MANGALURU  WEDNESDAY  DECEMBER 16, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION 422 WOMEN OFFICERS ELIGIBLE FOR PERMANENT COMMISSION Of the 615 women officers considered for permanent commission, 422 were found fit by the Army Selection Board MORE OFFICERS UNDER CONSIDERATION However, as many as 57 of the 422 opted out of PC. Of the 193 who were found ineligible, 68 are being released with pension, a senior Army officer said. And 106 others have been given a pensionable service extension of up to 20 years. Apart from the 615, another 42 officers, currently on medical leave, are to be considered for PC at a later date ■ 10 ‘A MILESTONE FOR WOMEN IN SERVICES’ ■ “This is another milestone for the women in services,” a serving women officer said. “Women at the junior level are going to rise and serve at the ranks of General in future,” she added The Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling in February, said women officers are entitled to permanent commission in the Army STREAMS OF INDIAN ARMY OPENED TO WOMEN OFFICERS 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 ELDERS FIGHT OVER CHAIRMAN’S SEAT, COME TO BLOWS IN COUNCIL Presiding officer stopped from entering House; Cong members push Dy chairman out of chair BJP seeks Guv’s intervention to convene House EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE Karnataka Legislative Council, referred to as the ‘Upper House’ or ‘House of Elders’ where meaningful discussions are held in a refined and composed manner, witnessed unprecedented, unruly free-for-all on Tuesday with the ruling and opposition parties fighting for the chairman’s post. The BJP and Congress members almost came to blows after the ruling party MLCs insisted on moving a no-confidence motion against Chairman Prathap Chandra Shetty amid stiff opposition from the opposition party Congress members phys. ically removed Deputy Chairman S L Dharme Gowda from the chair to allow one of its members to occupy it after BJP legislators tried to close the door from which the chairman enters the House to prevent him from presiding over the proceedings. The House was adjourned sine die on December 10, and the government convened it for a day on Tuesday after accusing the chairman of adjourning the Council abruptly and requesting Governor Vajubhai Vala to intervene. The session on Tuesday was adjourned sine EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru Legislative Council members spar in the well of the House after Dy Chairman SL Dharme Gowda sits on the chairman’s seat, on Tuesday | NAGARAJA GADEKAL GOVT MULLS ORDINANCE FOR CATTLE BILL After the State Legislative Council proceedings were adjourned on Tuesday following a tussle between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress, the state government is now considering promulgating an ordinance on the Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill. However, the JDS has made it clear that it will not support the Anti-Cow Slaughter Bill. P4 die after the high drama that lasted for 40 minutes prevented the House from transacting any business. The members, jostling to take control of the chairman’s chair, shouted slogans, tore and threw copies of the proceedings, climbed on the tables, removed the Covid glass shield installed on the chairman’s desk, and kicked the door through which the Chairman P4 enters the House. OCI students eligible for govt quota seats: HC EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE Karnataka High Court on Tuesday held that Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders need not seek admission only under the quota meant for Non-Resident Indian (NRI) students in professional educational institutions (medical/ dental or engineering colleges), but are eligible for admission under institutional as well as State Government quota seats. A division bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and N S Sanjay Gowda pronounced the judgement and confirmed an order passed by a single judge directing the State and the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) to permit the petitioners to register for CET. Allowing the petitions filed by Pranav Bajpe and others, who are OCI cardholders, the Bench quashed Section 2(1)(n) of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission & Determination of Fee) Act, 2006, as amended in 2017, to include ‘Overseas Citizens of India’ or ‘Overseas Citizens of India Cardholders’ within the definition o f ‘ N o n - Re s i d e n t Indian’. “We would like to remind ourselves of the ancient Indian thought, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, which means ‘the world is a family’. The minor children of Indian citizens born overseas must have the same status, rights and duties as Indian citizens, who are minors,” the Bench said. CONTINUED ON: P5 Winter session deferred NEW DELHI: The Winter Session of Parliament will not be held this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Budget Session will be convened in January 2021, the Union Government has conveyed to the Opposition. Meanwhile, the Congress has slammed the move slammed as the “decimation of parliamentary democracy”. The Winter Session starts in the last week of November or in the first week of December. P7 BJP members in the Legislative Council on Tuesday appealed to Governor Vajubhai Vala to direct the Chairman of the Upper House to convene the House, and allow them to move a no-confidence motion against the latter. In a memorandum to Vala after the House was adjourned sine die on Tuesday , BJP members said that as per Article 182 of the Constitution, a no-confidence motion has to be placed before the House 14 days after it is issued. If such a motion is introduced against the chairman, he shall not preside over the House, and the deputy chairman should preside. Any communication made by him, will be deemed illegal. The chairman can neither preside over the Business Advisory Committee, nor sit in authority, since a no-confidence motion was being P4 moved against him. EXPRESS READ Star Air announces flights to Tirupati BORIS TO BE CHIEF GUEST AT REPUBLIC DAY PARADE It will be the UK PM’s first major foreign trip since taking office last year. He has invited India to join the 2021 G7 meet to be hosted by the UK | P7 Kalaburagi: Star Air on Tuesday announced plans to operate a Kalaburagi-Tirupati direct flight service, which will take off on January 11. The Kalaburagi-Tirupati flight will operate four days a week -- on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Separately, Star Air is also resuming its HubballiTirupati flight, which will also operate on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Fares for the fights start from D1,999, a release said. On the 20th day of their ongoing agitation, farmers squat at the Ghazipur border, in New Delhi on Tuesday | PARVEEN NEGI Agitators harden stance Concrete proposals: Farmer leaders refused to yield, saying they will completely block the Chilla Border between Delhi and Noida on Wednesday. They said the govt consider their demands and offer concrete proposals @ New Delhi/Vijayawada THE high courts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Sikkim are all set to get new chief justices as part of a shuffle in the higher judiciary . Sources confirmed that the five-member collegium of the Supreme Court cleared the proposals on Monday. They also involve a swap between Sikkim High Court Chief Justice and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari. Delhi High Court judge Jus- tice Hima Kohli is expected to be elevated as the Chief Justice of Telangana, replacing Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chowhan who has been reportedly transferred to Uttarakhand. Justice Chowhan was appointed CJ of the Telangana High Court in June 2019. The collegium discussed the proposals for a long time, sources said, adding that it sent the recommendations to the government on Tuesday . Orders to this effect and official notifications are expected to be issued shortly after government approval EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi/Chandigarh ON a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the ongoing agitation against the three farm sector laws was instigated by vested interests, farmers dug in their heels, claiming their support base had actually expanded. While Modi said there was a conspiracy to scare farmers about their land holding, the protesting unions alleged that the government was trying to drive a wedge between them. Speaking in Kutch (Gujarat), Modi rhetorically asked: “When dairies get into contracts for milk, do they take away even the cattle?” He sought to allay the fears of farmers, adding land rights will be protected. Justice Maheswari assumed charge at the Andhra Pradesh High Court on October 7, 2019 as its first Chief Justice after the High Court of Judicature in Hyderabad was divided between Andhra and Telangana. His tenure turned out to be eventful as the high court under his leadership handled some of the most sensitive cases, including the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s move to have three capitals for AP . Several observations and rulings of the court went against the government ruffling the feathers of its supporters. TELL-ALL BOOK Pranab’s son, daughter in Twitter spat over memoir EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi LATE former President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit and daughter Sharmistha, both Congress leaders, were on Tuesday locked in a Twitter spat over their dad’s memoir in which blamed party chief Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh for 2014 Lok Sabha elections defeat. Days after Rupa Publications released excerpts of the fourth volume of Pranab’s The Presidential Years, Abhijit said he wanted to vet the book before it hits the stands in January. Hours later, Sharmistha told him off, asking him not to create hurdles in its publication. For its part, Rupa Publications declined comment. But sources in Pranab’s staff said that he has approved the final draft as also the book’s cover just before he was hospitalised in August last. “I, the son of the author of the Memoir ‘The Presidential Memoirs’ request you to kindly stop the publication of the memoir as well as motivated excerpts which is already floating in certain media platforms without my written consent,” said Abhijit, a former Congress member of Parliament. Sharmistha shot back saying, “I, daughter of the author of the memoir ‘The Presidential Years’, request my brother not to create any unnecessary Homage day: Union leaders on Tuesday gave a nationwide call to observe Shraddhanjali Diwas on December 20 from 11 am to 1 pm to pay tribute to the farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protests Plot to confuse farmers on three laws, says Modi Andhra, Telangana to get new CJs as collegium approves shake-up EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Staying firm: “The govt is saying ‘we won’t repeal’, we are saying we will make you do it.... fight has reached a stage where we are determined to win no matter what,” said farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dallewal hurdles in publication of the last book written by our father. He completed the manuscript before he fell sick. The final draft contains my dads’ handwritten notes and comments that have been strictly adhered to. The views expressed by him are his own & no one should try to stop it from being published for any cheap publicity. That would be the greatest disservice to our departed father,” she said. The prime minister emphasised that the new legislations has merely included demands of the farmers’ bodies to revloutionise the agriculture sector, adding they were advocated by opposition parties in the past as well. Later in the day, farmers’ unions wrote to the Centre rejecting the proposal to amend to the three laws and insisting on their repeal. “We had already rejected their proposal. This evening, we wrote to them officially stating our position,” said Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal). The unions also decided to observe December 20 as homage day as a mark of respect for the 20 protesters who have so far died. “This homage will be given in every village across the country on December 20. Around 20 farmers have died during protest,” said Inderjeet Singh, a farmer leader. Union minister for agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar continued to hold deliberations with a section of farmers, as he met leaders of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kisan). “The farmers who came today support the three farm laws. They said they had been earlier misled because of the misconceptions,” Tomar told reporters. He had earlier met representatives of farmers from Uttarakhand and Haryana, who, too, pledged their supP7 port to the farm laws. Children aged 6-23 months receiving adequate diet Bagalkot Bengaluru Urban Bengaluru Rural Ballari Shivamogga Mysuru Ramanagara Hassan 6.1 7.4 17.6 8.9 18.5 13.4 16.6 29.1 6.8 13.9 8.4 4.6 District NFHS-5 (2019-2020) 5.1 10.4 14.6 4.6 NFHS-4 (2015-1016) Numbers in % Only 7.4% children get adequate diet in B’luru I F F AT H F AT H I M A @ Bengaluru IT is shocking to say the least. The ‘IT Capital of India’ has only 7.4 per cent of children in the 6-23 month age group receiving adequate, nutritional diet in 2019-2020, reveals the districtwise sheet of National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) The survey stated that the present figures are worse than what they were five years ago (in 2015-2016 under NFHS-4), when 13.9 per cent of children under the age group receiving adequate diet. Experts said the numbers are shocking and advised the government to carry out awareness campaigns on nutritional food required for children. According to the Optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYVF) practices, the children in the 6-23 month age group should be given complementary foods along with breastfeeding to meet the diet requirement. Apart from breastfeed, children are required to consume four more food groups. Group one includes grains, roots, tubers, legumes and nuts; Group 2 has dairy products; Group 3 includes eggs, while Group 4 has fruits and vegetables that are vitamin A rich. Dr Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor and researcher, said, “Children who are six to eight months old and are breastfed also require two meals from the IYVF group. Children in the 9-23 month age group require three meals per day along P5 with breastfeeding.”