thrissur l tuesday l February 27, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Legendary ghazal and playback singer Pankaj Udhas passes away Pankaj Udhas, who sang many hits numbers like Chitthi Aayi Hai and Chandi Jaisa Rang Hai , died in hospital after prolonged illness. He was 72 17 May 1951 - 26 February 2024 Funeral to be held today in Mumbai Credited with popularising ghazal genre His funeral will be held on Tuesday in Mumbai. He is survived by wife Farida, daughters Reva and Nayaab. Udhas started his career with a Ghazal album titled Aahat (1980). He got his first film album as a solo singer with Mahesh Bhatt’s Naam (1986), for which he sang Chitthi Aayi Hai and rose to instant fame. He also acted in films like Saajan, Yeh Dillagi and Naam ■ ■ Pankaj Udhas along with Jagjit Singh and Talat Aziz popularised the Ghazal genre in the country. For his work, he was bestowed with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 2006 Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his tribute said his singing conveyed a range of emotions, adding his ghazals spoke directly to the soul 50 ALBUMS WERE RELEASED BY PANKAJ UDHAS IN HIS FOUR-DECADE CAREER 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 Founder out as Paytm Payments Bank rejigs board Vijay Shekhar Sharma steps down as the payments bank’s non-executive chairman E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bengaluru PAYTM Payments Bank Limited (PPBL), which is under fire from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over non-compliance of regulatory norms and suspected money-laundering, has reconstituted its board of directors while its founder and majority shareholder Vijay Shekhar stepped down as its part-time non-executive chairman and board member. PPBL will now commence the process of appointing a new chairman, the parent company One 97 Communications said in a regulatory filing on Monday . The action comes days after RBI barred the payments bank from accepting deposits and credit transactions in any customer account citing non-compliance of norms. The reconstituted board includes former Central Bank of India chairman Srinivasan Sridhar, retired IAS officer Debendranath Sarangi, former executive director of Bank of Baroda Ashok Kumar Garg, and retired IAS officer Rajni Sekhri Sibal. They have recently joined as independent directors, the company added. One 97 Communications, which holds a 49% stake in PPBL, has also withdrawn its nominee from its board. Vijay Shekhar Sharma has a 51% stake in the payments bank. Sharma is not the first start-up founder to come in the line of fire on governance practices. BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover and Zilingo’s Ankiti Bose had to step down following mismanagement issues. Similarly Edtech firm Byju’s inves, tors have voted to oust the founder Byju Raveendran over the same issue. Some investors have also filed a suit against the management of the company in NCLT to declare the founders unfit to run the company and appoint a new board. After barring PPBL from accepting deposits, RBI extended the deadline of business restrictions from February 29 to to March 15. It said the nodal accounts of One97 Communications and Paytm Payments Services maintained by PPBL will be terminated. After March 15, customers won’t be able to get any credits in their account with Paytm Payments Bank. TNIE journalist Satish Babu passes away Kochi: A Satish Babu, 61, special correspondent, The New Indian Express, passed away in Coimbatore on Monday. He had been with TNIE since late 1980s, starting his career as a proofreader at the Kochi office. Satish was TNIE’s Palakkad correspondent for over three decades. P4 EXPRESS READ Sun singes state, yellow alert in 9 dists today T’Puram: Summer is yet to hit Kerala, but the scorching sun has already made lives difficult for Keralites. As maximum temperatures touched 37 degrees Celsius across state, the IMD yet again issued yellow alerts in nine districts for Tuesday. The state also reported 17 cases of sunburns and heat rashes this month. No surprises, CPI fields Pannian in Tvm, Annie in Wayanad E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @T’Puram Determined to reclaim its lost ground in the Lok Sabha polls, the CPI has decided to bank on the experience of its veterans for the upcoming general elections. The party sprang no surprises on Monday as it announced its candidates for its four Lok Sabha seats in Kerala – former MP and former state secretary Pannian Raveendran (T’Puram) Pannian Raveendran in Thiruvananthapuram, national executive member and CPI’s women face Annie Raja in Wayanad, former minister V S Su- Modi in state today, 3rd visit in 2 months RBi told to hold Monthly meets In the light of fintech firms coming under regulator’s lens, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday urged RBI to hold monthly meetings with startup and fintech firms to address their concerns Paytm in talks with banks Paytm is likely to partner with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, and Yes Bank for processing transactions via the UPI, according to reports E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ T’Puram The BJP will look to set in motion its parliamentary election campaign in the state with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. The PM’s third visit to the state in a span of two months assumes political significance as the party hopes to cash in on his stature to give it an edge, especially in constituencies like Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur. Modi’s arrival coincides with the culmination of party state president K Surendran’s statewide padayatra. The PM will address a public meeting at Central stadium, where he will elaborate on the party’s political strategy and aim in the upcoming general election. The state BJP is in the last phase of finalising its candidates and has submitted a list of probables to the national leadership. The initial list includes national leaders and prominent faces, including Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan and actor Sobhana. The PM will arrive at the Air Force technical area of the city airport at 10.30am. ● More on P4 Shahjahan sheikh gets no relief from Calcutta high court The court said in a different matter it had stayed the constitution of a team of CBI, state police to probe the attack on ED officials as ordered by a single bench. TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said Shahjahan would be arrested in seven days | P8 Clinical India seal series in style After a slight hiccup, Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel helped hosts secure a five-wicket win in Ranchi and take 3-1 lead Gill, Jurel rise to the occasion When it seemed like England might get into the game, Jurel joined hands with Gill. The duo went for wicket preservation as they cut risks. Only when the finish line was in sight did they open up. In the end, their unbroken union took the hosts home to give them an unassailable lead Transition on track as young turks step up No Virat Kohli and no KL Rahul but the young batting line-up — Yashasvi Jaiswal, Gill, Sarfaraz Khan, and Jurel — stood up to be counted at various points during the series. Every time there was a need for someone to step up, players kept performing 17 Consecutive home Test series wins for India Shubman Gill (left) and Dhruv Jurel took the hosts home after they suffered a minicollapse | PTI | P11 HC rejects plea to stop puja in cellar of Gyanvapi n a m i ta b a j pa i @ Lucknow The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a plea of Anjuman Intezamia Masjid (AIM), the Gyanvapi Mosque Management Committee, challenging a Varanasi district judge’s order allowing worship in the southern cellar (Vyas Tehkhana) on the mosque premises. By doing so, the Allahabad High Court upheld the verdict of the Varanasi district judge in the case. A single judge bench of the court, comprising Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal, had on February 15 reserved the judgment after hearing both parties. Justice Agarwal, while dismissing the appeal of AIM, said: Security deployed near Gyanvapi mosque after the High Court refused to stay the order to allow puja | pti “That after going through the entire records of the case and after considering arguments of the parties concerned, the court did not find any ground to interfere in the judgement passed by the Varanasi district judge, Annie Raja (Wayanad) dated January 7, 2024 appointing DM, Varanasi, as receiver of the property as well as order dated January 31, 2024 by which the district court had permitted Puja in the Tehkhana.” AIM’s general secretary S M Yasin , said that after studying the high court verdict, the mosque management committee would approach the Supreme Court. While rejecting AIM’s plea against the Varanasi District Court’s order through which the puja resumed in the Vyas Tehkhana after three decades, the HC in its 54-page order observed that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government’s move to stop puja in the southern cellar in 1993 was “illegal”. V S Sunil Kumar (Thrissur) C A Arun Kumar (Mavelikkara) nil Kumar in Thrissur and All India Youth F leader C A Arun Kumar in Mavelikkara. Should the Congress field Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad for a second time, it will result in a direct fight between two senior leaders of the INDIA bloc. With this, CPI has become one of the first mainstream parties in the country to announce candidates for all the seats it is contesting in the LS elections. Releasing the list, CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam said the political situation in Kerala was in favour of the LDF, and expressed confidence over the victory of the party’s candidates. He also predicted an LDF sweep in state, saying the Left front will romp home with all 20 seats. Pannian Raveendran, the Thiruvananthapuram MP from 2005 to 2009 and CPI state secretary from 2012 to 2015, had been reluctant to return to parliamentary politics initially . ● More on P4 You do it, else we’ll: SC fiat on permanent commission to women in Coast Guard S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday gave the Centre no wriggle room on granting permanent commission to women within the Indian Coast Guard, warning that the bench would step in if the government continued to stall. Attorney General R Venkataramani said there were some functional and operational difficulties in granting permanent commissions to short service commission officers in the Coast Guard, as their case was different compared to the other armed forces. He said a board has been constituted to revisit the modalities as structural chang- es might be required. He added that an affidavit would be filed to highlight how the Coast Guard was functionally different from the Navy and the other armed forces. But the bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was not impressed. “If you do not do it, we will do it. So take a look at that,” the CJI said. The bench was hearing an appeal filed by Coast Guard officer Priyanka Tyagi, seeking permanent commission to eligible women short service commission officers of the force. It fixed the petition for further hearing to Friday . In its earlier hearing, the court had ob- served, “You speak of nari shakti (woman power). Now show it here. You are in the deep end of the sea in this matter. You must come up with a policy which treats women fairly .” The bench had wondered whether the government was still adopting a patriarchal approach despite judgments on the grant of permanent commission to women officers in the three armed forces – Army Air Force , and the Navy . “Why are you being so patriarchal? You do not want to see the face of women in the Coast Guard,” the bench had asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee. It also asked why the Coast Guard was not granting women permanent commissions when the Navy was.
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