KOZHIKODE l Thursday l February 15, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l city EDITION all-format captain rohit set to lead india in T20 World Cup Cricket board secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday confirmed that Rohit Sharma will lead India in the T20 World Cup in June this year rohit returned to T20I after a year in Jan ‘After Hardik injury, he’s clear choice’ After India’s semifinal exit in the 2022 T20 World Cup, Rohit had not featured in the shortest format for more than a year. Hardik Pandya had been leading the side in T20Is whenever he was available. However, in January, Rohit and Virat Kohli played T20Is against Afghanistan. The BCCI secretary said even head coach Rahul Dravid will continue ■ ■ Jay Shah said that after Hardik Pandya’s injury in the ODI WC, it became clear that Rohit Sharma will captain Shah said that Rohit was captaining (in all formats) and he came back for the Afghanistan series. So BCCI would like to continue with him till the T20 World Cup to be held in USA and West Indies | P11 June 2-29 span of the WC. 55 matches in all will be played during the period 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 1st uae temple symbol of harmony, says Modi Third round of talks with farmers today y e s h i Se l i @ New Delhi Union leaders ask the protesters not to precipitate matters till meeting with govt in the evening is over H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Leaders of the protesting farmers on Wednesday agreed to hold talks with the Centre the next evening and decided against any further escalation till then. They advised participants of the Dilli Chalo protest not to precipitate matters. The day began with reports of scuffle between some of the protesters and the Haryana Police at the Shambhu and Khanauri inter-state borders. The police not only fired tear gas shells, they also used drones to drop the gas canisters, which became an contentious inter-state issue. On top of the talks agenda is the demand for a legal guarantee to the minimum support price mechanism for procurement of agricultural produce. After a meeting with senior Punjab Police officials at a resort near Rajpura in the evening, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher and Bharat Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) president Jagjit Singh Dallewal said, “The third round of talks will be held with Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai tomorrow evening at Chandigarh. Till the meeting, we request the youth and everyone else to make the atmosphere conducive.” “It has been projected as if we want to break into Haryana and create lawlessness but it is not true. We only want that the farmers who are fighting for their rights on MSP and other issues are heard and it’s made a law,” he said and added, “We will continue to fight for our rights in a nonviolent manner.” Pandher requested the government to reciprocate by stopping the use of tear gas against the protesters to create a cordial atmosphere. The Punjab BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), the biggest farmer union in the state, decided to disrupt railway traffic at seven places in Punjab between 12 noon and 4pm in protest against tear gas shelling. In Haryana, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni criticised the police action against the protesters and called a meeting of his union on Thursday to discuss the situation. CBSE advisory The CBSE advised students in Delhi appearing in their board exams starting on Thursday to leave their homes early so as to arrive at the exam centres in time Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, UAE | PTI Sonia files for RS, buzz now on Priyanka Bharat bandh P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi ENDING her 25-year-long innings in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Rajasthan. The formal announcement of Sonia’s candidacy was made by the party after her arrival in Jaipur on Wednesday morning. Accompanied by her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, and some party leaders, Sonia filed the papers in the state assembly building around noon. She will be succeeding for mer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is set to retire in April this year. Sources attributed Gandhi’s decision to shift to the Upper House to her ‘poor health’. While contesting the 2019 LS polls, she had said it would be her last Lok Sabha election. With her Rajya Sabha entry, the 77-year-old will be vacating Raebareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, which she represented four times in a row since 2004. The move also sparked speculation of Priyanka Gandhi’s Lok Sabha debut this year from the family bastion, five years after she entered active politics in 2019. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha gave a call for Bharat Bandh on Friday and a road roko from noon to 4pm on that day in support of farmers’ protests Farmers at the Shambhu border face tear gas lobbed by police to disperse them on Wednesday | PTI Kejri gets 6th ED summons in excise case u j w a l j a l a l i @ New Delhi THE Enforcement Directorate (ED) asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it on February 19 for the sixth time for questioning in connection with the excise policy case, official sources said on Wednesday . The latest summons comes ahead of a local court’s order to Kejriwal to appear before it on February 17, for ignoring ED’s earlier summonses. The ED approached the court last week after Kejriwal did not turn up for questioning. The court said that Kejriwal was “legally bound” to respond to ED’s summons in person and that he “purportedly failed to so”, which is prima facie an offence under Section 174 of the IPC. Protests After Aided school holds religious ritual on campus General Edu Minister V Sivankutty seeks report from department director in the incident in which manager of Nadumannur LP School near Kuttiadi in Kozhikode organised ‘ganapathy homam’ on campus on Tuesday evening | P4 BJP re-nominates Nadda, Vaishnaw and L Murugan The BJP on Wednesday re-nominated the party’s national president J P Nadda and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and and L Murugan as Rajya Sabha candidates from Gujarat, Odisha and MP, respectively. 4,641 Pocso cases registered in 2023 in state; T’Puram tops list R a h u l R @Kollam Cases of sexual abuse of children remained above the 4,500-mark in the state for yet another year, highlighting the need for better efficacy of preventive laws and measures. At 4,641, the number of cases registered across the state under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (Pocso Act) in 2023 was slightly higher than the 4,582 cases registered in 2022, as per the data sourced from the State Crime Records Bureau. Among districts, capital Thiruvananthapuram reported the most number of Pocso cases (601), followed by Malappuram (507) and Ernakulam (484) in 2023. Pathanamthitta district reported the least number of cases (177). The overall tally included 10 cases registered by the railway police. Kanal, an NGO working for children’s welfare in Kerala, highlighted another worrying fact. According to a study it conducted in collaboration with the Kerala government in 2023, titled Dishonour roll Dists with most Pocso cases in 2023 T’Puram Ernakulam 484 P’thitta reported least no. of cases: 177 Kozhikode 421 Kollam 375 Thrissur 369 Source: State Crime Records Bureau 601 Malappuram 507 ‘Project X’, revealed that 28.3% of school students in the state were unaware of the existence of the Pocso Act, while 48.09% were unaware that the legal age of consent is 18 years. Child rights activists emphasised that children aged between 7 and 12 were most vulnerable to sexual abuse. “Abusers prey on children from this age group assuming that sexual intercourse with them won’t lead to pregnancy Moreover, children of the age group . are easier to scare, intimidate and manipulate, and also less likely to fight back than teenagers,” said Anson P D Alexander, the director and founder ● More on P4 of Kanal. THE United Arab Emirates, which was hitherto known for its high-tech buildings such as Burj Khalifa, is going to be famous for its interfaith harmony and cultural identity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he inaugurated Abu Dhabi’s first Hindu temple. “A large number of devotees will come here... This will also increase people-to-people connections,” he said. Profusely thanking UAE President Sheikh Mohammad Zayed Al Nahyan for making the grand temple a reality PM said the gra, cious gesture has won the hearts of 140 crore Indians. “I am fortunate that last month I was able to witness the Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya... I am fortunate to be in Abu Dhabi to witness the inauguration of this temple,’’ he added. Modi inscribed Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (World is one family) in stone using hammer and chisel at the temple built by the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. State wants Centre to rein in wildlife Union min’s jibe E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @T’Puram Reacting to the resolution, Union Minister V Muraleedharan said the Kerala government had made it a habit to blame the Centre to hide its own lapses. In a post on X, he termed this practice by CPM shameful and said the resolution, blaming GoI exposed fault lines in the CPM’s governance. With the government facing heat over human-wildlife conflicts, one of which ended in a farmer’s death in Wayanad last week, the assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution urging the Centre to take steps to rein in exponential breeding of wild animals. The resolution, presented by Forest Minister A K Saseendran, also sought amendments to the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, in accordance with changing times to prevent such conflicts. The resolution said the Centre should amend clauses, including 5(2), of the Act that allowed the chief wildlife warden to delegate powers and duties with the government’s nod. “The Section 11(1)(a), which gives powers to the chief wildlife warden should be amended to delegate the same to chief forest conservators... The Act should be amended from time to time by including necessary practical provisions...to prevent wild animals from attacking humans,” said the resolution, which also sought declaring wild boars ‘vermin’. Saseendran said several human lives have been lost in the state as wild animals entered human habitats leading to conflict. “Wild boars and monkeys, considered wild animals, have been breeding exponentially outside forest areas, which has led to severe disturbances. Wildlife protection acts, rules, procedures, criteria and advisories having stringent conditions that are not changed as per the need of the hour are preventing authorities from killing and controlling wild animals encroaching into populated areas,” Saseendran said.
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