Retail inflation rises to 5.54% in September Retail inflation rose sharply to 5.54 per cent in September on the back of high onion and other food prices, remaining just within the RBI’s tolerance band, government data released on Monday showed. The consumer price index based headline inflation was 4.83 per cent in August. Food inflation rose to 7.74 per cent in September from 5.97 per cent in August | P10 tirupati l tuesday l october 13, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l anantapur 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 INDIA bloc marches to SC, files plea Naidu lays stone for `3,222-cr Rahul says only one protest, assures Oppn support to all committed to protect Constitution LoP Rahul Gandhi’s writ petition in the SC challenges the legality of the SIR, alleging large-scale deletion of genuine voters. It seeks a direction to ECI to place on record the full file recording decision to commence SIR | P7 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and others during the Opposition INDIA bloc’s march to the Supreme Court in New Delhi on Monday | Sayantan Ghosh E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Opposition leaders, party workers and members of the public took to the streets of central Delhi on Monday as the INDIA bloc intensified its campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging electoral irregularities, and demanding an end to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The ‘Chalo Delhi — March for Democracy,’ was later followed by the filing of a joint petition in the Supreme Court seeking judicial intervention over the allegations. Led by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the march began near the Con- naught Place–Barakhamba Road junction and moved towards the SC. Opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule and CPI general secretary D Raja, joined the mobilisation. Police stopped the march after a brief stretch, with security tightened across central Delhi. The petition challenges alleged irregularities in the electoral roll revision process. The INDIA bloc has also demanded Kumar’s resignation, the suspension of the SIR exercise, a return to ballot papers and electoral reforms. Addressing a reporters ahead of the march, Gandhi said the opposition’s campaign was a collective effort to defend democratic institutions. “There are no parallel pro- Gubernatorial reshuffle Arlekar is TN guv, Om Prakash Mathur moves to Kerala RAJ E SH K U MAR THA K U R @ New Delhi President Droupadi Murmu on Monday appointed governors for six states, naming Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the regular governor of Tamil Nadu, transferring Om Prakash Mathur from Sikkim to Kerala and appointing Sudha Yadav as Governor of Karnataka. Braj Mohan Ram has been appointed Governor of Odisha, Dhal Singh Bisen will be posted in Uttarakhand and Dushyant Gautam in Sikkim. Arlekar, who was serving as Kerala Governor, has been in charge of Tamil Nadu following R N Ravi’s transfer as Governor of West Bengal in March. R Vishwanath Arlekar Mathur, a BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, sucEx minister, ceeds Arlekar in Kerala. He assumed Speaker office as Governor of Sikkim in July A former Speaker 2024. Mathur has held several organisaand minister of Goa tional positions in the BJP including as , Assembly, Arlekar national vice-president and general sechas also served as retary and served two terms in the Ra, Governor of jya Sabha from 2008 to 2022. He was also Himachal Pradesh associated with the party’s election and Bihar. During management in several crucial states. his tenure as Goa Ram, a former Lok Sabha MP from Speaker, the House Jharkhand’s Palamu, succeeds Hari became the first Babu Kambhampati in Odisha. legislature in the Sudha Yadav, a former BJP MP from country to adopt a Mahendragarh, Haryana, and member paperless system of the National Commission for Backward Classes, succeeds Thaawar Chand Gehlot as Karnataka Governor. She entered politics after the death of her husband, a deputy commandant in BSF, in the Kargil war when Narendra Modi, then BJP’s Haryana incharge, proposed her candidature from Mahendragarh. CJI Surya Kant said SC had neither approved nor disapproved the revised Form 6. The SC said ECI cannot claim judicial endorsement | P7 tests, there is one protest,” he said, adding that anyone committed to protecting the Constitution would have the Opposition’s support. Directly addressing the CEC, he said, “Resign, turn approver; you have made a mistake but you are not the mind behind the mistake.” He said the campaign would continue until the Election Commission’s leadership changed, the Constitution was upheld and the electoral system was overhauled. On X, Gandhi said the INDIA bloc had written to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who declined to meet the leaders but had said they could approach the court through a petition. Gandhi urged people across political affiliations to join the campaign, adding that the agitation would continue beyond the march. Jantar Mantar denotified as designated protest venue E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ New Delhi The Delhi Police on Monday de-notified Jantar Mantar as a protest venue and named Ramlila Maidan, Burari Ground and CBD Ground as the new designated sites for holding protests and demonstrations in the national capital. According to the order, issued by Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar, the Union home ministry had constituted a committee to examine alternative proper venues for citizens’ right for organising protest and demonstrations in place of the existing “designated site”. “Based on the committee’s recommendations, Jantar Mantar as a protest venue has been de-notified. Three new venues viz Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground, East Delhi have been designated as new venues for organising protest/demonstrations,” the order stated. Criticising the decision, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said, “It is a definite sign of the extreme panic that has gripped the PM-HM duo.” Cockroach Janta Party’s Saurav Das called the decision an “assault” on the fundamental right to protest. Four burnt alive as electric car catches fire in NTR district E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Four persons were burnt alive and another suffered critical injuries after an electric car crashed into a roadside railing and caught fire on the Vijayawada West Bypass near Nunna in NTR district on Monday . The vehicle was completely gutted in the accident, leaving four occupants dead at the scene. The injured person was shifted to a nearby hospital, where the condition was stated to be critical. The deceased were identified as Kommareddy Ramdev (39) and his mother, Kommareddy Aruna, both residents of Nunna near Vijayawada; Tiguru Vijaya of Namburu in Guntur district; and a child. The identity of the injured person is yet to be ascertained. According to Kothapet police, the victims were returning after attending a function at Namburu when the accident occurred. The electric car reportedly rammed into the roadside railing, following which flames rapidly engulfed the vehicle. Locals alerted the police and fire services, whose personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. The charred bodies were recovered from the vehicle. Relatives who reached the accident site broke down on seeing the tragedy . Police registered a case and launched an investigation into the circumstances leading to the acP4 cident.  farm distress Kharif holds promise, but costs double Y B r a h m a j i @ Vijayawada Defying El Niño impact, water shortages and adverse weather conditions, Andhra Pradesh has wrapped up the Kharif sowing season on a promising note, with farmers covering 28.68 lakh hectares. Paddy sowing reached 14.54 lakh hectares, while pulses surpassed their season-normal acreage by a wide margin. However, behind the encouraging sowing figures lies a growing financial burden, with many farmers reporting that cultivation costs have doubled after repeated sowing, scarce irrigation water and rising expenditure on fertilisers and motor pumps. Sofar, the total cropped area stood at 28.68 lakh hectares against the full-season normal of 30.84 lakh hectares, achieving around 93% of the target. The performance comes despite a challenging monsoon, with rainfall remaining substantially below normal across most districts. Paddy, the principal crop, covered 14.54 lakh hectares against the seasonal normal of 15.14 lakh hectares, reaching around 96% of the target. The acreage remained close to the full-season normal, helping sustain foodgrain cultivation despite uneven rainfall and concerns over irrigation supplies. The State received 392.6 mm of rainfall against the normal 637.6 mm P4 so far, a deficit of 38.4%.  Tirumala-Tirupati makeover E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Tirumala/Tirupati In a massive developmental push aimed at transforming the Tirumala-Tirupati region into a world-class spiritual and model city Chief Minister , N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday virtually laid the foundation stone for projects worth `3,222 crore within the Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA) and TTD limits from the Secretariat in Amaravati. The virtual ceremony was attended by TTD Chairman BR Naidu, Executive Officer M Ravichandra, TTD Board members, local legislators, the Tirupati District Collector, and TUDA officials. Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Naidu emphasised that the grand scale of infrastructure must mirror the sacredness of the region, He set a strict two-year completion deadline for the megaprojects, the Chief Minister cautioned executing authorities to assign contracts committed organisations. To ease pilgrim congestion on Tirumala and expand world-class facilities in lower Tirupati, the State government has initiated a comprehensive Integrated Pilgrim Township near the Alipiri SV Zoo Park road with an outlay of `2,750 crore. Designed to provide a seamless spiritual and modern experience, the multi-faceted project integrates accommo- CM N Chandrababu Naidu virtually lays the foundation stone for development works worth `3,222 crore in Tirumala-Tirupati region from Amaravati | EXPRESS 2,700 rooms in 4 blocks with `1,332 cr at Alipiri The core infrastructure and welfare components launched under the mega developmental package include the construction of 2,700 rooms across four 10-storey blocks at Alipiri on Tirumala foothill with an outlay of `1,332 crore dation, dining, parking, transport, digital navigation, and emergency medical care into a single centralised hub. The core infrastructure and welfare components launched under the mega developmental package include the construction of 2,700 rooms across four 10-storey blocks at Alipiri with an outlay of `1,332 crore, providing daily lodging for up to 15,000 pilgrims, alongside a dedicated Annaprasada centre worth `160 crore engineered to serve meals to 6,000 devotees simultaneously . Additionally, the projects feature a multi-level parking complex worth `311 crore capable of accommodating 4,500 ve h i c l e s, a n i n t e g r a t e d transport terminal with 30 bus bays costing `90 crore, and nine master plan roads spanning 20 km across Tirupati at a cost of `242 crore — with TUDA executing 16.50 km for `127 crore and TTD executing 3.60 km for `115 crore — including three dedicated access roads to the Tiruchanur Padmavati Ammavari Temple to strengthen connectivity between National Highways 140 P4 and 71.