Jammu Lt Col Arthi Tiwari and Lt Col Rohina Varghese who have received Permanent Commission in the Army | pti visakhapatnam l wednesday l december 16, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l 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 ‘a milestone for women in services’ 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 ■ ■ “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 10 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 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e 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 he 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. “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 AP, Telangana to get new CJs as collegium okays shake-up E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ 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 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 Hima Kohli is expected to be elevated as the Chief Justice of Telangana, replacing Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chouhan who has been reportedly transferred to Uttarakhand. Justice Chouhan 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 the gover nment app r o v e s t h e recommendations. Justice Maheshwari Justice Goswami may be new CJ of AP HC The five-member collegium of the Supreme Court reportedly cleared the proposal to swap Sikkim High Court Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheshwari. The Joint Action Committee of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi on Tuesday threatened to intensify the stir if the YSRC government failed to shelve its plan to make Visakhapatnam the executive capital The JAC will organise a public meet at Uddandarayunipalem on December 17 to mark the completion of one year since the announcement of three capital plan by CM Jagan Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi holds a padayatra in Vijayawada on Tuesday | P Ravindra Babu Covid test rates reduced The State government has further reduced the prices of covid-19 test for the benefit of people Samples (including pooled ones) sent by the government `499 Individuals who visit National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) Five State Covid-19 hospitals denotified vaccine hurdle for polls: hc informed  Government General Hospital, Vijayawada The State government on Tuesday filed an additional affidavit in the High Court stating that it is not prepared for the conduct of elections to local bodies in February as proposed by the State Election Commission. The district administrations and police are likely to be preoccupied with administration of Covid vaccine in February, it stated.  Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Visakhapatnam  Government General Hospital, Nellore  Padmavathi Hospital, Tirupati  Government General Hospital, Kurnool  Henceforth, these hospitals will provide regular medical services assumed charge at the Andhra 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 gover nment’s decision 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 them was the gag order on media issued in a case pertaining to the Amaravati land scam by a bench headed by Chief Justice MaP5 heshwari. 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. Begin process of hc relocation: Jagan E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada CM Jagan calls on Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Tuesday Approve revised cost of Polavaram: CM Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to direct the Jal Shakti and Finance ministries to approve the second revised cost estimates of `55,656 crore of Polavaram project as per 2017-18 Price Level, the CMO said. Explaining the rationale behind decentralisation of administration, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday reminded Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the State government had come up with the proposal to make Visakhapatnam the executive capital, Amaravati legislative capital and Kurnool the judicial capital and urged him to initiate the process of relocating the High Court from Amaravati to Kurnool by issuing a notification. He pointed out that the issue of High Court in Kurnool was also mentioned in the 2019 election manifesto of the BJP. Jagan, who called on the Home Minister in New Delhi on Tuesday night, held discussions for more than an hour. Sources said besides explaining the political scenario in the State, the Chief Minister urged the Home Minister to initiate a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in Amaravati lands and the fibernet project of the previous TDP government. The State gover nment has already given its consent for a CBI probe into the Amaravati and fibernet scams. The Centre is yet to take a decision on it. On his part, Shah reportedly sought Jagan’s continued support to the farm laws passed by Parliament. The YSRC had extended support to the bills in Parliament. However, respecting the farmers’ sentiments, it had partially backed the recent Bharat Bandh.  P5 Govt seeks judge’s recusal in Mission Build AP case capital concern `475 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 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 | P7 The prime minister emphasised that the new legislations has merely included demands of the farmers’ bodies to revoloutionise 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 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada The State gover nment on Tuesday requested Justice Rakesh Kumar to recuse himself from hearing petitions filed against the proposed auction of government properties as part of Mission Build Andhra Pradesh. In an affidavit filed in the high court, the gover nment expressed concern that Justice Rakesh Kumar may be biased against it and his continuance on the division bench could deprive it of a fair hearing. In a 8,76,336 8,64,612 Total cases 7,064 Total deaths Total recoveries 4,660 2,04,820 Active cases 1,09,37,377 Total samples tested Tests per million 8.01% Positivity rate detailed affidavit, the government cited the judge’s earlier observations against it and press reports on the same to claim that his remarks made even before hearing the case completely showed he was biased. The affidavit was filed by ‘Crossed the Lakshman Rekha’ The affidavit asserted that the judge’s observations amounted to crossing the Lakshman Rekha. If institutions encroach on one another, there will be a constitutional crisis, it said. Mission of AP special officer Praveen Kumar on behalf of the government. The affidavit also claimed that the judge had made “unwarranted” comments on alleged constitutional breakdown in the State and said that against this backdrop, justice may not be served if he continued to hear the petitions. Further, the affidavit went on to assert that the judge’s observations amounted to crossing the Lakshman Rekha. If Constitutional institutions encroach on one another, there will be a constitutional crisis, Five mowed down by van, driver caught after a chase E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kurnool Five people, including four children, were mowed down by a speeding van at Yerraguntla village in Sirivella mandal on the Kurnool-Chennai national highway in the early hours of Tuesday . According to the police, the mishap occurred while a group of 35-40 children was going to sing carols in the village adjacent to the highway as part of pre-Christmas celebrations. After mowing down the chil- dren, the van driver sped away . Locals chased and intercepted the van at Bathaluru, which is a few kilometres away from the accident spot. They caught hold of the driver and handed him over to the police. The deceased were identified as U Jhansi (15), D Sushmitha (14), S Vamshi (12), D Harshavardhan (8) and Suvarna (42) of Yerraguntla. Collector G Veerapandian visited the injured at hospitals in Nandyal and Kurnool. A case was registered against the van driver. it pointed out. It also cited a Supreme Court verdict to state that a petitioner could seek recusal of a judge if there are reasonable grounds to apprehend bias. It may be recalled that several petitions were filed in the high court against the government proposal to auction properties in Visakhapatnam, Guntur and other districts. A division bench comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar and Justice D Ramesh has been hearing them from December 11. The affidavit was filed ahead of the next hearing on December 17. express read AP Police get 2nd rank in ICJS implementation Vijayawada: AP Police stood second in the implementation and utilisation of Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS). DGP D Gautam Sawang received the award from Union Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy during a video conference on ‘Good Practices in CCTNS/ICJS’ held by the NCRB on Tuesday. The ICJS platform is an effective tool for the case and court management, as all the relevant information pertaining to a case will be available in real-time for the courts’ use, the DGP said.