THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l Wednesday l January 26, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE 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 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 | P13 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 ess Ne w s S e 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 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 Bipin Rawat & Kalyan Singh Padma Bhushan E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ T’Puram Ghulam Nabi Azad CPM’s Buddha rejects his Padma Bhushan vey the rejection. Azad, one of the members of In what appeared to be an at- the G23, the Congress rebel tempt to strike the right notes group, was given an emotional in the poll-bound states of Ut- farewell by Prime Minister tar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Narendra Modi when his tenthe Centre on Tuesday awarded ure ended in Rajya Sabha in Padma Vibhushan, the second February last year. Azad has highest civilian award in India, been vocal on calling for sweepposthumously to former Uttar ing organisational changes and Pradesh chief minister Kalyan a permanent accountable leadSingh and Generership in the Kerala’s Share all Padma Shri Congress. al Bipin Rawat, who hailed from Vaccine makers Uttarakhand and featured promiwas India’s first nently on the list. Chief of Defence Cyrus PoonawalStaff. Gen Rawat la, founder of died in a helicop- Sankaranarayana Menon Pune-based SeK V Rabiya ter crash in Derum Institute of cember last year. India and Covaxin Two senior maker Bharat Bileaders of the opotech’s chairman position — GhuKrishna Ella and lam Nabi Azad his co-founder Sosamma Iype P Naryana Kurup (Congress) and wife Suchitra Ella Buddhadeb Bhatw e r e aw a r d e d tacharjee (CPM) — were on the Padma Bhushan. Indian-origin list of Padma awardees an- Silicon Valley titans Microsoft nounced by the Centre on the CEO Satya Nadella and Alphaeve of the 73rd Republic Day. bet CEO Sundar Pichai, classiBoth were honoured with the cal vocalists Dr Prabha Atre Padma Bhushan, but Bhattach- and Rashid Khan and former arjee later said he would reject Comptroller and Auditor Genit. “Nobody told me about it. If eral of India Rajiv Mehrishi, I have been awarded the Padma too, were awarded Padmas. Bhushan, I would reject it,” he Of the 128 Padma awards, said. But the Centre said his four were Padma Vibhushan, wife had been informed, add- 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 ing she did not get back to con- Padma Shris. Full list: P4, 7 S a n a S h a k 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 RA J E S H A B RAHA 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 seven months, Kerala borrowed L10,000 cr more than what has been budgeted for the fiscal year Revenue and fiscal deficits are I32,000 crore & I40,000 crore 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 KAN T H @ Kochi A SENIOR Cusat professor has been charged with mentally harassing a girl student by stalking and taking her private pictures inside a 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 conspired with the survivor’s roommate to stalk her right from November 17, 2021, and take her pictures to harass her mentally. boyfriend and also showed it to the professor. An inter nal 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 CM & min in spot, govt takes ordinance route to clip Lok Ayukta’s wings the complainant without her consent, especially the one in which she is not properly dressed, by the roommate is a gross violation of her privacy. The sharing of these photographs with Roy by showing the same to him and sending the same to the roommate’s male friend are also in violation of her 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 con- Currently there sideration of the governor. The timing is no appeal of the issuance of the ordinance has provision prompted the Opposition UDF to request against the Lok Ayuktha verdict. the governor not to sign it in a hurry . The AG pointed The LDF government is facing two out a Constitucrucial cases in Lok Ayukta which are tional issue and scheduled before the division bench ear- suggested ly next month. One is regarding the al- amendments legation of nepotism related to the diKodiyeri Balakrversion of funds from the CM’s distress ishnan, CPM secy relief fund to the families of two political leaders who had died, in which Pinarayi is under scrutiny The second one was filed by Con. gress 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 ● More on P4 coming before Lok 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 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 at the HC on Thursday. P2 Freebies: SC issues notice to Centre, EC New Delhi: The apex court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and the poll panel seeking direction to seize election symbols and deregister political parties that promised to distribute irrational freebies from public funds. P8 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express Our offices will remain closed today. There will be no issue of the paper tomorrow
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26-01-2022 of The New Indian Express-Thiruvananthapuram