tirupati l friday l may 31, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION T20 World cup: New York to beef up security for India-Pakistan game With the arch-rivals set to play their first match on June 9, the NY state has said that security will be beefed up for the high-profile encounter Increased measures for Nassau County As Nassau County gets ready, ‘elevated’ security arrangements have been made to ensure safety of fans. This comes after reports of threats linked to the ISIS in April and more specific threats on the event now. “In preparation for @cricketworldcup, my team has been working with federal & local law enforcement to keep attendees safe,” Hochul wrote on X 34,000 expect largest security for match ■ Nassau County police acknowledged the threat and reportedly said this is “largest security we’ve ever had to do in this county’s history and the safest place will be inside the stadium” ■ While the governor wrote that “there is no credible threat at this time”, security measures have been elevated to ensure safety of all capacity of stadium where eight matches will be held from june 3-12 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 monsoon arrives in Kerala; north continues to bake Red hot day Punjab Delhi Ludhiana 45.6 Patiala 46.2 Haryana Rohtak Narnaul 47.5 47.5 Safdarjung Palam Ridge Ayanagar odisha 45.6 46.4 46.7 47.0 Jharsuguda 47.0 Sambalpur 46.2 bihar Gaya 45.2 Dehri 46.0 Uttar Pradesh Rajasthan Ganganagar Bikaner Jaipur Churu Jaisalmer 48.3 46.8 45.3 47.0 46.1 Vidarbha Brahmpuri 46.9 Wardha 45.0 Madhya Pradesh Sidhi Datia Khajuraho Gwalior Satna Damoh Shivpuri 48.2 45.8 47.0 45.1 45.7 45.0 46.0 Lucknow Bareilly Bahraich Varanasi Hardoi Orai Hamirpur Jhansi Moradabad Sultanpur Churk 45.1 45.1 45.4 47.8 45.5 46.4 45.2 47.4 45.0 45.0 45.6 unbearable heat in the north, west Heat wave to severe heatwave conditions prevailed over many parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, East MP; parts of UP and Odisha. Many parts of Punjab, West MP, Chhattisgarh, parts of Bihar, Gujarat and Vidarbha and isolated pockets of Himachal Pradesh, too, witnessed heat wave 44.80C highest in AP Vijayawada: Mercury level in 14 places across Andhra Pradesh was above 440 C. Pamuru of Praksam district recorded highest temperature of 44.80 C A woman carries a pipe to fetch water from a tanker amid the ongoing heat wave, at Chanakyapuri in New Delhi on Thursday | PTI While most of India continued to bake in the ongoing extreme heat wave, the Southwest monsoon arrived at in Kerala two days ahead of schedule on Thursday the , Indian Meteorological Department announced. The monsoon set in over Kerala and Mahe and advanced into most parts of the Northeast. The normal day for the monsoon’s arrival in Kerala is June 1. The earliest arrival of the monsoon in Kerala were on May 18 (1990), May 22 (1999) and May 23 (1974). The IMD forecast this monsoon season (June-September) is likely to be above normal — 106% of the Long Period Average (LPA). It will be above normal over Central India and South Peninsular India, normal over Northwest India and below normal over Northeast India. Experts say the monsoon’s progression is likely to be on the slower side due to unfavourable Madden-Julian Oscillation – an oceanic-atmospheric phenomenon defined as eastward moving clouds, rainfall, winds and pressure at regular intervals. However, it will accelerate over eastern and northern parts after June 15. “Slow progression of monsoon towards north India may lead to further extended heat wave period,” said Dr Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Science. Above normal rainfall is good news for agriculture and food security. Around half of the workforce in the country is still dependent on farming for their livelihood. Last year’s deficit (6% of LPA) and uneven monsoon had impacted food production and the overall agrarian economy. The acreage and production of kharif crops such as pulses, oilseeds and cotton was reduced, which pushed agricultural growth below 1% and raised food inflation. Experts expect better monsoon this year would address the challenge. NSUI nat’l secy murdered in A’pur, land dispute likely cause E x pre s s New s Ser v i c e @ Anantapur National Secretary of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party B Sampath , Kumar was murdered at Dhamaravaram in Sri Sathya Sai district on Thursday. Locals found his body near a water tank and alerted the police. It has been learnt that Dharmavaram police has identified a vehicle, which was probably used to transport Sampath’s body Blood stains were also re. portedly found in the vehicle. Police suspect that the accused might have murdered Sampath some place else and dumped the body near the tank. The owner of the vehicle has reportedly been taken into custody and the police has also zeroed in on the culprits. Sampath had recently approached the police and complained that there was a threat to his life. He was reportedly involved in a dispute with a few people over a land settlement issue. Police are trying to find if there was any other motive behind the NSUI national secretary’s murder. Final chance to protect Constitution, former PM tells Punjab voters J ite n d ra Ch o u bey @ New Delhi However, when contacted, police remained tight-lipped on the details of the case. A native of Yellukuntapalle in Dharmavaram mandal, 28year-old Sampath was a practicing advocate in Hindupur. He was also NSUI in-charge of Kerala region. He had actively participated in Cong ress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. He was scheduled to visit Kerala to participate in the KSU Founder’s Day celebrations. The Congress has demanded that the culprits be brought to book at the earliest. Campaign ends, Modi holds over 200 rallies PM offers prayer at Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanniyakumari on Thursday | PTI PM’s 45-hr ‘dhyanam’ at rock memorial begins E x pre s s New s Ser v i c e @ Kanniyakumari Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his 45-hour-long ‘dhyanam’ (meditation) scheduled to go on till June 1 at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanniyakumari district around 7 pm on Thursday . The PM’s helicopter from Thiruvananthapuram landed at the helipad at the Tamil Nadu state guest house at 5.10 pm. After staying for a brief while at the guest house, the PM visited the Bhagavathi Amman temple located 200 metres from the guest house and offered worship. Clad in a white dhoti and shawl, Modi prayed at the temple and circumambulated the ‘garbhagriha’. Priests performed a special ‘arthi’ and he was given temple ‘prasad’ that included a shawl and a framed photograph of the pre- siding deity of the temple. Later, he reached the rock memorial by a ferry service operated by the Tamil Nadu governmentowned shipping corporation. Immediately after entering the memorial, the PM showered flowers on the portraits of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and mother Sri Sarada Devi. He also paid floral tributes to the life-size statue of Swami Vivekananda kept on a pedestal at the mandapam before commencing his meditation. Following the culmination of the hectic Lok Sabha election campaign in which he addressed a multitude of rallies and after vociferous protests by the opposition, the PM will be meditating in an ambience of quietude. Over 2,000 security personnel have been deployed in the district and fishers of three villages have been barred from fishing for three days. P5 Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended his Lok Sabha poll campaign with a rally in Hoshiarpur. The count of his rallies and roadshows reached 206, going past the close to 145 such events in the 2019 polls The BJP thinks that the value of patriotism, bravery and service is only four years. This shows their fake nationalism Manmohan Singh’s swipe at the Agniveer scheme P reetha Nair @ New Delhi In an emotional appeal to Punjab’s voters ahead of the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections, former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday said it’s their final chance to ensure that “democracy and Constitution are protected from the repeated assaults of a despotic regime trying to unleash dictatorship in India”. In a three-page letter shared on X by the Congress, Singh came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “indulging in the most vicious form of hate speeches, which are purely divisive in nature”. “People of India are seeing through all of this. This narrative of dehumanization has now reached its peak. With folded hands, I appeal to each one of you to give love, peace, fraternity and harmony a chance in In, dia,” he said. Mounting a sharp attack on the PM, he said that Modi is the first prime minister to lower the dignity of public discourse and the gravity of his office, adding no PM in the past had targeted a specific section of the society or the opposition in this manner. In his first response to Modi’s allegations of Singh’s politics of Muslim appeasement, the former PM said that he never singled out one community from the other. “No prime minister in the past has uttered such hateful, unparliamentary and coarse terms, meant to target ei, ther a specific section of the society or the opposition. He has also attributed some false statements to me. I have never in my life singled out one community from the other. That is the sole copyright of the BJP said the senior Con,” gress leader, who led the UPA government for two consecutive terms from 2004-2014. As for Modi, he kept up his attack on the Congress at his rally in Hoshiarpur, rebuking it for ranting about the Constitution when it was the one that ‘strangled’ it during Emergency He also . blamed it for the anti-Sikh pogrom in 1984. 22 killed in J&K bus accident Faya z W a n i @ Srinagar AT least 22 pilgrims were killed and 57 others injured after a bus carrying them fell into a 150 ft deep gorge in Akhnoor area of Jammu district in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday . The accident took place when the driver of the bus, which was on its way to Shiv Khori shrine in J&K’s Reasi district, lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a blind curve. District Magistrate Jammu, Sachin Kumar Vaishya, said the passenger bus was carrying pilgrims from Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. President Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha expressed grief over the loss of lives while the local administration has ordered a magisterial inquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident. A joint rescue operation launched by the locals, police, and army men immediately after the accident helped save several trapped passengers. The injured persons were evacuated to a nearby hospital, where from 36 were further re- as 57-year-old Harsimrat Kaur Badal, daughter-in-law of late Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, seeks her fourth consecutive win from Punjab’s Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency, the odds appear to be stacked against her. It’s a high-stakes multi-cornered contest this time as the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, both INDIA bloc partners, are fighting separately in Punjab. It is also the first Lok Sabha election after SAD broke away from the NDA fold in 2020. Among Harsimrat’s opponents is the formidable Gurmeet Singh Khuddian of the AAP The 61-year-old politician . is the agriculture minister in the Bhagwant Mann government of Punjab. He had defeated the five-time CM and 11time MLA late Parkash Badal from his bastion Lambi in the 2022 Assembly election, which earned him the moniker ‘giant slayer’. Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu of the Congress, Parampal Kaur Sidhu of the BJP Bharatiya Janata Party, and Lakhvir Singh allias La- Harsimrat Kaur Badal (L) and Gurmeet Singh Khuddian kha Sidhana, 45, of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) are her other opponents. However, the AAP wields the biggest threat as it represents all the nine Assembly seats under the Bathinda LS constituency, which has 16.48 lakh voters. With rivals trying to breach the SAD fortress of Bathinda, can Harsimrat hold it? The SAD has been out of power in Punjab for the past seven years and leaving the NDA has further dented its clout. So, keeping the Bathinda stronghold is crucial for its survival. Illustration: Mandar Pardikar Spurned lover kills classmate, tries to end life E x pre s s New s Ser v i c e @ Vijayawada/Rajamahendravaram Rescue workers at the accident site near Chouki Choura area of Akhnoor | pti ferred to the Government Medical College in Jammu for specialized treatment. Doctors termed the condition of six as ‘life threatening’. “Pained beyond words to learn about the loss of lives in a bus accident in Akhnoor near Jammu. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I wish speedy recovery of the injured,” President Murmu said in her condolence message shared on X. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced compensation of `2 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased and `50,000 to the injured passenges. J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha announced an ex-gratia of `5 lakh for the next of kin of each deceased and `50,000 for those injured in the accident. Harsimrat Kaur Badal fights against odds to defend Bathinda fortress H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh atrocity Harsimrat’s husband and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, the party’s Ferozepur MP is sitting out this time but , is at the forefront of campaigning. This election, the first since the death of his father, also will be a test of his leadership acumen. In her speeches, Harsimrat highlights the development works done by the SAD government while in power. The problem is, the BJP candidate too claims credit for all big projects, saying they happened because of the saffron party-led government at the Centre. But Harsimrat’s biggest at- tack is against the AAP and the Congress, saying they have not laid even a brick of development, and urges people to vote for actual performance not false promises. Khuddian, on the other hand, seeks votes on the Mann government’s good works. He highlights the government’s free electricity scheme and the setting up of over 800 ‘aam aadmi’ clinics across the state. As for the BJP’s Parampal Kaur Sidhu, she claims the other parties have betrayed the people. “Now people have expectations only from the BJP,” she says. A 23-year-old youngster killed a girl in Eluru town on Thursday as she refused to accept his marriage proposal. The incident took place around 1 pm near the girl’s house in EMCI Colony under Satrampadu locality The . accused youth brutally attacked her with a knife in full public glare and later tried to kill himself with the same knife. While the girl died on the spot, the accused sustained serious injuries. He was first shifted to the Eluru Government General Hospital and later to Vijayawada GGH for better treatment. His health condition is reportedly critical. E l ab o r at ing on the case, Eluru SP D Mary Prashanti said the deceased, identified as Jakki Ratna Grace (23) and the accused, T Yesuratnam, were classmates since childhood. Grace’s parents said Yesuratnam had brought his parents to their home and expressed his willingness to marry her. Her family members declined his proposal and requested him to stay away from the girl. However, Yesuratnam continued to persuade Grace although she warned him not to trouble her and her family Enraged by the rejection, . he stabbed the girl to death and then tried to kill himself. Onlookers immediately alerted the police. A case has been registered and investigation is on.