KOZHIKODE l Wednesday l January 26, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION No Supreme court relief for ngos that lost fcra licence The SC on Tuesday turned down a plea seeking quashing of the Centre’s refusal to renew the FCRA licences of 5,789 NGOs PETITIONER WANTED EXTENSION OF permits Approach govt authorities, says SC FCRA registration is mandatory for entities in India for receiving foreign funding. The plea was filed by US-based ‘Global Peace Initiative’. Its counsel advocate Sanjay Hegde told a three-judge bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar that they were seeking a direction from the court to extend the FCRA licences of NGOs if they applied within the next two weeks ■ ■ However, the bench refused any interim relief and directed the petitioner to approach relevant government authorities Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the licences of 11,594 NGOs, which had sought renewal within a cut-off date, had been renewed | P7 16,880 Number OF ACTIVE FCRA licences issued in the country as on January 25 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 Padma Vibhushan Gen Bipin Rawat 1x5 IMF cuts India’S FY22 growth forecast to 9% The International Monetary Fund has cut India’s economic growth forecast for the current financial year from 9.5% projected earlier, citing lingering impact of Covid on business activity | P10 NATIONWIDE Jan 24 Jan 25 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 3,06,064 2,55,874 2,43,495 2,67,753 439 614 statewide Jan 24 Jan 25 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 26,514 55,475 30,710 30,226 13 70 Jab-o-meter Take your shot January 24 49,52,290 doses January 24 51,64,473 doses Total doses 1,63,49,62,688 RPN Singh’s turn to bolt from Cong E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The haemorrhage in the Congress continued with another dynast and former Union minister R P N Singh (57) joining the BJP on on Tuesday That it . happened a day after his name figured on the list of Congress star campaigners for the first phase of elections in Uttar Pradesh, indicated the party high command was possibly clueless about his bolting. Singh hails from Padrauna in UP and is the son of late Congress leader C P N Singh. He was considered close to former party chief Rahul Gandhi. “I spent 32 years in one party. But that party has not remained the same as it was before,” Singh said. He joins a long list of Congress deserters like Jitin Prasada, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sushmita Dev. “RPN Singh left just before the elections, after he was listed as a star campaigner in UP. This was not a coincidence. It was planned... But the question for us in INC is, why did we let it happen this way?” Salman Soz, another dynast, tweeted. Kalyan Singh Biggest Padmas to Kalyan Singh, Gen Bipin Rawat Padma Bhushan E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram Ghulam Nabi Azad CPM’s Buddha rejects his Padma Bhushan said. Azad, one of the members of the G23, the Congress rebel In what appeared to be an at- group, was given an emotional tempt to strike the right notes farewell by Prime Minister in the poll-bound states of Ut- Narendra Modi when his tentar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, ure ended in Rajya Sabha in the Centre on Tuesday award- February last year. Azad has ed Padma Vibhushan, the sec- been vocal on calling for sweepond highest civilian award in ing organisational changes India, posthumously to former and a permanent accountable Uttar Pradesh chief minister leadership in the Congress. K a lya n S i n g h Vaccine makers Kerala’s Share all Padma Shri featured promiand General Bipin Rawat, who nently among the hailed from Uttalist. Cyrus Poonarakhand and was walla, founder of India’s first Chief Pune-based Serum of Defence Staff. Institute of India Gen Rawat died Sankaranarayana Menon and Covaxin makK V Rabiya in a helicopter er Bharat Biocrash in Decemtech’s chairman ber last year. Krishna Ella and Two senior h i s c o - fo u n d e r leaders of the opwife Suchitra Ella position — Ghuw e r e aw a r d e d Sosamma Iype P Naryana Kurup lam Nabi Azad Padma Bhushan. Indian-origin (Congress) and Buddhdeb Bhattachar jee Silicon Valley titans Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Alpha(CPM) — were on the list of Padma awardees announced bet CEO Sundar Pichai, classiby the Centre on the eve of the cal vocalists Dr Parbha Atre 73rd Republic Day. Both were and Rashid Khan and former honoured with the Padma Comptroller and Auditor GenBhushan, but Bhattacharjee eral of India Rajiv Mehrishi, later said he would reject it. “I too, were awarded Padma don’t know anything about the Bhushan. Of the 128 Padma awards, Padma Bhushan award, nobody told me about it. If I have four were Padma Vibhushan, been awarded the Padma 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Bhushan, I would reject it,” he Padma Shris.  Full list: P4, 7 Sana Shak i l @ New Delhi Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee N Chandrasekaran Krishna Ella Satya Narayana Nadella Sundararajan Pichai Cyrus Poonawalla FM MAY REIN IN SPLURGE ON GOVT STAFF IN BUDGET R A J E S H A B R A H A M @Kochi WITH coffers nearly empty, Finance Minister K N Balagopal is expected to make some tough calls including withholding some of the benefits to the government employees in the upcoming budget, expected around the second week of February . “The budget discussions are just going on and we have not decided on the date of the budget. But it will be around the second week of February,” Balagopal told TNIE over phone. The final date of the budget session will be decided after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is on a US visit for a medical checkup, returns on January 29. The finance minister admitted that the financial situation in the state is not rosy following the economic downturn due to Covid and the resultant fall in business activities. The data validates the minister’s concern. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Kerala plunged 11.51% in 2020-21 from 2019- KERALA GSDP 2020-21: -11.51% 2019-20: +2.22% 2018-19: +7.37% At end of 7 months, Kerala borrowed L10,000 cr more than what has been budgeted for the fiscal year Revenue and fiscal deficits are I32,000 cr and I40,000 cr 20. And the GSDP in 2019-20 was anaemic at 2.22% from 2018-19 when the state economy grew at 7.37%. According to D Narayana, former director of Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, at the close of seven months of the financial year (AprilOctober 2021), Kerala borrowed `10.000 crore more than what was budgeted for the whole year. “Our revenue and fiscal deficits are already `32,000 crore and more than `40,000 crore, respectively . And 80% of the fiscal or our borrowings have gone to meet the revenue ● More on P5 deficit,” he said.  stalking at cusat Professor gets student’s hostel-room pictures taken, uses them to harass her A J AY K A N T H @ Kochi A SENIOR Cusat professor has been charged with mentally harassing a girl student by stalking and taking her private picture inside hostel room with the help of her roommate. Police have registered a case against associate professor Roy V Paul, 58, of the Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering and his aide, a student and the roommate of the victim, for stalking and causing nuisance. Paul’s aide who snapped the victim at his behest shared the picture with her WHAT F.I.R. SAYS As per the FIR registered at Kalamassery police station, Roy colluded with the survivor’s roommate to stalk her right from November 17, 2021, and also took her pictures to harass her mentally. boyfriend and also showed it to the professor. An internal committee of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, which probed the complaint lodged by the girl, had found that “the taking of the photographs of the complainant CM, Bindu in a fix; govt takes ordinance route to clip Lok Ayukta’s wings without her consent, especially the one in which she is not properly dressed, by the roommate is a gross violation of the privacy of the complainant. The sharing of these photographs with Roy Paul by showing the same to him and sending the same to the roommate’s male friend are also violation of the complainant’s right to privacy .” Recommending action against Roy “as he was not vigilant and sensible in addressing the issues related to the students”, the committee said “due consideration may be given in respect ● More on P5 to his good intentions.”  THE proposed amendment to the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act to curtail the powers of the anti-corruption ombudsman, approved by the state cabinet last week, has the blessings of the CPM leadership though it was not discussed in the LDF. With the party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Law Minister P Rajeeve coming out in support of the ordinance proposed to amend the act, it has become clear the government is in no mood to backtrack. The move was initiated in April last year, after an adverse verdict from Lok Ayukta forced K T Jaleel to resign from the first Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet. The draft ordinance is now under the consideration Currently there of the governor. The timing of the issu- is no appeal ance of the ordinance has prompted the provision Opposition UDF to request the governor against the Lok Ayuktha verdict. not to sign it in a hurry The LDF govern- The AG pointed . ment is facing two crucial cases in Lok out a ConstituAyukta which are scheduled before the tional issue and division bench early next month. suggested One is regarding the allegation of amendments nepotism related to the diversion of Kodiyeri Balakrfunds from the CM’s distress relief fund ishnan, CPM secy to the families of two political leaders who had died, in which Pinarayi is under scrutiny The second one was filed by Congress leader . Ramesh Chennithala regarding an out-of-the-way recommendation by Higher Education Minister R Bindu to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan to reappoint Gopinath Ravindran as the vice-chancellor of Kannur University . The government also foresees a case regarding large-scale purchase of medicines and medical equipment at inflated prices during the first wave of Covid coming before Lok ● More on P4 Ayukta soon.  express read 33 hours of Dileep’s quizzing ends, over to HC Kochi: The crime branch team probing the alleged conspiracy to harm the officers who investigated the 2017 actor abduction and assault case concluded the interrogation of actor Dileep and four others on Tuesday. It lasted 33 hours, over three days. The team will file a report of the questioning in a sealed cover at the HC on Thursday. P2 Freebies more than union budget: SC New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission seeking direction to seize election symbols and deregister political parties that promised to distribute irrational freebies from public funds. P8 Our offices will remain closed today. There will be no issue of the paper tomorrow