BENGALURU  SUNDAY  JANUARY 22, 2023  `12.00  PAGES 30  LATE CITY EDITION RISHI SUNAK FINED FOR NOT WEARING SEAT BELT Action was taken based on a video he posted on social media which showed him travelling unbuckled UNBUCKLED TO FILM VIDEO FOR SOCIAL MEDIA NOT THE FIRST TIME HE’S PENALISED Lancashire Police issued a fixed penalty of £100 to the Indian-origin British prime minister. In the video, produced for distribution on his social media channels, Sunak can be seen sitting in the rear seat of a moving vehicle, without wearing the seat belt. Sunak apologised for the “brief error of judgement” in removing the seat belt to film the video ■ Downing Street said Sunak will comply with the penalty He was previously fined for violating Britain’s Covid rules on social distancing, while serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ■ Fixed penalty means Sunak can avoid a court hearing. The maximum penalty that can be imposed by a court is £500 ■ Cyrus MISTRY’S CRASH LED TO MANDATORY REAR SEAT BELTS IN MAHARASHTRA 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 Ministry cancels all WFI events as embattled chief opens meet N A M I TA B A J PA I / F I R O Z M I R Z A @ Lucknow/Chennai HOURS after embattled Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh inaugurated the Senior National Ranking Tournament in Gonda, the sports ministry asked them to stop all activities immediately . In the eye of the storm after serious allegations, including that of sexual harassment, were levelled against Singh by top wrestlers of the country he , was asked to step aside from the day-to-day functioning of the federation late on Friday night. However, the WFI chief not only inaugurated the threeday tournament as a chief guest but also witnessed the day’s action from close quarters at the venue on Saturday . The ministry cracked the whip and directed WFI to stop all activities until the oversight committee it promised to appoint is in place and takes over the day-to-day functioning of the WFI. “The ongoing ranking competition also stands cancelled,” said the ministry’s statement. “The WFI is also directed to return entry fee taken from participants...” In another decision, the ministry suspended a key official, the assistant secretary of the WFI, Vinod Tomar, with immediate effect. Late on Friday, sports minister Anurag Thakur had said that a panel that will be constituted to probe the charges will submit its report within four weeks. Its members were to be announced on Saturday but the cherry-picking has been postponed by a day . All eyes will be on the emergency executive committee and special general body meeting on Sunday “Since all members . are here, we will discuss the ministry’s directive with them and also take legal opinion if need arises before going ahead with the meeting,” said V N Prasood, WFI secretary general. “The ranking tournament is cancelled as per directive and fees will be reimbursed.” Replying to the ministry’s notice on various charges, WFI earlier in the day dismissed all allegations, including sexual harassment and said the protest was motivated and part of P17 a larger plot. YouTube, Twitter axe BBC series after govt’s fiat PA R V E Z S U LTA N @ New Delhi WITH THIS ISSUE OH BOY! A FAN MOMENT THE UNCOMMON FLU PLUS 12 PAGES EXPRESS READ Actor Darshan booked under Wildlife Act MYSURU: The forest department has booked a case against actor Darshan, his wife and farmhouse manager for illegally possessing bar-headed geese in his farmhouse at Kempaianahundi village. P5 Bizman on bonnet: Five in judicial custody BENGALURU: The police have arrested five people in connection with the dragging of a businessman on a car bonnet. All the five, including the car driver, have been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. P3 A boy invaded the pitch to hug captain Rohit Sharma during India’s innings against New Zealand in the second ODI at Raipur on Saturday. Rohit later asked security to not take action against him. Chasing 109, India won by 8 wkts to seal series 2-0 | PTI WOMEN LOCK UP GP OFFICE IN GADAG AFTER OPEN DEFECATION RESURFACES R A G H O T TA M K O P PA R @ Gadag ANGRY over lack of public toilets despite making many requests to authorities, hundreds of women locked up the gram panchayat office at Dambal near Gadag for three hours on Friday The women were protesting . against open defecation which has resurfaced despite Gadag district being declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) in 2018. It was only after the GP staff gave an assurance to the women that public toilets will be built soon that they unlocked the office. Neelavva Doddamani and Renuka Patil, residents of Dambal, said, “We have requested officials many a time to build new toilets and repair the ones Dino nest cluster, eggs found in Narmada Valley A N U R A A G S I N G H @ Bhopal A rare discovery of 92 closely located dinosaur nests and 256 fossilised eggs of herbivorous Titanosaurs (one of the largest known dinosaurs) has been made by a team of palaeontologists in Dhar district, which is part of the Narmada Valley in Madhya Pradesh. While dinosaur nests and eggs have been found in the past, too, by other palaeontologists in the Jabalpur region of MP and Balasinor in Gujarat, this recent find raises the possibility of the Narmada Valley being a fertile hatchery for dinosaurs millions of years ago. The research was carried out by a team from Delhi University Indian Institute of Science , Education and Research, Mohanpur-Kolkata and Bhopal in villages of Bagh and Kukshi of Dhar district between 2017 and which are not in a good condition. They have only been giving us false assurances. They have put an ODF board, but some areas still do not have toilets. Dambal and other villages are ODF only on paper”. Authorities blame the pandemic for the return of open defecation. They say that as the officials were busy in vaccination and awareness programmes during the pandemic they could not ensure enforcement of ODF rules. They also say that after the second wave, many ZP and GP officials started awareness programmes to stop open defecation but some villagers venture out to ease themselves during early morning and late evening hours. PRESS INTAKE Work to prevent suicides: Nimhans expert | P4 CM: Will face polls under collective leadership | P4 Fossilised femur bone and fossilised eggs of dinosaurs found in Narmada| PTI 2020. A paper on their research by Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, G V R Prasad and others was recently published in the PLOS ONE research journal. “A major inference is that the nests and eggs date back to 66 million years ago. It’s quite possible that the Titanosaurs either just came to lay the eggs or the eggs were also hatched there. The eggs show evidence of hatching as well,” Dhiman told this newspaper. Withdraw nod to Mahadayi DPR: Goa to Centre | P5 OPS to field own candidate for Erode bypoll | P5 Govt lying on foreign Covid-19 vaccine: Cong | P9 Germany faces flak for denying tanks to Kyiv | P12 THE Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued directions to block multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts that shared links to the first part of a BBC documentary India: The Modi Question, , on the 2002 Gujarat riots. Twitter was ordered to block over 50 tweets containing links of those YouTube videos, officials said. The directions came from the Secretary I&B minis, try on Friday, who invoked emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. “Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions,” sources added. The ministry of external affairs had a couple of days ago trashed the docuseries produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation, saying it was a ‘propaganda piece’ that lacked objectivity and reflected its colonial mindset. While the BBC did not make it available in India, some YouTube channels appear to have uploaded it, sources said. YouTube has also been instructed to block the video if it is uploaded in future. Sources said that senior officials of multiple ministries — external affairs, home and I&B — examined the video and found it to be an attempt to cast aspersions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court of India. It sows divisions among various Indian communities and makes unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign governments in India, sources said. “The documentary was found to be undermining sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact India’s friendly relations with foreign States as also public order within the country said sources. ,” While the Congress and the Trinamool Congress called it censorship, a group of 302 former judges, ex-bureaucrats and veterans slammed the BBC documentary as a “motivated P9 chargesheet”. SECURITY SCARE Blasts in Jammu add to worry as Rahul’s yatra to arrive in 2 days FAYAZ WANI @ Srinagar AT least nine persons were injured, one of them critically in , twin blasts in the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of J&K, where security has been tightened following Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and ahead of the Republic Day The . yatra is scheduled to arrive in Jammu on Monday . ADG Mukesh Singh said the blasts took place at the Transport Nagar area of Narwal in the morning. “Around 11 am, a blast took place in a Bolero vehicle. Soon after the blast, security personnel rushed to the area and launched an operation. Just as they went about their job, another blast took place, near the first site,” said Singh. The injured have been shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu. The condition of one of them is critical. The police, CRPF and Army personnel along with other officials rushed to the spot and sealed the area. “Such dastardly acts highlight the desperation and cowardice of those responsible. No efforts should be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice,” Lt Governor Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said. Security personnel at the site of the twin blasts in Jammu’s Narwal area | PTI Dogs chew on abandoned baby’s body SUBHASH CHANDRA NS @ Mundgod (Uttara Kannada) Women lock up Dambal GP office near Gadag | EXPRESS We have requested the authorities many a time to build toilets but to no avail. Gadag was declared ODF in 2018, but it is on paper only Resident of Dambal village IN a horrific incident, the body of a newborn was found abandoned with a pack of dogs feeding on it in Mundgod in Uttara Kannada district. The incident came to light when Mounish, a local resident, was on his morning walk. Mounish initially thought it could be a bird or an animal whose flesh the canines were chewing. When he went closer, he realised that it was a baby . The baby, according to residents, was dumped in a cardboard box and placed near a drainage on Mundgod-Yellapur Road. The male baby, according to officials, might have been born from an unwanted pregnancy. It is also not known whether the baby was alive or dead at the time of being abandoned. Malayya V Hiremath, Chief Officer, Mundgod Municipality , said he has directed the police to conduct a detailed inquiry into the matter. “I have directed him to book a case and probe the incident,” he said. He said he has urged Child Development Project Officer Geetha Bangera to help the police in the investigation. “They have records of pregnant women, their status, scheduled deliveries and post-pregnancy details which can help us in the probe,” he told TNSE. “The organs of the baby were fully developed,” he added.