vijayawada l tuesday l december 03, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Biden pardons son Hunter, says charges politically motivated Outgoing US President Joe Biden has issued ‘a full and unconditional pardon’ saying Hunter Biden is being targeted only because he is his son Hunter faced gun, tax evasion charges Hunter Biden was convicted early this year on federal gun and tax charges and was set to appear soon in Delon, California, where he faced the potential of lengthy prison sentences. Prosecutors said Biden, 54, lied about his drug use on a federal form when he bought a handgun. He had pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges in Los Angeles in September | P9 ■ U-turn criminal records to be wiped clean ■ The federal tax evasion case is about non-payment of $1.4 mn in income tax from 2016-19. He is charged with showing $5 mn spent on drugs, escorts, luxury hotels, cars, and clothing as business expenses The tax charges carried up to 17 years and gun charges 25 years jail term. The pardon means he won’t go to jail or have a criminal record Joe biden had repeatedly ruled out Presidential pardon to save his son 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 Oppn, govt find common ground, Parl logjam ends Consensus emerges to hold discussions on Constitution in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Houses have lost almost all @ New Delhi working hours due to protests by opposition parties demandTHE government and opposi- ing discussions on various istion parties on Monday agreed sues. The Congress has been to break the week-long Parlia- particularly vocal about the inment deadlock by holding a dis- dictment of Adani Group chaircussion on the Constitution to person Gautam Adani and othcommemorate the 75th anni- er company officials on charges versary of its adoption. of bribery and fraud by The breakthrough was US prosecutors. In adachieved in a meeting dition, intense opposiof floor leaders of varition protests over isous parties with the sues such as the Lok Sabha Speaker, Sambhal violence and where consensus the unrest in Manipur emerged to let both have led to repeated adCongress, Houses function journments in both the TMC differ smoothly from Tuesday Lok Sabha and the RaWhile the onwards. It was also dejya Sabha. Congress is cided to hold debates However, certain opkeen to push on the Constitution in position parties, notathe Adani row bly the Trinamool Conboth Houses. Parliamentary Af- in Parliament, gress, have prioritised the TMC feel fairs Minister Kiren Riother issues over the price rise and jiju later told reporters Adani controversy. that the Lok Sabha unemployment They have called for deare the more would hold discussions bates on unemployon the Constitution on pressing issues ment, price rises, and December 13 and 14, that should be the Centre’s alleged while the Rajya Sabha raised by Oppn bias against oppositionwould conduct the deruled states in fund bates on December 16 and 17. allocation. “The government has agreed Meanwhile, the BJP has acto this,” Rijiju said, adding that cused the Congress of violating he expected parliamentary pro- constitutional norms during ceedings to resume smoothly. its time in power. The BJP has Several opposition leaders who also emphasised that the attended the meeting expressed Narendra Modi government similar optimism. has upheld and strengthened Since the winter session constitutional principles durstarted on November 25, both ing its tenure of over 10 years. RA J E SH K UMAR THA K UR Takht orders punishment for Sukhbir H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal was on Monday directed by the five high priests of the Akal Takht to perform as sewadar (guard) at the Golden Temple, wash utensils at the community kitchen and polish shoes of devotees there, as religious punishment for the ‘sins’ committed during his watch as party president between 2007 and 2017. His father Parkash Singh Badal was chief minister of a SADBJP coalition government during that period. The SAD was directed to accept Sukhbir’s resignation from presidentship of the party in three days and form a committee to hold fresh elections for SAD’s leadership within six months. The Takht set up a separate panel to oversee the whole process. Govt approves implementation of Vizag metro phase-1 works E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada IN a boost to the urban transportation system, the State government has approved Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Vijayawada metro rail project and implementation of phase-I works for the Visakhapatnam metro rail. According to Secretary K Kanna Babu, metro rail works under phase-I will be taken up with an estimated cost of `11,498 crore (excluding land costs). This will include three corridors totalling 46.23 km. Corridor-1 will connect Steel Plant Junction and Kommadi (34.40 km), Corridor-2 will connect Gurudwara and Old Post Office (5.08 km), while Corridor-3 has been planned between Tadichetlapalem to Chinna Waltair (6.75 km). As part of phase-II, a fourth corridor will connect Kommadi and Bhogapuram (30.67 km). The cost for the total project, spanning 76.90 km, has been pegged at `14,309 crore. The project will follow a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, with 40% funding from the Central government and 60% from a private developer. WITH the debate raging over weightage of food inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), government sources said the weightage of food in the index would come down automatically once the new base year is adopted. The National Statistics Office is working on a new base year, which could be 2022-23 or 2023-24 and could kick in by late 2025 or early 2026. Currently, the government uses 2011-12 base year for inflation and GDP calculation. “The debate over the weightage of food items in CPI basket would be over once the new base year is adopted. The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey report of 2023-24 would be released in a few weeks. After that, we will decide on the base year,” said a senior official. According to the 2022-23 survey the share of food in house, K K a lya n K r i s h n a K u m a r @ Vijayawada pk calls on naidu Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan met Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu at the latter’s residence in Undavalli on Monday | Express | P4 express read Chief Secys of AP, TG hold meeting Vijayawada: Senior officials from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana convened in Mangalagiri on Monday evening to discuss the division of assets listed under Schedule 9 and 10 of the AP State Reorganisation Act. This high-level meeting, the first of its kind held in Andhra Pradesh, followed the July talks between the Chief Ministers of the two Telugu States | P4 hold consumption has fallen from 52.90% in 2011-12 to 46.4% in rural areas and from 46.62% to 39.17% in urban areas. The share of cereals from the consumption basket has fallen from 10.69% in 2011-12 to 4.89% in 2022-23 in rural areas and from 6.61% to 3.62% in urban. The 2023-24 survey saw further fall in the share of food items in the consumption basket. Currently, food has a weightage of 44.6% in the combined CPI. Cereals have a weightage of 10%. In October, the retail inflation crossed 6% after 14 months. On the question of why the real inflation for the common man feels much more than the official numbers released, a senior official said the government’s number is arrived at by taking price samples from over 2,500 urban and rural markets across all states, but the general perception of inflation is based on the experience of 4-5 metro cities. Impact on RBI’s target As inflation remains high, there are suggestions to keep food inflation out of RBI’s inflation targeting framework to keep retail inflation at 4% Prospects for rate cut may grow Due to high food inflation, RBI has been deferring interest rate cut since Feb 2023, which has become a point of tiff between govt and RBI Ball set rolling for ‘election’ of Maha CM S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Setting the ball rolling to name its chief ministerial candidate, the BJP’s central parliamentary board on Monday appointed Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman and former chief minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani as observers for the first legislative party meeting of the BJP in Maharashtra. The meeting expected on Wednesday would elect its leader, who would possibly take the oath of office as the new chief Nirmala Sitharaman and Vijay Rupani minister at a ceremony on Thursday at Azad Maidan here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources in the Shiv Sena said caretaker Chief Minister VIZAG METRO RAIL Phase 1 L11,498 crore Estimated cost Three corridors: Steel Plant Junction to Kommadi; Gurudwara to Old Post Office; Tadichetlapalem to Chinna Waltair Phase 2 4th corridor: Kommadi to Bhogapuram VIJAYAWADA METRO RAIL DPR revised as per new policy Phase 1 L11,009 crore Estimated cost Two corridors: Gannavaram to PNBS; PNBS to Penamaluru Following the release of the New Metro Rail Policy by the Central government, the State government updated the Detailed Project Report for VIjayawada metro rail Phase 2 3rd corridor: PNBS to Amaravati’s Reservoir Station After TG, Andhra govt approves hike in ticket prices for Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2 Low food weightage in CPI under new base year D IPA K M O N D AL @ New Delhi The government also approved the DPR for Phase-I of the Vijayawada Metro Rail Project for submission to the Centre. As part of phase-I, Corridors 1A and 1B spanning 38.40 km, will be developed at an estimated cost of `11,009 crore, with `1,152 crore allocated for land acquisition by the State government. Corridor 1A will cover Gannavaram to PNBS, while Corridor 1B will connect PNBS to Penamaluru. Phase-II will include the third corridor (27.75 km) connecting PNBS to Amaravati’s Reservoir Station, to be undertaken at a later P4 stage.  Eknath Shinde, NCP chief Ajit Pawar and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis would get into a huddle in Mumbai on Monday and later fly to Delhi to finalise the power-sharing arrangement of the Mahayuti alliance with the BJP’s top leadership. However, no such meeting took place. Shinde, who had returned to Thane after a bout of infection from his native village, Daregaon, in Satara district, once again fell sick and reportedly did not meet even his party leaders on Monday . If the BJP is not able to give the CM’s post to the Sena because it is the single largest party with 132 seats, then it should at least concede key portfolios like finance and home to the ally Senior leader of the Shiv Sena The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday granted special permission to hike the ticket price of Allu Ar jun’s highly-anticipated film ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule’, scheduled for release on December 5. The government has also agreed to screen special shows. The government approved a premiere show at 9:30 pm on December 4 with each ticket priced at `800+GST. On December 5, screening of six shows has been allowed with ticket prices hiked by `100 (including GST) for lower class, up to `150 for upper-class, and up to `200 (including GST) for multiplex, over existing rates. Five shows per day will be screened from December 6 to 17 with the same ticket price hikes. The Telangana government also approved hike in ticket prices for Pushpa 2 on November 29. Only tickets for the benefit show, scheduled to be screened at 9:30 pm on December 4, will be priced at `800. Early morning shows have been scheduled for December 5, with staggered ticket hikes for single screens and multiplexes from DecemP4 ber 5 to 23.