tirupati l tuesday l march 31, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION India’s First fully-digital census to kick off on April 1 The process starts with self-enumeration in Delhi, Goa, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Odisha, Sikkim and Andaman & Nicobar Islands from Apr 1 Second phase from February 2027 No decision taken on NPR updation The Census 2027 will be done in two phases—house listing or house census and population enumeration. After a 15-day self-enumeration period, the 30-day house-listing phase will begin on April 16. Across the country, the first phase will be wrapped by October. The population enumeration phase will then be conducted in February 2027 | p7 ■ ■ The self-enumeration process will begin on April 16 in Andhra Pradesh, April 26 in Telangana, June 16 in Kerala, and July 17 in Tamil Nadu. The date for West Bengal is yet to be decided Registrar General Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan (pic-R) said no decision has been taken on National Population Register’s updation 31 lakh Enumerators to participate in the World’s largest census 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 Trump threatens obliteration Open Hormuz or face destruction of electricity generating plants, oil wells, Kharg Island, desal plants, Don tells Iran Rupee breaches 95/$ level, recovers Spain closes its military bases for US Crude hits $117 per barrel The rupee breached the 95/USD-mark in intra-day trade on Monday before regaining some lost ground to settle at 94.70 against the US dollar, up 15 paise, after Iran war escalation jolted global markets, fuelling rupee volatility and risk-off sentiment. Spain has closed its airspace to US planes carrying out missions against Iran in addition to denying Washington use of its militray bases for the war. “Neither the bases are authorised, nor Spanish airspace is authorised for Iran war,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Oil prices rose as the West Asia crisis escalated on Monday. Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, jumped to almost $117 per barrel in Asian trading. It was up 2.3 per cent at $107.71 per barrel in late morning trading in New York Indian from TN killed in strike on Kuwait plant 2.5L homes given, 4.5L more by Dec E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Nellore Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday announced that the State government will construct an additional 4.5 lakh houses for the poor by December this year, as par t of its ambitious housing programme. Participating in a housewarming ceremony at Naidupeta in Tirupati district, the Chief Minister handed over houses to beneficiaries under TIDCO and PMAY schemes. Across Andhra Pradesh, a total of 2,50,983 houses built at more than 30 locations were distributed, including 15,659 units in Tirupati district alone. Naidu inspected G+3 housing complexes equipped with modern amenities such as parks, walking tracks, wide roads, anganwadi centres, and schools. He also joined beneficiaries in housewarming rituals, participated in religious ceremonies, and interacted with families, even installing nameplates outside some P4 houses.  Naidu joins mass rituals Naidu joined beneficiaries in housewarming rituals, takes part in religious ceremonies and installs nameplates outside houses Quality infra at complexes CM Naidu inspected G+3 housing complexes with parks, walking tracks, wide roads and schools, stressing quality infra for beneficiaries APEX body dismantled India is now Naxal-free: Shah It’s the end of Naxalism in AP: DGP E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta on Monday declared Andhra Pradesh Naxal-free, stating the menace has ended with nine AOBSZC members surrendering before police. Central Committee Member (CCM) and secretary of AOBSZC Chelluri Narayana Rao alias Suresh, along with eight cadres belonging to the AOB Special Zonal, Area and Divisional Committees, laid down their arms and joined the public mainstream. The surrendered cadres handed over their weapons to the police, marking a major breakthrough in the State’s efforts to curb Left-Wing Extremism (LWE). Addressing a press conference, DGP Harish Kumar Gupta described the development as a major success for the State police, attributing it to sustained intelligence operations, pressure tactics and rehabilitation policies aimed at encouraging Maoists to give up violence. He termed it a ‘historic milestone’, stating that Naxalism has effectively come to an end P4 in the State.  P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday announced that the country has become free from Naxalites with their top body and central structure almost completely dismantled. Replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on ‘Efforts to free the country from Left-wing extremism (LWE)’, Shah accused the Congress of not taking any action to end the long spell of violence by the Naxals. The assertion came a day before the deadline he set for the elimination of Naxal violence. Last year, Shah had announced that the LWE would end in the country by March 31, 2026, and a major operation had been organised against the Naxals. In his 90-minute speech, Shah targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying he was seen multiple times in public with sympathisers of Naxals and even posted videos “sympathetic” to the Maoists from his social media handle. “When top Naxal commander Hidma was killed, slogans were raised at India Gate that if one Hidma is killed, Hidma will arise from every house. A video of this was tweeted by Rahul Gandhi,” said Shah. The home minister alleged that former prime minister Indira Gandhi had accepted Home minister Amit Shah replying to the debate on Naxalite violence the support of the Naxals in an election in the 1970s in then undivided Andhra Pradesh and remained “influenced” by the Maoist ideology “Experts say without . the support of those in power, the Red Corridor could not have been created,” he said, referring to the region affected by Naxalism across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Issuing a stern warning, Shah said the Modi government will not tolerate violence and won’t spare anyone who picks up arms. “The biggest achievement of the Modi government is a Naxalfree India,” he said. Outstanding speech by the Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah Ji, filled with important facts, historical context and the efforts of our Government in the last decade — Narendra Modi, PM Port city hit Site of a Oil building and refinery a fuel tanker afire at Haifa haifa oil refinery after missile debris impact E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Ramanathapuram/ New Delhi Gaza Strip Jordan CM N Chandrababu Naidu participates in the distribution and housewarming ceremonies of the beneficiaries of TIDCO houses at Naidupet on Monday | Express US President Donald Trump said Iran faces a mass destruction of its energy resources unless a deal to end the war is reached “shortly”. Trump wrote on a social media post “great progress is being made” in talks with Iran but bristled that if a deal is not reached and if the strategic Hormuz Strait is not immediately reopened, the US would broaden its offensive by “completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).” Destroying civilian infrastructure such as power and water facilities would be illegal under international humanitarian law and could constitute a war crime, experts say. A scrubby island in the Gulf that is roughly one third the size of Manhattan, Kharg Island is the nerve centre of the Iranian oil industry . Later in the evening, Trump said he was negotiating with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as per Times of Israel. Iran has previously threatened to retaliate by targeting energy infrastructure and desalination plants in its Arab neighbours in the Gulf who host US military bases. Market experts warned that Syria a g en c i e s @ Washington, Tel Aviv A blaze at the site of a missile strike at the Haifa oil refinery in Israel after it was hit by debris from the interception of a projectile on Monday | X Egypt day 31 struck the Imam Hossein University in Tehran run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Iran confir med Revolutionary Guards commander Alireza Tangsiri had been killed. In the Gulf, Kuwait reported strikes on a power station and a desalination plant. There was fresh bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday as well as airstrikes in the country’s south, one of which targeted an army checkpoint and killed a soldier. The UAE and Saudi Arabia said they intercepted Iranian P9 missiles and drones.  A day after Santhana Selvam, a Tamil working in a Kuwait firm, was killed in Iranian attack on a power and water desalination facility in the Gulf country his family on Monday , sought the state government’s help to bring the body back to India. With the death of the 36year-old from Ramanathapuram, the total number of Indian fatalities in the West Asia conflict has gone up to eight since the hostilities began on February 28. A cco rd i n g to a petition submitted by Selvam’s family members to Ramanathapuram Collector, Santhana Selvam had been working in Kuwait for more than a decade at Al Dhow Engineering General Trading & Contracting Company. The man from Anikurunthan village at Mudukulathur block was the sole breadwinner of his family and is survived by his wife and two children. any US ground operation or wider Iranian retaliation could send oil prices to levels not seen since the July 2008 commodity boom, when the cost of world benchmark crude Brent hit close to $150 per barrel. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appealed directly to Trump on Monday to find an off-ramp. “Please, help us to stop the war, you are capable of it,” Sisi said in Cairo. On the ground on Monday, there was no let-up in hostilities. Israel said its air defence batteries responded to “missiles launched from Iran” after earlier announcing it was striking “terror regime military infrastructure across Tehran”. Israel’s fire and rescue services also reported a blaze at an oil refinery in the northern port city of Haifa. Israel’s military said it had Navy man kills woman, chops body in Vizag Draft IT rules give Centre powers to censor user-generated news content D h a r m end r a Re g a n a @ Visakhapatnam In a brutal act, a 29-year-old Navy employee, Chintada Ravindra, allegedly murdered a woman, chopped her body into pieces, burnt some parts including the head, and stored the remaining in his refrigerator at LV Nagar under Gajuwaka police station limits in Visak h ap at n a m o n S u n d ay afternoon. The victim has been identified as Polipalli Mounika (31), a Dalit unmarried woman from Sanjeevayya Colony at Thatich e t l ap a l e m i n Vi s a k h a patnam. The accused, Chintada Ravindra (29), a Petty Officer, is a resident of LV Nagar, Gajuwaka, in Visakhapatnam and a native of Rajam in Vizianagaram P4 district. RAK E SH KUMAR @ New Delhi THE Ministry of Electronics and IT has proposed to make sweeping changes to the digital media oversight framework to monitor and regulate user-generated news and current affairs content on social media. The proposed amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 give the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting statutory powers to order removal of news-related content from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, and other influential social media platforms. Currently, the digital media oversight framework applies to publishers of news content and curated content platforms. The amendments would extend it to individual users, professional content creators, and social Key change Amendments to Part III (Rule 8) of the 2021 IT Rules will bring individuals under the ambit of digital media oversight. Earlier, Part III applied to recognised digital news publishers. Under the proposed rules, news-related posts by ordinary users could come under govt radar media influencers with millions of followers. According to the government, the move is to strengthen social media platforms’ accountability and stop malicious content from going viral. Under the proposed rules, all social media platforms must comply with government advisories and directions, including orders to remove content deemed harmful or misleading. Non-compliance may cost safe harbour protection (legal provisions that shield platforms from liability for content posted by users). The contentious move comes amid allegations of arbitrary ban and restriction of Facebook pages, YouTube videos, and Insta reels of influencers who are critical of the government. Digitial rights activists say the proposed amendments would heighten censorship risks, particularly around political speech, including satire and parody . The proposals effectively bring user-generated commentary on political developments within the ambit of regulation, allowing the government to take down opinion and explanatory content it doesn’t like. The government will accept feedback to the draft rules till April 14. Rtd Brig hit by bullet in Dehradun road rage dies N a r end r a Se t h i @ Dehradun A retired Army Brigadier on a morning walk died after being caught in the crossfire of a violent road rage incident in Dehradun on Monday morning. The road rage incident began around 6.50 am on Mussoorie Road, when a Delhi-registered Toyota For tuner overtook a Mahindra Scorpio N. Angered by the manoeuvre, the driver of the Scorpio N began chasing the Fortuner. In an attempt to force it to stop, the occupants of Scorpio N opened fire, targeting the Toyota SUV’s wheels. Those in Officials at the spot where a retired Army brigadier was killed amid a road rage incident in Dehradun; inset Brigadier (Retd) Mukesh Joshi | PTI the Fortuner were also armed and retaliated. Brigadier (Retd) Mukesh Joshi, 74, was on his routine morning walk in the area at the time, and was hit by a stray bullet. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died during treatment. The driver of the Fortuner lost control of the vehicle and crashed it into a tree. The occupants of the Scorpio N then assaulted the two passengers inside the Fortuner and vandalised the vehicle before fleeing. “We have launched a massive manhunt to trace the assailants,” police said.