HYDERABAD  MONDAY  SEPTEMBER 09, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION INDIA REPORTS 1ST SUSPECTED CASE OF DEADLIER MPOX VIRUS STRAIN Suspected case of the new and deadlier strain of the virus in a man who arrived in India from a country experiencing mpox transmission PATIENT ISOLATED, CONTACT TRACING ON Samples have been collected and are being tested to confirm the presence of mpox, Union health ministry said. The patient has been isolated at a designated hospital and is currently stable. “The case is being managed in line with established protocols, and contact tracing is ongoing to identify potential sources and assess the impact within the country,” the health ministry said ■ 30 INDIA WELL PREPARED, SAYS HEALTH MINISTRY ■ Urging the public not to panic, the government said the country is fully prepared to deal with such isolated travel-related cases of mpox The mpox virus is known to spread through skin-to-skin contact or sharing items like towels. As many as 15,600 cases and 537 deaths have been reported so far this year globally, according to the WHO | P7 CASES OF MPOX INFECTIONS CAUSED BY OLDER VIRUS STRAIN REPORTED IN INDIA SINCE 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 Lakeside villas in FTL of lake fall to HYDRAA’s demolition drive We are booking criminal cases against encroachers. We are razing their structures. All the structures demolished today (Sunday) in Sunnam Cheruvu were erected by the local land grabbers. Do you think that a normal person from Bihar or Odisha can come and construct a house in the FTL or buffer zone without the involvement of locals? The grabbers show the facade of poor and encroach the land. The sheds demolished today at Sunnam Cheruvu were not owned by the labourers. The rent was being collected from them by the local leaders who encroached the tanks HYDRAA authorities raze unauthorised under-construction structures within the FTL and buffer zone of Sunnam Cheruvu in Madhapur, Hyderabad, on Sunday AV Ranganath, HYDRAA Commissioner Former YSRC MLA booked THE Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) launched a large-scale demolition drive against constructions in Full Tank Level (FTL) and buffer zones of various water bodies in and around Hyderabad. On Sunday, along with police and revenue officials, HYDRAA authorities razed illegal structures at Mallampet Cheruvu (also known as Katwa Cheruvu) in Dundigal, Pedda Cheruvu in Ameenpur and Sunnam Cheruvu in Madhapur. Among those at the receiving end of this drive were former YSRC MLA K Bhupal Reddy and Jayabheri Construction Group, owned by former TDP MP and actor Murali Mohan. While officials demolished structures linked to former Andhra Pradesh MLA at Ameenpur, Murali Mohan was asked to remove the structures within the buffer zone of the Rangalal lake in Financial District. The officials razed seven villas within the FTL limits of Katwa Cheruvu, which were part of a gated community developed by Lakshmi Srinivasa Construction Company These . villas were still under construction and reportedly did not have the necessary building permiss i o n s . T h e b u i l d e r, identified as Vijay Lakshmi, allegedly has several criminal cases against her and is said to have ties with politicians. Revenue officials in Dundigal said a total of 20 villas had been marked as unauthorised, with notices set to be issued for the remaining villas. Expressing outrage, residents claimed that they had not received prior notice from HYDRAA about the demolitions. DISPELLING RUMOURS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad Only new structures within FTL or buffer zone of water bodies will be razed: Ranganth AMID widespread concerns from homeowners in Full Tank Level (FTL) and buffer zones of lakes in the city, Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) Commissioner AV Ranganath on Sunday clarified that existing houses, even if built in these areas, will not be demolished. He asserted that inhabited s t r u c t u r e s wo u l d r e m a i n untouched. In a statement, Ranganath said that only new constructions in FTL and buffer zones of water bodies would be demolished. He clarified that the structures demolished in Sunnam Cheruvu and Katwa Cheruvu on Sunday were still under construction and lacked the necessary permissions. He stated that HYDRAA would remove huts and temporary sheds that appear overnight. “We will demolish permanent structures used for commercial purposes,” the HYDRAA commissioner added. CONTINUED ON P3 M A N DA RAV I N D E R R E D DY @ Hyderabad HYDRAA officials demolished structures linked to former MLA Katasani Rambhupal Reddy at Pedda Cheruvu in Ameenpur, Sangareddy district. These included compound walls, rooms and sheds that were allegedly built by the ex-legislator from AP . Local police have registered criminal cases against the builder, Vijay Lakshmi, and Rambhupal Reddy . Denying any wrongdoing, the former YSRC MLA told TNIE, “The buildings that were demolished are not on my land, except for a watchman’s room. As for the compound wall, HYDRAA did not issue any notice. My family and I purchased the land in 2006, but no buildings were constructed. The structures on the adjacent land have nothing to do with me.” He added that since purchasing the land, problems have arisen reCONTINUED ON P3 peatedly . Join us, Pak sees you as foreigners, Rajnath tells PoK Dialogue possible only if Pakistan stops terror, defence minister says during J&K election rally F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar UNION defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday asked the residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to join India, saying “we consider you our own unlike Pakistan which treats you as foreigners”. He said after seeing the development in Jammu and Kashmir, PoK residents will themselves reject Pakistan and join India. “There will be so much development that the people in PoK would say that we do not want to live with Pakistan and instead will go to India,” the defence minister said while addressing an election rally in the Ramban assembly constituency in support of BJP candidate Rakesh Singh Thakur. The Union minister said there has been a sea change in the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The Union minister said Pakistan’s top law officer recently filed an affidavit in court terming PoK a foreign land. “I want to tell PoK residents that people of India don’t treat you as foreign- ers... Come and join us,” he said. In June this year, Pakistan’s additional attorney general had told the Islamabad High Court in a case related to illegal detention of PoK poet and jour nalist Ahmed Farhad that PoK is a foreign territory and “therefore not under the jurisdiction of the court”. Farhad was abducted by Pakistani intelligence agencies over some of his critical comments. He was produced in court after two weeks court and was released a few weeks later. On the campaign by Kashmir-based parties to restore Article 370, Rajnath said there has been a big change since the provision was scrapped. “After 2019, Modi gover nment spent `38,000 crore on J&K development. Earlier, pistols and revolvers used to be in hands of Kashmiri youth but now they are carrying laptops and computers,” he said. Rajnath added that talks with Pakistan will be possible only if Islamabad stops terrorism in J&K. “When Pakistan stops sponsoring terrorism in J&K, India will start dialogue with them,” he said. EXPRESS READ 18-year-old, locked in hotel for 20 days, rescued Hyderabad: An 18-year-old girl, pursuing engineering, has been rescued from a locked hotel room in Narayanguda here. Police said the accused, a 19-year-old man she had met online, had forced her into coming to Hyderabad and locked the 18-year-old in the hotel room for 20 days. A case was registered against the accused and he was arrested | P3 Bangladesh to take steps to get Hasina extradited Dhaka: Bangladesh will take necessary steps to get deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina extradited from India to try her on charges of mass killings during the student-led mass movement against her government, the newly-appointed chief prosecutor of the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) said on Sunday | P9 Manipur CM meets guv again, seeks more powers for state to tackle violence P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati AMID speculations that he may quit amid raging ethnic violence in the state, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Sunday met Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya for the second time in 24 hours and submitted a memorandum, demanding protection of the state’s territorial integrity and abrogation of the Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement. The SoO pact was signed by the Centre and the Manipur government with two umbrella organisations of Kuki insurgent groups in 2008. Since then, it has been extended periodically . The Raj Bhawan said the CM and his cabinet colleagues met the governor. But neither the Raj Bhawan nor the CM’s office shared content of the memorandum. According to sources, Singh has sought more powers to the state government to deal with insurgency. The memorandum sought handing over the Unified Command to the state and rejection of Kukis’ demand for a ‘separate administration’. Meanwhile, the Assam Rifles on Sunday deployed antidrone systems in the fringe areas to repel any rogue drones. “CRPF has also tested one anti-drone system and given it to the force deployed in the state. Some more anti-drone guns are being brought to the state by CRPF shortly,” the Manipur Police said, adding: “The state police have also started the process for procurement of anti-drone system to enhance its security measures and tackle threats from drones effectively.” After a hiatus of four months, fresh ethnic violence erupted in Manipur on September 1 with drones being used to mount attacks. No new incidents of violence have so far been reported on Sunday. SPs in coordination with security forces are continuously monitoring the situation — Official TMC’S RAJYA SABHA MP JAWAHAR SIRCAR TO QUIT OVER RG KAR HORROR S U L A G N A S E N G U P TA @ Kolkata PRIDE OF STATE Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy felicitates Deepthi Jeevanji, who won bronze medal in the Women’s 400m T20 event at the Paralympic Games in Paris, on Saturday | P2 ON A HIGH RECORD MEDAL HAUL AT PARALYMPIC GAMES India’s para-athletes have had a memorable Paralympic Games in Paris where most of the established names lived up to expectations and many talented young athletes came up with scintillating performances to help India win record 29 medals | P11 PUTTING pressure on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar said he has decided to resign from Parliament and leave politics altogether, terming whatever steps taken by the state government in handling the rape and murder of the doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital “too little and quite late”. In a letter addressed to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Sircar said the widespread outrage over the RG Kar incident reflected the people’s discontent with the government. Noting that the “spontaneous outpouring of public anger” is the result of the arrogance and inefficiency of the government, he said normalcy would have been restored “if the caucus of the corrupt doctors was smashed those guilty of taking improper administrative actions punished immediately after the scandalous incident happened”. The former chief of Prasar Bharti said he had not ANAND BACK AS HYD CP Global human chain against rape-murder People take part in a protest march over the rapemurder of a doctor at RG Kar hospital, in Kolkata on Sunday. (Inset) Jawahar Sircar | PTI seen “such angst and total no-confidence” against a government. Sircar said he had “suffered patiently” for a month since the RG Kar incident, hoping for direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, “in the old style of Mamata Banerjee”. But nothing happened. According to him, the TMC leadership erred in trying to discredit the mass protests as motivated. “The mainstream of the agitation is non-political and a spontane- ous one and it is not correct to take a confrontational stand, by labelling it political,” he added. Sircar also raised a number of points about the culture of corruption in the party. “Though I carried on my task in Parliament with fervour, I became increasingly disillusioned as the state government seemed quite unconcerned about corruption and the increasing strong-arm tactics of a section of leaders,” he said. Meanwhile, Governor C V People from all walks of life — from students to rikshaw pullers — hit the streets of Kolkata on Sunday in protest over the rape and murder of a medic in a state-run hospital a month ago. In south Kolkata, around 4,000 ex-students of over 40 schools, a large number of them women, walked 2 km demanding justice for the victim. Meanwhile, in solidarity with the protests in India, people in 130 cities across 30 countries including the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, and Japan formed a ‘global human chain’ against the rape-murder of the Kolkata doctor on Sunday evening Ananda Bose advised the CM to hold an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss people’s demand for justice for the deceased woman doctor. He also reportedly suggested that the Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal be replaced. Through an official order released on Saturday, the state government transferred senior IPS officer CV Anand, who was the Director General (DG) of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), and posted him as Commissioner of Police (CP), Hyderabad. The 1991-batch IPS officer was the Hyderabad CP from December 2021 up until the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered the transfer of officials before the Assembly elections in 2023. The incumbent, Kothakota Sreenivasa Reddy, is posted as the Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement Meanwhile, Additional Director General of Police (Personnel) Vijay Kumar is the new DG of ACB ADG (L&O) Mahesh M Bhagwat is now placed in full additional charge of ADG (Personnel and Welfare) and IGP (Provisioning and Logistics) M Ramesh is given the full additional charge of IGP (Sports) till further orders