The New Indian Express wishes its readers a MANGALURU  FRIDAY  DECEMBER 25, 2020  `7.00  PAGES 18  CITY EDITION BCCI TO COMPENSATE ICC FOR T20 WORLD CUP TAXES If government doesn’t grant exemption, world body to be paid by Indian board for event in India in Oct-Nov 2021 NOTHING IN AGM ABOUT GANGULY’S CONFLICT BCCI’s annual general meeting in Ahmedabad was silent on possible violations of conflict of interest rules by its president. Members who attended the meeting said this topic was not raised. Complaints have been filed before the BCCI’s ethics officer, accusing Sourav Ganguly of flouting these rules. The ethics officer is yet to say anything about those. ■ 3 MORE TEAMS IN IPL, TALK ON MORE VENUES ■ The meeting approved the inclusion of two new IPL teams, which will take the total to 10, from the 2022 edition of the event There is a proposal to stage IPL matches in more cities. At present, cities the franchises represent host matches. The Covid situation will be considered before involving more venues NATIONAL SELECTORS WERE SELECTED BY CRICKET ADVISORY COMMITTEE 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 With 6 hrs to go, govt says no night curfew CM’s Office says decision to withdraw order was taken on based on views of advisory panel, officials morning, the decision suddenly changed to imposing a night curfew FROM no to yes, then a change, and from 10pm to 6 am from Wednesday no again. This is how the State Gov- night itself until January 2. On ernment wavered on its deWednesday evening, anothcisions over the last three er change came with the days on imposing a night curfew to begin from Thurscurfew across the state. day with the timings reThe move was planned in duced by two hours, bethe face of a threat of the tween 11 pm and 5 am. The spread of SARS-CoV-2’s standard operating proceSWINGING dures (SOPs) and guidelines new variant. The night curfew be- DECISIONS were issued and everything tween 11 pm and 5 am, was set for the night curfew Dec 22 which was finally decided No night curfew to take effect from 11 pm on to be imposed from the Thursday when, around 5 Dec 23 night of December 24 to pm, came the change of (Morning) January 2 morning, was mind for the third time, Night curfew withdrawn just six hours withdrawing the night curbefore it was to come into from Wednesday few order. 10 pm to 6 am effect. Yediyurappa said the deciAccording to an official sion to impose night curfew Dec 23 announcement from the was made as the new strain (evening) Chief Minister’s Office, the of SARS-CoV-2 virus, that Night curfew Technical Advisory Com- from Dec 24 to causes Covid-19, was detected mittee’s (TAC) views that a Jan 2 between 11 in Britain and it was already night curfew was not needspreading infection in other pm and 5 am ed finally prevailed. Officountries. In order to stop Dec 24 cials and cabinet ministers, this from entering and too, concurred with the No night curfew spreading in Karnataka, a deTAC, it said. On Tuesday cision was taken to impose evening, Chief Minister B S Yediy- night curfew as per the TAC’s recomurappa had categorically denied mendation. But now, the TAC said it that there will be any night curfew is not needed, and therefore the decior lockdown. But, on Wednesday sion has been withdrawn, he said. P5 E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru MUTED FESTIVITIES Mass being held at the St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in Bengaluru on the eve of Christmas on Thursday. The midnight mass was advanced to evening as the government had announced night curfew in Karnataka. The decision was, however, rolled back. The pandemic scare also contributed to the thin attendance | SHRIRAM BN Fresh govt letter on talks, but no new formulation EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi/Chandigarh A day after protesting farmers ruled out any further talks until the government “draws up a new agenda”, the Centre wrote to them again on Thursday reiter, ating it was open to negotiation and requested farmers to suggest a date and time for a meeting. In the letter, joint secretary in the Union agriculture ministry Vivek Agarwal, stated the government is still ready to discuss all existing issues with the farm unions with an “open mind”. “It is important for the government to have talks with all farmers unions of the country. The government has been talking with unions under the Sanyukt Morcha with an open mind and also desires to talk with you in the future as per your convince,’’ stated the two-page letter. Far mer unions, however, termed the letter a “delaying tactic”. Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab (Lakowal) General Secretary Harinder Singh Lakowal said the unions will soon hold a meeting to discuss and prepare a reply “In today’s letter again, . the gover nment is beating around the bush. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should call the protesting farmers with a concrete proposal but he is trying to find and talk to a select few farmers at Kutch in Gujarat,” Lakowal said. As things stand now, the farmers are unwilling to stand down from their demand for a complete withdrawal of the three farm laws and a legal guarantee on MSP. 10 UNIONS BOYCOTT MEET ON LABOUR RULES New Delhi: Several trade and labour unions on Thursday boycotted a virtual meeting called by the Centre for tripartite consultation to frame rules for four labour codes, saying physical presence of all stakeholders is necessary for such an exercise. They also sought separate meetings to discuss each code threadbare. PANDEMIC HEAT It’s down to a trickle at major temples EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru Even the Gods have not been spared. The statemanaged temples in Karnataka, which include some of the richest ones in the country have seen , their revenues plummet this year, courtesy the Covid-19 pandemic. The top 12 temples in the state, which together had collected Rs 317 crore last year, have seen earnings of only Rs 18.6 crore so far. Consider this. The famous Kukke Subramanya temple in Dakshina Kannada district, whose annual revenue is over Rs 90 crore, has managed only Rs 4.2 crore in revenue this year. The Kollur Mookambika temple in Udupi district, which sees revenue of Rs 45-50 crore every year, got only Rs 4.5 crore. This is for the first time that these temples received the lowest revenue. The Chamundeshwari temple atop Chamundi Hills in Mysuru, whose earnings last year was Rs 35.23 crore, has been able to collect only Rs 74 lakh this year. The Srikanteshwara temple at Nanjangud near Mysuru, considered the Kashi of the South, could generate only Rs 12.6 lakh revenue as against Rs 20.8 crore last year. There are 34,559 temples under the Endowment DepartCONTINUED ON: P4 ment in the state. No democracy in India: Rahul EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi CONGRESS leader Rahul Gandhi Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying there is no democracy in the country and those speaking against the PM are labelled as terrorists. A delegation including Rahul, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted two crore signatures of in support of the farmers. EXPRESS READ UK, EU clinch post-Brexit free trade agreement London: Downing Street in London and European Union (EU) officials in Brussels confirmed on Thursday that both sides managed to thrash out a post-Brexit free trade agreement just days before the December 31 deadline. Thousands of pages of legal text accompanies the deal, with details of the agreement set to emerge in the course of the next few days. K’TAKA AIMS TO BE ON TOP IN PUBLIC HEALTHCARE H ealth and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, who has been in the forefront of the battle against Covid-19, hopes for a “revolutionary health budget” in 2021. In many areas, the health infrastructure was found wanting during the pandemic. In the last three years, the budget allocation for health has never crossed 4 per cent. On Thursday, Sudhakar made a detailed presentation to the CM on upgrading facilities at primary and tertiary health centres with the aim of putting Karnataka on top in ter ms of public healthcare in the country. DETAILS | P4