THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l wednesday l may 13, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Himanta takes oath as Assam CM for second successive term 25-minute ceremony saw top BJP leaders Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya administered the oath of office to Sarma and the four legislators at a 25-minute ceremony held at the Veterinary Ground in Khanapara area in Guwahati. Besides PM Modi and Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sarbananda Sonowal, Pabitra Margherita, and other top leaders were present | P8 The BJP-led NDA assumed the mantle of power for the third term on Tuesday when Himanta Biswa Sarma was sworn in as CM of Assam great day for assam, says pm modi ■ ■ The PM said NDA assuming office for the third consecutive term was a ‘’great day for Assam’’ and congratulated Sarma BJP’s Rameshwar Teli and Ajanta Neog, AGP’s Atul Bora, and Charan Boro of BPF also took oath as ministers, representing the tea community, women, the regional community and the Bodo tribe 102 seats of 126 seats in assam were won by the bjp-led nda coalition 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 NEET-UG cancelled, CBI Lightning kills 4 students in Malappuram begins paper leak probe L e sly J o s e p h @ Malappuram A routine evening outing turned tragic for seven friends after a lightning strike left four of them dead at the Panthallur hill viewpoint at Mankada in Malappuram on Tuesday . The victims – all school and college students aged between 16 and 22 – were residents of Vellila, located around 6km from Mankada. Rahees, 20, Bahas, 18, Siyad, 16, and Fahad, 22, are the deceased. The three injured youths – Fahad’s brother Roshan, 20, Rahees’s brother Salmanul Faris, 21, and Ishath, 16 – are currently under treat- Re-exam notice in 7-10 days; one accused arrested from Nashik lalitha s , sudhir sur ya w anshi & raj e sh asnani @ New Delhi/Nashik/Jaipur THE NEET (UG) 2026 exam held on May 3 was cancelled on Tuesday amid allegations of paper leak, with the CBI registering an FIR after the government asked it to probe the “irregularities”. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges, said fresh dates will be notified in the “next seven to 10 days” for the re-exam. The cancellation triggered nationwide outrage among medical aspirants, with students raising questions on NTA’s competence and demanding that the exam be conducted by AIIMS-Delhi. The Opposition attacked the Centre, alleging administrative failure, insensitivity toward students and “repeated lapses” in the conduct of national-level competitive examinations. The Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG), which probed the leak first, found that before the exam, a 150-page “guess paper” was circulated among students in Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Churu districts. The document contained 410 questions of which 135 figured in the actual exam paper. As per Rajasthan Police, the match was not limited to the questions alone. Investigators found similarities in sequence of options, language and punctuation marks. The SOG has so far detained 15 people, including Manish Yadav from Jaipur Similarities in sequence of options, language Rajasthan Police said the match with the guess paper was not limited to the questions alone. Investigators found similarities in sequence of options, language and punctuation marks BAMS graduate arrested in Nashik, probe on A 30-year-old BAMS graduate from Nashik was arrested Tuesday. Police said he bought the leaked paper for C10L and resold 10 sets at C15L lakh each in Rajasthan and Maharashtra R A J E S H A B R A H A M @ Kochi SFI workers stage a protest against the cancellation of NEET 2026 exam held on May 3, in New Delhi on Tuesday | Praveen negi and Rakesh Mandawaria from Sikar. Manish Yadav is said to be the ‘mastermind’ of the paper leak operation in Rajasthan. Investigators also found that all 90 Biology questions and all 45 Chemistry questions in NEET exam matched the circulated material. Preliminary investigations suggest that a student from Churu, currently pursuing MBBS in Kerala, allegedly sent the question bank to a person in Sikar, who passed it to a PG accommodation operator in Sikar, who further shared it among students there. D i pak M o ndal @ New Delhi Kochi-Dweep seaplane trials to begin today Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Ltd, which manages the Kochi airport, will facilitate the seaplane trials between Kochi and Lakshadweep. Aimed at improving regional connectivity, the trials will begin on Wednesday, subject to weather conditions. P5 rifyingly swift. It started raining heavily followed by intense , thunder and lightning. The seven friends were sitting on top of a rock, from where one can see far into the distance, when lightning struck.” “Passers-by spotted the boys lying unconscious and went to check on them. That was when one of the boys told them that they had been struck by lightning,” said Jamsheer. The residents mounted a desperate rescue effort, using private vehicles and ambulances to navigate the rugged terrain and rush the youngsters to the CM call delay stalls UDF’s big-ticket welfare rollout After the examination on May 3, a PG operator in Sikar filed a complaint with the Udyog Nagar police station and the NTA, alleging that a large number of students had received the suspected question bank before the exam. Following this, police sprang into action, sources said. The CBI registered cases of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence under BNS, besides offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair P5, P7 Means) Act, 2024.  At 68, Kumari’s day begins before sunrise at the Varapuzha fish landing centre. Balancing baskets of fresh fish, she boards buses to Kalamassery nearly 15 km away , , going door-to-door to make a living. Every rupee counts for her, who spends close to `30 a day on bus fare alone. Now, like thousands of working-class women across Kerala, Kumari is waiting for the UDF government to keep one of its biggest election promises — free travel for women in KSRTC buses. But with the Congress-led front yet to announce its chief minister more than a week after sweeping the assembly elections, the rollout of the much-publicised ‘Indira Guarantee’ schemes too remains stuck in limbo. The free bus ride scheme, projected as a game changer for ordinary women commuters, is among the flagship promises made by the Congress in Kerala, modelled on similar initiatives launched soon after Congress governments took office in Karnataka and Telangana. For women like Kumari, the promise is not about politics but survival. The Congress manifesto had promised a basket of welfare measures under the ‘Indira Guarantee’ banner: free KSRTC travel for women, `1,000 monthly assistance for female college students, `3,000 welfare pension, `25-lakh health insurance cover for families under ‘Oommen Chandy Arogya Insurance’ scheme, and `5-lakh interest● More on P4 free loans for youth entrepreneurs. West Asia crisis a stress test for India: Chief Economic Advisor E X P R ESS R EAD ment at a private hospital for burn injuries. The tragedy unfolded between 5pm and 5.30pm at Kuranganchola viewpoint, a popular local haunt where youth from Vellila gather to watch the sunset. According to the residents, the weather changed quickly on Tuesday evening, with cloudy skies giving way to heavy downpour, followed by massive lightning. P Jamsheer, a neighbour of the students who was among the first responders, said: “The transition in weather was ter- The West Asia crisis has become a live balance-of-payments stress test for India, with direct implications for inflation, the current account deficit (CAD) and the rupee, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday “Managing the cur. rent account credibly financ, ing it sustainably and prevent, ing further cur rency depreciation are the central macroeconomic imperatives of FY27,” he said at the CII’s Annual Business Summit. CAD is expected to rise to 2.2% of GDP in FY27 from an estimated 0.8% in FY26. CAD is a situation when a country’s imports exceed exports. A higher CAD weakens the currency, increases inflation risks and reduces economic stability. Rupee on Tuesday fell to another low of 95.63 against the dollar. Nageswaran said 87% of crude oil is imported, with a major share transiting through or near the Hormuz. Around 60% of LPG comes from the Gulf, while 38% of annual remittances originate from Gulf nations. “These are not the readings of a temporary shock that will self-correct when the situation stabilises.” The CEA warned that the global economic architecture is undergoing a structural challenge rather than a temporary disruption. e x p r e ss n e w s s e rvi c e @ New Delhi V Anantha Nageswaran Puri worry on losses “How long the oil companies will continue to take losses, frankly, worries me,” petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said | P10 CM’s mandate Vijay govt shuts 717 liquor outlets in TN S G U R U V A N M I K A N AT H A N @ Chennai Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Tuesday ordered the closure of 717 Tasmac retail liquor shops located within 500m of educational institutions, places of worship and bus depots across Tamil Nadu. As part of the first phase, 50 liquor shops in Chennai, Tiruchy, Madurai, Salem and Coimbatore regions were closed on Tuesday . According to the Government Order (GO) dated May 12, 2026, accessed by TNIE, the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) currently operates 4,765 retail liquor outlets across the state. Of the 717 outlets identified for closure, 276 shops are located near places of worship, 186 near educational institutions and 255 near bus depots. The GO said the identified outlets would be shut within a couple of weeks in the interest of public welfare. The decision is being seen as a major policy move of the party which had strongly criticised previous regimes during the election campaign for allegedly promoting liquor sales at the cost of public health and social harmony . “The government has also instructed authorities to ensure that no alternative liquor outlets are opened in the restricted zones. With Rahul dissent note to panel tasked to pick new CBI boss the closure of 717 liquor outlets, the number of functioning shops across the state will come down to 4,048,” a Tasmac official told TNIE. The move is expected to lead to a revenue loss of `7.27 crore per month to Tasmac with the shutting down of the 466 bars operating in these outlets. In addition, these shops generate an average revenue of `23 crore to `25 crore per day . The Tamil Nadu Liquor Retail Vending (in Shops and Bars) Rules, 2003, had so far mandated the closure of liquor shops situated within 50m (in urban areas) and 100m (in rural areas) from educational institutions and places of worship. The latest order now extends the restriction limit to 500m. A high-powered committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met here on Tuesday to pick a new director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). There was no official announcement on the panel’s decision at the time of going to press. The committee comprises Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant. However, Rahul issued a dissent note alleging “Deliberate denial of information on 69 candidates makes a mockery of selection process of CBI director.” He alleged that the government has reduced the selection process to a mere formality adding the Leader of , Opposition cannot be a rubber stamp. “I cannot abdicate my constitutional duty by participating in this biased exercise. I, therefore, dissent in the strongest terms.” Incumbent CBI Director Praveen Sood is scheduled to retire on May 24. Sources indicated that several senior IPS officers from different states were on the list of officers being considered for the top post. The discussions, however, centred on three senior IPS officers: Parag Jain, Shatrujeet Kapoor, Yogesh Gupta and GP Singh. 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express Poll promises Free KSRTC bus travel for women  L1,000 monthly aid for female college students Welfare pension to be hiked to L3,000 L25-lakh health insurance for families under ‘Oommen Chandy Arogya Insurance’ scheme L5-lakh interestfree loans for young entrepreneurs We are confident of implementing all the ‘Indira Guarantees’ within the first 100 days of assuming office Hibi Eden, Congress MP hospital. Two of them, they said, died on the spot. The residents had initially believed that there were only six students in the group. However, upon reaching the hospital, the injured students made the distressing revelation – one of their friends, Salmanul Faris, was missing. A frantic search ensued. The youth, thrown by the impact of lightning, was found lying in a ditch under a rock crevice near the viewpoint. He, too, was rushed to the hospital. Hospital authorities indicated that the injured were showing signs of stabilisation. High command ‘fury’ tilts CM race in favour of KC Pr e e tha N air & K S S R EE J I T H @ New Delhi/T’Puram As suspense mounts over the Congress high command’s decision on Kerala’s next chief minister, Rahul Gandhi’s consultations on Tuesday with former KPCC presidents and senior leaders are learnt to have dealt a major blow to V D Satheesan, the Leader of the Opposition. While AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal appears to have surged ahead in the race, backed by a majority of the newly elected MLAs, sources said the party is likely to announce its choice on Wednesday . The high command believes the unruly incidents linked to the CM selection were not spontaneous, but orchestrated by certain leaders as a pressure tactic. The developments have reportedly irked the party leadership and could further boost the prospects of Venugopal. Though it was widely expected that Rahul would seek leaders’ views on the next CM, a senior leader told TNIE that “the issue did not come up at all”, noting that most of them had already conveyed their preferences to ● More on P4 the party observers.