kannur l Thursday l november 05, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION NGT widens the ambit of cracker pollution cases Notices sent to tn, andhra, telangana The green panel has sought response from Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Notices were already issued to Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday issued notices to 18 states, expanding the ambit of such cases beyond the NCR May prohibit crackers in some cities ■ ■ A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel noted that Odisha and Rajasthan have already issued a notification prohibiting the sale and use of firecrackers The tribunal said it may prohibit the use of firecrackers in cities where air quality is generally beyond permissible limits Nov 7-30 dELHI, rAJASTHAN, hARYANA AND u.p. TOLD TO BAN CRACKERS IN THIS PERIOD 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 JOE BIDEN 238 DONALD TRUMP Electoral college votes Electoral college votes 70,024,012 votes 67,306,775 votes 213 270 TO WIN U.S. race Too tight to call Trump prematurely claims victory, wants to stop all voting, threatens to approach SC; Biden projected to win more popular votes than any president in American history; four Indian American Democrats re-elected to the House JOE BIDEN E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e The race for the White House between Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden was on the razor’s edge on Tuesday with the nervous president prematurely claiming victory demanding a halt to all , voting and threatening to go to the Supreme Court. Trump’s diatribe was tied to the understanding that most of the mailin ballots would go to Biden. “We won’t rest until every vote is counted,” Biden shot back, adding it is for the voters to decide the outcome and not the contestants. His campaign said their legal teams were on stand-by to resist Trump’s attempt to go to the court to stop tabulating the ballots. With millions of votes still to be counted, the battle had essentially boiling down to a handful of swing states. While Trump won Florida — closing his challenger’s path to an ear- DONALD TRUMP People gather in Black Lives Matter Plaza near White House in Washington on Tuesday, on Election Day | AP Key questions ly victory — and was leading in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Biden managed to flip Arizona, a state that has supported a Democratic presidential candidate only once in the last 72 years. Biden was also leading in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Officials in Pennsylvania said they expect all votes to be counted by Friday . The Biden camp believes that will give them an edge, while the Trump campaign fears that there could be electoral malpractice during the counting of votes. ED officials raid Bineesh’s house and partners’ firms E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram THE Enforcement Directorate, investigating the money trail in the drug-trafficking case in Bengaluru, tightened the noose around Bineesh Kodiyeri, conducting day-long raids at his house and at the business establishments of his partners in the state capital and in Kannur. The raids took place simultaneously at six places in order to verify his financial transactions and alleged benami deals. The inspection decision was based on the statements the central agency had recorded while questioning Bineesh at its Bengaluru office. In a report filed in a Bengaluru court, ED had claimed that the modus operandi of Bineesh has been to create many “benamidars” and transfer assets in their names to avoid detection. In addition to Bineesh’s house ‘Kodiyeri’ at Maruthankuzhy the officers raid, ed ‘Car Palace’, a car accessories shop owned by Abdul Latheef at Kesavadasapuram; Latheef ’s house at Jawahar Nagar; KK Rocks, a quarry office owned by Arun Varghese at Pattom; Torres Remedies, a pharmaceutical firm of Anand Padmanabhan at Statue and Al Jasam Abdul Jaffar’s house at Aruvikkara. They are all suspected to be ● More on P4 Bineesh’s benamis.  The ED team collecting details of the car in T’Puram on Wednesday | Vincent Pulickal State withdraws general consent granted to CBI T’Puram: Kerala on Wednesday became the latest non-BJP ruled state to withdraw the general consent given to the CBI to undertake any investigation in the state. Earlier, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra too had withdrawn the permission. This means the probe agency will have to seek prior permission from the state government before registering a case in Kerala. However, the Cabinet decision will not affect cases currently being investigated by the CBI. Who all are in the race? While Donald Trump and Joe Biden are fighting presidential polls, polling has also happened for 35 Senate, 11 gubernatorial and 435 congressional seats Who is ahead in the popular vote count? Biden is. By over 1.5% Huge outrage as Arnab arrested E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai THE Maharashtra Police on Wednesday arrested Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for allegedly abetting the suicide of a 53-year-old interior designer, Anvay Naik, in Raigad in 2018. Goswami was produced before the magistrate court in Alibaug where he alleged the police physically assaulted him. Following this, the court ordered a medical examination on him at the civil hospital. Goswami, along with two others, has been booked under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), and 34 of the IPC. Earlier, there was high drama at the Goswami’s residence in Mumbai when Raigad police turned up to arrest him. The journalist fired a volley of questions at the police team and reportedly argued with them. Following this, he was forcibly taken into custody . Later, the Mumbai police also registered an FIR against Arnab, his wife and son on charges of obstructing and intimidating a police officer on duty The latest . action is in response to a complaint by Naik’s wife Akshata demanding inquiry and action against Goswami. Maintenance Apex court closes erring spouses’ escape route to bypass paying alimony K a n u S a r d a @ New Delhi in a big relief to women, the Supreme Court has issued detailed guidelines tightening the rules regarding maintenance in matrimonial cases. Now, both spouses will have to disclose their income and assets from the date the maintenance application is filed. Also, those who fail to pay maintenance could be arrested and jailed. “Maintenance laws have been enacted as a measure of social justice to provide recourse to dependant wives and children for their financial sup- port, so as to prevent them from falling into destitution and vagrancy,” the judgment read. A bench of justices Indu Malhotra and Subash Reddy also laid down several criteria that must be considered while c a l c u l at i n g t h e q u a n t u m o f maintenance. The court had taken up the issue while hearing a case where a plea for maintenance filed by a woman had remained pending for more than seven years in various courts, while the husband had stopped paying even interim main- tenance for the wife and child. Guidelines stated that detailed affidavits disclosing all sources of income, assets and liabilities must be filed by both parties - the claimant must file all details along with the application for maintenance, while the respondent must file their details within four weeks. The Delhi High Court is already implementing these set of measures as and when the maintenance petition is filed. The court also took note of that in many cases, husbands refuse to pay alimony amount by disposing of assets and claiming reduced income. “If false statements and misrepresentations are made, the Court may consider initiation of perjury proceedings and for contempt of Court,” said the bench.  Continued on: P9 IN PROGRESS What is the half-way mark? It’s 270 as the total electoral vote count is 538 Why is the counting getting delayed? Because mass postal ballots were allowed due to Covid. While states like Florida counted them as they arrived before election day, others chose to begin counting only after all votes had been polled ED serves notice on CM’s addl pvt secy Raveendran E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi THE Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money trail in the gold smuggling case, has turned the screws further on the chief minister’s office (CMO) by issuing a notice to Additional Private Secretary C M Raveendran to appear for interrogation in Kochi on Friday morning. The move comes close on the heels of the interrogation of the chief minister’s former principal secretary M Sivasankar, who is in the central agency’s custody The notice is . more significant as he is still with the CMO while Sivasankar was suspended by the time the ED questioned him. ED officials said Sivasankar had revealed information about some of the projects implemented by the state government’s IT department. Swapna too had told ED in her statement that Raveendran used to call her once in a while for visa stamping and certificate verification purposes. “Raveendran has to be questioned regarding the funds and WHO’S RAVEENDRAN? C M Raveendran was in the personal staff of former LDF convenor P V Kunjikkannan in the early 80s. He grew in strength Raveendran came in contact with M Sivasankar when the latter was the KSEB chairman The relation helped Sivasankar join as officer on special duty in the CMO projects. We suspect that huge kickbacks were given for these projects. All aspects regarding the projects in which Sivasankar was involved have to be probed. The notice on Raveendran is part of it,” an official said. ED has already questioned Minister K T Jaleel and Life Mission CEO U V Jose in the case.