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 ■ ■ vijayawada l thursday l january 20, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l 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 Se 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 10 Daily Covid cases shoot past 10k E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada After more than seven months, the daily Covid-19 count in the State crossed the 10,000-mark. In the first week of June, 2021, more than 10,000 fresh cases were reported in a single day . According to a media bulletin released by the State Command Control Room, 10,057 new Covid cases emerged from 41,713 samples tested in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Wednesday . The State recorded a quantum jump of more than 3,000 fresh Covid infections from Tuesday’s tally of 6,996 cases from 38,055 samples. The daily positivity rate, which was 18.38% on Tuesday, shot up to 24.10%. With more than 10,000 new cases a day, the cumulative Covid tally of the State increased to 21,27,441. Visakhapatnam reported the highest number of 1,827 new cases in the State, followed by Chittoor with 1,822. Five districts reported a daily Covid tally ranging between 500 and 1,000 each. Guntur recorded 943 new cases, followed by East Godavari (919), Anantapur (861), Prakasam (716), and Nellore (698). All other districts reported less than 500 new Covid infections each. Only Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and West Godavari reported a marginal decline in the number of fresh Covid cases. West Godavari recorded the lowest number of 216 cases. The number of recoveries increased marginally in the last 24 hours. A total of 1,222 Covid patients had recovered, compared to 1,066 on Tuesday Now, the cu. mulative recoveries in the State increased to 20,67,984. Eight Covid fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. Three `350 for RT-PCR test The State government has revised and fixed the rate for RT-PCR test in private labs at `350. An order revising the rate, applicable to all ICMRapproved NABL labs, was issued on Wednesday deaths occurred in Visakhapatnam and one each in Chittoor, Guntur, Nellore, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram. The Covid toll increased to 14,522. The active caseload surged to 44,935, a net increase of 8,827 cases compared to Tuesday Chittoor . has the highest number of 9,919 active cases, while West Godavari accounted for the lowest caseload of 606. express read Global flights hit by U.S. 5G rollout, AI cancels services 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. It follows a warning from the US aviation regulator that the 5G service could interfere with radio altimeters | P9 Krishna SP orders probe into Gudivada casino issue Vijayawada: After TDP leaders and a few activists lodged multiple complaints against the casino set up at a convention hall owned by Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani) in Gudivada during Sankranti, Krishna district SP Siddharth Kaushal directed Nuzvid DSP B Srinivasulu to investigate the matter | P2 Panel nod for regular market approval to Covishield, Covaxin New Delhi: An expert panel of India’s central drug authority on Wednesday recommended granting regular market approval to Covid vaccines Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, which are currently only authorised for emergency use in the country, subject to certain conditions, official sources said | P9 NATIONWIDE jan 18 jan 19 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,38,018 2,82,970 1,57,421 1,88,157 310 441 statewide Jan 18 jan 19 Fresh cases 6,996 10,057 Recoveries 1,066 1,222 Deaths 4 8 Samples tested 38,055 41,713 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 CS: Govt did a balancing act in revising pay scale, Omicron may further hit economy E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma on Wednesday asserted that the government had done a fine balancing act while deciding on the revised pay scale of government employees as per the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) in spite of the State revenues hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing mediapersons along with Finance Principal Secretary Shamsher Singh Rawat and other officials, he said if not for the Covid pandemic, the State own revenues would have been `98,000 crore instead of `62,000 crore. Andhra Pradesh has the highest Human Resource expenditure in the country. The State HR expenditure of the total expenditure rose from 32% in 2018-19 to 36% in 2020-21, he pointed out. “Now, we are facing another big threat from the Omicron variant, which may have its impact on the State economy In . the given financial situation, there is a need for maintaining a balance and that is what the government is doing now. You would always say more could be given, but something has to be taken away from somewhere. If you look at the system, ‘AP’s HR expenditure highest’ AP has the highest Human Resource expenditure in the country. The State HR expenditure of the total expenditure had increased from 32% in 2018-19 to 36% in 2020-21, Chief Secretary said there are different sections of people, whose needs have to be met and with available resources a balance has to be ensured. We have optimised at the best,” the Chief Secretary explained and emphasised the need for looking holistically at the entire issue According to the Chief Secretary Chief Minister YS Ja, gan Mohan Reddy has considered every aspect before taking the final decision on the PRC after recommendations from the committee of secretaries. He maintained that consultations with employees’ unions were held in this regard and asserted that at the end of the day, gross salaries will be more and not less as claimed P4 by the staff. The naval brass band performs during a full rehearsal for Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on Wednesday | PTI