idf sacks 2 for GAZA AID WORKER KILLINGS In a rare confession, the Israeli military on Friday admitted to have committed a grave mistake in bombing an aid convoy of the World Central Kitchen in Gaza early this week, killing seven persons. The Israeli army said it has dismissed two officers who were directly responsible for the drone attack and reprimanded three others for their role in the wrongful attack | AP | P11 COIMBATORE l saturday l april 06, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION 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 hold, RBI Cong promises 5-fold justice Rates on ‘elephant’ waits for inflation to vanish Outreach to youth, farmers, women, workers; manifesto assures the right to apprenticeship Empowering all sections B E NN K OCHU V E E D AN @ Mumbai 1 2 Nation-wide socioeconomic and caste census Will raise 50% cap on reservations for SC, ST and OBC 3 4 10% EWS quota to be open to all castes Will ensure that minorities have the freedom of choice of dress, food, language and personal laws 5 Will encourage reform of personal laws with the participation and consent of the communities concerned Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, releasing the party’s manifesto | Parveen Negi 6 From promising a national caste census to providing legal guarantee to MSP and the right to apprenticeship, the Congress on Friday sought to tick all the important checkboxes in its manifesto released just weeks ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the manifesto will be remembered as a “document of justice” in the political history of the country. The manifesto stands on the five pillars of ‘Paanch Nyay’, which include justice for youth, farmers, women, workers and participation and representation in ‘decision making’ process in the country said Kharge. , As the Congress poll strategy in the recent assembly elections revolved around the plank of caste census and social justice, the party in its manifesto One-year apprenticeship with a private or a public sector company to every diploma holder or college graduate below the age of 25. Apprentices will get `1 lakh a year 7 All student education loans to be written off as one-time relief 8 RTE to be amended to make education from Class I to Class XII in public schools compulsory and free 9 10 NEET, CUET exams to be made optional for state govts Mahalakshmi scheme to provide `1 lakh per year to every poor Indian family 11 Congress will give a legal guarantee to the MSP regime P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi vowed to hold a nationwide census to identify and enumerate castes, sub-castes and their socio-economic condition, and amend the Constitution to raise the 50% ceiling on quota for SCs, STs and OBCs. Other promises include 10% quota in jobs and education for the Economically Weaker Section for all castes and communities and a law for quota in private educational institutions for the SCs, STs and OBCs. It will also set up a Diversity Commission that will measure, monitor and promote diversity in public and private employment and education. It said it would abolish application fees for government examinations and government posts. It will also enact a law after Rohith Vemula to address discrimination faced by students of marginalised communities. In tune with its promise on generating employment, the party said that it will enact the Right to Apprenticeship Act to provide a one-year apprenticeship with a private or a public sector company to every diploma holder or college graduate under the age of 25 with a stipend of `1lakh a year. It also promised to abolish the Agnipath programme and direct the armed forces to resume normal recruitment to achieve the full sanctioned strength. Other key promises include providing legal guarantee to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism for crops, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. To help the rural poor, the party will increase the wage under MGNREGA to `400 per day . Stung by the exodus of its leaders, the party also promised to make defection an automatic disqualification of the membership in the Assembly or Parliament. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday chose not to surprise or disappoint markets as it left the key policy rates unchanged at 6.5% for the seventh time on the trot. RBI’s monetary policy committee, led by governor Shaktikanta Das, cited inflationary pressure from high food prices but sounded confident of keeping retail inflation at 4.5% in FY25. The no-surprises monetary policy had a soothing effect on the rupee, which has been under strain for some time, and also on the equities market. express read 4 killed, one injured in car crash in Namakkal Namakkal: Four people died and one more was injured when the car they were travelling in crashed into a tree at Kupandapalayam in Namakkal on Friday. The five from two families were returning from a temple festival when the accident happened at 5 pm | P3 2 more run over by train, six deaths in three days Chennai: Two days after four men were run over by express trains at Chromepet and Ponneri railway stations while trying to cross railway tracks, two men from Bihar were hit by a train while crossing the railway tracks near Thiruvottiyur on Friday Shoma Sen gets bail in Bhima Koregaon case S UCHITRA K ALYAN M OHANTY @ New Delhi IN a major relief to academicactivist Shoma Sen, arrested in June 2018 in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, the Supreme Court on Friday granted her bail by setting aside the January 2023 order of the Bombay High Court directing her to approach the special court for bail. Sen has been lodged at the Byculla Jail in Mumbai since her arrest in 2018. The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the case, did not oppose her bail plea. A bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Augustine George Masih took cognizance of the delay in framing charges and the 66-year-old former Nagpur University professor’s medical conditions. The bench set several conditions for her bail including livesharing of her mobile GPS with the NIA’s investigating officer. Also, she cannot leave Maharashtra without the special court’s permission. The case relates to alle ged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. The event reportedly triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city’s outskirts. According to police, the conclave was backed by Maoists. Fire and fury Dense smoke after a fire broke out at a storage facility of Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Co Ltd in Raipur on Friday | PTI The rupee rallied 9 paise to close at 83.30 against the dollar, while the stock markets closed flat after a choppy ride with the benchmark Sensex managing to close in the green with 20.6 points gains at 74,248 and the broader Nifty ending the session flat at 22,513 on Friday . The central bank also main- tained the ‘withdrawal of accommodation’ stance, saying growth numbers have been robust and the priority is to anchor inflation to the target. “When CPI peaked at 7.8% in April 2022, the elephant in the room was inflation. The elephant has now gone out for a walk and appears to be returning to the forest. We’d like the elephant to return to the forest and remain there,” Das said. RBI expects the growth momentum to continue in FY25 with GDP growth projected at 7%. Das said the second advance estimates placed real GDP growth at 7.6% for FY24. Poor rain in catchment areas of TN cuts hydro power output by half S GURU VANMI KANATHAN @ Chennai At a time when the demand for electricity is on the rise, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tan gedco) has recorded a 50% drop in hydro power generation in 2023-24 compared to the previous year. Tangedco produced 3,023 million units (MUs) in 2023-24 as against 6,174 million units generated in 2022-23. The power produced from water sources was almost thousand million units lower than the target of 4,000 million units set by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for the year. Tangedco officials said poor monsoon in the western regions of the state and refusal by Karnataka to release the quantum of Cauvery water due for Tamil Nadu led to the fall in hydro power generation. After 2,505.23 MUs in 2016-17, the hydro power generated this year in Tamil Nadu is the lowest in the last seven years. A senior Tangedco official said, “The state-owned hydro power plants typically generate 1,500 MUs during the southwest monsoon season (July to October). But we failed to reach even 50% of the target. Lack of water from Karnataka sources also impacted power generation in the western zone.” Despite surplus rainfall in the northern and southern districts, scanty rainfall in western districts such as Coimbat- hydro power generation Year 2012-13 output (in million units) 2,896.32 2013-14 5,098.68 2014-15 5,187.59 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 4,641.15 2,505.23 3,062.65 2018-19 5,472.15 2019-20 4,964.32 2020-21 5,386.58 2021-22 5,514.10 2022-23 2023-24 6,174.08 3,023.83 ore, Nilgiris, Salem and Dhar mapuri, where most of the hydro power plants are located, affected the output, the Tangedco official said. Highlighting the role of western districts in hydroelectric power generation, another official said, “Hydropower units in the Nilgiris play a major role. The total installed capacity of Tamil Nadu’s hydropower stations is 2,321.90 MW, and power stations in the Nilgiris alone have a capacity of 833 MW. Of this, Kundah power units have an installed capacity of 540 MW,” he said. The fall in power generation through this green source may also adversely impact the finances of the debt-hit state power utility sources said. P7 , Relief for 16 lakh UP students as SC stays TN govt schools to outsource security, sanitation order scrapping madarsa education Act f i r s t ti m e i n t h e s t a t e S u b a s h i n i V i j aya k u m a r @ Chennai To address issues concerning sanitation and security facilities in government schools, the Tamil Nadu school education department has decided to outsource housekeeping, sanitation, open area maintenance and security work in 1,954 government schools across the state at a cost of `130 crore. About 8,000 workers may be deployed in July to implement this first-ever outsourcing project in Tamil Nadu government schools, sources said. The school education depart- ment has divided the state into four zones for selecting the schools for the project based on their student count. “High schools and higher secondary schools with more than 475 students have been selected for implementing the project. The scheme will be extended to other schools over the next three years,” a top official in the school education department said. Although the department tried to issue a tender in 2021 to roll out a similar project, it was halted due to legal challenges from some bidders. The education department, however, has now successfully floated tenders following court directives, sources said. At present, there are less than 500 workers employed in these schools and they would be allowed to continue their work till retirement. The state government has planned the system based on Andhra Pradesh model where outsourcing agencies maintain clean and safe environment in government schools. Under the proposed system, security personnel will work in shifts round the clock while the housekeeping and sanitation staff will work from 7am to 3pm. Their duties will include opening and locking of school gates, classrooms, toilets, staff rooms, and other areas.  P7 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 Friday stayed the Allahabad High Court’s March 22 verdict declaring the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, unconstitutional and violative of secularism and fundamental rights. Critiquing the HC’s verdict, a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud pointed out that the former’s finding on the establishment of a madarsa board prima facie breaching the principles of secularism may not be correct. It said it would examine the pleas in July second week. The order brought a major relief for as many as 16 lakh students studying across around 16,000 madrarsas in Uttar Pradesh. The bench passed the order after hearing a batch of appeals against the HC order. “The object and purpose of madarsa board is regulatory in nature and Allahabad High Court is not prima facie correct that establishment of board will breach secularism. It (High Court judgment) conflates madarsa education with the regulatory powers entrusted with the board. The judgment shall remain stayed,” the top court said in its order. The HC had last month held the 2004 law unconstitutional as it violated secularism. The court went on to direct the government to accommodate all madarsa students in the formal education system.