SAMBALPUR l Saturday l september 19, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l CITY EDITION trai tightens rules to put end to spam calls and messages TRAI on Friday said that telecom companies will now use AI to detect suspected spam numbers and share this information with each other no blocking of banking, govt-tagged calls penalty for unsolicited, robo-calls Under the amended regulations, if five or more numbers associated with a sender are flagged within 10 days, further investigation and graded action will follow, including KYC re-verification, physical verification, barring of outgoing services and disconnection for repeated violation. The order also said apps like Truecaller cannot block or tag 140, 1600, and 1601 calls ■ ■ Entities using calls initiated by an application or software (A2P calls) will have to pre-declare their use and numbers to their provider, while calls made without such declaration will be treated as unsolicited A termination charge of up to 5 paise per minute has also been introduced for A2P calls, barring authority-authorised calls 15 days time given to consumers to file appeals against any resolution 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 India rejects Pak allegations on Navy warship collision J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi Central UCC unlikely, 21 states to adopt U’khand model PR E E T H A N A IR @ New Delhi THE Centre may do away with a national Uniform Civil Code draft, with the Uttarakhand UCC likely to serve as the template for similar laws in as many as 21 NDAruled states, highly placed law ministry sources said. Though the 22nd Law Commission, headed by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, had been tasked with preparing a nationwide UCC draft—a long-standing electoral promise of the BJP—it could not submit the final document before Justice Awasthi was appointed a member of the Lokpal and its term ended on August 31, 2024. The Uttarakhand UCC law incorporated several recommendations from the nationwide UCC framework prepared by the commission, except for its contentious provision requiring the registration of live-in relationships, a senior official said. In January 2025, Uttarakhand became the first state after Independence to bring such a code into force. Though the assemblies of BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam have passed UCC Bills, they are yet to implement them as Presidential nod is awaited. The development assumes significance after Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement that 21 NDA-ruled states could implement the UCC before the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. The senior official quoted above said a separate national draft may no longer be required, as the Centre has so far chosen to allow NDAruled states to frame their own codes instead of introducing central legislation. Sanchita Dey Pradhan withdraws her nomination from the Oct 6 bypoll race; Congress’ Milan Pradhan | PTI TMC’s Nandigram pick quits, Didi backs Cong, its nominee arrested Having lost the party its sym, bol and now its candidate, BanIN a theatrical turn of events, erjee said at her Kalighat resiTrinamool Congress candidate dence that she would support Sanchita Dey Pradhan, fielded the Congress candidate in by Mamata Banerjee for the Oc- Nandigram. “My party will tober 6 bypoll in Nandigram, never support the BJP,” she turned the tables on her men- said. “Today is a black day in tor by withdrawing her nomi- the history of democracy It is . nation papers on Friday after- unfortunate, unconstitutional, noon minutes after meeting anti-democratic and politically Chief Minister Suvbiased. It is just servendu Adhikari at the ing the interests of a state secretariat here. particular political T h e w i t h d r aw a l party she alleged. ,” came a day before the Today is a black day Faced with no in the history of last date for filing choice, Mamata annomination papers. A democracy, which nounced support for photograph of the is unconstitutional, Congress candidate anti-democratic meeting, which lasted Milan Pradhan. “We and biased. It’s just about an hour, went fulfilling interests are extending our supviral on social media, port to Congress in of a particular though this paper Nandigram. We are political party could not verify its doing this for the Mamata Banerjee authenticity . greater interest of the Sanchita’s movenation,” she said. ments had appeared mysteriThe impact of the Sanchita’s ous since morning, according withdrawal was soon overshadto sources close to her. She did owed by Pradhan’s arrest, who not speak to the media when was picked up from a hotel in she left her residence. She with- Chandipur in Purba Medinipur drew her nomination at the of- district. Police sources said fice of the sub-divisional offic- Pradhan was arrested in an old er in Haldia, Purba Medinipur. murder case, apart from a case Her decision left the Mamata linked to his involvement in the Banerjee faction in dire straits. 2007 Nandigram land acqusiSince the party did not field a tion case. The Congress alleged dummy candidate, it can no vendetta and questioned the longer contest the seat. timing of Pradhan’s arrest. s u bhen d u m a i t i @ Kolkata Bhubaneswar: From granting marriage assistance on the basis of fake certificates to inadequate scrutiny of applications, an audit has exposed glaring loopholes in the disbursement of benefits under the state government’s Nirman Shramik Kalyan Yojana (NSKY). The audit detected nearly 2,000 cases where marriage certificates were registered before the actual date of marriage | P3 Modi, UAE Prez discuss West Asia New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and discussed developments in West Asia as well as ways to further strengthen the IndiaUAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The call also coincided with Modi’s birthday, with the UAE president conveying his greetings, an official release said | P9 The ECI allotted the Didi faction the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘Football Player’ symbol, while the rival group led by Arup Roy got ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ and ‘Envelope’ symbol for the Oct 6 bypoll | P9 Assam TMC withdraws candidate The Assam unit of Trinamool on Friday said the party will not contest the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll to protest the ECI’s decision to freeze the party’s original name and symbol diaspora comes to fore amid chaos Indraneel Das Express @ asian games Nagoya express read Fake marriage papers used to bleed NSKY EC allots new symbol to 2 factions T he union sports ministry Indian . Olympic Association (IOA) officials as well as the Indian diaspora in Nagoya have stepped in to ensure that Indian athletes and their coaches aren’t overly disturbed during the course of the Asian Games. Following various teething issues — including people stranded at the airport as well as spending a considerable amount of time without accommodation and food — the focus has now shifted to ensuring that athletes don’t suffer. During an informal chat with select mediapersons, sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who is here for a few days, revealed their three-pronged strategy When he learnt about the or. deal faced by athletes upon landing in the city, as highlighted by this daily first, the ministry stitched together a mitigation plan. The first layer starts with two persons stationed at the airport who will fast-track their exit. The second would be at the village where three persons will help them with their accommodation. If these seem routine, the sports minister said that with the help of the India embassy, they have reached out to the 2000-strong Indian diaspora. “There are more athletes who will come here and if they are short of rooms, we have identified some 10-15 Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya with IOA President PT Usha in Japan | pti houses in case athletes need to be adjusted or need to freshen up in case there is a delay,” he said. IOA chef de mission, Sahdev Yadav, had said how India were forced to book hotels at the last moment. “Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Organising Committee informed us that more than desired athletes had come and they would not be able to give accommodation,” he said. “We have booked 16 rooms and will book 10 more.” As of Friday things are , ok. As for Nagoya, there couldn’t have been a more disastrous start to the Games. First, a heavy downpour that submerged the city days ahead of the Games. Then, there was the logistical nightmare. Now? A threat of a severe storm with wind blowing at 100km/hr on Monday. However, the organizers have said that all mitigation measures are in place. INDIA on Friday rejected Pakistan’s allegations over the recent collision between an Indian Navy warship and a Pakistani naval vessel in the western Arabian Sea and termed Islamabad’s response “the usual prevarication”. In a press briefing on Friday , the Ministry of External Affairs said Indian Navy warship INS Kolkata was on a routine deployment when Pakistani naval vessel PNS Hunain carried out a “dangerous overtaking manoeuvre” that resulted Action not in the collision. acceptable The MEA’s clarification came after Pakistan’s foreign minis- Randhir Jaiswal, try alleged that the collision spokesperson of took place in its exclusive eco- MEA, said the nomic zone after a “highly pro- “Pakistani Naval vocative and unacceptable ac- ship Hunain tion” by the Indian vessel. “We conducted have seen Pakistan’s response itself in an to the protest we had lodged. It unacceptable and is the usual prevarication that unprofessional we expected. We reject the alle- manner at sea gations and insinuations con- that resulted in a tained therein,” MEA spokes- collision.” person Randhir Jaiswal said. India had on Wednesday summoned Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires Saad Warraich and lodged a diplomatic protest. Later, the Pak foreign ministry summoned Indian charge d’affaires Satyanjal Pandey. The incident did not cause any major damage to INS Kolkata, which remains at sea. Majhi unveils Odisha Silicon Valley plan, 870 acre hub at Naraj E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i ce @ Bhubaneswar Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday announced plans for developing an Odisha Silicon Valley at Naraj near Cuttack to host major semiconductor, electronics and IT projects in the state. Majhi made the announcement at Semicon India-2026 in New Delhi, where the state also received investment proposals worth around `23,600 crore with the potential to generate 6,100 jobs. The chief minister said the project will be developed over 870 acres of land at Naraj. “Odisha is steadily building the foundation to become Eastern India’s Silicon Valley The site . is strategically placed. It has seamless connectivity to the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar urban corridor, multimodal access to the ports of Paradip and Dhamra and links to key national highways. This makes it a potential hub for the semiconductor supply chain, logistics and allied industries,” he said. Majhi held a series of meetings with global and domestic semiconductor and technolo- CM Mohan Majhi inaugurating the Odisha Pavilion at Semicon India 2026 in New Delhi. Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and state IT minister Mukesh Mahaling are present gy firms, industry bodies and inter national delegations. They included delegations from Japan, Sweden and Taiwan and companies such as Lam Research, Applied Materials, SiCSem, 3D Glass Solutions, Cyient, Linde and HORIBA India. The state government also signed a letter of intent with QuadQuantum for a facility to produce silicon carbide (SiC) substrate wafers. Speaking at the event, the chief minister said that Odisha’s semiconductor journey is moving rapidly from intent to implementation. Continued on P5