BRACING FOR JAWAD With the deep depression in the Bay of Bengal intensifying into Cyclone Jawad on Friday afternoon, it is expected to reach the west-central Bay of Bengal off North Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coast by Saturday morning. In the picture, fishermen are seen shifting their boats from the seashore to safer places in Visakhapatnam on Friday | G SATYANARAYANA | P5 KALABURAGI  SATURDAY  DECEMBER 4, 2021  `7.00  PAGES 14  CITY EDITION 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 With Omicron, strict Covid norms back EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru FOUR SOUTH AFRICANS NOT TRACEABLE BENGALURU: BBMP and health department officials are trying to trace four South Africans who flew into Bengaluru two weeks ago, but are not traceable now. Officials say that many travellers from high-risk countries had arrived in Bengaluru much before the state government issued norms making negative RT-PCR test report mandatory, besides a test on arrival. BBMP has sought police help to find them. P3 EXPRESS READ 5 MLAs in Bihar refuse to recite nat’l anthem Patna: Five MLAs of Asasuddin Owaisi-led AIMIM on Friday refused to recite the national anthem on concluding day of the winter session of the state legislature on Friday, triggering sharp reaction from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party | P8 WITH two cases of Omicron variant of Covid19 detected in Bengaluru and clusters forming in educational institutions, the Karnataka government on Friday issued fresh guidelines, making it mandatory for parents, who are sending their children to schools and colleges, to be fully vaccinated. Also, double-dose vaccination is a must for entering malls and cinema halls. The guidelines, issued after Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s meeting with experts to discuss the state’s strategy to contain the Covid spread, stated that educational institutions SA TRAVELLER TESTS COVID +VE should postpone all cultural events A traveller from till January 15. After the meeting, Revenue Minis- South Africa tested ter R Ashoka said the government is positive for Covidtaking measures for proactive moni- 19 after landing in toring, surveillance and focused im- Bengaluru on plementation of five-fold strategy of Wednesday His test, track, treat, vaccination and ad- swab samples have herence to Covid-appropriate behav- been sent for iour to prevent the spread of the new genome sequencing to variant in the state. Acknowledging that the situation determine whether is grave, the government is bringing he is infected with back the system that was in place Omicron during the second wave of the pandemic. It includes increasing the number of tests to one lakh a day oxygenated beds, oxygen plants, reactivating , oxygen transportation system, ensuring the availability of medicines, restarting state control room, appointing nodal officers and giving emphasis on contact tracing. Ashoka said the double-dose vaccination for parents of students below 18 years old has been made mandatory as the number of cases in educational institutions is rising. CONTINUED ON: P4 JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT Dec 02 66,21,382 doses Dec 03 66,58,055 doses TOTAL: 1,26,44,92,187 NATIONWIDE DEC 02 DEC 03 KARNATAKA DEC 02 DEC 03 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 9,765 8,548 477 9,216 8,612 391 363 191 3 413 256 4 As fuel sales go up after tax cut, revenue loss to state minimised B A N S Y K A L A P PA @ B e n g a l u r u A health worker at Kempegowda bus station adjusts the mask of an elderly woman in Bengaluru on Friday | SHRIRAM BN TAKING ON THE VARIANT Parents of children below 18 years, going to school/college, to be compulsorily vaccinated with two doses Two doses of vaccine All govt must to enter malls, employees to be cinema halls, theatres fully vaccinated Maximum 500 people allowed at gatherings, meetings, conferences; organisers responsible for enforcing Covid-appropriate behaviour B250 fine for not wearing masks in municipal corporation areas, B100 in other areas Cultural activities, functions in educational institutions to be postponed till Jan 15, 2022 Compulsory testing of health workers, senior citizens, people with comorbidities to be taken up by health dept Random Covid tests on college students and school children once in 15 days Hotel and restaurant staff, shopkeepers of malls, markets, cooks, door delivery staff, industrial workers, office workers, pub and bar staff members, attendants in malls, cinema halls, those in crowds and workers of Anganawadi centers shall also under go random tests once in 15 days IT has been a month since the state government cut taxes on fuels, which Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had said would lead to a revenue loss of Rs 2,000 crore to the state exchequer. However, the cut in fuel prices has led to nearly a 10-fold increase in the sales of petrol and diesel, minimising losses to the state. In November, revenues from fuel sales were up by approxi- mately Rs 200 crore. “The consumption and sales tax collection of oil companies is also more as compared to last year,” Commercial Taxes Commissioner C Shikha told TNIE. On November 4, soon after the government announced the cuts, she had said that the revenue loss would be made up with the increase in consumption which has come true. Karnataka had reduced the taxes and levies by about Rs 7 per litre of petrol and diesel, while the Centre had effected a cut of around Rs 5. BT Manohar, Chair man, state GST committee, said, “With the fuel rate cut, the consumption has increased. This has resulted in an increase in revenues from fuel sales.” Despite heavy rain and inclement weather, the fuel sales were up in November. The consumption will only go up over the next few months with the weather expected to ease up, sources said. NAVY DAY Trident’s killer blow on Pakistan navy P R I YA N K A C H A N D A N I ON December 2, 1971, when Rear Admiral S R Sampath Gopal (Retd) and Commodore Inderjit Sharma (Retd) along with other crew members were ordered to sail out of Mumbai harbour to the south of Saurashtra port in Diu and then to Okha, little did they know their mission would be commemorated as Navy Day each year. For, a day after the war with Pakistan began, their audacious attack, code named Operation Trident, dealt a huge blow on the enemy’s navy It has . been 50 years since the 14-day war, which shaped the course of not just India’s history but altered the geography of the subcontinent, forming a new nation — Bangladesh. “It was perhaps the only action we saw, that too immedi- INS Nipat that took part in Operation Trident (L) Rear Admiral Sampath against Gopal (Retd), Commodore Pakistan in Inderjit Sharma (Retd) 1971 ately after getting commissioned in Indian Navy It made . a lot of impact on our outlook and attitude to service,” recalls Rear Admiral Gopal. Undertaken as a moral war to liberate people from the East Pakistan, the naval operation took place under the cover of darkness after Pakistan launched a pre-emptive attack on seven Indian airfields on December 3. Indian Navy’s Osa class boats of the 25th missile vessel squadron that comprised Nipat, Nirghat, Kachall, Kiltan and Veer were chosen for the operation due to their lethality, high speed and small radar cross-section. Two of the boats were towed to Okha from Mumbai because they could not sail beyond 250 knots. “We were asked to sail on December 2 and anchored in Diu. We were waiting for orders till December 3. In the evening, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared war, and then we were asked to execute Operation Trident. On the afternoon of December 4, five of us (boats and crew), assembled in Dwarka and the operation was to be executed the same night. The combined briefing was done and we were not to break any radio signals so we kept all the briefing close to each other,” reP7 calls the Rear Admiral.