vijayawada l thursday l march 11, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION lic IPO LIKELY TO BE PRICED `400-600 PER SHARE: SOURCES The government is expecting to mop up `1 lakh crore from the Life Insurance Corporation IPO, first internal valuation shows Price band unlikely to change, says FinMin Authorised capital to be increased A finance ministry official told TNIE that the price band of LIC’s initial public offering was estimated keeping in mind the current market condition, including the downside risk factors. “Unless there is a big disruption, the IPO will be in the same price range, even with some downside risk. The final report is likely in July this year,” the official added ■ The Centre has already proposed raising LIC’s authorised capital to `25,000 crore. IPO is expected by the 3rd quarter of FY22 ■ Chief Economic Advisor K V Subramanian had earlier said 6-7% of LIC could be sold. The government plans to hold at least 75% in LIC’s equity for the first five years even after the IPO | P10 10% oF THE i.p.o. ISSUE SIZE IS LIKELY TO BE RESERVED FOR L.I.C. POLICYHOLDERS 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 Moderate turnout in polls, anxious wait for results E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Vijayawada Reddu Appayamma (98) being taken to a polling station at Peda Jalaripeta in Vizag on Wednesday for exercising her franchise I G Satyanarayana Experts panel gives Covaxin the thumbs up Polling for the keenly contested urban local body elections was held peacefully on Wednesday barring stray inci, dents of clashes between the ruling and opposition party workers. The contestants and the political parties will have to wait till March 14 for the results as their fortunes were now sealed in ballot boxes. The election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Municipal Corporations and Chairperson h o sp i t a l i s e d Mamata injures foot on campaign trail, sees plot E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e where the ruling YSRC and opposition TDP made all out efforts to emerge victorious, recorded 57.15 and 56.01 per cent voting. When it comes to municipalities, 70.66 per cent voting was recorded. The highest turnout of 85.98 per cent was reported in Gudur K, while the lowest polling of 50.05 per cent was recorded in Adoni. Unlike in municipalities, the electorate in the cities, particularly in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada, did not turn up at the polling stations in large numbers. Many voters preferred to cast their vote in the early hours of the day Elderly people . and young voters alike waited in queues in the initial hours of polling. After 10 am, several Alla Nani’s name missing in voters’ list in Eluru Deputy Chief Minister (Health) Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani) was in for a rude shock when he found his name missing from the voters’ list of Eluru Municipal Corporation on Wednesday KTR backs VSP stir to avert divestment of PSUs in TS Promises to take part in agitation, Anil welcomes TRS gesture @ Kolkata The subject expert committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation on Wednesday recommended that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin no longer needs to be administered under the ‘clinical trial’ mode. Sources said the committee took the decision after taking into account the interim analysis of phase 3 clinical trails submitted by the firm. If the vaccine is taken off clinical trial mode, beneficiaries will not have to sign a consent form for taking the jab. “The recommendations of the SEC have been submitted to the Drug Controller General of India and the final decision is likely soon,” said a source. The Hyderabad-based vaccine maker a few days ago had said its Covid19 vaccine had shown 81% efficacy in latestage trials. While allowing the restricted use permission of Covaxin in January the DGCI had said , it could be rolled out only in clinical trial mode with “abundant caution” due to lack of efficacy data. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday suffered a leg injury when she was boarding her car in Nandigram, as its door was allegedly intentionally slammed against her left foot by four-five persons amid lax security She . cancelled her plan to stay overnight in Nandigram and returned to Kolkata. The incident happened hours after she filed her nomination papers for the Assembly elections from Nandigram. The Election Commission of India has sought a full report. The ‘attack’ took place when Mamata came out of a local temple and was about to board her car. “She sat on the seat beside the driver. Suddenly, four to five men reached near the car overpowering her Z-plus security personnel and slammed the door before she could place her left foot inside the car,’’ said a party leader accompanying the CM. Mamata alleged there was no security arrangement by the local police. ‘’Police were not there. The superintendent of police was not seen there. There were four to five men who slammed the E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Hyderabad/Vijayawada Videograb of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holding her injured foot in Nandigram on Wednesday | PTI door deliberately before I could sit properly I suspect . the incident was a fallout of a conspiracy My leg is swol. len and I am having unbearable pain,” she said. Upon reaching Kolkata, she was taken directly to the state-run SSKM hospital and a five-member medical board was set up to oversee her health parameters. Gover nor Jagdeep Dhankar called on Mamata at the hospital amid ‘’go back’’ slogans from Trinamool workers. State BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya said the party wants her speedy recovery. “If she wants, she will be provided Central force security cover,’’ he added. But Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury called it MamaP7 ta’s theatrics.  Malicious propaganda against TTD is at the behest of Naidu, says Swamy E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday said that he was very pained to see that blatant lies were being published against the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and held former chief minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu responsible for most of the malicious campaign. He differed with the allega- and Vice-Chairperson of Municipalities and Nagar Panchayats will be held at the earliest a f t e r t h e d e cl a r at i o n o f results. According to the State Election Commission (SEC), 57.14 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the municipal corporations. Ongole recorded the highest turnout of 75.52 per cent, while the lowest polling of 49.26 per cent was reported in Kurnool. Guntur and Visakhapatnam, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy calls on CM Jagan Mohan Reddy I Express tions of some BJP leaders that Hindu temples were under attack in the YSRC regime. Swamy praised Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for coming forward to get TTD accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. To a query on his opinion on why Naidu was involved in the false propaganda, Swamy claimed that the former Chief Minister was doing such P4 things to stop Jagan.  Telangana Rashtra Samithi working president and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao on Wednesday announced the party’s support to the agitation of employees of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant against the Centre’s move to privatise the plant. Addressing an election meeting of recognised teachers in Hyderabad, Rama Rao said that thousands of employees, who would be rendered jobless, are fighting against the steel plant privatisation. Announcing that the TRS would support their agitation, Rama Rao said, “If necessary we will take the per, mission of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, and participate in the agitation in Visakhapatnam to express solidarity with agitating people of AP Rama Rao said that if Tel.” VSP union to issue strike notice today Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee will serve a notice for indefinite strike on the CMD of RINL, the corporate entity of Vizag steel plant, on Thursday angana ignored the VSP privatisation, then the Central government might privatise BHEL and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) later. “The Centre may even ask `333 cr only for PIP cost reimbursement against `1.6K cr due J aya n t h P @ Vijayawada In what could be an impediment to the execution of Polavaram Irrigation Project (PIP), the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) is learnt to have recommended the release of only `333 crore for reimbursement out of the pending `1,650 crore sought by the State Water Resources Department. As the revised cost estimates (RCE) of the project at 2017-18 price level (PL) are yet to be cleared by the Centre, the PPA is said to have processed the bills as per 2013-14 PL. While the State government and the contracting agencies have been working round-the-clock to complete major civil works before the flooding season, officials said the reimbursement of funds has become a cause for concern as delay in cash flow will hit the project execution. “The PPA recommended clearance of bills only to the tune of `333 crore based on 2013-14 PL components. In the bills we forwarded, it stated that certain components exceeded the provisions of the project cost at 2013-14 PL and the remaining could be processed only after the approval of RCE at 2017-18 PL,” an official told TNIE.  P4 Another Rawat gets into the hot seat in Uttarakhand V i nee t U pa d h yay @ Dehradun With the BJP springing a surprise by asking Lok Sabha member Tirath Singh Rawat to take over the new Uttarakhand chief minister, he has the onerous task of cleaning up the mess created by his predecessor Trivendra Singh Rawat, despite having a little legroom and the Assembly elections less that a year away . On the flip side, Tirath knows Uttarakhand’s politics inside-out as he did a stint as the state unit chief of the party and is credited with its 2014 Lok Sabha performance. He also has a clean image and is considered close to the top leadership of the party including Union , home minister Amit Shah. However, since the last budget of the state government has already been passed, there is not much in terms of policy he can do to redeem the situation before Assembly polls in 2022, political experts said. What’s doable though is to pacify the dissenters, reverse some of Trivendra’s unpopular decisions Anti-incumbency Electoral activity will start in NovDec, which leaves Tirath a little time to shake off anti-incumbency. No party in Uttarakhand has got a consecutive mandate to rule so far such as the Char Dham Shrine Board and the formation of the Gairsain commissionary, tighten the bureaucracy and run a fair and efficient government in the State. Since Tirath alone was administered the oath of office on Wednesday the first challenge is to pick a , balanced council of ministers. There was discontent within the party over giving major berths to Congress defectors in the outgoing Trivendra’s ministry At least . 10 new faces are expected to be inducted into the new ministry . why the need of State governments and perhaps privatise them too,” Rama Rao quipped. While extending the moral support to the VSP employees, the TRS working president blasted the Central government for not even giving GST compensation to the State. “The Centre stated it as an act of god and evaded GST compensation too,” Rama Rao alleged. AP Water Resources Minister P Anil Kumar Yadav welcomed the support extended by the TRS to the stir against steel plant privatisation. Asked whether AP will respond in a similar manner with respect to any issues in Telangana, he said, “It is a welcome move that Rama Rao has extended support to the VSP agitation. Luckily, Telangana does not have any such problems and we pray that the neighbouring State will not get such problems.’’ polling stations wore a deserted look. Gover nor Biswabhusan Harichandan, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan were among those who cast their vote in Vijayawada, while YSRC MP V Vijayasai Reddy exercised his franchise in Vizag. Stray incidents of violence and clashes between rival parties were witnessed at some places of the State. In Guntur, the vehicle of former MP and YSRC leader Modugula Venugopala Reddy was allegedly attacked by TDP men. P5 e x pr e ss r e a d Khattar govt wins trust vote hands down Chandigarh: The BJP-led government in Haryana survived the floor test on Wednesday, defeating the no-trust motion moved by the Congress. Fiftyfive members voted against the no-confidence motion while 32 supported it | P8 Russia slows down Twitter over violation Moscow: Russian authorities said on Wednesday they are slowing down the speed of uploading photos and videos to Twitter over its failure to remove banned items such as content encouraging suicide among children, use of drugs and child pornography | P9 57 TTD Vedic school students test positive Tirumala: A total of 57 students of Dharmagiri Veda Vignana Peetham of the TTD tested positive for Covid on Wednesday. All the 435 students of Veda Vignana Peetham underwent RT-PCR test five days ago and 57 of them tested positive.