TIRUPATI l sunday l november 20, 2022 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION Activist gautam Navlakha finally walks out of jail He was taken to a building in Navi Mumbai on Saturday where he will be living under house arrest for a month SC rejects NIA’s plea against house arrest Court deadline speeds up his release His release from Taloja Central Prison comes a day after the Supreme Court rejected the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) petition seeking to vacate its November 10 order granting house arrest on medical grounds. Navlakha was arrested in April 2020 over alleged inflammatory speeches made at the ‘Elgar Parishad’ conclave held in Pune in 2017 ■ With the Supreme Court setting a 24-hour deadline on Friday afternoon to put Navlakha under house arrest, a special trial court issued a release memo around 2.15 pm on Saturday ■ The CPI(M)-owned building where he will stay has CCTV cameras installed and a back door sealed on NIA’s request 70-year-old Navlakha walked out of taloja prison at 6 pm on Saturday 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 Deal in sight on loss & damage fund Broad across-the-board agreement awaits ratification as COP27 goes into overtime to clinch pact E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The COP27 summit in Egypt that went into overtime, on Saturday appeared poised for a deal over creating a fund for compensating poor nations who are victims of climate change worsened by rich nations’ carbon footprint. The agreement would need the approval of about 200 countries taking part at the Shar m-elSheikh summit. It would amount to a partial breakthrough as states remained locked over other contentious issues. Reports suggested that the draft was amended to include the European Union’s position that only the particularly vulnerable countries be eligible to tap the fund, not the ones with high oil revenues but classified as developing nations. The indication was to exclude the Gulf nations as beneficiaries. The potential loss and damage deal is part of the overall agreement that is still in a flux. “30 years of patience. The day has arrived. It is done. YES a new Fund for responding Loss and Damage in developing coun- tries….This is a unique moment a win for all citizens of the world,” Alpha Kaloga, lead negotiator for the Africa Group tweeted. Reports said that in an attempt to narrow the gap between countries’ climate change pledges and the targeted reductions needed to avert the adverse impacts of climate change, the draft text urges that states who are yet to upgrade their 2030 emissions, cut targets by 2023end. The draft, however, did not contain a reference that India and press Intake Former MP Undavalli Arun Kumar urges State govt to let him see Margadarsi documents | P4 43 Sabarimala pilgrims from AP injured in mishap Prime Minister Narendra Modi with pontiffs from Tamil Nadu, while opening the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam, in Varanasi on Saturday | PTI E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada As many as 43 pilgrims, including an eight-year-old child, suffered injuries after the bus they were travelling in overturned near Laha village in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala on Saturday morning. The condition of the child, identified as Manikandan, is reported to be serious. According to the Pathanamthitta district administration, the mishap occurred around 8 Saturday 84 pilgrims from Eluru district (44 from the sixth ward in Eluru town and the rest from Madepalli village near Eluru), were on their way back after having darshan of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala, in two buses. One of the buses, carrying 43 pilgrims, overturned while negotiating a curve near Laha. Upon learning about the incident, Kerala Health Minister Veena George monitored the rescue operation and instructed the officials concerned to provide better treatment to the injured.  P4 The Future of Food WITH THIS ISSUE PLUS 12 PAGES Tamil world’s oldest language, says PM, puts it on a pedestal N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow Likening the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam he inaugurated on Saturday to the holy confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to play down the dominance of Hindi and put Tamil on a pedestal as the oldest language in the world. In an indirect reference to the ongoing controversy over languages, he called upon countrymen to shed linguistic differences and strive for emotional and spiritual unity . Inaugurating the month-long KashiTamil Sangamam in Varanasi, the PM said the country was the proud home We must tell the to two of the oldest languages of the world with pride world. “The two regions are the centhat we are home tres of the world’s oldest languages, to Tamil, the Sanskrit and Tamil.” oldest language However, though Tamil is one of the in the world. We world’s oldest living languages, the naneed to be proud tion lacked in according it due honour, of this heritage and work towards he said. Seeking to strike a chord with Tamilians, the PM said: “It is the restrengthening it further sponsibility of 130 crore Indians to preserve the legacy of Tamil and enNarendra Modi, rich it. If we ignore Tamil, we do a Prime Minister great disservice to the nation, and if we keep Tamil confined in restrictions and barriers, we will do great harm to it. We have to remember to remove linguistic differences and establish emotional unity in the country .” Addressing a gathering of around 2,500 delegates from Tamil Nadu on the lawns of the BHU amphitheatre, Modi hailed Kashi and Tamil Nadu as timeless centres of culture and civilisation. He exhorted people of different regions to organise more such events to celebrate the cultural, spiritual and ideological oneness of the country . A day after meeting Shah, Shashidhar Reddy expelled from Congress | P5 Savukku Shankar released from Cuddalore prison on Saturday | P4 Winter session of Parliament from Dec 7 to 29; will have 17 sittings | P7 Prime Minister Modi inaugurates Arunachal’s first greenfield airport in Hollongi | P7 Farmers hit back at Punjab CM over comment slamming dharnas | P8 TS letter to krmb on water issues The Telangana government has shot off yet another letter to the Krishna River Management Board, drawing sharp reaction from AP officials who say it is doing so more for political reasons than anything else I P4 t h e b e au t i fu l g am e Infantino burst ahead of big kick-off S i d d h a nt h Ane y @ Doha In the parking lot of Doha’s international airport I found myself sucked into a conversation between four friends. They were discussing congestion rules put in place to ease some of the traffic issues that may come up over the course of the next month as over a million football fans descend on the first nation in the MENA region to host a FIFA World Cup. An Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Qatari and an Indian, each had their own understanding of who could drive when and where. “Welcome to Qatar,” one of them told me with a smirk, before adding, “Where no one knows what’s going on, and everybody is happy .” Everybody that is, except FIFA boss , Gianni Infantino. In an extraordinary monologue that went on for almost an hour Infantino hit out at the hypocri- FIFA chief Gianni Infantino | afp sy of the West. “I’m European,” he said. “I think for what we Europeans have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.” It was a clear message to the mostly white- cis-male columnists who have this year developed a remarkable expertise in the conditions of work and life (and death) of the migrant workers, a vast majority of them from South and Sousteast Asia, who have built this city and the world’s grandest stage. “Today I have strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay Today I . feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker,” he said. “I feel this, all this, because what I’ve been seeing and what I’ve been told, since I don’t read, otherwise I would be depressed, I think.” On Sunday hosts Qatar and Ecuador play the first game of the tournament and focus will shift to the football, like Infantino wants. But the conversations, and the movements, that have been sparked will More on Page 11 continue…  some other negotiators had earlier requested on phasing down use of “all fossil fuels”, with the text referring to only phasing down of coal, which had been agreed to in last year’s summit. The European Union is pushing for strong wording on the 1.50C target cap for global warming in the overall deal. “We need to get a deal on 1.50C. We also need strong wording on mitigation and that’s what we’re going to push,” said Ireland’s Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, who is also the European lead negotiator on loss and damage. Frustrated Naidu abusing even people: YSRC E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada YSRC general secretary and advisor to the government (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy on Saturday asked Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu to make his stand clear on decentralisation and explain why he was opposed to three capitals. The government has clarity on three capitals and developing Amaravati, he asserted and dared Naidu to spell out his stand on why Amaravati should be the sole capital. A day after Naidu’s three-day tour of Kurnool during which the Opposition leader launched a vitriolic at- More justice for State if TD comes to power: Naidu Speaking at a party meeting on Saturday, Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu asserted that the State will get more justice only if TDP comes to power in the next Assembly elections tack on the YSRC, Sajjala took objection to his rhetoric, which he said, was unprovoked. “Leave alone YSRC, Naidu abused the people for questioning his stand on Kurnool as judicial capital,’’ Saj- jala observed. “Decentralisation is our policy and we could articulate it showing valid reasons. Chandrababu Naidu, however, has no basis to justify why administration and development should be concentrated in one region. Abusing people, officials and police shows how frustrated he is,’’ Sajjala said. The YSRC leader further accused Naidu of provoking his party leaders and spokespersons and also Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan to make abusive remarks against the YSRC and its leaders and wondered if it behoves a former chief minister P4 to behave this way  .