tadepalligudem l saturday l march 23, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Water storage in key reservoirs at just 38% ahead of summer The live storage in India’s 150 primary reservoirs stands at 38% of their total capacity, according to data from the Central Water Commission Shortage more severe in the south The total live storage capacity of the 150 reservoirs is 178.7 billion cubic metres (BCM). The live storage in these reservoirs is 67.5 BCM, about 16% less than the level observed during the corresponding period last year. In the 42 reservoirs of the southern region, total live storage stands at just 23% of the designed capacity or 42% less than last year’s level ■ 257.8 East faring better than the rest ■ It is only in the eastern region, comprising Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Nagaland, Bihar and Assam that the live storage (9.97 BCM) is more than last year’s level (8.81 BCM) The report comes as Bengaluru, where there is a shortfall of around 500 million litres of water per day, is grappling with a crisis billion cubic metres is the nation’s total live storage capacity 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 ED claims proceeds of crime used for AAP’s poll campaign in Goa ED gets custody of Delhi CM for 6 days in money laundering case voices S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi Arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal got no relief from a local court here on Friday as it remanded him for six days in the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) custody, till March 28 in the Delhi excise policy scam. Three other leaders of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh — are already under ED arrest in the same case. “The accused, Arvind Kejriwal, be remanded to six day ED custody till March 28,” Spe, cial Judge PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) Kaveri Baweja, said, in her order. Kejriwal was produced in the Rouse Avenue court around 2 pm amid heavy security The . ED sought his custody for 10 days, claiming he had to be interrogated in a “detailed and sustained manner” in the excise case. The court’s order is a big blow for Kejriwal as he was preparing to hit the campaign trail in the general elections to increase his party’s footprint. Earlier in the day, he withdrew a plea from the Supreme Court he had filed the previous day challenging his arrest. , Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, said he was withdrawing his plea from the SC and would argue the case in the lower court where he would be produced by the ED. As for the ED, it alleged in the Rouse Avenue court that Kejriwal is the kingpin of the Delhi liquor scam. “The CM demands kickbacks from South Group. It is a serious crime,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju told the court. The probe agency, said that huge cash amounts were handed over to various people. The proceeds of crime in the case were used in the Goa polls, he added. Vehemently opposing the arguments, Singhvi said the power of arrest was not equal to the need to arrest. “If the ED has proof, then why custody? No necessity of his arrest. The ED has to show the necessity of his arrest. Why did you need custodial interrogation?” he questioned. I vehemently condemn the arrest. It’s outrageous that elected opposition CMs are being deliberately targeted Mamata Banerjee, TMC Where is democracy in this country? In Russia, (Vladimir) Putin got 88 per cent votes. They (BJP) are following Putin’s path Bhagwant Mann, AAP He got arrested due to his deeds... I had asked him to stay away from this (excise policy) issue. He didn’t Anna Hazare, activist S V i sw a n at h @ Vijayawada Minister Atishi with AAP workers being detained during a protest at ITO against the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in New Delhi on Friday | Parveen Negi ED: Kejriwal kingpin of excise scam U J W AL J ALALI @ New Delhi The Enforcement Directorate on Friday told the Rouse Avenue court here that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was intrinsically involved in the entire conspiracy to frame Delhi’s new excise policy in such a way that certain private persons were favoured in a quid pro quo to get kickbacks. The ED alleged that the proceeds of the crime — as much as `45 crore — were used in the election campaign of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for Goa. Explaining Kejriwal’s role in the case, the ED said he is the ultimate in-charge of AAP and was directly involved in the formulation of the excise policy. “This policy was being drafted considering the favours to be granted to the South Group and was formed in collusion with Vijay Nair, Manish Sisodia and members-representatives of the South Group,” the ED said in its remand application. The ED said Kejriwal’s role in the formulation of the policy was evident from the statement of two persons — C Arvind, the then Secretary of former deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and Buchi Babu, CA of K Kavitha. Arvind revealed that he was handed over the draft Group of Ministers (GoM) report by Sisodia at Kejriwal’s residence where former minister Satyendar Jain was also present. The document mentioned that wholesale licence should be given to private players and profit margin was fixed at 12%. war of words Drug haul sparks political blame game E x p r ess News S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada The seizure of 25,000 kilograms of inactive dried yeast, suspected to be mixed with cocaine, by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at Visakhapatnam Port has taken a political turn with the ruling YSRC and Opposition TDP pointing accusing fingers at each other. Claiming that the YSRC has direct links with Sandhya Aqua Exports, the consignee company the TDP has alleged that Ku, nam Veerabhadra Rao, MD of the firm and native of Eedumudi village in Santhanuthalapadu constituency, and his entire family support the ruling party One of the three brothers . of the MD, Kunam Purnachandra Rao, is a senior YSRCP leader in Naguluppalapadu mandal, the TDP pointed out. Countering the TDP’s claims, YSRC general secretary Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy alleged that BJP State chief D Purandeswari’s son Hitesh and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu share connections with Sandhya Aqua Exports. He claimed that Purandeswari’s son and family members hold positions within the company . Criticising the TDP and BJP for politicising the ongoing investigations, Sajjala accused them of hindering the process with baseless allegations. P4 grand opening Music director AR Rahman (right), peforming alongside singers before the first match of 2024 IPL on Friday | ashwin prasath Rawat, DK take RCB to 173/6: Mustafizur takes four before RCB bounce back to get to 173/6 against csk... Mustafizur makes a mark Return of Rishabh In his first game for the franchise, Rahman (4/29) did not take long to make an impact as he instantly ran through the RCB top-order. Dinesh Karthik (38 n.o) and Anuj Rawat’s (48) late boundaries took RCB to a respectable total Almost a year-and-a-half since suffering a car accident, Rishabh Pant is all set to make a comeback in competitive cricket on Saturday. Declared fit as a keeper-batter, Pant will lead DC in their first game against Punjab Kings on Saturday HC admits CBI plea against clean chit to Raja in 2G scam S UCHITRA K ALYAN M OHANTY @ New Delhi The Delhi High Court on Friday admitted the appeal filed by the CBI six years ago against the acquittal of all the 17 accused in the 2G spectrum allocation case, including former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, DMK leader K Kanimozhi, and 15 other high-profile politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen including Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra. Granting the CBI ‘leave to appeal’, Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said the ‘contradictions’ in the trial court’s judgment require a ‘deeper examination’. “The court on the basis TDP names candidates for 13 LS seats, fields two YSRC turncoats of material on record, and after going through the sworn testimonies, material on record, impugned judgment and the submissions made at bar by both the parties has reached on an objective satisfaction that there is a prima facie case which requires deeper examination and re-appreciation/re-appraisal of entire evidence,” Justice Sharma said in the order. On December 21, 2017, special CBI judge O P Saini had acquitted all the accused saying the prosecution failed to produce ‘legally admissible evidence’ against the accused. The CBI then approached the Delhi HC on March 20, 2018 challenging the judgment. ‘Conflicts in trial court order’ While admitting the CBI’s plea, the judge said there were some contradictions in the trial court order. Refusing leave to appeal may mean such ambiguity remains buried, he said it’s the court’s duty to ensure that justice is not denied to anyone The TDP on Friday announced candidates for 13 of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies it will be contesting in the ensuing elections. Additionally, the party also nominated candidates for 11 Assembly seats. So far, the TDP , which will contest the polls in an alliance with the Jana Sena and the BJP, has announced contestants for 139 MLA segments. Andhra Pradesh has a total of 175 A s s e m bly a n d 2 5 L o k S ab h a constituencies. While party senior leader Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy has been nominated for the Sarvepalli Assembly constituency, senior leaders, including K Kala Venkata Rao, Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, could not find place in the third list as well. TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu posted the list of candidates TDP third list Candidate LS segment Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu Srikakulam Mathkumilli Bharath Visakhapatnam Ganti Harish Madhur Amalapuram Putta Mahesh Yadav Eluru Pemmasani Chandrasekhar Guntur T Krishna Prasad TDP cadre celebrate the party’s decision to field Kesineni Chinni from Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat | Prasant Madugula on social media platform X. The party has fielded Kesineni Sivanath (Chinni) against his brother and YSRC leader Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) in Vijayawada Lok Sabha segment. Two leaders who had resigned from the ruling YSRC and Bapatla Daggumalla Prasad Rao Chittoor Balusupati Nagaraju Kurnool Byreddy Shabari Nandyal BK Parthasarathi Hindupur joined the yellow party were also given tickets. Narasaraopeta MP Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayulu has been fielded from the same constituency, while V Prabhakar Reddy a YSRC Ra, jya Sabha member, will contest from P4 Nellore. express read TTD report to Ram temple Tirumala: TTD executive officer AV Dharma Reddy will soon submit a detailed report with advice, suggestions and important modifications for effective temple administration, crowd and management to the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Trust | P3 5 killed in Russian attack Kyiv: Russia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, causing widespread outages and killing at least five people, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 90 rockets were used | P9 HC junks Congress’ plea New Delhi: In a blow to the Congress, the Delhi High Court dismissed its plea challenging the tax reassessment proceedings initiated against it by the I-T Department. The court said the tax authority has collated “substantial” evidence warranting further scrutiny
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.
23-03-2024 of The New Indian Express-Tadepalligudem