HYDERABAD THURSDAY DECEMBER 17, 2020 `7.00 PAGES 16 LATE CITY EDITION AHEAD OF 2021 ASSEMBLY WAR, LDF WINS LOCAL BODY BATTLE The ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala on Wednesday appeared to make a clean sweep of the local body elections CONG LOSES SHINE, BJP SET TO IMPROVE TALLY BEFITTING REPLY TO CENTRE, SAYS VIJAYAN With counting still going on, the LDF was leading in 514 of the total of 941 grama panchayats, 3 corporations and 10 district panchayats. Congressled United Democratic Front was in the 2nd spot, leading in 375 grama panchayats, 3 corporations and 4 district panchayats. BJP was ahead in 23 panchayats and 2 municipalities against 14 and 1, respectively, in 2015 ■ ■ In the last local body elections, the Congress had won 365 panchayats, 41 municipalities and two corporations Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who has come under a shadow of doubt following the gold smuggling case, said the results are the people’s reply to the central agencies trying to “wreck the state” Apr-May 2021 WHEN ELECTIONS TO THE KERALA ASSEMBLY ARE EXPECTED TO BE HELD 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 SC panel in the works to seek stir’s solution List of trusted telecom sources to be out soon, blocking Chinese firms EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi Fears matters could snowball; impleads 8 farmer unions; extensive hearing today EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi WITH the deadlock persisting on the farmers’ protest against three contentious farm sector laws, the Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated its intention to set up a committee of all stakeholders to open talks, adding the issue could soon snowball into a national one if not quickly resolved. “This is what we propose to do tentatively. We will form a committee to resolve this dispute,” the bench told solicitor general Tushar Mehta while hearing three petitions related to the protests. “This panel will comprise members from BKU or any other farmer association that are protesting, government representatives and other farmers groups,” the CJI said while issuing notice to the Centre on the three petitions. As per the order, eight farmer organisations have been included in the case: Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rakesh Tikait), BKU (Sidhupur), BKU (Rajewal), BKU (Lakhowal), Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, BKU (Dakaunda), BKU (Doaba) and Kul Hind Kisan Federation. Mehta told the bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde that the government is keen on engaging with the farmers, but it can happen only when the other side is open to discuss the laws, clause by clause. Instead, “they come with just one demand of taking back the law,” Mehta rued. At this, CJI Bobde observed, “Your negotiations have not worked apparently Mehta claimed the .” agitation had been taken over by vested interests. “Whenever they came to meet our ministers, they carried placards with ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Also, when the ministers spoke to them they turned around in their seats to show their back to the Central ministers,” he said. Delhi government counsel Rahul Mehra batted for the farmers saying they were compelled to protest in winter. “The Centre must do something to resolve their problems,” he added. The case will be heard at P7 length on Thursday . Farmers shout slogans against the new farm sector laws, at the Singhu border in New Delhi on Wednesday | SHEKHAR YADAV Wary unions want to wait and watch H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh PROTESTING farm unions on Wednesday reacted cautiously to the Supreme Court’s proposal to set up a committee to resolve the deadlock over the three contentious farm laws. While some said they will decide on the court’s suggestion only after receiving it in writing and taking legal advice, others claimed the new panel was meaningless since they had already rejected the Centre’s proposal to amend the three laws. Harinder Singh Lakhowal, General Secretary of BKU (La- khowal) and Omka General Secretary of BKU (Rajewal) said, “After discussion among farmer leaders today it was de, cided that once we get any notice from the court, we will take legal advice and decide as to what to do.” Forming a new committee at this stage may not work, according to Sukhdev Singh, Punjab General Secretary of Bhart i ya K i s a n U n i o n ( E k t a Ugrahan). “The government should have formed a committee of farmers and others before enacting the new agriculture laws,” he said. Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav, who is also a member Sankyukt Kisan Morcha, said the SC can decide the constitutionality of the farm laws but it is not for the judiciary to decide on the feasibility and desirability of these laws. “SC monitored negotiation would be a wrong path,” he noted. Meanwhile, a 65-year-old religious leader Baba Ram Singh shot himself dead at the Singhu border. He reportedly left behind a suicide note in Punjabi saying he took this extreme step as he could no longer see the struggles of the farmers. AGITATION FIGURED IN TALKS, SAYS RAAB New Delhi: Visiting British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday said he had discussed the ongoing farmers’ protests at Delhi’s borders with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during their interaction. India, he said, had a “vibrant heritage of peaceful protests”, and the United Kingdom respects it | P7 AFTER taking a slew of steps against Chinese mobile apps, India will soon come out with a list of ‘trusted sources’, only from whom can telecom equipment be purchased by service providers. Senior officials said the move is aimed at building indigenous capacity in the manufacturing of the telecom equipment, and cut down on the dependency on imports. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday decided that a panel headed by the deputy national security advisor will prepare the ‘trusted sources’ list, which seeks to secure India’s communication network. The panel will also prepare a ‘negative list’ of companies, whose products will not be allowed in the country. The black list is likely to contain Chinese firms. The National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector, cleared by the CCA, directs all service providers to mandatorily source equipment from “trusted sources”. However, it will not affect equipment that have already been deployed. “The CCS has approved the directive in line with the needs of the national security , and accordingly the National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector has been given the nod,” said Union law and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. The panel will comprise members from relevant de- Next round of spectrum sale The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal for the auction of 2,251.25 megahertz of spectrum worth `3.92 lakh crore. The sale will be held in March 2021 | P10 partments, ministries, besides two from the industry and also independent experts. The directive has provisions to qualify telecom gears made by domestic players in the trusted category, while those that meet the criteria of the DoT’s “preferential market access scheme” will be certified as India trusted sources. REGISTRATION OF NON-AGRI ASSETS CLEVER PLOY: HC RAPS TS GOVT FOR INSISTING ON AADHAAR, CASTE INFO EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE LOOPHOLES IN THE PORTAL @ Hyderabad FAMILY TIME A white tigress, Devayani, with her four cubs in her enclosure at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad. The big cat gave birth to the cubs recently Covaxin shows robust immune response EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SC seeks Centre, States’ reply to PIL against LRS EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad @ Hyderabad COVAXIN, the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat BioTech, has been found to have a robust immune response, without any severe adverse events, among the people who were immunised with it as part of the phase-1 clinical trials. The vaccine was also found to be well-tolerated by all age groups and can be stored between 2-8oC, which is compatible with all Indian immunisation programmes, according to a pre-print paper, ‘A Phase 1: Safety and Immunogenicity Trial of an Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine-BBV152’, available on medrxiv.com. The trial involved 375 participants of 18-55 years old, from diverse geographic and socioeconomic conditions at 11 hospitals. CONTINUED ON P4 IN a significant development, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Central government, National Disaster Management Authority Central Bureau of , Investigation, and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana governments to respond to a PIL filed against the implementation of the L ayo u t Re g u l a r i s a t i o n Scheme (LRS) in the respective States. It also impleaded all the States and Union Territories, and issued notices to them to respond on the issue within eight weeks. The Apex Court bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi passed this order in the PIL filed by Juvvadi Sagar Rao from Karimnagar district, who sought ac- tion against the government authorities concerned for allowing illegal layouts in the said States. This was resulting in massive corruption, generation of black money, causing urban floods, traffic jams and damage to natural resources, the PIL stated. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the respondent States — AP, Tamil Nadu and Telangana — have been implementing the regularisation of ‘illegal layouts’ with an intention to regularise the illegal act committed by the real estate mafia. The regularisation of alleged illegal structures and layouts in eco-sensitive zones, elephant corridors, reserve forests, water bodies, roads, drains and nalas will cause immense damage to the environment, regulated development and cause urban flooding and stagnation of drains. CONTINUED ON P4 THE Telangana High Court on Wednesday took the State government to task for not complying with its directive to resume the registration of non-agricultural properties through the conventional method of using the Computer-aided Administration of Registration Department (CARD) software without eliciting Aadhaar and other details of citizens. A division bench asked the government to give in writing the assurance it had made before the court that it will not seek Aadhaar and other details of citizens at the time of slot booking and for providing PTIN for the registration through CARD instead of the Dharani portal. It directed the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit by Thursday to this effect and posted the matter for further hearing to the same day . “It’s a clever ploy by the State in asking for Aadhaar and caste details from citizens, despite the State Advocate General assuring the court that such information will not be sought. It is surreptitious behaviour on the part of the State. The government cannot be permitted to seek such details in any manner even after giving an undertaking before the court. All the undertakings given should be in the form of an affidavit,” the bench told Advocate General (AG) BS Prasad. The bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy passed this order in a batch of petitions that challenged the government’s decision of seeking Aadhaar, caste and family members’ details for the registration of non-agricultural properties on the portal. Govt land listed under Section 22A is prohibited from being registered on Dharani but their details were not on the website. Here are other issues: On an earlier occasion, the AG, while seeking permission for the State to go ahead with the registration through CARD, had given an undertaking that no person would be asked to give his Aadhaar, caste or family members’ details. He had assured the court that the registrations would be taken up online under CARD, a platform which was used earlier. When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the bench asked the AG to explain the latest position after the government constituted a cabinet sub-committee to reconsider the entire issue pertaining to registrations. CONTINUED ON P4 Mutation of land which was registered prior to the portal’s launch cannot be completed There is no provision to rectify the records in cases wherein the extent of land was reported incorrectly There is a possibility of resale of some lands, which were registered before the launch and for which mutation was not done For pending mutations, people are able to pay for the same but the slot is not booked even after paying Revenue employees flag issues in Dharani portal E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad ONE and a half months after the Dharani portal was launched, Revenue employees on Wednesday called on Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and highlighted the lacunae in it. They requested him to give directions to overcome the problems with regard to the registration of agricultural land on the portal. The major lapse, according to the employees, is that they could register government land, which is prohibited, as their details were not visible on the portal. Further, Telangana Revenue Employees Services Association president Vanga Ravinder Reddy and general secretary K Goutham Kumar submitted another representation to Somesh CONTINUED ON P4 Kumar on the employees’ issues. Allegations fly over TS govt using Dharani portal despite HC orders V N I L E S H @ Hyderabad THE Telangana government is being accused of violating the High Court orders on the registration of nonagricultural properties and using the Dharani portal, rather than resuming the registrations as per the o l d p ro c e d u re, a l s o known as the computer-aided administration of registration department (CARD) system. Speaking to Express, Telangana State Realtors Association working president M Narasaiah pointed out that there are clearly many differences between the old system and the one currently being used for registration, which makes them suspect that the government is still using the Dharani portal. He said unlike the old system of registration, the Revenue Department officials are now asking for Vacant Land Tax Number, Property Tax Identification Number (PTIN) and Aadhaar details of witnesses for slot booking. Narasaiah also pointed out that in the new system there is no provision for gift deed, mortgage or development agreement. In the old one, the buyer and seller were not required to be present at the same time at the sub-registrar’s office. But this is not the CONTINUED ON P4 case now.
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.