Chennai l THURSday l AUGUST 14, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 22 l late city EDITION Indian refinery ships diesel to China for first time since 2021 Indian refiner Nayara Energy, backed by Russian oil giant Rosneft, has shipped diesel to China amid European Union sanctions over its Russia link Cargo loaded from Vadinar, Gujarat India-China relations on the mend? According to reports, Nayara Energy loaded the cargo at Vadinar terminal on July 18 and the shipment departed hours before the European Union announced new restrictions on the refinery. The vessel was initially bound for Malaysia but made a U-turn in the Strait of Malacca and was anchored for 12 days. It has since updated its destination to Zhoushan, China ■ ■ After facing backlash from the US and European Union, India has taken various steps toward re-engagement with China. It has resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a five-year suspension, and is set to resume direct flights between the two countries soon For its part, China has eased curbs on urea shipments to India | P15 4,96,000 Barrels Of ultra-low sulfur diesel in Nayara’s cargo bound for China 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 100 STREET DOGS relocated: MCD The Municipal Corporation of Delhi said it has picked up 100 stray dogs so far and converted 20 animal birth control centres into shelters Amid pushback, spl bench to hear stray dogs issue Matter to be heard today; CJI B R Gavai acts after uproar against two-judge bench order SU C H I TRA K ALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi CHIEF Justice of India B R Gavai on Wednesday evening constituted a special bench comprising justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and N V Anjaria to hear the stray dogs issue, after a two-judge bench’s order for blanket removal of stray dogs from Delhi-NCR led to a nationwide uproar. The larger, three-judge bench will hear the matter on Thursday . Earlier in the day the , CJI said he would look into it after a pending Special Leave Petition that also dealt with the stray dogs issue was mentioned before him by lawyer Nanita Sharma. Referring to a May 2024 order passed by an SC bench relegating petitions relating to stray dogs to the respective high courts, the lawyer said the stray dogs issue needs clarity because two benches of the apex court passed conflicting orders in the matter. “There is an earlier judgment of this court, of a bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol, which says there cannot be indiscriminate killing of canines and that compassion for all living beings has to be there,” Sharma, appearing for the Conference for Human Rights (India), told the CJI-led bench, also comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran. The lawyer brought to the court’s attention the overlapping nature of these matters and the possibility of conflicting directions. The recent order to permanently relocate all stray from streets to shelters was passed by a bench comprising Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan on August 11 on a suo-motu case. The order said dog shelters would have to be augmented over time and directed civic authorities in Delhi and NCR to start with creating shelters of around 5,000 canines within six to eight weeks. The two-judge bench also warned of strict action against individuals and organisations that may try to create any obstruction in the relocation drive. It said contempt proceedings would be initiated against those concerned, in case of any move to defy the order. commonwealth games set for india return ioa approves 2030 bid E x p r e s s n e w s s e r v ic e @ Chennai The 2026 Glasgow CWG is a scaled down Games because of circumstances. If we get 2030 CWG, it will be full fledged one just like we did in 2010 PT Usha, IOA president The Special General Meeting was short but very fruitful. Now that we have the go ahead of the General Body, we will be putting in the proposals R Iyer, IOA CEO Twenty years after 2010, India is set to host the Commonwealth Games in 2030. The Indian Olympic Association formally approved the bid during its Special General Meeting on Wednesday . With Canada, the other contender, backing out, the possibility of India hosting the event brightens. This will also help elevate its image as a capable host for multi-discipline events and improve its chances of hosting Olympic Games in 2036. The nod from the IOA general body was required because IOA is the governing body of the Commonwealth Games Association in India with IOA president PT Usha as its chief. As reported by this newspaper in March, the CGA president had sent a formal letter of intent showcasing India’s strong ancient cultural and historical heritage and technology-driven future to reimagine the Games for a new generation. The expression of SU C H I TRA K ALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi T h e S u p re m e C o u r t o n Wednesday said the electoral rolls cannot be static and were bound to be revised periodically disagreeing with the sub, mission of a petitioner that it had no basis in law, while hearing challenges to the validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, in his submission, said the Election Commission of India (ECI) had surprisingly invented a new document requirement for eight crore voters. “Even if I’m in jail, I can’t be removed from the roll without due process. Here, 65 lakh removed voters Residual powers of ECI on special roll revision The bench pointed to the ECI’s residual power to conduct any exercise as it deemed fit. It referred to Section 21(3) of the RP Act, which says “the EC may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit.” were not disqualified on any such grounds. The ECI has carried out mass exclusions. Who gave the ECI the authority to do this?” he asked. A bench comprising justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, said, “But the electoral list cannot remain static. A one-time exercise is only for preparing the original list and it must be revised.” Sankaranarayanan added that the ECI has begun the ‘Honour killing’: CB-CID arrests one more person Tirunelveli: CB-CID police on Wednesday made the third arrest in Kavin Selvaganesh’s murder case, identified as K Jayapal, cousin of prime suspect S Surjith. Sources said Jayapal was arrested based on information given by Surjith during his twoday custodial interrogation | P4 Farmer injured in boar attack succumbs in GH The protesters would be detained temporarily at community halls across the city, police sources said. During police action, some woman workers had fainted, while others sustained injuries | P jawahar 500 sanitary workers evicted from Ripon protest site in midnight op Thirteen days after their protest against the privatisation of solid waste management operations in zones 5 and 6 of the Greater Chennai Corporation began, at least 500 sanitation workers were evicted from the Ripon Building entrance and detained by city police in a midnight operation on Wednesday after the Madras High Court, earlier in the day, permitted the government to remove them from the protest site. As of 1 am on Thursday the , workers were being taken away by around 40 buses, that had been kept ready, police sources told TNIE. They would be detained temporarily at community halls across the city but were not being arrested at the moment, the sources added. During police action, sources said some woman workers had fainted while some sustained injuries. Those injured would be taken to the hospital for treatment, sources added. K Suresh, state secretary of the LTUC, told TNIE the detained protesters were being taken to various locations, including Guindy and Velachery . K Bharathi, president of the Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam, was also among those forcefully detained. Workers TNIE spoke to added that protesters taken to Velachery and Mount Road continued their agitation there on the roadside. Mean- ICICIdown minimum balance bank blinks scales Amid massive pushback, ICICI Bank on Wednesday reduced the minimum balance to `15,000 from `50,000 for new customers in urban areas | P16 Poll rolls can’t be static, says SC bench express read P r a v e e n a S A @ Chennai interest was supported by letters from various ministries of the Gujarat government. Usha confirmed the news after the meeting at the IOA Bhavan in New Delhi and said that the house approved the bid unanimously at the SGM which met after the CEO’s appointment was ratified last month. However, unlike the letter of intent that said Ahmedabad would be the host city she said that there are , places like Bhubaneswar and Delhi. August 31 is another deadline by which India should submit various documents for bidding. The letter of intent submitted in March specified Ahmedabad as the host city and a delegation from the Commonwealth Sport had visited Gujarat last month where the IOA Chief Executive Officer too was present. If India gets to host the CWG, it will be bigger than the Glasgow Games next year. IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer said that SGM was very cordial and decision unanimous. while, police personnel remained stationed outside the Ripon Building to prevent any further gatherings while GCC deployed sanitation staff to clean the protest site. From Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of police personnel and several buses had been stationed at the site while talks were held with workers to shift their protest to one of the sites designated for public protests, including Rajarathinam Stadium in Egmore. However, union representatives and workers refused to leave the site after another round of talks with GCC officials failed.  P5 govt in solidarity with workers: TN to hc I P5 Tiruchy: A 70-year-old farmer admitted to the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital after being injured in a wild boar attack on Monday night, succumbed to injuries on Wednesday. The CPI(M)’s local functionaries have called for a protest on Thursday | P7 process in West Bengal, too, without consultation. “I appear for the state and for main petitioner ADR. Four constitutional provisions on electoral rolls haven’t been addressed yet. The right to be on the roll is sacrosanct.” To this, the court observed that the expansion of the number of documents by the ECI is voter-friendly “Look at . the number of documents by which you can prove your citi- zenship — up from seven to 11,” the bench said. The bench added that despite arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, it appeared the large number of documents was “actually inclusionary”. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for a petitioner, alleged malafide intent on the part of the ECI, alleging it removed the searchable feature of draft rolls just a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on Karnataka elections. But the court refused to entertain it saying it was not aware of any such press conference. The arguments were inconclusive and would continue on Thursday . No barricades, 3 of a family die in car crash in Tiruvallur G a u t h a m S e lva r a j a n @ Chennai Three of a family including a , nine-month-old infant, were killed and three others hurt in a car crash at a road-widening project site near Pallipattu in Tiruvallur district on Tuesday morning. Initial inquiry by police found there was neither proper signage nor barricades at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) project site, which may have precipitated the tragedy . According to Pallipattu police, the six-member group, hailing from Govindareddipalle village in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, was on a pilgrimage to the Tiruttani Murugan temple. S Chittamma was travelling with her daughter Keerthi, infant grandson H Saanvik, brother-in-law Vishwanatha Reddy (who was driving the SUV) and his wife Rekha, and Padma, wife of one Venkatasalu who works in Chittamma’s house, police said. In a bid to reach the temple quickly, Reddy took the Thachur-Chittoor highway, which is being widened to a six-lane road by NHAI, police said.  P7 Relationship with India, Pak unchanged: US J AYANTH J A C O B @ New Delhi AMID its deepening strategic salience with Pakistan, the US on Wednesday said there is no change in its relationship with either India or Pakistan. “Our relationship with both nations remains unchanged, and our diplomats are committed to both countries,” said US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce while responding to questions about the growing US-Pakistan security engagement. The comments came in the wake of Pak Army chief Asim Munir’s recent visit to the US and concerns over his reported nuclear rhetoric during closed-door meetings. Munir’s trip, Tammy Bruce his second in less than two months—featured a series of high-level meetings with senior US military and political officials. It followed a private luncheon with President Donald Trump in June and reflects growing US-Pakistan security alignment, particularly in counter-terrorism. Referring to the conflict between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack, the State Department spokesperson said: “We had an experience with Pakistan and India. When there was a conflict that could have developed into something quite horrible.” Bruce added it is good news for the world that the US is working with the two nucleararmed nations. No production cap India backs ‘weak’ draft of plastic treaty TNIE in Switzerland S V Krishna Chaitanya @ geneva O n the eve of the penultimate day of negotiations for a legally binding global plastics treaty, talks are in deadlock — and India has thrown its weight behind the petrochemical-producing Like-Minded Countries (LMC), accepting a weakened draft text that drops production caps and chemical controls as merely a “starting point” for talks. “We have some serious concerns on the text proposed by you, as we see many fundamental elements (scope) missing from the text,” said Naresh Pal Gangwar, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), and head of India’s delegation. “Having said this, we consider this as a good enough starting point to further our work… We also urge other member states to have trust in your leadership and express their concern during the consultation process.” The new draft, released by Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso, ahead of THE scheduled plenary on Wednesday retains vol, untary measures on product redesign, recycling, and waste management but deletes a previous article on production limits and omits all reference to chemicals of concern. The only nod to produc- tion appears in the preamble — a symbolic gesture far from the binding commitments sought by more than 100 countries. India’s alignment with the LMC, led by Kuwait and including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Malaysia, places it firmly in the camp resisting upstream measures that target the root cause of plastic pollution — the sheer volume of plastic being produced. The bloc has consistently opposed any global phaseout list, production caps, or trade restrictions on plastic products.  Continued on: P7