bhubaneswar l wednesday l march 15, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l jeypore EDITION Facebook confirms layoff buzz, to slash another 10,000 jobs Recruiting, tech teams to be cut to size Zuckerberg said he underestimated the indirect costs associated with these projects. In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said it will reduce the size of its recruiting team and make further cuts in its tech groups in late April, and then its business groups in late May. “This will be tough and there is no way around that,” Zuckerberg said in a mail to employees Facebook parent Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media firm will cancel low priority projects and not fill 5,000 vacant positions Some Management layers to be removed ■ In a bid to increase efficiency “we will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management”, Zuckerberg said, adding that managers will be asked to become individual contributors ■ Individual contributors will report to every level, so that information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster $86-92 bn Revised annual budget of meta in 2023, down from earlier estimate of $95 bn 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 dismisses Bhopal gas tragedy relief plea Directs Centre to use `50 crore parked with RBI for pending claims, if any; Criticises govt for not framing insurance policy S h r u t i K a kk a r @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Centre’s curative plea seeking additional compensation of over `7,400 crore for the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy from Union Carbide (UCC), which is now owned by Dow Chemical. It sharply criticised the Centre for not framing an insurance policy for the victims despite the SC’s directions in a review verdict. Calling it gross negligence, the bench said, “The Union cannot be negligent on this aspect and then seek a prayer to fix the responsi- bility on the UCC.” The bench pointed out that a settlement can be set aside only if there is a claim of fraud. “Either a settlement is valid or it is to be set aside in cases where it is vitiated by fraud. No such fraud has been pleaded by the Union and their only contention relates to a number of victims, injuries and costs that were not contemplated at the time when the settlement was effected.” A five-member Constitution bench comprising justices S K Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, A S Oka, Vikram Nath and J K Maheshwari, while expressing dissatisfaction over the Centre’s inability to furnish any rationale for raking the matter up after more than two decades, directed it to use a sum of `50 crore lying with the RBI to satisfy pending claims if any in accordance with the Bhopal Gas Scheme Disaster Act, 1989. The bench noted that the settlement amount of $470 million that was paid by UCC was sufficient to compensate the claimants and said the Centre’s claim for a top up had no foundation in any known legal principle. The court made this observation after considering the government’s stand that all the claims were adjudicated by the Commissioner in accordance with the procedure established by law. It cited the Welfare Commissioner’s 2009 order as per which pro rata relief nearly six times the amount of compensation was disbursed to the victims as compared to the motor vehicles accident claims. “It was known that medical facilities will have to be extended to rehabilitate people and there was bound to be environmental degradation... This cannot be a ground to seek annulment of the compromise particularly as the settlement has to be reached in an expedient manner,” the Constitution bench said. Imran supporters clash with police to resist his arrest E x p r ess ne w s se r v i c e Trinamool Congress MPs holding their separate protest at the Parliament House complex over the Adani row during the Budget session, in New Delhi on Tuesday | PTI Oppn unity in disarray as parties hold separate protests against Centre ties was also evident at the Opposition party meeting called CRACKS in the Opposition by Congress chief Mallikarjun ranks once again came to the Kharge in the past two days to fore on Tuesday during pro- fine-tune strategy for the Partests demanding a Joint Parlia- liament session. The AAP was mentary Committee (JPC) present, but TMC stayed away probe on the Hindenburg re- on both days. port, which accused the Adani The AAP and the Congress group of fraud and stock are at loggerheads in several manipulation. states. The tension between Soon after the Lok both the parties escaParliament lated after the arrest Sabha was adjourned logjam in the morning due to of AAP leader and protests over Rahul Delhi deputy CM ManParliament Gandhi’s remarks, the proceedings were ish Sisodia in the DelCongress and several hi liquor scam case. paralysed on other parties, includ- Tuesday with the While all the other Oping the DMK, CPM, position parties conBJP seeking JDU, RJD, NCP SP and , demned the arrest, the Rahul Gandhi’s others staged a protest apology and the Congress welcomed it. outside Parliament de- Congress waving The Congress was also manding a JPC probe. missing from the list placards with However, the division quotes from PM of signatories after 10 among the opposition Narendra Modi’s parties wrote to the was apparent as the speeches during PM lambasting the BRS and AAP chose to his foreign trips misuse of agencies. stand a little away Similarly, the BRS from other parties, holding and TMC share rocky ties with placards demanding a JPC the Congress because the parinvestigation. ties believe the grand old party Raising the same demand, is trying to play a big brother’s the TMC chose to go alone by role. During the recent Meghaholding a protest at the Mahat- laya assembly election camma Gandhi statue inside the paign, Congress leader Rahul Parliament complex. Gandhi called the TMC the B The disunity among the par- team of the BJP . PR E E THA N AIR @ New Delhi e x p r e ss r e a d Zoho’s Vembu refutes Forbes’ allegations Chennai: Zoho Corp founder Sridhar Vembu on Tuesday refuted allegations, reported in Forbes magazine, that he had abandoned his wife and son, who has autism, and had transferred of personal assets to his family members amid divorce proceedings | P10 Over 5 lakh drivers to go on strike from today Bhubaneswar: People across the state stare at inconvenience as the Drivers’ Ekta Mahamancha will go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday after its meeting with Commerce and Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu remained inconclusive | P2 Protests broke out in various Pakistan cities on Tuesday after ousted prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan posted a dramatic video message saying he may be killed or jailed but his supporters must continue their fight against the present government. The message was posted soon after clashes between PTI workers and police officials who reached Khan’s Lahore resi- dence to arrest him in the Toshakhana case. A large nu m b e r o f P T I wo rke r s equipped with clubs and sticks were present outside Khan’s residence to resist the police. According to local media reports, police fired tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse PTI supporters, who pelted stones, resulting in injuries. Both Khan’s supporters and policemen were injured in the clashes. Islamabad DIG (operations) Shahzad Bukhari, who was leading the police Odisha lost 784 elephants, 925 humans in 10 yrs E x p r ess N e w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar A staggering 784 elephants perished in the state in the last decade, even as man-elephant conflict claimed 925 lives and left another 212 permanently disabled during the same period. Replying to separate questions in the Assembly on Tuesday, Forest and Environment Minister Pradip Kumar Amat attributed illness, accidents, poaching and electrocution as some of the reasons for elephant deaths in the state. The statistics furnished by the minister also revealed that the trend of jumbo deaths in the state is on the rise in the recent two years. Amat informed the Assembly in writing that the state government in the last one decade has investigated at least 39 elephant deaths and filed charge sheet against 50 persons. He, however, admitted that not a single accused has been convicted in these cases. As per the statistics furnished by the minister, a total of 784 elephants died between 2012-13 and 2021-22 in which the highest 93 jumbo deaths were reported in 2018-19. Besides, the state recorded nine more elephant deaths in the last fiscal compared to a year before. Moreover, 86 elephants died in 2021-22 against 77 in 2020-21, the data reContinued on P5 vealed.  Punjab govt to chargesheet nine over PM security breach H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh The Punjab government has finally decided to chargesheet nine senior officials who were indicted by a Supreme Court-appointed committee that probed the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state on January 5 last year. Sources said former chief secretary Anirudh Tewari, retired director general of police S Chattopadhyaya, additional director generals of police G Nageswara Rao and Naresh Arora, inspector general Rakesh Aggarwal, deputy inspector general Inderbir Singh, then deputy inspector general Surjeet Singh (now retired) and senior superintendents of police Harmandeep Singh Hans and Charanjit Singh will figure in the chargesheet. Their files have been sent to the Chief Minister’s Office for approval. Tewari has already been issued a show cause notice. It is learnt that Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla had last week asked Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Januja to submit an action taken report, as the AAP government appeared to be sitting on the panel’s findings. The panel that indicted the officers was headed by retired Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra. Sources said the Centre was considering options to act against the officers under the Special Protection Group (SPG) Act, if it is unsatisfied with the state government’s reply . The report, submitted on August 25 last year, was forwarded to Punjab a month later. It said the security breach was “a colossal failure in planning and coordination”. More forces roped in Despite PTI cadre’s resistance, Imran’s arrest seems imminent as more force including riot personnel and paramilitary forces have been called in to help police Imran Khan’s supporters clash with riot police in Lahore on Tuesday | AFP team, was among the injured, reports said. In the video message, Khan urged his supporters to come out to protest. “They think that after my arrest, the nation will fall asleep. You have to prove them wrong,” 70-year-old Khan said in the video. “If something happens to me and I am sent to jail or if I am killed, you have to prove that you will struggle without Imran Khan and not accept the slavery of these thieves,” he added. The Toshakhana case is about concealing information about the expensive gifts he retained from the Toshakhana (state depository where gifts given to government officials by foreign dignitaries are kept). Khan was accused of selling the expensive gifts he had received as the prime minister, in violation of rules.