MANGALURU  FRIDAY  JANUARY 22, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 14  CITY EDITION Biden signs 17 orders, reversing Trump’s signature policies Hours after his inauguration, US President Joe Biden signed 17 executive orders, reversing some of the key foreign policies and national security decisions of Donald Trump TACKLING PANDEMIC Jeffrey D Zients appointed as the official Covid-19 response coordinator who will report directly to the President US’ ties with WHO restored. Dr Anthony S Fauci will head US delegation to WHO’s executive board The new president restored the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which Trump had disbanded Biden also launched a ‘100-day masking challenge’ IMMIGRATION Issued directions to fortify Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, which provides temporary relief from deportation to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children The order also calls on Congress to enact legislation providing permanent status and a path to citizenship for these immigrants Ended the so-called Muslim ban, which blocked travel from several predominantly Muslim and African countries to the US Construction of border wall with Mexico halted. Legality of diverting federal money to fund the wall will be reviewed CLIMATE CHANGE ENDING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION Shot off a letter to the UN that will pave the way for the US to re-enter the Paris climate accord, which it will officially rejoin 30 days from now Revoked Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, which recently released a report allegedly distorting the role of slavery in the US Directed federal agencies to report on equity in their ranks within 200 days, including how to remove barriers to opportunities in policies Ordered agencies to ensure Americans of all backgrounds have equal access to federal government resources, benefits and services In 2019, Trump had notified the UN that the US would withdraw from the coalition of nearly 200 countries World stocks racked up record highs on Thursday on the back of expectations of a major stimulus from the new US president. The Sensex also traded high during the initial hours, breaching 50,000 for the first time. It, however, closed 167 points lower at 49,624.76 | P12 SENSEX BREACHES 50,000 I’m not joking when I say this: If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands or buts President Biden’s warning to his political appointees 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 THE ‘NAYS’ HAVE IT, GOVT OFFER REJECTED UMESH KATTI Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs S ANGARA Fisheries Department, Ports and Inland Transport Department ARAVIND LIMBAVALI Forest MURUGESH RUDRAPPA NIRANI Mines and Geology MTB NAGARAJ Excise Department CP YOGESHWAR Minor Irrigation R SHANKAR Municipal Administration and Sericulture Small farmer unions in favour, big ones against proposal EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi/Chandigarh THE government’s hopes of ending the deadlock over the farm laws before Republic Day were dashed on Thursday with the farmers unions rejecting the proposal to suspend the laws for two years or more and forming a joint panel to examine the entire gamut of issues. In a statement issued after two rounds of meetings, the first among the 32 Punjab unions followed by all the organisations under the Samyukt Kisan Morcha banner, the farmers said “the proposal put forth by the government yesterday was rejected.” “A full repeal of (the) three central farm laws and enacting a legislation for remunerative MSP for all farmers were reiterated as the pending demands of the movement,” the morcha said. But sources said the decision was not unanimous, with some smaller unions, who were in a minority, in favour of accepting the Centre’s proposal but with several conditions, while the bigger ones, mainly from Punjab, firm on continuing with the agitation. The sources said the majority view to reject the proposal was mainly two-fold. First, the protest was peaking and if they withdrew at this point, they may not be able to build up another movement in the future for a repeal of the laws in case the proposed committee rejects this demand. Second, 143 farmers had died during the agitation and if they were to accept the offer without getting the laws repealed, their sacrifice would have gone in vain. The split in opinion led to some heated exchanges during the meeting, the sources said, forcing a vote over the issue. “The consensus was that we should stick to our stand of repeal. Voting took place in the meeting of all the 40 unions in which most voted for rejecting the proposal,” a leader said. Joginder Singh Ugrahan, the leader of the largest union, said “we want the Centre to enact a legislation for remunerative MSP and also a law with the provision that the government procures these crops at MSP as it has been doing to date.” “The Punjab unions decided to reject the Centre’s proposal. They informed this at the joint meeting. There was a feeling that 143 farmers have sacrificed their lives and there is no point in settling for anything less than a repeal,” said All India Kisan Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah The morcha paid homage to the farmers who have died in P9 the movement so far. TRACTOR RALLY TALKS Meeting between farmer union leaders and the Delhi Police on tractor parade on Republic Day inconclusive Farmers firm on holding the rally on the Outer Ring Road in Delhi, while police wary of disturbing law and order, want them to call it off WHAT CM RETAINS Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Cabinet Affairs, Finance Department, Bengaluru Development, Energy, Intelligence from Home Department, Planning - Programme Monitoring Statistics Department, Infrastructure Development Thousands of tractors for the rally from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan already parked on Delhi’s borders Swalpa adjust maadi? BSY’s cabinet seethes with discontent A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru BOLSTERED by the central party command’s renewed espousal of faith in him, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is seeking to calm the waters of dissent by recrafting the shape of his cabinet. But playing captain is never easy when the seas are rough. The portfolios he allocated today to his seven new ministers has itself become a fresh point of contention. Last week’s long-awaited cabinet expansion had already created heartburn among those left out. Now, as many ministers express displeasure over not getting what they wanted, B A L A C H A U H A N @ Bengaluru V K Sasikala, the jailed close associate of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, has tested positive for Covid-19. She has been shifted to the ICU in the trauma care centre (TCC) at Victoria Hospital, which is exc l u s ive l y f o r C ov i d - 1 9 patients. “She is being given oxygen and is not on ventilator support. We are closely monitoring her,” said Director-cum-Dean of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Dr C R Jayanthi. Sasikala, who was keenly looking forward to return to Chennai upon her release from prison on January 27, will now have to stay put in Bengaluru until her complete recovery Her Covid test . result has thrown the authorities at the Bengaluru Central Prison in a tizzy “We . don’t know how she contracted the virus. She is sharing a room with co accused and sister-in-law Ilavarasi in the prison, which is in a high-security block,” said sources in the Prisons P7 Department. CONTINUED ON: P4 Five dead in blaze at Serum Institute facility EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai REJECTING the Centre’s proposal to put the farm laws on hold for two years, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar said they will go ahead with the tractor rally in Bengaluru on Republic Day in solidarity with their counterparts in Delhi. Instead of heeding to farmers’ demands, the Centre is pushing half-hearted solutions. Similarly, the State Government is also pushing farmers into a corner by adopting the laws, along with the prohibition on cow slaughter, he noted. P5 FIVE persons — four men and one woman — were charred to death after a fire broke out at Serum Institute of India’s plant at Manjri in Pune on Thursday afternoon. The blaze occurred at an under-construction building and all the dead were construction workers. Nine people were evacuated from the spot. According to a labourer who was working in the building at the time of incident, the mishap happened due to sparks welding works on the sixth floor. However, officials said the cause is yet to be ascertained. @ Mysuru/Shivamogga/Chikkamagaluru E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru Sasi tests +ve for Covid, Chennai return delayed sponsibility of Law and Parliamentary Af fairs, J C Madhuswamy has been moved Medical Education, Kannada and Culture portfolio. Aravind Limbavali, who was eyeing Bengaluru Development, gets Forest ministry, while M T B Nagaraj will be the new Excise Minister. R Shankar has been given Municipal Administration and Sericulture while Fisheries, Ports and Inland Transport, which was with Kota Srinivas Poojari, has been given to S Angara, the new minister. C C Patil gets Small Scale Industries, Infor mation and Public Relations. State farmers to hold tractor rally “We will carry out further investigation and ascertain the cause of the fire,” said Pune Fire Brigade chief Prashant Ranpise. The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccines are made. However, the building where fire broke out is around 1 km away from the Covishield vaccine manufacturing unit. Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla said Covishield vaccine production will not be hit due to the fire incident. It took over two hours for the fire brigade to put out the blaze, which broke out around 2:45 pm on the fourth and fifth Less exam stress for students this year Sasikala being taken to Victoria Hospital on Thursday | EXPRESS Operation Salvage is turning truly messy . For one, the CM continues to keep key portfolios such as Finance, Bengaluru Development and Energy with him -- that reduces the pool from which he can draw. As a consequence, those who had to make space for the seven legislators who took oath as ministers on January 13 are openly airing their discontent, in action if not words. Minister Gopalaiah has been given the Horticulture portfolio while new inductee Umesh Katti gets Food and Civil Supplies that was with the former. While Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai gets additional re- IN a move aimed at reducing stress among students in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the State Education Department has come out with several guidelines on conducting the final examination for students of Classes 1 to 9 and also for SSLC students. For students of Classes 1 to 5, schools have been permitted to take a decision on promoting them based on only one Formative and one Summative Assessments instead of two and one, respectively . The guidelines, issued by Commissioner, Department of Education, on Thursday stated that con- sidering the pandemic situation, and also the fact that lessons taught till now have been mostly online, on DD Chandana and through Vidyagama, schools will be conducting only one FA and one SA examination for Classes 1 to 5. Apex court grants bail to actor Ragini in Sandalwood drugs case E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru KANNADA actor Ragini Dwivedi, who was arrested in connection with the Sandalwood drugs case, was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Thursday . Ragini was arrested by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) on September 4 last year, when she appeared before the investigating officer for inquiry in the case. She was held in connection with an FIR registered at Cottonpet police station under provisions of the NDPS Act, and was remanded in judicial custody on September 14. She was named Accused No. 2 in the FIR. Her bail petitions were rejected by the Special Court for NDPS cases on September 28, and by the Karnataka High Court on November 3. Later, her advocates moved the Supreme Court seeking bail. On Thursday, a bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha and K M For Classes 6 to 9, the department has come up with an Alternative Academic Calendar. Considering the fact that the schools have not been able to conduct regular classes and the students, even under the Vidyagama programme, have been coming to schools only alternate days, the teachers can identify lessons which have continuity (spiral) for the next academic year. “It is good if the schools are given an option to decide on the ability of the child and also the spiral curriculum. Then it won’t burden the child or the teacher,” said D Shashikumar of Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium P5 Schools (KAMS). EXPRESS READ India within striking distance of growth: RBI Mumbai: India’s GDP is within the striking distance of attaining positive growth, the Reserve Bank said observing that the letter “V” in the V-shaped recovery stands for vaccine. 23 Indian seafarers stuck at Chinese port return Joseph granted bail to the actor. Sources said that Ragini, who has been lodged in the Bengaluru Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara for more than 130 days, will be released once her advocates get a copy of the court order and fulfil the bail conditions. It is learnt that she may be released on Friday . Police had claimed there are numerous chat messages exchanged between Ragini and the other accused drug peddlers, cautioning P5 each other to be careful. Mumbai: Twenty-three Indian seafarers on the ship, MV Jag Anand, who were stuck at a Chinese port for over seven months, have landed in India at the Cochin airport on Wednesday. Twin suicide bombings rock Baghdad, 32 dead Baghdad: Twin suicide bombings ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital Thursday, killing at least 32 people. The attack hit the Bab al-Sharqi commercial area in central Baghdad. Workers wearing protective gear walk after a fire broke out at Serum Institute’s plant at Manjri near Pune on Thursday | PTI floors of the building. It is believed sparks from the sixth floor immediately spread to the fifth and fourth floors due to presence of combustible materials. Clarifying that the fire broke out in the BCG vaccine section, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said, “According to preliminary information, the fire occurred due to an electric fault during the on-going construction works. But people should not jump to conclusions. The probe will reveal all details.” Serum chair man Cyrus Poonawalla said the company will give `25 lakh compensation to families of persons who died in the fire. MORE: P10 THE MAGICAL JOURNEY CONTINUES... Members of the Indian team reached their respective hometowns after that rousing win over the hosts in Brisbane. While the captain Ajinkya Rahane and a few of teammates reached Mumbai in the afternoon, the likes of Mohammed Siraj and T Natarajan reached Hyderabad and Salem, respectively. It was no surprise to see scores of fans garlanding them upon their arrival. All of them had been away from India for the last five months... EMOTIONAL SIRAJ VISITS DAD’S RESTING PLACE PIC: U RAKESH KUMAR BIG CROWD FOR NATTU IN CHINNAPPAMPATTI The southpaw was given a welcome befitting a king as he was taken on a chariot before he reached his home in Salem district. The 29-year-old, who debuted in all three forms in Australia, took in the adulation by waving to his fans. ‘OBTAINED CLEARANCE FROM IAF’ Officials from other reserves said that they had obtained inprincipal clearance from airforce and a formal communication was being held between the forest department head office and Air Chief Marshal. Additional temporary forest watchers are also being deployed in all forests to create fire- lines and intensify foot patrolling. The first thing Mohammed Siraj did upon landing was to pay respects to his father, who had passed away when he was in Australia. After going home, he addressed a press conference, where he dedicated his performance to his dad | P13 Forest dept readying plans for dry months B O S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru IN a bid to keep forest fires under check, the Karnataka Forest Department this time around is ensuring that green pastures are not dry and has decided to constantly keep watering vulner, able areas along the highways. The department is also in talks with the Indian Air Force to have helicopters deployed in case of any emergencies. Officials held a meeting with their counterparts at the Fire and Emergency Services Department on Thursday to chalk out the plan , for the dry months ahead. A series of tasks have been listed to be undertaken in all the tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries. Conservationists however question, “How will the funds be managed, especially at a time when the department has fewer resources to pay wages to those in the anti-poaching camps, and have also admitted that they have less funds to mitigate fires, compared to the previous P7 years?”