tirupati l wednesday l february 21, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Neuralink patient can control Mouse through thought: Musk Neuralink’s first human patient with a brain chip is able to control a computer mouse using thoughts, founder Elon Musk said on Tuesday Patient recovers with no ill effects “Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of,” Musk said in a Space event on X. “Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking,” he added. Last month, Neuralink’s implant was given to the first human patient and initial results showed promising neuron spike detection ■ $5 bn Aim to restore capabilities in patients ■ Neuralink’s implant is designed to help humans use their neural signals to control external technologies and its longterm vision is to restore lost capabilities such as vision, motor function and speech Neuralink uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move was the valuation of Neuralink in June 2023 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 Protest to resume today; Court says tractor trolleys can’t run on highways as per MV Act Farmer build up begins; HC says ‘no’ to tractors Ha r p r eet B ajwa @ Chandigarh Battle lines were drawn along the Punjab-Haryana border with farmers bringing in heavy machinery including hy, draulic cranes and earth movers, to break the police barricades as they resume their Dilli Chalo march on Wednesday as , day after they rejected a formula floated by the Centre. In a new twist later in the day, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said tractor trolleys cannot run on highways as per the Motor Vehicles Act. It advised farmers to use buses or public transport to go to Delhi instead. A bench of Acting Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia and Justice Lapita Banerji also orally directed the Punjab government to ensure that farmers do not gather in large numbers. Briefing the media on the talks with the Centre, farmer leaders said they had suggested a special session of Parliament to pass a legislation on legal guarantees to the minimum support price (MSP) mechanism for crops. Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, said: “We have three major demands: legal guarantee on MSP for all crops; the implementation of the C2+50% formula as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission; and loan waiver.’’ He said as per government reports, farmers have a total debt of `18.5 lakh crore. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi could make a pre-poll announcement that all farm loans would be waived; a mechanism to do so could be worked out later,” he suggested. At the Shambhu inter-state border, sources said the number of agitators is swelling. There is heavy police deployment in and around Rajpura to manage traffic movement as hundreds of tractor trolleys are rolling towards Shambhu. big fight for mangalagiri YSRC gets Shot in the arm as alla returns E x p r e s s N ew s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Farmers with an excavator modified to shield the agitators from police rubber bullets, at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border in Patiala district on Tuesday. Their Dilli Chalo agitation will resume on Wednesday | PTI 1 Food for thought Proposal: Farmers demand guaranteed MSP for all 23 crops; implementation of C2+50% formula as recommended by the Swaminathan panel; and loan waiver estimated at 18.5 lakh crore 3 2 Counter-proposal: Govt offers MSP guarantee on 5 crops - tur, urad, masoor, cotton and maize - for five years. Farmers reject it Cost of guaranteed MSP to all crops: Govt will get in only when mandi price is below MSP. So, real cost to govt will be MSP minus mandi price, which is about `21,000 crore for marketing year 2023, as per CRISIL Market Intelligence & Analytics 4 Expert take: Govt proposal is a diversionary tactic to buy time, says Devinder Sharma. If govt can waive off `15,000 lakh crore of corporate loans, why can’t it do so for farmers, he asks | P8 Both BJP & Akalis blame it on Mann Both the Punjab unit of the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal blamed Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for breakdown of talks. Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said, “since Mann acted as the lawyer for farmers during the talks, the negotiations were destined to fail.” Senior SAD leader Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said Mann’s double-speak during negotiations failed the farming community and forced them on the path of agitation In a shot in the arm for the ruling YSRC, which is keen on retaining the Mangalagiri Assembly seat, MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, popularly known as RK, returned to the party fold on Tuesday over two months after resigning from the party after the leadership considered appointing BC leader Ganji Chiranjeevi as the coordinator of his constituency . After raising the banner of revolt against the ruling party, RK joined the Congress in the presence of its State chief YS Sharmila. Sources said the YSRC leadership realised that it would be difficult to win the coveted Mangalagiri seat without the support of RK. The party wants to retain the seat and does not want to take any chances as TDP gen- eral secretary Nara Lokesh is expected to contest it. The YSRC leadership, in January had given additional , responsibilities of Guntur Parliamentary constituency, which includes Mangalagiri Assembly seat, to its troubleshooter V Vijayasai Reddy to set things right. Sources said Vijayasai Reddy convinced RK to return to the party With the mediation . of the Rajya Sabha MP and RK’s brother Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy called RK to meet him. Jagan gave RK a warm hug and welcomed him into the party. Emerging from the Chief Minister’s camp office, RK said it’s for the party to decide on the candidate for Mangalagiri. “I will ensure that the candidate wins the seat. The YSRC will win the seat for the third consecutive time,’’ P4 he asserted.  Maha approval to 10% Maratha quota S u d h i r S u r yawan s h i @ Mumbai AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar after the SC declared him Mayor | PTI SC overturns C’garh Mayoral poll verdict, raps returning officer s u c h it r a k a lyan m o h anty @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday declared AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar the winner of the Chandigarh Mayoral polls, setting aside the January 30 poll verdict on the BJP victory . A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra found presiding officer Anil Masih guilty of defacing eight ballots, which were cast in favour of the AAP-Congress candidate. The court considered the defaced ballots valid and transferred them to Kuldeep Kumar. The judges ordered the prosecution of returning officer Masih for making a false statement before the court. However, setting aside the election process itself would not be proper since the issue is only when the presiding officer made the counting, the bench observed. The Supreme Court in its order said that the conduct of Masih has to be deprecated at two levels. One, he unlawfully altered the course of mayoral election. Two, he made a solemn statement before the court on February 19, which was a lie. At the outset, the bench got to physically examine the invalidated ballots. A video of the voting process was played in the open court. The judges observed that all the eight ballot papers ‘marked’ by Masih were in favour of AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar. Appearing on behalf of Masih, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that it was wrong to call his client a thief, adding he was not a fugitive. THE Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill providing 10% reservation to the Maratha community in education and government jobs under a separate category. This is the third attempt to provide reservation benefits to the community on grounds of social, economic, and educational backwardness. Marathas constitute 28%of the state’s population. Ahead of the Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in 2014, the then CM Prithviraj Chavan had promulgated an ordinance approving a 16% reservation for Marathas. But the Legislation weak, won’t pass test of law: Oppn Maharashtra opposition leader and Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said the legislation is weak and won’t pass the test of law, a view supported by NCP founder Sharad Pawar. “We need to see what happens to the fresh bill in the SC,” Pawar said, noting that the latest bill is similar to the earlier legislation which could not stand legal scrutiny Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde arrives to attend the one-day special session of the state Assembly on Tuesday | PTI Bombay High Court stayed it, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court also. Later, in 2018, the Devendra Fadnavis-led gover nment passed the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes bill to provide quota for Marathas. The Supreme Court struck it down. The latest move is based on the recommendation of the Maharasthra Backward Classes Commission headed by retired judge Sunil Shukre. According to the panel, the Maratha community is economically backward with 21.22% living below poverty line, depending on free rations given by the government. “In total farmer suicides, 94% of the deceased farmers belong to Maratha community . Marathas engaged in agriculture are finding their traditional trade unprofitable... There is high illiteracy among the Maratha community and, therefore, they were deprived of government jobs and better life,” reads the report. Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy with CM Jagan on Tuesday | Express press impact Reliefoffor Jyoti assured piece land for new house Hours after this daily reported hockey player Jyoti Chhetri’s ordeal, local government officials visited her home, which is likely to be demolished, in Rourkela & offered her a piece of land to get a new house constructed | P11 Pawan Kalyan’s move for R’varam Rural Assembly seat puts Gorantla in a fix E x p r e s s N ew s Se r v i c e @ Rajamahendravaram PM Narendra Modi during the foundation stone laying of development projects in Jammu on Tuesday | PTI Article 370 stymied development of Jammu & Kashmir, says Modi F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar The BJP-led government at the Centre removed Article 370 because it was the biggest hurdle to the development of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday as he launched multiple development projects worth over `32,000 crore related to health, education, rail, road, aviation, petroleum, and civic infrastructure sectors. The PM also opened the longest transportation tunnel of the country on the UdhampurSrinagar-Baramulla Rail Link and flagged off the first electric train in Kashmir. “J&K has suffered a lot due to dynastic politics for decades. They are only concerned about their families and their own interests and not about the interests of people. The youth are the bigger losers in dynastic PM inaugurates campuses of four institutes in AP Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated permanent campuses of IIM in Visakhapatnam, IIITDM in Kurnool, IIT and IISER in Tirupati from Jammu and dedicated them to the nation. These four higher education institutes were established in the State under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 politics,” PM Modi said while addressing a public rally at Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu. Modi said after Article 370 was read down, there is widespread enthusiasm about the development of Jammu and Kashmir. Also, people from all over the world want to enjoy the scenic beauty of the region, he added. “The gulf countries are willing to invest in J&K. The entire world is enchanted by its natural beauty and everybody wants to come to Kashmir,” he said, adding that his government will commit the Valley into a tourist destination that could rival Switzerland. Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan on Tuesday hinted at fielding his party’s East Godavari district president Kandula Durgesh from Rajamahendravaram Rural Assembly seat in the upcoming elections. Though the announcement was made at a closed door meeting with the party senior leaders from the district, it left sitting TDP MLA and senior leader Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary in a fix. Less than a month ago, Pawan Kalyan announced that the party would contest the Rajamahendravaram Rural and Rajanagaram seats in alliance with the TDP . Butchaiah Chowdary reportedly tried to convince the TDP leadership not to leave the seat to the JSP or else he should be allowed to contest the Rajamahendravaram City seat, which he had held earlier. Sources said the party offered him the Rajamahendravaram MP seat which he turned down. The party is against accommodating Butchaiah Chowdary from Rajamahendravaram City express read CM releases `78.53 cr under Kalyanamasthu Vijayawada: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday released `78.53 crore under the YSR Kalyanamasthu and YSR Shaadi Tohfa, benefiting 10,132 girls who got married during October - December 2023. So far, `427.27 crore has been disbursed to 56,194 beneficiaries under the Kalyanamasthu scheme. | P4 Three YSRC nominees elected to Rajya Sabha Kandula Durgesh greets JSP chief Pawan Kalyan in Rajamahendravaram | Express seat as it is now held by Adireddy Bhavani, daughter-in-law of Adireddy Appa Rao, and daughter of late Kinjarapu Yerran Naidu. The TDP fears backlash from BCs if the seat is allotted to Butchaiah Chowdary . Source said if the BJP also joins the TDP-JSP alliance, there is a possibility of the saffron party demanding Rajamahendravaram City seat, which it had won in 2014. In such a case, it would be more difficult for Butchaiah Chowdary as he faces political uncertainty . Meanwhile, TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh said seniors would be respected in the party . Vijayawada: The three YSRC candidates Golla Baburao, Meda Raghunath Reddy and Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy have been declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. The office of CEO issued a statement to this effect on Tuesday. With the TDP not in the fray, YSRC’s nominees got elected unanimously. Jagan to distribute house site pattas to 20k Vijayawada: As part of the flagship ‘NavaratnaluPedalandariki Illu’ scheme, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will distribute house site pattas to 20,840 beneficiaries in Ongole on February 23. Special Chief Secretary (Housing) Ajay Jain directed officials to make all arrangements for the programme.