HYDERABAD  TUESDAY  FEBRUARY 16, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 18  LATE CITY EDITION WHOLESALE PRICE INDEX FOR JAN TOUCHES 2.03% An uptick in demand for manufactured items after resumption in economic activities in September last pushing prices up, say data MANUFACTURED ITEMS INFLATION AT 5.13% Inflation in manufactured items, accounting for 65% weight in WPI, stood at 5.13% compared to 4.24% in Dec. This grouping comprises 22 bands, of which 18 like furniture, motor vehicles, machinery saw prices rising. Data show prices of food items dropped in Jan at (-) 2.8% while prices of nonfood articles rose by 4.16%. Together, they account for 20% weight in WPI ■ 4.06% ANALYSTS EXPECT BIG WPI JUMP IN FY21 ■ Fuel and power index (15% weight) contracted 4.78% in January Analysts say a deeper disinflation in primary food articles helped cushion the impact of the sharp rise in core inflation, but warned headline WPI inflation will record large upticks over the course of the next few months and hover around 5-5.5 per cent in FY2021 JAN’s RETAIL INFLATION BASED ON THE CPI. A DROP OF 0.53% OVER DECEMBER 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 TOOLKIT HEAT ON TWO MORE ACTIVISTS BCCI Police claim Nikita & Disha edited the document created by Shantanu; were in contact with Khalistani outfit G AYAT H R I M A N I A N D S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ New Delhi/Mumbai EVEN as the arrest of Bengaluru student-activist Disha Ravi in connection with Greta Thunberg toolkit case has sparked an outrage, Delhi Police are searching for two other persons, Mumbai-based lawyer Nikita Jacob and environment activist Shantanu Muluk, against whom non-bailable warrants have been obtained. ALL-ROUND APPLAUSE FOR ASHWIN BAD START On a pitch that came under criticism after England were bowled out for 134 in the first innings, India wanted to make a statement by batting long enough on Day 3. However, they ended up losing five wickets inside the first session in the Bombay High Court, Jacob expressed apprehension that she may be arrested “due to political vendetta and a media trial” and sought transit anticipatory bail for four weeks. She also sought interim protection from any coercive steps by the police. Muluk filed a plea seeking similar relief in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court. According to Delhi’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber TRS leaders line up avalanche of birthday eulogies for KCR KOHLI-TY KNOCK With Jack Leach and Moeen Ali finding enough purchase off the pitch, batting was by no means easy. Batsmen found it hard to negotiate the turn and bounce. But Virat Kohli displayed quality by playing late and stretching forward in order to defend EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE leader in a grand manner,” Srinivas Yadav said. @ Hyderabad THE Telangana Rasthra Samiti (TRS) is going ga ga over Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s 67th birthday which falls on February 17. It has lined up a number of programmes to honour and praise the man who the pink party supporters call Telangana Jaati Pitha. As Rao has declared that he would continue as the Chief Minister for 10 more years, the party leaders are coming up with a medley of programmes ranging from mundane to spiritual with events on environment thrown in. Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav even prepared a 40-minute documentary on Rao, which highlights the important events in the life of Telangana “warrior” and son of Raghava Rao and Venkatamma couple, who was born in Chintamadaka. The documentary is packed with Rao’s powerful dialogues dur- ASHWIN’S DAY OUT The moment he walked in to bat, Ashwin meant business. He swept the spinners, used his feet against them and scored briskly. After scoring fifty, he quietly went about building the innings in the company of the tail. He scored 106 off 148 balls S TA R I N G AT T H E I N E V I TA B L E England need a miracle in the remaining two days to get something out of the contest. Chasing 482 for victory, the visitors were reeling at 53/3 in the second innings, needing 429 more runs for an improbable win | P13 SC gives Kappan 5-day interim bail THE Supreme Court on Monday laid down a set of conditions while granting a 5-day interim bail to journalist Siddique Kappan to meet his ailing mother (90). A bench headed by the CJI ordered him not to give any interview to any media platform. He was told only to meet his The two moved Bombay High Court for transit anticipatory bail on Monday, a day after a Delhi court remanded Disha in five-day police custody. Jacob and Muluk, who is based in Delhi but hails from Maharashtra, have been identified by the Delhi Police as creators of the ‘toolkit’ document, along with Disha. According to the police, both Jacob and Muluk are absconding. However, in her plea filed relatives and doctors. The conditions were set after the solicitor general argued he might use the bail period to garner support. Kappan was arrested in October last while going to Hathras to report on the alleged gang-rape and death of a Dalit woman. ENS Gold saree for Yellamma ing the separate Telangana movement. The documentary, which will be screened at Jala Vihar in the city where the main birthday celebrations will be organised, eulogises Rao for creating history. Five LCD screens will be put up at Jala Vihar. Besides the documentary, five special songs on KCR will also be screened. “Chandrasekhar Rao secured separate Telangana State. He constructed massive irrigation projects and took up several welfare schemes, which are first of its kind in the country . That is why we wanted to celebrate the birthday of our great TRS MP Joginapally Santosh Kumar, as part of his Green Challenge programme, planned plantation of one crore saplings in just an hour’s time across the State on February 17. Many leading film stars, including Sanjay Dutt, Mahesh Babu and Chiranjeevi, have already expressed their support to the plantation drive, which is coined Koti Vrikshaarchana. Besides, several religious programmes including Mrutyunjaya, Navagraha and Anjaneya homams as well as Koti Kumkumarchana will be performed for the well-being of Rao and also for the welfare of the State. Chief Minister’s daughter and MLC K Kavitha will offer a gold saree to the presiding deity at Balkampet Yellamma Temple. The TRS activists will also distribute sarees to women, donate food to the CONTINUED ON P4 needy . 3 KILLED AS CAR PLUNGES INTO SRSP CANAL AT MEDIPALLI MANDAL IN JAGTIAL DISTRICT PAGE 2 EXPRESS READ Telangana reports less than 100 Covid-19 cases AVIAN DECOR Framed-bird installations set up as part of main carriageway beautification at Shamshabad interchange in Hyderabad | VINAY MADAPU Hyderabad: For the first time in nearly 10 months, Telangana recorded less than 100 cases of Covid-19 with only 99 cases reported on Sunday. Meanwhile, on the same day cases of death due to Covid-19 were two, taking the toll to 1,618. The number of recovering, on the other hand, doubled with 169 individuals becoming free of Covid-19. This has taken active cases to just 1,676 at present, with a cumulative caseload of 2,96,673 cases. ON A HIGH Bar bar dekho! 7.5K applicants compete for 159 licences M AYA N K T I W A R I @ Hyderabad HIC hic hurray! There will be 74 more bars in Hyderabad in addition to the existing 2,000. The devotees of Bacchus need not look far to find a bar to drown their sorrow or celebrate their happy moments. The Prohibition and Excise Department has received over 7,500 applications for grant of licences for 159 new bars in the State till Monday Those licences would go . to the applicants whose names will be picked through a draw of lots to be held after Tuesday, the last date for submission of applications. With the addition of new bars, their total number in Telangana will be go up to 5,790. According to the Excise Department officials, 74 of 159 bars will be established in Hyderabad. Until last week the Excise Department has registered over 7,300 applications wherein each applicant had to pay `1 lakh non-refundable fee. An official from the department told Express that 1,038 applicants were from Hyderabad. Based on 2011 census, the Excise Department has fixed excise tax for four slabs. Municipalities, Urban Local Bodies within the 50,000 population area will have to pay `30 lakh, those between 50,000 and five lakh population will pay a fee of `42 lakh. While Municipal Corporations, peripheral areas of the city with, a population of five to 20 lakh will have to pay `44 lakh in the fee. The highest fee of `49 lakh is for suburbs with more than 20 lakh population. In 2019, when the Excise Department invited applications for the 2,216 wine shops, it received 45,000 applications with each applicant paying `2 lakh non-refundable fee. Just through application fee, the State earned a revenue of over `900 crore. Until Monday, we have received a little over 7,500 applications. The number is up by 200 after the department decided to extend the dates from February 8 to 16 – Sarfaraz Ahmed, Director of Prohibition and Excise Department Cell) Prem Nath, initial investigation revealed that Muluk’s e-mail account was the owner of the toolkit that was uploaded and later deleted by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, while the others were its editors. All three — Disha, Muluk and Jacob — have been booked for sedition, creating disharmony and ill-will against the Government of India. Briefing the media, the JCP said a Can- ada-based woman named Puneet connects all the accused with “pro-Khalistan” Poetic Justice Foundation’ (PJF). The police said that on January 11, Jacob and Muluk attended a Zoom meeting organised by PJF in which the modalities of the protests were worked out. The toolkit was created based on that discussion. Disha later shared the toolkit with Greta Thunberg over Telegram mesP8,9 senger. FOOT-IN-MOUTH SYNDROME MAYOR PRAYS IT DOES NOT RAIN FOR 5 YEARS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad HYDERABAD’S new Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi appears to have been caught in the eye of yet another storm with her statement that she would pray to God that there should not be rains in Hyderabad for the next five years. The Mayor, who has an uncanny sense of kicking up one controversy or the other, said to a TV reporter on Monday: “I pray to God that there should not be any rains for five years from now.” She made the comment when she was asked what kind of an assurance she would give to people who had been affected by a deluge in the recent past on account of nonstop heavy rains that lashed the city for Viral video days. The video in which she made the com- The Mayor made ment has gone viral on social media plat- the comment forms as it conveyed the impression that when she was asked what kind she does not want rains at all. Barely a day after she was sworn in as the of an assurance Mayor, Vijayalakshmi found herself in the she would give to news for wrong reasons. Shaikpet Tahsil- people to prevent flooding in the dar N Srinivasa Reddy with whom she had city. The video has , a verbal spat in January, found himself now become viral transferred and the grapevine had it that it on social media was her way of avenging his defiance to her diktat as corporator to attend to some work she had sought his help for. She was angry with the Tahsildar when he lodged a complaint with the police that she had hindered him from doing his official work. She also lodged a complaint with the police against him that Srinivasa Reddy had acted in a rude manner.