tirupati l TUESDAY l October 20, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l anantapur EDITION Deadline for enGG college admissions pushed t0 Nov 30 Classes for freshers in engineering colleges and technical institutions will begin from Dec 1, the AICTE said on Monday Continuing covid situation blamed Online, offline or blended mode The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said, because of the continuing Covid situation in the country, requests from various state governments, and the fact that premier institutions like IITs and NITs are in the middle of the admission process, it has extended the admission deadline for first-year engineering courses to November 30 ■ ■ Classes may subsequently begin on December 1 through online, offline or blended mode, AICTE secretary Rajive Kumar said Institutions that have already started online classes have been asked to either postpone them or conduct special classes for those who are required to appear for final-year exams Revised Academic calendar for 2020-21 can be viewed at: www.aicte-india.org CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Oz on board, first Quad power play in Malabar drill Farooq faces ED’s heat in cricket scam F aya z W ani @ Srinagar China put on notice as four-nation initiative gets serious, full naval wargames this year M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi IN a major strategic shift, Australia on Monday shunned its reservations against being seen as part of the Quad grouping and decided to send the Royal Australian Navy warships to participate in the Malabar series of naval exercises. Confirming the development, the Ministry of Defence said, “As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the maritime security domain and in the light of increased defence cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy .” Australia was had participated in the 2007 exercise but had withdrawn since then after China raised concerns against this construct. The upcoming exercise will be significant as the all Quad members countries — the US, Japan, Australia and India — will be participating after 12 years. It was first mooted in 2007 and China was always opposed to this grouping. All exercises usually have a ‘harbor phase’ involving personnel interaction. However, this year’s will be ‘non-contact - at sea’ with the personnel on their own ships having no interaction with those of other participating nations. The Union defence ministry said the exercise will strengthen the coordination between the Navies of all the participating countries. The Malabar exercises started in 1992 as a bilateral one between Navies of India and the US. Japan joined in 2015. The annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018, off the coast the Japan in 2019 and will be held in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea this year. Experts welcomed the development. Commodore Anil Jai Singh, a noted defence analyst, said Australia’s participation in the exercise will send an important message to China. “China has opened so many fronts simultaneously and India has been always considerate towards Chinese sensitivities but China never cared,” he added. Chinese soldier ‘strays’ into India, apprehended Indian Army apprehended a Chinese soldier who had “strayed” across the LAC in the Demchok sector of Eastern Ladakh on Monday. The soldier will be returned to the Chinese after completion of formalities | P7 Australia’s decision to participate comes in the wake of Beijing’s erecting trade barriers in retaliation to Canberra’s demand for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (Retd), said, “Australia is significant given the time of geopolitical turmoil, it completes some kind of security architecture which might be available which can be put to use by quad for ensuring freedom of navigation and following the international order on maritime issues”. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy conducts an aerial survey of flood-affected regions in Krishna and Guntur districts on Monday | Express Assess damage and give farmers input subsidy, CM tells officials E x p r ess N ews S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada Taking stock of the damage caused by the heavy rains and floods in Krishna and Guntur districts, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday directed officials to finish estimating the extent of crop damage at the earliest. He told them to provide input subsidy to farmers so the money can be used as an investment for Rabi crops. Jagan, along with Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharita and Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao, conducted an aerial survey of the flood-hit regions of Krishna and Guntur districts. He also assessed the damage in Nandigama, Avanigadda, 8 speed boats being sent to Hyd for rescue & relief More thunderstorms over next four days, warns IMD In response to a request from Telangana, CM Jagan told officials to send speed boats to Hyderabad to help in rescue and relief operations. Eight boats - three from the disaster management dept and five from the tourism dept - are being sent, along with NDRF divers and life jackets A low-pressure area is very likely to form over the central Bay of Bengal on Tuesday, and cause squally weather with winds of 45-55 kmph near the AP coast for the next four days. The IMD said thunderstorms with lightning and heavy rain is likely at isolated places in AP in the next four days K’taka High Court issues stay order on installing tallest Christ statue Bengaluru: The Karnataka HC has stayed the construction of the world’s tallest statue of Jesus Christ at Kapalabetta. The court said the land for the statue was allotted illegally in 2017 by the then Congress government. The petitioners alleged it was an attempt by Congress leaders D K Shivakumar and D K Suresh to grab government land Atchnnaidu appointed president of TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit Vijayawada: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday named the party Presidents for both AP and Telangana, and appointed the party Central Committee, Politburo and the Telangana State Committee. As expected, former Minister K Atchnnaidu was appointed president of the TDP’s Andhra Pradesh unit | P4 Bihar political parties flout SC fiat @ New Delhi/Patna The Lord rides on Kalpavriksha Vahanam on the fourth day of the Navaratri Brahmotsavams in Tirumala on Monday | Express remaining districts and compensate them immediately . Addressing the media in Kakinada, Minister for Agriculture Kurasala Kanna Babu said relief and rehabilitation measures are being undertaken in flood-affected areas of nine districts. Preliminary estimates reveal that agriculture crops on 1,07,797 hectares express read K u ma r Vik r am , Ra j esh K u ma r T hak u r & K an u S a r d a Procession of elegance Penamaluru, Mylavaram and Tadikonda constituencies. The State government has been providing free ration and essential commodities in the flood-hit regions of Krishna, Guntur and Godavari districts. The Chief Minister told officials to identify people who lost crops, houses and cattle due to the floods in the Siddharth Saurav is the Congress candidate from the Bikram seat in the ongoing Bihar elections. He has at least one criminal case against him and his election affidavit says among the charges he faces are of murder filed under Section 302 of the IPC. Raj Kumar Sah, the Lok Janshakti Party’s candidate from the Lalganj seat, has an attempt to murder case against him filed under Section 307 of the IPC. Both the Congress and the LJP should have, as directed by the Election Commission, published their criminal antecedents in newspapers, social media platforms and their party’s websites. But neither party has done so, at least until late on Monday night. The Congress and the LJP are not the only parties that have not complied with the EC’s directive to publicise details of the candidates with a criminal history. Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s party, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, is among the prominent parties that is yet to comply with the order. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) uploaded details of the criminal cases of its candidates late on Sunday night, which was past the deadline for complying with the EC’s order. On February 13, 2020, the Supreme Court had ruled that all political parties must publish the entire criminal history of candidates along with the reasons for fielding them. “It shall be mandatory for political parties to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, including the nature of the offences and relevant particulars,” the court ruled. Following the apex court verdict, the EC, in an order passed on September 16, 2020, said that “details regarding criminal cases are to be published on three occasions during the campaign period.” The first round of publicity has to be done “within first 4 days of withdrawal” of nomiP7 nation papers.  were damaged, he stated, and added that horticulture crops on 13,563 hectares and pisciculture on 2,974 hectares were damaged. As many as 478 boats belonging to fishermen were also damaged by the flood. Stating that all departments are taking up damage-control exercises, the minister added that Yeleru Reservoir received 30 TMC feet of water and all irrigation drains originating from the reservoir were flooded, resulting in inundation of several colonies in Pithapuram, Jagammpeta, Prattipadu and Anaparthi segments. “As directed by the Chief Minister, essential commodities are being distributed as immediate relief,” he said. Continued on P5  Four days after six mainstream Opposition parties launched a Peoples Alliance to unitedly fight for the restoration of special powers under Article 370 to J&K, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday grilled National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah for over seven hours in connection with the 2015 J&K Cricket Association scam. While most parties described the ED action as political vendetta, Abdullah asserted he was clean and that the fight for Article 370’s restoration will continue with or without him. In 2015, the CBI had registered a first infor mation report into the alleged `113 crore scam when he was heading the state cricket association. Abdullah’s son Omar tweeted, “This is nothing less than political vendetta coming days after the formation of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration”. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “ED’s sudden summon to Farooq displays the extent of Government of India’s nervousness about mainstream parties in J&K fighting as one unit. Also reeks of political vendetta...” Onion prices touch `75-80, to rise further due to floods E x p r ess N ews S e r v i c e @ Kurnool/Vijayawada/Visakhapatnam The cost of onion has shot up to `75 per kg in the open market in the State, and the vegetable is being sold for `80 in some places. The price touched `60 at Rythu Bazaars. Consumers complain that the price is not commensurate with the quality of onions, as they had been damaged by the rain. The high price, however, has brought cheer to farmers in Kurnool district, who are earning more than `6,000 per quintal. The price could rise further in a few days as there is a huge demand and lack of supply from other States, they said. On Monday, the price per quintal at the Kurnool Agriculture Market Yard was `6,380 — the season’s highest so far. If the trend continues, the price might touch `10,000 per quintal, which means the retail price could cross `100 per kg in a couple of days. In Kurnool, from where most of the domestic need for onions is met, a significant chunk of the crop, which was cultivated on 27,500 hectares, was damaged by the surplus rain. Usually, onions are cultivated on 28,000 hectares in the region. A trader sits on his stock of onions at the Kurnool agriculture market yard | Express Horticulture assistant director (Kurnool) Raghunath Reddy said that as per preliminary reports, the crop on 2,561 hectares was damaged, and the yield from the rest of the cultivated area reduced. Normally , between 70 and 120 quintals of onion is produced per acre in the district, but due to the heavy rains, the yield reduced to between 30 and 40 quintals. “The situation today is no different from last year, when production was hit and prices touched `16,000 per quintal,” Continued on P5 he said.