BENGALURU  SATURDAY  JULY 2, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 20  LATE CITY EDITION BAN ON SINGLE-USE PLASTIC ITEMS COMES INTO EFFECT The nationwide ban kicked in on July 1. Single-use plastic means items that are used only once before they are thrown away PLASTIC CUTLERY ITEMS PROSCRIBED VIOLATORS FACE UP TO 5-YEAR JAIL TERM The banned plastic products include cutlery items such as plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives, trays, straws etc. The other products that come under the ban are earbuds, balloon sticks, cigarette packs, sweet boxes, candy and ice cream sticks, invitation cards, polystyrene used for decoration, and PVC banners measuring under 100 microns ■ ■ The Union environment ministry has asked states to close down units that produce, distribute, stock and sell such items People found flouting the ban can be fined under the Environment Protection Act 1986, which permits jail of up to five years, or a penalty of up to B1 lakh, or both 2.4 lakh tonnes VOLUME OF SINGLE-USE PLASTIC ITEMS GENERATED IN INDIA IN A YEAR CURRENTLY 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 SC tears into BJP’s Nupur for her hate speech Raps TV channel for holding the controversial debate, accuses it of promoting an agenda E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi Nupur Sharma POLITICAL CLOUT “When an FIR is registered and you are not arrested, this shows your clout. She thinks she has back up power and makes irresponsible statements,” the bench said THE Supreme Court on Friday lit into suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, saying her “loose tongue” had “set the entire country on fire”, alluding to the riots that followed her hate speech against Islam during a TV debate. While refusing to entertain Sharma’s plea for clubbing of FIRs gaainst her, the court allowed her to withdraw the plea. The court observed that her remark was made either for cheap publicity, political agenda or some nefarious activities. It was hearing her petition for clubbing and transferring of all FIRs registered against her in various states to Delhi. “These remarks are very disturbing and smack of arrogance. What is her business to make such remarks? These remarks have led to unfortunate incidents in the country These people are . not religious. They do not have respect for other religions. These remarks were made for cheap publicity or for political agenda or some other nefarious activities,” said a vacation bench of justices Surya Kant and J B WINDFALL TAX PRESS INTAKE Bengaluru will attain global standards, says Bommai | P2 Genome sequencing of 600 samples awaited | P3 Lost in a 17-year-old riot, man still searching for family | P5 Modi, Putin discuss trade, energy and food markets | P9 CENTURION Rishabh Pant scored his fifth Test century off just 89 balls to rescue India on Day 1 of the fifth Test against England at Edgbaston on Friday | AP | P15 Demands of pourakarmikas: CM to form panel EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE State government has agreed in principle to regularise the services of pourakarmikas who are working on direct payment basis in various urban civic bodies in the state. A committee of senior officers, law department officials and representatives of pourakarmikas would be constituted to implement it in accordance with legal provisions, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Friday . Bommai, who chaired a meeting to discuss the problems of pourakarmikas on Friday said , that the proposed committee would submit its report within three months. “Pourakarmikas deserve social dignity and security. The state government would respond to their woes with a humane approach. Their monthly remuneration has been hiked to `2,000”, Bommai said. Special recruitment rules would be framed to simplify pourakarmikas appointment. CONTINUED ON: P2 Manipur toll touches 20, 43 people still missing Indigenous UAV: DRDO’s major milestone Imphal: Rescue teams on Friday recovered 12 more bodies from the debris at a railway construction site in Manipur’s Noney district, which was hit by a massive landslide, pushing the death toll in the tragedy to 20, officials said. Of the deceased, 10 are from the Territorial Army. Forty-three people were still missing following the mudslide, officials said | P10 New Delhi: DRDO on Friday carried out the maiden flight of the Autonomous Flying Wing Technology Demonstrator successfully from the Aeronautical Test Range, Chitradurga. “It marks a major milestone in terms of proving critical technologies towards the development of future unmanned aircraft and is a significant step towards self-reliance,” DRDO said | P9 KARNATAKA JUNE 30 JULY 1 JAB-O-METER June 30 14,81,583 doses 1,046 1,073 TAKE July 1 8,07,052 doses 857 834 YOUR 0 1 SHOT TOTAL: 1,97,83,76,337 Fresh cases 18,819 17,070 Fresh cases Recoveries 13,827 14,413 Recoveries Deaths 39 23 Deaths K’taka records an impressive 73% growth in GST collection B A N S Y K A L A P PA @ B e n g a l u r u KARNATAKA has recorded an impressive 73 per cent growth in GST collection for the month of June, bringing accolades for the GST collection team headed by Commercial Tax Commissioner C. Shikha from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday . Though Karnataka stood only second to Tamil Nadu’s GST growth of 83 per cent, collection- Denied food, man kills wife EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru A private firm employee killed his wife as she took some time to open the door when he returned home late at night and also because she allegedly went to sleep without serving him food. After killing her, the accused Ramu stuffed the body in a suitcase and dumped it in a quarry pit with the help of his friend. The two carried the body of the victim Manjula, 35, on a twowheeler from his house in Kamakshipalya to a pit near Dabaspet on the Bengaluru-Tumakuru highway before fleeing to Chennai. The police managed to identify the body during a search as the pit was close to her parents’ residence near Honnenahalli. The accused was caught after he returned to the city went to a , bar and switched on his mobile phone. Based on his tower location, he was nabbed. Uddhav questions BJP’s 2019 move: ‘Shinde not Sainik’ | P10 EXPRESS READ NATIONWIDE JUNE 30 JULY 1 Manjula was staying alone after her first husband Virupaksha deserted her and went to his native place Gangavathi in Koppal district with their two children. Manjula first met Ramu at her workplace in Peenya. The couple used to have frequent arguments as she was allegedly not showing any interest in him. “On June 11, the accused returned home late after watching a movie. Manjula took some time to open the door and then went to sleep without cooking anything. Enraged by this, Ramu assaulted her on the head with a blunt weapon and strangled her to death with a veil,” said an officer. He then called his friend Basava Gowda, a native of Haveri. The next day at 3 pm, the two took the body on a bike and dumped it in the quarry pit. Gowda then left for his hometown. On June 14, the police found the decomposed body inside the suitcase. Pardiwala. One of the fallouts was the butchering of a tailor in Udaipur, the bench said. “She actually has a loose tongue and has made all kinds of irresponsible statements on TV and set the entire country on fire. Yet, she claims to be a lawyer of 10 years standing. She should have immediately apologised for her comments to the whole country ,” the bench said. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Sharma, said she had apologised. On this, the bench said, “Her apology came too late and that too conditionally saying if religious wise Karnataka with Rs 8,845 crore pipped Tamil Nadu whose collection stood at Rs 8,027 crore. It is no secret that Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh are among the states that collect the highest GST in the country, month after month. Karnataka which beat Gujarat last month had to remain satisfied with third position in overall GST collection. CONTINUED ON: P4 Export levy hiked on transport fuel to up domestic supply R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi IN a bid to tax the windfall gains by domestic refiners who import cheap crude oil from Russia and export the refined product at much higher prices, the Centre on Friday imposed special additional excise duty on export of petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) with effect from July 1. The cess for petrol and ATF is `6 per litre, while it is `13 for diesel. In addition, a cess of `23,250 per tonne has been imposed on crude produced domestically . “Domestic crude producers sell crude to domestic refineries at international parity prices. As a result, the domestic crude producers are making windfall gains,” a finance ministry release said explaining the rationale behind the move. However, there will be no cess for import of crude, the ministry clarified. “Further, small producers, whose annual production of crude in the preceding financial year is less than 2 million barrels will be exempt from this cess,” it said, adding that the new cess will have no adverse impact on domestic fuel prices. The decision will directly impact domestic refiners Jio-BP, Nayara Energy and ONGC which, in turn, could tighten their global oil product supplies. Analysts believe the move to make export of fuel expensive is to ensure sufficient availability of petroleum products for domestic consumption but it may not achieve the desired result. “With product prices expected to remain elevated in the international market, we believe unless domestic retail prices are revised upwards, there still exists substantial incentive for the private players to export a larger share of their product, albeit at reduced margins,” Crisil said. WATER WORLD Karnataka’s first tunnel aquarium at Cubbon Park EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru KARNATAKA is all set to have a long tunnel aquarium at Cubbon Park in Bengaluru. The Department of Fisheries in association with a Bengaluru-based agency is developing the aquarium under Private Public Partnership model. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai will lay the foundation stone for the project on July 4. The tunnel aquarium is expected to house more than 30 varieties of ornamental aqua animals and will have 60,000 litres of ocean water. “It will be 24 feet in length, 10 feet wide and 15 feet in height,” said S Nandakumar, Managing Director of Namma Bengaluru Aqua Private Limited, which is a partner under the PPP model. Similar tunnel aquariums have been developed in Singapore, Dubai and China. In India, there is one in Gujarat. But this will be the first-of-its-kind in Karnataka, he said. A Koi Pond with one lakh litres of water in it is being developed. “These are bigger ponds with bigger fish measuring up to 1.5 feet. The fish will be of different colours and visitors can feed them. We are planning to have at least 150 such fish”, Nandakumar said. A museum with different varieties of aquariums and fish with hi-tech facilities will be an added attraction. There will also be facility to train entrepreneurs who want take up fishing. The aquarium has been allotted 17,000 square feet of space of which 2,000 square feet will be utilised CONTINUED ON: P2 initially . sentiments are hurt and so on.” The court said her petition smacks of arrogance and that she thinks that the magistrate of the country is too small for her. “If you are a spokesperson of a party, it is not a license to say things like this,” the judges said, adding, “if there was a misuse of the debate, the first thing she should have done was to file an FIR against the anchor.” Criticising the TV channel, it said, “What is the business of the TV channel to discuss the matter which is sub-judice, except to promote an agenda?” NOW, I-T LENS ON PAWAR’S ELECTION AFFIDAVITS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Mumbai DAYS after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed in Maharashtra, the man who was instrumental in keeping it afloat, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, got what he called was a love letter from a Central enforcement agency . The income tax department, he said, had issued him a notice in connection with his 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections affidavits. “I am surprised that Central agencies are sifting through old records and sending notices now. It shows how these agencies are working overtime to target political opponents. They want to suppress dissent. The same strategy was used against Shiv Sena MLAs, forcing them to revolt against their leadership,” Pawar alleged. He sarcastically said before the BJP came to power at the Centre, no one knew about the ED (Enforcement Directorate). “Now, ED has become a family name,” Pawar said. It was the ED that got two NCP MLAs Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh arrested earlier on money laundering charges. Meanwhile, Sanjay Raut, a Thackeray faction leader, was questioned by the ED on Friday for over 10 hours in another money laundering case. Curiously, Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar hasn’t commented yet on the fall of the Uddhav-led Aghadi government, in which he was deputy chief minister. Ajit is down with Covid but he attended the Aghadi’s last cabinet meeting virtually . More curiously, Dhananjay Munde, a close aide of Ajit, met the sulking new Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday, P10 setting off speculation. AAREY ROW BACK New Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is already stepping on his predecessor Uddhav’s toes as he reversed the govt’s position on the controversial Metro car shed project in Mumbai. Shinde directed the advocate general to inform the court that the Metro car shed will be built at Aarey Colony as planned in 2019 by the then BJP govt led by Fadnavis