tirupati l friday l december 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION SC to eci: consider Kerala, u.p. plea on SIR deadline extension Supreme Court on Thursday asked Election Commission to consider representations seeking extension of time for SIR in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala lawyers question hurry in wrapping up sir leave it to the poll panel: eci counsel A bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was told by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal that 25 lakh names were deleted in electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh alone. SIR deadline in UP was December 3 and in Kerala was December 18. A lawyer questioned the hurry and said assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are due in 2027 and yet EC was not giving time ■ ■ The bench took note of the submissions and asked the ECI to take a decision “sympathetically” on any representations seeking an extension of time, while considering the ground realities Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the Election Commission, opposed the submissions saying these should be left to the poll panel Jan 6 is when final hearings on pleas challenging SIR will be taken up 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 k e y ta k e a w ay s 1 99% of Indian exports (by value) will enter Oman without any tariffs 2 Agriculture, dairy, tea, coffee, jewellery, footwear sectors are excluded from the deal 3 Full tariff cuts for textiles, gems, leather, pharma, autos amid US tariff pressures 2024-25 trade with Oman: India exported goods worth $4.06bn; imported $6.5bn 4 Another FTA in bag with duty-free Oman access to 99% exports P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi AT a time when the country is diversifying its export market amid steep, unilateral trade tariffs levied by the US, India and Oman on Thursday signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) under which 99% of Indian exports, by value, will have duty-free access to the Omani market. In return, India will offer duty-free access to 78% of goods imported from Oman. In value terms, 95% of Oman’s exports will have free access to the Indian market. However, India ensured that sensitive sectors such as agriculture and dairy products are outside the trade deal’s ambit. The commerce ministry clarified that all major labour-intensive sectors — including gems and jewellery , textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and automobiles — will receive full tariff elimination. For products of export interest to Oman that are sensitive for India, the concessions are largely in the form of tariff-rate quota (TRQ)-based liberalisation. The trade agreement is expected to provide respite to labour-intensive sectors affected by US tariffs. The pact was signed in Muscat by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Oman’s Minister of Com- PM Narendra Modi being conferred the Order of Oman by Sultan Haitham bin Tarik | PTI merce, Industry and Investment Promotion, Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For the first time, Oman raised the quota for intra-corporate transferees to 50% from 20% and extended the stay for contractual service suppliers to two years, with a possible two-year extension. The pact also eases entry for skilled professionals. The deal allows 100% FDI by Indian firms in service sectors in Oman. Additional pacts cover maritime heritage, agriculture, higher education, and industry ties between Oman Chamber of Commerce and CII. Torn papers fly as G-Ram-G bill replacing Mahatma clears LS It’s a fit case of luxury litigation: SC P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill amid chaotic scenes, with Opposition members raising slogans, tearing copies of the legislation, and standing on tables while holding posters of Mahatma Gandhi aloft, despite repeated appeals for order by Speaker Om Birla. The VB G-Ram-G Bill that replaces the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) guarantees 125 days of wage employment for rural households in a financial year, with the government earmarking `95,000 crore for the initiative. A major shift under the new framework is a revised fundsharing pattern, under which states will have to bear 40% share of the scheme’s financial responsibility . Moving the bill for passage after a nearly eight-hour-long debate, Union Minister for Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan mounted a strong defence of the government’s move, insisting that the legislation did not dilute Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals but, instead, sought to express read Araku Coffee Nanolot Series priced at `10k a kg Visakhapatnam: The Araku Coffee brand, promoted by the Naandi Foundation, has entered a new phase of global recognition with the launch of its Nanolot Series, priced at `10,000 per kg, one of the highest price points achieved by an Indian Arabica Coffee | P3 Naidu: Criminals will be expelled from State S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada ‘NDA restored AP brand image within 18 months’ Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that the NDA government was able to restore the brand image of Andhra Pradesh within 18 months, and had successfully attracted investments worth `21 lakh crore. The government had adopted a faster approach to delivering good governance to people, Naidu said Asserting that the NDA government shows zero tolerance to rowdy elements, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said notorious criminals will be expelled from the State. Taking stock of the law and order situation in the State on the second and final day of the Collectors’ Conference at the Secretariat on Thursday Naidu said there should , be no rowdies in Andhra Pradesh, directing police officials to go tough against such elements for the effective maintenance of law and order. Besides suggesting police officials to identify and warn professional rowdies in their respective districts, he asked them to invoke the PD Act against anti-social elements if they fail to fall in line. “There is no other option except expelling rowdy elements from the State, he affirmed. He said the crime rate should come down, and the conviction rate should go up. Police officials should study the reason for increase in property cases in Kadapa, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Eluru districts in recent times. Though the crime rate came down by 5.5%, police officials should initiate steps to bring it down further. Police should not cause inconvenience to people with unnecessary challans, he averred. He took serious note of the elimination of people coming in the way of ganja trade, and the lady don epiP4 sode in Nellore district.  AP records highest number of 18.38 lakh MGNREGA job card deletions this fiscal Y B r a h m a j i @ Vijayawada Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a sharp spike in the deletion of names under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) during the current financial year. A whopping 18.38 lakh workers have been removed from the MGNREGA rolls in the State, which is the highest in the country . Between October 10 and November 14, 2025, a total of 11.07 lakh workers were removed, an unusually high concentration within five weeks. This alone accounts for 68% of the 16.31 lakh deletions recorded across all States and Union Territories during the same period. No other State crossed even the one-lakh mark in the country And. hra Pradesh was followed by Telangana (95,084), Odisha (80,896), Jammu and Kashmir (79,070) and Chhattisgarh (65,619). At the same time, worker additions have remained relatively low. Only 4.66 lakh workers have been added so far, amounting to barely one-fourth of the total deletions. The Centre had released `7,707.21 crore to AP for 2025-26 under MGNREGA. Data over the past three years reveal a widening gap between deletions and additions. A total of 33.97 lakh workers were deleted between 2023-24 and 2025-26, while 16.59 lakh were added, indicating a steady cont r a c t i o n o f t h e M GNREG A workforce. However, the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development (PR&RD-MGNREGA) Department officials maintain that the process is routine and transparent. “Enrolment and deletions are reviewed every three months through Gram Sabhas. Names are removed due to job card holders’ migration, prolonged nonparticipation or death. Workers who return can re-enrol their names within a week,” said an official. P4 pil on water @ New Delhi NAREGA Act mandates spending of 60% funds on labour and 40% on material. But only 26% was spent on material and funds were siphoned off Torn papers sail past minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Lok Sabha on Thursday | PTI strengthen them. As Opposition MPs trooped to the well of the House, raising slogans against the government for dropping Gandhi ji’s name from the rural jobs initiative and tearing copies of the bill and flinging it towards the chair, Chouhan hit out at the Congress for “insulting” the Mahatma and “killing” his ideals time and again. Rejecting the charge that the Centre was deliberately removing Gandhi’s name from the law, the minister alleged that the Congress had attached his name to the scheme for political reasons. “The name of Mahatma Gandhi was added in 2009 with an eye on elections,” he said. Chouhan argued that the exist- ing framework of MGNREGA had serious structural flaws, particularly in the allocation of funds among states. At the outset, Congress MP K C Venugopal urged Birla to refer the bill to a parliamentary committee for a vetting. Birla rejected it, saying an eight-hour debate had taken place on the bill and 98 members across party lines had spoken at length on Wednesday . The Opposition had raised several objections, arguing that the 60:40 cost-sharing ratio shifts a greater wage burden onto states. Congress members Shafi Parambil, Dean Kuriakose and Hibi Eden stood on the table and others resorted to sloganeering in the well of the House. Shivraj Singh Chouhan Voice vote Several amendments moved by Oppn members were not taken up for voting as they were absent. Amid uproar, LS passed the bill by voice vote THE Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a PIL seeking enforcement of global standards for packaged drinking water, terming it as a fit case of ‘luxury litigation’ in a country where a large populace lacks access to basic drinking water. “Where is the drinking water in this country, madam? People do not have drinking water; the quality of bottled water will come later on,” Chief Justice Surya Kant, who was sitting with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, said, adding that these are ‘luxury litigations’. The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Sarang Vaman Yadwadkar, who sought directives to improve and align Indian standards for packaged drinking water with global benchmarks. At the outset, the Chief Justice of India questioned the very premise of the petition, observing that the court could not lose sight of broader realities faced by the country .