HUBBALLI  SATURDAY  FEBRUARY 20, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 12  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 DELHI HIGH COURT RAPS MEDIA SENSATIONALISM Says cover toolkit case based on verified sources; Disha custody extended that the petition was a systematic attempt to blame the police and derail the ON a day a local court placed investigation. activist Disha Ravi in threeHowever, the h igh court day judicial custody in con- stated: “Right to privacy, the nection with the toolkit case, sovereignty and integrity of the Delhi High Court on Fri- the country and the freedom day underlined her right to of speech need to be balanced. privacy and told media houses The recent coverage definitenot to sensationalise ly shows there is the coverage of the sensationalised reprobe. The high court porting by the mepassed the directions dia. While press on a plea filed by Disbriefings are held ha regarding leak of generally media can, probe details, and sennot disseminate the sational coverage by information in such media houses. a sensationalised Earlier, seeking manner.” Disha Ravi more time to interroUpholding the gate Disha, the Delhi Police journalistic ethics of not distold a court: “We have issued closing the source, the court, notices to several others to however, directed media housjoin the probe. We want to es to base their coverage on confront Disha and Shantanu. ve r i f i e d a n d a u t h e n t i c During the course of interro- sources. gation, Disha shifted the Disha had moved the high bl a m e o n t o N i k i t a a n d court seeking to restrain the Shantanu.” police from leaking to the meIn the high court, Addition- dia any probe material in relaal Solicitor General Suryapra- tion to the FIR lodged against kash V Raju strongly opposed her. The petition had also Disha’s petition, saying the sought to restrain the media activist was defaming and vil- from publishing the content ifying the police. He claimed of her private chats. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi Hailstones cover the ground at Shanivarsanthe in Somwarpet taluk, after the town in Kodagu district experienced a sudden hailstorm on Friday | EXPRESS White carpet on Kodagu villages after hailstorm EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Madikeri IT was a surreal experience for many in parts of Kodagu district on Friday A sudden, heavy . hailstorm, lasting over half an hour, left several villages across Shanivarsanthe wearing a snowcapped look. While youngsters in the villages frolicked with chunks of ice, the farmers were worried about crop losses. Villages including Nidtha, Mulluru, Gudugalale, Ankanahalli and Dundalli in Shanivarsanthe hobli were swathed in about 1.5 inches of white. Many students of Mulluru Government Primary School had their first experience with a hailstorm. “Hail stones had collected on a tarpaulin we had put up outside the classrooms for conducting classes. All the students brought buckets and collected ice chunks. It was a unique experience for them,” explained Satish, a teacher at the school. “I have not witnessed such a hailstorm in the last 45 years of stay at Shanivarsanthe,” said M P Mohanraj, an agriculturalist. He grows pepper, coffee, orange and lemon and expressed concern that this was not good news. “Such rains are always disastrous for farmers and growers. Following the coffee picking season, the coffee plants have to dry till March. On March 31, the farmer’s much sought-after rain - the ‘rathi’ rain - enables blossoming of the crops. This hailstorm will damage the crops and will affect the next year’s crop,” he felt. Meanwhile, India Meteorological Department officials in Bengaluru were surprised on learning about hailstorms in Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru during this time of the year. P5 FACEBOOK BATS FOR GLOBAL POLICY FRAMEWORK Facebook India MD Ajit Mohan said it will be helpful if India takes the leadership role in formulating standard regulations that tackle data privacy issues and other challenges | P10 70-year-old conned of life’s savings K’taka aims for Jan Aushadi centres in all govt hospitals K I RA N BA L A N N A N AVA R KARNATAKA may well become the first state in the country to have Jan Aushadi centres in all government hospitals. With the Union Government planning to start such centres in all government hospitals across the country, Karnataka is likely to take the lead in taking up the initiative to make medicines available at affordable prices to more people. Currently, under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), there are nearly 7,500 Jan Aushadi Kendras in the country, of which 850, accounting for over 10 per cent, are in Karnataka. The State Government is tar- @ Vijayanagara DISTRESSED that the police had refused to register her complaint in connection with an alleged financial fraud, a 70-year-old woman from Kaddirampura village in Hosapete taluk, along with her granddaughter, sat in protest in front of the Hampi police station. After four days, a complaint was finally registered on Friday and investigation is on. The septuagenarian, Hosuramma, has lost her life’s savings of `2 lakh, which was allegedly withdrawn from her account by her relatives P4 without her consent. A S H W I N I M S R I PA D @ Bengaluru geting to have 1,000 centres by end of this year. On an average, 20 new Kendras are being opened in Karnataka every month. Bengaluru Urban district alone has 211 centres, followed by Dakshina Kannada with 76 centres. As on date, the state has recorded Rs 118 crore business from these centres for the year 2020-21. The government is hoping to touch Rs 125-130 crore turnover by the end of March 2021. The state will have main distribution centres at Bengaluru, Hubballi, one in Coastal Karnataka and also in Kalyana Karnataka. “Distribution of medicines to centres will be done from here,’’ said P5 the sources. Centres in districts 211 BENGALURU URBAN 76 DAKSHINA KANNADA 54 MYSURU 40 UDUPI 38 DHARWAD 33 SHIVAMOGGA 30 TUMKUR HC FIAT Woman sacked over maternity leave gets relief EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru COMING to the rescue of a woman contract employee, whose services were terminated as she had sought maternity leave, which was not available for such employees, the Karnataka High Court has directed the State Government to reinstate her. “I chose motherhood; the State chose to terminate me”, was the plea of the petitioner B S Rajeshwari (35) from RPC Layout in the city “The pendulum . of her fate swung from the buoy- ancy of hope to the fatigue of despair as she was terminated on the ground that she opted to become a mother and had sought maternity leave”, Justice M Nagaprasanna observed. Terming the act of the Directorate of Municipal Administration as appalling and insensitive to the issue, Justice Nagaprasanna directed the government to reinstate Rajeshwari to the post that she held earlier with 50 per cent back wages from the date of cancellation of appointment till the date of reinstatement, and cost of Rs 25,000 payable to her. The Government Advocate argued before the court that the contract itself gave a right to to terminate her services at any point in time. Then the court observed that the action of the DMA cannot be countenanced., as maternity or the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 does not classify or qualify a mother to be a government servant, temporary employee, employee on contract basis or an employee on daily wages. Sought leave from June ’19 Rajeshwari was appointed by the DMA as Project Information Officer/MIS Expert on contract basis for a consolidated pay with effect from November 27, 2009. She sought maternity leave on June 11, 2019. Disha’s parents are distraught, says advocate B A L A C H A U H A N @ Bengaluru CLIMATE activist Disha Ravi’s parents were “extremely emotionally distraught” after a Delhi court remanded her to judicial custody for three days on Friday “Her parents thought that . on the completion of Disha’s five days in police custody she would be released , and she could return home. They are laypersons and don’t understand the difference between police and judicial custody Their anxiety has only height. ened after she was remanded to judicial custody,” said Disha’s family friend and advocate R Prasanna. Her arrest in the farmers’ protest toolkit case has sent shock waves and led to angry reactions from activists, students, human rights organisations among others. Prasanna said that he was expecting that the court would send Disha to judicial custody, given the “nature of the offence she has been charged with, the gravity of the situation and the hype that has been P2 created around it”. EXPRESS READ Man dies 10 days after vaccine Bengaluru: A waterman from Chikkaballapur died on Friday, a day after he was discharged from Jayadeva Hospital where he was treated for chest pain he developed on receiving a vaccine shot. The man received his vaccine shot on February 10, and was admitted to hospital after he developed chest pain. He was discharged on February 18, but developed chest pain. 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.