widely prevalent.

It is utterly wrong. Reasonis one attribute of humans. Asimportant are instinct andemotion. Often an instinctiveor emotional response triggersa chain of rational thought inan effort to understand anevent or formulate an antag-onistic narrative. Second,humans are potentially —and often are — rational. Butthey are notoriously vulnera-ble to irrationality and, underits spell, can commit horren-dous crimes like genocide.Besides, if humans have rea-son, animals have far superi-or faculties of smell, hearing,vision and that intangiblething called sixth sense.

Animals are capable ofexperiencing emotions likejoy, fear, anxiety and grief. In1999, Lawrence Anthony, wellknown author and wildlifeconservationist, persuaded,through establishing closepersonal contact, a herd of ele-phants to stay in his privategame reserve of Thula Thulain South Africa as they wouldhave been killed had they

stepped out. In the process, hehad forged deep bonds withthem and had come to beregarded as part of their herd.They were in another part ofthe sanctuary when he died in2012 and walked 12 hours toreach his house and stand insilent vigil for two days beforereturning, leaving people towonder how they had come toknow of his passing.

Many other examples canbe cited. Clearly, the groundson which nonhuman livingbeings have been excludedfrom humans’ moral and legaluniverse do not hold. Not sur-prisingly, a very different viewof human-animal relation-ship has prevailed in Indiasince ancient times. SwamiVivekananda, the great spiri-tual leaders, said in his sem-inal speech on Vedantism inJaffna in January 1897: “Inevery man and in every ani-mal, however weak or wicked,great or small, resides thesame Omnipresent,Omniscient soul. The differ-ence is not in the soul, but inthe manifestation. Betweenme and the smallest animal,the difference is only in man-ifestation, but as a principle heis the same as I am, he is mybrother, he has the same soulas I have. This is the greatestprinciple that India has

preached. The talk of thebrotherhood of man becomesin India the brotherhood ofuniversal life, of animals andof all life down to the little ants— all these are our bodies.”

One hopes that the Westwould come round to thisview as it learns more aboutanimal intelligence and con-sciousness. For this, humansneed to know the language ofanimals, in the absence ofwhich, they can only guesswhat animals are sayingabout their needs, desires,how they see the world andwhat kind of relationshipthey seek with humans andother animals. Unfortunately,Michelle Nijhuis was rightwhen she wrote in a bookreview piece in The NewYork Review of August 20,2020, “Humans have spentdecades trying to teach otheranimals our languages…. butwe’ve made little effort tolearn theirs.” Scientific toolsare now available for under-taking such a venture, whichurgently needs to be done.Enslaving animals can recoilon humans. The Corona pan-demic originated from a liveanimal market in Wuhan,China.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

On the fundamental question of animal personhood, the grounds to excludenonhumans from humans’ moral and legal universe do not hold at all

HUMANS NEED TO KNOW THELANGUAGE OF

ANIMALS, IN THE ABSENCE OF

WHICH THEY CANONLY GUESS WHAT

ANIMALS ARESAYING ABOUTTHEIR NEEDS,

DESIRES, HOWTHEY SEE THE

WORLD AND WHAT KIND OFRELATIONSHIP

THEY SEEK WITH HUMANS

HIRANMAY KARLEKAR

Humans & otherliving beings

According to reports,the New York Court ofAppeals, the highestcourt in New York

State, has rejected, by five votesto two, the plea that Happy, a 51-year-old elephant, be removedfrom Bronx Zoo where she haslived since 1977. The plea wasmade by Nonhuman RightsProject (NhRP), founded bywell-known legal scholar, authorand animal rights advocate SteveM Wise, which had filed ahabeas corpus writ for Happy’srelease, claiming that she shouldbe “recognised as a legal person”and should not continue in“unlawful imprisonment”.Denying the plea, Janet DiFiore,the chief judge, wrote that thewrit of habeas corpus was“intended to protect the libertyright of human beings (italics byher)”. While it was “flexible”,extending it to Happy, “a non-human animal who is not a ‘per-son’ subjected to illegal detentionwould far exceed its bounds”.

The judgment once againbrings into focus the fundamen-tal question whether animals areentitled to be regarded as per-sons. Historically, a negativeanswer has rested on the claimthat their lack of reason andemotion that humans possessexcludes them from the moraland legal universe humans havecreated for themselves. Aristotleheld that animals were inani-mate objects because they lackedreason. St Augustine claimedthat the commandment “Thoushalt not kill” did not apply tobushes because they had no sen-sation, nor “to animals that fly,walk and crawl, because they arenot partners to us in the facul-ty of reason”.

This remains the dominantposition in the western weltan-schauung as defined by the clas-sical Greek, Judaeo-Christianand post-Renaissance andEnlightenment humanistthought. Indeed, Frenchphilosopher Rene Descartes(1596-1650) believed that ani-mals were mere “mechanisms”or “automata” like watches orcuckoo clocks. They showed nosigns of being inhabited byrational souls, had no minds andhence could not experience

indulged in unfair practices? Havethey violated the guidelines on FDIin e-commerce?

As per the guidelines issuedin early 2016, 100 per cent FDI isallowed under the marketplacemodel. The marketplace is a plat-form where vendors sell theirproducts to consumers even as itsowner merely acts as a facilitatorby providing services such asbooking orders, raising invoices,arranging delivery, accepting pay-ments, handling rejections, etc.He can’t hold inventory or under-take direct selling.

Two conditions are prescribed.First, the entity cannot permit morethan 25 per cent of total sales on themarketplace from one vendor or itsgroup companies. Two, it cannotdirectly or indirectly influence thesale price. Without any mention asto who the vendor is, a firm linkedto the marketplace either its sub-sidiary or a joint venture (JV) withan Indian company is eligible.

As for the second condition, itis not easy to establish that the mar-ketplace owner has manipulatedthe sale price.

Thus, contrary to the statedintent of the policy, these norms per-mitted e-commerce majors as directsellers, albeit through their sub-sidiary/JV. No wonder, Amazonestablished a JV Prione BusinessServices (PBS), in collaborationwith an Indian entity owned byNarayan Murthy of Infosys. PBS inturn, owns a firm Cloudtail IndiaPvt Ltd which is a “preferred” sell-er on Amazon’s marketplace.

Much has been said about thee-commerce giants indulging inanti-competitive behavior; indeedthis is the main complaint of traders.But what often goes unnoticed isthat the 2016 guidelines providedfor the possibility of a total of four

sellers on the marketplace (based ona threshold of 25 per cent of totalsales for each seller) all related to theowner of the platform.

Even as Amazon and otherswent all out to exploit these loop-holes in the guidelines, theCommerce Ministry issued a clar-ification on December 26, 2018. Itsaid: “The owner of the marketplaceor its subsidiary or its JV with anIndian company can’t have owner-ship of the seller.”

Moreover, “a seller on the plat-form can’t source more than 25 percent of its inventory from a firmconnected with the latter.”

The marketplace owner couldget around both the clarifications:first, by having less than 50 per centshareholding in the seller firm,they can argue that they have nocontrol (majority) over the latter,and second by its wholesale armrestricting supplies to the seller with-in the 25 per cent threshold.

The clarification has done littleto rein in the hold of e-commercemajors in direct selling to con-sumers to the detriment of smalltraders. For instance, only threedozen firms out of the 400,000 sell-ers on Amazon platform account for67 per cent of sales on it.

The government has been try-ing to make corrections to bring theextant dispensation in line with thestated policy intent.

In 2020, the Department ofConsumer Affairs (DCA), in theMinistry of Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution, issued theConsumer Protection (e-com-merce) Rules, under Section 101ofthe Consumer Protection Act, 2019.The rules bar affiliated entitiesfrom selling on e-commerce plat-forms and restrict ‘flash sales,’ anddisallow sellers from using thename or brand associated with that

of marketplace e-commerce entitiesfor promotion of goods.

Last year, the DCA came upwith an amendment to the rules torestrict business-to-business, orB2B, sales (this is to prohibit trans-actions between the owner of themarketplace and seller on his plat-form) in e-commerce and a provi-sion to prevent ‘abuse of dominantposition’ by e-commerce firms.

The sole purpose of the aboveamendments is to undo the damage(to the small traders) caused by 2016guidelines. If the government goesahead with the former, it will be tan-tamount to overturning the latter. Itwill be viewed as a retrospectivechange of policy and send a wrongsignal to foreign investors.

On the other hand, if the 2016guidelines stay intact, small traderswill continue to face unfair and dis-criminatory treatment.

We need to understand the gen-esis behind the present situation.The Modi government was keen toget FDI in retail but didn’t want todisplease small traders. So, itbrought foreign majors through thebackdoor in the garb of the market-place. The result: it is caught‘between the deep sea and the devil.’

It can get out of the mess ifit dispenses with the marketplaceand legitimises 100 per cent FDIin online retail. The governmentshould also allow 100 per centFDI in offline retail sans riders(at present, 51 per cent is allowedin this segment subject to oner-ous riders which is tantamountto a complete bar). This willenable all retailers, online oroffline, big or small, to competewith one another on equal terms.

It will be a win-win for allstakeholders who will also bespared the agony of endlesslitigation.

Govt faces a dilemmaover e-commerce

THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT SOLDIERS

RECRUITED UNDER THE SCHEME WILL

BE BETTER TRAINED AND MOTIVATED.

—FORMER UNION MINISTER

P CHIDAMBARAM

THE CUSTOMISED PROGRAMME BY

NIOS WILL BE RELEVANT TO THE

SPIRIT OF THE AGNIPATH SCHEME.

—UNION EDUCATION MINISTER

DHARMENDRA PRADHAN

Thuglak is a popular Tamil weekly magazine mostly devoted to pol-itics and allied subjects. It conducts an annual meeting with itsreaders which is very popular. Some of the comments made by

the present editor of Thuglak, S. Gurumurthy, at the recent meetingcaused a stir.

At the annual meeting conducted on May 8, while replying to aquestion by a reader on the functioning of government banks,Gurumurthy said that all the talented people have left the governmentbanks to private banks and what is left with the government banks isbunch of ‘kazhisadaikal’ in Tamil. This word can be roughly translat-ed as ‘poor grade left overs’ or ‘bottom most left overs’.

Though this slang is not un-parliamentary it can be viewed asderogatory based on the context. The Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, who was on the dais, expressed her disapproval with herfacial expression and body language. Bank employees have taken itas an insult to them and their union has sought an unconditional apol-ogy from Gurumurthy. Moreover the unions have written to ReserveBank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das and sought the removal ofGurumurthy from the RBI board.

Leaving aside the comment on the quality of public sector bankemployees, it is evident that over the years the thrust given to the bankersto learn and adopt their field is not commendable.

After the nationalisation of major banks in 1969, they recruited peo-ple from all streams, most of them with a science background. Thesepeople were trained with domain knowledge of banking.

There was a shift from this thrust to acquire knowledge once newprivate players came into picture with totally computerised banking inthe 1990s. The new banks expected staff to sell banking products likeany other commodity. They have adopted ‘system-embedded knowl-edge’ and the staff have been trained to adopt a ‘menu-driven pro-gramme’ of computer operation.

New private banks started selling products as if they were sellingFMCG products. Slowly this culture was adopted by public sector banksalso. No one bothered about the basic legal and regulatory provisions.This has led to the violation of banking norms.

An example will reveal how the banks do not comply with variousRBI regulations. In 2019 the RBI imposed a penalty of Rs 71 crore fornon- compliance of guidelines regarding SWIFT on 36 banks. Everynow and then, the banking regulator imposes penalties on some banks.From the penalties levied by the RBI on banks, one can understandthe magnitude of violations. During 2020-21, the banking ombudsmanreceived 404,143 complaints on deficiency of service. Lack of knowl-edge of the staff will always result in a large number of complaints.

When the staff is not adequately trained, fraudsters take advan-tage to deceive the bank. Fraud happens only when someone in thesystem has compromised the established system either because ofignorance or collusion. Among many reasons for the incidence of non-performing assets of banks, the poor credit appraisal system is a majorone; this is because of the inadequate knowledge and skills of bankers.As per a newspaper report of 2019, the RBI has held banks’ poor cred-it appraisal responsible for their high bad debts arising out of MicroUnits Development and Refinance Agency (Mudra) loans.

There is a difference between banks and other corporations. Banksare run with deposits from the general public. If anything goes wrong,it affects a lot of people as there is a domino effect.

Alvin Toffler said “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be thosewho cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, andrelearn.” It is time for banks to introspect and improve the knowledgebase and skillsets of their employees.

(The writer is a retired banker. The views expressed are personal.)

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022

07

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FIRSTCOLUMN

STATE-RUN BANKS MUSTRETRAIN EMPLOYEES

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

UTTAM GUPTA

Their inadequacies result in bad debts and fraud

THEGOVERNMENTSHOULD ALSO

ALLOW 100PER CENT FDI

IN OFFLINERETAIL SANSRIDERS. THISWILL ENABLE

ALL RETAILERS,ONLINE OR

OFFLINE, BIGOR SMALL, TO

COMPETEWITH ONE

ANOTHER ONEQUAL TERMS

The author is a policy analyst

(www.uttamgupta.com)

India is on course to take amonumental leap in theworld order. It is already seen

as a major pivot in the emerg-ing global order by being a keynation in two security arrange-ments—one in the Indo-Pacificand the another with the US, theUAE, and Israel. The Indian mil-itary has to adapt to the chang-ing strategic interests.

The average age of theIndian military is currently 32years while there are roughlyvacancies of about one lakharmed forces personnel. Indiahas two hostile nuclear-armedneighbours. Our military forcesmust be young and agile to meetchallenges of the changing glob-al order.

The Narendra Modi gov-ernment’s unveiling of theAgnipath scheme seeks to fill thevoid in India’s growing fast-

evolving role in the global order.The initiative to hire 46,000Agniveers this year in the armedforces will immediately bringdown the average age from thecurrent 32 to 26, helping theIndian military to become muchyounger.

Besides, it’s pertinent tolook at the socio-economicimpact of the Agnipath scheme,since India aspires to become a$5-trillion economy, which inturn will throw up newer chal-lenges and opportunities.Economy thrives on a stablesecurity situation, both internaland external. Agniveers willimmediately fill a large portionof the vacancies in the armedforces while also creating a largepool of the militarily trained per-sonnel who could be easilydrafted into the paramilitaryforces, who are engaged in

ensuring peaceful elections andmaintaining peace in strife-tornand insurgency hit areas.

Among the paramilitaryforces, the Central IndustrialSecurity Force (CISF) alone hasseen a major expansion in thescope of its responsibilities toprovide security to industrialunits and transportation sys-tems, including Metro servicesin several cities.

The Agnipath scheme

promises to make trained man-power available that could beeasily drafted for such duties.

Indeed, 25 per cent of theAgniveers would be absorbed inthe armed forces for a longerduration. The Ministry of HomeAffairs has already made it clearthat the paramilitary serviceswould give preferences to theAgniveers in their recruitments.This truly makes sense as theAgniveers would already cometrained and with basic re-skillingthey would be able to take up thenewer responsibilities.

The ambit of national secu-rity is also evolving. Besides safe-guarding territorial integrityand internal peace, nationalsecurity also entails that the eco-nomic forces in the countrydon’t face any security threat.India will have to think aboutproviding a full-proof security

ecosystem to economic activitiesin metropolitan cities and alsoat places where they are nudgedto go, including Jammu andKashmir and the North-Easternstates. Economic disruptionsdue to any reason could pose athreat to national security.

Equally important is thesocial import of the Agnipathscheme as it promises to builda patriotic character among theyouth of the country. Disciplinedyouth is an asset to society.Military training imparts disci-pline. The Ministry ofEducation’s policy of recognis-ing military training of theAgniveers for credits in theirgraduation for in-service cours-es by the Indira Gandhi NationalOpen University (IGNOU) ispraiseworthy.

After four years of militaryservice, 75 per cent of the

Agniveers will come back to thesociety with training, skills andeducation to embark on voca-tions of their choice with capi-tal in hand. This will work as aforce multiplier for theAgniveers to play the role ofchange agents.

A number of countries havesimilar programmes for theirmilitary forces. It has been seenin such countries, includingIsrael, that the former militarypersonnel have engaged in activ-ities which added value to theireconomies. Already formerarmed forces personnel are mostsought-after by the private secu-rity agencies which haveimmensely proliferated in therecent years.

It’s futile to argue that thearmed forces will be burdenedwith the training efforts forAgniveers, because India is no

more a status quoist country;capacity expansion is the mantraof the Modi government. Indianot only has to expand thecapacity but also qualitativelyimprove upon the outcome.

Additionally, the state policetoo are in need of major humanresources training and up-skilling because of the risinginternal security challenges.State governments, whichalready have to fill a large num-ber of vacancies in their policeforces, can begin to look com-fortably at the Agniveers. Thiscan help the state police becomemore agile and also efficient.

Indeed, the social impact ofAgniveers in villages would besubstantial as they could becomerole models for youngsters.Agniveers, by the time theycome out of the military service,will also have enough savings.

Our military forces must be young and agile, and our economy strong, to meet challenges of the changing global order

Agnipath will help military, youngsters, economy

The author is Director, ofthe Public Policy Research Centre

SUMEET BHASIN

S KALYANASUNDARAM

Ever since Indian retail was openedto foreign direct investment(FDI)—albeit through the so-calledmarketplace model in 2016—for-

eign giants like Amazon and Walmart-owned-Flipkart have been embroiled inprotracted legal battles.

In a public interest litigation (PIL) filedin early 2018, the Retailers Association ofIndia (RAI) had alleged violation of FDInorms in e-commerce. On October 31,2018, the Enforcement Directorate (ED)had informed the Delhi High Court (DHC)that it was investigating violation of theForeign Exchange Management Act (Fema)against Amazon, et al, but the proceedingsare stuck.

In another petition filed before theCompetition Commission of India (CCI),the All-India Online Vendors Association(AIOVA) had alleged abuse of market dom-inance against Flipkart India Private Limited(it is into wholesale trading/distribution)and e-commerce marketplace FlipkartInternet Private Limited. But, CCI saw noth-ing wrong in this practice; it wondered “howcome any one player in the market com-mand any dominant position.”

Even as the National Company LawAppellate Tribunal (NCLAT) quashedthe CCI ruling and ordered a probe, noth-ing is heard on the subject thereafter. Amost talked about case relates to a com-plaint by the trade body Delhi VyaparMahasangh (DVM) on January 13, 2020,with the CCI alleging anti-competitivebehavior by Amazon Seller Services (itoperates an e-commerce marketplace)and Flipkart Internet.

DVM argued that Amazon and Flipkarthad entered into exclusive sales agreementswith smartphone makers to sell certainphones through a small number of pre-ferred sellers. It also alleged that they hadgiven preferential treatment to certainsellers by giving them higher search rank-ings, and offering to pay for part of the dis-count that such sellers would offer duringkey sales periods such as Flipkart’s BigBillion Days and Amazon’s Prime Day.

The CCI agreed with DVM’s con-tention and ordered a probe. Amazon andFlipkart approached the Karnataka HighCourt (KHC) with a plea to quash the CCIorder. The KHC refused to quash it,which prompted the duo to challenge theorder in the Supreme Court (SC). InAugust 2021, the SC dismissed their appli-cations and ordered that “the CCI DirectorGeneral will complete the probe and sub-mit the findings to the commission whichwill pass final orders.”

Meanwhile, in a complaint filed byAIOVA against Amazon Seller Services, theCCI opined that “the information containsallegations that are devoid ofadmissible/requisite evidence.” In DVM’scase, even if the commission establishesanti-competitive behavior by Amazon, itwill be heading for interminable litigation.

Have Amazon and others really

Any tweak in policy will upset foreign investors, while the status quowill hurt small traders

VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

The country's largestcarmaker Maruti SuzukiIndia on Friday said it has

invested around Rs 2 crore inSociograph Solutions Pvt Ltd(SSPL), a startup specialisingin artificial intelligence.The investment is part of thecompany's MAIL initiative tosupport startups with

promising mobility solutions, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) said in astatement.The company plans to use the visual artificial intelligence(AI) platform of SSPL called Dave.AI, with an aim to enhance thedigital sales experience of its customers, it added."Our investment inSSPL demonstrates our resolve towards improving business metricsusing contemporary technology," MSIL Managing Director & CEOHisashi Takeuchi said.The company has undertaken the ambitiousMobility & Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) programme since 2019to empower the mobility startup ecosystem in the country.The MarutiSuzuki Innovation Fund has been set up with an aim to invest in early-stage startups which are part of Maruti Suzuki programmes, headded."Our intent is to encourage innovation and promote theentrepreneurial spirit of startups," Takeuchi said.Dave.AI Co-founder &CEO Sriram PH and Co-founder & CTO Ananth said the collaborationwith Maruti Suzuki immensely helps by not only validating thecompany's concepts, but by also learning and imbibing the skills thatare required to scale up operations in a sustainable manner.

Maruti invests Rs 2 cr in AIstartup Sociograph Solutions

The government iscommitted to ensurethat capital expenditure

will continue to support theeconomic growthmomentum regained afterthe third COVID-19 wave,Chief Economic Advisor VAnantha Nageswaran saidon Friday.The governmenthas taken various steps --

including lowering taxes, the continuation of privatisation, setting upinstitutions for sequestering bad loans and managing them andlaunching an asset monetisation drive -- to strengthen the realeconomy."Given the ongoing sense of uncertainty among the privatesector participants, both in banking and the non-banking world, thegovernment is committed to making sure that capital expenditurecontinues (in) such (a way) that growth impulse that we haveregained after the third wave is not surrendered," Nageswaran saidwhile speaking at a banking event organised by Financial Express.In the previous fiscal, while the capital expenditure was budgeted atRs 6 lakh crore, the government managed to spend Rs 5.92 lakhcrore."And hence, for the current financial year, if the government isable to execute the capital expenditure of Rs 7.5 lakh crore, then thatis the biggest real economic intervention," he said.

Govt to see that capital expenditurecontinues to support growth momentum

Integrated logisticsplayer Delhivery onFriday said it has

launched "guaranteedsame-day delivery"service in 15 key citiesin the country to helpdirect to-consumer(D2C) brands delivertheir orders the sameday.Under the new service,orders received as lateas 3 pm will bedelivered on the same

day, Delhivery said in a statement.As part of the service, Delhivery willpartner with brands and identify fast-moving SKUs (Stock KeepingUnits) or product, which will be stocked in warehouses within the city,close to the end consumer.When a consumer places an order on thebrand's webstore, Delhivery's technology will show the fast-movingSKUs available for the 'guaranteed same-day delivery', the companysaid in a release.Once the order is placed, Delhivery's technology willallocate the consumers' orders to the nearest in-city warehouse, itsaid."We consistently innovate with technology-led solutions. Thissolution will enable D2C brands to leverage our technology and supplychain capabilities to meet the evolving needs of their consumers," saidAjith Pai, Chief Operations Officer, Delhivery.The solution willsignificantly enable D2C brands' growth along two fronts -- the fasterdelivery in a few hours will improve the consumer experience and,thereby, brand loyalty, and it will also reduce the return rates,improving the brands' margins, the company said.

Delhivery launches ‘same-daydelivery’ service in 15 cities

Focus on inflation target could havebeen disastrous for economy: Das PNS n NEW DELHI

The net direct tax collec-tions till mid-June this fiscalincreased 45 per cent to overRs 3.39 lakh crore, buoyed bydecent advance tax mop-up,the Income Tax departmentsaid on Friday.

The net direct tax collec-tion of over Rs 3.39 lakh croreincludes Corporation Tax(CIT) at over Rs 1.70 lakhcrore and Personal IncomeTax (PIT), including SecurityTransaction Tax (STT), atover Rs 1.67 lakh crore.

"The figures of Direct Taxcollections for the FinancialYear 2022-23, as on June 16,2022, show that net collec-tions are at Rs 3,39,225 crorecompared to Rs 2,33,651

crore over the correspondingperiod of the preceding year,representing an increase of 45per cent over the collectionsof the preceding year," theCentral Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) said.

The advance tax collec-tions for the first quarter

this fiscal stand at over Rs1.01 lakh crore against Rs75,783 crore in the corre-sponding period last fiscal, agrowth of more than 33 percent.

This comprises CIT at Rs78,842 crore and PIT at Rs22,175 crore.

Net direct tax mop-up rises 45% toover Rs 3.39 lakh cr till mid-Jun

PNS n NEW DELHI

State-owned CIL is looking atgreen mining options by lever-aging a slew of eco-friendlytechnologies in both under-ground and opencast mines, amove that would help in aug-menting the production andreduce the adverse impact onenvironment.

With land turning out to bea major pain point for expan-sion of coal mining operations,these technologies bypass landacquisition and avoid its degra-dation.

"Coal India Ltd (CIL) is tak-ing a close look on green min-ing options in a bid to min-imise adverse environmentalimpact by leveraging a slew ofeco-friendly technologies inits underground and opencastmines," the maharatna firm

said.The locked-up coal assets

left out earlier due to techno-commercial and safety con-cerns can now be unearthedthrough these technologies, itsaid.

The Public Sector Unit(PSU) is exploring ramping upits underground productionby four-fold to 100 milliontonnes (MT) by FY30 from25.6 MT in FY22.

Production from under-

round mines is environmental-ly clean, minimally invasive onland degradation and societyfriendly, it said.

Around 70 per cent of thecountry's coal reserves are con-ducive for underground min-

ing. The aim is to make under-ground production sizably sup-plement the opencast output.At current rate, mineable coalreserves at existing opencastwill slowly start lowering.

CIL accounts for over 80 percent of domestic coal output.

Coal India plans green mining by leveraging technology

PNS n NEW DELHI

Deltatech Gaming Ltd, a dig-itally native, technology-ledgaming platform, has filedpreliminary papers with themarkets regulator Sebi to raiseRs 550 crore through an InitialPublic Offering (IPO).

The IPO comprises freshissue of equity shares worth upto Rs 300 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of Rs 250 croreby promoter -- Delta CorpLimited, according to theDraft Red Herring Prospectus(DRHP).

The offer also includes areservation for subscription byeligible employees and Deltashareholders.

Additionally, the companymay consider a preferentialissue of equity shares or anyother method aggregating upto Rs 50 crore. If such place-ment is completed, the freshissue size will be reduced.

The proceeds from the freshissuance worth Rs 150 crorewill be utilised for organicgrowth, through marketingand business promotion activ-ities, to attract new gamers andretain existing gamers, Rs 50

crore for strengthen the tech-nology infrastructure to devel-op new capabilities, maintainand manage its existing plat-form and general corporatepurposes.

The Gurugram-based com-pany is one of the earliest com-panies in the real money gam-ing segment in India.

Over the years, the digitalgaming company has devel-oped its own platforms, whichit continues to evolve. It alsobelieves that investing in itsgaming platform and offers arecritical for business growth,new player on-boarding, andexisting player retention, byusing adjacencies such as gametypes, promotions, and so on.

Deltatech Gaming filesRs 550 cr IPO papers with Sebi

Govt expands USO to remote petrol pumpsPNS n NEW DELHI

In a bid to rein in private fuelretailers curtailing operationsto cut losses, the governmenthas expanded the scope ofUniversal Service Obligation(USO), mandating licensedentities to maintain petroland diesel sales at all petrolpumps, including in remoteareas, for specified workinghours.

"The government has nowexpanded the horizon of USOby including all retail outlets(petrol pumps) includingremote area ROs under theirambit," the oil ministry said ina statement on Friday.

After this, entities that havebeen granted licences to retailpetrol and diesel will be "oblig-ated to extend the USO to allthe retail consumers at all theretail outlets."Failure to meet

norms can lead to the cancel-lation of licences.

"This has been done with anobjective to ensure a higherlevel of customer services inthe market and to ensure thatadherence to the USO formsa part of the market disci-pline," the ministry said.

The move follows somepetrol pumps operated byPSU firms in states like

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,Karnataka and Gujarat goingout of stock following a sud-den surge in demand.

This demand followed thecurtailment of operations byprivate fuel retailers who couldnot compete with the heavilyunder-priced rates of publicsector companies.With state-owned Indian Oil Corporation(IOC), Bharat Petroleum

Corporation Ltd (BPCL) andHindustan PetroleumCorporation Ltd (HPCL) sell-ing petrol and diesel at ratesthat are Rs 15-25 a litre lowerthan the cost to keep theinflation under check, privatefuel retailers like Jio-bp andNayara Energy either raisedprices at some locations orcurtailed sales.State fuel retail-ers haven't changed retailprices since April 6 despitecrude oil rates spiking to adecade high.Stocks not avail-able or being sold at higherrates, led to customers shiftingfrom private outlets to PSUswho soon ran out of stocks,especially in hinterland loca-tions where replenishing sup-plies takes time.Now to ensurethat private fuel retailers donot stop selling fuel, the gov-ernment has amended theUSO regulations.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Digital financial servicesf irm One97C o m m u n i c a t i o n s 'Managing Director VijayShekhar Sharma has pur-chased 1.7 lakh shares of thecompany worth Rs 11 crore,according to a regulatoryfiling.

The disclosures from thecompany, which operatesunder Paytm brand, showthat Sharma bought theshares on May 30-31.

On May 30, Sharmabought 1,00,552 sharesworth Rs 6.31 crore and onMay 31, he bought 71,469shares worth Rs 4.68 crore.

The company stock wastrading at Rs 625.75 inafternoon session.

Vijay Shekhar Sharmabuys 1.7 lakh shares ofPaytm worth Rs 11 cr

With land turningout to be a majorpain point forexpansion of coalminingoperations, thesetechnologiesbypass landacquisition andavoid itsdegradation.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Gold prices in the nationalcapital on Friday rallied byRs 416 to Rs 50,802 per 10grams, according to HDFCSecurities.

In the previous trade,the yellow metal settled atRs 50,386 per 10 grams.

Silver also surged by Rs1,014 to Rs 61,343 per kgfrom Rs 60,329 per kg inthe previous trade.

"Spot gold prices for 24-carat gold in Delhi were upby Rs 416 reflectingovernight rally in COMEXgold prices," said TapanPatel, Senior Analyst(Commodities) at HDFCSecurities.

In the international mar-ket gold was quoting lowerat USD 1,850 per ounce andsilver was trading flat atUSD 21.90 per ounce.

Gold climbs byRs 416; silverzooms Rs 1,014

13th textile machinery expo to showcase advancesPNS n COIMBATORE

Union Minister for Commerce& Industry Piyush Goyal willinaugurate the 13th edition ofTEXFAIR 2022, an interna-tional textile machinery, acces-sories and spare exhibitionhere on June 24.

The four-day expo willshowcase the modern develop-ments in the sector, in whichmore than 225 world's leading

textile machinery, accessoriesmanufacturers, will exhibittheir products, Southern IndiaMills' Association (SIMA)chairman Ravi Sam toldreporters here onFriday.Besides, textile machin-ery, spares and accessories,testing equipment, electricaland electronics components,humidification plans, air com-pressors, solar panel and man-ufacturers and suppliers from

various states across the coun-try and nations includingSwitzerland, Belgium, Italy,Japan and China will displaytheir products, he said. Beingthe largest textile manufactur-ing hub in the global map,Coimbatore produced over 70per cent of the textile machin-ery, spares and accessoriesmanufactured in India, SIMAdeputy chairman Dr S KSundararaman said.

PNS n MUMBAI

Governor Shaktikanta Das onFriday refuted criticism of theRBI being behind the curve inits policies, making it clear thatthe consequences of focusingon the 4 per cent inflation tar-get would have been "disas-trous" for the pandemic-hiteconomy.

In comments that came twodays after former ChiefEconomic Advisor ArvindSubramanian co-authored anarticle blaming the RBI for act-ing late on inflation and beingbehind the curve, Das said thecentral bank acted as per theevolving economic develop-ments and also gave out a time-line of its actions to explain theshift.

" Tolerance of a higher infla-tion during the pandemic wasa necessity, and we still standby our decision," Das saidspeaking at an event organisedby Financial Express here.

He said the RBI switchedinto ultra-accommodation assoon as the country went intothe lockdown and shifted focusto inflation two years later inApril 2022, when it saw that theGDP had gone beyond the pre-pandemic level.

Despite its accommodative

policies, the economy con-tracted by 6.6 per cent in FY21and recovered to barely abovethe pre-pandemic levels inFY22, he said, stressing that ashift in policy management tofocus on inflation even 3-4months before April 2022 wasnot apt."I feel that we are verymuch in line with the require-ments of our time, the RBI hasacted proactively and I wouldnot agree with any perceptionor any sort of description thatthe RBI has fallen behind thecurve," Das said.

Subramanian's articleblamed the RBI for beingbehind the curve, pointing outthat the 4 per cent inflation tar-get has not been met since

October 2019 and in 18 of the32 months since then, theheadline consumer price infla-tion has breached even theRBI's ceiling of 6 per cent. Italso raised question marksover inflation forecasting.

Disclosing that he has notread the article and making itclear that he does not want tojoin any debate, Das said theRBI's mandate is that of flexi-ble inflation targeting where itis required to take care ofboth price rise and growth,especially so in extraordinarysituations like a pandemic.

"If we had been very firm inmaintaining 4 per cent (infla-tion) and kept the rates undu-ly high, I'm sorry, the conse-

quences of that approachwould have been disastrous forthe economy.

"If we had attempted to keepmonetary policy tighter at thattime, the economic damagethat you would have caused toour economy and to our finan-cial markets would have beenenormous and it would havetaken years for India to comeback," he noted. According tothe governor, the RBI was notoptimistic with its FY23 infla-tion estimate of 4.5 per centmade public ahead of theRussian invasion of Ukraine,which sent the oil prices rock-eting.Das said in the estimate,the RBI had baked-in oil pricesto be at USD 80 per barrel, andhad decided to wait till the endof the fiscal to see the develop-ments and take actions accord-ingly In March, the RBI sawthat the economic activity hassurpassed the pre-pandemiclevels of FY20 and also felt aclear pressure on price rise,which resulted in a shift in pol-icy to help contain the persis-tent inflation, Das said, point-ing out that measures initiatedin the April review like theintroduction of the standingdeposit facility at a rate high-er than the reverse repo wereakin to a rate hike.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman is scheduled tomeet heads of public sectorbanks (PSBs) on Monday toreview performance of thelenders and progress made bythem on various schemeslaunched by the governmentfor revival of the economy.

This is the first review meet-ing after the presentation ofBudget 2022-23.

Banks would be urged tosanction loans for productivesectors to accelerate revival ofthe economy facing headwindsincluding from Russia-Ukrainewar, sources said.

Last week during the IconicWeek celebration of thefinance ministry, banks con-ducted outreach programmeacross the country where eli-gible borrowers were sanc-tioned loans on the spot.

The Finance Minister wouldtake a stock of credit growth,asset quality and businessgrowth plan of banks, sourcessaid.

They said there would be a

comprehensive review of var-ious segments and progress ingovernment schemes includingKisan Credit Card, EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS).

In the Budget, ECLGS wasextended by a year till March2023. Further, the guaranteecover for the scheme wasexpanded by Rs 50,000 crore toRs 5 lakh crore.

The coverage, scope andextent of benefits underECLGS 3.0 pertaining to hos-pitality, travel, tourism andcivil aviation sectors wereexpanded.Also, the credit limit

for eligible borrowers wasincreased to 50 per cent oftheir fund-based credit out-standing from 40 per centearlier.

The enhanced limit is sub-ject to a maximum of Rs 200crore per borrower. Besides,sources said, review of capitalrequirement of banks andfinancial inclusion drive wouldbe reviewed during the meet-ing.

It is to be noted that themeeting is being held againstthe backdrop when all PSBsposted profit in the secondfinancial year in a row.

FM to meet heads of PSBs on June 20;may nudge them for loan growth

"Tolerance of a

higher inflation

during the

pandemic was a

necessity, and we

still stand by our

decision," Das said

speaking at an

event organised by

Financial Express

here.

PNS n MUMBAI

Market benchmarks gave upintra-day gains to close in thered for the sixth session on thetrot on Friday, capping a bruis-ing week which saw a massivedash for safety amid rate hikesby global central banks andfears of slowing growth.

Investors were furtherhemmed in by unrelentingforeign fund outflows and ris-ing crude oil prices.After a see-saw session, the 30-share BSESensex declined 135.37 pointsor 0.26 per cent to settle at anover one-year low of51,360.42.Similarly, the broad-er NSE Nifty lost 67.10 pointsor 0.44 per cent to end at15,293.50.Titan emerged as thetop laggard among the Sensexconstituents, skidding 6.06 percent, followed by Wipro, DrReddy's, Asian Paints, SunPharma, L&T, UltraTechCement and PowerGrid.Onthe other hand, Bajaj Finance,Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank,Reliance Industries, ITC,HDFC Bank and Tata Steelwere among the gainers, spurt-ing up to 2.63 per cent.

Markets tumble for6th day as bearstighten grip

PNS n NEW DELHI

To sensitise its customersagainst high-value chequefrauds, Punjab NationalBank on Friday urged themto submit the details aboutsuch cheques at least a daybefore clearance underPositive Pay System (PPS)framework.

The National PaymentsCorporation of India (NPCI)has developed the PPS underwhich a customer issuing a

high-value cheque isrequired to reconfirm someessential details such ascheque number, chequeamount, date and beneficia-ry name. These details arethen cross-checked whilepresenting the cheque forpayment.Punjab NationalBank (PNB) implementedthe Posit ive PayConfirmation from April 4,2022 under the PPS frame-work mandatory for chequesof Rs 10 lakh and above.

PNB customers must give details ofhigh-value cheques before clearance

FUN

ARCHIE

GARFIELDREALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

SUDOKU

Rulesl Each row and column can

contain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

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

We know that one daycan never be enough tohonour the superhero

of your life, but Falther’s Day isan excellent opportunity tomake your daddy cool feel extraspecial. With the day justaround the corner, now is theperfect time to start planningthe day for him. Not sure whatto do on this special day? Afterall, you want to do somethingextra fun or meaningful to makehim feel loved. Here is a list ofsuper cool things to do onFather's Day which will surelyhelp deepen your bond.

Plan a quick weekend get-away

This year, skip the boringgreeting cards and box of choco-lates, instead take your dad for arelaxing weekend getaway andlet him feel how much you careabout him. All you need is twoapps - Make My Trip and Uber.Log onto MakeMyTrip andcheck out some amazing proper-ties from their wide range forthe perfect getaway. To make thejourney easier, simply book anUber Intercity. All you need isthe Uber app to book your out-station trip and you can exploremore than 1000+ routes withconvenient and affordable carsanytime at your doorstep.

Weekend Binge watchingwith daddy!

Your weekend binge is goingto get bigger and better. So justsit back, relax and plan a datewith your Daddy dearest asBookMyShow Stream has a line-

up of Father’s Day themed filmsthat have been especially#CuratedWithLove for you!With an attractive 50% offacross select titles such as TheJudgestarring Robert DowneyJr., Christopher Nolan-helmedInterstellar, the iconic TheGodfather, Meet the Fockersstarring Ben Stiller, amongstothers, BookMyShow Streamhas got you covered for this spe-cial day. The iconic screen dadswill make you laugh, cry, andfeel truly grateful for your ownpapa this Father's Day.

Pamper Dad with an in-house spa day

Contrary to popular belief,Dads can also enjoy the relaxingbenefits of a spa day. Grab asoothing massage deal for yourdad and have him relax on hisspecial day. Book an UberRentals to ensure he arrives instyle and does not need to bookanother cab and wait for it to getback home.

Plan a pizza party

Who does not love pizza?Order your dearest daddy’sfavorite pizza or to make it evenmore exciting / fun buy somepre-made pizza dough and putdifferent toppings in bowls, haveyour dad and you decorate it!

Your day’s guide

Plan a fun day for your dad,surprise him with breakfast inbed along with his favouritejuice made in the Bosch SlowJuicer VitaExtract, followed byhitting some of the coolestsports bars/cafes in the city andspend some quality time togeth-er and make a day out of it. Thelast thing you want to worryabout during the time is drivingeverywhere and having to findparking spots - Instead, book anUber Rentals for several hours;it gives you the freedom of mak-ing multiple stops, just like yourcar, but without the hassle ofdriving, parking and stayingsober during celebrations.

How to make your Daddy feel

special this Father’s Day Every father figure deserves awardrobe that reflects hisstrong, reliable, and one of a

kind personality and Harbour 9 isyour one-stop-shop. Whether yourdad is someone who is always on thego, or just enjoys chilling in his casu-als, Harbour 9 has something foreveryone.

An ideal fit for your dad If yourdad hits thegym avidly,then Myprotein's WheyGift Box is a completefitness package forhim.The Whey GiftBox with all of theaforementioned prod-ucts tucked in it is athoughtful creation byMyprotein.Price- Rs 5899/-

Myprotein DoubleDough Brownie- Thisis a perfect gift for thedads out there whoalways have a sweettooth but are alsoweight conscious.Combined with two

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MyproteinActivewear For Dads-If your dad is the onewho loves going to thegym and also prefersstyle over comfort thenMyproteins' Gymactivewear can be theright choice. They’vegot everything oneneeds to revive one'sfitness wardrobe.

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This Father’sday, giveyour dad the

irreverent go-tocomfort shoe.CrocsClassicClogsoffer

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color for everypersonality, andan ongoinginvitation to becomfortable inyour own shoes.Price – Rs 2,995

Classic PlatformClogs: This is the classicclog reimagined, with anextra dose of height, atti-tude, and style. TheClassic Platform featuresa heightened, contoured

outsole that supports thefoot with a slimmer,sleeker look not compro-mising with your dad’scomfort or fashion. Price– Rs 3,495

Jibbitz charms: Jibbitzare fun, symbolic andsentimental charms torepresent your uniqueself to the world. Goahead and pop yourfavourite charms ontoyour favourite pair ofshoes.Price – Rs 199onwards.

For the manwho alwayscares and

puts you beforehimself, surprisehim with a box oflove and solicitudefrom KamaAyurveda’s widerange of gift boxes.Enriched withAyurvedic herbsand essential oils,these kits are aperfect match forour heroes tounwind, relax andrejuvenate.

Get these fromthe comfort ofyour home at

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Akashini (AntiHairfall Gift Box)– Akashini is acomplete andintensive hair careregime to treat,cleanse, conditionand revitalize yourhair, it is clinicallyproven to reducehair fall by hydrat-ing and moistur-izing it fromscalp to theends.

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Treatyourfather

with our spe-cial Father’sDay brunch atThe FoodExchange,NovotelHyderabadAirport. Thesurprisebeing, whileyour familyand you gorgeon this deli-cious spreadall fathers will

dine with uscomplimenta-ry. Have ajolly after-noon withyour friendsand family ina pleasantambienceaccentuatedwith a strik-ing floraldecor acrossthe venue.Date: June 19Time: 12.30

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Celebrate the untradi-tional side of Dads!

What did the baby corn say tothe Mama corn? Where’spop-corn?

We all know ‘that someone’ whowould crack (and crack up at) a jokelike this. Yes, you guessed right! It’sour dads. The Father’s Day Special col-lection at Bombay Sweet Shop bringsyou hampers filled with Dad’sfavourite - Snacks. Here’s presentingthe all-new Peri PeriCorn Chivda to keephim company forday time snack-ing to mid-nightmunching;in place.

PriceRange:From Rs200/- to Rs900/-

MakethisFather’s

Day even morespecial with Men

of Platinum’s latestcollection of exquis-

itely crafted men’sjewellery in pure & rare

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The collection offers a widerange of avant-garde designsinclude platinum chains and wristwear. The jewellery is cast withclean, bold lines with minimalismat its core. Its design languageincludes distinctive emblems, crestsin solid forms and aerodynamicelements. The statement silhouettesand sophisticated textures cometogether to create this impeccablerange of jewellery for those whowant to be different, those whovalue what’s exclusive.

The latest collection is availableacrossmajorretailstoresacrossIndia.

DysonSupersonic

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EssentialSkincareRegime – Skin

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Portable DeskLamp WithWireless Phone

Charging An impressive

portable desk lampwith wireless phonecharging is one of theperfect settings atyour Dad’s work sta-tion. Not just phonesbut you can easilycharge your smart-watch and AirPods as

well. This is now avail-able on The June Shop,at Price Rs 6,499.

Quirky andTraditional Print-Pocket Squares (Set of2)

Stop your Dad’sstruggle for accessoriescomplementing his out-fits. As much as theright perfume is impor-tant, so is the perfectpattern of Pocket

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Takeyour dad

back to thewonder years and thegood old days of goldenmusical memories via theretro-designed SaregamaCarvaan which has 5000inbuilt Bollywood songsfrom the 60s, 70s, and80s.

Face Care GiftBox For Men –This minimalistic,

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Price- Rs 825

Wonderla

Announces “Buy

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Wonderla Holidays announces anamazing offer for Father’s Day 2022.Visitors who make a purchase of fourtickets, pay for three and the fourth

ticket is absolutely free for theirfather. This exclusive offer is valid

only for June 19 across all threeparks of Wonderla-

Bengaluru , Hyderabad,and Kochi.

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Vijayawada | Saturday June 18, 2022 what’s brewing?

Cataract is the clouding of the clearlens of the eyes, with ageing. Mostcataracts develop slowly over time,causing symptoms such as blurryvision. As the protein in the eyesbegins to denature, the lens starts

becoming white/grey like our hair. Thus, itinterferes with the vision by blocking the raysentering in the eye, like a curtain obstructingour vision. There is no medical treatment for

cataracts. Cataracts can be surgically removedto restore vision.

Dr. Alpa Atul Pooarbia, M.S.(Ophth),FLVPEI (Cornea & Anterior Segment),D.O.(Ophth), M.B.B.S., Senior Refractive,Cornea & Cataract Surgeon, Apollo SpectraHospital, Kondapur, Hyderabad shares, “Thelens of the eye is crystal clear by birth, mainlycomposed of water and proteins. As proteinsbreak down over time, the lens starts becom-

ing white or grayish, which prevents clearvision. The most common cause is increasingage. Ultraviolet radiation/exposure to the sunis another precipitating factor to induce earlycataracts. Other causes may include smoking,diabetes, long term steroid usage. Other fac-tors include alcohol abuse, obesity, radiationtherapy etc. Accidental eye injuries can also bea reason to develop cataracts. It can also bepresent at birth because of various reasons,

and it is known as Congenital cataract.Rarely children can develop cataract,which is known as a DevelopmentalCataract.”

As the cataract progresses slowly,most of the time, patients are unawareof the condition, as they keep adjustingthe compromised vision. The commonsymptoms include:

Blurred vision: Difficulty in the dis-tant or near vision and sometimesboth.

Disturbance of vision at night:Cataracts can make it difficult to see inlow light. The gradual loss of contrastvision, especially in dim light, is a keyindicator of cataracts. Cataractous lensinduces too much glare, especially atnight. This can make driving challeng-ing or even risky.

Sensitivity to light and glare: Lightsensitivity is a common symptom ofcataracts. The glare of bright lights canbe painful, especially to those with pos-terior subcapsular cataract. These

cataracts start in the center at theback of the lens, blocking the lightpath and inducing glare by diffrac-tion of rays. People with cataracts may find itdifficult to see properly in bright sunlight orsometimes more disturbing vision at night-time. They also might find it difficult inindoor lights. Driving at night could become aproblem due to the glare caused by streetlights, and headlights from the opposite vehi-cles, and the patients usually see a halo aroundthe light.

Diplopia: Diplopia is a medical term fordouble vision. It's a condition where only oneeye starts seeing double images. Sometimespatients can have multiple images or shadowsover the images.

The sudden improvement in near vision:Some changes in the lens, induce myopia,which suddenly patient’s ability to see nearand they start reading without glass. But theirdistant vision is compromised. As most of thetime, they are indoors, they don’t realize thattheir distance vision is not good.

Frequent change in the glasses: With theprogression of cataracts, there is a possibilityof frequent changes in the glasses.

She says, “If the cataract symptoms are mild,one might just need a new prescription forglasses or contacts lens, but the cataracts areexpected to worsen over time. When thecataract interferes with one's usual activities,the doctor will recommend surgery to removethe cataract.”

Cataract removal surgery procedure is

known as Phacoemulsification withIntraocular Lens Implantation. In this proce-dure, the original lens that has developedcataract is replaced with an artificial lens(Intraocular Lens). It is a very safe procedure.With advancements, the surgery has becomevery sophisticated and has effectively reducedrehabilitation time after the surgery. Onemight experience Itching, mild discomfort,and a watery eye for a couple of days, aftersurgery. Visual recovery is very fast with thelatest technology available today. Thoughrecovery period after the surgery might differfrom one individual to another. Some peoplereturn to normalcy within a few days, andsome take weeks to recover.

Doctors recommend a week's rest in mostcases if there aren't any complications.Generally, within a few hours, the patient issent back home with either a protecting glassor an eye pad on the eye to avoid any pollu-tion or dust particles entering the eyes.

After cataract surgery, the recovery willmost probably take a month. Early detectionof the cataract not only helps in giving backbetter quality of vision but also improves thestandard of lifestyle. Long-term waiting forcataract treatment may induce secondarycomplications in some cases and can alsodelay the recovery time because of complexsurgery, even though with advancement, thecomplications have dramatically reduced.

CCaattaarraacctt:: PPaayy aatttteennttiioonnbbeeffoorree iitt iiss ttoooo llaattee

A

SHIKHA DUGGAL

e still don't have aloss of poetic genrein our city becauseof a lovable writernamed Rana Khan,who feels that this

canon of literature can continueto embrace the love inHyderabadis.

There was a span of time thatshe spent in the Middle East;that's Saudi Arabia, and yet as awriter, she didn't forget to gainattention anywhere. She caughtour attention when she stressedthe need for sustainable men-struation through her poetryrecently at an event inHyderabad. In conversation

with her, she recollects, “I havespent a lot of time in Jeddahbefore. I came back toHyderabad in 2018. I completedmy engineering here.Hyderabad will always have itsown significance. There aremany elements wherein Jeddahand Hyderabad coincide, prob-ably due to the similar Nizamiculture we have here. Both

cities have Sunni Muslims; bothembrace multi-cuisine; bothhave a pique of art in them, andso on.”

Our Hyderabad has alwayswelcomed writers with openarms, and never subjected any-one to any backlash or critiquelike it happens in many othercountries, and hence her lovefor this city is doubled. But

there was an unfortunate timethat she went through initially,which she elaborated, "Therecomes a time in life when youdiscover yourself. That discov-ery happened in the city ofHyderabad for me. It gave meconfidence. I knew how to con-duct myself in the public eyenow. On the one hand, thereare two kinds of people over

here, close and dear ones, andon the other hand, the oneswho discourage you. Therewere some who made me feelbad about myself sometimes,especially in my community.They have a gaze on you whenyou are out in public. I found abetter and more encouragingfriend circle and moved awayfrom there.”

Illustrating the trend of mov-ing, she said, "I like changes inmy life, so I was eager to returnback to Hyderabad. It was timefor me to start a professionalcareer. I was worried aboutexperiencing culture shock, butthe city completely demolishedmy preconceived notions.People in the city know me as aslam poet, but I don't confide inthat strangely. I don't follow therhythm of poetry. I write myunfiltered viewpoints aboutwhat's happening in the coun-try's affairs. Don't coin the termslam-poet for me.”

One thing she really lovedabout Hyderabad was, “Thesect of people who are extreme-ly blunt here. I appreciate starkhonesty. It helps you gaugetheir intentions towards you!Others see it as an insult, but Idon't. But yeah, I have seenpeople forming opinions tooquickly. That's the other side.It's like a mixed bag of peoplehere, you see.” She shares herfondest memory. She remem-bers, “I went cycling once inGachibowli. I’ll always remem-ber those early morning bicyclerides! Then, there is acceptancehere. I remember working for astart-up and it didn't work out,yet it taught me to always havea plan B here. Date your ideas,but never marry them becausethe city is moving so fast! Theonly thing I dislike here iswanting people to stop assum-ing that's about it.”

‘I don’t follow therhythm of poetry’

This week for theHyderabond, ThePioneer brings toyou the tale of RanaKhan, who has kept thepoetic genre alive inthe city. She shareshis experiences inthe city and thepoetry scenehere.

w

Pets are a family,and we have astrong emotional

bond with them.Whether you are mov-ing across the nation orfrom one country toanother, moving withyour pets can be bothpsychologically painfuland expensive.

Sainadh Duvvuru,Co-founder and CBO,HappyLocate says,“Unlike humans whohave various means tocommute, pets find ithard to travel from onelocation to another in aconfined area. Even asimple journey canfrighten them, and theprospect of moving to anew home can makethem more fearful,unwell, and even irrita-ble.”

Here are a few suc-cessful pet relocationoptions that pet loverscan consider:

By Train: IndianRailways make traveleasier for a variety ofanimals that are mostlytransported as cargo.Pets are only permittedto travel in AC first classor in a First-Class com-partment. They arecharged on the basis oftheir weight at Scale 'L'and tickets can be pur-chased through theIRCTC website or at aticket counter.Meanwhile, in otherclasses, you have to keepyour pet in the brakevan for the entire dura-tion of the journey. Theymust also be alwaysleashed and are notallowed to roam freely.

By Air: Domestic air-lines such as Air India,Spicejet, and Vistaraallow pets to travel byplane. Pets that are lessthan eight weeks old andpregnant are not allowedto travel and for securityconcerns, some aggres-sive breeds or those withshort muzzles may notbe allowed to travel.However, internationaltravel necessitates morepreparation than domes-tic travel and may varyfrom one airline to

another. These prepara-tions include obtaining apassport for your pet,securing permissionfrom your veterinarianto travel indicating thatyour pet is in goodhealth along with a cer-tificate and sedated petswill not be allowed onboard since they pose asignificant risk to theirsafety and health.

By road: By-roadtravel is the safest andmost comfortable relo-cation option for yourpet. When compared tothe other options, a petmay feel more securewhen travelling to a des-tination by a vehicle asthey can be taken outfor smaller walks orquick breaks wheneverneeded. They might alsofeel secure when theytravel with their ownersas companions.

Those, who cannotrelocate or travel withtheir pets or have limit-ed bandwidth to arrangethese travels, can opt forpet relocation services.Pet transportation ser-vices like HappyLocatecan assist pet lovers withall arrangements fromstart to finish, ensuringthat pets travel safelyand comfortably aroundacross the country. Thegreatest advantage ofhiring a professional petrelocation company islogistics of driving orflying are handled,ensure climate-con-trolled vehicles and carefor pets at any givenpoint of time.

Things to keep inmind before youdecide to hire a petrelocation compa-ny:

Identity Collar: Get apet identification collarready.

Vet Consultation: Abasic check-up isrequired prior to the tripto verify that your pet ishealthy enough to go.

Carrier habit: Makesure your pet has a habitof staying in a carrier forprolonged periods oftime.

PET RELOCATION:

TRAVEL OPTIONS

TO CONSIDER

SaturdayJune 18, 2022

Follow us on

@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

sports 11VIJAYAWADA | SATURDAY | JUNE 18, 2022

AP n LONDON

Tottenham announced the signing on Friday of midfielderYves Bissouma from Brighton for a reported fee of £25 mil-

lion ($30 million), giving manager Antonio his third signingof the transfer window.

The highly rated Mali international shone as Brightonachieved their best-ever Premier League finish of ninth lastseason.

Bissouma has signed a four-year deal and will join newarrivals Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster at the London club.

"The transfer is a very good one for the club and player,"said Brighton manager Graham Potter.

"Yves has shown his undoubted ability and been an impor-tant player for us during his time with us.

"Now he has a new challenge with Tottenham, includingthe opportunity to play Champions League football, and every-one at the club wishes him well."

LEIPZIG RECRUIT SCHLAGER RB Leipzig on Friday signed Austria central midfielder

Xaver Schlager from Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg afteractioning an release clause in his contract.

According to reports, Leipzig will pay around 12 millioneuros ($12.5 million) for the 24-year-old, who has signed a con-tract until 2026.

"RB Leipzig are one of Germany's top teams and are con-sistently in Europe, they have now won their first major titlewith the German Cup," said Schlager in a statement.

"I'm really pleased I can continue my development here."The Austrian made 81 appearances, scoring three goals,

for Wolfsburg, who he joined in 2019 from Leipzig's sister clubRed Bull Salzburg.

AP n PALMA

Spanish tennis legend RafaelNadal said on Friday he

intends to play at Wimbledonbut his final decision rests onhow his troublesome left footfeels after training in Londonnext week.

"My intention is to play atWimbledon," Nadal said at apress conference in Mallorca.

"The treatment and thelast week of training tells methere is a chance. I will travelto London on Monday, play anexhibition at Hurlingham anddo a week of training to see ifit's possible."

Nadal said injectionsmeant his left foot felt "asleep"during the French Open finalon June 5 -- he still beat CasperRuud to claim a record-extend-ing 22nd Grand Slam title.

Nadal travelled toBarcelona last week to begin"pulsed radiofrequency stimu-lation", a treatment aimed at

reducing nerve pain.Nadal's spokesperson said

the treatment would leave thenerves in his foot "temporari-ly numb".

The 36-year-old then hadhis first session on grass onMonday at the MallorcaCountry Club in Santa Poncaand has steadily increased the

intensity of his training thisweek.

"I have noticed a difference,some slightly strange feelings tobe honest," said Nadal.

"With the treatment in thenerves, things happen in yourfoot, sometimes one part of thefoot goes numb, sometimesanother.

"It's normal apparently andafter a few weeks the nervesreorganise themselves.

"I'm happy. I've felt a bit ofpain, but it's different to whatI had before, which for me isprogress."

Nadal has won Wimbledontwice in his career, in 2008 and2010.

He missed last year's tour-nament due to pain in the sameleft foot while the 2020 tourna-ment was cancelled due to thepandemic, meaning Nadal ishoping to make his firstappearance at the All EnglandClub in three years.

"I will travel to London,play two matches there beforethe tournament and follow mynormal schedule to prepare forWimbledon," Nadal said.

"Who knows what canhappen in a couple of days —if the situation changes orsomething more negative (hap-pens), there will be a momentto explain.

AP n JAKARTA

India's HS Prannoy contin-ued his impressive run ashe sailed into the semi-

finals of the Indonesia OpenSuper 1000 badminton tour-nament with a straight-gamewin over world number 13Rasmus Gemke of Denmarkhere on Friday.

A little over a month afterhis heroic win over Gemke inthe decisive fifth rubberagainst Denmark whichensured India's entry into theThomas Cup final, Prannoyproduced yet another finely-crafted performance to outwitthe Danish world number 1321-14, 21-12 in a 40-minutequarterfinal clash.

It is the second semifinalappearance for world number23 Prannoy at the Indonesiaevent.

He had reached the lastfour in the 2017 edition dur-ing which he had stunned for-mer Olympic Gold medallistChen Long and Malaysiangreat Lee Chong Wei on wayto the semifinals.

Prannoy, who had reachedthe Swiss Open Super 300final in March, will next faceChina's Zhao Jun Peng.

Coming into the matchwith a 2-2 head-to-headcount, Prannoy didn't put afoot wrong as he played someangled cross court shots andreverse slices to good effect tokeep a firm grip on the match.

The match saw short ral-lies with Gemke bothered bya knee issue. Prannoy waitedfor his opponent to make

mistakes and unleashed hisattacking returns wheneverthere was an opportunity.

The result was Prannoygalloped to a 5-0 lead beforeentering the break with a 11-7 cushion. He kept thingsunder check to led the firstgame all throughout.

In the end, a service faulthanded the Indian six game

point opportunity and hesealed it with a smash on hisrival's forehand corner.

The first half of the sec-ond game was a roller-coast-er ride as Gemke produced asuperb fightback. He startedmoving well and clawed backat 6-6 with a smash after lag-ging 3-6 initially.

Prannoy kept the pressureon his opponent but Gemkeagain drew parity at 9-9 witha prompt net shot but theIndian ensured a two-pointcushion at the interval.

Prannoy continued todominate the rallies after thebreak as his precise returns onhis rival's forehand and back-hand earned him points. Asimilar shot took the Indian toeight match points and heconverted it with Gemke'sreturn hitting the net.

AP n NEW YORK

Mexico City's iconic AztecaStadium and the Los

Angeles Rams' multi-billion-dollar SoFi Stadium wereamong 16 venues named onThursday to stage games at the2026 World Cup being held inthe United States, Canada andMexico.

At a televised announce-ment in New York, officialsconfirmed 11 US cities as hostvenues, along with three venuesin Mexico and two in Canadafor what will be the first ever 48-team World Cup.

The United States venuesare all stadiums used by NFL

teams, and include the NewYork Giants' MetLife Stadiumand the Los Angeles Rams' $5billion SoFi Stadium, whichhosted this year's Super Bowl.

Both venues are seen ascontenders to host the 2026final.

The 2026 tournamentmarks the first time three coun-tries have hosted a World Cup,with the bulk of the games tak-ing place in the United States.

Mexico will be hosting thefinals for a third time after serv-ing as solo hosts in 1970 and1986.

Mexico City's AztecaStadium, named on Thursdayas one of the venues, will be the

first stadium to feature in threeseparate World Cups.

Other Mexican venuesinclude Guadalajara's EstadioAkron and Monterrey's EstadioBBVA.

Canada's venue citiesinclude Vancouver's BC Placeand Toronto's BMO Field.

The list of US venuesstretch from coast to coast, fea-turing several cities that host-ed games in the 1994 WorldCup finals.

Other venues include theDallas Cowboys giant AT&TStadium in Arlington and theMiami Dolphins' Hard RockStadium.

The Kansas City Chiefs'

Arrowhead Stadium — theloudest stadium in the worldaccording to the GuinnessBook of World Records —also made the cut.

NFL venues in Seattle, SanFrancisco, Atlanta, Houston,Boston and Philadelphia werealso on the list.

However the venue for the1994 World Cup final — theiconic Pasadena Rose Bowl insuburban Los Angeles — wasnot included.

The identity of the citiesthat will host the opening gameand 2026 final were not dis-closed on Thursday.

FIFA President GianniInfantino said in an interview

on Fox Television following thevenue announcement that deci-sions on the opening game andfinal would be taken at a laterdate.

"We will take our timewith that decision," Infantinosaid.

"There are still some dis-cussions to go on and we'll cer-tainly choose the best cities forthe openings and the finals.

"But every match will be afinal at this World Cup."

While all three host coun-tries will share games from thegroup stage through to thelast 16, the United States willhost all games from the quar-ter-finals onwards.

Spurs sign Bissouma

Nadal says his ‘intention is to play at Wimbledon'

AP n JAKARTA

Top seed Viktor Axelsenadvanced to the semi-final

of the Indonesia Open afterbeating Indonesia's AnthonySinisuka Ginting in a thrillingmatch held at the IstoraSenayan sporting arena inJakarta on Friday.

The badminton worldnumber one overcame a faststart from Ginting to claim thefirst game 21-13.

Cheered on by the homecrowd, Ginting stormed backto clinch the second game 21-19 to force a decider.

But the Tokyo Olympicchampion dominated the third

game, winning 21-9 to securea place in the semis.

Axelsen said handling thepressure from Ginting andthe home crowd was key to hiswin.

"I really tried to focus onmy game today and tried toplay the right game," saidAxelsen after the match.

"Ginting was playing welltoday. He's (playing) on homesoil so he had the whole sta-dium with him but it was agreat experience for me."

In the semis, Axelsen will

face Malaysia's rising star LeeZii Jia, who beat Singapore'sLoh Kean Yew 21-18, 16-21,22-20.

In the women's singles,world number two Tai TzuYing breezed through to thesemi-finals after beatingDenmark's Line HojmarkKjaersfeldt.

The Taiwanese's ace sealedher place in the top four afteroutplaying Kjaersfeldt 21-13,21-13 to set up a match againstTokyo Olympic championChen Yu Fei.

PRANNOYPRODUCED YET

ANOTHER FINELYCRAFTED

PERFORMANCE TOOUTWIT THE

WORLD NUMBER 13 21-14, 21-12

AP n BERLIN

Teenager Coco Gauffreached her first WTA

grass-court semi-final afterposting a straight sets winover former world number oneKarolina Pliskova in Berlin onFriday.

The 18-year-oldAmerican, who reached herfirst Grand Slam final at theFrench Open earlier thismonth, sealed a 7-5, 6-4 winover fourth seed Pliskova.

"It took me a while to findmy rhythm, the forehand sliceisn't something I use a lot, butI did today," said Gauff.

"Her shots were pretty lowon the grass and sometimes itwas enough to change thedirection of the point."

In Saturday's semi-finals,Gauff faces top seed OnsJabeur or Aliaksandra

Sasnovich.Second seed Maria

Sakkari also reached her firstgrass-court semi-final afterbrushing past Daria Kasatkinafor a 6-0, 6-3 victory in just 72minutes.

Sakkari will face BelindaBencic after the Swiss Olympicchampion rallied to beatVeronika Kudermetova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in their hard-fought tie,which lasted just over twohours.

AP n FRANKFURT

Bayern Munich will start itsbid for a record 11th con-

secutive Bundesliga title with apotentially tricky game away atEuropa League winnerEintracht Frankfurt.

Frankfurt has won two ofits last three games againstBayern ahead of their meetingAugust 5, which will kick offthe Bundesliga's 60th anniver-sary season.

The league's 2022-23schedule, released on Friday,has last season's second-placeteam Borussia Dortmundopening against BayerLeverkusen on either August 6or 7. Of the promoted teams,Schalke visits Cologne andWerder Bremen starts away atWolfsburg.

There will be more thantwo months with no games in

the middle of the seasonbecause of the World Cup inQatar. The Bundesliga willinstead start its winter breakNovember 13 and returnJanuary 20.

PSG VS CLERMONTDefending champion Paris

Saint-Germain begins its bidfor a record 11th French leaguetitle at modest Clermont in aseason where games will beplayed on New Year's Day.

The opening round is overAugust 5-7 and the league willhave games on January 1 and2 for the first time because ofa break for the World Cup inQatar.

There will be a six-weekhiatus; the winter break start-ing on November 14 andresuming on December 28with a midweek round.

PSG shares the record fortitles with 10-time championsMarseille and Saint-Etienne,which was relegated last seasonalong with six-time winnerBordeaux.

Clermont finished in 17thplace last season to avoid rele-gation.

PSG could have a newcoach when the league begins,with Mauricio Pochettino tout-ed to be replaced.

Marseille was runner-uplast season to qualify automat-ically for the ChampionsLeague, and starts the season athome to Reims.

Monaco, which finishedthird to enter the ChampionsLeague qualifying rounds, hasa tough match at Alsace-basedStrasbourg.

Bayern Munich tostart Bundesliga titledefence at Frankfurt COCO IN BERLIN LAST 4

PTI n ROTTERDAM

Their eyes firmly set on apodium finish in the

upcoming CommonwealthGames, India would look toutilise their final 2021-2022FIH Pro League tie against theNetherlands, starting here onSaturday, to address the greyareas.

In their previous tie againstTokyo Olympic championsBelgium in Antwerp last week,India won the first match 5-4(3-3) in shoot-out before losing2-3 to slid to the third positionin the Pro League standingswith 29 points from 14 games.

Belgium moved to the topwith 31 points from 14 games-- on par with Netherlands --

who have played 12 matches.Still in with an outside

chance of finishing at the topof the standings, the Indianmen would be hoping to signoff their campaign on a highagainst the mightyNetherlands.

But it is easier said thandone as world No. 3 and reign-ing World Cup runners-up,the Netherlands are a formida-ble outfit and are expected togive the Indians a tough time

in the double-leg tie.Playing against such world-

class opponents in Europeanconditions can only benefitthe Indians as they prepare forthe Birmingham CWG, to beheld from July 28 to August 8.

These matches are provid-ing valuable insights to theIndian team's think tank onwhere it stands currently andwhat more needs to be done tofinish on the podium inBirmingham.

Against world No.1Belgium, the Amit Rohidas-ledIndian team showed tremen-dous fighting spirit in both thematches, and the visitors wouldlook to continue in the samevein against the Netherlands.

India's vice-captain andace drag-flicker HarmanpreetSingh believed that the twooverseas ties against Belgiumand Netherlands will hold theside in good stead in theBirmingham Games.

"Playing back-to-backmatches in Pro League hasbenefited us a lot. In ProLeague you are playing againstthe 12 best teams in the world.After every match the thinkingchanges, the strategy changesand it is helping us a lot.

Indian men’s hockey team look toend Pro League campaign on high

16 North American cities to host 2026 FIFA World CupMEXICO CITY'S

AZTECA STADIUM,

NAMED ON

THURSDAY AS ONE

OF THE VENUES,

WILL BE THE FIRST

STADIUM TO

FEATURE IN THREE

SEPARATE WORLD

CUPS

PRANNOY SAILS INTOINDONESIA SEMI-FINALS

Top seed Axelsen advances

Bollywood’s KingKhan ShahRukh Khan will

be seen starring inJawan under thedirection of Atlee.The film is capturingthe imagination ofall. The first lookreleased by the mak-ers sometime backthrilled not onlySRK's fans but alsomovie lovers.According to the lat-est, the film is pro-gressing at a briskpace. Inside talk isthe film's shooting isin full swing in RFC,Hyderabad.

The makers areshooting importantscenes on Shah RukhKhan and others inthe extravagantlyerected sets in RFC,Hyderabad.Nayanthara is play-ing the female leadrole in the filmbankrolled by RedChillies

Entertainment in anextravagant manner.The film is slated fora grand release inHindi, Tamil, Telugu,Malayalam andKannada in theatresacross the globe on2nd June 2023. The

film also stars YogiBabu, Priyamani inimportant roles. ShahRukh Khan will beseen as RajvardhanThakur in the filmfor which music isscored by AnirudhRavichander.

SuperstarRajinikanth's

much-antici-pated film with

filmmakerNelson

Dilipkumar hasbeen titled Jailer.

The movie,Rajinikanth's 169th

feature project,is backed by

Sun Pictures.The production

company, a divi-sion of Sun TVNetwork Limited,shared the title ofthe film on Twitter.

“#Thalaivar169is #Jailer,” the postread.

Nelson is direct-ing the film fromhis own script.Jailer is his secondcollaboration withSun Pictures post

Vijay-led block-buster Beast.

AnirudhRavichander is onboard to composethe music for thefilm.Rajinikanth'slast big screen out-ing was in 2021with Annaatthe.

Jailer is present-ed by KalanithiMaran. Detailsrelated to the castand plot of the filmare under wraps.

Rajinikanth'snext film

titled Jailer

12

Vijayawada | Saturday June 18, 2022 tollywood

SHIKHA DUGGAL

irector M.S.Raju just fin-ished completing 7 days 6nights and the promotionsare in full blow. With ablockbuster named DirtyHari last year, he has his

hopes all high for this upcomingentertainer too.

Actress Mehr had all the insights togive to us. She mentioned,“Beginning with, I am an Assamese.My dad used to work for the teaplantations. Ahead in life, we movedto Mumbai. For the past four years, Iam working in the industry. But, atthe moment, we are living a life inKolkata city. But the traveller in meurges me to continue to exploreacross the country and adopt newcultures.”

Her manager spotted the director

and in turn, he asked Mehr to audi-tion for this movie. Turns out, whenshe landed in Hyderabad she crackedit, “The fun element in this moviemade me fall in love with the script,even more, it brought back theteenager in me. Gave all of us theyoungster vibes. I have been follow-ing the director, couldn't have said ano to him anyway. My character'sname is Ritika, she works in arestaurant in Goa. It's going to be ahousefull show because fans won'tbe able to stop laughing.”

They were shooting in Goaand Mangalore, and the actresscalls it one hell of a trip. Shecontinued, “Although I wasn'table to speak fluently in Telugu,shooting taught me a little bitof it. I have seen my ownmovie at the screening multi-ple times and just couldn'tstop gushing about myappearance. People term meas a bold actress, I don'tthough. When in Goa, dothe Goan things and it'scasual for you to wear aswimsuit there, What elseothers are expecting me todo? Swim in a saree? (Shelaughed) There is nothingvulgar in wearing a swim-suit, we must change ourmindsets.”

Actors like KalkiKoechlin, PankajTripathi, and Vijay Varmainspire her. She contin-ued, “They pick up suchroles that are close toreality, and that's what Ilike. I don't have toomuch of an idea aboutTelugu movies but we allknow how Prabhas, RanaDaggubati, TammanahBhatia and Dhanush aresoaring high in success. Theyare helming Telugu cinema'sflag high for me.”

There is nothing ‘vulgar'

in wearing a swim-suit:

Mehr ChahalActress

Mehr Chahalgets candid

with The

Pioneer andwe can

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statement bySai Pallavi in aYouTube inter-view on thelynching of

alleged cow smugglerhas triggered a socialmedia controversy justas her Telugu film,Virata Parvam, hit thebig screens.

In a YouTube inter-view, the actress dis-cussed the exodus ofPandits from Kashmir inthe early 1990s andcompared it with therecent incidents oflynching of suspectedcow smugglers.

The celebrated actress,

who says she is ideologi-cally neutral, stated,“The film The KashmirFiles depicts the assassi-nation of KashmiriPandits. A man wasrecently slain for carry-ing a cow because hewas suspected of being aMuslim. The perpetra-tors shouted ‘Jai ShriRam’ after killing thevictim. Where is the linedrawn between whatoccurred in Kashmirand what occurredrecently?” The commentprovoked a unit of theBajrang Dal to file acomplaint in Hyderabad.The Bajrang Dal

Bhagyanagar displayedtheir complaint letter onTwitter and said that acase had been filedagainst the actress at theSultanbazar P.S.

They asked Sai Pallavito apologise to the entirecountry, particularly toKashmiri Pandits, forher venomous state-ments. They added thatif she did not do so, thesituation will deterioratefurther.

Some of Sai Pallavi’sadmirers have defendedher views on socialmedia, while others haveexpressed their unhappi-ness.

Sai Pallavi comment on

lynching of ‘cowsmugglers’ provokes

police complaint

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TeluguIndian Idoltoday

crowned itsfirst-ever winnerin BVK Vagdevifrom Nellore,Andhra Pradeshat the culmina-tion of the com-petitions near15-week run onaha. The megafinale wasgraced with thecharismaticpresence ofTollywoodMegastarChiranjeevi. Theshow wasjudged byThaman S, NityaMenon, andKarthik who puton some daz-zling perfor-

mances alongwith the contes-tants. The first-ever season ofTelugu IndianIdol witnessed aseries of specialperformances,including RanaDaggubati andSai Pallavi whoappeared as spe-cial guests topromote theirhighly anticipat-ed film VirataParvam.Vagdevinow has theopportunity tosing in GeethaArts along withthe prize moneyof Rs 10 Lakh.

Telugu IndianIdol is the firstSouthern itera-tion of the

Indian Idol fran-chise. SreeramaChandra, a for-mer winner ofIndian Idol sea-son 5, hostedthe first seasonthis year. Fromthe Top 3Finalists,Sreenivas andVaishnavi weredeclared as thefirst and secondrunners-up andwere awardedcheques of Rs. 3lakh and Rs 2lakh respective-ly. Vaishnavialso got anopportunity tosing in MegastarChiranjeeviupcomingmovieGodfather.

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Akhil whoscored his firsthit with the

youthful romanticentertainer MostEligible Bachelor isleaving no stoneunturned to continuethe successful run atthe box office. He iscurrently workinghard for his upcom-ing spy thrillerAgent.

The film directedby Surender Reddy isprogressing at a brisk

pace in the exoticlocations. It is knownthat Akhil workedhard and sweated outin the gym for themacho physique andhis look has alreadygone viral. As per thelatest updates, Akhilis creating a sensa-tion under chillingconditions. Akhil isshooting in low tem-peratures in the hillstations and his dedi-cation under freezingtemperatures are

shocking all.The makers

released a collage ofAkhil's actionsequences in thefreezing tempera-tures. Akhil isromancing SakshiVaidya and AtulyaRavi as the femaleleads whileMammootty is play-ing an importantrole. The film is setfor a spectacularrelease on August 12,2022.