TIRUCHY l Saturday l January 17, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION fta with e.u. will be mother of all deals, says piyush goyal Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said negotiations with the 27-member European Union are in their last phase conclusion of talks likely on january 27 The conclusion of the talks for the agreement between India and EU is likely to be announced on January 27. India is looking at zero-duty market access for its labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, handlooms, and processed foods. EU is seeking greater access to Indian markets for auto exports, wines, and hi-tech manufacturing sectors ■ $136.5bn india getting a super deal, says minister ■ European Council president Antonio Luis Santos da Costa and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will be on a state visit from Jan 25-27. They are chief guests at the 77th Republic Day Goyal said India is getting a super deal, and is giving EU a great deal too. “The good part is that we do not compete with each other.” was India’s bilateral trade in goods with the E.U. in 2024-25 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 Padi pooja in corruption spotlight at the Sabarimala S h a n A S @ T’Puram Amid the Sabarimala gold theft case sending shockwaves across Kerala, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (VACB) intelligence wing has warned of entrenched corruption and irregularities at the famoue hill shrine, notably in the allotment of the prized padi pooja offering. In a ‘source report’, the intelligence wing calls for a sustained and precise action to root out the malpractices at Sabarimala, carried out with the active connivance of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) staff and their agents. The report, accessed by this newspaper, notes that 18 types of poojas and 39 kinds of offerings are perfor med at the shrine, with malpractices detected in the manner the TDB staff intervened in several rituals for monetary gain. As for padi pooja, the bookings are full till 2041. The intelligence report flags that most of these slots were cornered by TDB staff and their benamis, and later resold to devotees at steep premiums. While the official rate of padi pooja is `1.37 lakh, benamis charge devotees up to 10 times that amount. To conceal the fraud, the names of the actual press clusive Tender procedures tainted, says report The intelligence wing’s report says corruption also tainted tender procedures at the Sabarimala hill shrine, much like the sale of Adiya Shistam Ghee. It casts serious doubts on the annadanam being offered by the TDB, noting the absence of clear records on the number of beneficiaries Captures BMC and most of the 28 other municipal corporations that went to polls express read Sastra University: SC stays HC eviction order New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Madras HC order allowing the eviction of SASTRA University from 31 acres of encroached government land, originally intended for a prison, in Thanjavur. The top court asked TN to consider the university’s offer to give alternative land to the state | P5 SC refuses relief for Jana Nayagan producer New Delhi: A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has dismissed ‘Jana Nayagan’ producer KVN Production’s plea seeking CBFC clearance for the Vijay’s movie. SC asked the petitioner to raise the arguments before the Madras HC’s division bench, and told the HC to “try to” decide the appeal on January 20 BJP-led alliance wrests country’s richest civic body S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai The BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena together breached the Thackeray citadel in Asia’s richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), by winning 116 of the 227 seats that were up for grabs, narrowly going past the halfway mark of 114. For the first time after 25 years, the BMC could have a nonShiv Sainik as mayor. However, the narrow majority could prod Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Sena to lay claim to the post. In 2022, he became the surprise chief minister after toppling the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. “I am extremely grateful to my sisters and brothers of Mumbai for blessing the NDA,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X. “Mumbai is the pride of our nation. It is the city of aspiration. It is a city that drives our growth,” he said. In the BMC elections, the BJP won 89 seats against the previous tally of 82, while Uddhav’s Sena won 65 seats against the 84 his party won in 2017. The Shinde-led Sena bagged 29 seats, while Raj Thackeray’s MNS performed poorly with just six, and Congress slid to 24. Ajit Pawar’s NCP and NCP (Sharad Pawar) won three and one seats, respectively . Of the total 29 civic body elections, the BJP managed to win over 20, which include Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Jalgaon, Dhule, Sangali-Miraj, Jalna, Ulhas Nagar, Akola, Vasai Virar, Amaravati, Sambhaji Nagar, Nanded, Panvel and Kalyan Dombivali, while the Congress managed to win Latur, Parbhani, Chan- devotees who paid for the ritual were not recorded by the devaswom board. Also, many of those who booked padi pooja in the past five years did not perform the ritual, with the slots instead being auctioned to higher bidders. Similar irregularities were flagged in rituals like thanka anki charthu (booking full till 2035), ashtabhishekam (booking full till 2035), sahasrakalasham (booking full till 2030), udaysthamana pooja, pushpabhishekam and kalasabhishekam. The report also flags largescale irregularities in the allotment of rooms at Sannidhanam. Devaswom guards and security personnel have also been named for accepting financial favours from affluent devotees in return for facilitating VIP-style darshan. It further makes damning observations against TDB staff, accusing them of acting as agents for travel operators by arranging premium accommodation, expedited darshan, and pooja slots in exchange for extra cash. The source report calls for a detailed probe into temporary appointments at the Sabarimala, pointing out that many individuals have been repeatedly engaged on a temporary basis over the past decade. Winners Losers Others  228 BJP  1438 SS  405 Maharashtra CONG  318 Municipal Corporations NCP(AP) 165 Total Wards: 2869 SS(UBT) 157 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation AIMIM 94 NCP(SP) 35 VBA 15 NCP(SP): 1 MNS 14 NCP(AP): 3 BJP 89 MNS: 6 MIM: 8 Uddhav Sena Congress: 24 Shinde Sena: 29 drapur, Bhiwandi and Kolhapur. The Shinde Sena held Thane, and the Ajit Pawar-led the NCP secured a win in the Ahilyanagar Municipal Corporation election. The AIMIM won in the Malegaon civic body against the Shiv Sena. The victory of the BJP in most of the civic bodies is a stamp on the leadership of incumbent Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He steered the BJP to emerge as the single largest party by winning as many as 1,438 65 corporators in the 29 civic bodies while the Shinde Sena secured 405, Congress 318, Uddhav Sena 157 seats, Ajit Pawar-led NCP 165 and Sharad Pawar-led NCP SP 35. The outcome could embolden the BJP to go alone in the 2029 assembly elections. As for the Opposition, it needs to introspect how to fight against the BJP effectively Lazy armchair . approach will not work against a party that does 24/7 politics with a mega poll machinery . Chief Minister MK Stalin paid respects to the statue of philosopher-poet Thiruvalluvar at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai on Friday | Express On Thiruvalluvar Day, Stalin makes 4 promises to people EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin, on the occasion of Thiruvalluvar Day on Friday, said that four principles articulated by Thiruvalluvar --- courage, generosity , wisdom and energy --- are the very foundations of his governance and he would continue to uphold them in Tamil Nadu. In a post on ‘X’ the CM said, “On this day I promise that the , following four will continue in Tamil Nadu: the courage to fight against social injustice and divisive communal forces; humanitarian schemes to uplift the lives of the poor and the marginalised; initiatives to foster and enhance the intellectual SC rejects Justice Varma’s plea against probe panel e x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Allahabad High Court judge Yashwant Varma’s plea challenging the Lok Sabha Speaker’s decision to admit an impeachment motion and the validity of a panel set up to inquire corruption charges against him. Justice Varma was repatriated from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court after burnt wads of currency notes were found within his Delhi residence compound on March 14. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said “constitutional safeguards for judges cannot come at the cost of paralysing the removal process itself,” and added there is nothing in the Inquiry Act to suggest that rejection of a motion in one House would render the other House incompetent to proceed in accordance with law. TNCC team to meet Cong brass amid discord with DMK over sharing power EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai taking the bull by its horns Celebrating Tamil pride, a group of tamers attempts to conquer a raging bull at the Palamedu Jallikattu in Madurai on Friday. A total of 881 bulls and around 400 tamers from across Tamil Nadu took part in the event | Shiba Prasad Sahu | P4 Amid war of words over demand to the DMK from some sections of the TN Congress unit to share power after the Assembly polls, a delegation of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) led by its chief K Selvaperunthagai is scheduled to meet AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the issue and other poll-related matters. Incidentally, Congress’s national general secretary Sachin Pilot, who was in Chennai on Friday for a private event, voiced support for the powershare call and said that there is nothing wrong in the demand of the party leaders. The TN delegation – including senior Congress leaders, MPs and MLAs – which is set to meet Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, in Delhi, is expected to make significant decisions to end the strife between Congress and DMK that threatens to unravel the time-tested coalition. “Every political party wants representation. I think there is nothing wrong in Congress cadres asking for it so that they can help the people of Tamil Nadu,” Pilot said, responding to queries from reporters in Chennai. Stating that the BJP and the NDA are trying to create a narrative, Pilot said they will never succeed in Tamil Nadu. Pilot further said that the DMK government has performed well and earned public approval. It may be recalled that Congress MP Manickam Tagore had recently triggered a debate with his unambiguous call for “share in power”, while the Congress legislature party leader and MLA S Rajeshkumar weighed in with his pitch for a coalition government. However, DMK senior leader and Minister I Periyasamy ruled out the possibility of a coalition government, saying Chief Minister MK Stalin was firm on not sharing power with alliance partners. Crowd control RCB proposes AI-powered cameras at Chinnaswamy in pre-IPL push Express News Service @ Bengaluru EVEN as the suspense over Benglauru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium hosting this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) matches continues, home team Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Friday proposed to in- stall 300-350 artificial intelligence-powered cameras at the stadium to ensure improved crowd management. In a formal communication to the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), RCB said the advanced surveillance technology will empower the association and law enforcement agencies to efficiently manage crowd movement, ensure disciplined queueing, monitor unauthorised access through realtime tracking of entries and exits, and significantly enhance overall fan safety . KSCA shared that RCB has taken upon itself to bear the entire cost of the proposed opera- tion, which is estimated to be around `4.5 crore. The club has partnered with Gurugrambased technology company Staqu for the initiative. With advanced analysis of video, audio and text data, the system will enhance investigation and enable accurate decision-making. The real-time AI video ana- lytics capability is said to allow for early detection of incidents such as violence, unauthorised access and intrusion, allowing suitable response from authorities and law enforcement. The stadium has not hosted any competitive cricket since the stampede during RCB’s victory celebrations on June 4, capacity of the younger generation; and constructive efforts that promote industrial growth and advancement of women.” Further, the CM presented Thiruvalluvar Day awards to 13 scholars. Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan, and former chief secretary V Irai Anbu, who were honoured with the Perarignar Anna Award and the Tamil Thendral Thiru Vi Ka Award, respectively, donated the `5 lakh given as part of the award to the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund. Earlier, hundreds of DMK functionaries and cadres waited in a long queue in front of the CM’s house to exchange festival greetings. 2025, in which 11 people lost their lives. Recently, the state government denied permission to host Vijay Hazare Trophy matches at the Stadium, citing safety concerns. The stadium in the heart of Bengaluru will also not host any matches of the T20 World Cup, scheduled to begin on February 7. 2 women kill man over failed relationship E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai A 22-year-old construction worker was hacked to death at Old Pallavaram on Wednesday night after being allegedly lured to the location by two women with whom he was said to have been in a relationship. The Pallavaram police have arrested the two women and a 17-year-old boy in connection with the case. Police said the women had initially tried to stage the murder as a robbery attempt. According to Pallavaram police, the deceased, identified as A Selvakumar of Thirusulam, had been in a relationship with Reena (24), a married woman from Old Pallavaram, for the past few months. Later, he began a relationship with Reena’s friend Ratchitha (25), an unmarried woman from Old Pallavaram, simultaneously . Sources said Selvakumar frequently consumed alcohol, sexually harassed the two women, and often got into arguments with them. He also warned them against speaking to other men. Frustrated by this behaviour, the two women decided to kill him, and discussed the plan with some acquaintances, including the juvenile, and finalised the plot, police said.