villupuram l monday l april 06, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai hotspots for abdominal obesity: Study The three metros have emerged as hotspots for abdominal obesity among both men and women, the study in the Nature Scientific journal reports Sedentary jobs, processed foods blamed Higher prevalence among urban residents The study by researchers from the Health Systems Transformation Platform found over half of women aged 15-49 (56.6%) and nearly half of men aged 15-54 (48.9%) in India have abdominal obesity. The researchers attributed this trend to long hours in sedentary jobs, increased reliance on motorised transport, and the widespread consumption of processed foods ■ ■ Higher levels of abdominal obesity were seen among older adults, wealthier groups, and urban residents, the researchers noted “Metropolitan districts surrounding Delhi NCR, Kolkata, and Chennai demonstrated elevated prevalence among both sexes,” the study noted. Abdominal obesity was measured using the waist-to-hip ratio NFHS-5 data of over 7 lakh people from 707 districts were examined 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 Proportional delimitation is a demographic coup: Pinarayi pREE T HA n AIR @ New Delhi S PIC: Vincent pulikkal TRESSING that the upcoming delimitation process requires scrutiny rather than blind acceptance, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday demanded a constitutional guarantee for states that have successfully stabilised their population. Speaking exclusively to this press newspaper, Vijayan said Prime clusive Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance that southern states will not lose their current number of seats is a clever play on words that masks injustice. “The core issue facing the Indian Republic is not merely the absolute number of seats a state holds, but its proportional representation and relative political weight within the Union,” Vijayan said, responding to Modi’s remarks. During an election rally in Kerala on Saturday, Modi had said that Lok Sabha seats would not be reduced in those Indian A decision of this states that have successfully magnitude, which controlled population. The PM affects the very also said the total number of seats would increase to benefit foundation of our states across the country . Republic, cannot be Calling for consensus, Vijaydictated by Union govt an said the inter-state seat ratio must be maintained at the 1971 Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala CM census level until all states achieve population stability . “Any increase in the total number of seats must be structured so that it does not reduce the relative strength of states that have excelled in human development indicators. A decision of this magnitude cannot be dictated by the Union government. It requires a consensus reached through the InterState Council and Parliament, respecting the diversity and the sovereign rights of all constituent states. If the Union government proceeds with a delimitation exercise based solely on current population figures, it effectively punishes states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and others that have rigorously implemented national policies on population control and social development,” he said.  CONTINUED ON P5 last day today Cong fields SC candidate in Melur seat P r a b h a k a r Ta m i l a r a s u @ Chennai On the day before the window for filing poll nominations closes, the Congress announced former Kanch eepuram MP P Viswanathan as its candidate for the Melur Assembly constituency (general) in Madurai on Sunday So far, Viswanathan . is the only Scheduled Caste candidate to be nominated to contest from a general constituency . Bhim Rao from the CPM and P Dhansingh from the AIADMK, elected from the Maduravoyal and Pallavaram seats respectively in 2011, were the last SC candidates elected from a general constituency in Tamil Nadu. The announcement came hours after Viswanathan met Cong ress president Mallikarjun Kharge at Puducherry on Sunday morning. On Friday, after much deliberations, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had announced its candidates for 27 of the 28 constituencies it was allocated in Tamil Nadu as part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance. However, it had put off announcing the candidate for Melur due to an inter nal rift between party MPs over allocating the seat to their respective supporters.  P5 US rescues downed airman Aviator scales 7,000-ft ridge to avoid capture by Iran; strike coming, says Trump day 37 A G EN C IES @Washington, Tehran A wounded US Air Force colonel survived 36 gruelling hours in the rugged mountains of southern Iran, evading capture by Iranian forces before Navy SEAL commandos extracted him in a dramatic nighttime operation President Donald Trump on Sunday termed nothing short of “miraculous.” Armed with only a pistol and moving on injured legs, the colonel — a weapons systems officer who had ejected from an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet shot down over southern Iran on Friday — navigated treacherous terrain to stay ahead of enemy patrols. At one point, he scaled a 7,000-foot ridgeline while American aircraft bombed an approaching Iranian convoy to buy him time, The Mail reported Sunday . US aviators undergo SERE training in the event they have to eject over hostile territory -survival, evasion, resistance and escape. They wear a combat vest with a radio/GPS-coded beacon to transmit their position, while they also carry E x p r e s s Re a d Heavy rain forecast in three TN dists today Chennai: The RMC has forecast heavy rain at isolated places in Virudhunagar, Dindigul and Theni districts on Monday. In its bulletin on Sunday, it said light to moderate rain is likely at isolated places at one or two locations over districts in the Western Ghats and parts of South Tamil Nadu | P5 Wreckage of a American jet involved in rescue of the US Colonel, in Isfahan | AP water, food, first-aid material and a pistol in order to survive. The airman was wounded after his ejection but could still walk, according to news outlet Axios, which cited a US official. Iran had placed a bounty on the officer’s head, setting off a race between Tehran and Washington to locate the missing aviator. “Everything is being thrown at finding the missing airman,” a source close to the President told The Mail on Sunday “The fear is he will be cap. tured and used as a pawn.” The pilot of the stricken jet had been recovered within 45 minutes of the crash. The extraction encountered serious complications. Two American transport aircraft became stranded at a remote Assembly elections Space for muslims in DMK & aiadmk shrinks I P6 vck to contest only one seat in pondy I P4 staging location inside Iran and had to be destroyed by US forces to keep them out of Iranian hands, according to The New York Times and CBS News. Three additional planes were then deployed to ferry the rescued airman. A regional intelligence official, speaking anonymously, told Associated Press that “a technical malfunction — not enemy fire — had rendered the two planes unusable.” Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari declared that the US operation had been “completely foiled.” He claimed two C-130 transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters had been destroyed. Trump declared victory on Sunday morning. “WE GOT HIM!” he said on Truth Social. ‘Whole region will burn’ Iran’s powerful parliament speaker warned US President Donald Trump on Sunday that his “reckless moves” would mean “our whole region is going to burn”. The “only real solution is ending this dangerous game,” Mohammad Ghalibaf said on Sunday. Come for talks: Russia Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said Washington should abandon “the language of ultimatums” and return to negotiations, in a call with his Iranian counterpart. Tribunal asks EC to add candidate’s name in voters list SUBHEN D U MAI T I @ Kolkata IN its first verdict, an appellate tribunal in West Bengal on Sunday directed the Election Commission to include the name of Congress candidate in Farakka, Mahtab Sheikh, in the supplementary voter list by the end of the day . The order of the tribunal headed by the former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam came a day before the April 6 deadline for submitting nomination for the firstphase polls in the state. Mohtab’s trouble started as his name was flagged under ‘logical discrepancy’ in the post-SIR voter list. His name also did not figure in the supplementary list marked as ‘under adjudication’. The Supreme Court had allowed voters excluded voters Mahtab Sheikh to move any one of the 19 appellate tribunals being set up in West Bengal to contest the exclusion. However, the Congress nominee could not move any tribunal because of the delay in setting up of these units and the last date of filing nomination was approaching. He sought the intervention of the SC, which asked him approach tribunal. Mohtab then moved the tribunal of Justice Sivagnanam. Mohtab was in the ‘logical discrepancy’ group because of a discrepancy in his as well as his father’s names. The tribunal noted that there is no discrepancy in Mohtab’s name.