HYDERABAD l Thursday l July 30, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE CITY EDITION gulveer secures silver as boxers continue domination Gulveer Singh became the 1st Indian to win a CWG medal in men’s 10,000m while pugilists seal six medals on single day. A look... Gulveer Singh (L) poses with his silver medal late on Tuesday | afp Reigning asian champ puts on clinical show ■ 10 after flight cancellation, bags go missing Gulveer, the national record holder, clocked 27:49.78 seconds to claim silver in men’s 10,000m, finishing behind Australia’s Ky Robinson late on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Narender Berwal joined Ankush Panghal, Sakshi Chaudhary, Arundhati Choudhary, Jaismine Lamboria and Sachin Siwach in the semifinals to confirm six medals in boxing on Wednesday alone | P11 ■ The flight of Indian judokas and coaching staff from New Delhi got cancelled on Tuesday morning, leaving them stranded for more than six hours. They eventually left in the afternoon However, once they landed in Glasgow, some of the judokas could not find their luggage, which comprised their training gear and judogis ten medals have been assured so far in boxing across categories 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 Amidst ruckus, Lok Sabha passes anti-paper leak bill Rahul targets govt over alleged police excesses against student protesters Delhi Police files FIR over abusive posts against PM E X PRE S S NE W S S ER V I C E @ New Delhi Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi speaking in the House on Wednesday | PTI p r e e t h a n a i r @ New Delhi AMID repeated disruptions and heated exchanges, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill, 2026, even as the House descended into chaos after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged Union home minister Amit Shah was responsible for the police action against student protesters. Under the amended law, probe into paper leak cases must be completed within two months. It also raises the punishment for individuals involved in paper leaks to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to `50 lakh. The bill was passed by voice vote after a stormy 10-hour long debate in which the government defended the amendments to the anti-paper leak law with stricter punishment, asserting that the measure was taken as it is “open to learning from experiences”. The proceedings turned acrimonious after Rahul alleged Shah “put pellets into the blood of our students” during the police action on protesters marching to Parliament on July 20 and claimed the home minister was absent from the House because he was “scared”. The remarks invited protests from Treasury benches forcing Speaker Om Birla to intervene. Birla told Rahul to confine his address to the bill. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju termed the remarks “highly objectionable” and demanded an apology. Some of Rahul’s comments were later expunged. Replying to the debate, Union minister Jitendra Singh categorically denied that bullets had been fired at students. “When there were no bullets fired, the question of ordering it does not arise. The authority to order firing rests with the district magistrate, not a minister,” he said, accusing Rahul of making irresponsible allegations without understanding administrative procedures. Rahul also took aim at the RSS, alleging it exercised control over the education system. Hailing the protesters, he said they showed greater courage than their parents in standing up against the government. “These children, brave, imaginative and powerful, stood there and faced everything that was thrown at them.” Defending the government, Jitendra Singh said it acted swiftly after the NEET paper leak controversy and 52 FIRs had been registered since the anti-paper leak law came into force in 2024. He claimed death by suicide linked to paper leak came down in recent years. Call for probe Rahul Gandhi demanded that Home Minister Amit Shah be sacked and called for an SC-monitored probe into police ‘brutalities’ This (students’ protest) was not anger, not violence, not hatred; this was an expression, deep expressions of the youth of this country, of the future generation of this country Rahul Gandhi, LoP, Lok Sabha Dipke: Stop harassing CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke said the government should stop harassing the students who participated in the Jantar Mantar protests SIR will not affect welfare schemes: CEO Man washed away in Hyd A 70-year-old man was swept away after allegedly falling into an open drain near the Vaishali Nagar underpass in Miyapur, Hyderabad, on Tuesday night amid heavy rainfall | P2 e n s @ Hyderabad State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) C Sudharshan Reddy has clarified that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is aimed solely at preparing an accurate and error-free electoral roll and has no connection whatsoever with any welfare schemes implemented by the government. Reviewing the progress of the SIR exercise with district election officers (DEOs) and district collectors through a video conference, Sudharshan Reddy focused on the pace of digitisation of Enumeration Forms (EFs). With only five days left for submission of EFs, he directed all districts to complete 100 per cent digitisation by August 3. He said 76 per cent of the digitisation process had been completed across Telangana, while rural areas had already achieved 90 per cent.  continued on p4 inside 7,437 POLICE POSTS UP FOR GRABS in tg I P4 TRAINEE IPS remanded in custody I P2 DELHI Police has registered a case over the circulation of objectionable and defamatory content targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media. It has also written to social media platform X to remove the objectionable posts made during the Cockroach Janata Party’s (CJP) protest. The case was registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police, which deals with cyber-related offences. The unit comes under the Special Cell of the force. Notices were issued directing to remove or disable access to the accounts as well as URLs, while ensuring that the relevant data, logs and subscriber information are preserved for evidence purposes. The police have mentioned the names of six handles in its notice. The case has been filed under Sections 351(3) (criminal intimidation), 353(2) (circulating false information, rumours, or alarming news-including via electronic media) and 356(2) (whoever defames another person) of the BNS. The police directed the platform to remove or disable access to the flagged accounts as well as URLs immediately, while ensuring that the relevant data, logs and subscriber information are preserved for evidence purposes. The police have also intensified the probe into the Jantar Mantar violence. Dossiers of 216 suspects have been sent to all district police units in Delhi for verification, sources said. A JCB carries people across a flooded road at Venkatadrinagar of Govindayapally in Jagtial district Heavy rain brings down deficit to 19%; 20 cm in Jagtial in 24 hrs K h yat i S h a h @ Hyderabad For the first time during this southwest monsoon, Telangana witnessed widespread heavy rainfall that triggered flood-like conditions across several districts, particularly in the northern parts of the state, under the influence of a deep depression. During the 24 hours up to 8.30 am on Wednesday, Sarangapur in Jagtial district received a massive 20 cm of rainfall, followed by Buggaram, also in Jagtial, at 18.2 cm. Kaddampeddur in Nirmal district recorded 14.5 cm and Kamanpur in Peddapalli district 14.1 cm. The intense rainfall significantly improved the state’s deficit, reducing it from 30% to 19%. On Wednesday, Mulugu district re- corded some of the heaviest rainfall, with several mandals receiving more than 10 cm of rain. Wazeed recorded the highest rainfall in the state at 15.4 cm, followed by Eturunagaram at 15.2 cm. Heavy rains also lashed Jayashankar Bhupalpally which saw over 11 cm rainfall, followed by Peddapalli that saw 10 cm rainfall, inundating low-lying areas, overflowing streams and causing waterlogging that disrupted normal life. A tribal woman, Marsukola Paru Bhai (45), was washed away while crossing an overflowing stream at Ervachintal in Khanapur mandal of Nirmal district. Her body was later retrieved from the stream. In Karimnagar, several cars were submerged in floodwater at Autonagar. continued on p2 SC quashes Centre’s OM granting retrospective green nod to projects e x p r e ss n e ws s e r v i c e @ New Delhi/Hyderabad In a significant unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the Centre’s 2021 Office Memorandum (OM) that created a mechanism for granting retrospective environmental clearances (ECs) to projects that had commenced work without obtaining prior environmental approval. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, however, gave some leeway to the government, holding that the judgment would apply prospectively and that projects granted environmental clearance earlier would remain undisturbed. These include Telangana project such as the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, Seethamma Sagar and the Gouravelli Reservoir. However, the construction of new projects should be taken up only after obtaining the environmental clearances now. It may be noted that the Telangana government is proposing to construct barrages at Tummidihatti and on Krishna in erstwhile Mahbubnagar. “Starting any project without pri- or environmental clearance is against the rules. Even if the government wishes to frame a rule allowing clearance to be granted later, it must issue a formal notification under the law; this cannot be done merely through an office memorandum,” the bench said in its judgment. In 2021, the Centre had issued an OM providing for environmental clearances to be granted to projects that had already commenced work without obtaining prior approval. Quashing the OM, the court held that such a major change in the regulatory framework could only be made through a legal notification and not through an administrative order. The bench reaffirmed that obtaining prior EC is the governing rule under the environmental framework and that projects cannot ordinarily commence operations and seek approval later. It held that the 2021 OM was violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, as it failed the tests of proportionality and reasonableness. “No further applications for ECs under the 2017 notification and 2021 OM will be entertained, and the Central government is restrained from issuing future administrative orders for post-facto ECs,” the bench said. Manmohan finally cleared in coal scam case S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi T he S u p r e m e C o u r t o n Wednesday cleared late former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the coal block allocation case, 11 years after a Delhi special court turned down the CBI’s closure report that gave Singh a clean chit. “We are satisfied that there were no compelling reasons for the learned sessions judge to turn down the closure reports by the CBI and to take cognizance. Consequently, we allow the SLP and set aside the impugned orders... and close the matter on merits,” said a threejudge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. The coal scam refers to the allotment of coal blocks through a screening committee instead of competitive auctions between 2004 and 2009. In March 2015, months after the CBI filed its closure report in the case granting Singh a clean chit, a Delhi special court summoned the former PM as an accused over an alleged irregular allotment of TalabiraII coal block to Hindalco.