AP CHENNAI  SUNDAY  JANUARY 03, 2021  `8.00  PAGES 24  VELLORE EDITION MASTERMIND OF ’08 MUMBAI ATTACK LAKHVI HELD IN PAK Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was arrested in Pakistan on terror financing charges FUNDING TERRORISM THROUGH DISPENSARY ACTING UNDER GLOBAL PRESSURE A UN proscribed terrorist, Lakhvi was arrested from Lahore by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab province on Saturday. Lakhvi (61) is accused of running a dispensary to fund terrorism activities. He was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case. His trial will be held before the Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore, official sources said ■ ■ The arrest follows Paris-based terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s pressure on Pakistan to take action against terrorists using its territory to carry out attacks in India Lakhvi was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations in December 2008 for being associated with LeT and al-Qaeda 1.5 Lakh PAK RUPEES PAID MONTHLY TO LAKHVI TOWARDS ‘PERSONAL EXPENSES’ 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 Bharat Biotech’s swadeshi vaccine receives panel nod TN plans to vaccinate 1.6 crore people in 2021, says Health Secy The State government has planned to administer Covid-19 vaccine to 1.6 crore people this year, said Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan on Saturday. Speaking to TNIE over the phone, he said that they have a target to vaccinate 20 per cent of the State’s population in the first phase. In the State, six lakh healthcare workers would be administered with the Covid-19 vaccine. Besides, others would get the shots in a phased manner based on the availability, he added. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 vaccination dry run was held simultaneously at 17 centres across Tamil Nadu and nine centres in Puducherry. After launching the dry run at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, Radhakrishnan said that every vaccine centre in the State will be equipped to vaccinate 100 people every day | P4 SUMI SUKANYA DUTTA @ New Delhi A government appointed panel of the apex drug regulator on Saturday recommended emergency use authorisation for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, India’s first homegrown vaccine against Covid-19, a day after it approved a vaccine against coronavirus by AstraZenecaOxford University . The committee said the recommendation for the vaccine’s restricted use in emergency situations was in the “public interest as an abundant precaution, in clinical trial mode, especially in the context of infection by mutant strains.” Bharat Biotech, in collabora- FOLLOW SOPS OR FACE ACTION, SAYS OFFICIAL Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan has said that all hotels must adhere to standard operating procedures. If this is not followed, despite bringing the infection under control to an extent, the State might witness another wave like Europe, US or other Indian States, he warned. Many hotels are not following SOPs, he added | P4 A participant gets a dummy vaccination shot as part of the country-wide dry run of the Covid vaccination programme in Hyderabad on Saturday | VINAY MADAPU CM announces `600-cr relief for 5 lakh farmers EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai CHIEF Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday announced `600 crore as relief assistance to around five lakh farmers who have lost agricultural and horticultural crops across 3,10,589.63 hectare due to the twin cyclone that hit Tamil Nadu, Nivar and Burevi. He also increased the assistance to farmers above the prescribed amount under the National Disaster Relief Fund guidelines. In a statement released here, Palaniswami said the relief assistance (input subsidy) of `600 crore would be credited directly to the bank accounts of the farmers from January 7. The additional amount granted by the Chief Minister as input subsidy would be borne by the State government. Palaniswami also pointed out that as per the NDRF guidelines, only those farmers who hold up to two hectares could get the relief assistance. However, since all farmers have lost their livelihood this time, the relief assistance would be given to all of them, he said. As per the NDRF guidelines, Palaniswami said, only `13,500 per hectare is allowed as input subsidy for rainfed and assured irrigated paddy crops, besides for other assured crops. This would be hiked to `20,000 per hectare, he said. P4 Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami gave away free cattle head to 11 persons during an interaction with dairy farmers at Ramanathapuram on Saturday Farmers issue R-Day tractor rally ultimatum if deadlock continues E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chandigarh A day after the farmers threatened to step up their agitation, the protesters on Saturday issued an ultimatum to the government and said they would take out a tractor rally to Delhi on January 26 if their demand for the repeal of the farm laws and legalising of MSP was not met. Announcing the decision of the seven-member coordination committee of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, chief of BKU (Rajewal group) Balbir Singh Rajewal and president of Krantikari Kisan Union Punjab Darshan Pal said: “We have given a call for a tractor-trolley parade to Delhi on January 26. The parade with the national flag will be called the ‘farmers republic parade’ and will take place after the official parade.” “We intend to be peaceful. We told the Central government long ago that it has only two options, either repeal the three farm acts or use force to evict us,” the farm leaders said. Rajewal and Pal said the time had come for decisive action. They had chosen January 26 for the rally for two reasons: Republic Day represented the supremacy of the people while the day will also mark two months of their protest. The tractor rally on January 26 will go ahead if there is no resolution during the talks on Monday Lohri/makar sankranti on January 13 will . be observed as Kisan Sankalp Diwas by burning the copies of the three laws. January 18 will be celebrated as Mahila Kisan Diwas to underline the role of women farmers, and January 23, the birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose, will be observed as Azad Hind Kisan Diwas. Protests will be held outside Raj Bhavan in all state capitals. The leaders said although the government had agreed to “minor demands” on air pollution and Electricity Amendment Bill, it was yet to give them legal shape. CONTINUED ON: P7 SOURAV SUFFERS MILD HEART ATTACK Indian cricket board president and former India skipper Sourav Ganguly suffered a ‘mild’ heart attack on Saturday when he was in the gym and had to be admitted to a private hospital where doctors found multiple blockages in his coronary arteries. Ganguly underwent angioplasty and a stent was placed in one of the arteries. Doctors treating him said his condition is stable. Ganguly was rushed to the hospital in the afternoon following complaint of chest pain. Sourav’s brother Snehasish Ganguly said in the afternoon that he was stable. Cricket fraternity, led by Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, wished Sourav a speedy recovery. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and governor Jagdeep Dhankhar visited him in the hospital. P11 ACCUMULATING EYESORE Sea retches out tonnes of trash at Kovalam S V K R I S H N A C H A I TA N YA @ Chennai WATCHING the nascent rays of the sun pierce the eastern sky while letting the chirpy golden waves hug the ankles is a dream moment for many But, . when bottles thwack the feet and fishing nets entwine the toes after being unceremoniously belched out by a tired sea fed on an unhealthy diet of plastic and waste, it is anybody’s nightmare. This is exactly what one can encounter during a stroll along the Muttukadu-Kovalam beach off ECR near Chennai. Discarded fishing nets, plastic bottles and trashed clothes are routinely getting washed ashore, sucking the beauty out of the beach. Villagers living nearby said it was normal for garbage to be washed ashore during monsoons, but this year has been the worst so far. With Chennai and Chengalpet receiving above normal rains, the water level in Buckingham Canal has increased, flushing garbage dumped on its banks into the Bay of Bengal. SRI LOGANATHAN V Hiccup for ‘Blue Flag Certification’ This environmental hiccup is not good news, especially when the Tamil Nadu government is striving to get the international ‘Blue Flag Certification’ for Kovalam beach, a notified nesting ground for endangered Olive Ridleys. tion with the ICMR, has developed Covaxin from inactivated SARS CoV 2, isolated at the National Institute of Virology, Pune. Although the vaccine has demonstrated good safety and immunogenicity in phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, it is still undergoing phase 3 trials and, therefore, its efficacy remains to be established. The Centre also issued a statement that the subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organization, following its meetings on Friday and Saturday, recommended the vaccines for consideration and final decision of the Drugs Controller General of India. “Grant of permission for restricted emergency use of vaccine (is being given), subject to multiple regulatory conditionalities, to Serum Institute of India, Pune,” said a statement by the ministry of health and family welfare. The back-to-back permission granted to the vaccines could mean they will be rolled out simultaneously in about a week. Sources said the unscheduled meeting of the SEC on Saturday to reconsider Bharat Biotech’s application was called under government pressure after the panel had refused permission a day earlier citing insufficient data. CONTINUED ON: P7 IND-AUS CRICKET 5 players isolated; Covid-19 protocol breach probe on Chennai: Five members of the Indian team — Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubhman Gill, Prithvi Shaw and Navdeep Saini — have been isolated from the rest of the contingent after a fan posted a video of them dining at an indoor restaurant. The five will be allowed to train during the period, but under strict protocols, and will not be allowed to mix with the rest of the squad, the Cricket Australia said. As per CA’s Covid-19 protocol, players are allowed to dine outside their hotel but only outdoors. “The BCCI and CA are investigating the matter and seeking to determine whether the outing constitutes a breach of bio-security protocols,” said a Cricket Australia statement | P13 WITH THIS ISSUE EXPRESS READ Flight service to UK resumes on Jan 6 Exports slip for 3rd month on a trot Bitcoin’s price crosses $30K mark New Delhi: With the IndiaUK air services resuming on January 6, Air India said those who had booked their flight on December 23 will be accommodated in the first flight out. The passengers were contacted on December 22 and their booking rescheduled | P7 New Delhi: India’s exports slipped by 0.8 per cent in December 2020, marking three consecutive months of dip, while rise in imports widened the trade deficit to $15.71 billion. Exports in December stood at $26.89 billion, say commerce ministry data | P10 Bitcoin, the leading virtual currency, saw its price pass $30,000 (around `22.5 lakh in Indian rupees) on Saturday for the first time. The first decentralised cryptocurrency reached $30,823.3 on Saturday evening FORCES OF NATURE PLUS 12 PAGES