www.thehansindia.com KURNOOL WEDNESDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2019 PAGES 16 `5.00 Forecast: High level clouds Temp: Max.34C. Min.19°C. Humidity: 28% Sunrise: 06:46 Sunset: 06:17 BANKS YET TO TAG `3.5 L-CR STRESSED CORP LOANS AS NPAs EMPTY BEER BOTTLES THROWN AT JANA SENA OFFICE AP unveils poll-ready budget TDP chief and AP Chief Minister meets West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to express his solidarity with her ‘dharna’ over CBI’s attempt to interrogate Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, in Kolkata on Tuesday Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu honours renowned classical dancer and Rajya Sabha MP Sonal Mansing during presentation of the dance production 'Sankalp se Siddhi' at Balayogi Auditorium, Parliament Library in New Delhi on Tuesday WITH NEW SCHEMES AND INCREASED ALLOCATIONS, A REVENUE DEFICIT OF `2,000 CRORE PROJECTED HANS NEWS SERVICE Cash transfer to farmers, tax relief to boost growth: Moody’s New Delhi: The direct cash transfer programme for farmers and tax relief steps for the middleclass will give a fiscal stimulus of about 0.45 per cent of GDP, and support growth through increased consumption, though at a fiscal cost, Moody's Investors Service said on Tuesday. Observing that fiscal slippage from the budgeted targets for the past two consecutive years is "credit negative" for India, Moody's said the government will face challenges of meeting its target again next year and this does not bode well for medium-term fiscal consolidation. 8 P5 REGION WINDOWS BUSINESS H Simultaneously published from Hyderabad | Warangal | Tirupati | Amaravati | Visakhapatnam | Khammam | Kurnool | Delhi H SC stops Kolkata top cop’s arrest New Delhi: Escalating l Modi govt seeks would take place at the battle between the a neutral place -- in disciplinary Centre and the state, Shillong. action against the Ministry of Home On the other Rajeev Kumar Affairs has written to hand, in a letter datchief secretary of West ed February 5, the Bengal seeking disci- l Apex court police division of the directs him to plinary action against MHA said that RaKolkata Police Comjeev Kumar is prima cooperate missioner Rajeev Kufacie guilty of viowith CBI mar, while the lating all India servSupreme Court directice rules as he sat on ed the CBI not to resort to any a political dharna. coercive action including the arThe MHA communication citrest of the officer. ed the extant provisions of the The apex court on Tuesday rules 3(1),5(1) and 7 of the AIS asked the Kolkata Police Com(conduct) Rules, 1968 which were missioner to appear before the reportedly flouted by Rajeev KuCBI and faithfully co-operate in mar. Under rules 3, 5 and 7, Rajeev the probe into the Saradha chit Kumar has been accused of critfund scam. A bench of Chief Jusicising the government, embartice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice L rassing the government and CenNageswara Rao and Justice Sanjiv tre-State relations. Continued on Page 15 Khanna said the investigation Mamata ends Anti-BJP parties sit-in, claims to make assets of ‘moral victory’ Shah’s son poll issue Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday ended her sit-in protesting against the CBI's attempt to question Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the probe into the ponzi scheme scam. Banerjee had begun her "Save Constitution" dharna on Sunday evening after a team of CBI officials showed up near the Loudon Street residence of the Kolkata Police chief but were removed from the spot by state police personnel. Both the Centre and the Banerjee government in the state had hailed the verdict as a "moral victory" for them. Continued on Page 15 HANS NEWS SERVICE Kolkata: The anti-BJP parties, which have come on to a common platform with a call to ‘Save Democracy’, are trying to turn the tables on Saffron Party by making the alleged growing assets of BJP president Amit Shah’s son into a major political issue and demanding a CBI probe into it. Opposition leaders -AP CM Chandrababu Naidu, and Kanimozhi of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, who visited the venue of dharna where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been protesting against the alleged misuse of CBI, said that the Centre was trying to divide the country and unleash political vendetta against all those who opposed the BJP. Continued on Page 15 NAIDU HITS OUT AT AMIT SHAH P15 Amaravati: With an eye on the ensuing general elections, the Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday presented a vote-on-account budget with a proposed expenditure of Rs 2,26,178 crore for the financial year 2019-20. This is about 18.38 per cent over the revised estimates of 2018-19 financial year. The highlight of this budget is that the government despite having announced several new schemes and increased allocations, projected a revenue deficit of Rs 2,099.47 crore. According to the proposals presented to the Assembly by Finance Minister Y Ramakrishnudu, the estimated revenue expenditure is Rs 1,80,369.33 crore and capital expenditure is estimated to be around Rs 29,596.53 crore. The Finance Minister said the state’s own tax revenue is pegged at Rs 75,438 crore. Salaries and pensions form major head account of account under revenue expenditure. Indicating that the government was giving high priority to agriculture, it has launched a new scheme called ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’ a direct transfer scheme for the benefit of farmers. A sum of Rs 5,000 crore has been allocated for the scheme. The government also announced the cash transfer scheme for self-help groups and allocated Rs 6,400 crore for giving Rs 10,000 to each of the nine million women members under Pasupu Kumkuma programme which was recently launched by the Chief Minister. The government has also decided to double the benefit under the scheme to the unemployed youth from present Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per month and it has allocated Rs 1,200 crore for the same. The Finance Minister also earmarked Rs 500 crore for land acquisition for housesites and Rs 400 crore for promotion of micro small and Indicating that the government was giving high priority to agriculture, it has launched a new scheme called ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’ a direct transfer scheme for the benefit of farmers. A sum of Rs 5,000 crore has been allocated for the scheme PROPOSED EXPENDITURE `2,26,178 CRORE THE ALLOCATIONS FINANCE DEPARTMENT AGRICULTURE SECTOR HIGHER EDUCATION ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE SECONDARY EDUCATION CIVILS SUPPLIES MEDICAL AND HEALTH DEPARTMENT HOME HOUSING CORPORATION WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT IT SECTOR LAW DEPARTMENT MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION PANCHAYAT RAJ AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT A historic embrace Pope and Grand Imam hug each other P ope Francis became the first pontiff to visit the Arabian Peninsula as he is on a three-day visit to the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. The Catholic leader was bestowed a grand welcome at the presidential palace. Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Emirati vice president and prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum greeted Pope Francis during the presentation of delegations. He also held talks with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb - the Grand Imam of Cairo's AlAzhar University, Sunni Islam's prestigious seat of learning. Both religious leaders embraced each other and urged the world leaders to ensure peace and religious harmony. They also signed a document on "human fraternity for world peace and living together", described by the Vatican as an "important step forward in the dialogue between Christians and Muslims". Pope Francis also celebrated the first-ever papal Mass at the Zayed Sports City Stadium in UAE, which was attended by around 1,35,000 people. `51,841 cr `12,732 cr `3,171 cr `5,473 cr `22,783 cr `3,763 cr `10,032 cr `6,397 cr `4,079 cr `4,114 cr `1,006 cr `918 cr `7,979 cr `65,182 cr medium enterprises. The budget proposals also contain an allocation of Rs 150 crore for proposed Drivers’ Sadhikara Samstha, Rs 100 crore for creation of infrastructure investment scheme and Rs 50 crore for the welfare of Kshatriyas. Following the recent announcement made by the chief minister that all federations will be converted into corporations, Ramakrishnudu said the government proposes to allocate Rs 12,819 crore for social security pensions, Rs 3000 crore for BC Welfare Corporation, Rs 1000 crore for Kapu corporation and Rs 100 crore for Brahmin welfare and Rs 50 crore for Vysya corporation. Quoting American author William Arthur, the Finance Minister said, “Adversity causes some men to break; others to break records.” “Five years back when the state was bifurcated, no one expected that the state would progress at this pace on all fronts under the leadership of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. People were not even sure if the government would be able to pay salaries in time. But now the state of Andhra Pradesh despite not getting the support it should have from the Centre had made great strides and is in midst of developing a world class capital city,” he said. On the development of Amaravati as capital city, the FM said that Rs 1,09,023 crore has been earmarked for the construction and of that works worth Rs 39,875 were in progress. Fasting TDP MPs highlight injustice to Andhra Pradesh HANS NEWS SERVICE New Delhi: Will the proposed dharna by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to highlight the injustice meted out to the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh be converted into a full-fledged rally for saving democracy? It may be mentioned here that Naidu wanted to hold one-day protest on February 12. But now it appears that following the dramatic developments in Kolkata where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sat on a fourday dharna, Naidu said all opposition parties have decided to take this fight to the corridors of central government. Leaders of 23 political parties which are against the BJP would meet at New Delhi on February 12 and will decide on the date of the rally. TDP MPs protesting at the Parliament house during Budget session on Tuesday Meanwhile, the TDP MPs held a one-day fast in New Delhi demanding justice be done to Andhra Pradesh. MP Murali Mohan said that when the state was bifurcated Telangana got assets and Andhra got huge debts. In such a situation, the BJP had sought the support of AP and asked them to join NDA promising a helping hand to the state but all that it gave was a pot of water and some mud. PAY-AND-STAY VISA SCAM Arrested Indian students are aware of their crime: US Washington: All 130 foreign students, including 129 Indians, detained in the US for enrolling in a fake university were aware that they were committing a crime to fraudulently remain in the country, the State Department has said amid claims that they knew nothing about the varsity's illegal operation. The State Department's response came after India issued a demarche to the American Embassy in New Delhi on Saturday, expressing its concern over the detention of Indian students and sought immediate consular access to them. The foreign stu- MEA GETS CONSULAR ACCESS New Delhi: The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said they have obtained consular access to 117 out of the 129 Indian students detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The ministry said the “consular access to the remaining students, estimated at about a dozen, are continuing, including through the 24/7 helpline set up by the embassy and outreach to the community”. As many as 129 Indians are among the 130 foreign students arrested last week by US immigration authorities. dents were arrested last week by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for enrolling at the University of Farmington allegedly to remain in America. The fake university was set up by the DHS's investigating unit in Greater Detroit area to bust the "pay-and-stay" racket. Eight individuals — either Indian citizens or Indian-Americans — have been arrested for running the racket. They have pleaded "not guilty" before a federal court in Michigan. One of them Phanideep Karnati, 35, who is on a H-1B visa and lives in Louisville, Kentucky was released on a bond of $10,000 on Monday. The seven others - Barath Kakireddy, Suresh Kandala, Prem Rampeesa, Santosh Sama, Avinash Thakkallapally, Aswanth Nune, and Naveen Prathipati – consented to their continued detention before a judge in the Eastern District of Michigan, where they were produced along with Karnati. Continued on Page 15