ap gets vaccine consignment Andhra Pradesh received its first consignment of Covishield vaccine from Serum Institute of India, Pune, on Tuesday. Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das said around 4.97 lakh doses of vaccine were allotted to AP. As many as 3.8 lakh health workers will be vaccinated at 332 session sites in the State in the first phase I P Ravindra Babu FULL COVERAGE: P3 visakhapatnam l wednesday l january 13, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION 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 Govt quietly accepts CJI’s formulation in contrast to its stiff opposition on Monday; no-show by three senior advocates on the farmers’ side; tractor rally on R-Day will be peaceful, say unions SC sets up panel, pauses farm laws K A N U SARDA @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an “extraordinary order” to stay the implementation of the three disputed farm laws and set up a panel of four agriculture experts to talk to all stakeholders and report back to the court within two months. A bench headed by CJI S A Bobde stayed till further orders the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion & Facilitation) Act; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act. “We are of the view that the constitution of a committee of experts in the field of agriculture to negotiate between the farmers’ bodies and the Government of India may create a congenial atmosphere and improve the trust and confidence of the farmers... a stay of implementation of all the three farm laws for the present may assuage the hurt feelings of the farmers and encourage them to come to the negotiating table with confidence and good faith,” the 11-page order by the three-judge bench read. The court’s order comes a day after pulling up the Centre for its poor handling of farmers’ agitation. The bench also said that while the court doesn’t want to stifle a peaceful protest, “the extraordinary order of stay of implementation of the farm laws will be perceived as an achievement” and will encourage the agitating farmers to end their protest. Unlike on Monday, the Centre represented by Attorney General K K Venugopal and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta did not oppose the stay on the laws. The panel members are BKU (Mann) national president Bhupinder Singh Mann; Pramod Kumar Joshi, director, South Asia international Food Policy; agriculture economist Ashok Gulati; and Shetkari Sanghatana leader Anil Ghanwat (see box). The SC rejected advocate M L Sharma’s submission that farmers won’t talk to the panel. “If you want to agitate indefinitely, you can. Every person who is interested in solving the problem is expected to go before the committee. The committee will not punish you or pass any orders. It will submit a report to us,” it said. The court said it is concerned about the validity of the laws and also about protecting the life and property of citizens affected by protests. The bench turned down farmers’ demand that the Prime Minister should approach them to hold negotiations and said, “We cannot ask the Prime Minister... he is not a party here.” The bench was surprised to learn that none of the three senior counsel appeared for the farmer unions Tuesday . “Where is (Dushyant) Dave? Yesterday he said he will get back today with the views of farmers unions. They have not logged in P7 also,” the CJI remarked.  meet The Four Wise Men Who: Bhupinder Singh Mann is the national president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Mann) and All India Kisan Coordination Committee View: Was among a group that met minister Tomar and backed the new laws, but with some amendments; wants MSP ensured Who: Dr Pramod Kumar Joshi is an agricultural economist and director (South Asia) for International Food Policy Research Institute View: Votary of legalising MSP; on contract farming; feels it’s not govt’s job to buy/sell produce; market should determine prices Who: Ashok Gulati is an agricultural economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices View: Supports farm reforms. Has urged govt to address concerns on contract farming and assurance that MSP and APMC systems will continue Who: Anil Ghanwat is the president of Shetkari Sanghatana, a Maharashtra-based organisation founded by Sharad Joshi View: Has sided with the govt but agrees it did not hold proper discussions with farmers’ organisations before bringing the laws Unions to stay away, see govt ploy H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Terming the four-member expert committee set up by the Supreme Court on Tuesday as progovernment and pro-agri reform laws, farmer leaders refused to appear before it and decided to continue their protests. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of around 40 protesting farmer unions, following the SC order. Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab (Rajewal) said, “The committee members are pro-government and thus not dependa- ble. We never asked the court to form a committee; the government is behind all this.” Calling it a government ploy, Rajewal said, “our only demand is repealing the farm laws.” He, however, said the farmer unions will attend the ninth round of talks with the government on January 15 “as we do not want to give them any excuse”. He also assured that the proposed tractor march on January 26 will be peaceful. The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee said: “We had already said that we will not accept any committee formed by the SC for mediation.” executive Capital move to vizag in 5 months: Sajjala FALSE +VE After barred in morning, Saina back in play E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada a n m o l g u r u n g @ Chennai Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy Ad, visor to Government of AP (Public Affairs), has said the State executive capital is likely to be shifted to Visakhapatnam in 4-5 months. Speaking to mediapersons here on Tuesday he said the shifting of , the capital to Vizag got delayed due to court cases though all the necessary laws in this regard were passed in the State Assembly “We are con. fident that the cases will be resolved soon and the capital will be shifted to Vizag this year,” he said. When asked if the three-capital issue will be resolved by Ugadi, Sajjala stated that making Vizag executive capital of the State is part of administrative decentralisation and the process has commenced. “ A month before or after Ugadi, shifting of the capital to Vizag is certain. The government is determined to ensure that the State gets benefited from the decentralisation in the next three years. Efforts are on to get all the court cases pertaining to the three-capital issue resolved at the earliest. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is committed to developing the State on all fronts by P4 2024,” he asserted.  IN what was supposed to be a return to action for some of the elite Indian shuttlers, it turned out to be a controversial dramafilled day, both on and off the court. Saina Nehwal tested positive for coronavirus, so did HS Prannoy It . looked like their Thailand Open campaign would end even before take off. In fact, Saina, who was supposed to play on Tuesday, was forced to sit out. But after both of them cleared their IgG antibody tests, they were cleared to take part in the Thailand Open from Wednesday . Kidambi Srikanth, after his nasal swab test, posted a picture of his bloodied nose on social media. He termed it ‘unacceptable’. It looked like doom and gloom for Indians at one point with the World Badminton Federation putting them in ‘high risk’ category On the court, PV Sind. hu fluffed her chance after P11 going one game up.  ‘Oppn unable to digest growing govt popularity’ Opposition is not able to digest the growing popularity of YSRC regime. To divert the public attention from welfare schemes of the government, attacks on temples are planned. A SIT has been constituted to unravel the truth behind temple vandalism, Sajjala said. express read SEC surrenders secy to govt Vijayawada: SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar on Tuesday surrendered secretary Vani Mohan to the government, stating that her services are not required. However, the SEC refused to confirm or deny the surrender of the secretary. AP exceeds NREGS target Vijayawada: AP has generated 22.11 crore person days by December-end under NREGS against the target of 21.85 crore for the current fiscal. As AP exceeded the target, 4.25 crore more person days were allotted to it.  P4