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 ■ ■ tirupati l monday l november 29, 2021 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Trinamool seeks to forge third front against BJP West Bengal’s ruling party is looking to forge a non-Congress Opposition in both Parliamentary Houses to take on the BJP Parties not allied with Congress targeted ‘Nobody is untouchable for us’ Sources in the Trinamool, which will skip the joint strategy meeting today of the Opposition for the winter session, said the party is looking to coordinate with others that are not in alliance with the Congress anywhere. The second largest party in Rajya Sabha and the fourth largest in Lok Sabha, TMC said it won’t align itself with Congress’s floor strategy ■ Oppn demands MSP law at all-party meet E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi With the Opposition making a slew of demands, including a law to guarantee Minimum Support Price for farm produce, at an all-party meeting on Sunday defence minister and , Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Rajnath Singh told floor leaders that the government is ready for a healthy discussion on all issues in the Winter Session of Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the meeting a miss, though in the past he had attended them. The meeting is called a day before the Parliament session begins. Opposition parties indicated they will further pressure the government on farm issues, with some of them expressing concern that the Centre could bring in provisions of the three contentious laws that are up for repeal in a different form. Making it clear that the Opposition parties will take up the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, floor leaders pressed for the sacking of Union minister Ajay Mishra whose son is the prime accused in the violence. Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge demanded a law to guarantee MSP. He also said the government should give financial compensation to victims of Covid-19 as well as the farm agitation. V Vijaysai Reddy of the YSR Congress demanded the expansion of the MSP basket to cover marine and poultry products. He also sought caste census. ■ The Trinamool has burnt bridges with the Congress as it has opened its door to rebels so as to realise its national ambition “We will reach out to all like-minded parties, whether it is the Samajwadi Party or BJD, for a stronger Opposition front. Nobody is untouchable for us,” said a TMC MP | P7 22 MPs TMC has in Lok Sabha, compared with 53 MPs of Congress Landslide BJP win in Tripura civic polls P r a s a nta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati The ruling BJP in Tripura swept the civic elections on Sunday, capturing power in all 20 urban local bodies (ULBs). The elections were held against the backdrop of sporadic incidents of political violence. The CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had accused of BJP of assault and intimidation of their workers. Of the total 334 seats, the BJP won 329. It had won 112 seats in seven ULBs unopposed earlier. Three seats went to the CPI(M) and one each to the TMC and the TIPRA Motha. That the BJP was serious about the polls was evident from Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking to Twitter to congratulate people and party workers on the success. The TMC was optimistic about its success in the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) but the BJP won all its 51 seats. “People of Agartala have shown abundant confidence in the double engine government led by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @ Narendra Modi ji,” Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb tweeted. The TMC had viewed the polls as its launch pad to make inroads into the Bengali-majority state. Its defeat comes days after it became Meghalaya’s main opposition through a political coup that saw 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs defecting to it. TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee said it was exceptional for a party with negligible presence to to get over 20% vote share in the polls. Test norms for fliers revised E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi With the highly infectious Omicron variant of the coronavirus being detected in at least two more countries on Sunday the Centre decided to re, view its decision on resuming commercial foreign flights. Before Omicron surfaced, it had reportedly planned to resume full international travel from December 15. And now, new guidelines from the health ministry state that passengers travelling from or transiting through “at risk” countries will have to take a RT-PCR test on arrival in India and will be required to wait for the results before leaving the airport or taking a connecting flight. Five per cent of travellers from other countries in each flight will be randomly tested at the airport. The “at-risk” countries are Euro- A rain-soaked building (inset), which collapsed at Narsampeta village in Railway Kodur mandal of Kadapa district on Sunday | Express More rains likely in south coastal Andhra Heavy rains are likely at isolated places in Nellore, Prakasam and Chittoor districts on Monday. Light to moderate rains may occur at several places across south coastal districts and Rayalaseema and at a few places in north coastal AP Holiday for schools in Kadapa, exams deferred Holiday has been declared for schools in Kadapa district on Monday. Yogi Vemana University postponed the second semester degree, BEd, MEd, MBA and MCA exams. Police have been posted at causeways to prevent people from crossing streams Control rooms set up Kadapa collectorate - 08562246344, 08562-244437 Kadapa RDO office - 08562-295990 Rajampet - 08565-240066 Jammalamadugu - 9966225191 Atmakur constituency Minister M Gautham Reddy office Manohar Reddy 9440189133 Shankar Reddy 9441251746 Prakasam district police - Dial 100 or WhatsApp No. 9121102266 No let-up in rain fury in Nellore, Kadapa E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Tirupati / Kadapa Parts of Nellore, Chittoor and Kadapa districts have been receiving incessant rains since Saturday late night, putting the official machinery on high alert. Butchireddypalem in Nellore district received the highest rainfall of 14 cm, followed by Atmakuru with 10 cm in the last 24 hours. Nellore, Kodavaluru, Naidupet and Vidavaluru mandals received 10 to 11 cm rainfall, while Kovur and Sangam recorded 9 cm. An average rainfall of 6 cm was recorded in the entire district. Many low-lying areas close to the city such as Janardhan Reddy Colony and Bhagat Singh Colony were inundated. Several colonies located on the outskirts of Atmakuru were flooded. Somasila project has been receiving 45,176 cusecs of inflows. Irrigation officials started releasing 45,255 45,176 cusecs 45,255 14 cm Somasila project is receiving heavy inflows following rains in its upper catchment areas cusecs of water is being released from the project Audio-video display soon at Lord Hanuman’s birthplace E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Tirupati After announcing Tirumala as the birthplace of Lord Hanuman, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has laid emphasis on promoting it in a big way to attract pilgrims. As part of it, the TTD has decided to arrange an audio-video display highlighting the birth legacy of Lord Hanuman at Akasha Ganga on Tirumala Hills. TTD Executive Officer KS Jawahar Reddy who discussed steps to be , taken for promoting Tirumala Hills as the birthplace of Lord Hanuman, directed officials to set up a theme park and a Dhyana Mandir on both sides of Akasha Ganga. “The theme park should be set up on one side of cusecs from the project. They are getting ready to discharge around 1 lakh cusecs of water keeping in view the flood situation in its upper catchment areas. Road connectivity between Chitveli and Rapur in Nellore district was cut off as local streams at Anumpalle are in spate. People living in low-lying areas have been advised to shift to relief centres set up in government schools in the district The temple town of Tirupati received moderate to heavy rainfall on Sunday. Sathyavedu mandal recorded the highest rainfall of 5 cm in Chittoor district. A house collapsed in Tirupati. However, no loss of life was reported. With heavy rain forecast for the next four days in south coastal Andhra and Chittoor in Rayalaseema, the district administrations of Nellore and Chittoor directed special officers to take all precautionary measures to P3 mitigate loss  steps towards Akasha Ganga depicting the life of Lord Hanuman, right from the penance of Anjana Devi to Hanuman being made minister of Vanara King Sugriva,” he said. The EO asked the officials to take the assistance of art director Anand Sai in preparing a power-point presentation on the proposed theme park. The presentation should be ready by the next TTD Trust Board meeting. A rooftop covering the way from Tirumala to Akasha Ganga should also be built to protect pilgrims from rain and sun, he said. At a separate review meeting on Sunday, the EO instructed the officials to remodel the Sri Venkateswara Museum at Tirumala into a new entity by the next Brahmotsavams.  P3 Butchireddypalem in Nellore district recorded the highest rainfall in the last 24 hours express read Governor hospitalised with post-Covid complications Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan was admitted to AIG Hospital at Gachibowli in Hyderabad following post-Covid complications. According to sources, doctors observed differences in certain parameters during a post-Covid-19 check-up on Sunday. The 87-year-old Governor was flown to Hyderabad immediately | P4 NATIONWIDE Nov 27 Nov 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 8,318 10,967 465 8,774 9,481 621 statewide Nov 27 nov 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths Samples tested 248 178 253 190 0 6 28,509 27,657 Catching the bug in time South Africa didn’t wait for gene sequencing to spot the variant, as it used a RT-PCR test with a gene kit that can show a result of a undetectable S-gene target — a marker for Omicron. India doesn’t have the kit yet, but it can begin manufacturing quickly, says scientist Anurag Agrawal | P7 pean nations, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel. On Sunday, in an urgent meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, the government issued a slew of directions to states for ramping up testing-surveillance meas- ures and health facilities, asking them focus on intensive containment, monitoring of hotspots and increased vaccination coverage. The meeting follows a high-level review by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday . For their part, states began to retighten Covid restrictions and trace people who arrived from abroad, especially from ‘at risk’ nations in the last one month. Though no Omicron cases have been recorded in India yet, confirmed or suspected cases have emerged in Europe, Israel and Hong Kong — just days after it was first detected in South Africa. The Netherlands confirmed 13 cases, Australia two and the UK one on Sunday . In a drastic move, Israel barred entry to foreigners and Morocco suspended all incoming air travel.  P12