Facebook parent Meta to fire 10K more Facebook’s parent company Meta announced on Tuesday it will fire another 10,000 people, implementing a second round of jobs cuts after it slashed 11,000 positions in November last year, to improve its financial performance. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a post that overall “we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired”. bengaluru l wednesday l march 15, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 22 l late city EDITION 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 plea to hike Bhopal gas tragedy relief Directs Centre to use `50 crore parked with RBI for pending claims if any in accordance with the scheme 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 Corp (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 responsibility 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. CCTV cameras to catch traffic violators on Pune-B’luru NH G S u b h a s h C h a n d r a @ Chitradurga Drivers beware! The next time you violate lane discipline on Pune-Bengaluru National Highway 48, you have to shell out Rs 500 as fine at toll plazas. High definition cameras have been installed at vantage 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 PR E E THA NAIR @ New Delhi CRACKS in the Opposition ranks once again came to the fore on Tuesday during protests demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe on the Hindenburg report, which accused the Adani group of fraud and stock manipulation. Soon after the Lok Sabha was adjourned in the morning due to protests over Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, the Congress and several other parties, including the DMK, CPM, JDU, RJD, NCP , SP and others staged a protest outside Parliament demanding a JPC probe. However, the division among the opposition was apparent as the BRS and AAP chose to stand a little away from other parties, holding placards demanding a JPC investigation. Raising the same demand, the TMC chose to go alone by holding a protest at the Mahatma Gandhi statue inside the Parliament complex. The disunity among the par- express read Police surround Imran’s residence to arrest him Lahore: A heavy contingent of police on Tuesday surrounded the residence of Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan in Lahore as Islamabad police intended to arrest the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief in the Toshakhana case. P12 Somanna confirms he’s not quitting BJP Bengaluru: Housing Minister V Somanna on Tuesday asserted that he will never quit the BJP. His statement comes in the wake of speculations of the minister bidding adieu to the BJP and joining the Congress ahead of assembly elections. P4 ties was also evident at the Opposition party meeting called by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the past two days to fine-tune strategy for the Parliament session. The AAP was present, but TMC stayed away on both days. The AAP and the Congress are at loggerheads in several states. The tension between both the parties escalated after the arrest of AAP leader and Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the Delhi liquor scam case. While all the other Opposition parties condemned the arrest, the Congress welcomed it. The Congress was also missing from the list of signatories after 10 parties wrote to the PM lambasting the misuse of agencies. Similarly, the BRS and TMC share rocky ties with the Congress because the parties believe the grand old party is trying to play a big brother’s role. During the recent Meghalaya assembly election campaign, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the TMC the B team of the BJP . points, which can read the number plates and capture the images of the vehicles.  The police, who will be monitoring the movement of vehicles on the highway through the automated number plate recognition cameras installed along NH 48, from Tumakuru to Third case in 4 months: Woman’s body found in a drum at SMVT s L a l i t h a & B a l a C h a u h a n @ Bengaluru In yet another shocking incident within Bengaluru Railway Division, the body of a woman, in her 30s, was found dumped on the premises of the posh Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (SMVT) at Baiyappanahalli here on Monday night. This is the third such case in the past four months, and raises serious questions about security at the railway stations in the division. However, N Shashi Kumar, DIG Railways, ruled out any ‘serial killer’ theory . CCTV footage revealed that three men arrived in an autorickshaw in the early hours of Monday (12.16am), dumped the drum and fled. The men The drum in which the have reportedly been identified. “Some suspects have rewoman’s body was found, in Bengaluru portedly been detained after CCTV cameras captured images of three men carting the body in an auto rickshaw and keeping it inside the railway station. They are being questioned,” informed sources told TNIE. According to a source, the body was found inside the 2-ft drum around 7.30pm, when Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel opened it after getting suspicious. “The drum was noticed by a cop by 2pm Monday Many long distance commut. ers use such drums to carry luggage. So we assumed it to be someone’s baggage. However, the drum remained at the same spot till 7.30pm, and the RPF opened it. The foul smell made them realise it was a corpse, and they alerted the GovernP3 ment Railway Police (GRP).  Perumal Murugan’s ‘Pyre’ in long list of International Booker Prize E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i ce @ Chennai Perumal Murugan’s novel ‘Pyre’ is among the 13 books that have been long listed for this year’s International Booker Prize, making him the first Tamil writer to debut in the Booker Prize Foundation’s list that was announced on Tuesday . Expressing happiness on his novel making it to the longlist, the Tamil Nadu-born author told TNIE, “I wrote it in 2012 while its English translation came out in 2017 and the UK edition in 2021”. On the novel, which was translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, and honour killing, the subject it dealt with, the 56-year-old writer said that he believed that talking about the subject will raise more awareness on it. “I don’t believe a novel would bring about drastic change immediately However, it is a way . of spreading views. When topics such as honour killing are discussed in literature, cinema and news, there is a chance of it changing the minds. Such incidents will also get reported,” Murugan added.  CONTINUED ON: P5 When topics such as honour killing are discussed in literature, cinema and news, there is a chance of it changing the minds Perumal Murugan, Tamil writer Belagavi, will identify the violators and impose fines on them. As per the directions of the Director-General and Inspector General of Police, the automated number plate recognition cameras have been installed on a pilot basis in Chitradurga, P4 Davangere and Haveri.  Cong workers protest toll collection on expressway Cameras watch over the national highway at Aymangala in Chitradurga As the NHAI began collecting toll on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway on Tuesday, Congress workers and Kannada activists protested against the government for collecting the toll without completing the expressway.