KOZHIKODE l friday l may 27, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION number of road accidents declines since 2016: REport There were 4,80,652 accidents in 2016 as against 3,66,138 in 2020, according to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport only 12% fall in accident Deaths more deaths per 100 mishaps The number of accidents rose every year between 2005 and 2016. But between 2016 and 2020, the number has come down every year, except for a 0.46% rise in 2018, according to ‘Road Accidents in India - 2020’ report. The number of accidents dropped 23% between 2016 and 2020, but the number deaths fell only 12% to 1,31,714 from 1,50,785 ■ ■ Despite fewer accidents being recorded, their severity has been on a rise. Twenty-one deaths were reported per 100 accidents in 2005, which jumped to 36 deaths per 100 accidents in 2020 Accident deaths blamed on red-signal jumping increased by a whopping 79% from 266 deaths in 2019 to 476 in 2020 69% Accident deaths were in the 18-45 age group in 2020 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 Culprits will be punished, CM promises actor at meet E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram THE survivor in the 2017 actor abduction case met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his office here on Thursday and gave a memorandum containing four requests. During the 15-minute meeting, she expressed concerns about the court proceedings and further probe in the case, and also about the suspected political intervention. Pinarayi told her that her fears were unfounded and that “the culprits, however big they are, would be punished”. The CM summoned DGP Anil Kant and ADGP (Crime Branch) Shaik Darvesh Saheb and sought to know the status of the case. He urged the officers to carry out a thorough probe. In the memorandum, the survivor requested not to stall the probe in the conspiracy case, question the lawyers involved in the case, expedite the appointment of the public prosecutor, and punish those who stole the visuals of the assault from ● More on P4 the court.  Cong to take a leaf out of Left’s ‘bucket collection’ Fund crunch ahead of 2024 general elections forces party to go for Kerala model; its income plunged 58% in FY21 to H285.7 crore RIC H A S H A R M A @ New Delhi FACING massive funds crunch ahead of the big fight for 2024, the Congress is looking at the Left’s Kerala model of fundraising where bulk of the party funds are collected from the masses through door-to-door campaign with slips issued against donations. The idea, suggested by former KPCC chief Ramesh Chennithala, was discussed in detail at the recently held Udaipur Chintan Shivir. “It is being conside re d s e r i o u s ly. There are some issues, such as how it can be implemented, how to ensure funds management and transparency etc. It will be discussed at the Task Force 2024 meetings,” party sources said. According to an audit report submitted to the Election Com- mission, the Congress party’s income plunged 58% in FY21 to `285.7 crore, from `682.2 crore in the previous fiscal. In FY19, the party’s income was `918 crore. The Congress is facing acute pressure on the money front, especially after the demise of par ty treasurer Ahmed Patel, who used to handle party funds through his cor porate and other contacts. Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath has been also handling funds generation but earnings have nosedived in the soumyadip sinha Modi regime. Most of the CPI(M)’s funds come from its Kerala unit and there is a joke in party circles that the central party survives on funds from the southern state. The general rule for the party is that 70% of funding must be from door-to-door mass-contact funding drive, known as ‘bucket collection’. However, critics have questioned the credibility of such fund-raising drive and even the party itself has called for proper maintenance of funds. In 2013, the Kerala unit of CPI(M) collected `8 crore in just two days for establishing the Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan and the EMS Research Centre. Of the `8 crore, as much as `5 crore was raised through bucket collection with the rest coming from direct c o n t r i bu t i o n f ro m p a r t y members. Idea suggested by Ramesh Chennithala The idea, suggested by former KPCC chief Ramesh Chennithala, was discussed in detail at the recently held Udaipur Chintan Shivir The Congress is facing acute pressure on the money front, especially after the demise of party treasurer Ahmed Patel wb proposal: cm AS chancellor OF UNIVERSITIES E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Kolkata President Ram Nath Kovind greets woman legislators at the start of the national conference at the state assembly on Thursday | Express Kovind lauds Kerala women’s Covid work E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram ACKNOWLEDGING the role of women in fighting the Covid pandemic, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday lauded woman healthcare workers from Kerala for setting an example of selfless care during crisis. He was inaugurating the National Women Legislators’ Conference, Kerala - 2022 at the assembly. Around 130 delegates, including woman ministers from the Centre and states, woman MPs and MLAs are attending the two-day conference. “There must have been more women than men among the Corona Warriors who guarded the nation during those months of crisis,” Kovind said. He noted that health workers from Kerala rendered selfless service by putting themselves at “great ● More on P4 personal risk.”  The West Bengal cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to appoint CM Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of all state universities. “Today, the state cabinet gave its consent to the propos- PunchHi panel al to make the chief minister report 2010 the chancellor of all state-run The cabinet’s universities in place of the decision was governor. This proposal will based on a soon be introduced as a bill in recommethe assembly State education ndation by the ,” minister Bratya Basu, who ta- Punchhi panel bled the proposal before the in 2010 state cabinet, said. A cabinet member said a bill would be introduced in the assembly to change the chancellor of state universities. “Once it is passed, it will be sent to the governor’s office for his approval to amend the change as an act. If there is no nod from the governor, an ordinance will be promulgated to amend the change replacing the governor from the key post.” Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mamata have been at loggerheads. FAHADH, JOJU ON POLE 2 superstars, sons eye best actor award E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram FOR the jury led by Hindi filmmaker Saeed Akthar Mirza, choosing the best Malayalam movies of 2021 might have been a Herculean task. With several experimental entries and a few stellar performances staking claim, the jury had to watch some movies more than once. After a month-long exercise by the jury the verdict will be delivered by , Culture Minister Saji Cherian on Friday. What makes the fight for honours interesting this time is the multiple entries from the two superstar families for the best actor award. Nominations for Mammootty (The Priest and One), son Dulquer Salman (Kurup) as well as Mohanlal (Marakkar) and son Pranav (Hridayam) were in front of the jury, which watched around 45 movies picked by preliminary juries from a total 142. Sources said chances for the best actor prize, however, are more for Fahadh Faazil for his role in Joji and for Joju George for Nayattu and Churuli. Tovino Thomas (Minnal Murali) and Biju Menon (Arkkariyam) are also in the race. Anna Ben, Nimisha Sajayan, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Manju Warrier, Darshana Rajendran and Grace Antony are in contention for the best ● More on P4 actress award.  e x p r e s s r ead PFI RALLY in ALAPPUZHA IN CENTRAL JAIL’S HOSP BLOCK MONEY LAUNDERING PROBE Sloganeering child’s residence traced Hate speech: P C George remanded for 14 days ED raids Maha min Parab’s locations Kochi: The police on Thursday traced the residence of the boy who was seen raising provocative slogans sitting on the shoulders of a man at a PFI rally in Alappuzha to Palluruthy in Kochi. Police Commissioner C H Nagaraju said more details cannot be divulged at the moment. The Kochi City police have passed on the details to the Alappuzha station where a case was registered. P5 T’Puram: Former MLA and Kerala Janapaksham leader P C George, who was arrested for violating the bail condition in the Thiruvananthapuram hate speech case, has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court. George had earlier complained of hypertension and was shifted to the hospital block of the central jail. P4 Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided multiple locations of Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab and others as part of a money laundering probe linked to alleged violation of coastal regulation zone norms in the construction of a resort in the Dapoli beach area of Ratnagiri district, officials said. The raids lasted for more than 12 hours. Centre calls off BPCL privatisation process as most bidders back off E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ New Delhi THE Centre on Thursday withdrew its offer to sell its 52.9% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) after most of the bidders expressed their inability to go ahead citing the volatile conditions in the global energy market. “The multiple Covid-19 waves and geo-political conditions affected multiple industries globally, particularly oil and gas industry . Owing to prevailing conditions in the global energy market, the majority of Qualified Institutional Investors ( Q I P ) h av e e x pressed their inability to continue in the current process of disinvestment of BPCL,” said a notification by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. A decision on re-initiating the strategic disinvestment process will be taken in due course based on how the situation evolves, it added. The government had issued the expression of interest (EoI) for strategic disinvestment of BPCL in March 2020. However, due to global pandemic and other geopolitical tensions, it had to extend the EoI submission date multiple times. According to reports, only three bidders - Vedanta group, Apollo Global Management Inc. and I Squared Capital Advisors - have shown interest in buying BPCL. Among these, only Anil Agarwalled-Vedanta was in the race as the other bidders reportedly walked out over lack of clarity in fuel pricing. It may be recalled t h a t Ve d a n t a Group’s chairman, in one of his interviews had said that his company was willing to spend $12 billion for the deal. BPCL’s current market value is around $11.4 billion. It owns 19,000 petrol pumps, 6,166 LPG distributor agencies and 61 out of the 260 aviation fuel stations in the country It . has 26 assets in Russia, Brazil, Mozambique, the UAE, Indonesia, Australia, East Timor, Israel and India. Monsoon may reach Kerala only on June 1 The southwest monsoon, which was expected to hit Kerala shores on May 27, will arrive only on June 1, the IMD has said The Met has forecast heavy rain in most districts on Friday and light rain till May 30 State Disaster Management Authority meteorologist Rajeevan Erikkulam said The conditions have become the monsoon winds remained favourable for further advastationary over ncement of Sri Lanka for monsoon in almost six the next 48 days, thus causing the delay hours, it said