BENGALURU  FRIDAY  APRIL 29, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 32  LATE CITY EDITION CHINA BLOCKS RETURN OF 22,000 INDIAN STUDENTS PRACTICALS PENDING FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS BEIJING YET TO GIVE A FIRM RESPONSE However, Beijing has allowed students from countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Thailand to come back to China Thousands of Indian students have enrolled in Chinese universities, mostly to study medicine. They came back to India two years ago when the pandemic started. The students have been attending classes online but it’s time for many of them to do practicals. For this, they have to travel to China for in-person classes. But, Beijing is not letting them come back | P9 ■ ■ Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has written to Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla to help facilitate the return of Indian students to China to complete their study The Indian government is in touch with China, which has neither given a firm response nor has issued visas to Indian students CHINA IS PREFERRED BY INDIAN MED STUDENTS AS ADMISSION IS EASY AND FEES ARE CHEAP 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 Efforts on to lift AFSPA in toto: Modi KARNATAKA APR 27 APR 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 126 99 0 154 116 0 BOMMAI, OPPN NETAS WADE INTO HINDI ROW, DEFEND SUDEEP E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru THE Twitter war between actors Kiccha Sudeep and Ajay Devgn on Hindi as the national language, has taken a political turn, with leaders of all political hues defending Sudeep. While Congress and JDS leaders slammed the Bollywood actor as well as the BJP government for attempting to impose Hindi on all states, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, his cabinet ministers and the Kannada cinema fraternity came forward to defend Sudeep’s stand. The opposition hit out at Devgn for calling Hindi “Rashtrabhasha”, while Karnataka Rakshana Vedike members staged a protest in Bengaluru against the actor. In Hubballi, Bommai told reporters that whatever Sudeep had tweeted was correct. “After states were formed based on region, the regional language is supreme for those states, and one has to respect it,’’ he said. In a series of tweets, former CM HD Kumaraswamy defended Sudeep. “Ajay Devgan is not only hyper in nature but also shows his ludicrous behaviour. Devgan must realise that Kannada cinema is outgrowing Hindi film industry he said. ,” Kumaraswamy said Hindi cinema has grown because of encouragement by Kannadigas. Devgn shouldn’t forget that his first movie, ‘Phool aur Kaante’, ran for a year in Bengaluru. “An addiction for primacy is dividing the counCONTINUED ON : P4 try he said. ,” Ajay Devgan is not only hyper in nature but also shows his ludicrous behaviour. Devgan must realise that Kannada cinema is outgrowing Hindi film industry HD Kumaraswamy, former Chief Minister Top priority is for Kannada: Narayan Minister for Higher Education Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said the top priority in the state is for Kannada, but it is necessary to treat “Hindi as the communicative language at the national level”. Panel will be set up to curb hate speech: CM E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Hubballi THE State will form a committee to curb hate speech, in accordance with instructions of the Supreme Court, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said here on Thursday . He told reporters that the apex court’s order would be strictly followed. However, he felt that hate speech is on the rise all over the country especial, ly on social media platforms. Recently, in its verdict on hate speeches aired during the Dharam Sansad held in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the apex court had called for zero tolerance on the part of Central and state governments, and directed states to form special task forces to prevent hate crimes. It also in- sisted on gathering intelligence reports on people who are likely to air hate speeches. Apart from setting up a task force, the court also directed Central and state governments to take ste ps to stop dissemination of i r r e sponsible and explosive messages, videos and other material on social media platforms, which have a tendency to incite mob violence and lynchings. Replying to a query, Bommai said that people of all religions have coexisted and lived peacefully in India. However, in other countries, terrorism is being spread in the name of religion. If everybody follows what the Constitution says, peace will prevail. No one should advise others on maintaining communal harmony he added. , EXPRESS READ Moral values taught: Clarence Principal Bengaluru: Amidst the controversy over allegedly forcing students to study Bible, Clarence High School Principal Dr Jerry George Mathews said that they only teach moral values from the stories of Bible in their moral science classes, and the parents are well-informed about it | P2 Biden-Modi meet during Quad summit on May 24 PICKING UP PIECES Locals remove debris from destroyed houses after a Russian rocket, hit by Ukraine’s anti-aircraft system, struck a residential area in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Thursday | AP | P12 Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden will meet during the Quad summit in Tokyo on May 24, the White House said. The leaders are expected to discuss a range of topics including security and economic ties, and the challengs China poses to the region | P9 THE FUEL CESS-POOL A big part of the fuel taxes the Centre collects needs to be shared with states, right? But the mop-up workaround is through cess, which is not shared and forms the bulk of the central taxes. Here’s how: 1 2 3 Centre collects `26.50 as cess out of the total `27.90 tax on petrol per litre. It means only `1.4 is shared with states. As for diesel, only `1.80 is shared out of the total tax of `21.80 According to the 15th Finance Commission report, Centre has to share 41% of the divisible pool of taxes. However, divisible pool does not include cess Over five years till FY21, the Centre’s fuel tax went up by 54%, while that of states grew just 15%. Of the total `6.37 lakh crore tax collected in FY21, Centre pocketed 66% CESSES Basic Agri infra & Additional excise excise duty Special additional excise development cess duty (road and (`/ltr) duty (`/ltr) (AIDC) (`/ltr) infra cess) (`/ltr) 1.40 11 2.50 13 1.80 8 4 8 FUEL Petrol Diesel BREAK-UP OF RETAIL PETROL PRICES IN METROS (Figues in `) MUMBAI DELHI BENGALURU CHENNAI ■ Price to dealers (excluding excise duty & VAT) (`/litre) ■ Central taxes: Excise duty `/ litre ■ Dealer commission (average) `/litre ■ State taxes: VAT (including VAT on dealer commission) applicable for Delhi @ 19.4% `/litre ■ Retail selling price (rounded off) `/litre Source: Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell and HPCL Spurned stalker throws acid on woman in B’luru E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru REJECTING a marriage proposal tur ned tragic for a 24-year-old woman, after the spurned lover threw acid on her, outside her office in Sunkadakatte on Thursday morning. The victim, who works as a cashier with a gold finance company, suffered 40 to 50 per cent burns and is undergoing treatment. The accused Nagesh (27), a garment factory employee, is on the run. He is said to have been in love with the victim, but she did not reciprocate. The knew each other as they had worked together at a garment factory for over two years. Despite knowing that she was engaged to another man, Nagesh had approached the BSF jawan gets rare airlift from LoC post to get married @ Srinagar / Bhubaneswar EVACUATING soldiers and civilians by air from remote locations happens all the time during exigencies. The thumb rule till now has been to fly them out if they require immediate medical attention. For the first time in the Border Security Force’s history, it added another factor to the exigency list — marriage. It allowed airlifting a jawan from his post along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir so as to help him reach home in Odisha time for his wedding on Monday . BSF constable Narayana Behera (30), a resident of Adipur village of Dhenkanal district of Odisha, is posted at Machil sector along the LoC in north Kashmir. He is scheduled to get married on May 2. But since snow-bound Machil’s road link to Srinagar is not open yet, he put in a request for airlifting as a special case. His unit commanders escalated the matter to BSF Inspector General (Kashmir frontier) Raja Babu Singh. Sensing the urgency, IG Singh granted permission, saying welfare of troops was his “first and foremost priority .” SOURAV ROY In view of the poor weather, it was decided to airlift him on Thursday He was flown out in . a Cheetah helicopter from the LoC to Srinagar in the mor ning, an officer said. Happily the weath, er gods were accommodative. Had it been scheduled for a little later, the flight might not have been possible as weather condition deteriorated soon enough. After reaching Srinagar, Behera boarded a Delhibound plane from where he was to take a connecting flight to Bhubaneswar. Behera expressed his gratitude to his Commandant, IG and DIG of BSF Kashmir for the airlift. “I am posted in such a difficult terrain that I had to request my Commandant to airlift me so that I can tie the knot. All jawans are confident that whenever they need any help, the seniors will come forward to their rescue,” said Behera, who was in Delhi when this report was filed. “My father Khageswar Behera and all other family members are very happy that I am returning home,” he told TNIE. Surprise raids on Amazon, Flipkart anchor sellers R A M SA H GA L @ Mumbai COMPONENTS OF CENTRAL EXCISE BSF GESTURE F AYA Z W A N I & A S H I S H M E H TA CCI PROBE 56.55 27.9 3.86 22.52 110.83 2,927 3,303 2,252 2,563 32 39 others across the state, virtually from Dibrugarh. Three more cancer hospitals are expected to be operational by the year-end. In all, 17 advanced cancer hospitals would be ready in Assam by the time it celebrates the third anniversary of the BJP-led coalition government in May 2024. These hospitals have been/are being built with funds from Tata Trusts and the state government. Tata Trusts chairman Ratan Tata said, “Today is a... day that raises Assam to a higher level in terms of health care and treatment of cancer that has not been experienced by the other states in the country .” 56.55 27.9 3.86 22.76 111.07 NATIONWIDE APR 27 APR 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths that AFSPA can be removed.” Modi highlighted how the Centre’s efforts had helped solve the problem of insurgency in Assam’s Bodo areas, Karbi Anglong and in Tripura and the Bru (Reang) problem of Tripura-Mizoram. He expressed happiness that Assam and Meghalaya reached an agreement to resolve their boundary disputes. This will give impetus to the development aspirations of the region, he added. Later in the day he inaugurat, ed seven cancer hospitals and laid the foundation of as many 56.55 27.9 3.86 17.13 105.45 PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said efforts were on to withdraw the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from the remaining areas of the Northeast. Addressing a “Peace, Unity and Development Rally” in Assam’s Karbi Anglong, he said old rules were being tweaked as peace was making a steady return to the Northeast as a result of the collective efforts of the state governments and the people. “AFSPA remained enforced in many states of the Northeast for a long time but after the return of permanent peace and also due to better administration in the past eight years, we removed it from many areas,” the PM said. He added that incidents of violence in the Northeast had dropped by around 75%. This is why AFSPA was first removed from Tripura and then Meghalaya. AFSPA had been invoked in Assam for three decades but with the improvement in the overall security situation in the past few years, it was removed from 23 districts. “We are trying to normalise the situation in other areas as well so 56.55 27.9 3.86 32.19 120.5 P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati woman’s aunt with a marriage proposal. Upset with her approaching marriage, he started harassing her. The accused is alleged to have gone to her workplace on Wednesday evening, and pestered her to marry him. An argument broke out, and the victim’s colleagues threatened to call the police if he troubled her. Assuring them that he would not trouble her, the accused returned on Thursday, around 8.30am. “The woman’s father dropped her to office on a bike. Since the office had not opened, she waited at the door. Nagesh came near the office and she saw that he was holding something in a bag. She tried to run outside the building, and the accused followed and threw acid on her,” said an officer. P5 THE Competition Commission of India (CCI) has conducted raids on the premises of anchor sellers of Amazon and Flipkart across Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai to probe complaints of predatory pricing and deep discounting. The raided firms include Cloudtail and Appario Retail, the former a joint venture between Amazon and N R Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran and the latter with Patni group. “There was an element of cluelessness and surprise among sellers as the CCI normally doesn’t conduct raids in such matters,” said a source. “Probably some clarity could , emerge by Friday by when sellers can decide their course of action,” another source said. The CCI and Amazon did not immediately respond to TNIE queries on the raids while Flipkart could not be immediately contacted for comment. Amazon and Flipkart also have stakes in some sellers who list on their platforms. This often leads to allegations of conflict of interest as such sellers, backed by the ecommerce giants’ deep pockets, resort to predatory pricing and deep discounting to attract customers. Lauding the CCI for the action, Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general of Confederation of All India Traders, said, “The CAIT has been raising strong objections against malpractices of Amazon and Flipkart. He said Murthy’s role should also be investigated. WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 32 PAGES, INCLUDING 16 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) Airtel hangs up, retired CA fights case for `20 refund YAT H I R A J U @ Bengaluru BHARTI Airtel Limited was directed to refund Rs 20 and ex parte to pay Rs 500 each towards damages and litigation expenses to AM Hussain Shareef, who fought his legal battle on his own with the help of an online legal firm before the Consumer Commission. Shareef, a retired chartered accountant, stays with his son at Doddakanalli. He had recharged Rs 49 which expired on August 4, 2021. On August 7, 2021, he recharged Rs 20 online, which was confirmed by a message. The talk time was Rs 14.95 but the incoming and outgoing calls were stopped on that day and he got a , message informing him that the recharge was invalid. After repeated attempts and losing his money he approached an online , legal platform which assisted him and charged a nominal fee to prepare the complaint which was filed in November 2021. The Bangalore Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission not only directed Airtel to refund Rs 20 but also ordered ex parte to pay Rs 500 each as damages and litigation expenses to Shareef. P5