HYDERABAD  WEDNESDAY  JANUARY 06, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 16  LATE CITY EDITION PARLIAMENT SESSION FROM JANUARY 29, BUDGET ON FEB 1 The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Tuesday recommended convening of the Budget session from Jan 29 FILE PICTURE SECOND HALF LIKELY FROM MARCH 8 TO APRIL 8 OPPOSITION LIKELY TO RAISE FARM LAWS The first part of the Budget session will run till February 15. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget in the Lok Sabha on February 1, as usual. The second half of the Budget session will commence after a recess and be held from March 8 till April 8. The Economic Survey will be presented in both Houses of Parliament on January 31 ■ ■ ■ The Opposition is likely to put pressure on govt over farm laws The govt had earlier decided against convening the winter session of Parliament citing the pandemic, for which it drew flak The monsoon session of Parliament, too, had been adjourned prematurely after many MPs tested positive for Covid-19 | P7 2021-22 BUDGET EXPECTED TO HAVE MEASURES TO REVIVE INDIA’S COVID-HIT ECONOMY 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 R-DAY SHOWDOWN Farmers to hold ‘rehearsal’ tractor rally on Thursday H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh A day after the seventh round of talks between the Centre and farmer union leaders over the three contentious farm laws ended in a deadlock, the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha on Tuesday said it would take out a tractor rally on January 7, day before the next meeting. The tractor march would he held on eastern and western expressways around Delhi, said Yogendra Yadav, a member of the coordination committee of the morcha, an umbrella body of over 40 farm unions. “It will be a rehearsal for our tractor march on January 26. Farmers from Kundli, Ghazipur and Rewasan will climb atop both expressways from their respective sides. After meeting at midway point, they will return to their respective positions. We will approach from Kundli and Tikri borders on the eastern side, will march from Rewasan and Ghazipur,” he added. Meanwhile, Punjab BJP leaders Surjit Kumar Jyani and Harjit Singh Grewal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence in Delhi. Jyani is the chairman of kisan coordination committee of the party which is interacting with farmers while Grewal is a member of the panel. After the meeting, Grewal said the PM is aware of the ground reality but refused to divulge more details. Minutes show expert panel’s Covaxin somersault It wasn’t satisfied with phase 1, 2 results alone in first two meets; changed mind in the third S U M I S U K A N YA D U T TA @ New Delhi A bare reading of the minutes of the three meetings the drug regulator’s expert panel held over the past week to consider accelerated licenses to coronavirus vaccines, indicates what was suspected all along — that the committee perhaps changed its mind on Covaxin overnight due to government pressure to clear a homegrown jab. After three meetings spread over four days, the subject expert committee of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation on Covid-19 recommended restricted emergency use for Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech-ICMR. The approval to Covaxin, whose phase 3 trial on about 26,000 volunteers is still underway, however, led to a massive outcry in the scientific community as its efficacy is yet to be established. The minutes of the SEC’s meetings on December 30 and January 1 show it was not satisfied with Covaxin’s phase 1 and 2 trial data alone, but changed its mind on January 2. December 30’s minutes say that “after detailed deliberation, the com- mittee recommended that the firm should update and present immunogenicity safety and ef, ficacy data for further consideration.” On January 1, it recommended that Bharat Biotech expedite the recruitment of volunteers and perform interim efficacy analysis for further consideration. In the same meeting, the panel recommended Covishield’s approval. BORIS JOHNSON CANCELS R-DAY VISIT New Delhi: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday cancelled his proposed visit to India citing the raging coronavirus crisis at home, aggravated by an infectious strain of the virus. He was scheduled to be the chief guest at the Republic Day Parade here on January 26 | P7 However, the very next day when an unscheduled meeting was held purportedly under pressure to clear the indigenous vaccine, Bharat Biotech presented further data and notably “requested for consideration of their proposal in the wake of incidence of new mutated coronavirus infection”. Introducing the protection angle against the infectious UK virus strain perhaps gave the SEC legroom for its somersault. The minutes show the committee echoed Bharat Biotech, as it observed that Covaxin has the “potential to target mutated coronavirus strains”. CONTINUED ON: P7 Brace for bumpy rides! Hyd roads to be cut S B A C H A N J E E T S I N G H @ Hyderabad CITIZENS and motorists in Hyderabad should brace themselves for inconvenience as the city roads are going to be dug up for laying cables and gas, water and sewerage pipelines. After imposing a blanket ban on road cutting from May to December last year due to the monsoon, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has accorded permission to the agencies concerned to go ahead with the work. Private agencies, gas utilities as well as government agencies have been approaching the GHMC head office and zonal offices for obtaining road cutting 709 km under the Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme, which are slated to be dug up, will need permissions from CRMP agencies permissions. They have also been contacting Comprehensive Road Maintenance Programme (CRMP) agencies for permissions to conduct the works on stretches under the latter’s limits. In the last few days, the GHMC has already accorded permissions for road cutting works in 20 km to the TS Transco, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), Airtel Telesonics Networks Limited, Bhagyanagar Gas Limited, Reliance and other agencies. More agencies are likely to approach it over the next few days. For small-stretch road cuttings (up to 10 m), permissions are being given at the GHMC zonal offices either online or offline by collecting road cutting and restoration charges from the agencies. However, those for over 10 m are being referred to the head office. Permissions are not being given for roads which are under the Defect Liability Period (DLP). For CRMP roads — which cover seven packages in six zones and have a total of 401 stretches covering 709 km — the agencies have to approach CRMP agencies for road cutting permissions. There are 65 CRMP stretches in LB Nagar (138.77 km); 57 in Charminar (100.42 km); 77 in Khairatabad-I (81.5 km); 46 in Khairatabad-II (90.50 km); 54 in Serilingampally (108.44 km); 30 in Kukatpally (82.12 km) and 72 in Secunderabad (107.73 km). HC sets aside Jubilee Hills Society’s voters list R R A J A S H E K A R R A O @ Hyderabad IN a setback to the existing managing committee of the Jubilee Hills Cooperative House Building Society, the Telangana High Court (HC) on Tuesday set aside the list of members prepared by the Society’s erstwhile managing committee with T Narendra Chowdary as its president. The HC directed the person-in-charge committee to pre pare afresh and publish the list of eligible voters strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Telangana State Cooperative Societies (TSCS) Act, 1964 and its Rules made thereunder. It should prepare the list and submit the proposals to the State Cooperative Election Authority for the conduct of fresh elections to the society in the next two weeks, the court said. The entire process, including holding the elections, should be completed in the next two months, it noted. Justice MS Ramachandra Rao passed this order while allowing the petitions filed by B Ravindranath and several other members of the society . The petitioners have sought a direction to the authorities concerned to conduct a free and fair election to the managing committee of the society only after preparing/finalising the voters list by mentioning all the eligible members, including themselves. This should be done by following the mandatory procedure envisaged under the TSCS Act and its Rule 22, they have stated. “The Registrar-cum-Commissioner of Cooperative Societies, TS, cannot be said to have been unaware of the importance of the poll process to the managing committee of a very important house building cooperative society such as the Jubilee Hills Society,” the CONTINUED ON P4 judge said. Hyderabad 2nd most surveilled city in world, beats NY, London A I H I K S U R @ Hyderabad HYDERABAD is the second-most surveilled city in the world, beating major cities such as London, Beijing and New York. Hard to believe? Read on. A study — ‘The Top Surveillance Cities Worldwide’ conducted by Surfshark and published in the South Asia Journal — says Hyderabad has 480 CCTVs per sq km and 30 for every 1,000 people. This number is second only to Chennai which is adjudged as the most surveilled city in the world. The Tamil Nadu capital has 657 CCTVs per sq km and 25.5 CCTVs per 1,000 people. London comes a distant fourth when compared to Hyderabad, with 399 cameras per sq km. Six Chinese cities feature in the top 10 — Beijing, Harbin, Xiamen and so on. Surfshark, a company that offers VPN solutions, alluded this increasing mode of surveilCONTINUED ON P4 lance to social theorist Jeremy Bentham. THE FLIP SIDE Water gushes into the bylanes of Indiramma Colony in Gundlasingaram village of Warangal on Tuesday after a crater formed in the nearby Kakatiya canal of the SRSP. Residents panicked on seeing the flood, while officials opened the escape channel | P2 EXPRESS READ I-T dept grills Vadra for 2nd day Don to ‘fight like hell’ for presidency New Delhi: The I-T department questioned Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, for four hours on the second consecutive day on Tuesday in connection with its probe against him under the benami assets law Dalton: US President Donald Trump said he will “fight like hell” to hold on to the presidency and appealed to Republican lawmakers to reverse his election loss to Joe Biden when they convene this week to confirm the Electoral College vote | P9 FIRST JAB BY JANUARY 13? EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THE Union health ministry on Tuesday said the government is prepared to roll out vaccines against Covid-19 within 10 days of granting emergency use authorisation. Since regulatory approval came on January 3, the first jabs could be administered by January 13. “The government is ready to introduce Covid-19 vaccine within 10 days from date of emergency use authorisation,” said Rajesh Bhushan, health secretary . Describing the vaccine delivery management plan using the specially designed The right to development, as discussed...is a basic human right and no organ of the State is expected to become an impediment in the process of development as long as the government proceeds in accordance with law CoWin platform, he said healthcare and frontline workers need not register themselves on it as beneficiaries, as their data has been pre-populated on the portal. “There are four primary vaccine stores called GMSD in Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and 37 vaccine stores. They store vaccines in bulk and distribute them further,” he said. Automated session allocation, SMS in 12 languages, 24x7 helpline, chat box with pattern recognition to help navigate the portal, digital locker for integrated data retrieval and storing vaccine data are some of the salient features of CoWIN. Justice AM Khanwilkar Project to develop Central Vista gets 2:1 SC green light Justice Dinesh Maheshwari Dissenting verdict K A N U S A R D A @ New Delhi Justice Sanjiv Khanna A Supreme Court bench on Tuesday greenlighted the mega Central Vista project by 2:1 majority, saying there were no infirmities in clearances granted to it. Justice A M Khanwilkar, writing for himself and Justice Dinesh Maheswari, however, said authorities executing the project will have to get clearance from the Heritage Conservation Committee, rejecting the Centre’s stand that the approval was to be taken subsequently . The two judges found the process to change the land use at the project site legal and valid. They also found all notifications issued for the project as also the approval granted by the environmental committee valid. The majority verdict directed the Union ministry of environment to set up smog towers as an integral part of the Central Vista project and ordered use of environment-friendly construction material. On the issue of award of contract to a Gujarat-based firm, the court held it was just and proper. While agreeing with the other two judges on “the aspects of Notice inviting Bid, award of consultancy and the order of the Urban Arts Commission,” Justice Sanjiv Khanna in his dissenting verdict faulted the Centre for not following due procedure. “There is no intelligible disclosure of public participation and no prior approval of Heritage Conservation Committee,” Justice Khanna said. “I have sent the issue to Heritage Conservation Committee. We have not gone into the merits of matter,” he said, adding prior approval of the Heritage Conservation Committee was necessary for such projects. The government had defended the project, arguing that the current British-era Parliament House, opened in 1927, had less space, no fire safety norms or earthquake proofing. It had also contended that all Central ministries need to be bunched together in one place to improve efficiency .  Adequate notice not given to stakeholders of the development plan  Tender notices do not suggest the project envisaged extensive change, though it was for complete redevelopment of Central Vista  Fatal flaw in following procedure; Centre did not apply its mind to inputs from the public  Lack of reasonable time prevented those who had filed objections and given suggestions to appear orally and state their point of view  Premeditated effort to ensure approval without the presence and participation of representatives of professional bodies  No approval from Heritage Conservation Committee  Environmental clearance for the project mechanical, invalid STRAIGHT TALK Even primary objectives of NaMo’s DeMo never met: Pranab EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THE intent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation was good but its primary objectives were not met even after years of its implementation, according to former president Pranab Mukherjee. The PM did not give him the heads-up and he came to know about the note ban through TV like the rest of the country re, vealed Mukherjee, who passed away on August 31, 2020. The fourth volume of his autobiography The Presidential Years: 2012-2017 was released on Tuesday by publisher Rupa Publications. “It is difficult to assess the exact impact of demonetisation, close to four years after it was implemented. But perhaps one thing can be stated without fear of contradiction: the multiple objectives of the decision of demonetisation... to bring , back black money paralyse the operation of the black economy and facilitate a cashless society etc, have not been , met,” he wrote. Terming the decision was in line with Modi’s style of making dramatic announcements, Mukherjee said the criticism that fol- lowed was only natural. “Demonetisation could not have been done with prior consultation because the suddenness and surprise, necessary for such announcements, would have been lost after such a process, ” he wrote. Mukherjee also noted that in the early 1970s, he had proposed demonetisation after the successful implementation of the Voluntary Disclosure of Income and Wealth Ordinance, 1975 but the then PM Indira Gandhi turned it down. “Indira Gandhi did not accept my suggestion, pointing out that a large part of the economy was not yet fully monetised and that a substantial part of it was in the informal sector. She argued it would be imprudent to shake the faith of people in currency notes. After all, currency notes issued by the Reserve Bank of India represent the commitment of a sovereign government,” he added in his memoirs.