KOLLAM l friday l july 10, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Sir: Voter base in Odisha, Sikkim Mizoram & Manipur shrinks by 22L Around 22 lakh voters have been left out of the draft electoral rolls in Mizoram, Odisha, Manipur and Sikkim where Phase 3 of the SIR is underway voter count down to 3.46 cr from 3.68 cr 20 lakh names dropped in odisha alone The collective voter base in these states, which stood at 3.68 crore before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, has now shrunk to 3.46 crore, according to data made available in the public domain over the past few days. People left out of the draft rolls still have a chance to be included in the final rolls to be published later this year ■ ■ The largest deletion of names—20.11 lakh—was in Odisha, where over 8.3 lakh electors were found to be deceased, while 10.07 lakh had either shifted residence or were found absent The four states are among the 16 states and three Union Territories where electoral roll revision is underway with a staggered schedule May 30 when phase 3 of the special intensive revision was rolled out 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 Khamenei laid to rest; Iran hits US military targets in Gulf A G E N C I E S @ Mashhad A truck carrying the remains of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, on Thursday | ap Australia eases uranium hurdle in win-win deal Modi’s cricket analogy caps major push to enhance bilateral defence and trade ties J ayan t h J ac o b @ New Delhi India and Australia on Thursday finalised a long-pending arrangement for Australian uranium exports to India for peaceful civilian use and unveiled a sweeping defence and security framework, signalling a sharper convergence of interests in the Indo-Pacific. The announcements came after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Melbourne, where they also reaffirmed their commitment to concluding the long-delayed Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and expanding cooperation in critical minerals, cyber security clean energy , and advanced technologies. Setting a light-hearted tone, Modi likened the bilateral relationship to cricket. “Our meetings feel like a cricket match— the agenda has the focus of a One-Day match, decisions are as fast as T20, and our partnership is as long and deep as a Test match,” he said. The centrepiece of the visit was the finalisation of the administrative arrangement under the 2014 India-Australia Civil Nuclear Agreement, clearing the way for Australia, one of the world’s largest uranium producers, to supply uranium for India’s civilian nuclear programme after years of delays over safeguards and implementation. No volume of uranium exports was announced. The leaders also issued a new ‘Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation’, replacing the 2009 security declaration and significantly broadening military engagement. The framework envisages PM Narendra Modi with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at an event in Melbourne on Thursday | PTI Developing a critical minerals corridor The two sides unveiled the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains (PACTS) and agreed to develop a critical minerals corridor to secure supply chains vital for clean energy and advanced manufacturing stronger strategic coordination, more complex joint military exercises, greater interoperability between the armed forces, enhanced cyber cooperation, counter-terrorism collaboration, defence industrial partnerships and humanitarian assistance. A key outcome was the launch of the ‘India-Australia Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap’, alongside an MoU between Indian Coast Guard and Australia’s Maritime Border Command to strengthen maritime domain awareness, information sharing and operational coordination. The expanded agenda comes as both countries seek to bolster cooperation amid China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. Amid fresh escalation in its conflict with the US, Iran on Thursday buried its slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a shrine in his hometown in Mashhad, marking the culmination of a week of mass funeral processions and rallies. As the body of Khamenei, who was killed in a US airstrike on the first day of the war on February 28, was taken through crammed streets of Mashhad, a sea of black-clad mourners waved Iranian flags, photographs of the late leader and red placards with revolutionary slogans. Many reportedly called for revenge and rejected any compromise with the US to end the war. Beating their chests and weeping, mourners lined the route as they waited for Khamenei’s coffin to arrive at the city’s shrine of Imam Reza, the holiest site for Shia Muslims in Iran and the burial place he had chosen in his will. Early in the day, Tehran attacked “US bases and strategic centres” in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar after Washington bombed Iranian cities for a second consecutive night. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed that Iranian forces fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Azraq military base, which hosts the US Air Forces Central’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. In Kuwait, the military said falling debris wounded one person as it shot down three ballistic missiles, a cruise missile and 10 drones. While the US military maintains that its latest strikes are aimed at keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, Iranian officials claim the latest US attacks killed 14 people and injured 80 others. Day late, but monsoon covers India J i t en d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi The Southwest monsoon on Thursday fully covered the entire nation, marking a day’s delay from the normal arrival date of July 8. The last time it covered the whole country by July 9 was in 2011. This year’s monsoon onset over Kerala occurred on June 4, which was three days later than the climatological normal date of June 1. Last year, the monsoon had covered the entire nation by June 29, almost nine days earlier than normal. At 108%, last year’s monsoon was well above normal. In contrast, this year’s precipitation is expected to be the reverse. In June, the monsoon deficit was 40% of the long-period average, resulting in the fifth lowest rainfall (99.5 mm) ever recorded for that month. However, good rainfall since July has helped reduce the deficit to -15.2% by July 9. India has re- EXPRESS READ Fund row: State BJP told to initiate inquiry T’Puram: The BJP national leadership has reportedly asked the state unit to initiate an internal organisational inquiry after allegations of large-scale misappropriation of election funds were raised against three office-bearers. State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar has ordered a detailed audit of the party’s accounts. According to sources, “only the tip of the iceberg has emerged so far.” P4 Startup push in tourism awaits leg-up T’Puram: Nearly 18 months after Kerala Tourism and Kerala Startup Mission unveiled an ambitious partnership to transform the state’s tourism sector through startup-led innovation, the initiative has made little headway, with its two flagship projects — Freedom Square and Workpods (startup pods) — still awaiting final government clearance.P5 E x p r ess N e w s S e r v ice @ Kalpetta Buildings damaged after a landslide near Kaddukhal on National Highway 707A following heavy rainfall, in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand | PTI Gas cylinders adrift in Patalganga after being swept away from an HPCL bottling plant, in Raigad, Maharashtra | PTI ceived a total of 195.5 mm of rainfall in the current season, compared to the total longterm expectation of 230.4 mm. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the monsoon advanced further into the remaining parts of the north Arabian Sea, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab on Thursday, thus covering the entire India, El Niño is synonymous with a weaker monsoon. The IMD also predicted a fresh cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal adjoining Odisha and West Bengal in the next few days. The poor monsoon affected kharif sowing, with only 350 lakh hectares sown so far — about 92 lakh hectares less than normal. country. It also forecast a below-normal to deficient rainfall for the country, anticipating around 90% of the long-period average from June to September. This below-normal expectation is attributed to the emergence of a strong El Niño phenomenon, which refers to the abnormal warming of the East Pacific Ocean. In Medico’s murder in Uzbekistan: Kin allege conversion bid, torture head to toe, indicating that she was severely beaten. They alThe family of Savariya Bas- leged that the fatal head injury anth, the 22-year-old Malayali caused by a laptop was not the medical student who only cause of her was killed allegedly by death and claimed that her classmate in Uzshe had sustained exbekistan, has come out tensive injuries all with serious allegaover her body . tions against the acJaneesh, a maternal cused, claiming that uncle who travelled to she was being presUzbekistan to claim sured to convert and the body, alleged that that she had been sub- Savariya Basanth the accused, a classjected to brutal assault mate, had been presbefore her death. suring Savariya to Sadarul Anam, 22, a convert to his religion, native of Pulamantbut she had fir mly hole, Malappuram, was refused. arrested by Uzbek au“Fellow students inthorities in connection formed me about the with the death of attempts at religious Sadarul Anam Savariya, daughter of conversion. The atBasanth and Mini, of Pilap- tack, which reportedly happuzha in Haripad. pened on Friday, was not the According to the victim’s result of immediate provocarelatives, Savariya’s body bore tion. She bore marks of torture multiple injury marks from from her legs to her head. So Bij u E Pa u l @ Alappuzha a u t o m a t i o n F o r sea m l ess p i l g r i m a g e QR codes to smart queues, Sabarimala to get digital makeover Rajes h A b r a h a m @ Kochi Digital transformation Imagine receiving a message on your phone asking you to delay your visit to Sabarimala by a few hours because the hill shrine is already crowded. Or walking up to a counter, scanning a QR code, and collecting ‘aravana’ without waiting in a serpentine queue. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is on a mission to turn this into reality . A high-powered Project Management Unit (PMU), headed by retired IAS officer Dr Santhosh Babu, has begun work on The digital transformation programme will be implemented over 24 months, with an estimated first-year outlay of I33.25 cr and an overall project cost capped at I70 cr. The project team hopes to roll out some Sabarimala-specific improvements before this pilgrimage season. Sabarimala temple | File pic what is being described as the biggest digital transformation in the history of the TDB, which manages around 1,250 temples besides schools, colleges, cultural institutions, and commercial ventures. “Our task is to eliminate the pain points for devotees and make every service seamless,” Santhosh told TNIE. “Everything will come under Three bodies recovered, landslip toll rises to six a single platform built on a microservices architecture. Accommodation booking, offeri n g s, b i l l i n g , i nve n t o r y, purchases, finance — everything,” he said. The immediate focus is Sabarimala, where nearly one lakh devotees visit daily during the peak pilgrimage season. “Today, devotees often begin their journey six to eight hours early, even though they may need only two hours to reach the shrine. That creates unnecessary bottlenecks,” he said. “We are looking at managing the movement of pilgrims from the time they leave their homes. We can send advisories asking them to start later so that traffic gets distributed more evenly he said. ,” The PMU is also planning QR code-based offerings. “Instead of standing in queues for ‘naivedyam’ bills, devotees should be able to pay online and simply collect the offering by showing a QR code. At the same time, we must cater to everyone — those using cash, UPI, or digital payments,” he said. One of the ideas under consideration is automated dispensing of offer● More on P4 ings.  we decided to conduct a repostmortem to unravel the mystery he said. ,” Savariya enrolled at Bukhara State Medical University last December. Male and female students, many of them Malayalis, were put up in the same hostel. She had performed well in her first-semester examinations, said relatives. Her mother, Mini, regularly kept in touch with her over phone. On Saturday, she failed to get through to Savariya, and a relative who contacted college authorities was first informed of the attack. Savariya did her Plus-II from VV HSS Naduvattam in Pallippad. She was a bright student and active in co-curricular activities, said neighbours. He brother Savanth is a class nine student of Holy Angels School, Pallippad. Her re-postmortem was held at Alappuzha Medical ● More on P4 College Hospital. Bodies of three missing persons were recovered from the Kalladi tunnel road project site on Thursday tak, ing the official death toll of Tuesday’s devastating landslip to six. Two persons remain missing. The bodies of surveyor Azharuddin Ansari (Uttar Pradesh), engineer Rahul Sharma (Himachal Pradesh), and excavator operator Muhammad Imran (Bihar) were recovered from the thick mud and debris following intensive search and rescue operations. The teams focused heavily on Zones 1 and 3, utilising CCTV footage, cadaver dogs, and eyewitness accounts to trace the victims trapped near the destroyed masjid, a temporary project office, and beneath heavy iron structures along the Meenakshi River. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan, who visited the site with other CPM leaders, slammed the state government, labelling the failure to enforce safety precautions as “criminal negligence”. Pinarayi pointed out that the District Disaster Management Authority had met on June 20 to explicitly order the immediate relocation of the unsafe mound of excavated soil. “The administration was fully aware of landslide risks at least two weeks prior to the incident, but failed to act,” he asserted. Demanding a high-level probe into the “executive lapse”, Pinarayi staunchly defended the tunnel project, dismissing attempts to question its legally obtained 2024 clearance as a “deliberate diversion to mask administra● More on P4 tive failures”. Mamata’s TMC allowed to use funds from frozen accounts S UBH E N DU M A I T I @ Kolkata The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) to use funds from its frozen bank accounts for day-to-day administrative and legal expenses. The accounts with a private bank, worth around `440 crore, were made debit-frozen on June 19 by Bidhannagar cyber police following a complaint by the rebel faction led by MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha claiming the funds contained “proceeds of crime”. While issuing an interim order, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya noted that prima facie, the complaint appeared omnibus in nature without pinpointing any transaction. “The court is unable to find particular materials which could have been the basis of such abrupt steps,” Justice Bhattacharyya observed. The court appointed retired judge Subrata Talukdar as a special officer to handle the banking transactions of the frozen accounts till September 30. The special officer can release funds required for day-today political activities of the TMC faction aligned to Mamata Banerjee.