HYDERABAD MONDAY FEBRUARY 05, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 14 LATE CITY EDITION IN JOINT OPERATION, U.S. AND U.K. HIT 36 HOUTHI TARGETS IN YEMEN The US, UK troops bombed Houthi targets at 13 locations in Yemen, with support from Australia, NZ, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands STRIKES TO DEGRADE MILITIA’S CAPABILITY: US The US Central Command in a X post said it struck Houthis’ multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operation sites, radars and helicopters. The strikes will degrade Houthis’ capabilities to attack US navy, merchant vessels in the region and make international water safe and more secure, the US said ■ 30 REBELS WARN OF ESCALATION OF CONFLICT ■ “These attacks will not discourage Yemeni forces from maintaining their support for Palestinians in the face of the Zionist occupation and crimes,” Houthi military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said. “The aggressors’ airstrikes will not go unanswered,” he added Separately, US struck a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile in self-defence ATTACKS WERE CARRIED OUT BY HOUTHIS IN THE REGION SINCE NOV 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 Jaya Jaya hey Telangana, chants Revanth EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad PM Narendra Modi with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma during the inauguration and foundation stone laying of various projects in Guwahati on Sunday | PTI Past govts shut eyes to places of worship, says PM THE state Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at the Secretariat on Sunday , has resolved to give a new face to Telangana — adopting “Jaya Jaya hey Telangana....”, a song penned by poet Ande Sri as the state song, changing the present state emblem, making suitable changes to the Telangana Talli statue and also replacing the ‘TS’ with ‘TG’ on the number plates of vehicles registered in the state. During the four-hour-long meeting, the decision to start the Budget session of the state Legislature on February 8 was also taken. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan will address the joint session of the Legislature. Briefing the media later, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy said the Cabinet has decided to make suitable changes in the key symbols of the state to wipe out the ‘egoistic traces’. He said the new state symbol would be prepared in consultation with the people. Additionally, the minister mentioned that the government would initiate a debate among people and decide on changes to the Telangana Talli statue. Stating that the present symbols were reflecting only ‘raajarikam’, Srinivasa Reddy said FROM BJP TO JOIN SAFFRON PARTY Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday claimed that the BJP had been trying to compel him and other AAP leaders to join the saffron party by filing false cases against them ’Dorala’ symbols will be changed, say Cabinet members “Jaya Jaya hey Telangana…”, which is penned by poet Ande Sri, to be the state song State emblem to be changed ‘TS’ will be replaced with ‘TG’ on number plates of vehicles registered in the state Changes will be made to the Telangana Talli statue The Budget session of the Legislature to commence on February 8 CONTINUED ON P7 ‘KCR colluded with Jagan to deny TS rightful share’ B K A R T H E E K @ Hyderabad P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati KEJRIWAL ALLEGES PRESSURE NEW IDENTITY FOR STATE KRISHNA WATERS Inaugurates Kamakhya temple corridor, other projects worth `11,600 cr in Assam country, he mentioned the record footfall of devotees in IN a veiled attack on the Con- Varanasi after the completion gress, Prime Minister Naren- of the Kashi corridor. “In the dra Modi on Sunday said those past year, 8.5 crore people viswho came to power after Inde- ited Kashi, more than 5 crore pendence could not understand visited Mahakal Lok in Ujjain the significance of places of and over 19 lakh devotees visworship and set a trend of be- ited Kedardham,” the PM said. ing ashamed of the country’s He noted that more than 24 culture and past for polakh people visited Aylitical reasons. odhya after the Ram Addressing a gatherTemple consecration. ing in Guwahati after He said a similar specvirtually inaugurating Those who ran the tacle would unfold in and laying the founda- government for a Guwahati after the Kalong time since tion stone for a number m a k hy a c o r r i d o r Independence of projects in Assam – project, adding that failed to including the Kamaspiritual tourism can understand the khya temple corridor boost the livelihood of significance of project – worth `11,599 places of worship. even the pooerest. crore, Modi said no They set a trend of Apart from the `498 country can grow by being ashamed of crore Kamakhya corerasing its past. ridor project, the other their own culture He said he was hap- for political gains major projects coming py that the situation up in Assam include a PM Narendra Modi changed in the past 10 six-lane road from the years after the BJP’s new airport terminal policies focussed on vikas (de- (`358 crore) in Guwahati, upvelopment) and virasat (herit- gradation of Nehru Stadium to age). Modi added that connect- FIFA standards (`831 crore), a ing Assam’s historical and new sports complex in Chanspiritual places with modern drapur (`300 crore), upgradafacilities is a move aimed at tion of 43 roads, including 38 preserving these sites and ac- bridges, as a part of South Asia celerating development. Subregional Economic CoopNoting the growing enthusi- eration Corridor Connectivity asm for spiritual tourism in the at a cost of over `3,400 crore. the ‘dorala’ symbols would be changed. The new symbols would reflect the separate Telangana movement. He said the suggestions of intellectuals, poets and other sections would be taken before making changes to the symbols. The minister also said the Cabinet has resolved to implement another two of the six guarantees. “The state government is already implementing two guarantees. So far, 14.25 crore women have utilised free travel in TSRTC buses. Two more Abhaya Hastam guarantees will be announced by the chief minister in the Assembly,” Srinivasa Reddy added. GILL GETS GOING AT 3 After a string of failures, Shubman Gill slammed a century (104), his first at No. 3, to put India in driver’s seat in second Test against England on Sunday | PTI | P13 HITTING back at the BRS over comments on handing over the Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar projects to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB), Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday alleged that his predecessor, K Chandrasekhar Rao, and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had conspired to deny Telangana its rightful share of Krishna waters. Addressing a press conference along with ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Konda Surekha, he stated that KCR yielded himself to the commissions as part of an agreement with Jagan Mohan Reddy and didn’t attend the meeting convened by the Union government on August 5, 2020. “This absence resulted in him not opposing the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme, leading to Pic: VINAY MADAPU Andhra Pradesh issuing tenders on August 10, 2020, for the lifting of 8 tmcft of water. KCR’s greed for money laid the foundation of the ‘Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation scam’,” he said. Revanth further alleged that the former chief minister was responsible for the development of projects along the Krishna river — such as Pothireddypadu, Rayalaseema and Muchumarri — undertaken by the AP government from P6 2004 to 2023. THE Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has directed the Ayush ministry to take action against Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved for alleged misleading advertisements about its products. Following the PMO directive on January 24, the Ayush ministry wrote to the Uttarakhand Ayush department on February 2 to “take appropriate action”. The PMO’s move came after RTI activist Dr K V Babu complained to it on January 15 flagging Patanjali’s repeated violations of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. Speaking to this newspaper, Dr Babu said both the Ayush ministry and the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority (SLA) had been dragging their feet over Patanjali’s misleading advertisements of its drugs for diabetes, obesity, thyroid and heart diseases. Dr Babu told this paper that his complaints have been pending with the Drugs Controller General of India, the Union Ayush ministry and Uttarakhand SLA since February 2022. Now that the PMO N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow IN a major b r e a k through, the Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Uttar Pradesh police (UP ATS) arrested here an employee of the Indian embassy in Moscow for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s ISI. Satendra Siwal, an employee of the Indian Embassy in Moscow, was produced in a local court and sent to 14-day judicial remand. Police sources said the ATS would move court on Monday to take Siwal’s remand. Two mobile phones, an aadhaar Card, a PAN card, an identity card and R600 cash were recovered from him. Siwal was passing on confidential information about defence installations to his ISI handlers across the border for money, UP ATS sources said. He was engaged as the Indiabased Multi-Tasking Staff at the Indian Embassy in Moscow. The ATS claimed that it had information from the sources and surveillance that some of the External Affairs ministry employees were being lured by ISI with money to disclose strategic information about Indian defence installations and other details thus posing a serious threat to country’s security . The ATS called Siwal for interrogation. During the grilling, he was not able to answer the queries of ATS satisfactorily On further questioning, he . admitted to having engaged in allegedly spying for the ISI, ATS said in a statement. After which, ATS lodged an FIR against him for waging war against the country . JMM MLAs flown back to Ranchi for trust vote today 24-year-old M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi JHARKHAND Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLAs returned to the state capital on Sunday evening ahead of the floor test in the Assembly on Monday . Soon after Champai Soren was sworn in as the chief minister last week, 37 MLAs of the ruling alliance were taken to a resort in Hyderabad over fears that the BJP may try to poach them ahead of the trust vote. They were kept under tight security and not allowed to meet or talk to anyone. The MLAs were taken to Hyderabad after rumours spread that JMM does not have the required numbers to pass the floor test. Upon their retur n from Hyderabad on Sunday, the MLAs were taken directly to the circuit house, where they would stay overnight and proceed to the As- sembly on Monday morning. The Jharkhand Assembly has a strength of 81 seats. The JMM-led alliance has support of 47 MLAs, six more than the half-way mark making it a cakewalk for it to win the floor test. JMM has 29 seats, Congress has 17, while the RJD and CPI (ML) have one seat each. One assembly seat is vacant. The NDA, on the other hand, has a total strength of 32 MLAs. The BJP has 26 MLAs, AJSU 3, NCP (AP) has one seat along with two Independent MLAs. While the JMM is confident of winning the trust vote, BJP MLA Biranchi Naryan said that the Champai government will lose the floor test on Monday. If the party was so confident of winning on the floor of the House, why did it take its MLAs to Hyderabad under tight security he asked. , PMO DIRECTS ACTION AGAINST PATANJALI FOR MISLEADING ADS K A V I TA B A J E L I - D AT T @ New Delhi Uttar Pradesh ATS arrests MEA staff for spying for ISI has intervened, there is hope that some action will be taken, he added. In its letter to the director, Ayurvedic and Unani Services, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, the Ayush ministry said: “Since the subject matter pertains to continuous violations of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Adver tisements) Act, 1954, by Divya Pharmacy (a manufacturing unit owned by Patanjali), it comes under the jurisdiction of the State Licensing Authority, Uttarakhand... it is requested to examine the matter and take necessary action as deemed appropriate.” The DMR (OA) 1954 says: “No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any drug in terms which suggest or are calculated to lead to the use of that drug for the diagnosis, c u r e, m i t i g a t i o n , treatment or prevention of any diseases, disorder or condition.” Since the subject matter pertains to continuous violations of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, by Divya Pharmacy (a manufacturing unit owned by Patanjali), it comes under the jurisdiction of the State Licensing Authority, Uttarakhand... it is requested to examine the matter and take necessary action as deemed appropriate. Ayush ministry, In its letter to director, Ayurvedic and Unani Services techie dies in hit-and-run EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad IN yet another hit-and-run case in the city, a 24-year-old techie died allegedly after being knocked down from his bike by a lorry at Malakpet in the wee hours of Sunday . According to sources, the victim, Siddhu Sai Ram, worked for a software firm at the Mindspace IT Park in Hitec City and was returning home in Vanasthalipuram when the accident took place. He took the route passing through Malakpet under Chaderghat police station limits when a negligent lorry driver knocked his two-wheeler down, resulting in his instantaneous death, they added. The sources mentioned that the accused driver, who was initially on the run, was later arrested by the police. Meanwhile, Siddhu’s body was handed over to his family after the autopsy . College student was grievously injured CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and ministers felicitate Padma Shri awardee Dasari Kondappa in Hyderabad on Sunday | P6 EXPRESS READ TDP, JSP agree on seat-sharing terms Vijayawada: The TDP and Jana Sena Party have reportedly concluded the process of seat-sharing. JSP president Pawan Kalyan met TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday. The parties are said to have achieved a consensus in the seat-sharing process | P7 Only a few days back, a secondyear BTech student of Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology (SNIST), sustained grievous injuries after a tipper lorry crashed into the twowheeler that she was driving in Yamnampet of Medchal-Malkajgiri district. The driver, identified as Ravi, was reportedly driving in a rash and negligent manner. CONTINUED ON P7
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