BENGALURU FRIDAY JUNE 14, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 40 LATE CITY EDITION NATIONAL INTEREST: GERMANY PRIMED FOR BIG EURO KICK-OFF The three-time champions look to shake-off their listless recent tournament performances as the doors open for 2024 edition of Euros. A look FRANCE, PORTUGAL START AS FAVOURITES HOLDERS ITALY IN THE GROUP OF DEATH Thanks to their depth, France, 2018 World Cup champions and 2022 runners-up, begin as favourites. The side is stacked with world-class performers, including Kylian Mbappe. Portugal, which is having a Golden Generation of sorts, rivals France in terms of squad depth. Can Cristiano Ronaldo, fresh of an underwhelming season in Saudi, win a second Euro? ■ ■ After failing to advance to the last WC, Italy, the defending European champs, enjoyed a serene qualifying campaign. However, they find themselves in a challenging group with Spain, Albania and Croatia Other teams that have a chance include England, who can lay claim to having the best players of Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga 24 NUMBER OF TEAMS IN THE 2024 EVENT. THE FINAL IS SET FOR JULY 14 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 NEET grace marks axed, retest offered Those who take fresh exam on June 23 will lose their pre-compensatory score, govt tells Supreme Court S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Centre on Thursday cancelled the grace marks awarded to 1,563 students who took the NEET-UG entrance exam for medical courses following a national uproar and gave them the option of taking a retest on June 23. Those who take the retest will lose their pre-grace marks; those who don’t will get to retain their score minus the compensatory marks. The decision came after a four-member panel examined the controversy and suggested remedial measures to allay the fears of the students, the government told the Supreme Court. The committee was of the view that the award of grace marks on grounds of loss of time while taking the test resulted in a skewed situation as it had to be limited to the questions that remained un-attempted. The National Testing Agency (NTA) Contaminated water kills six in Tumakuru village E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Tumakuru UNEASY calm prevails at Chinnenahalli in Madhugiri taluk where six people, including an infant, died after drinking contaminated water in the past four days. Chikkadasappa, 76, and Peddanna, 74, died on Wednesday night at the district general hospital in Tumakuru. Ten people are being treated in ICUs and three children in general wards. Over 50 people fell ill on June 10 after attending the annual village fair which began on June 9. Hanumakka, 85, died on June 10. On June 11, Nagamma, 89, Nagappa, 85, and Meenakshi, 3, daughter of Manjunath and Jayalakshmi, died. District in-charge minister Dr G Parameshwara visited the hospital on Thursday. He instructed DC Subha Kalyan to provide safe drinking water to the people of Chinnenahalli. Local MLA KN Rajanna alleged that despite several warnings, the local officials did not get the overhead tank in the village cleaned. The tank has not been cleaned for more than 10 years and this led to water contamination, according to sources. In-charge panchayat development officer BV Muniraju and waterman S Nagaraju h ave b e e n s u s p e n d e d i n t h i s connection. WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 40 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) NO CONCRETE EVIDENCE OF RIGGING: PRADHAN “No concrete evidence of any kind of rigging, corruption or paper leak has been found so far in the NEET. The kind of politics being done on this issue is only an attempt to spread confusion and it affects the mental peace of the students,” Union education minister Drarmendra Pradhan said | P7 had earlier granted compensatory marks to students in six centres who had complained of loss of time. It created a furore amid allegations of paper leaks and other malpractices in some places. A vacation bench comprising justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta termed the NTA’s decision fairly reasonable and refused to stall the counselling for NEET-UG, scheduled to commence from July 6. DARSHAN CASE Cops put ‘view cutter’ around police station E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru THE police covering the Annapoorneshwari Nagar station, where actor Darshan and others arrested in a murder case are being interrogated, with tent cloth has raised many eyebrows. This became a hot topic of discussion in various quarters on Thursday as it was never heard of or seen before. The station was covered with tent cloth a day after city police commissioner B Dayananda visited it. This is said to have been done to avoid media and public glare as some visuals from inside went viral. Although police stations should be kept open 24 hours, the gates of this one were locked on Thursday morning. The police have also barricaded the road to the station.On Wednesday police resorted to a mild , lathicharge to disperse people who had gathered in front of the station to have a glimpse of their favourite star. In view of such developments, the officers decided to cover the front portion of the station with tent cloth, according to sources. Meanwhile, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed within a radius of 200 metres from the station. The prohibitory orders will be in force DOVAL GETS 3rd TERM AS NSA, MISHRA TOO STAYS R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @New Delhi SPYMASTER Ajit Doval was reappointed National Security Advisor (NSA) for a third consecutive term and so was bureaucrat P K Mishra as the principal secretary to the prime minister with effect from June 10, the government said on Thursday . Their terms will be co-terminus with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or until further orders, whichever is earlier, a government statement said. Both will continue to hold the rank of cabinet minister in the table of precedence. They accompany Modi whenever he goes abroad, like he did on Thursday for the Group of Seven summit in Italy The appointments indicate the . PM’s trust in these top officers. After retirement as Intelligence Bureau director in 2005, Doval founded the Vivekananda International Foundation, a public policy thinktank. He worked with the IB for more than 33 years in different roles and in areas like the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab. Modi picked him as the country’s fifth NSA in 2014. During his first ten- They, however, said all the admissions will be subject to the outcome of the petitions that sought cancellation of the exam held on May 5 on the grounds of question paper leak and other malpractices. The bench also said it cannot expand the scope of the Centre’s decision to those students who had not approached the court yet. Advocate Kanu Agrawal, appearing for the Centre, said the retest results will be out on June 30, so those candidates too can appear for counselling. When the NEET-UG result was declared on June 4, as many as 67 students had a perfect score of 720. Thursday’s decision brought down that number to 61. The court ordered the NTA to file its reply by July 8 on the allegations of malpractices adopted by some students who took the NEET-UG exam. Around 24 lakh candidates took the exam. Its result was expected on June 14 but was announced on June 4. The Annapoorneshwari police station, where Darshan is being questioned, has been covered with tent cloth | VINOD KUMAR T 8TH ACCUSED SURRENDERS The 8th accused in the murder case surrendered before the Chitradurga police on Thursday evening. The accused has been identified as taxi driver Ravi from Kurubarahatti village in Chitradurga district. till Monday to prevent people from gathering, protesting, sitting and marching to the station. The police custody of all the accused will end on Monday . “The visuals telecast by news channels impeded investigations. Seeing mediapersons outside the police station, people may gather there assuming that Darshan may come out. This case is demanding in terms of efforts, forethought and volume,” a senior police officCONTINUED ON: P3 er said. KSRTC cargo biz fails to overtake private players A K N I S R E E K A R T H I K @ Bengaluru Ajit Doval (left) and P K Mishra ure, Doval is believed to have played a pivotal role in the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the Uri terror attack. As for Mishra, he served as additional principal secretary in the PMO in Modi’s first term as prime minister. In September 2019, he was elevated as principal secretary to the prime minister. Mishra is a 1972 batch retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre. Besides, two other appointments of former IAS officers of Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh cadres — Amit Khare and Tarun Kapoor — were made as advisors in the Prime Minister’s Office for two years. TO boost its revenue, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) forayed into cargo business with 20 trucks in December last. The corporation’s target was to generate Rs 100 crore annual revenue by 2025. It had planned to add 100 trucks soon after the launch and induct 500 more in a year. However, the corporation is struggling to make a mark in the business with tough competition from private players. A top KSRTC official said, “We started Namma Cargo services in 2021 using corporation buses. We witnessed a good growth initially and recorded Rs 10 crore revenue. Further, we conducted a study of cargo services successfully run by Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation, which is earning more than Rs 150 crore. We ventured into this business with 20 trucks fitted with GPS, with a capacity to carry six tonnes.” CONTINUED ON: P5 POCSO case: Spl court issues NBW against BSY E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru Students shout slogans against the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG entrance exam, in Kolkata on Thursday | PTI EXPRESS READ NIA chargesheets seven in Ballari ISIS module case Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday chargesheeted seven accused involved in the Ballari Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) module case. The accused have been charged with recruitment and radicalization of vulnerable youth as mujahideen to operate as terrorist sleeper cells, the Central agency said | P4 Previously, the Home Minister @ DrParameshwara himself had stated that the complaint from the mentally unstable woman was malicious and without merit. It is absurd that the case is being revived after three months.Why is the government focusing on Shri Yeddyurappa ji’s only, among 53 complaints filed by the woman, including against her own children and husband? Why plot a sudden arrest three months after the complaint was filed? If Congress leaders in Delhi succumb to such vile, vindictive politics and target Shri Yeddyurappa ji, there is no doubt that Congress will be thrown out of Karnataka (sic) -- @BJP4Karnataka THE special court to try cases registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against former chief minister and senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa on Thursday . Judge NM Ramesh passed the order after hearing an application filed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probing a POCSO case registered against Yediyurappa. In the application, the CID stated that Yediyurappa did not appear for an inquiry despite its notice. Sadashivanagar police booked Yediyurappa under Section 8 of the POCSO Act and Section 354A of the IPC based on a complaint filed on March 14, 2024, by the mother of a 17-year-old girl. In the complaint, she alleged that Yediyurappa sexually assaulted her daughter on February 2, 2024, at his house in Dollars Colony in the city. Before issuing the warrant, the court noted that the police had issued the notice to the accused under Section 41(A) of CrPC, stating that there was no need for his arrest. The court questioned the prosecution why police were seeking issuance of NBW now after keeping CONTINUED ON: P4 mum all these days. HC to hear Yediyurappa’s pleas today Former CM Yediyurappa filed two petitions before the high court in the POCSO case. In one petition, he sought quashing the FIR against him under the provisions of the IPC and POCSO Act. In another, he appealed to the court to grant him anticipatory bail. Both petitions will come up for hearing on Friday.
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