New US Visa rules: Firms to pay a bomb for extending L-1s, H-1Bs Large employers now have to pay a fee of $4,000 for H-1B and $4,500 for L-1 applications for extension of visas of their employees. Earlier, these fees were applicable only for initial H-1B and L-1 petitions or if the applicants changed jobs. The 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee, applicable to employers with 50 or more employees in the US if more than 50 per cent are in H-1B or L-1 nonimmigrant status, takes effect from September 9, as per the Department of Homeland Security bengaluru l tuesday l august 11, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION 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 Metro ridership lower than projected: CAG E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Bengaluru Bengaluru’s Metro network has fallen well short of the ridership levels projected in the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited’s (BMRCL) detailed project reports. Also, the revenue targets with actual farebox earnings reaching just 22.72% of projections, while land acquisition costs soared by Rs 6,603 crore, as per a performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The findings are part of the Batons, tear gas mark march of Ranchi students AT LEAST four students and one policemen were injured during a clash near the Jharkhand Assembly on Monday, when police used water cannons, tear gas and batons to stop students protesting against alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations, officials said. The clash took place after the protesters breached multiple barricades near the Vidhan Sabha. This is for the first time in the history of Jharkhand that protesting students reached so close to the state assembly . Though the administration had erected multiple barricades and deployed a large police contingent to stop the protesters from reaching the Assembly, the students waded through the barriers. They dismantled seven to eight barricades near Jagannath Temple before resuming their march. Ranchi Rural SP Gaurav Goswami said police had to use batons after some protesters at- tempted to reach the final barricading, where prohibitory orders under Section 163 were already in force. The students are adamant on their demands of cancellation of the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) (Preliminary) Group 1 examination and a CBI inquiry into the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (JSSC CGL) examination. Student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who has been on a hunger strike for nine days, reached the protest site in an ambulance and participated in the march on a stretcher. “The reverse of the word ‘yuva’ (youth) is ‘vayu’ (air), and no one can stop the air,” Mahto said. “The government is trying to suppress our voice by using water cannons and tear gas shells. This is reprehensible,” Mahto said. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the use of force against students protesting in Jharkhand and called on the state government, of which 2021 was between 6,429 and 8,852 passengers, significantly below the 15,000-passenger benchmark prescribed for proposing Heavy Metro on a continuous stretch of at least 5 km. BMRCL had not achieved, even by 2023, the ridership and PHPDT levels originally projected for 2007. The CAG noted that no adequate study had Parliament deadlock Shah ready to debate students’ stir; Cong adds temple theft to demand Police use water cannons on agitators, CM appeals to resolve issue with dialogue M ukesh ran j an @ Ranchi “Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Implementation of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Bangalore Metro Rail Project by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited”, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Report No. 7 of 2026 (Performance Audit – Commercial), which was tabled in Parliament on Monday . The audit found that actual passenger demand remained substantially below the projections used to justify the investment in the heavy rail system. For Phase 1, peak-hour peakdirection traffic (PHPDT) in Student leader Devendra Nath Mahto (above) during the march towards the Jharkhand assembly; and police personnel deploy water cannons (top) to disperse student protesters | PTI Deepti Gaur Mukerjee new higher edu secy Senior bureaucrat Deepti Gaur Mukerjee was on Monday appointed the new Higher Education Secretary. She succeeds Vineet Joshi, who was appointed last month as the Secretary in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj | P9 Congress is a part, to hear the protesters out and resolve their issues immediately . Meanwhile, the state CID on Monday arrested former JPSC Chairman L Khiangte in connection with alleged irregularities in 14th Combined Civil Services Examination. Chief Minister Hemant Soren in a late night post on X said, “I assure you (protesters) that action will be taken on your demands with utmost seriousness and sensitivity... let us resolve this issue together through dialogue.” P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi THE Parliament stand-off continued on Monday even after the government offered a debate and Home Minister Amit Shah’s reply on the student protests and police action, with the Congress insisting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi reply to a discussion on the donation theft at the Ayodhya Ram temple. While Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi demanded that Shah disclose who authorised the use of pellet guns against the protesters, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju hit back saying Shah will give a proper reply but the Opposition should not try to run away from the discussion by disrupting House proceedings. Speaking to reporters after the Business Advisory Committee meeting, Rijiju said the government is ready for a full-fledged discussion in the Lok Sabha on the student protests and police action across the country and Shah will reply to the debate, provided the Opposition promises to listen peacefully . Congress is shifting goalposts: Nadda Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s charges, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said the Congress is repeatedly shifting goalposts to disrupt Parliament. He said the Opposition party’s demand moved from a debate on NEET paper leak, a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the student protests, and then to the Ram temple trust issue Shah has not been seen in the House in the ongoing session even though he has been regularly coming to Parliament House complex. On a question whether the issue of alleged theft of donation will also be discussed, he said the Uttar Pradesh government’s probe through a special investigation team and several other steps are going on. Responding to the government’s offer that Shah will speak in Parliament, Rahul said the question was never about whether Shah can give a speech in Parliament on ‘general issues’. “The question was that Home Minister Shah has to make it clear who authorised the shooting of our children in Delhi. He is the home minister; pellet guns were fired,” Rahul said, asking Shah to come clean on whether he gave the firing orders or not. Talking to the media alongside party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul said if Shah ordered it, he is culpable; if he didn’t know, he is incompetent, adding Shah “should go” either way . Rahul added that Modi must apologise for the police action during the protests. The third issue, he said, is the Ayodhya donation theft. Kharge said the Opposition wanted a discussion on these issues but the government did not say anything for 15 days, which shows it did not want a discussion. Govt willing to consider Set up two spl courts for Manipur violence: SC JPC route for FCRA bill U D AYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Facing mounting opposition from political parties, church leaders and civil society organisations, the government may consider referring the contentious Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, to a Joint Parliamentary Committee for detailed scrutiny before taking it up in Parliament, sources said. Neither the FCRA Bill nor the proposed Delimitation Bill figured in Monday’s Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting despite speculation that the government could take up the legislation in the remaining days of the Monsoon Session. This newspaper reported on Saturday that the government had not listed the two bills for the BAC meeting on Monday . Opposition sources told this paper that the government has proposed referring the bill to a JPC but they will insist that the le gislation be withdrawn altogether. On Saturday NCP (SP) work, ing president Supriya Sule said foreign funding can’t always be viewed with suspicion, and urged the Centre to withdraw DMK calls for withdrawal of the bill The bill has drawn strong pushback from DMK, whose support is crucial for the government for the Delimitation Bill. A delegation led by DMK MP P Wilson met Home Minister Amit Shah and urged him to withdraw the bill the bill or refer it to a JPC. She said her party opposes it in its present form. A delegation of eight NCP (SP) MPs met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, but it was not clear whether they raised the FCRA issue. The FCRA Amendment Bill, 2026, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 25 this year; however, it was put on hold after strong pushback from various stakeholders. On Sunday, Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma and leading Christian organisations urged the Centre to refer the bill to a JPC. The Congress and other opposition parties said they will strongly oppose the bill if the government takes it up in Parliament. THE Supreme Court on Monday asked authorities concerned to consider setting up two trial courts to exclusively deal with cases arising out of the 2023 Manipur violence. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said that one court will be for CBI cases, while another will try cases lodged by NIA. “Our concern is whether these courts are dealing exclusively with CBI and NIA cases arising out of the Manipur violence, or whether they are also dealing with other cases,” the bench said. It directed the state and Central security agencies to ensure that probe agencies carry out their investigations without interruption. “With respect to law and order, the CBI and NIA shall be facilitated so that they are able to carry out investigation uninterruptedly said ,” CJI Surya Kant. Before this order, cases of the 2023 Manipur violence were being heard in the SC, the HC bench at Gauhati Bengaluru’s roads in shambles, say Mazumdar-Shaw, Nirupama Rao B ansy K a l a p pa @Bengaluru Bengaluru’s infrastructure came under fresh scrutiny after two prominent city residents publicly called out the poor condition of key roads, reigniting the debate over maintenance of public amenities in the city . Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday took to social media to flag the deteriorating industrial corridor that stretches 7 km and is riddled with roughly 350 potholes and lacks basic footpaths. She said the stretch is a lifeline for over 1,000 industries, and blamed the Public Works Department for years of neglect. Tagging Industries Minister MB Patil in her post, she called for urgent attention and action. Separately, in a recent FaceBook post, former foreign secretary Nirupama Menon Rao, a resident of Brunton Cross Road, also highlighted the dismal state of roads in her neighbourhood. She compared the present state of the city to 1966, the year she moved in here, suggesting that the infrastructure today is reminiscent of, or even worse than, that era. The two posts amplified long standing public frustration over Bengaluru’s crumbling road infrastructure. Nirupama Rao described the road near her house as a busy two-way thoroughfare that is riddled with broken pavements, open drains and excavated parts left for long periods.  P2 and local courts in the state. The bench took note of Centre’s submission that the CBI filed final reports in 27 of 31 Manipur violence cases, while NIA filed chargesheets in 15 of 30 cases. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the issue after a video of two women being paraded without clothes amid the violence went viral. been undertaken to determine how ridership could be improved. The ridership shortfall translated into a major revenue gap. Between 2016-17 and 2022-23, BMRCL earned Rs 1,758.13 crore in farebox revenue against a projected Rs 7,736.70 crore, achieving just 22.72% of the target. Non-fare revenue also fell short. Against DPR projections that envisaged non-fare income of at least 10% of farebox revenue, actual realisation ranged from 1.39% to 8.62% of projected farebox revenue.  P2 Man murders 2 daughters, suspecting wife’s fidelity E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Bengaluru A 45-year-old man, separated from his wife, allegedly killed his two daughters and later tried to end his life at a luxury hotel, Taj Bangalore, near the Kempegowda International Airport on Monday . The man suspected his wife’s fidelity and that led him to murder his daughters as he feared that they would grow up under the negative influence of his wife once they went into her custody . The man, SC Imran, is a private firm employee and a resident of Nagawara Main Road, while his murdered daughters were identified as Shaik Zehara (8) and Shaik Zoya (10). Imran, who had cut himself in the neck in a suicide attempt, is being treated at a private hospital and is said to be out of danger. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Mithun Kumar, who visited the spot, told reporters that Imran had checked into the hotel with his two daughters around 5.30 pm on Sunday . Around 4 pm on Monday the , housekeeping staff knocked on the door of their hotel room. As there was no response, they alerted the hotel security staff, who entered the room and found the two girls dead on the bed and Imran in a pool of blood. As Imran was alive, the hotel staff rushed him to a nearby hospital and alerted the police, the DCP said. Imran allegedly strangled his two daughters and later slit his throat with a knife. The bodies of the two girls have been sent for postmortem, the police said.  CONTINUED ON: P5 Pralhad Joshi’s estranged bro faces sexual harassment FIR E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Dharwad An FIR has been registered in Dharwad against Gopal Joshi, the estranged brother of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, following allegations of sexual and mental harassment by a woman. The woman, Rama Kulkarni, a resident of Kalyananagar, filed the complaint at the Vidyagiri police station on Thursday . Gopal Joshi too registered a counter-complaint against the woman, stating that her com- plaint was an attempt to extort money from him. He registered the complaint at the Keshwapur police station in Hubballi. The police are investigating the case as it involves allegations of sexual harassment. Rama claimed that she and her family face a threat from Gopal Joshi and alleged that the harassment has been going on for the last four years. The FIR claims that Gopal Joshi visited Rama’s flat at Door Number 10 at Poorna Apartment complex in Malamaddi and sexually assaulted her on May 29, 2022.  P7