tiruchy l saturday l February 27, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 16 l late City EDITION fare reward for domestic fliers travelling light DGCA separates base fare and service charge, paving the way for concessions to travellers checking in without baggage pay only for the services you require linked to ticket price capping order Earlier, base fare was bundled with services like preferential seating, meal or drink charges (except water), access to lounge, check-in baggage, sports equipment and music instrument charges, and valuable baggage fee. With its Friday’s notification, the DGCA has unbundled base fare and service charges. Now, fliers will get to pay for only those services they opt for ■ ■ In January, air travel turned costlier after the fare price bands were hiked by 10%-30%. It was described as an extraordinary but temporary measure to help the sector reach pre-Covid flight level The DGCA’s notification says the relief will be extended to fliers only when the extraordinary fare order ceases to be applicable 7-kg weight ceiling on cabin bags you can carry along 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 Datesheet out for poll exam in four states, UT the schedule West Bengal Eight phases March 27, April 1, 6, 10, 17, 22, 26, 29 Assam Three phases March 27, April 1, 6 Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala April 6 Counting of votes May 2 Seats up for grabs West Bengal 294 Kerala 140 Assam 126 Puducherry 30 Tamil Nadu 234 Model code The Model Code of Conduct comes into play from the moment the poll schedule is announced. It ends with the declaration of the election outcome it hopes to reap political dividends of the Citizenship AmendThe onset of summer will coin- ment Act in Assam and Bengal. cide with soaring political tem- Banking heavily on turncoats peratures in the country as four from the ranks of the TMC, the states and a Union Territory will BJP is hoping to build on the see electoral heat in March-end massive gains it made in Bengal and April. The Election Com- in the 2019 LS poll, bagging 18 mission of India announced the seats and over 40% vote share. In poll schedule for TN, Kerala and Assam, the party, in alliance Puducherry in the south and with regional players, will seek West Bengal and Assam in the to outsmart the Opposition, east, sounding the bugle for the while the Congress-AIUDF comnext big battle for states. bine will attempt to consolidate The assembly elections in Ben- minority votes. gal will be chief minisIn Kerala, the BJP, ter and Trinamool Conwhich had polled about gress chief Mamata 15% votes in 2016, will Banerjee’s biggest test make a pitch to estabyet in the face of a saflish itself as the third fron onslaught while force. To find a foothold Assam will see the rulin TN, the party is exing BJP face a challenge perimenting with caste CEC Sunil Arora from a plethora of coaequations by promotlitions. Among the two southern ing Dalit and OBC faces. The states, the Congress nurtures Congress, which is grappling hope of returning to power in with leadership issue and inKerala. In TN, the two national fighting, has grim chances in parties will piggyback on the lo- Bengal, where it’s contesting in cal players — Congress on the alliance with the Left, but is DMK and BJP on the AIADMK. looking at making some gains in Puducherry is heading for an in- Assam. But the party’s main foteresting fight amid defections cus is on Kerala, especially befrom the Congress to the BJP, cause Rahul Gandhi is MP from leading to President’s Rule. Wayanad, though the Left Front’s The BJP under the leadership performance in the local body , of JP Nadda, will seek to assert polls is a cause of worry for the its status as a pan-India party as Congress-led UDF. Quota, waiver, new projects: All ahead of model code E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday inaugurated the Mettur-Sarabanga Lift Irrigation Scheme, aimed at redirecting surplus water from Mettur dam to dry lakes IN a significant move hours ahead of the model code of conduct coming into force, the AIADMK government passed a Bill temporarily granting an internal reservation of 10.5 per cent to Vanniyar community under the Most Backward Classes (V) category The ruling party’s ally . PMK had been leading protests seeking the exclusive quota. The Bill provides special reservation for members of Vanniyakula Kshatriya (the common name of the community) in educational institutions, State appointments or posts in services under the State, within the 20 per cent reservation for Most Backward Classes and Denotified communities. continued on: P4 loans availed by shgs, farm workers waived Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday announced waiver of loans availed by agricultural labourers, and poor and downtrodden families, by pledging up to six sovereigns of jewellery. He also announced a waiver of loans taken by members of Women Self Help Groups | P4 Sarabanga irrigation scheme inaugurated Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami inaugurated the mega `565 crore Sarabanga lift irrigation project at Thippampatti on Friday. Totally 4,238 acres in 40 villages will benefit from it, apart from 38 villages which will be provided with drinking water | P4 India snaps out of technical recession E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi dpasses away after pandian a brief illness An overview of the veteran Communist leader’s life and a glance at his last stage declamation | P4 With the economy finally coming out of technical recession, growing marginally at 0.4% in the third quarter of 2020-21, the government on Friday said it expected the GDP to contract by 8% for the whole financial year. “Real GDP growth of 0.4% in Q3 of 2020-21 has returned the economy to the pre-pandemic times of positive growth rates. It is also a reflection of a further strengthening of V-shaped recovery read a finance ministry ,” statement. However, in its second advance estimates, the National Statistical Office (NSO) has projected 8% contraction in 2020-21, up from 7.7% predicted on its earlier forecast in January . Experts claimed that while the growth remained flat, the real recovery will be visible in the final quarter. “My understanding is that the real push will come in the Q4 2021, because lockdowns on many sectors, particularly hospitality and travel, eased substantially during this quarter. It is hoped that it remains that way , given the uptick in Covid-19 cases in some pockets and in some states,” said Sanjay Kumar, partner, Deloitte India. Meanwhile, the output of eight core sectors returned to positive territory growing marginally by , 0.1% in January  .