HUBBALLI  SUNDAY  JANUARY 31, 2021  `8.00  PAGES 24  CITY EDITION COVID IMPACT: NO RANJI FOR FIRST TIME IN 87 YEARS BCCI not to conduct board’s flagship domestic product for the first time since inception. Two-month bio-bubble ‘not feasible’ LIST A, U-19 AND WOMEN’S EVENTS ON LACK OF CLARITY OVER COMPENSATION The board’s secretary, Jay Shah, in a letter to state units, revealed that they would conduct the senior women’s 50-overs meet simultaneously with the men’s 50-overs meet. The BCCI will end the season with the U-19 event. “This has been decided after having received your feedback on the domestic season 2020-21,” Shah wrote in the letter. ■ This is bad news for scores of match officials, including umpires and scorers. Most of them will end up working for fewer days. Not yet known if BCCI will up with a compensation package for them ■ It is expected that the players who will miss out from Ranji revenue will be compensated. This decision was taken at the AGM Shah power BCCI SECRETARY ELECTED AS CHIEF OF THE ASIAN CRICKET COUNCIL 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 STATE GOVT PLANS BIGGEST TOWNSHIP WITH 30,000 SITES A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru THINK big and do it big. That seems to be the Karnataka government’s mantra. Never mind the numerous issues plaguing already developed residential layouts. It has now proposed the biggest township project in the state, with around 30,000 sites, which is expected to be ready in two years’ time. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to lay the foundation stone for the project, proposed on nearly 2,000 acres at Jigani, around 30 km from Bengaluru, in March at a virtual event. While the two-year target to complete the project looks too ambitious, Housing Minister V Somanna sounded confident when he said that the land acquisition process has almost been completed. The Housing Department is all set to call for tenders next month for developing roads, underground drainage, water connections, streetlights and other amenities. Around 100 acres will be reserved for schools, parks, markets, places of worship and other amenities. Sites of 20x30 ft, 30x40 ft and 40x60 sqft dimen- STATE TO GET 2 LITHIUM BATTERY PLANTS Bengaluru: Two lithium battery manufacturing plants will be set up in Karnataka as part of the state’s bid to promote the use of e-vehicles and reduce air pollution. Disclosing this, Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said one of the plants will come up in Hubballi region and the P4 other near Chikkaballapura. K’taka tops in IJR ’20 police, diversity rankings B A L A C H A U H A N @ Bengaluru KARNATAKA has topped the ‘Police’ and ‘Diversity’ rankings in the second edition of the India Justice Report (IJR) 2020 for having highest SC, ST and OBC diversity for officers, increased number of women in the police force and decreasing vacancies in officers and constables posts. In the ‘Diversity’ segment, the study recognises Karnataka as the “only state to meet its officer diversity quotas (SC, ST and OBC) among large and mid-sized states.” PUSHED INTO WELL BY FRIEND, MAN DIES EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru A prank in a state of intoxic at i o n we n t h o r r i bly wrong, resulting in a man losing his life, even as six others in the group were video-recording the entire episode, at Tavarakere on the outskirts of the city on Saturday . Lakshmikanth (27), a resident of Hebbur, who was employed in an electronic goods showroom in Machohalli, was pushed into a well on a farm land by his friend while six others were shooting a video. Lakshmikanth drowned and died as he did not know how to swim. Police have since taken five of them into custody while two are at large. A senior police officer said that a group of eight friends had gone on an outing on Friday evening and all were under the influence of alcohol. Early on Saturday they came to Thagach, aguppe village where they decided to take a bath in a nearby well. Lakshmikanth’s friend Balaram pushed him into the well while the six others were recording a video of the incident for a few minutes. When they noticed that Lakshmikanth was drowning, they tried to rescue him, but in vain. They then ran away from the spot and Balaram sought the help of some villagers to lift the P3 body from the well. Chhattisgarh (among small states) is the other state to meet these quotas for constables, the report states. Karnataka has however, slipped a few notches on justice delivery from its earlier seventh rank in 2019 to 16th in the recent report with fewer women panel lawyers, few front offices in legal service institutions (LSIs) and fewer cases disposed of by Lok Adalats. Karnataka has also lost its ranking in prison administration for poor budget utilisation, more staff and cadre vacancy and increased P5 workload. sions will come up at the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) Township. According to minister Somanna, this project was initiated in 2012 and notification was issued for 1,940 acres. But, in the last nine years, previous governments did not evince interest in taking the project forward. There were some legal hurdles too, which have been resolved, except a few cases where a few farmers have approached courts, he said. “Without touching their land till the issues are resolved, we will start process. We will give a few sites to the land losers once the township is developed,’’ he said. Of the 1,940 acres, the Detailed Project Report is ready for deP3 veloping 840 acres. Offer on farm laws stands: PM Opposition parties for probe into outside elements infiltrating farmers’ agitation EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays tribute to Gandhiji at Rajghat | PTI BAPU ANNIVERSARY AND TIKAIT TONIC Singhu border turns fortress with several layers of barricades and increased presence of security personnel after Friday violence Agitation gains further momentum as BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait’s emotional appeal draws more farmers Delhi Police scanning over 1,700 video clips and CCTV footage sourced from the public on the tractor rally violence to identify culprits WITH THIS ISSUE BEST FOOT FORWARD Sasikala may extend Bengaluru stay E N S @ Bengaluru PLUS 12 PAGES EXPRESS READ Probe looking at Iran role in blast VENTURE OUT FOR ADVENTURE P2 New Delhi: Police and intelligence agencies are probing the Al Qaeda and Iran angles for the low intensity blast that took place outside the Israel embassy here on Friday, following specific leads P7 in the case. WITH the Opposition parties gearing up to corner the government on the controversial farm laws in the ongoing Parliament session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the door to accept the Centre’s proposal to stay the laws for 18 months is still open. Speaking at an all-party meeting, the PM said the government’s stand was the same as it was on January 22, when the proposal to keep the laws in abeyance was made during the talks with the protesting farmers’ unions. “During the all-party meeting PM Narendra Modi assured that the government was approaching the farmers’ issue with an open mind. The PM said the agriculture minister’s proposal still stands,” parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi said. Modi stressed that the gover nment had an open mind and was ready for a detailed discussion on the issue, adding the far mers could always approach the government as agriculture minister Narendra Tomar P8 was just a phone call. V K Sasikala EXPELLED AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, who is undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at the Victoria Hospital here since January 21, will be discharged on Sunday . According to sources, Sasikala is likely to stay in the City for a couple of days before returning to Chennai. The police have made adequate arrangements for Sasikala’s ‘reception’ by her family and fans, who have decided to gather in large numbers outside P3 Victoria Hospital. SC Collegium nixes nod to make judge permanent EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi IN a rare move, the Supreme Court Collegium is understood have withdrawn its consent to make Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala of the Bombay High Court a permanent judge following her controversial verdicts in POCSO cases. On January 20, a threejudge collegium headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde had recommended to the law ministry to appoint Justice Ganediwala, currently an additional judge of the Bombay HC, a permanent judge. According to sources, a note was sent to the Ministry withdrawing the Collegium recommendation.. Justice Ganediwala recently acquitted a man accused of groping a 12-yearold girl’s breast because he did not make skin-to-skin contact. Days earlier, the judge ruled that holding the hands of a five-year-old girl and unzipping the trousers do not amount to sexual assault under the POCSO Act.