dharmapuri l friday l april 26, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Indigo orders 30 wide-body jets to boost its overseas operations India’s largest airline said on Thursday it placed orders for 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft which will allow it to expand its international operations to compete with air india on long-haul routes Wide-body aircraft like the A350-900 typically seat over 300 people and can fly 18,000 km non-stop, making them ideal for overseas operations. IndiGo’s latest order comes at a time when efforts are underway to make India a global aviation hub. With wide-body planes, IndiGo will be directly competing with Air India on long and ultra-long haul routes | P10 ■ 2027 Deal’s size estimated at $9.5 billion ■ Airbus no longer puts out prices of its planes. As per the 2018 list price of the A350-900 jets, the deal should be worth $9.5 billion The A350-900 planes will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine. IndiGo has been facing problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines powering many of its existing Airbus planes when airbus’ deliveries of a350-900 jets to Indigo is due to start 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 sand mining 5 TN collectors grilled by ED for over 10 hrs E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chennai D istrict c o l l e c t o r s o f Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Vellore, Karur, and Ariyalur appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Chennai on Thursday after they were summoned afresh by the central agency to appear for inquiry related to a money laundering case linked to illegal sand mining in Tamil Nadu. The collectors — Pradeep Kumar (Tiruchy), Deepak Jacob (Thanjavur), VR Subbulaxmi (Vellore), M Thangavel (Karur) and J Anne Mary Swarna (Ariyalur) — arrived at the ED office at 11am and were questioned for over 10 hours. The development comes after the Supreme Court reprimanded the collectors for failing to appear before the ED and directed them to personally appear before the agency on April 25. The collectors were summoned by the ED last year after it raided sand quarries at 34 locations across the state. Tamil Nadu government moved the Madras High Court against the ED summons and the court stayed them last November, calling it a fishing expedition by the ED. The ED challenged this order in the Supreme Court, arguing that non-cooperation would impede its investigation. The Supreme Court later suspended the HC order. A report prepared by an ED expert team had flagged excessive and illegal sand mining. Continued on p5 Varun rejects Gandhi vs Gandhi duel BJP leaders tried to persuade him to contest against Priyanka but he turned the proposal down S H A H I D F A R I D I @ New Delhi The BJP’s three-term Member of Parliament, Varun Gandhi, has turned down his party leadership’s request to take on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is likely to be fielded by the Congress from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, Varun was approached by BJP president J P Nadda, Union home minister Amit Shah and a few other senior leaders of the party with the offer in the last couple of weeks. But he refused to accept the offer. Sources said Varun told his party leadership that it would not be right for him to take on his sister. Varun has been upset with the BJP leadership for denying him a ticket from Pilibhit, a constituency he has represented twice in the Lok Sabha. The BJP top leadership is sure that Gandhi siblings Rahul and Priyanka will contest the current Lok Sabha election from Amethi and Rae Bareli, respectively The par. ty leadership feels that Priyanka’s entry into the Lok Sabha with a big victory margin has a Issues notice to party head Nadda; parallel notice to Kharge on charges against Rahul royal reception Candidates champion D Gukesh (centre) arrived in the city in the wee hours of Thursday to a rousing welcome at the Chennai international airport | Ashwin prasath File photo of the Doppler radar at Karaikal cyclone centre | Express TNIE. Site studies in Ramanathapuram and Yercaud are currently on. S Balachandran, head, Regional Meteorological Centre, said, “We are checking for locations that don’t have e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c interference.” Tamil Nadu has been wit- Four get life term for killing TN cop to smuggle booze @ Mayiladuthurai Four people were sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday for fatally running over a police head constable while smuggling liquor near Sirkazhi in 2012. The district and sessions court of Mayiladuthurai also awarded seven-year jail term to two others for impersonating the accused. K Kalaiselvan (54) and K Karunakaran (52) of Meensurutti, and K Sankar (44) and V Ramamurthy (64) of Chokkalingapuram, all from Ariyalur district, were awarded life imprisonment after a 12-year-long trial in the case. According to the prosecution, head consta- ble M Ravichandran (40) of Mayiladuthurai tried to stop the car by blocking it with his motorcycle when the accused were transporting liquor from Meensurutti and were passing via Koppiyam in erstwhile Nagapattinam district (present day Mayiladuthurai) on July 5, 2012. But the suspects ran over him and fled the spot. Ravichandran suffered injuries and died in a hospital in Chennai. Kalaiselvan was driving the car. Four people later surrendered in a court in Kumbakonam. But instead of Kalaiselvan and Karunakaran, two others, J Selvam (32) and S Selvakumar (40) of Meensurutti, impersonated them and surrendered before the court. Continued on p5 nessing a series of extreme weather events during monsoon season, but there are some blindspots as not all parts of the state have good radar coverage. Also, there were instances in the past, especially during 2022 rains, when Chennai’s Sband radar went defunct, Xband radar in National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was not fully calibrated, and Sriharikota radar was stretched to its full capacity making it difficult for the meteorologists to pick up rain bands that hit Chennai by surprise. The city had received a record rainfall of 21cm in 24 hours from November 6 to November 7, 2022. P5 Possibly taking cognisance for the first time of a model code violation complaint against a prime minister, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday issued a notice to BJP president J P Nadda on the charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a divisive speech in Rajasthan’s Banswara. Parallelly, it issued a notice to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, asking him to respond to the complaints filed by the BJP against him and party leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their offensive remarks. Both Nadda and Kharge were directed to file their replies by 11 am on Monday (April 29). The names of neither Modi nor Rahul or Kharge were mentioned in the notices. But the representations received by the poll panel against them were attached to the letters addressed to the respective party chiefs. The ECI invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold the party presidents responsible as the first step to rein in their star campaigners. While individual star campaigners would continue to remain responsible for their speeches, the ECI said it will address party chiefs “on a case-to-case basis”, thus adding a layer of responsibility on them. In its notice to Nadda, the poll panel cited complaints by the Congress, CPI, CPI (ML) and civil society groups on Modi’s allegation that the Congress wanted to redistribute the wealth of the country to Muslims, adding the grand old party won’t even spare the mangalsutra of women. The ECI also advised Nadda to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to “set high standards of political discourse and adhere to the norms of the MCC in letter and spirit”, as campaign speeches made by those holding high positions have serious consequences. In its similarly worded notice to Kharge, the BJP’s complaint was attached. It accused Rahul of malafide during a speech in Kottayam, Kerala, where he alleged that the PM was pushing for one nation, one language and one religion. Factoids You are directed, as President of the National Party to bring to the notice of all your star campaigners to set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of MCC in letter and spirit Election Commission ‘Due to public pressure’ Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday claimed that public pressure forced the EC to issue notice to Nadda on charges against Modi. The EC is “super, super cautious” when it comes to the PM, he said 88 LS seats (General 73; ST 6; SC 9) in 13 states/ UTs Over 16 lakh polling officials deployed 15.88 crore voters 8.08 crore male, 7.8 crore female, 5,929 third gender to exercise franchise across 1.67 lakh polling stations 34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes. There are 3.28 crore voters in the age group of 20-29 yrs M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi S V K R I S H N A C H A I TA N YA @ Chennai E x p ress N e w s S er v ice Rakesh Pratap Singh of the Sheogarh royal family of Rae Bareli and former chief whip of Samajwadi Party Manoj Pandey, who crossed over to the BJP during the recent Rajya Sabha elections in the state. Pandey is an MLA from Unchahar assembly segment of the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency . The result of the survey showed that none of the names being considered by the party were in a position to defeat Priyanka. To the party’s surprise, Varun Gandhi was mentioned by most respondents as the best BJP candidate against Priyanka. In a first, EC takes cognisance of MCC violations by PM To improve weather forecast, new radars likely in Ramnad & Yercaud In a significant development, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Tamil Nadu government have decided to set up additional Doppler X-band radars in two or three new locations in southern and interior districts of the state to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting. IMD will also soon replace the old S-band radars in Chennai and Sriharikota for which tenders have already been issued. M Ravichandran, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, and Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, said this during a press conference in Chennai while replying to a query from potential to galvanise Congressmen across the country . It has already named Union minister Smriti Irani as its candidate from Amethi. Sources said the party got a survey done for Rae Bareli to find the best candidate against Priyanka. Among the names it asked the voters as its possible candidate were former Union minister and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, founder-president of Bajrang Dal and former MP Vinay Katiyar, 1,202 3 candidates (1,098 male, 102 female, 2 third gender) are in the fray helicopters, 4 special trains and nearly 80,000 vehicles deployed to ferry polling and security personnel Webcasting to be done in over 50% of the polling stations Polling stations in all states/UTs except Bihar and Kerala have less than 1,000 average electors per polling station. The corresponding figure for Bihar is 1,008; it is 1,102 for Kerala 2nd phase voting for 88 seats today R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Friday for 88 Lok Sabha seats in 13 states and Union Territories will seal the electoral fate of several heavyweights including Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Kailash Choudhary and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, among others. The contest is very tight in several constituencies where candidates are locked in a three-cornered fight. The BJP is confident of retaining its sway in its strongholds and disrupting the Congress-CPM duopoly in Kerala. The party is eyeing Thrissur where actor Suresh Gopi is a strong contender, Thiruvananthapuram where Chandrasekhar is pitted against Tharoor, and Pathanamthitta where veteran Congress leader A K Antony’s son Anil Antony is the BJP candidate. Union minister of Shekhawat is pitted against Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, while Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will take on Prahlad Gunjal, who switched over from the BJP to Congress, in Kota. The fate of actor-turned-politician Hema Malini from Mathura LS seat will also be sealed on Friday Mukesh Dhangar of the . Congress is her main rival. In 2019, the BJP had won 53 and its allies 12 of these 88 seats, while the constituents of the INDIA bloc had won 23. However, senior BJP leaders admit that the contest is tougher than the first phase of elections held on April 19. The low turnout in the first phase of polling was a matter of concern for the party but sources said they are hopeful the voting percentage will be better in the second phase. Battle of perception with Ram chant in land of revolution N ami ta B aj pai @ Lucknow “Yeh Arun Govil ji ka election hee nahin raha. Yeh Ram ki pratishtha ka election hai (This isn’t an election for Arun Govil but for the prestige of Lord Ram). We will do everything to get a high voting percentage,” is the common refrain among the BJP cadre in Meerut, the land of revolution, which is poised for a battle of perceptions in the Lok Sabha elections. Remember, the first war of Independence in 1857 began in Meerut. The constituency goes to polls on Friday . While the BJP is riding on the perception of Lord Ram to see Arun Govil, the silver screen ‘Ram’ of 1987 TV serial, sail through, the Opposition INDIA bloc is confident that Sa- majwadi Party candidate Sunita Verma will pose a strong challenge because of her popularity among the Dalits and Muslims and her perception of being a good former Mayor. Muslims and Dalits constitute over 50% of electorate in Meerut, making it a formidable combination. The BSP, too, is a claimant of the same combo, with Mayawati giving the ticket to Devvrat Tyagi. Since all the three main candidates belonging to the majority community, the division of Hindu votes is inevitable. It is expected to put the BJP at a disadvantage. BJP’s experienced MP Rajendra Agarwal had to make way for Govil. In 2019, Agarwal defeated BSP’s Haji Mohammad Yaqoob with a thin margin of little over 4,700 votes. Govil, though tagged as an outsider by his rivals, is commanding attention and respect from the generation of viewers of the 80s, and also Illustration: Mandar Pardikar the section that got introduced to him via the telecast of Ramayan during the Covid period. Leading the campaign in a simple kurta-pyjama, he is striving to shed his outsider tag through his promise of making Meerut, which is his janmabhoomi (birth place), his karmabhoomi (workplace) and permanent abode. But SP’s Sunita, who belongs to the Dalit community dismiss, es Govil as a ‘false Ram’, claiming elections can’t be fought on a p a s t i m a g e r y. “BJP has committed a mistake by fielding Arun Govil, who does not belong to Meerut. Lord Ram is in Ayodhya, not on roads seeking votes. There could have been some fight if the ruling party candidate hailed from the constituency. I see no challenge,” says Sunita, the former BSP mayor of Meerut who switched over to the SP. It was after much flip-flop that Sunita got the ticket. Initially, Bhanu Pratap Singh was the nominee. He was replaced by sitting SP MLA from Sardhana Atul Pradhan who, was seeking the ticket for his wife. Pradhan was finally axed and Sunita chosen instead. However, BJP workers are confident of Govil’s win, hoping the Dalit-Muslim votes would be divided between the SP-Congress and the BSP. It is also depending on the Jat support from the RLD.
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