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 ■ ■ HYDERABAD  THURSDAY  JANUARY 20, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 16  LATE CITY EDITION SC gives chief secys of AP, Bihar a piece of its mind over tardy relief is total callousness and negligence on part of Andhra Pradesh... It is unfortuAPPALLED at the slow pace of disbur- nate that directions of this court are sal of Covid ex-gratia by a few states de- taken so lightly. Your chief secretary spite multiple directions, the Supreme and chief minister are not above law. Court on Wednesday asked the chief People are not at your mercy This is an . secretaries of Bihar and Andhra order by the court and you are not Pradesh to appear before it, statobliging us by following it,” the ing people cannot be left at the bench said. mercy of the executive. In the post-lunch session, both The court directed states to Andhra Pradesh Chief Secreshare complete details about the tary Sameer Sharma and his Binumber of Covid deaths as har counterpart Amir Subhawell as information uploaded ni appeared. By then, Andhra Slap on on the Bal Swaraj Portal with had updated its figures. It said Kerala’s wrist it received 41,292 applications their respective State Legal While Telangana Services Authorities. in all out of which 34,819 were had officially It also directed states to go found eligible, and 23,835 have recorded 3,993 by the information uploaded already received compensadeaths, it received on the Bal Swaraj Portal to oftion. Of the 10,984 to be paid, 28,969 claims. In fer compensation and reha5,141 will get it within three contrast, Kerala’s bilitation to all children ordays. Also, the rejected claims official toll is phaned by the virus. will be reviewed suo motu, While Andhra Pradesh’s of- 49,300 but has just Sharma assured. 27, 274 claims. ficial records show 14,471 CovBihar, too was pulled up for id deaths, after the Supreme “What is this going receiving just 11,095 claims. on in Kerala? Why Court’s orders in June and OcThe bench felt the state had are there so few tober to pay `50,000 ex-gratia, not done enough to communithe state received 36,205 claims claims? Why cannot cate the scheme to the people. as on January 16. But compen- officials reach out to It refused to accept that Bisation had been given to only the family or the kin har’s official Covid toll was for compensation? 12,090. The state’s recorded 11,464 so far. A bench of justices M R Let your people find toll as on March last year was Shah and Sanjiv Khanna said, out the families of 3,737. The bench also rapped victims,” the “It is unfortunate that despite Gujarat, Maharashtra and bench said our earlier directions... there Jharkhand for low disbursal. E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi DEFECTION TO BJP FROM MULAYAM’S PARIWAR Lucknow: Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joined the BJP on Wednesday, saying that she supports the good governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, the real reason was SP chief Akhilesh’s reluctance to give her a ticket for the upcoming polls so as not to create alternative power centres. Aparna is married to Prateek Yadav, the son of Mulayam’s second wife PAGE 8 GLOBAL 777 FLIGHTS HIT BY U.S. 5G ROLLOUT EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SEVERAL global airlines, including Air India, have cancelled their flights to the US as a precautionary measure to avoid accidents due to the 5G rollout in North America from Wednesday. The move follows a warning from the US aviation regulator that the high-speed telecom service could interfere with the radio altimeters used by aircraft to take off and land. This is because the band on which altimeter works is very close to that of the 5G system. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has allowed aircraft with accurate, reliable altimeters to fly into airports with 5G signals but the widely used Boeing 777 is not on the list, triggering large-scale flight cancellations. Many global airlines including Emirates, Air France, Lufthansa, British Airways, All Nippon Airways, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific and Austrian Airlines either cancelled trips or used planes other than 777s to fly to US destinations. Air India can- HC junks GOs on fee hike in pvt PG med colleges T G N A I D U @ Hyderabad celled eight flights on India-US routes till further notice. These include services between Delhi and San Francisco, Chicago and JFK, as well as between Mumbai and Newark. “We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and the relevant authorities to alleviate operational concerns, and we hope to resume our US services as soon as possible,” it said. US telecom groups AT&T and Verizon, which are rolling out 5G, claimed the services won’t interfere with aircraft technology The Federal Communications . Commission, which set a buffer between the 5G band and the spectrum that planes use, has also cleared the services in the vicinity of air traffic. Passengers stage protest at Hyd airport E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad IN a major relief to students doing their post-graduation in medicine and dentistry, the Telangana High Court on Wednesday not only struck down two GOs issued by the State government allowing un-aided non-minority medical and dental institutions to increase their tuition fees by up to 990 per cent, but also directed the return of the certificates to the students. The State government had issued GO 41 and GO 43 that came into force from academic year 2017-18, allowing the private colleges to increase the tuition fees from 72 per cent to 990 per cent. The GOs were challenged in court on the ground that they were issued without the approval of Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) and thus in violation of various Supreme Court judgments. The appellants also told the High Court that making recommendations on fee structure was the responsibility of the TAFRC and not the State governCONTINUED ON P4 ment. NATIONWIDE JAN 18 JAN 19 Passengers bound for the US were left high and dry at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) here on Wednesday with the Air India cancelling the Hyderabad-Delhi-Chicago flight following fears that a 5G rollout by AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc near the American airports would interfere with airwaves which the altimeters of the flights use. This is considered a grave safety hazard. As the decision to suspend the flight was sudden, the passengers, who were caught off-guard, resorted to a protest at the airport. They were annoyed that there were no airline officials to explain to them as to CONTINUED ON P4 why their flight was cancelled. Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,38,018 2,82,970 1,57,421 1,88,157 310 441 TELANGANA JAN 18 JAN 19 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,983 2,706 2 3,557 1,773 3 JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT January 18 65,85,945 doses January 19 62,39,005 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,59,54,40,865 Third wave spells fresh trouble for TSRTC M D N I Z A M U D D I N @ Hyderabad AS Covid-19 peaks, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) is once again staring at the disturbing prospects of gaping losses with occupancy in buses taking a hit lately In the first fortnight of Janu. ary average revenue generation , was less than `10 cr per day. The only redeeming factor was that the corporation could pick up by operating 4,000 additional bus services during Sankranti season from January 7 to 17. Soon the Sankranti euphoria ebbed out as a fresh spell of despondency set in with staff contracting Covid-19. In Bus Bhavan, the headquarters of the TSRTC, about 30 cases of Covid-19 have been reported. According to official sources, there was an overall increase of `7 EPK (Earnings per KM) when compared to 2020 when it was `27 and `34 in 2021 with pandemic easing in the later part of last year. In the last few months, the revenue was more than `10 crore per day , highest being `14.79 crore in a day in October. However, the feel good factor began waning as Sankranti passed with the resurgence of Covid-19 leading to loss of revenue. In fact, even on January 15, the RTC generated just `5.62 crore despite pressing into service the Sankranti special services. The highest occupancy ratio (OR) that touched on January 17 was 77%, with EPK (Earnings per KM) of `36.77, with revenue generation slipping to `12.21 cr on the last day of the season. Now its OR and EPK hover around 60-65% and `32-35 respectively . While over 30 cases of Covid-19 were reported from Bus Bhavan alone, including some higher officials contracting the virus, scores of employees tested positive in other depots. “There could be around 10 staffers who might have contracted Covid-19 in each depot. Despite our repeated pleas, the management has not yet provided masks and sanitisers. Even the idea of establishing a Covid-19 centre for the staff is yet to materialise,” rued TJMU general secretary K Hanumanthu. Tennis star Sania Mirza on Wednesday announced that she is set to hang up her racquet at the end of 2022 season as her body is “wearing down” and the motivation and energy for everyday grind are dwindling | P11