BHUBANESWAR l friday l september 18, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION Centre tells SC it is ready to cut NEET-SS qualifying percentile The Centre’s plan to lower qualifying percentile for Super Speciality seats from 50% to 30% is due to 1,857 vacant seats after counselling 6,000 candidates will become eligible plea against diversion of tN’s seats In a note filed before the Supreme Court on Thursday, the Centre said many seats remain vacant in highly specialised medical and surgical disciplines. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, told the court that the lower percentile would make roughly 6,000 additional candidates eligible — nearly thrice the vacant seats ■ ■ Centre also cited the Supreme Court’s earlier orders on Tamil Nadu, saying 40 vacant in-service seats in the state would be reverted to the state government to let it conduct its stray vacancy round The govt’s submission was in response to a plea against “diversion” of 152 vacant SS seats — reserved for TN doctors — to all-India quota 2 weeks in which medical counselling committee has to fill vacant seats 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 Russia curbs bill could impact ties, India warns US in strong pushback Energy security of 1.4B citizens top priority while protecting trade, economic interests: MEA J ayan t h J acob and Pu s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi E x p r e s s Re a d Seva Sankalp Abhiyan launched with mega blood donation camp Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday launched the month-long ‘Seva Sankalp Abhiyan’ with a statelevel mega blood donation camp here and called upon the youth to devote time to social service and nation-building | P3 Juvenile among 4 held for gang-rape of two girls in Birmitrapur Rourkela: Birmitrapur police in Sundargarh district on Thursday arrested four youths including a juvenile on charges of gangraping two minor girls during the Ganesh Puja festival. The accused are Alex Minz (19), Manjit Minz (19), Bandhana Xalxo (21), all ITI pass-outs, and a 17-year-old who used to work as a migrant worker in Surat, Gujarat | P4 India on Thursday pushed back against the latest US sanctions legislation targeting buyers of Russian energy warning , that the measures could have implications for both bilateral ties and global energy markets. New Delhi said the immediate priority was to ensure energy security for its 1.4 billion citizens while protecting trade and economic interests. It further said that India would continue to pursue this objective through “diversified sourcing and on the basis of evolving market dynamics”. Responding to the passage of the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act in the US Congress, the External Affairs Ministry said India was monitoring the developments and had already raised its concerns with Washington at senior levels. The statement indicated that the issue has been discussed extensively between Indian and US officials in recent months. “Its potential implications for not just the bilateral relation- Monitoring the situation, says commerce ministry Officials from the Ministry of Commerce said that they are currently monitoring the situation, adding necessary steps will be taken accordingly. Currently, both the countries are involved in negotiations to conclude a Bilateral Trade Agreement ship but also the international energy market have been very clearly articulated by the Indian side,” the MEA said. The ministry also made clear that New Delhi was prepared to respond to any economic consequences arising from the new US measures. “The Indian side has also made clear its determination to take all necessary measures to protect its trade and economic interests,” it said, adding that the government would work with Indian trade and industry bodies to address the implications. Earlier in the day, the US House of Representatives passed a sweeping sanctions package aimed at increasing economic pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine. The legislation, which was approved by the House by a 262159 vote after clearing the Senate 86-11, has been sent to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it. Among other provisions, the legislation gives the US president authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue significant purchases of Russian oil and gas. China and India, two major buyers of Russian energy could , potentially face such measures. India is the world’s third-largest oil importer and has significantly increased its purchases of Russian crude in recent years, making the issue particularly important for its energy policy and trade relations with Washington. However, opposition within the US Congress also remains. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described the bill as “deeply flawed”, arguing that its tariff provisions could give the White House broad authority over US import taxes. It’s Tata vs Tata war over Chandra’s reappointment as executive chairman B E N N K O C H U V E E D A N @ Mumbai THE boardroom war at Tata Sons deepened on Thursday with four directors of the group holding company voting to re-appoint N Chandrasekaran as executive chairman for five more years and clearing the proposal to list the company as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. Both proposals were opposed by Noel N Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts, the largest shareholder of Tata sons with 66% stake. Noel termed the two decisions illegal. Four Tata Sons board members—Venu Srinivasan, Harish Manwani, Saurabh Agrawal, and Anita George—approved the reappointment, while Noel Tata voted against it. SP group’s Noel Tata said Chandrasekaran’s recent liquidity plan decision to not seek a third term as Tata Noel Tata tabled Sons chairman had already been accepted and that the reappointment was a “legal a proposal to provide `25,000 nullity”. On listing of Tata Sons, he said the trusts crore of liquidity to the debt-laden and the board had unanimously decided Shapoorji Pallonji against it. He alleged he was kept in the dark Group by buying about Tata Sons’ communication with RBI on this, adding that Tata Trusts would file out a portion of its holding in the an RTI application to obtain the full details. Tata Group’s Earlier, the Tata Sons board said a majorholding company, ity of its members voted to give another Tata Sons term to Chandrasekaran, who had on August 12 said he was not seeking a third term beyond February 2027, when his current term ends. The board said Chandrasekaran accepted the reappointment proposal after the board requested him to continue. Soon after the board meeting on Thursday Noel issued a de, CONTINUED ON P5 tailed statement to clarify his position. Divine renewal Priests perform the Maha Kumbabishekam at the golden vimanam of the main sanctum of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai on Thursday, marking the temple’s consecration after a 17-year gap | Express UPI fleecing won’t be allowed: Govt P U S H PITA D E Y @ New Delhi AMID concerns that consumers will end up bearing the cost of the newly introduced Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions, finance ministry officials said a monitoring mechanism will be put in place to ensure that merchants do not pass on the MDR burden to customers. MDR on UPI payments will be effective from October 15. In a bid to allay the concerns, officials from the Department of Financial Services clarified on Thursday that monitoring will be done on a regular basis to ensure the MDR is not passed on to the end-consumers. The officials clarified that if any challenges arise regarding GST on the MDR, it will be eventually taken up by the GST Council. MDR on UPI transac- tions will attract a GST of 18% as it is considered as a service. The officials claimed there will be no additional revenue for the government from the GST on MDR as businesses can set it off via input tax credit. However, only regular GST assessees can use this provision. Officials said the introduction of MDR will help small businesses that don’t have a credit history and thus no CIBIL score. “With more formalisation of UPI, we are trying to make an alternative of credit history they said. ,” Events begin amid chaos With just one day to go for the Games, excitement is ramping up. A few issues have dominated the buildup even as events have already started. A look... Accommodation issues continue Cricket takes centrestage For the first time, a senior Indian team will play Japan in an international cricket match on Friday. The Harmanpreet Kaurled team will take on Japan in the quarterfinal match. On Thursday, Bangladesh women advanced based on ranking after tie against China was abandoned while Pakistan beat Thailand As this daily reported, accommodation has been chaotic for athletes. It continued on Thursday with rooms meant for two being shared by three at the Costa Serena cruise ship. With no Games Village for this event, around 17,000 athletes and officials are being accommodated at various locations, including the cruise ship, shipping-container style wooden huts at the dock area & hotels across Aichi prefecture Doubles pair loses in Teqball Declan Gonsalves and Anas Baig were out of medal contention in the men’s doubles Teqball event on Thursday. The Indians first lost 10-12, 8-12 against Vietnam’s Truong Giang Ba and Anh Khoa Le before going down 4-12, 7-12 against South Korea’s Junsuk Lee and Taebeen Lee | P11 2.4K ‘dead’ workers use Aadhaar to get PDS benefits in state E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i ce @ Bhubaneswar An audit report has found that over 2,400 nirman shramiks (NS) or building and construction workers collected their quota of subsidised foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) despite being dead. And how! The workers, covered under the state government’s Nirman Shramik scheme, received their ration under the National Food Security Act (NFSA)/ State Food Security Scheme (SFSS) despite having been declared dead and their kin being disbursed death compensation. Still, these dead workers managed to ‘authenticate’ that they were alive using Aadhaar authentication measures and collected their ration quota, reveals the audit report seen by The New Indian Express. The audit analysed data provided by the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare department and found that in 2,487 cases, dead beneficiaries had received ration through authentication. The audit cited 753 cases in which kin or nominees of deceased nirman shramiks had been disbursed `15.10 crore towards death compensation. However, the same beneficiaries continued to collect their PDS quota of foodgrains by providing at least three different Aadhaar authentications. “This implies that the beneficiary was alive and authenticating Aadhaar physically to avail ration, indicating fraudulent disbursement of death benefits,” the report said. It also suggested that medical officers issued death certificates for beneficiaries who were alive (and kicking). Under Nir man Shramik scheme, families of deceased construction workers registered with the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board are entitled to funeral assistance of `5,000. The death benefit stands at `1 lakh and `2 lakh for natural and accidental deaths, respectively . The audit found in hundreds of cases, death benefits were disbursed to different bank accounts. Bank account details of nominees provided during registration are also updated during submission of death benefit applications. However, the audit claimed that in at least 15,781 cases, involving a whopping `1,314.39 crore, benefits were credited to other bank accounts whose details and supporting documents were not available in the database. Under the Nirman Shramik scheme of the state government, building and construction workers between 18 and 60 years of age who have completed at least 90 days of work in the preceding 12 months are entitled to benefits such as scholarships for children, assistance for marriage, maternity benefits, funeral expenses and death compensation. The scheme is guided by the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. The massive embezzlement of death benefits had cropped up in 2024 in Rayagada, following which the then district labour officer Jasmine Subhadarshini Sahoo was suspended. Unnatural deaths report in Manipur Youth killed, his body set ablaze relief camps shocking, says SC bench in girlfriend’s house in Deogarh S U C H ITR A K A LYA N M O H A N TY @ New Delhi EXPRESSING shock and displeasure over the 25 alleged unnatural deaths in relief camps — set up for the victims and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the 2023 Manipur violence cases — the Supreme Court on Thursday directed Manipur Chief Secretary to file a status report. “We direct the Chief Secretary to submit report about all the 25 unnatural deaths reported in the newspapers...along with post-mortem report iden- Special report The order came after the bench perused reports of the Justice Mittal committee and an IAS officer about unnatural deaths in the relief camps in Manipur housing internally displaced persons from the 2023 Manipur riots tifying the cause and what preventive steps have been taken in (camps for IDPs),” said a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana. The court took note of a report by an IAS officer from Manipur stating that 25 deaths had occurred in relief camps, but post-mortems were conducted in only 20 cases. “The state is also obliged to explain as to why only `20,000`30,000 as compensation was paid to internally displaced persons who met with unnatural deaths while sheltered in relief camps,” the bench said. The bench also directed the Manipur State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) to file a separate status report on the issue of unnatural deaths. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i ce @ Deogarh A 28-year-old youth was allegedly killed and his body set ablaze by his girlfriend’s family members inside their house in Reamal under Deogarh district on Wednesday night. The deceased was identified as Silu Ray of Babarakot village. An engineering graduate, Silu reportedly worked in Mumbai. According to Silu’s family members, the 28-year-old was in relationship with a woman of the village for a long time. However, the woman’s family Silu had come to his village on Wednesday. In the night, he reportedly went to his girlfriend’s house to meet her. Finding him there, the woman’s family members attacked and killed him Police sources members were opposed to the relationship and on several occasions, disputes had reportedly occurred between him and her kin. Police sources said, Silu had come to his village on Wednesday. Later in the night, he reportedly went to his girlfriend’s house to meet her. The victim’s family alleged that finding Silu at their home, the woman’s family members allegedly attacked and killed him. After his death, they allegedly poured petrol on his body and set it on fire, they added. On receiving information about the incident, Reamal police reached the spot and launched an investigation. The woman and two members of her family have been detained for questioning. On Thursday, a scientific team visited the crime scene for examination. The body was sent to Deogarh district head- quarters hospital for postmortem. Additional SP of Deogarh Dhiraj Chapdar also visited the spot for investigation. On the day, Silu’s family members filed a complaint in Reamal police station. IIC Binay Kerketta said the exact reason behind the incident is yet to be established. Police are yet to establish if the youth was killed over his relationship with the woman or due to some other reason, he added. Investigation is underway to ascertain the actual motive behind the murder and involvement of others in the crime.