HYDERABAD FRIDAY MAY 24, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 36 LATE CITY EDITION KAAMYA KARTHIKEYAN YOUNGEST INDIAN TO SCALE MOUNT EVEREST The 16-year-old mountaineer is also the second youngest girl in the world to climb Mt Everest from the Nepal side, the Western Naval Command said ACCOMPANIED BY NAVAL COMMANDER FATHER ON A MISSION TO CONQUER THE SEVEN PEAKS Kaamya was accompanied by her father, Commander S Karthikeyan of the Indian Navy, during her journey to the world’s highest peak. The duo, along with their team, reached Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on April 6. After acclimatisation and several days of planning, her summit climb began on May 16 from the Everest Base Camp. She and her father reached the summit at 8,848 metres on May 20 ■ With the Everest climb, Kaamya has now completed six milestones in her mission to summit the highest peak of all seven continents. She is aiming to climb Mt Vinson Massif in Antarctica this December ■ Her Himalayan journey started at the age of seven with a high-altitude trek to Uttarakhand’s Chandrashila peak in 2015 Class XII STUDENT OF NAVY CHILDREN SCHOOL, MUMBAI 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 MEA ‘processing’ New industrial policy for TG on the anvil EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi / Bengaluru THE Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday that it has received a request from the Karnataka government to revoke the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna, the suspended Janata Dal (Secular) MP who is an accused in multiple cases of sexual abuse. “A request made by Karnataka government to cancel Prajwal Revanna’s passport is being processed under the provisions of the Passports Act of 1967,” said an official. The MEA’s reaction came after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah shot off a second letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to do the needful to cancel Prajwal’s diplomatic passport. The Karnataka CM had written to Modi on May 1 as well. The 33-year-old grandson of JD(S) chief and former PM H D Deve Gowda is reportedly holed up in Germany after slipping out of India on April 26 using his diplomatic passport. Once the passport is revoked, he will not be able to fly through the normal channels. If he tries to use the revoked passport, he will be held and deported. “If he wants to come back, he will have to approach the nearest Indian embassy for a travel document that would enable him to return to India,” said an official. Meanwhile, Deve Gowda SPECIAL OP LEGAL QUESTION Prajwal travelled to Germany on his diplomatic passport without political clearance, which is a violation of rules. According to the MEA, it can revoke the passport only if a court orders it to do so asked his grandson to return to India immediately and surrender before police. “This is not an appeal... it is a warning. If he does not pay heed to this warning, he will have to face my anger and the anger of all his family members. The law will take care of the allegations against him, but not listening to the family will ensure his total isolation. If he has any respect left for me, he has to return immediately Gowda said. ,” Reacting to Siddaramaiah’s second missive to PM Modi, Union minister Pralhad Joshi said the Centre is ready to cooperate but there is a process to cancel the diplomatic passport. Earlier, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said that the process to revoke passports, including diplomatic ones, involves a court order. 7 more Maoists shot dead in Chhattisgarh E J A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur SECURITY forces on Thursday shot dead seven armed Maoists in their core stronghold area along the forested terrain of inter-district border of Narayanpur-Bijapur in south Chhattisgarh. The series of encounters against the Left-wing extremists is part of the strategy to free the Bastar zone from the influence of the CPI (Maoist). The bodies of seven Maoists in uniform were recovered from the encounter site, officials said. Besides, five weapons and items of daily use were also seized. In all, 115 Maoists have been eliminated by the security forces since December. Security personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guards from three districts, along with Bastar Fighters and the STF took part in the operation based on intelligence inputs. TO INDUSTRIES General SCP The GHMC’s task force inspects Hotel Brundavan at Uppal in Hyderabad on Wednesday BARELY a month after it was formed, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) task force set up by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has found alarming hygiene issues in restaurants and hotels across the city so , much so that questions about consumer health are being raised. The task force found widespread food adulteration and substandard conditions in hotels and restaurants during its inspection of 75 to 80 estab- M A N DA RAV I N D E R R E D DY @ Hyderabad DESPITE government claims of prioritising education, the school education system in Telangana faces critical issues — state-run schools are struggling with low enrolment and inadequate staffing. As per information collated from the minutes of the Project Approval Board (PAB) meetings to discuss the implementation of Samagra Shiksha scheme for 2024-25 in Telangana, there are 30,023 schools in the state. Of these, 1,213 schools have zero enrolment while fewer than 50 students are enrolled in 13,364 (about 48.55%) schools in the state. Similarly there is only , one teacher in 5,821 schools. CM TO VISIT MEDIGADDA & ANNARAM barrages in the next four days, according to Uttam Kumar Reddy | P4 lishments during the course of one month. These establishments include bakeries, supermarkets and restaurants. The task force found that 90% of these were operating under unhygienic conditions. The inspections found kitchens and storerooms infested with cockroaches and other insects. Many establishments were found selling expired food items. While 24 cases have been filed under various Acts, criminal cases are expected to follow after laboratory reports are received, in about a fortnight. CONTINUED ON P2 Mehbooba battling for honour, PDP redemption on her home turf F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar Mehbooba is pitted against the National Conference’s (NC) Mian Altaf and Apni Party’s Zafar Manhas. She is campaigning extensively in both the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri as well as Anantnag, Kulgam and Shopian in south Kashmir. While Mehbooba is fighting on her own, Altaf ’s NC is supported by the Congress, and Manhas is banking on the tacit support of the BJP . To shake off the taint of aligning with the BJP Mehbooba took a hard , line against the Centre’s decision to read down Article 370 of the Constitution. The dominant sentiment in the Valley is still in favour of restoring Article 370, which gave the FORMER Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, 65, is facing the toughest of electoral battle in her political career spanning over three decades. She is contesting from the newly carved out Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, which goes to the polls on May 25. It’s a must-win duel for her to enhance her political stature and revive the fortunes of her party ahead of the Assembly polls due before September this year. The stakes are very high since she is contesting on her home turf, which once was a bastion of the Muftis and the PDP. The PDP has been weakened considerably by desertions since the fall of its coalition government with the BJP in June 2018. Mehbooba’s popularity dived when her party forged an alliance with the BJP in 2014 after contesting as rivals. Her handling of the 2016 unrest in the Valley, too, drew widespread criticism. ILLUSTRATION: MANDAR PARDIKAR erstwhile J&K state special status. In the newly carved out AnantnagRajouri constituency, Mehbooba is banking on her traditional support base in Anantnag, Kulgam and Shopan districts while also reaching out to the Gujjars, Bakerwals and especially the Pahari community (which was recently granted Scheduled Tribe status) in Poonch and Rajouri. Poonch and Rajouri were added to the erstwhile Anantnag parliamentary constituency after the delimitation exercise. Both Poonch and Raj o u r i d i s t r i c t s h ave s i z a b l e populations of Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis. It has led to parties realigning their strategies. The NC’s Altaf is a prominent Gujjar leader in Poonch and Rajouri districts while Manhas is a Pahari leader. NC vice president Omar Abdullah snubbing the PDF by ruling out any alliance with it could go in her favour if the PDP can channelise the slight to drum up support and fire up the cadre. Mehbooba Mufti, Mian Altaf and Zafar Manhas Total crore in incentives to the industries. Noting this, the Congress government decided to introduce a new industrial policy that would address all the issues. After the formation of the state, the BRS government brought Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and SelfCertification System (TS-iPASS) by an Act in 2016. Since then, there have been no changes to the industrial policy . Sources said that several industries were closed due to the non-payment of incentives. The piled up dues reached `3,736 crore as of May 20. Of this, `3,007 crore is due to small and medium industries and `728 crore to major and mega industries. Though the BRS government made provisions in the Budget for two years, it did not release the incentives. In fact, cheques were issued, but they lapsed. No enrolments in 1,213 state-run schools Hotel ‘hygiene’ in Hyd is food for thought S B A C H A N J E E T S I N G H @ Hyderabad TSP 3052.63 684.04 3736.67 Pendency as on May 20, 2024 Cheques lapsed in 2023-24 Total amount (` in crore) 956.22 80.86 1037.08 THE state government will soon unveil a new industrial policy for Telangana. A decision to this effect was taken after the government noticed that the previous BRS regime failed to release incentives to small and medium industries. Though budgetary provisions were made, the previous BRS regime failed to release `3,736 PENDING INCENTIVES 389.98 272.5 662.48 Return immediately, says Deve Gowda, warns grandson of isolation from family if he doesn’t @ Hyderabad 1,706.43 330.68 2037.11 request to cancel Prajwal passport EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MATTER OF CONCERN PAB observes pendency in completion of infrastructure facilities in state-run schools PENDING INFRA WORKS Skill Education Labs Integrated Science Labs CwSN toilets Boys toilets I&CT Additional classrooms In addition, the number of schools with an adverse Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) at the elementary level is 45.18%. Observing this, the secretary of School Education and Literacy in the Ministry of Education suggested to the Telangana government that the state needs to ensure rationalisation of schools and ensure the required number of teachers in all schools, especially at the elementary level. 71% 18.13% 15.45% 9.44% 11.7% 0.97% Official data revealed vacancies of academic positions in the State Council of Educational Research and Training and District Institutes of Education and Training, with 46.15% of posts vacant in SCERT and 67.83% in DIETs PAB approved `1,907 crore The PAB approved a budget of `1,907.52 crore for implementation of Samag ra Shiksha scheme in Telangana. Against this amount, the Union government will provide `1,148.34 crore as its share. The state gover nment’s share would be `765.56 crore. Meanwhile, the PAB identified that `439.94 crore approved in previous years was not spent by Telangana. Nandigram on edge as BJP worker killed S U L A G N A S E N G U P TA @ Kolkata NANDIGRAM in West Bengal’s Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency was on the boil days ahead of the sixth phase of voting there on May 25 after a female BJP worker was killed and several others suffered injuries in an attack by a group of unknown persons. The BJP workers, alleging that the Trinamool Congressbacked criminals were responsible for the death of Rathibala Ari, blocked roads and torched shops. Police were deployed in large numbers to quell the unrest. There were reports of lathicharge in Sonachura of Nandigram. Personnel from the paramilitary Central Armed Police Force were also deployed. The local BJP leadership said party supporters periodically conduct night patrolling in the Sonachura area during elections to deter anti-social elements. In the wee hours of Thursday when , a patrol was going on, a group of unknown men came in motorcycles and attacked the patrolling team with sharp weapons, BJP leader Meghnad Pal said. WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 36 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID)
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