what your ppf account will now fetch Instrument tirupati l THURSday l APRIL 01, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Small savings rates slashed. A case of bad timing? The Centre on Wednesday revised interest rates of various small savings schemes for the first quarter of FY22 (April 1 to June 30, 2021) The announcement comes at a time when five states are going to polls This might not sit well with voters who have invested in small saving schemes 50-100 bps down Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis. The new rates are lower by 50-100 basis points and this is for the first time since 1974 that Public Provident Fund interest rate will be below 7 per cent Savings deposit 1-year time deposit 2-year time deposit 3-year time deposit 5-year time deposit 5-year RD Senior citizen saving schemes Monthly income account National Savings Certificate Pubic Provident Fund scheme Rate of interest 1.1.2021 to 31.3.2021 4.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 6.7 5.8 7.4 6.6 6.8 7.1 Rate of interest Compounding 1.4.2021 to frequency 30.6.2021 3.5 4.4 5.0 5.1 5.8 5.3 6.5 5.7 5.9 6.4 6.9 (maturing 6.2 (maturing Annual Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Monthly Annual Annual in 124 months) Kisan Vikas Patra Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme in 138 months) Annual 7.6 6.9 Annual The last time the Central government had cut the interest rates of small savings schemes in a big way was in the April-June quarter of 2020-21, when rates were slashed by 70-140 basis points `3.9 lakh cr From the small savings corpus will be used to finance 26% of the fiscal deficit in FY22 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 Mixed response to Mamata’s mid-poll pitch on Oppn unity Cong chief Sonia Gandhi remains silent, RJD, NCP concur with Didi; writes to Jagan, too, but not KCR Core infra slips 4.6% in Feb, the most in 6 months I strongly believe that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attacks on democracy and the Constitution Mamata Banerjee, CM We support Mamata. Sharad Pawar may campaign in the last phase of the elections in Bengal after he recuperates Nawab Malik, NCP What she has written now was long ago said by RJD chief Lalu Prasad to save the country from being ruined by the BJP Mritunjay Tiwary, RJD express read AP sees highest single-day spike of 1,184 Covid cases Vijayawada: In the sharpest spike since November, Andhra Pradesh reported 1,184 Covid-19 infections on Wednesday taking the cumulative cases to 9,01,989. The record infections reported in the 24 hours ending Wednesday 9 am, emerged from just 30,964 sample tests indicating the second wave of Covid-19 in the State. @ Vijayawada P RAVINDRA BABU amata Banerjee lit up Nandigram with a slogan that perhaps encapsulates where West Bengal is right now, in terms of the gap between its reality and its desire. “Cool cool Trinamool, thanda thanda cool, vote paabe jora phool,” she thundered, with an elan that TV advertising professionals would envy Jora phool is the grass flower associated . with the West Bengal Chief Minister’s party, the Trinamool. Will it get the votes? Therein hangs a tale. Now, West Bengal may well be renamed Nandigram. You must of course overlook a few distractions — like Amit Shah claiming a clean sweep, in arid Purulia. Or Mamata Banerjee actually demanding that the PM’s visa and passport be cancelled for having visited Orakandi in Bangladesh. Those distractions are quite a handful for an Assembly election, you think? Yes. But then, this is West Bengal West Bengal. A little detour: Orakandi is SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA revered by the Matua commu@ Bolpur/Suiri/Rampurhat, Birbhum nity, quite a vital component of the voters in three Bengal districts. Nobody here, among the intelligentsia, quite likes the fact that the name of caste has been taken. Bengal’s politics has always avoided it. And that’s the BJP’s opening. Bengal still speaks a universal language. It still responds to resonating phrases like ‘Amar Naam, Tomar Naam, Nandigram, Nandigram...’ That’s not just a slogan, by the way Kolkata, Howrah, . Hooghly, Burdwan, Birbhum, 24 Parganas—districts which vote in the third and fourth phases or later—seem somewhat indifferent about happens to their own constituencies. But they’re not indifferent about Nandigram. Anywhere and everywhere, it’s difficult to get people focused on any other issue. The small talk all around—the small tea shops, the small man walking back after his day’s work in those rich rice fields—invariably focuses on that one thing. It’s the Big Fight. The questions are: Is Didi panicking? Will Suvendu Adhikari pull it off ? Will Nandigram again be the turning point of Bengal’s political history? It’s quite the local thriller. If you so much as mildly declare that you have been to the epicentre and have come out in one piece, you may very well get a discount at a sweet C shop, or at Sonajuri haat, Santiniketan.  ontinued on P7 Vijayawada sizzles at 43 0 Vijayawada recorded 430 Celsius on Wednesday, which is the highest in the last 10 years in March, according to the India Meteorological Dept. In March last year, highest recorded was 38.90 Celsius wire bundles were recovered from him. The case was taken over by the The National Investigation Agency NIA and the FIR was filed on March 7 (NIA) reportedly conducted raids on this year. In the FIR, the NIA named the houses of several civil rights ac- 64 others as accused or suspects and tivists at several places in cases under various Secthe State on Wednesday Raids related to tions of IPC, Arms Act evening. and Andhra Pradesh Pubjournalist case The NIA raids are conlic Security Act were The raids were being tinuing at Sattenapalle, registered. conducted in Kurnool, Proddatur and In Kurnool, the NIA connection with an Visakhapatnam when reteams, along with local poFIR filed by the NIA ports last came in. lice, conducted searches following the arrest According to sources, in the house of Virasam of journalist Pangi the raids were being conState executive member Naganna last year by ducted in connection with Pinakapani and RayalaMunchingput police an FIR filed by the NIA folseema Vidyavanthula lowing the arrest of jourVedika president Sonalist Pangi Naganna. masekhara Sarma alias Varun. ConHe was intercepted by Munching- firming the raids, Kurnool III Town put police of Visakhapatnam district Circle Inspector Tabrez said that they in November last year and Maoist lit- were only providing protection to the P4 erature, press notes, medicines and NIA sleuths.  E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Visakhapatnam APERC Chairman CV Nagarjuna Reddy and members P Rajagopala Reddy and Thakur Ram Singh release the new tariff order in Vizag on Wednesday | express Average unit price reduced to `6.37 from `7.17 The APERC has fixed a deficit of `7,433.80 crore for the three Discoms thus avoiding a burden of `4,307.38 crore on power consumers. The Average Cost of Service (ACoS) has been reduced from `7.17 to `6.37 per unit as per the APERC approval. The Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) has released new tariff order for the financial year 2021-22 without putting any a d d i t i o n a l b u r d e n o n p owe r consumers. Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, APERC Chairman Justice CV Nagarjuna Reddy said the average unit price has been brought down to `6.37 from `7.17. He said three Discoms projected a combined deficit of `11,741.18 crore at the proposed tariff with hike in tariff for certain categories of consumers and RESCOs. The APERC has fixed a deficit of `7,433.80 crore for the three Discoms thus avoiding a burden of `4,307.38 P4 crore on consumers.  freedom from torture Abducted TN girl rescued in AP after three years, abductor held WG police plan to hand over girl to her parents Selvam, who abducted the abducted the girl hailing from Sattur near Madurai, was sent to judicial remand when he was produced in court. The West Godavari police are in touch with their Tamil Nadu counterparts to hand over the girl to her parents, said Tanuku Circle Inspector DS Chaitanya Krishna E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Rajamahendravaram A 9-year-old girl, who was abducted from Tamil Nadu three years ago, was rescued by police at Tanuku in West Godavari district on Wednesday . Tanuku Circle Inspector DS Chaitanya Krishna said the girl was identified as Maridhas, who hails from Sattur near Madurai. A physically challenged beggar Selvam abducted the girl while she was going to school. He took the girl to Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajamahendravaram and other places and forced her According to the meteorological office prediction, the maximum temperature is likely to remain 2 to 4 degree above normal at many places in the State during the next four to five days NIA raids houses of several civil rights activists in State APERC new power tariff puts no addl burden on consumers Express news service @ New Delhi Indicating that economic recovery would be slower than anticipated, output of the eight infrastructure sectors contracted by a sharp 4.6% in February – the steepest decline in the past six months – the latest government data showed. According to commerce ministry data released on Wednesday the eight , key core sectors – coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity – witnessed a decline of 4.4%, 3.2%, 1%, 10.9%, 3.7%, 1.8%, 5.5%, and 0.2%, res p e c t i v e l y, in February . Core sector data is crucial as its combined weight is over 40% in the Index of Industrial production (IIP). In January 2021, industrial production slipped 1.6%, after registering a 1% growth in December 2020. Experts say recovery would be delayed with the steep rise in Covid-19 infections across the country. “The fact that all sectors have gone negative is a disappointment,” said Madan Sabnavis of CARE Ratings. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e M @ Kolkata/New Delhi/Patna/Mumbai Contraction 117 employees of TS origin repatriated nandigram talking point across bengal E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Accusing the BJP of trying to establish a one-party ‘’authoritarian rule’’ in the country, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baner jee on Wednesday wrote to top Opposition leaders urging them to unite to defend democracy . Her letter came ahead of the second phase of Assembly elections in West Bengal and it is being seen as an initiative to drum up Opposition support against the BJP which is the main ri, val of the ruling Trinamool Congress in the ongoing polls. Her call drew mixed reactions within the Opposition with the Congress choosing to remain silent, though regional parties like the RJD, NCP AAP , and SP extended full support. “I strongly believe that that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against the BJP’s attack on democracy and the Constitution. We can win this battle only with the unity of hearts and mind and by presenting a credible alternative to the people of India,’’ she wrote. In the three-page letter, Mamata appealed to non-BJP leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, ailing N C P f o u n d e r S h a r a d P aw e r, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, DMK chief M K Stalin, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik RJD chief Tejashwi Yadav, Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy PDP head Mehbooba Muf, ti, CPI(ML) chief Dipankar Bhattacharya and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. She, however, did not write to Telengana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who had fancied his chances in the past at leading a third front. ap’s gesture into begging. The girl was brought to Undrajavaram centre in Tanuku one month ago. On March 20, Selvam beat the girl mercilessly when she refused to beg. The girl suffered a fracture in right hand due to thrashing. Unable to bear the torture, the girl managed to escape from the clutches of Selvam. While she was wandering near the Old Jaggery Market in Tanuku, some lorry drivers noticed her plight and alerted the police. After rescuing the girl, the police nabbed Selvam with the details provided by her about the abductor. The girl was sent to Balasadan in Denduluru In a relief to 117 Class III and Class IV employees of Telangana origin, who are working in Andhra Pradesh, the State government on Wednesday issued an order repatriating them. They included 13 Class IV employees of Telangana origin, who were appointed on compassionate grounds in AP . The employees of Telangana origin met Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy earlier in the day and urged him to repatriate them. Soon after they made a representation to the Chief Minister, the General Administration Department issued GO Ms No 37 to repatriate Class III and Class IV employees of Telangana origin. Though all these employees had opted for Telangana, they were allotted to AP by the CR Kamalanathan Committee after the bifurcation in 2014. In August 2019 and January 2021, the AP government informed the neighbouring State its willingness to repatriate them if the Telangana government makes a formal request to take back them permanently or deputation. In March, the Telangana government informed AP that it would ready to take back the employees. It urged the AP government to repatriate the employees who give an undertaking that they are ready to take posting at any place in Telangana. AP Government Employees Federation chairman K Venkatarami Reddy said following a representation made by the federation and the employees, Jagan had given instructions to the GAD to relieve them.