BHUBANESWAR l Saturday l may 16, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION CJI likens some unemployed youth to roaches, parasites Likening unemployed youngsters to cockroaches, CJI Surya Kant said Friday they go on to “become” social media activists and attack the system lambasted for seeking better designation The comments came while a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was pulling up a lawyer for “pursuing” senior advocate designation. It said there were “parasites” in society who attack the system and asked if the petitioner wanted to join hands with them. “The entire world may be eligible to become senior (advocate), but you are not entitled,” the SC said ■ CBI petitioner’s language cause of concern ■ A visibly anguished CJI observed that if the Delhi High Court would confer senior advocate designation upon the petitioner, the apex court would set that aside seeing his professional conduct The CJI referred to the kind of language used by the petitioner on Facebook. The bench later allowed withdrawal of the petition | P7 Could be asked to verify degrees of all those in black robes, says SC 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 EC to kick off SIR in Odisha from May 30, final roll on Sep 6 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Pay `3 a litre more for petrol, diesel Freight rates set to jump, analysts see 15-25 basis points hike in retail inflation @ Bhubaneswar Ra k e s h K u m a r @ New Delhi The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll by the Election Commission will kick off in Odisha from May 30, chief electoral officer (CEO) R S Gopalan announced here on Friday The final electoral roll will be published on September 6. July 1 has been fixed as the qualifying date for the roll revision and as per the schedule announced by the EC, printing, preparation and training work will be carried out from May 20 to May 29, the CEO said. Ahead of the SIR, forms for the exercise will be made available to voters both offline and online. Booth level officers (BLOs) will conduct house-tohouse visits from May 30 to June 28 for distribution and collection of forms. The task of reorganising polling stations will also be completed by June 28 and the draft electoral roll will be published on July 5. Claims and objections can be filed between July 5 and August 4, while their disposal process will continue till September 2. A total 45,255 BLOs will visit voters’ homes during the exercise and each voter will receive two pre-printed copies of the enumeration form. One filled form will be collected by the BLO, while the second signed copy will be returned to the voter as an acknowledgement receipt. Voters can also download the form from the Election Commission’s official portal voters. eci.gov.in and upload the filled form online, he said. “If any voter faces difficulty The inevitable finally happened on Friday, with oil marketing companies (OMCs) raising petrol and diesel prices by `3 per litre, while compressed natural gas (CNG) prices for automobiles were increased by `2 per kg. This is the first hike in petrol and diesel prices ever since state-run refiners suspended daily fuel price revisions in April 2022. The last revision came in March 2024, when prices were cut by `2 per litre ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Friday’s announcement comes amid disruptions in global oil and gas supplies following the escalation of conflict in West Asia after attacks by Israel and the US on Iran on February 28. The impact of the price hike is expected to be felt across logistics, transportation, freight and e-commerce sectors, as well as other industries. “We expect freight rates across sectors to increase by approximately 2.5-3% immediately,” said Ashok Goyal, National President of the All India Transporters Welfare Association. Economists and analysts expect the price hike to result in a 15-25 basis points increase in retail inflation. The full impact of the hike is likely to be reflected in June inflation numbers. “The pass-through effect of the fuel price hikes is likely to increase CPI inflation by 15 basis points,” said Megha Arora, Director at India Ratings and Research. She added that the diesel price hike would have a wider impact because of its extensive use in transportation, coastal fishing boats, tourism, e-commerce operations and by aqua farmers for running aerators. Analysts believe the fuel price hike will provide only limited relief to OMCs. According to Prashant Vasisht of ICRA, despite the hike, OMCs will continue to incur losses of about `500 crore daily on the sale of auto fuels and domestic LPG. Eligible persons wishing to register themselves as new electors will be provided Form-6 along with a separate declaration form by the BLO RS Gopalan, CEO, Odisha in filling out the form, the BLO will provide complete assistance. Eligible persons wishing to register themselves as new electors will also be provided Form-6 along with a separate declaration form by the BLO during the same period,” he said. As part of the pre-SIR exercise, 94.61 per cent of the state’s electors, totaling around 3.16 crore, have already been mapped with the electoral roll published during the last SIR in 2002. Over 9 lakh deletions were made on the basis of this mapping, he said. The CEO also clarified that voters will not be required to submit any additional document during the enumeration process and the draft electoral roll will be prepared on the basis of the correctly filled forms received from electors. He urged political parties to appoint booth level agents (BLAs) at every polling station to ensure transparency in the revision process. So far, the recognised political parties in the state have appointed 27,723 BLAs, Gopalan said. Transporters will to partially pass on the burden to customers. We expect freight rates to increase by about 2.5-3% Ashok Goyal, prez, All India Transporters Welfare Association BBSR petrol `104.51 Petrol in Delhi will now cost `97.77 a litre against `94.77 earlier. New cost of diesel is `90.67, up from from `87.67. In Bhubaneswar, petrol price has climbed to `104.51, up from `101.29 2-state solution On Palestine, BRICS members reaffirmed support for a two-state solution and backed the creation of an independent Palestinian within the 1967 borders BRICS FM meet fails to issue joint statement Jayan t h Ja c o b @ New Delhi Foreign ministers of the BRICS grouping failed to issue a joint communique after a two-day meeting in New Delhi on Friday, with sharp divisions over the Iran and Gaza wars exposing geopolitical fault lines within the expanded bloc that now includes both Iran and the UAE. The breakdown in consensus was driven primarily by objections raised by Iran to key paragraphs in the draft outcome document dealing with West Asia, Gaza and maritime security sources said. , According to sources, Tehran opposed paragraph 26, which addressed the Gaza and Palestine issue, and paragraph 29, which referenced the importance of ensuring “the exercise of navigational rights and freedoms of vessels of all states in the Red Sea and Bab AlMandab Strait, in accordance with international law”. As a result, host India was forced to issue a chair’s statement and outcome document that mentioned “a member had reservations on some aspects of this paragraph,” without naming any country . Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested that the UAE had blocked consensus language due to its alignment with Israel and the US. “There were differing views among some members as regards the situation in the West Asia/Middle East region,” India said in the chair statement. It also highlighted shared concerns over regional instability and stressed the importance of “safe and unimpeded maritime commerce through international waterways”. NEET re-exam on June 21, online test from next yr e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi EDUCATION Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday announced that the the reexamination for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Undergraduate 2026 will be held on June 21. The fresh exam comes after the original test was cancelled on May 12 following question paper leak. The re-examination will be conducted in the conventional pen-and-paper (offline) mode and will be available in 13 languages. The exam fee for the cancelled test will be fully refunded, and no additional fee will be charged for the re-test. Starting next year, the NEET-UG exam will shift to computer-based test mode, the National Testing Agency said. Briefing the media, Pradhan said, “The decision to cancel the NEET-UG exam was announced on May 12 only in the interest of meritorious students. We do not want any wrong candidate to take up the seat, which rightfully belongs to a genuine candidate, with the help of the machinations of education mafia.” In a significant change, the duration of the exam has been extended by 15 minutes. It will now be held from 2 pm to 5.15 pm. Admit cards, centre intimation slips, and other details will be released by June 14. Students can update their present address and select examination cities from May 15 to May 21 (up to 11.50 pm). Candidates can indicate their first and second choice of examination cities during this period. No corrections in other particulars will be permitted except for the present address and choice of centre. Requests for changes will be entertained till the May 21 deadline. Doctor killed over property row, brother among 3 held Our priority is the future of students. I appeal to all students to appear for the exam without fear. We won’t let malpractice happen this time Dharmendra Pradhan, Education minister Kingpin arrested from Pune Three days into its probe, the CBI on Friday said it had cracked the NEET paper leak case with the arrest of a Pune-based Prof P V Kulkarni, the “source” of the leak. He is a expert on the panel that sets the NEET-UG question papers | P8 A 42-year-old Homoeopathic doctor was allegedly beaten to death by four of his family members including his elder brother over a property dispute | P4 Modi @ Abu Dhabi: UAE announces $5bn investment j ayan t h j a c o b @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reiterated India’s support for the United Arab Emirates amid instability in West Asia, declaring that New Delhi stands “shoulder-toshoulder” with Abu Dhabi as the two countries signed a series of major agreements spanning energy, defence, trade, shipping and advanced technology, while the Gulf nation also announced investments worth USD 5 billion in India. During wide-ranging talks in Abu Dhabi with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Modi strongly condemned attacks targeting UAE and stressed that ensuring stability in the Gulf, particularly the security of the Strait of UAE my second home, says PM In a personal gesture, Modi described the UAE as his “second home” and thanked the Emirati leadership for the warm reception accorded to him, including an escort by UAE Air Force. He expressed gratitude to the UAE government and the royal family for their support to the Indian diaspora during the ongoing regional crisis. Hormuz, was a shared strategic priority “The way the UAE . has been targeted is unacceptable in any way,” Modi said during the meeting, held against the backdrop of rising PM Narendra Modi with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan | PTI tensions linked to the Iran conflict and growing threats to regional shipping and energy infrastructure. The visit, the first leg of Modi’s five-nation tour, highlight- ed how rapidly the India-UAE relationship has evolved from an economic partnership into a broader strategic alignment. A major focus of the visit was energy security. Among agreements signed was a strategic pact with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to expand cooperation on India’s strategic petroleum reserves and exploring collaboration in LNG and LPG infrastructure. The agreement will increase UAE’s participation in India’s petroleum reserves to 30 million barrels while also supporting the development of strategic gas reserves. Modi stressed that keeping the Strait of Hormuz “free, open and safe” was critical for global economic stability and energy security . E x p r e s s Re a d New film policy, institute soon: CM mad rush A crowded petrol pump at Rasulgarh in Bhubaneswar on Thursday night | Express Bhubaneswar: CM Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday announced that a dedicated film policy will soon be chalked out and funding support will not be a hurdle to bring back Odia cinema’s old glory | P3 35-year-old dies after ambulance breaks Bhojshala in Dhar a Saraswati temple, rules MP HC down, runs out of oxygen near Cuttack A n u r aa g S i n g h @ Bhopal A r a b i n d a Pan d a @ Cuttack In a tragic incident, a 35-yearold patient died after the ambulance carrying him broke down midway between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, while oxygen support ran out before a replacement vehicle could arrive, here on Friday . Prakash Kumar Kandi was being shifted from the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar when the incident occurred on the bridge over Kathajodi river, just outside Cuttack city . Family members alleged that the ambulance ran out of fuel, but police attributed the incident to a technical snag. The incident came amid reports of panic buying and a fuel crisis, with long queues seen at petrol pumps. A native of Govindpur village under Derabish police limits in Kendrapara district, Kandi was undergoing treatment after allegedly consuming poison. When his condition became critical, he was being shifted to Bhubaneswar. Kandi’s family members alleged that the ambulance suddenly stopped in the middle of the bridge after running out of fuel. The delay led to the patient’s death, they claimed. “Despite requests, no one extended help by sharing fuel from their vehicles. It took around half an hour for another ambulance to reach the spot and, by that time, the oxygen supply had also run out and the patient had died,” alleged Jharana Das, Kandi’s sister-in-law. Continued on P5 THE Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday ruled that the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque complex in Dhar district is a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, while simultaneously quashing a decades-old ASI order that allowed the Muslim community to offer Friday prayers at the site. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had in April 2003 restricted the right of Hindus to worship within the Bhojshala complex. After hearing a batch of petitions and intervention applications filed by representatives of the Hindu, Muslim Muslim petitioners set to move SC All the Muslim petitioners of the case on Friday said that they will challenge the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s decision declaring the disputed Bhojshala structure in Dhar district to be a Saraswati temple and Jain communities for 24 days following directions by the Supreme Court, a division bench of the High Court, comprising Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi, stated in its 248-page order, “Historical literature established that the character of the disputed area at Bhojshala was a Centre of Sanskrit learning associated with Parmar dynasty king Raja Bhoj and the literature and architectural reference, including those connected with Raja Bhoj period indicate the existence of a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati at Dhar.” While allowing and dispos- ing the petitions filed by the Hindu side — the Hindu Front for Justice, Kuldeep Tiwari and others, the high court bench said, “The disputed area of Bhojshala and Kamal Maula Mosque is held to be protected monument under Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, with effect from March 18, 1904. The religious character of the disputed area of the complex is held to be a Bhojshala with a temple of Goddess Va gdevi (Saraswati).” The bench clarified that the Muslim side may approach the state government for separate land in the district to construct a mosque.