HYDERABAD  FRIDAY  JANUARY 14, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 28  LATE CITY EDITION NO BREAKTHROUGH IN 14TH INDIA-CHINA BORDER TALKS STAGE SET FOR NEXT ROUND OF TALKS The Corps Commander-level meeting was held at the ChushulMoldo border meeting point on the Chinese side on Wednesday TROOPS TO REMAIN IN FRICTION POINTS With the dialogue failing to move forward, both sides decided to hold the next round of the commanders’ talks at the earliest possible date. “The two sides agreed to stay in close contact and maintain dialogue via military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest,” said a joint statement issued on Thursday ■ ■ Army Chief General M M Naravane had said on Wednesday that India was hopeful of resolving issues related to disengagement at Patrolling Point 15 (Hot Springs) in Ladakh in the latest talks The 13th round of Corps Commander-level talks held on October 10, 2021 had also ended in a stalemate | P7 50,000-60,000 TROOPS EACH SIDE HAS DEPLOYED ALONG THE LINE OF ACTUAL CONTROL IN LADAKH 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 Design Covid strategies that save livelihood: PM Suggests local containment, steps that insulate the economy EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi SUPREME DEVOTION Chief Justice of India Justice NV Ramana takes part in the golden chariot procession of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala on the occasion of Vaikunta Ekadasi on Thursday OBC bleeding continues in UP BJP, one more minister quits N A M I TA BA J PA I @ Lucknow THE saga of defections of disgruntled ministers and MLAs in Uttar Pradesh just ahead of elections, after having enjoyed a full term of five years, continued on Thursday with minister Dharam Singh Saini quitting the Yogi Adityanath government and two MLAs — Mukesh Verma (Shikohabad) and Vinay Shakya (Bidhuna) — resigning from the BJP . While OBC leader Saini cited the BJP-led government’s alleged neglect of the backward class, the two MLAs also gave similar reasons. All three are expected to join the Samajwadi Party With this, the number of leaders who have left the BJP has . risen to 13. According to sources, BJP MLA from Dhaurahara Bala Prasad Awasthi is also planning to quit. Notably most of the deserters had defected to the BJP from the , BSP in 2017 just before the polls. Saini won the 2002 and 2007 elections from Sarsawa in Saharanpur as a BSP candidate. He was shifted to Nakur in 2012 where he defeated Congress strongman Imran Masood. He won from Nakur again on a BJP ticket in 2017. EXPRESS FOLLOW-UP Delhi HC stays opaque Chess League tender S H A H I D F A R I D I @ New Delhi THE Delhi High Court has stayed the All India Chess Federation’s tender to organise the ‘Indian Chess League’, ‘Online Chess League’ and ‘Chess in School’ after a petition was filed charging the federation with refusal to clearly inform bidders about the nature of contract and the scope of work. A two-judge bench, comprising justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, in its order on Wednesday that was uploaded a day later, said: “The petitioner is aggrieved by the clandestine manner in which the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 have sought to tender the services... (It) was wholly cryptic and no terms and conditions of tender were circulated to the prospective and interested bidders.” The order further said “despite the petitioner raising pertinent questions seeking information, there was no response and those queries were not responded to. We are, therefore, inclined to restraint respondent Nos. 1 & 2 from proceeding to either award the contract in relation to the said tender, or carry out any work in respect thereof, if the tender is awarded, till the CONTINUED ON P8 next date.” HIGH COURT GIVES NOD FOR PERMIT ROOMS AT LIQUOR SHOPS PAGE P4 ADVISING heightened alert to avoid panic situations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first meeting with chief ministers since the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, suggested adopting local containment strategies that have the least impact on livelihood and the economy . He also urged them to be prepared for future variants of the virus as it mutates very fast. “The earlier confusion about Omicron is slowly getting cleared now. The Omicron variant is infecting the general public many times faster than the earlier variants. We have to be alert, be careful, but we also have to take care that there is no panic situation,” Modi said, whose closing remarks were broadcast on social media. Stressing that the Centre and states are dealing with the pandemic for two years now, NATIONWIDE JAN 12 JAN 13 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths TELANGANA JAN 12 JAN 13 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT 1,94,720 2,47,417 60,405 84,825 442 380 2,319 417 2 2,707 582 2 January 12 66,77,685 doses January 13 63,92,572 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,55,28,76,434 Modi urged chief ministers to stick the past practices and work collectively . “The way the Central and state governments had adopted a pre-emptive, proactive and collective approach, the same is the mantra of victory this time as well. The more we can limit the corona infection, the less the problem will be,” he said. Underscoring the point that economic activities should not be disrupted, Modi sought to nudge chief ministers to avoid lockdown situations. While Delhi has imposed weekend curfew, other states, too, have announced various restrictions, including night curfew. FACTOIDS 2,47,417 13.11% 10.80% New cases in the country as on Thursday morning Daily positivity rate Weekly Positivity Rate HEALTH INFRA EXPANDED Utilising the `23,000 crore package sanctioned by the Centre earlier to revamp health infra, over 800 paediatric units, 1.5 lakh new ICU and HDU beds, more than 5,000 special ambulances and over 950 liquid medical oxygen storage tank capacity have been added across the country so far @ Kolkata / New Delhi / Guwahati AT least six persons were killed and dozens injured after Guwahati-bound Bikaner Express via Patna was on Thursday derailed and four of its coaches rolled into a ditch beside the railway tracks at Maynaguri in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, around 680 km from Kolkata. Jalpaiguri District Magistrate Moumita Godara Basu said around 45 passengers were injured in the accident. Sources said the casualties might go up as the condition of 15 injured was critical. The Railways has ordered a high-level inquirty into the accident. According to sources, the train was not at high speed when the accident happened. “After Siliguri, there is speed EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad IN a shocking case of lack of empathy, the frontline warriors and female house surgeons of Kakatiya Medical College (KMC), Warangal have been asked to vacate their hostel by January 17, failing which electricity and water supply would be cut. The issue arose after the college management decided to turn their hostel into an isolation ward, leaving 83 female house surgeons of 2016 batch virtually shelterless. In a letter to the hospital superintendent and the District Collector, the house surgeons, under the banner of Junior Doctors Association, urged the authorities to reverse the decision. “The news has been sudden and came as a hock to us. We have no alternative accommodation. As our hostel (female house surgeons block) is right opposite the Female PGs block, there is also a risk of them getting infected thereby causing a shortage of staff,” they said. It is also learnt that eventually the college administration allotted them a new accommodation outside the campus, which has only 16 rooms to accommodate 83 girl students. restriction as the railway tracks pass through elephant corridors in Dooars forest,” said an official. A senior technical officer with the Indian Railways in Delhi said derailment of such grave magnitude generally occurs when tracks are defective or not maintained properly . One of the rescue team members who reached the site after 30 minuets of derailment said the locals had already started the rescue operation. “It was like a thunderbolt. We all fell on each other. There were cries all over,” said Manua Das, who was rescued by locals. Another passenger who escaped unhurt said, “It was as if a major earthquake occurred inside the train.” Bablu Das, a local youth, said he and his friends dragged out many injured from he ill-fated coaches. Rescue operation underway after Bikaner Express got derailed at Mainaguri in Jalpaiguri on Thursday | PTI RLYS ANNOUNCES `5 L COMPENSATION Accident happened around 5 pm when the train was running at 40 km per hour 12 coaches in all derailed, four of which were badly damaged after falling into a ditch Gas cutters used to access, rescue passengers trapped inside the derailed coaches 51 ambulances sent to the spot, hospitals in Jalpaiguri receive the injured Around 1,150 passengers were on the train at the time of the accident Rlys announces relief of `5 lakh for the victims’ families and `1 lakh for the seriously injured RISING REALTY Hyd property sales touch `253 bn in 2021 S U N N Y B A S K I @ Hyderabad BOUNCING back strongly from the pandemic blues of 2020, the realty sector is now up and going with residential property registrations in Hyderabad doubling in 2021. The property registrations which stood at 22,570 in 2020, shot up to 44,278 in 2021. The total value of properties registered was `253 billion. About 60 per cent of property registrations during last December were under `50 lakh ticket size. According to Knight Frank, monthly residential property registrations in Hyderabad — including Forest cover up in TS but declines in Kawal D O N I TA J OS E @ Hyderabad THE news is both sweet and sour. Telangana’s concerted efforts to improve forest cover over the years may have paid off as there is a significant improvement but at the same time there is also a sharp decline in forest cover at Kawal Tiger Reserve. The State has been recognised as one of the top States in ensuring an increase in total forest cover by the biennial Forest Survey of India Report 2021, which also pointed out its poor show in conserving forest in Kawal. Overall, forest cover in the State rose to 632 square kilometres, a 3.07 per cent increase. The survey states that Telangana’s total forest cover increased from 20,582 sq km in 2019 to 21,214 sq km in 2021. The State is in second place, just behind Andhra Pradesh. According to the report, the increase in forest cover has largely been in the Moderately Dense Forest (MDF) cover, where a 332 sq km increase was seen, followed by Open Forests (OF) where a 284 sq km increase was witnessed. The least increase of 16 sq km was seen in the Very Dense Forest (VDF) cover. Apart from this, the city of Hyderabad was on top of the list of ‘Forest Covers in Major Mega Cities’ in terms of decadal increase. According to the report, Hyderabad’s total forest cover went up from 33.15 sq km from 2011 to to 81.81 sq km in 2021, a whopping 147 per cent increase, and it was largely seen in the open forests, shrubs and moderate forests cover. However, the same report has a shocking red flag in terms of the State’s conservation efforts as it was found that Kawal Tiger Reserve forest areas saw a decline in decadal forest cover by a whopping five per cent, which translates to 118 sq km. The Reserves’ total forest cover dropped from 1,825.85 sq km in 2011 to 1,706.88 sq km in CONTINUED ON P5 2021. KMC’s plan for isolation wards spells trouble for docs, interns SIX DEAD AS TRAIN DERAILS IN BENGAL E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E MIXED RESULTS Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Sangareddy districts, stood at 3,931 units in December 2021, registering a marginal decline of 0.5 per cent YoY in December 2020. The total value of properties registered was `23.4 billion, recording a growth of 16 per cent YoY over the same reference period. The share of sales in the 1,000 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft unit size range decreased from 70 per cent in December 2020 to 66 per cent in December 2021. Shares in all other unit size categories have remained stable or increased in December 2021. Prices remained resilient in Hyderabad during the worst of the pandemic in 2020 and have grown steadily in 2021. The weighted average transacted price of residential properties, as reflected by the registration data, jumped 15.9 per cent YoY in December 2021 and depicted the underlying momentum of the CONTINUED ON P3 market. “The rooms are very small, poorly ventilated and in an unhygienic condition. How are we supposed to cope and adjust in the new accommodation amidst hectic duties,” they asked. The doctors are distressed that with only four months left in their internship, the sudden shift will be stressful and would impact their work. “It is not clear why they chose only this hostel when there are other vacant hostels where isolation wards can be set up. The students in those hostels have gone for Sankranti break. This sudden threat of shutting water supply is disheartening. Is this what we get for the service we rendered in the last one year?” asked a student on condition of anonymity .