HUBBALLI  SUNDAY  DECEMBER 06, 2020  `8.00  PAGES 24  CITY EDITION JOE BIDEN SECURES ENOUGH ELECTORS TO WIN PRESIDENCY With California certifying him as the winner of the November 3 election, Joe Biden now officially has 279 electors backing him ‘IT’S THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS WHITE HOUSE’ Although it has been apparent for weeks that Biden won the presidential election, experts say officially securing 270-plus electors is the first step toward the White House. “It is a legal milestone and the first milestone that has that status. Everything prior to that was premised on what we call projections,” said Edward B Foley, an American law professor ■ 30 ELECTORS DUE TO VOTE ON DECEMBER 14 ■ The electors are expected to meet on December 14 to officially elect the next president. Results of their vote are due to be received and approved by Congress on January 6 Three states that Biden won — Colorado, Hawaii and New Jersey — are yet to certify results. Once they do, Biden will have 306 electors OF THE ROUGHLY 50 ELECTION LAWSUITS FILED BY TRUMP HAVE BEEN REJECTED 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 Round five too a stalemate, more talks on Dec 9 Farm unions reject govt’s proposal to amend laws, say nothing short of repeal will do @ New Delhi / Chandigarh ing the laws in accordance with the farmers’ demands. “The farmers took the document and deliberated on it during the 15-minute tea break,” the sources said. But the farmers rejected the amendments and stuck to their demand of repealing all the three laws. Sources said in the last segment of the meeting, the farmers went on a ‘maun vrat’ to express their disappointment. P7 MODI FACING BIGGEST TEST OF HIS TENURE |P7 EXPRESS READ SpiceJet plane undershoots runway New Delhi: A SpiceJet plane undershot the runway while landing in Guwahati on Friday, but no one was hurt. The two pilots operating the Bengaluru-Guwahati flight have been grounded, DGCA said. Roshan Baig granted bail in IMA case Bengaluru: A special CBI court here on Saturday granted bail to former minister Roshan Baig in the multi-crore IMA investment scam. CBI arrested Baig on November 22 and had conducted raids at his residence. Row over naming Kerala institute after Golwalkar EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ T’puram THE Union Government’s decision to name the second campus of the Thiruvananthapuram-based Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnolog y (RGCB) after RSS ideologue M S Golwalkar has kicked up a major political row in Kerala, with the Left parties and the Congress alleging that the move is aimed at creating communal polarisation. While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to the Centre urging it to name the campus after an eminent Indian scientist, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sought to name the second campus too after Rajiv Gandhi. Meanwhile, the BJP asked the Left parties and the Congress not to give communal colour to everything. “Golwalkar Pro-Kannada activists hold a demonstration near the city bus stand in Mysuru on Saturday, as part of the Karnataka Bandh | UDAYSHANKAR S Activists stopped Representatives of farmer unions on a ‘maun vrat’ during their meeting with govt | Shekhar Yadav, PTI is a nationalist. Don’t put him in a small circle,” said BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan. Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan had on Friday announced that the research facility — which is ready for dedication to the nation — will be named as ‘Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer and Viral Infection.’ On Saturday, Pinarayi wrote to Harsh Vardhan demanding that the campus be named after an eminent Indian scientist of international repute. In Belagavi, where the BJP’s executive meet was being held, pro-Kannada activists were taken into custody when they tried to take out a protest rally from Rani Channamma Circle to Gandhi Bhavan. A verbal clash took place between police and activists. E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru THE statewide bandh called by pro-Kannada groups on Saturday opposing the government’s decision to create the Maratha Development Corporation, evoked lukewarm response with protests in some places, arrests and traffic jams across the state. More than 20,000 protesters were taken into preventive custody in different districts. Traffic was thrown out of gear for a few hours in central Bengaluru, but the bandh did not have much impact on normal life. Shops and commercial establishments were voluntarily closed in Gandhinagar and Chickpet areas in Bengaluru. Protests were held in Vijayapura, Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Bengaluru Rural, Gadag, Koppal, Hassan, Ramanagara, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Bagalkot, Chikkamagaluru and Mandya, among other districts. But normal life was unaffected. In Mysuru, the central business district and business establishments on Devaraja Urs road P2 remained open and witnessed usual buzz. Party indoors, no public celebration on New Year’s Eve E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Belagavi WITH experts hinting at a possible second wave of Covid-19 in the coming days, the State Government has decided to ban any sort of public celebration on New Year’s Eve across the state, including Bengaluru. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has agreed to it and an order will be issued shortly Revenue Minis, ter R Ashoka announced here on Saturday . Ashoka said he had held meetings with Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the issue over the past few days and also discussed it with the CM. “The Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, City Corporation Commissioner and Secretary of the Disaster Management Cell have shared their views on the issue. As vice-president of the Disaster Management Cell, I will issue an official order banning public celebrations after I reach Bengaluru,’’ he said. With huge crowds likely to gather in public places in Bengaluru and several other cities on New Year’s Eve, it will be difficult for revellers to adhere to Covid norms. Ensuring wearing of masks and social distancing in such large gatherings will be tough. To prevent a surge in Covid cases, it was deemed necessary to ban public celebrations on December 31, he reasoned. However, the government has decided to allow parties in hotels, resorts and other places by issuing directives to hotel managements to ensure adherence of Covid P5 norms, said Ashok. ADULTERATION ROW Malnad honey makers hope for sweet deals A M I T S U PA D H Y E @ Hubballi TRADITIONAL honey producers in the Malnad region have reason to cheer. With recent studies revealing traces of adulteration in the honey sold by big brands in India, the region’s traditional honey makers see renewed demand for their product. There are several people in the region who are involved in making honey the traditional way, and supplying it to end- Forest officials and visitors at a honey park in Joida, Uttara Kannada | EXPRESS users. For a long time though, they have raised concern over the honey that is sold for less than Rs 400 per kg in the mar- “I will be administered trial dose of Coronavirus vaccine @ New Delhi/Chandigarh Covaxin, a Bharat Biotech product Tomorrow at 11 am at HARYANA health minister Civil Hospital, Ambala Cantt. Anil Vij’s tweet on Saturday I have volunteered to take the that he had tested positive for trial dose,” he had tweeted on Covid-19 and a statement by November 19, a day before the the union health ministry highly publicised event in that in effect identified Vij as which he was administered a recipient of the Covthe jab. id-19 vaccine kicked Saturday’s anBAHARAT up a major controvernouncement by Vij BIOTECH sy. Experts pointed CLARIFIES triggered a flurry of out that they consticriticism at the hamBharat Biotech tute either irresponsihandedness of the ble statements or a took to Twitter to sponsors of the trial as allay any concerns, many saw it as a breach breach of research. “I have been tested saying clinical trials of the trial terms. Corona positive. I am are based on a twoThe terms make it dose schedule, admitted to Civil Hosthat the doses are dougiven 28 days pital Ambala Cantt. ble-blinded and a ranAll those who have apart. The vaccine domised trial, suggestefficacy will be come in close contact ing that neither the determined two with me are advised to participants nor inweeks after the get themselves tested ve s t i g a t o r s k n o w for corona,” Vij wrote second dose,it said whether they are reon Twitter. ceiving the actual vacNearly two weeks back, Vij cine or dummy shots. had declared that he would be The Union health ministry administered the first dose of appeared to make the situaCovaxin as part of the experi- tion worse when it said “the mental vaccine’s phase 3 trial. anti-bodies against the infecCovaxin is an indigenously tion build up in a human bedeveloped potential Covid-19 ing only after a specific vaccine developed by Bharat number of days pass after the Biotech and the ICMR and is second dose of the vaccine is currently being tested on taken since this is a two-dose nearly 26,000 volunteers in the vaccine.” CONTINUED ON: P7 final stage of the trial. S U M I S U K A N YA D U T TA &HARPREET BAJWA On bandh day, life goes on as usual in Karnataka EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE THE government on Saturday seemed to hold on to the negotiations with the agitating farmers by the skin of their teeth after the union leaders threatened to walk out of the talks, saying it was time for the Centre to take concrete decisions on their demands. According to sources, the government managed to pacify them saying an intra-government deliberation was required to consider their demands. Both the sides eventually agreed to meet for the 6th time on Wednesday December 9 at 11 am. Sources said the government delegation comprising agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar, railway minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for industries Som Prakash provided the farmers the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday The minutes contained the . government’s plans on chang- Ethics debate as minister gets Covid-19 after jab ket. Now, with studies showing branded honey to be containing a mixture of sugar syrup, Malnad’s beekeepers and experts are asking government agencies to take measures and increase the production of pure honey made by the locals. Honey from Malnad is sold for anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 1,200 per kg. According to the makers, it is nearly impossible to sell it for less than Rs 500 due to high costs and inP3 vestment. The government must encourage beekeeping to produce pure honey and supply to the buyers. Ravi Hegade, Beekeeper, Sirsi INTERVIEW PANEL NEEDS `250 CR TO HOLD GP POLLS A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru T HE Karnataka State Election Commission, which is gearing up to conduct the two-phase gram panchayat elections on December 22 and 27, has estimated that about Rs 250 will be required for the exercise, keeping Covid-19 safety norms in mind. About four lakh candidates are expected to contest the election and close to three crore voters will elect their leaders. Conducting the massive exercise amidst the pandemic will be a challenging task. The SEC will provide sanitisers, thermal scanners and others safety measures at the polling booths. FULL INTERVIEW | P4 WITH THIS ISSUE PRIMARY CHARACTER PLUS 12 PAGES