HYDERABAD  SATURDAY  OCTOBER 24, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 18  LATE CITY EDITION TRUMP RAISES A STINK ABOUT INDIA’S ‘FILTHY’ AIR QUALITY “Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia. Look at India. The air is filthy,” US Prez Donald Trump said referring to air pollution ‘US WAS TREATED UNFAIRLY IN CLIMATE DEAL’ CIVILITY RETURNS TO PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE Trump said the US pulled out of the 2015 Paris climate deal because it was treated unfairly despite its commitment to spend trillions of dollars, while countries like India got way with poor performance in tackling global warming. According to the Global Carbon Projection, India is the fourth highest emitter of carbon dioxide, while the US is the second largest ■ The top four carbon dioxide emitters in the world are China (27%), the US (15), the European Union (10%) and India (7%) ■ Unlike the first one, the second and final debate between Trump and Joe Biden on Thursday night was more civilised as the two leaders spoke about substantive issues without interruption 729 AIR QUALITY INDEX IN DELHI’S ANAND VIHAR SLIPPED TO ‘HAZARDOUS’ CATEGORY FRIDAY 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 Reject those who fed goons, says Modi, raps obstructionist Oppn Bihar battleground heats up with back-to-back rallies by Modi and Rahul; PM criticises RJD, seeks repeat mandate for Nitish for restoring the rule of law Rahul bid to pin PM down on migrants, China ingress R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ Patna PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday tore into the Opposition Grand Alliance spearheaded by the RJD in a series of election rallies, urging voters to reject those “who fed the goons and developed their own family”. He also took a swipe at the Congress for its belligerence on the new farm reform laws. “For them, the interest of middlemen is above the farmers’ welfare. They side with those who conspire against the country,” the PM said, adding the NDA government will never go back on its decision to withdraw special powers to J&K under Article 370. “Bihar deserves development but who will ensure it — he who developed his own family or he who forgot his own family in the service of the people? Bihar deserves better law and order, but who will ensure it — E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Patna Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at Sasaram, Bihar; (Above) Cong leader Rahul Gandhi with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav at Nawada on Friday | PTI he who fed the goons or he who made the law to chase down the goons and criminals?” Modi asked in his trademark style, targeting the 15-year RJD rule while defending ally Nitish Kumar of the JD(U). He also paid rich tributes to LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan who passed away recently, but avoided criticising his party, which recently broke away from the NDA in the state. Turning to the Opposition, the PM said it was “opposed to development and national interest”. Alluding to the Congress for its strident stand against the new farm laws, Modi said whenever middlemen are targeted for providing direct benefits to farmers, some people in the opposition As revenues drop, TS decides to go in for mid-term Budget review grants from the Centre, the State is mostly depending on the loans to THE State government has decided honour its commitment to impleto go in for the mid-term review of ment the welfare activities. 2020-21 Budget as the State’s revenues As the situation remains grim, the have dipped due to the Covid-19 government decided to review the pandemic. situation. Even the GDP of the CenFunds expected from the Central tral government was -24 per cent and government too have not been re- its impact would be felt on the States, ceived by the State. The financial the Chief Minister said. situation up to September, Rao asked the officials to the half-year period, is also make a fresh assessment of not very encouraging, nethe availability of funds. cessitating Chief Minister “Assess how much is actuK Chandrasekhar Rao to go ally available for the governin for a review of the State ment to spend. Also assess, Budget. how much we can release to In the first five months of different departments. Rethe year, the State’s Revenue view the Budget and submit Receipts were just 21.68 per a report,” he said. cent. As against the estimat- ‘Make fresh Finance Minister T Hared revenue of `1,43,151.94 assessment i s h R a o p r e s e n t e d crore for the year, the `1,82,814.42 crore Budget for of funds’ State realised `31,037.47 2020-21. Despite, the ecoCM KCR asked crore up to August, just 21.68 nomic slowdown and poor the officials to per cent of the estimated prospects of receipts from make a fresh revenue. the Centre, Harish Rao’s assessment of If the trend continues like maiden Budget was 25 per the availability this, the State Budget size cent bigger than the 2019-20 of funds. “Also may be downsized by 30 to 40 Budget size. assess, how per cent. After Harish Rao presentmuch we can The State’s share in Cened the Budget, the situation release to tral taxes was estimated at turned more difficult with different `10,906.51 crore for the year. the outbreak of Covid-19 departments. However, the State received pandemic. Review the only `3,125.03 — 28.65 per It remains to be seen, Budget and cent — up to August. With whether this year’s Budget submit me a fall in its State’s Own Revecrosses `1.5 lakh crore mark report.” nue (SOR) and also less or not. V V B A L A K R I S H N A @ Hyderabad DAY FOLLOWING DASARA TOO WILL BE A GOVT HOLIDAY This year, the Vijayadasami holiday has been changed from October 25 to October 26. Accordingly, a GO was issued by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Friday. Earlier, the State government has decided to declare a holiday on October 26, the day after Dasara. From hereafter, the following day of Dasara will also be declared as a holiday every year. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday instructed the officials to declare October 26 as an holiday. He directed them to include the following day of Dasara every year as an holiday while preparing the list of government holidays. It may be recalled that the government had already declared holidays on the following days of Ramzan and Christmas. STATE GOVT EMPLOYEES TO BE PAID DA DUES Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday directed the Finance Department officials to immediately pay Dearness Allowance (DA) dues, pending since July 1, 2019, to the State government employees. Rao also asked the officials to evolve a policy on payment of DA immediately after the Central government announces the DA. As per the directions of the Chief Minister, Principal Finance Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao issued a GO revising the DA points from 33.536% to 38.776% to government employees and from 118.128% to 126.688% for pensioners from July, 2019. During an interaction with the leaders of Telangana Employees JAC, the Chief Minister felt that the policy of announcing the DA for State government employees should be changed. There should not be any delay in announcing the DA points, Rao said. The CM also assured that he would have a meeting with the leaders of employees unions to discuss and resolve their problems. TS GOVT TO PROCURE MAIZE PAYING MSP OF `1,850 PER QUINTAL | P4 DHARANI PORTAL TO BE LAUNCHED ON OCT 29 The much-awaited Dharani portal will be launched at 12.30 pm on October 29 by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Once the portal is launched, the registration of properties will resume in the State. Though, the Chief Minister earlier planned to launch the portal on the day of Dasara, he postponed it to October 29. According to sources, the launch date was changed as there is no good ‘muhurat’ on Dasara this year. DATA PROTECTION Amazon skips JPC meet, draws members’ wrath E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi SOCIAL media giant Facebook’s representatives were on Friday questioned for two hours, while ecommerce major Amazon chose not to appear before a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) that is looking into the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 saying its ‘subject matter experts’ were all abroad. Facebook’s representatives were asked about portability of data, advertisement revenue generated from India and the corporate tax the com- pany pays in India, while Amazon received a stern warning from the joint parliamentary committee for skipping the meeting. Amazon said it has utmost respect for the JPC and expressed regret that its executives were unable to travel to India due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sources privy to the meeting said the JPC members were unanimous in considering action against Amazon. Some parliamentarians said the Union government should intervene in the matter while others suggested to move a privilege motion against Amazon. The panel’s chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi said JPC members have demanded strict action against the US firm because if one company had refused before the parliamentary committee and it was possible that in future more companies and individuals too could just skip meetings or refuse to appear before a parliamentary committee. Sources said members of the JPC were also dissatisfied with Facebook’s “vague” replies about the advertisement revenue, its alleged electoral bias and the corporate tax being paid in the country . start fanning propaganda on the MSP (Minimum Support Price) and other national issues. “When Rafale fighter jets were purchased, they spoke the language of middlemen and brokers. Whenever intermediaries and brokers get hit, these people get furious.” He also saluted the Galwan martyrs of the Bihar Regiment. COVID IMPACT INDIA’S GDP RECOVERY YEARS AWAY: RBI DY GUV KICKING off his party’s poll campaign in Bihar on Friday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tried to pin down Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the emotive issues of migrants and the Chinese ingress into Ladakh, since many soldiers hailing from the state had laid down their lives in the Galwan valley violence in June. “You (migrants) covered hundreds of kilometers on foot hungry and thirsty, but Modi did not arrange transport. He left you to your fate,” Rahul said in back-to-back rallies with RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav in Nawada and Bhagalpur districts. “A E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi CORONAVIRUS’ impact on the economy is unlike any other and it could take years to regain the lost output, RBI Deputy Governor Michael Patra has warned. “If the projections hold, the level of GDP would have fallen approximately 6% below its pre-Covid level by the end of 2020-21 and it may take government for such migrants and labourers must be installed.” Rahul also accused Modi of insulting the Army by denying that the PLA had infiltrated into eastern Ladakh. “Our 20 soldiers were martyred and they took our 1,200 sq km area. When China intruded, why did our PM insult Indian Army’s heroes by lying that no one had come inside India?” Rahul questioned. “Merely bowing one’s head before martyred jawans of the Bihar Regiment would not do. When you will get the land occupied by the PLA vacated.” In his address, Tejashwi said: “On November 9, Lalu ji will be released from jail. On November 10, Nitish Kumar’s farewell is fixed.” years to regain this lost output,” Batra said at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting earlier this month, whose minutes were released on Friday . “There is also an anecdotal sense that the economy’s potential output has fallen, and the post-Covid growth trajectory will look very different from what has been recorded so far,” CONTINUED ON P12 Patra added.