visakhapatnam l tuesday l december 01, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Joe Biden breaks his foot while playing with pet dog The US President-elect has hairline fractures in his mid-foot and may need a walking boot for a few weeks, his doctor said Hairline fractures show up in ct scan ‘Get well soon’, Trump tweets The Democratic leader twisted his ankle on Saturday when he slipped while playing with Major, his two-year-old German shepherd. “Initial X-rays did not show any obvious fracture, but CT scan confirmed hairline (small) fractures of President-elect Biden’s lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the midfoot,” Biden’s physician Dr Kevin O’Connor said ■ ■ ■ Biden’s last health record was released by Dr O’Connor in Dec ’19 The physician said Biden is “healthy, vigorous”. Biden does not use tobacco or drink alcohol and exercises five days a week President Donald Trump, a Republican, who has not yet conceded the November 3 presidential election, tweeted, “Get well soon!” 78-yr-old Biden will be the oldest prez in U.S. history when he takes oath on Jan 20 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 Late-night invite sets stage for talks with farmers today Shah and he invited the farmers organisations for talks without pre-conditions. A forWith the farmers’ protest mal invite is yet to arrive. If entering its fourth day on we get it, then we will decide Monday, Union Agriculture accordingly Singh said. ,’’ Minister Narendra Singh Confirmation of the conTomar sent out a late-night versation came from former invite to the unions to come Punjab minister and senior for talks at 3 pm at Vigyan BJP leader Surjit Kumar JayBhavan on Tuesday . ani who said he was the conEarlier in the day, Union duit. “I made Buta Singh Home Minister speak to Amit Amit Shah met ‘Modi must listen Shah,” he said. Tomar for the A host of isto Mann ki Baat’ second time in sues were disThe All India Kisan two days to find a c u s s e d at t h e Sangharsh way out of the meeting Shah Coordination stand-off at Delhad with Tomar, Committee criticised hi’s borders. sources said, inthe stout defence of Sources said the cluding the politthe new farm laws, government was icisation of the saying it was the turn ready for unconprotests, which of Modi to listen to ditional talks on Prime Minister their Mann Ki Baat all matters but Narendra Modi was firmly criticised in Varagainst repealing the three anasi. The sparring match new farm sector reform laws between Haryana Chief Minthat are at the centre of the ister M L Khattar and his agitation. Punjab counterpart AmaThe exploratory exercise to rinder Singh over the proset up a talks table began af- tests also came up for ter Shah reportedly spoke to discussion. Buta Singh, president of the The meeting happened at a Bharatiya Kisan Union. time when the protesting Singh claimed he received a farmers have threatened to phone call from Shah to re- block five entry points — solve the issue, though the Sonipat, Rohtak, Jaipur, minister’s office denied the Ghaziabad-Hapur and Mathconversation. “I spoke to ura — into the Capital. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi/Chandigarh (Clockwise from top) A farmer dries his paddy in East Godavari district; (inset) paddy damaged by rain; CM Jagan makes a point during the Assembly session; Oppn leader Chandrababu Naidu protests in the Well | Express Ruckus in House over relief for ryots Naidu, 12 other TDP MLAs suspended for a day for unruly behaviour; debate over cyclone impact takes nasty turn E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu and 12 other TDP members were suspended from the Assembly for the day on Monday after they stormed into the well of the House soon after the Winter session began. For for the first time in his political career, Naidu stormed into the well of the House and squatted on the floor in front of the Speaker’s Chair. This happened during a discussion on the plight of farmers. TDP MLA Nimmala Ramanaidu raised the issue of relief for farmers over the damage caused by Cyclone Nivar. “Nivar destroyed crops in over 12 lakh acres. In the note given to us, we expected the government to explain the steps it is taking to compensate farmers. But it was not mentioned,” he claimed. Intervening, Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu recalled his earlier statement that enumeration of crop loss Moderna shot 100% efficacy in severe cases raises the bar E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi US-based biotech major Moderna on Monday said its Covid vaccine candidate COVE showed 100% efficacy in severe cases, while it was 94.1% effective overall, as final results of of its phase 3 study in the US came in. Of the 30,000 who participated in its phase 3 study in the US, 196 developed Covid-19. However, 185 of them had received a placebo (dummy drug) while just 11 got the real vaccine. In all, 30 participants got severely ill, including one who died. But all 30 got dummy shots, indicating the vaccine was 100% effective against the novel coronavirus. “We have already, just in the trial, have already saved lives. Just imagine the impact then multiplied to the people who can get this vaccine,” said Dr Tal Zaks, the company’s chief medical officer. Moderna is in the process of applying for emergency use authorisation for its vaccine. Meanwhile, the cost of the Oxford vaccine in the Indian open market is expected to be $4-6. was underway and preliminary estimates pegged the extent of crop loss in 6.93 lakh hectares. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, interjecting, remarked that one should have some sense while speaking. Officials were told to enumerate crop losses by December 15 and provide compensation by December 31 in the form of input subsidy, he explained. Jagan further said his government took a historic decision to provide input subsidy within a month of the crop loss ‘Behaving as though injustice done to him’ Taking objection to Naidu squatting on the floor in protest, Jagan said the Oppn leader was trying to disrupt proceedings even while his own party member was speaking. “He resorts to rowdyism and squats before the podium as if injustice was done to him,” the CM said and procure discoloured and even germinated paddy from farmers in a graded MPS system. “Though our minister explained it, they (Opposition) are not listening,” he rued, and wondered if the opposition members were brainless. Strongly objecting to his comments and gestures, Naidu sought the permission of Deputy Speaker Kona Raghupathi, who was in the Chair, to speak. His request was denied as his party member Ramanaidu was speaking. All TDP MLAs stood up and demanded that Naidu be allowed to speak. As permission was not given, a visibly furious Naidu rushed to the podium and squatted on the floor in protest. Speaker T Sitaram wanted to know why the Opposition was disrupting the proceedings. Members of the treasury benches criticised the action of Naidu and his party MLAs, and said it was done to hog the headlines in the media.  Continued on P5 Crop insurance claims to be settled in 1-2 months: Jagan E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday said that for the first time in India, crop insurance claims will be settled within 1-2 months of harvesting, and announced that such claims will be settled by the government, which also pays the crop insurance premium for farmers. Addressing the House on the first day of the Winter Session, he said insurance companies were not settling claims in time. He pointed out that even claims from 2012 were not settled until the YSRC government came to power. “Farmers are not in a position to pay the premium, unsure of when it will be settled,” he said, and added that considering this, the government took up the responsibility to pay the premium and settle crop-insurance claims. Elaborating on how the government proposes to settle the claims, Jagan said Kharif 20-20 crop-cutting experiments will conclude in January 2020. Insurance claims are determined based on the yield after crop-cutting experiments, and once the planning department gives the report of the yield and damages in February, crop insurance claims will be settled in March-April.   CONTINUED ON P5 (In the three years till 2019) 20 lakh farmers had crop insurance. But once we took over payment of the insurance premium, 58.77 lakh farmers were covered — YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister Kerala govt bans PwC from its IT projects for two years E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi The Kerala government has barred consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from projects promoted by the Electronics and IT Department for the next two years. The government said it found lapses by the consultancy firm in appointing Swapna Suresh, a key accused in the sensational gold smuggling case, as operations manager in the Space Park project under the Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd. “PwC didn’t perform a comprehensive background check in the case of appointing an individual in the Space Park. This is a serious breach of contractual obligations on the part of PwC,” the order said. The government also decided not to extend the contract with PwC for the Kerala Fibre Optic Network project. The contract had expired on Monday . Swapna’s appointment at the Space Park was allegedly on the recommendation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar, also an accused in the gold smuggling case. PwC has a chequered history in India. It was the auditor of the infamous Satyam Computers, which committed one of the largest corproate frauds in Indian history in 2009 by manipulating account books. PwC was accused of colluding with the Satyam management. After a nine-year probe in 2018, Sebi banned PwC from auditing listed companies for two years. Last year, PwC was fined `230 crore by the Enforcement Directorate for violating FEMA. Bharatiya Kisan Union members protest after the police imposed Section 144 at the Ghazipur border during their protest, in New Delhi on Monday | PTI PM soft on agitators, harsh on Oppn spreading canards N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Let there be light Kanchi Kamakoti Peetadhipathi Vijayendra Saraswathi participates in Karthika mahadeepotsavam programme in Tirupati on Monday evening | Madhav K express read Priests question temple chairman, get thrashed Kurnool: Two priests were allegedly thrashed by a temple chairman in Bandi Atmakur mandal on Monday. Sources said they were beaten with a cane after the priests questioned the chairman for issuing darshan tickets even after 5 pm, in violation of Covid-19 norms. Temple executive officer Mohan intervened and brought the situation under control and the priests were rushed to hospital | P4 Amid a battle of perception on the three new farm reform bills, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday tore into the Opposition for allegedly misguiding the farmers by spreading canards in the name of baseless fut u r i s t i c l u rk i n g t h re at s t o t h e i r interests. The PM, however, reached out to the agitating farmers, saying they cannot be blamed for the protests as they were misled by vested interests. Modi was addressing a gathering in Varanasi during a visit to his Parliamentary constituency to take part in the Dev Deepavali celebrations on 84 ghats of the Ganga illuminated with around 15 lakh earthen lamps. “New laws have been brought to realise the promises we made to the farmers of our country. Policies are being framed not to deceive the farmers but with honesty and transparency,” Modi said. Criticising the previous gover nments for allegedly deceiving farmers through subsidies, whose benefits never reached them, the PM said: “I feel the farmers should not be blamed for the agitation. It is natural for them to be suspicious as they have suffered deception for decades in the past.” Helping hand S’kulam collector & dy DM&HO help feed HIV +ve kids every month E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Srikakulam Believing that even children who are infected with HIV can have prolonged lives if they are given proper nutrition, Srikakulam Collector J Nivas has been providing nutritious food to a HIV-positive boy every month for the last six years. Inspired by his efforts, depu- ty DM&HO Dr Leela Rani also adopted a child from Nandigama mandal who is infected with HIV, and has been supplying nutritious food for the past year. She even promised to bear the cost of educating the child. Nivas said he got the idea from former East Godavari district collector Muddada Ravi Chandra. “I was inspired by him and decided to adopt a HIV- What’s in the ‘nutrition kit’? “I provide a nutrition kit with eggs, Horlicks, atta, jaggery, oil, rice and a few other nutritious items every month,” said Srikakulam Collector J Nivas. Such foods help boost the immune system positive boy from Adilabad district in Telangana. I provide a nutrition kit with eggs, Horlicks, atta, jaggery, oil, rice and a few other nutritious items every month,” he added. The money for the nutrition kit is given to the child’s caretaker. “By God’s grace the child is fine and healthy. HIV-infected children suffer for no fault of theirs. Our help can prolong their lives,” the collector said. On her part, Dr Leela Rani said though she has been providing nutrition kits, she could not get the child admitted in school due to the Covid-19-induced disruptions. “Officers of various departments, particularly at the district level, have come forward to contribute towards providing nutrition kits to HIVpositive children. Plans are on to supply them via the Indian Red Cross Society she added. ,” Srikakulam district has 210 children who suffer from HIV/ AIDS. As HIV affects the immune system, infectees can boost their immunity by consuming a nutritious diet.