coimbatore l friday l july 11, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION all government offices to display ‘oil and sugar boards’ fssai, icmr roped in for model healthy meal The ministry has asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), which have prepared these ‘sugar and oil boards’, to suggest a model healthy meal that can be served in canteens and eateries of public institutions, instead of the greasy, oily and sugary meals Under the initiative of the health ministry, these informative boards will list the amount of sugar and oil in food items and their health hazards limits daily sugar intake to 25 grams ■ ■ The boards recommend that people consume only 27-30 gm of fat every day and that their sugar intake should not exceed 25 gm per person per day for adults and 20 gm for children | P9 The fiat comes after CBSE directed all its schools to establish ‘sugar boards’ to educate students about perils of excessive sugar or oil 20% of adults in urban areas are overweight or obese as per NFHS-5 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 No stay on Bihar roll revision Indian negotiators SC asks ECI to consider Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card as acceptable documents for proof SUCHITRA K ALYAN MOHANTY citizenship @ New Delhi Chandran KR, counsel for ‘Save Nimisha Priya Int’nl Action Council’ | PTI Urgent hearing to save Nimisha Priya on July 14 SUCHITRA K ALYA n MOHANTY @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on July 14 a plea seeking immediate direction to the Centre to use diplomatic channels to save Indian nurse Nimisha Priya, 38, who is likely to be executed in Yemen on July 16 for murder charges. The petitioner, Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council (SNPIAC), moved the court seeking its immediate intervention. A bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi listed the matter for hearing on July 14 after Subhash Chandran K R, counsel for SNPIAC, argued that diplomatic channels needed to be explored at the earliest. He submitted that the option Nimisha Priya of payment of blood money to the family of the deceased can be explored. The family of the deceased may pardon the Kerala nurse if blood money is paid, he submitted. The bench asked the counsel to serve a copy of the petition to the Attorney General and sought his assistance. Quoting media reports, Subhash said since Priya’s execution is scheduled for July 16, the Centre should immediately intervene to save her life. Priya, who hails from Palakkad in Kerala, was found guilty by a court in Yemen of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi in 2017. check ambit The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider Aadhaar card, voter ID card and ration card as acceptable documents in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in the state. Refusing to stay the voter list revision, a bench comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagch called the SIR a “constitutional mandate” and permitted the ECI to continue the exercise. The court took on record the poll panel’s submission that the list of 11 documents it put out on June 24 to prove citizenship in Bihar was illustrative, nor exhaustive. “In our prima facie view, since the list is not exhaustive, it will be in the interest of justice if the ECI will also consider the Aadhaar card, Electoral “Isn’t it too late now for that?” asks Justice Dhulia on the timing of citizenship verification 1 Bench wonders whether the issue of citizenship falls within the Election Commission’s jurisdiction 2 ECI says Aadhaar is for identity verification, not citizenship proof. But citizenship check is govt’s job, says SC Photo Identity Card issued by the Election Commission and the ration card,” the bench said. This, the court said, was a suggestion, not a direction. “If you have good reason to discard Aadhaar, you do it, but give reasons,” it added. While asking the ECI to file its counter-affidavit by July 21, the court fixed the case for further hearing on July 28. The bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the SIR in Bihar. It observed that the petitions raised an im- 3 Poll panel argues it has role as the Representation of the People Act, 1950 mandates that one must be a citizen to vote portant question which goes to the root of the functioning of democracy — the right to vote. “We are of the prima facie opinion that three issues are involved in this case: (a) The very powers of the Election Commission to undertake the exercise; (b) The procedure and the manner in which the exercise is being undertaken, and (c) The timing, including the timings given for the preparation of draft electoral roll, asking objections and making the final electoral roll etc, which school on temple land 5 IAS officers appear in HC for contempt, seek apology R S i v a k u m a r @ Chennai HC recalls `1L fine order Five IAS officers, including three senior officers, of the state government appeared before the first bench of the Madras High Court led by Chief Justice KR Shriram on Thursday in connection with a contempt of court case and sought unconditional apology. The court had pulled up the officials for disobeying its orders to relocate a school run by a Christian institution from a land belonging to the Devanatha Swamy Temple at Koothapakkam village in Cuddalore district. Chennai: In another case, the Madras High Court recalled an order imposing `1 lakh cost on J Kumaragurubaran, Chennai Corporation Commissioner, for disobeying order to crack down on building plan violations after the official appeared before the court and tendered an apology As per an order of the court, the officers — P Amudha, who is presently Additional Chief Secretary Reve, nue Department; S Madumathi, Secretary, Differently-Abled Welfare De- partment; B Chandra Mohan, Principal Secretary, School Education Department; PN Sridhar, Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department; and Sibi Adithya Senthil Kumar (Cuddalore Collector) — along with two other officers of HR & CE Department appeared before the court on Thursday . They apologised to the HC for failing to comply with the order to relocate St. Joseph Matriculation Higher Secondary School from the temple land. The court accepted their submission.  P7 cm says 50 lakh enrolled in ‘Oraniyil tn’ In a post on X, Stalin said that among all Assembly constituencies, Tiruchuli ranked first with 54,310 new members joining the DMK’s poll campaign | P4 DIPA K MONDAL @ New Delhi With the Trump administration’s deadline for imposing higher import tariffs on its trading partners shifted to August 1, Indian trade negotiators are likely to visit the US again to iron out the differences and seal a deal, government sources said. India was expecting to sign an interim trade deal with the US ahead of the earlier deadline of July 9 but could not, due to differences over tariff rates on agriculture, dairy and automobiles. The government de, cided to send the trade negotiators again after the earlier team led by Rajesh Agrawal, special secretary, Department of Commerce, returned without a deal in hand. The dates for the team’s next US visit have not been finalised, but it could be sometime next week. According to sources, the Indian government is trying to negotiate a “complete deal” and it is not differentiating between an interim deal and the first phase of the Bilateral Trade Agreement. “Whatever will be finished, we can package it as an interim deal and for the rest, talks will continue,” said an official. While US President Donald Trump has been claiming that a deal with India would be signed soon, finance ministry sources say talks so far have hit a deadlock. Officials say the Indian side has been guarding against any tariff reduction on agriculture and dairy products. Tariff on automobiles is also said to be one of the contentious issues. Initially India appeared to relent on agri, culture tariffs, but after pressure from the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the government seems to have hardened its stand. Pvt dairy official accused of swindling `40 cr kills self, DCP under scanner lice Pandiyarajan with the death, JCP (West) Disha Mittal A 38-year-old chartered ac- has been ordered to carry out countant who was working as a an investigation and file a retreasury manager at LACTAL- port, a press release issued by IS India, which owns Thiruma- the Greater Chennai Police on la Milk Products Private Lim- Thursday evening said. ited located in According to police, Madhavaram, allegedly an internal audit of the died by suicide on firm found a discrepanWednesday after he was cy of `40 crore in the accused of misapprocompany’s accounts. priating `40 crore from Further inquiries sugthe company. He was gested that Naveen had found dead inside a transferred the amount thatched hut on a va- Naveen Bollineni to his personal accant plot owned by him counts. When company at Puzhal in Chennai. officials inquired with him, he The deceased, Naveen Bol- confessed to the crime and lineni of Visakhapatnam in promised to repay the money, Andhra Pradesh, in a purported police said. suicide note emailed to his sisNaveen, who had requested ter and officials of the company the company not to file a police , had accused two company offi- c o m p l a i n t , l a t e r r e p a i d cials of threatening him with `5 crore to the firm. The comimprisonment, a source said. pany, however, lodged a police Following allegations on so- complaint in June last week, cial media linking Kolathur but no FIR was registered, a poDeputy Commissioner of Po- lice source said.  P7 E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai express read CM calls EPS BJP’s voice in HR&CE fund use issue CHENNAI: Slamming AIADMK leader EPS for his comments on using HR&CE funds for building colleges, CM Stalin said the opposition leader who was hitherto the ‘dubbing voice’ of BJP, has become its original voice now, and is trying to outperform the saffron party leaders | P4 HC order to block buses on 4 toll plazas on hold CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has kept in abeyance till July 31 its order to stop govt buses from passing through four toll plazas. Justice N Anand Venkatesh had passed the order on Tuesday over failure by Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation to pay toll operators `276 crore due | P2 are very short, considering the fact that the Bihar elections are due in November 2025 and notifications for this elections will come in advance weeks earlier,” the bench said. While questioning the ECI on the timing of the SIR, the court rejected the argument of the petitioners that the poll panel did not have any power to carry it out. When senior lawyer, Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI said Aadhaar wasn’t a proof of citizenship, the bench rebutted, saying the ECI had nothing to do with citizenship, as the matter is in the domain of the home ministry . The court asked the ECI why it started the SIR so close to the Bihar polls. There is nothing wrong with SIR but it should have been done months before the election, it said. Senior lawyer Gopal Sankarnarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, argued that the SIR drive was completely arbitrary and discriminatory . to visit US again to resume trade talk marooned A man looks at a waterlogged subway at Rajiv Chowk after heavy rainfall in Gurugram, Haryana, on Thursday | PTI more than history Tech-help: Visually impaired fans go app & mobile at Lord’s F i r o z M i r z a @ London Imagine an app cloning the whole stadium, compressing data of every corner, stairs, balconies and concourse for a visually impaired person to use and wander about more relaxingly All the information in the . palm of their hands (mobile phones to be precise) with a guiding voice in the ears. That’s how Lord’s has become more disabled-friendly when it introduced the visually-impaired apps this Summer. Now, the fans can not just listen to commentary but can feel and soak in the atmosphere of a game with more ease. At a time when even basic amenities for fans at stadiums across India seem to be a far cry , Lord’s, the Home of Cricket, in London has introduced this novel feature to make it more disable-friendly. The Marylebone Cricket Board (MCC), which runs the stadi- um, in collaboration with Waymap has installed a personal navigation system to help specially-abled fans to their seats and other amenities. The technology was tested ahead of the third Test between England and London last month and is now operational. The MCC also runs ball by ball commentary that allows fans to follow the game. “We hope that the introduction of Waymap at the home of cricket breaks down some of the barriers currently being faced by visually impaired fans,” Cel- root, nitish share honours on day 1 On a traditional, attritional day of red-ball cricket, India picked up timely wickets on a hot London day. England set the platform, thanks to a typically composed innings from Joe Root. Nitesh Reddy took 2 wkts | P13 so Zuccollo, the chief executive of Waymap, told this daily “Our . partnership with Lord’s cricket ground is improving the matchday experience for all visitors and we’re extremely proud of the positive impact this has on accessibility for all within our first sporting venue.” He said the wayfinding app is a highlyaccurate personal navigation system which offers step-by-step audio and on-screen instructions. The company mapped the venue using Lidar technology . Sachin Tendulkar rings the bell before the third Test on Thursday | AFP Rajesh Agrawal, chief negotiator ‘no deal is better than bad deal’ Sources close to the government say no deal is better than a bad deal. For the record, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India is in no hurry to seal a deal with the US unless it is mutually beneficial for both countries ‘rejecting deal won’t hurt India’ India may refuse to ink a trade deal and accept US reciprocal tariffs, said sources. “US is imposing higher tariffs on other countries too. So, our export competitiveness may not get impacted at all,” the sources reasoned ‘Tailor’ Raja was apprehended from Vijayapura in Karnataka | Express Suspect on run for 27 years in Kovai blast case held in K’taka Express News Service @ Coimbatore Nearly 27 years after the 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blast, which claimed 58 lives and injured 250 people, the Coimbatore city police and the Coimbatore unit of the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday arrested one of the key accused in the case in Karnataka. The suspect, ‘Tailor’ Raja (48), has been on the run since 1996 after he was booked in a petrol bomb attack case against a jail warden in Coimbatore. Raja, who was from Bilal Estate at Ukkadam in Coimbatore, has multiple aliases, including Sadiq, Valarntha Raja, Shahjahan Abdul Majid Makandar, and Shahjahan Shaik. He was arrested from Vijayapura (formerly known as Bijapur) district in North Karnataka on Wednesday by a joint team of ATS and city police personnel based on a tip-off, sources said. The investigation to trace Raja, one of the four suspects declared as wanted by the CBCID police in the case, was taken over by the ATS after its formation in 2023. The team brought Raja to Coimbatore on Thursday and after inquiry at the Police Recruit School (PRS), he was produced before Fifth Judicial Magistrate Court and sent to judicial remand till July 24, sources said.  P7