visakhapatnam l friday l march 29, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Light combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1A’s first flight successful The HAL said the first LA 5053 aircraft of the Tejas Mk1A series took to the skies successfully from its facility in Bengaluru on Thursday ‘Significant milestone has been achieved’ “HAL achieved this significant production milestone with concurrent design & development amid major supply chain challenges in the global geopolitical environment subsequent to the contract signature in February 2021,” said C B Ananthakrishnan, chairman and managing director of the company. The aircraft was piloted by Group Captain K K Venugopal (Retd) ■ 18 mins INDIAN AIR FORCE TO INDUCT THE AIRCRAFT ■ The Tejas Mk1A will have an advanced electronic RADAR, warfare, communication systems and additional combat capability The country can look forward to an early induction of the Tejas Mk1A by the IAF and more numbers through the three lines of production established at HAL, it said in a statement was the flying time of Tejas Mk1A’s first flight 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 Delhi court extends the chief minister’s ED remand till the all fools’ day Kejri argues his case, sees plot to crush party former minister Satyendra Jain was also present. A Delhi court on Thursday saw Referring to this allegation, its arrested chief minister him- Kejriwal said because of his poself arguing his case in the liq- sition, several ministers come uor policy scam. “I was named to his residence and even exby four witnesses in the excise change documents. “Is this policy case. Are four statements statement sufficient to arrest a enough to arrest a sitting CM?” sitting CM?” he questioned. he asked. On the statement of another The court extended the cus- accused-turned-approver Ratody of Delhi Chief Minister ghav Magunta to the ED, the Arvind Kejriwal with the En- CM said Magunta’s father gave forcement Directorate (ED) by six statements to the probe four more days till agency but did not say April 1 in the scam. anything about KejriThe Rouse Avenue wal. Magunta is the Court saw heated arson of Buchi Babu, The actual excise guments between Kechartered accountant policy scam jriwal and ED lawyers of BRS leader K started after the during the hearing. Kavitha, who too is beginning of the “Where is the `100 under arrest in the ED investigation crore liquor scam same case. The AAP and not when the money the ED keeps chief argued that peopolicy was made harping on?” Kejriwal ple are being turned Arvind Kejriwal, asked, adding that the approver and forced Delhi chief minister entire liquor policy to change their statecase is a political conments. The ED invesspiracy to crush his Aam Aad- tigation began in August 2022. mi Party . The 2021-22 Delhi excise policy During the previous hearing, was later scrapped. the probe agency had sought to Not opposing the ED’s deestablish Kejriwal’s role in the mand for further custody Kejri, formulation of the excise poli- wal pointed out that approver cy by citing a statement of C Sarath Chandra Reddy donated Arvind, the then Secretary of `55 crore to the BJP just after former Deputy CM Manish his arrest. “I have the evidence. Sisodia. Arvind told the ED Money trail is established. He that he was handed a draft re- donated `55 crore to BJP after port of a Group of Ministers on being arrested,” Kejriwal said. the excise policy by Sisodia at The court noted his point and Kejriwal’s residence where assured it will be investigated. Comments by US State Dept unwarranted: foreign office Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi UJWA L JA L A L I @ New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal comes out of a Delhi court after his production in the excise policy scam on Thursday | PTI custody extension “...there appears to be sufficient reasons to permit further custodial interrogation, particularly keeping in view the submissions that he (Kejriwal) is required to be confronted with the material collected and statements recorded so far,” special judge Kaveri Baweja said India on Thursday described the US State Department’s recent comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as unwarranted - its second riposte in response to two statements. Apart from weighing in on Kejriwal, the State Department also commented on the freezing of Congress funds. “ you are aware, on WednesAs day India had lodged its strong , objection and protest with the senior official from the US Embassy with regard to the comments made by the US State Department. The recent remarks by the State Department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal. The MEA said in India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law. “Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact. India is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions. We are committed to protect them from any form of undue external influences,” Jaiswal added. India also reiterated that mutual respect and understanding form the foundation of international relations and states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. In first tango, RIL picks up 26% stake in an Adani arm RAKES H KUMAR @ New Delhi IN a first, rival billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have joined hands for a business deal as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) acquired a 26% stake in Mahan Energen Ltd (MEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd. The deal will give RIL 500 MW of electricity from MEL’s M a d hy a P r a d e s h based power plants for captive use. “One unit of 600 MW capacity of MEL’s Mahan thermal power plant, out of its aggregate operating and upcoming capacity of 2,800 MW, will be designated as the Captive Unit for this purpose,” Adani Power said in an exchange filing. It added that RIL will pick up 5 crore shares with express read Bullying a vintage Congress culture, says Prime Minister Modi New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress after around 600 lawyers from across the country wrote to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud alleging that a “vested interest group” is trying to put pressure on the judiciary and defame courts. “To browbeat, bully others is vintage Congress culture”, PM Modi said on X, referring to the lawyers’ letter to CJI. Though the letter did not mention a specific party, the PM attacked the Congress | P9 POLL CAMPAIGNS INTENSIFY On day-2 of the Memanta Siddham bus yatra, YSRC president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy traversed from Proddattur to Nandyal on Thursday. On the other hand, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu conducted a public meeting as part of ‘Praja Galam’ programme at Raptadu in Anantapur district If Chandrababu had accomplished even 10% of what I have done, his friendly media would have demanded 10 Nobel Prizes in 10 different sectors, 4 Oscar and 16 Ramon Magsaysay awards, in addition to felicitation by the UN Secretary-General and World Bank President Videograb of jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari being taken to the Banda Medical College in UP following cardiac arrest; and (inset) his file pic | PTI Jailed don mukhtar Ansari dead Jailed gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Banda in UP on Thursday. Ansari, 63, was a five-time MLA from Mau Sadar seat. He had over 60 criminal cases pending against him and was sentenced in eight cases Chandrababu Naidu is the brand ambassador of backstabbing. There is not a single scheme that can be attributed to him. He has become synonymous with drought. However, when a farmer thinks of Naidu, he can recall the infamous Basheerbagh firing. Jagan said he would not seek votes in 2024 if liquor was not banned. Did he implement the promise? He said he would abolish CPS in a week & release job calendar every year. Did he? He promised Mega DSC & power tariff slash. He said he would complete Polavaram project. Did he complete it? My first signature will be on the Mega DSC file. A separate legislation will be brought for the safety of BCs and a sub-plan will be introduced for their economic uplift YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, YSRC president and CM N Chandrababu Naidu, TDP supremo Stake transfer to meet captive use norms If a power generating unit has to be considered a captive generating plant, the captive user must hold not less than 26% of the ownership in the captive generating company. Also, 51% of the power generated must be used by the owners for their own consumption a face value of `10 (`50 crore). “The proposed investment by the Company is in compliance with the provisions of the Electricity Rules, 2005, in terms of which the Company as , a captive user, is required to own 26% proportionate ownership in one unit of MEL of 600 MW capacity with RIL being the cap, tive user of 500 MW generation capacity,” said RIL in its exchange filing. Ambani’s interests span oil and gas to retail and telecom while Adani’s focus is on infrastructure spanning sea ports to airports, coal and mining. Though considered business rivals, the two Gujarat industrialists have rarely crossed each other’s path except in the clean energy business, where the two have announced multibillion investments. Adani aspires to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030, while Reliance is building four gigafactories in Jamnagar — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells. Adani is also building three gigafactories for manufacturing solar modules, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolysers. r o w o v e r s e at a l l o t m e n t BJP list brings dissidence in alliance to fore P H a r e e s h @ Vijayawada A day after the BJP announced its candidates for 10 Assembly segments, dissidence within the alliance came to the fore in a couple of constituencies. Aspirants from the TDP have made it clear that they would not support the BJP candidates in the two constituencies, with the saffron party also facing trouble from within in one of the segments. In Anaparthi, former TDP MLA Nallamilli Ramakrishna Reddy has raised a banner of revolt. His followers burnt TDP flags and a cycle, the party’s election symbol, on Thursday protesting the allocation of the seat to the BJP . In Dharmavaram, former minister Paritala Sunitha’s son Sriram is unlikely to support the candidature of the BJP’s Y Satya Kumar. Even saffron party leader Varadapuram Suri is unlikely to support Satya Kumar’s candidature, sources said. The BJP was allotted Anaparthi, a segment that it had not even sought. The deci- TDP cadre dismantled a cycle in protest against allotting Anaparthi seat to the BJP | Express sion was a surprise to many party leaders who had asked for the Rajamahendravaram City constituency . The TDP, on the other hand, had officially announced Ramakrishna Reddy as its candidate. The sudden announcement that the BJP will contest there came as a shock to the former MLA too. “The party allocated the seat to me first and withdrew it later. I was not consulted by the party before the seat was allocated to the BJP,” he lamented. The former legislator said he had fought against the corruption of the local MLA for the past five years relentP4 lessly . The TDP allocated the seat to me first and withdrew it later. I was not consulted before the seat was allocated to the BJP. I fought against the graft of the local YSRC MLA relentlessly Nallamilli Ramakrishna Reddy, former Anaparthi MLA NGT seeks response on report over Peanuts as wage hike draw barbs in poll season threat to eco-sensitive tourist spots Rural jobs scheme J i t e n d r a Ch o u b e y @ New Delhi A paltry annual hike in daily wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for unskilled workers was jeered at by the Opposition, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promising to jack it up to `400 a day . Each state has a different daily wage rate under the scheme. Haryana was at the top of the pecking order at `374 after the revision this year while in Uttar Pradesh it was just `237. In gross terms, states like UP and Assam witnessed an increase of just `7 as compared to last year while the wage rise in MGNREGA wages for unskilled manual workers REvised Wages in 2024 Wages in 2023 Andhra Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Gujarat Goa Haryana J&K Jharkhand Karnataka 272 238 228 221 256 322 357 244 228 316 Change in % 300 10.2% 249 2.9% 245 7.4% 243 9.9% 280 9.3% 356 10.5% 374 4.7% 259 6.1% 245 7.4% 349 10.4% Goa was `28. The annual revision by the Centre is meant to mitigate inflation. A govern- Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Telangana Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal 333 221 273 237 303 255 294 272 230 230 237 346 3.9% 243 9.9% 297 8.7% 254 7.1% 322 6.2% 266 4.3% 319 8.5% 300 10.2% 237 3% 237 3% 250 5.4% Wages in rupees, States ment official termed the revision a routine exercise. Taking a dig, Rahul sarcasti- cally said, “Congratulations to MNREGA workers! The PM has increased your salary by `7. Now he might ask you, ‘What will you do with such a huge amount of money?’” Trinamool leader Saket Gokhale sharply criticised the inadequate increase of wages, especially in West Bengal. “Shameful & shocking that in today’s wage revision announced for MGNREGA, Modi Govt has increased wages for workers in Bengal by only 5%,” Gokhale posted on X. Goa topped the chart with a hike of 10.56%, while in Karnataka it was 10.4%, MP and Chhattisgarh 9.9%, Gujarat 9.3% and Bihar 7.4%. Express News Service @ Vijayawada The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken suo motu cognizance of an article published in TNIE, highlighting the damage caused to the ecosystem due to the rising footfall in tourist places. The NGT Principal Bench at Delhi has also served notices on the State Pollution Control Board (APPCB) and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MoEF&CC), Southern Region, seeking their response. The Tribunal said a joint committee, comprising the Regional Officer, MoEF&CC and the representative of Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), shall be formed to ascertain the current state of affairs and asked for the report to be submitted before the Southern Zonal Bench of NGT. The TNIE on February 12 had published a report titled “Rise in footfall in eco-sensitive areas poses threat to bio-diversity and wildlife.” Citing the report, the NGT Bench said the news item raised the issue of risk imposed on bio-diversity and the native wildlife of the eco-sensitive areas of Andhra Pradesh due to increased human footprint, evident in the form of litter and waste. “The report mentions that several hill stations, such as Paderu, Gudisa and segments of the Nallamalla forest re gion, have been compelled to shut their doors temporarily to address the mounting debris issue. It also advices local authorities to enforce a ban on plastic within the protected area and stresses the importance of collective responsibility in maintaining cleanliness in these environP3 ments,” the NGT noted. Express Impact
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29-03-2024 of The New Indian Express-Vishakapatnam