COVID SPREAD BECOMES FASTER NO INDISCRIMINATE USE OF COVID PILL Average R-value (number of people a Covid patient can infect) touched 1.64 on Jan 10 from 0.95 on Dec 2 — an increase of 73% in 40 days Molnupiravir has not been included in national treatment guidelines owing to safety concerns 17 states have R-value greater than the national average HYDERABAD  WEDNESDAY  JANUARY 12, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 16  LATE CITY EDITION YOGI MINISTER QUITS, BJP LOSES OBC HEAVYWEIGHT Expected to join SP; three MLAs loyal to him also resign from party N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow IN a major setback for the BJP senior , OBC leader and labour minister in the Uttar Pradesh government Swami Prasad Maurya quit his post on Tuesday citing ideological differences and the alleged negligence of the Yogi Adityanath government towards the backward classes, farmers, youth and small traders. Later, three MLAs supporting him — Brajesh Prajapati, Roshan Lal Varma and Bhagwati Sagar — also quit the party Maurya claimed more BJP . legislators would leave the party. “The edge of my blow would be felt in the days to come with a series of resignations from the BJP he said, add,” ing that he would announce his future course of action on January 14. Maurya also resigned from the BJP BID TO STITCH OPPN PACT IN FIVE STATES NCP chief Sharad Pawar is trying to cobble together a joint Opposition alliance in the poll-bound states, though the Congress officially rejected TMC’s overtures in Goa | P8 and is expected to join the Samajwadi Party (SP) along with his supporters. Meanwhile, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted an undated photograph of him with Maurya, saying, “We welcome the leader of social justice and equality in SP .” The development came on a day when UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CM Keshav Prasad Muarya and state BJP chief Swatan- tra Dev Singh met the party’s top leadership in Delhi to finalise the names of candidates for the upcoming state polls. According to sources, Maurya was in touch with the SP chief and the two discussed the political future of Maurya’s daughter Sanghmitra, a BJP MP from Badaun who had in 2019 defeated Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav. BJP insiders said Maurya wanted to contest the upcoming polls from a seat other than his constituency Padrauna. He also sought a ticket for his son Ashok and two dozen partymen close to him. However, the BJP’s top leadership did not respond favourably. Maurya and the three MLAs had switched over to the BJP from the BSP in 2016 ahead of the P8 2017 polls. APEX COURT REGISTRY SITTING ON CBI PLEA IN MARAN CASE Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao receives RJD chief and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav at Pragathi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Tuesday Lalu asks KCR to take the lead in making India ‘BJP Mukt’ tics. “You fought relentlessly for the separate Telangana State, sacrificed LENDING his shoulder to TRS su- a lot and reached your target. Now, premo and Chief Minister K Chan- you are leading Telangana on a drasekhar Rao’s efforts to bring to- developmental path and the entire gether non-BJP forces in the country country is proud of it. Your rule is in , Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) presi- favour of all the castes and religions dent and for mer Bihar in Telangana. Your experiChief Minister Lalu Prasad ence in governance is reYadav on Tuesday exhorted quired for the nation. You the former to take an active have to play a suitable role You have to play a role in the national politics at national-level politics in suitable role at to oust the saffron party. order to protect the secular national-level Lalu’s request came after and democratic culture of politics in order to Rao’s recent meetings with the country We have to pro. protect the secular top leaders of CPM and CPI tect the country from the and democratic to float an alternative front anarchical rule of BJP For . culture of the for ensuring “BJP Mukt country. We have to this, all secular forces Bharat”. protect the country have to come together. At RJD leader and Bihar Op- from the anarchical any cost, we should not alrule of BJP position leader Tejashwi low the country to be ruYadav, son of Lalu Prasad ined. Take the lead,” Lalu Lalu Prasad Yadav, Yadav, called on Rao at Pratold Rao. RJD president gathi Bhavan on Tuesday. According to sources, During the meeting with Tejashwi, both Tejashwi and Rao discussed Rao called up Lalu Prasad Yadav and various national issues. Former Bienquired about his health. har Minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui, During the tele-talk, Lalu recalled former MLC Sunil Singh and former that RJD supported the separate Tel- MLA Bhola Yadav and TRS working angana statehood movement and president KT Rama Rao and TRS MP then requested Rao to come forward J S a n t o s h Ku m a r we re a l s o CONTINUED ON P4 to take an active role in national poli- present. V V B A L A K R I S H N A @ Hyderabad Remember the MTNL rip-off by Dayanidhi Maran when he was Union telecom minister? He had a secret and un-billable telephone exchange that had 756 multimedia high-speed lines installed at his homes in Chennai and linked to Sun TV illegally. For years, the Marans tried to misuse even the judicial process to delay the trial, but now it is on in full steam. Nine months ago, the CBI moved the SC for permission to launch further probe so as to add Sun TV as accused, but the registry is yet to list it for hearing. Will judicial delay let the Marans off the hook, wonders S Gurumurthy PAGE 7 87% of samples in TS are of Omicron D O N I TA J O S E @ Hyderabad TELANGANA has shifted rapidly towards the Omicron variant, virtually replacing Delta altogether. This was revealed in the latest GISAID data where nearly 87 per cent of all samples sequenced between January 1 to 5 were of Omicron variant. The data is from 103 samples sequenced at Gandhi Medical College, which recently started genome sequencing. Of the 103 samples sequenced during this period, 90 showed Omicron variant and 13 were of Delta, which dominated the State for the last six months. Of the 90 Omircon samples, 19 were of BA.1 sub-lineage and 69 of BA.2 sub-lineage. These findings are in line with the international sequencing results wherein 90 per cent of the samples are of Omicron CONTINUED ON P2 variant. TS Budget may not cross `2 L crore as grant-in-aid from Centre remains low E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad YET again, the Central government has disappointed the State in grantin-aid contributions. Though the State expected `38,669.46 crore grantin-aid in 2021-22 Budget, it received only `5,155.98 crore till October, which is less than what it received during the corresponding period the previous year. In 2020-21 Budget, the State received `6,002.13 crore grant-in-aid up to October, 2020, according to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Besides this, the State’s plans to generate around `30,000 crore nontax revenue too did not materialise. As against the Budget estimate of `30,557.35 crore non-tax revenue, the State realised only `2,854 crore till October, 2021. As the auction of government lands was not on the expected lines, the non-tax revenue collections are very less this year. The Budget size for 2021-22 was estimated to be `2.3 lakh crore but in real terms it has shrunk to less than Govt raises `3K cr State Development Loan The State government raised `3,000 crore State Development Loan on Tuesday for a tenure of 13 years. The rate of interest is 7.28% `2 lakh crore with almost `60,000 crore revenue shortfall expected in the form of grant-in-aid contributions and non-tax revenues. With less revenue realisations and focus increasing on welfare, including the latest Dalit Bandhu scheme, several other new schemes announced in the Budget like comprehensive land survey and providing infrastructure to schools remained on paper. For comprehensive land survey, `400 crore budgetary allocation was made. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said that “to upgrade and modernise the education sector in the State comprehensively, the govern- ment formulated a new education scheme. The proposed allocation for the scheme is `4,000 crore. In the next two years, the government will provide basic facilities in all the government schools on a large scale”. Accordingly, the government has to spend `2,000 crore for the new education scheme this year and another `2,000 crore in 2022-23 Budget year. But no funds have been released till date. “The new scheme still remains on paper. Not even a detailed project report has been prepared. The government merely confined it to statements. Had the government released `63 crore, the schools might have engaged sanitation workers. But this paltry amount too has not been released,” Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation (TSUTF) general secretary Chava Ravi said. The government proposed `5,225 crore allocation for crop loan waiver in the Budget but nothing has been done on that front. The government sources, however, blame it on Covid-19. These states include Bihar (2.08), UP (2.03) and all five southern states. Maharashtra, MP, Chhattisgarh, Bengal and Jharkhand also have R-value over 1.64 Contraception must for three months for both men and women taking the pill; otherwise, the child born may have genetic disorders It can cause defects in a developing fetus and it may affect the reproductive system in youngsters | P7 JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT Jan 10 82,76,158 doses Jan 11 76,68,282 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,53,70,44,657 NATIONWIDE JAN 10 JAN 11 Fresh cases 1,79,723 1,68,063 Recoveries 46,569 69,959 Deaths 146 277 TELANGANA JAN 10 JAN 11 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 1,825 351 1 1,920 417 2 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■