HYDERABAD  MONDAY  JUNE 05, 2023  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENCE LLOYD AUSTIN BEGINS TWO-DAY INDIA VISIT The US is keen to bolster defence ties with India, especially in the area of technology transfer for the co-development of military hardware PROCUREMENT OF ARMED DRONES ON AGENDA LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR MODI’S TRIP On Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Austin will discuss a proposal by US defence maker General Electric to share technology for co-development of fighter jet engines as well as India’s plan to buy 30 MQ-9B armed drones from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc for $3 bn. China’s aggressive behaviour along the LAC and the Indo-Pacific is also likely to figure in the talks ■ Austin’s visit comes two weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington during which the two sides are expected to unveil initiatives to expand the India-US global strategic partnership ■ India has been looking at the manufacturing of jet engines in the country under the framework of technology transfer to power its fighter aircraft JUNE 2016 WHEN U.S. DESIGNATED INDIA A ‘MAJOR DEFENCE PARTNER’ PAVING WAY FOR TECH TRANSFER 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 ‘CHANGE IN E-INTERLOCKING SYSTEM CAUSED CRASH’ RLY RECOMMENDS CBI PROBE; MAINLINE JUNCTION HAD DEVELOPED A SNAG BEFORE THE MISHAP; PERSONS RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENT IDENTIFIED B I J O Y K E TA N P R A D H A N & HEMANT KUMAR ROUT 553 of 695 pax from AP safe, clarifies Botcha @ Bhubaneswar / Bahanaga IN a curious turn of events, the Indian Railway Board on Sunday evening recommended the Centre to hand over the Bahanaga Bazar train accident case to CBI for investigation. The announcement came from Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who earlier in the day had said the root cause of the accident and the people responsible for it had been identified. “It happened due to a change made in the electronic interlocking and point machine,” he told reporters at the accident site in the morning. However, in a hurriedly convened media conference at Rail Sadan, headquarters of the East Coast Railway in Bhubaneswar, after visiting survivors undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, Vaishnaw said the case needed further investigation. “Keeping in view the situation in which the accident took place and all the administrative information that has been received so far, this case is being considered for further investigation. Recommendation is being made by the Railway Board to hand the matter over to the CBI,” Vaishnaw said. The request for CBI probe has seemingly brought the sabotage angle into picture. A senior Railway official said prima facie the accident appears to be an act of sabotage, which is now seen as a criminal act. The CBI will be the competent agency to investigate the criminal aspect of the case. Earlier in the day, Odishia Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which officially was stated to be on the treatment of injured passengers. The chief minister assured the prime minister that all possible steps are being taken to provide best of treatment to them. According to some railway officials, human error is the reason behind the crash. “It was entirely a human error. We have identified it and found the EXPRESS READ Heatstroke claims life of 8-yr-old in Palakurthy Jangaon: An eight-year-old boy, G Vikram, succumbed to heatstroke in Palakurthy on Sunday. Sources said his parents, Renuka and Shobhan, work as labourers. After attending a function near their residence on Saturday, Vikram began complaining in the evening about feeling nauseated because of the intense heat in the noon. Later, his parents took him to the Palakurthy PHC, where doctors referred Vikram to MGM Hospital in Warangal for further treatment. The boy’s condition deteriorated during the journey, and he passed away en route to the hospital on Sunday morning | P2 Maoist leader Katakam Sudarshan dies in C’garh Raipur: Sixty-nine-year-old Katakam Sudarshan, popularly known as Comrade Anand, a key member of the central committee and Politburo of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation, suffered a heart attack in Dandakaranya forest in southern Chhattisgarh, leading to his demise. A press statement issued by Abhay, spokesperson of the central committee of CPI (Maoist), revealed that Anand, who hailed from Adilabad district in Telangana, succumbed to chronic illnesses, which included a lung infection, diabetes and high blood pressure | P8 Restoration of train tracks in progress at the accident site in Balasore, Odisha, on Sunday | DEBADATTA MALLICK involvement of two persons,” a senior official told this paper on condition of anonymity . The Bahanaga Bazar station, where the derailment occurred, has two mainline tracks. Up and Down lines for trains to pass through and two loop lines used for temporary halt to allow smooth movement of trains on the main lines. After a goods train was allowed to stay on the Up loop line, the signal was given for Coromandel Express on the Up mainline. Usually after , a train is allowed into loop by switching on the panel, it moves a piece of track from mainline to loop line. Once the train is in, the switch is moved back in the route relay panel to ensure that the moved piece of track is returned to its original position. But here, the track piece did not return from the loop line to the mainline and the point was towards the loop line. Though the issue reflected on the panel at the station and a red light flashed for a few seconds, the station manager present at that time somehow missed it. By the time he saw the panel, there was nothing abnormal and he gave the signal. As the piece of track, according to sources, had not returned to its original position, Coromandel Express dashed into the stationary iron ore-laden freight train at a speed of 130 kmph. Had the station manager noticed the red light and taken measures, this crash could have been avoided, said the senior official. Besides, the official said, it has come to light that the mainline and loop line junction had developed some snags and were ‘repaired’ by a signal maintainer. “Possibly, this technician, who repaired the circuit made a direct connection with the signal bypassing the procedures. The assistant station manager, thus, could give the signal without knowing the track position. He adopted a shortcut method to repair the fault,” the official added. The electronic signalling system is error-proof and fail-safe, which means when it fails, all signals will turn red and all train operations will stop. Station manager cannot give the signal if there is any fault in the lines. “This is perhaps for the first time in railways history, it happened due to the shortcut method adopted to repair the fault,” sources said. Meanwhile, three separate teams of forensic experts from Kolkata, Hyderabad and New Delhi visited the station and collected forensic evidence. They also interacted with rail P7 officials and station staff. Manipur violence probe: Central govt sets up 3-member inquiry panel A M I T M U K H E R J E E @ New Delhi THE Centre has set up a threemember Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, to conduct a probe into the incidents of violence in Manipur since the first week of May, which has killed at least 100 people and left thousands homeless. The panel, chaired by Justice Ajai Lamba, former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, will specifically examine the triggers of the May 3 violence that sparked the ethnic conflict still raging in the state. The commission will try to determine if there were any lapses or dereliction of duty on the part of authorities and if the measures taken to prevent the outbreak of violence were sufficient. Other members of the Imphal-headquartered commission are retired IAS officer Himanshu Shekhar Das and retired IPS of ficer Aloka Prabhakar. The commission must sub- mit its report to the Centre as soon as possible, and no later than six months from the date of its first sitting. If it deems fit, it can make interim reports to the Centre before the said date. Meanwhile, violence continued in the state with suspected Kuki militants torching nearly 100 abandoned houses, including that of a Congress MLA, in the wee hours of Sunday . The state has been witnessing sporadic violence ever since ethnic violence first broke out after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts on May 3 to protest the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the state between May 29 and June 1, during which he held talks with representatives of all segments of the Manipur society Shah said . peace and prosperity of Manipur are the Centre’s top priority and had instructed officials to strictly deal with any activities that disturb peace. Visakhapatnam: Over 95 per cent of the total 695 passengers from Andhra Pradesh travelling in the illfated Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Superfast Express and YesvantpurHowrah Superfast Express have escaped the accident, Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana announced on Sunday. Sharing details with media, Botcha said that 695 passengers from AP were on board the two trains during the accident in Balasore. Of the total, 553 are safe, he said and added that 95 people had not travelled in either of the trains. As many as 484 people from Andhra Pradesh were in the reserved coaches of Coromandel Express. Of the total, 309 were bound for Visakhapatnam, 31 to Rajamahendravaram, nine to Eluru and 135 to Vijayawada. Tribals turned 1st responders, saved 200 H E M A N T K U M A R R O U T @ Bahanaga PHULAMANI Hembrum was cooking in her courtyard when she heard a big bang on Friday evening. She stepped out to find a cloud of smoke engulfing the railway tracks, about 200 metres from her house. And then the area plunged into darkness. Before she could realise what happened, she heard screams. Phulamani and her husband Raghu ran towards the site and what they saw left them numbed. “For the first time in my life, I saw so many dead people. The bodies were soaked in blood. There were dismembered body par ts strewn across. I gathered courage and ran towards a derailed coach where a little girl was hanging from the window. She had in- juries all over her body. Her mother managed to get out. I took them to my house, gave them water,” said the 30-yearold tribal woman who rescued six children. The Hembrum couple did not stop there. They went on to rescue another 30 passengers and even arranged transport for hospitals. Before rescue teams could arrive, around 58 tribals of two hamlets — Krushnapur and K a m a r i p u r — we re among the first responders who utilised their resources to save the lives of passengers of the ill-fated Coromandel Express that was involved in one of the country’s deadliest rail disasters at Bahanaga Bazar Station. They rescued over 200 pas- sengers and retrieved dead bodies from damaged coaches. Soon teams of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force, fire services and National Disaster Response Force arrived at the site. Maheswar Kisku, another tribal, recalls removing mutilated bodies. “I climbed on the overturned coaches and pulled out dead bodies which were missing hands and legs. The scene was so horrific, it replays in front of my eyes even after two days of the incident,” he said. The tribal families were lucky the derailed coaches did not hit their houses which are barely 200 metres from the site. “Anything was possible but we were l u c k y, ” s a i d h i s w i f e Manjulata. CONTINUED ON P5 MAIN LINE TRACKS REPAIRED Two days after one of India’s worst train accidents at Bahanaga Bazar in Odisha’s Balasore district, two of the damaged railway tracks have been made fit to carry trains after bulldozers and cranes removed capsized coaches on the main trunk line connecting eastern and southern India. The government said on Sunday that both the Up and Down railway tracks at Balasore accident site have been repaired. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted that track linking Up-line has been restored and overhead electrification work has also started. “Track linking of Up-line has been done at 16.45 hours. Overhead electrification work started,” Vaishnaw tweeted on Sunday BDS student sets self ablaze in KHM hostel EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Khammam A third-year BDS student reportedly killed herself by setting herself on fire in her hostel room in Khammam on Sunday The victim, Samudrala . Manasa, 22, doused herself with petrol, said police, adding that she sustained 90 per cent burns and died on the spot. According to Sri Hari, Khammam Urban CI, Manasa used to live in a hostel located opposite the private medical college. Her body was taken to the District Headquarters Hospital for autopsy Sources said Manasa had . not emerged from her room since morning. Fellow residents raised an alarm after witnessing thick smoke emanating from her room. They alerted the hostel staff, who forcibly opened the door and discovered Manasa’s body Her classmates . said she had been attending classes until the previous day . Sources said family disputes may have led to Manasa’s suicide. Police have initiated a probe and registered a case. SUICIDE PREVENTION HELPLINE 040-66202000 & 66202001 (Call between 11 am and 9 pm) TOLL REVISED DOWN TO 275; 88 BODIES IDENTIFIED Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Sunday revised the train accident’s toll to 275 from 288, and put the number of injuries at 1,175. Chief secretary P K Jena told mediapersons that this is because some bodies were counted twice — at the accident spot and then again at the hospital. After detailed verification and submission of the report by the district collector, the final toll in the tragedy has been put at 275, he clarified. Jena said 88 bodies have been identified so far and 78 handed over to their families People in search of their missing relatives check photos of victims displayed at the makeshift morgue at NOCCI Business Park in Balasore on Sunday | DEBADATTA MALLICK Cong will scrap Dharani, Rythu & Dalit Bandhu if voted to power: KCR S R A J A R E D D Y @ Nirmal SOPS GALORE CALLING upon the people to throw the grand old party into the Bay of Bengal for its remarks on scrapping the Dharani portal, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that if the Congress was voted to power it would discontinue the Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu schemes. Addressing a public meeting at Nirmal on Sunday after inaugurating the Integrated Collectorate Complex, the CM asked whether the people wanted to scrap the State government’s integrated land records management system. “Congress leaders are saying that the Dharani portal will be thrown into the Bay of Bengal if the party is voted to power. Tell me, do you want the Dharani portal, which has made your work easier without the involvement of middlemen, or not,” he asked. When the crowd voiced their opposition to such a move, Rao said, “Then throw the Congress into the Bay of Bengal which vows to throw the Dharani portal into the sea.” The newly-inaugurated Nirmal Integrated District Collectorate Complex, constructed on a 15-acre site with at a cost of `56 crore aims to enhance ad-  `10 lakh to 396 gram panchayats each  `20 lakh to 19 mandals each  `25 cr to Nirmal, Mudhole and Khanapur municipalities each  Engineering college to come up in the erstwhile Adilabad district CM K Chandrasekhar Rao felicitates sarpanch Gadge Meenakshi for her efforts in developing Mukhra (K) and winning many awards, on Sunday ministrative efficiency in the region. Continuing his tirade against the grand old party he said, “All , of us know how the Congress rule was. They changed the Pahanis (revenue records). If the Congress is in power, they will bring back the VRO and Patwari system. The Dharani portal plays a crucial role in facilitating direct deposits of Rythu Bandhu and other financial assistance into the accounts of farmers. If it is scrapped, the Congress will undoubtedly discontinue the Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu schemes.” Rao called upon the people to choose between those who would continue the Rythu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu or  1 lakh acres in Mudhole and Nirmal Assembly segments to get irrigation facilities those who say ‘Ram Ram’ to Rythu Bandhu and ‘Jai Bhim’ to Dalit Bandhu. He urged the people to choose between those who would continue supporting the welfare schemes and those who merely made symbolic gestures. He said that there was a good response to the ‘Telangana model’ in Maharashtra. Initiatives on the anvil With the Assembly elections just months away, the chief minister said, “I have some new programmes and plans. The State government will start food processing units in all taluks across the State after the Assembly elections.” CONTINUED ON P4