Tapan Kumar Deka villupuram l saturday l june 25, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION ex-ias officer parameswaran is the new ceo of niti aayog The former bureaucrat, who spearheaded the Swachh Bharat Mission, will replace incumbent Amitabh Kant Samant Goel Parameswaran Iyer Known for executing large projects Parameswaran Iyer, a 1981-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, had resigned from civil service in 2009. He came back as Secretary in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2016 and executed the Narendra Modi government’s flagship sanitation scheme. He resigned from the post in July 2020 and went on to work with the World Bank in the US ■ 7 Deka ib chief, Raw’s Goel gets 1-yr extn ■ In another appointment, Tapan Kumar Deka, the ‘crisis man’ who was put in charge of the counter-assaults during the 26/11 Mumbai attack, was named Director, Intelligence Bureau Meanwhile, the tenure of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) head Samant Goel has been extended by one more year Number of officers Deka has superseded to become ib chief CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■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 upholds SIT’s clean chit to Modi Landmark abortion law in US overturned Sees no larger plot in the 2002 Gujarat riots Express News Service @New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 post Godhra riots in the state and dismissed a petition by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri’s wife Zakia Jafri. Bringing the curtains down on the bid to reopen the probe, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said the material collected during the investigation does not ‘give rise to strong or grave suspicion regarding hatching of larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level’ for causing mass violence against Muslims. The bench, also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, termed Zakia’s plea devoid of merit. It spoke of ‘the devious stratagem to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design’ and said all those involved in ‘such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law’. The court also appreciated the SIT for its ‘indefatigable work’ in challenging circumstances and said it has come out with ‘flying colours unscathed’. The bench said no fault could be found with the SIT’s approach, adding its final report in 2012 is backed by firm logic, ‘expositing analytical mind and dealing with all aspects objectively for discarding the allegations regarding larger criminal conspiracy’. The bench upheld the decision of a magistrate in accepting the final report submitted by the SIT. Zakia Jafri had challenged the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision. “We do not countenance the submission of the appellant regarding infraction of rule of law in the matter of investigation and the approach of the magistrate and the high court in dealing with the final report,” the bench said. Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg Society during violence on February 28, 2002. co-op staff 37K ineligible for gold loan waiver, TN to retrieve `160 cr vandalised The ransacked office of Wayanad Congress member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi in Kalpetta on Friday, after a protest march of the SFI, the students wing of ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, turned violent | Express The US Supreme Court on Friday ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in the Roe v Wade case. The verdict is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the US states. The ruling came more than a month after the leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the overturning | P9 lays foundation stone for 2 Tidel Neo Parks The parks, which will come up in Villupuram and Tiruppur, will help IT companies open development centres in tier-2, tier-3 cities | P4 express read Woman killed after tree falls on car in Chennai Cops asking for mamool should be booked: HC Chennai: A 57-year-old woman died after a tree fell on the car in which she was travelling, at KK Nagar on Friday evening. Her sister, who was in the car, sustained injuries. Police identified the deceased as Vani Kabilan, a resident of Porur Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government, particularly the Home Secretary and the DGP, to initiate steps to register criminal cases against police officials involved in collecting mamool (regular bribe) | P4 EXPRESS NEWS SERV I CE @ Chennai The Edappadi K Palaniswami camp on Friday asserted that O Panneerselvam is no longer the coordinator of the AIADMK since the party’s general council did not ratify the amendments to the bylaws that created the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator and the election held for them. Jab-o-meter Take your shot June 23 11,98,992 doses June 24 13,90,325 doses Total doses 1,96,92,56,476 NATIONWIDE June 23 June 24 Fresh cases 13,313 17,336 Recoveries 10,972 13,029 Deaths 38 13 tamil nadu June 23 June 24 Fresh cases 1,063 1,359 Recoveries 567 621 Deaths 0 0 JIPMER faculties staging a demonstration in Puducherry on Friday | DEBADATTA MALLICK JIPMER faculties stage protest over alleged maladministration EXPRESS NEWS SERV I CE @ Puducherry On the eve of Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya’s visit to Puducherry, the JIPMER Faculty Association (JFA) staged a silent demonstration in front of the institute’s administrative office on Friday and petitioned the insti, tute’s president seeking the setting up of a high-level committee to “assess the competence of the administration, its performance, and the progress made.” The issues put forth by the faculties relate to the welfare of the employees; alleged shortage of drugs and essentials, which is affecting patient care; lack of security on the campus; and the administration’s “incompetence” in resolving the aforementioned issues. Association president Dr R Raveendran said, “The administration has been indifferent S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Two days after vacating his official residence in the wake of a massive revolt, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray sought to take back control by addressing a meeting of the party’s functionaries, invoking Shivaji Maharaj’s spirit to urge the cadre to rebuild the party from scratch. In his emotional address, he also said he was ready to step down as the Shiv Sena president if need be. He said he may have moved out of the official residence of the chief minister, but his determination to fight the crisis was intact. Saying he was pained by the desertion of the MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, he pointed out thet he gave him the plum portfolio of urban development and sent Shinde’s son to Parliament. “Despite this, they blame me for promoting Aditya Thackeray Every father will do . that for his son,” he reasoned. Uddhav also chaired a meeting of districts collectors and secretaries and asked them continue with development works related to welfare of the people irrespective of the political twists and turns. He also Back to the roots Of the total 96 Shakha pramukhs of the Sena, 85 attended the meet at Shiv Sena Bhavan at Dadar. Aditya Thackeray addressed them in-person while Uddhav spoke virtually stalin OPS no longer coordinator, says EPS camp B A n b u s e lva n @ Chennai The department of cooperation on Thursday revoked the waiver of gold loans to 37,984 persons after they were found to be employees of cooperative societies, State and Central governments and their undertakings, and pensioners. This means the department will now retrieve the loan amount of a whopping `160 crore which had been waived for these persons since February this year. In a recent order, A Shanmuga Sundaram, Registrar of Cooperative Societies ordered the revocation of the loan waiver and directed the joint registrar of cooperative societies in each district to incorporate the changes in the official records. Further, the order asked the joint registrars to pass the orders to cancel the waiver certificates, if issued to these beneficiaries. A joint registrar said, “If a beneficiary is found to have furnished incorrect information to avail the waiver, the loan will be recovered in accordance with the existing procedure.” In November last year, the TN gover nment passed a G.O. earmarking `6,000 crore for waiving off loans availed by mortgaging gold up to 40 grams till March 31, 2021. Initially, it was estimated that 13.5 to 14 lakh loanees would be eligible to avail the benefit. In January this year, the government issued guidelines, which said family members of government employees, cooperative societies, and pensioners would not be eligible for the waiver. In addition, beneficiaries of crop loan waiver in 2021, NPHHNC ration card holders (no commodity card), and those who have not linked their ration card number and Aadhaar with their jewel loan account were also made ineligible to avail the benefits. P5 Uddhav tries to wrest initiative, urges cadre to rebuild the Sena from scratch to long-pending issues, despite us having pointed out the problems numerous times. We are also concerned about the overall de g radation of the institute.” Dr Raveendran added there has been an acute shortage of drugs and essentials for the past six months, and doctors are finding it difficult to manage. Patients are forced to buy even commonly used drugs from outside, he pointed out. “At any given point in time, the administrators hold back 80 to 100 drug purchase files for two to three months. Despite the problem becoming acute, they have not responded promptly Citing delays in drug . supply by companies may be true in some cases, but not every time.” Further, the faculties alleged that they were being denied the service benefits as ensured by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), six months ago.  P5 The administration has been indifferent to long-pending issues, despite us having pointed out the problems numerous times Dr R Raveendran, JIPMER Faculty Association president Shortage of drugs Dr Raveendran said the institute continues to have an acute shortage of drugs and essentials for the past six months Former law minister C Ve Shanmugam, in a reply to OPS supporter S Vaithilingam’s contention that the July 11 meeting on could not be called without the consent of party coordinator Panneerselvam, said the new presidium chairman Tamizhmagan Hussain now has the authority to summon the meeting. Palaniswami may be elected as the AIADMK general secretary discussed the Covid situation and a possible mask mandate in Mumbai, given that the infection count is going up. In the evening NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar called on Uddhav at his residence. NCP state president Jayant Patil and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar accompanied Pawar for the meeting. As for Shinde, he sought legal advice after Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal approved the appointment of Ajay Chaudhari as the Sena’s legislative party leader replacing him (Shinde), and Sunil Prabhu as the chief whip. The Shinde camp had written to Zirwal seeking the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as chief whip instead of Prabhu. at the meeting. Speaking after a meeting at Palaniswami’s residence, Shanmugam said, “Panneerselvam is now only a treasurer, and Palaniswami headquarters secretary .” Meanwhile, Panneerselvam accompanied PM Modi and other leaders during filing of nomination papers by NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu in New Delhi on Friday . P4