coimbatore l saturday l march 18, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION Imran gets protective bail in 8 terrorism cases till next week The Lahore HC gave relief to the former Pak PM till March 24 in five cases registered in Islamabad and till March 27 for remaining cases in Lahore To appear before Islamabad court today Faces over 80 cases across Pakistan The 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief has also got protective bail till March 27 in a case pertaining to interfering in matters of the state. Earlier, the Islamabad HC suspended non-bailable arrest warrants issued against Khan till March 18, providing him with a chance to appear before the trial court hearing the Toshakhana case over illegal sale of state gifts ■ Khan could still be arrested as he is facing over 80 different cases in various courts across Pakistan. Imran told the court that he was not even informed of the details of some of the cases against him ■ He also claimed that as soon as he is granted bail in one case, another one is registered. The court said it can only grant bail in cases before it Bulletproof Vehicle was used to take Imran Khan to the Lahore high court on Friday 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 Oppn forms G-8, calls Cong for LS poll talks Wants freeze on the leadership issue till the 2024 elections are over Trinamool Congress head and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greets Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who called on her in Kolkata on Friday | PTI S H A H I D F A RI D I @ New Delhi Seven non-Congress opposition chief ministers and a deputy CM have together formed a group and had three video conferences over the last few weeks to discuss a united fight against the BJP in 2024. The eight leaders of this group include seven chief ministers - Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), M K Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. The Congress is part of the ruling alliance in TN, Jharkhand and Bihar. Sources said the group, called G-8, has invited the Congress to start seat-sharing talks on the condition that the leadership 600 shut down No need for madrasas, will shut them all in Assam: Himanta E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Belagavi ASSAM Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma categorically stated here on Friday that there is no need for madrasas in society and instead, colleges and universities should be built to churn out doctors, engineers and other professionals for nation-building. Sarma is in Karnataka to campaign for the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections. Speaking after inaugurating the Shivacharitra exhibition, depicting the life and achievements of Chhatrapati Shivaji here, Sarma said all madrasas in Assam will be closed soon, adding that 600 such religious institutions have already been shut. “A t r o c i t i e s ” were committed during the Mughal rule and the Congress is continuing with the same legacy, he said, adding: “The grand old party will not succeed in its efforts. Indian culture and heritage will continue to thrive.” Sarma said: “Mughals wanted to weaken the country by destroying the Sanatan Hindu culture and Congress today has a similar agenda. Mughal rulers of Delhi destroyed the country’s places of worship. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is helping people finally realise their dreams of having a Ram temple in Ayodhya and Kashi Vishwanath corridor.” Stating that Congressmen only spoke about Babri Mosque, he urged voters to “teach them a lesson in elections”. of the united opposition group is left open until after the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress is yet to respond to the proposal. But sources said Rahul Gandhi is keen to engage with G-8 leaders. They said a united challenge to the BJP with all opposition parties coming on one platform was the plan Rahul Gandhi had referred to in London recently . Some of the group’s leaders like KCR, Kejriwal and Mamata oppose breaking bread with the Congress. It is on their insistence that the condition to freeze the leadership issue until after We will go our own way, maintain distance from the Congress and BJP. We are not talking about forming a third front at the moment Sudip Bandyopadhyay, TMC MP the elections was conveyed to the Congress. Two other chief ministers — Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) and Jagan Mohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) — have refused to have any pre-poll understanding with the Congress. Sources said if the Congress does not agree to their condition on leadership, they would go ahead and expand the group by including the remaining opposition CMs and other opposition parties. According to sources, Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Samajwadi Par ty president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday was an attempt by the non-Congress opposition leaders to send a message to the grand old party not to insist on a leadership position in the opposition. The opposition leaders had not taken kindly to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s remark at an election rally that his party would lead the opposition and form the next government by ousting the BJP . An opposition leader who is privy to the discussions among the G-8 said that the Congress had failed to take on the BJP in the last two Lok Sabha elections. “It was routed in states where it was in a direct fight with the BJP .” It is time the Congress allowed the regional parties that have successfully halted the BJP’s march in their respective states to take the leadership position, he said. new schemes for women cops in tn DMK regime, and the key decision to bequeath women equal rights in ancestral Chief Minister M K Stalin properties was also taken on Friday announced nine during his party’s regime. schemes for the welfare of With the new schemes, the women police personnel senior police officials will in the state, on a day he inau- prioritise women police ofgurated the golden jubilee of ficers in terms of shifting of celebrations of women en- workplaces and leave contering the state poc e s s i o n s. O t h e r Police lice force. schemes include a These schemes stations get state-wide annual include several fa- a makeover pistol shooting comcilities such as Shifting morning petition, a national shifting the mornconference annualroll call from ing roll call from 7 ly on the role of 7 am to 8 am; am to 8 am, creat- creating separate women police, and ing separate resetting up of a catoilets for strooms and toilets reer counselling women for women personcommittee office at personnel at nel at police sta- police stations, the DGP’s office in tions, setting up the city . and setting up crèche facilities to crèche facilities The CM also take care of their launched the Aval babies, exclusive women’s project, which aims to safehostels in Chennai and Ma- guard and improve the selfdurai, and the Kalaignar po- defence skills of girls. The lice performance annual project was initiated by the award. Greater Chennai City Police. Speaking at the event at “Women police deserve a the Jawaharlal Indoor Sta- double salute when comdium here, Stalin recalled pared to men for they prothat the first group of wom- tect the state while taking en police personnel were re- care of their families,” said cruited in 1973 during the Stalin. Sahaya N ov i n sto n Lo b o @ Chennai ICC ARREST WARRANT AGAINST PUTIN E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e IN a rare move, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, holding him responsible for the alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Accusing Putin of forced transfer of children from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant against Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova for her “individual criminal responsibility” for the crimes. The ICC’s action does not mean Putin will be extradited as the court doesn’t have the power to arrest suspects; it can only exercise jurisdiction within countries that are signatories to Ro m e S t at u t e, t h e agreement that set up ICC. Russia is not a signatory. However, technically Putin can be ar, rested if he travels to any ICC member states. The ICC said the arrest warrants are intended to be secret in order to protect victims and witnesses, but in this case, it @ Villupuram A 19-year-old first-year nursing student was murdered by slitting her throat by a 23-year-old man who was livid after she refused to continue their relationship. The murder took place just outside her home at Radhapuram village in Vikravandi taluk of Villupuram on Friday early morning. Cops arrested the accused, identified as V Ganesan, within a few hours by tracking his mobile phone. He has been remanded in judicial custody . The deceased S Dharani was the only child to her single mother and was in a relationship with Ganesan for four years, Vikravandi police said. As Ganesan turned a drug addict on international cooperation.” Ukraine welcomed ICC’s move but Russia termed it ‘meaningless’. Ukraine also is not a member of the court, but it has granted the ICC jurisdiction over its territory . Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during Russia’s invasion of its neighbour. Putin is only the third serving president to have been issued an ICC arrest warrant, after Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.  P9 Mega textile parks to come up in 7 states R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi Grandstand opening Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin (centre) inaugurated the Kalaignar M Karunanidhi stand at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday. Also present were (from left) Chennai Super Kings bowling coach Dwayne Bravo, former Tamil Nadu Cricket Association chief Rupa Gurunath, former TNCA and BCCI president N Srinivasan, CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, TN Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin and TNCA president Ashok Sigamani | Ashwin Prasath BJP-Congress fight gets shriller P r eetha N a i r @ New Delhi The war of words between the BJP and the Congress got shriller on Friday with their respective party heads sparring in the context of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘democracy under siege’ statement in London recently . In Parliament, too, the Congress retaliated against a BJP member’s demand to set up a special panel to probe Rahul’s remarks and consider his expulsion, by moving a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged derogatory remarks against party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The Congress also criticised the alleged ‘muting’ of Parliament’s proceedings after the day’s session began. Both Houses were adjourned after ruckus for the fifth consecutive day . Outside Parliament, while BJP president J P Nadda charged that Rahul had become a permanent part of the toolkit working against India, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge in his riposte said those who are ‘antinationals’ themselves must not preach about patriotism and must learn from the Congress instead. Congress leader K C Venugopal, in his privilege notice to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, drew his attention to the PM’s remarks on the Gandhis not using the Nehru sur name during a speech in the House. The mocking remarks were insulting and defamatory against the members of the Nehru family, particularly Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who are Lok Sabha MPs, he said. IN a bid to attract big-ticket investments and create jobs on a large scale, the Centre will set up mega textile parks in seven states. Announcing the PM MITRA (mega integrated textile region and apparel) parks in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh here on Friday Prime , Minister Narendra Modi said these parks will attract massive investments and create lakhs of jobs in the coming years. Taking to Twitter, the PM said: “The PM MITRA mega textile parks will provide stateof-the-art infrastructure for the textiles sector… It will be a great example of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Make for the World”. In another tweet, Modi said: “PM MITRA mega textile parks will boost the textiles sector in line with 5F (farm to fibre to factory to fashion to foreign) vision.” Union textiles minister Piyush Goyal said the parks will be set up with an outlay of `4,445 crore as the biggest ever initiative for infrastructure in this sector. “These parks will create 20 lakh direct/indirect jobs and attract an estimated `70,000 crore of domestic and foreign investment,” he added. Goyal described the decision as “India’s big leap towards becoming a global textiles hub”. India is already one of the largest exporters of textiles and apparel in the world. TN to revive 21 water tanks in Chennai at `2,017 crore Su ba s h i n i V i jayakuma r @ Chennai Shower, in the rush hour People of Chennai witnessed a pleasant rain on Friday morning. Citizens seen moving in the rain at Padi | Ashwin Prasath V’puram girl’s throat slit by ex-lover, dies on spot E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e was making it public to prevent any further abductions of children in future. The court’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC’s judges have issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court has no police force of its own to enforce warrants. “The ICC is doing its part of work as a court of law,” he said. “The judges issued arrest warrants. The execution depends and took to alleged hooliganism, Dharani decided to end the relationship last year, police added. She then left to study nursing at a private college in Chennai and visited home occasionally . During her monthlong visit in February, Dharani declined Ganesan’s multiple offers to meet him, according to police. On Thursday night, when Ganesan called her, Dharani told him that she had returned to Chennai. Ganesan found out from her friends that she had lied to him and was still at home, police added. A furious Ganesan decided to kill her and camped near her house all night. When Dharani stepped out to use the loo at 5.30 am on Friday morning, Ganesan ambushed her and slit her throat with a knife. In what could be a game changer, the state government is planning to restore 21 water bodies in a bid to augment water supply to 21 urban local bodies around Chennai at the cost of `2,017.4 crore. It is expected to benefit a projected population of 61 lakh in 2055 with a supply 379 million litres a day (MLD), as per the government’s ongoing feasibility study . The report is expected to be submitted this month. It studied river basins that comprise the Chennai basin, namely, Aaraniar, Kosasthalaiyar, Cooum, Adyar, and Kovalam, as well as the Palar basin and Gummidipoondi sub-basin. The study encompassed water bodies in Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur and Ranipet districts. While 100 water bodies were studied initially, 21 of them were chosen on the basis of having a capacity of over 40 tmcft, water quality, rainfall dependability, availability of excess water, and other physical characteristics of the tank. A social impact assessment, carried out as part of the study , revealed that people in areas where tanks are located, are willing to share water after their needs for drinking water and agriculture are fulfilled. “Pollution levels are less in these water bodies since untreated sewage and domestic wastes are released into them,” it said. e x p r e ss r e a d AIADMK gen secy post poll on March 26 Chennai: AIADMK has decided to hold the election for the post of party general secretary on March 26. Its interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami is likely to file his nomination papers on Saturday | P4 ‘177 kilns in Thadagam can resume brick sale’ Chennai: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal has permitted 177 ‘illegal’ brick kilns in Thadagam Valley to resume sales, which was stopped after a Madras High Court order on January 2021 and the units were sealed | P2