TIRUNELVELI  WEDNESDAY  OCTOBER 28, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION KERALA FIRST STATE TO FIX FLOOR PRICE FOR VEGETABLES Sixteen vegetables will have floor price that would be 20% above their production cost, with effect from November 1 NO PAIN FOR FARMERS EVEN IF MARKET CRASHES PRICE TO BE REVISED ON A REGULAR BASIS Even if the market price went below this, the produce would be procured at the floor price from farmers, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday. The vegetables would be graded as per the quality and the floor price fixed accordingly, he said. “Farmers across the country are not satisfied... but for the last four-and-half years, we have supported them,” he added The 16 vegetables include potato, tomato, beans, tapioca, lady’s finger, bitter gourd, carrot, beetroot, banana among others ■ Farmers with a maximum of 15 acres of vegetable cultivation per season will be eligible for the scheme. The state government will revise the floor price on a regular basis, the chief minister said ■ 15L tonnes KERALA’S ANNUAL VEGETABLE PRODUCTION, ACCORDING TO STATE GOVT 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 Floodgates now opened for anyone to buy land in Jammu & Kashmir IN a move that can have longterm political and economic implications for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Centre on Tuesday notified several laws, including major amendments to the Jammu and Kashmir Land Revenue Act to allow any Indian citizen to buy land in the Union Territory . Agricultural land will be an exception to the law as it can only be transferred or sold to an agriculturist in J&K. However, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs can authorise an agriculturist to ‘alienate’ the HATE CONTENT Five accords, including the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement, at 2+2 dialogue indicate US solidarity against Chinese aggression S A N A S H A K I L A N D F AYA Z W A N I @ New Delhi/Srinagar Under-fire FB official Ankhi Das calls it quits EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi CONTROVERSIAL India policy head of Facebook, Ankhi Das, who had opposed blocking of right-wing hate content on its platform, put in her papers on Tuesday . She was outed by US media reports that criticised Facebook for its skew in regulating hate content. The resignation to pursue her interest in ‘public service’ also came close on the heels of her grilling by a parliamentary committee on data protection. She had joined Facebook in 2011. “Ankhi has decided to step down from her role in Facebook to pursue her interest in public service. Ankhi was one of our earliest employees in India and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company and its services over the last 9 years,” said Ajit Mohan, vice president and managing director, India in a statement. In August last, articles in the Wall Street Journal had said Das had intervened in internal review of the communal posts of BJP’s Telangana MLA T Raja Singh. Das, the reports said, had argued that penalising BJP workers’ posts would hurt the social media company’s business prospects in India. The reports soon lit a political fire with the Congress alleging a nexus between Facebook and the BJP . HIZBUL CHIEF SALLAHUDIN IN NEW TERROR LIST The Centre on Tuesday designated 18 more individuals as ‘terrorists’, including Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Sallahudin, taking the total number of such proscribed persons to 31 | P7 land to a non-agriculturist for sale, gift or exchange. The new amendment implies domiciles of J&K would now effectively get protection only in government jobs. The Union government had earlier hinted that some protection on land-rights on the lines of Himachal Pradesh will be Sharp message to Beijing from India-US pacts P U S H K A R B A N A K A R & M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi INDIA and the US on Tuesday signed five pacts, including the long-negotiated Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) on geospatial data during the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue at a time when New Delhi and Beijing are engaged in a stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. BECA will give India access to accurate US satellite data, which will help in navigation and pinpoint accuracy for weapons. “We are happy that we’ve completed the BECA, which will open new avenues in the information sharing. We are eager to discuss further issues with US,” Singh said after the meeting. Experts say BECA will usher in a new era in ties, especially in defence cooperation. “India-US are looking at geo-spatial intelligence and greater cooperation in all fields. Further, a fair amount of congruence has been achieved in terms of the idea of an inclusive Indo-Pacific. The wider Indo-Pacific sweep includes freedom of navigation, use of global commons and the sea lanes of communica- Agriculture land Agricultural land will be reserved for farmers and it can only be sold another agriculturist. However, the land can be transferred for non-agriculture purposes with the Centre’s permission BJP leader and actor Khushbu Sundar and a few BJP cadre were taken into preventive custody at Muttukadu near Chennai on Tuesday when they were enroute to Chidambaram to take part in a demonstration against VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan for his remarks on Manusmriti. They were let off in the evening. tion,” Major General (Retd) S B Asthana said. Kriti Upadhyaya of the Washingtonbased Center for Strategic and International Studies said that signing of BECA in the backdrop of the India-China tensions definitely sends a message to China that the US stands by India in improving its defences against China. Discussions in the meeting involving US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, External Affairs Minister S Jaishnakar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh focused around a plethora of regional and global issues, including coronavirus, trade, free and fair Indo-Pacific and enhancing bilateral ties. Earlier in the day Pompeo , and Esper paid tributes at the National War Memorial and had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. “Warm conversation today with Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi. Our close relationship, which is rooted in our vibrant democratic traditions and fostered by the free and open exchange between our peoples, is beneficial for the world,” Pompeo CONTINUED ON: P7 later tweeted. Khushbu’s detention sparked off protests across the State during the day In Madurai, State BJP . president L Murugan staged a road roko, while the BJP national general secretary CT Ravi condemned police action. However, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar clarified that Khushbu was taken into preventive custody to avoid any law and order problem. HC to monitor CBI’s Hathras probe EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi / Lucknow THE Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Allahabad High Court to monitor the CBI probe into the alleged Hathras gangrape and murder case. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde asked the CBI to submit its status report to the high court, which shall look into all the aspects of the case, including providing security to the victim’s family . The court said the plea to transfer the case out of Uttar Pradesh has been left open. The petitions sought an independent probe and for the case to be transferred out of Uttar Pradesh. Another prayer was made to ensure adequate witness protection. Reacting to the Supreme Court order, the victim’s family said they welcome it. “We had demanded monitoring of the CBI probe by a sitting or retired SC judge. But now that the apex court has decided it should be done by the high court, we hope justice will be ensured,” the victim’s brother P8 told TNIE. END TO CONTROVERSY IBPS adds 115 more reserved seats B A N B U S E LV A N @ Chennai THE Institute of Banking of Personal Selection (IBPS), in its revised notification on Monday, increased the number of posts earmarked for OBC, SC and ST categories to 700, as against the previous allocation of 585. This deci- sion comes after an Express quota eats into OBC, SC/ report that the IBPS had ST share in banking jobs’, reduced the number flagging the cut in resof seats for these ervation of posts for categories in filling and ST apExpress OBC, SC in an IBPS up bank vacancies plicants impact recruitment notifihad sparked an outrage. cation issued on AuTNIExpress, on Ocgust 3. It also hightober 14, had published a lighted that Economically news report, titled ‘EWS Weaker Section (EWS) of 2020’ changed this status. The order issued by the Union home ministry evoked sharp reactions from J&K political parties, ranging from ‘unacceptable’ to ‘betrayal’. Several regional parties, under the umbrella of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, vowed to fight “on all fronts” against it. The MHA has also amended the domicile law declaring the “spouse of a domicile shall also be deemed to be a domicile”. This earlier pertained to children of central government officials posted in J&K for 10 years who are also eligible as CONTINUED ON: P7 domiciles. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses the media after the India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue, as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar (R), US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2L) and US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper (L) look on, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday | PTI MANUSMRITI ROW: ACTOR KHUSHBU DETAINED NEAR CHENNAI, FREED E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chennai granted to domiciles of J&K. Before the reading down of Article 370 and Article 35-A last year, non-residents could not buy any immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir. But the new order titled the ‘Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, forward communities were given 10 per cent quota. The report noted that OBCs were given 21 per cent quota instead of the 27 per cent of statutory reservation. Now, the number of posts earmarked for OBCs has been increased from 300 to 381, for SCs from 196 to 214 and for STs from 89 to 105. Rajnath raps reckless China aggression P U S H K A R B A N A K A R @ New Delhi WHILE US belligerence against China was on expected lines, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sharp rebuke of the neighbour for its “reckless aggression on our northern borders”, in his opening address at the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on Tuesday , became one of the day’s talking points. “Excellencies, in the area of defense we are challenged by reckless aggression on our northern borders,” a State Department release after the bilateral dialogue quoted Singh as saying. However, a statement issued by the Ministry of De- fence made no such mention. Visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was more upfront. “The US will stand with India to defend its sovereignty and its liberty. Our nations are committed to working together into expanding our partnerships,” Pompeo said after CONTINUED ON: P7 the talks.