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HYDERABAD, SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 2021; PAGES 10+16 `5

www.dailypioneer.com

RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 3 ISSUE 248*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

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Hero Cycles’ e-vehiclesland in Europe

Mysterious skull fossils expand human family tree

P6

P5

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In brief

PNS n HYDERABAD

Four members of a family,including two children, drownedwhile allegedly trying to cross ariver in Kamareddy district,police said on Saturday. Some vil-lagers ofBirkur mandal noticedtheir bodies floating in Manjeerariver this morning and alertedthe police, who reached the spotand fished out the bodies.According to police, the incidentoccurred when the family washeading to a place of worship.

4 of family drownwhile crossingriver in Telangana

PNS n HYDERABAD

At last, the All India CongressCommittee on Saturday namedMalkajgiri MP A Revanth Reddy asthe new Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee chief, apart from appoint-ing working presidents, vice-presi-dents, campaign committee, electionmanagement committee, AICC pro-gram implementation committee.

Although this ends the pro-longed suspense and intense behind-the-scene activity, some of the seniorswho had been in the race for the toppost are in a state of shock, indicat-

ing that the new party chief has arough road ahead. The party

high command kept aside theominous objections raised

by several senior leadersand infused confidencein A Revanth Reddy,who has been in Delhifor over 20 days.

LAKEFRONT DIGNITY HOUSING

KTR hands over 330 2BHKsto ‘lucky’ beneficiaries in City

PNS n HYDERABAD

In a dream-come-true moment for'lucky' beneficiaries of the dignityhousing scheme, MunicipalAdministration and UrbanDevelopment Minister K.T. RamaRao inaugurated the 330-unit DBRcomplex at Ambedkar Nagar, over-looking the Hussain Sagar, here onSaturday.

Along with KTR, MinistersMohammed Mahmood Ali, TalasaniSrinivas Yadav, MLC Surabhi VaniDevi and Mayor GadwalVijayalakshmi participated in theinauguration of the houses taken upunder the flagship programme of theTRS government.

The Ministers handed over thehouses formally by draw of lots tofive of the beneficiaries and the rest

of the allotment was done by officialsof GHMC and other departments.Addressing a gathering on the occa-sion, KTR said that he was extreme-ly happy to see the reaction of peo-ple who said that with the construc-

tion of 2BHK houses AmbedkarNagar had been transformed.

MA & UD Minister K.T. Rama Rao drawing lotsafter inaugurating the 330-unit DBR complex(inset) at Ambedkar Nagar, overlooking theHussain Sagar, here on Saturday.

SNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

Chief Minister K ChandrasekharRao, having faced much criticismwith regard to his scarce interac-tions with people and people's

representatives, has taken correc-tive steps that are visible.

Perhaps on the advice of his

well-meaning political advisorsand on the basis of feedback hehad obtained from varioussources, CM KCR has totallychanged his style of function.

TRS Chief changes hisstyle of functioning

No pendency ofworks under Palle,Pattana Pragathi,CM instructs officials PNS n HYDERABAD

Giving a firm direction to offi-cials, Chief MinisterK.Chandrasekhar Rao made itclear on Saturday that henceforthno works listed under the PallePragathi and Pattana Pragathiprogrammes, commencing onJuly 1, should be kept pending.

He addressed a preparatorymeeting at Pragathi Bhavan hereon Saturday on the two pro-grammes that are designed totransform villages and townsinter alia with greenery, hygiene,sanitation and other facilities.

KCR said that officials shouldexamine why, despite all the coop-eration extended to the PanchayatRaj departments, works were stillnot being completed on time. TheGovernment issued orders releas-ing Rs.32 crore - one crore to eachdistrict barring Hyderabad -- forthe Palle and Pattana Pragathi pro-grammes.

Emphasising on greenery, KCRsaid that six saplings should bedistributed to each house in everyvillage for planting.

Teachers unionrequests CM to put offreopening of schoolsPNS n HYDERABAD

Leaders of The ProgressiveRecognised Teachers' Union --Telangana State (PRTU TS) haverequested Chief MinisterK.Chandrasekhar Rao to post-pone for some more time thereopening of schools due to theprevailing pandemic situation.They also suggested that teachingshould continue in online modeand instructions be given thatonly 50 per cent of teachersshould attend the schools.

The PRTU leaders submitted amemorandum to the ChiefMinister at Pragathi Bhavan onSaturday on their problems. Theyrequested that the cadre be divid-ed on the basis of new districtsand that the process for promo-tions and transfers should begin.

Education Minister P.SabithaIndra Reddy, MLCs K.JanardhanReddy, K.Raghotham Reddy,PRTU TS State President P.SripalReddy, general secretaryB.Kamalakar Rao and others werepresent.

Prepare State-wideinventory of lands: CM

ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

An inventory of sites, lands andother assets belonging to all thegovernment departments acrossthe State should be done by July-end, said Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao.

Addressing a preparatory meet-ing, ahead of his impendinginspection of Palle Pragathi andPattana Pragathi programmes, atPragati Bhavan here on Saturday,KCR said that an Estate Officer forevery district would be appointedto maintain records of lands of gov-ernment departments and they

would report to the Collectors. AState level Estate Officer would alsobe appointed. The State EO wouldwork under the supervision of theChief Secretary.

The officers should take Rio deJaneiro, a city in Brazil, as an inspi-ration in utilizing the urban landscientifically in accordance withpeople's requirements. Plantationprogrammes should be taken upextensively on hilly terrains, hesaid.

To improve greenery, 'PrakruthiVanam' (Nature Park) should bedeveloped over an extent of 10acres in every mandal. Whereverland was required for public pur-poses, it should be acquired as perlaw, he said.

TS, AP boost infra foroxygen independenceNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

To avoid a Delhi-like situationwhere people literally gasped forbreath at the height of the Covid-19 second wave, Andhra Pradesh,Telangana and eight other states arestrengthening their oxygen supplyinfrastructure locally.

In tune with the recommenda-tions of the National Task Force,these States are also developingcomprehensive medical oxygenplans and strengthening the infra-structure for medical oxygen inboth public and private sectors.

A 163-page ‘interim report’ --part of an affidavit filed by theUnion Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare in the SupremeCourt earlier this week -- says: “10States have finalised such plans ofstrengthening medical oxygeninfrastructure till now".

These 10 States are Telangana,Andhra Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra,Uttarakhand, Kerala, Punjab,Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and

Rajasthan. Sources indicated thatduring the second wave, thedemand for oxygen in Telanganawas over 100 Metric Tonnes (MT)more than allocated by the Centre.The consequence led to theTelangana government clearing aproposal to set up 132 PSA oxygengeneration plants in governmenthospitals and set up infrastructurefor an additional capacity of 200MT of liquid medical oxygen in thestate.

Fearing Covid,Maoist-couplesurrendersPNS n HYDERABAD

Fearing the spread of coronavirusamong Maoist cadre, a Maoist-cou-ple surrendered before the policein Bhadradri Kothagudem dis-trict of Telangana on Saturday.

Police said Surender, an areacommittee member of ManuguruLOS (local organisation squad) andhis wife, a dalam member ofManuguru LOS, gave themselves up.Both of them feared for their livesdue to harassment by the Maoistleadership and also the spread ofcoronavirus among the cadre, thepolice said. The recent death of cen-tral committee member (CCM)Hari Bhushan and some othersdue to COVID has put the fear inthe Maoists,

PNS n NEW DELHI

A potential third wave of Covidinfections seems unlikely to be assevere as the second wave, says amodelling study by a team of scien-tists from the Indian Council OfMedical Research (ICMR) and theImperial College London, UK.Rapid scale-up of vaccination efforts,says the study, could play an impor-tant role in mitigating the presentand future waves of the disease.

India's first wave of SARSCoV-2 infection began in late January2020 with a peak attained in mid-September. This phase was relative-ly mild compared to the secondwave that followed, from mid-February 2021 onwards, exhibiting

a more explosive spread across thecountry. A major factor driving thissecond wave is the emergence of

more-infectious variants of SARS-CoV-2, principally B.1.1.7 (Alphavariant) and B.1.617.2 (Delta vari-

ant), of which the latter has playeda dominant role in recent months.

Third waves have emerged inother countries - like the UK andthe USA - and are driven by a rangeof factors, says the study. Theresults suggest that a third wave, ifit should occur, is unlikely to be assevere as the second wave, given theextent of spread that has alreadytaken place in India, it adds.

"Consequently, for a virus tocause a major third wave in the faceof this pre-existing immunity,extreme scenarios for the abroga-tion of that immunity are required,or for that matter, for the transmis-sion fitness of any novel virus," saysthe article in the Indian Journal ofMedical Research.

Deshmukh had received overRs 4 cr from bar owners: EDPNS n MUMBAI

Suspended police officerSachin Waze has toldthe ED that he "col-lected" Rs 4.70crore in cash fromMumbai barowners and"handed it over"to the personalassistant of formerMaharashtra homeminister AnilDeshmukh, the centralprobe agency claimed on Saturday.

It also claimed that Waze, the

former head of crime intelligenceunit (CIU) of Mumbai police,

informed the bar owners andmanagers that this money

"will go to No. 1 andcrime branch and socialservice branch ofMumbai Police".

He further told theagency that "he wasgetting direct instruc-

tions from AnilDeshmukh, the then

home minister in a numberof police investigations".

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Revanth is new TPCC chiefn Estate officers to be appointed

for districts and State

n Agenda set for officers handlingPattana Pragathi

n ‘Map Your Town’ plan unveiledto set right deficiencies

n Govt to enlist retired govtemployees, ex-servicemen forutilizing their services

n Officials told to utilise urbanlands scientifically on the lines ofthe system in Rio de Janeiro

KTR calls upon beneficiaries tomaintain it as a model colonywith greenery and cleanliness

Harish back in KCR good books Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao addressing a preparatory meeting, ahead of his impending inspection of Palle Pragathi and PattanaPragathi programmes, at Pragati Bhavan on Saturday.

CJI seeks end to poordigital connectivity in

rural, remote areas

Chief Justice of India N V Ramanahas written to Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad seeking steps to

resolve the poor digital connectivity inrural, tribal, remote and hilly areas that

is "adversely impacting the pace ofjustice delivery". The CJI referred to the

digital divide and said that "a wholegeneration of lawyers is being pushed

out of the system" due to thetechnological inequality. He was

speaking during the release of a book,‘Anomalies in Law and Justice',

authored by Justice (Rt) RV Raveen-dran in a virtual function here. Duringthe panel discussion that followed, he

informed that the matter ofconnectivity figured prominently in thetwo-day conference of chief justices of

high courts that he had held recently.

Two Indian Ayurvedicdoctors get UAE's

Golden Visa

Two Indian Ayurvedic doctors have

received the UAE'S covetedGolden Visa, according to a

media report on Saturday. Dr ShyamVishwanathan Pillai and Dr Jasna

Jamal, both from Kerala, were grantedGolden Visas by the UAE's Federal

Authority for Identity and Citizenship(ICA), Khaleej Times reported. Pillai,

CEO of Vaidyashala at the Burjeel DaySurgery Centre in Abu Dhabi, wasgranted the Golden Visa under themedical professionals and doctorscategory on June 17. “My sincere

gratitude to the rulers andpolicymakers of UAE for the kind

support to Ayurveda and Ayurvedapractitioners,” Pillai said.

3 killed, 5 seriouslyinjured in Germany

knife attack

Aman armed with a long knife killed

three people and injured severalothers, some seriously, in the

southern city of Wuerzburg Fridaybefore being shot by police and

arrested, German authorities said. It wasunclear how many people were injured

in the attack in a central part of theBavarian city. Police identified the

suspect as a 24-year-old Somali manliving in Wuerzburg. His life was not indanger from his gunshot wound, they

said. deos posted on social mediashowed pedestrians surrounding theattacker and holding him at bay with

chairs and sticks. A woman who saidshe had witnessed the incident said that

“he had a really big knife with him”and was attacking people".

Will retire from politics

if no OBC quota

3rd wave unlikely to be as devastating as 2nd

‘Will bring Cong to power’

Newly elected TPCC chief RevanthReddy has declared that he would

bring the Congress party back topower in Telangana. He spoke to mediapersons on Saturday, after meetingShabbir Ali at the latter's residence.Revanth Reddy said that he wouldwork for the development of the poorand weaker sections, keeping in mindthe ideology of Party leaders SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Revanthsaid that he would consider everyone'sviews among the party unit's seniorleaders here,

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27 , 2021

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(IN HYDERABAD)

MARTHI SUBRAHMANYAM

n HYDERABAD

The Movie Artistes'Association (MAA) electionstook a curious turn as theTelangana Movie Artistes'Association (TMAA) broughtto the fore the demand for itsshare in the MAA, pushing itinto a complex situation.

If their proposal is not heed-ed, the TMAA will appeal tothe MAA members to givetheir vote to those who sub-scribe to 'Jai Telangana'.

What is curious is thedemand to render justice to themovie artistes of Andhra andTelangana origin by equallydividing the posts of MAAoffice-bearers.

TMAA president, notedadvocate and BJP leader CVL

Narasimha Rao is gearing upto put forward the proposalbefore Prakash Raj andManchu Vishnu, who havealready announced theirrespective panels.

As the Kamma and Kapucommunities, which wieldconsiderable influence onTollywood industry, are ready-ing themselves for the MAAelections, which are sched-uled after two months, theregionalism put forward, as thelatest development, gave newturn to the elections.

In fact, the MAA, whose ori-gin dates back to several yearssince bifurcation of the state,has members from Andhra aswell as Telangana. Soon afterbifurcation of Andhra Pradesh,there was a demand forrechristening the MAA as the

TMAA. But the demand dieddown later, for reasons bestknown to elders in the filmindustry.

Currently, most of the topheroes, producers, directorswho exercise authorities overthe Tollywood industry hailfrom Andhra. Moreover, theyenjoy good rapport with theelders in the Telangana stategovernment. The whole indus-try concentrated in theirhands. Therefore the demandto rename MAA died in itsbirth. The bon homie atmos-phere between top producersof Telangana and elders ofTollywood from Andhra alsoled to watering down thedemand.

Three years ago, characterartiste and noted advocateCVL Narasimha Rao addressed

a letter to MAA. He was alsothe BJP cinema cell convenertoo. The letter sought bifurca-tion of MAA into Andhra andTelangana branches. The letterswere addressed to MAA exec-utive and to the Directors'Association. The letter ques-tioned "What is wrong in hav-ing in forming AP andTelangana divisions of MAA asthe two states are endowedwith their respective cine-matography ministers and FilmDevelopment Corporations?"

CVL Narasimha Rao arguesthat there is no movie artistes'association for AP at all, ren-dering injustice to that state.Since top heroes likeChiranjivi, Pawan Kalyan,Balakrishna and so on are con-testing the elections in AP,Andhra Pradesh should have

its own MAA unit, he rea-soned. Shoots taking place inAP would mean improvingopportunities for local artistes,he suggested.

As the MAA executivechose not to respond on theletter so far, the TelanganaMovie Artistes' Associationpresident CVL brought for-ward the Telangana MAAissue, kicking off a debate onthe issue.

The Tollywood industry isapparently discussing the issueof the division of MAA exec-utive posts in equal rationbetween AP and Telangana.

None would have any objec-tion of Andhra and TelanganaMovie Artistes' association areformed and their offices arelocated in Hyderabad, CVLremarked.

TMAA demands due share in MAA PNS n HYDERABAD

A 70-year-old man, who hadearlier undergone a livertransplant, was cured of heartfailure and severely decreasedheart pumping by doctors atAIG Hospitals, using a newnon-surgical heart pumpcalled IMPELLA, a US-FDAapproved device which is alsoknown as the world's small-est heart pump.

The patient, who wasadmitted on June 14 withcomplaints of breathlessness,chest pain, and severe weak-

ness, was stabilised and anangiogram was done whichfurther revealed all threemain arteries of the heartseverely blocked, includingleft main coronary artery.The comorbidities list of thepatient was long with postliver transplant, diabetes,hypertension, anemia, andacute kidney injury.

A multidisciplinary teamled by InterventionalCardiologists Dr AnujKapadia, Dr Rajeev Menon,Dr Swaroop Bharadi, and DrUday Kiran Anne, inserted

the IMPELLA device intothe heart through the groinartery under local anesthesia,which helped in stabilisingheart function and ensuringblood flow to critical organsduring the 3-hour procedure.

The device replicates thepumping function of theheart. The device wasremoved at the end of theprocedure, and the patientwas discharged after twomore days of hospitalisation,according to Dr D NageshwarReddy, Chairman, AIGHospitals.

AIG treats heart patient withworld’s smallest heart pump

PNS n NELLORE

Film critic Kathi Mahesh wasgrievously injured when thecar in which he was travellingcollided with a container truckon the National Highway atChandrasekharapuram inKodavalur mandal of Nelloredistrict in the interveningnight of Friday and Saturday.

The car was completelycrushed due to the impact ofthe collision. Mahesh wasshifted to a private in Nellore.Initially, it was thought that hehad sustained minor injuriesbut later the doctors treatinghim found severe headinjuries. He has been put onventilator support.

Kodavalur S-I SrinivasReddy said that over-speedingled to the car crashing into thetruck. Slivers of shattered glassfrom the car windows andwindshield hit Mahesh in hisface and hands, causing griev-ous injuries to him, the S-Isaid. A health bulletin releasedby the hospital said Mahesh'shealth condition is critical.

Police said the victim was

identified as Kathi Maheshbased on the information pro-vided by his driver.

Mahesh's friends and rela-tives reached Nellore city toenquire about his health con-dition.

Later, they shifted him to acorporate hospital in Chennaiin a serious condition.

S-I Srinivas Reddy said acase was registered and inves-tigation is underway.

Continued from Page 1

Noticeably, the party highcommand did not consider inparticular the names of otherfront-runners such asKomatireddy Venkat Reddy, TJeevan Reddy and D SridharBabu, among others, for theTPCC chief post, though sec-tions of the party attached tothese leaders had warned thehigh command as well asTelangana Congress affairs in-charge Manickam Tagoreagainst picking the MalkajgiriMP. Mohammed Azharuddinretained his working presi-dent position. MLAs T JaagaReddy got working president

position and Pidem Veeraiahgot senior vice president posi-

tion. The AICC has appointedfive working committee presi-

dents: Mohammed Azharuddin,Dr J Geetha Reddy, AnjanKumar Yadav, T Jagga Reddyand Mahesh Kumar Goud.

Senior vice-presidents:Chandrashekar Sambani,Damodhar Reddy, Dr RaviMallu, Podem Veeraiah, SureshShetkar, Vem Narender Reddy,Ramesh Mudhiraj, G Niranjan,Kumar Rao T, and Javed Aamer.Campaign Committee: MadhuYashki Goud(chairman),Sayyed Azmathullah HussaineElec-tion Managem-entCommit-tee: C DamodharaRaja Narsimha (chairman)AICC Programme Implement-ation Committee: AlletiMaheshwar Reddy (chairman).

Revanth is new TPCC chief

Continued from Page 1

Apart from Rs.1 crore fundsanctioned for each districtCollector for development-related expenditure in vil-lages and towns, Rs.2 crorewould be kept with theMinisters. The MLCs, MLAsshould spend theirConstituency DevelopmentFunds by taking approvalfrom the local districtMinister, he said.

Each District Collectorateshould have a State Chamberfor the convenience ofMinisters and State level offi-cers visiting the districts andevery Collectorate premisesshould have twin helipads.

To give impetus to PallePragathi and Pattana Pragathiprogrammes, KCR suggestedthat a list of all retired employ-ees of all government depart-

ments and ex-servicemen inall villages and towns be pre-pared so that their servicescould be utilized.

As part of Pattana Pragathi,city/town-wise profile shouldbe formulated so that officialscan capture requisite data andfollow 'Map your town' con-cept for setting right townsand cities during the 10-daylong Pattana Pragathi pro-gramme. They should work tofix the deficiencies, he said.

KCR said that all thedepartments should clear duespending among them throughbook adjustments and here-after bills pending betweenvarious departments shouldbe paid regularly.

Keeping in view futuregenerations and developmentof towns, enough landsshould be identified for fourto five dump yards in every

town. As Hyderabad city wasdeveloping fast into a cos-mopolitan city, theHyderabad MetropolitanDevelopment Authorityshould take commensuratemeasures to keep the areasunder its jurisdiction cleanand for the development ofbasic amenities like drinkingwater, roads.

No new layouts should besanctioned without the clear-ance of District Collectorsand the provisions under thenew Municipal andPanchayat Raj Acts should beenforced strictly. DistrictCollectors should take overold government offices andlands as the governmentoffices were being shifted tothe newly constructed inte-grated district collectoratecomplexes and use thoselands for public purposes.

Prepare State-wide inventory...

Continued from Page 1

Sources point out that irrespec-tive of the intensity of anyCovid third wave, theTelangana government doesn’twant to face a situation like inDelhi and other states due toshortage of oxygen.

Andhra Pradesh on otherhand launched the APIndustrial Gases and MedicalOxygen Manufacturing Policy2021-22 recently in order toincrease the availability of thelife-saving gas keeping in viewboth the present and futurerequirements.

It may be mentioned here

that a five-member panel wasconstituted by the SupremeCourt to audit oxygen con-sumption in hospitals in thenational capital. In its report,the panel said the Delhi gov-ernment exaggerated the con-sumption of oxygen during thesecond wave.

Delhi had allegedly asked formore oxygen than requiredduring peak which led to shortsupply to 12 states. Severalstates complained about exces-sive allocation to Delhi com-pared to their caseload. OnApril 15, as many as 12 stateswere marked as high burden inthe first supply plan for oxygen.

Subsequently, as the caseloadwas increasing, more and morestates were added. Soon thedemand kept increasing evenin states like Andhra Pradeshwhere oxygen was producedand consumed.

With the increasingdemand, a total of 1,385 MT ofoxygen was also imported, ofwhich nearly 200 MT was sup-plied to Andhra Pradesh. Asper the submission to thecourt, the import of oxygenwas continuing in June andmay continue in July also. Asper the submission made to theSupreme Court, the nationaltask force has pushed for man-

ufacturing oxygen locally forbig cities.

The submission reads:“There should be a strategy tomanufacture oxygen locally orin the neighbourhood for thebig cities to fulfil at least 50 per-cent of their LMO demand, asroad transportation is vulner-able. All 18 metro cities to bemade oxygen independent,with at least 100 MT storage inthe city itself ”.

Telangana has reportedlyopened its own 200 MT oxy-gen storage plant atPashamylaram to makeHyderabad an oxygen-inde-pendent city.

TS, AP trying to avoid Delhi-like oxygen fiasco

Continued from Page 1

The ED made these allegationsin its remand application fieldbefore a special Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) court in Mumbai seek-ing custody of Deshmukh'saides, personal secretarySanjeev Palande (51) and per-sonal assistant Kundan Shinde(45), whom it had arrestedearly on Saturday.

The court sent them to EDcustody till July 1.

The ED had arrested themafter it raided multiple locationsin Nagpur, Mumbai andAhmedabad including the res-idences of Deshmukh in amoney laundering case relatedto an alleged multi-crore

bribery-cum-extortion racketthat led to his resignation inApril.

The former cop recordedhis statement with the ED say-ing he was "called for a meet-ing at the official residence ofMaharashtra home ministerwherein he was given a list ofbar and restaurant owners."

In the meeting, Waze said, hewas asked "to collect Rs 3 lakhper month from each bar andrestaurant."

"Waze has also stated that hehad collected approx. Rs 4.70crore from various bar ownersbetween the months ofDecember, 2020 to February,2021 and handed over the sameto Kundan Sambhaji Shinde,the PA of Anil Deshmukh, the

home minister on instruction ofAnil Deshmukh in two instal-ments in the month of Januaryand February 2021," the EDalleged.

The agency said it ques-tioned and recorded the state-ment of Waze twice at theTaloja jail in Navi Mumbaiwhere he is in custody in con-nection with a case of allegedparking of an explosives ladenSUV near industrialist MukeshAmbani's residence in Mumbai.This Rs 4.70 crore was collect-ed from various orchestra barowners and managers for"smooth functioning of theirbars after restricted hours with-out the restrictions of perfor-mance artist" and interferenceby the police, the ED said.

Continued from Page 1

said Bhadradri KothagudemDistrict Superintendent of PoliceSunil Dutt.

Negligence and humanrights violations of Maoist partycadre by central committeemembers and other seniorparty leaders were the reasonsfor the cadre to leave thebanned outfit, according to theSP said. The senior police offi-cial appealed to all Maoists tosurrender. The police have said,"We will ensure their propermedical treatment and rehabil-itation as per government pol-icy."

Surender and his wife, bothaged 23, were working for thebanned CPI (Maoist) partysince 2018 and 2016 respective-ly and were currently workingas guards to Azad, TelanganaState committee member, the

police said.On Friday, landmines plant-

ed by the naxals to kill a policeposse in Koppusuru forest areain Mulugu district were dug outsafely and defused during ajoint operation comprising thepolice and the CRPF.

The operation was carriedout based on information thatMaoist leaders Bade ChokkaRao alias Damodar and othersenior leaders of TelanganaState Committee of CPI(Maoist) party, dalam membersand militia had planted thelandmines, the police said.

Explosives and accessoriesused for making landmines,including detonators, blackslurry (explosive), electricalwire, small bolts and tiffinboxes were seized from the spotand a case was registered, thepolice added.

Fearing Covid, Maoist-couple ...

Deshmukh had received over Rs 4 cr...

Continued from Page 1

Politicians in general andTelangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) leaders in particular areseeing a new KCR. The maincriticism that KCR has allalong brazened it out is that heremains confined to eitherPragathi Bhavan or his farm-house. The consequence hasbeen that KCR has never metopposition MLAs and, for thatmatter, even MLAs belongingto his own party, on anyimportant matters and hasnever held all-party meetings.Except during elections, KCRhas never toured the districtsand never interacted with peo-ple. KCR, in his first term asthe Chief Minister, followedthis as a policy perhaps, andafter becoming the ChiefMinister for the second timein 2018, he has continued thesame.

Due to this, party circlesbelieve, people may be disen-chanted to some extent withthe TRS government and theyparticularly disapprove ofKCR's ways. They fear that thismay lead to anti-incumbency,affecting the pink party'sprospects in the upcomingAssembly elections. This wasthe feedback that KCRreceived.

At the same time, theBharatiya Janata Party hasbeen utilising every opportu-nity to strengthen its base inthe state. Keeping all thesethings in mind, KCR is takingcorrective measures and wantsto put a full stop to criticismof his connect with people andpublic representatives.

In the past, KCR has deniedappointments to CongressMLAs several times. Many

times the police have arrestedCongress MLAs who hadsought to enter Pragathi Bhavanto meet KCR. But on FridayKCR surprised the CongressMLAs by giving appointment tothem promptly.

KCR started his districttours recently and is likely tocontinue this. To have directinteraction with people, KCRwill inspect works taken upunder the Palle Pragathi andPattana Pragathi programmesfrom 1st July for 10 days.During this period, KCR isexpected to take some spotdecisions for the developmentof rural and urban areas. KCRwill make surprise visits tosome villages and towns to getfirsthand information aboutthe progress of several devel-opmental works and interactwith people directly.

Key role for Harish Rao Noticeably, Finance

Minister T Harish Rao hasbeen playing a key role inchanging KCR's style of func-tioning. A known trouble-shooter, Harish Rao has playeda key role in the party and inthe government. Yet, for somereasons that cannot be fath-omed, KCR had kept HarishRao aloof for some time andinitially did not take him intothe cabinet after winning forthe second time in theAssembly elections in 2018.Later, Harish Rao was takeninto the cabinet and now hehas come closer to KCR.

During the inaugural of theSiddipet integrated collectoroffice complex five days ago,KCR had praised Minister THarish Rao, who representsthe Siddipet Assembly con-stituency.

Continued from Page 1

They decided to take ashortcut and drowned whilecrossing the river.

The area had witnessedrains for the past few days fol-lowing which pits in theriverbed were filled with rainwater. Further probe is on,they said.

Harish back inKCR good books

PNS n HYDERABAD

The state government ofTelangana has promotednine trainee IAS officers tothe post of assistant collec-tors, according to a GOissued here on Saturday.

While Mayank Mittalwas appointed assistantcollector to Karimnagardistrict, Apurva Chouhanwas posted to Nalgondadistrict. The governmentappointed AbhishekAgastya as the assistantcollector to Mahabubabaddistrict. Similarly, it post-ed Makarand toNizamabad, Tanaji Wakadeto Medak, Rahul toKhammam, Pratibha Singhto Mancherial, Praful Desaito Siddipet and Kathivaranto Nirmal district in thesame position.

Nine trainee IAS officers posted as asst collectors

4 of family...

Continued from Page 1

The number of rice mills shouldbe increased as there was anurgent need to increase the millsin view of bountiful crops andproduction of food grains in theState.

Similarly measures should bespeeded up for setting up foodprocessing units in the State.Food processing SEZs in notless than 250 acres should bedemarcated and buffer zonesprovided around the SEZs.Permissions for layouts andconstructions should be givenin that jurisdiction. Telanganahad evolved into a great agri-cultural State and the govern-ment machinery should sup-port farmers and agriculture, hesaid. The sale of spurious seedshad become a menace and itshould be curbed by agricultureand police department officersworking in coordination. TheDistrict Collectors, senior offi-cials should use their extraor-dinary powers under the law tostop the sale of spurious seeds,he added.

KCR said that to overcomepower-related problems in vil-lages, 'Power Day' should beimplemented and people moti-vated and educated to partici-pate in voluntary labour forsolving the local problems.The lands allocated for com-munity requirements in layoutsin villages and towns under thePanchayat Raj and MunicipalActs should be registered with-out fail in the names of GramPanchayats and municipalitiesconcerned, he said.

Continued from Page 1

The womenfolk said that hadprivate builders constructedthe complex at the same site,each apartment would havecost not less than Rs.1 crore,but Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao got thehouses constructed for themfree of cost.

KTR said that constructionof a house and marriage ofgirls were difficult things, butthe Chief Minister was extend-ing support for both the eventsand nowhere in the countrysuch schemes were beingimplemented for the benefit of

poor.The Minister also said that

Hyderabad was the only city inthe country where houseswere being constructed at acost of Rs.9,000 crore underthe supervision of the GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation. The allotment ofhouses was being done in atransparent manner and noone should have any anxietyon that front.

The state governmentwould also construct a BasthiDawakhana and a functionhall in the vicinity ofAmbedkar Nagar for the con-venience of residents and if

required some more houseswould also be constructed,he said.

In return for the DBR hous-es, the Minister asked the res-idents to grow trees along thecolony as the Chief Ministerloved greenery and under theHaritha Haram scheme, thegreen cover in the Stateincreased from 23 to 28 percent. Still, there was need togrow more trees in Hyderabad.He said another commitmentfrom the residents should beto ensure that no garbage wasdumped in the vicinity ofHussain Sagar, which wasbeing cleaned up.

No pendencyof works ...

KTR hands over 330 2BHKhouses to beneficiaries in city

Kathi Mahesh criticalafter car hits truck

Mahesh was shifted toa private in Nellore.Initially, it was thoughtthat he had sustainedminor injuries but laterthe doctors treating himfound head injuries

While carrying the cadrewith him. He conceded thatthere would always be differ-ences in Congress and that itwas natural for a 'family' tohave all sorts of problems.Still, everyone would fighttogether and stay united.

He said that he had spokento leaders Uttam, Bhatti andJanareddy to work out a bet-ter action plan for taking theparty forward.

‘Will bring... Revanth Reddy

(@revanth_anumula)

Extremely honoured to be giventhe responsibility of TelanganaPradesh Congress committeepresident Heartfully thankingSmt. Sonia Gandhi ji@INCIndia, @RahulGandhiji and @priyankagandhi ji forhaving faith in me.@kcvenugopalmp@manickamtagore@INCTelangana

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27 , 2021hyderabad 03

PNS n HYDERABAD

With schools in Telanganalikely to reopen after severalweeks of Covid lockdown fromJuly 1, makers and sellers ofschoolbags, notebooks, uni-forms and stationary shops inthe state are hopeful that busi-ness will resume as usual andthey will be able to recoverfinancial losses.

May and June are the onlytwo earning months for thosewho rely on the school bag,uniform business and note-books sellers, and it has beenhard for many as they havefaced severe losses.

Tajuddin Salim, who worksat a wholesale schoolbag shopsaid, "The Covid induced lock-down was imposed exactlywhen our main earningmonths started. We have suf-fered severe losses. For the last15 months, we couldn't earnanything. We were unable topay the rent for the shops orsalary of our workers."

However, authorities are stillgoing over the decision to

reopen schools in the statefrom July 1 and the decision isyet to be finalised.

Those in the schoolbag anduniform business hope thatbusiness will be back on track,at least for now.

Many still fear that the edu-cational institutes may beforced to shut down again inthe coming months.

"If schools reopen we'rehopeful that business will come

back on track. This Covidlockdown has brought so manyfinancial losses. Maybe inanother few weeks lockdownwill have to be imposed again.We just hope schools opensoon," said MohammadTajuddin, another shop owner

"As the lockdown has beenlifted, we are hoping that ourbusiness will be back on trackafter the schools reopen," headded.

Shop owners wait to attract studentcrowd amid move to reopen schools

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Gandhi Hospital, a nodalhospital for Covid services inTelangana, is gearing up tooffer non-Covid treatment topatients from July, provided thenumber of Covid cases gobelow 200 per day, with theapproval of the state govern-ment og Telangana.

At the height of the secondwave of pandemic, during theCovid-induced lockdown, thehospital Out-Patient (OP) usedto receive at least 1,300 Covidpositive patients per day. Thepatients had to wait for oxygenbeds and ventilator beds.

After lifting of the lock-down in the state, the situationis gradually improving.Moreover, the number of casesthe hospital receives per daydropped to 600.

The superintendent ofHandhi Hospital Dr Raja Raosaid that the hospital has main-

ly black fungus cases. Out ofthe 650 Covid positive cases inthe hospital inpatient ward, 310cases pertain to black fungus.

The hospital conductedsurgeries on at least 450 blackfungus patients, he said addingthat another 250 cases areready for surgery.

As the positive cases aredwindling, the hospital author-ities are taking steps to sanitisethe wards and beds in fourstoreys of the hospital building.As the Covid wards are becomevacant due to discharge ofpatients, the hospital has plansto switch back to non-Covid

services. The hospital, soon after the

first wave, segregated its ser-vices as Covid and non-Covid.In the same fashion, it is gear-ing up to offer its services topatients, resuming non-Covidservices soon.

The hospital is divided into

various blocks to offer Covidand non-Covid treatment facil-ities. All kinds of medical andhealth services will be offeredto Covid and non-Covidpatients separately, accordingto hospital authorities.

The Covid cases have comedown to 500-600 a day. But thenumber of cases should godown further. If the number ofcases touches down 200 andbelow in the first week of July,the Gandhi Hospital, with thepermission of the state gov-ernment, will resume non-Covid services, hospital super-intendent Dr Raja Rao said.

The vacant wards of Covidpatients are being sanitised asa prelude to prepare the hos-pital to offer non-Covid ser-vices. The number of casesshould go down further. Thepeople should remain alertand follow Covid protocol sothat the number of cases will godown further, he added.

Gandhi Hospital gears up to resumenon-Covid services as cases decline

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

Medchal Malkajgiri DistrictCollector Sweta Mohanty onFriday night directed the offi-cials to expedite the develop-ment works at the ChiefMinister of Telangana KChandrashekhar Rao's adopt-ed villages and complete themon war-footing without anynegligence.

In response to a report pub-lished in these columns onFriday, the district Collector

conducted a review meetingwith the officials of therespective depart-ments in herchamber.

In the meet-ing, theC o l l e c t o renquired aboutthe status of theongoing worksin Keshavapuram,Na g i s h e t t ip a l l i ,M u d u c h i n t a p a l l i ,Lingapur Tanda and

Lakshmapur villages in thedistrict.

The Collector direct-ed the concern

authorities to workin coordinationwith all the con-cerned depart-ments, publicrepresentatives

and local people.Clarifying that

there is no shortage offunds, the Collector

directed the officials to speed

up works to complete thedevelopment works in the vil-lages as early as possible.

Expressing concern over indelay in the execution due tothe Covid pandemic, SwetaMohanty directed the officialsto constantly monitor the exe-cution of development works.Additional District CollectorSamson, Panchayati Raj EERam Mohan, Deputy EEVenugopal, R&B EE SrinivasaMurthy and others were pre-sent at the meeting.

‘Expedite works at CM's adopted villages'

PNS n HYDERABAD

Over 3.5 lakh daily commuterswill finally heave a sigh of reliefas a three-decade-old problemof traffic bottlenecks will final-ly come to an end with thecommissioning of a six-lanetwo-way flyover.

In another two weeks, a keyand crucial flyover in the city,connecting SecunderabadCantonment and Balanagar,Kukatpally and Quthbullapurwill be thrown open for com-muters, according toHyderabad MetropolitanDevelopment Authority(HMDA) engineering wing.

Once opened, the flyoverwill facilitate smooth flow oftraffic on the Balanagar mainroad and motorists can crossover to Narsapur andFathenagar T junction. It willalso ease traffic congestion inKukatpally Qutbullapur andJeedimetla areas. The 1.10-km flyover is being built at acost of Rs 104 crore, excludingland acquisition, and will be24-metre-wide.

While the constructionworks are nearing comple-tion, Telangana Congress hasdemanded the Chief MinisterK Chandrashekhar Rao toname Balanagar flyover afterformer Congress leader late PJanardhan Reddy popularly

known as PJR. The TPCCofficial spokesperson GNiranjan addressed a letter tothe Chief Minister in thisregard on Saturday.

In a letter to KCR, Niranjansaid that the Congress hasurged to name Balanagar fly-over as PJR flyover bridge asthe former CLP leader late PJanardhana Reddy, who waselected and served as MLA fivetimes for the Khairtabad untilhis death. He had not onlyworked for the development ofthe constituency, but alsofought for the rights of theTelangana people throughouthis life, Niranjan added.

Niranjan said that PJR wonthe hearts of the downtroddenand working classes by devot-

ing his life for their betterment.Though PJR was not taken

deliberately into the StateCabinet after the return ofCongress to power in the statein 2004, PJR continued hisefforts for the welfare of thepeople and raised his voice onthe injustices done to peopleand Telangana, he said.

"PJR was the main reasonfor development of Balanagar.He made a proposal for theBalanagar flyover bridge in theyear 1998 itself, but his wish isbeing fulfilled now," Niranjansaid.

This is an opportunity toremember a great leader andneglected son of the soil bynaming the flyover after him,Niranjan said in the letter.

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

Uppal legislator Bethi SubhashReddy has said that the stategovernment has pressed intoservice mobile vaccinationcentres to administer theCovid vaccine to all thosewho are over 18 years and isconducting a special vaccina-tion drive to administer thevaccine for all.

He was speaking after inau-gurating a mobile vaccina-tion centre at Chilkanagarcross roads here on Saturdayalong with local corporatorBannala Praveen Mudiraj. Hesaid that the mobile vaccina-

tion centres will take the vac-cine closer to the people.

Deputy DMHO DrNarayana Rao, Dr Aswini andDr Ozar Ali, medical supervi-sor Bhoga Prakash, Uppalmunicipal circle project officerRama Devi, TRS divisionalpresident Bannala PraveenMudiraj and others were pre-sent on the occasion.

Later, the MLA visited PatelKunta tank, HMT Nagar tankin Nacharam division andPatel Kunta tank along withelected people's representa-tives and government officesand made several suggestionson building sluices to tanks.

‘Mobile centres taking Covid vax to residents'

PNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

The Medchal MalkajgiriDistrict Grandhalaya Samsthahas decided to give a faceliftto the libraries in the districtby spending Rs 4 crore.

The all-member meeting ofthe district GrandhayalaSamstha was chaired by chiefAkina Boina Nagraj Yadav.

On the occasion, severalresolutions were passed forthe development of librariesin the district. The meetingunanimously approved Rs 1crore for the construction ofa new library at Kukatpallyand another Rs 16 lakh forthe construction of theretaining wall, Rs 65 lakh forconstruction of library atFateh Nagar, Rs 18 lakh forconstruction of retaining wallat new library building inMedchal, Rs 50 lakh for pur-chase of equipment in thedistrict library, Rs 1 crore forpurchase of new books andRs 10 lakh for purchase of air-conditioners.

Chairman Nagraj Yadavsaid that the government hasdecided to spend Rs 10 lakhfor the purchase of new com-puters, Rs 5 lakh for digitisa-tion of books in all languagesand Rs 2.5 lakh for the instal-lation of a statue of VattikotaAlvaruswamy on the premis-es of the district library.

GRANDWELCOME

During the inauguration ofthe housing society,

consisting of 330 lakeview 2BHK flats located in

Ambedkar Nagar, thebeneficiaries welcomed

the Minister for MunicipalAdministration and Urban

Development KT RamaRao, Animal Husbandry

Minister Talasani SrinivasRao, Hyderabad MayorGadwal Viajayalakshmiand other officials with

Bonams as during Bonaluon Saturday.

Libraries inMedchal to get Rs 4 cr facelift

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Rachakonda Policenabbed two notorious houseburglars at a rented house inRaghavendra Nagar Colony inHayathnagar on Saturday. Thepolice officials recovered 300grams of gold ornaments,3,200 grams silver ornamentsand a two wheeler, all worth Rs18,00,000 from their posses-sion. The accused personswere identified as DasariJampaiah, 22, a gas supplier atMalkajgiri and a resident ofThukaramgate, Angadi Raju,22, a driver and a resident ofRaghavendra Nagar Colony.

Another accusedAanareddy Ravi, 22, is at large.

The accused persons werepreviously involved in 18cases, and were arrested twice.

The modus operandi of theaccused is to observe thelocked houses by moving inthe colonies in the day timeand commit thefts by enteringin to the houses by breakingthe locks at nights.

On June 1, the complainantalong with his family went toNagarkurnool duly lockinghome.

On June 15, the accusedpersons found locked house ofthe complainant gained entryinto the house by breaking themain door lock with help ofiron rod and committed theftof gold ornaments. Jampaiahkept the stolen ornaments athis residence to dispose themlater. The police arrestedaccused persons at the rentedhouse and recovered gold andsilver ornaments on Saturday.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Hyderabad City Policeinvoked the PreventiveDetention Act againstMalladi Gangadhar, whoallegedly cheated several per-sons after collecting lakhs ofrupees on the pretext ofarranging jobs.

K Shiva Chandra, StationHouse Officer of BanjaraHills said Gangadhar, 42, aresident of Manikonda andnative of West Godavari inAndhra Pradesh, collectedseveral lakhs from job aspi-rants saying he had contactsin the GHMC and wouldarrange jobs for them.

Two cases were registeredagainst him for cheating theyouth in Banjara hills andChatrinaka police stations.

"Due to his illegal activities,the PD Act was invokedagainst him," the StationHouse Officer said.

Police invoke PD Act against repeat offender

2 burglars nabbed with booty worth Rs 18 lakh

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana on Saturday report-ed 1,028 fresh COVID-19cases, pushing the tally to6,19,865, while the toll rose to3,627 with nine more fatalities.The GHMC accounted forthe most number of caseswith 132, followed byKhammam (76) and Nalgonda(66) districts, a health depart-ment bulletin said, providingdetails as of 5.30 PM onSaturday.

The number of recoveriesoutnumbered fresh cases with1,489 people recuperatingfrom the infectious disease,taking the cumulative number

to 6,01,184. The number ofactive cases was 15,054, thebulletin said. A total of1,18,427 samples were testedon Saturday, taking the num-bers examined so far to1,82,46,482.

The samples tested per mil-lion population was 4,90,233.

The case fatality rate in thestate was 0.58 per cent, whileit was 1.3 per cent at thenational level. The recoveryrate was 96.98 per cent, com-pared to 96.69 per cent in thecountry, the bulletin said.

The state said it reached themilestone of administeringone crore jabs to people in dif-ferent categories on Friday.

State logs 1,028 freshCovid cases, 9 deaths

HMDA lodges complaint againstprivate realtor for duping peoplePNS n MEDCHAL MALKAJGIRI

A day after the pre-biddingmeeting was held ahead of thee-auction of HyderabadMetropolitan DevelopmentAuthority (HMDA) plots, theCentral Crime Police onSaturday registered FIR againstCNN Ventures which is dup-ing public in the backdrop ofthe HMDA conducting e-auc-tion of its Kokapet lands.

The HMDA took a seriousview of the CNN Venturesduping the gullible public bycollecting money from themby advertising in media takingadvantage of the e-auction,which is underway with thehelp of the public sectorMSTC.

It may be mentioned herethat a total of 13 land parcelsspread over 64.93 acres will beauctioned. Among them, eightplots measuring 49.92 acres are

located in Kokapet and fiveland parcels summing up to15.01 acres are in Khanamet.

The CNN ventures adver-tisement appealed to the pub-lic that they can own 3BHKhouse site measuring 1500 sftby investing 50 per cent of thefunds, which the people investin Kokapet lands, in their ven-tures. The act of the CNN ven-tures is influencing the peopleaway from Kokapet lands e-auction offering 3BHK housesites at a lower price. Moreover,the CNN venture is collectingmoney influencing people.

Therefore, HMDA secre-tary, ORR project directorlodged a complaint withSantosh Nagar Police againstthe CNN Ventures.

In the complaint, he urgedthe police to take stringentaction against the real estatecompany and save the image ofthe HMDA as the realtor is outto cheat the people even forethe completion of the e-auc-tion. The HMDA appealed tothe people not to respond tosuch commercial advertise-ments under any circum-stances, he added.

CM urged to name Balanagarflyover after Cong leader PJR

hyderabad 04HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27 , 2021

PNS n MULUG

The CRPF personnel averted amajor explosion by unearthinglandmines planted by the CPIMaoists in Koppunuru forestin Mulug district. On theinformation that the Maoistswere planting landmines to killthe police party engaged in thecombing operations, the CRPFteams along with the bombdisposing team and dog squadconducted search operationson the way to Gundlavagu pro-ject from Koppunuru forest onFriday.

They found landminesreportedly planted by theMaoist leaders Bade ChokkaRao @ Damodar, KankanalaRaji Reddy, Militia membersand other senior leaders. Thebomb disposal team defusedthe landmines with the help ofa dog squad. A case has beenregistered against the Maoistsat the Vajedu police station onSaturday.

Disclosing the details,

Mulug SP Sangram Singh GPatil said innocent people werefalling prey to the landmineswith indiscriminate planting oflandmines by the Maoists. Acivilian Soyam Pentaiah ofMukunurupalem died when alandmine exploded at theMukunuru forest area inMarch 2019. Bullocks thatwere used for agriculture oper-ations have also died andwildlife animals were also fac-ing the threat. With the acts ofMaoists, the farmers in the for-est areas were incurring heavy

losses. He clarified that thecombing operations have beencarried out to protect the peo-ple from the landmines.

The CRPF forces wereaccompanied by ASP of EturuNagaram, RI operations,Vajedu and Venkatapuram SIsand special team members.The CRPF teams seized twosteel tiffin boxes, two alumini-um tiffin boxes, six detonators,900 grams of black slurryexplosives, red and black elec-tric wire and 10 rusted smallbolts from the spot.

CRPF team averts majorexplosion, recovers landmines

PNS n NARSAPUR

The Alluri Seetharamarajutribal boys' gurukul schoolwas converted into Co-educa-tion fine arts school atNarasapur in Medak districtand orders to this effect wereissued by Dr R S PraveenKumar, Secretary of TelanganaSocial Welfare and TribalWelfare Residential EducationInstitutions. The gurukulschool established in 1997,continued its service for 23long years.

According to officials,Narasapur gurukul school hasbeen registered as the firstFine Arts school in the stateand the students would beselected for the courses at thestate level. The students whowished to join the Fine Artscourses have to face a toughcompetition.

The students would beallowed into the fine arts cours-es in the present academicyear from the sixth standardonwards. Each class would beupgraded every year and in aspan of five years, the courses

would be increased up to thetenth standard. There are 80seats in the sixth standard ofwhich 40 seats earmarked forgirls and the remaining forboys. The students who joinedin the sixth standard would betaught general courses in themorning session and in theevening sessions, fine artscourses as chosen by the stu-dents would be taken.

Out of 80 seats, six studentswould be given the opportuni-ty in the OC category, six in theBC category, six SCs and 4seats for minorities, while lam-badis would have 34 seats. Sixseats were allocated to Koya

community students, four forthe Gundu Nayak communityand four seats for Kondareddy,Kolam, Chnehcu and othersections. Similarly, four seatsfor others in the SC quota wereallotted, two seats each underthe Gurukul employees quotaand sports quota.

The Telangana SocialWelfare and Tribal WelfareResidential EducationInstitutions has decided toaccept applications up to June30 for admission into the finearts school and the courses arevocal(singing), violin, tabla,keyboard, guitar, dance, theatrearts, painting and drawing.

Narsapur Tribal Gurukul Schoolto become fine arts school

PNS n NARSAPUR

With escalating costs of dieseland tractor rentals, the smalland marginal tribal farmersforced to use their familymembers to plough the farm-lands instead of bullocks. Thecrop investment cost is alsogoing up with the mecha-nization of agriculture opera-tions. Owing to the heavy costburden, some farmers inYerragunta Thanda in Narsapurmandal limits were using bul-locks, while some other peas-ants having small portions ofland using their family mem-

bers instead of bullocks.The photograph taken in

Lakshman Thanda inYerragunta Thanda village pan-chayat depicts the plight ofsmall and marginal farmers.When contacted, the farmerSrinivas informed that he pre-pared his field for ploughing,but the rentals of tractors andcage wheels became unafford-able. So, he opted to use hisfamily members for tilling thefield. Since the tractors and cagewheels are charging exorbitantprices, they have no otherchoice except to use humanpower, he added.

Where humansreplace bullocks!

PNS n ZAHEERABAD

The BJP government was con-tinuing autocratic rule at theCentre and as part of it, it hadintroduced anti-farmer laws,electricity amendment Billand anti-labour code,Agriculture Labour Union dis-trict president B Ramchandersaid on Saturday.

Addressing a protest rally onSaturday as part of the country-wide protests and submittingmemoranda to the President,he demanded that the Centralgovernment withdraw its anti-farmer policies and stop itsautocratic policies. The Centreshould revert the three farmlaws for which the farmers wereagitating for the past sevenmonths, but the government

was not showing empathythough 520 people died.

He said the protest pro-gramme was organized here toprotect the farm sector and theundemocratic emergencyimposed by the Centre. Hecalled upon the people to pro-tect the nation and people'sfood. The activists of theAgriculture labour uniondemanded the immediate lift-ing of four labour codes.

CITU district Vice-presi-dent S Mahipal, Farmers,Agriculture Labour Unionmembers, CITU leadersNarsimhulu, Saleemuddin,Veeraiah Gowd and othersparticipated in the dharnaprogramme. They presented amemorandum to the officialsagainst the central laws.

Farm labour union stagesprotest against farm laws

PNS n NAGARKURNOOL

In a bid to protect themselvesfrom cyber crimes and createawareness among the girl stu-dents on security, theTelangana government hasenvisaged a programme called'Cyber Congress', GirlsEducation and developmentofficer Surya Chaitanya said onSaturday.

She said the state EducationDepartment in collaborationwith women safety wing policewas conducting online cours-es for girl students from six tothe tenth standard. Two stu-dents from each school wouldbe identified for the course inNagarkurnool district.

About 100 students havebeen selected from 50 schoolsin Nagarkurnool district andthey were being given trainingthrough the Zoom App. TheNagarkurnool district has 131

Government Zilla Parishadschools, but the educationdepartment selected studentsfrom 50 highly populatedschools.

Surya Chaitanya said about20 Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalaya (KGBV) have beengiven a partnership in the CyberCongress programme as it wasthe issue of the girls' safety. Fromthe selected schools, two stu-

dents each from 8, 9 and 10classes and a teacher were select-ed and the local police, SHEteam staff and DSP would bethe members of the CyberCongress team. A district-levelofficial would be appointed asa coordinator and the studentswould be given training for aperiod of one year by education-alists and experts through anonline awareness programme.

Training for girl studentsagainst cyber crimes

PNS n MAHABUB NAGAR

A massive awareness cam-paign was taken up to protectyoung people from falling preyto narcotics, RevenueAdditional Collector KSeetharama Rao said onSaturday.

On the eve of InternationalDay Against Drug Abuse andIllicit Trafficking, theAdditional Collector flaggedoff a 'Nasha Mukt Bharat' rallytaken out from the districtCollector office to ICDS officein Mahabubnagar on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion,Additional CollectorSeetharama Rao said manyfamilies were being destroyedwith the consumption of intox-icants like heroin, cocaine,gutka, pan and arrack and it wasneed of the hour to createawareness among the people

especially youth against theseevils. Everyone should striveand create awareness to preventyouth from choosing the badpath by habituating to nar-cotics. He said a massive cam-paign was launched inMahabubnagar district and aspart of it, the 'Nasha muktBharat' programme was initiat-

ed and people awareness pro-grammes were conducted

through various departments.As part of the International

Day Against Drug Abuse andIllicit Trafficking, a special cam-paign was launched by organis-ing a rally in villages and townsto keep people away from drugabuse. The message should betaken to the people widely andensure that they should be freefrom intoxicants, he added.

District Revenue Officer KSwarnalatha, District WelfareOfficer Rajeswari, InformationDepartment Assistant DirectorU Venkateswarlu, DM & HO DrKrishna, DEP Usharani, DEMOTirupati Rao and others werepresent. Cultural programmeswere performed by Telanganacultural artists under the aus-pices of the InformationDepartment. Anganwadi work-ers, ICDS, Asha, ANM andyouth wing members participat-ed in the rally.

Safeguarding youth fromnarcotics underscored

Call to Maoist leader to join mainstreamPNS n JAYASHANKAR

BHUPALAPALLY

Kataram DSP Bonala Kishanhas advised Maoist leaderAnne Santosh to take care ofthe aged parents by leaving theMaoist activities. The DSP metthe parents of Maoist leaderAnne Santhosh at Ankusapurvillage in Kataram mandal ofJayashankar Bhupalapally dis-trict on Saturday and con-soled them.

He inquired about theirwell-being and gave 25 kg ofrice and new clothes to the oldcouple. DSP Kishan said the

aged parents of Santosh werefacing many hardships and

said necessary medical assis-tance would be provided to

them. He said the Maoist leader,

who was continuing in the out-lawed Maoist party with out-dated ideologies, wouldachieve nothing, instead, theyshould take care of their par-ents who were leading a pathet-ic life at the fag of end of theirlife. The DSP appealed toSantosh to join the mainstreamof public life and assured himthat all benefits and assistancewould be provided as per thegovernment norms if he sur-rendered. CI Hathiram Naikand SI Sambamurthy werepresent on the occasion.

PNS n MAHABUB NAGAR

People should be alerted againstmosquito and water-borne dis-eases and precautionary mea-sures should be taken to preventseasonal diseases, AdditionalCollector (Revenue) KSeetharama Rao said onSaturday.

Releasing a poster on the dis-eases to be inflicted with mos-quitoes and contaminated waterat his chambers here onSaturday, the AdditionalCollector said diseases likemalaria, chikungunya andencephalitis would affect thehealth of the people and to pre-vent them they should preventwater stagnation in the utensilsand drums, jollies must be fit-ted to windows and doors, usemosquito nets and use lids onthe water storage tanks. Hedirected the officials to observe

the dry day every Friday, oilsprayed in the water ponds andGambusia fish be released intothe water bodies to prevent thebreeding of mosquitoes apartfrom taking up fogging.

Seetharama Rao said peoplemight suffer vomiting and diar-rhoea and typhoid with conta-minated water and steps mustbe taken to check pipeline leak-ages, maintain a clean environ-ment at the toilets and the sur-

roundings, washing handsbefore taking the food andclean the drainages from timeto time. The panchayat officialsshould ensure that the watermust be supplied only after thechlorination. He also appealedto the people to be cautiousagainst seasonal diseases andtake precautionary measures.

DM&HO Dr Krishna, DEMOTirupati Rao, DEO Usharaniand others were present.

Alert people on seasonal diseases: Addl Collector

PNS n HYDERABAD

Nalgonda MP and Congressleader N Uttam Kumar Reddyon Saturday said that ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhara Raowas continuously cheating theDalits of Telangana though hebecame CM with their support.

He lashed out at KCR askingwhat happened to the promise ofa Dalit CM and why the largestMadiga community was notaccommodated in the Cabinet.The entire Telangana societywas shocked at the brutal tortureof a poor Dalit woman and herson in police custody.

Addressing the DalithaAvedana Deeksha, which wasorganized to protest against theatrocities on the SCs in the stateby TPCC SC Cell headed by NPreetam, Uttam said that thoughthe Madiga community form 12per cent of the state's population,no Madiga was made a minister.Among 50 to 60 lakh people whobelonged to the Madiga commu-nity, the Chief Minister wasunable to find at least one MLA.A community which formed justhalf per cent of the state's pop-ulation has more than two min-isters in the Cabinet.

The MP said that whenCongress leaders met the ChiefMinister to submit a memoran-dum about the death ofMariyamma, the Chief Ministertold them that he was not awareof the incident. This was a bla-tant lie as the High court hadalready ordered a judicial probeinto the incident. The death ofMariyamma, a native ofChintakani mandal ofKhammam district at the AdlaGudur police station on June 17was a heartrending incident.The Dalits in the state meted outwith injustice in Telangana state.

He said that Mariyamma dieddue to torture by the police infront of her son and daughter.

The police have indulged insuch heinous crime with the sup-port of the government. It was ashame on the part of the govern-

ment and the entire Cabinet hasto apologise to the people. Thecivic society would hang itshead in shy with the death ofMariyamma.

Questioning the meeting withthe Dalith representatives ofvarious political parties onSunday on Empowerment ofDalits, Uttam Kumar Reddysaid that how the Chief Ministercould organize such a meetwhile forgetting all the promis-es he has made to the people.

He said that apart fromMariyamma, Dalith persons likeNarasimhulu, Rajababu andRangaiah have died due to thehighhandedness of police andupper caste people. He remind-ed that the Congress has madeDalit leader DamodaramSanjeevaiah as Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh. It has alsoelected Sanjeevaiah as presidentof the All India CongressCommittee.

Uttam Kumar Reddy foundfault at the BJP for criticizing theCongress for giving a memoran-dum to the Chief Minister onMariyamma's death. He saidthat leaders who frequentlychange political parties have noright to criticise Congress.

KCR continues to cheatDalits: Uttam Kumar Reddy

PNS n JAYASHANKARBHUPALAPALLY

The issue of Podu landswhich were being cultivatedby Dalits, girijans and BCswould be resolved soon bytaking it to the notice of ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao, Bhupalapally MLAGandra VenkataramanaReddy said on Saturday.

Participating at theBhulakshmi Jathara and MaLakshmi and Pothuraju idolinstallation ceremony atPambapur village inBhupalapally district limitson Saturday, VenkataramanaReddy performed specialpoojas.

Speaking on the occasion,the MLA appreciated the ser-vices by the villagers for thegrand celebration of idols'installation of Bhulakshmi,Ma Lakshmi, Pochamma andPothuraju.

He felt happy that the fes-tival was celebrated with lim-ited people following thecorona guidelines.

PNS n HYDERABAD

F o r m e rMP DrM a l l uR a v i ,w h oretainedhis TPCCvice-president position, hasexuded confidence that thenew TPCC committee willstrive hard to bringCongress back to power inthe state.

He thanked AICCChief Sonia Gandhi andRahul Gandhi and saidthat the party high com-mand recognised thepulse of the people ofTelangana. Anotherleader Addanki Dayakarcongratulated RevanthReddy for getting TPCCChief 's position.

He said he is expect-ing a broad change withthe appointment ofRevanth Reddy and theywill work under RevanthReddy's leadership.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP hasannounced that it is going toboycott Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao's pro-posed all-party meeting onDalit empowerment.

In a statement, TelanganaBJP general secretaryBangaru Sruthi said that theChief Minister has no moralto speak on Dalits as hedeceived Dalits to come topower assuring them that hewill make a Dalit first CM ofthe state.

She alleged that the TRSgovernment has beendeceiving the Dalits for thelast seven years and KCRconvened an all-party meet-ing only to mislead the peo-ple as they are distancingfrom TRS. KCR has no con-cern for Dalits and he hasbeen holding the meetingonly to deceit them.

Revanth Reddyalways plays toprole in politics! PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MP from MalkajgiriA RevanthReddy, whow a sappointedas the newT P C Cpresident onSaturday, isalways in the fore-front to capture high positionsin the political arena sincebeginning of his political career.

Revanth Reddy started hispolitical career as an ABVPactivist. In the later years,Revanth Reddy joined the TRSparty and worked for severalyears and later he shifted his loy-alties to TDP. However, RevanthReddy joined Congress a yearbefore the Assembly electionsheld in 2018. Revanth Reddybecame ZPTC in 2006 fromMidjil mandal. He became MLCin 2007 and continued till 2009.

PNS n HYDERABAD

It might be a first shock to thenewly appointed TPCC ChiefA Revanth Reddy as formerMLA Kitchennagari LaxmaReddy tendered his resigna-tion to the Congress party.Laxma Reddy, who is popu-larly known as KLRannounced his resignationfrom the party within onehour after the appointment ofRevanth Reddy. According tosources, KLR may join BJPvery soon.

However, KLR addressedhis resignation letter to RahulGandhi instead of AICCChief Sonia Gandhi. In hisletter, he extended his grati-tude for giving him theopportunity through theCongress party.

K Laxma Reddyquits Congress

Sonia, Rahulthanked overRevanth'sappointment

BJP to boycottCM's all-partymeet on Dalits

MLA promisesto resolve Podulands issue

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27, 2021 nation 05

Chief Justice of India N VRamana on Saturday released a

book -- ‘Anomalies in Law andJustice' -- by former SupremeCourt Judge Justice (retd) R VRaveendran explaining in simpleterms various deficiencies in thelaw which needs to be overcome.The Chief Justice of India (CJI) saidthe book was an attempt to explainto a common man that the law andthe legal system is still evolvingand it requires more critical

thinking to resolve issues that have persisted for a long time. Hepraised Justice (retd) Raveendran and said he was "an amalgam ofunwavering commitment to rule of law, strong belief in theindependence of the judiciary, a deep sense of morality andscholarship par excellence.”

CJI releases book by former SCjudge on evolving legal system

Goa-bound RajdhaniExpress from Hazrat

Nizamuddin derailedinside a tunnel in Ratnagiridistrict of Maharashtraearly on Saturday, butthere was no report ofinjury to any passenger,

an official said. The train - 02414 - was going to Madgaon in Goa whenit derailed inside Karbude tunnel, approximately 325 kms from Mumbai,around 4.15 am, a spokesperson of the Konkan Railway, whichoperates the route, said. A boulder had fallen on the tracks, which led tothe derailment, he said. "The front wheel of the locomotive of Rajdhanisuperfast train derailed in Karbude tunnel located between Ukshi andBhoke stations in Ratnagiri region of the Konkan Railway," the officialsaid. A rail maintenance vehicle (RMV) has reached the site and anaccident relief medical van (ARMV) having re-railing equipment has leftfor the site from Ratnagiri for the restoration work.

Goa-bound Rajdhani Exp derailsinside tunnel in Maharashtra

Puducherry registered 228 freshcoronavirus cases in the last 24

hours ending 10 am on Saturday,taking the total positives to 1.16lakh. The new cases were detectedat the end of examination of 8018samples. The total cases reportedtoday were spread overPuducherry 166, Karaikal 43,

Yanam 13 and Mahe 6. Two more persons succumbed to theinfection and they were aged 72 and 42 years old. Director of HealthDepartment S Mohan Kumar said the active cases stood at 2,775.While 421 patients recovered today only the overall recoveries were1,11,898. Kumar said 12,76,071 samples were tested so far, and itwas found that 10,96,058 out of them were negative. Meanwhile,37,133 health care workers and 22,866 front line workers werevaccinated so far. He said 3,43,044 people coming under thecategory of the senior citizens (60 years and above) or those above45 years with co morbidities have been inoculated so far.

Pondy logs 228 new Covid cases,overall tally touches 1,16,414

Alekhpal in this district hasbeen suspended for

allegedly making derogatoryremarks against Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, an official saidon Saturday. Lekhpal (revenueofficer) Jitendra Nath Singh,posted in Odrai village ofJakhanian Tehsil, had madederogatory remarks on the

prime minister, which were found to be against the governmentservice rules, Sub-Collector (SDM) Jakhanianm, Suraj Yadav said onSaturday. An inquiry was ordered based on a complaint against theremarks. The inquiry report received on Friday evening found thelekhpal guilty of not following the government service rules, the SDMsaid, adding he was placed under suspension with immediate effect.The suspended lekhpal is a resident of Sarsena village in Maudistrict.

Lekhpal suspended over‘derogatory' remarks against PM

INDIA CORNER

PNS n NEW DELHI

The pace of vaccination of the 60-plus population has become slug-gish in the past few weeks after aninitial high, with healthcareexperts attributing it to mobilityissues and misinformation andunsubstantiated apprehensionsabout the jabs.

According to Health Ministrydata, 2.29 crore elderly peoplehave been fully vaccinated so farwhile 6.71 crore have received justone dose of COVID-19 vaccinetill now.

The 60-plus population inIndia was projected to be at 14.3crore in 2021, so that would implythat just 16 per cent of them havebeen fully vaccinated till now.

Vaccination for those over 60years of age and those of 45-pluswith co-morbidities started from

March 1 at both governmentand private centres.

On an average about 80.77 lakhvaccine doses were given to the60-plus population per weekbetween March 13 and April 2,but the weekly figure dropped toabout 32 lakh between June 5 to25, according to the data.

Healthcare experts expressedconcern over the slow place ofvaccination of the 60-plus peoplewho are more prone to have co-morbidities and remain moresusceptible to severe disease.

Dr Sujeet Ranjan, ExecutiveDirector of The Coalition forFood and Nutrition Security(CFNS), said myths, misconcep-tions and rumours aboutCOVID-19 vaccines are thebiggest hurdle to vaccinationcoverage.

"Some people think they will

never contract COVID-19, oth-ers believe that the virus itself ison the way out. Irrational mistrustof scientifically approved vaccinesis also a factor. While vaccine hes-itancy has always been a phenom-enon in our country, today ittends to accentuated by opinionson social media, where evenpeople with no subject expertise

but having wide following caninfluence people," he said.

"Some people in rural areasbelieve that COVID-19 is most-ly for urban people. Also, manypeople have heard on the socialmedia that the vaccine and itsside-effects will show up two tothree years from now. Theserumours, suspicion and fear are

making it harder to remove vac-cine hesitancy," he added.

He said it has also beenobserved that most public placesin rural areas lack senior citizen-friendly infrastructure.

Hospitals have expressed con-cern over the slow pace of vacci-nation of 60-plus people who alsosuffer from the maximum num-ber of comorbidities.

Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, FounderDirector, Ujala Cygnus Group ofHospitals, said vaccine hesitancyin the elderly population is a veryreal issue.

"Among many factors, one is afear that people with previousheart disease will have someissue because of some unfortunatevideos that were circulatingaround. Some people have donetheir CRP (c-reactive protein)tests also to see if that was raised

and then they feel that theyshould not take the vaccine,"Bajaj said. Bajaj said mobility isalso a very big issue for the 60-plus age group.

"The most important problemis mobility because they are notreally able to visit the vaccinationcentres themselves and also theyhave a fear that if they go into acrowded place, they will catchCovid. We need to ensure that weeducate them about the variousrisk factors and try to provide vac-cination to them at theirdoorstep," he said.

Dr. Piyush Goel, SeniorConsultant- Pulmonary andCritical Care, Columbia AsiaHospital, Palam Vihar,Gurugram, said for mass-scalevaccine coverage, vaccine hesi-tancy is one of the biggest hur-dles.

Vax of 60-plus population sluggish after initial high: Experts

Farooq sees ‘level of mistrust'in JK, Omar demands statehood PNS n SRINAGAR

National Conference chiefFarooq Abdullah Saturday saidthere was "a level of mistrust"in Jammu and Kashmir and itwas for the Centre to removeit, even as his son and formerchief minister Omar Abdullahdemanded restoring Jammuand Kashmir's statehoodbefore holding Assembly polls.

Speaking to reporters upontheir return from Delhi afterattending an all-party meetconvened by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Jammuand Kashmir, Farooq said hewould hold discussions withhis party leaders and PAGDconstituents before makingany further statement on themeeting.

He said the country's firstPrime Minister JawaharlalNehru promised plebiscite tothe people of J&K, but wentback on it. He also said thatbefore the 1996 elections, thethen prime minister P VNarasimha Rao had promisedautonomy from the floor of the

house. "Narasimha Raoji before

elections promised us autono-my and said sky is the limit, butnot independence. We saidwe never asked (for) indepen-dence, we have asked forautonomy. He promised usfrom the floor of the house.Where is that?" Farooq asked.

"There is a level of mis-trust....We should wait and seewhat they (the Centre) do...Whether they will remove themistrust or let it continue," he

added.The former CM said even

senior Congress leader KaranSingh has called for the restora-tion of statehood to Jammuand Kashmir before holdingelections.

He said that at the primeminister's meeting, all invitedpersons put forth their views.

"This was the first step fromtheir side that somehow the sit-uation is improved in Jammuand Kashmir and a politicalprocess is restarted," he said.

The Srinagar Lok Sabha MPdismissed suggestions that theJune 24 meeting with thePrime Minister signalled theend of People's Alliance forGupkar Declaration (PAGD) -- a Six-party amalgam of main-stream parties formed after theCentre abrogated Article 370and split Jammu and Kashmirinto two union territories inAugust 2019.

"Why should it be the end ofthe alliance?"

Omar, meanwhile, toldreporters it was made clear tothe Centre during the PM'smeeting that the statehoodshould be restored to Jammuand Kashmir before holding ofAssembly elections.

"(Ghulam Nabi) Azad sahibspoke on behalf of all of us thatwe do not accept this timeline.We do not accept delimitation,election, statehood. We wantdelimitation, statehood andthen election. If you want tohold polls, you will have torestore statehood first," he toldreporters soon after returningfrom Delhi.

Raut: Oppositionalliance incompletewithout Congress

PNS n NAGPUR

Senior BJP leader DevendraFadnavis on Saturday said hisparty will restore reservationfor OBCs in local bodies ifgiven power, and if not, he willretire from politics.

Addressing BJP workersduring a protest held at VarietySquare chowk as part of theparty's 'chakka jam' (block thetraffic) agitation for therestoration of OBC quota, theLeader of Opposition in thestate Assembly alleged theMaha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)government was misleadingthe people by saying that it willraise this issue in Parliament.

"The fact is that this issuecan be resolved at the statelevel. The state governmentcan restore the reservation byformulating a law. There is noneed for any act of the Centralgovernment. That is why OBCreservation is prevalent inother states except inMaharashtra. You (MVA) willhave to make a law. We will notstop until we expose their lie.This protest is held to con-demn this government on theissue," he said.

The Supreme Court had inits March 4 order said thatreservation in favour of OBCsin concerned local bodies inMaharashtra cannot exceedaggregate 50 per cent of thetotal seats reserved forScheduled Castes, theScheduled Tribes and OBCstook together.

The apex court, while read-ing down section 12(2)(c) ofthe Maharashtra ZillaParishads and PanchayatSamitis Act 1961, which pro-vided 27 per cent reservationfor persons belonging to thebackward class, also quashed

the notifications issued by thestate election commission in2018 and 2020 providing reser-vation exceeding 50 per cent inlocal bodies of some districts.

Fadnavis, who representsNagpur South-West seat inthe Assembly, said OBCs arebeing purposely deprived ofthe political reservation.

"I want to appeal to all theOBC ministers in the MVAgovernment. There is no enmi-ty between us and them. If youare honest towards the cause ofthe OBCs then regardless ofparty lines we are ready tostand with you. I want to tellyou with full confidence thatwithin the next three to fourmonths we can bring back theOBC reservation. If you give uspower...I want to tell you withconfidence that if I fail tobring back the political reser-vation for OBCs, I will retirefrom politics," the former chiefminister said.

Earlier in the day, theMaharashtra unit of the BJPheld 'chakka jam' protest acrossthe state. The party had earli-er announced that it wouldhold agitation at 1,000 loca-tions across the state.

‘Will retire from politics if BJPfails to restore OBC quota’

Corona will win if stakeholdersfight one another: Kejriwal PNS n NEW DELHI

Seeking to move on from thecontroversy over a SupremeCourt appointed panel reporton Delhi's oxygen demand,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalon Saturday called for everyoneto work together to ensurethere is no shortage of oxygenin the next Covid wave.

The virus will win if there isa fight among stakeholders,Kejriwal tweeted, a day after hisAam Aadmi Party and the BJPhit out at each each other overthe report that said Delhi's oxy-gen needs were “exaggerated”four times over during the sec-ond Covid wave.

"May we work now if yourfight over oxygen is finished?Let us together make a system

so no one faces shortage of oxy-gen in third wave,” Kejriwal saidin his tweet in Hindi.

“There was an acute shortageof oxygen in the second wave.It should not be so in the thirdwave. Corona will win if wefight with each other. Thenation will win if we fighttogether," he added.

While AAP leaders accusedthe BJP of "cooking up" thereport from the Supreme Courtappointed committee, the saf-fron party charged the Delhigovernment with "criminal neg-ligence". Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia alleged that the"bogus" and "misleading" reportwas "cooked up" at BJP's officeand submitted by the Centre inthe apex court.

The sub-group constituted bythe Supreme Court to audit oxy-gen consumption in hospitals inthe national capital during thesecond wave said the Delhigovernment "exaggerated" theconsumption of oxygen andmade a claim of 1,140 MT, fourtimes higher than the formulafor bed capacity requirement of289 MT.

Top BJP leadersdiscuss preparationsfor Assembly polls in 5 states in 2022

PNS n NEW DELHI

Preparation for the assemblypolls in five states early next yearwas the main agenda of a meet-ing of senior BJP leaders, includ-ing several Union ministers,on Saturday as they deliberatedon political and governanceissues linked to these states.

Party president J P Naddaand Union ministers Amit Shah,Rajnath Singh, NirmalaSitharaman, Narendra SinghTomar, Smriti Irani, and KirenRijiju were among those whoattended the meeting, partyleaders said.

"Preparation for the assem-bly polls in five states were themain agenda of the meeting,"a party leader said after themeeting.

Centre asks Karnataka to take up immediatecontainment measures

DELTA PLUS VARIANT

PNS n BENGALURU

The Centre has urged Karnatakato take up immediate contain-ment measures, including pre-venting crowds, conductingwidespread testing as well asincreasing vaccine coverage on apriority basis in districtswhere the Delta Plusvariant of COVID-19 has beendetected.

Union HealthSecretary RajeshBhushan has writ-ten to KarnatakaChief Secretary PRavi Kumar in thisregard.

Pointing out that this varianthas been found in Mysuru dis-trict, the letter dated June 25 said,"the Public Health Response, inthis case while broadly remain-ing the same, has to becomemore focused and stringent."

"Thus, you are requested totake up immediate containment

measures in these districts andclusters including preventingcrowds and intermingling ofpeople, widespread testing,prompt tracing as well as vaccinecoverage on a priority basis," itsaid.

The letter also asks the state toensure that adequate sam-

ples of positive personsare sent to the desig-

nated laboratoriesof INSACOGpromptly so thatthe clinical epi-demiological cor-

relations can beestablished.

Similar measures havebeen suggested to seven statesother than Karnataka. Accordingto INSACOG, the Delta Plusvariant which is currently aVariant of Concern (VOC) hascharacteristics like, increasedtransmissibility, stronger bindingto receptors of lung cells, andpotential reduction in mono-clonal antibody response.

PNS n CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu has registered itsfirst death due to the Delta Plusvariant of COVID-19 with aperson from Maduraisuccumbing to it, according tothe state health department.Minister for Medical and FamilyWelfare Ma Subramanian saidthree positive cases of the new‘Delta Plus' variant wereidentified of which two haverecovered. Those testedpositive for the Delta Plusvariant include a 32 year oldnurse from Chennai and anotherindividual from Kancheepuramdistrict. “After the death of theMadurai patient, the sampleswere collected, which confirmedthat it was ‘Delta Plus' variant,”he said.

TN reports first‘Delta Plus'variant fatality

PNS n BHOPAL

At least eight persons have beenfound infected with the DeltaPlus variant of coronavirus inMadhya Pradesh so far, stateMedical Education MinisterVishwas Sarang said onSaturday, adding none of thecontacts of these patients wasfound to be infected with thisstrain. According to officials,two persons who died in Maythis year were found to beinfected with the Delta Plusvariant. Speaking to reporters,Sarang said the patients infectedwith the Delta Plus variant arebeing tested as per protocol andthe National Centre for DiseaseControl (NCDC) has beenregularly sharing informationwith the state in this regard.

8 cases ofDelta Plusvariant in MP

PNS n KOLKATA

Three more associates of fakeIAS officer Debanjan Deb werearrested on Saturday morning inconnection with the dubiousCOVID vaccination camps inKolkata, a senior police officersaid.

Two of the associates were sig-natories of the bank account thatwas created in the name of

Kolkata Municipal Corporation(KMC) by the accused, the offi-cer said.

The third person, who was onthe payroll of Deb, had activelytaken part in the camps whereseveral people were "inoculated"by spurious vaccines, he said.

"One of them is a resident ofSalt Lake, while another is fromBarasat. Both were called forquestioning before they were

arrested," the officer said.The third person, a resident of

Taltala, was arrested after policefound him to be "very active" inhelping organising the camps, hesaid.

Meanwhile, three more caseswere registered against Deb at theKasba police station, the policeofficer said.

"A private firm which claimedto have given him about Rs 1.2

lakh to get around 72 employ-ees inoculated lodged a com-plaint at the Kasba police station.Another complaint was lodgedby a contractor who claimed tohave paid him Rs 90 lakh to getthe tender for the constructionof a stadium," he said.

"The third complaint was filedby a pharma company that paidhim Rs 4 lakh to get a tender," headded.

Three more arrested in dubious vax case

Covid positiveprisoner escapes PNS n DIPHU

A prisoner, undergoing treat-ment for COVID-19 at theDiphu Medical College andHospital in Assam's KarbiAnglong district, escaped,police said on Saturday.

The prisoner was admitted tothe COVID ward of the hospi-tal on Thursday afternoon afterhe tested positive, they said. Heescaped from the hospital onFriday night, they added. Hewas arrested on June 12 fromMatipung in the Diphu policestation area after huge quantitiesof drugs were seized from him.

Dharamsala BJP MLA accusedof mental, physical torture by wifePNS n SHIMLA

Dharamsala BJP MLA VishalNehriya has been accused by hisHPAS officer wife of physicaland mental torture.

In an 11-minute video thathas gone viral on social media,the 2020-batch HimachalPradesh Administrative Services(HPAS) officer Oshin Sharmaalleged that the BJP legislatorslapped her thrice on Thursday.

Sharma, posted as the blockdevelopment officer at NagrotaSuriyan in Kangra district rural

development agency (DRDA),claimed that Nehriya had phys-ically and mentally tortured herseveral times. Nehriya andSharma were married twomonths ago on April 26.

Sharma said she has nowreturned to her maternal house.

The HPAS officer claimedthat Nehriya had also beaten herin February this year at aChandigarh hotel.

The BJP MLA neitheranswered calls nor replied tomessages sent to get his version.

Nehriya (32) was elected as

MLA from Dharamshala in a by-election on October 24, 2019.

Sharma also alleged that herhusband had expelled her fromhis house on the fourth day oftheir marriage when she testedpositive for COVID-19. Shesaid she had agreed to returnthen as he threatened to harmhimself.

The HPAS officer also statedthat she knew Nehariya sincetheir college days. She said shehad ended her relationship withhim then as he used to beat hereven during those days.

PNS n MUMBAI

Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut on Saturday said thatwork is on to bring allopposition parties togetherat the national level, andthis alliance will be incom-plete without the Congress.

He said that the Congresswill play an important rolein the alliance that aims toprovide a strong alternativeto the present dispensa-tion.

Raut's statements comefour days after leaders ofeight opposition parties,including TMC, SP, AAP,RLD and the Left, assem-bled at NCP chief SharadPawar's residence in NewDelhi and discussed variousissues facing the country.

Talking to reportershere, Raut said, "There is noneed of the third front orany other front. SharadPawar has already made itclear. Similarly, Shiv Senathrough (party mouth-piece) ‘Saamana ' hasvoiced similar sentiments.And I have also read thatthe Congress has endorsedthis view.”

HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27 , 2021money 06

PNS n WASHINGTON

India is an "incredibly impor-tant" partner to the US in theregion and globally, the WhiteHouse has said, underliningthat America is working withthe country on wide-rangingissues like economic, strategicand security.

White House Press SecretaryJen Psaki on Friday said thatthe US took a range of steps tohelp India to deal with theCOVID-19 pandemic.

“India is an incredibly impor-tant partner to the United Statesin the region and globally. Wework with India on a range ofissues, as you well know -- eco-nomic, strategic, security,”White House Press SecretaryJen Psaki told reporters at herdaily news conference.

“The United States certainlytook a range of steps, as India wasat the early stages of dealing witha rise in the pandemic, to helpprovide a range of assistance, andwe will continue to do that mov-

ing forward,” Psaki said inresponse to a question.

In April and May, India strug-gled with the second wave of theCovid-19 pandemic with morethan 3,00,000 daily new cases.Hospitals were reeling under ashortage of medical oxygen andbeds. In mid-May, new coron-avirus cases in India hit a recorddaily high with 4,12,262 newinfections. In May, President JoeBiden announced USD 100 mil-

lion worth of COVID-19 assis-tance to India.

The US-India Chambers ofCommerce Foundation hasraised more than USD 1.2 mil-lion for coronavirus-relatedefforts in India.

With a record-breakingfundraising, US-IndiaChambers of CommerceFoundation has shipped or enroute nearly 120 ventilatorsand over 1,000 oxygen concen-

trators, a release said on June 3.Also, India will be a signif-

icant recipient of the US vac-cines after Biden announceddetails of his administration'sdecision to send 25 millionCOVID-19 shots to countriesacross the globe.

India has been included inboth the identified categories -direct supply to neighboursand partner countries, andunder the COVAX initiative.

India is ‘incredibly important’partner to US: White House

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's Hero Motors Company(HMC) Group has said thatHero Cycles has successfullydelivered its first batch of“Made in India” e-bikes toEurope.

The shipment, under theHNF brand of HeroInternational (HIT), marksthe start of the Indian bicyclemajor's plan to become aleader in the European Union(EU) market, the companysaid this week.

The first batch of around200 units has been delivered toGermany, with further unitsplanned for the EU in future.

“The shipment marks a stepforward to establish HMC asthe largest fully integrated e-bike company in Europe, witha well-oiled manufacturingcapability in India and bright-ens the prospect of India as areliable supplier to the marketother than China,” HMC saidin a statement.

Hero International – theEuropean bike and e-bike arm

of HMC – said the company'saim is to achieve an organicrevenue of up to EURO 300million by 2025, while addingEURO 200 million from inor-ganic growth.

“The first HNF brandedbike built in India has landedon European shores. This is abig moment for the companyand will demonstrate its abil-ity to disrupt the market inEurope,” said Jeff Weiss, theLondon-based CEO of Hero

International.“Clearly, a major part of the

future is e-bikes with e-bikesales expected to reach around15 million units in Europe by2030. We are confident thatHero is poised to become amarket leader in this segment,making high-quality e-bikesfusing HNF's engineering anddesign expertise with Hero'smanufacturing capability, espe-cially with the 100-acre CycleValley in Ludhiana,” he said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Ajay Prakash Sawhney,Secretary, Ministry ofElectronics & InformationTechnology, Government ofIndia, said on Friday thatIndian IT industry showcased

its best potential and offeredhighly innovative solutions toensure the continuation of gov-ernance with utmost efficiencyduring these highly unprece-dented times.

Addressing a webinar orga-nized by the Public Affairs

Forum of India (PAFI), Mr.Sawhney said, “Indian ITIndustry has rapidly adjusted tothe new environment and addedthat the AarogyaSetu has rein-vented itself as Vaccine Passportand has the possibility to lever-age wide reach to bring more

health services and to become acitizen-facing front-end asNational Digital Health Missiondevelops.”

Mr. Sawhney said there wasa pressing need to step up man-ufacturing of both software andhardware products in order toreduce dependence on importsfrom different countries.“Entrepreneurs and companiesneed to move aggressively in thisarea. The National Policy onSoftware Products has triggeredsignificant growth and we expectthe software potential to be amajor area of growth in the next5-10 years,” he added.

On electronics manufacturingMr. Sawhney said, “The pan-demic has slowed us down, butour ambition today is to growmore than 25% YoY over the

coming five years or more. WithPLI Scheme, many eminentbrands have set up their units inrecent times. We are committedto provide incentives to compo-nents manufacturing as thesecomponents make their wayinto a large array of products.”

He also talked about buildingDigital Products and said,“Digital technologies must beintegrated into traditional sec-tors like energy, transportationmanufacturing, healthcare andso on. The advent of digital tech-nologies into each of these tra-ditional sectors will help make10-15% of growth a distinct pos-sibility.”

Talking about E-governance hementioned that the governmentis working on national scale andwith National Public Digital

Platforms. This will spread toEducation, Healthcare, SmartCities, Urban Governance, andother sectors.

On 5G, Mr. Sawhney said,“While we move from 4G to 5G,we have to strengthen and workon related devices like IOTs. Ourdigital infrastructure needs to bestrengthened with Digital IndiaInfoway creating a robust networkin Research and Developmentinstitutions.”

On IT laws, Mr. Sawhney saidthat, “While we have to focus onData Privacy Bill, there is also arequirement to refresh the exist-ing IT act, that was last amendedin 2008, as the issues that we dealwith IT sector have changed sig-nificantly - the companies that wedeal with have brought immense-ly in terms of innovation.

n Imperative for India tomanufacture its ownsoftware and hardwareproducts

n Software potential ofIndia a significant areaof growth in the comingyears

n Connected devices willenable India tocapitalize on 5G

Amidst Covid, tech ensured uninterrupted governance

MONEY MATTERS

Petrol price soared pastRs 100-a-litre mark inTamil Nadu after fuel

prices were hiked again onSaturday. Petrol and dieselprices were hiked by 35 paiseper litre each - the steepest inrecent times, according to aprice notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The increase took rates across the coun-try to fresh highs with Tamil Nadu becoming the latest stateto see petrol cross Rs 100-a- litre mark. In Delhi, petrol hit anall-time high of Rs 98.11 a litre, while diesel is now priced atRs 88.65 per litre. Fuel prices differ from state to state depend-ing on the incidence of local taxes such as value-added tax (VAT)and freight charges. While petrol had crossed Rs 100-a-litremark in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha,and Ladakh, several towns in Tamil Nadu including Salem,Vellore and Cuddalore saw that level after the steep price hike.

Shree Renuka Sugarswill invest Rs 450 croreto expand its ethanol

capacity, the company saidon Saturday. In a regulato-ry filing, the companyinformed that its board hasapproved expanding pro-duction capacity by 430-kilolitre per day to 1,400-kilolitre per day. In February, the board had approved a capac-ity expansion of ethanol from 720-kilo litre per day to 970-kilo litre per day. "Considering the huge untapped demandfor ethanol due to the policies of Government of India onethanol blending, the Board of Directors of the companyapproved further capacity expansion for ethanol productionfrom 970-kilo litre per day to 1,400-kilo litre per day," thefiling said. The investment required for this capacity expan-sion is Rs 450 crore, it said. The capacity addition wouldbe completed by October 2022.

Renuka Sugars will be investingRs 450cr to raise ethanol capacity

Energy EfficiencyServices Limited(EESL) on Saturday

said its subsidiary CESL hasresumed distribution of LEDbulbs in villages of UttarPradesh and Bihar, as part ofits Gram Ujala Scheme.Underthe Gram Ujala programme,rural consumers are given a 7 watt and a 12-watt LED bulb witha three-year warranty against submission of working incandes-cent bulbs at an affordable cost of Rs 10 per bulb. The schemewas launched by Union Power Minister R K Singh in Marchthis year, EESL said in a statement.So far, CESL has distributed2,52,069 LED bulbs in Arrah and Buxar districts of Bihar, where-as in UP, nearly 1,08,470 LED bulbs have been sold in Varanasi,Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, and Bhadohi.Any consumerfrom a rural household with a valid electricity connection froma DISCOM can avail LED bulbs under the initiative.

CESL resumes distribution of LED bulbs in UP, Bihar

Future Consumer Ltd(FCL) on Saturdayreported a lower net

loss of Rs 155.12 crore forthe quarter ended on March31, 2021, compared to thatof Rs 175.46 crore in theyear-ago quarter. Revenuefrom operations of FCL,which is the FMCG arm of the Future group, declined by59.2 per cent to Rs 386.26 crore during January-March 2021compared to Rs 947.07 crore in January-March 2020, accord-ing to a regulatory filing by the company.Total expenses wereat Rs 500.06 crore, down 52.5 per cent in the last quarter of2020-21 against Rs 1,051.87 crore in the year-ago period.Forthe full fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2021, FCLreported a consolidated net loss of Rs 483.30 crore againsta net loss of Rs 216.50 crore in the previous year. Revenuefrom operations was at Rs 1,184.51 crore in FY 2020-21, down70.7 per cent compared to Rs 4,040.33 crore in FY2019-20.

Future Consumer Q4 loss atRs 155.12 cr, revenue slides

Petrol crosses Rs 100 in TNafter steep hike in fuel rates

PNS n NEW DELHI

Federal Bank on Saturday saidit has provided 400-odd part-time jobs with a monthlysalary of Rs 18,000 at itsbranches in Kerala so far, in abid to help those who lost theiremployment due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Designated as 'CovidWardens', these people werehired to manage crowds, pro-vide masks and sanitiser to thepublic visiting the branches inthe state, it said.

The livelihood enhancementproject was started as part of itscorporate social responsibility(CSR) initiative in August 2020and is continuing even now.

Speaking to PTI, Federal BankChief Human Resource OfficerAjith Kumar K K said: "This is a part-time job given to tide over the situ-ation, not a full-time employment."

The bank hired these peopleat a monthly salary of Rs 18,000per month. About Rs 6 crore hasbeen spent towards salary in thelast 10 months, he said.

Since many had lost jobs due

to the pandemic in the statethere were requests for creatingpart-time jobs from several agen-cies and organisations.

"We thought of finding a wayto provide livelihood to peoplewho lost jobs due to the pandem-ic and help them tide over the eco-nomic hardship. That's why wedecided to hire such people," headded.

Kumar further said crowdmanagement at branches hadbecome a big issue during thepandemic as the Kerala govern-ment has restricted entry of notmore than five people at a partic-ular time.

"Therefore, we thought hiring

part-time 'Covid Wardens' will behelpful to both. We provided jobsto about 400-odd people inKerala," he said.

Hiring was done in Keralabecause the state was havingmany positive cases at that timeand moreover the footfall inbranches were also high.

Whereas in other states, 'CovidWardens' were not hired as therewere security guards managingthe crowd at bank branches,Kumar added.

Asked if the initiative will con-tinue, Kumar said the bank willdiscontinue if the Covid-19 pos-itivity rate falls below five per centin a particular locality.

Unemployment: Federal Bank gives 400-odd part-time jobs

EAM discussesregional, globalissues with hisGreek counterpartn ATHENS

External Affairs Minister SJaishankar held a produc-tive informal discussionon regional and globalissues with his Greekcounterpart NikosDendias as he arrived inGreece for the first visit byan Indian foreign ministersince 2003.

Jaishankar is on a two-nation visit to Greece andItaly. He met Dendias onFriday. "Thank FM@NikosDendias for a warmwelcome to Greece. A pro-ductive discussion on region-al and global issues. Greece isan important partner in ourbroader EU engagement.Look forward to our formaltalks tomorrow," Jaishankartweeted on Friday. TheMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) in New Delhi onThursday said that Jaishankarwill embark on a two-nationvisit to Greece and to Italy.

Phase 1 of Ola e-scooter factorynearing completion, says CEOPNS n NEW DELHI

The first phase of Ola's electricscooter factory is nearingcompletion and the companyexpects to start rolling outvehicles soon, Ola Group CEOBhavish Aggarwal said onSaturday.

Last year, Ola had announceda Rs 2,400-crore investment forsetting up its first electric scoot-er factory in Tamil Nadu.

"In just four months, thisplace has transformed fromacres of empty rock land to theworld's largest 2W factory. TheOla Futurefactory phase 1 isnearing completion! The scoot-ers are coming soon! Greatwork by team @OlaElectric,"Aggarwal tweeted.

He also shared a picture of

him from the factory site. Uponcompletion, the factory will cre-ate nearly 10,000 jobs and isexpected to be the world's largestscooter manufacturing facilitythat will initially have an annu-al production capacity of 2 mil-lion units.

While the company is yet todisclose the pricing and specifi-cations of its e-scooter, Ola hasstated that it is working on set-ting up a 'HyperchargerNetwork' to include one lakhcharging points across 400 cities.

Aggarwal had earlier saidthat the e-scooter was likely tobe launched in India in July thisyear, and that Ola Electric wouldlook at taking the vehicle tointernational markets, includingcountries like France, Italy andGermany, in this fiscal as well.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Digital advertising firm Affleclaims to have won the initiallegal battle in a case filedagainst it by Walmart-ownedPhonePe in a Singaporecourt in the Indus OS stakesale matter.

PhonePe had placed a bid toacquire 92 per cent stake inIndus OS at a valuation of aroundUSD 60 million. However, thebiggest shareholder in the com-pany, Affle Global Pte Ltd(AGPL), has opposed the deal.

AGPL estimates that the val-uation of OSLabs, known asIndus OS, is around USD 90 mil-lion and has refused to sell its 25per cent stake at a lower valuation.

The company operates appstore 'Indus App Bazaar', whichcomprises over four lakh appsaccessible in English and 12Indian languages -- Hindi,Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu,Urdu, Odia, Punjabi, Malayalam,

Bengali, Assamese and Kannada.AGPL had filed an injunction

suit against the resolution passedby Indus OS approving stake saleto PhonePe which has been chal-lenged by the fintech firm in aSingapore court.

Both AGPL and Indus OS areregistered in Singapore.

"AGPL has attended 7+ courthearings held in Singapore HighCourt from 19th May 2020 till18th June 2021. As of 18th June

2021, PhonePe has clearly lost thecorporate legal battle inSingapore," AGPL told PTI.

However, Fintech firmPhonePe and OSLabs have refut-ed the claims made by AGPL thatit has won the legal battle.

AGPL told PTI that as per thelast hearing in Singapore HighCourt on June 18 , PhonePe haslost its existing voting rights inOSLabs' general meeting in viewof the orders made by the court.

Affle claims victory in Indus OS stakesale lawsuit; PhonePe, OSLabs refute

PNS n NEW DELHI

State-owned power producerSJVN Ltd on Saturday posteda 55 per cent jump in its con-solidated profit after tax (PAT)at Rs 619.92 crore during thequarter ended March 31, 2021.

The company's net profitafter tax from continuing oper-ations was at Rs 399.21 crorein the January-March quarterof the financial year 2019-20,SJVN said in a BSE filing.

During the quarter underreview, its total income jumped

to Rs 1,084.96 crore, from Rs703.72 crore a year ago.

The company's totalexpenses reduced to Rs 348.74crore compared to Rs 439.07crore in the same period of thepreceding fiscal. SJVN furtherinformed that its board hasrecommended a final divi-dend of 40 paise per share ofRs 10 each for the FY 2020-21.

Shimla-headquarteredSJVN Ltd is a joint venture ofthe Government of India andthe Government of HimachalPradesh.

SJVN Q4 profit grows55 pc to Rs 620 crore

HC tells U'khand todecide on salaryissues of roadwaysemployees soonPNS n NAINITAL

The Uttarakhand HighCourt on Saturday asked thestate government to con-vene a meeting of the cabi-net to take a decision onroadways employees whohave not received theirsalaries for the last fivemonths.

Hearing a PIL by RoadwaysEmployees United Counciland Roadways EmployeesUnion, a division bench com-prising Chief Justice RSChauhan and Justice AlokKumar Verma asked ChiefMinister Tirath Singh Rawat toconvene a meeting of the statecabinet on Monday to take acall on the issue and informthe court on Tuesday. Non-payment of salary is against theconstitutional rights of theemployees, the Chief Justicesaid.

Scientists developtechnique that cangenerate electricityfrom vibrations PNS n NEW DELHI

Scientists have fabricated asimple, cost-effective, bio-compatible, transparentnanogenerator that can gen-erate electricity from vibra-tions all around for use inoptoelectronics, self-pow-ered devices and other bio-medical applications, thegovernment said onSaturday.

The Science andTechnology Ministry, in astatement, said searchingfor renewable energ yresources with reduced car-bon emissions is one of themost urgent challenges dueto the increasing threat ofglobal warming and energycrisis.

“Some of the unconven-tional methods to generateelectricity include piezo-electric, thermoelectric, andelectrostatic techniquesused in devices like touchscreens, electronic displays,and so forth," the statementsaid.

Hero Cycles delivers first batch ofMade in India e-vehicles to Europe

sundaymagazine

98Urvashi’s quest for love

HYDERABAD, June 27, 2021

We are living in difficult times.Each of us has experiencedsome loss due to Covid-19.We are all grieving the prema-ture loss of our near and dear

ones to this pandemic. In times such as these,we seek to cope in different ways.

THE FIRST WAY

The first way to cope is at the psychologi-cal level. We try to fill the void in our liveswith religion, spirituality, or divine entities.But, we also question the meaning of religion,spirituality, or divine entities when their faithor devotion could not save their loved ones.We kindle our faith in the ancient wisdom thatoffers healing techniques such as yoga andAyurveda. But we also double up our faith inmodern science and the need to advance sci-ence further to help protect everyone fromfuture pandemics. At the same time, we blamemodern scientific experiments for the presentpandemic.

THE SECOND WAYA second way is at a more subtle psychic

level. Psychically, we notice subtle changes inour moods, emotions, thoughts, feelings, inter-ests, preferences, expressions, interactions, val-ues, and behaviours. We question the meaningof material wealth that can’t save even thewealthy from the pandemic. We become disil-lusioned about our busy lives and seek time forour physical and human well-being. Webecome depressed, helpless at the plight ofthose with limited resources, starving and sad,barely surviving. We get angry with anybodywe believe is not concerned with our social,ecological, economic, national, and psycholog-ical well-being. Why do we not have a socialdiscipline of taking care to avoid infections?Why nobody took care of pollution and eco-logical degradation that has made breathingshallow even in regular times? Why have wenot economically developed like China andother East Asian nations after so many years ofour independence to have the resources to dealwith the problems proactively? Why do we nothave a cohesive national action plan even dur-ing the pandemic? Why do we have to sufferpsychologically and physically for the failingsof others and no fault of ours?

THE THIRD WAYA third way is to let time bring us in terms

with our new consciousness. This process is adeeply emotional one. We all have experienceswhere just openly crying and shouting is thebest healing method, not science or spirituali-ty. The silence and calm after our emotionaloutburst is our healed state.

Let me share the experience of my cousin,Captain Prachi Jain, a helicopter pilot, in herown words:

“Covid got hold of all three of us at thesame time, my beloved 37-year old youngerbrother, his wife, and I. While we all struggledto recover in the separate hospital rooms, he leftbehind his wife and a five-year-old son. Afterour recovery, my younger sister broke the news,‘Hum bhai ko bacha nahi paye, He is no more’in one breath. To date, my shrieks and non-stopchanting of his name from that day echo backin my ears. I feel a part of me has been sliced offthat I did not realise exists. Alongside all theemotions of sufferings, the ‘Gita Saar’ nowkeeps me going. All that shouts in the silencewithin me is his name. I call his name to thankhim for being my brother and loving me as longas he was in his physical body. I know he residespeacefully in his new home.”

THE FOURTH WAYA fourth way is to give ourselves space by

doing something that calms our minds. Wepick new hobbies, make new friends, getengaged in supporting those in need, reachout to those who could support us emotional-ly, if not financially. Opening up about grief isnot easy. We fear others judging us, fuelingour emotions, or not empathising with ourstate of mind. Deep inside, we perceive griefto be too personal for it to be shared or dis-solve.

Indeed, managing grief is a theme fewBollywood films have dared to handle. And,makers have added their personal experienceswhen telling a storyline involving grief.Consider the 2004 Tamil movie, 7G RainbowColony, and its 2019 Hindi-remake, Malaal.

In both versions, the protagonist fightsagainst all odds seeking a life of togethernesswith his beloved. However, the universe playsthe antagonist and negates the due fruits of hisefforts. His beloved dies in a road accident. Hesurvives. In the original version, the protago-nist gravitates toward the option of running

away from reality, choosing a life of mentalhallucination. He lives in a dream world,dreaming that he is always with the beloved’sspirit. The remake’s protagonist chooses thepath of self-development his beloved laid fortogetherness and finds her consciousnessalways with him, prodding him on. He leads afulfilling, successful life in the finance indus-try.

Note that the beloved is not the spirit(Ruh) nor the consciousness that forms thesoul (Atma).

The soul is one’s consciousness, followinganother like a shadow. The shadow feels likepushing us gently forward on a linear pathand guiding us not to distract from the goalwithin that consciousness. The consciousnessis immortal because it is not something thatanybody creates or destroys. Consciousness isa part of our essential nature that self-perpet-uates as a unique local point personifying aperson who projects that unique part of theessential nature as a personal force. Ouressential nature is everyone’s essential nature(Svabhav).

The spirit is one’s belief system about aperson. It is the spirit with which we makesense of someone, with or without a body. Thespirit comprises the essence fusing another’sforward-facing and our backward-facingessential nature and the consciousness of thatessence.

To help make this easy to understand, let’suse some numbers. Let’s say the consciousnessof the one departed is four. In that case, essen-tial nature is eight. Eight is the horizontal faceof essential nature, in identity with MotherNature (Kudrat). Four is the ascending face; itmakes the person a unique local point abovethe universal global horizon. One who hasdeparted is the forward face, gently pushing uswith his forward-facing essential nature like aconfident masculine. One who is alive is thebackward face, turning the face around tryingto look for the one who has departed and can’tbe found ahead like in the past. She is radiat-ing her backward-facing essential nature withlove for the one who has departed.

Therefore, the essence (Rab) that includesboth the forward-and the backward-facing

essential nature is sixteen. The spirit (Ruh)includes the essence and the descending-faceof consciousness of the one alive. Like theascending-face of consciousness of the onedeparted, the descending-face also is four.When the one alive seeks peace and together-ness within the consciousness of the onedeparted, she exchanges her warm “maternalconsciousness “(Chaithanya) with the cold“paternal consciousness” (Pitra) of the onedeparted. Spirit’s numerical value is twenty.

THE FIFTH WAYThe fifth way is to behave like a child and

decide to isolate oneself from the world untilsomeone brings back the loved one, like a toyor a baby that the child may love forever.Childish is how the protagonist behaves in the2013 Hollywood blockbuster, Gravity. Afterher young daughter died from a fall whileplaying, the protagonist decides she will never

touch the ground that took in her daughter.She knew life in space is impossible. So,that’s what she chooses in her quest torun away from the ground reality. Todefy the gravity, grave, grief, andground, she decides to float aboveeverything. However, she finds herselffacing another tragedy while in spacewhen the spacecraft malfunctions andher co-astronaut floats into the deepspace without oxygen. At that

moment, she decides to fight it for thesake of everything she taught her daugh-

ter and returns safely to the ground beat-ing all odds.

THE SIXTH WAYThe sixth way is how one behaves

when faced with challenges. One useswisdom when neither science nor

spirituality is there to offer a solu-tion. When there is no guru to

lend us a helping hand, we makeour wisdom the guru. We takethe spirit of each of the five pre-ceding ways to make “wisdom”(Chitta) a 100 unit solution.

Therefore, without the spirit, weextend our age (Brahmani) by

eighty units. Wisdom spontaneously becomes our

guiding force when we have a goal insight. When we have a goal, we becomea goalkeeper. In the moment of crisis,our goal is to let us as the unit personbe the enjoyer of the consciousness ofthe challenge we overcame and ofthe solution we applied. Therefore,the goal is of the nine units. Weknow it as Maha Shiva. Theenjoyer is also of nine units. Weknow her as Maha Saraswati.The goalkeeper is the goalwithout the unit person con-ceiving the challenge and theone perceiving the solution.The goalkeeper is of sevenunits. We know him asShiva.

The challenge’s con-sciousness is the descend-ing face, fading frommemory like a distant

nightmare for the enjoyer,enjoying the goal after realiz-

ing it. The descending face isthe “child consciousness”

(Putatma) that childishly con-ceived something solvable with wis-

dom into a challenge. The solution’s consciousness is the

ascending face, playing like an intense cli-max scene in our mind as if we just woke uplike a “hero” (the protagonist) after fightinghard and destroying all the “discordant ener-gy” (Asura shakti). The ascending face is the“wisened grandmother consciousness”(Jyotistava) that embodies wisdom.

When we multiply the descending and theascending faces of the challenge and the solu-tion, we get the sixteen units of “essence”(Rab). Similarly, when the seven-unit goal-keeper realizes the goal of his incarnation as aparam deity, he reverts to the “essence” (Rab)living like an inanimate entity, Maha Durga,also of sixteen units.

THE SEVENTH WAYThe seventh way is to develop self-aware-

ness of the purpose for our birth as a uniqueentity. In Bhagwad Gita, Shri Krishna illumi-nates all of us that he is the essence of every-thing. He is the sixteen-dimensional “ChildPrimordial Greeter” (Madhusudan), giftingthe wisdom to everybody for living a joyfullife, filled with a unique purpose to be ever-alert about the well-being of our physicalbody. Only then we have the limitless energyand vitality to use wisdom to resolve all thechallenges we face today.

The writer is a professor of managementand a co-director of the Center for Global

Management at the Jack H. Brown College ofBusiness and Public Administration, California

State University, San Bernardino. He explainsmany ways to live the seventh way in the 2021

12-book namesake project, Vastly IntegratedProcesses Inside Nature (VIPIN)

A N D Haksar’s translation of Kalidasa’sVikramorvashiyam lends a contemporary

touch for the modern reader

You can always go backto the place where youwere comfortable, the

place where you're from—Ana de Armas

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

COVID SHIELDCOVID-19 has led to many innovations.SHALINI SAKSENA chats up such innovatorswho are doing their bit to fight the pandemic

Opening up about grief is not easy. Deep inside,

we perceive grief to be too personal for it to be

shared or dissolve, writes VIPIN GUPTA, as he

suggests ways to cope

WE ALL HAVEEXPERIENCES WHEREJUST OPENLY CRYING

AND SHOUTING IS THEBEST HEALING

METHOD, NOT SCIENCEOR SPIRITUALITY. THE

SILENCE AND CALMAFTER OUR

EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTIS OUR HEALED STATE

GRIEF MANAGING

sundaymagazine

books 8THE READING OF ALL GOOD

BOOKS IS LIKE A CONVERSATIONWITH THE FINEST MINDS OF

PAST CENTURIES— RENE DESCARTES HYDERABAD, June 27, 2021

NEWARRIVALS

Kabir: weaver of words and wisdom,mystic and rebel, a freethinker claimed byconservatives and liberals, the religiousand the agnostic alike.

Who was this fifteenth-century poet ofVaranasi whose words still speak to us?

Was he a man of god?

Did he establish a new faith or escheworganised religion altogether?

Was his modernity an exception or areflection of the time he lived in?

Could Kabir’s life and poetry tell us aboutour nation’s past and present?

In this rare appraisal of the poet-philosopher, based on a lifelong study ofhis work, Purushottam Agrawal presentsKabir as he himself may have wished to beunderstood: in the context of his own timeand its preoccupations.

In today’s world, polarised along the linesof religion, caste and race, Agrawal teasesout the possibilities for balance andharmony that Kabir’s imagination presentsus with.

KABIR, KABIR

Purushottam Agrawal

With an introduction &

illustrations by Devdutt

Pattanaik

Westland, `599

Chitralekha: Friend, be at ease. Thedemon who defied the gods has beendefeated.

Urvashi (opening her eyes): Was it bythe power shown by the great god Indra?

Chitralekha: Not by the great Indra!But by this saintly king whose prowess isno less!

Urvashi (to herself, after seeing theking): The demon has done me a favour.

King (to himself, after seeing Urvashiback to normal): I now understand why allthe nymphs who were sent to seduce thesage Narayana, were embarrassed on see-ing what emerged from his thigh. But howcould a sage create her?

Indeed the moon, all creatures’ lord,must have given her this glow,or Madana, the god of love,whose special rasa is erotic,or the season that brings flowers:for how could an ancient sage,his person with scriptures rigid,and interest in pleasures gone,create such an enchantress?And thus begins the passionate

exchange between King Pururavas andUrvashi, celestial nymph extraordinaire...

While we kicked off thisreview with a shortexcerpt from the book,we have to confess thatwe were hooked right off

the bat. Beginning with the introduction,penned by the translator, Aditya NarayanDhairyasheel Haksar, himself for his ren-dition of Kalidasa’s Vikramorvashiyam,you would lose yourself to a world wherecelestial beings traverse the earthly plane.And we believe you would be eager tofinish reading this translation of the playin one sitting, just like we did. Thoseinterested in the scholarly considerationand critical understanding of plays willfind a friend in Haksar, who has provideda copious amount of notes through thebook.

Inspired by a hymn from the RigVeda, the oldest known Vedic Sanskrittext, Vikramorvashiyam underwent modi-fications with every retelling in Puranicliterature. Down the line, it is understand-able that Kalidasa made some changesand additions of his own, for dramaticeffect, to his version.

While there are several prominentschools of thought on what the titleimplies, the most widely accepted transla-tion of Vikramorvashiyam is ‘Urvashi wonby valour’. The five-act play revolvesaround the romantic tale of Urvashi, anapsara from Indra’s court, and Pururavas,mortal ruler of Pratishthana.

After Pururavas rescues Urvashifrom the clutches of a demon thatabducted her, they are besotted witheach other. However, this poses seriousproblems. To the uninitiated, celestialnymphs like Urvashi are expected to besubservient at Indra’s court. When sheaccidentally utters her newfound lover’sname during a drama staged by SageBharata at the court of the King ofGods, the celestial sage curses her in a

fit of rage and banishes her from heav-en. Matters are coming to a head onthe earthly plane where QueenAushinari, chief wife of Pururavas, dis-covers that her king now fancies some-one else and expresses her displeasurewith the same. However, she latermakes peace with Pururavas by con-veying that she accepts the situation forwhat it is and cedes ground by consent-ing to his union with Urvashi.

Just when it looks like the pair are infor a happy ending on Earth, they fallprey to another curse and what follows isa pure poetic delight. While the tale hasits ups and downs, in a sense everythingturns out for the best.

The book completes PenguinClassics’ special series on Kalidasa, con-

sidered to be among ancient India’s great-est poets and playwrights. Although verylittle is known about his life, Kalidasa’spopularity has endured for centuriesthrough three plays, two epic poems andtwo lyric poems.

The first English translation ofVikramorvashiyam, by an Oxford profes-sor of Sanskrit, appeared in 1849. Thiswas followed by numerous translationsover the years and the play’s most recentEnglish translation appeared in 1984,courtesy of Columbia University acade-mic, David Gitomer. Haksar’s transla-tion is based on H D Velankar’s versionof the play, authorised and published bythe Sahitya Akademy in 1961, while alsoconsulting a well-known text that wasedited and translated the original play

with a Sanskrit commentary by M RKale in 1889.

Getting back to our take on the book,Haksar has brought forth a contemporarytouch to a direct translation of the widerange of emotions, scenes and moodsemployed by Kalidasa while preserving itspoetic nobility.

The most prominent instance,according to us, among them being thegod-like qualities of total forgiveness andmoral high handedness being displayedby a mere human such as Pururavas’ wife.How many of us can measure up to her,disregarding our own feelings just so thatthe person we love may attain what theyseek?

Urvashi’s origins, too, are charac-terised by such traits. The Bhagavata

Purana tells how once sages Nara-Narayana were meditating and their aus-tere penance alarmed the gods so muchthat Indra sent apsaras to distract them.The sage Narayana took a flower andplaced it on his thigh and from it sprungUrvashi whose charms far excelled thoseof the apsaras sent by Indra. Theyreturned to heaven, filled with shame andvexation at this embarrassment.Surprisingly, Narayana sent Urvashi toIndra along with the other apsaras andcontinued to meditate.

On a contrary note, celestial beingshave been shown to throw tantrums andindulge in somewhat passive behaviour,not unlike what a human who has beenscorned is prone to. Quoting Haksar fromhis introduction, even when Urvashitakes her time to warm up to Pururavas,on account of the trials and tribulationsthat came her way due to a curse, she isdepicted as ‘a person with human com-passion rather than divine disdain.’

Drawing on nuances such as these,ace translator of Sanskrit-classics, Haksarhas retained the essence of Kalidasa’soriginal work while reworking it for themodern reader.

Bengali cuisine includes awide variety of vegetariandishes that have evolved

over the years. Food historiansare of the opinion that the wid-ows of Bengal have greatly con-tributed to the evolution of itsvegetarian cooking. They onceled very repressive lives andwere compelled to stick to avegetarian diet though socialprogress has ensured that manyof these restrictions are nolonger observed or imposed.Their difficult lives included alot of dietary restrictions. Theywere prohibited from eatinghigh protein foods like meat,fish, eggs and even musur dalbecause these were believed tohave libidinous effects. Garlicand onion were also banned fortheir alleged impassioning prop-erties.

In the chapter ‘BanglaRanna’ from their book, TheCalcutta Cookbook: A Treasuryof Recipes from Pavement toPalace (1995), the authorsdescribe the plight of a Bengaliwidow, ‘In a secluded corner ofthe cookhouse, a widowed rela-tive sits over her own stove. Shehas added delicate nuances tothe rich vegetarian cornucopiaof Bangla ranna. Her role in thekitchen warrants an explanationof her situation. Up to the turnof the century, a ten- or twelve-year-old girl was sometimeswidowed and lived for the restof her life dressed in white withher hair cropped, eating a radi-cally vegetarian diet’ (pp. 35-36).

But, naturally, Bengali wid-ows craved tasty food.Gradually, they decided to makethe best of the bad bargain andbegan using their innovative-ness to add colour to their fare.They started experimentingwith the limited ingredients that

went into their dishes in orderto add more taste to them.

One of the things that theydid was to think of differentways of making use of the wast-ed parts of vegetables instead ofthrowing them away. For exam-ple, they used the leftover peelsand scrapings of vegetables tomake simple but deliciouspreparations-something whichis unique to Bengali cooking.Lauer khosha bhaja (fried peelsof bottle gourd) is a preparationin which the thinly sliced peelsof the vegetable are fried in hotmustard oil with a phoron of

black mustard seeds and driedred chillies. Some salt andturmeric are added to the cook-ing. In alur khosha bhaja (friedpeels of potato), the leftoverpotato peels are thoroughlywashed, chopped and fried inhot mustard oil with a phoronof kalo jeera and dried red chill-ies. A pinch of salt and a smallquantity of posto are added tothe cooking. Both preparationsare eaten with steamed rice.

Even the stalks of cauli-flower and leafy green vegeta-bles were not thrown away.Instead, chachchari preparations

were made out of them.Chachchari usually implies alightly spiced dry vegetable dishmade with one or more varietiesof vegetables. Often, the prepa-ration is flavoured with mustardor poppy seeds paste.Sometimes, the stalks of cauli-flower and leafy green vegeta-bles, and even drumsticks, arecooked with vegetables to makethis dish. Such chachcharipreparations are known asdanta chachchari (‘danta’ means‘a succulent stalk’). Thus, in thisland of plenty, the widows madethrift an integral part of Bengali

cooking.The widows even experi-

mented with the bori (‘vadi’ inHindi) or sun-dried lentil blob,which took on a more impor-tant role in their kitchens. Sinceit is made of lentil, they wel-comed it as an optional sourceof protein. Most importantly, itadded some variety to their fru-gal dishes. The boris were friedand added, in either whole orcrumbled forms, to many oftheir dishes. Some of their shaak(leafy green vegetables) prepara-tions like palong shaak and lalshaak (red spinach), and veg-etable preparations like shukto(a bitter and mild mixed vegeta-bles stew), alu begooner jhol (alightly spiced curry of potatoesand aubergines), and ghanto,made with either lau (bottlegourd) or chaalkumro (ashgourd), featured boris.

A ghanto generally means asemi-dry vegetable dish madewith either one or a few comple-menting vegetables, which are

cooked with phoron, groundspices and a little bit of sugar.Boris often feature in ghantopreparations. A mixed veg-etable ghanto, in whichchopped potatoes, aubergines,hyacinth beans and radish arecooked in oil with a phoron ofkalo jeera and dried red chill-ies, the pastes of turmeric,coriander and cumin, salt,sugar and fried boris, and sea-soned with ghee, is commonlyeaten with rice. Palong shaak,in traditional Bengali cuisine,is popularly cooked into aghanto dish with vegetableslike potatoes, pumpkin,aubergines and hyacinth beans.Boris are often used in thisdish. Kochu shaak (stalks ofcolocasia leaves), a very popu-lar leafy green vegetable in theculinary culture of East Bengal,

is also used to make a ghantodish. This ghanto preparation,which originally hails fromOpar Bangla, is made with theboiled and mashed stalks ofcolocasia leaves, and featuresblack chickpeas and coconutmeat.

Fried boris were not onlyadded to vegetarian prepara-tions but they were also eatenplain. The widows even devisedcurry dishes made only withthese blobs like borir jhal andbori posto. ‘Jhal’, literally mean-ing ‘hot’, is generally a prepara-tion of fish, shrimp or crabcooked in mustard paste or withthe paste of dried red chillies.Borir jhal can also be made ineither of the two ways. Friedboris are also cooked in a pasteof poppy seeds, lending the dishthe name, bori posto.

Excerpted with permissionfrom A Taste of Time: A Food

History of Calcutta by MohonaKanjilal. Published by Speaking

Tiger, 2021

The contribution of widowsA Taste of Time: A Food History of Calcutta by Mohona Kanjilal is a well researched historical andcultural account of Calcutta’s rich gastronomical affair spanning centuries. An edited excerpt:

A TASTE OF TIME: A FOOD

HISTORY OF CALCUTTA

Mohona Kanjilal

Speaking Tiger, `899

Winner of the Desmond ElliotPrize, the Betty Trask Prizeand the Crossword BookAward, Anjali Joseph returnswith a finely observed tale about love.Keteki is charming but allergic tocommitment; Ved is smitten but somethingof a toxic bachelor. As they begin the intricate andtransformative dance of a long-distancerelationship, they also navigate changes intheir lives. Set in Assam and London, Keeping inTouch is edgy, funny, anduncompromisingly modern.

KEEPING IN TOUCHAnjali JosephContext, `599

VIKRAMORVASHIYAM: QUESTFOR URVASHI

Author: KalidasaTranslated by: A N D Haksar

Penguin, ` 499

Aditya Narayan Dhairyasheel Haksar’s translation of Kalidasa’s masterpiece Vikramorvashiyamlends a contemporary touch for the modern reader, writes CHRISTY VARGHESE

URVASHI’S QUEST FOR LOVE

Indra and apsaras in heaven — part of Ajanta art series by Vijay Kulkarni. Picture used for representational purposes

Picture used for representational purposes

special 09HYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27, 2021

COVID-19 has led to many innovations. SHALINI SAKSENA chats up such innovators who are doing their bit to fight the pandemic

The second wave of COVID-19 shookthe nation. The numbers had juststarted to go down when news head-

lines once again started talking about thethird wave, a wave that is far more lethal thanthe second ever was. Maintaining COVID-19 protocol has never been more importantas it is today. Since the mutated variant ofDelta Virus is more powerful single clothmasks and ordinary masks may not give suf-ficient protection.

Another problem is that most masks donot fit around the nose causing people toeither wear it below their nose or to keepadjusting them. To solve this problem, WorldUniversity of Design has come up with a newdesign that provides utmost safety along withease of functionality.

Professor Umair Khanalong with hisstudents and staff members have come upwith a face mask that not just covers thenose, mouth and chin but envelopes themsnugly. The mask has a specially designedextension. In fact, this is the USP of themask. It follows the contours around the face

and the nose and covers it completely. Thisensures that any open space around the noseis blocked offering extra protection prevent-ing the air from outside to slip in.

This is not all. The design does not allowvapours from the breath to be expelled outand fog up the spectacles thereby makingit extremely functional for persons wearingglasses. Third, the design is such that onecan wear the mask for long hours withoutany discomfort.

Dr Sanjay Gupellor, vice-chancellor,Word University of Design tells you thatonce the idea came up, it took the team aweek to come up with the final design of themask. “Before we came up with this design,we examined many masks that were avail-able in the market. Mostly, these mask wereall about the material used rather than howthe mask has been made. Most of the maskhave space around the nose from where theair can pass. This is a problem for those whowear spectacles — it fogs the lens. This maskhas been designed to cover, to create a flex-ible extension around the nose so that there

is no gap left and the air has to go throughthe material and not from anywhere else.The idea behind the mask was to addressthe issue of fogging of the lens but when thesecond wave hit us and the virus became airborne, anything that is inhaled or exhaledhas to be controlled and this mask did thisbrilliantly,” Gupta explains.

Made with two layers of simple cottonfabric, the mask took a week’s time to reachits final version after trials and feedback fromvolunteers.

Cotton fabric was used to make thisinnovative mask. However, there is no hardand fast rule that only cotton needs to beused. One can use two-layer that uses cot-ton-silk mix or the three-ply light weightnon-woven material used for surgicalmasks.

But Gupta recommends that one usescotton as an inner layer. The design has beendeveloped mindfully to fit any averageIndian face size which can also be extend-ed in case of larger/broader face structures.The good part is that this mask when madedoesn’t cost more than `15-`20 per piece.

He tells you that the idea here is not tomake money but to serve the country. “Lastyear, we had designed a PPE kit and sharedit on Insta. Anybody could pick it up andmanufacture it, free of cost. The same is truefor this mask. We already shared the designon social media. People can take the designfrom there and make their own mask. Unlikethe normal mask this one goes around thenose in a bais form in a single piece,” Guptasays.

Mallika Gupta, one of the volunteerswho was roped in to try the mask tells youthat the design team gave her a few designsto try on. “I wear specs and yes, fogging isa big issue when one wears a mask. The teamtested a lot of shapes and sizes. In fact, every-one in the campus has been weaning thismask and it can be Do It Yourself project.Since this pattern has been made public,there are a few players in the market whoare making this mask. Also, the pattern issimple enough for a local tailor to replicateit. The good part of this mask is that it hasbeen made keeping in mind the contouringaround the nose,” Mallika says.

Like lakhs of students whowent back home when col-leges shut during summer

vacation in 2020, Nihaal SinghAdarsh who is pursuing elec-tronics engineering from KJSomaiya College of Engineering,Mumbai also headed home inPune. His college has a incuba-tor Research InnovationIncubation Design Laboratory(Riidl) that held an open designcompetition challenge in whichinvited application for any kindof COVID-related problemsolutions. That is when the ideaof Cov-tech Ventilation Systemtook root.

The Riidl is supported bythe National Science &Technology EntrepreneurshipDevelopment Board,Department of Science &Technology, BiotechnologyIndustry Research AssistanceCouncil, Department ofBiotechnology and MaharashtraState Innovation Society.

His start-up received theNIDHI PRAYAS grant of `10lakh from the Department ofScience and Technology for hisprototype development andproduct innovation.

Adarsh who is the founderof Watt Technovations and is thechief innovator of Cov-techVentilation System tells you thathis mother, Dr Poonam KaurAdarsh, is the reason how hecame up with this system.

“I asked my mother whatwere some of the problems thatdoctors were facing. That iswhen she told me the problemthat arises due to wearing PPEkits for long hours — the heatand the sweat that builds up. Shetold me that there was little ven-tilation and that meant thatdoctors who be sweating pro-fusely leading to accumulation

of bacteria. This is when I got theidea of developing a gadget thatcan help ventilate the kit itself,”Adarsh tells you.

The system, he says isextremely economical and com-pact which is an add-on compo-nent that is to be worn aroundthe waist over the PPE kit.

“We all know that PPE kitshave poor ventilation; it is almostlike being inside a plastic bag foreight hours. What this systemdoes is take the air from outsideand filters it through apolypropylene fibre with effi-ciency of 99 per cent. It has lithi-um-ion battery that lasts for sixto eight hours and runs onpulse width modulation technol-ogy. This filter pumps air insidethe suit which then escapesthrough space around the neckand the hands.So there is a con-stant flow of air inside the PPEkit helping the doctors be morecomfortable,” Adarsh explains.

In other words the system is

an external device that is con-nected to the PPE kit. In orderto connect this device with thesuit a small hole has to be cre-ated in the PPE. The ventilationsystem comes with a stencil thathelps to cut the precise hole inthe kit with the scissors. Thedevice has been designed in sucha way that once it is attached tothe kit it is a tight fit and thereis no leakage.

“The stencil that has beenprovided ensures that the rightsize hole is cut. Even if it is nota precise round, the device hasbeen made in such a mannerthat it will fit snugly. Since thefinal product was made, mymother and a few doctors havebeen wearing the kit and theresults have been satisfactory.While my mother doesn’t needto wear the device since it hasstarted raining in Pune, there aretwo hospitals — LotusMultispeciality Hospital and SaiSneha Hospitals in Pune. A fewunits have also been sent to hos-pitals pan India and are beingused by NGOs and private prac-titioners,” Adarsh says. He hassold 20 units and because of theresults, there are many queriesfrom other hospitals. For themanufacturing, SanjayTechnoplast. The device ispriced at `5,499 per unit and isa one time buy.

For now, Adarsh is busyexpanding his business andfocus on perfecting the device.After his graduation, he plans togo abroad for his masters withmasters in technology and aminor in entreprenuership.

“The aim is to continue toinnovate more products. Myventure in India will continueeven if am not here. But I haveanother two years to go; it is along way to go,” Adarsh says.

It was only last week that theresearchers at the IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT)Gandhinagar has found thepresence of Coronavirus in

water. Whether the genes foundwere alive or dead is still a matterof investigation, but the fact in itselfis enough to give red flags.

These findings may highlightthe need for a device that can tracethe presence of Coronavirus inwater. While it may sound a distantdream, scientists from theUniversity of Strathclyde and theIndian Institute of Technology (IIT)Bombay have demonstrated a low-cost sensor that can detect frag-ments of the virus responsible forCOVID-19 within wastewater.

Dr Andy Ward, Chancellor’sFellow in the Department of Civil& Environmental Engineering,

University of Strathclyde, tells youthat the design relies on the use ofa well established PCR approach,which can detect the presence ofgenetic material at very low concen-trations.

“We take advantage of thecheapest form of PCR — called end-point PCR — which does notdepend upon expensive laboratoryequipment or infrastructure. ThePCR allows small quantities of thegenetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to be amplifiedfrom wastewater. This is thenplaced upon an electrochemicalsensor that we pioneered in order toidentify whether or not the virus ispresent,” explains Ward.

He adds that monitoring waste-water like this provides a way todetect the presence of coronavirusquickly, without relying upon peo-

ple to come forward for tests or haveaccess to tests.

“By detecting Coronavirus inwastewater, we can target humandiagnostic testing of the disease to

make each test count more, andtherefore stop new outbreaks atsource. This is critical to stoppinghospitals becoming overwhelmedand also helps prevent economical-

ly costly lockdowns as a last resortto stop the spread of the virus,” saysWard.

Dr Siddharth Tallur, AssociateProfessor in the Department ofElectrical Engineering, IIT Bombay,tells you that the sensor is like a car-tridge based instrument and each ofthem costs not more than `40 percartridge.

“This price is for the 200 car-tridges that we got as of now. If weincrease the production, we caneven bring down the cost to as lowas `10 per cartridge,” says Tallur.

The team started working onthe sensor, which still in the finaldevelopment stage, in May of 2020.

“We want to give the sensor afew touch-ups like we want tointroduce the quantity factor. As ofnow, the sensor can only find out thetraces of the virus in wastewater, but

can’t tell its quantity. This is some-thing we are working on and hope-fully should be able to achieve in afew months,” Tallur tells you.

Coming up with something asunique as this one may give manypeople hiccups, but for Ward andTallur, their expertise came to theirrescue and they were able to sailthrough without having to face toomany setbacks.

“However, the biggest challengewas the timescales and the availabil-ity of reagents to support the workbeing carried out. At the start of thepandemic, these were particularlyhard to come by, so we had to beinnovative in the way that we madethe sensor. This actually workedquite well and resulted in a designthat can be made using resourcesavailable in India,” says Ward.

As to why such technologies

when launched by big brands makeheadlines, but not when not-so-famous people do such big things,Tallur says, is because of lack ofproper marketing.

“For scientists, to communicatetheir work is important, but notmany of us know to do it well-enough. We expect that we sitaround and the world takes noticeand come to our doors to talk to us,it is not something that will happen.We need to make more consciousefforts to reach out to the public. Todo marketing, you need peopleand resources, and as aGovernment-funded institute we arenot perhaps doing it as aggressive-ly as other private institutes. If thatchanges, it will be well and good,because at the work front, there isa lot happening and it can beutilised better.”

T E S T T H E W A T E R S

Mask-up the right way This is the coolest one

WE ALL KNOW THATPPE KITS HAVE POORVENTILATION; IT ISALMOST LIKE BEINGINSIDE A PLASTICBAG FOR EIGHTHOURS. WHAT THISSYSTEM DOES ISTAKE THE AIR FROMOUTSIDE ANDFILTERS IT THROUGHA POLYPROPYLENEFIBRE WITHEFFICIENCY OF 99 PER CENT

MUSBA HASHMI speaks with DR ANDY WARD and DR SIDDHARTH TALLUR about the low-cost sensor that they have developed to trace COVID-19 in wastewater

COVID SHIELDCOVID SHIELD

Many people who’vebeen infected withthe coronavirus

might be able to safely skipthe second jab of any two-dose vaccine regimen, agrowing number of studiessuggest. These results couldhelp to stretch scarce vaccinesupplies and are alreadyinfluencing vaccination poli-cies in some countries. Butquestions remain aboutwhether the findings holdfor all individuals and allvaccines — and thereforehow policymakers shouldrespond to the findings.

Studies show that peoplewith previous exposure toSARS-CoV-2 tend to mountpowerful immune responsesto single shots, and gain littleadded benefit from anotherinjection1,2,3. What’s more,for people with immunitygained through infection,one dose typically boostsantibody numbers to levels

that are equal to, oroften

greater than, those found inindividuals who have notbeen infected and havereceived double doses4.

France, Germany and Italy,among other countries, nowadvise only one dose of vac-cine for people with a healthyimmune system and a con-firmed previous diagnosis.Many scientists who havestudied immune responses tovaccination say such policiesare a sensible way to makethe most of limited suppliesin countries that are racing toinoculate their populations.

“To follow the currenttwo-dose vaccination sched-ule in previously infectedindividuals, when there aremillions of people waiting fortheir first dose, simply doesnot make sense,” says JordiOchando, an immunologistat the Icahn School of

Medicine at Mount Sinai inNew York City, who hasadvised the Spanish govern-ment on vaccination guide-lines. But scientists still don’tknow whether one-jab pro-grammes for the previouslyinfected could leave someindividuals with suboptimalprotection. Nor is it clear thatsuch programmes would beeffective for all types of vac-cine.

“If you have been infectedbefore, then probably onedose is sufficient,” saysGiuliana Magri, an immu-nologist at the Hospital delMar Research Institute inBarcelona, Spain. But puttingthat knowledge into prac-tice? “It’s complicated,” sheconcedes.

There’s ample laboratory-based evidence that peoplewho’ve been infected bySARS-CoV-2 benefit fromvaccination, prompting theWorld Health Organizationand other public-healthagencies to recommend thatsuch individuals still get vac-cinated. There’s less clarity,however, on whether theyneed to roll up their sleeves

twice.

scopekaleidHYDERABAD | SUNDAY | JUNE 27, 2021

backpage

Traces of age-old arms race withcoronaviruses written in our DNA

Acoronavirus mayhave swept acrossEast Asia more than

20,000 years ago, leavingtraces in the DNA of peo-ple in modern China,Japan and Vietnam.Research, published inCurrent Biology, foundevidence of genetic adapta-tion to the coronavirus

family of viruses in 42genes in modern popula-tions in these regions.

The COVID-19 pan-demic, caused by the coro-navirus SARS-CoV-2, is sofar responsible for morethan 3.8 million deathsand billions of dollars ineconomic losses world-wide. The coronavirus

family also includes therelated MERS and SARSviruses, both of which havecaused significant deadlyoutbreaks in the past 20years.

The results show howthe hunt for genetic tracesof historical viral outbreaksmay help us treat the out-breaks of the future.

Pandemics may be as old as human history

Humans have had pandemicsbefore. In the 20th centuryalone, three variants of theinfluenza virus each resulted inwide-ranging outbreaks thatkilled millions: the Spanish Fluof 1918-20, the Asian Flu of1957-58, and the Hong Kong Fluof 1968-69.

Historical records of outbreakscaused by viruses and otherpathogens stretch back thou-sands of years. It seems plausiblethat these interactions go backeven further, to the earliest peri-ods of human prehistory.

The ancient migrations thatsaw our ancestors spread out fromAfrica across the world wouldhave introduced them to newpathogens. Like many other envi-ronmental challenges, theseancient viral encounters may havetriggered adaptions that helpedour ancestors survive. Theseadaptations may have includedphysiological or immunologicalchanges that improved resistanceto infection or reduced the healthimpacts of the disease.

The marks of ancient coronavirusResearch applied cutting-edge computational

analyses to the genomes of more than 2,500 peoplefrom 26 populations around the world. We foundsignatures of adaptation in 42 different human genesthat encode VIPs.

These VIP signals were present in only five popu-lations, all of them from East Asia the likely ances-tral homeland of the coronavirus family. This sug-gests the ancestors of modern East Asians were ini-tially exposed to coronaviruses around 25,000 yearsago. Further testing revealed that the 42 VIPs areprimarily expressed in the lungs, which is the tissuemost affected by COVID-19 symptoms. We alsoconfirmed these VIPs interact directly with theSARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the current pan-demic.

Other independent studies have also shown thatmutations in VIP genes may mediate SARS-CoV-2susceptibility and the severity of COVID-19 symp-toms. In addition, several VIP genes are either cur-rently being used as drug targets for COVID-19treatments or are part of clinical trials for this pur-pose. Several of the adaptive VIPs identified in thestudy are also drug targets for other types of viruses,such as Zika virus and hepatitis C. Several of thesedrugs have been successfully repurposed, and sug-gests that others could potentially be repurposed forCOVID-19 treatment.

By uncovering the genes impacted by historicalviral outbreaks, our study points to the promise ofevolutionary genetic analyses as a new tool for fight-ing future outbreaks.

Adaptation to disease can leave genetic traces

Over the past few decades, geneticists have devisedpowerful statistical tools to uncover genetic traces ofhistorical adaptation events that remain present with-in the genomes of people living today. These toolshave allowed scientists to discover genes that markadaptations for high-altitude living and the adultconsumption of milk, among other things.

Our team was curious to see whether historicalencounters with ancient coronaviruses have left anysuch trace in today's human populations. Besidesrevealing historical coronavirus outbreaks, this infor-mation may hold new insights in the genetic basis ofcoronavirus infection and how these viruses causedisease in modern humans.

Viruses are simple creatures with one objective: tomake more copies of themselves. But their simplebiological structure means they cannot reproduceindependently.

Instead, they must invade the cells of other organ-isms and hijack their molecular machinery. Viralinvasions involve attaching and interacting with spe-cific proteins produced by the host cell, which thestudy call viral interacting proteins (VIPs).

Fossils found in China andIsrael dating from around140,000 years ago are adding

to the ranks of hominins that mixedand mingled with early modernhumans.

The fossils from Israel hint that apreviously unknown group ofhominins, proposed to be the directancestors of Neanderthals, mighthave dominated life in the Levantand lived alongside Homo sapiens.Meanwhile, researchersstudying an extremelywell-preservedancient humanskull found inChina in the1930s havecontroversial-

ly classified it as a new species —dubbed Dragon Man — which mightbe an even closer relative to modernhumans than are Neanderthals.

But both findings have sparkeddebate among scientists. The studiesare based on analyses of the size,shape and structure of fossilizedbones — methods that are subject toindividual judgement and interpreta-tion. As is often the case for fossilfinds, there is no DNA evidence.

Separating earlyhominin specimens

into uniquespecies,

workingout ifandhow

they interacted with others, and trac-ing their evolution are all difficultand contentious: “It’s very messy,”says Jeffrey Schwartz, an anthropolo-gist and evolutionary biologist at theUniversity of Pittsburgh inPennsylvania. Since 2000, the view ofhuman evolution during the past halfa million years has become ever-more complicated as researchers haveadded to the list of species in thegenus Homo that lived in the Middleand Late Pleistocene. The family treenow includes the IndonesianH. floresiensis, discov-ered in 2003;SiberianDenisovans,identified in2010; SouthAfricanH. naledi,

described in 2015; and Filipino H.luzonensis, detailed in 2019.

These species overlapped in timewith modern humans, which arethought to have emerged from Africaand spread into Israel and otherregions some 200,000 years ago, andNeanderthals (H. neanderthalis),which had a stronghold in Europe300,000 years ago and were outcom-peted by, or subsumed into, modernhumans by around 40,000 years ago.

Mysterious skull fossils expand human family tree

Is one vax dose enough if you’vehad Covid? What the science says

There is growing evidence that our normal resident gut microorganisms,termed commensal microbes, can affect human health. Promotingbeneficial commensal microbes through a type of nutritional

supplement called a prebiotic is an area of intensive scientific andmedical research. However, trying to harness a diet with thedesired effect is challenging because the gut microbialcommunity (also known as the microbiome) is highly complex,and because dietary responses are modulated by multiplehereditary and non-hereditary factors. Writing in Nature,Delannoy-Bruno et al fill an essential gap in our mechanisticunderstanding of diet–microbiome interactions by focusingon dietary fibre, a family of substances of pronouncedphysiological virtues that are predominantly metabolized bycommensal microbes. This provides a sequel to the team’sprevious work on the development of microbiome-targetingfoods. To characterize the effect of dietary-fibresupplementation in overweight individuals, Delannoy-Bruno andcolleagues used germ-free mice — animals raised andmaintained in a sterile environment that are therefore devoid of theusual resident microbes of any sort. The team colonized the gut ofeach of nine mouse groups with the microbiome of one of nine womenclassed as obese. The mice were continuously fed a low-fibre, high-fat diet,coupled with periodic fibre supplementation.

White House vs Delta variant Top Biden administration health officials trying to slow thespread of the Covid-19 Delta variant have largely given up onthe possibility of reinstating mask and social-distancing rules

in favor of a grassroots vaccine education campaign. The Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health andHuman Services and the White House Covid-19 Task Force havediscussed whether to press mayors and governors in theMidwest and South, where the highly transmissible Delta variantis spreading quickly, to once again require mask mandates,according to three senior Biden health officials. But theadministration ultimately concluded that many people who arenot vaccinated are also those who have resisted wearing masks.Instead, the federal government will try to convince hesitantAmericans to get vaccinated by working with state officials andtrusted community members to communicate the benefits of theshots, the three senior officials said. The president’s team is notconfident that the new campaign will change hearts and minds,the two officials said, but it is falling back on old messaging inpart because top administration officials are unsure what othertactics will work. Only about 46 percent of the U.S. population isvaccinated, and the number of doses administered has fallen byalmost 300,000 per day since June 7, according to the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention.

Monkey militia mount vigil Farmers from the Japanese village of Kiso inNagano Prefecture have formed a “monkeymilitia” to deal with the primate pests that

keep raiding their crops.Located in the KaidaHighlands at the foot of Mount Ontake, Kiso hasan ideal climate for farming. Crops thrive,especially sweet corn, but this also makes them aparticularly attractive target for monkeys.In thepast, people have tried scaring off the monkeyswith shouts and bottle rockets, but these provedineffective. Now, a group of roughly 30 farmersand other workers have formed the “monkeychaser” squad and will be more proactive infighting off the simian invasion.The town spent850,000 yen ($80,000) on 30 air guns and asupply of pellets.[2] Earlier this month, the“monkey fighters” underwent training in order tolearn how to use their new weapons. From nowon, they will patrol their crops regularly. Shouldthey spot monkeys munching on their corn, theywill alert the rest via group-messaging app. Theentire squad will gather and fire warning shots toscare off the animals.

Scuba Diver finds messagein a bottle from 1926I

magine finding a message some-one wrote for you nearly a centu-ry ago. Fascinating, right? And

this isn't a movie we are talking about.What's even more fascinating is theplace where this message was found—deep into a river, inside a green-coloured glass bottle. Jennifer Dowker,a scuba diver who owns a boat tourcompany, found the green bottle withthe message written in 1926. “Will theperson who finds this bottle returnthis paper to George MorrowCheboygan, Michigan and tell where itwas found?” read the note on a piece

of paper inside the bottle.Ms Dowker, who owns tour compa-

ny Nautical North Family Adventures,returned to the deck and took a fewpictures of the treasure she had foundin the deep waters of the Michiganriver. Posting the pictures on the offi-cial Facebook handle of NauticalNorth Family Adventures, she wrote,“So, look what I found when I waswashing windows (and cruising alongwith the fish)... any Morrows out thereknow a George Morrow that would'vewritten this circa 1926? COOLESTnight diving EVER.”

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