RECORD RUNS AS SRH BATTERS GO BERSERK In what was a batting paradise, Sunrisers Hyderabad posted the highest IPL total ever (277/3) against Mumbai Indians on Wednesday. The previous record was held by Royal Challengers Bengaluru who posted 263/5 vs Pune Warriors in 2013. Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen hit blazing fifties as SRH registered their first win | P17 villupuram l thursday l march 28, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l 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 Stalin bomb Kejriwal gets no interim NIA searches 10 places across TN in B’luruseized blast case, electronic equipment & phones relief from the high court 20 places searched in TN and Karnataka E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai Wife Sunita claims he would do a ‘big expose’ on excise scam today US envoy rapped for comment on the chief minister E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi While arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal did not get immediate relief from the Delhi High Court on Wednesday, his wife Sunita claimed he would do a “big expose” on the alleged excise policy scam in court the next day . She was apparently referring to his production in a city court on the conclusion of his custodial remand with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday. Sunita made the statement after meeting her husband in jail. In the Delhi High Court, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma refused to interfere with Kejriwal’s arrest and issued notice to the ED on his plea for interim relief of release. It asked the ED to file its reply before April 2. The hearing would begin on April 3. “Any order passed in the application for interim release of the petitioner, pending disposal of his main petition without calling for reply of ED at this stage would rather amount to deciding the main petition itself,” the judge said. In a related development, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena said the Delhi government will not be run from jail, though AAP leaders claim Kejriwal Y e s h i Se l i @ New Delhi Ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj in a protest on Wednesday | PTI will continue as chief minister even if he is under custody . Rebutting the L-G’s statement, AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi wondered in an interview to PTI, “what is the constitutional provision he is drawing on? The law of the country is very clear. You have the GNCTD Act which is very clear that you cannot be the chief minister if you do not enjoy the majority of the House. These conditions do not apply . So, under what conditions will President’s Rule be imposed?” There was drama in the Delhi assembly as the AAP MLAs , stormed into the well of the House raising slogans against the Centre and demanding Kejriwal’s release. The House was adjourned till April 1. A day after a US State Department spokesperson commented on the arrest of Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying they hoped his trial would be fair, India objected to it and summoned their acting Deputy Chief of Mission Gloria Barbena. The meeting is said to have lasted for 40 minutes. “We take strong objection to the remarks of the spokesperson of the US State Department about certain legal proceedings in India,’’ said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. In diplomacy, states are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others. “This responsibility is even more so in the case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents,’’ said Jaiswal. India’s legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted, the foreign office said in a sharp message. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday conducted searches at 10 places, including six locations in Chennai, in connection with the Bengaluru Rameshwaram Café blast case. According to sources, the searches were conducted to find out the suspects who had helped the accused during their stay in Triplicane for a month before the incident. In Chennai, the searches were conducted at multiple locations including Old Washermanpet, Mannadi and Royapett a h . S e a rch e s we re a l s o conducted at the residences of NIA sleuths search a house on Vinayaka Temple Street at Mannadi in Chennai More than 20 places linked to the bombers were searched in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on Wednesday. The NIA, however, is yet to reveal details about the outcome of these searches. Two suspects had stayed in lodges in Triplicane for nearly a month a person named Shiek Dawood and his father in Ramanathapuram. Mobile phones and electronic equipment were seized during the searches that started in the morning. Sources said NIA had searched Shiek’s house twice earlier for alleged connection with banned organisations a few years ago. According to sources, more than 20 places allegedly linked to the bombers were searched in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka ‘Dy commander’ among 6 Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh encounter E JA Z KAIS E R @ Raipur Security forces on Wednesday gunned down six Maoists, including two women, in a fierce exchange of fire at Chipurbhatti area of Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. The slain Naxalites were identified as members of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist). PLGA’s ‘deputy commander’ of Punem Nagesh is among those killed. His wife Vetti Soni, an active member of the militia, and another female cadre were also killed. Sources said Nagesh was behind several deadly attacks on security forces in the past. According to police, the encounter took place during the search operation of a joint team of the District Reserve Guard and the elite CoBRA unit of the CRPF. The team reached the area after the Maoists killed three villagers on Monday . “The security forces moved out on the operation on Tuesday night following a tip-off about the presence of Maoists in the region. The gunfight occurred between the forces and the Platoon No. 10 of the PLGA near the Talperu river,” a police officer told this newspaper. The forces recovered six bodies and a huge cache of ar ms & ammunition and items for daily use from the encounter site. demand may go up Snag in 2 thermal power units in TN, 810MW output hit Grid demand 9,800 S G URUVA N M IKA N AT HA N @ Chennai on Wednesday 18,435 3,000 776 571 219 Hydro Thermal Gas Independent plants Captive power plants Private sources Renewable Energy 564 3,505 Total Power sources Power generation has been temporarily halted at Tangedco’s 600 MW Mettur thermal plant and 210 MW North Chennai stage 1 unit due to technical issues. “It will take approximately 48 hours to fix the issue in the 600 MW unit and operation will restart in the 210 MW unit within 18 hours,” a senior official told TNIE. “Other thermal units in North Chennai, Mettur, and Thoothukudi continue to generate power,” he said. The disruptions have come at a time when the state recorded its highest power demand of 19,409 MW on March 22 , and the demand is expected to go up across the state due to the rise in temperature. The issue in both these plants is boiler tube damage and other minor glitches, officials said. The power demand for agriculture has gone down by 1,000 MW and this will help officials in managing the demand. Sourcing additional electricity from private players through the power exchange is a common practice during summer, sources said. “Currently the average per-day power , demand stands at 18,500 MW. The power demand in Tamil Nadu is projected to reach 20,000 MW in April,” another official said. According to official sources, nearly 10,000 MW or 54% of the state’s total power is being bought from private entities. Plans are on to procure an additional 3,000 MW in the coming days, sources said. E Natarajan, state general secretary, Bharathiya Electricity Engineers Association, expressed concern, stating, “Procuring thousands of megawatts of power will impact Tangedco, consumers, and the state government, considering the power utility’s staggering debt of `1.4 lakh crore.” Continued on p5 drumming up support Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin seeking votes for DMK Arakkonam candidate S Jagathrakshakan for the Lok Sabha election in Ranipet on Wednesday | pti Lok sabha manifesto PMK plans to make parents’ nod must for marriage S KU M AR E SA N @ New Delhi The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has promised to come up with a new law to make ‘parental approval’ mandatory in marriages involving individuals below 21 years of age. The party which is part of the BJP, led alliance, in its poll manifesto for the Lok Sabha election released in Chennai on Wednesday, claimed that the proposed law will preserve the family structure and well-being of young adults. Dr S Ramadoss, PMK founder, released the manifesto which promised to get the new government at the centre to en- on Wednesday. The agency, however, is yet to reveal the details about the outcome of these searches. The blast in Bengaluru, which left several injured, was allegedly orchestrated by Musavir Hussain Shazib of Theerthahali in Shivamogga district in Karnataka. Following investigation, the NIA found that Shazib, along with his associate Abdul Mathern Taha, had stayed in lodges in Triplicane, Chennai, for nearly a month before carrying out the attack. Both the accused were under the NIA’s wanted list for their alleged involvement in a previous explosion in 2020. P5 act a law to guarantee Minimum Support Price for farm produce. The party also pledged to strive to ensure proportionate reservation for all communities in the state as per their population and to eliminate the existing 50% cap on reservation and creamy layer principle in education and job opportunities in union gover nment institutions. The party said a law that mandates parental consent to solemnise marriage of young adults will be introduced to protect girls from getting cheated in ‘staged marriages’. The party claimed that such laws exist in countries such as Sin- PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss (R) and president Dr Anbumani Ramadoss with the party manifesto | Express gapore, Philippines, Japan, and Brazil and that the Karnataka High Court, too, had underscored the need for such a legislation. The party also said it would strive to create a safe en- vironment for women by protecting them from abuse and harassment. On matters concerning states’ rights, PMK promised to establish a new commission under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of India to explore avenues of devolution of powers from centre to states. The party also vowed to bring subjects such as education that were moved to the concurrent list back to the state’s list. The party said it is committed to ensuring 50% allocation of central revenue to state governments. The party assured that acquisition of f ar mlands for industrial projects will be banned. P5 Supriya Shrinate and Dilip Ghosh EC sends notice to Supriya, Dilip for violation of model code M u k e s h R a n j a n @ New Delhi The Election Commission of India on Wednesday sent show cause notices to Congress leader Supriya Shrinate and BJP leader Dilip Ghosh for their controversial comments on actor Kangana Ranaut and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The ECI in its notice said the remarks by Supriya and Dilip were found to be in violation of provisions of the Model Code of Conduct. It sought their responses by 5 pm on March 29. Supriya in her social media account had posted a picture of Kangana with the nasty caption asking what was the going rate at the mandi (market). It came after Kangana was named the BJP candidate for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat. Following an uproar, Supriya deleted the post and said, “Many people have access to my Facebook and Instagram accounts. Someone from them made an extremely inappropriate post today As soon as I found out, I . deleted that post. Everyone, who knows me, also knows very well that I can never make personal and indecent comments towards any woman.” West Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh on March 26 said, “When Didi goes to Goa, she calls herself the daughter of Goa. When she goes to Tripura, she says that she is the daughter of Tripura. She should first identify her own father.” express read BJP alliance parties get symbol of choice: NTK Chennai: Denied ‘sugarcane farmer’ symbol by the ECI, Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief Seeman said the parties that are in alliance with the BJP, like the TMC and AMMK, got their chosen symbols but VCK and MDMK were denied their preferred symbols as they are not in alliance with the saffron party. Seeman proposed symbol-free elections to ensure level-playing field for parties | P4
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