HYDERABAD  WEDNESDAY  FEBRUARY 17, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 18  LATE 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 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 PATEL RAP 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 LOCAL TOUCH 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 38 OVER TO MOTERA 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 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 Advance bail to activist as police Zoom in GAYATHRI MANI AND SUDHIR SURYAWANSHI @ New Delhi/Mumbai Students and members of NSUI display placards during a protest to condemn the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi in Bengaluru on Tuesday | SHRIRAM B N 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 Aurangabad 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 al- MALLANNA SAGAR R&R WORKS Kiran Bedi out, GAJWEL RYOTS SAY ASSIGNED Tamilisai gets LANDS BEING TAKEN AS TRS addl charge of MEN SIT PRETTY ON PATTAS Puducherry D E B J A N I D U T TA @ Puducherry AMID the political crisis in Puducherry Kiran Bedi has been re, moved as the Lieutenant-Governor, and Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana, has been directed to take her place, in addition to discharging her own duties, until a new appointment is made. This was communicated in a statement from the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday evening. Bedi’s removal was on the cards after the local Dr Tamilisai BJP unit expressed displeasure over her functioning, as it was affecting them politically. They had petitioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah three times, and appealed to party president JP Nadda, for her removal. With the elections to the Legislative Assembly coming up, Bedi’s removal had become a political necessity for the BJP, as her functioning was allegedly giving the party a bad name. “The President has directed that Dr Kiran Bedi shall cease to hold the office of the Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry and has appointed Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana, to discharge the functions of the Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry in addition to her own duties, , until regular arrangements for the office of Lt-Governor of Puducherry are made,” Ajay Kumar Singh, Press Secretary to President, said in a statement. CONTINUED ON P7 HACKED PAK-BASED GROUP HACKS WEBSITE OF BEGUMPET GOVT COLLEGE | P3 P K R I S H N A @ Siddipet LAND acquisition in Mutrajpalli and Lingarajpet in Gajwel Assembly constituency has all the trappings of becoming a major controversy with officials allegedly concentrating on the assigned lands of small farmers while sparing lands owned by influential TRS leaders. The land acquisition is for rehabilitation of the oustees of eight villages which would be submerged under Mallanna Sagar Project. Farmers are crying foul that all their lands are being taken over by the government, leaving them with no means for a livelihood. They contend that officials are not even looking at the land in two villages which are owned by TRS leaders. Says Devulapalli Anjaneyulu and Kishan of Mutrajpalli: “Only the lands of farmers who depend entirely on agriculture are being acquired. Former Zilla Parishad chair man Manikonda Laxmikanta Rao and his relatives have lands in the village but the authorities did not acquire even a cent from them.” Farmers complain that the authorities are trying to take all patta lands they have been cultivating for generations, saying they are assigned lands. When Gajwel RDO M Vijender Reddy Tahsildar Mohammad Anwar , and other officials went to the village on Monday as part of land acquisition, they were told that lands would not be given. Anjaneyulu said that lands not suitable for agriculture are available in most parts of Siddipet district and those could be used for creating rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) colonies. He said the rules lay down that a social impact assessment should be conducted before land acquisition begins but the authorities have not taken up any such survey so far. When asked about lands of TRS leaders being left touched, officials say that there are cases pending in courts over the ownership of the lands in question. Farmers say the latest official notification states that about 50 farmers own these lands and these families would lose their livelihood. While the Gajwel RDO could not be contacted, Tahsildar Mohammad Anwar, however, explained that a notification has been issued for the acquisition of a total of 102 acres in Lingarajpeta village along with Mutrajpalli and dismissed as baseless the allegations of acquiring land only from small farmers. M’bad hospital chief shifted to Hyd, blames Min Satyavathi U M A H E S H @ Mahabubabad IN yet another instance of politico-official tussle, Mahabubabad Government Hospital Superintendent Dr Bheem Sagar found himself transferred to Hyderabad, apparently at the instance of Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod, on Tuesday. Shocked by the unceremonious transfer, Dr Bheem Sagar alleged that he was shifted on deputation as the Minister’s son, Satish Rathod, who is also a doctor at the same hospital, bore a grudge against him. Dr Bheem Sagar said: “Dr Satish Rathod works as a chest specialist here. He is irregular. He comes to hospital only for a week in a month and wants to be paid for the full month. I informed him that he has to follow rules or else I would not approve his pay for the days he was absent. This is the main reason CONTINUED ON P5 I was hounded out of Mahabubabad.” SIGNS OF RESURGENCE Early warning of fresh Covid wave in India? S U M I S U K A N YA D U T TA @ New Delhi Heavy case load in Maharashtra 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 Jan 6 when 4,382 new cases were reported 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, begin, ning 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 Febru- ary 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 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 CONTINUED ON P9 improving.” Muluk can go to Delhi court The temporary bail granted to Muluk would enable him to apply for protection before an appropriate court in Delhi. Jacob’s lawyer told a single-judge bench that the toolkit only spoke of support to the farmers and not about violence lowed 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 the meeting. Canada-based Khalistan supporter MO Dhaliwal and Anita Lal, co-founders 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 differentiate 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 P7 . Rising fuel prices push RTC into further distress D O N I TA J O S E @ Hyderabad THE fresh diesel price hike has come as a back-breaking burden for the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TRSTC). The hike could not have come at a worse time as the corporation is already neckdeep in losses. Since January 1 this year, there has been an approximately `6 per litre increase in the price of diesel in Hyderabad, which means the corporation will have to cough out an additional `130 to `140 crore annually . The present price of diesel is `86.55, which is eight per cent more than `80.60 per litre at the beginning of the year. This additional `6 per litre hike in diesel prices since Jan 1 `130-140 cr additional burden per year on RTC burden has cast a long shadow on the financial health of the corporation, which is just trying to find its feet after the debilitating impact of Covid-19 induced lockdown. “The corporation uses about six lakh litres of diesel every day and additional `6 per litre would mean an additional `36 lakh burden per day. This would translate to `10 to `11 crore per month. A whole year with these inflated prices would add a burden of nearly `130 to 140 crore,” said a senior RTC official. The corporation’s earnings too are still not back to the pre-pandemic level. For instance, in Greater Hyderabad Zone, the earnings per kilometre are just `35 at present, down from `39 from pre-pandemic times. “We are seeing some signs of recovery in the occupancy ratio which was below 50 during the pandemic. In the past few days, it touched 55-56. Our focus at present is to improve fuel efficiency Before the pandemic, . we could get 5.16 km per litre of diesel. At present, this has increased to 5.28km and the objective is to improve it further,” the official added. STAFF YET TO GET JAN SALARY | P5