tadepalligudem l saturday l february 20, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION phase-1 of disengagement at pangong lake complete Senior military commanders will meet on the Chinese side of Chushul-Moldo Border for the 10th round of talks on Saturday Other friction points to be discussed China finally admits galwan casualty Both sides pulled back troops from the north and south banks of the lake in a four-step plan that comprised withdrawing armour, artillery and other heavy equipment, followed by infantry. During the Saturday’s meeting, other friction points, including Depsang, Hot Springs and Gogra, will be taken up. The process disengagement began on February 10 ■ ■ Admitting for the first time that it, too, had suffered casualties in last June’s conflict at Galwan, the China’s Central Military Commission honoured five soldiers, including four posthumously China’s figure is conservative. Russia recently put it at 45. India had lost 20 soldiers in the hand-to-hand fight at Galwan in 2020 48-hour deadline set to convene the 10th round after disengagement 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 HC raps media sensationalism Cover toolkit case based on verified sources, says court; Disha custody extended ‘Freedom of speech not negotiable’ Five days after Disha Ravi’s arrest, Greta Thunberg tweeted: “Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest and assembly are non-negotiable human rights. These must be a fundamental part of any democracy. #StandWith DishaRavi.” E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi On a day a local court placed activist Disha Ravi in three-day judicial custody in connection with the toolkit case, the Delhi High Court on Friday underlined her right to privacy and told media houses not to sensationalise the coverage of the probe. The high court passed the directions on a plea filed by Disha regarding leak of probe details, and sensational coverage by media houses. Earlier, seeking more time to interrogate Disha, the Delhi Police told a court: “We have issued notices to several others to join the probe. We want to confront Disha and Shantanu. During the course of interroga- reporting by the media. While tion, Disha shifted the blame press briefings are held generonto Nikita and Shantanu.” ally media cannot disseminate , In the high court, Additional the information in such a senSolicitor General Suryapra- sationalised manner.” kash V Raju strongly opposed Upholding the journalistic Disha’s petition, sayethics of not disclosing the activist was deing the source, the faming and vilifying court, however, directthe police. He claimed ed media houses to that the petition was a base their coverage on systematic attempt to verified and authentic blame the police sources. and derail the Disha had moved Disha Ravi investigation. the high court seeking However, the h igh court stat- to restrain the police from leaked: “Right to privacy the sover- ing to the media any probe ma, eignty and integrity of the terial in relation to the FIR country and the freedom of lodged against her. The petition speech need to be balanced. The had also sought to restrain the recent coverage definitely media from publishing the conshows there is sensationalised tent of her private chats. Jagan inaugurates new chariot for Antarvedi temple festival E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Temple Rathotsav on Feb 23 Kalyanotsavam of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple will be held on February 22. Rathotsavam will be held on Feb 23, in which thousands of devotees participate Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated the new chariot of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Antarvedi in East Godavari district in a traditional manner on Friday   . The 42-foot high seven-storey chariot built with Bastar teak wood was inaugurated on Ratha Saptami, two days ahead of annual Kalyanotsavam of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple. The annual Rathotsavam will be held on February 23. The Chief Minister reached Antarvedi by helicopter around 11:20 am. He was welcomed by the temple priests in a tradi- tional manner. The priests performed archana in his name. After darshan of the Lord, he was given Veda Ashirvadam and prasadam. Jagan offered prayers in the temple of Rajyalakshmi before inaugurating the new chariot. He formally pulled the chariot along with his Cabinet colleagues after performing puja. Some unidentified miscreants set the temple chariot on fire on September 6, 2020, which caused a furore in the State. After handing over the arson case to the CBI, the Chief Minister directed the Endowments Department to build the new chariot before the annual Kalyanotsavam of Lakshmi NarP4 asimha Swamy temple. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy pulls the new chariot of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Antarvedi in East Godavari district after inaugurating it on Friday  | Express regularisation UK verdict on Uber drivers as staffers, sparks hope A landmark verdict of the UK Supreme Court on Friday classifying ride-hailing app Uber’s drivers as its employees and not self-employed, was widely welcomed by drivers’ unions in India, hoping it would help build their case for changing the oppressive work conditions back home. It ruled that the driver would have full protection as an employee from the moment the app is switched on and not from when the ride commences. A similar demand for the regularisation of Uber and Ola drivers is pending before the Industrial Tribunal in Kerala’s Thrissur. T R S Kumar, president of the All Kerala Online Taxi Driver Union, said online taxi drivers are upbeat about the United Kingdom verdict. “We were first in India to file a similar case. We hope the UK Supreme Court verdict would be helpful in our case as well. It will surely be a lesson to employers to treat online taxi drivers as regular employees with pension and other welfare schemes,” he said. P Anbazhagan, president of the Tamil Nadu Call Taxi Drivers and Owners Association, revealed that since the last seven days both Ola and Uber had stopped deducting trip cancellation fees of `50 from drivers.  Continued on: P5, SEE also: P9 ipl chance Kadapa ‘Bahubali’ gets place in CSK A cricketer with a rural background Maramreddy Harishankar Reddy hails from an agricultural family in a remote village Nagurivandlapalli in Chinna Mandem mandal of Kadapa district. He is the second cricketer to get selected from Kadapa for IPL S N a g a r a j a R a o @Kadapa LION ALERT! From the land of #Bahubali we rope in Harishankar Reddy! -- Chennai Super Kings, one of the IPL giants, tweeted on Thursday night soon after the IPL auction. Bahubali here is Maramreddy Harishankar Reddy hailing from an agricultural family in a remote village of Nagurivandlapalli in Chinnamandem mandal of Kadapa district. This 22-year-old right arm medium pacer was bought for a base price of `20 lakh. He is the sec- ond cricketer to get selected from Kadapa district for IPL, with P Vijayakumar, who played for Deccan Chargers, being the first. “Till I was 14-yearsold, I loved to play cricket with tennis ball in our village. My first tryst with professional cricket was when I accompanied my friend to the district-level cricket selections and tried my luck. I got selected for a summer camp held in Kadapa in 2013,” he told TNIE over phone from Indore, where he is turning out for Andhra at Vijay Hazare Trophy . Since then, his complete focus has been cricket. Seeing his bowling talent, his friends and coaches encouraged him to improve further. His efforts paid off when he got selected for the Under-19 cricket tournament. He found place in Andhra Ranji team in 2018. His first T20 match for Andhra team was against Kerala on January 11, 2018 and he scalped four wickets conceding 12 runs P4 in two overs.  mptc,zptc seats don’t inquire unanimous poll, HC directs SEC E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday issued interim stay on the State Election Commission (SEC) directions to the collectors and district election authorities to revive the candidatures of affected aspirants for MPTC and ZPTC elections, based on their credible averments of forced withdrawal from the contest under duress. Hearing a batch of petitions ‘SEC cannot filed in the court challenging the contest poll SEC’s directions, Justice DVSS result now’ Somayajulu directed the SEC not to conduct any sort of inquiry Justice DVSS into the candidates declared electSomayajulu said ed unanimous after issuing Formthe SEC cannot 10 during ZPTC and MPTC elecinterfere after tions last March. The election the candidate process was stopped midway at was declared the ‘withdrawal of nominations’ elected. The poll stage due to Covid-19. He directed result could only the SEC not to issue any orders in be contested in ZPTC and MPTC seats where the the election inquiry was conducted stating tribunal, the HC Form 10 was not issued till FebruJudge said ary 22, and adjourned the hearing in the case to February 22. Challenging the SEC’s order issued on February 18 and its directions to the district collectors to submit a report on forced withdrawals, A Bhaskar Reddy and D Nanjundappa who were declared elected as Singirgunta and Aridigunta MPTCs in Punganur mandal of Chittoor district, and AT Ratnasekhar, who was declared elected unopposed as Piler MPTC after they were issued Form 10, filed P4 petitions in the High Court.  express read 2 held in Unnao murder case Lucknow: Two persons were arrested by Unnao police on Friday evening in connection with the poisoning of three minor Dalit girls in Baburaha village of the district on Wednesday. One of them, according to police, was in love with one of the girls but she spurned him. Two of the poisoned girls died on way to hospital while the third one is battling for life in a Kanpur hospital. Terrorists gun down two cops in Valley Srinagar: A day after visiting foreign diplomats departed, terrorists gunned down two policemen in the city on Friday. Their firing at two unarmed policemen was caught on camera near Baghat Chowk. Both of them later died at the police hospital. Inspector General of Police blamed the Lashkar for the attack. Meanwhile, three militants were shot dead while a policeman died in an encounter at Badigam in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Thursday evening.