Popular vote Popular vote 72,211,950 68,727,256 JOE BIDEN DONALD TRUMP 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 ■ Electoral college votes 214 264 Electoral college votes Counting down to the wire in these 4 states ■ Results from these battleground states will decide who will be the next President of the United States. As of now, Joe Biden has an upper hand WARANGAL l friday l november 06, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION Nevada Biden win just a state away The race to 270 electoral college votes to claim the White House appeared within reach of Democrat Joe Biden on Thursday as he needed to bag just one of the four battleground states where the outcome is yet to be called. Biden already has 264 in the bag, in contrast to President Donald Trump’s 214. Trump needs to claim all four battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada to race from behind and touch 270. But his lead was narrowing in Georgia with more postal ballots getting counted. In Pennsylvania, more than seven lakh mail-in ballots are yet to be tabulated. And Biden is leading in Nevada. In another swing state of Arizona, whose result has already been called in Biden’s favour, Trump narrowed the gap to 3.4%as more votes were counted. With his hold on the Oval Office slipping, a nervous Trump tweeted: “Stop the count!” He was referring to the absentee ballots, most of which are perceived to be Democrat leaning. His campaign team launched a spate of legal challenges in Pennsylvania, LVPEI founder ranked top eye researcher Nitish plays emotional card saying it’s his last poll, RJD reads his defeat in it ENS @ Hyderabad R a j e s h K u m a r T h a k u r @ Patna Five senior scientists of LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) emerged among the top two per cent researchers in the world in ophthalmology and microbiology in a study conducted by re, searchers from Stanford University, Elsevier and SciTech Strategies and published in the journal PLOS Biology. LVPEI Founder-Chair, Dr Gullapalli N Rao, Director Emeritus of Prof Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, Prof D Balasubramanian, Director of Laboratory Services, Dr Savitri Sharma and Visiting Professor, Prof Jill Keeffe emerged top in ophthalContinued on P4 mology  . slip of tongue or the emotional card, either way this is a make-orbreak election for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who rather unexpectedly declared on Thursday that this would be his last polls. Turning 70 in a few months, age is not really on his side, even by the norm in politics where no one really retires. But aware that he will be close to 75 when the elections are next held in the state, it is crucial that Nitish wins in the face of a stiff challenge from the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav. Campaigning in Purnea district on the last day of electioneering, Michigan and Georgia and sought recount in Wisconsin. As for Biden, there was a spring in his step. “I will govern as an American president. “There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America,” he said. Biden has received over 72 million votes, the most in US history At . last count, Trump was trailing Biden by over 4 million popular votes. The overall voter turnout in the presidential election was projected to be the highest in 120 years at 66.9%. Biden got booster shots from Nitish made an emotional appeal to the people, asking them to vote for his party’s sitting MLA as this was his last election. “Day after tomorrow is voting day and this is my last election. All is well that ends well. Will you vote for my party candidate?” he asked dramatically, setting tongues wagging in Bihar and beyond. Most political parties down- “blue wall” battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan, which Trump had flipped in 2016. However, two days after election day there was still no clarity , on when the final winner would be determined. The record turnout is tied to the pandemic, as postel ballots were aggressively pushed to ensure personal distancing. Yet, the nation saw a new high of 1.03 lakh cases in a day . Amid all the tension, Trump loyalists staged protests in Detroit and Phoenix, while antiTrump protesters elsewhere demanded full count of the ballots. played the remarks, including Nitish’s own, the Janata Dal (United). Senior party spokesperson Ajay Alok rubbished the interpretation that Kumar was retiring from politics. “Nitish Kumar will head the state as the CM with the people’s mandate,” he said. Its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, also dismissed any such speculation. “He has not announced that he is quitting politics. The people will not allow him to go out because Bihar needs him,” BJP leader Prem Ranjan Patel said. The RJD took a dig at the CM, saying that Nitish had played the emotional card as he had sensed that he was losing.  continued on p7 SAVING GRACE Families who lost everything in the recent floods collect free provisions at Access Foundation’s Pick What You Need Mela in Chandrayangutta on Thursday | Vinay Madapu | P3 11 pvt schools violated G.O. 46, TS informs HC E x pr e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad In a significant development, the Telangana government on Thursday filed a report before the High Court stating that 11 private schools — Mount Litera Zee School, Rangareddy district, Meridian at Banjara Hills, Oxford at Himayathnagar, Neeraj, Narayana (DD Colony branch), Jubilee Hills, Geetanjali, Little Flower, Kalpa and St Andrews schools (Bowenpally and Marredpally branches) in the city -have violated GO 46, which allows schools to collect only tuition fee on monthly basis during 2020-21. The government also stated that it will initiate action against such schools affiliated to the State board as per provisions of the Education Act, 1982. Pursuant to an earlier direction of the court, the government, represented by Director of School Education A Sridevasena, filed a report before the division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy . The bench is dealing with the PIL filed by Hyderabad School Parents Association, represented by its Joint Secretary K Venkat Sainath, seeking direction to the authorities concerned to take action against the private schools managements for conducting online classes and for collecting fee, including term fee, admission fee, developmental charges, library fee, extra curricular activity and transportation fee in violation of GO 46 issued on April 21, 2020. The government, in its report, stated that the enquiry officers concerned conducted detailed enquiry in the above mentioned schools and found that these s c h o o l s h ave v i o l a t e d Continued on P5 the GO 46.  North Carolina ■ ■ Electoral votes: 6 ■ Vote counted: 75% Joe Biden 588,252 (49.3%) Donald Trump 580,605 (48.7%) The fight for a second term gets tougher for Trump as absentee ballots are eating into his leads in battleground states, sending his team into a nervous frenzy to file lawsuits and seek recount E x pr e s s N e w s S e r v i c e Pennsylvania ■ Electoral votes: 20 ■ Vote counted: 87% Donald Trump 3,225,536 (50.4%) Joe Biden 3,100,662 (48.4%) Electoral votes: 15 Vote counted: 94% Donald Trump 2,732,084 (50.1%) Joe Biden 2,655,383 (48.7%) ■ @ Hyderabad In yet another horrifying incident, a 32-year-old tribal woman was raped and murdered in Kollur near RC Puram on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Thursday. The woman has been missing since Tuesday night. According to police, three persons known to the victim had abducted her. They then raped and killed her in an isolated location. RC Puram police registered a case of kidnap, gang-rape, murder and under Prevention of Atrocities against SC & STs US President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud are baseless, according to international observers. Observers from the Organization for Security and co-operation in Europe, of which the US is a member, said the November 3 general elections were competitive Georgia Electoral votes: 16 Vote counted: 99% Donald Trump 2,434,354 (49.5%) Joe Biden 2,419,589 (49.2%) ■ ■ As of 10.00 pm Thursday Over dozen Indian Americans win ALASKA Electoral votes: 3 ■ Vote counted: 50% Donald Trump 118,602 (62.1%) Joe Biden 63,992 (33.5%) ■ More than a dozen Indian Americans, including five women, have won state-level elections. This is in addition to the four Indian Americans elected to the US House of Representatives. At least three other races, including one for the US House of Representatives, are yet undecided | P9 Demonstrators attend a rally to support all votes being counted one day after Election Day, in Washington | AP expanding horizons New IT tower to come up in Kompally, 3 more in districts E x pr e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Hyderabad Describing 2020 as an eventful and emotional year, MAUD and IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday announced that the State government is planning to open a new IT tower in Kompally for the benefit of SMEs and a new cluster in Kollur in the North West of Hyderabad. Speaking at HYSEA’s Annual Innovation Summit, he said that IT towers will also be opened at Khammam, Nizamabad and Mahbubnagar later this year or early next year. “This is to disperse the IT sector around the city. There are a slew of benefits, including 30 per cent rental rebate for the SMEs and anyone who brings in more than 500 employees to the GRID regions will get a custom package. We will be doing the groundbreaking for the Kompally tower next week. We already have more than 200 SMEs interested in taking space here. We have opened an IT tower in Karimnagar and it is running to full capacity. Already, there is a demand for phase II. We are opening towers in Khammam, Nizamabad, and Mahbubnagar later this year. Our IT tower in Warangal is also running to full capacity,” he said. “CYIENT and Tech Mahindra are already there We will be doing the groundbreaking for the Kompally tower next week. We already have more than 200 SMEs interested in taking space here KT Rama Rao, IT Minister and happily expanding. CYIENT has a very modern facility there. Tech Mahindra is utilising our incubation space and will soon expand to their own facility he added. ,” SME advisory panel The Minister also said that the State government has created an SME Advisory Committee to ensure that a good portion of the government software work goes to the SMEs. “The committee is already operational. Several SMEs have been empanelled and they are supporting the government with the software for the Ease Of Doing Business Application,” he said. “Even though work from home is in vogue now, we believe that campuses and Tribal woman gang-raped, murdered in Kollur E x pr e s s N e w s S e r v i c e ‘Voter fraud claims baseless’ Act and began the investigation. The three accused — Vaditya Madhu Nayak, Talluri Kutumba Reddy and Chindam Nandu have been arrested, D C P M a d h ap u r M Venkateshwarlu said. The woman, a mother of two, was a resident of Kollur Thanda under Tellapur municipality of RC Puram police limits. For more than a decade she, along with her children, was living with her in-laws after the death of her husband. On Tuesday she came to her , mother’s home at Miyapur. During the night, after receiving a call, she left her mother’s place.  Continued on P3 workplaces are there to stay in the long run. And on the other side, our State’s IT exports grew by 18% in the last financial year. This is more than double the national average of 8%. An incredible story for us to tell the rest of the world is that Hyderabad is the place to come and invest. We have moved from sixth place to second place over the last six years in office space consumption. We are happy but not satisfied. We have set much higher targets.” The Minister also applauded the efforts of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) and other IT organisations for their financial and outreach support during the pandemic. “The Covid pandemic has affected every one directly or indirectly. The State finances have gone dry. There was tremendous pressure on the healthcare system in the State. About a `100 crore of donations have been raised by the IT industry bodies — HYSEA, AMCHAM, TIE, NASSCOM and SCSC in collaboration with the United Way of Hyderabad. The proceeds were primarily used to procure the state of the art Covid testing equipment for government hospitals in the State. These machines will primarily benefit the poor people who visit the government hospitals,” he added. Two dozen infra projects to get priority funding PM Modi on Thursday chaired a global investors meet focused on attracting investment for the country’s ambitious infrastructure project pipeline page 10 cause for concern 12% water supplied in TS is contaminated: Jal Shakti Ministry V N i l e s h @ Hyderabad Telangana needs to improve the quality of drinking water it provides. According to data provided by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, the State has the sixth highest percentage of drinking water samples that tested positive for bacteriological contamination among all States. This data excludes the wa- ter supplied to Hyderabad, where according to a Central gover nment report released last year, the drinking water supplied is second safest in the country after Mumbai. In absolute numbers, of the 4,50,956 samples of drinking water that were tested, 32,722 samples tested positive for the bacteriological contamination, which is 7% of the samples. Also, 55,055 samples or 12 per cent of all samples tested positive for chemical contamination. The five other States where the percentage of drinking water samples testing positive for bacteriological contamination was higher than Telangana are Kerala, West Bengal, Maharashtra, AP and Jharkhand. Khammam worst affected Among all districts in Telangana, Khammam fared the worst where out of the 35,210 drinking water samples that were tested, 12,219 were found to be contaminated with chemicals and 8,203 tested positive for bacteriological contamination. Following Khammam were Medak(5,359), Mahbubnagar (4,459), Nalgonda (3,728) and Rangareddy (3,702) districts.   Water quality is tested for chemical parameters that include pH, turbidity TDS, total , hardness, alkalinity fluoride, , chloride, sulphate, nitrate, arsenic and iron along with bacteriological parameters of total coliforms and E-coli. Continued on P4