HYDERABAD  WEDNESDAY  FEBRUARY 08, 2023  `9.00  PAGES 16  LATE CITY EDITION NO SEPARATE LAW TO CHECK VIOLENCE AGAINST DOCTORS The Centre has decided not to go ahead with a legislation to protect healthcare professionals from physical violence BILL WITHDRAWN AFTER CONSULTATIONS EPIDEMIC DISEASES ACT TO PROTECT DOCS In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Union health minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said a draft of the Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019 was circulated for consultations. However, the government decided not to enact a separate law to protect healthcare professionals and institutions ■ ■ The minister said the matter was further discussed with all stakeholders and an ordinance namely The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated on April 22, 2020 Later, the govt passed the Act on September 28, 2020 under which violence against doctors are cognizable and non-bailable offences 3 months JAIL TERM AND FINE OF `50,000-2,00,000 FOR OFFENDERS UNDER EPIDEMIC ACT 2020 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 CBI probe in Poachgate: State goes to SC, HC for relief EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Delhi / Hyderabad THE State government on Tuesday sought an urgent hearing in the Supreme Court on its appeal challenging the high court order upholding a single bench judge direction for a CBI probe into BRS MLAs poaching case. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud took note of the submissions of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who appeared in the matter for the Telangana government, that there was an FIR related to “destabilising the State government”. Dave said a single-judge bench of the Telangana High Court ordered a CBI probe and a larger bench upheld it, saying the State’s appeal was not maintainable. “There is a grave urgency . If the CBI enters the investigation, everything will fail,” he added. The bench, also comprising Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, asked Dave to mention the plea again on Wednesday . “We will list the matter. Mention it tomorrow morning.... Even without mentioning, it will come up next week,” the CJI said. On Monday a division bench , of the Telangana HC dismissed the State government’s appeal against the single-judge order to transfer the probe in the Poachgate case from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the State police to the CBI. The bench had conf i r m e d t h e o rd e r s passed by the single judge on December 26, 2022 and dismissed the batch of writ appeals filed by the government and others. The order paved the way for the CBI to proceed with its investigation. Plea for HC order suspension Meanwhile, the State government filed an Interlocutory Application (IA) on Tuesday before Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana HC with a request to suspend his order of December 26, 2022, transferring the case to CBI to enable it to file an SLP in the SC against his order. The government said it was seeking suspension of the order as the CBI was demanding that the State chief secretary hand over the papers relating to the case. Justice B Vijaysen Reddy asked Advocate General BS Prasad to get permission from Spl SC bench to hear Bilkis Bano’s plea TS-CET dates announced E N S @ Hyderabad THE education department on Tuesday announced tentative dates for various common entrance tests (CETs) including Telangana EAMCET, ECET, LAWCET, PGLCET, I-CET, EdCET & PGECET for admission to different professional degree courses across the State. As per the schedule, EAMCET for engineering course admissions will be held from May 7 to 11; agriculture and pharmacy exams between May 12 to 14. Along with these, JNTUH will also conduct TS PGECET required for M Tech and M Pharm courses, between May 29 and June 1. The Mahatma Gandhi University will conduct Ed CET on May 18 for admissions to B.Ed courses. ICET (MBA and MCA courses) is scheduled to be conducted by the Kakatiya University on May 26 and 27. Whereas, Osmania University will conduct , ECET on May 20 and LAWCET and PGLCET on May 25. CONTINUED ON P5 With you, dear: Dad holds hand of dead daughter Mesut Hancer in an orange jacket sitting on a pile of rubble, holds the hand of his dead daughter Irmak, 15, who lies on a mattress, crushed by a huge concrete block, in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake epicentre in Turkyie AFP S H R U T I K A K K A R @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to constitute a special bench to hear the pleas challenging the Gujarat government’s order allowing premature release of 11 convicts sentenced to life in the Bilkis Bano case. During the 2002 Gujarat riots, Bano, who was five months pregnant, was gangraped and seven members of her family killed. Urging the bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud to list the plea, advocate Shobha Gupta said Justice Ajay Rastogi was continuously sitting in a combination of himself a n d Ju s t i c e Bela Trivedi, who had earlier recused herself from hearing the matter. The bench, also comprising judges P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, assured Bano that the new bench will be formed at the earliest. The top court had earlier clarified that objections pertaining to locus of pleas filed by third party petitioners by one of the convicts Radhey Shyam and the Gujarat government did not arise anymore. The court also clarified that it would take up Bilkis’s plea as lead matter. “After victim’s plea comes, the issue of locus goes... Come on merits. In these cases no technicality has to follow,” Justice Rastogi had remarked while posting the pleas for February . the Chief Justice court to hear the IA, which was deferred till Wednesday . The AG pleaded for suspension of the order and further informed the judge about Monday’s order passed by the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, which dismissed all six writ appeals filed by the State and others challenging the order of the single judge on the grounds that the ‘orders are on the criminal jurisdiction side, which is an intra court appeal and that an appeal against such an order lies before the Supreme Court’. RESCUE RACE ON, TOLL 6,200 Y E S H I S E L I A N D M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi WITH the toll crossing 6,200 a day after a 7.8 pre-dawn earthquake shook up Turkiye and Syria, Turkiye President, Recip Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency for three months in 10 of the worst hit provinces in his country Amid . temperatures below freezing point and over 200 aftershocks, rescuers raced against time as nearly 6,000 buildings collapsed in Turkiye alone. Not all buildings have been accessed by the rescuers yet. In the Hatay province in Turkyie where 1,500 buildings were destroyed, rescue effort was yet to begin. But in areas where teams worked, occasional cheers broke out through the night as survivors were brought out of the rubble. There were also reports of people stuck in the rubble sending videos and voice messages requesting urgent assistance and rescue. So far, over 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkiye. Amid a global scramble to rush humanitarian support, India on Tuesday sent five aircraft full of relief and rescue equipment, which includes Indian field hospital 4 IAF C17 aircraft loads of Indian relief and rescue personnel sent to Turkyie and one to Syria Field hospital sent to Turkiye to establish a 30-bed medical facility. 45-member medical team accompanying it. It has X-ray unit, ventilators, OT and other equipment NDRF search and rescue teams, medical equipment for creating a 30-bed makeshift hospital, drilling machines and dog squads. Out of the five IAF C17 aircraft, four have been sent to Turkiye and one to Syria. “PM Modi gave immediate instructions to build a crisis centre and all relevant Indian authorities had a meeting. This is an example of good friendship and we really appreciate it. We are in touch with the Indian Embassy in Ankara along with Indian authorities in Delhi,’’ Turkiye envoy Firat Sunel said. “We really appreciated the Indian heart,” Syrian envoy Bassam Seifeddin Alkhatib said. Rahul Gandhi displays a poster showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi sitting with billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani in what looks like a chartered plane | PTI Rahul questions Adani-Modi link Accuses the BJP govt of tweaking rules to help the conglomerate win mega projects defence,” he added. Both the Lok Sabha and the FRESH from his five month- Rajya Sabha had not transactlong cross-country march, ed any business till this debate senior Congress leader Rahul in the ongoing Budget session Gandhi on Tuesday launched as the Opposition stuck to its a blistering attack on the demand for a Joint ParliamenNarendra Modi government tary Committee or Supreme and its alleged links with the Court-monitored probe into Adani group, which is facing allegations against Adani. Rahul Gandhi’s fiery speech allegations of stock manipudrew strong protests from lation and fraud. Rahul’s all-out offensive BJP ministers and MPs, who against the government came asked the Congress scion to on a day when Opposition par- substantiate his ‘wild allegations’ with proof. ties decided to end The former Conthe three-day logjam gress president, then, in Parliament and displayed a phototake part in the moIn 2014, Adani’s graph of Modi and tion of thanks to the position was 609 Adani in an aircraft President’s address. on the list of the together, wondering The Wayanad MP world’s richest. how many trips the alleged that the Modi Now he is in the government has been second place. It is duo must have taken together. favouring the Adani sheer magic “Modi goes to Ausgroup since it came Rahul Gandhi tralia and the next to power in 2014. He day SBI gives a $1 bilalso accused the Centre of changing rules to help lion loan to Adani. He goes to Bangladesh and the BanglaAdani acquire airports. “There was a rule that only desh Power Development a company or person with ex- Board signs a 25-year contract perience in airports be given with Adani,” he alleged, dethe responsibility of develop- manding answers to his quesing airports. But, the govern- tions from the PM in his . ment changed the rules for speech on Wednesday In his 40-minute-long speech the Adani group and six airports were handed over to in the Lok Sabha, Rahul also him. Adani now dominates sought to know how much several sectors such as ports, money Adani has given to the airports, cement, media and BJP in the past 20 years. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi SC junks plea, Victoria Gowri sworn in addl HC judge S H R U T I K A K K A R & R S I VA K U M A R @ New Delhi/Chennai TPCC president A Revanth Reddy addressing a public meeting in Mulugu on Tuesday Who cares even if Maoists blow up Pragathi Bhavan: Revanth E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Mulugu ACCUSING Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of being indifferent to the woes of the people as he was barricaded by the walls of the Pragathi Bhavan, TPCC president A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday said that even if Maoists blow up the official residence of the chief minister with explosives it would be of little consequence as it was of no use to the people. Continuing his attack on the State government on the second day of the Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan, Revanth said: “What use is a structure built with hundreds of crores when the chief minister is indifferent to the sufferings of the people as long as he is inside it? If it is of no use to the public, why is the Pragathi Bhavan home to the Kalvakuntla family? Hundreds of crores of public money was spent to build it.” He said that only the Kalvakuntla family benefited from the sacrifices of Telangana protagonists. “All members of KCR’s family are enjoying political positions while not a single family of those who made the sacrifices got any benefit,” Revanth alleged. Stating that over one lakh farmers died in the last nine years, the TPCC chief said of this, 10,000 died by suicide. “While the government is not officially announcing their death as suicide, the fact is that the chief minister is responsible for farmer suicides,” he CONTINUED ON P4 said. LEKSHMANA Chandra Victoria Gowri was sworn in as additional judge of the Madras High Court on Tuesday amid protests outside the court and minutes before the Supreme Court dismissed two pleas against her appointment, saying a “consultative process” had taken place before her name was recommended by the collegium for the appointment. Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, T Raja, ad- ministered her oath of office at the swearingin ceremony held on the high court premises. Four others—Pillaipakkam Bahukutumbi Balaji, KandSOURAV ROY hasami Kulanthaivelu Ramakrishnan, Ramachandran Kalaimathi and Govindarajan Thilakavadi— were also sworn in as additional judges. All new additional judges will hold their posts for a period of two years from the date of taking oath. “We are not entertaining the writ petition. Reasons will follow,” said a special Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, which assembled at 10.25 am to hear the pleas against her elevation, five minutes before the scheduled time of the court on Tuesday . The bench told senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who appeared for the petitioners, that there have been cases where people with political backgrounds have taken oath as judges of the Supreme Court and high courts. Underscoring the fact that Gowri was taking oath as an additional judge of the Madras HC and her appointment won’t be made permanent in case she’s not true to her oath, Justice Gavai said that directing the collegium to reconsider would result in showing lack of respect for it and would also set a wrong precedent. “There are instances where persons (additional judges) have not been confirmed,” Justice Gavai said. Breather for MBBS students as Centre extends internship date E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad BACK ON ROADS One of the three electric double decker buses flagged off by IT and MAUD Minister K T Rama Rao in Hyderabad on Tuesday | EXPRESS CONSIDERING the future of thousands of students, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Tuesday decided to extend the last date for the completion of internship for eligibility for the NEET PG 2023, to August 11. The decision is going to benefit nearly 4,000 MBBS students in Telangana. The ministry has also decided to extend the last date of completion of the internships to June 30 for dental students, who were not able to appear for NEET MDS. Md Manzur, a dental student from Achampet town in Nagarkurnool district, and national president of the All India Dental Students Association, said, “We are thankful to the ministry for taking the decision in the favour of students.” “For the students who did not fill the form due to the ineligibility issue, the MOHFW has opened the portal again allowCONTINUED ON P3 ing us to fill the forms,” he added.