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 ■ ■ HYDERABAD l tuesday l february 20, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE CITY EDITION SC raps returning officer, Fresh notification for 563 G-1 posts issued calls for ballot papers Farmers listen to a leader at the PunjabHaryana Shambhu border during their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest, near Patiala district on Monday | PTI S U C H ITRA K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Ryots reject offer, set to resume stir 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 Punjab-Haryana borders on Wednesday peacefully . The Centre made the proposal during the fourth round of talks it had with the protesting far mers 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 Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) — and not from the gover nment direct. After the meeting, Union minister for food, commerce and consumer affairs Piyush Goyal said, “we had positive Water bell scheme launched in Kerala’s schools to keep kids hydrated | p5 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. The proposal is meant to prod farmers into crop diversification away from the water guzzling paddy . Hours later, Sarwan Singh Pandher, general secretary of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) who took part in the talks with the Centre that went on till past midnight, said, “We reject the proposal as it is not in favour of farmers.’’ THE Supreme Court on Monday slammed Anil Masih, the returning officer (RO) of the January 30 Chandigarh mayoral polls, for allegedly “defacing ballot papers” and sought the ballots and the video recording of the counting for the court’s perusal. The bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it may consider declaration of results on the basis votes already cast instead of ordering fresh polls. The BJP had won the Chan- digarh mayoral polls after defeating the AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the RO declared eight votes of the coalition partners as invalid. Manoj Sonkar of the BJP was declared winner after polling 16 votes against AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar’s 12. Sonkar, however, resigned later, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP . “We are deeply concerned about the horse-trading,” the bench remarked, and fixed the matter for further hearing on Tuesday at 2 pm. The apex court said the RO must be prosecuted for inter- fering in elections and directed him to be present in the court on Tuesday as well. In his defence, Masih denied the charges that he tampered with the ballots saying he only put his mark on some ballots that were already defaced so as to distinguish them from valid ones. However, the bench was not convinced by this argument. The SC directed the registrar general of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to depute a judicial officer to bring the records safely to New Delhi and present them before it on Tuesday . express read RenewSys to set up units worth `6,000 cr in TS Groom-to-be goes for dental procedure, dies Kamal Nath not going to switch parties: Congress Hyderabad: RenewSys India Pvt Ltd on Monday signed an MoU with the Industries department for setting up of multiple PV modules and PV cell manufacturing units in the state with an investment of `6,000 crore | P2 Hyderabad: A man in his late 20s, who opted for a cosmetic dental procedure ahead of his wedding, complained of unease after being administered a small dose of anaesthesia and died soon after, despite attempts to revive him | p3 Bhopal: AICC in-charge general secretary Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh on Monday said that former chief minister Kamal Nath and his son will not leave the Congress and will also participate in the MP leg of Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Nyay Yatra’ | P7 Express News Service @ Hyderabad The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) on Monday issued a notification for 563 Group 1 posts in 18 different categories, immediately after cancelling the notification issued on April 26, 2022 for filling up 503 posts. The decision to scrap the previous notification comes in light of the question paper leak and administrative mistakes that had plagued the two recent written tests conducted for Group 1 Services. Aspirants can submit applications from February 23 to March 14, 2024. The TSPSC made it clear that all the aspirants need to apply for the Group 1 afresh, as the previous notification has been cancelled. However, aspirants who paid the fees while responding to the 2022 notification need not pay again. The TSPSC said that the preliminary test (objective type) will be held during May/June 2024 and the main examination 5-year-old killed by kidnappers, body thrown in SRSP U M a h e s h @ Warangal The body of a five-year-old girl, who had gone missing on Sunday, was found floating on the waters of the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) canal on Monday, following which the police registered a case of sus- picious death. Residents of Dubba thanda of Kesamaduram mandal noticed the body retrieved it and informed , the Parvathagiri police station. Late on Sunday, S Ravi, a street performer, had lodged a complaint that S Sandhya, his daughter, had gone missing from Islawath thanda in Parvathagiri mandal of Warangal district. Ravi told the police that his family presents street shows (street circus) for a livelihood and had come from Siddipet. Parvathagiri S-I E Veerab- hadra Rao said: “We suspect that a family member could be behind the kidnap and murder of the girl.” Meanwhile, sources told TNIE that the police detained a relative of the victim, who is reportedly a minor, and are questioning him. will be held in September/October 2024. A statement signed by TSPSC secretary Dr E Naveen Nicolas said: “Having taken totality of the circumstances into account, the Commission has decided to cancel the Notification No. 04/2022 issued on 26/04/2022 for 503 vacancies in public interest. In accordance with the decision of the Commission, the above notification is hereby cancelled.” The Group 1 examination under the now cancelled notification was held on October 16, 2022. However, after a few days, a SIT investigation into allegations of question paper leak found that the main accused Pulidindi Praveen Kumar had illegally accessed the Group 1 preliminary examination question paper. In the first Group exam, Praveen had secured over 100 marks. Subsequently, the examination held on October 16, 2022 was cancelled and conducted again on June 11, 2023. Around 2.33 lakh aspirants took the seccontinued on P4 ond exam.  Revanth reaches Delhi with lengthy wish list, including nod from Cong high command for Cabinet expansion and funds from Centre for state govt projects | P4