nagapattinam l Tuesday l October 20, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Deadline for enGG college admissions pushed t0 Nov 30 Classes for freshers in engineering colleges and technical institutions will begin from Dec 1, the AICTE said on Monday Continuing covid situation blamed Online, offline or blended mode The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) said, because of the continuing Covid situation in the country, requests from various state governments, and the fact that premier institutions like IITs and NITs are in the middle of the admission process, it has extended the admission deadline for first-year engineering courses to November 30 ■ ■ Classes may subsequently begin on December 1 through online, offline or blended mode, AICTE secretary Rajive Kumar said Institutions that have already started online classes have been asked to either postpone them or conduct special classes for those who are required to appear for final-year exams Revised Academic calendar for 2020-21 can be viewed at: www.aicte-india.org CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Oz on board, first Quad power play in Malabar drill China put on notice as four-nation initiative gets serious, full naval wargames this year M AYA N K SIN G H @ New Delhi IN a major strategic shift, Australia on Monday shunned its reservations against being seen as part of the Quad grouping and decided to send the Royal Australian Navy warships to participate in the Malabar series of naval exercises. Confirming the development, the Ministry of Defence said, “As India seeks to increase cooperation with other countries in the maritime security domain and in the light of increased defence cooperation with Australia, Malabar 2020 will see the participation of the Australian Navy .” Australia was had participated in the 2007 exercise but had withdrawn since then after China raised concerns against this construct. The upcoming exercise will be significant as the all Quad members countries — the US, Japan, Australia and India — will be participating after 12 years. It was first mooted in 2007 and China was always opposed to this grouping. All exercises usually have a ‘harbor phase’ involving personnel interaction. However, this year’s will be ‘non-contact - at sea’ with the personnel on their own ships having no interaction with those of other participating nations. The Union defence ministry said the exercise will strengthen the coordination between the Navies of all the participating countries. The Malabar exercises started in 1992 as a bilateral one between Navies of India and the US. Japan joined in 2015. The annual exercise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018, off the coast the Japan in 2019 and will be held in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea this year. Experts welcomed the development. Commodore Anil Jai Singh, a noted defence analyst, said Australia’s participation in the exercise will send an important message to China. “China has opened so many fronts simultaneously and India has been always considerate towards Chinese sensitivities but China never cared,” he added. Chinese soldier ‘strays’ into India, apprehended Indian Army apprehended a Chinese soldier who had “strayed” across the LAC in the Demchok sector of Eastern Ladakh on Monday. The soldier will be returned to the Chinese after completion of formalities | P7 Australia’s decision to participate comes in the wake of Beijing’s erecting trade barriers in retaliation to Canberra’s demand for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19. Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (Retd), said, “Australia is significant given the time of geopolitical turmoil, it completes some kind of security architecture which might be available which can be put to use by quad for ensuring freedom of navigation and following the international order on maritime issues”. mark of respect TN Governor Banwarilal Purohit paying tributes to the portrait of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s mother, at his camp office in Chennai on Monday Dists having candidates with criminal charges Bhojpur 39 Rohtas 37 Gaya 49 Supporters wave as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar arrives for a campaign rally in a helicopter, ahead of Bihar Assembly polls, at Atri in Gaya district on Monday | PTI 1 Particulars regarding criminal cases to be in bold letters 2 Matter in newspapers should be published in at least 12 pt font size 3 Details to be given for each case in separate rows Bihar parties flout SC fiat K uma r V i k r am , Ra j e s h K uma r Thaku r & K a n u Sa r d a @ New Delhi/Patna Siddharth Saurav is the Congress candidate from the Bikram seat in the ongoing Bihar elections. He has at least one criminal case against him and his election affidavit says among the charges he faces are of murder filed under Section 302 of the IPC. Raj Kumar Sah, the Lok Janshakti Party’s candidate from the Lalganj seat, has an attempt to murder case against him filed under Section 307 of the IPC. Both the Congress and the LJP should have, as directed by the Election Commission, published their criminal antecedents in newspapers, social media platforms and their party’s websites. But neither party has done so, at least until late on Monday night. The Congress and the LJP are not the only parties that have not complied with the EC’s directive to publicise details of the candidates with a criminal history . Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s party, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, is among the prominent parties that is yet to comply with the order. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) uploaded details of the criminal cases of its candidates late on Sunday night, which was past the deadline for complying with the EC’s order. ‘Nandri, vanakkam’ Vijay Sethupathi walks out of biopic on Muralitharan e x p r e ss n e ws s e r v i c e @ Chennai TAMIL film actor Vijay Sethupathi has opted out of the biopic on Sri Lankan cricketer, Muthiah Muralitharan, titled ‘800’, putting an end to the week-long controversy on social media. The actor took to Twitter on Monday to share a statement of Muralitharan. The former cricketer had sympathised with the actor for being targeted and requested him to leave the project. Muralitharan wrote, “I am making this request as I don’t want one of the greatest Tamil actors to be affected because of me. In addition, I also don’t want I replied to him to face any problem in the future because of this Murali’s tweet. When I said film.” In reply, Sethupathi ‘Nandri, tweeted, “Nandri, vanakkam,’ it vanakkam.” means it’s over The actor had faced severe backlash in the social media Vijay Sethupathi tells reporters for signing up to play the role of the Sri Lankan spinner. The social media users have been urging Sethupathi to give up the project by showing clips of Muralitharan’s bytes, in which he has hailed the Sri Lankan leadership and has chided Tamil Nadu politicians for interfering in the affairs of the Sri Lankan Tamils.  P4 against the 102 trains earlier that included electric multiple units and Mainline Electric Multiple Units.Besides, only staff of government establishments have been allowed to use the services, leaving several thousands in the lurch. “I had been working at a goods transport company in Pulianthope. I used to take the suburban train. Ever since the lockdown was announced, I couldn’t go to work. Many like me have lost their livelihood. I am still not able to go to work and am forced to borrow money to run my family ,” rues S Srinivasan of Arakkonam. For Senthilkumar, a maintenance engineer working in a private school in Chennai, life has never been more difficult. “Once the bus services resumed, I started to go to work. But I have to hop on and off at least three buses to reach my workplace on Old Mahabalipuram Road. Bus fare isn’t very affordable as I have to spend at least `150 every day This burns a big . P4 hole in my wallet,” he says.  In a significant verdict on February 13, 2020, the Supreme Court had ruled that all political parties must publish the entire criminal history of candidates along with the reasons for fielding them. “It shall be mandatory for political parties to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases, including the nature of the offences and relevant particulars,” the court ruled. Following the apex court verdict, the EC, in an order passed on September 16, 2020, said that “details regarding criminal cases are to be published on three occasions during the campaign period.” The first round of publicity has to be done “within first 4 days of withdrawal” of nomination papers. The second and third times the parties have to publish details of criminal candidates are “between (the) next 5th8th days and once between (the) 9th day till the last day of campaign,” the EC said. For the first phase of polling on October 28, the first round of publicity should have been done by all political parties by October 16 as the last date of withdrawal of candidates was October 12. But except for the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the BJP most , other prominent parties have not uploaded the details of their criminal candidates.  Farooq faces ED’s heat in cricket scam Faya z Wa n i @ Srinagar With criminal charges EC g u i d e l i n e s Denied local trains, thousands left in lurch THE pandemic-induced lockdown has thrown life out of gear for over one lakh people who had been commuting for work between Arakkonam and Chennai every day Both gov. ernment employees and private company workers, including dailywage earners, have been using the suburban trains to reach their work place every day till the lockdown first , led to suspension of their services, and the subsequent decision to Unlock only led to their partial resumption. Now, only very few suburban trains are being operated between Arakkonam and Chennai every day, Total candidates in Phase I Buxar 23 livelihood derailed R SIV A K U M A R @ Ranipet BIHAR Continued on: P7 Four days after six mainstream Opposition parties launched a Peoples Alliance to unitedly fight for the restoration of special powers under Article 370 to J&K, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday grilled National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah for over seven hours in connection with the 2015 J&K Cricket Association scam. While most parties described the ED action as political vendetta, Abdullah asserted he was clean and that the fight for Article 370’s restoration will continue with or without him. In 2015, the CBI had registered a first information report into the alleged `113 crore scam when he was heading the state cricket association. Abdullah’s son Omar tweeted, “This is nothing less than political vendetta coming days after the formation of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration”. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “ED’s sudden summon to Farooq displays the extent of Government of India’s nervousness about mainstream parties in J&K fighting as one unit. Also reeks of political vendetta...”