HYDERABAD  WEDNESDAY  DECEMBER 16, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 16  LATE 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 Plot to confuse farmers on three laws, says Modi TELL-ALL BOOK Pranab’s son, daughter in Twitter spat over memoir Allays fears on land rights; unions write to govt rejecting proposal to amend the legislations, insist on repeal; allege bid to sow disunity EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE LATE for mer 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 rout. 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 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. 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. @ New Delhi/Chandigarh @ New Delhi 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 BORIS 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 | P9 INSIDE 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 TELANGANA, ANDHRA PRADESH TO GET NEW CJs AS COLLEGIUM OKAYS SHAKE-UP EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi Justice Hima Kohli Justice Arup Kumar Goswami THE high courts of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, 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 Arup Kumar Goswami and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart, Just i c e J i t e n d r a Ku m a r Maheshwari. Delhi High Court judge Jus- S Muralidhar to be Odisha Chief Justice Punjab and Haryana HC judge S Muralidhar is expected to be promoted as the Chief Justice of the Odisha High Court. He will take charge from Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq tice Hima Kohli is expected to be elevated as the Chief Justice of Telangana, replacing Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan who has been reportedly transferred to Uttara- khand. Justice Chauhan 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 Justice Maheshwari 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 Andhra Pradesh. Several observations and rulings of the court went against the government ruffling the feathers of its supporters. The most controversial of the rulings was a media gag order issued in a case pertaining to the Amaravati land scam by a bench headed by Chief Justice Maheshwari. CONTINUED ON P7 Fiat Chrysler to invest $150m in Hyd R&D centre, create 2.4K jobs O I S H A N I M O J U M D E R @ Hyderabad TO BE CHIEF GUEST AT REPUBLIC DAY PARADE 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 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 farm, ers’ 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 THERE will soon be another feather in Hyderabad’s cap. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (ACA), a global automotive giant, is all set to kick-start plans to se tup a research and development centre at Gachibowli in Hyderabad in partnership with the Telangana government. T h e c o m p a ny i s planning to invest close to $150 million and it is expected to provide jobs to 2,400 youths. An official announcement to this effect will be made on Wednesday The auto. motive brands of FCA include some of the world’s best engineered and luxury cars, including Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia, Ram and Maserati. While the automobile giant has over 48 R&D centres across the world in over 40 countries, this will be their first R&D centre in India. Currently the , company has manufacturing centres in Mumbai and Chennai. The company has taken up a 400-seat capacity space in Wipro SEZ and will be expanding it to 1,000 seats progres- sively in 2021. The focus of the Hyderabad R&D is to digitise every aspect of FCA’s automotive operations globally and within India, drive the shift from legacy to digital through the adoption of emerging technologies, develop digital products and services and modernise the company’s existing application and products portfolio, an official source said. Besides accelerating FCA’s digital transformation journey, the purpose of the new centre is to build strong competencies and expertise in technology areas that are criti c a l t o F C A’s s t r a t e g i c business. CRY FOR A HOME Two children cry inconsolably as police arrest their mother for protesting, demanding a 2BHK house, at the GHMC office in Hyderabad on Tuesday | VINAY MADAPU | P3 PEOPLE UNGRATEFUL, SCRAP WELFARE SCHEMES: LAXMA REDDY I P4 TS expects Covid vaccine rollout by mid-Jan, to administer shots to 80L in 10 days D O N I TA J O S E @ Hyderabad EXPECTING the Covid-19 vaccine rollout to commence by the middle of January the Tel, angana State Health Department is gearing up accordingly with strict timelines. Director of Public Health G Srinivas Rao, speaking to Express, stated that the initial vaccine rollout would be for nearly 80 lakh people from four vulnerable groups — healthcare workers, essential service workers, individuals above the age of 50 and individuals below 50 with co-morbidities. The State has already conducted the first round of training for State-level officials in a two-day workshop that concluded on Tuesday The second . round of workshop for districtlevel officials will be conducted from December 17. Post this, the State will proceed with onground training for PHC staff and nearly 10,000 vaccinators in the State. “Each of the 10,000 vaccinators, who are already present in the public health system, will be vaccinating nearly 100 individuals per day The plan is to . finish the first round of vaccinations with vulnerable groups within 10 days,” Dr G Srinivas Rao said. The training is crucial for the vaccine rollout as the vaccine is slated to be slightly different from the routine vaccines given under universal vaccination. It is being said that the Covid-19 vaccine will not come with a “vaccine vial monitor (VVM)” which signifies expiry date and that may create some confusion. “We are giving thorough training to our staff who are already handling vaccines for about 13 diseases. The idea is to be prepared and carry this forward in a campaign mode,” Dr Rao said. The three-tier training is likely to end by December 25. Telangana has already spent nearly `15 crore on vaccine rollout infra and is hopeful of reaping benefits of the same for the universal vaccination programme in the years to come G Srinivas Rao, Director of Public Health The State is unlikely to enlist the services of private healthcare setup but they had been sounded to be ready, just in case, he informed. Meanwhile, the State is also about to augment its storage by forming regional vaccine stores in 10 erstwhile districts by transforming the existing Telangana State Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) warehouses. The State is also adding 19 more vehicles to its fleet of 16 refrigerated vehicles. 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 support to the farm laws. POST PROTESTS Govt vows to solve issues in non-agri land registrations EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad EVEN as protests broke out against the issues related to the website for registration of non-agricultural properties, the State government has decided to continue with the same for the good of the people. After a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee meeting, Minister Vemula Prasanth Reddy assured that the teething troubles would be rectified within a week time by involving the realtors in the process. The Cabinet sub-committee constituted to look into the issues relating to registration of non-agricultural properties met at BRKR Bhavan on Tuesday. Sub-committee chairman Vemula Prasanth Reddy told reporters later that the present system of registration is good for the people and it would ensure protection of properties. The TPIN number given to properties would protect the properties of the individuals, he said. The Minister, however, said that the DGPA, development agreement, GPA/SPA for mortgaging of property and release of property from mortgage would also be included in the website. Currently, these features were n o t av a i l a b l e o n t h e website. The Minister said that the multiple buyers or multiple sellers could use one single document. “The present registration system is simple and easy for the people,” he CONTINUED ON P4 said. EXPRESS READ Minister Puvvada tests +ve for Covid-19 Khammam: Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. The Minster said that he was under home isolation and urged everyone who was in contact with him during recent govt programmes to get tested. He also said that he had only mild symptoms and would return to public life soon.