kottayam l monday l January 23, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Institutional deliveries shoot up in India: REport Medical institutions handled 95.5% of all deliveries in India in 2021-22, up from 88.6% in 2019-2021 100% hospital delivery in TN, T’gana Home deliveries common in many states Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Goa and two Union Territories — Puducherry and Lakshadweep — reported 100% institutional deliveries in 20212022, as per the data released by the Union health ministry’s Health Management Information System. Nine states, including Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, recorded 99% births in institutions | P7 ■ In rural areas of many states, especially in the Northeast, giving birth at home continues to be prevalent, as people lack easy access to institutional health care facilities ■ For instance, in Meghalaya, 42.8% of all births were at home while the figure for Nagaland was 21.7% and 19.4% for Manipur 4.5% National average for home deliveries in 2021-22 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 PT-7 tranquillised, caged after 10-hour op A S at i s h @Palakkad FBI agents walk near the crime scene in Monterey Park, California, on Sunday | ap 10 shot dead at Chinese New Year event in US city Suspect at large; police probing hate crime angle; fifth mass killing in the US this month E x p r ess N e ws S e r v i c e AT least 10 people were killed and 10 others injured, some of the critically, when a gunman opened fire at a Chinese lunar year celebration at a ballroom dance club at Monterey Park in Southern California on Saturday around 10:20 pm local time. This is the fifth mass killing in the US this month. When local police first arrived, people were “pouring out of the location screaming,” Capt Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department told reporters in a news briefing at the scene. He added that the police are on the lookout for the male suspect, who is on the run, and are probing whether it was a hate crime or not. While he gave no description of the wanted man, or the kind of gun he used, US media reports quoting witnesses said the gunman shot indiscriminately with a semiautomatic weapon. Footage posted on social media showed injured people on stretchers being taken to ambulances by emergency staff. Around the scene of the shoot- Spoke to SRK on protests: Assam CM P r asnata m a z u m da r @ Guwahati Hours after he said, “Who is Shah Rukh Khan? I don’t know anything about him,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday tweeted that the actor called him over phone at 2am and expressed concerns over protests in Guwahati against his film Pathaan. “He expressed concern about an incident in Guwahati during screening of his film. I assured him that it’s duty of state govt to maintain law & order. We’ll enquire and ensure no such untoward incid e n t s, ” S a r m a tweeted. Members of a right-wing organisation allegedly tore up and torched posters of the film in Guwahati. The movie is facing a backlash for showing actor Deepika Padukone clad in a saffron bikini in the song Besharam Rang. Sarma’s tweet comes a day after he said: “Who is Shah Rukh Khan? We have many Shah Rukh Khans here,” while replying to a question on what action his government has taken against those involved in the torching of posters. The Opposition slammed Sarma on Sunday reminding him that he had , stated a day ago that he does not know the actor. ing police guarded cordoned-off streets, the video showed. Chinese Lunar New Year is an annual 15-day festival to celebrate in the new year on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar. Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people that sits at the eastern edge of Los Angeles. The majority of its residents are Asian immigrants or their descendants, most of them Chinese. Police said they are looking into an attempted shooting at a ballroom and dance studio in the neighboring city of Alhambra. Reports said an attack had been thwarted with the alleged gunman tackled and disarmed. “We have investigators on scene trying to determine if there’s a connection between these two incidents,” said Mayer. The Monterey Park violence also marked the deadliest since May 24, 2022 — when 21 people were killed in a school in Uvalde, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the US. It comes two months after five people were killed at a Colorado Springs nightclub. Seventy-two forest department personnel, three kumki elephants, one target: PT-7 (Palakkad Tusker-7). After an intense operation spanning 10 hours, forest officials led by Chief Veterinary Surgeon Arun Zachariah tranquillised and caged the wild jumbo, which had been giving sleepless nights to residents, on Sunday morning. Sedated in a forest area between Mundur and Dhoni, around 2km away from human habitation, PT-7 was shifted to a kraal (elephant cage) in Dhoni. The tracking and darting teams had launched efforts to trap the jumbo from dawn on Saturday However, they could . not make any headway as the animal moved into dense forests and stood on steep terrain that made shooting tranquillisers a challenging task. Confident that the jumbo would return for food, a rapid response team (RRT) camped in the forest for the night. AS IT HAPPENED on Sunday 1 2 3 3am: Forest personnel receive information that PT-7 is in Korma near Mundur. RRT tracks the jumbo as it enters a teak plantation. Chief Veterinary Surgeon Arun Zachariah and team reach the spot 7.12am: First tranquilliser dart is fired, hits the jumbo near its left earlobe Kumki elephants (1,2,3) and forest department personnel leading wild jumbo PT-7, whose eyes were covered with a black cloth, to the lorry after it was tranquillised near Mundur on Sunday Dhoni waterfalls The forest Mundur area between Mundur and Dhoni in Palakkad where PT-7 was tranquillised One kill: On July 8 last year, PT-7 killed a person near Dhoni. Sivaraman was out for a morning walk when he saw the jumbo and ran into the paddy fields nearby. The animal chased and gored him Around 3am on Sunday forest , personnel received information that the elephant was in the Korma area near Mundur. The RRT started monitoring its movements. The elephant entered a teak plantation nearby The team led by Zach. ariah reached the spot. At 7.12am, the first tranquil- 8.04am: Second tranquilliser dart is fired. The jumbo is sedated. Kumki elephants stand guard and then escort the animal to the lorry 11am: PT-7 is loaded onto the lorry Noon: Lorry reaches Dhoni 1pm: PT-7 is caged in the kraal liser dart left the gun. It found its target, the elephant’s left earlobe. Startled, PT-7 ran for around 10 minutes before coming to a Modi lauds CJI’s pitch for making SC judgments in regional languages R A J E S H K UM A R TH A K UR @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud’s pitch for making Supreme Court judgments available in regional languages. “At a recent function, the Hon’ble CJI Justice DY Chandrachud spoke of the need to work towards making SC judgments available in regional languages. He also suggested the use of technology for it. This is a laudatory thought, which will help many people, particularly youngsters,” Modi tweeted on Sunday . The PM added that governem- Five Cong MPs not keen on contesting 2024 polls lappally Ramachandran said. Adding to the Congress’ woes, As many as five sitting Con- there is a massive erosion in gress MPs in Keala are not keen the party’s support base among to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha the minorities, he told TNIE. elections. Reason: They think it The Congress had a dream will be tough to defend their run in the 2019 LS elections unseats as the party state leader- der his stewardship, with the ship has not yet started prepa- party sweeping 15 of the 16 rations for the polls seats it contested, and while CPM has already its allies bagging four. made giant strides in The CPM had to be the ground works. content with a single The Congress in It was Shashi Thaseat. Mullapally had the state has roor and T N Pratha- become a divided undertaken Janamaha pan who first expressed house ever since Yatra to connect with their desire to shift Tharoor hinted at people, and launched their focus to the state. his desire to focus ‘My booth, My pride’ on state politics It did not go downwell campaign which saw with the state leader25,000 booth commitMullappally ship. Kozhikode MP M tees appointed, many Ramachandran, K Raghavan is also eyof them with women senior Cong leader ing a state berth. So is presidents, soon after Attingal MP Adoor Prakash. he took over the reins. It’s learnt that state Congress The slogan “20:20” (meaning chief K Sudhakaran will also the party will win all 20 LS not be contesting the polls. seats in Kerala) raised by Mul“The Congress in the state lappally and then Leader of Ophas become a divided house position Ramesh Chennithala ever since Tharoor hinted at has now been snatched away by his desire to focus on state poli- the CPM, a Congress MP from ● More on P4 tics,” senior party leader Mul- Malabar rues.  C y n t h i a C h an d r an @ T’Puram EXPRESS READ 4 attacked by wasps, 2 critical Kozhikode: Four people were injured in a wasp attack at Narikkatteri near Nadapuram on Saturday. Of them, two — Ahmad Chaalil, 62, and Kunjabdulla Maruthoor, 65 — are in critical condition. A swarm of wasps attacked them near the Manikoth bridge over the Narikkatteri canal. They were admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital. The other two injured are Babu Kuttipoyil, 56, and a pedestrian. pti nt is all for encouraging regional languages and is in favour of making the option available for studying subjects such as engineering and medicine in Indian languages. Tagging a video clip of Chandrachud’s speech, delivered at an event organised by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa in Mumbai recently, the PM tweeted that the government at the Centre has been taking numerous efforts to encourage the Indian languages. Taking to his twitter, the prime minister said that India’s several languages add to cultural vibrancy . It may be recalled that the prime minister has in the past often pitched for making judicial verdicts more accessible to the common man by making those available in regional languages. On July 7 in 2022, PM Modi had also emphasised the importance of providing engineering education in local languages during a virtual meeting with the heads of 107 centrally funded technical institutions on July 7 in 2022. In recent times also, the prime minister cautioned against controversies erupted over languages saying that every regional language is ‘worth –worshiping’ as it keeps reflecting India’s culture and colloquial diversity . On the secuirty front, speaking at the 57th All India Conference of Director Generals and Inspector Generals of Police in Delhi, Modi called for more cooperation between state police forces and central agencies to leverage capabilities. Heartbreak at sudden death India’s World Cup run ended amid drama in sudden death against New Zealand on Sunday Poor from top of the D This was an Achilles Heel at WC. India earned a lot of penalty corners but failed to convert many. Out of the ones they scored, most were rebounds Pressure factor This is an old chestnut and coach Graham Reid admitted it could be this. Going forward, he hoped they will have a mental coach with the team Today’s matches Germany vs France 4.30 PM Argentina vs Korea 7.00 PM New Zealand players celebrate with goalkeeper Lyon Hayward after India’s Samsher missed during sudden death on Sunday | debadatta malik halt. Realising that one dart was not enough, Zachariah shot another tranquilliser dart at 8.04am. It did the trick. The elephant was sedated. Team members who were waiting in the bushes and behind trees some 50m to 75m away sprang into action. Led by mahouts, three kumki elephants — Bharathan, Vikram and Surendran — that were brought from Muthanga wildlife sanctuary in Wayanad surrounded the jumbo and stood guard as the team covered the motionless animal’s eyes with a black cloth to prevent the sunlight from hitting its eyes and provoking it. A lorry crane and JCB were , brought near the spot after felling some trees. The kumki elephants took charge. Bharathan and Vikraman stood on either sides, while Surendran nudged PT-7 from behind, towards the lorry. By 11am, the animal was loaded onto the lorry Around . 12 noon, the lorry reached ● More on P4 Dhoni.  House from today, budget presentation on February 3 E x p r ess N e w s S e r v i c e @T’Puram The budget session of the Kerala assembly will begin on Monday with the governor’s policy address. “Discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor’s policy address will be held on January 25 and February 1 and 2. Budget will be presented on February 3. General discussion on the budget will be held from February 6 to 8,” Speaker A N Shamseer told reporters on Sunday . He said various subject committees will meet for two weeks from February 13 to examine the demands for grants in detail. Thirteen days, from February 28 to March 22, have been set aside for discussions on demands for grants in the budget, Shamseer said. “ F ive d ay s e a c h h ave been earmarked for government business and private members’ business. Two bills, relating to final supplementary demands for grants of the 202223 budget and 2023-24 budget, will be tabled and passed,” he said. As of now, it has been decided to wind up the session by March 30, said Shamseer. On the bills that are pending before the governor, Shamseer expressed hope that they will be signed soon. “It’s better to be optimistic,” he said. w res t l i n g f i as c o WFI meet off, uncertain times for grapplers f i r oz m i r z a @ Chennai There is no end to wrestling drama. In less than 24 hours, the Wrestling Federation of India was forced to call off its senior ranking tournament in Gonda and it cancelled emergency meeting too. In reposnse to sports ministry’s directive to cancel all activities with immediate effect, the WFI had said it would take a decision on Sunday and it is understood that after deliberation, they decided to cancel its emergency executive committee and general body meeting. “The proposed meeting has been called off,” tweeted the WFI. As reported by this newspaper, there is uncertainty over India’s participation in Zagreb Open Ranking Series from February 1 to 5. The WFI said that all participation inlcuding national and international might get affected. A provisional entry list had already been sent by the WFI before its chief Brij Bhush- an Sharan Singh got embroiled in the controversy The list in. cluded Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik and Sarita Mor — the wrestlers who led the protest against Singh at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Visa process too had started before the protest. It is understood that Bajrang and his wife withdrew their names. The WFI’s meeting was to discuss various allegations levelled against Singh. All members from various affiliated state units present in Gonda backed the WFI chief, who has been asked to step aside from day-to-day activities of WFI till a proposed oversight committee, which is yet to be named, submits its probe report in four weeks. For wrestlers, the ranking series is important to get points that help them in getting seedings for World Championships, which is also an Olympic qualifier. The Croatia event will be followed by a Ranking Series in Egypt from February 23.