KOttayam l wednesday l february 17, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION formality complete Needing seven wickets to win, India posted a massive 317-run win against England in the second Test on Day Four home truth patel rap local touch over to motera Virat Kohli is already India’s most successful Test captain ever and the win in Chennai was his 21st at home. As of now, this is a joint-home record with former skipper MS Dhoni Left-arm spinner Axar Patel had a memorable debut. He picked up five wickets, including that of Joe Root, in the second innings. He is the ninth Indian to take five wickets on debut R Ashwin, who was declared the Man of the Match, dedicated the victory to his home crowd (Chennai). “I’m speechless. I’ve played four Tests here and this is the most special,” he said Both the teams will be travelling to Ahmedabad next for the third day and night Test. After levelling the series, India would be looking to consolidate the lead in the pink ball match 38 India team celebrates after winning the second Test in Chennai on Tuesday. The four-Test series is 1-1 level | BCCI | P13 runs scored by england’s last pair, the highest in match for visitors 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 Data loaded, CM trains gun on Chandy Says his predecessor misleading job aspirants and people over the appointment row, adds it won’t yield results EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Political developments @ T’Puram Armed with a pile of data, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday sought to turn the tables on the Opposition over the issue of appointments to government service ahead of the assembly elections. Launching a scathing attack, Pinarayi said the Opposition and former chief minister Oommen Chandy have been misleading job aspirants and people over the appointment row. The CM’s tirade comes a day after job aspirants protesting in front of the Secretariat fell on Chandy’s feet and wept when he called on them on Monday . “If anyone must fall on the feet of candidates, it’s the same person who called on them and created such scenes,” Pinarayi said. Ignoring facts, the UDF has been unleashing a campaign against the government and whipping up issues with an eye on elections, the CM said. “But that won’t yield results,” he said. His comments assume significance in the backdrop of Chandy taking over the mantle of the UDF campaign and raising issues like Sabarimala and appointments to pin down the state government. While listing out the comparative statistics of Public Service Commission appointments during the current LDF and the previous UDF governments, Pinarayi hinted the UDF had written to the PSC chairman seeking to reduce the threeyear duration of the ranklist for the uniformed forces to one year in 2014. “A circular stopping appointments in the last grade category was issued when the Congress was in power at the Centre and now they shed tears K’taka insists on RT-PCR -ve certificate for Keralites E xpress N ews S ervice @ Bengaluru WITH Covid-19 cases going up, the Karnataka government has made it mandatory for all those travelling from Kerala to the neighbouring state produce negative RTPCR certificates that are not older than 72 hours. Visitors and relatives will not be allowed at hostels and colleges without the permission of Covid nodal officers. Hostels and colleges have been asked to maintain a list of students travelling to and from Kerala. Each time they return from Kerala, they have to produce negative RTPCR test report, an order states. Students and teachers from Kerala, who are staying in colleges and hostels, will be subjected to RT-PCR tests once every 15 days. They have also been told to avoid unnecessary travel to their home state. Anyone not complying with the norms will be immediately reported to nodal authorities and made to strictly stay in designated “quarantine rooms” in the facility till the RT-PCR test report turns negative. All colleges and residential facilities have been advised to ramp up testing and surveillance activities. Employees working with multinational companies, hotels and homestays should get the RT-PCR test done at their own cost. Exciting contest on cards in Pala Kochi: An exciting electoral battle is on the cards in Pala as sitting MLA Mani C Kappan will take on Kerala Congress (M) Chairman Jose K Mani, who is trying his luck for the first time in the assembly polls as an LDF candidate. P4 Kappan betrayed Left front: Pinarayi T’Puram: Terming former NCP leader Mani C Kappan’s decision to switch over to the UDF as ‘betrayal’, CM Pinarayi Vijayan exuded confidence that the people who had voted him in Pala during the by-poll will give him a befitting reply. P4 Police officers corner one of the KSU activists who led a protest march to the Kerala Public Service Commission office at Pattom in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday against alleged back-door appointments by the LDF government | Vincent Pulickal for the last grade rankholders,” he said. He also said the UDF coordination committee headed by Chandy, in 2002 at Kovalam, recommended to cut short vacancies and freeze appointments following which the state witnessed a 32-day strike. “Nobody can forget these realities,” the CM said. He said, during the previous UDF term, 5,910 contract staff were regularised violating all norms, with even those having two years of service being regularised. “Now, the state government is regularising contractors with clear norms. Only those with over 10 years of service, and posts which are not left to PSC, are being regularised,” he ● More on P4 said.  WHAT THEY FILLED Appointments held to various posts during UDF and LDF regimes as presented by the CM Posts UDF LDF LDC 17,711 19,120 Police 4,796 13,825 LPSA 1,630 7,322 UPSA 802 4,446 Nurse (health) 1,608 3,607 Asst surgeon 2,435 3,324 Nurse (med edu) 924 2,200 The UDF will never show any grudge towards those employees who have been appointed during the tenure of the LDF government. The UDF government had not cancelled a single PSC rank list. Oommen Chandy, former CM If anyone must fall on the feet of candidates, it’s the same person who called on them. Ignoring facts, the UDF has been unleashing a campaign against the government. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister Kerala Cong (B) splits, UDF to gain Kozhikode: Unsatisfied over the functioning style of K B Ganesh Kumar, MLA, a section of Kerala Congress (B) members, led by state general secretary Najeem Palakkandy, has decided to quit the party and extend support to UDF. P4 Chandy challenges Vijayaraghavan T’Puram: Oommen Chandy warned that the LDF government will have to pay a heavy price for the apathy being meted out to scores of job aspirants. He challenged LDF convener A Vijayaraghavan to prove the bribe allegations. P4 Activist Muluk gets advance bail as police Zoom in G ayat h ri M a ni a n d S u d h ir S u r ya w a ns h i @ New Delhi/Mumbai Two of the three activists named in the farmer protest toolkit FIR got relief from courts even as the Delhi Police ramped up efforts to build its case against them. Environment activist Shantanu Muluk was granted anticipatory transit bail by Aurang abad bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday for 10 days while the main bench of the HC reserved its order on a similar bail plea by lawyer-activist Nitika Jacob for Wednesday . Meanwhile, a Delhi court allowed Bengaluru’s student-activist Disha Ravi to speak with family over phone for 15 minutes and meet with her lawyer for 30 minutes every day while in police custody . Chief Metropolitan Magistrate also allowed her to get warm clothes, masks and books and ordered the Delhi Police to provide a copy of the FIR and remand documents to Disha. Delhi Police have, meanwhile, written to Zoom app to provide details of the contents, locations and the people who attended the January 11 virtual meeting organised by Pro-Khalistani group Poetic Justice Foundation. According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Prem Nath, about 60-70 people, including Disha, Jacob and Muluk — whom he identified as creators and editors of the toolkit — attended Early warning of fresh Covid wave in India? S u mi S u k a n ya D u t ta @ New Delhi It may be too early to say if India is heading towards a fresh wave of Covid-19, but some states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana are parhaps showing early signs of a resurgence. Overall for the country, too, beginning February 6, there have been quite a few days when the active Covid-19 cases have gone up, as compared to the previous day, after staying flat for weeks. In Maharashtra that had a heavy case load, the graph started flattening last month. But on February 14, it recorded 4,092 new cases, the highest since January 6 when 4,382 new cases were reported. In Mumbai, the number of daily cases Muluk can go to court, apply for protection The temporary bail granted to Muluk would enable him to apply for protection before an appropriate court in Delhi. Nitika Jacob’s lawyer told a single-judge bench that the toolkit only spoke of support to the farmers and not about violence the meeting. Canada-based Khalistan supporter MO Dhaliwal and Anita Lal, cofounders of PJF, also attended the meeting to chalk out the modalities of creating the toolkit. Dismissing criticism over arrest of the 21-year-old activist, the police denied any lapse. “Disha’s arrest has been made in accordance with the law, which doesn’t dif ferentiate between a 22-year-old or a 50-year-old,” said Delhi Police Commissioner. After Disha’s arrest, Jacob and Muluk moved the high court for anticipatory transit bail on Monday . E X P R ESS R EA D Customs nabs Eapen in dollar smuggling case Kochi: Customs on Tuesday arrested Unitac Builders MD Santhosh Eapen in the dollar smuggling case, but a special court granted him bail. He was summoned for question-ing after Customs found he had played a key role in the case. The money was allegedly given as kickback for granting a contract under LIFE Mission. P5 Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana showing signs of resurgence 4,092 cases reported in Maharashtra on February 14, the highest since Januray 6 have started climbing over the last few days, especially since local trains started rolling again. Haryana, which had less than 100 new cases for quite some time now, has started registering over 100 new cases almost every day since February 11. Ditto Gujarat. Health economist Rijo M John said, “The situation in Kerala, on the other hand, seems to be improving.” People in support of arrested climate activist Disha Ravi protest in Bengaluru | VINOD KUMAR T Kiran Bedi removed as Puducherry Lt Guv MAKING WAY Sediments being poured onto the opposite side of the Muthalapuzhi breakwater site as part of the dredging process to increase the depth of the water body to ensure safe passage of ships. The granites brought to the site from the quarries in Kilimanoor will be transported to the construction site of the Vizhinjam Transhipment Container Terminal via ship | B P Deepu New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday night removed Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi from the post at a time when the union territory is witnessing a political crisis following the resignation of Congress MLAs. Telengana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has been given the additional charge. a t t e n d s Y AT R A , N O T T O C O NTEST Pisharody joins Cong: ‘It has leaders who can laugh’ Edavela Babu attends Aishwarya Kerala Yatra Haripad: Senior actor and actors’ body AMMA’s general secretary Edavela Babu attended the Aishwarya Kerala Yatra at Haripad on Tuesday. Senior leaders welcomed him. “I’ve been a Congress man,” said the 57-year-old actor, who hails from Irinjalakuda. He has acted in more than 200 films since his debut in Edavela in 1982. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Alappuzha FOLLOWING in the footsteps of his friend Dharmajan Bolgatty, stand-up comedian, actor and director Ramesh Pisharody too has joined the Congress. He attended the Aishwarya Kerala Yatra led by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala at Haripad in Alappuzha on Tuesday Pisha. rody, however, said he would not contest in the upcoming assembly elections. Former chief min- ister Oommen Chandy and KPCC chief Mullappally Ramachandran welcomed Pisharody at the venue. At the event, Pisharody imitated Chandy’s speech amid ap- plause and cheers by party workers and supporters. He also explained the reasons behind his decision. “I’m joining a party which has got leaders who can laugh. It’s a party that comprises leaders whom we can approach without fear. Congress is the biggest democratic movement. Its victory is a necessity if not must for Kerala. I will be part of the Congress movement in its onward journey,” said Pisharody. He said he would work for Dharmajan’s victory if he decides to enter the poll fray. The UDF is likely to field Dharmajan from Balussery in Kozhikode. Sources said Pisharody had held talks with Chandy and Chennithala recently. Some of the Youth Congress leaders had reportedly tried to take the 39-year-old into confidence prior to that. Director, Major Ravi, had shared stage with Congress leaders when the Yatra reached Tripunithura last ● More on P4 week.  no entry Actor salim kumar dropped from iffk Kochi leg inaugural The actor was removed from the list of invitees citing age as a reason. However, many alleged that it’s because Kumar is a Cong supporter. Meanwhile, Chalachitra Academy chairman Kamal refuted the allegations. P7