BENGALURU  SATURDAY  FEBRUARY 27, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 26  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 India snaps out of technical recession exam in four states, UT EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi 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 Commis- in the 2019 LS poll, bagging 18 sion of India announced the poll seats and over 40% vote share. In schedule for Tamil Nadu, Kerala Assam, the party, in alliance and 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. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE WITH the economy finally coming out of technical recession, growing marginally at 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of 202021, the government on Friday said it expected the GDP to contract by 8 per cent for the whole financial year. Climate activist Disha Ravi, who received bail in the toolkit case earlier this week, will continue to stay in Delhi for the next two weeks. Speaking to TNIE, her mother Manjula said, “I am not very sure what the actual reasons are, but we have been told that she will be back home only after two weeks.” P8 School must have proper access road: Lokayukta EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE Karnataka Lokayukta, has initiated suo motu proceedings after TNIE published a report (‘Hop, skip and jump takes a new meaning at this school’, February 24) and directed the authorities to redress the grievances of students and teachers by providing a permanent access road to the Government Primary School at Vignana Nagar at K R Puram. Referring to the report, Lokayukta Justice P Vishwanatha Shetty observed that “the failure on the part of the authoriEXPRESS t i e s c o n cer ned to IMPACT provide proper access road to the school, in my considered view, falls within the meaning of ‘maladministration’ under Section 2(1) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act and the hardship or injustice caused to the students is required to be addressed.” “...it is desirable for me to consider the report published in TNIE as source material to exercising the suo motu power under Section 7(1)(b) and 9(3)(a) of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act. Accordingly , I have directed registering of suo-motu proceedings”, Justice Shetty said in the order P9 passed on Friday . per cent contraction in 2020-21, up from 7.7 per cent 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 sub- CM asks Centre not to allow TN water project, will fight it legally, politically EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE Karnataka Government on Friday reiterated that it will not allow Tamil Nadu’s project to use surplus Cauvery water through a river-linking project by building a canal from Cauvery to Vaigai-Gundar, and said it will fight against it legally and politically . As the project is expected to affect the state’s interests, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has written to the Central Government asking it not to allow Tamil Nadu to go ahead with the project, Law and Parliamentary Minister Basavaraj Bommai told mediapersons. Earlier, Water Resources Minister Ramesh KARNATAKA CORNER Disha to return home after 15 days “Real GDP growth of 0.4 per cent in Q3 of 2020-21 has returned the economy to the prepandemic times of positive growth rates. It is also a reflection of a further strengthening of V-shaped recovery read a Fi,” nance Ministry statement. However, in its second advance estimates, the National Statistical Office (NSO) has projected 8 Bypolls could be held before May 2 While the schedule for bypolls to Maski, Basavakalyan and Sindagi constituencies is yet to be officially announced, Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Friday stated that all poll results, including the bypolls, will be announced on May 2. This means that the bypolls will be held anytime before May 2. P6 Jarkiholi and Bommai held a meeting with legal experts, including Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, to discuss the inter-state river water dispute. Bommai said the TN project to utilize 45 tmcft of water is in violation of Inter-State Water Dispute Act and Karnataka will question it in the court. As per the Act, even surplus water has to be allocated and this has to be decided by the tribunal. Even before that happens, Tamil Nadu has gone ahead with a project that is against Karnataka’s interests, the Law Minister said. The Karnataka Government has decided to implead itself in a case filed by a farmer. “Individuals cannot file a case in inter-state matters as they do not have any locus standi, and such petitions have been dismissed earlier. They have not made Karnataka a party but we , have decided to implead in that case and present our case before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court,” he said. CONTINUED ON: P6 stantially 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 per cent in P16 January . EXPRESS READ Cricketer Vinay Kumar announces retirement Bengaluru: Veteran Karnataka medium pacer R Vinay Kumar, who also represented India and led his state team to successive Ranji Trophy titles, on Friday announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket. Kumar (37) played one Test, 31 ODIs and nine T20 Internationals for India. P17 Activist Naudeep Kaur granted bail by HC Chandigarh: Around six weeks after her arrest, labour rights activist Naudeep Kaur was on Friday granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Kaur was arrested in Haryana’s Sonipat for allegedly gheraoing an industrial unit and demanding money from a company on January 12.