HYDERABAD WEDNESDAY AUGUST 21, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 16 LATE CITY EDITION CCI FEELS DISNEY-RELIANCE MERGER CAN HARM COMPETITION: REPORT According to Reuters, CCI feels the merger of Reliance and Disney assets harms competition due to their power over cricket broadcast rights MERGER TO CREATE MEDIA BEHEMOTH CRICKET RIGHTS BONE OF CONTENTION The Competition Commission of India’s view is a setback to the two firms, whose proposed merged entity would have lucrative rights worth billions of dollars for the broadcast of cricket. Antitrust experts point out that the proposed merger will create India’s biggest entertainment player with a combined strength of 120 TV channels and two streaming services ■ “Cricket is the biggest pain point for CCI,” Reuters quoted a source as saying The CCI has given the two firms 30 days to explain their position. Reuters said CCI earlier sent Reliance and Disney around 100 questions on the merger ■ The firms reportedly said they are willing to sell fewer than 10 television channels to assuage concerns about market power and win early approval ■ $8.5 billion ESTIMATED SIZE OF THE MERGER DEAL BETWEEN RELIANCE AND WALT DISNEY 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 LATERAL ENTRY QUOTA COMING Proposed hiring nixed; PM wants to rework scheme to apply reservation for those posts too RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi Police personnel negotiating with protesters blocking railway tracks at Badlapur in Thane district on Tuesday | PTI Thane erupts over sex assault of minor girls in private school S U D H I R S U R YAWA N S H I @ Mumbai MASSIVE protests broke out on Tuesday at Badlapur in Maharashtra’s Thane district over the alleged sexual assault of two girls, aged 4 and 6 years, at a private English medium school by the school sweeper. Hundreds of protesters blocked railway tracks at Badlapur station. With the protesters occupying tracks, 15 longdistance trains were diverted while local train services were suspended for about 10 hours. Police resorted to baton charge after the protesters refused to disperse and started pelting stones at policemen. Meanwhile, another group of protesters, many of them parents, vandalised the school building to express their anger and disgust over the assault. The protesters demanded harsh punishment for the accused, 23-year-old Akshay Shinde. The incidents took place on August 12 and 13 but the accused was arrested only on August 17. The parents of the girls were allegedly made to wait 11 hours at the police station before the FIR was filed. Police sources said the investigation revealed several lapses on the part of the school. There was no female attendant or cleaner for the girl toilet, a basic safety requirement. The accused was entrusted with cleaning the girl’s toilet, where the sexual assault took place. Police officials said most of the CCTV cameras installed at the school were not working. KOLKATA HOSPITAL HORROR National task force to frame norms on safety of docs: SC EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad Rainfall recorded in Saroornagar Yellow 2ND ARC OKAYED LATERAL ENTRY IN LINE WITH SIXTH PAY PANEL REPORT INTRODUCING TRANSPARENCY Lateral entry was endorsed by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) constituted in 2005, Singh said The second ARC was chaired by Veerappa Moily. The recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in 2013 were also in the same direction While most of the lateral entries before 2014 were ad-hoc, the NDA tried to make it institutionally driven, transparent, open, Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to explore the possibility of introducing quota in lateral entries as well, he indicated. Singh wrote to UPSC Chairperson Preeti Sudan following Modi’s directive to cancel the advertisement, so that marginalised communities get their @ Hyderabad I request you to ensure that whatever money we have released reaches the farmers in time. In agriculture lending, it serves no purpose if timely help is not extended. There is no use if you delay even by a day Bhatti Vikramarka, deputy chief minister DEPUTY Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Tuesday admitted that while the government released `18,000 crore to banks towards crop loan waiver, only `7,500 crore was received by the farmers so far. “Even one week delay in loan waiver would not have the desired benefit,” he said addressing a state level bankers’ meeting at Praja Bhavan here. “Surmounting several problems, we mobilised `18,000 Sikkim landslide hits Teesta project P R A SA N TA M A Z U M DA R & J I T E N D R A C H O U B E Y @ Guwahati/New Delhi A massive landslide struck Sikkim on Tuesday, damaging parts of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation’s 510-mw hydroelectric project on the Teesta river at Dipudara in Gangtok district. Gangtok collector Tushar Nikhare, who visited the site along with other officials, told this paper that the gas-insulated substations (GIS) building of the project was damaged. Last year’s glacial lake outburst flood had damaged the power station and it was under construction. NHPC said the Teesta basin region has been witnessing landslides during the ongoing monsoon season. “Today’s incident also occurred due to subsidence/landslide over Tail Race Tunnel outlet structure and behind GIS building. This has affected TRT gate hoist structure and part of the GIS building,” it said. According to experts, man-made activities triggered the landslip. “The area received deficient rainfall in the past two weeks,” said G N Raha, scientist, Met Centre Gangtok. “There was no vegetation over the slid hills; also, the hills slope is above 45° inclined, which shows soil erosion due to manmade activities from both sides i.e. above the hills, residential buildings causing pressure over fragile phyllite stone and from downward NHPC’s construction,” said professor Manasi Debnath of Nagaland University . EXPRESS READ alert for 2 days A car stuck on a flooded road being pushed by people in Hyderabad on Tuesday Heavy rains, which began around 3 am, continued for two to three hours in many parts of the twin cities and outskirts of Hyderabad. Water-logging on several roads disrupted the movement of traffic while authorities de- CANCELLED AS REQUESTED BY THE REQUISITIONING AUTHORITY, SAYS UPSC EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE DESCRIBING the ongoing protests against the horrific rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a government hospital in Kolkata as a moment of national catharsis, the Supreme Court on Tuesday constituted a 10-member National Task Force headed by surgeon-major R P Sarin to formulate guidelines for ensuring the safety security and facilities to doctors and health, care staff in hospitals across India. A three-judge bench led by the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud termed the incident “horrific and horrendous”, adding it indicated a systemic failure of the state machinery . CITY DOC ON PANEL The court hauled up the Kolkata poDr D Nageshwar lice and the state government for its inReddy, Chairman and action in the case and allowing a mob to MD of AIG Hospitals, vandalise the RG Kar Medical College is among the task and Hospital, where the victim was force members murdered. appointed by SC The CJI questioned Bengal’s counsel Kapil Sibal as to how RG Kar’s Sandip CBI PROBE’S Ghosh was appointed the head of anSTATUS REPORT other college hours after he stepped The court directed down as principal; why Ghosh initially the CBI to file its tried to pass the death off as suicide; probe status report why the registration of FIR was deby August 22, when it layed; what was the police doing when would take up the the hospital was invaded by a mob; and matter further. The why did the police fail to secure the task force has been crime scene? asked to submit its While urging the agitating health interim report within care practitioners to return to work, the three weeks court warned the Bengal government not to take punitive action against them. “Let the power of the state not be unleashed on them at all. Please deal with them with sensitivity This is a moment . for national catharsis,” the court said. The task force was asked to prepare an action plan on preventing violence, including gender-based violence against medical professionals; and an enforceable national protocol for dignified and safe working conditions for interns, residents, senior residents, doctors, nurses and all medical professionals. Expressing anguish, the CJI said, “What is equality under the Constitution if women cannot be safe in their workplace.” 132.3 mm nixes advert on filling 45 posts clared a holiday for educational institutions in Hyderabad. A man riding a two-wheeler was seen being washed away in Ramnagar area in Musheerabad constituency before being rescued by locals. CONTINUED ON P2 rightful representation in government services. Hours later, the advert was withdrawn. “This aspect (no quota for single-cadre posts) needs to be reviewed and reformed in the context of the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s focus on ensuring social justice,” Singh said. Only `7.5K crore reached farmers: Bhatti S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi One dead as rain pounds city HEAVY rains lashed Hyderabad and several districts in the state on Tuesday morning inundating low-lying areas. Many areas in the city received over 100 mm rainfall in a short span of time in the morning, with Saroornagar recording 132.3 mm. The city witnessed another spell of rain in the afternoon and intense downpours in the evening leading to traffic jams as several roads were flooded. The body of a person who was suspected to have been washed away in floodwater was found at Parsigutta as rains pounded Hyderabad and Secunderabad on Tuesday morning. The victim, identified as Vijay was washed away , while he was crossing the road in the morning. BARELY three days after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) announced 45 vacancies for lateral entry of officers into the bureaucracy the , Centre killed it, heeding to concerns from within the ruling NDA and without. The decision came ahead of assembly elections in J&K and Haryana amid the Opposition’s attack over the lack of quota for those positions. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the Janatal Dal (United), both NDA allies, too, shared their concerns over the proposed recruitment. Quota is a political hot potato that parties can ignore only at their peril. “Since, these positions have been treated as specialized and designated as single-cadre posts, there has been no provision for reservation in these appointments,” Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh reasoned. However, Sources said comments of all stakeholders would be taken into account by the government to find out whether or not reservation can be applied to lateral entry recruitment. Dilating on the matter, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, said, “UPSC adopted a very transparent method for lateral entry Now we have de. cided to apply the principle of reservation in that too. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has always shown his commitment towards social justice,” he said. “We gave constitutional status to the OBC Commission which was earlier an ordinary body Be it NEET, Sainik Vidya. laya or Navodaya Vidyalaya, we have implemented the principle of reservation everywhere,” Vaishnaw added. However, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said it was due to the campaign by Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc that the government was forced to take a step back on the matter. No info from state on tapping of HC judge’s phone: Centre Hyderabad: Under Secretary to the Government of India Nutan Kumari said in a counter affidavit in the Telangana High Court that there was no communication or request for instructions from the Telangana government to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on alleged tapping of the phone of a high court judge | P4 crore and transferred the funds in a span of one month. On July 18, we started first quarter (first instalment), second quarter on July 30 and third on August 15. Within one month we have released `18,000 crore, thinking that if our farmers get timely aid, they can reinvest their money to produce more and more crops. But the data says only `7,500 crore reached the farmers. So, I request you to ensure that whatever money we have released reaches the farmers in time. Particularly in agriculture lend, ing, it serves no purpose if timely help is not extended. There is no use if you delay even by a day .” Later, the office of the deputy chief minister issued a statement stating: “The state government has released `18,000 crore to banks towards crop loan waiver. The banks are delaying extending new loans to farmers. The banks have so far given only `17,300 crore in new loans to farmers, which is not appropriate. Bankers should treat farmers with huCONTINUED ON P4 manity .”
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