tadepalligudem l friday l december 2, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION November GST mop-up grows 11% year-on-year to `1.46 L cr This is the ninth month in a row that the indirect tax revenues have remained above the `1.4 lakh crore mark Collections 4% lower than October figure Manufacturing PMI AT THREE-MONTH HIGH However, this was 4% lower than October’s festival-driven GST mop-up of `1.52 lakh crore. The gross GST revenue collected in November 2022 is `1,45,867 cr, of which Central GST is `25,681 cr, State GST `32,651 cr, Integrated GST `77,103 cr (including `38,635 cr collected on import of goods) and Cess is `10,433 cr (including `817 cr on import of goods) | P10 ■ ■ Meanwhile, manufacturing activities in India touched a threemonth high in November as new orders and exports expanded, another set of data released on Thursday showed The S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at 55.7 in November, up from 55.3 in October `1.68 lakh cr The highest ever gst collection, recorded in April 2022 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 Show your face, catch your flight DigiYatra facial recognition system launched at Delhi, B’luru, Varanasi as part of Phase 1 AMI T MU K H E R J E E @ New Delhi Mega Modi road show Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election campaign roadshow in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Spanning over 30 km, it covered 13 constituencies in Ahmedabad city and Gandhinagar-South | pti District Narmada Navsari Porbandar Rajkot Surat Surendranagar Tapi Valsad Junagadh Kachchh Morbi Navsari Amreli Bharuch Bhavnagar Botad Dang Dwarka Gir Somnath Janmnagar Vote 73.02% 65.91% 53.84% 57.68% 59.55% 60.71% 72.32% 65.29% 56.95% 55.54% 67.65% 65.91% 57.06% 63.08% 57.81% 57.15% 64.84% 59.11% 60.46% 56.09% 61% turnout in Gujarat first phase The first phase of Gujarat polls on Thursday witnessed 61% turnout, 7% less than in 2017 Average voter turnout 2002 2007 2012 2017 2022 Phase 1 seats 60.91% 60.62% 70.73% 66.95% 61% EVM snag in a few places Polling was largely peaceful across all 89 seats that went to polls in the first phase. Voting was halted in a few places due to malfunctioning of EVMs as well as control units and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) but the faulty units were replaced and the process resumed Low sex ratio at 15 PHCs in Konaseema, probe on S T r i m u r t h u l u @ Amalapuram After 15 Public Health Centres (PHC) in Konaseema district have reported low birth rate of girls, the district adminstration has ordered an enquiry into the issue. Sex ratio at these PHCs has dropped to 724 females for 1,000 males. While the stigma associated with the birth of a girl is said to be the cause for the skewed ratio, officials have decided to step up vigil at private scanning centres to check if they are violating pre-natal sex determination rules by revealing the gender of the foetus. According to medical and health department officials, though the ratio of female per male should be 1,000/1,000 preferably, birth of 970 female as against 1,000 male can be considered a healthy rate. Anything lesser than that should be viewed seriously, officials said. During the quarterly review of deliveries at the PHCs in the district, it came to notice that 15 PHCs have reported less than 970 births of girl child. These 15 PHCs reported birth ratio of 724 to 922 when compared to 1,000 male child births. District collector Himanshu Shukla ordered an enquiry on this situation. Officials said the ‘unhealthy’ trend might lead to several complications. Eight years ago, a similar situation was reported in the erstwhile East GodaP4 vari district.  Remember Ethane Hunt in the Mission Impossible series? He simply shows his face to get access to his high security office. You could soon have a similar feeling in select airports in India for your domestic flight. From now, three airports in the country will offer the Digi Yatra service that allows domestic fliers enter the departure zones by just looking into a lens. “A static stare into a digitally wired lens is required to pass the security check,” a ministry official said. The service was launched by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3 on Thursday . express read Naidu prevented from visiting Polavaram site Rajamahendravaram: High drama prevailed at Polavaram on Thursday evening when police denied permission to TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu to visit the Polavaram project site. Naidu staged a sit-in protesting against the denial of permission. Later, he withdrew the protest as police said they would allow him to visit the project site on Friday | P4 Ready village clinics by Ugadi 2023: CM Jagan Vijayawada: Directing the medical and health department officials to complete the construction of Village Clinics by Ugadi next year, CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said official machinery should be well prepared to implement the family doctor concept properly | P3 Digi Yatra is an app-based service that has been designed to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports, based on facial recognition technology (FRT). The system set-up allows travellers to pass through various checkpoints through a paperless and contactless process using facial features, captured in the form of digital contours and structure, to establish the identity which is linked to the , boarding pass. To use this facility, a one-time registration on the Digi Yatra app is required, using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture. The data, Scindia said, is saved in an encrypted format at the airport using blockchain t e c h n o l o g y. I n f o r m a t i o n How to go about it l Download Digi Yatra and Digi Locker Apps from Playstore l Register on Digi Yatra App using phone number and OTP l Link passenger Aadhaar using Digi locker l Take selfie for validation Before every flight l Scan boarding pass (prerequisite for check-in) l Share boarding pass data with the boarding airport FRT at Dubai Airport saves 40% of passenger time up; and 9 mins per aircraft time at Atlanta Airport FRT pilot project launched at IGI Airport in August. Many passengers already registered with Digi Yatra ever since YSRC MP denies any links to Delhi liquor policy scam, alleges conspiracy E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Ongole A day after the Enforcement Directorate’s remand report in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor scam mentioned YSRC MP from Ongole Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy’s name, the legislator denied having any links with the case. He claimed that the liquor lobby in north India was conspiring against businessmen in the south. The MP was speaking at PVR Municipal (Boys) High School ground on Thursday after attending a function held to mark the 27th death anniversary of his elder brother and industrialist-turned-politician Magunta Subbarami Reddy . Condemning the allegations made against him, his son Ra- ghava Reddy, and their firm, the MP maintained, “We have nothing to do with the alleged Delhi liquor scam. We do not have any share in the said (Buddy Retail) firm.” The ED’s remand report on businessman Amit Arora stated that the key accused in the case, Vijay Nair, had received kickbacks worth `100 crore from a ‘South Group’ controlled by Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy and TRS leader K Kavitha, who is also the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister KCR. Responding, the YSRC MP asserted, “ I don’t know who Arora is and haven’t even heard of his name before. Neither me, nor my son have any direct or pocso accused forced to serve Jain: Panel A s h i s h S r i va stava @ New Delhi AT least five Tihar inmates, two of them accused in POCSO cases, were pressured by the Tihar administration to provide “special services” to jailed AAP minister Satyendra Jain, said an inquiry panel that is looking into allegations of VVIP treatment given to Jain in jail. The committee underlined that a retinue of jail officials was involved in the service of Jain. Tihar inmate Rinku, accused of raping a minor, allegedly gave a massage to Jain whose videos created a political storm a few days ago. “I have provided the massage to him (Jain) at the instructions of jail officials. Now I am being threatened. I have not even taken a drop of water from the cell of Satyendra Jain for giving the massage,” the report said quoting his recorded confession. Rinku also clarified that he never got any training in massaging or physiotherapy and that his main profession was to provide mare services for marriage functions. After the video of Jain getting a massage in jail was circulated on social media, the AAP claimed Ready to face ed probe, says Kavitha TRS MLC K Kavitha, whose name figured in a remand report by the ED in the Delhi liquor scam case. “We will face any kind of inquiry. If the agencies come and ask us questions we will certainly answer | P5 he was actually receiving physiotherapy as part of treatment. “This massage was not voluntarily or out of love & affection, as claimed by the then Superintendent Jail but was in the nature of leisure for enjoying lavish lifestyle in jail by Satyendra Jain,” the committee noted. Meanwhile, another POCSO accused, Manish, was found to be involved in providing fruits and outside food to Jain. “Jail warden used to deposit money in my jail account card. By using my card, I used to purchase fruits from jail canteen for Satyendra Jain. He deposited money in my jail account card 3-4 times and each time he deposited `6,900... I did not provide services to Jain willingly,” the report quoted Manish as saying. Acquittals 7x higher than convictions in POCSO cases K K a lya n K r i s h n a K u m a r @ Vijayawada Argentina go over Pole Morocco players toss head coach Walid Regragui into the air to celebrate their win against Canada on Thursday. The team qualified for the last 16 for first time since 1986 | AP | P11 Belgium eliminated The Red Lions, who reached the semifinals in 2018, were ousted by Croatia. They needed a win to give their ageing golden generation another chance but only drew Today’s matches 8.30pm: South Korea vs Portugal, Ghana vs Uruguay 12.30 am (Sat): Serbia vs Switzerland, Cameroon vs Brazil sourced from passengers’ phones and stored the airport will be purged 24 hours after the journey he added. , Allaying data security concerns, the ministry said, “There is no central storage of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Passenger’s ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the passenger’s smartphone itself.” The service is at present being rolled out for domestic flights. In the first phase, it will be launched at seven airports, including the three where it began in Thursday — Delhi, Bengaluru and Varanasi. The other four are Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Vijayawada where the launch is expected by March next year. At 56.15%, acquittals in the disposal of POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) cases is seven times higher than convictions in Andhra Pradesh, a study has revealed. Justice, Access and Lowering Delays in India (JALDI), along with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, in collaboration with the Data Evidence for Justice Refor m (DE JURE) programme at the World Bank conducted the study to examine the implementation of the POCSO Act as it completed a decade of being passed by Parliament. Titled ‘ Decade of POCSO DevelA opments, Challenges and Insights from Judicial Data’, the study has been conducted based on data col- lected from eCourts between 2012 and February 2021. The report was released on November 26. Besides being the largest study of eCourts data pertaining to the POCSO Act, it is a first-of-its-kind study in terms of the sheer volume of eCourts data that has been analysed. Of the total POCSO cases disposed in Andhra Pradesh, only 7.25% of them ended in convictions, while 56.15% were acquittals. It also found that the cases involved approximately 21% of consensual relationships. The study revealed that though required number of special courts had been sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh, no Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) was exclusively designated for POCSO cases. The existing PPs and Additional PPs were simply designated as SPPs through a notification.  P4 indirect connection with the issue.” Pointing out that his family has been in the liquor business for decades, the MP said, “My father had set up the business in 1952 and we are running it in eight States. Businessmen in Delhi do not want us to enter the sector there, so they have been conspiring against us for the past 6 months,” he alleged. It may be noted that after the alleged scam was first reported, the ED had taken up a probe into the money laundering angle a couple of months ago. At the time, similar allegations were made against the Magunta family members, which they subsequently denied. G20 presidency to be decisive and consultative: MEA Y e s h i Se l i @ New Delhi India on Thursday assumed the G20 presidency with Exter, nal Affairs Minister S Jaishankar saying “it will be consultative, it will be collaborative and it will be decisive.” At a G20 University Connect event that drew students of 75 universities in an interactive session, he said, “Our G20 Presidency is taking place at a very critical moment in international affairs. It is vital that the world leaders focus on the right issues, especially those that effect the more vulnerable.” As many as 100 monuments, including UNESCO world heritage sites, were lit up with the G20 logo to mark the start of India’s year-long presidency . The White House said the US is looking forward to supporting India’s G20 presidency on a range of issues, including addressing the current food and energy security challenges. He said G20 is not just the collective weight of the participants. “The world will get to know India better and our citizens will develop a sharper appreciation of it,” he said, adding eight points saying India’s example is of increasing relevance to others.