DHARMAPURI l wednesday l February 17, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 14 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 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 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 Kiran Bedi no longer pondy Lt-Governor D e b j a n i D u t ta @ Puducherry In a new twist to the grave political crisis staring at Puducherry Kiran Bedi was on , Tuesday removed as Lt Governor of the Union Territory Tamilisai Soundararajan, . Governor of Telangana, had been directed to additionally discharge the functions of the Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry. The late evening development comes on a day when the Congress-led V Narayanasamy government lost its majority status following the resignation of yet another MLA, A John Kumar. Cong loses A statement from Ajay majority Kumar Singh, Press SecWith yet retary to President, said, another MLA, A “The President has directJohn Kumar, ed that Dr Kiran Bedi resigning on shall cease to hold the ofTuesday, the fice of the Lt-Governor of Congress lost Puducherry and has apits majority in pointed Dr Tamilisai the Assembly Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana, to discharge the functions of the Lt-Governor of Puducherry, in addition to her own duties, with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office, until regular arrangements for the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry are made.” Bedi’s removal seem to have been on the cards after local BJP members expressed displeasure over her functioning. They had sent petitions to the Home Minister Amit Shah and to party president, J P Nadda, seeking her removal. (Full story available on www.newindianexpress.com) Mega manufacturing, employment boost for TN E X PRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai Interim Budget on February 23 The Interim Budget for 202122, to be presented by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on February 23, is likely to have some new announcements although the general convention is not to have any new initiatives Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami releases postal stamps to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of SIPCOT, in Chennai on Tuesday | Debadatta Mallick The Tamil Nadu government is eyeing an annual growth rate of 15 per cent in the manufacturing sector, and targeting investments worth `10 lakh crore and jobs for 20 lakh people by 2025. This was revealed on Tuesday, when Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami unveiled the Tamil Nadu Industrial Policy 2021 and State MSME policy . As many as 28 MoUs, for a total investment of `28,053 crore, were signed at the event, which highlighted how the State is wooing investments even when the world is battling the Covid-19 outbreak. The new investments, if realised, would generate 68,775 jobs. The investments are in various sectors, including electric vehicles, wind energy auto components, city gas, , and textiles. During the event, the Chief Minister also laid foundation stones for 10 new industrial parks and estates, and inaugurated projects worth `3,469 crore. In total, 46 projects, with an investment of `33,465 crore and providing jobs to 2,19,714 people, were launched on Tuesday . Continued on: P4 Advance bail to activist as police Zoom in 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 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 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 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, mean- while, 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 . Early warning of fresh Covid wave in India? S u m i 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 stay, ing 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 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.”