chennai l friday l june 17, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 30 l late city EDITION Your next air ticket may cost even more With jet fuel prices hiked by a record 16% on Thursday, a 10-15% increase in air fares is likely as airlines seek to ensure that operational costs are well sustained, SpiceJet MD Ajay Singh said Steepest-ever rise in cost of jet fuel oil prices shoot up to decade-high Industry demands slashing of ATF tax The price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was increased by `19,757 per kilolitre (`19.75 per litre) on Thursday. A kilolitre of ATF now costs `1.41 lakh in Delhi—16.2% more than the previous price of `1.23 lakh Such a sharp increase in the cost of jet fuel comes as Brent — the world’s most popular crude oil benchmark — was on Thursday trading at $119.16 per barrel — the highest in almost a decade “This massive increase is not sustainable and governments, central and state, need to take urgent action to reduce taxes on ATF that are amongst the highest in the world,” Ajay Singh said Spicejet, interglobe shares nosedive ■ ■ ■ Shares of SpiceJet and InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo, fell sharply on Thursday on the back of ATF price hike While the shares of SpiceJet tanked 7.05 per cent to settle at `40.90 apiece on the BSE, those of InterGlobe Aviation dropped by 5.22 per cent and closed at `1,644.65 apiece Airlines are also under stress from the continuing fall in the rupee’s value. “It impacts airlines as our substantial cost is either dollar denominated or pegged to the dollar,” Singh said | P12 40-50% Aviation turbine fuel’s share in the operating cost of an airline. There has been a whopping 120% rise in jet fuel price since June last year alone 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 SC gives UP three days to justify its bulldozer justice against protesters E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Smoke billows out from a train after it was set on fire by protesters opposing ‘Agnipath’ in Chapra in Bihar on Thursday | PTI Youth go on the rampage in 9 states over Agnipath Govt empowers Rajnath to amend scheme without Cabinet’s nod E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Violent protests broke out in nine states against the Centre’s Agnipath short-term recruitment scheme for the armed forces, putting the government on the backfoot. With the Opposition, too, stepping up the heat, the government responded by empowering Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to make changes to the scheme as required at his level without seeking the Cabinet’s concurrence. Protesters set trains on fire and disrupted rail and road traffic, smashed window panes of buses and pelted stones in Bihar, Haryana, UP Jharkhand, , Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu. There were protests at Delhi’s Nangloi railway station as aspirants stopped trains and demanded a rollback of the new policy. At least 34 trains were cancelled and eight others were partially cancelled due to the protests. Besides 72 trains were running late due to the agitation. Bihar was the worst affected with protesters resorting to arson at several places in as many as 11 districts, including Chhapra, Ara, Siwan, Gopalganj, Ara, Jehanabad, Saharsa and Security personnel try to disperse Youth Congress workers protesting in Delhi| PTI first amendment The government introduced a one-time waiver later in the day to increase the age cap to 23 years from 21 years for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme this year since there was no hiring during the last two years Nawada. National highways were blocked in Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Buxar, Arwal and East Champaran districts. In Saran and Kaimur, train bogies and an engine were torched. BJP MLA Aruna Devi had to face the protestors’ wrath in Nawada when she was on her way to the district headquarters in her vehicle. The driver Surjewala out, Jairam is new communication, publicity head in Cong E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Recently elected Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh was on Thursday appointed Congress general secretary incharge of communication, publicity and media. He replaced Randeep Singh Surjewala, a leader from Haryana, who held the position for years. A party statement said Surjewala “has been thankfully relieved from his current responsibility as General Secretary Incharge, Communication (sic).” But he will continue to be the general secretary incharge of Karnataka, it added. Party leaders described the appointment of Jairam, a former Union minister, as a pleasant surprise. “This change may be attributed to brainstorming held in Udaipur last month. Surjewalaji had been in-charge for a long time, hence this was bound to happen. Deliberation about overhauling of the media and communication department was on for about six months. I believe the top leadership was waiting for the right time and right face to take a decision. His (Jairam’s) was thrashed and windowpanes of her car smashed by the protesters. The PatnaRanchi-Jansatabdi Express, Kashi-Patna Jansatabdi Express, Lok Manya Tilak-Kamakhya Express were among the trains that remained stranded at different locations due to violent protests. In Haryana, hundreds of people blocked roads in Gurugram, Rewari, Palwal. Stone-pelting crowds damaged a police vehicle in Palwal and Agra Chowk on National Highway-19 was blocked for several hours. In Madhya Pradesh, youth hailing from Bhind, Morena, Gwalior and adjoining districts of Gwalior-Chambal region, which sends a large number of recruits into the Army went on , the rampage for around 4-5 hours in Gole ka Mandir area of Gwalior. The Birla Nagar railway station located on the Delhi-Gwalior-Bhopal rail section saw major violence as the mob damaged property all around, including the office of the station manager. As protests spread across at least 10 districts of UP, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urged the youth not to be misguided and use the opportunity to serve “Mother India”.  P9 musk refuses to rule out job cuts at twitter In his first address to Twitter employees, Elon Musk said he wants Twitter’s daily active user count to go past 1 billion in 10 years. He also said he is against content moderation of any sort WITH THIS ISSUE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE Jairam Ramesh New dates Class 10 and 12 State Board results to be out on June 20 E x p r ess N e ws Se r v i c e @ Chennai Results of the Class 10 and 12 State Board exams will be announced on June 20, the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations announced on Thursday. Class 12 results will be released at 9.30 am, and Class 10 results at 12 pm. School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi will release the results at the Anna Centenary Library . The results for Classes 10 and 12 were earlier scheduled to be released on June 17 and 23 respectively Publication of Class . 10 results has been delayed because evaluation of answer scripts took longer than expected, a school education department official said. “But we are publishing the Class 12 results three days early. Utmost care has been taken to publish errorfree results,” the official added. This year, offline exams were conducted for Classes 10 and 12 after a gap of two years due to Covid. More than 8 lakh students wrote the Class 12 exams, and 9 lakh appeared for the Class 10 exams, which concluded on May 30. “Over 80 lakh answer scripts have been evaluated within a fortnight. The department has worked hard to publish the results on time,” said an official of the school education department. Students can check their results on the board’s websites and at dge.tn.gov.in, dge.tn.nic. in, and tnresults.nic.in. Jab-o-meter June 15 13,17,558 doses Take June 16 13,21,282 doses your shot Total: 1,95,81,81,838 NATIONWIDE June 15 June 16 tamil nadu June 15 June 16 Randeep Surjewala experience will certainly help the party said a leader. ,” In the changing environment, the jurisdiction, scope and structure of the media and communication department of the Congress should be expanded and made more effective with the help of subject-matter experts, and by connecting media, social media, data, research, etc., to the communication department, the party had said in its Udaipur Nav Sankalp Declaration. Another leader said the decision to replace Surjewala is in line with the rule of ‘one person, one post’ announced by the party recently “Rameshji is an . appropriate choice as he will cater to the party’s needs in north and south (India). Sooner or later, more organisational changes will take place.” The Supreme Court on Thursday gave the Uttar Pradesh government three days to respond to petitions challenging the selective demolition of properties of protesters, re-emphasising the need to follow the due process of law. There must be a sense among the citizens that the rule of law prevails in the country a vaca, tion bench of justices A S Bopanna and Vikram Nath said. It posted the matter for further hearing on Tuesday . “Everything should be fair. We expect the authorities to 30 PAGES, INCLUDING 16 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) Fresh cases 8,822 12,213 Fresh cases Recoveries 5,718 7,624 Recoveries Deaths 15 11 Deaths 476 169 1 552 177 0 strictly follow the due procedure under the law,” it said. Following protests in UP last week over hate speech by two BJP functionaries, properties of activists and those who allegedly led the protests were razed by the district administrations. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the UP government, and senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the Kanpur and Prayagraj civic authorities, said due process was followed and notice in one instance of demolition was given way back in August 2020. Mehta said none of the af- fected parties were before the court. Instead, a body of clerics and scholars, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, has approached the court seeking a generic order against demolitions. The Jamiat contended that the demolitions happened after sharp statements by the highest constitutional authorities, including the UP chief minister, without giving any opportunity to the accused to vacate their houses. In a statement on Monday the Jamiat said the SC had , ordered a stay on punitive demolitions in Northwest Delhi under similar circumstances. Resume Inter-State meets, CM tells PM E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resume meetings of the Inter-State Council (ISC) to strengthen cooperative federalism since the council is a platform for all States and the Union government to discuss subjects of common interest. A permanent Inter-State Council was established vide Presidential Order dated May 28, 1990, and Clause 5 of the Order mandates that ISC meetings shall be conducted thrice a year. But over the last six years, there was only one meeting (on July 16, 2016), Stalin pointed out in a letter to Modi. The council was reconstituted on May 22. The chief minister further strongly suggested to the prime minister, who is chairman of the ISC, that every Bill of national importance, that is likely to affect one or more States, be placed before the council before being introduced in Parliament, and the council’s views be tabled in Parliament. Also, the agenda for the discussion should be tabled, the chief minister added. “Without such a platform (ISC), there is no effective and interactive communication between the Union and States on issues of common interest,” Stalin said.  Continued on: P4 Markets roil after Fed rate hike US stocks had closed higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 75 basis points. Asian markets, too, rose in early trading on Thursday. However, the rally was short-lived as initial optimism wore off after dangers to the economy became clearer. Here’s a look at indices on Thursday France’s CAC 40 fell 2.39% US The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.64%, 810 points, tumbling below 30,000 to the lowest level in more than a year The S&P 500 slipped 3.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 4.5% Europe Asia Germany’s DAX down 3.31% FTSE 100 slipped 3.14% Stoxx Europe 600 fell 2.47% After a morning rally, BSE Sensex plummeted 1,045.60 points or 1.99% to settle at 51,495.79 — its fifth day of decline NSE Nifty plunged 331.55 points or 2.11% to close at 15,360.60 Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 2.17% China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.6% at closing Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Korea’s Kospi, however, edged up 0.4% and 0.16%, respectively Eviction notice to Queens Land park set aside E XPR ESS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai The Madras High Court has set aside a notice issued by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department to Queens Land Amusement Park, seeking its eviction from land allegedly encroached by it at Pappanchatram in Sriperumbudur Taluk of Kancheepuram district. Justice VM Velumani granted the relief on the grounds of pendency of an appeal filed by two temples claiming rights over the said land, an earlier order of the Madras High Court, and the amusement park’s offer to HR&CE to give alternative land for the disputed property . “Considering the above materials in its entirety, especially the order of the First Bench of this Court dated October 29, 2021, that the rights pertaining to the land in question will be governed by the re- sult of appeal pending before the Commissioner of Land Administration (CLA), this court is of the view that the petitioners are entitled to the relief sought in the writ petitions,” the judge said in her order passed on Wednesday . The matter pertains to a long legal battle over occupation of 21.06 acres of land be- ‘Temples’ request for patta was rejected’ The petitioners pointed out that the temples’ request for patta was rejected by the assistant settlement officer, Tirupattur, and later by the district collector twice longing to Kasiviswanathar and Venugopalaswamy temples. The petitioners — S Nalini Selvaraj, D Gnanaraj, Selvaraj, S Anandaraj and S Rajapriya — submitted that they got the land for lease from HR&CE in 1995. However, the government declared the land as ‘anatheenam land’ in 1997 and subsequently the Revenue department sought payment of rent. Meanwhile, an application moved by the temples seeking patta was rejected by the Kancheepuram Collector. This was challenged before the CLA and the petition is pending.  P3 express read Party politics Dual leadership of AIADMK should continue, says OPS Chennai: Breaking his silence on the issue of single leadership of the AIADMK, party coordinator O Panneerselvam on Thursday asserted that dual leadership should continue. He demanded that a 14-member high-level committee be formed to guide the party, and added that reviving the post of general secretary would be tantamount to insulting late leader J Jayalalithaa. “My only objective is that the AIADMK should not split at any cost,” he told reporters | P4 on guard Police and Rapid Action Force patrol in Prayagraj on Thursday. Uttar Pradesh has stepped up security ahead of Friday prayers, anticipating more protests against hate speech Safety first Tamil Nadu gets 20 more All-Women Police Stations Chennai: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday inaugurated 20 All-Women Police Stations (AWPSs) in various parts of Tamil Nadu, including at Valasaravakkam (Chennai), Selaiyur and Vandalur (Tambaram Corporation) and SRMC (Avadi Corporation), through videoconference from the Secretariat. At present, Tamil Nadu has 202 functioning AWPSs, with one such facility in almost each sub-division of the State | P4 Multiple landslides 2 more dead as heavy rains lash Assam for 3rd day Guwahati: Two children were crushed to death when their house collapsed after being hit by a landslide in Assam’s Goalpara district on Thursday as heavy rain continued to lash the state for the third consecutive day. The two deceased children were identified as 11-year-old Hussain Ali and eight-year-old Asma Khatoon. In Guwahati, three persons suffered injuries in Noonmati area as multiple landslides were reported across the city during the day