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 ■ ■ visakhapatnam l saturday l january 30, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Mob violence at Singhu, massing of farmers at Ghazipur; Shah trip off E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi A day after the police tried to evict farmers from Ghazipur, action on Friday shifted to the Singhu border — the nerve centre of the ongoing protests against the three farm laws — where a group of ‘locals’ clashed with agitators demanding that they vacate it. The Delhi Police and security personnel resorted to lathicharge and launched tear gas shells to control the situation as both sides resorted to stoning and the mob allegedly snatched batons from security forces to attack the protestors. The clashes began after more than 100 locals reached the site with placards and the Tricolour around 1.15 pm and shouted slogans like Jai Shri Ram, Goli Maaro Salon Ko, Desh Ke Ghaddaron ko, Khalisthan Khali Karo. They allegedly damaged tents and other paraphernalia of farmers, which led to retaliation. In the melee, Delhi Police SHO (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal was injured as a man allegedly attacked him with a sword. “These people carrying national flags came with stones and lathis and asked us (farmers) to vacate the highway After heated . exchange of words, they attacked our tents, pelted us with stones and hit us with lathis,” said Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of BKU (Lakhowal). The police arrested 43 people in connection with the day’s clashes, including farmer Ranjeet Singh (22) for attacking the SHO. A common FIR charging them with at- tempt to murder, damaging public property, attacking public servant on duty, etc., has been registered. In contrast, the UP-Delhi border at Ghazipur was peaceful, but the crowd swelled in the morning following an emotional appeal by Rakesh Tikait, national spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union. Farmers in batches, small business owners, and social and political activists visited the protest site in droves. The camps of protestors now span a distance of 6 km on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. Similarly, farmers in large numbers on their tractortrailers from Punjab and Haryana are moving back towards Singhu and Tikri borders. With the situation still evolving, Union home minister Amit Shah cancelled his proposed weekend trip to West Bengal. Earlier in the day, a mahapanchayat of farmers in Muzaffarnagar decided to throw weight behind the BKU. The GIC ground near Mahaveer Chowk, where the meeting took place, was jam packed. The mahapanchayat was called by BKU national president Naresh Tikait after the Ghazipur developments. Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh has already announced his support to the BKU and his son Jayant Chaudhary met Tikait at Ghazipur. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police sent notices through WhatsApp messenger app to nine farmer leaders to join the investigation in connection with the violence at Red Fort on January 26. we don’t need lecture on respecting national flag from these people. Majority of farmers who are sitting here have their children fighting in the border for the country Yudhvir Singh, farmer leader Demand to withdraw FIRs against journos Police personnel pin down a farmer (top), who allegedly attacked police Station House Officer (Alipur) Pradeep Paliwal, during clashes between locals and farmers at the Singhu Border in Delhi on Friday; and a man hurls a stone at protesters at Singhu as policemen look on | PTI president defends new farm laws New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday defended the contentious farm laws in his address to Parliament and described the recent Republic Day violence as unfortunate. With the laws put in abeyance on the Supreme Court’s orders, Kovind said the government will abide by the verdict of the highest court of the nation. While he addressed a range of issues, including the tension on the China border, the biggest focus of his speech was on the agriculture sector | P7 With the Noida Police and the Madhya Pradesh Police filing FIRs against Congress MP Sashi Tharoor and senior journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath, Anant Nath and Vinod Jose for misleading tweets/retweets over the Republic Day violence, media bodies, including the Editor’s Guild, demanded their withdrawal, saying it was an attempt to browbeat and intimidate the media. The FIRs were booked under 10 different provisions, including the sedition law SEC seeks transfer of IAS Survey sees V-rebound, growth @ 11% officer Praveen Prakash Focus on R&D, J aya n ta R o y C h o w d h u r y Kanna Babu posted as Secretary of SEC K Kanna Babu, a 2006 batch IAS officer, has been appointed Secretary of the SEC. The State government issued an order to this effect on Friday. He is one among the three IAS officers suggested by the government to the SEC for the secretary post 1,315 file nominations for sarpanch posts As many as 1,315 nominations were filed for sarpanch posts in the State on Friday. The highest number of 248 papers were filed in East Godavari district. For the posts of ward members, 2,200 papers were filed on the first day of nominations for phase I polls No need of Central staff for panchayat polls: SEC SEC N Ramesh Kumar on Friday said that there is no need for deployment of Central staff for panchayat elections. “I have complete trust in the State government staff. I am confident that they are enough to hold polls smoothly,” the SEC said E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Close on the heels of issuing censure proceedings against Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and PR Commissioner M Girija Shankar, State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar yet again wrote a letter to Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das on Friday, asking him to transfer another senior IAS officer Praveen Prakash, currently working as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister. In the letter to the CS, he invoked his plenary power under Article 246 (read with Article 324) of the Constitution to transfer Praveen Prakash with a view to ensure free and fair panchayat elections. Praveen Prakash is banned during the course of election to have interaction with district collectors and superintendents of police and any officer directly or indirectly dealing with election related matters, he said. The SEC held Praveen Prakash responsible for the failure of the State administration to receive nominations from contestants for the first phase of panchayat elections on January 25 as he seemed to have instructed Collectors and SPs not to participate in the SEC meetings as the Principal Secretary of the General Administration (Polls) Department. Refuting the charges levelled against him by the SEC, Praveen Prakash wrote a letter to the CS, The SEC also shot off a letter to Govern o r B i sw a b h u s a n Harichandan complaining that MP V Vijayasai Reddy has violated the Model Code of Conduct, and sought action against Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Ministers Botcha Satyanarayana and Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy for their alleged adverse comments against him. He stated that Sajjala cannot hold party brief and indulge in political activity to attack a constitutional authority  P4 . Nimmagadda acting like feudal lord with his dictatorial attitude: Sajjala E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada In a strong rebuttal to State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar’s complaint against him to the Governor seeking his dismissal as the Advisor to Gover nment, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy has accused the SEC of acting more like a feudal lord rather than a responsible official. The SEC’s ‘dictatorial attitude’ towards officials is highly objectionable and not acceptable, he said. Speaking to mediapersons here on Friday Sajjala said he , was the general secretary and political secretary of the YSRC president before being made Advisor to Government and the SEC has no power to question him. He slammed the SEC for ignoring TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu releasing the party manifesto for panchayat elections, which are held on non-political basis. He alleged that Naidu was resorting to such cheap tricks for his political survival. Terming Ramesh Kumar like an agent of Naidu rather than a responsible official entrusted with the task of con- ducting elections to local bodies in a free and fair manner, Sajjala said the SEC was crossing his limits by acting impatiently and taking hasty decisions. “The SEC is enforcing his own agenda with a vindictive attitude,” he said. Recalling the way the former Chief Minister Naidu had treated Gopal Krishna Dwivedi when the latter was the Chief Electoral Officer in 2019, Sajjala said at one point of time Naidu went straight to the CEO office and terrorised him. “The CEO could have lodged an attempt to murder case against Naidu, but he acted with restraint. Such restraint was not seen in Ramesh P4 Kumar,” Sajjala said.  @ New Delhi India is likely to grow by 11% in the next financial year (FY22), the annual Economic Survey tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha on Friday said, predicting a V-shaped recovery from the sharp 7.7% economic contraction in this pandemichit year. “With the economy’s returning to normalcy brought closer by the initiation of a mega vaccination drive, hopes of a robust recovery in services sector, consumption, and investment have been rekindled,” said the Survey. However, it cautioned it would take at least two years to get back to the prepandemic levels. The Survey, an annual exercise in economic stocktaking Dr C Lakshmi Narasa Reddy being felicitated in Nellore on Friday | Express Women empowerment Rising from down under IT boom continues GDP to replicate V-shaped performance Norms relaxation enable IT-BPM of Indian cricket team in Australia to companies to ‘Work from Home’ scale historic heights after a poor start to post growth Bollywood’s Bare Necessity link Tinsel town’s rhetoric on ‘Roti, Kapda Aur Makan’ (Food, clothing and housing) mirrors socio-economic issues of country Saved 1 lakh lives Strong lockdown measures helped restrict cases by 37 lakh, save 1 lakh lives More teeth to redress system Current ombudsman set up is only advisory in nature, rendering it ineffective Power point India’s Transmission & Distribution losses are over 20 Per cent of generation, twice the world average Promote non-discriminatory practices like pay and career progression to increase female participation rate Agriculture as modern biz Bats for urgent reforms to transform farming into modern business enterprise Upskilling children Vocational courses for skill development of students from classes 9 to 12 Online education a great leveler Online schooling can reduce inequalities in educational outcomes if well-utilised Jugaad can take you only so far B i s m a h M a l i k @ Bengaluru The Indian industry’s growth under trying circumstances has often been attributed to the spirit of jugaad (makeshift solutions). The Economic Survey for the first time war ned against its limitations, saying mere-reliance on Jugaad innovation by the private sector instead of adequate spending on Research and Development (R&D) could result in India missing crucial opportunities. On the brighter side, India improved its ranking on the Global Innovation Index (GII), and is now at the 48th position. When it came to competing with the top 10 global economies, India lags behind on the basis of the seven pillars of GII, including knowledge and technology outputs (KTO-27th rank), market sophistication (31st), business sophistication (55th), human capital and research (HCR-60th), institutions (61st), creative output (64th) and infrastructure (75th). “India must significantly ramp up investment in R&D if it is to achieve its aspiration to emerge as the third largest economy the Survey said. ,” AP stands third in restriction of Covid-19 deaths E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Andhra Pradesh has ‘saved the most lives’ by restricting the number of Covid-19 deaths after Kerala and Telangana in the country, according to the Economic Survey 2021 tabled in Parliament on Friday. The survey stated that imposing ‘the most stringent lockdown’ at the very onset of the pandemic enabled flattening of the Covid curve and thereby provided time to ramp up the health and testing infrastructure in the State. Nonagenarian Kavali doctor takes Covid jab A nonagenarian from Kavali has become the first senior citizen in AP to receive Covid-19 vaccine. Dr C Lakshmi Narasa Reddy (94) was administered Covid vaccine at Kavali Area Hospital on Friday . Dr Narasa Reddy voluntarily came forward to take Covid vaccine, said Dr Rohith, Nodal Officer of Kavali Area Hospital. “I felt honoured to be the first senior citizen to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in the State,” said Dr Narasa Reddy. and future policy prescriptions, drew lessons from the pandemic to strongly recommend raising healthcare spending from 1% to 2.5-3% of GDP . It indicated that the government would overshoot its fiscal deficit target by a wide mark and may look at increased spending and stimulus measures in the year ahead to push growth. Former member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council and Chief Economist with Brickwork ratings Dr M Govin- The key takeaways vaccination E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Nellore Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian da Rao said: “Relaxation in fiscal deficit targets may be necessary, and the government may have to revise the target upwards for the current year in view of the need to augment capital expenditures.” While analysts at Barclays say the fiscal deficit has widened to 7.7% of GDP, Darren Aw, Asia Economist at Capital Economics, calculated it at 8%. This is against a target of 3.5% set in this year’s Budget. Chief Economic Advisor Dr K Subramanian said: “Reforms must go on to enable India to realise its potential growth and erase the adverse impact of the pandemic.” Analysts predict a spate of state-run enterprise privatisations and asset sales in the budget to help fund infrastructure spending the government is likely to have planned. P10 He appealed to the public not to believe any rumours on vaccine and get immunised. Dr Narasa Reddy is probably the oldest person in the country to get vaccinated. The 94-year-old man is hale and healthy. It has only reposed complete faith in the Indian vaccination drive, said Collector KVN Chakradhar Babu. On Friday 758 people got vac, cinated in 27 sessions in Nellore district. No Adverse Events Following Immunisation were reported in the district, said DM&HO Rajyalakshmi. “By estimating the natural number of cases and deaths expected across countries based on their population, population density, demographics, tests conducted, and the health infrastructure, we compare these estimates with actual numbers to show that India restricted the Covid-19 spread by 37 lakh cases and saved more than 1 lakh lives. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar have restricted the case spread the best; Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have saved the most lives; Maharashtra has underperformed the most in restricting the spread of cases and in saving lives,” the survey’s first chapter titled ‘Saving Lives and Livelihoods Amidst a Once-in- ‘AP better off in distribution of health workforce’ The Economic Survey noted that Andhra Pradesh is better off than other States in distribution of health workforce, especially doctors, nurses and midwives. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Tamil Nadu reflect a better balance of doctors, nurses and midwives per 10,000 population a-Century Crisis’ noted. While the State figured lower in the actual cases vis-a-vis naturally expected, the survey noted Kerala, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have “managed it effectively” in terms of deaths based on the difference between estimated and actual deaths (in units of hundreds), which was lower in the three States. As of Friday, AP reported 7,152 deaths, 8.87 lakh cases with just 1,308 active. The first case in the State was reported on March 12, 2020 and the first P4 death on April 3, 2020.  high alert after Low-intensity explosion outside israeli embassy E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi A low intensity blast occurred on the high-security posh Abdul Kalam Road near Israel Embassy on Friday evening at a time when the annual Beating Retreat ceremony was underway at Vijay Chowk near R a s h t r a p a t i B h av a n , sending security officials in a tizzy . President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the three Serv- Delhi Police cordon off the area outside the Israeli Embassy where a bomb exploded on Friday, damaging three cars | Parveen Negi ice Chiefs were attending the ceremony just a few km away from the location of the blast. While no injury or casualty was reported, three cars parked nearby on the opposite side of the carriageway suffered minor damages. Friday also happened to mark the 29th anniversary of India and Israel establishing full diplomatic relations back in 1992. While the of ficials in the security establishment said the blast was being investigated as an attempted ‘security attack’, Delhi Police called it a ‘mischievous’ attempt to create a sensaP8 tion.