HYDERABAD  SUNDAY  JANUARY 23, 2022  `12.00  PAGES 24  LATE CITY EDITION INFLUENTIAL ZEN MONK AND PEACE ACTIVIST PASSES AWAY NOMINATED FOR NOBEL BY MARTIN LUTHER KING In the early 1960s, the Vietnamese monk travelled to the US, where he taught at Columbia and Princeton. In 1966, he met civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr and called him a ‘Bodhisattva’. The monk’s efforts to promote reconciliation between communist North Vietnam and the US-backed South impressed King and he nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize | P9 Thich Nhat Hanh, whose reach within Buddhism is seen as second only to the Dalai Lama, died at the age of 95 ■ >100 books HELPED SPREAD MEDITATION IN THE WEST ■ Barred from home due to his call for peace, the monk spent more than three decades in France. During his stay in the West, Nhat Hanh set up meditation retreats around the world Allowed into Vietnam in 2005, ties again soured after he called for an end to the communist government’s control over religion WRITTEN BY THE MONK, MOST OF THEM ON MEDITATION AND FINDING INNER PEACE 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 EC extends ban on road shows till Jan 31 45K found symptomatic Some curbs eased; meetings with 500-people cap allowed from Jan 28 for Phase 1 and Feb 1 for Phase 2 K U M A R V I K R A M @ New Delhi THE Election Commission on Saturday extended the ban on physical rallies and road shows till January 31 but gave some relaxation for physical public meetings of political parties and contesting candidates for Phase 1 of the Assembly elections from January 28 and Phase 2 from February 1. The commission also increased the limit of five persons for door-to-door campaigning to 10. The decision to extend the ban was taken following a review meeting that the EC had with the Union health secretary and chief secretaries, chief electoral officers and the health secretaries of the five pollbound states. After taking into con- With the BCCI closing the registration for IPL 2022, a look at some of the key points about the upcoming mega auction E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @Hyderabad 33 `72 cr With the existing eight teams retaining 27 players, and the two new teams drafting three each, as many as 1,214 players have expressed an interest in taking part in the auctions B A T T L E G R O U N D U . P. A day after hinting that she is the party’s CM face in UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra makes a U-turn. “I said that in irritation because you all were asking the same question again and again” Akhilesh Yadav makes official decision to contest from family stronghold of Karhal, promises 22 lakh IT jobs for youth Amit Shah begins door-to-door campaigning from Kairana, where there was an alleged exodus of Hindus before 2017. Meanwhile, the JD(U) decides to go solo in UP Probe ordered into alleged atrocity on tribal women DEVIL IN THE DETAILS RETAINED /DRAFTED sideration the inputs and ground reports from these of ficers, the commission deliberated on requirements of the campaign period for Phases 1 and 2 where the candidate lists will be finalised on January 27 and January 31, respectively . The commission decided to allow physical public meetings in designated open spaces with a maximum of 500 persons or 50% of the capacity of the ground or the prescribed limit set by state disaster management authorities, whichever is fewer. The EC has also allowed video vans for publicity with the usual Covid restrictions at designated open spaces. Political parties and contesting candidates shall ensure compliance with Covid-appropriate behaviour REACTING to Friday’s incident in which four tribal women accused Forest Section Officer N Mahesh of stripping their clothes and attacking them in Mulkalapalli mandal of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, Minister for Tribal, Women and Child Welfare Satyavathi Rathod on Saturday directed the Tribal Welfare Commissioner to conduct a thorough inquiry and take strict action ag ainst the guilty. It was reported by The New Indian Express on Friday that four tribal women from Adivasi Gudem and Sakivagu under the Rachannagudem gram panchayat had gone to fetch firewood from the forest, when they were confronted by forest beat officers. In their complaint lodged with the Mulkalapalli police, the women accused the Section Officer, who was Punjab Kings is the team to retain the least number of players, two, and will go into the auction with C72 crore in their purse 318 As many as 318 overseas players have registered for the auction, with the highest of 59 players from Australia, followed by South Africa (48) and West Indies (41). A maximum of 60 overseas players could get picked in the auction, with 10 already retained and drafted by the teams among the beat officers, of becoming abusive after they defied his orders to leave the area. They alleged that Mahesh disrobed two of them. However, the Section Officer has refuted the allegations levelled against him by the women. Satyavathi Rathod said that though she had cautioned forest officials not to trouble tribals dependent on forest produce for their domestic needs, incidents like this were being repeated. This wouldn’t be tolerated at any cost, she said. Acting on the instructions of the Tribal Welfare Minister, officials of the ITDA recorded the statements of the forest officers. Soon after speaking to the ITDA officials, District Forest Officer Ranjit Naik said that going by the report he had received from the forest range officer, he was convinced that his officers were not at fault. CONTINUED ON P4 CRYPTOCURRENCIES SHED OVER $1 TN IN MARKET CAP BIG NAMES U M A K A N N A N @ Benglauru David Warner, CRYPTOCURRENCY prices, which have been falling ever since Russia’s central bank proposed a ban on crypto trading, touched a new low on Saturday with Bitcoin tumbling to $36,000 levels, a drop of over 17% from last week. In the past 24 hours alone, Bitcoin has shed over 8.5%. Ethereum, the second largest crypto, also dropped 12% in 24 hours. Other altcoins such as BNB, ADA and SOL too tanked. In all, the cryptocurrency market cap has shrunk a whopping $1.3 trillion. On Thursday Russia’s central bank had called for a ban on cryptos cit, ing threats of citizens’ well-being and also financial stability The move . created considerable concern among investors as Russia is one of the world’s largest crypto adopters. However, major players such as CoinDCX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, are unfazed as they believe the current meltdown won’t have a long-term impact on the crypto market. They point out the sector has weathered bans, restrictions and regulatory scrutiny in the past as well. Not just cryptos, most other markets are down this week, points out Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO of Unocoin. He attributes the fall to the Covid pandemic, among other things. Bitcoin was trading at $35,486 on Saturday . R Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Trent Boult and Pat Cummins are top draws MISSING OUT Ben Stokes, Chris Gayle, Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Mitchell Starc and Sam Curran are among the overseas stars who have opted out citing various reasons |P11 GANDHI’S FAVOURITE HYMN ‘Abide with me’ dropped from Beating Retreat E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi THE hymn Abide with me, which endeared itself to Mahatma Gandhi and has been a part of the Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950, will not be played this year. All the tunes in this year’s list are of Indian origin, according to a brochure released by the Army on Saturday . Abide with me has been replaced by the popular patriotic song Ae mere watan ke logon, written by Kavi Pradeep to commemorate the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in the 1962 India-China war. In 2020 too, there were reports that the tune would be dropped but no such decision was taken. The soothing hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1861 and it was set to tune by William Henry Monk. The retreat tune will continue to be Sare jahan se accha. Twitterati reacted sharply to the news. “Gandhi ji’s favourite hymn dropped from Beating Retreat. There is no end to the hate,” said one. “New India, No Amar Jyothi, no Abide With Me during the Beating Retreat. Sicko’s BJP,” Cong ress leader Ajoy Kumar tweeted. The move to drop the hymn comes days after the decision to merge the Amar Jawan Jyoti flame at India Gate with the eternal flame of the National War Memorial. A total of 44 buglers, 16 trumpeters and 75 drummers from six bands of the Army Navy Air Force and , , central armed police forces will be performing at this year’s ceremony . Beating Retreat is a centuries-old military tradition of troops disengaging from battle at sunset. As soon as the buglers sounded the retreat, the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield. and guidelines and the model code of conduct on all occasions during the activities connected with elections, the poll panel said. It shall be the responsibility of the concerned officer to identify and notify the designated spaces in advance for the aforesaid purposes, the commission added. The poll panel also reviewed the vaccination status and action plan for expeditiously completing inoculation for first, second and booster doses for eligible persons among polling personnel. CEC Sushil Chandra along with Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey, accompanied by the secretary general and concerned deputy election commissioners were present. 6 DEAD 22 INJURED IN MUMBAI FIRE|P7 BANDI ARREST LOK SABHA PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE SUMMONS CHIEF SECRETARY, DGP|P4 on Day 1 of fever survey E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad IF the numbers from the fever survey numbers are taken as reference to gauge the extent of Covid-19 spread in the State, roughly 45,000 symptomatic cases detected on the first day of the survey show that the third wave has swept through the State. “To ensure that people do not have to queue up at hospitals, we have decided to bring medicines at their doorstep. On the first day, 12,68,000 households were surveyed for fever and cold symptoms and 45,000 were given home isolation kits,” said Health Minister T Harish Rao. He said that the survey will continue for another week to 10 days until all symptomatic people are identified and given home kits. Harish personally visited some homes in Siddipet district as part of the fever survey He specifically . headed to 37th ward in Siddipet Municipality and urged citizens who were yet to take their second dose to get themselves vaccinated. “As directed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, all public representatives — from MLAs, MLCs, ZPTCs to panchayat heads — will WITH THIS I SSU E JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT January 21 58,37,209 doses January 22 61,62,171 doses TOTAL DOSES: 1,61,81,65,913 NATIONWIDE JAN 21 JAN 22 Fresh cases 3,47,254 3,37,704 Recoveries Deaths 2,51,777 2,42,676 703 488 TELANGANA JAN 21 JAN 22 Fresh cases 4,416 4,393 Recoveries Deaths 1,920 2 2,319 2 take part in fever survey and motivate those who have not yet taken the vaccine to get vaccinated,” the Health Minister added. Such a large number of people with symptoms identified on the first day of the survey indicates a that Covid-19 has spread much more than detected through tests. It is generally stated that at any given point of time, about 1 per cent of the population is likely to have flu symptoms and anything beyond the same could indicate Covid-19 infections. CRYPTOMAN RISES PLUS 12 PAGES