‘Water Bell’ project inaugurated THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l tuesday l February 20, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION T’Puram: General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Monday inaugurated the ‘Water Bell’ project that provides additional breaks to students to drink water, at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Manacaud. The Minister said students should keep themselves well hydrated as mercury is on the rise in the state. P4 General Education Minister V Sivankutty offers a glass of water to a student as part of inaugurating the statewide Water Bell project at Government VHSS for Girls, Manacaud, Thiruvananthapuram, on Monday | B P Deepu 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 Farmers reject offer, set to resume agitation H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Farmer leaders on Monday rejected the Centre’s offer of a guaranteed minimum support price for five crops for five years, stating they wanted the mechanism to apply for all 23 crops and not a piecemeal deal. They also announced the resumption of their ‘Dilli Chalo’ march from both the Shambhu and Khanauri inter-state Punj a b - H a r ya n a b o r d e r s o n Wednesday peacefully . The Centre made the proposal during the fourth round of talks it had with the protesting Farmers listen to a leader at the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu border during their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest, near Patiala district on Monday | PTI farmers on Sunday night. The guarantees would come from three Central cooperatives — the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketi n g Fe d e r at i o n o f I n d i a (NAFED) — and not from the government direct. After the meeting, Union minister for food, commerce and consumer affairs Piyush Goyal said, “we had positive talks and have proposed a very innovative, out-of-the-box idea. The crops which the government has proposed to buy on assured MSP are tur urad and , masoor besides cotton and maize.’’ Apart from Goyal, ministers Arjun Munda and Nityanand Rai participated in the talks. “We have proposed that the CCI, NCCF and NAFED enter into a contract with farmers who grow tur, urad, masoor, maize and cotton for buying their crops at MSP for next five years. There will be no limit on the quantity purchased and a portal will be developed for this,” he said. HC upholds TP murder convicts’ life term Sets aside order absolving two accused, confirms acquittal of 22 persons, including CPM leader P Mohanan E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi MLA K K Rema, wife of T P Chandrasekharan, coming out of the Kerala HC with special public prosecutor P Kumarankutty (second from right), lawyers S Rajeev (extreme right), Saphal Krishnan (extreme left) and others | A Sanesh High Court findings and directives HC directs the jail superintendents of Kannur and Tavanur prisons to produce accused 1 to 8 and 11th before the court at 10.15am on February 26 for hearing on plea seeking to enhance sentence and compensation. 1 This is a good judgment. The HC upheld whatever we said and the trial court’s verdict. TP was murdered by the CPM for airing his views K K Rema Court sets aside order acquitting 10th accused K K Krishnan and 12th accused Geothi Babu and convicts them under section 120 B (Criminal Conspiracy). Registry asked to issue non-bailable warrants for their immediate arrest and production before trial court. 2 Apart from the charges under which they were found guilty by trial court, HC convicted Anoop, Kirmani Manoj, Kodi Suni, Rajeesh Thundikandi, Mohammed Shafi and Shinoj guilty under section 120 B (Criminal Conspiracy) read with 302 (murder) as well 3 Guessing game over, Nath, son to stay in Cong a n u r aa g s i n g h @ Bhopal Ending speculation of whether or not Congress veteran Kamal Nath and his son Nakul would leave the party and join the BJP, Nath loyalist and former state minister Sajjan Singh Verma on Monday said both would stay in the grand old party . Anger, fear, grief grip Wayanad high ranges Ma n o j V i s wa n atha n @ Mananthavady Resentment, anger and grief run deep in the villages on the forest fringes of Wayanad, which have been hit by frequent human-wildlife conflicts. The death of two persons in wild elephant attacks in Mananthavady and Pulpally recently have shocked the highranges. The spotting of tigers in several areas have added to the villagers’ fears. Many have even stopped working in farms and people are moving around in groups in the mor ning and evening. The high range famers want the forest department to ensure their safety or else they “will be forced to kill the animals that stray into human settlements. It’s a fight for our right to life,” they say The villag. ers want the government to demarcate the forests and erect proper fencing to ensure a permanent solution to the wild animal menace which is giving them sleepless nights. Full report: P2 “Nakul Nath will contest the coming Lok Sabha polls as Congress candidate,” Sajjan told reporters outside Kamal Nath’s residence in New Delhi, adding that the veteran leader had authorised him to brief the media. Kamal Nath on Monday had a meeting with Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh for about an hour-and-a-half over the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which comes to the state on February 22, Sajjan said. After the yatra leaves the state, Nath will start touring the state for the Lok Sabha polls, he added. In a related development, the Congress called a meeting of its MLAs and MPs in Bhopal to discuss the preparations for the yatra. Kamal Nath is likely to participate in those meetings, said Jitendra Singh, Congress general secretary in charge-of Madhya Pradesh. Amid CMRL row KSIDC’s investments Shashi tharoor paying rich dividends says no plan to leave congress R A JE S H A B R A H A M @Kochi The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), the state governmentowned company in the news for its equity stake in Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), is reaping rich rewards for having backed a large number of companies during their initial stages of establishment. A closer look at the KSIDC annual report reveals that it has investments in about 20 stock market-listed companies including BPCL, Apollo Tyres, Geojit Financial Services, Nitta Gelatin India, and Eureka Forbes. Further, KSIDC is sitting on a huge profit on these investments. TNIE’s calculations show that the shares owned by KSIDC in these listed companies is worth nearly `900 crore while the total original cost is merely `40 crore. That’s a whopping 2,100% return on its original investment. KSIDC’s biggest investment in terms of value is in Nitta Gelatin India, a joint venture with Japan’s Nitta Gelatin Inc, where the Kerala partner owns 31.53% stake. As per Friday’s closing price, KSIDC’s equity stake is worth `273 crore as compared to the original investment of Rs 13.64 crore, without taking into account the dividends that KSIDC has received till now. Industries Minister P Rajeeve had told reporters last week that KSIDC has investments in 73 companies, including startups. “KSIDC is investing in companies to promote these ventures,” the minister said, adding that CMRL has paid `4.65 crore to the government for KSIDC’s investment of Rs 1.05 ● More on P4 crore. KSIDC investments in some companies and their value now KSIDC was established in 1961 to promote industrial projects in Kerala through equity participation and joint ventures Companies Year BPCL* 1966 33.34L Cost (I) Current value (I) 116.38 cr Apollo Tyres 1972 13.71 cr 265 cr Nitta Gelatin 1975 13.64 cr 273 cr Geojit Fin 1987 50L 156.1 cr CMRL 1989 1.05 cr 31.73cr * Investment made in Cochin Refineries, which was later merged with BPCL 10 years of BJP rule has demonstrated that the ‘grand old party’ is the best alternative. In the latest edition of Delhi Dialogues, he said he was entirely with the Congress | P9 18 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express In a setback to the CPM, the Kerala High Court on Monday upheld the life imprisonment awarded to 10 accused, including party’s local leaders, for the brutal murder of RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan at Onchiam in 2012. The court also decided to examine the plea to enhance the sentence to capital punishment on February 26. The court began the judgment quoting the words of Nobel laureate Amar tya Sen— “Democracy thrives on the peaceful exchange of ideas, not the violent imposition of beliefs. Political violence is the poison that corrodes the roots of democratic principles.” On the morning of May 5, 2012, the people of Kerala woke up to the grim news of a gruesome political murder, the court said. The wounds inflicted on him were so brutal and numerous that the police surgeon, who conducted the postmortem, opined that it was in- dicative of the aggressive and hostile nature of the assailants, pointed out the court. A division bench comprising Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Kauser Edappagath upheld the life imprisonment awarded by the Kozhikode Additional Sessions Court to the accused, from numbers 1 to 8 (M C Anoop, Manoj Kumar alias Kirmani Manoj, N K Sunil Kumar alias Kodi Suni, Rajeesh Thundikandi, K K Mohammed Shafi, S Sijith alias Annan Sijith, K Shinoj, and K C Ramachandran, then CPM Kunnummakkara local committee member); 11th accused Manojan alias Trouser Manojan, former CPM Kadungapoyil branch secretary; and 13th accused, the late P K Kunhananthan, former CPM Panoor area committee member. The bench also set aside the order acquitting the 10th accused, K K Krishnan, former CPM Onchiyam area committee member, and 12th accused, Geothi Babu, and convicted them under section 120 B (Criminal Conspiracy). Further, the court confirmed the acquittal of 22 accused, including CPM leader P Mohanan Master. The court passed the order while dismissing the appeals filed by the convicted persons against the session’s court order. According to their appeals, the case had been falsely foisted on them and they were convicted based on false evidence and false witness statements. T P Chandrasekharan was hacked to death by a gang on May 4, 2012, while he was returning home on his bike. As per the prosecution case, the first accused, Anoop, rammed an Innova car into his bike, throwing Chandrasekharan to the road. Immediately accused , 2 to 7 got out of the car and attacked him with swords and hacked him to death. Kodi Suni exploded a country-made bomb to scare away onlookers from reaching the spot. The ninth accused, C H Asokan, died during the period of the trial of the case. Kunhananthan died in June 2020 when the appeal was P4 pending in the HC. ‘Brahmapuram dumpyard yet to implement safety steps’ A n i l k u m a r T @ Kochi Nearly a year after the massive fire that broke out at the Brahmapuram waste dumping yard choked the city and neighbouring areas for 12 days, the Kochi Corporation has been accused of sitting over several key recommendations of the fire and rescue department to prevent similar accidents. A report of the internal vigilance and intelligence wing of the department, submitted to the Ernakulam district collector, warns that the corporation’s lackadaisical approach may lead to another disaster. The water-spraying system at the waste dump is not yet functional and the roads surrounding the area, the only channels for fire engines to enter the yard in case of an emergency are un, fit for traffic, said the report, a copy of which is with the TNIE. The hydrants and monitors at various locations of the plant are not functioning What report says Entrance to Brahmapuram plant unfit for traffic Construction of roads to ensure smooth navigation of fire engines not implemented yet Water tank construction at river side completed, but not functioning Brahmapuram waste dumping yard | File pic properly the report, prepared , after an on-site inspection, said, adding the electric pump installed near the power plant is in disuse. Though water tank has been constructed on the riverside, it doesn’t appear to be in use, it said. The electric pump placed near the Kadambrayar, which flows near the Brah- mapuram plant, is not working. “KSEB has been supplying the electricity to run the pump. However, even the lights at the plant are not functioning properly despite the availability of adequate electricity,” said the report. It also expressed apprehension over the operability of the CCTV installed at the ● More on P4 plant. s e e k i n g s u pp o r t Odisha hockey int’l Jyoti fights to save her house S w a r o o p S w a m i n atha n @ Rourkela ON Sunday night, after India’s match against the US at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in the city, Jyoti Chhetri scanned the capacity crowd for a glimpse of her parents. Once she had spotted them, she smiled. At some level, the Chhetri story couldn’t be any more romantic. She was born inside the city’s main sports hostel at Panposh. That hostel’s meat and drink is in ensuring kids who take up a hockey stick graduate summa-cum-laude (Dilip Tirkey, Prabodh Tirkey, Lazarus Birla and, recently, Amit Rohidas to name a few). She fell in love with the game. Now, the 20-year-old, already a World Cup silver-medallist in the inaugural Hockey 5s event last month, is strutting her stuff at the stadium that’s about 10 minutes away by walk. Chhetri’s smiles, however, hides a grave problem her family faces in the immediate future: the genuine danger of being asked to vacate their home by the government. Soon after she was born in 2003, Bhim Singh, Jyoti’s father, moved out of the small hostel (he was working as a watchman when his daughter was born) quarters to a vacant piece of land right outside the hostel. On that land, he built a small dwelling for five, including his wife and three children. A few years ago, local authorities knocked on their door to inform them about an upcoming road-widening project as part of a new bridge. On Sunday mor ning, hours before his daughter prepared to play the US, Bhim recounted his plight to a few jour- nalists. The family has no problems in giving up their house but they haven’t been promised any alternate accommodation either even though they have informed several authorities. After the match against the US, which India won 2-1 in the shootout, Jyoti was also intimate with the story “They (gov. ernment) assured me that they will do something but nothing has happened till now,” she said. She had visited the Assistant District Magistrate six to seven months ago hoping for a relatively quick resolution. They are yet to get back. More on P13
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