From Left: Lady Gaga sings national anthem; singer-actor Jennifer Lopez delivers a power-packed performance; and Katy Perry sings ‘Fireworks’ during Biden’s inauguration ceremony | AP HYDERABAD  FRIDAY  JANUARY 22, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 28  LATE CITY EDITION Biden signs 17 orders 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 In 2019, Trump had notified the UN that the US would withdraw from the coalition of nearly 200 countries 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 | P9 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 50,000 SENSEX ON A HIGH World stocks racked up record highs on Thursday on the back of expectations of a major US stimulus. 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 | P10 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 5 die in Serum Institute plant blaze, no impact on Covishield production S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai FIVE persons 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 contractual workers doing electrical works in the building. The deceased were Pune residents Mahendra Ingle and Pratik Pashte, Rama Shankar Harijan and Bipin Saroj from UP, and Bihar native Sushil Kumar Pandey . 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 from welding works on the sixth floor. However, officials said the cause is yet to be ascertained. “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 pro- 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... 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. EMOTIONAL SIRAJ VISITS DAD’S RESTING PLACE 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 | P11 Eight women, auto driver killed in Nalgonda mishap E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Nalgonda EIGHT women and the driver of the auto-rickshaw they were travelling in were killed on Thursday evening when an SUV hit their vehicle while overtaking a container truck at Angadipet in Pedda Adeselapalli mandal here. According to police, the auto driver was taking the women — all farm labourers — back to their village, Chintalabavi, after their day’s work when the mishap occurred. All in all, there were 20 passengers in the auto, including the driver. Three of the deceased are from one family: The auto driver, Kottam Mallesh (40), his mother Kottam Peddamma (60) CONTINUED ON P2 and his wife Kottam Chandramma (35). The mangled remains of the autorickshaw after an SUV hit it while overtaking a container truck, at Angadipet in Pedda Adeselapalli mandal in Nalgonda on Thursday duction will not be hit due to the fire incident. According to eyewitnesses, there were over 200 workers in the building. After the fire broke out, they tried to rush out. But the fire and smoke spread so fast that their path was blocked, forcing many to jump out of the windows. Clarifying that the fire broke out in the BCG vaccine section, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said, “The fire occurred due to an electric fault during the on-going construction works. Probe will reveal all details.” Serum has announced `25 lakh compensation to families of persons who P8 died in the fire. Small farmer unions in favour of Centre’s proposal, big ones against it E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi/Chandigarh Workers wearing protective gear walk after a fire broke out at Serum Institute’s plant at Manjri near Pune on Thursday | PTI TS allots 10% quota for EWS; reservations jump to 60% V V B A L A K R I S H N A @ Hyderabad FIVE days after the BJP State executive committee adopted a resolution demanding the Telangana government to implement 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday decided to do so. This takes the total reservations in the State to 60 per cent. Rao is expected to conduct a high-level review meeting on the subject in the next twothree days and give directions to officials on implementing the reservation. “There is a need to provide 10 per cent reservation for EWS. The reservation will be implemented while continuing with the existing quota. We have been implementing 50 per cent reservation for BCs. The total reservations will reach 60 per cent, once the 10 per cent EWS quota is implemented,” he said here. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State executive, at a meeting on January 17, had found fault with the State government for not implementing reservation for EWS. “This clearly TEMPLE POLITICS TRS, BJP WORKERS CLASH OVER RAM MANDIR shows the anti-Hindu nature of the Chief Minister. Rao shows affection towards Muslims and neglects the economically backward sections among the Hindus,” the BJP State executive had said. In January, 2019, the Union Cabinet had approved 10 per cent reservation for EWS and laid down the eligibility criteria -- the family’s annual income should be less than`8 and admission to State government educational institutions, as per provisions of the newly inserted Articles 15 (6) and 16 (6) of the Constitution, is to be decided by the States. The Centre’s decision was referred to the Constitution Bench and the case is pending. According to the Samagra Kutumba Survey nine per cent , of Telangana’s population is from EWS. If `8 lakh annual The reservation for EWS will be implemented while continuing with the existing quota K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister lakh, their agricultural land should be less than five hectares, if they own a house, it should be less than 1,000 sft area and the residential plot less than 209 yards in a nonnotified municipal area. However, in its affidavit filed in January this year, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that providing reservation for EWS in State government jobs income is the criteria, the beneficiaries would increase further. National Backward Classe s We l f a r e A s s o c i a t i o n president R Krishnaiah said if the EWS reservation is implemented as per the population, the same should be done with BC, SC and ST reservations. He said the population of BCs is 52 per cent in the State. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE of Telangana do not need Uttar Pradesh’s Ramudu as they have enough of Ram temples in their own State. Not stopping at that, he described the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers as beggars, who are out to collet donations from people. This proved to be the inflection point for the brawl at Metpalli, bang in the @ Jagtial/Hyderabad TRS and BJP workers came to blows at Metpalli on Thursday after Korutla legislator K Vidyasagar Rao made a fervent appeal to Hindus not to donate for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. According to him, the people CONTINUED ON P4 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 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 the movement so far. middle of the Jagtial-Nizamabad road. Both the groups came to blows and broke police barricades by lifting and throwing these at each other. Name-calling on top of their voices, both the groups kept charging at the other menacingly Police personnel tried to . disperse them but when their attempts yielded no results, 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 Thousands of tractors for the rally from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan already parked on Delhi’s borders The SKM pays homage to the 143 farmers who have been martyred in this movement so far. .. Their sacrifice will not go in vain and we will not go back without the repealing of these farm laws Samkyukt Kisan Morcha’s statement they resorted to lathicharge. The BJP took serious exception to Vidyasagar Rao calling them beggars. Faulting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for remaining silent over the incident, BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar called for protests on Friday at all district and mandal headquarters in CONTINUED ON P4 the State. IN THE NAME OF COVID Now private schools in Hyd to charge kids for sanitation! M AYA N K T I W A R I @ Hyderabad NOW, sanitation is also something that students of private schools have to pay for once classes resume on February 1. School managements have expressed inability to foot the bill for providing sanitisers and keeping their premises spick and span during the Covid-19 pandemic. They have begun sending messages to parents asking them to pay for sanitation, besides a host of other “services” which were not delivered as schools remained shut, over and above the tuition fee. At a recent meeting called by Telangana Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy the rep, resentatives of private schools sought permission from the State government to collect money from students for providing sanitsers and other agents that are used to keep the premises clean. They reportedly informed the Minister that instructions to use sanitisers liberally in schools is easier said than done as they would have to invest heavily on it and are not in a position to bear the additional burden. Though the government had not permitted them to hike the fee, they are already passing the burden on to students. According to a senior official of the Education Department, no permission had been given to schools to hike the fee. The managements said as schools remained shut for the last 10 months, a thick layer of dust had settled and, in some cases, there is a thin coat of grime on the furniture. To clean the premises and then follow the standard operating protocol would cost big bucks. “Many students have not paid their fees. Providing hand sanitisers and maintaining social distancing is not easy for small schools in Hyderabad,” the managements have said. It is also learned from the Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association (HSPA) that a few parents had received SMS messages for fee alerts with an additional charge for sanitation. “We knew this would happen. Schools will charge us an additional fee in some way or the other. Besides, the GO 46 is of no use as schools are now collecting the entire fee as tuition fee and are not giving parents a breakup of it,” Venkat Sainath, HSPA joint secretary, CONTINUED ON P3 said.