VIJAYAWADA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2021; PAGES 12 3 …

1 Hundreds of women belonging to the fisherman community heading for the RK Beach in Visakhapatnam on Sunday carrying milk pots on theirhead, to perform special rituals to appease Goddess Ganga, marking the anniversary of tsunami. (Report on Page 3)APPEASING GGODDESS GGANGAVIJAYAWADA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2021; PAGES 12 ` 1864 Published From VIJAYAWADADELHILUCKNOWBHOPALRAIPUR CHANDIGARHBHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUNHYDERABAD *LATE CITY VOL. 4 ISSUE 69*Air Surcharge Extra if us on:MONEY 8 CAPITAL INVESTMENT TO PICK UP IN OLDECONOMY; DECENT GROWTH EXPECTEDANALYSIS7 ANOTHER MIGRATION BILL IN THE MAKINGVIVACITY11 PARTY READY}I HAVE NOT FOUND ABETTER SUBJECT IN 30 YEARS THAN KONDAMURALI'S LIFE: RGVPage 12{VVIIJJAAYYAAWWAADDAAWWEEAATTHHEERRU pdated DECEMBER 26, 2021 5:00 PM FFoorreeccaasstt::SUNNYTT eemmpp:: 31ocHHuummiiddiittyy:: 66%SSuunnrriissee:: 6:36 AMSS uunnsseett:: 5:47 PMAALLMMAANNAACC TTOODDAAYYM onth & Paksham:Margashira Masam & Krishna PakshamTithi : Ashtami 19:28 Nakshatram: Hasta 29:07 Rahukalam :8:10 am - 9:32 amYamagandam :10:54 am - 12:17 pmVarjyam :1:43 pm - 3:18 pmGulika :1:39 pm - 3:01 pmAmritakalam :11:12 pm - 12:46 amAbhijit Muhurtham : 11:55 am - 12.

2 39 pm Judges appointing judges apropagated myth, says CJI PNS nAMARAVATIThe notion that "judges are them-selves appointing judges" is a mythas the judiciary is just one of themany players involved in theprocess of selecting judicial officers,Chief Justice of India N V Ramanasaid on was delivering the fifth SriLavu Venkateswarlu EndowmentLecture on "Indian Judiciary -Challenges of future" at SiddharthaLaw College, also said that in recent times,physical attacks on judicial officersare on the rise and at times, thereare concerted campaigns in theprint and social media againstjudges if parties do not get afavourable order while these attacksappear to be sponsored and syn-chronised. There is a need to liberate theinstitution of public independence must be grant-ed to them and to make themanswerable only to the courts, hefurther said."It is nowadays fashionable toreiterate phrases such as 'judges arethemselves appointing judges'.

3 Iconsider this to be one of the wide-ly propagated myths. The fact is theJudiciary is merely one of themany players involved in theprocess," Justice Ramana said. NAVARATNALU-PEDALANDARIKI ILLU C PRADEEP KUMARnVIJAYAWADAThe prestigious Navaratnaalu-Pedalandariki Illu scheme of theState government has gatheredmomentum with the State govern-ment taking steps to completeconstruction works of the firstphase within the stipulated time. Inthe first phase, the government hastaken up the housing programmeto construct 15,60,227 houses at acost of Rs 28,084 crore besides Rs34,000 crore for permanent infra-structure for YSR the last two months, theprogress of the housing scheme wasaffected due to court cases and nowthat the court has disposed of thecases in favour of the government,Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy has issued instructions tospeed up the construction of thehouses under the Navaratnaalu-Pedalandarikiillu.

4 All pending pay-ments to the beneficiaries of Rs 800crore and to the cement, steel andother material suppliers of Rs 80crore have been cleared. Further,weekly payments will be made forthe beneficiaries and speed up and to closely mon-itor the works six senior officershave been appointed as special offi-cers and they will tour the districtsand hold review meetings with allthe departmental officers andinspect the layout s to find out anydifficulty to speed up the construc-tion GAYATRI nVISAKHAPATNAMIn addition to destroying the ganjacrops, the police department hasstarted a new initiative aimed atensuring an income for the tribalsin the Visakhapatnam Agency department, in association withthe Integrated Tribal DevelopmentAgency (ITDA), Paderu, is distrib-uting seeds of various commercialcrops to tribal per the stringent directionsgiven by the State Government, allthe line departments led by thepolice have successfully destroyedganja crops in 7,000 acres in thedense forest areas ofVisakhapatnam district.

5 Besides,they are encouraging the tribalfarmers to cultivate various com-mercial crops in the land. Understrict vigil from all corners, the trib-al farmers voluntarily came forwardand destroyed the ganja into the ground realities,the police department has decidedto habituate the tribal farmerstowards commercial crop cultiva-tion. The ITDA has also extendedits hand to provide quality seeds ofvarious horticulture crops to thetribals. As part of the OperationParivarthana (changing the lifestyleof the tribals), VisakhapatnamRural SP B. Krishna Rao directedthe police to distribute the seeds tothe tribal farmers. The project hascommenced at Boyithilli andRasaveedhi villages of G. Madugulamandal. Now, the tribals would cul-tivate tomato, brinjal, chilli, ladiesfingers and several other vegetables. The initiative would be spreadto all the areas where ganja wasdestroyed. There is a big changeamong the tribal farmers and theyare coming forward to cultivatealternative crops on their lands.

6 Thepolice vigil is still on to ensure com-plete eradication of the ganja cul-tivation, said Inspector of Police of coffee, silver oak,pepper, neelagiri and banana wouldalso be promoted in the Agency, theInspector , the ITDA, Paderuwing, is also trying to ensure a bet-ter market price for the yield. Thetribals never use fertilisers, so theproduce would be completelyorganic. The ITDA is planning tomarket the produce highlightingthis quality and promote theVisakhapatnam Agency brand in abigger way, an official getting rid of ganja, tribals set to cultivate veggies PNS nVIJAYAWADAThe new COVID variant Omicroninfections are slowly spreading inAndhra Pradesh as two fresh caseswere reported in the State takingthe tally to six. So far, a total of 67international travellers and 12contacts were found COVID-19positive and all the samples weresent for genome sequencing. Dr G Hymavathi, Director ofPublic Health and Family Welfare,said that a 48- year -old male trav-eller from South Africa reachedPrakasam district via Hyderabadon DECEMBER 16 and then went toOngole.

7 The sample was collectedfrom that person on DECEMBER 19and he was declared positive forCOVID-19 on DECEMBER 20. Thesample was then sent to CCMB,Hyderabad, for genome sequenc-ing and he was declared Omicronpositive on DECEMBER 25. Thepatient is healthy and is in quar-antine under close observation ofthe Health Department. All his pri-mary and secondary contacts weretested and found negative. The Health Director said that inanother case, a 51- year -old malefrom Anantapur came from theUK to Bengaluru Airport onDecember 18. Sample collected onDecember 20 at Anantapur and anRT-PCR test found him positive onDecember 21. The sample wasreferred to CCMB, Hyderabad, forgenome sequencing and the resultwas declared as Omicron positiveon DECEMBER 25. He is healthy andis in quarantine, too. The primaryand secondary contacts were test-ed and found negative. Dr Hymavathi said that so far,a total of 67 international travellersand 12 contacts were foundCOVID-19 positive and all thesamples were sent for to the increasingworry among the people about theswift spread of Omicron, she toldthe public not to worry and believeany rumours, but continue to takeprecautions and follow social dis-tancing, wear masks and washhands regularly to contain nNEW DELHIN ight curfew will be imposed inDelhi from 10 pm to 5 am startingtomorrow, the city governmentsaid today as the national capitalreported 290 fresh cases of Covid- a 16 per cent jump from yester-day - and one related death in 24hours.

8 On Saturday, Delhi's dailycaseload saw a 38 per cent spikecompared to Friday' case positivity rate hasjumped to per cent - a criticallevel, according to the officialhealth bulletin. On Saturday, Delhi'sdaily caseload was a 38 per centspike compared to the Delhi government'sfour-stage Graded response ActionPlan (GRAP), the yellow alert willkick in if the positivity rate settlesat per cent for two consecutivedays, leading to a host of addition-al curbs. The GRAP was approvedby the Delhi Disaster ManagementAuthority in July in anticipation ofa third wave of Covid and aims tobring in imposition and lifting ofrestrictions depending on the activities that were resumedin phases as the second wavewaned will come to a grinding haltif the alert is sounded. The opera-tional timings of shops and mallsselling non-essential goods andservices will be restrained. They willbe allowed to be open from 10 amto 8 pm under the odd-even : The Karnatakagovernment has announced a nightcurfew in the state for 10 daysstarting from DECEMBER 28, between10 pm and 5 am, Health Minister KSudhakar said.

9 Along with the nightcurfew, the state government hasalso announced certain restrictionsfor New year related parties andgatherings, amid fresh COVID-19concerns with new clustersemerging and increasing threat ofthe new Omicron variant ofCoronavirus. First phase constructionworks gain momentumPNS nHYDERABADA Sub Inspector working forCRPF was killed on Sunday afterhis colleague, a head constable inthe force, opened fire at him atVenkatapuram village in MuluguDistrict, about 285 Km fromhere, a senior police official said."This happened in the CRPF camp where one head constablefired upon an SI of CRPF. The SIdied and the head constable iscritical as he fired on himself. Hetried to kill himself. CRPF headconstable fires and kills SI; shoots self, injuredK taka announcesnight curfew for10 days startingTuesday2 more Omicron cases in AP, tally rises to 6 Good governance: AP first in agriK VENKATESHWARLUnHYDERABADThe Telangana Government hasshown its strength in two areas inthe Good Governance Index 2021released by the Centre on Centre said that theTelangana Government showedgood progress in Commerce,Industry, Social Welfare andDevelopment than other , the Andhra Pradesh gov-ernment stood first in Agricultureand allied Centre has been announc-ing good governance ranks everyyear for states that showed progressin various areas.

10 The Centre hasbeen announcing these ranks in 10areas of governance after assessing58 Home Minister AmitShah announced the good gover-nance ranks for 2021 on Sunday atNew Delhi. Amit announcedawards in 10 areas. Telanganastood first in Industrialisation,Commerce, Social Welfare curfew imposed in major cities,Covid spike could trigger yellow alert"TAKE DOWN ": MADHYAPRADESH MINISTER WARNS SUNNY LEONEM adhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra hasgiven Bollywood star Sunny Leone and music composerSaqib Toshi 72 hours to take down a music video of theactor's "obscene" dance to a song - "madhuban mein Radhikanaache" - from the 1960 film Kohinoor. Mishra - who addsSunny Leone to a growing list of brands and artistic content hedeems objectionable and has threatened with legal action,including a jewellery collection by designer Sabyasachi - hasclaimed the video that accompanies the song hurts Hindusentiments. ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, SOUTHAFRICA'S ANTI- apartheid ICON, DIES AT 90 South African anti- apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, describedas the country's moral compass, died on Sunday aged 90,President Cyril Ramaphosa said.