vijayawada l friday l september 13, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION two civilians complete world’s first-ever private spacewalk US entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis on Thursday became the first non-astronauts to perform spacewalk another major milestone for spacex Crew test new spacewalking suits Isaacman opened the hatch of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and made his way through to open space. After about 15 minutes, he was replaced by Gillis. Two other crew members remained strapped to their seats to monitor from inside. The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, is yet another major milestone for Elon Musk’s space firm | P11 ■ ■ All four crew members donned SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum. Both Isaacman and Gillis flexed their arms and legs to see how the new spacesuit held up They remained connected to the spacecraft through their hands, feet and the tethers. The entire extravehicular activity lasted 1 hour, 46 minutes Two years How long it took the four to prepare for this historic mission 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 Both sides refuse to yield Govt cites court case to block it E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kolkata Sitaram Yechury 1 2 Au g u st 1 9 5 2 - 1 2 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 24 Exit, Stage Left: A Comrade To All santwana bhattacharya Editor A mop of frizzy hair that placed him in a permanent Seventies, a boyish face that seemed to be built for laughter, eyes that were always smiling (though of late touched by sadness), a manner that was the very definition of amiable, speech that was erudite but easy, persuasive rather than offensive, smooth but always guided by conviction. Of all the talk of revolution that swirled around, he must have been the gentlest apostle. Which is why everyone, even the fiercest antagonists, will recall Sitaram Yechury, the person, as much as what he stood for. With fondness and not a trace of rancour. That’s what places him in a rare category among politicians—he was one of those who could converse with anyone, everyone, as a friend. Ideology defined him, but did not exhaust his inventory An endangered tribe these days, it . has lost one of its best, and not at the best of times. One would have to say Comrade Yechury at 72, is gone too soon. , Most appraisals of his career will read Yechury in terms of his well-known trajectory as a Communist frontman, starting from his days as a student leader during a definitive era at Jawaharlal Nehru University and analyse whether that promise was filled out or not in terms of building the Left movement in India. Only few realise what a talent India has been deprived of—in universalist terms. A political life that was oath-bound to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) meant that its puritanical aloofness in New Delhi always applied to him—and always kept him out of government. In fact, strangely for a politician, the question never seemed to even arise. The loss was perhaps India’s as much as the Left’s. Judge by what he managed at the highest levels, even as a faceless, behind-the-scenes interlocutor. The Manmohan Singh government’s final nuclear deal with the US—with conditions favourable to India—was a document that bore the stamp of an exhaustive, point-by-point, clause-by-clause, process of critique and emendation conducted by Yechury’s team. Imagine a deal with capitalist America being rewritten by a Communist. Ironic that his party finally withdrew support to the UPA on that very deal. Around those same days, his mediation was accepted, and bore fruit, within Nepal’s polity and vis-a-vis its India relations, at a particularly dark time in its history .  express read Ex-Minister Balineni likely to quit YSRC Ongole: Former minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy is likely to quit the YSRC. Sources said his meeting with YSRC chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy yielded no results though Balineni was offered a good position in the party | P4 GoM to examine land allocation in CRDA Vijayawada: The State govt on Thursday constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to examine the issue of land allotment to institutions in the Capital Region Development Authority | P4 Continued on: P9 Junior doctors at the dharna site in Kolkata on Thursday | PTI Guv turns the screws further Governor CV Ananda Bose on Thursday said he will not share any public platform with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in view of people’s outcry over RG Kar. Bose said he will also socially boycott her 7 lakh people hit by agitation: CM Mamata claimed that around 27 patients have died and approximately 7 lakh people have suffered because of the ongoing ceasework agitation of the junior doctors Attempting to change the optics following widespread protests by people from all walks of life against the horrific rape-murder of a 31-yearold trainee doctor at the staterun RG Kar Medical College and Hospital here on August 9, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday dramatically offered to quit. “I do not care for my chair and am ready to resign for the sake of the people. I, too, want justice,” Mamata said at the state secretariat soon after the proposed talks between her government and the protesting junior doctors failed as the medics refused to enter the venue following rejection of their de- @ Vijayawada People have reposed faith in the State govt. Victims are satisfied with the measures taken to overcome the troubles IMCT members Apprising the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) of the huge loss that the State has suffered due to the unprecedented rains and floods, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu appealed to the officials to extend assistance to the State generously . The six-member IMCT, led by Joint Secretary of Union Home Ministry Anil Subrahmanyam, comprised Director of Farmers Welfare of Maharashtra AL Vagmer, Chief Engineer of Surface Transport Rakesh Kumar, Finance Department Consultant RB Koul, Rural Development Deputy Secretary Pradeep Kumar and National Remote Sensing Centre (ISRO) scientist SVSP Sharma. During their two-day visit, the team inspected the flood-affected areas in Krishna, Guntur and Bapatla districts. They met the Chief Minister at the State Secretariat before wrapping up the tour. Naidu appealed to the Central team to consider the floods in Vijayawada as a calamity that the State has never faced before. “Since the flash floods have completely disrupted the `107-crore aid required for guntur IMCT members conducted a meeting with officials of Guntur district. District Collector S Nagalakshmi said assistance of `107.77 crore was required for damage caused to crops & infra mand to telecast it live for transparancy . The junior doctors, too, expressed disappointment with the talks falling through and said they would continue their agitation. They added that they were open for talks. Earlier in the day senior doc, tors of state-run hospitals warned that they would join the protests if any action is taken against their junior colleagues protesting against the rape-murder. The junior doctors said that they were disappointed at the CM talking about her chair since they never wanted her resignation. Mamata said the meeting couldn’t be live-streamed since the matter is sub-judice. “What the Supreme Court can, we can’t,” she said, hinting at ex- We have tolerated a lot of canards for the last 33 days. I thought the doctors would engage in talks for the sake of the patients and on humanitarian grounds — Mamata Banerjee Naidu for generous Central help Express News Service Didn’t ask CM to quit, say docs No talks for 2nd straight day, Didi offers to resign Mandar Pardikar Live telecast sticking point lives of the people, the Centre should be very liberal in extending aid to them,” Naidu told the IMCT members. Besides the loss of life and property, the flood victims experienced severe distress with no drinking water or food to eat, he added. He urged the Central team to see to it that the Union government comes forward to help the flood victims get back to normal life. Elaborating on the intensity of the rains and floods, he pointed out that the State experienced 50 cm of rainfall in just two days. Stating that the deluge resulted in severe crop loss, the Chief Minister said it is the bounden duty of the government to see to it that necessary assistance is provided to P4 the farmers.  Retail inflation inches up as base effect diminishes DIPAK MONDAL @ New Delhi rETAIL inflation stayed below RBI’s target of 4% for the second straight month in August at 3.65%, though it is a tad higher than July’s 3.60%. The uptick is due to a 5.3% annual rise in food prices, led by vegetables and fruits. According to experts, a favourable base effect helped retail inflation stay below 4% in the past two months but this effect could fade from September, leading to a spike in Consumer Price Index (CPI). Vegetable prices shot up 10.71% year-on-year in August, though prices dropped 2.51% on a month-on-month basis. Removing boats from Prakasam Barrage proves to be tough task Course of action Water Resources Dept have sought help of Dharmadi Satyam, whose firm had retrieved Royal Vashishta from Godavari after it had capsized in 2019 S G u r u S r i k a n t h @ Vijayawada Removing the three boats, which have been stuck at gate 69 of the Prakasam Barrage on the River Krishna for over 10 days, is proving to be a challenging task for the Water Resources Department.   Officials told TNIE that they are adopting every method to remove the boats as soon as possible. So far, officials have tried removing the boats with the help of cranes and by deploying experts in underwater cutting, but in vain. It has been learnt that the Water Resources Department has sought the services of Dhar madi Satyam, whose Kakinada-based firm Balaji Marines had successfully retrieved Royal Vashishta from the River Godavari near Kachchuluru in Devipatnam in 2019 after it had capsized. He is expected to arrive in Vijayawada soon. The Department is also mulling over employing salvage rubber balloons to assist in retrieval of the boats. On September 1, a total of five boats were washed away in P4 the floodwater.  @ Vijayawada Sleuths of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday registered an FIR against former Director of Mines and Geology Department G Venkat Reddy for allegedly abusing his official position and allowing private entities to misappropriate government funds. The ACB said the wrongful loss caused to the government that resulted in a breach of trust and misappropriation of property was worth approximately `2,566 crore. Additionally, ACB sleuths conducted searches at the residences of Venkat Reddy and a few others on Thursday . The case was registered under Sections 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13 (1)(a) of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and Section 406, 409, 120B of IPC and Section 4 (1), 4 (1) (A) read with 21 of Mines and Mineral (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957. According to an official statement from the ACB, the Commissioner for Mines and Geology submitted a report to the Principal Secretary Industries , and Commerce, (Mines) Department in July this year, stating that Venkat Reddy had committed violations in tenders/ agreements, operations of sand mining, and even orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Official accused of releasing `120-cr bank guarantees Venkat Reddy allegedly conspired with JPVL and other companies, and released bank guarantees to the tune of `120 crore under his control, in violation of prescribed procedure, resulting in misappropriation of government money and loss to the government exchequer “The overall outlook for the agriculture sector has improved due to a good monsoon and improved kharif sowing. However, challenges remain, particularly with the uneven distribution of rainfall,” said Rajani Sinha, chief economist at Care Ratings. Core inflation (CPI excluding food and beverages, and fuel prices) also eased to 3.5% in August from 3.6% in July. Analysts feel this is a temporary dip, and the same may go up through the rest of the financial year. Meanwhile, industrial output in July grew at 4.8%, bettering the 4.7% growth witnessed in the previous month. Oppn States seek due share from Centre Express News Service @ T’Puram Experts from Visakhapatnam were roped in to cut the iron boats, which have been stuck in the gates of the Prakasam Barrage, under the water | Express Ex-Mines Dept director booked for ‘misappropriating’ govt funds Express News Service ternal political forces influencing a section of the doctors. “I did my best, but I apologise to the people for failing to bring them to the negotiating table. There are instructions from outside, asking some of the junior doctors not to sit for negotiations,” she said. Earlier in the day, chief secretary Manoj Pant sent an email inviting the junior doctors, holding sit-in outside the state health department headquarters at Salt Lake since Tuesday, for the meeting with the CM at 5 pm. Though the email had mentioned a 15-member delegation, the government later blinked and allowed 30 doctors as desired by the protesting medics. The doctors reached the secretariat around 5.25 pm, but stayed put outside the venue for over two hours. “We made recording arrangements. There should be mutual trust,” Pant said. and the Supreme Court, causing hefty losses to the State exchequer and wrongful gains to the private parties. The report was forwarded to the ACB for further action. Subsequently, the investigative agency obtained prior permission for inquiry under Section 17A of the Prevention of Cor r uption (Amendment) Act and conducted a regular enquiry. The sleuths visited the Mines and Geology Department offices and sand reaches in all districts across the State. They collected documents and questioned the offi- cials and witnesses. According to the official statement, prima facie inquiry disclosed that Venkat Reddy, during his tenure as the Mines and Geology Director and incharge managing director for the State Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC), conspired with M/s JPVL, M/s GCKC Projects & Works and M/s Prathima Infrastructures and others and abused his official position to gain undue advantage by fraudulently allowing the companies to misappropriate government P4 funds.  A conclave of finance ministers from five Opposition-ruled states here on Thursday flagged concerns over the rise in surcharges and cesses and the low share for states from the divisible pool of taxes. The conclave, hosted by the Kerala government, was attended by Telangana deputy CM and finance minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Tamil Nadu finance minister Thangam Thennarasu, Karnataka revenue minister Krishna Byre Gowda, and Punjab finance minister Sardar Harpal Singh Cheema, besides Kerala finance minister K N Balagopal. Inaugurating the conclave, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said states need a higher share from the taxes collected by the Centre, adding that Kerala has been demanding that the states’ share be raised to 50% considering the “vertical fiscal imbalance between the taxing powers and expenditure obligations of the Union and the states”. The meet also discussed the approach towards the 16th Finance Commission. Telangana minister Bhatti said the Finance Commission should ensure fair and equitable distribution of resources among the Centre and states.