vijayawada l Thursday l July 30, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 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 | P13 ■ 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 XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ New Delhi Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi speaking in the House on Wednesday | PTI p r ee 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 express read ‘VTZ’ takes flight to B’puram from Aug 17 Visakhapatnam: The curtains will come down on scheduled commercial flight operations at Visakhapatnam International Airport on August 17. The IATA airport code ‘VTZ’ will stand transferred to the Bhogapuram airport from August 17 | P3 AP to strengthen ties with Taiwan Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu held discussions with a high-level delegation of leading Taiwanese firms and industry representatives to strengthen cooperation in investment, advanced manufacturing, electronics and semiconductor sectors | P4 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 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 name 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. SC nixes ’21 Office Memorandum for retrospective green approval SUCHITRA K ALYA N MOHA N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court, in a unanimous verdict on Wednesday, quashed a 2021 Office Memorandum (OM) that allowed the Centre to grant retrospective environmental clearances (ECs) to projects that had commenced without the green nod. Starting any project without prior environmental clearance is against the rules, a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi noted. “Even if the government wishes to frame a rule allowing clearance to be granted later, it Landmark decision 2021 Office Memorandum (OM) allowed Centre to grant retrospective green clearances Court said govt can grant post-facto approval through valid statutory notifications alone and not by issuing an OM Verdict won’t affect projects already approved must issue a formal notification under the law; this cannot be done merely through an office memorandum,” the bench noted. It gave some leeway to the government and held that the judgment will apply prospectively and the projects granted green nod earlier will remain undisturbed. “The 2021 OM was deemed violative of Article 14 (Right to equality) and Article 21 (Right to life) of the Constitution, failing the test of proportionality and reasonableness,” the bench said, adding that the government is restrained from issuing future administrative orders for post-facto ECs. 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 Th e 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 be- Manmohan Singh tween 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. The trial judge had said there was prima facie evidence against Singh, who was coal minister at the time of the scam. Lokesh: Notification for 3,168 posts on Sept 15 Ubbalamadugu Dy CM names newly found plant species S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Minister for HRD and IT Nara Lokesh has directed officials to ensure that job notifications are issued in a foolproof manner to avoid legal or procedural disputes during the recruitment process. Lokesh chaired a meeting of the Ministers’ Committee on Employment Generation at his residence in Undavalli on Wednesday to review the implementation of Job Calendar2026. The Ministers attended the meeting virtually, while senior officials made a PowerPoint presentation on the number of vacancies to be filled across various government departments. The State government plans to fill 10,060 vacancies as part of Job Calendar-2026 in four phases. In the first phase, a notification for recruiting 1,523 faculty members in various universities was issued on May 15. The notification of second phase, which covers 3,168 posts, was originally scheduled for August 15. However, the release was postponed due to technical issues related to implementation of Presidential Order and requests from employee unions. The officials informed that the second phase job notification will now be issued on September 15. The HRD Minister instructed the officials to issue a combined notification for the Deputy Chief Minister (Forests and Environment) Pawan Kalyan on Wednesday named a newly discovered rare plant species in the Eastern Ghats of Tir upati district ‘Croton Ubbalamadugensis’. The newly identified plant species belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family, and has been named after the Ubbalamadugu waterfall region near the Kambakam Hills. The name reflects the ecological significance of the area, which serves as the plant’s natural habitat. The species is distinguished by its fragrant leaves, a feature that impressed Pawan Kalyan much. The plant species was discovered by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests PV Chalapathi Rao and his research team during extensive botanical surveys carried out in the Eastern Ghats. Scientific studies have confirmed that the species possesses unique structural and reproductive characteristics, setting it apart from its closest known relative, Croton aromaticus, P4 said the Deputy CM.  @ Vijayawada notification for 3rd, 4th phases on oct 15 HRD and IT Minister Nara Lokesh instructed officials to issue a combined notification on October 15 for the third and fourth phases of Job Calendar-2026. The third phase will include 2,388 posts, while the fourth phase will cover 2,981 posts. Of the total 2,388 posts in the third phase, 2,225 are earmarked for the Home Department, officials informed the Minister at a review meeting third and fourth phases of Job Calendar on October 15. The third phase includes 2,388 posts, while the fourth phase covers 2,981 posts. “Vacancies should be filled based on the functional requirements of individual departments, in line with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s growth vision,” he said.  P4