kottayam l sunday l may 03, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city EDITION Women’s t20 World Cup: Harman & Co. aim for global glory After the home triumph at ODI World Cup, India look to create a dynasty in the shortest format at the event to be held in England this Summer Captain Harmanpreet at the squad announcement in Mumbai on Saturday | PTI Amanjot, kashvee injuries big issues The biggest concern remains the injury blows to all-rounders Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam. Amanjot, crucial to India’s ODI 50-over WC win, is down with a back injury, while Gautam is expected to undergo knee surgery. In their absence, the all-rounder balance is a concern, and the selectors have tried to cover it up with Radha Yadav’s experience ■ 2020 call up for nandni, comeback for yastika ■ Chandigarh seamer Nandni Sharma, who had a stellar WPL season with Delhi Capitals, has earned a maiden international call Yastika Bhatia, who missed the ODI WC, has made a comeback as back-up keeper. England held the inaugural in 2009. In that event, India had reached the last four stage of the tournament | P11 INDIA’S best finish came in 2020 when they reached the final 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 Rare full Falta repoll fiat Major ECI crackdown after reports of violence following threats by TMC goons to voters S u b hen d u m a i t i @ Kolkata OWN EVERY M O M EN T in WHITE WITH THIS ISSUE Her Last Stand PLUS 12 P AGES IN an extraordinary move, the Election Commission (EC) late on Saturday ordered ‘fresh’ repolling in all 285 polling stations of the Falta assembly seat in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on May 21 due to “subversion of democratic process” and “severe electoral offences”. Re-election in an entire assembly seat has not been ordered in the recent past. The fresh poll will take place on Thursday, May 21 and the counting of votes will happen on Sunday May 24. , The Commission invoked its constitutional powers under Article 324 to annul the earlier polling on April 29, citing serious irregularities that compromised the integrity of the electoral process in a large number of booths. Earlier in the day Falta was in the thick of , things as it recorded tense moments leading to protests from a large section of voters who staged a protest for over seven hours, alleging they were receiving life threats from TMC workAssembly ers in the area. elections Considering the situation in Falta, the ECI directed registering of FIRs against Israfil Chowkidar, gram panchayat pradhan at Hasimnagar and an associate of Jahangir Khan, Trinamool candidate from Falta, and another TMC worker Sujauddin Sheikh, to restore confidence among voters. Jahangir is a close lieutenant of Abhishek Banerjee, TMC national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP . The protesters, many of them women and holding BJP flags, blocked the road in Hasimnagar village. “TMC’s Israfil Chowkidar has threatened us that if these people win, they will burn our houses and indulge in bloodshed,” they claimed. The CRPF deputy commandant assured the demonstrators of ensuring their safety Khan . dismissed the allegations and said the women were “deployed” by the BJP “If the charges are . proved, I am ready to face the law,” he said. On Friday the EC had ordered re-election in , 15 polling stations of two Assembly seats in West Bengal — Diamond Harbour and Magarhat Paschim. Re-poll: 87% voter turnout Repolling in 15 booths of two assembly constituencies in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district concluded at 6 pm on Saturday, with around 87 per cent turnout recorded an hour before the close of voting, an official said. A voter turnout of 86.90 per cent was recorded till 5 pm, with the figure from one booth still awaited, he said. Mamata bullish of good show West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday told counting agents of the party that it will secure over 200 of the 294 assembly seats. The agents were asked to apprise them about the situation at all counting centres. A N N A J O S E @Kochi Local residents stage a protest in Falta, South 24 Parganas, on Saturday after being allegedly threatened and assaulted by a TMC leader | PTI No SC order on TMC appeal over counting SUC H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi A special bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday refused to pass any order on a Trinamool Congress plea challenging the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to appoint only Central government employees and PSU staff as counting day supervisors in West Bengal. A two-judge bench of justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi observed that the ECI has the liberty to choose the counting personnel it wants to deploy. Besides, the ECI’s April 13 circular provides for deployment of state government employees as well, so it cannot be said to be incor- 12-year-old boy tortured at boarding school over suspicion of theft; 2 held E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kollam In a shocking incident, a 12-year-old student was allegedly tied upside down and assaulted on suspicion of theft, at a private residential school in Punalur. The police have arrested a cook and hostel warden of the institution in connection with the incident that happened on Thursday . The school houses children from economically weak backgrounds. According to the complaint, the cook suspected that the Std VI student had stolen `500 from him, and he tied the boy upside down using a rope. “The boy was allegedly threatened and assaulted. The warden helped in the act,” the boy’s relatives said. “Both the accused have been booked under Sections 75 and 82 of the Juvenile Justice Act, along with Sections 118(1), 115(2) and 3(5) of the BNS,” a police official at the Punalur police station said. They have been remanded in judicial custody and lodged at the Kottarakkara sub-jail. The boy’s uncle, V R Rajan, alleged that the accused first beat him with a bamboo stick, demanding that he tell the truth. “He was then hung upside down by the cook, Liju, after which the warden also joined in,” Rajan said. He said the boy informed the family about the incident when he was brought home for holidays. Following this, he was taken to the Punalur Taluk Hospital the next morning. He said there were injury marks on his legs and back. “A complaint was lodged with the Punalur police by noon the same day he said. ,” M e a n wh i l e, t h e school management claimed that the cook had not tied the boy upside down, but only “frightened” him. They said he been dismissed from service following the incident. “We came to know that Liju was a drunkard, and we were planning to terminate him. We are not sure if it’s the thought that he was going to lose his job that prompted him to accuse the boy of stealing his money The student didn’t . complain us about any torture. We came to know about the incident when the police called us,” said the school director. e x p r ess r e a d Phones beep as govt tests disaster alert system New Delhi: Mobile phone users on Saturday received an alert on their cellphones with a loud beep as India tested its emergency alert system. Phones buzzed and users received a flash message. “This is part of the testing of the Emergency Alert System, so that accurate information can be received on time during disasters,” officials said. Amoebic infection claims 17 lives in Kerala in 4 months rect, the court reasoned. For its part, the ECI assured that the state’s nominee will be present during counting. “No further orders are necessary in this case except to record the statement of Dama Seshadri Naidu that the Election Commission will implement the circular dated 13th April, 2026 in true letter and spirit,” the bench said. The TMC filed the appeal after the Calcutta High Court upheld the ECI’s discretion in appointing Central government employees for counting. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for TMC, questioned both the timing and basis of the decision, arguing that the circular was not communicated to stakeholders until April 29. Amoebic meningoencephalitis — a fatal brain infection — has claimed 17 lives in the state so far this year, with 96 confirmed cases reported in the first four months, raising concerns over the safety and need for precautions. While the numbers keep rising, medical experts believe that the revised diagnostic guidelines have helped in detecting the condition at the earliest and reducing the mortality rate. The state had reported 201 confirmed cases of the brain infection and 47 deaths in 2025. In the latest incident, a 26-year-old nurse died in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday due to suspected amoebic meningoencephalitis, which is caused by a ‘braineating amoeba’. Arya Mol, from Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha district, was undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, chairman of the IMA Research Cell - Kerala, said the revision of the diagnosis guidelines has led to the rise in the number of cases being reported. “Earlier, we used to test for amoeba only if other tests were negative. Now, when a brain infection is reported, we test for amoebic meningoencephalitis. It has helped in early detection and treat- case sheet Years Confirmed Deaths cases 2026 96 17 2025 201 47 January 17 6 February 23 2 March 32 6 April 24 3 (Till April 29) 2026 stats Source: Directorate of health services, Kerala ment,” he said. He added that early detection has helped reduce the mortality rate compared with 2025. In the second half of 2024, more than 30 cases were recorded in the state, leading to the formulation and implementation of the ‘Technical Guidelines on Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Amoebic Meningoencephalitis in Kerala’ in July 2024, for ensuring effective control and management of the disease. Dr Anish TS, associate professor of epidemiology, Kerala University of Health Sciences, said the rising number of cases may be a reflection of improved detection and reporting. “Though such brain infections do occur widely in other states, they go unreported. It does not indicate poor management but better diagnosis,” ● More on P4 he said.  Army launches sovereign swarm capability push, seeks design partner ja v a r i a r ana @ New Delhi in fast lane A woman watches the Vande Bharat Express en route to Srinagar from Jammu as it commences regular service for the general public, at Bajalta in Jammu on Saturday, two days after its inauguration by Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The train with 20 coaches will operate six days a week barring Tuesdays, and reduce the travel time between the two destinations to less than five hours | PTI THE Indian Army is looking to build its own sovereign swarm warfare capability and has begun search for a joint development partner to develop an indigenous swarm algorithm that could eventually provide it with a unified command and control framework for networked drone operations. Top sources told this paper that the Army has invited bids for the project and will hold a pre-bid meeting in the second week of May “This is far bigger . than simply acquiring another swarm capability,” a source said. “What the Army is trying to do is build a common architecture of its own, so swarm operations are no longer tied to individual vendors or proprietary systems.” The project comes at a time Indigenous control The stress on indigenous control comes amid persistent security concerns over Chinese components in drone systems after past vulnerability scares triggered tighter scrutiny of military drone supply chains when contemporary conflicts have underscored the operational value of networked drone swarms across surveillance, logistics, payload delivery and adaptive combat roles. The project is structured in two phases over six months, beginning with an initial twomonth stage focused on developing an indigenous ground control station and software integration framework. “The focus is on creating a secure common control layer I P L fi n a l over existing drone assets, with fully offline capability built in from the outset,” the source said. The second phase, spanning four months, expands the model from centralised control to decentralised swarm autonomy, with onboard computing, indigenous software stacks and greater battlefield resilience. “The objective is to test whether these prototypes can continue functioning in tougher, more realistic operational conditions, rather than only in controlled environments,” the source said. It will test adaptive formations, task reassignment, collision avoidance and the swarm’s ability to sustain operations even when communications are disrupted, drones are lost or navigation systems come under strain. representative pic Bengaluru’s turn but BCCI yet to finalise venue e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ Chennai IN March 2026, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) had said that Bengaluru would host the final and a playoff match of this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, with the schedule for the play-off and final yet to be announced, Devajit Saikia, board secretary refused to , confirm whether Bengaluru will retain the right to host the final as defending champions. “We are working on which can be the appropriate venue for the IPL playoff and the final,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Indian squad announcement for the women’s T20 World Cup. “You keep on guessing, but I am not going to give a reply We are taking a call . in two days.” Usually the defending cham, pions host the final and a play-off game. That practice, however, was not followed in 2025 when the final was moved from Kolkata to Ahmedabad (the BCCI had cited the threat of rain) and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the title. It remains to be seen whether the board allots one of the year’s marquee clashes to Ahmedabad this year as well. Action against RR Meanwhile, days after Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag was fined 25 per cent of his match fee for vaping in the dressing room, Saikia confirmed that the board is exploring options to take stringent action against the franchise. “We are exploring some other options on how to rein in the teams which are violating the norms,” he said. “We will be taking some action. We are looking at the various terms and conditions and protocols of IPL on how the teams should behave. It is not only the players or the officials. As a team, they have to maintain certain decorum so that the image of IPL is never adversely affected. To ensure that, we have to take a call and we will be taking some action.” Khalistani radicals security threat: Canada The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has flagged Khalistani extremists operating out of Canada as an ongoing national security threat, adding their activities continue to promote a violent agenda | P8