VIJAYAWADA, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Weekly Edition Regd. VJ/049/2015-17 RNI No. TNENG/2001/49961 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 15 No. 40 CITY EDITION 30 Pages Rs. 5.00 www.thehindu.in

Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad and Malappuram

INSIDE

NATION | PAGE 8

SUNDAY ANCHOR | PAGE 10

NEWS | PAGE 13

WORLD | PAGE 14

DRUG OVERDOSE RULED OUT

SILICON VALLEY PUSH

MIRWAIZ MAKES IT TO TOP 10

19 KILLED IN KUNDUZ

MUMBAI: A laboratory report on the

gastric lavage from Indrani Mukherjea
has ruled out drug overdose, but
the urine sample test has showed
high levels of an anti-anxiety drug.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis

Start-Up initiative that got a
boost during his visit to Silicon
Valley will encourage young Indian
entrepreneurs to think big.

SRINAGAR: A Jordan research

centre has put Kashmir Valleys
head priest Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
among the top 10 influential
Muslims of the world.

KABUL: Aerial bombing by the

U.S. killed at least 19 people at
a hospital run by Medecins
Sans Frontieres in the Afghan
city of Kunduz on Saturday.

A grand opening

MURDER OVER RUMOURS Volatile situation prevailing in village

Capital spending
shows pick-up

BJP leaders son held

in Dadri lynching case

Puja Mehra

Party State unit

distances itself
from his father
Mohammad Ali
BISHARA (DADRI): Five days after Mohammad Akhlaque
Saifi was lynched over rumours about cow slaughter
in this Uttar Pradesh village,
Vishal, accused of inciting
the mob, was arrested on
Saturday.
Vishal is the son of Sanjay
Rana, a local BJP leader associated with the party for the
past two decades. Mr. Rana is
reportedly close to Union
Minister of State for Culture
and Tourism Mahesh Sharma. The BJP State unit has
distanced itself from Mr. Rana, who does not hold any
party post.
The arrest came amid a
volatile and tense situation
in the village, which has become polarised with the Hindu community raging against
the media for being one-sided. In two instances of attacks, two presspersons were
injured and two vehicles
damaged.

TWO ARRESTS, TWO VIP VISITS AND

VICIOUS ATTACKS ON MEDIA | PAGE 12

Sachin Tendulkar, Rajinikanth, Mukesh Ambani, Amitabh Bachchan

and others at the opening ceremony of the Indian Super League in
Chennai on Saturday. PHOTO: AFP (REPORTS ON PAGE 17)

Gujarat Congress moves President

IAF chief offers help to against anti-terror and land Bills
Dadri victims family
Josy Joseph
NEW DELHI: The Chief of the Air

Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup

Raha, has come to the rescue of
the family of an Indian Air Force
corporal whose father was
lynched to death over rumours
of beef eating at Dadri in Uttar
Pradesh. The Air Chief Marshal
told presspersons here on
Saturday that the Air Force was
in touch with the family and was
looking to move them to a
secure military locality.
I am also planning to meet
the air warrior and extend all

support to look after him and his

familys welfare, the Air Chief
Marshal said. This was the first
clear statement from a senior
government functionary
explicitly showing sympathy for
the victim. It is very
unfortunate that a serving Air
Force employees family has
been adversely affected,
resulting in death in the family,
he said. Such acts were
unacceptable and senior officers
had reached out to the corporal.

FAMILY MAY BE SHIFTED

TO IAF BASE | PAGE 12

Mehboob Jeelani
NEW DELHI: A six-member delegation of the Congress from
Gujarat met President Pranab
Mukherjee on Saturday and
sought his intervention to
strike down the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill (GCTOC)
and the Gujarat Agricultural
Land Ceiling Amendment
Bill, which were passed by the
Assembly in August after suspending leaders of the
Opposition.
Congress spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil lashed out at the
ruling BJP in Gujarat for attempting to spy on the people

Shashank
Manohar set to
become BCCI
chief today

Bihar polls are a bellwether

of change, says Cong. chief

G. Viswanath

KAHALGAON (BIHAR): A day af-

MUMBAI: Shashank Manohar

of the Vidarbha Cricket Association will take over as

BCCI president on Sunday
when he will be declared
elected unopposed at a special general meeting at the
Cricket Centre here.
The 58-year-old lawyer
from Nagpur was nominated for a second term by all
six full members of the East
Zone. By the election rules, a
candidate should be nominated by at least one full
member from the East Zone
and seconded by any other
full member by 7 p.m. on
Saturday. The East Zone
members are the Cricket Association of Bengal, the National Cricket Club, the
Jharkhand Cricket Association, the Assam Cricket Association,
the
Tripura
Cricket Association and the
Odisha Cricket Association.

Amarnath Tewary
ter Prime Minister Narendra
Modis election meeting at
Banka, where he spoke of the
Bihar package he had announced, Congress president
Sonia Gandhi said here on
Saturday that his government was anti-poor with expertise on packaging and
repackaging. She charged
the ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party with playing divisive
politics, and said the Bihar
Assembly elections would
give a new direction to the
country.
Addressing her first election meeting after the announcement of the election
schedule, Ms. Gandhi appealed to the people to reject
those playing divisive politics and making false
promises.

M. Srinivas

THAT | PAGE 18

VIJAYAWADA: Planning to visit

6 Pages

CLASSIFIEDS
4 Pages

CM
YK

budget cuts not been made

on welfare measures for
women, are farmers getting
fair price for their produce?
... except a few corporate
houses no one has benefited
from the policies of the Modi
government, she alleged.
But our UPA government
has fulfilled most of the
promises it made.
Having a dig at Mr. Modis
frequent foreign visits, she
said, Very often he goes to
foreign countries and hugs
people there, but he is the
first Prime Minister of the
country who takes pot-shot
at his political opponents on
foreign land. PM Modi
should hug the common people who have reposed faith in
him and wipe out their
tears.

PRICE RISE, QUOTA | PAGE 12

A FORMIDABLE FORCE | PAGE 12

Capital buzz: hotel rooms only for VIPs

THE BCCI PRESIDENT AND ALL

SUNDAY MAGAZINE

This government at the

Centre plays anti-poor policies which has affected
thousands of farmers and
weavers of Bihar we cannot rely on the false and fake
promises made by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi,
she said.
Referring to Mr. Modis
Bihar package of Rs. 1.25
lakh crore, Ms. Gandhi
dubbed him as an expert in
packaging and repackaging. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an expert in
packaging and repackaging,
has done nothing but just repeated the old schemes of
the previous government
and presented as a package
he is trying to fool the common people, mislead the
poor people, she said. But
he doesnt know that you all
know it well hasnt unemployment increased, have

Vijayawada between October

21 and 23? Hotels rooms have
already been blocked for
three days, thanks to VVIPs
streaming in for the foundation stone laying ceremony
for Amaravati on October 22.
As the government is planning to conduct the ceremony
on a grand scale by inviting
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, Union Ministers and
dignitaries from foreign
countries, the official machinery in Vijayawada and
Guntur is leaving no stone
unturned to make the event a
grand success.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has invited Singapore Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong for the event.
Right from conveyance to accommodation and food, the
authorities are planning to
extend the finest hospitality
to the dignitaries.
On their part, hoteliers in
Vijayawada will ensure a
comfortable stay for the invitees.
For the record, ahead Mr.
Naidus swearing-in ceremony on June 8, more than 25
hotels in the city had reserved

The ruling BJP is

attempting to spy
on the people for
political gains
for political gains. He said
the GCTOC Bill carried several draconian provisions that
would deprive the people of
their constitutional rights. In
case Mr. Mukherjee cleared
the Bill, the police can go
scot-free even if someone dies
in their custody. The timeframe to file a charge sheet
will be increased. And there
will be no bail under this law.
Criticising Prime Minister

Narendra Modi for introducing odious methods of human surveillance in Gujarat,

Mr. Gohil said the GCTOC Bill
would promote phone-tapping by intelligence services.
Prime Minister Modi has
tapped womens phones before, said Mr. Gohil.
But in the absence of the
GCTOC Bill, he had to get an
approval from an IAS officer,
which sometimes becomes
hard... So through this law
they [the State] want to make
it easier to get approval from
low-rung officers of the State
cadre.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

NEW DELHI: When Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

lands in the U.S., he will be
able to present a healthy picture of Indias growth to investors.
The
Union
governments Plan capital expenditure is showing a robust
pick-up, show data from the
Controller-General of Accounts. It is up to Rs. 52,612
crore in the first five months
of the current fiscal, till August, 38 per cent higher than
the Rs. 38,112 crore spent in
the corresponding period last
year.
The break-up of the expenditure is not available yet;
however, Finance Ministry
sources say bigger allocations
are being made this year for
public investments in infrastructure, especially roads.
Shifting the thrust of government spending to capital expenditure is the key
growth-boosting strategy of
this years Union Budget. Mr.
Jaitley allocated Rs. 70,000
crore for public investments,
including in railways and
road infrastructure. This
strategy was proposed by
Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian in the Economic
Survey,
the
curtain-raiser to the budget,
and it is based on the higher
value of the fiscal multiplier
of capital expenditure, a Ministry source says. Economists
Sukanya Bose and N.R. Bha-

numurthy of the National Institute of Public Finance and

Policy have estimated that every rupee of capital expenditure in India generates
expansion of the order of 2.45
times in the economic output.
The fiscal multipliers for
other types of spending, according to the economists estimates, are much lower.
While an increase in output
can be brought about through
any kind of public expenditure, the capital expenditure
multiplier is the highest
The estimated size of multipliers suggests the need to
prioritise capital expenditure, says their paper Fiscal
multipliers for India.

NEW GROWTH ENGINE | PAGE 15

Kakinada MPs debit card cloned, 50K stolen

Staff Reporter
KAKINADA:

Kakinada MP
Thota Narasimham lodged a
complaint with the police
here that his debit card was
cloned by cyber criminals
and Rs 50,000 was drawn
from his account at an ATM
in Goa.
Mr. Narasimham was taken aback when he received
an SMS from his bank about
the withdrawal of money
from his account. He requested a freeze of his debit
card and lodged a complaint
with the Two Town police of
Kakinada and the Cyber
Crime Cell of the East Godavari police. The case is be-

Criminals must
have accessed data
on the card using a
device called
skimmer, say police
ing investigated by CBCID.
Police said the criminals
must have accessed the data
on the MPs debit card while
he was making a payment at
a mall or restaurant. They
may have used a small device called a skimmer that
can read the data of a bank
card and upload it to a computer. Using the uploaded
data, the offenders must

have created a duplicate

card using which they withdrew money from an ATM
in Goa.
How the offenders came
to know the password of the
MP is the question before
us, said superintendent of
police M. Ravi Prakash.
The Cyber Crime Cell is
working in close coordination with the state unit in
cracking this case.
This year, the East Godavari police have registered
three cases of a similar nature.
The victims were from
the district, but the offences
took place in Hyderabad
and Bangalore. In all the

three cases, the offenders

knew the CVV code of the
bank cards, Mr. Ravi Prakash said.Police said debit
cards are most susceptible
at cash counters of malls
and restaurants.
It is difficult for us to
check the card reading devices at all these places. We
advise managements to
keep an eye on the employees
posted at cash counters,
the SP said.
Mr. Narasimham said the
experience was a lesson for
others who bank cards for
shopping. There is a need
to improve the safety of online transactions, he said.

Three discom
employees
electrocuted
while at work
Staff Reporter
NELLORE: Three employees of

more than 200 premium

rooms for VVIPs.
As of now, we have not received any list on the number
of VIPs participating in the
event. But, we have advised
our clients not to visit the city
from October 21 to 23, as we
cant make rooms available to
them, said Ilapuram Raja,
president of Vijayawada Hotel Owners Association
(VHOA). At present, the occupancy ratio is hovering between 80 and 90 per cent in
most hotels.
There are over 110 hotels in
the city, including three and
four-star hotels, which are
members of the VHOA. In ad-

dition, there are more than 60

hotels and lodges catering to
the needs of those visiting Vijayawada. From our side, we
want to contribute to the
event and make arrangements for the VIPs, said Taj
Gateway Hotel CMD Mallineni Rajaiah.
Another hotelier said police had already asked them to
set apart at least 20 per cent
of rooms for police officers
who would be supervising security arrangements one
week before the event.

STATE CONSULTS STAR CURATOR

I PAGE 3

the Andhra Pradesh Southern

Power Distribution Company
Ltd (APSPDCL) were electrocuted while at work in Nellore
district on Saturday.
The victims were identified
as lineman Venu (30) and two
temporary workers Ashok
and Prasad (both aged 25).
They were carrying out repair
works on the 33 KVA line between Chinamacharam and
Marripadu villages in the
district.
The tragedy occurred when
the three accidentally came
in contact with a live line
passing nearby, even as the
high-voltage line which they
were working on was turned
off. They died on the spot.
Following the tragedy, local discom workers got agitated and picked up arguments
with the officials who were
around. The Marripadu police arrived at the spot and
brought the situation under
control.
Sub-Inspector
Somaiah
said there was short circuit
after the 33 KVA line under
repair accidentally fell on the
nearby live 11 KVA line.
On receipt of information
APSPDCL SE N. Nagasayana
Raorushed to the spot.
VJ-VJ

2|

CITY

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Interventional Pulmonology CME and Workshop today

Venkaiah harps on special projects for AP

Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas will inaugurate Interventional

Pulmonology CME and Workshop at Fortune Murali Park at 8 a.m.
on Sunday.

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M. Venkaiah Naidu says the

immediate priority before the Centre is to sanction special projects to
Andhra Pradesh rather than special category status. Page 6

Artist doodles to create a world record

Starting at 11.30 a.m., he creates 400 different images by evening
Special Correspondent

Genius Book of Records.

Representatives of the USVIJAYAWADA: Teacher and based Wonders Book of Refreelance artist Prem Sud- cords and Miracle Book of
heer sat amidst a maze of Records were also present to
tables with blank drawing record the feat.
sheets affixed to their surStarting at 11.30 a.m., Sudface and went about drawing heer created nearly 400 difhis way into the record ferent images by early
books. To visitors stepping evening, taking a 10-minute
into the PVP Square, the bu- break every couple of hours.
sy artist was a greater draw
than the goods in the shop Curious visitors
Oblivious to the curious
windows.
who
fluttered
Holding a black sketch visitors
pen in a sinuous grip, Sud- around him taking pictures,
heer drew fluid lines in a he went about his job, movfreehand style as referees of ing from one table to anotha clutch of record books kept er.
Freehand drawing is a
watch. This was the artists
attempt to create a world re- matter of habit, observation
cord in memory drawing for and practice. It may not
seem so for a novice but this
24 hours non-stop.
This feat is the first of its drawing method develops
kind in Andhra Pradesh confidence and encourages
since the State was bifurcat- the eyes and hand and brain
ed, said N. Ravi, Krishna to work together, said Mr. Art teacher Prem Sudheer attempting the world record at PVP Square in
Vijayawada on Saturday. PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR
district coordinator for the Ravi, who is an artist too.

Certificate course in Japanese at ANU Kabaddi tourney

The minimum
planned in December
Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: Acharya Nagarjuna

University is offering certificate courses in Japanese language for students and

professionals, according to
ANU College of Arts and
Commerce Principal V.
Chandrasekhara Rao.
We have started a course
for students of engineering,
but with other students also
evincing interest in the
course, we decided to start a
four-month
certificate
course, Dr. Rao said. ANU

eligibility for the

courses is
Intermediate. The fee
is Rs. 1,500

has started a Certificate of

Proficiency (COP) level
course at the International
Students Cell on the university campus. The minimum eligibility for the courses is
Intermediate. The fee is Rs.
1,500. The first batch of 60

students attended a session

on Saturday evening on the
ANU campus. Classes will be
held every Saturday between
5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on the campus, and on Sundays, sessions
will be held between 9 a.m.
and 12 noon.
For those residing in Guntur, classes will be held at Abhudaya Womens College
between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on
Sundays.
Japanese language trainer
from EFLU, Hyderabad, Syed
Masoon Ul Hashim will be
handling the sessions.

Special Correspondent
VISAKHAPATNAM: Kabaddi and

kho-kho players, who were

trained by the late Y. Bhagavan Das and reached great
levels in the games and are
comfortably settled, thanks
to the jobs they secured
through sports quota, have
decided to pay their tributes
to their master by organising
the State junior kabaddi
championships and to install

The event will be

organised in memory
of Y. Bhagavan Das
a statue of Bhagavan Das on
the premises of Kaspa school
in Vizianagaram.
Players could secure employment in the Railways,
port, BHPV, Police, Army and
other organisations and as
PETs and coaches.
His former disciples and
admirers have made arrangements for erecting his statue
on the Kaspa school premises
and to conduct the State junior kabaddi championships
in his memory from December 3 to 6. Other details can be
had from organising secretary of the meet A.M.N. Kamalanabha Rao (94409 13615) or
A. Ranga Rao Dora (94416
17222).

A painter aims high

The last of the Guntur Pandavas, painter S. Vijaya Kumar
is back home brushing up for a major show
P. Sujatha Varma

ainter Somanchi Vijaya

Kumar is excited about
his forthcoming exhibition
at Jehangir Art Gallery in
Mumbai.
His oil paintings will be
on display at the gallery
from December 8 to 14. A
platform like the Jehangir
Gallery is important for
every artist because a good
number of people who walk
in buy the works on display
which spares us the hassle
of advertising, says the
banker-turned-painter. The
theme for shows is
mountains: majestic peaks
captured in glacial silence.
Mr. Vijaya Kumar is
fascinated by mystical
mountains.
His paintings are all
about burnt orange sunsets,
frosty mountains reflecting
in tranquil waters, icy
landscapes and snowswathed serene mountains.
He recognises the fact that
not every artist gets a
chance to exhibit works
from an appropriate
platform and talks of the
dire need to take concrete
steps to revive the art scene
in the new state of Andhra
Pradesh.
In undivided Andhra

prolonged neglect, he
laments, emphasising the
need to establish a separate
State Academy for AP.
The one in Hyderabad
offers 10 awards annually
besides organising events
like camps, symposia and
seminars which help
elevate the status of artists
and make them aware of the
bigger picture at the
national and international
level.
We have been
completely sidelined.
Artists in Hyderabad have
the privilege of a few
galleries promoting and
supporting their works
constantly, he says.
Most of the wealthy
people of Andhra Pradesh,
he says, have either settled
in Hyderabad or have
personal interests there.
The time has come for
people to return to their
native land and contribute
to promoting the local art
Pradesh, there were around scenario.
65 artists and only 9 of
This is possible only
them were from Andhra. Of through organising shows
these 9, only seven had the and a supportive media. We
privilege of participating in also need to establish more
national events. Artists in
galleries, he insists. The
Andhra Pradesh feel
fault also lies with senior
alienated, he rues.
artists, he feels.
The art and culture
There is no dearth of
segment has faced
talent in Andhra Pradesh.

But seniors who have

enjoyed the privileges of the
Lalita Kala Academy, the
apex cultural body in the
field of visual arts in India,
make no effort to pump
enthusiasm among the
younger generation of
artists.
This is the basic problem.
It is the responsibility of
the seniors to groom and
nurture upcoming artists.
In the early years of his
painting career, he met
like-minded artists and five
of them formed a group.
A.S. Raman, the first Indian
editor of The Illustrated
Weekly, described them as
the Kala Pandavulu of
Guntur.
So we chose to call
ourselves by that name and
thus the Pandava Group
was born, he says.
After seven years of being
together, the group split up
after the demise of two of
the members. Many artists
from across Andhra
Pradesh and Chennai
offered to fill the gap but we
decided to go our own way,
says Mr. Vijaya Kumar who
is the only Pandava still
actively involved in
painting today.
vijayawada@thehindu.co.in

Masula historian receives Gandhi Peace Award

Staff Reporter

lar. Mr. Silar is the president

of UNESCO Club, Krishna
MACHILIPATNAM: Telangana Ci- district.
tizens Council has conferred
Telangana Congress Comthe Mahatma Gandhi Peace mittee president Uttam Kuand Harmony Award-2015 on mar Reddy presented the
Machilipatnam-based ama- award during the celebrateur historian Mohammad Si- tions of the International

Non-violence Day on October

2 in Hyderabad.
As many as 15 persons from
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States from different fields
have received the Mahatma
Gandhi Peace and Harmony
Award for the year 2015.

Celebrating the spirit

of Vizagites in style

Students of a fashion technology institute

participating in a flash mob in Visakhapatnam on
Saturday. PHOTO: C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM
Rani Devalla
VISAKHAPATNAM: It was like
any other Saturday evening
for those who stepped into a
shopping mall until the venue
turned into a dance floor for
about 15 minutes.
With a string of peppy music blaring in the background,
a group of students took turns
to shake a leg, while the audience cheered them all along.
After a few fast paced numbers, the mood changed as
boys and girls join for a slow
romantic song in salsa style.
Within a few minutes, another group of youngsters erupted into dance, keeping pace
with the fast beats.
The flash mob meant to
commemorate the spirit of
Vizag people for their resilience in fighting against Cyclone Hudhud drew the
attention of the shoppers at
CMR Central Shopping Mall
CM
YK

that was bursting at the

seams.
It has been almost a year
since the very severe cyclonic
storm had hit the coast. What
made the difference is how
people have bounced back
with dignity. That is the reason why we wanted to organise the flash mob, said K.
Pradeep, centre manager of
the institute.
For students who participated in the flash mob, it took
a couple of weeks to get
trained in the choreography
that also meant to promote
fashion scene in the port city.
Fashion in the city is evolving. Though this is the first
time that I am participating
in a flash mob for a cause,
what remains interesting is
that how youngsters have become more open to experimenting with new styles,
said Mounica, a student of the
institute.
VJ-VJ

CITY

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

|3

V I J A Y A W A D A

Oct 04, Sun

Oct 05, Mon

Oct 06, Tue

RISE 05 59 SET 17 56

RISE 05 59 SET 17 55

RISE 05 59 SET 17 54

RISE 23 36 SET 11 53

RISE 00 00 SET 12 44

RISE 00 28 SET 13 32

CAPITAL FOUNDATION CEREMONY

AROUND THE CITY

ARTS AND CRAFTS MAY DECK UP STAGE WITH A SUNRISE BACKDROP AT THE GRAND EVENT

e-Gov Conclave
in November
The State government will
conduct an e-Gov
Conclave in the city in the
third week of November to
take the IT Policy 2014-20,
Electronics Policy 2014-20
and Innovation and Start
up Policy forward. The
stakeholders will discuss
the entire gamut of issues
concerning the IT &
electronics industry,
according to a GO issued
on Saturday.

Elocution contest
for B.Ed students
Y.V. Rao Siddhartha
College of Education at
Kanuru and Book
Promotion Council (BPC)
are jointly conducting an
elocution contest for B.Ed
students in Krishna
University region on the
occasion of World
Teachers Day on October 5
at 10.30 a.m. The theme is
Role of teacher in
moulding the destiny of a
student. Further details
can be obtained from
college Principal G.B.
Lakshmi (9866010233) or
BPC convener V. Kesava
Rao (9498758175).

Training classes
for BJP cadres
The BJP began regional
training classes for its
cadres here on Saturday.
Party State general
secretary J. Syam Kishore,
organising secretary G.R.
Ravindra Raju and senior
leader Jupudi Rangaraju
inaugurated the sessions in
Vijayawada West, East and
Central Assembly
constituencies. Mr.
Kishore said cadres should
make efforts to strengthen
the party for the 2019 polls
by highlighting the welfare
schemes of the NDA.

Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify &

make appropriate enquiries to satisfy
themselves about the veracity of an advertisement before responding to any published in
this newspaper. Kasturi & Sons Limited, the
Publisher & Owner of this newspaper, does not
vouch for the authenticity of any advertisement
or advertiser or for any of the advertisers products and/or services. In no event can the
Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s,
Employees of this newspaper/company be held
responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for
any claims and/or damages for advertisements
in this newspaper.

Prohibitory
orders near
exam centres

State consults star curator

S. Sandeep Kumar

he government is planning
grand gala events for the Amaravati foundation ceremony, and famed art curator
and scenographer, Rajeev
Sethi met Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu Naidu to discuss arrangements, including stage design and
audience enclosure to be
made for the ceremony on
October 22.
Mr. Sethi, who met Mr.
Naidu here on Saturday, suggested that a sunrise backdrop be used to deck up the
stage, depicting the Sunrise
Andhra Pradesh theme,
while emphasis was laid on
exhibiting the arts and crafts
of the State at the ceremony
to propagate its rich culture
and heritage.
Mr. Sethi said Make in India and Made in Andhra
Pradesh concepts were not
new to the world. Later, Mr.
Sethis team gave a presentation on the greatness of the
Kondapalli, Etikoppaka, Machiliptanam, Repalle, Dharmavaram and Lepakshi
artisans to the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister held a
marathon meeting with Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana and Capital
Region Development Authority officials on the arrangements to be made for
the ceremony. He said the
capital should be developed
as an eco-friendly and tourist city amid river Krishna,
Kondaveeti rivulet and the
water front.
He said the location,
spread over 50 acres would
have to be developed as a

SETHIS TEAM GIVES

PRESENTATION ON KONDAPALLI,
ETIKOPPAKA, MACHILIPTANAM,
REPALLE, DHARMAVARAM AND
LEPAKSHI ARTISANS TO THE CM

Six helipads for event

Special Correspondent

Singapore had been invited for

the grand event.
VIJAYAWADA: Krishna Collector
The Collector asked airport
Babu A. on Saturday directed officials to make necessary
officials to identify six spots to arrangements, including
set up helipads for VVIPs who sprucing up the VIP lounge at
will be attending the
the Gannavaram airport.
foundation stone laying
He advised Roads &Building
ceremony for Amaravati.
Department to initiate
Speaking at a review
measures for construction of
meeting here, Mr. Babu said
the helipads between
that Prime Minister Narendra Gannavaram and Vijayawada,
Modi, Union Ministers, Chief as the VIPs would start
Ministers of some States and
arriving in the city from
dignitaries from Japan and
October 21.

Finalise capital plan after

talking to people: CPI (M)
Staff Reporter

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu with art curator Rajeev Sethi and CRDA
Commissioner N. Srikant in Vijayawada on Saturday. PHOTO: BY ARRANGEMENT
tourist spot. He directed officials to develop the location
on the lines of the historic
India Gate, Gateway of India
and Charminar. He said the
core city should be developed in three regional centres comprising nine theme
cities.
It is learnt that the Chief
Minister had finalised the location among the top three
locations suggested by the
Singapore agency, which developed the master plan. The
government is planning to
organise celebrations in
mandal centres across the
State in the run-up to the
foundation ceremony.
Meanwhile, four committees, including organising,
reception, venue and culture
and media have also been
formed to oversee the arrangements. Municipal Administration Minister P.
Narayana is likely to lead the
organising committee.

e-payment: DST executives

meet Krishna Collector

State guest house teems

with Ministers, officials
M. Srinivas
VIJAYAWADA: The State

guest house on Bandar

Road is teeming with
Ministers and senior
officials these days owing
to intense activity in the
run-up to the foundation
stone laying ceremony for
the construction of the
capital city on October 22.
While the first floor of
the two-storeyed building
was occupied by
Ministers, the upper floor
was packed with security
personnel.
Eight air-conditioned
rooms on the first floor
have been allocated to
Ministers. Irrigation

Minister Devineni
Umamaheswara Rao,
Excise Minister Kollu
Ravindra, Agriculture
Minister Prathipati
Pullarao, Social Welfare
Minister Ravella Kishore
Babu and some MLAs
regularly visit the guest
house and stay for a while,
according to officials.
Guest house
Superintendent K. Basivi
Reddy said: We collect
Rs. 150 towards room rent
per day, and this amount
is used for maintenance
purpose. Round-the-clock
security personnel have
been posted at the
building maintained by
the Revenue Department.

VIJAYAWADA: A roundtable on house

construction and real estate sector
conducted by CPI (M) here on Saturday deplored attempts by the
government to involve foreign
companies in the construction of
the Capital city of Amaravati.
The meeting resolved to request
the government to make a change
in the A.P Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act that
would protect the powers conferred on local bodies by the 73rd and
74th Constitution amendments.
The participants also demanded
that the Capital City Master Plan
be finalised after due consultations
with the public and other local
stakeholders. For this purpose, the
government should form a citizens
committee and give the master
plan a final shape only after sorting
out a host of issues concerning people. The CRDA, which is currently
acting on the proposed master
plan, should take the citizens
committee into confidence while
taking important decisions.
Addressing the meeting, CPM (I)
Capital Region Committee Convener Ch. Babu Rao said the government was denying permission

for layouts and construction of

houses in the name of agriculture
protection zone and asked if the
same norm was not applicable
when 30,000-plus acres were
pooled for the Capital.
It is nothing but a ploy to allot
lands to real estate businessmen
who are either members of the ruling party or are close to MPs and
MLAs. While clamping down on
the residential layouts, which are
in the advanced stages of approval,
officials entrusted the business of
raising layouts for government
buildings in the seed capital to a
couple of Singapore companies including Jurong for Rs. 13 crore as if
local realtors are incapable of doing the same job, Mr. Babu Rao
alleged.
He questioned the need for four
helipads at Uddandarayanipalem
which, he said, were meant to facilitate the landing of choopers carrying VVIPs for the event. No capital
in the world is spread in 8,300 sq
km like our Capital is sought to be
by the government, he added. Nagamalleswara Rao, a builder, said
foreign companies were welcome
but the government should apply
its mind when it comes to the survival of local stakeholders.

Cisco to create smart Golden Mile on M.G. Road

Staff Reporter

MA&UD Department
issues GO.,
facilitating Golden
Mile Project
Vijayawada

VIJAYAWADA: In a significant

Staff Reporter

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA: The police have

imposed Section 144 under in
the city on Sunday to ensure
the peaceful conduct of various examinations.
The Department of Posts is
conducting tests for multi
tasking staff at Sarada Junior
College under the Satyanarayanapuram station limits.
The entrance test for MD
(Ayurveda) will be conducted
at Siddhartha Government
Medical College on October 4.
National Institute of Open
School will conduct public examinations at Mahita Degree
College, Ganguru, and Janet
Degree College, Ibrahimpatnam, on October 6 and 7. Public have been requested not to
move in groups and carry any
lethal weapons at the examination centres, the police
stated in a press release and
warned of severe action
against the violators.

VIJAYAWADA: Senior exec-

utives of the Hyderabadbased Delite Software

Technologies (DST) met
District Collector Babu.
A here on Saturday to
discuss the modalities of
an electronic system of
payments under various
government schemes.
Mr. Babu said that
Krishna district had already won accolades for
weeding out the fake
beneficiaries of Public
Distribution
System
(PDS) through Aadharenabled e-POS (electronic point of sale) system.
Distribution of pensions at the doorstep of
beneficiaries was also
taken up in the district
through an inter-operable system of payment.

Under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana,

as amny as 16 lakh bank
accounts were opened,
including 1.30 lakh in the
first 12 days of launching
of the scheme.
Companies such as
Delite will be helpful in
improving efficiencies in
delivery
of
welfare
schemes at a time when
peoples
expectations
have peaked, Mr. Babu
A. said.
District Rural Development Agency (DRDA)
Project Director D.
Chandrasekhar, Delite
Software Technologies
Senior Director Vijay
Mani, Senior Managers
Anurag Saxena and Sanjay Maheswari and company partner Akhilesh
Varma were among
those present on the occasion.

development, the State government has roped in global computer networking major Cisco
to implement a Proof of Concept of its Smart City model on
M.G Road.
The Municipal Administration & Urban Development
(MA&UD) Department issued
a G.O. on Saturday, facilitating
what was named the Golden
Mile Project Vijayawada.
The tie-up is the culmination
of a series of discussions that
the Information Technology &
Communications and MA&UD
Departments has had with a
Cisco team from Bangalore.
Cisco will be the lead partner
supported by e-Centric Solutions, a group company of Paradigm IT. Of the total project
cost of Rs. 7.91 crore, Cisco will
contribute Rs. 3.81 crore in the
form of materials and expertise, and the balance (Rs. 4.10
crore) will be chipped in by the
government and the VMC.
The VMC will provide Rs. 62

connected transport and smart

parking can transform the way
cities and communities are designed, built and renewed to
ensure economic, social and
environmental sustainability.
The Golden Mile Project will
set the tone for similar projects
in Andhra Pradesh, which has
at the moment only three cities
Visakhapatnam, Kakinada
and Tirupati in the frontline
Cisco will contribute Rs. 3.81 crore in the form of materials and expertise to
of Smart Cities short-listed in
the country for provision of
develop the ever busy MG road under the smart city project . FILE PHOTO
modern facilities and innovalakh (Rs. 20 lakh for developing man power charges and the ital India, announced the Cis- tive solutions for an improved
a city portal and Rs. 42 lakh balance (Rs. 3 crore) will be co Smart City as a blueprint for governance ecosystem.
Vijayawada has been left out
towards LED lighting), while funded by the MA&UD future smart and connected
communities, in Bangalore late of the race in the first phase of
the IT&C Department will Department.
Cisco had, in line with its last year. Using the Internet of the Smart Cities programme,
meet expenditure to the tune of
Rs. 48 lakh towards third party commitment to collaborate Things, Cisco had showcased but the Golden Mile Project
services, Smart City app devel- with the Government of India how connected education, comes as a fillip for its development and maintenance and in realising its vision of a Dig- healthcare, smart buildings, opment.

Five tribal children rescued, shifted to shelter home

Rajulapudi Srinivas

CWC Chairman B. Nagesh Rao with the tribal children who were rescued from
railway station in Vijayawada on Saturday. - PHOTO: RAJULAPUDI SRINIVAS

VIJAYAWADA: Five tribal children, who were being trafficked on the pretext of
providing jobs, were rescued
at the Vijayawada railway
station here on Saturday.
Four girls and a boy, who
were travelling in a train,
were shifted to the home run
by the Navajeevan Bala Bhavan.
They are natives of Peddabayalu village of Paderu
agency area in Visakhapatnam district.
The mediator, Ganesh,
who, too, is a native of Peddabayalu village, was escorting them on the platform
when Navajeevan staff noticed them. As Ganesh and

the children were giving incoherent replies, we took the

children into custody, Navajeevan Bala Bhavan executive director Balashowry
said.
Ganesh, a mason from the
same village, has been working with a contractor at Lingampalli in Medak district.
He was transporting the
children to Secunderabad,
Mr. Balashowry said.
The mason convinced
our parents and paid money
to them, and they agreed to
us along with him. Ganesh
also promised to provide us
work at a construction site.
Owing to poverty, we are migrating to Secunderabad in
search of some work, the
girls said.

Meanwhile, Krishna District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairman B.

Nagesh Rao said the children
were found to be anaemic
and in an unhygienic state.
They also did not possess
any certificates, and their
parents could not be contacted over phone, Mr. Rao
said.
According to Ganesh, five
persons from Peddabayalu
were working at a construction site at Lingampalli, and
that he was taking five more
children to help masons and
to do other chores.
As they are children aged
between 13 and 16 years, we
intercepted and referred
them to a home, the CWC
chief added.

Youth from UP rescued

from drowning, dies
Special Correspondent

sucked in deeper by the rip

current.
VISAKHAPATNAM: A 23-year-old
The community guards
youth from Uttar Pradesh present at the beach, jumped
died while undergoing treat- into the waters and risked
ment at King George Hospi- their lives to save two of them
tal, after he was rescued from and even brought Siva Ganesh
being drowned at R.K. Beach, alive to the shores.
here on Saturday evening.
We brought him ashore
The deceased was identified and performed the required
as Siva Ganesh alias Pandit.
first aid, before shifting him to
Five friends -- four from King George Hospital. But he
Uttar Pradesh and one from died while undergoing treatMadhya Pradesh -- working at ment, as he had drunk a lot of
a private tile manufacturing water and his breathing had
company in Lankelapalem slowed down, said Demudu,
ventured into the waters on a community guard. The poSaturday evening.
lice registered a case. The
While two of them were in swimming deaths in Visakhathe safe zone, three ventured patnam beaches have already
into the danger zone and were crossed 25 in this year.

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by V. V. Raja Rao at 55-1-4, 100 Feet Road, Industrial Estate, Autonagar, Vijayawada-520007 on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Malini Parthasarathy (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

CM
YK

VJ-VJ

4|

CITY
APREDA PROPERTY SHOW

WITH SUBURBAN HOUSING BEING THE FLAVOUR OF THE SEASON, GATED

COMMUNITIES ARE GENERATING ALL THE BUZZ

The buzz is about gated

communities
P. Samuel Jonathan

ith the foundation stone for the

new capital to be laid in less than
three weeks from now, the real
estate expo staged by the Andhra
Pradesh Real Estate Developers
Association (APREDA) at the
Chebrolu Hanumaiah Pranganam
in Guntur has generated quite a
buzz.
The Property Show-2015 has
been billed as the biggest property
show held in the new state, post
bifurcation.
According to APREDA president Gadde Tirupati Rao, over
250 builders and developers from
Guntur and Vijayawada are showcasing their ventures in the threeday show. On Saturday, the second day of the show, the 150 stalls
laid out over a 60,000 sq ft premises witnessed a considerable increase in footfalls. More are
expected on Sunday.
Apart from presentations on
new ventures, investment and finance options, more than 50 firms
from the construction sector are
showcasing their latest products.
Among the builders at the
show, there are a clutch of them
from Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam exploring the market here.
But the lack of clarity on the Guntur Municipal Corporations
plans for Guntur is proving to be a
bit of a dampener.
`The real estate sector, which
was in overdrive last year, is
showing signs of slowing down.
Many builders are finding it difficult to sell their ventures, said
Vasu Chebrolu, managing partner
of Parkville Projects.
According to sources in the
building industry, more than 100

builders have started new ventures with an eye on the housing

market in the outskirts of Guntur
and Vijayawada.
But local builders say the real
boom has not started yet. They
think the real big builders are
waiting for things to fall in line.
We are seeing a trend of people
willing to settle down in areas
outside these two cities. With an
eye on such buyers, developers
are promoting gated community
projects, which could be the next
big thing, said Mr. Rao.
The Guntur Municipal Corporation is witnessing an increase in
the number of applications for
building plans. Earlier, we used
to receive 100-150 applications in
a year, but in 2014-15 we received
more than 350, said a source in
GMCs
Town
Planning
Department.

How to prevent a burglar

Staff Reporter
GUNTUR: Amidst the forest of
stalls featuring new ventures at
the APREDA property show here,
are an array of presentations on
security solutions such as video
phones, burglar alarms, remotecontrolled sensors and solar
fencing.
` e have a range of home
W
security devices ranging from
CCTV cameras, video phones,
biometric door locks, etc. People
who are planning to live in the
suburbs are particularly interested
in such security solutions, said
Rajesh of Abhee Smart Home

Systems. The price range for some

of the electronic appliances is
Rs.5,000 to Rs.20,000.
Apart from home security
devices, there are a range of
smart systems to gawk at. One can
operate electrical switches,
including lights and fans, airconditioners and adjust the
brightness of lights using an
electronic panel.
These devices are useful for
families with elderly people. Since
they have limited mobility, one can
use remote-controlled devices to
operate all electrical and
electronic gadgets, said Mr.
Rajesh.

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Truckers stir
hits supply of
steel, cement
S. Sandeep Kumar
VIJAYAWADA: With the truck-

ers strike entering third day

on Saturday, supply of different commodities especially
cement, steel and others was
affected. Collections at different toll plazas were affected
considerably with majority of
the trucks remaining off the
road as part of the strike.
Traders of different commodities explain that things
could go out of control, if the
strike is continued for another three days.
Everyday about 18,000 vehicles pass through Pottipadu
toll plaza near Gannavaram.
Executives working at the
plaza inform that there was a
decline in the vehicle passage
by nearly 5000, denting the
collections considerably. Beginning from vegetables to
iron and steel, traders have
stocked up the commodities
in the wake of strike and this
could ensure supplies last for
another couple of days.
As of now, things are fine.
But we feel the pinch, if the
strike continues on Monday
and Tuesday as well, says a
cement trader.
Majority of cement is supplied from Nalgonda district
from neighbouring Telangana and similar is the case with

Traders fear things

can go out of control,
if the strike is
continued for another
three days
iron and steel, which are supplied from Visakhapatnam
and Kolkatta regions to
across the State.

Elaborate arrangements
Though, officials claim
elaborate arrangements were
done to ensure sufficient supply of vegetables, the prices of
tomatoes increased marginally from Rs.15 to Rs.16 a kg in
retail markets and at Rythu
Bazars.
It could cast an impact on
onions supply during the next
few days. The price of onions
is hovering around Rs.45 a kg
in Kaleswara Rao Market in
the city.
Though they are being supplied in RTC buses from Kurnool, it can fuel the prices in
retail markets, explained a
rythu bazaar official.
A.P. Lorry Owners Association general secretary Y.V.
Eswara Rao said the strike
would be continued until the
Centre
considers
their
demands.

Sand SHGs
come up short
in CMs view
Special Correspondent
VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister

Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday observed that irregularities were occurring at the

sand reaches due to the failure of DWCRA groups to take
complete responsibility for
the
operations
and
transactions.
Despite introducing technology to monitor the operations at sand reaches, it was
unfortunate that irregularities were being reported, he
said.
Out of the 9000 vehicles
employed at sand reaches,
nearly 6300 were equipped
with GPS technology. Mr.
Naidu asked officials to complete the installation of GPS
devices in the rest of the vehicles by October 15.
Officials said surveillance
cameras have been installed
at 44 reaches so far. All the
136 reaches in the State will
be so equipped by October 30.
The waiting time and loading time at sand reaches will
be monitored online, besides
taking note of vehicles passing through the geo-fencing
system installed at the reaches, officials told Mr. Naidu
during a review meeting on
sand mining here on
Saturday.
Officials also said BSNL has
expressed willingness to offer
internet connectivity at all
the sand reaches at a discounted price.

Suspicion leads to double murder

minutes, Karanna was beaten
to death by an irate T. Subba
VISAKHAPATNAM:
Suspicion Rao, brother of the slain Bothat his neighbour was having janna, in retaliation.
an illicit relationship with his
According to Inspector of
wife, 40-year-old K. Karanna, Araku Valley, Pyla Simhachaa resident of Lacheru area of lam Naidu, the incident ocDumriguda mandal in Araku curred when Karanna found
Valley police station limits in Bojanna in his house during
the Agency area of Visakha- his absence and there was a
patnam district, axed him to heated argument.
death on Saturday. The vicKaranna charged Bojanna
tim was identified as T. Bo- with having an affair with his
janna (45). And within wife and in a fit of rage, he
Special Correspondent

picked up an axe and hacked

him to death.
Noticing this, Subba Rao
rushed to the spot and beat
Karanna to death.
Following the information
from the locals of Lacheru, a
police team, led by Inspector
Simhachalam Naidu, rushed
to the spot and arrested Subba Rao.
According to the inspector,
the accused confessed to the
crime.

GITAM to hold meet on Govt. schools out of fashion in Nimmakuru Police deploy heavy
security challenges
force at YSRC meet
T. Appala Naidu

Special Correspondent
VISAKHAPATNAM:
GITAM
School of International Business (GSIB) will be organising
a two-day national conference on Indias coastal and
cyber security challenges
from October 14.
The conference is being
hosted in association with
Centre for Human Security
Studies, Coastal Security Police of Andhra Pradesh, Association of Private Security
Agencies and Esf Labs.
The keynote address will
be delivered by State Director-General of Police J.V. Ra-

DEATH

mudu and host of former and

current IPS officers will be
part of the conference.

Coastal policing
Various themes concerning Indias national security
challenges, coastal policing,
role of private security in
coastal security and coastal
security installations will be
dealt with in the two-day
conference.
While the welcome address
will be delivered by Dean and
Director of GSIB V.K. Kumar,
the inaugural address will be
given by president of GITAM
University M.V.V.S. Murthi.

DEATH

DEATH
ANNIVERSARIES

NIMMAKURU: As the native

place of former chief minister

and TDP founder N.T. Rama
Rao, Nimmakuru may qualify
as a VIP village, but the ongoing process of winding down
government-run education
has not spared the village.
Two primary schools run
by the government have been
shut down in the village in the
last three years: owing to a
lack of teachers at one school
and poor student strength at
the other.
When they downed shutters, both schools had only
one student each.
One of them, the Mandal
Parishad Primary School, was
inaugurated by then Mr Rama Rao himself in November
1985.
The last teacher of the
school was a volunteer, Ms. N.
Prameela, who was brought
in when the regular master,
the only one, was transferred
in 2012. The strength of the
school had already dwindled
because the lone teacher used
to be kept busy with meetings
and summons from the mandal HQ, etc.
When she was appointed,
Ms. Prameela was asked to
canvas parents in the poorer
localities to send their children to her school. But it had
already become difficult by
then to convince parents,
even low-income ones, to
keep faith in government

villagers who gathered at the

venue.
The police allowed the YSR
VISAKHAPATNAM: The ruling Telugu Desam government Congress to conduct its proshowed its weakness for big test in a slush-filled ground
corporates by deploying over some 200 m from the gate of
300 personnel to monitor a the 2x520 MW coal fired powprotest by residents of Palava- er project of the Hinduja Nalasa and nearby villages affect- tional Power Corporation Ltd
ed by the Hinduja power at Palavalasa village in Pedaproject, YSR Congress district gantyada mandal of the dispresident Gudivada Amarnath trict. The merchant power
project acquired 1,125 acres for
has said.
The massive police deploy- the project more than two decment was visible right from ades ago promising the resithe Visakhapatnam Steel Plant dents proper compensation.
rear gate. The police stopped The Hindujas have given
the YSR leaders there itself on proper compensation to only
the pretext that former minis- to the owners of 527 acres,
Patha Nimmakuru.
ter Tammineni Sitaram who YSR Congress leader inwas scheduled to address the charge of Pendurti constituenschools. Thats why the residents was an outsider. Af- cy Adeep Raju said.
strength of government ter a stand-off that lasted for
The YSRCP shall support
schools is dwindling in rural best part of an hour, the police the villagers in their protest to
Andhra Pradesh, even in VIP allowed the YSRC district get what was promised at the
Nimmakuru.
president Amarnath, and oth- time of land acquisition. The
Its those on the margins of er leaders to proceed to Pala- Hindujas had promised a job
the economy that have no valasa only after they were to each family of displaced
choice but to rely on govern- sure that Tammineni Sitaram persons and compensation to
ment schools. And the new was well on his way back to the all the land owners. They have
government policy of closing city. There were five police to pay proper compensation
down government schools if check-posts all along the five for the land acquired for buildthe strength isnt at least 18 is km route from the Steel Plant ing a railway line and for coal
bringing the process to its rear gate. There was also a stockyard, he said addressing
culmination.
heavy police deployment, led the villagers.
After the Patha Nimmaku- by ACP (South Sub Division)
Mr. Amarnath and YSR
ru school closed down, the G.B.R. Madhusudhan Babu at Congress in-charge for Gajupoorest children of the ham- the village where the residents waka Tippala Nagi Reddy and
let go to the lone government were organising a protest other local leaders addressed
school in the dalitawada of demonstration and public the residents before submitNimmakuru panchayat, brav- meeting. The deployment ap- ting a memorandum to the ofing monkeys and street dogs peared totally disproportion- ficials of the Hinduja National
along the way.
ate to the hardly hundred Power Corporation.
G.S. Subrahmanyam

Former students of the government primary school at

PHOTO: T. APPALA NAIDU
education.
They were difficult to convince, Ms Prameela said.
Parents told me government
teachers are kept busy with
meetings, and the children
are left to their own devices.
They preferred to send their
children to the nearest convent school even if it was
more expensive.
Still, Ms. Prameela managed to get four new admissions. But then she lost her
job when she went on maternity leave and there was no
replacement. And that was
that for the Mandal Parishad
Primary School.
There are poor families
here who cannot afford education in private schools.

They would be keen to send

their children to government
schools if only the teachers
were regular, said Ms. Prameela.
The school building now
serves Nimmakuru as a function hall.
The other government
school used to be at Patha
Nimmakuru, a hamlet of
Nimmakuru panchayat. It
was started in 1991 and
limped on until 2013 when it
closed, with just one student
left.
The reason was the same:
parents prefer to send their
children to private schools.
Even those with a limited income, stretch it to be able to
send the kids to convent

Students take the initiative

Children of a school cover an open drain near their institute
Rani Devalla

In memory of your loved ones

To dedicate a space in this section,
please contact: 0866-2553033 / 2553044
from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For bookings visit www.thehinduclassifieds.in
CM
YK

en up the initiative of covering the open drain located

VISAKHAPATNAM: A group of in East Point Colony.
students carried tree branchStudents and teachers,
es, while a few others tried to who took part in the drive,
pick up broken concrete appealed to the civic authorslabs to cover the open drain ities to look into the issue
a few yards from their school more seriously and step up
on Saturday.
action to cover open as well
Marking a stop on the as semi-open drains.
road and placing warning
signs, they gave a clear in- Plea to officials
They urged the officials to
dication of the danger zone
by covering the open drain identify vulnerable spots and
with tree branches and con- take immediate steps to
make the roads safe for all,
crete slabs.
Moved by the tragic death particularly the schoolchilof six-year-old Aditi, who dren.
They lamented that there
slipped into a rainwater
drain recently, the students were too many open drains
of Gayatri Vidya Parishad and live wires in the city, enMLB Trust School have tak- dangering the lives of unwary

children and passers-by, posing a potential threat to people that costs them their
lives. Like the gory accident
that took away the life of an
innocent girl Aditi last week.
It is a matter of concern for
every individual to identify
such dangerous spots and
alert concerned authorities.
Our initiative is the first step
towards a big change, says
K. Madhuravani, principal of
the school.
Those who teamed up for
the cause said that the primary step towards developing Vizag as a smart city is by
covering the open drains.
We are ready to do our bit
towards this direction, as- Students of Gayatri Vidya Parishad MLBT High School covering an open drain
near their school in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
sured the school students.
VJ-VJ

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

|5

CITY/STATE

Farmers skip paddy in 28,000 ha

Govt. to take PPP route to

improve services at GGHs

Cultivation
hit in Krishna
western delta
owing to
shortage
of water

Staff Reporter

S. Murali
ONGOLE: Farmers of the Krishna Western Delta (KWD) in
Prakasam district have forgone paddy cultivation this
kharif, owing to water
scarcity.
Though the peasants have
faced water shortage year after year, after the increase in
the height of the Almatti dam
and construction of Narayanpur in upper riparian State of
Karnataka, they used to
scrape through during Khariff
season every year by getting
water at least in September
before the withdrawal of the
Southwest monsoon.
Paddy cultivation during
kharif in 28,000 hectares in
the Krishna Western Delta
has been ruled out, laments

ONGOLE: Enthused by the suc-

cessful performance of heart

surgeries in the Government
General Hospital (GGH),
Guntur, the State government has planned to scale up
the public private partnership to offer best healthcare
services to people, Special
Chief Secretary of Medical
Education L.V. Subramaniam
said here on Saturday.
After inspecting the Rajiv
Gandhi Institute of Medical
Sciences here, he told the
media here that more than 80
heart surgeries had been performed in GGH so far. The
PPP model would be replicatTDP farmers wing leader Ja- have switched over to red said. Meanwhile, Andhra Pra- ed in other hospitals to imhealthcare
in
garlamudi Anil Babu in a con- gram, with bajra, vegetables desh Kaulu Rythula Sangham prove
versation with The Hindu. and black gram as intercrop in state general secretary N. government hospitals.
He also promised to sancWe are hoping against hope around 1 lakh hectares, thanks Ranga Rao wanted the governfor rains in the Krishna catch- to rains in August and ment to come to the rescue of
ment areas at least in October September.
farmers by announcing comto raise paddy at least during
Meanwhile,
Agriculture pensation for those who could
dalwa as no other crop can be Joint Director J. Muralikrish- not take up cultivation this
undertaken in the low-lying na said that the overall agri- kharif due to vagaries of naareas in the delta, he said.
cultural
situation
had ture. Tenant farmers are the
As an alternative crop, improved with the crop cov- most vulnerable section with
farmers have prepared their erage going up to 99 per cent their little access to institu- Staff Reporter
land for sowing bengal gram in of the kharif average of 2.44 tional credit, he said refer20 per cent of the normal lakh hectares. The prospects ring to a cotton grower who SRIKAKULAM: Srikakulam Adcropped area of 28,000 hec- for alternative crops are very committed suicide in Chen- vocates Bar Association,
tares in the delta.However, good and the water availability chureddypalem on Friday ow- which is up in arms against
their counterparts in the Na- is comfortable in 35 of the 56 ing to failure of crops for the both Collector P.Lakshmi Narasimham and Joint Collecgarjunasgar command area mandals in the district, he last four years.
tor Vivek Yadav for their
alleged derogatory remarks
against an advocate Chapara
Ramesh, called for State-wide
agitation on Monday.
BAR Association officials
Yenni Surya Rao, Jallu Tirution, he said. Mr. Naidu was
also presented with Biodiversity Award-2015, for his
services in protecting snakes
in Seshachalam forests.
For the past five years, Mr.
Naidu has caught over 5,000
snakes and released them into the wild.

TIRUPATI: Come rainy season

and his phone keeps on ringing. Today is no different.

Continuous rains in Tirupati
and Tirumala, washed away
two baby pythons into the
Kapila Theertam tank, here
on Saturday, requiring the
services of D. Bhaskar Naidu,
popularly known as Pamula
Naidu. He then rescues the
snakes to be released into
the wild.

Seshachalam forests
Working as a mason with
the Forest Department of
the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), Mr. Naidu
has been involved in this job
of capturing the snakes, for
the past two decades.
Snakes venturing into human habitations (mainly the
TTD installations) has been
a common feature in the hill
shrine and also the temple
city, owing to the presence of
lush green Seshachalam
forests.

Dense forests

Special Correspondent

cided to welcome their

leader in a novel way and
KOVVURU: Congress activists they came up with the idea
here welcomed Andhra of firing rockets that would
Pradesh Congress Commit- release white pigeons up in
tee (APCC)chief N. Raghu- the sky.
veera Reddy to a party
The pigeons were stuffed
meeting by tying live pi- into paper cones and sealed
geons to Diwali rockets and tight so they wouldnt flutsetting it alight. The rockets ter loose. The idea was to
went up and the pigeons fell see the cracker burst high
dead, roasted in the intense in the sky and the pigeons
heat of the cracker burst fly free. But the intense prohigh above.
duced by the cracker burst
Mr. Raghuveera Reddy killed the birds and they fell
was here along with former to the ground.
minister Kondru Murali,
Taking strong exception
Rajya Sabha MP K.V. P. Ra- to the use of birds, memmachandra Rao, West Go- bers of the NGO People For
davari district Congress Animals and the general
president Rafiulla Baig and secretary of the Asian WildMahila Congress president life Foundation Prabhu
S. Padmasri to attend a par- Popireddy demanded that a
ty meeting.
case be booked against the
Local party workers de- Congress workers.

Advocates up in arms
against Collector, JC

Snake man rescues two baby pythons

B. Venkat Sandeep

tion a blood cell separator

machine for the RIMS and
fully equip the presently dysfunctional blood bank in Markapur.
The government would go
ahead with filling up of the
vacant post of doctors in various government hospitals, he
added.
He exhorted the District
Medical Officers to take effective steps to bring down
maternal and infant mortality rates and encourage pregnant women to opt for
institutional deliveries.
Taking note of the incidence of dengue cases reported from the district, he
suggested improvement of
sanitation to prevent spreading of the vector-borne
diseases.

Pigeons tied to rockets

to welcome Raghuveera

Human invasion into

animal dwellings
Speaking to The Hindu,
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Divisional Forest Officer N.V. Sivaram Prasad
maintained that there might
be several reasons for the
animals as well as reptiles
moving out of their habitats.
Humans have primarily
extended their habitations
into theirs and are bound to
encounter them over time.
The animals, which venture
into human dwellings, generally go back if there is any
disturbance, whereas some
adapt to the conditions, like
the deer species on the Tirumala ghat road. Search for
prey and weather conditions
are also responsible for their
movements, he added.

Mr. Naidu captures such

intruders and releases New species
Highlighting a startling
them into the forests.
The sight of a snake cre- fact, Mr. Prasad said that
ates panic among people and they could discover new spethe first reaction would be to cies in the Seshachalam forkill it. However, as we are ests, due to this movement of
sharing their space we have fauna. For example, reptiles
to protect them too. The like Nagarjuna Sagar Racer
snakes caught in Tirumala and Sri Lankan Flying
are released in Avvachari Snake, were discovered as
Kona, whereas in Tirupati they moved out of their orig- D. Bhaskar Naidu with the rescued baby pythons at
they are released in dense inal habitats to that of Kapila Theertam in Tirupati on Saturday.
PHOTO: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR
forests based on the loca- humans.

pati Rao, Vana Krishna

Chand, A.Krishnamraju and
others who held meetings on
Friday and Saturday decided
to organise massive protest
against the IAS officers. The
AP Bar Association has already condemned their rude
behaviour to advocate Chapara Ramesh. Advocates in all
districts will boycott courts
and take out rallies on Monday, said Mr. Vana Krishna
Chand.

Duronto to have
commercial
halt at
Vizianagaram
Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM: In line with

the decision of the Ministry of
Railways to provide commercial stoppages to the non-stop
Duronto Express, the Howrah-Yesvantpur-Howrah Duronto Express, which has a
technical halt at Vizianagaram, has been provided a commercial halt there.
In response to the report on
Yesvantpur Duronto halt at
Vizianagaram, which was published in these columns on October 3,
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Waltair Division
of the East Coast Railways M.
Yelvendar Yadav in a statement here on Saturday clarified that the train was not
provided
halt
at
Visakhapatanam.
The Ministry of Railways
have decided to provide commercial stoppages to Duronto
Express at some stations
where, at present, there are
technical halts for crew
change and watering of coaches. Hence, the express, which
had a technical halt at Vizianagaram, has been provided
with a commercial halt there,
the officer said.

30 children injured as
school bus overturns
near Punganur
Staff Reporter
CHITTOOR: As many as 30 stu-

dents were when their

school bus overturned near
Katrepalle village of Chowdepalle mandal on Saturday
morning.
According to sources,
having picked up the students from the nearby villages, the bus belonging to
the Rayalaseema Paradise
School of Punganur was on
its way to the town.
The driver was said to
have been driving at high
speed and lost control over
the vehicle while overtaking
an auto, leading to the accident that took place at
around 8.45 a.m. Parents
and villagers from the surrounding hamlets rushed to
the spot and rescued the
children.
The injured were rushed
to different hospitals in
Punganur, Chowdepalle and
Madanapalle.

Minister orders probe

Meanwhile, Home Minister N. Chinna Rajappa instructed
Chittoor
Superintendent of Police
Ghattamaneni Srinivas to
inquire into the mishap and
submit a report by the evening.
District Medical and
Health Officer K. Koteswari
instructed the area hospitals and public health cenCM
YK

tres to extend all the

required medical attention
to the injured students, and
refer them to Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical
Sciences at Tirupati or divisional headquarters hospital at Madanapalle, if
necessary.

Providential
escape for
four as lorry
rams bus
Staff Reporter
CHITTOOR: Four persons had
a providential escape with
minor injuries when the
lorry they were travelling in
fell into a ditch near a
culvert after ramming an
RTC bus on the Benguluru
bypass road on the outskirts
of Chittoor on Saturday.
According to police, the
lorry on its way to
Bengaluru hit the bus from
behind and jumped the
culvert wall. The people on
board the lorrystarted
shouting for help. Somme
people passing the stretch
at the time of accident
altered police personnel
who rushed to the spot and
sent the injured to Chittoor
hospital.
VJ-VJ

6|

STATE

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS

BRIEFLY

11 STATES SEEKING A GREAT DEAL OF SUPPORT FROM THE CENTRE: UNION MINISTER

Venkaiah harps on special projects

Excise
Commissioner,
director
transferred
Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD: The State govern-

Staff Reporter

I
Commissioner of Police D. Gautam Sawang
interacting with students at the Epistemikon 2K'
15 technical symposium organised by Loyola
Institute of Engineering and Technology in
Vijayawada on Saturday. PHOTO: CH.VIJAYA BHASKAR

NAIDU LEAVES FOR HYDERABAD

TDP panels swearing in today

VIJAYAWADA: After conducting
different review meetings in the
city, Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu Naidu left for
Hyderabad on Saturday late in
the evening. He will be

participating in the swearing in

ceremony of Telugu Desam
Central and State committee
members of both Andhra
Pradesh and Telangana in
Hyderabad on Sunday.

LAND ISSUES

KEK asks officials to upload data on the web

KURNOOL: Deputy Chief Minister
K.E. Krishnamurthy, who also
holds the Revenue portfolio, has
advised revenue officials to
strive to resolve land-related
issues based on land data
uploaded on the web.
Addressing revenue officials
at a teleconference, Mr.
Krishnamurthy asked them to
safeguard land records.
District Collectors or Joint

Collectors should make monthly

visits to every mandal, he said.
Mr. Krishnamurthy also told
revenue officials to ensure that
land certificates were issued
without delay at MeeSeva
centres. The Chief Minister is
making fortnightly reviews of
priority issues, and all revenue
officials should discharge their
responsibilities responsibly, he
said.

JOY DIP

Two youths missing in Godavari

RAJAHMUNDRY: Two youths
were reported missing in
Godavari on Saturday evening.
According to the Seethanagaram
police, Sode Veerababu and Kora
Radhika of Chinna Kondepudi
village, have left on Saturday
afternoon and reached
Purushottapatnam, the starting

point of boats meant for

Papikondalu picnic. After waiting
for some time at the spot, the
duo who tried to take a dip in
the river were washed away.
Swimmers tried to save them
but in vain. Police informed the
parents and search for the
victims is on.

BC HOSTELS

Plan to convert them into residential schools

ONGOLE: The government will
convert all the 894 hostels
meant for students from the
Backward Classes into
residential schools in a phased
manner to improve the
educational opportunities for
students from the BC
communities, said B. C. Welfare

Minister Kollu Ravindra on

Saturday. Participating in a BC
loan mela here, the Minister said
the Government also wanted to
convert 47 of them into junior
colleges. The Adarana scheme
implemented by the TDP in its
earlier stint in power would be
revived to help BC communities.

Bhogapuram airport:
heavy police deployed
at project site
Staff Reporter

closed ranks, with group

leaders Majji Srinivas, Yedla
VIZIANAGARAM: Police have Ramanamurty and K. Gowri
taken control of nine reve- Shankar sharing a dais with
nue panchayats where the the partys district president
Bhogapuram international Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swaairport is proposed to be my and senior leader P. Sambuilt even as YSR Congress basiva Raju at a meeting to
(YSRC) leaders prepared for review the arrangements for
a tour of the troubled region the public meetings.
by YSRC president Y.S. JaOn Saturday, some 380 pogan Mohan Reddy on lice personnel, including
Monday.
four DSPs, eight circle inFarmers are opposed to spectors and 18 sub-inspectheir land being mandatorily tors, were posted to the area
acquired for the project and as surveyors from Rail India
have been blocking official Technical and Economic
despatched to the area for Service (RITES) erected surpreparatory work.
vey stones at Boyipalem and
Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, Dibbalapalem.
the Leader of the Opposition,
Eight arrested members of
is scheduled to address pub- a local group opposed to the
lic meetings at Kavulavada airport were released followand Gudepuvalasa.
ing protests at the police staAhead of the tour, YSRC tion where they were
factions in Vizianagaram detained.

n the wake of mounting criticism

over special status, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs M.
Venkaiah Naidu took a dig at opponents saying the immediate
priority before the Central government was to sanction special
projects to Andhra Pradesh rather than special category status.
A lot is being done for the development of Andhra Pradesh.
There are 11 states in the country
which are asking for a great deal
of support from the Centre. So
what is important is sanctioning
special projects for their development rather than anything
else, said Mr. Venkaiah Naidu.
Along with actor Kamal Haasan, who made a day-long visit to
Nellore district on Saturday, Mr.
Venkaiah Naidu took part in public and private programmes organized at the Swarna Bharath
Trust near Nellore and also in the
unveiling of a statue of S.P. Sambamurthy, father of playback
singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam,
in the city here today.
Addressing a meeting held at
the Swarna Bharath Trust premises, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu made a
special reference to the increasing demand from different quarters for granting special status to
AP in accordance with the promises made in Parliament at the
time of passage of the AP Reorganisation Bill, 2014.
Mr. Venkaiah Naidus latest re-

A LOT IS BEING DONE FOR THE

DEVELOPMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH,
SAYS VENKAIAH NAIDU

Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and actor Kamal Haasan during a visit to Swarna
Bharath trust near Nellore on Satruday.PHOTO: K. RAVIKUMAR
marks were seen in political circles as an expected development
considering the fact that the agitators for the cause of special
status had been criticising him
for not utilizing his services as
the Union Minister to fulfil this
promise.
Of late, the opponents were
mounting pressure on Mr. Venkaiah Naidu just because he
brought sharp focus on the special status issue in Rajya Sabha at
the time of discussion on the reorganisation bill and also went to
the extent of seeking this status
for 10 years.

With the Bharathiya Janatha

Party (BJP) being at the receiving
end on this respect, Mr. Venkaiah
Naidu apparently raised the
pitch and made the partys position clear at Saturdays meeting
at Swarna Bharath trust.
Earlier, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu
along with Medical and Health
Minister Kamineni Srinivasa Rao
and Collector M. Janaki visited
Podalakur where he laid foundation stone for the community
health centre to be constructed
at a cost of Rs. 3.8 crore.
Addressing a public meeting
held at Podalakur zilla parishad

Mee Intiki Mee Bhoomi:

5 lakh petitions pending
Special Correspondent
VIJAYAWADA: In all, over 10
lakh petitions have been filed
under the first phase of Mee
Intiki Mee Bhoomi programme, of these more than 5
lakh petitions are still pending. While, officials claim
nearly 4.3 lakh petitions were
addressed, about 90,000 have
been rejected.
Among all the districts,
Anantapur, West Godavari
and Srikakulam districts were
leading in addressing the petitions filed under the programme, while East Godavari,
Kurnool and Vizianagaram
districts were lagging behind.
Thanks to the fake pattadar
pass book scam, Anantapur is
one among the leading in
clearing the petitions. The
district recorded lowest number of petitions at just 24,761
compared to the highest number at 1,47,814 petitions filed
in East Godavari district. Similarly, the district also tops the
list in having least number of
pending petitions with just
947 petitions as against over
11,900 in East Godavari.
Anantapur DR0 Hema sagar
said the district administration could implement the programme in an effective
manner as it was already verifying all the land records to
weed out all fake pattadar
pass books.
In East Godavari, majority
of petitions were filed seeking
corrections like change of
name, boundaries and survey
numbers. As many as 1.45 lakh
complaints were received
from land owners so far, of
which 55,000 grievances were

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister N.

addressed on the spot. For another 11,000 complaints, the

complainants need to approach the nearby MeeSeva
centres with the copies of the
documents and get the work
done.
The petition clearance is
going on a snails pace owing
to administrative reasons including shortage of surveyors,
transfer of village revenue officers and insufficient number of computers and
computer operators at the offices of the tehsildars.
The officials at the village
and mandal levels found it difficult to finalise the ownership in lands that were given
as Inams by the Jamindars
and the lands for which there
were no direct descendants.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu conducted a teleconference with revenue

hand, their counterparts are

getting power at about Rs.
4.20 per unit in Chattisgarh
VISAKHAPATNAM: Ferroalloys
and Rs. 4.10 to Rs. 4.15 per
industry based in Andhra Praunit in West Bengal. Though
desh has almost stopped exthe tariff is fixed at Rs. 4.85
porting its products to South
per unit, most of the proEast Asia, Middle East and
ducers in Odisha have no deEurope.
pendence on the grid due to
Till 2012, almost half of
captive power generation.
their finished product was
The cost of production for
getting ready-made market
one tonne of manganese aloutside, which has now been
loys is now Rs. 52,000 to Rs.
captured by Qatar, Kazakh54,000 a sales realisation of
stan, Oman, Malaysia, Oman
Rs. 45,000. Similarly, a tonne
and Norway.
of ferro silicon is costing us
Thirty-five
ferroalloys
Rs.74,000 as against sales reunits spread over the State
alisation of Rs.64,000 forcing
with a total requirement of
us to either shutdown or scale
400 MW used to pay Rs. 1150
down our operations, said AP
crore to the Discoms, Rs. 650
crore towards excise duty,
Ferro Alloys Producers AssoRs.150 crore for VAT and CST tariff has put them now in a with special offer being ex- ciation vice-chairman P.S.N.
and Rs. 35 crore towards im- crisis that is worsening from tended to them which saw an Raju. During a chat with The
investment of Rs.2,000 crore Hindu, the ferroalloys proported raw material during bad to worse.
AP is now charging them during 2002-12 due to stable ducers said on Saturday that
their hey days. However, exorbitant increase in power Rs. 4.87 per unit, dispensing power policy. On the other as of today, 29 of 35 units had
CM
YK

Naidu to attend
Sagarmala apex
committee meeting
Special Correspondent

Chandrababu Naidu is leaving for Delhi on Monday to

attend the meeting of National Sagarmala Apex Committee to be chaired by Union
Minister for Shipping and
Transport Nitin Gadkari.
Sagarmala is a strategic and
customer oriented initiative
of the Union government to
modernise the countrys
ports so that port-led development can be augmented
and coastlines can be developed to contribute to Indias
growth.
Mr. Naidu is attending the
meeting in his capacity as
officials here on Saturday and member of the Sagarmala
instructed them to clear all Committee
comprising
the petitions by October 15. Union Cabinet Ministers
He wanted the officials to from stakeholder Ministries
make use of the technology in and Chief Ministers/Minisstreamlining works in the de- ters in charge of ports of marpartment and clear the pet- itime States as members.
itions at the earliest as only 54
Andhra Pradesh with a long
per cent of the petitions were coastline of 972 km is banking
cleared till date across the big on port-led development
State.
and boost its coastal econoAbout 270 Electronic Total my. Under Sagarmala project
Stations, equipment used for it has already submitted prosurveying and building con- posals for development of
structions, were distributed port
and
connectivity
to all the districts and another infrastructure.
450 (ETS) would be supplied
shortly. The Village Revenue Initiative
Officers, who have been supMr. Naidu apart from replied with tabs, should update viewing the Sagarmala initiathe land records in the web, he tive is also expected to
said.
apprise the Board about the
The government is plan- progress of some projects
ning to launch the second taken up under the initiative.
phase of the Mee Initiki Mee For instance the work for
Bhoomi from November 1.
Rs.1,100 crore Raipur-Visak-

Crisis-hit ferroalloys industry loses exports market

Santosh Patnaik

high school later, Mr. Naidu said

the prospects of the poor and
middle income groups would be
raised with the help of the Prime
Ministers Mudra Yojana programme under which loans without sureties would be provided to
them.
Already, 18 crore accounts
have been opened till now in the
country.
Mr. Kamineni Srinivasa Rao
said all steps were being taken to
ensure that basic facilities would
be created at the rural health centres and hospitals to extend efficient care to the villagers.

been shutdown. Other six are

being operated due to various
compulsions. Anjaneya Alloys
Ltd Senior General Manager
(Commercial) Sandeep Kr.
Bairoliya said several investors had put their money in
AP increasing the number of
units from six to 35 during
2002-12 due to its ferroalloys
friendly power policy. Subsequently, the tariff was
raised steeply. Tariff was enhanced by Rs.2.22 during past
four years.
Our working capital base is
eroding fast. The debt burden
is also putting a heavy toll on
us as if we default continuously our loans will be declared as
NPA. The government has
collected Rs. 350 crore during
past three years towards fuel
surcharge adjustment, said
Vidhan Mittal, MD of MDA
Mineral Dhatu (AP).

AP is banking big on
port-led development
to boost its coastal
economy
hapatnam (RV) railway line
and doubling work has already commenced to improve
the connectivity to North India. This line if completed
would be convenient for Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports for transport of
iron ore to Visakhaptanam
steel plant from Bihar and
Madhya Pradesh and also to
transport cargo from Visakhapatnam port to other states
and countries.
Centre proposed to complete the RV line by December 2016. Similarly State
government proposed to develop Kothavalasa-Kirandul
(KK line) for speedy transport of coal and explore the
possibility for linking the line
directly to the ports.

Policy issues
The committee will mainly
look at the policy issues and
examine if they are problems
to be addressed in the modernisation of existing ports so
that the States could go ahead
with Detailed Project Reports
and mobilise funds for the execution of projects in Public
Private Partnership mode
with some equity from the
Special Purpose Vehicle to be
created under the Sagarmala
project.

ment has transferred Prohibition

and
Excise
Commissioner I. Srinivas Srinaresh with immediate effect.
Mr. Srinaresh has been
asked to report to the General
Administration Department
for further posting. The government had also transferred
E. Damodar, Director (enforcement) of the department and Mr. Damodar had
been asked to report to Director General of Police.
Chief Secretary I.Y.R.
Krishna Rao said, in the orders issued on Saturday that
Special Chief Secretary (Excise, Commercial Taxes and
Registration & Stamps) Ajeya
Kallam had been placed in
full additional charge as commissioner of excise and prohibition. Mr. Kallam had been
asked to make necessary incharge arrangements for the
post of director (enforcement) in place of Mr. Damodar.

CMs Korea
visit may get
investments
Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD: Soon after the

foundation laying ceremony

for the new Capital Amaravathi on October 22 by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi,
Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu will be leaving for
Korea during the last week to
invite investments into the
State.
Mr. Naidu is likely to leave
on a three-day tour from October 26 or 27 to cap the discussions that had already
been taking place between
the government and the Korean industry representatives. Two months ago an
official team from the State
visited while Korean delegates last week visited Visakhapatnam last as part of
exploring investment opportunities in the State.

State pursuing
anti-worker
policies: Left
Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD: The Left parties
have charged Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu led
government with adopting
anti-worker policies that
were detrimental to interests
of the working class.
The State governments
support to the managements,
setting aside the interests of
workers, was evident from the
comments of the Chief Minister during the recent meeting
of industrialists in Visakhapatnam where he reportedly
wanted the managements to
deal sternly with the trade
unions. The Chief Minister
made some objectionable
comments against the trade
unions during the meeting
and went ahead to claim that it
was his governments policy
towards the trade unions, CPI
(M) State secretary P. Madhu,
his CPI counterpart K. Ramakrishna and other Left
leaders said. Mr. Naidu has
supported the managements
which refused to implement
labour laws, Mr. Madhu said.
He expressed concern that
several workers were being removed from their jobs on the
pretext that they were involved in union activities.

A long walk to the hill for them

K. Umashanker
CHITTOOR: Thousands of devotees from several parts of
Tamil Nadu on Saturday
found their way to Tirumala, abode of Lord Venkateswara, walking hundreds of
kilometres, to mark the auspicious third Saturday of
the sacred Peratasi month.
During the last 24 hours,
in spite of downpour in several parts of Chittoor and
Tamil Nadu, the devotees
clad in yellow robes, including the aged, women and
children,
were
seen
spanned out along the national highways from Tamil
Nadu at Nagari, Puttur,
Chittoor and Kuppam.
For generations, it remains a family tradition in

tober. Devotees from Tirunelveli and even down

South would cover over 800
kilometres taking 25 days to
a month. However, the pedestrian pilgrims peak from
Dharmapuri, Salem and
Dharmapuri for the third
Saturday. A pilgrim party
from Hosur on the way to
Tirumala said that they plan
their sacred march well in
advance.
Devotees from
Generally, we prefer to
Uttukottai in TN on
two pairs of clothes
their way to Tirumala. carry
and a steel plate and a water
hundreds of villages in Ta- bottle and a little cash. After
mil Nadu to send one family we reach Tirumala, our peomember to Tirumala during ple here deposit required
Peratasi month to join the money in our account so
walkathon. Thousands of that we can draw there, Gagroups would be formed by napathi, who has been walkthe start of Peratasi month ing to Tirumala for the last
falling in September or Oc- two decades, said.
VJ-VJ

STATE

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

|7

Red tape stalls IT growth in Kakinada

Reddy underscores the need
for a brand ambassador for
IT at the State level. During
his previous tenure, Mr.
Chandrababu Naidu did
branding and attracted companies. That kind of initiative is missing now. Though
TCS is working for the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the billing is held in
Hyderabad and Bangalore.

K.N. Murali Sankar

KAKINADA: Bureaucratic procedures happen to be a major
hurdle
for
the
development of information
technology in Kakinada, the
city that stood second in the
State on the revenue front.
Though its potential is much
higher in Kakinada, there is
equal scope for Rajahmundry for achieving faster
growth in IT, provided the
government curtails bureaucratic procedures and announces a start-up friendly
package that suits a Tier-II
city.
In addition to registered
rms, we have 56 unregistered rms that are in IT
business in Kakinada. Minor
changes to the governments
IT policy will denitely
boost the industry here, as
Kakinada is the most suitable place for IT among the
three Smart Cities in the
State, says K. Krishna Reddy, CEO of Krifty Software
Technologies and secretary
of the Godavari IT Association (GITA). Meanwhile,
allocation of land is major
issue, as government norms
are not suitable for small ci-

This is how the State is missing a giant IT player, he

explains.
The Software Technology
Parks of India (STPI) has
achieved 100 per cent occupation at its facility . Of the
12 start-ups, 10 started operations this year. There is a
demand for similar facility
in Rajahmundry, says STPI
Joint Director B. Suresh.

KMC going the e-way

Staff Reporter
KAKINADA: In its bid to

ties. To attract companies,

the policy needs to be made
exible. Linking workforce
size with allocation of land is
preventing several companies from ap plying for sites
in the IT SEZ in Kakinada,
he adds.
Anand PAG Systems Limited, a US-based IT rm, has
been seeking a site for the
last 10 months in the IT SEZ.
Officials are asking us to ensure that we have 100 employees. Without starting
operations, how can we

bring such a huge workforce? Once we start operations, we can provide over
1,500 jobs in the next three
years, says Y. Nageswara
Rao, director of the company.
He adds that district-level
officials are aware of the issues at the ground level, but
the higher-ups in the Secretariat cite norms. In fact,
officials force us to have second thoughts on our operations here, Mr. Rao says.
Meanwhile, Mr. Krishna

involve more people in the

preparation of the Smart
City Proposal, Kakinada
Municipal Corporation
(KMC) is going the e-way
by opening an exclusive
Facebook account, Twitter
handle and Gmail account,
besides planning to launch
a call centre.
The idea is to involve
people in the preparation
of a comprehensive
proposal. We have opened
electronic accounts for
smart phone users. They

can air their views by

making a few clicks on
their mobiles, District
Collector and Special
Officer of KMC H. Arun
Kumar said on Friday.
People can log on to
http://facebook.com/
smartkakinada on
Facebook, http://
twitter.com/
smartkakinada on Twitter
to share their views on
how to develop Kakinada
into a smart city or they
can write their views in
detail and mail them to
smartcitykakinada
@yahoo.com.

Man thwarts wifes Green Wall to help

bid to sell infant son protect coast from cyclones
Special Correspondent
AMALAPURAM: In a bizarre in-

cident that took place in this

Konaseema town on Saturday, a woman tried to sell her
three-day-old son for Rs
10,000 at a government hospital but her father tipped off
the police and thwarted the
sale.According to inspector
Y.R.K. Srinivas of Amalapuram, the 22-year-old unmarried woman gave birth to a
male baby three days ago in a
government hospital.
She had come to the hospital along with a friend, who
got her admitted to the hospital the same day and went
back home to P. Gannavaram.

On Friday night, the woman entered into a transaction

with one Meda Mangadevi of
Inavilli village in Konaseema
who offered to buy the baby
for Rs.10,000. Upon learning
of the deal, the womans father, Seru Satyanarayana
Murthy, rushed to the hospital on Saturday morning and
lodged a complaint with the
police. Ms Mangadevi has
been arrested.
Inspector Srinivas said
cases have booked against the
woman and Mangadevi under
Sections 317 and 371 of the
Indian Penal Code. The
mother too would be arrested
after the mandatory post-naAs many as 18 lakh palm seeds will be planted along the coast in Nellore,
tal rest, he said.

Prakasam and Guntur districts as part of the Green Wall project.

Vizag to host
national dance
festival

WEATHER WATCH (City-wise reading yesterday)

For metros highlighted, readings show max temperature

Special Correspondent
VISAKHAPATNAM: A

two-day
festival of dances from different states is being organised
by the Indian Society for Cultural
Cooperation
and
Friendship (ISCUF) here on
October 17 and 18.
ISCUF AP State Council is
conducting the 4th MultiState Cultural Dance Festival
as part of its programme to
promote cultural cooperation
and friendship among different people and national integration
and
create
awareness on different cultural values, general secretary of cultural festival
committee T.S. Sukumaran
has said in a statement here.
The programme will be
conducted at Kalabharati Auditorium from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Entry is free for all the
programmes.
Artistes from Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Jammu and
Kashmir, Gujarat, Kerala,
Maharashtra, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Telangana will perform dances
that reect cultural traditions
of their respective states.The
programme is being conducted on a grand scale to mark
the platinum jubilee celebrations of ISCUF.

Delhi | 35.5 C

Kolkata | 34.6 C

Mumbai | 34.3 C
Hyderabad | 33.4 C

Chennai | 32.3 C

Bengaluru | 29.6 C

Image & Data: India Meteorological Department

Forecast for Sunday: Heavy rainfall would occur at isolated places over
Tamilnadu & Pudducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Max Min
Agartala
Ahmedabad
Allahabad
Aizawl
Bengaluru
Bhopal
Bhubaneswar
Chandigarh
Chennai
Coimbatore
Dehradun
Gangtok
Goa
Guwahati

35.6
37.7
38.1
27.7
29.6
35.8
35.3
33.5
32.3
30.9
31.4
22.9
31.0
33.9

26.2
25.0
25.2
15.7
21.3
22.3
24.6
19.6
24.3
24.0
19.5
16.2
25.0
23.0

Max Min
Hubballi
Hyderabad
Imphal
Jaipur
Kohima
Kolkata
Kochi
Kozhikode
Kurnool
Lucknow
Madurai
Mangaluru
Mumbai
Mysuru

28.0
33.4
31.8
38.9
28.0
34.6
32.0
32.5
32.9
35.8
35.4
31.3
34.3
29.9

21.0
23.7
20.9
21.4
14.4
25.6
24.6
23.5
24.7
19.3
25.6
24.5
25.0
20.2

Max Min
New Delhi
Patna
Port Blair
Pune
Puducherry
Raipur
Ranchi
Shillong
Shimla
Srinagar
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
Thiruvananthapuram
Tiruchi

35.5
36.1
29.6
30.5
33.2
35.1
34.0
23.7
24.9
26.2
34.5
32.8
31.4
33.2

22.1
25.0
23.7
20.9
26.2
26.7
22.3
15.9
13.5
8.9
23.8
26.0
24.0
22.4

Non-interlocking work to disrupt rail services

Train Nos 18511/18512 Koraput-Visakhapatnam-KoraVISAKHAPATNAM: A number of put inter-city express leaving
trains are either cancelled or Visakhapatnam on October 5,
short-terminated due to pro- 9 and 12 and leaving Koraput
posed non-interlocking works on Oct. 6, 10 and 13, Train
from Oct. 4 to 13 to facilitate 22853 Shalimar-Viakhapatcommissioning of third line nam weekly express leaving
between
Shalimar on Oct. 6 and train
Korukonda-Vizianagaram.
No. 22854 VisakhapatnamSpecial Correspondent

Shalimar weekly express on

Oct. 7 will be cancelled. Train
No. 57271 Vijayawada-Visakhapatnam-Rayagada passenger train leaving Vijayawada
on Oct. 4 will be short terminated at Visakhapatnam and
will run as 57272 Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada passenger
on October 5.

PHOTO: K. RAVIKUMAR

Witchcraft suspect
succumbs to burns
Staff Reporter
ONGOLE: A 35-year-old man

who beheaded a boy in an alleged practice of witchcraft,

succumbed to burns at the
Rajiv Gandhi Institute of
Medical Sciences here on Saturday. The accused, Tirumala

Rao, was admitted to RIMS

for treatment of burns sustained when villagers, enraged over the killing of the
ve-year-old boy, torched
him after dousing kerosene
over him on Wednesday last,
Kandukur Circle Inspector
M. Lakshman said.

Staff Reporter
NELLORE: With erosion of the

sea coast posing a constant

threat, Green India have taken up the task of forming a
Green Wall with the help of
palm trees (thati chettu in local parlance) in Nellore, Prakasam and Guntur districts.
A large scale plantation
drive of palmyra seed was
launched under the project

along the coast at Ramatheertham in Nellore district here

on Saturday.
Green India volunteers,
along with the local environmental activists, undertook
the plantations. The organisers were targeting to plant
nearly 18 lakh seeds with an
aim to save the coastal areas
during natural calamities
such as cyclones and
tsunamis.

Participating in the drive,

Green India chairman Ch.
Murali Krishna said such
massive plantations would
help prevent coastal erosion
and protect environment
along the coast. He appealed
to all sections of society to
take part in the environmental protection drive and make
the Green Wall project a big
success.

Common culture can

solve conflicts
R. Ravikanth Reddy
HYDERABAD: Rarely one gets to

see a farmer, Parliament

Member, start-up expert and
musician share a dais to inspire others through their
achievements and success
stories. The TEDxSecunderabad precisely proved to be
such a platform where speakers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and
India unlocked South Asias
potential and how their experiences can benet each other
apart from taking on the common challenges that these
countries face.
The speakers ranging from
business and government to
art and music expressed their
views in the standard format
of 18 minutes.
TEDxSecunderabad was
supported by the U.S. Consulate General in Hyderabad.

If Novin Darlami, Member

of Parliament,Bhutan, delivered a talk on the role of
youth in national decision
making, Sunesh Rodrigo, a
Corporate Trainer and Public
Speaker- turned-farmer from
Sri Lanka who grows paddy,
pineapple and pepper spoke
about addressing the issue of
global food crisis through sustainable ventures such as
farming.
Sajid Iqbal, founder of
CHANGE - a popular youth
led development organisation in Bangladesh shared the

story of his journey that began with the Solar Bottle

Light which helped to improve lighting in congested
and dark slums.
Sidra Saeed, socio-political
activistfrom Pakistan captivated the audience through
her talk Choose Politics or
Choose Ignorance while Binalakshmi Nepram, civil
rights activist and founder of
the Manipur Women Gun
Survivor Network, drew the
attention of the audience on
involving women in conict
resolution.

TDP petitions Bhanwarlal

Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party has expressed concern over deletion of names
of eligible voters, the sympathisers of Opposition parties
in particular, from the electoral rolls on the pretext of bogus voters in the Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits.
The ruling Telangana
Rashtra Samiti is allegedly
ensuring removal of the
names of supporters of the
Opposition parties for political gains in the upcoming
elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
The TRS is making sure
that the names of TDP supCM
YK

porters and sympathisers in

the GHMC area are removed.
Telangana Chief Minister K.
Chandrasekhar Rao is using
GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar for undemocratically removing the names,
TTDP president L. Ramana
alleged.
Mr. Ramana led a delegation of the Telangana TDP senior leaders and legislators to
submit a memorandum to
Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal in this regard. He alleged that the ruling party
had succeeded in removing 17
lakh names so far in the name
of door lock status, address
change and other excuses. As
many as 1.38 lakh names had
been removed in LB Nagar
constituency and another 1.31

lakh names in Sanatnagar

constituency so far.
The official machinery is
supporting the ruling party
leaders in ensuring that the
names are removed. This is
evident from the review
meetings being convened by
Mr. Somesh Kumar in spite of
the fact that he is not an election officer. Mr. Somesh Kumar is acting as a TRS worker
rather than an officer governing the corporations affairs,
he complained.The TTDP
had appealed to the election
authority to ensure that the
removed names are restored
in the electoral rolls and
stringent action is initiated
against the officials concerned responsible for the removal of the votes.
VJ-VJ

8|

NATION

Rescheduling of Mysuru Dasara

triggers fresh bout of confusion

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Drug overdose ruled out for Indrani,

who continues to remain critical
Satish Nandgaonkar
& Rahi Gaikwad

Private fest of the Wadiyars and the Jamboo Savari clash

R. Krishna Kumar
MYSURU: The advancement of

Dasara by a day from October 14 to 13 and rescheduling

the Jamboo Savari to October
22 to be in sync with the almanac has resulted in a fresh
bout of confusion as the timings and date of both the private Dasara of the Wadiyars
and the State-organised Jamboo Savari clash.
Though there have been
similar clash of dates with regard to the Vijayadashmi
procession in the past it did
not create anxiety as the procession of the Wadiyars would
be over by noon after which
the palace premises would be
taken over by the authorities
for the State procession.
The rituals of the Wadiyar
family on the concluding day
tend to include Uttara Puja,
Shammi Puja and Visarjana after which the Vijayadashmi procession is held.
The Wadiyars have been fol-

Workers replacing fused bulbs at Mysuru Palace

ahead of Dasara, on Saturday. PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM
lowing this tradition ever
since the family inherited the
practice from Raja Wadiyar in
1610.
But this year, the rituals of
three days, including Mahanavami, Ashtami, Dashmi and
the procession, are being ob-

served on the same day (October 22) instead of being

spaced over two days and
hence will be a prolonged affair. The private procession of
the Wadiyars is also slated to
be held late in the afternoon
this year instead of being a

MUMBAI: Though a forensic report of the gastric lavage taken

pre-noon event.
from Indrani Mukherjea has
Lakshminarayan, palace ruled out drug overdose, the
secretary, said it was not an urine sample tested at a priissue so long as the State proc- vate hospital shows high levels
ession was originally sched- of Benzodiazepine, a known
uled to be held on October 23 anti-anxiety drug, with docand there was a days gap be- tors indicating that the levels
tween the State-organised indicated she may have confestival and the private Das- sumed at least 20 tablets.
ara of the Wadiyars. But with
However,
Maharashtra
the government advancing Home Department officials
the procession by a day to said that in such medico-legal
schedule it for October 22, the cases, the government relied
timings of both the events on the state-authorised Kaliclashed, he added.
na forensic laboratory, and it
A senior personnel in the would have to cross-check
palace well versed with the re- why the urine sample report
ligious formalities said it was obtained from the private hoscustomary for the Wadiyars pital had shown such a high
to perform Ayudha Puja and level of the drug.
Navami Puja with Chandi
Ms. Mukherjea, accused of
Homa to mark the conclu- killing her 24-year-old daughsion of the Navaratri rituals ter Sheena Bora in 2012 and
followed by procession. But then destroying the evidence,
none of it can take place continued to remain critical,
alongside with the Jamboo but stable in the critical care
Savari at the same time and at unit of Sir JJ Hospital.
the same place and hence the
Describing her as stupoissue has to be sorted out, he rous, doctors said she was in
added.
deep sleep, but responding to

According to the doctors,

Indrani Mukherjea was
in deep sleep, but
responding to deep
stimuli and sometimes
oral commands.
deep stimuli and sometimes
oral commands. T.P. Lahane,
Dean of the hospital, said that
normally in drug overdose
cases, patients continued to be
in danger for 72 hours, and
Sanket Wankhede.
The probe ordered by Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis,
who also handles the Home
portfolio, commenced on Saturday with a preliminary inquiry showing that Ms
Mukherjea was prescribed anti-seizure and anti-anxiety

medicines by a JJ Hospital
psychiatrist on September 11,
and the dosage was to last till
September 26.
However, on Friday morning, she woke up at 5 a.m., had
a bath and complained of dizziness at the Byculla womens
jail where she was lodged. Two
doctors from Sir JJ Hospital
and two jail doctors were summoned to treat her, but when
her condition deteriorated,
the jail authorities decided to
admit her to Sir JJ Hospital
around 2.30 p.m. Dr. Lahane
said she was brought in an unconscious state.
From Saturday morning,
her condition showed improvement and Dr. Lahane
said she was in a semi-conscious state.
Asked what 10 times higher
level of Benzodiazepine in urine indicated, a senior private
doctor told The Hindu: It indicates that the person consumed no fewer than 20
tablets, which cannot kill you,
but it can put you in a state of
deep sleep, the cardio thoracic surgeon said, requesting
anonymity.
However, when contacted,

Vijay Satbir Singh, Principal

Secretary, Appeals and Security, Home Department, told
The Hindu: Yes, the forensic
lab report of gastric lavage is
negative for drugs, but the urine sample from a private hospital is positive. However, in
medico-legal cases, we go
strictly by the report of the
state-authorised forensic lab.
Since it is a private hospital,
we need to verify the urine
sample report.

Court calls for hospital

report
A magistrates court on Saturday called for a medical report from JJ Hospital on an
application by Indranis lawyer Gunjan Mangla, seeking a
meeting with her. Ms. Mangla
went to the hospital to meet
Indrani, but was not allowed
to meet her.
I have been meeting her
earlier. The hospital authorities did not allow me to meet
her. The CBI does not have the
case to restrain her. It is only
because of her health condition that we want to meet
her, the lawyer told a magistrates court on Saturday.

ICRISAT introduces finger millet as mandate crop Local body polls in Kerala to
be held on November 2 and 5

R. Avadhani

Finger millet
[Eleusine
coracana
(L.)
Gaertn.],
which
gured
among the six small millets in
research portfolio of the International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT), has now
been formally made its mandate crop.
This is an important recognition for a crop which has
been an integral part of the
ICRISATs research portfolio.
Finger millet has always
been within our mandate
crops but we want to provide
greater visibility to this nutricereal that offers so much to
smallholders in the form of
economic opportunity and to
consumers [including farm
families] in the form of im-

SANGAREDDY:

Among the ICRISAT projects that focus on nger millet,

the
Harnessing
Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of Sorghum
and Millets in Sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia
(HOPE) project funded by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is showing encouraging
results in improving productivity of nger millet and
household incomes in East
Africa. This was achieved by
enabling farmers to adopt improved varieties and associated agronomic practices and
The finger millet provides economic opportunity for linking producers to both insmallholders, nutrition for consumers.
put and product markets.
In Malawi, the introducproved nutrition, said ICRI- from 24 countries, conserved tion of three nger millet vaSAT Director-General David for use in research and devel- rieties highly valued by
Bergvinson.
opment, according to a re- farmers is expected to resurThe ICRISAT genebank lease here on Saturday.
rect a crop that had disapholds nearly 6,000 nger mil- Improved varieties
peared from the southern
let germplasm accessions
region of the country. Farm-

ers wanted access to seeds of

Gulu E, ACC 32 and KNE 1124
varieties, so that they can
start growing the crop again,
ICRISAT stated.
According to ICRISAT, nger millet variety U15 is the
most preferred for its early
maturity and grain colour,
while IE 3779 is preferred for
its resistance to blast disease
and tolerance to lodging.
Through a multi-institutional
collaboration, ICRISAT scientists in East and Southern
African region have generated a whole genome sequence
of nger millet. In Karnataka
nger millet is among the climate smart crops that gures
high on the agenda of the government.
The other mandate crops of
ICRISAT are sorghum, pearl
millet, chickpea, pigeonpea
and groundnut.

Ooty varkey eyes GI tag, but struggles with quality issues

V. S. Palaniappan

Bakers who manufacture

varkey are trying for a GeoCOIMBATORE: Udhagamanda- graphical Indication tag. Given
lam, a popular hill station and the taste and popularity that
the most attractive tourist des- the product enjoys, people in
tination, is also popular for its the plains also bake a similar
home-made chocolates and one and market it as varkey.
varkey, a type of biscuit.
To prevent fake ones from
Tourists to Udhagamanda- the plains enjoying the tag of
lam often return home with varkey, bakers are keen to get a
lush green memories, photo- GI tag. An application has algraphs and seles, and of ready been led for this.
course, home-made chocolates
At this juncture, varkey
and varkey. Udhagamandalam, seems to be in an eye of a conCoonoor and Kotagiri are troversy with charges of fat
known for manufacturing of from meat being mixed with it
varkey varieties and the aver- to add taste. However, raids
age production per day is said conducted by the food safety
to be close to 12 tonnes, going officials resulted only in chargup during the peak season.
es of unhygienic conditions in

Raids on baking units

reveal unhygienic
conditions under
which the delicacy is
being prepared
preparation of varkey.
Recently, after a raid, citing
unhygienic conditions in which
manufacturing was taking
place the officials ordered that
the entire stock at a baking unit
be destroyed. The raid was to
ascertain whether meat fat was
being mixed. But prior to that,
the condition of the baking
units and the method of varkey

production resulted in the order to stop production and destruction of the stock. Food
safety officials plan to step up
raids.
Manufacturers assure that
the hygiene and sanitation conditions would be improved in a
bid to ensure that varkey, famous since the days of colonial
rule, would get a GI tag.
An office-bearer of the Varkey Manufacturers Association, M. Mohammed Farooq,
said a GI tag would not only
protect the product but also
improve living conditions of
manufacturers. He said that
the association has already
commenced a drive to generate

awareness on ensuring cleanliness and hygienic conditions at

the baking units.
Consumer organisations accuse some of the baking units of
preparing varkey using unhygienic methods: batter softened with human feet. They
want baking units to be modernised so that a larger portion
of the preparation gets mechanised, eliminating direct human handling.
Mr. Mohammed Farooq said
that 92 bakers in Udhagamandalam are members of the association and are being sensitised
to modernise the baking units
and maintain 100 per cent hygiene.

Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Elections to local self-government institutions in the State
will be held in two phases, on
November 2 and November
5.
As many as 21,871 wards in
941 grama panchayats, 152
blocks, 14 district panchayats, 86 municipalities,
and six Corporations will go
to the polls in two phases.
State Election Commission K. Sasidharan Nair, who
announced the election
schedule here on Saturday,
told reporters that Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Idukki, Kozhikode, Wayanad,
Kannur, and Kasaragod districts will go to the polls on
November 2 and Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Alappuzha,
Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, and Malappuram on November 5.
Counting of votes has been
scheduled for November 7.
Dates for the swearing-in of
the newly elected committees would be decided in due
course, but the election process would be completed by
November 17, Mr. Nair said.

gures, there are 2.50 crore

voters, of which ve-lakh are
new voters.
The model code of conduct
has come into force from Saturday.

EVMs to be used

Single post electronic voting machines would be used

in urban local governments
and multi-post machines in
urban local governments to
Nominations
cast votes for district, block,
Nominations could be led and grama panchayats.
till October 14. Scrutiny is on
The
commission
has
October 15.
banned local governments
The last date for withdraw- from publishing advertiseing nominations is October ments listing their achieve17. Polling will start at 7 a.m. ments from Saturday.
and end at 6 p.m.
The District Electoral OffiThe commission would set cers will monitor the enup 35,000 polling booths for forcement of the model code
elections. As per the latest of conduct. Since the govern-

ment has not enforced a total

ban on ex boards and banners, the commission would
give a direction in the form of
a request for using ecofriendly materials for the
campaign. The campaign expense in a grama panchayat
division should be limited to
Rs.10,000, block panchayat
division to Rs.30,000, and
district
panchayat
to
Rs.60,000.
The campaign expense
limit in a municipal ward is
Rs. 3,00,000 and Corporation ward Rs. 60,000. Candidates have to le a statement
of the campaign expense
within one month after the
elections. Observers would
be deployed for monitoring
the campaign and other aspects of the election, he said.

Their dreams die young

Trade unions intensify hunger strike in Munnar

Its hard toil for nomadic shepherds children in Telangana

K.S. Sudhi

hour-long hunger strike.

MUNNAR: It appears that hun-

PLC meeting

T. Karnakar Reddy
NALGONDA: Child rights activ-

ist and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi once said that

child labour perpetuates poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population growth and
other social problems in society.
But the shepherds from
Mahabubnagar district, who
leads semi-nomadic life, continue to involve their children
in sheep rearing forcing them
drop out from school at very
tender age.
Unlearned from the words
of Mr. Satyarthi, the herdsmen says that they would
come out of poverty and all
their problems only if all the
family work while the successive governments that ruled
the State have never bothered
about the existence of this angle in child labour.
Hundreds of shepherds
coming to Nalgonda from
neighbouring Mahabubnagar, engage their children in
sheep rearing. On the other
day, between Chandur and
Kangal, a 20-km stretch in
the district, eight teams of
shepherds were sighted and
four of them had one child
member aged below 14 years.

Nomadic shepherds in Nalgonda district are forcing

their children to drop out from schools to take up
sheep rearing. PHOTO: SINGAM VENKATARAMANA

studies in Class V to help his

father. Since these shepherds
spends half of the year out of
home, the children miss social life at a crucial juncture in
their life. They were put to a
lot of hardship since the children were forced to walk at
least 20 km every day as part
of their job. They sleep in
open agriculture lands at
night unmindful of the risks
involved. A number of incidents like thieves killing the
herdsmen to take away sheep,
Living on the edge
deaths with snakebite and
Speaking to The Hindu, a deaths in road accidents were
12-year-old boy, Bheemsh, reported in the past.
said that he had stopped his
The father of one of these
CM
YK

children said that they had no

alternative except involving
their children to eke out livelihood. Each and every family holds 50 to 100 sheep
which need to be guarded by
at least two persons. And engaging labour would be a costly affair, he said.
The mother of children
would look after the rest back
at home. There was a serious
need to government to study
the lifestyle of these nomadic
shepherds and permanently
address the practice of child
labour among these families,
child rights activist, K. Subhash said.

ger may remain the reference

frame for the competitive agitations of both the trade
unions and the collective of
women plantation workers,
airing the same demands in
Munnar.
Penkal Otrumai, the women workers collective, resumed their interrupted
indenite hunger strike on
Saturday, while the trade
unions continued with their
own. Five women leaders of
the womens collective - Gomathy Augustine, Lissy Sunny, Sreemathy, Rajeswari and
Kausalya - began their indenite fast on Saturday.
There was palpable pressure on the collective to go in
for the hunger strike as the

A meeting of the Plantation

Labour Committee (PLC),
which has representatives of
trade unions and planters,
scheduled for Monday would
now discuss the Rs. 500 a day
salary demand of the workers
of both camps.
The womens combine received some unexpected support during the day with K.P.
Rajendran, general secretary
of the AITUC, accompanied
by E.S. Bijimol, Peerumade
Members of the Pengal Otrumai, a collective of women MLA, called upon them. The
plantation workers, continue their agitation braving
two leaders addressed them
rain in Munnar on Saturday. PHOTO: K. K. MUSTAFAH.
before moving to the venue of
the trade union agitation, berival protestors of the joint mai had called off its hunger ing jointly organised by the
action council of trade unions strike by 6 p.m. on Friday AITUC, INTUC, and CITU.
Ms. Bijimol lauded the
had elded six women in their since a decision could not be
camp for it. The Penkal Otru- had regarding making it a 24- campaign of the womens col-

lective, which according to

her, had brought the attention of the State to the burning issues of plantation
workers. It was the 10-day agitation launched by the women that had secured a better
bonus and other benets to
workers. The trade unions
had only later joined the agitation kicked off by the women, she added.
Incidentally, Ms. Bijimol
was instrumental in taking
the women leaders to the negotiation table with the Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy,
Labour Minister Shibu Baby
John, and trade union leaders.
However, the CPI leaders
K. Prakash Babu, Sathyan
Mokeri, and P. Prasad chose
to remain with the trade
union leadership.

Film writers body on pen-down strike

Rini Mukkath

cluding cinematographers,
editors, art directors, sound
MUMBAI: The Film Writers As- recordists, etc, have decided
sociation (FWA) on Saturday to make the standards condeclared a pen-down strike tract a part of this MoU.
and called for action to associThe standards contracts ination members and writing cludes clauses about working
community at large.
hours, basic pay, accountabilEvery ve years, the Feder- ity of the producer, etc. This
ation of Western India Cine dynamic contract was preEmployees (FWICE) signs a sented to the Producers assoMoU with the producers bod- ciation in February this year
ies to ensure a wage-increase and has still not been signed.
and improved conditions for
We want our basic rights,
workers. This year FWA and we are not asking for anything
other talent-based unions in- over what we are due. The in-

dustry has a feudalistic mindset, its as though they say be

grateful we are the ones that
give you work. No one has
even acknowledged the receipt of the contract let alone
sign it and I have sent dozens
of reminders, says Kamlesh
Pandey, general secretary,
FWA, and president, FWICE.
The strike calls for writers
to stop all work for TV and
Film, this includes avoiding
writing at home, attending
meetings with production
houses and working on ideas.
VJ-VJ

|9

NATION

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Lurking danger

JOURNALISTS ATTACKED

TRINAMOOL ADMITS THAT MANY OUTSIDERS WERE PRESENT IN POLLING AREAS

Violence mars West Bengal civic polls

Shiv Sahay Singh

he civic polls to two Municipal

Corporations and certain other
local bodies in West Bengal on
Saturday was marred by violence
with incidents of intimidating of
voters at polling venues, attacks
on polling agents and even
candidates.
The violence was so overwhelming that the ruling party
Trinamool Congress (TMC)
against whom the majority of allegations were directed at, was
forced to admit that large number of outsiders were present in
the areas that went to polls.
Leaders of the ruling party
said it should not be assumed
that outsiders indulging in violence have been deployed at the
behest of their candidates.
Though not more than two per
cent of the States voters exercised their franchise in the polls,
the elections assume signicance by the overwhelming allegations of electoral malpractices
and the visual proof of the
violence.
Voters being shoved pushed
and beaten, journalists being attacked, unidentied youths coming out of polling booths after
being confronted by mediapersons was a recurring visual during the day in the satellite
township of Bidhannagar.
While bombs were hurled at
Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation at Asansol at least two voters sustained bullet injuries.
Several motorcycles in Kailhali
area of Bidhannagar were set on
re after clashes between supporters of the TMC and the

BOMBS WERE HURLED AT

BIDHANNAGAR MUNICIPAL
CORPORATION AT ASANSOL AND
AT LEAST TWO VOTERS SUSTAINED
BULLET INJURIES

Left Front
declares
12-hour strike
Staff Reporter
KOLKATA: Accusing the Trinamool

Motorcycles in flames after clashes during municipal

elections at Salt Lake in North 24 Parganas district of
West Bengal on Saturday. PHOTO: PTI
Congress.
There were reports of two persons being killed in Murshidabad
district on Friday night where
elections to several panchayats
were held during the day.
While the locals said the deceased were Congress supporters who were attacked by their
political opponents, senior police officials said the deceased
were making crude bombs when
explosions occurred.
According to the West Bengal
State Election Commission
(WBSEC), about 70 per cent voters were polled in the two municipal corporations and the other
local bodies. The Opposition demanded that the elections be
cancelled and fresh polls be held
in these areas.
Like earlier instances, officials
of the WBSEC said they have received complaints of rigging and
violence both from political parties and individuals including attack on journalists and asked
police to take necessary action.

hannagar Municipal Corporation, which triggered strong

reactions from political parties,
and Kolkata Press Club.
Anindya Sengupta, secretary
of Kolkata Press Club, said in a
statement that condemning the
attack on such a large number of
mediapersons on a single day
will not suffice.
S. Sabanayakan, president,
The Indian Journalists Association also demanded immediate
arrests of the culprits and proper
penal action against those responsible for unprovoked attack
on journalists. No arrest has
been made so far.
While Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee had ordered a probe,
the Opposition criticised the ruling Trinamool Congress for the
attacks on media persons.
Two journalists of ABP Ananda - Aritrik Bhattacharya and
Prakash Sinha - and the channel's cameraperson Partha Sarathi Chakraborty were attacked
while they were reporting about
booth capturing in ward number
Journalists injured
31 in Bidhannagar area. The
Over a dozen journalists in- channel called the attacks precluding photo and video journal- planned and alleged misists were attacked on Saturday creants harboured by the Trinawhile covering polls to the Bid- mool carried out the assaults.

Khan panel report comes as

a big blow to FTII students
Shoumojit Banerjee
PUNE: The three-member Cen-

tral government delegation led

by S.M. Khan, Registrar of
Newspapers of India, to study
the problems bedevilling the
strike-hit Film and Television
Institute of India (FTII), has
accused students and faculty
members of creating a corrosive climate of populism
which resulted in the ongoing
strike over the controversial
appointment of BJP leader Gajendra Chauhan as FTII
chairman.
The damning report comes
as a blow to the student agitators as their indenite strike
against the contentious appointments of Mr. Chauhan
and Sangh Parivar votaries
within the FTII governing
council enters its 114th day. A
copy of the report is with The
Hindu.
The panel led by Mr. Khan,
which visited the FTII campus
on August 21, noted in its report that while infrastructure
was not an issue and there was
no dearth of facility and
special efforts were made to
accommodate more number of
shootings, the students failed
to submit their projects on
time.
The committee observations
place the onus for the situation

Congress (TMC) of large scale

electoral malpractices, the Left
Front has declared a 12-hour strike
in the Bidhanagar Municipal
Corporation (BMC) area, housing
Salt Lake city, on October 5.
The 12-hour strike [6 a.m. to 6
p.m.] will take place in Salt Lake and
the Rajarhat - Gopalpur area [in the
North 24 Parganas district], senior
Communist Party of India-Marxist
(CPI-M) leader and the partys North
24 Parganas district committee
member Nepal Deb Bhattacharya
told The Hindu. He also said that
TMC murdered democracy in the
Bidhannagar municipal polls.
The Left Front, that staged a
protest demonstration outside the
West Bengal State Election
Commission (WBSEC) office,
demanded that the polls be held
afresh as the rampant rigging and
violence by the Trinamool
Congress (TMC) have made it a
farce.
Meanwhile, the State leadership
of the BJP held a sit-in outside State
Election Commissioner S.R.
Upadhyays room at the WBSEC
office. State BJP president Rahul
Sinha said that such rampant booth
capturing and rigging were
unprecedented in Bengal. As for
their demand that the polls be held
afresh, Mr. Sinha said that the Mr.
Upadhyay told him that he will
convey his decision in this regard to
him.
Making similar demands, senior
Congress leader Pradip
Bhattacharya said he had urged Mr.
Upadhyay to scrap the polls.

Restoration work in progress after part of a flyover collapsed on

the railway tracks in Ahmedabad on Saturday. PHOTO: PTI

Bastar scribe faced police

pressure to act as informer
Pavan Dahat
DARBHA (CHHATTISGARH): San-

tosh Yadav, the Bastar journalist who was booked under

draconian
Chhattisgarh
Jan Suraksha Adhiniyam for
suspected Maoist links, was
allegedly facing police pressure to work as a police
informer.
According to the Peoples
Union for Civil Liberties
(PUCL) bulletin published in
August 2015, more than a
month before his arrest, Mr.
Santosh was one of the rst
reporters to reach the spot of
Darbha valley attack on Congress convoy in May 2013, so
the police presumed that he
collaborated
with
the
Maoists.
In mid-2014, the police
began threatening him. One
night, they [police] arrived at
his house and detained him.
The police ordered Santosh to
take Rs.5 lakh to catch
Maoists and bring them to the
police but he refused to do so.

For last one year, Santosh had

been living in a climate of fear
with police spreading rumours that they were out to
get him, said the PUCL
bulletin.
Mr. Santoshs lawyer Isha
Khandelwal conrmed that
her client was facing continuous police pressure and harassment to act as a police
informer.
A father of three young
girls, Santosh , however, refused to relent to the police
pressure.
In June 2015, the police
took him to Darbha police
station and stripped him.
There had been constant
search and cordoning operations in Badarimahu area of
Darbha for the past few days
and the police picked up some
villagers accusing them of being Naxal supporters. Santosh was trying to help them
and to publish their version of
truth but before he could do
so, he was arrested, PUCL
Chhattisgarh unit secretary

Sudha Bharadwaj told The

Hindu.
There is not even an iota
of truth in the allegations
against my husband. The police accuse him of being involved in August 21 Darbha
incident when Maoists cut a
road and there was an exchange of ring between the
police and the Maoists. But he
was at home all night when
the incident took place. A
year ago, they (police) threatened to kill him in a fake encounter for his fearless
reporting, but my husband
continued to work for common tribal public, claimed
Poonam Yadav, the wife of
Santosh Yadav.
When tried to reach for his
reaction over the allegations
against Bastar police, Bastar
range Inspector General of
Police, Mr.SRP Kalluri did
not respond to messages from
The Hindu. The Bastar police
boss also did not entertain requests for an interview to
seek his response.

JNU opens its doors to Kannada Timely detection of bomb

Muralidhara Khajane

BENGALURU: The decade-long

dream of having a Kannada
studies Chair at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has nally been
realised. The chair started
functioning at the Centre for
Indian Languages from October 1 and scholar Purushothama Bilimale assumed office as
the chairperson.
Language teaching, literary
and cultural studies, and digital archiving are the primary
activities of the Centre. It will
The committee has accused the FTII students and
also have certicate courses,
faculty of creating a corrosive climate of populism, online production of Kannaleading to the strike. FILE PHOTO: SANKET WANKHEDE
da teaching material, and
building up an international
on the students by stating that Pathrabe.
network of Kannada teaching
the report of the former DirecThe panel, whose members centres.
tor [D.J. Narain], and the out- also included Anshu Sinha, DiThough the Department of
come of several meetings rector (Films) and S. Naga- Kannada and Culture and the
indicated that projects were nathan,
Under-Secretary Kannada Development Audelayed as students were not (Films), was constituted by the thority have long been planready with their scripts. As a Information & Broadcasting ning to set up a Chair at JNU,
result, the report notes that be- (I&B) Ministry after Mr. Path- the idea gained momentum
tween 2010 and 2014, no ad- rabe was held hostage by irate only after 2004. It crystalmissions were made to provide students in August.
lised in 2014 with the formafor more space and facility for
The panel has disparaged tion of a subcommittee
the delayed batches.
promises given by the students comprising of T.S. Satyanath,
The committee lambasted and faculty of speedy comple- Venkatachala Hegde and
the faculty members for fre- tion of projects once the pre- Prof. Bilimale.
quently shifting their stance by sent strike is over, stating that
The subcommittee put forobserving that while the mem- viewed in the light of previous ward two proposals: setting
bers had at rst agreed to as- extensions, the institute can up a full-edged department
sess projects, they later ill-afford to grant such con- with a one-time grant, or a
refused, which in turn aggra- cessions at the cost of a fresh chair with an annual grant.
vated the situation and put batch of students [October- Finally, the latter was agreed
extraordinary pressure on November, 2015] and the exist- upon with an annual grant of
FTII
Director
Prashant ing batches.
Rs. 50 lakh for ve years.

Purishottam Bilimale,
chairperson of Kannada
studies, is an expert in
Kannada folk literature
and Yakshagana.
The search committee,
comprising scholars S. Shettar, B.A. Vivek Rai and H.S.
Shivaprakash zeroed in on
Prof. Bilimale, an expert in
cultural studies, Kannada
folk literature and Yakshagana art form as the rst
chairperson.
The Hindu spoke to the
scholar on the road ahead.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q. How will Kannada
benefit with the opening
of the Chair?
A. JNU has its own standing in international academics. Students from across the
world come here for interdisciplinary
comparative

studies. Though Hindi, Urdu,

Bangla and Tamil languages
have their chairs here, there
was no presence of Kannada.
The Chair will work towards
disseminating the rich history and culture of Kannada.
What are your plans to
attract students?
Students of the Centre for
Indian Languages will study
Kannada as a subject. If they
opt for comparative study,
the Kannada Chair will help
them with academic input. A
few students have already
shown interest in the comparative study of Shivaram
Karanth and Rabindranath
Tagore.
What will be your initial
priorities?
My plan is to start a programme for M.Phil. and Ph.D.
in the next three months.
Creating an online Kannada
teaching portal to meet the
needs of non-resident Kannadigas is another priority.
What is your long-term
plan for the Chair?
Translations of landmark
works in Kannada into other
languages and comparative
literary and feminist studies
are my priority. My plan is to
introduce non-ction and rationalistic works of writers
such as Shamba Joshi, A.N.
Murthy Rao, D.R. Nagaraj,
and others. I also plan to organise seminars on folk forms
in other parts of the country.

averts major train tragedy

FARRUKHABAD (U.P.): Timely

detection of a bomb by an
alert patrol party minutes before departure of a passenger
train here on Saturday morning averted a major tragedy
even as a bomb hoax at Tundla railway station in Firozabad
district
forced
Lucknow-bound
Shatabdi
Express to halt for over 30
minutes.
Police said in Farrukhabad
that the bomb was set to go off
at 6.20 a.m. minutes before
Mainpuri passenger train was
to depart at 6.40 am.
An alert Government Railway Police patrol team detected a bomb-like object
was lying on platform number one near an old storehouse
at
Farrukhabad
station, throwing security
personnel into a tizzy.
Acting swiftly, the railway
officials evacuated passen-

gers from the platform, halted the movement of trains

and immediately contacted a
bomb disposal squad in Kanpur, they said.
The bomb disposal squad
led by M.K. Pandey conrmed it was a bomb timed to
explode at 6.20 a.m., but it did
not go off as the timer developed a problem.
He said further details
would be available only after
a thorough probe into the
matter.
The information regarding
a bomb on board the Shatabdi
Express was received but later it turned out to be a hoax,
an official spokesman said.
Following information regarding the bomb on board
the Shatabdi Express, the
train was stopped at Tundla
in Firozabad district this
morning around 8:30 am, a
police officer said. PTI

Bikers hit the road for a good cause

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
BIDAR: Cause riding where
bikers turn ambassadors for a
good cause is catching up
with young bikers and riding
groups in small cities across
the State. Substance abuse,
protection of the girl child,
animal welfare and road safety are their prime concerns.
Jaspreet Singh Saini, aka
Biker Monty, who founded
the bikers group, Bidar Wanderers, is dedicated to animal
welfare and road safety. His
group of 20 bikers goes to
schools and colleges asking
students to make way for ambulances. Empathise with
the patients in the ambulance. Next time it could be
you, is their tagline.
The Xtreme 99 bikers from
HubballiDharwad is creating awareness on substance
abuse and organise awareness camps for college students to talk on the ill effects
of drug addiction.
CM
YK

ber of Street Sense, one of the

biking groups that is in action
during the Dandi and Ganesh
processions. I stopped riding
for fun after a family member
was injured in a road accident. Now if I mount my bike,
its for a cause, he said, during his recent visit to Bidar.
Vinod Rawat from Mumbai
works for the NGO Indian
Mouth and Foot Painting artists. He markets paintings
created by the physically
challenged. The biker with a
prosthetic foot ironically had
his left leg amputated after a
bike accident in early childhood. Jitendra Pahadia of
Nanded and his troupe visit
schools, colleges, NGOs and
Vinod Rawat, who has a prosthetic leg, works for
companies asking them to
the NGO Indian Mouth and Foot Painting artists
protect the girl child.
People tend to think we
based in Mumbai.
are mad to go around biking
The Bike ambulance pro- the injured and sick during all the time. Cause riding is
ject in Bengaluru was inuen- Ganesh immersion and Var- just to show them that our
ced by the efforts of kari Dindi processions. Ka- passion expands to other arMaharashtra bikers, who layanaraman
Venkatesan, eas too, Mr. Saini told The
serve as volunteers to ferry from Pune, has been a mem- Hindu.
VJ-VJ

10 |

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

CM
YK

VJ-VJ

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

CM
YK

| 11

VJ-VJ

NEWS

12 |
FROM PAGE ONE

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

BIHAR POLLS

Congress moves President

against anti-terror, land Bills

BJP tops list of candidates with criminal charges

As for the amended land

Bill, Bharatsinh Solanki, who
heads the party in Gujarat,
said the Bill was introduced
by the Congress in the early
1960s. It was aimed at identifying landowners with surplus land and transferring
the surplus land to the landless farmers. But the amendment to the Bill, without the
consent of the Opposition,
stripped it off all the propoor clauses. The government will not give the land to Gujarat Congress delegation led by Shankar
the poor anymore, and the Singh Vaghela, Bharat Singh Solanki and Ahmed
land will be given to Patel address the media in New Dehi on
corporates.
The delegation appealed Saturday. PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA
to Mr. Mukherjee to return sanctioned. If the President said, the party would chalthese Bills to the State un- approved them, Mr. Solanki lenge them in court.

Staff Reporter

Merkel, hailed as Europes

moral symbol, coming tonight
Suhasini Haidar

lieve now how dismissive everyone was when she was

NEW DELHI: As she begins her
chosen as the first woman
visit to India on Sunday
Chancellor in a still patriarnight, there will be a special
chal Germany, and coming
symbolism
to
German
from East Germany at that,
Chancellor Angela Merkels
Ms Shankar said.
first engagement, the tradiDiplomats say, apart from
tional wreath laying at Inwelcoming refugees, Ms.
dias apostle of peace
Merkel has also played a role
Mahatma Gandhis memoin being the bridge builder
rial, Rajghat. Thats because
in international conflicts.
Ms. Merkel is being considWhen the U.S. and all Westered the frontrunner in the
ern countries boycotted the
race for this years Nobel Angela Merkel will
Russian 70th Victory Day
Peace Prize, due to be an- discuss the situation in celebrations in May 2015, benounced on October 9.
cause of President Vladimir
West Asia as well as
The award comes a year
Putins actions in Ukraine,
after the Nobel Committee Afghanistan.
Ms. Merkel was the excepannounced the first Indian nuary and August 2015, and tion, who made a short visit
and Pakistani winners: Kai- is expecting as many as to pay her respects to Ruslash Satyarthi and Malala 8,00,000 by the end of the sian soldiers who died in
Yousafzai. Confirming that year. While many countries World War II.
her name is among the such as Hungary have flatly
She has also been a key instrongest of 273 nomina- refused to help out any more terlocutor on the talks betions this year, the Peace Re- with the large numbers, Ms. tween Iran and the P-5+EU,
search Institute Oslo (PRIO) Merkel has insisted that and sent her Vice Chancellor
said in a release that Ms. Germany remain open for to Teheran in June to hold
Merkel was on the top of refugees, announcing an talks with President Rouhatheir list for her response to outlay of 6.6 billion euros to nis government. At the same
the refugee crisis. Referring fund their stay. During her time, she is one of the few
to Ms. Merkels bold posi- visit to Delhi to chair the In- popular international leadtion to accept lakhs of refu- ter-Governmental Commis- ers, and will host Israeli
gees from Iraq and Syria, in sion that she pioneered, Ms. Prime Minister Benjamin
the teeth of domestic oppo- Merkel is expected to dis- Netanyahu in Berlin as soon
sition as well as the misgiv- cuss both the situation in as she returns from India
ings of Germanys European West Asia as well as Afghan- this week. As a result, Ms.
neighbours, the Director of istan, where Germany is a Merkel won a particularly
PRIO, Kristen Harpeviken key donor and provider of warm reception at the UNGA
told The Hindu that Ms. forces.
this year, where she was seen
Merkel had responded with
She is at the peak of her admonishing Facebook chief
humane courage. This leadership this year, driving Mark Zuckerberg for racist
year is marked by a global Europes policies on all im- anti-immigration posts on
migration crisis, and Merkel portant issues, including the the social network. Angela
has done more than anyone Greek debt situation, Uk- Merkel has become a moral
to change the debate, Mr. raine, and the refugee cri- symbol for Europe, said
Harpeviken, who predicted sis,
says
former popular U2 singer Bono in an
Malalas win last year, wrote Ambassador Meera Shan- interview last month.
in an e-mail reply.
kar, who served as Indias
Ms. Merkel will land in
According to the German envoy to Germany from Delhi on Sunday night, and
office for migration, the 2005-2009, arriving just as travel to Bangalore for busicountry has seen 2,57,000 Ms. Merkel took charge as ness-related engagements
asylum seekers between Ja- Chancellor. It is hard to be- on Tuesday.

Of 583 contestants in first phase, 174 have criminal cases against them: report
25 candidates who are accused of various types of
NEW DELHI: The politics in Bicrimes.
har continues to be scandaSeven out of them are selous as new data suggests
rious offences.
that 30 percent (174 out of
The Bahujan Samaj Party
total 583) candidates have
(BSP) has 8 out of 41 candideclared that they are facing
dates, 11 out of 24 candicriminal charges. The Bhadates are fielded by the
ratiya Janta Party (BJP) and
Janata Dal(United), 9 out of
Communist Party of India
18 candidates from the Sa(CPI) have topped the list of
majwadi Party (SP), 8 out of
fielding most number of
17 candidates of the Rashtricandidates with criminal
ya Janata Dal (RJD), 6 out of
backgrounds.
8 candidates fielded by the
According to data comIndian National Congress, 8
piled by an independent
out of 13 candidates of the
non-profit ADR, out of all Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh addresses a
Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)
the 583 candidates contest- rally in Gaya on Saturday. PHOTO: PTI
along with 8 out of 12 candiing in the first phase of Bihar
dates of the Communist
polls, 174 (30%) candidates charges like murder, at- ADR data, has 14 out of 27 Party of India (Marxist) and
have declared criminal cases tempt to murder, communal candidates with criminal 45 (23%) out of 192 Indeagainst them.
disharmony,
kidnapping, cases against them.
pendent candidates have deTen cases are serious in clared criminal cases against
About 130 (22%) candi- and crimes against women.
The BJP, according to the nature. The CPI has 14 out of themselves
dates are facing serious
in
their

In Seemanchal, grand alliance

emerges as a formidable force
Vikas Pathak
ARARIA/KISHANGANJ (BIHAR): A

journey across Bihar gives

the sense that the Bharatiya
Janata Party still remains a
strong contender for power,
but one effect of this is a
counter-polarisation
of
Muslims behind the grand
alliance of the Janata Dal
(U), the Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD) and the Congress.
Located to the north-east
of Bihar and abutting Nepal
and West Bengal, the backward Seemanchal region,
comprising Araria, Purnia,
Kishanganj and Katihar districts, reveals this pattern
most tellingly. This region of
24 Assembly constituencies
has a heavy Muslim presence, and the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen
(MIM) of Asaduddin Owaisi
has entered the fray here to
get a slice of the Muslim
votes.
On paper, Mr. Owaisis entry is bad news for the grand
alliance. However, as one
drives across Araria and
Kishanganj, both having a
strong Muslim population,
one senses a clear Muslim
tilt towards their alliance.
The Nitish-Lalu alliance
is the clear frontrunner in
this region, says Mohammad Naseem Anwar, as he
idles under a tree beside the
highway near Kishanganj.
He is surrounded by a band
of friends. They break into a
candid chat after they have
ascertained that this reporter is a journalist and not the

had motorable roads only

for three months here in
low-lying areas. Many villages first saw power only in
Nitish Kumars time, Mr.
Khan says.
They point to the fields
across the highway to show
that a region now has roads
connecting each village.
They add that electricity has
come to this region only under Mr. Kumar, though
there have been power cuts
in recent months.
Mr. Anwar, however, says
that sections of low-caste
Hindus will vote for the BJP.
They somehow like the
RJD chief Lalu Prasad's son and party candidate
from Raghopur Tejashwi Yadav filing his nomination BJP. I dont know why, he
says with an air of
papers in Hajipur on Saturday. PHOTO:PTI
resignation.
About 10 kilometres away
in
village Andhasur, Harilal
Muslims may stand by grand alliance
Mandal, member of an extremely backward caste,
There are distinct signs of population.
Rajbansi, agrees that the
a Muslim polarisation in
With a growing social
grand alliance is powerful,
favour of the grand alli- coalition of Hindus backbut adds that many of his
ance of the Janata Dal ing the party, the BJP has
caste are likely to go with the
(U), the Rashtriya Janata sprung to its feet in the
BJP. There is a hint of a
Dal (RJD) and the Con- State a pattern that first
grievance of local political
gress as Bihar goes to the emerged when Bihar voted
dominance of Muslims
polls in the coming weeks. emphatically for a Narenwhen he says: It is difficult
Muslims constitute about dra Modi-led BJP in the
for Hindus to get a post
17 per cent of the States 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
here.
The MIMs bid to create a
representative of any politi- ance should be a clear lead- shriller Muslim politics
cal party.
er, Mr. Anwar says.
with attempts to woo backThe MIM has an outside
The gathering nods in ward Hindus to create a sochance in Forbesgunj, only agreement, and Shahnawaz cial
coalition
of
the
because the RJD candidate Khan, one among them, says downtrodden is not
there is not seen as strong that Chief Minister Nitish working here. Muslims do
enough. The BJP and the Kumar had worked for the not seem to want to split
Third Front of Mulayam regions development.
their vote this may help
Singh Yadav may also fancy
Roads, power, etc., came the BJP and see a strong
their chances on this seat. In to villages here just because alternative to the BJP in the
other seats, the grand alli- of Nitish Kumar. Earlier we RJD-JD(U) combine.

affidavits.

Crorepatis
Among the richest politicians contesting in the Bihar
polls, the BJP again is at the
front with 18 out of 27 candidates being dubbed Crorepatis. From the JD(U)
there are 19 out of 24 cash
rich candidates, 11 out of 17
candidates are from the
RJD, 6 out of 18 candidates
belong to the SP, 6 out of 8
candidates of the Congress,
8 out of 13 candidates of the
LJP, 3out of 41 candidates of
the BSP and 42 out of 192
independent
candidates
have declared assets worth
more than Rs. 1 crore. The
election is once again going
to be male dominated with
530 men and just 53 women
participating in it.

Sonia raises
price rise,
quota issues
Amarnath Tewary
KAHALGAON (BIHAR): At her

second meeting in Bihar on

Saturday at Wazirganj of
Gaya district in central
Bihar, Congress president
Sonia Gandhi referred to
the growing prices of
pulses and petrol. Has the
farmers of Magadh got the
benefit of a price hike in
pulses which they grow in
abundance here.
Raising the reservation
issue, Ms. Gandhi said,
There is a match fixing
going on between Nagpur
(RSS headquarters) and
the BJP on the issue of
reservation, but the
Congress is committed to
the constitutional rights of
reservation for the
Scheduled Castes, the
Scheduled Tribes and
Backward Class people and
will remain so.
Ms. Gandhi appealed to
the people to choose
whether they are with the
secular forces or those who
divide the country.
Praising Nitish Kumar as
a good Chief Minister, she
appealed to the people to
vote for him as he is the
CM candidate of our
alliance. She mocked at
Mr. Modis slogan of Sabka
saath, sabka vikas and the
NDA alliance saying,
Kahin ka eent, kahin ka
roda, Bhanumati ne kunba
joda (bricks and stones
from here and there,
Bhanumati [they] make
their castle).

In Dadri, two arrests, two VIP visits and vicious attacks on the media
Mohammed Ali
BISHARA (DADRI): Family members of Mohammad Akhlaque
Saifi, who was lynched over
rumours about cow slaughter
in this Uttar Pradesh village,
had told the police about the
possible role of Vishal, son of
Sanjay Rana, a local BJP leader, in inciting the mob last
Monday, sources say.
The family had told the local administration that they
suspect that it was Vishal who
had coerced the priest of the
local temple to announce that
a cow was slaughtered in Akhlaques house and that his
family was eating beef.
Rana has alleged that his
son was being framed.
Besides Vishal, another accused, Shivam, has been arrested. Local police officials
said that with the arrest of

A woman stopping Delhi Chief Minister Arvind

Kejriwal and AAP leaders Kumar Vishwas and
Sanjay Singh from entering Bishara village on
Saturday. PHOTO: PTI
eight of the accused, the investigation will speed up. The
local administration substantially increased the police deployment in and around the
village on Saturday.

With two high-profile visits,

first by Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal and later by
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the area remained
tense. Several hundreds of ag-

itated village women on the

streets protested against what
they alleged to be one-sided
media coverage.
Armed with stones, several
hundred women took to the
streets and abused presspersons and politicians. They
chased the media outside the
village in the morning and
barred anyone from entering
the village. The Delhi Chief
Minister had to wait outside
for over an hour to meet Akhlaques family.
Even when the local administration finally managed to
control the women protesters
with the help of women police
personnel, they continued the
protest on the road. Stones
were hurled at Mr. Kejriwal
and presspersons.
Mr. Kejriwal tried to talk to
the protesters. He told one of
them that what happened in

the village was against humanity. It was totally wrong.

Neither Hindus nor Muslims
benefited from it. It was just
vote-bank politics of political
parties, he said.
It is an extremely sad situation that while one party is
trying to consolidate Hindu
votes using this tragic incident, another party is in an
attempt to consolidate Muslim votes by letting the tempers run high, he later told
presspersons.
He said Hinduism was never in danger because of any
Muslim and anybody who
thought otherwise was not a
Hindu. But the residents of
the village, mainly local Thakur community members, had
problems with too much attention given to only Akhlaques family.
They argued with the media

When media persons were ruthlessly chased away

Mohammad Ali

t was all fine till Friday. Despite tensions at Bishara,

media persons did not face
hostility from the local people.
But Saturday was a different
day.
For the first time, I felt that I
encountered the religious polarisation and simmering tension that we write about.
Showing hatred and anger,
women hurled stones at us.
Around 8.30 a.m., as we were
waiting in the village for Delhi
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was supposed to arrive to meet the family of
Mohammed Akhlaque Saifi,
who was lynched over rumours of cow slaughter.
CM
YK

But then suddenly we saw

people, mostly women, coming towards us. From what we
could make out, they had
stones in their hands. I ran and
so did several others. For some
time, I could not understand
what was happening. After all
it is not every day that journalists face protests in a metropolis like Delhi.
But then we realised the
danger. We were being chased
out. There was no time to look
for our vehicles. We got inside
any car we managed to find.
Later, I found out that a woman journalist from a national
daily was hit by a stone.
More police were brought
in. In the afternoon, we entered the village again when

Mr. Kejriwal finally managed

to find his way in.
A woman, whose language I
could never understand otherwise, asked me, Why are you
people only showing what
happened to ? She used a
derogatory term for a community. Well, this was not the first
time somebody used the term
while talking to me, but the
intensity with which the question was asked surprised me.
This happened when a fellow journalist and I were waiting at the entrance of the lane
leading to Akhlaques house.
Just a few metres away, a mob
of over 200 women were
brought under control by
women police personnel. Then
another battery of women

managed to come to the entrance of the lane and the

question was posed to me. I
told the woman, See, we are
not journalists. We are with
Kejriwalji.
But then I asked her what
the media was not showing.
Our men are being picked up
wrongly, but media is not
showing that, she said. If you
say you are not media person,
why are you taking pictures,
she shot back a question as I
was tweeting.
It was then we decided to
leave. The mob of women suddenly became more hostile.
During the entire episode,
especially in the afternoon,
there was sufficient police
force on the ground. But they

remained a mute spectator. I

wonder if that was deliberate.
It was while we were almost
leaving that some youngsters
and women came and started
throwing stones and broke the
windscreen of a car belonging
to a news channel.
You media people. You
guys are behind all this. You
better leave now, said one of
them while showing the
stones. It was during the day
that we were told by a very
senior police officer how the
dominant community held
two meetings last night to discuss how to deal with the
media. With such hostility on
display, I wonder how any
Muslim family, let alone that
of Akhlaque, stay in the village.

persons that nobody was

showing the plight of the family of the accused who were
wrongly arrested.
Muslims, who form about
10 per cent of the population
of the Thakur-dominated village, remained in their houses.
But the protesters were in no
mood to let go of the opportunity. They gheroaed Mr. Kejriwal and tried to argue with
the mediapersons. One of the
protesters asked this correspondent, Our sons were arrested by police and framed up
by the SP government but nobody is showing the plight of
the families.
The two attacks on the
media, one in the morning and
second while Kejriwal was
leaving, comes in the backdrop of the meeting Union
Minister Mahesh Sharma held
with the local Thakur leaders

in the temple which was misused to incite the mob to lynch

Akhlaque. Addressing the villagers, Mr. Sharma warned the
media against doing politics
with words. He expressed
displeasure at the media coverage which the villagers complained as being too
one-sided.
Later, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who kept
his visit a secret and did not
talk to the media, tweeted:
Met the family of Mohammad Akhlaque and expressed
my deepest condolences. It is
very sad to see the trust and
harmony built over decades
destroyed by the politics of
hate.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced
an increase in the financial assistance for the family from
Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh.

Issue highly
politicised: Rijiju
NEW DELHI: Union Minister of
State for Home Kiren Rijiju
on Saturday said the Dadri incident, in which a 50-year-old
man was killed for allegedly
eating beef, has been highly
politicised.
The Minister, who was
talking to journalists at the
sidelines of an event, said the
government will take action
once it receives a report from
the U.P. government. Staff
Reporter

Farhan Akhtar
expresses outrage

MUMBAI: Outraged over the

lynching incident in Dadri,
actor Farhan Akhtar on Saturday said the guilty should
get strict punishment to send
a strong message that such
kangaroo justice will not be
Josy Joseph
officers had reached out to the allowed. The actor feared
that the guilty may never be
corporal.
NEW DELHI: Union government
Referring to corporal Mo- brought to book. PTI
functionaries such as Union hammad Sartajs letter to the
Culture Minister Mahesh U.P. government not to let polSharma have termed the iticians politicise the issue, the
lynching of Mohammad Ak- IAF chief said: Writing to the
hlaque in Dadri a mere acci- State or the Centre in this matdent and not a communal ter is superfluous because evincident. Many BJP leaders erybody has understood that
have been giving inflammato- such things cannot be accept- VARANASI: Describing lynching
ry comments, while Prime ed. Adequate actions are being of a man near Delhi over ruMinister Narendra Modi has taken by the governments at mours that he had consumed
come under criticism for his both the levels. Mr. Sartaj, a beef as politically motivasilence. It is very unfortunate flight engineer, is posted in an ted, former Supreme Court
that a serving Air Force em- Air Force base in Chennai. judge Markande Katju on Satployees family has been ad- Source said the family could be urday said cow was just anothversely affected, resulting in shifted to the same base or he er animal which cannot be
death in the family, the Air could be transferred to anoth- anyones mother." If I like to
Chief Marshal said. Such acts er location to ensure that his eat beef then whats harm in
it he said . PTI
were unacceptable and senior family was comfortable.

Corporals family may be

shifted to Air Force base

Its just another

animal: Katju

VJ-VJ

NEWS

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

PRIVACY ISSUE

Modi govt. gives Aadhaar one more push

| 13

NIA team for Bangladesh

to probe fake currency case

The tussle over universalising the cards continues; SC hearing case on Tuesday

Vijaita Singh

Smita Gupta

NEW DELHI: A team of the Na-

NEW DELHI: In a move led by

the Prime Ministers Office

(PMO), BJP-ruled States, including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jharkhand
and Haryana, have petitioned
the Supreme Court to allow
Aadhaar to be used for all
government
welfare
schemes.
Simultaneously, the Election Commission of India
and a phalanx of banking and
economic regulators the
Reserve Bank of India, the
Securities and Exchange
Board of India, the Insurance
Regulatory and Development
Authority of India, the Pension Fund Regulatory and
Development Authority of
India have also filed similar
clarification/modification
applications in the apex
court.
This comes ahead of Octo-

ber 6, when the Supreme

Court will consider the merits
of these applications seeking
clarification of the order it
passed on August 11 to restrict
the use of Aadhaar cards to the
Public Distribution Scheme
(PDS), including the disbursement of kerosene and LPG.
In that order, the apex
court had directed the government to give wide publicity that it would not be
mandatory for a citizen to obtain an Aadhaar card, that its
production would not be a
condition for obtaining any
benefits otherwise due to a citizen and that information
about residents collected by
the Unique Identification Authority Of India (UIDAI)
would not be used for any other purpose except for the
schemes mentioned and as directed by a court for criminal
investigation only.
The Supreme Court had al-

No person should be denied any benefits or suffer

for not having the Aadhaar card, says Supreme
Court. - FILE PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR
so decided to refer to a Constitution Bench whether the
right to privacy of a citizen is a
fundamental right or not.
Now, the Modi governments push to universalise
Aadhaar will once again foreground the concerns about vi-

olation of privacy as well as

the fear that the poor and vulnerable might themselves be
excluded from welfare benefits. Indeed, in its August 11 order, the Supreme Court had
said, No person should be denied any benefits or suffer

36 Rafales not enough, says IAF chief

If the deal is good and the govt. decides, we need to have six more squadrons

for not having the Aadhaar

cards issued by Unique Identification Authority of India.
But official sources told
The Hindu that the government believed like its predecessor United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government
that the Aadhaar card
would become an instrument
of good governance, cut out
the middlemen and eliminate
corruption.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is part of his JAM
trinity Jan Dhan Yojana,
Aadhar, mobile governance.
On Wednesday, shortly after
he returned from the US, official sources said, the Prime
Minister held a review meeting of Aadhaar enrolments: he
urged Chief Secretaries of the
various States present that
they must expedite enrolment and ensure Aadhaar
cards to the entire population
by December.

tional Investigation Agency

(NIA) will go to Bangladesh to
investigate the trail of a huge
consignment of fake Indian
currency notes (FICN) seized
at Chittagong port on September 21.
Bangladesh customs had
seized Rs. 2.71 crore in FICN
from a container when it arrived at the port from UAE.
Officials say Bangladesh is being used as a transit point by
Pakistan to pump fake currency into India.
The NIA team will also
probe the recovery of Rs. 1.28
crore in FICN from a Bangladeshi national in Dhaka on
September 22.
The NIA and the Rapid Action Battalion, the anti-crime
and anti-terror unit of Bangladesh, have been working in
close coordination ever since
the Burdwan module of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangla-

NEW DELHI: The 36 Rafale fighters that India is buying from

France are not enough to
meet the requirements of the
Indian Air Force, IAF chief
Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha
has said, adding that at least
six more squadrons of similar
fighters would be needed.
Definitely, we would like
to have MMRCA (Medium
Multi-Role Combat Aircraft)
variety of aircraft. At least
about six squadrons, to my
mind. Let us see, there may
be some other alternatives as
well, Air Chief Marshal Raha
said, addressing a press conference ahead of the Air
Force Day on October 8. He
was responding to a question
on the possibility of the IAF
wanting more than the 36 Rafale fighters being negotiated
now under a government-togovernment deal announced
by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi during his trip to
France in April.
I may wish to have Rafale.
But there are equally good
aircraft. So, if the deal is good

Large area
under pulses
pushes up
kharif sowing
Gargi Parsai
NEW DELHI: The area under
kharif crop is higher this
season than in the previous
year by 13.51 lakh hectares
owing to higher sowing of
pulses, coarse cereals and
oilseeds commodities
whose prices are up in retail
markets.
Kharif crops have been
planted on 1,031.37 lakh hectares this year as against
1,017.86 lakh hectares last
year. However, while the area under rice and sugarcane
is broadly the same as last
year, cotton sowing has
dipped by 10.14 lakh hectares, pointing to the crisis
from the non-payment of
cane dues to farmers.
The overall sowing has
improved, despite a 14-per
cent deficit in rainfall during
the southwest monsoon that
withdrew last week.
The cultivation of pulses
went up after the government announced a higher
minimum support price for
the kharif marketing season.
Till October 1, 114.58 lakh
hectares of pulses had been
sown, as against 102.56 lakh
hectares in the corresponding period during 2014-15.
Higher sowing was reported
from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Area under arhar, urad and
moongbean is higher than
others.
The sowing of coarse cereals is higher by 4.72 lakh
hectares with cultivation in
jowar (sorghum), bajra
(pearl millet) and maize better than last year.
As for oilseeds, the higher
sowing of soybean and sesamum improved the overall
cultivation by 6.4 lakh hectares over last year. However, there has not been much
improvement in rice cultivation. Cotton planting has
dipped to 116.41 lakh hectares this year.
CM
YK

The IAF needs to add

10 more squadrons by
2027 to the current
strength of 32
squadrons

Air Chief Marshal Arup

Raha addressing a press
conference in New Delhi
on Saturday.
PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

and the government decides,

we need to have six of similar
squadron, he said. IAF
sources said they were looking at two possible scenarios:
Of ordering more Rafale
fighters, or of filling the gaps
with more indigenous LCA
(light combat aircraft) Tejas
and the proposed advanced
medium combat aircraft

(AMCA), which is an indigenous fifth generation fighter

for which the feasibility study
has been completed.
He estimated that the
country had 15 years to develop the indigenous AMCA
project, which is now gathering more urgency also because
Indias
joint
programme with Russia to
develop a fifth generation
fighter has run into serious
issues. Only a political intervention can now save the project, sources insist.
The IAF needs to add 10
more squadrons by 2027 to
the current strength of 32
squadrons, according to its
own projections.
The original plan under the
MMRCA contract was to buy
126 fighters, for which Rafale
was finalised and negotia-

tions were under way. However, in April, Mr. Modi

sprang a surprise in Paris by
announcing the governmentto-government deal.
Air Chief Marshal Raha
claimed that the selection
process of India that resulted
in picking Rafale for the
MMRCA was so impeccable
that its French maker Dassault has been able to sell the
aircraft to many other countries, riding on its victory in
the IAF selection.
Sources said that the IAF
had scrapped the earlier plan
to develop an upgraded version of Tejas, and would now
induct six squadrons of the
present version with some
improvements such as new
electronic warfare suit, refuelling capacity, better radar, and better missiles. The
present version of LCA was
assessed by the Air Force to
have 57 deficiencies, of which
45 have been addressed.
A senior officer said that
the training of IAF pilots
the first batch comprises four
of them on the indigenous
LCA has already started.

A Jordan-based
Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre (RISSC), an independent research centre, has
put separatist and the Valleys head priest Mirwaiz
Umar Farooq among the top
10 influential Muslim faces of
the world.
Releasing the seventh annual issue of The Muslim
500: The Worlds 500 Most
Influential Muslims the
RISSC survey says it focused
on any person who has the
power, be it cultural, ideological, financial, political or otherwise, to make a change that
will have a significant impact,
positive or negative, on the
Muslim world.
Listing the Mirwaiz in the
top 10 influential faces in the
political section rather than
religious, the survey says he
has inherited as the 14th Mirwaiz (a Kashmiri term for
head priest) in 1990 at the age
of 17 after the assassination of
his father.
At the young age of 20, he
became chairman and founder of the All Parties Hurriyat
SRINAGAR:

MLA displays banner on religious tolerance in House

Peerzada Ashiq

NEW DELHI: Mathias Rust, the

iconic peace activist from

Germany, has advised India
to maintain neutrality in political issues involving Russia and the European Union
member-states. His observations have come in view of
the growing military tension
between the U.S.-EU block
and Russia which, he says,
has triggered the Second
Cold War in Europe.
India will be better
served if it follows a policy of
neutrality while interacting
with EU member countries
as the big European powers
at present are following the
foreign policy of the U.S. unquestioningly, Mr. Rust
said in an online interaction
with The Hindu.
Mr. Rust became famous
when he flew a lightweight
Cessna aircraft from West
Germany across the Iron
Curtain and landed in Moscows Red Square on May
28, 1987.

Conference, a grassroots coalition of pro-freedom parties

in Jammu & Kashmir. He has
raised the Kashmiri problem
at the UN, the EU parliament,
and the OIC while advocating
dialogue with both India and
Pakistan so that the aspirations of the Kashmiri people

Sadiqs arrest
The official said India had
earlier approached Bangladesh for details about the
whereabouts of Sadiq, who
was arrested this week in
Jharkhand. Sadiq was allegedly the key trainer at the terrorist camp being run by
JuMB in Burdwan district
unearthed last year. When
we approached our Bangladesh counterparts to get information on Sadiq, they
acted swiftly and raided the
possible hideouts in Rajshahi
district, where he has a house.
Though they could not find
him there, they were forthcoming in cooperating with
us, added the official.

BJP to press
for Assembly
dissolution
Staff Correspondent
SHIMLA: The Bhartiya Janata
Party has demanded the
immediate resignation of
Himachal Pradesh Chief
Minister Virbhadra Singh
after the CBI raided his
premises in the disproportionate assets case.
BJP party general secretary Randhir Sharma, MLA,
said on Saturday that the
Chief Minister, if allowed
to continue in office, might
influence the investigation.
He was surprised at the
memorandum given by the
Congress Ministers and
MLAs to the President,
supporting the Chief Minister. Has the Congress
showed this unprecedented unity to support a person facing corruption
charges, he asked.
Mr. Sharma said the BJP
Legislature Party meeting
was scheduled for October
5. We would approach the
Governor and demand that
the Assembly be dissolved
and fresh elections be
called, Mr. Sharma added.

Condolence visit

Bandh over bovine

issue
Engineer Rashid, an Independent legislator, holds a
banner on the first day of the J&K Assembly session
in Srinagar on Saturday. - PHOTO: AP
triya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad |(VHP), the Bajrang Dal
and the BJP.
What is the fate of the Bill
on beef ban? Why a resolution seeking consensus to

protect Article 35-A is not

being tabled? asked Mr.
Rashid, who claimed to have
collected more than one lakh
signatures in favour of lifting
of the beef ban in the Muslim-majority state.

Cold War is back: peace activist

Kallol Bhattacherjee

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq

has raised the Kashmiri
problem at the UN, the
EU parliament, and the
OIC.

may be realized, read the

survey report.
The Mirwaiz is a lone face
as Muslim political figure
from India who the survey
sees as an influential political
figure. He figured at the number nine in the list of Top-10
Muslim Leaders.
People who are trailblazers or the lone voice in a remote area are also taken into
account, the report said.
The top 10 personalities in
the list of 500 influential
Muslims included the names
of King Abdullah II, Professor
Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand
Sheikh of the Al-Azhar University, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Ayatollah Hajj
Sayyid Ali Khamenei, King
Muhammed VI, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, General AlSheikh Mohammed, Recep
Tayyip, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali
Hussein Sistani and Hajji
Muhammed Abdul-Wahhab
Amir of Tablighi Jamaat,
Pakistan.
Pakistans Imran Khan and
Malala Yousufzai also figure
in the list of influential
Muslims.

huge consignment of FICN

from Chittagong port. We are
told that six persons have
been detained for the crime
and Bangladesh would give us
access to interrogate these
men, said a senior NIA
official.

Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who met

legislators from the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) and the BJP over dinner on Friday night, expressed condolences over
tragic death of over 1,200 Haj
pilgrims this year and paid
homage to former President
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, former
parliamentarian and legislators and ex-chief justice of
J&K High Court who died
recently.

SRINAGAR: Independent MLA

Engineer Rashid on Saturday

unfurled a banner on religious tolerance before the
Speaker, who belongs to the
BJP, inside the Jammu and
Kashmir Assembly to protest
against the beef ban in the
state.
As the Assembly met for
the first time for the autumn
session and opened by tabling
obituary motion, Rashid, who
represents north Kashmirs
Langate constituency, got up
from his seat displaying the
banner, which read: No interference
in
religious
affairs.
In a bid to disrupt the
house, the MLA went into the
well of the House and accused
Speaker Kavinder Gupta, a
senior BJP leader, of depriving MLAs of their rights by
acting as an agent, mouth
piece and proxy of the Rash-

desh (JuMB) was unearthed

in West Bengal last year.
The visit of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to Bangladesh in May this year has further helped the Indian
agencies in getting information about terrorist elements
and Pakistan-based groups
involved in circulation of
FICN operating out of Bangladesh. After the PMs visit,
the two agencies signed a
memorandum of understanding to share intelligence on
fake currency notes and other
terrorist modules on realtime basis.
We will be sending a team
to Bangladesh on October 7 to
investigate the seizure of a

Mirwaiz among worlds 10

influential Muslim politicians
Peerzada Ashiq

Josy Joseph

Bangladesh is being
used as a transit point
by Pakistan to pump
fake currency into
India, say officials

During his air adventure,

Mr. Rust crossed over more
than 400 miles of the Soviet
territory uninterrupted by
the Soviet defence forces. As
a result of his flight that was
interpreted as a triumph by
peace activists and a major
security breach by the
hawks in the Soviet establishment, Aleksandr Koldunov, commander of the Air
Defense Command, was
sacked by the Soviet General
Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. The incident also attracted a rebuke from the
Soviet Politburo targeting
the defence forces for their
intolerable unconcern and
indecision. Marshal Sergey
Sokolov, a rival of Gorbachev, also resigned as a result
of
Mr.
Rusts
peace-flight.
After a year-long stay in
Moscow which included his
trial, Mr. Rust was allowed
to return to West Germany
in August 1988. Three years
later, the Cold War ended
when the Soviet Union col-

lapsed. On October 3, 1990

Germany was reunited. But
25 years later, at the eve of
celebration of German reunification, Mr. Rust feels
that the Cold War has returned, thanks to the worsening political relations
between the EU and Russia.
Twenty-five years after
the end of the Cold War, Mr.
Rust says erosion of mutual
trust defines governmentto-government (G2G) ties in
Europe. That apart, he says
that in recent years, European powers have sacrificed on
legal rights, democratic
freedom
and
minority
rights, hinting that the postCold War promise of freedom and democracy that
were made to the people of
Europe has not been fulfilled. Governments have
been dominated by the corporate entities and citizens
have ceased to matter in
public policy, said Mr. Rust
explaining that political situation in Europe is fast sliding into a crisis mode.

Meanwhile, Muslims in Pir

Panchal Valleys Rajouri
town on Saturday observed a
bandh to protest against alleged beating of a Muslim cop
for ferrying a bovine.
The policeman was attacked when he was carrying
his milch buffalo on Friday.
He was accused of planning
to slaughter the animal.

Hardik Patel, Convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, after

consoling the family of Umesh Patel who committed suicide in support
of the Patel reservation agitation, at Patidar Samaj Vadi in Surat. PHOTO: PTI

Indias climate action targets achievable: expert

Vidya Venkat
NEW DELHI: It is one thing to set

ambitious goals, but quite another thing to achieve them.

But Indias climate action
goals unveiled here officially
on Friday are not only ambitious but also achievable, experts note.
Economist Kirit Parikh,
who led one of the committees formed by the Ministry
of Environment and Forests
to come up with modelling
studies and calculations for
framing Indias INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) said
that the main targets up to
35 per cent cut in emissions
intensity of the GDP and 40
per cent non-fossil fuel energy share by 2030 were both
realisable.
However, as far as Indias
desired economic growth rate
goals are concerned, these
may suffer if necessary technology and financial resources are not provided by
developed countries to sup-

A 35 per cent cut in

emissions intensity of
GDP and the 40 per
cent non-fossil fuel
energy share by 2030
are both realisable, says
economist Kirit Parikh.
port the goals.
Mr. Parikh said that pushing for solar energy, as envisaged in the INDCs, will cost
in terms of initial investments in capacity and infras-

tructure, eight times more

than what it will cost to invest
in coal-fired plants.
Also, the cost of solar power generated for consumption
is higher when compared
with thermal power.
A way out would be to raise
complementary
funds
through the coal cess. India
produces 600 million tonnes
of coal every year and the cess
is pegged at Rs. 300 per
tonne, Mr. Parikh says. That
means, at the current levels of
coal production, India can
raise Rs.1,80,000 million
which could be diverted to
enhancing
green
technologies.

Target not ambitious

Former Union Environment Minister and Congress
leader Jairam Ramesh told
The Hindu that the 40 per
cent non-fossil fuel energy
target was nothing revolutionary, as it is already
around 27 per cent.
What is important is the
solar trajectory which is ex-

pected to increase from 3 Gigawatts now to at least 100

Gigawatts by 2022. It is hugely ambitious but it must get
done. We must learn something from the Germans in
this regard, he said.
He was also glad that the
BJP had finally accepted the
concept of emissions intensity. When I first talked about
it at Copenhagen and thereafter and announced a target
for its reduction by 2020 by
25-40 per cent on 2005 reference levels, I was criticised
bitterly by the BJP for surrendering sovereignty. Now,
it is item number one in our
INDCs portfolio, he said. As
regards the forest targets, Mr.
Ramesh found them laughable, given the way the government
was
liberally
opening up forest areas for
industry.
An analysis by the Centre
for Policy Research has further pointed out that sectoral
targets for emissions cut are
the crux of achieving the
INDCs target.
VJ-VJ

14 |

WORLD
BATTLE FOR KUNDUZ

AMERICAN MILITARY PROMISES TO INVESTIGATE THE INCIDENT

19 killed after U.S. air strike

hits Afghan hospital

n air strike hit a hospital run by

Mdecins Sans Frontirs (Doctors
Without Borders) in the Afghan
city of Kunduz on Saturday, killing
at least 19 people in what the U.S.
military called possible collateral
damage in the battle to oust Taliban insurgents.
At least 12 MSF staff, four adult
patients and three children died,
the group said on Twitter, raising
an earlier estimate of the death toll.
Frantic MSF staff phoned military officials at NATO in Kabul
and Washington after the attack,
and bombs continued to rain down
near the medical facility for nearly
an hour, one official from the aid
group said. At least 37 people were
wounded and many patients and
staff still missing, it added.
The U.S. military promised to investigate the incident, which could
renew concerns over the use of its
air power in the conflict.
Afghan government forces
backed by U.S. air power have
fought to drive the Taliban out of
the northern provincial capital
since the militants seized it six days
ago, in the biggest victory of their
near 14-year insurgency.
One resident, Khodaidad, told
Reuters the Taliban had been using
the hospital buildings for cover
during the fighting on Friday.
I could hear sounds of heavy
gunfire, explosions and airplanes
throughout the night, he added.
There were several huge explosions and it sounded like the roof
was falling on me.
The strike may have resulted in

THE STRIKE MAY HAVE RESULTED IN

COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO A NEARBY
MEDICAL FACILITY ... THIS INCIDENT IS
UNDER INVESTIGATION
COL. BRIAN TRIBUS,
SPOKESPERSON OF U.S. FORCES
IN AFGHANISTAN

Fire burns in part of the Mdecins Sans Frontirs hospital

in the Afghan city of Kunduz after it was hit by a U.S.
air strike on Saturday. The facility is a key medical lifeline
in the region. PHOTO: AFP
collateral damage to a nearby medical facility ... This incident is under
investigation, Col. Brian Tribus,
the spokesperson of the U.S. forces
in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
At the aid groups bombed-out
hospital, one wall of a building had
collapsed, scattering fragments of
glass and wooden door frames, and
three rooms were ablaze, said Saad
Mukhtar, director of public health
in Kunduz.
Almost 200 patients and employees were in the hospital, the
only one in the region that can deal
with major injuries, said MSF,
which raised the death toll to at
least 16 by late on Saturday. We
are deeply shocked by the attack,
the killing of our staff and patients
and the heavy toll it has inflicted on
healthcare in Kunduz, operations
director Bart Janssens said.
MSF said it gave the location of
the hospital to both Afghan and
U.S. forces several times in the past
few months, most recently this
week, to avoid being caught in
crossfire. Reuters

Attacks
possibly
criminal
GENEVA: A suspected U.S. air strike

on a hospital in the Afghan city of

Kunduz that killed nine MSF staff
on Saturday was inexcusable and
possibly criminal, U.N. rights
chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein said.
Prince Zeid called for a full and
transparent investigation, noting
that, "if established as deliberate
in a court of law, an air strike on a
hospital may amount to a war
crime.
MSF said the bombardment
continued for more than 30
minutes after Washington was
informed and that both Afghan and
US officials were given the precise
location of MSF facilities. This
event is utterly tragic, inexcusable
and possibly even criminal, Prince
Zeid said in a statement. AFP

ass shootings occur almost once a day in the

U.S., yet protecting gun
rights seems to concern
Americans more than increasing controls on guns.
On Thursday, a gunman
killed nine people in a community college in Oregon. It
was the 994th gun incident in
which there were four or
more victims (including the
shooter) since the start of
2013, according to the website Mass Shooting Tracker.
The data shows that excluding Thursdays shootings, there have been 375
deaths and 1,089 injuries in
2015 so far. The website began to collect the figures on
known incidents just after 20
children were gunned down
in December 2012 at Sandy
Hook elementary school in
Newtown, Connecticut.
Speaking from Washington after the killing spree,
Barack Obama said: Weve
become numb to this and
he seems to be right. December 2014 marked the first
time in two decades of polling that those feeling strong-

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Japanese man shot dead in Bangladesh

DHAKA: A Japanese citizen
was shot dead by gunmen in a
northern Bangladesh town
on Saturday, the police said,
days after an Italian aid
worker was murdered in an
attack claimed by the Islamic
State group.
The police said the victim,
whom they named as Hoshi
Kunio, aged 66, was riding in
a rickshaw when he was shot
dead in Kaunia town in Rangpur district at about 10.30 am
local time (0430 GMT).
He was travelling to the
town from Rangpur city,
where he had been living for a
while, on a cycle rickshaw
when his vehicle was stopped
by three men riding on a motorcycle, deputy police chief
of Rangpur, Saifur Rahman,
told AFP.
The Bangladesh government sought to allay concerns over the safety of
foreign nationals in the country after the second killing in
a week, saying it was taking
both murders very seriously. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal said the
killings of the two foreigners

Security officers stand at the site in Mahiganj village, Rangpur district, where
Kunio Hoshi was killed on Saturday. This comes days after an Italian aid
worker was murdered in an attack claimed by the Islamic State. PHOTO: AP
appeared to be linked. We see
both the killings are similar.
[In both the incidents] three
killers came on motorcycles
and [they] fired shots from behind with pistols, he said.
The aim of the murder of
innocent people in this way is
to make an attempt to create

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican

LILLE: More than 100 asylum-

dismissed a priest from his

post in a Holy See office on
Saturday after he told a
newspaper he was gay and
urged the Catholic Church
to change its stance on
homosexuality.
Monsignor
Krzystof
Charamsa, 43, was removed
from his position at the
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vaticans doctrinal arm where
he had worked since 2003, a
statement said. Charamsa, a
Polish
theologian,
announced he was gay and had
a partner in a long interview
with Italys Corriere della
Sera newspaper on Saturday.
He later held a news conference with his partner, a
Spanish man, and gay activists at a Rome restaurant.

due to have started.

The Vatican said Charamsas dismissal had nothing to do with his comments
on his personal situation,
which it said merits
respect.
But it said giving the interview and the planned
demonstration was grave
and irresponsible given
their timing on the eve of a
synod of bishops who will
discuss family issues, including how to reach out to
Monsignor Krzysztof
Charamsa (left) and his gays. It said his actions
would subject the synod,
partner leave a
which Pope Francis is due
restaurant after a press to open on Sunday, to unconference in Rome on
due media pressure.
Saturday. PHOTO: AP
The issue of homosexuality and the Church has
They had planned a demon- dominated the aftermath of
stration in front of the Vat- the Popes visit to the Unitican but changed the venue ed States last week.
several hours before it was Reuters

BEIJING: One cloudless morning last month, Col. Liu Mingfu watched on his home
television as tanks, troop carriers and ballistic missiles
rolled past a waving President
Xi Jinping in Tiananmen
Square. The Communist Party was putting on a military
parade, billed as one of the
largest in party history, to
commemorate the defeat of
Japan seven decades earlier.
I felt inspired and proud,
since the parade demonstrated a major powers determination and strength to
safeguard peace, Mr. Liu said
in an interview. Japanese
militarism, the world hegemon and global terrorism
have been threatening the
peace.
The world hegemon reCM
YK

seekers stormed the Channel Tunnel early on Saturday, penetrating a third of

the way through and attacking staff in an incident that
halted overnight traffic.
The attempt to go through
the tunnel from France to
Britain came as the daily
flow of thousands of migrants and refugees flocking
to Europes shores showed
little sign of easing, with
1,68,000 migrants and refugees arriving in September
alone, U.N. figures showed.
Train journeys resumed
Saturday but with delays of
up to three hours.
Eurotunnel, which operates the complex, said the
incident was unprecedented, with migrants aggressively attacking its staff.
AFP

Russian jets bomb Islamic

State targets in Syria
MOSCOW/AMMAN: Russian jets

ly that the rights of

Americans to own guns
should be bolstered were in
the majority, according to
Pew Research. According to
the survey, 52 per cent said it
was more important to protect Americans right to own
guns, in contrast with 46 per
cent who said it was more
important to control ownership of the weapons.
Those supporting gun control were in the majority immediately after the Newtown
shootings, with 51 per cent
backing it in the U.S. in January 2013. However, that
share had dropped by five
percentage points by the end
of 2014. Between those two
surveys, the proportion
agreeing with the idea that
gun ownership protects people from becoming victims of
crime increased from 48 per
cent to 57 per cent.
Part of this seems to be
down to misperception. In a
2014 Gallup survey, 63 per
cent of Americans said they
thought violent crime was increasing despite the rate hovering at near 20-year lows.
Guardian Newspapers
Limited, 2015

fers, of course, to the U.S.,

which the colonel has been
studying for years. For many
Chinese, Mr. Liu, 64, is the
most prominent warriorscholar in the Peoples Liberation Army. His fame rests on
The China Dream, a book
published in 2010 that became a best seller.
It dissected American global dominance and advocated
the need for China to overturn that to secure peace not
just in the region but also
worldwide. Becoming the
strongest nation in the world
is Chinas goal in the 21st century, the colonel wrote.
At the time, he and other
hard-line military thinkers
were dismissed as marginal
voices by many foreign analysts. But two years after the
books publication, Mr. Xi
took power and proclaimed

of the assailants shot him

twice in the chest with pistols
while the other waited with
the motorbike ready to flee,
local police chief Rezaul Karim said, adding four people
had been interrogated over
the murder but none were arrested. AFP

Channel Tunnel
closed after
refugee breach

hit Islamic State targets and

other rebel groups in Syria on
Saturday, on a fourth day of
air strikes by Moscow in support of President Bashar alAssad which have dramatically escalated foreign
intervention in Syria.
Russias air campaign in
Syria, where a U.S.-led air
coalition and fighters on the
ground from regional states
are already entangled in the
four-year-old civil war, has
drawn strong criticism from
the U.S. and its allies.
The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said at
least 39 civilians had been
killed since the start of the
Russian air strikes on
Wednesday. It said 14 fighters, mostly Islamic State militants, had also been killed.
Russia said its planes made
over 20 flights in Syria in the
past 24 hours and targeted
nine IS sites, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Moscow also claimed that
its air strikes had sown panic in IS, forcing some 600
militants to abandon their
positions and head to Europe. Reuters

Chinese colonels hard line seeps into the mainstream

Edward Wong

instability in the country,

Kamal added as he vowed to
bring the killers to book.
Kunio was a frequent visitor to Bangladesh and
worked on a farming project
in Rangpur, about 300 kilometres north of the capital
Dhaka, the police said. Two

Vatican sacks gay priest after

he comes out of the closet

Mass shootings appear

to increase support for
gun ownership in U.S.
George Arnett

VIJAYAWADA

his own China Dream of

restoring the nations greatness, a critical part of which is
expanding the nations military presence in Asia. Now,
the military hard-liners are
looking more mainstream.
It is appropriate then that
the first English edition of
Mr. Lius The China Dream
was released in May by CN
Times Books, a publishing
company based in New York
that was founded by a former
employee of the Beijing municipal propaganda bureau.
Speaking to a reporter in a
restaurant in central Beijing
one afternoon, Mr. Liu laid
out his vision of the biggest
geopolitical rivalry of this
century. There are flames
around Asia, and every place
could be a battlefield in the
future, he said. Thats all
caused by the invisible hand

of the U.S. Without the black

hand of the U.S., Asia would
be more peaceful and stable.
In the colonels eyes, China
finally has a leader who is
bold enough to resist the U.S.
China was once called the
sleeping lion in the East, but
now we have been awakened,
and Xi Jinping is the leading
lion of the lion packs, who
dare to fight anytime.
The biggest threat China
faces today is the military crisis, Mr. Liu said. Theres a
huge gap in the military between China and the U.S.
That message is consistent
with views expressed in recent years by Mr. Xi. Mr. Xi
has said that the military
needs to modernise to make
itself combat ready, and that
the corruption that has weakened the military must be
rooted out.

Corruption has assaulted

the PLA in a rather severe
way, Mr. Liu said, pointing
to, among other ills, the widespread selling of posts.
After growing up in the
eastern Chinese province of
Shandong, Mr. Liu entered
the army in 1969. Ten years
later, he joined the political
department of the Jinan Military Command, eventually
becoming its head. From 1998
until his retirement in 2011,
he taught politics and military strategy at the National
Defense University and became the chief of the schools
Research Institute for Military Buildup. The colonel said
his intellectual interest lies in
Marxist theory and Mao Zedong thought, as well as the
political work of the Chinese military. New York
Times News Service

Obama sees Kremlin

failing in Syria effort
Peter Baker &
Neil MacFarquhar
WASHINGTON: In his first
comments since Russia
began airstrikes on
Syrian targets this week,
U.S. President Obama
said that Moscow was
acting not out of
strength but out of
weakness and predicted
that Russia and Irans
actions would lead only
to a quagmire.
Bristling at criticism of
his own Syria policy, he
rejected domestic
opponents who offer
half-baked ideas that
amount to a bunch of
mumbo-jumbo.
An attempt by Russia
and Iran to prop up Assad
and try to pacify the
population is just going
to get them stuck in a
quagmire and it wont
work, Mr. Obama said

during a news conference

at the White House on
Friday, referring to
President Bashar alAssad of Syria, a longtime ally of both Russia
and Iran.
And they will be there
for a while if they dont
take a different course.
Mr. Obama was left to
confront a deteriorating
situation over which he
seemed to have even less
control than before.
In New York, Secretary
of State John Kerry met
separately with the
Foreign Ministers of
Russia and Iran without
any apparent
breakthrough, while U.S.
allies from Europe and
the Middle East publicly
called on Russia to stop
bombing the moderate
Syrian opposition to
Assad. New York
Times News Service

IS greater threat than Qaeda: Pak.

LONDON: Pakistan Army chief

General Raheel Sharif has said
the Islamic State group is a
greater threat than al-Qaeda.
In Pakistan, even a shadow
of Daesh would not be

allowed, Mr. Sharif said in an

address to The Royal United
Services Institute for Defence
and Security Studies in London
on Friday.
In May, IS claimed the
killings of at least 43 members
of the Ismaili community in the
port city of Karachi. Leaflets
backing the jihadists have been
seen recently in parts of
northwest Pakistan. AFP

Boko Haram kills 18 near Abuja

Col. Liu Mingfu
contends that a better
military is crucial if
China is to meet its goal
of overtaking the United
States as the worlds
strongest nation.

ABUJA: Two explosions that

ripped through the outskirts of
Nigerias capital Abuja left 18
people dead and 41 wounded,
rescue officials said on
Saturday, in the latest
bloodshed blamed on Boko
Haram Islamists.

Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari condemned
the attacks, as did the US
embassy. The blasts took place
late on Friday near a police
station in Kuje and at a bus stop
in Nyanya, in an area previously
targeted by the militants. AFP

PHOTO: THE NEW YORK TIMES

VJ-VJ

| 15

BUSINESS

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Marginal drop in TVS Motors September sales

LIC cuts stake in CPCL

HDFC raises over Rs 10,000 crore

TVS Motor Company reported a 1.67 per cent decline in total

sales at 2.33 lakh units in September against 2.37 lakh units in the
same period last year. PTI

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has lowered its stake in Chennai

Petroleum Corporation (CPCL) to 5.04 per cent by selling two per cent
stake in the company, according to a stock exchange filing. PTI

HDFC on Saturday said it had raised about Rs.10,000 crore

through mix of warrants and non-convertible debentures to
qualied institutional investors. PTI

GLOBAL ECONOMY

WEAK U.S. JOBS DATA FURTHER CLOUDED THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC PICTURE, AND POINTED
TO A MUCH-ANTICIPATED RATE HIKE FROM THE FEDERAL RESERVE BEING DELAYED FURTHER.

NEW DELHI: Following the cut

IMF, central banks in the spotlight

lanked by interest rate decisions in Britain, Japan and Australia, the IMFs annual meeting in Lima takes centre stage
in the calendar next week, with policymakers focusing on Chinas economic
slide and its impact on the rest of the
world.
Activity in Chinas vast factory sector
shrank again in September fuelling fears
that the economy there may be cooling
more rapidly than thought just a few
months ago, with a reverberating impact
on emerging and developed economies.
Meanwhile, unexpectedly weak U.S.
jobs data out on Friday further clouded
the global economic picture, and pointed
to a much-anticipated rate hike from the
Federal Reserve being delayed further.
Equity markets worldwide have been
falling with Wall Street just recording its
worst quarter since 2011, so IMF delegates, primarily central bank governors
and nance ministers from around the
globe, will seek reassurances from China
that it can smooth, if not halt, its slide.
Driven by fears of a sharp slowdown,
they may delay the structural adjustments in the coming two years and use
the old normal approach to support the
economy, that is, rely on credit expansion and public investment, Nordea
economist Amy Yuan Zhuang said.
Despite the nancial market turmoil,
we still see a soft landing as the most
plausible scenario in the coming two
years, she added.
The worlds biggest economy, the U.S.
is one of the least exposed to China and
minutes of the Feds September rate

DRIVEN BY FEARS OF A SHARP SLOWDOWN,

THEY MAY DELAY THE STRUCTURAL
ADJUSTMENTS IN THE COMING TWO YEARS
AND USE THE OLD NORMAL APPROACH TO
SUPPORT THE ECONOMY, THAT IS, RELY ON
CREDIT EXPANSION AND PUBLIC INVESTMENT
- AMY YUAN ZHUANG
NORDEA ECONOMIST

1
2
3
4

International Monetary Fund

meets in Lima
Chinese slowdown set to
dominate agenda

Central banks meet in

Britain, Japan, Australia

The Bank of England (BoE), not keen to be the first to hike, will
stay put next Thursday and analysts still expect just one rate setter to
vote for a rise, leaving the bank on course to make its first
move well after the Fed.
meeting, due on Thursday, will give a
strong signal of whether a hike, the rst
in nearly a decade, could still come this
year.
The U.S. stands out for its relatively
low exposure to the foreign sector,
Credit Suisse said.
Not only is direct domestic consumption and investment low, but even within investment, the amount done to
support export capacity is likely much
lower than the other economies, given
the U.S.s low export share.
Still, some analysts said the minutes
could be less hawkish than recent commentary from top officials like Fed Chair
Janet Yellen or New York Fed President
William Dudley, who had said the U.S.
was on track to raise rates this year.
Expectation for a less hawkish tone

were enhanced by the weak employment

data.

BoE, BoJ, RBA

The Bank of England (BoE), not keen
to be the rst to hike, will stay put next
Thursday and analysts still expect just
one rate setter to vote for a rise, leaving
the bank on course to make its rst move
well after the Fed.
In the wake of the U.S. payrolls data,
markets pushed back their bets on the
timing of the BoEs rst interest rate
hike since 2007 by several months.
It was now priced in for around early
2017, said John Wraith, head of U.K.
rates strategy at UBS.
When you get a number like that
(payrolls) which shocks peoples expectations about the Fed, it really does have

More public sector

banks cut lending rates

Fed due to release Sept

meeting minutes

a direct spillover to the outlook for the

U.K., Mr. Wraith said.
The fear is that the slowdown everywhere else, in China and emerging markets, is going to spill over into economies
that up until now have been doing okay,
like the U.S. and the UK.
Japan appears to be on the brink of a
recession and the Bank of Japans tankan survey indicates worsening conditions. Still, the data are not expected to
be enough to trigger more stimulus
when the bank meets on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
Instead, the BoJ may wait at least until its late October meeting, when economic forecasts are updated but more
likely until early next year, when the
impact of the Chinese slowdown is better gauged. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will also keep rates on hold on
Tuesday and possibly for all of next year,
satised that the currencys slide to its
weakest level since mid-2009 has eased
conditions enough to soften the impact
of the bust following its once-in-a-century mining boom.
The only scenario we could see the
RBA thinking about another policy easing would be a sharp deterioration in the
global growth outlook and an accompanying deterioration in the local economy
and jobs market, Commonwealth Bank
said in a note to clients.
At this stage, the probability of this
scenario developing appears small and
probably would require an economic
meltdown in China and other Asian
economies, CBA added. Reuters

in benchmark shot-term
lending (repo) rate by 0.50
per cent by the Reserve Bank
of India in its bi-monthly policy review, more banks have
announced a reduction in
their benchmark lending
rates.
State-run Syndicate Bank
and United Bank of India on
Saturday cut their benchmark lending rates by up to
0.30 per cent, making home
and auto loans cheaper for
new as well as existing customers.
While United Bank of India
has reduced base rate to 9.65
per cent from 9.90 per cent
with effect from October 12,
Syndicate Bank reduced its
lending rate to 9.70 per cent.
Allahabad Bank has informed the stock exchanges
that it has cut its base rate by
25 basis points.
Consequently, the base
rate will be reduced to 9.70
per cent from existing 9.95
per cent with effect from October 5.
Central Bank of India too
has reduced base rate by 0.25
per cent to 9.70 per cent effective from October 8.

Allahabad Bank has

informed the stock
exchanges that it has
cut its base rate by 25
basis points.
For term deposits between
46-269 days, the interest rate
has been lowered by 0.50 per
cent while for 269 days3
years the reduction is by 0.25
per cent.
Another public sector lender, Oriental Bank of Commerce has also reduced
interest rate on xed deposits
by 0.25 per cent across some
maturities.
Interest rate on term deposits between 91 days to 10
years will be lower by 0.25 per
cent effective October 5.
Union Bank of India announced a 0.35 per cent reduction in its base rate to 9.65
per cent. The new base rate
will be applicable from October 5, the bank said in a
statement.
Indian Bank, for its part,
cut its base rate by 0.30 per
cent to 9.65 per cent, effective
October 7. PTI

CIL misses September

output target
NEW DELHI: State-owned Coal

India recorded an output of

37.17 million tonnes in September, missing the target by
4.1 per cent. The target for
September was 38.77 million
tonnes, Coal India (CIL) said
in a regulatory ling. The government has set one billion
tonne production goal for this
public sector undertaking by
2020. The corresponding gure for the current scal is
550 million tonnes. Coal India missed the production
target for 2014-15 by three

per cent, recording an output

of 494.23 million tonnes. It
accounts for over 80 per cent
of the domestic coal production. PTI

Google Inc has morphed Gold zooms Jaitley sees India as new Maruti board approves pact with
into Alphabet Inc
engine of global growth Suzuki arm for Gujarat plant
NEW DELHI: Snapping its ve-

BENGALURU: Alphabet replaced

Google as the publicly traded
company that will house Googles search and web advertising
businesses,
maps,
YouTube and its moonshot
ventures such as driverless
cars.
Googles class A shares and
class C shares will automatically convert into the same
number of Alphabet class A
shares and class C shares and
start trading on the Nasdaq
from Monday. The ticker
symbols will not change.
The structural overhaul,
announced in August, is intended to separate the companys core businesses from
ventures such as the driverless cars, glucose-monitoring
contact lenses and Internetconnected high-altitude balloons. Googles Sidewalk
Labs, a company dedicated to
coming up with technologies
to improve urban city infrastructure such as a free WiFi
programme, will also be a part
of the Alphabet business.
The core businesses will be
called Google and operate as a

day falling streak, gold rebounded by Rs.660, its biggest one-day surge this year,
to trade at Rs.26,810 per ten
gram at the bullion market on
Saturday.
The precious metal, after
ve sessions of losses, recovered 2.1 per cent to $1,136.60
an ounce in New York on Friwholly-owned subsidiary of day as the U.S. payrolls rose
Alphabet. Sundar Pichai will less than expected in Septemhead Google. Alphabet will be ber and wages stagnated,
run by Google co-founder weakening the case for the
Larry Page and each of its Federal Reserve to raise inbusinesses will have its own terest rates this year.
chief executive. Starting from
Silver also rose sharply by
the companys fourth quarter Rs.1,200 to Rs.35,800 per kg
in January, Alphabet will on increased off take by inhave two reporting units dustrial units and coin makGoogle and all other Alphabet ers. PTI
businesses taken as a whole.
Investors have cheered the
move, saying it will give them
BULLION RATES
greater visibility into the October 03 rates in rupees with
nancial performance of Gooprevious rates in brackets
gles highly protable core
Chennai
businesses.
Bar Silver (1 kg)
36,180 (34,060)
Alphabets businesses will
Retail (1 g)
38.70 (36.45)
also include connected home
24 ct gold (10 g)
26,660 (26,240)
products maker Nest, venture
22 ct gold (1 g)
2,493 (2,453)
Delhi
capital arm Google Ventures,
Silver
35,800 (34,600)
and Google Capital, which inStandard gold
26,810 (26,150)
vests in larger tech compaSovereign
22,300 (22,100)
nies. Reuters

Yuthika Bhargava

NEW DELHI: Carmaker Maruti

NEW DELHI: Ahead of his visit to

the U.S. and Peru to attend the

IMF-World Bank meetings,
Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley has reiterated that India is ready to be one of the new
drivers of growth of the world
economy, especially in the
backdrop of China entering a
period of economic slowdown.
Mr. Jaitley also called for businesses worldwide to invest in
India, which is growing faster
than the rest of the world and
has the potential to grow much
faster. There are also no serious political roadblocks
In an interview to CNBC,
Mr. Jaitely said: I see an important opportunity for India.
The relative slowdown in China does not necessarily impact
India negatively The world
certainly needs more than one
engine to pull it, and till recently, China has been shouldering a bulk of the global
growth. However, China
would still shoulder the largest
growth, but the world would
need other reliable hands to

Arun Jaitley says India

is growing faster than
the rest of the world.
lead the growth, he said.
He admitted that Indian underperformed in manufacturing, but now it has a good
opportunity to attract companies looking for alternative
manufacturing hubs.
We need a lot of investments and there are obvious
limitations to domestic investments Weve made investment proposal clearances
much faster, our environmental decisions have become
much faster, he said.

Suzuki Indias board has approved a contract manufacturing agreement for a period
of up to 30 years proposed to
be signed with an arm of parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC)
for the upcoming plant in
Gujarat.
The agreement is proposed
to be signed between Maruti
Suzuki India (MSIL) and Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), a
wholly-owned subsidiary of
SMC, which will implement
the Gujarat project, subject to
regulatory and minority shareholder approvals.
subject to this arrangement
being approved by the minority shareholders of MSIL and
regulatory approvals, if any,
MSIL said in a BSE ling.
The contract manufacturing agreement shall continue
for a period of 15 years to be
automatically extended for a
further period of 15 years at
the end of the initial period
without any further action or
documentation on the part of
either party, unless terminated by the parties by mutual

agreement, as per the new

proposed agreement.
After the expiry of an aggregate period of 30 years
from the commencement
date, MSIL and SMG may mutually discuss and agree to extend the period of this
agreement, the contract
agreement document said.
MSIL is expected to soon go
for the much-delayed minority shareholders voting on allowing parent Suzuki to own
and invest in the Gujarat plant
although it has not xed a time
for the same.
MSI had initially planned to
set up a new plant in Gujarat,
its third, to meet growing demand. However, In January
last year, parent Suzuki Motor
Corporation announced that
it would invest $488 million to
build the Gujarat plant.
Opposing the move, Marutis institutional investors approached capital markets
regulator the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI), seeking its intervention to
safeguard the interests of minority shareholders.

Private sector mutual funds

and insurance companies,
which own almost 7 per cent
of the company, led the opposition. Later, under pressure
from institutional investors,
Maruti decided to seek the approval of minority shareholders after tweaking some of
the earlier proposals for the
Gujarat plant, which SMC had
decided to take over.
The Gujarat plant is envisaged to have a total installed
capacity of 7.5 lakh units annually. It is expected to be operational by May 2017. At
present, MSILs two facilities
at Gurgaon and Manesar have
a total production capacity of
1.5 million units annually.
Under the new agreement,
SMG shall operate on a noprot and no-loss principle,
manufacture and sell the
products to MSIL in consideration for the price of the
products in accordance with
the order from Maruti.
Moreover, SMG shall not
directly supply or assign the
products to any other third
party in any manner. PTI

Reserve Bank of Indias surprise rate cut puts its long-term credibility at risk
Himadri Bhattacharaya &
Sivaprakasam Sivakumar

he dollar rose on no news. This was

the concluding sentence of a mock
overnight forex market report
penned by economist Jacob Frankel
about three decades back. The Indian
nancial markets rose handsomely on
the very positive news of a surprise
50 basis points cut in the policy rate
by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on
Tuesday. Among others, the price of
10-year government security moved
higher, with its yield falling by about
17 basis points over the following 48
hours.
In nancial markets, as in life,
surprises are rare, by denition.
Major central banks, with the
exception of the Peoples Bank of
China, perhaps, tweak their policy
rates by 25 basis points at one go on
most occasions.
A 50-basis point rate cut can
happen under either of the following
circumstances:
One, when a central bank comes to
the conclusion that it should have cut
the policy rate more in the past,
particularly in the last review. And,
CM
YK

therefore, it seeks to make amends

for the missed opportunity. By doing
so, the central bank wants to be sure
that it is not left behind the curve
to use jargon. Two, when fresh data
coming out since the last review
clearly demonstrate that the
economy is on a steep downward
trajectory, particularly in terms of
output, ination and employment.
Clearly, a decision to cut the policy
rate by 50 basis points must be
backed by a whole host of relevant
data and serious analysis. To be sure,
a surprise cut in rate cannot be driven
by common sense alone.
What conclusions are one led to
when the above framework is applied
to evaluate the RBIs latest action?
RBI expects CPI ination to be a
shade better than the target of 6 per
cent by the end of the current scal
and would strive to bring it further
down to 5 per cent in scal 2017-18.
Ination expectations, both for the
short- and long-term continue to be
high. Growth projection for the
current scal at 7.4 per cent, though
slightly less than 7.6 per cent
projected earlier, is still impressive
reecting the recovery underway.

OPINION
The monetary policy report clearly
states, Services ination has been
more persistent relative to goods
ination. The cost of education and
healthcare have been growing at
double digit rates hurting the middle
class as well as the pensioners, and it
is here the ination expectations get
hardcore. The governments scal
position is unlikely to improve for the
better in the near future, what with
more payouts on account of OROP
(One Rank One Pension)and the 7th
pay commissions recommendations.
One wonders, how a strong
accommodative signal is conducive to
achieving disination, particularly
when ination expectations remain
high and more or less unchanged
since the last review in April, 2015?
Real interest rate, if calculated on the
basis of expected ination as revealed
in surveys (and not what RBI expects)
will be much below 1.5-2 per cent
range (actually negative), as
envisaged by RBI.
Since the last review, one has come
across strong opinions on the need to

In financial markets, as in life,

surprises are rare, by
definition. Major central
banks, with the exception of
the Peoples Bank of China,
perhaps, tweak their policy
rates by 25 basis points at one
go on most occasions.
lower rates with India Inc. projecting
as if the interest rate is the only
determinant of their investment
decision and the governments chief
economic adviser highlighting that
India may be headed towards
deation based on WPI readings,
implying high interest rates are
throttling growth. Governor Rajan,
who took the reins of RBI in 2013 at a
time when the rupee was in a free fall,
had won the condence of
international investors that RBI will
be committed to rules driven policy
making with utmost transparency.
The average CPI ination between
2006 and 2013 was 9 per cent and
although several other factors
contributed to lowering of ination

subsequently, Dr. Rajans role in

establishing the credibility based on
sound ination targeting monetary
framework was the cornerstone for
the new course charted for Indias
macroeconomic policy.
In 2015, Dr. Rajan runs the risk of
losing this hard-earned credibility by
yielding to market appeals for
lowering rates. It will take a long-

term credible commitment from RBI

to low and stable ination rather than
sharp shifts in policy to spur growth.
Central bankers in advanced
economies have been trying to use
monetary policy to substitute for the
lack of implementation of hard
structural reforms and painful
adjustments by their governments. It
will not work. Hopefully, Dr. Rajan
does not emulate his peers in
advanced economies and sticks to the
core mandate of price stability and
independence of monetary policy
decisions. One often hears that the
long-term vision of Dr. Rajan is to set
the stage for sustainable high growth
for India with structurally lower
ination, and with less dependence
on subsidy and largesse and
discretionary intervention in the
nancial sector. This vision must
remain intact and be pursued
consistently.
Mr. Himadri Bhattacharaya is
Senior Advisor,
Riskontroller Global, U.S.
Mr. Sivaprakasam Sivakumar, is
Managing Director,
Argonaut Global Capital LLC, U.S.
VJ-VJ

16 |
Apollo Hospital launches
Homecare services
Yunus Yacoob Lasania
HYDERABAD: Having started

nine hospitals already this

year, Apollo Hospitals will also start operations in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Vizag soon,

taking the total number of

beds it has to about 10,000,
said Dr. Prathap C. Reddy,
chairman of the corporate
chain, here on Saturday.
Launching the hospitals
Homecare operations here,

Invests Rs.1,400 cr in expansion

HYDERABAD: Apollo
Hospitals is currently
investing Rs.1,400 crore for
setting up four hospitals, a
few clinics and homecare
services in the country.
The four hospitals will
come up in Mumbai,
Bengaluru, Guwahati and
Visakhapatnam, Joint
Managing Director Apollo
hospitals, Sangita Reddy,
said. It was Rs.1,400 crore
investment including the
Guwahati facility (besides

three other hospitals) and

Homecare investments
made in clinics during last
year, Ms. Reddy told
reporters on the sidelines
of the launch of Apollo
Homecare operations here.
Earlier, group chairman
Prathap C Reddy said
Apollo Hospitals currently
has 9,000 beds and is
expected to cross 10,000
once the new hospitals
commence operations in a
few months. PTI

Dr. Reddy said that the latest

venture was initiated to take
care of patients, post-surgery.
Also, bed occupation is going
up to 80 per cent. What took
us time (to start) was the IT,
as we did not want software
from America or Japan, he
mentioned, while unveiling
the logo and website of Apollo
Homecare.
Under Apollo Homecare,
the hospital chain will provide post-operation care for
patients to help them restore
normalcy in their lives. Mr.
Reddy also said that the cost
of the new services were reasonable. We are never
cheap, we want to provide the
best and there is a cost to it,
he further stated, adding that
Homecare services would be
launched in Hyderabad, Delhi
and Chennai now, and would
be extended to 13 more cities
in the near future.

Singapore Airlines makes offer

for premier economy class
Lalatendu Mishra
MUMBAI: Singapore Airlines

has offered discounts in

Economy and Premier Economy class tickets to mark the
introduction of its new Premium Economy cabin class
that would be available on the
Delhi and Mumbai routes
starting from October 25,
2015 and January 2, 2016 respectively. For members of
its frequent flyer programme,
both existing and new, the
discount is between Rs.5,000
and Rs.15,000 provided
someone books at its road
shows in Delhi and Mumbai.
Tickets in the Premium
Economy class, which are 45
to 60 per cent costlier than
economy class, are available
on the Airbus A380 services
from both Delhi and Mumbai
to Singapore and onwards to
Sydney, Hong Kong, Auck-

This new class is

being introduced after
a two-year
development
programme.
land, Frankfurt and Los Angeles, a top official of the
airline said.
The Premium Economy
Class, a category between
Economy and Business Class,
will be progressively introduced across the airlines
global network on 19 Airbus
A380s, 19 Boeing 777-300ERs
and the first 20 Airbus A350s.
This new class with seats
having more leg space and recline is being introduced after
a two-year development programme and an investment of
about $80 million. Our decision to introduce Premium

Economy is in response to the

feedback received from our
customers which highlighted
the increasing global acceptance for this new cabin class,
said David Lau, General Manager, India, Singapore Airlines, while unveiling the
seats here.
The airline on Saturday
showcased the Premium
Economy seats to its customers in Mumbai and the discounts are available on spot
bookings till Sunday. A similar offer will be made in Delhi
on October 10 and 11, 2015.
Besides, flyers booking a
Premium Economy return
ticket from Mumbai or Delhi
to Singapore will receive a
complimentary,
one-way
Premium Economy ticket on
Vistara, the domestic airline
operated by the Tatas and
Singapore Airlines in a joint
venture.

BUSINESS

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

PRODUCERS IN A FIX

INDIA HAS BEEN PUSHING MILLS TO SELL SUGAR IN THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET
AND USE THE PROCEEDS TO CLEAR HUGE DEBTS

Sugar export boost plan looks flawed: traders

I
ndia's bid to compel producers to
export millions of tonnes of surplus sugar will fail without significant subsidies or at least
penalties for failing to comply,
trade and industry sources said
on Friday.
India has been pushing mills to
sell sugar in the international
market and use the proceeds to
clear huge debts they owe farmers for sugarcane.
The world's number two producer, announced new rules last
month making it compulsory for
sugar producers to increase exports to at least four million
tonnes in the present crushing
season, to cut stockpiles.
Despite a rally in raw sugar futures to a 4-1/2-month peak this
week, driven by a Brazilian gasoline price rise which was expected to boost demand for The recent rally in local prices has made exports less
cane-based ethanol, raw sugar fu- lucrative for sugar mills. A labourer unloads sacks of
tures prices were still below the sugar from a truck at a wholesale food market.
13.5-14 cents per pound area seen
as more likely to spur Indian
The government has not yet
The Government announced
exports.
made clear whether it will extend
new rules last month making
There is no export parity at
subsidies in the 2015-16 started
it compulsory for sugar
the current level. The governon October 1.
producers to increase exports
ment has to provide subsidy to
Traders said the government
to at least four million tonnes
make exports viable. Without
plan also lacked teeth.
subsidy, mills cant bear addiThe government has not
The government gave a
tional losses, said Sanjeev Badrawn
up penalties for non-comsubsidy of Rs. 4,000 a
bar, Managing Director of
pliance, a senior Western anatonne for exports of raw sugar
Maharashtra State Co-operative
lyst said.
in 2014-15 (sugar year OctoberSugar Factories Federation.
The recent rally in local prices
September) to help cut
The government gave a subhas made exports less lucrative
stockpiles after five years of
sidy of Rs. 4,000 a tonne for exfor mills, the dealer said.
surplus output.
ports of raw sugar in 2014-15
Indian sugar futures have
The government has not yet
(sugar year October-September)
surged a quarter since falling to
made clear whether it will
to help cut stockpiles after five
their lowest level in over six year
extend subsidies in the 2015-16
years of surplus output.
in late July.
started on October 1.
I contacted more than a dozen
Tom McNeill, director of Ausfactories in Maharashtra to know
tralia-based analyst Green Pool,
predicted more modest Indian
whether they can supply raw sug- net sugar exports of 1.8 million
ar for exports in the next few tonnes in 2015-16, adding
months. No one is ready to pro- that he was always a bit sceptical
duce raws for exports. They first regarding the grand plans in
want to know whether govern- India.
ment is going to give them an
In the last crushing season
export
subsidy,
said
a
Mumbaiwhich
began on Oct. 1, 2014, In- SANJEEV BABAR,
based dealer with global trading dia exported 1.3 million tonnes.
MD, MAHARASHTRA STATE CO-OPERATIVE
SUGAR FACTORIES FEDERATION
firm.
Reuters

2
3

THERE IS NO EXPORT PARITY AT THE

CURRENT LEVEL. THE GOVERNMENT
HAS TO PROVIDE SUBSIDY TO MAKE
EXPORTS VIABLE

Banks given 15
days to disburse
soft loan to mills

NEW DELHI: Government has given

15 more days to banks for disbursing

Rs.1,900 crore soft loans to sugar
mills to help them clear cane
arrears to farmers that total over
Rs.12,000 crore.
Out of the Rs.6,000 crore soft
loan approved by government to bail
out the sugar industry, mills applied
to avail loans for only Rs.2,700
crore. However, banks have been
able to disburse only Rs.800 crore
till the September 30 deadline and
the rest Rs.1,900 crore is still to be
given.
The Centre had in June approved
Rs.6,000 crore soft loan for the
2014-15 season (OctoberSeptember) to improve mills
liquidity position, which has been
affected due to lower sugar prices
and high cane rates.
As per the policy, banks were
asked to disburse soft loan by
September-end. Mills that cleared
50 per cent of their outstanding
dues to farmers by August 31 were
eligible for the loan.
Mills applied for a soft loan of
Rs.2,700 crore and the banks were
to disburse this amount by
September 30. However, banks have
disbursed only Rs.800 crore.
Keeping the interest of farmers
in mind, banks have been given time
till October 15 to disburse the rest
Rs.1,900 crore loan to mills, a
senior Food Ministry official told PTI.
The government will bear interest
burden up to 10 per cent simple
interest or actual rate of interest
charged by the bank, whichever is
less for maximum of one year by
way of interest subvention.
Sugarcane arrears, which stood
at Rs.21,000 crore in April this year,
have come down to Rs.12,248 crore
at the end of the 2014-15 season, as
per the government data. PTI

Air India
promotes
San Francisco
flight with offer
Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Air India, which will

introduce a direct flight connecting New Delhi and San

Francisco from December,
has offered complementary
domestic Executive (Business) Class return tickets for
First Class and Business
Class passengers who would
be booking in this new sector.
This flight, Air Indias longest ever, was announced by
Prime Minister Narandra
Modi during his visit to San
Francisco last month to provide easy connectivity for the
growing number of information technology professionals
and members of the start-up
community.
The offer is available on
tickets booked between October 1, 2015 and January 15,
2016, which can be availed on
travel between December 2,
2015 and January 31, 2016.
Applicable taxes will be paid
by the passenger. The passenger may also give the award
ticket to any of his nominee,
Air India said in a statement
on Saturday.
Air India will deploy a Boeing 777 in this long haul route.
How profitable would be
Air Indias new international
destination is something to
be seen. Currently Air India
operates daily flights to New
York and Chicago.

CM
YK

VJ-VJ

THE HINDU

| 17

SPORT

VIJAYAWADA

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Telecast schedule
Rugby: World Cup, Sony Six, 6.30 p.m. & 9 p.m.

Alguersuari retires

Venus wins Wuhan Open

Former Formula One driver Jaime Alguersuari, who raced for Toro
Rosso from 2009 to 2011, has announced that he is retiring from auto
racing at the age of 25

Venus Williams won the WTA Wuhan Open, her 47th WTA career title, on
Saturday when she defeated Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 3-0 (retd)

POSTIGA STARS IN
OPENING-DAY BLOCKBUSTER
The Portuguese nets a brace as
Atletico beat Chennai 3-2
S. Sudarsan

he blockbuster xture lived up to its

billing with Atletico de Kolkata registering
a
hard-fought 3-2
victory over Chennaiyin FC at
the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Saturday.
Both sides battled with endeavour and energy throughout the match.
Defending champion Atletico had to thank its marquee
player and Hero of the match
Helder Postiga, who proved
his worth by scoring a brace.
The rst goal came in the
13th minute when Chennaiyin FC goalkeeper Edel Apoula
failed to collect a whipping
cross from skipper Borja Fernandez and dropped the ball
on to the path of the Portuguese. Postiga had an open
goal in front of him and
stabbed the ball home.

Coming alive
But, it was the home side
that came close to scoring in
the initial stages of the match.
The rst burst of penetration
and attacking intent came as
early as the third minute
when Elano Blumer and Raphael Augusto, exchanging a
neat one-two, found former
ATK player Fikru in the box.
However, the Ethiopian was
wayward in his attempt.
The equaliser came in the
31st minute after several raids
to the rival box. Chennaiyin
skipper Elano Blumers wonderful chip found Fikru in the
box, but the latter headed it
straight to Amrinder Singh.
The goalkeeper palmed it
away, but the ball found Jeje
Lalpekhlua who had an open
goal. Both keepers nished
the half without any further
incident.
There was no shortage of
entertainment in the second-

half as well. Atletico coach

Antonio Habas was spot on
while retaining the services of
mideld-general Fernandez.
Equipped with a dangerous
shot, the trickery to hoodwink
the defenders, and a superb
vision for the pass, the former
Real Madrid player bossed the
mideld along with Javi Lara.
The domination fetched
the lead when Postiga latched
on to a slapdash back-pass
from Bernard Mendy in the
70th minute. But, he was
stretchered off immediately
with a knee injury.

Its Valdo!
The champion enhanced
the lead when Hume was
freed on the left by Lara. He
raced to the byline and sent
in an inch-perfect pass. Valdo rose the highest and headed into the right corner in the
76th minute.
ATK could have put the
match to bed had Lara converted the penalty in the
79th minute. The Chennaiyin FC goalkeeper made
amends by diving to his right
and making a brilliant save.
The tactical tweaks and
substitutions in the secondhalf hinted at a riposte, but
Chennaiyin never found the
right blend. The host managed to reduce the margin in
the 89th minute through an
Elano penalty.
Unfortunately, for him
and Chennaiyin FC it was
just a footnote in a contest
that had ended 15 minutes
earlier.
Earlier, a bevy of stars, including Amitabh Bachchan,
Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai
Bachchan and Alia Bhatt,
dominated the glitzy opening
ceremony of the second edition of the ISL.
The result:
Chennaiyin FC 2 (Jeje 31, Elano
89-pen) lost to Atletico de Kolkata 3
(Postiga 13, 70, Valdo 76).

SALAAM NAMASTE! Helder Postiga (centre) was in the thick of things as Atletico de Kolkata began its
title defence with a win. PHOTO: R. RAGU

INTERVIEW

STEPHEN BYWATER

Taking to keeping like a fish to water

Stan Rayan
KOCHI: When he took to football at

the age of seven, it did not take long

for Stephen Bywater to realise where
he felt comfortable.
Im from a family of goalkeepers,
both my dad and granddad were
goalkeepers. My dad played for
Leeds and my grandfather for Luton
Town which was one of the best
teams in the country at that time,
the Englishman, the new
Kerala Blasters goalkeeper in
the Indian Super League, told
The Hindu at the Crowne
Plaza here on Saturday.
Goalkeeping runs in my
blood, its a passion.
The Blasters had a
goalkeeper, former World
Cupper David James, as
its marquee player
in the ISLs rst
edition last year,
and the
Englishman did a

good job carrying the team to the

nal.
Will that put pressure on
Bywater? I think the only pressure
in life is tyre pressure, said the
former under-21 England star in jest,
almost brushing away the worry.
Im here to be myself, Im here to
play well. Last season was last
season.
Two things inuenced the 34year-olds arrival in India. The
big attraction to come to India
is the gaffer (Peter Taylor).
In England, hes a very
talented and respected
coach, said Bywater, who
played for the Premier
League clubs, Derby and
West Ham United, in the late
nineties and mid-2000.

Amazing club
Before
coming
here, I
spoke to

Stephen Pearson (the Blasters

central midelder last year) and he
said this was an amazing club,
amazing tournament, and he was a
big inuence in me coming here. So,
its rst the gaffer and then Stephen
Pearson.
But, there was a bit of a shock
when he landed in the country.
I could not drink tap water! But I
think the Indian people are very
nice. The weather was hot but thats
not the problem now. I see a big
passion for football here, I love that.
I thought it would be cricket here.
Bywater, who became a pro at 17
and who grew up with stars like Rio
Ferdinand and Frank Lampard at
West Ham, has 120 clean sheets
from 352 matches in his club career.
He is thrilled with the tremendous
support for the Blasters here. The
support for the team is huge here.
Not many English teams have this
support. Im grateful to be here, I
want to enjoy, and enjoy it by
winning.

Can protg Carlos

upstage Zico?
Ashwin Achal
MARGOA: Having made signicant personnel changes
in the off-season, FC Goa
and Delhi Dynamos hope to
start their Indian Super
League (ISL) campaigns in
right earnest when they face
off here on Sunday.
FC Goa, which reached
the seminal last year, is focussed on grabbing better
returns this time around. To
achieve this end, coach Zico
has brought in nearly 20
new faces, including seven
Brazilians.
Zico, however, dismissed
suggestions that he bears a
fondness for footballers
from his home country.
These questions about the
number of Brazilians in our
team have to stop. Why this
prejudice? I do not know
why this question pops up
so often, he said at a press
conference
here
on
Saturday.
Big things are also expected from Spanish midelder
Jofre
Mateu
Gonzalez, who was part of
the Atletico de Kolkata
squad which won the inaugural edition.
Delhi Dynamos nished
fth last year, and it too
wants to step it up a notch.
Former Champions League
winners Florent Malouda
and John Arne Riise have
been brought in, while
striker Adil Nabi has arrived
on loan from West Bromwich Albion to much cheer.
The galaxy of big names is
bound to add to the excitement on the night, but a
positive result in this match
as well as the long-term
spoils could well go to the
team which functions as a
well-oiled machine.
This view was echoed by
Goas new marquee player,
Lucio. The championship
cannot be won by an individual, it can only be won by
a team, the 2002 World
Cup winner said.
An interesting off-theeld battle is also on the
cards. Delhis managercum-player Roberto Carlos
makes no secret of his admiration for his opposite number, Zico. Not only was Zico
an idol for a young Carlos
growing up in Brazil, the

Zico and Carlos (in

pic) worked together as
coach and ward during
the latters time at
Fenerbahce
two also worked together as
coach and ward during Carloss time at Turkish club
Fenerbahce.
Zico was not just my
coach at Fenerbahce, but also a father-gure to me.
This match is not just a
clash between a student and
teacher, but also between a
father and son, Carlos
stated.
The man with a golden
left-foot mentioned that he
is available to take the eld
on Sunday as a player, but
insisted that he will only
compete a few minutes per
game.
Zico, naturally, expects
no favours from his protege.
This will be very competitive. Not just Goa, every
other team wants to win the
title too, he said.

Southampton
stuns Chelsea
LONDON: Chelseas troubled season took another turn for the
worse when Southampton inicted a fourth loss in eight
games on Jose Mourinhos men
in the English Premier League
on Saturday.
Southampton seized on defensive frailties to win 3-1 at
Stamford Bridge, leaving Chelsea only four points above the
relegation zone.

Five-star Aguero

THE WINNER: Sevilla's Vicente Iborra (left) celebrates after scoring past
Barcelona's goalkeeper Claudio Bravo on Saturday. PHOTO: REUTERS

The results: Sevilla 2 (Krohn-Dehli

52, Iborra 58) bt Barcelona 1 (Neymar
74-pen); Granada 1 (Piti 65) drew with
Deportivo La Coruna 1 (Fajr 25).

The results: Premier League:

Chelsea 1 (Willian 10) lost to Southampton 3 (Davis 43, Mane 60, Pelle
72); Aston Villa 0 lost to Stoke 1 (Arnautovic 55); Bournemouth 1 (Murray 28)
drew with Watford 1 (Ighalo 45); Crystal
Palace 2 (Bolasie 68, Cabaye 89-pen)
bt West Brom 0; Manchester City 6
(Aguero 42, 49, 50, 60, 62, de Bruyne
53) bt Newcastle 1 (Mitrovic 18); Norwich 1 (Mbokani 68) lost to Leicester 2
(Vardy 28-pen, Schlupp 47); Sunderland 2 (Fletcher 10, Lens 22) drew with
West Ham 2 (Jenkinson 45+1, Payet
60).
Bundesliga: Monchengladbach 2
(Nordtvelt 76, Traore 79) bt Wolfsburg
0; Hertha Berlin 3 (Kalou 17, Ibisevic
77, 79) bt Hamburg 0; Hoffenheim 2
(Volland 33-pen, 77) bt Stuttgart 2 (Kliment 64, Werner 90).
Serie A: Carpi 2 (Padelli 55-og, Matos 72) bt Torino 1 (Lopez 75-pen).

Reuters

AFP

Sevilla hands Barca another defeat

MADRID: Champion Barcelona
suffered its second defeat in
three matches in La Liga on
Saturday with Michael KrohnDehli scoring and setting up another goal in a 2-1 victory for
Sevilla.
Denmark
international
Krohn-Dehli tucked
the ball home after 52
minutes following a
pass from Kevin Gameiro to give Sevilla
the lead and then provided a
cross for Vicente Iborra to nod
in six minutes later.
Barca hit the woodwork on
four occasions but luck was not
on its side as it lost its second
consecutive away game followCM
YK

ing its 4-1 defeat by Celta Vigo,

while for Sevilla it was some
revenge for the European Super Cup loss in August.
Neymar struck the post with
a free-kick after 23 minutes,
with the ball then striking the
woodwork again after rebounding off keeper Sergio
Rico, and running
across the goal line just
out of the reach of Gerard Pique.
Suarez also red against the
crossbar with a curling effort
from outside the area before
half time but Barcas defending
was poor and it paid the price
after the break.
Neymar scored from the

Argentina striker Sergio

Aguero bagged a stunning vegoal haul for Manchester City
against Newcastle. The 27-yearold cancelled out Aleksandar
Mitrovics opener in the 42nd
minute at the Etihad Stadium
and added four more.

penalty spot on his 100th appearance after a 74th minute

handball from Benoit Tremoulinas and then substitute Sandro Ramirez was denied by the
woodwork with 10 minutes to
go.
Barca has 15 points from seven games, a point behind leader
Villarreal which is away to Levante on Sunday.
Fourth-placed Real Madrid,
on 14 points, takes on Atletico
Madrid, which is one place and
two points below Real.

VJ-VJ

18 |

SPORT

The BCCI president

and all that
G. Viswanath
MUMBAI: Old-time cricket administrators have often wondered how people like M.
Chinnaswamy and S. Sriraman
managed the BCCIs affairs
when high-prole marketing
committees did not exist, and
when spending the extra penny
pinched. Then there was Seshrao Wankhede, who used to
crack light-hearted jokes at
press conferences, the most famous being: Its eight thirsty,
and time to move on.
There are also stories about
Fatehsinghrao Jackie Barodas lavish parties thrown for
international teams in Baroda.
They and many more wore the
BCCI presidents hat, and the
common refrain was that the
BCCI functioned in a most
democratic manner with more
bonhomie among members and
not as much politics.
These days, the BCCI president virtually has the last word
on many matters with things
changing dramatically from
1993-94 when the BCCIs bottom line turned black, recovering from a Rs. 93 lakh decit. As
Indian cricket moved from the
Sunil Gavaskar era to the Sachin Tendulkar era, the BCCI
laughed its way to the bank,
thanks to the marketing of the
game by the likes of Jagmohan
Dalmiya and Inder Singh Bindra.
Dalmiya also made the BCCI
annual elections a matter of
prestige, bringing in the element of intrigue that divided
member units. It has not
changed much with full-member representatives nding it
difficult not to be aligned with a
particular faction. Dalmiya
ruled from 1983 to 2005. Then

Sharad Pawar, Shashank Manohar and N. Srinivasan played

their part with Lalit Modi ejected from this group because of
IPL-related malpractices.
The advent of Pawar also saw
the election pattern change
from a one-year office to a twoyear tenure, with an AGM-approved additional third year.
As a result, the position of
the BCCI president became exalted and very important. He
was virtually the custodian of
several crores of rupees generated by global broadcast of
home international matches
and the sponsorships of series,
team and apparel. This altogether fetches the BCCI close
to Rs. 45 crore per match, be it
Twenty20I, ODI or Test match
cricket. The IPL has only augmented the BCCI revenue
stream.
So, with the BCCI becoming
nancially independent, its
Working Committee, president
and secretary have risen in
stature, and the explosion of
electronic media has made
them more visible.
But its a handful of clauses
in the BCCIs Memorandum
and Rules and Regulations that
makes the president a powerful
individual.
He presides over the AGM,
SGM and Working Committee,
which is the all-powerful decision-making committee of the
BCCI. He also has the power to
take action in case of any misconduct on the part of the players and the right to approve
national teams selected by the
selection committee, as well as
the power to postpone or cancel the SGM or Working Committee, Standing Committee or
any other committee.
The president has a vote

when a division is called and a

casting vote to settle a tied decision. Furthermore, hes the
chairman of the Disciplinary
and Constitutional Review
Committees.
The last three occupants of
the presidents chair have done
some good work; Pawar felt
that money in the bank will only accrue interest, and hence
decided to increase the infrastructure development support
from Rs. 4 crore to Rs. 50 crore.
But, the promised state of the
art medical centre in Mumbai
has just remained an idea.
His successor, Manohar, ordered the cancellation of IPL
Invitation to Tender saying
they were rigged, and got the
BCCI to pass a resolution that
mandated the nomination of
the IPL governing chairman at
every AGM. Manohar was party
to the termination of the IMG
contract after the inaugural
edition of the IPL in 2008 and
reinstating the sports and
event management company
on reduced terms.
There are friends of N. Srinivasan in the BCCI who believe
that his contribution has been
outstanding as treasurer, secretary and president, and that if
he had stepped down on moral
grounds following the arrest of
his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, he would have been
elected president for the 201417 period under the new election rules that species a
straight three-year term for
principal office bearers and
vice-presidents.
The new president who will
be elected on Sunday has some
work to do to streamline affairs
and improve the BCCIs integrity; he will have the powers to
set right many matters.

Nandakumar Marar
MUMBAI: Anil Kumble described
Indias win against England in
the Headingley Test in 2002 as
the moment which infused selfbelief in the Indian players.
We were able to prove people wrong. Captain Sourav
Ganguly decided to bat rst in
Headingley under conditions
not helpful for batting. It was a
bold move and the players responded to the challenge by
beating England. It sort of ignited a spark in us that we could
perform away from home, said
the leg-spinner while talking
about captaincy during a keynote address at the Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture series at
the CCI.
Kumble took seven wickets
in the Test as England, replying
to Indias mammoth 628 in the
rst innings, was bowled out
twice and ended up losing the
third Test by an innings and 46
runs.
Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, and
Sachin Tendulkar scored cen-

HARARE: Shoaib Maliks brilliant ght-back was foiled by

bad light as Zimbabwe beat Pakistan by ve runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method in a
drama-lled second one-day
international at Harare Sports
Club on Saturday.
Malik was left stranded on 96
not out having hauled Pakistan
from 76 for six to 256 for eight
chasing 277 for victory when
the umpires decided that the
light was too poor to continue
and took the players off the
eld with two overs remaining.
The game had earlier been
delayed by a brief rain shower,
but the decision left the 33year-old batsman furious as he

SU | DO | KU

Memorable day
for Myneni

CM
YK

Anil Kumble
turies after the captain opted to
bat under conditions which favoured swing bowling. The legspinner said: In reality, a captains job is to get the best out of
his players. There is no such
thing as a team decision when it
comes to captaincy. There are
team suggestions, but the nal
decision is taken by the team
captain always.
He felt that the bowlers deserved more opportunities to
take over leadership roles in

Zimbabwe levels series

TENNIS

A mind game and a puzzle

that you solve with
reasoning and logic. Fill in
the grid with digits in such
a manner that every row,
every column and every
3x3 box accommodates
the digits 1 to 9, without
repeating any. The
solution to yesterdays
puzzle is at left.

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

It all began at Headingley, feels Kumble

VARIETY

NEW DELHI: Saketh Myneni, the

eighth seed, pulled off two impressive wins over quality opponents to make the nal of the
42,500 Challenger tennis
tournament at Agri, Turkey, on
Saturday.
The 27-year-old Saketh, who
won his maiden Challenger singles title at Indore last year,
rst knocked out third seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 7-6(5),
6-4 in a quarternal contest interrupted by rain. Donskoy had
beaten Myneni in straight sets
in the rst round of the Kolkata
Challenger last year in their only previous meeting.
The 198th-ranked Myneni
then defeated Denys Molchanov of Ukraine, who is ranked
his career-best 169, in the third
set tie-break in the seminals.
The 28-year-old Molchanov
had also beaten Saketh in
straight sets in a Challenger
last year in Fergana in their only clash so far.
It has been a great week so
far. Competing with quality
players has been a positive sign
for me this year. I hope to nish
strong, said Myneni, happy

VIJAYAWADA

was denied the opportunity to

carry his team home.
The result left the threematch series level ahead of the
tour nale on Monday.
Earlier, a composed 90 from
Chamu Chibhabha and a late
ourish from Elton Chigumbura took Zimbabwe to a competitive total.
Under pressure after being
bowled out for a paltry 128 in
the series opener, Zimbabwes
batsmen gave a better reection of their abilities in posting
276 for six after being asked to
bat rst. His 91-run stand with
Brian Chari laid the base as
Zimbabwe progressed to 118 for
one in the 29th over. AFP

the game. Bowlers are, by and

large, the thinking members of
the team, always plotting and
strategising to dismiss rival
batsmen. This is what captains
are expected to, said Kumble,
one of the bowlers to assume
the leadership role after Sachin
Tendulkar stepped down from
captaincy. You need to take 20
wickets to win Test matches,
and bowlers are needed to get
the job done.
He also listed four bowlercaptains India had Ghulam
Ahmed, S. Venkataraghavan,
Bishen Bedi and himself.

Monkeygate
Kumble was in charge when
Harbhajan Singh was accused
by the Australians of abusing
Andrew Symonds during the
Sydney Test in 2008. My job as
India captain was to stand by
my players. The incident happened far away for me to hear
the words being said. It happened on the eld of play and
could have been sorted out if
both captains had talked it out.

SCOREBOARD
Zimbabwe: H. Masakadza c Irfan b
Wahab Riaz 7, C. Chibhabha c Sarfraz
b Wahab Riaz 90, B. Chari c Hafeez b
Irfan 39, S. Williams c Hafeez b Wahab
Riaz 10, E. Chigumbura hit wicket b
Wahab Riaz 67, Sikandar Raza c Sarfraz b Aamer Yamin 32, R. Mutumbami
(not out) 14, L. Jongwe (not out) 4;
Extras (b-2, lb-1, w-9, nb-1) 13; Total
(for six wickets, 50 overs) 276.
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-118, 3-132,
4-191, 5-253, 6-267.
Pakistan bowling: Mohammad Irfan 10-1-47-1, Aamer Yamin 5-0-38-1,
Wahab Riaz 10-1-63-4, Yasir Shah 6-030-0, Bilal Asif 8-0-39-0, Azhar Ali 4-022-0, Shoaib Malik 7-0-34-0.
Pakistan: Azhar Ali b Panyangara
1, Bilal Asif c Chigumbara b Panyangara 0, Mohd Hafeez run out 27, Asad

Shafiq c Mutumbami b Jongwe 1,

Shoaib Malik (not out) 96, Sarfraz
Ahmed c Williams b Chibhabha 9,
Mohd Rizwan c Nyumbu b Cremer 8,
Aamer Yamin c Mutumbami b Chigumbura 62, Wahab Riaz run out 3, Yasir
Shah (not out) 32; Extras (b-4, w-12,
nb-1) 17; Total (eight wickets in 48
overs) 256.
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-8, 3-17, 440, 5-56, 6-76, 7-187, 8-193.
Zimbabwe bowling: Panyangara
9-0-44-2; Jongwe 8-1-41-1, Williams
10-0-33-0; Chibhabha 8-0-55-1; Cremer 1.4-0-8-1; Nyumbu 6.2-0-38-0; Chigumbara 5-0-33-1.
Toss: Pakistan.
Man-of-the-Match: Chigumbara.
Zimbabwe won by five runs (D/L
method).

Sania-Hingis pair clinches title

WUHAN: Indian tennis star Sania
Mirza continued her superb
run with Swiss partner Martina

Hingis as they clinched their

seventh title together by winning the WTA Wuhan Open

with the ne run that has already assured him of 55 ATP

singles points. In the nal, Myneni will face the sixth seed
Farrukh Dustov of Uzbekistan.
In the doubles seminals,
however, second seeds Myneni
and Divij Sharan saved a
match-point before being beaten 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 by Alexandr
Igoshin of Russia and Yaraslav
Shyla of Belarus.
In the $10,000 ITF womens
tournament
in
Jakarta,
Dhruthi Venugopal and Haine
Ogata of Japan were beaten in
the doubles nal by Beatrice
Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of
Indonesia.
The results: Euros 42,500 Challenger, Agri, Turkey: Semifinals:
Saketh Myneni bt Denys Molchanov
(Ukr) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(1); Quarterfinals:
Myneni bt Evgeny Donskoy (Rus) 7-6
(5), 6-4.
Doubles (semifinals): Alexandr
Igoshin (Rus) & Yaraslav Shyla (Blr) bt
Saketh Myneni & Divij Sharan 6-4, 3-6,
11-9.
$10,000 ITF women, Jakarta:
Doubles (final): Beatrice Gumulya &
Jessy Rompies (Ina) bt Haine Ogata
(Jpn) & Dhruthi Venugopal 6-4, 7-6(4).

Later, Harbhajan was asked

to appear at a disciplinary hearing, and was quite upset about
it. We had gone to Australia to
win, something we were not
supposed to be capable of doing. With support from the other seniors in the squad, I
convinced our players, especially an upset Harbhajan, to
carry on our job.
Kumble revealed that he received a message from Bedi
during the Monkeygate controversy.
He asked me to take a decision I will be proud of later,
when you look back in history,
said one of Indias most aggressive bowler-captains.
Kumble refuted the suggestion that a captain is only as good
as his team. In fact, it is viceversa; a capable captain can
make his players perform far
above their abilities. New Zealand is doing just that, under
Brendon McCullum who is a
batsman-captain. They are aggressive and it is a reection on
McCullums personality.

womens doubles nal here on

Saturday.
The top-seeded pair eased
past the Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica
Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in the title
clash.
Title number 7 #SanTina
@mhingis #WuhanOpen, the
Indian star tweeted accompanied by a picture of the duo
with the trophy.

Easy rounds

PICTURE PERFECT: Sania Mirza (left) and Martina

Hingis take a selfie after winning the doubles final
against Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu
in the WTA Wuhan Open on Saturday.
PHOTO: ZHONG ZHI / GETTY IMAGES

Sania and Hingis had it relatively easy in the second round,

quarternals and seminals after getting a rst round bye in
the tournament.
The Indo-Swiss pair dropped
serve three times and fought
back from a 2-0 decit in the
second set to emerge triumphant in the summit clash.
With todays win, the IndoSwiss pairing has seven WTA
doubles titles together this year
Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, the US
Open, Guangzhou and Wuhan.
They have won their last
three tournaments and their
last 13 matches without dropping a single set.
They now head to the China
Open in Beijing, where they
have been given the top billing.
PTI

Uthappa shines
in Indias win
AUCKLAND: Riding on forward
S.K. Uthappas twin strike, the
Indian mens hockey team
posted a 2-1 win over New Zealand A in the second game of
the New Zealand tour here on
Saturday.
The rst quarter saw both
the teams going on the attack
on each others business side of
the eld. But the Indians were
in high spirits and in the fth
minute saw S.V. Sunil passing
the ball to Nikkin Thimmaiah.
Nikkins pass to Uthappa
helped the Karnataka player
put the ball into the nets brilliantly as India led 1-0.
India continued to put pressure and maintained good ball
possession, keeping the opponents defence busy all through.
But with no further goals
added, the quarter ended 1-0 in
Indias favour.
Indians started the second
quarter on a high. But unfortunately for the Indians they
could not nd the nets, leaving
the score 1-0 at the end of the
rst half.
The third quarter saw Indians scoring yet again as the second goal was added to the tally.
Right into the quarter it was
Uthappas sheer brilliance
which helped India score the
goal. He scored in the 34th minute to provide India a 2-0 lead.
The last quarter saw New
Zealand A being awarded with
penalty corner but unfortunately for them it was effortlessly saved by P.R. Sreejesh.
But New Zealand A persisted with its endeavour to open
the account and nally in the
57th minute, Stephen Jenness
scored a goal, making it 1-2.
The result: India 2 (S.K. Uthappa
5, 34) bt New Zealand A 1 (Stephen
Jenness 57). PTI

Indian
swimmers bag
four bronze
BENGALURU: Indias swimmers
claimed four bronze medals on
the third day of the eighth
Asian age group championships
in Bangkok.
V. Malavika won her second
medal of the meet on Saturday,
nishing third in the Group 1
girls 1500m freestyle with a
time of 17:39.38s.
Xavier DSouza (Group 2
boys, 100m buttery) and Ansh
Arora (Group 1 boys, 50m
breaststroke) also secured
bronze medals, as did the
Group 2 boys 4x100m freestyle
relay team of Bastab Tapan,
Rajdip Roy, Vedant Singh and
C.J. Sanjay. Principal
Correspondent

Indian U-19
team loses
AL-RAM (PALESTINE): The Indian
U-19 football team went down
ghting 0-1 against host Palestine in their opening match of
the AFC qualiers at the Faisal
Al-Hussieni Stadium here.
A Mohammed Yousef goal in
the 15th minute proved to be
the difference between the two
sides and led Palestine to garner its rst win of the qualifying
campaign. PTI
VJ-VJ

SPORT

| 19

Lad rescues Mumbai

Goa takes first innings lead

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Muthaiah
begins with
a win
BENGALURU: The top seed A.L.
Muthaiah of Tamil Nadu was
off to a winning start in the National under-17 Open chess
championships here on Saturday, defeating N. Prem Krishna
of Kerala.
Second seed Sai Vishwesh,
also of Tamil Nadu, notched up
a win too, over Shivam Verma
of Bihar.
In the girls section, top seed
and defending National under-17 champion, V. Varshini
(Tamil Nadu) defeated Statemate S. Pooja while second
seed Priyanka Natukki of Andhra Pradesh overcame Devanshi Rathi of Delhi.

New Zealand
overcomes
Georgia
CARDIFF: Julian Savea scored a
hat-trick of tries but New Zealands rugby superstars took a
battering before they overcame
Georgia to become the rst nation into the rugby World Cup
quarternals.
The 43-10 result did not reect the struggle by the All
Blacks in the Millennium Stadium where the biggest cheer went
to Georgias tough tackling hero
Mamuka Gorgodze as he was
named Man-of-the-Match. Captain Richie McCaw and coach
Steve Hansen both admitted that
it was not a great night for the
team seeking to become the rst
to win back-to-back World Cups.
But both said there was no reason to panic.
Georgia physically matched
the world champions, forcing
them into elementary errors.
Starting their top available
side against a Georgia team resting many of their best players,
the All Blacks were expected to
win comfortably. But they were
only 22-10 up at half-time before
adding three tries in the second
half.
They were rattled by a Georgia
team that used bone-jarring
tackles and their powerful forward pack to shake the All
Blacks.
With his rst touch of the ball
in his comeback game after a leg
fracture in his maiden Test three
months ago, Waisake Naholo
sped 55 metres through the Georgian defence to touch down after just 80 seconds.
Any thoughts of a runaway
win were quickly erased. Naholo
lost the ball with his second
touch and Georgia full back Beka
Tsuklauri cashed in on their
turnover luck, touching down
under the posts. Neither side
could believe it.
Lasha Malaguradze levelled
the scores with the conversion
and landed a 49-metre penalty to
keep Georgia in touch at 12-10
after Savea had scored the All
Blacks second try.
The early pace of the game appeared to be telling on Georgia
and the defence cover was no
where to be seen when Savea
scored his second in a standard
backline move from a scrum.
Dane Coles secured the bonus
point fourth try in the 22nd minute dotting down wide out. Carter missed all three sideline
conversion attempts however.
As errors kept mounting, New
Zealand spent an awkward 30
minutes before they scored
again.
From a long build up they
eventually cracked the Georgian
defence with Brodie Retallick
crashing over and Carter added
the extras.
The Georgians faded in he
closing minutes Savea and Malakai Fekitoa added two further
tries with Carter landing the extras. AFP

BRIEFLY
Trials to select the Andhra Universitys kabaddi and volleyball men
teams will be held at AU headquarters
in Visakhapatnam on October 6 and 7,
and Oct. 12 and 13 respectively. Students born on or after July 1, 1987, are
eligible to appear. Interested students
have to be present at the venue along
with required eligibility certificates at 8
a.m. on the first day of the trials of the
team.

ENGAGEMENTS
At Vizianagaram
Cricket: Ranji Trophy, Group B
match, Andhra vs. Mumbai, final day,
PVG Raju ACA North Zone Academy
grounds, Chintalavalasa, 9 a.m.
At Vijayawada
Cricket: Krishna District Cricket
Association B division league,
Mulapadu grounds, 9.a.m.

DEATH
M. RAMARATHINAM (83), Retired Index Asst, The Hindu, Chennai,
passed away on 03102015. Address: Old No. B.107, New No. 7,
Hindu Colony, 3rd Main Road, Nanganallur, Chennai600061. Cell:
9677266200.

CM
YK

CRICKET / Sandhus five-wicket haul restricts the host

J.R. Shridharan
VIZIANAGARAM: A determined
fth-wicket partnership of 97
runs between Siddhesh Lad (63,
107b, 146m, 10x4, 1x6) and Nikhil
Patil helped Mumbai recover
from a slump to post 158 for ve
in 69 overs against Andhra at the
end of the third days play in the
Ranji Trophy Group B match at
P.V.G. Raju ACA North Zone
Cricket Academy grounds here
on Saturday.
Earlier, Andhra, resuming at
213 for four lost six wickets for
just 31 runs in 17.2 overs to be
shot out for 244.The 28-year-old
Mumbai pacer Balwinder Singh
Sandhu (ve for 53) picked up his
fourth ve-wicket haul of his
career.
Andhra batsmen fell like nine
pins and the middle-order failed
to forge any fruitful partnership.
A couple of lusty blows by Ayyappa helped Andhra reach a total of
respectability.
In its second essay, a hostile
spell from the host pacers cleanedup Mumbais top order for 61
runs. Ayyappa in his second spell
(7-2-17-2) saw the back off Sheryas Iyer and Akhil Herwadkar.
Herwadkar (33) who was shaping well, fell to a well-conceived
plan as Ayyappa lured him with a
well-directed short-pitched delivery. Herwadkar miscued the
hook shot which landed safely in
the hands of Stephen at ne leg.
With skipper Aditya Tare and
talented Surya Kumar Yadav
leaving early, the onus of staying
at the wicket fell on the shoulders
young Siddhesh Lad and Nikhil
Patil, who responded to the task

splendidly. Siddhesh, with a urry of strokes, upset the game plan

of the bowlers and helped Mumbai recover by forging an all-important partnership.
Andhra bowlers hardly gave
room to Mumbai batsmen and
that Surya Kumar Yadav took 30
balls to open his account spoke
volumes about their tidy length.
The scores:
Andhra 1st innings: K.S. Bharat c Tare b Shadrul 1, D.B. Prashanth
c Tare b Balwinder 7, Mohammad Kaif
c Nikhil b Balwinder 90, Ricky Bhui c
Shreyas b Balwinder 103, A.G. Pradeep b Balwinder 0, Ashwin Hebbar c
Vishal b Shadrul 8, M.U.B. Sriram c
Tare b Balwinder 0, D. Siva Kumar c
Tare b Balwinder 0, D. Ayyappa c
Vishal b Abhishek 21, K. Harish c
Balwinder b Dhawal 5, Ch. Stephen
(not out) 2, Extras (lb-4, wide-1) 5:
Total (in 123.2 overs) 244.
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-18, 3-191,
4-199, 5-214, 6-214, 7-216, 8-218,
9-240.
Mumbai bowling: Dhawal 23-1230-1, Shardul 27-13-47-3, Balwinder
29-13-53-5, Abhishek 14.2-5-32-1,
Vishal 23-1-61-0, Akhil 6-1-12-0,
Shreyas 1-0-5-0.
Mumbai 1st innings: Akhil Harwadkar c Stephen b Ayyappa 33, Aditya Tare c Prashanth b Stephen 0,
Shreyas Iyer b Siva 15, Surya Kumar
Yadav lbw Ayyappa 6, Nikhil Patil b
Stephen 27, Siddhesh Lad (batting)
63, Abhishek Nayar (batting) 0; Extras
(w-2, b-7, lb-5): 14; Total (for five wkts.
in 69 overs): 158.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-29, 3-50-,
4-61, 5-158.
Andhra bowling: Ayyappa 17-547-2. Stephen 15-6-33-2, Siva 13-116-1, Prashanth 13-3-28-0, Harish 6-19-0, Ricky 2-0-10-0, Ashwin 3-0-18-0.

BRIDGE

Indian teams bow out

A. Vinod
CHENNAI: The Indian teams, as
expected, made their exit, failing
to make the cut in any of the
three sections as the rst phase
of the fortnight-long HCL-42nd
World bridge championships
came to an end at the ITC Hotel
Grand Chola here on Saturday.
In the Bermuda Bowl for men,
India, which had a slim chance
to qualify at the end of the 18th
round of the round-robin on Friday, hardly proved to be a match
against Canada on Saturday, losing the crucial tie 32-12.
The Indians were never in the
picture at any time in the match
after conceding 17 IMPs through
the two rst hands, allowing the
Canadians to get away with a 4
club and 3NT bids in the open
and closed room in the rst
board and 4 spades and 1NT in
the second.
Out of the running, India
thereafter defeated Egypt and
Jordan with scores of 51-29 and
49-6 in the remaining two
rounds, but this was inconsequential as the side could only
nish 12th with a total of 218.69
VPs.

Bulgaria tops table

Bulgaria, into the lead since
last night, topped the table with
277.74 and was followed by China (274.90), Poland (267.87),
England
(267.18),
France
(256.68), USA1 (243.67), USA2
(236.56) and Sweden (225.18) at
the end of the intense
competition.
The story was no different in
the seniors section for the
dOrsi Trophy as the hosts
could nish only 11th with a total
of 224.95.
Any slim chance of making it
to the last-eight vanished completely at the end of the rst
round this morning, when India
was mauled by England 68-5 so
much so that the results of the

next two rounds had no bearing.

For the record, the home team
won a hard-fought 54-52 win
over Egypt before losing to Norway (31-16) in the concluding
round
USA1 came out on top in this
section with a total of 298.89
ahead of Australia (286.26). Ireland (280.95), Poland (273.84),
England
(259.93),
USA2
(255.12), Norway (253.27) and
Sweden (250.41) were the other
teams to make the grade.
There was some cheer for India in the Venice Cup for women
as the team ended its winless
drought with victories over Chinese Taipei (52-28) and Pakistan
(43-33) over two rounds of play.
However, it was to suffer another heart-break as it lost to
Guadeloupe (56-36) in the other
round of the day.
This improved showing, however, was not enough as India
nished in the last and 22nd spot
in the section which eventually
saw Denmark (304.11), USA2
(288.63), USA1 (281.05), Italy
(278.87), England (277.73), China (274.12), the Netherlands
(274.09) and France (266.55)
make the knockout round.
Besides the two-day quarternals, Sunday will also witness the
start of the Trans-National
event for the Dastur Trophy.
The rankings (after 21 rounds):
Men: 1. Bulgaria (277.74), 2. China
(274.90), 3. Poland (267.87), 4. England (267.18), 5. France (256.18), 6.
USA1 (243.67), 7. USA2 (236.56), 8.
Sweden (225.18); 12. India (218.69).
Seniors: 1. USA1 (298.89), 2. Australia (286.26), 3. Ireland (280.95), 4.
Poland (273.84), 5. England (259.93),
6. USA2 (255.12), 7. Norway (253.27),
8. Sweden (250.41); 11. India
(224.95).
Women: 1. Denmark (304.11), 2.
USA2 (288.63), 3. USA1 (281.05), 4.
Italy (278.87), 5. England (277.73), 6.
China (274.12), 7. The Netherlands
(274.09), 8. France (266.55); 22. India
(91.31).

PORVORIM: Goa took charge and a

25-run rst innings lead against
Hyderabad on the third day of
their Ranji Trophy Group C
cricket match here on Saturday.
Slow and steady in its approach,
the coastal side through useful
partnerships built up its innings
brick by brick to register 350 for
ve on the penultimate day.
Standing tall at the close was
Sagun Kamat (88 batting), while
Darshan Misal fell on 67 barely
three overs before stumps.
Kamat cracked nine boundaries and a six in a 212-ball stay,
the southpaw making himself
quite at home in the middle,
seemingly bound for a bigger
score. The early setback of losing
Amogh Desai on Friday was
quickly set aside as R.R. Singh
lent more than a helpful hand to
non-striker Swapnil Asnodkar,
the duo adding 97 for the second

wicket.
Singh was the rst to depart,
caught by Vishal Sharma off legspinner Akash Bhandari. Shortly
after Asnodkar
posted his halfcentury,
he
was caught by
Vihari off Sudeep Tyagi.
Dheeraj Jadhav then combined
with
Kamat to produce another
sizeable partnership of 69
for the fourth
wicket, before
the former was
caught by substitute C.V. Milind off Vishal.
The left-handed pair of Misal
and Kamat then saw their side
past the opponents total with a

tion.
The sponsors have the nancial power to force change
at FIFA, said Cobus de Swardt,
managing director of the corruption watchdog Transparency International.
The unprecedented crisis
within world football began on
May 27, when nine FIFA officials and ve sports marketing
executives were charged by the
US Justice Department over
bribery worth more than $150
million dating back to 1991.
Blatter was re-elected as FIFAs president days later, but
on June 2, made the shock announcement that he was prepared to go on a timeline that
he subsequently laid out.
FIFAs powerful sponsors on
Friday said that timeline had
become unacceptable after
Swiss prosecutors revealed evidence of murky nancial dealings directly linked to Blatter.
The Coca-Cola company said
FIFAs reputation deteriorates
every day that passes with
Blatter in office.
Coca Cola is more than a
valued sponsor, they are the
foundation of Blatters position

The scores:
Hyderabad 1st innings: 325 for
nine in 101.1 overs.
Goa 1st innings: Amogh Desai
c Bhandari b Tyagi14, Swapnil Asnodkar c Vihari b Tyagi 53, R.R. Singh c
Vishal b Bhandari 59, Dheeraj Jadhav
c Milind b Vishal 46, Sagun Kamat
(batting) 81, Darshan Misal c Suman b
Vishal 67, S.S. Bandekar (batting) 5;
Extras (b-7, lb-4, nb-12, w-2): 25; Total
(for five wickets in 113.5 overs): 350.
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-122, 3-155,
4-224, 5-344.
Hyderabad bowling: Sudeep Tyagi 20.5-4-93-2, Ashish Reddy 16-433-0, Mehdi Hasan 22-7-72-0, Vishal
Sharma 35-11-66-2, Akash Bhandari
16-2-62-1, B. Sandeep 2-0-8-0, G.H.
Vihari 2-0-5-0.

RANJI ROUND-UP

TELLING SPELL: Balwinder Singh Sandhu rattled the

Andhra middle-order to put Mumbai back
in the hunt. PHOTO: BASHEER

VISAKHAPATNAM: Medium-pacer
Ch. Yellaji with a ve-for helped
Vizag Colts beat Galaxy CC by
45 runs in the VDCA rst
division league on Saturday.
The scores: Vizag Colts 176 in 42.4
overs (N. Rajesh 52, K. Rohan Das
three for 57) bt Galaxy 131 in 33.5 overs
(K. Rohan Das 52, U.S.R.C. Goutham
Varma 31, Ch. Yellaji five for 28).

Fort Union draws

with Vizag FC
Both super league matches of
Visakhapatnam DFAs annual
league at the Police stadium on
Saturday ended in draws.
The results: Fort Union FC 1
(Veerrraju 2nd) drew with Vizag FC 1
(Pradeep 33rd); SKMLC 1
(Manishankar 30th) drew with Sagar
Soccers 1 (Tarakesh 13th).

VVS Cup from tomorrow

HYDERABAD: The inaugural
edition of the VVS Cup interschool u-16 cricket tournament
will be organised by the VVS
Sports Academy, run by former
India cricketer V.V.S. Laxman,
on its premises at Aziznagar
here from October 5 to 12.

56 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 69, Ashish Singh 90,

Siddarth Kaul four for 53, Brainder Sran six for 61) & 125
for five in 29 overs (Prashant Awasthi 44, Varun Khanna
five for 51).
At Moradabad: UP 686 for seven decl. in 185.1 overs
(Tanmay Srivastava 75, Almas Shaukat 128, Mohammad
Saif 198, Sarfaraz Khan 155) vs MP 234 for three in 81.5
overs (Aditya Shrivastava 99 n.o., Naman Ojha 88).
Group C
At Porvorim: Hyderabad 325 vs Goa 349 for five in
114 overs (Swapnil Asnodkar 53, Rituraj Singh 59,
Dheeraj Jadhav 46, Sagun Kamat 81, Darshan Misal 67).
At Srinagar: J & K 330 vs Kerala 485 for eight in 161
overs (V.A. Jagadeesh 69, Rohan Prem 69, Sachin Baby
151, Sanju Samson 101).
At Rajkot: Saurashtra 307 bt Tripura 103 & 86 in 53
overs (Ravindra Jadeja five for 45, Dharmendrasinh
Jadeja four for 12).
At Delhi: Jharkhand 45 & 192 lost to Services 161 &
78 for one in 29.5 overs.

Unbeaten 162 by Rohith

REGIONAL ROUND-UP
Yellaji scalps five

Group A
At Guwahati: Karnataka 187 & 394 for eight decl.
(Ravikumar Samarth 131, Mayank Agarwal 47, Shishir
Bhavane 40, C.M. Gautam 44, Shreyas Gopal 41) vs
Assam 194 & 30 for one in 11.1 overs.
At Pune: Haryana 335 vs Maharashtra 256 for three in
69 overs (Swapnil Gugale 91, Harshad Khadiwale 44).
At Jaipur: Delhi 138 & 437 for nine decl. in 124.5
overs (Unmukt Chand 84, Gautam Gambhir 93, Milind 44,
Sumit Narwal 106 n.o.) vs Rajasthan 240 & 20 for one in
13 overs.
At Nagpur: Vidarbha 467 vs Odisha 274 in 94.3 overs
(Govinda Podder 148, Akshay Wakhare four for 84) & 15
for no loss in 8 overs.
Group B
At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 125 & 155 bt Baroda 159 &
114 in 35.4 overs (Rahil Shah five for 43).
At Vizianagaram: Andhra 213 for four vs Mumbai 158
for five in 69 overs (Siddhesh Lad 63).
At Mohali: Punjab 604 for five decl. vs Railways 196 in

The event will feature 12 teams

and will be played on a leaguecum-knock-out format with the
winner getting Rs. 25000 and the
runner-up Rs. 10,000.
The best batsman and the best
bowler will be given trophies and
also free coaching for six months
at the VVS Academy.
For details, call Harshit Vallabh
at 7659838884.

Durga Prasad sizzles

VIJAYAWADA: Durga Prasad of
AG and SGS Degree College had a
rich haul of six for six in his
teams 29-run win over Swashels
CC in the KDCA B division
league for the Devineni
Venkataramana and Prenitha
Memorial Trophy on Saturday.
The scores: Satavahana CC 86 for
eight in 19 overs (Sudheer three for 20)
lost to Devineni CC 89 for six in 16.2
overs (Madhu 26); Jolly Rovers 103 for
nine in 25 overs lost to Dark Nights 104
for seven in 23.2 overs (P. Yugandhar
30); AG and SGS Degree College 84 in
16.2 overs (Sk. Bhasha five for 15, V.
Ajay three for 17) bt Swashels CC 55 in
18.1 overs (Durga Prasad six for 6);
Aslam CC 141 for nine in 25 overs
(Johnny 32, Ram Prasad three for 22)
bt MD Academy 45 in 17.2 overs (Appa
Rao three for 6, Aslam three for 9).

HYDERABAD: Rohiths unbeaten

162 featured in Sporting XIs
draw against Rakesh XI on the
second day of their Hyderabad
Cricket Association A division
two-day league match here on
Saturday.
The scores: A division two day
league plate championship second
day: Rakesh XI 87 & 135 for four (B.
Srinath 49, N. Vigneshwar 34 n.o.,
Gaurav Kumar four for 18) drew with
Sporting XI 353 for four decl. (Mohammed Arif 106, Rohith 162 n.o.,
Gaurav Kumar 60).
Divisions A-2 to A-10 one day
league: Satya CC 157 (David Samuel
40, Md. Imran Ali 37, Raghava five for
53, Pranaydeep four for 35) lost to
Chums XI 158 for two (Mahesh 62,
Akhilesh 60).
International 219 for eight (Vizmarat Ali 32, Amarnath Reddy 75, K.
Amruth 36, Kaushik Bhargav 37, Nirup
Kumar three for 37) bt Hyd Wanderers
206 (Afroz 38, Jameel 41, Sai Vrath
52, Amarnath three for 88).
Superstar 103 (Aditya three for 25)
lost to Acrylic 104 for seven (Vamshi
five for 19).
Imperial 160 (B. Susheel 40, Pradeep 45, Suraj three for 40, Balu four
for 20) bt WMCC 77 (T. Nihaanth Reddy five for 20, Pradeep three for 10).
Future Star 56 (Saddam eight for

12) lost to Victory CC 60 for three.

XI Master 123 (Md. Amir 36, Siddu
six for 30) lost to Vijay CC 127 for three
(Preful 32, Sai Durga 40).
Sunshine 183 for six (Nishad 56,
Rohith 65, M. Tiwari three for 36) bt
Concorde 127 (Tushar Tripathi 30,
Srenath 52, G. Kalyan Sathwhick three
for 19).
Golconda 155 (Ashok 40, Sadanand three for 20) lost to Mahbub College 159 for eight (Ashok three for 29).
Lucky XI 155 (K. Sundesh 50, Nandan K. Reddy 32 n.o., Nishanth 31,
Naveen four for 39) lost to Hyderabad
District 156 for six (Piyush 30, Ruchit
50, Radhe Shyam 30, Aman three for
48, Sai Yashwant three for 31).
Gunrock 95 (Sanjay Pradhan five
for 36) lost to Manikumar 96 for one
(Raj Kumar 53 n.o.).
Boys Town 242 (Md. Asif Uddin 68,
Owais Bin Ilyaz 36 n.o., Dinesh three
for 34) bt Team Kun 163 (Dinesh 35,
Dharanpal 39, Shareef Zubair four for
43, Abood Bafna five for 30).
Amberpet CC 199 (Sagar 42, Arvind 83 n.o., Nithin Nihal four for 32)
lost to MP Youngmen 201 for seven
(Balaji 73, E. Srikanth 46).
Bharath CC 310 for five (Rahul 36,
Gunasheel 45, Abhiram 150) bt Picket
CC 282 for four (Nadeem 50, G. Rithik
45, Sahendra Mallu 95, Karthik Reddy
85).

FOOTBALL

Army Boys Sports Company in quarterfinals

NEW DELHI: Army Boys Sports
Company, Danapur, became
the rst team to book a quarternal berth with an 11-3 thrashing of Tamil Nadus Rani Seethi
Aachi
Higher
Secondary
School, Cuddalore in its nal
Pool A match of the Subroto
Cup football tournament junior
boys
(under-17)
competition.
Having dominated the tournament so far, this was the
fourth win for the Shillong boys
in as many games. The Tamil
Nadu school team, realising it

did not have the speed or agility

to counter attack the opposition, concentrated on defending its fort but was unable to do
so.
ABSC scored ve goals in the
rst half and six in the second
with N. Roshan Singh, Saikhang
Boro and Renzong Lepcha
scoring a brace each. A. Prabhakaran (2) and V. Ganeshan
reduced the margin for the losing side.
Among the Delhi teams in
the fray, Mamta Modern Senior
Secondary School thrashed

Government Higher Secondary

School, Daman & Diu 14-1 with
Avinash scoring four goals and
Mayank three. Raj Patel scored
the lone goal for the losing side.
The results:
ABSC, Danapur bt Rani Seethi Aachi Higher Secondary School, Cuddalore 11-3; Maharana Pratap Sports
College, Dehradun bt St. Xaviers High
School, Ahmedabad 4-3; Government
Bazaar High School, Mizoram bt Father Agnel Multipurpose School and
Junior College, Navi Mumbai 7-1;
Mawsura RC Upper Primary School,
Meghalaya bt The Shri Ram School,

Gurgaon 7-0; Betkuchi High School,

Guwahati bt Government Senior Secondary School, Car Nicobar 10-0;
Central Pendam Senior Secondary
School, Sikkim bt Sports Authority of
India, Kolkata 2-1; Rajganj MN High
School, Jalpaiguri bt Town High
school, Sundargarh 5-1; Mamta Modern SSS, New Delhi bt Government
Higher Secondary School, Daman &
Diu 14-1; Little Angels Paradise
School, Manipur bt Banimandir Railway HS, Siliguri 4-0; BKSP, Bangladesh bt Air Force Bal Bharti School,
New Delhi 8-2; Sainik School, Nainital
bt NCC, Nagpur 1-0.

Blatters survival in doubt after sponsors resignation call

LAUSANNE: After powerful FIFA
sponsors demanded his immediate resignation, a key question surrounded Sepp Blatter
on Saturday: can the sleazetainted president of world footballs governing body survive
until his planned departure in
February?
Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Visa
and Budweiser in separate
statements on Friday called on
Blatter to step down, a week
after Swiss prosecutors opened
a criminal investigation against
the 79-year-old over mismanagement.
But Blatter remained deant,
saying his departure would not
be in FIFAs best interests and
that he had no plans to resign
before February, when a special election has been called to
choose his replacement.
That position may prove untenable.
Exposure of the rot within
FIFA had previously sparked
widespread calls for immediate
change, but the rare display of
unity from four major companies marked the rst time key
nancial backers had explicitly
demanded Blatters resigna-

fair measure of comfort.

It was a lot of hard work for
Hyderabads bowlers, just two of
them Tyagi and Vishal bagging two wickets each.

in FIFA, Patrick Nally, a

prominent sports marketing
executive who has previously
partnered with FIFA, said on
Twitter.
Coca-Cola has had stadium
advertising at every World Cup
since 1950, and has been an of-

cial sponsor of the quadrennial tournament since 1978.

The partnership, believed to
currently be worth tens of millions of dollars per year, has
been extended through to
2022.
Visa, another top-tier spon-

The Coca-Cola company said FIFAs reputation deteriorates every day

that passes with Blatter in office
Visa also levelled a direct blow saying that no meaningful reform can be

made under FIFAs existing leadership

sor of past World Cups, also

levelled a direct blow saying
that no meaningful reform can
be made under FIFAs existing
leadership, with similar comments coming from McDonalds and Budweisers parent
company,
Anheuser-Busch
InBev.
Top sponsors based outside
the US have not yet gone as far.
Adidas on Saturday reiterated its stance that change at FIFA
was
vital,
without
specically mentioning Blatter,
while there was no immediate
comment from Hyundai or
Gazprom.
In a statement released
swiftly after the resignation call
from Coca-Cola, Blatters New
York attorney Richard Cullen
said his client believes rmly
that his leaving office now
would not be in the best interest of FIFA nor would it advance the process of reform and
therefore, he will not resign.

Crisis gets deeper

FIFAs leadership is facing
crises on various fronts, aside
from the US indictments, and
the Swiss probe that is target-

ing Blatter but which has also

implicated the front-runner to
replace him, European football
chief Michel Platini.
Blatters former right-hand
man, secretary general Jerome
Valcke, was suspended last
month over allegations that he
was aware of a black market
ticket scheme surrounding the
2014 World Cup. Valcke denied
the claims.
Meanwhile, FIFAs own ethics committee could suspend
the president at any time, as the
independent panel typically
probes any official who is subject to even initial suspicion, a
tag which certainly applies to
Blatter.
But, given the nancial heft
of the companies involved,
some believe the resignation
demand from the four top
sponsors will make it impossible for the embattled Swiss
national to hang on.
It is public statements
(from sponsors) that can and
will force real reform, despite
Blatters obvious desire to stay
at FIFA, Transparency Internationals de Swardt said.
AFP

Balaji eases
past Konwar
NEW DELHI: Sriram Balaji,
ranked 422nd in the world,
provided a high-prole start to
the mens qualifying event of
the Fenesta National tennis
championship at the DLTA
Complex here on Saturday.
With six Futures singles titles and 29 doubles crowns
against his name, the 25-yearold Balaji has been competing
around the world, particularly
in the Challenger events, to enhance his world rank.
With the wild card for the
Delhi Open $100,000 Challenger on offer, apart from the
winners purse of Rs. three
lakh, Balaji opted to give it a
shot, albeit at the last minute.
Since, there was no provision
for a wild card, Balaji had to
come through the qualifying
event. He began his campaign
with a 9-2 victory over Konwar
Gupta in the best-of-17 games
format. Balaji will play Chinmay Dev Chauhan in the second qualifying round.
B.R. Nikshep, National under-16 runner-up in the last
edition, knocked out second
seed Ranjeet Singh 9-3. In another exciting encounter, Saurav Sukul battled past local lad
Parth Aggarwal 9-8(1).
In the womens section,
Shivika Burman, who competes
regularly in the international
circuit, was seeded No. 1 in the
qualifying event and had a bye
in the rst round. Special
Correspondent

Allround show
by Sakshi
LUDHIANA: An allround performance by Sakshi Pandey,
who top-scored with 37 points,
powered Madhya Pradesh to a
72-64 victory over Delhi in a
girls Group A league match of
the National junior basketball
championship at the Guru Nanak Dev Indoor Stadium here
on Saturday.
Delhi which trailed 31-39 at
halftime battled on even terms
thanks to its towering centre,
Pallavi Kuamri, who scored 24
points. The team managed to
bridge the gap to 50-53 at the
end of the third quarter, but
Sakshi and Madhya Pradesh
pulled through in the last
quarter.
In Group B, Uttar Pradesh
shocked Maharashtra 59-41 after leading 32-21 at the interval,
with Vaishnavi and Shreyasi
scoring 34 points between
them.
The results: Boys: Group A: Maharashtra 86 (Sayyed 19, Ashraf 18) bt
Karnataka 83 (Kartik 31, Mufeez 18);
Punjab 85 (Rahul 23, Ajit 22) bt Rajasthan 68 (Mahipal 31, Yogesh 10).
Group B: Tamil Nadu 79 (R. Hari Ram
17, A. Daniel Richards 15) bt Andhra
Pradesh 31.
Girls: Group A: Madhya Pradesh
72 (Sakshi Pandey 37, Shivani 18,
Shivangi 10) bt Delhi 64 (Pallavi Kumari 24, Shubham Ohlan 10, Divya
10); Chhattisgarh 81 (Vandana 26, Riya 25) bt Madhya Pradesh 45 (Sibangi
11, Sakhya 10); Punjab 56 (Somi Kumari 20, Gagandeep 12) bt Delhi 24.
Group B: Uttar Pradesh 59 (Vaishnavi
22, Shreyasi 12) bt Maharashtra 41 (S.
Shreya 12, Carina 10); Haryana 91
(Bharti 33, Namrata 26) bt West Bengal 76 (Paulami 38, Pratyusha 21).
VJ-VJ

20 |

LIFE

VIJAYAWADA

THE HINDU SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015

Online affairs can become addictions

Climate change can alter Earths landscape

Aligarh to open MAMI film festival

Once one gets hooked on to an online affair, its very

difficult to get off it as it almost becomes an addiction,
a British study from The Open University said.

As melting glaciers erode the land, global warming could alter

the shape of the planet, says a new study published in the
journal Nature. Moving glaciers deposit sediment downstream.

Film-maker Hansal Mehtas real-life-inspired drama

Aligarh will open the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film
Festival here on October 29.

LIFESTYLE

STAR TREK
MJS CHILDREN IN A CAMEO

ichael Jacksons children Prince, Paris and

Blanket are set to make cameo appearances in
their uncle TJ Jacksons new reality TV show, The
Jacksons: Next Generation. TJ Jackson, who acts as a
co-guardian to the late singers children , said his new
show will give a rare peek into the lives of Prince, 18;
Paris, 17, and Blanket, 13.
Jackson said: They
remind me a lot of my
uncle, and it shows
what a good job
he did with
those kids. We
grew up really
close-knit.
There is a
certain pride
that we have as
a family.
PTI

GET AKSHAYS AUTOGRAPH

kshay Kumar has

come out with a
unique way to
promote Singh Is Bliing.
He has asked his fans to
share their favourite
scenes from his latest film
and if it turns out to be
the actors favourite
scene as well then five
winners will get
autographed tickets from
him. Watch @sibthefilm
,share ur favourite scene
using #FavSIBMoment and if its the same as mine, five
winners get autographed tickets :) Results Sunday,
Akshay tweeted on Friday night. IANS

CELEBRITY CHEFS INSPIRE COOPER

radley Cooper says he has

based his Burnt character on
Gordon Ramsay and two
other celebrity chefs.
The 40-year-old star plays chef
Adam Jones in the film.
I created a guy I see as a
mixture of the three guys I
studied: Marcus Wareing, Gordon
Ramsey, and Marco Pierre White.
Hes a combination. Little things he does, physical
things, are basically things I stole from all three of
those guys... It wasnt conscious, but going back and
watching the movie I see, Oh yeah: Thats him... thats
him... (and) thats him. PTI

Not castles in the air; its a place to stay

With water
find, Martian
a Twitter hit

Dutch sand sculptors turn childhood fantasy into reality with a pop-up
sandcastle hotel, an ephemeral work of art and luxury stay
OSS, NETHERLANDS: Dutch sand
sculptors have taken a childhood fantasy to a new level by
creating the worlds rst reallife sandcastle hotel, complete with a drawbridge and
turrets.
Curious tourists and the
young at heart ocked this
summer to the small southern Dutch city of Oss to spend
a night in a specially built
room deep inside the massive
sculpture made entirely of
sand.
Constructed from tonnes
of sand trucked in especially
for the purpose and reinforced with wood, the room
gives those spending the
night the unique experience
of sleeping in a real-life sandcastle, and comes complete
with sand-carved sculptures.
Its crazy, said Dutch mechanic Erwin after sleeping
in the sand hotel to celebrate
his 12-and-a-half year anniversary with his partner.
I wanted to do something
special and its a bit of a childhood dream of mine to sleep
in a sandcastle, Erwin, who
declined to give his surname,
said.
The idea came from the
ice hotels in Finland and
Sweden, says hotel manager
Maud van Leeuwen, referring to the popular Scandinavian resorts that spring up in
winter, featuring ice beds and
room
temperatures
of
around minus-eight degrees
Celsius.
We have many artists who
work with both sand and ice

THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OFF: At right,

the worlds first real-life sandcastle hotel in Oss,
The Netherlands, made of tonnes of sand and
reinforced with wood; the bed is being made in one
of the rooms. PHOTOS: AFP
and suddenly we thought
why not build a sand hotel,
Mr. Van Leeuwen said.
Conditions are less harsh
at the sand hotel, with guests
being welcomed by a comfortably turned-down bed
and fully equipped bathroom
for an overnight stay at 150
euros (about Rs. 10,800).
But like the Scandinavian
ice hotels, the sand hotel is
built as an ephemeral art
work and will be broken
down at the end of summer.
Two sand hotels were built
in the Netherlands at venues
where annual sand sculpture
festivals are being held: one
in Oss and the other in the
northern Frisian city of

Sneek. In Oss, hotel guests

can marvel at a collection of
life-sized sand-sculpted dinosaurs, medieval explorers
and robots, while a trip
through Asia is the theme in
Sneek.

Plush indoors
Guests need not worry
about getting sand in their
beds: the hotel offers a luxurious overnight stay in a regular bed and the oor is
lined with a plush grey
carpet.
People say: Its a sand hotel, its going to be a like a
muddy puddle but in fact its
very luxurious, Mr. Van
Leeuwen laughed as she pre-

pared the room, setting out

two crystal glasses and a bottle of Italian bubbly. The decor and structure, however, is
indeed made from sand treated with a special lime to help
it bind and harden, thereby
preventing the room from
crumbling in on its residents.
The room was rst built
with wooden panels and then
covered with sand for safety
reasons, Van Leeuwen explained.
A sand-carved bust of Cleopatra stands in one corner
while elsewhere in the room
the city of Oss is represented
by its coat-of-arms also in
sand.
Touch the walls you can

feel its very hard, Mr. Van

Leeuwen said. Sadly, a stay at
the sand hotel will soon come
to an end with the summer,
Van Leeuwen said, saying the
venue premiered to a bumper
season.

Emotional adventure
I think for some people
its a childhood fantasy to
sleep in a sandcastle, while
for others its a bit like going
on an adventure, or for a special occasion, she said.
The sand hotels are expected to be back at same two
venues next year and will
perhaps also make an appearance in Germany and Britain.
AFP

LOS ANGELES: The Martian,

directed by Ridley Scott,
recorded a spike in
Twitter mentions after
media reports came out
about the discovery of
water on Mars.
The space saga, starring
Matt Damon, received a
boost from the Mars
reports with users on the
micro-blogging site
talking about the movie,
reported The Wrap.
The Martian was
mentioned in 10,733
tweets before the reports
broke, but the number
skyrocketed to 29,894
after that.
The number then
peaked at 38,979 and
dropped back to 29,689.
By comparison, another
sci- space saga,
Christopher Nolans
Interstellar, was
mentioned in 5,990
tweets two days before its
release.
The Martian is based on
Andy Weirs sciencection novel about an
American astronaut
(played by Damon) who is
stranded on Mars and
uses his scientic
knowledge to survive.
PTI

My Bitmoji, my better self

Blessed are the animals

Ashley Parker

MEHTAS BEEBA BOYS CRITICISED

he Canadian police have criticised the

glamorisation of local gangs lifestyle in IndoCanadian director Deepa Mehtas new movie
Beeba Boys, a media report said. Sergeant Lindsey
Houghton from the Combined Forces Special
Enforcement Unit of British Columbia and Abbotsford
Police spokesperson constable Ian MacDonald were
invited to a screening of the movie in Vancouver.
Their reaction was that it gave a wrong impression
about the realities of the gang lifestyle in the region and
were worried about the negative effect it could have on
Indo-Canadian youth, Voice Online reported on Friday.
My concern is that the South Asian
community has worked
unbelievably hard over the last
decade and been so proactive
to try and fight these
stereotypes and we have
worked very hard along with
them to try and help them
with that and vice versa.
And my concern is that a
movie like this will set
those efforts back,
Houghton said. IANS

Comedians stand up
and get counted

A Roman Catholic priest blesses an Asian tiger with holy water at the Malabon zoo in
suburban Manila on Saturday, the eve of World Animal Day. The day began in Florence,
Italy, in 1931 at a convention of ecologists. October 4 was chosen as the date because it is the
feast day of Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment. PHOTO: AFP

What it costs to buy a Nobel

OSLO: No need to make peace

Random Chikibum recently won the Comedy Hunt

that ran on YouTube. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Hena Mehta
MUMBAI: For young people, the
Internet offers many platforms for self-expression, and
in the past few years, comedy
is emerging as one of the fastest growing genres.
Only Much Louder, a
media
manager,
thus
launched its Comedy Hunt
on YouTube three months
ago. The judges and mentors
were Internet comedy veterans like Kanan, Biswa, Aditi
Mittal, Abish Matthew and
Jose Covaco.
The contest provided a
platform for aspiring Internet comedians, democratising access to media and
providing ample incentives.
The Web hunt saw enthusiastic participation with more
than 1,500 entries from over
60 cities. Participants had to
complete witty weekly chalCM
YK

lenges from news comedy to

lming in unusual locations,
experimenting with various
formats.
From a shortlist of 40 entries, ve nalists were selected. The talented duo of
Random Chikibum emerged
as the winnerfor their consistently funny videos and
fresh talent, mentor Biswa
Kalyan Rath says.
For Gursimran Khamba,
another mentor from All India Bakchod, it was exciting to
help usher in the next generation of YouTube creators.
The broad participation is indicative that younger audiences are looking at and
creating un-formulaic content. The entries on the recent bans on pornography,
meat and noodles show that
comedy is a powerful tool to
engage with our everyday
lives and democracy.

in West Asia, resolve one of

sciences great mysteries or
pen a masterpiece: the easiest
way to get yourself a Nobel
Prize may be to buy one.
In the 114 years since the
prizes were rst handed out,
they have been awarded 889
times for pioneering work in
the elds of peace, literature,
medicine, physics, chemistry
and, since 1969, economics.
But over the years, following reversals of fortune and
splitting of inheritances, at
least a dozen Nobel gold medals and diplomas have ended
up on the auction block.
The cheapest Nobel ever
sold at auction is that of
Frances Aristide Briand,
honoured in 1926 for his role
in France and Germanys
short-lived post-war reconciliation. His prize went for a
steal in 2008 at just 12,200
euros (Rs. 8.9 lakh at todays
rate). That of Britain's William Randal Cremer, who
won in 1903, did only slightly
better, going under the hammer for $17,000 (Rs. 11 lakh at
todays rates) in 1985.
But that was then.
Auction prices have sky-

Several Nobel prizes for

physics, chemistry and
economics have sold for
between $300,000 and
$400,000.

Just the gold in the coin is worth, at todays rates,

about $5,500. FILE PHOTO: AP
rocketed since, prompting a
growing number of laureates
or their families to sell their
prestigious possessions.
Since early 2014, at least
eight Nobel medals have gone
up for auction.
There is a heightened interest in the discoveries and
developments of the 20th
century and the Nobel Prize
really symbolises the biggest
achievements of the century
whether they are in science,
economics or whether they

are in peace, explains Francis Wahlgren, the head of

Christies international book
and manuscripts department.
Recently, several Nobel
prizes for physics, chemistry
and economics have sold for
between
$300,000
and
$400,000.
Even more lucrative was
the 1909 Peace Prize awarded
to Belgiums Auguste Beernaert, which sold for
$661,000, and the 1936 Peace
Prize to Carlos Saavedra La-

y Bitmoji looks
exactly like me,
only adorable.
Same short
black hair. Same sprinkling of
freckles. And same buttondown and tie combo, an Annie Hall affectation I picked
up while covering Congress,
for reasons that remain
unclear.
For the uninitiated (or for
those over 14 years old), Bitmoji is basically a personalised emoticon, designed by
you, to look like a more delightful, caricatured version
of your actual self.
After choosing everything
from face shape and eye colour to hairstyle and outt,
you can place your avatar into
a range of posesThen, let the
texting begin!
Bitmoji, which has won
converts like Lena Dunham,
Seth Rogen and Victoria
Beckham, is the brainchild of
Jacob Blackstock, a 39-yearold Canadian who started as a
cartoonist and animator and
goes by the nickname Ba. The
app was introduced in the
iTunes store and in Google
Play last October, and its earlier incarnation was called
Bitstrips.
The true brilliance of Bitmoji, I think, we often reduce
the world around us (ourselves, our friends, our coworkers) into digestible, cartoonish caricatures: the lanky
political ack with the wry
smile; the awkward best

A bitmoji of Ashley
Parker. PHOTO: NYT
friend from high school; or
the balding colleague with a
bit of facial scruff that says, I
may be 42, but I party like Im
24. And now Bitmoji has
done the heavy lifting for us,
marrying our own sense of
self with our public image, yet
in a safe, quirky way that we
ultimately control.
Shahan Panthi, Bitmojis
co-founder says, The app is
all about emotion, and its
you, and youre expressing all
these emotions, Mr. Panth
said.
When I asked why Bitmoji
offers skin tones that dont
exist in real life like re
engine red and robins egg
blue Mr. Blackstock
seemed to cut to the core of
the Bitmoji experience.
These avatars are like
your id, and that can take any
form, he said. When we talk
about letting you be the embodiment of your essential
form, that doesnt necessarily
have to be literal. The essential form of you could be a
green alien. New York
Times News Service

mas of Argentina, found in a

pawn shop years earlier,
which went for a staggering
$1.16 million.
But it is the eld of medicine that holds the top spot
for the highest price ever paid
for a Nobel medal.
U.S. scientist James Watson, who won the 1962 award
for his co-discovery of the
structure of DNA, is one of
the rare laureates to have sold
his prize while still alive.
He cashed in a record $4.76
million for his medal in December 2014 more than
double the amount the heirs
of his co-recipient, Francis
Crick of Britain, obtained
when they sold his medal just
20 months earlier.
And it seems clear that it
pays to be alive: 93-year-old
Leon Lederman of the U.S.
sold his 1988 physics medal
for $765,000 in May. AFP
VJ-VJ