madurai l saturday l june 15, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz appeals to Kashmiri Pandits to return to J&K It is time to reconcile and rebuild the broken bonds of the past, Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Friday Call amid Mela Kheer Bhawani festival ‘Homeland awaits return of Pandits’ He made the appeal in his address at the Friday congregation at the historic Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta area in Srinagar, where he also felicitated the Kashmiri Pandit community on the occasion of Mela Kheer Bhawani. Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits paid obeisance at the Mata Kheer Bhawani temple at Tulmulla in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on Friday ■ Mela Kheer Bhawani is an annual event at the Kheer Bhawani temple dedicated to Rangya Devi. It is also celebrated in other shrines and temples ■ “I would ask them (Kashmiri Pandits) to return to their homeland which awaits them and live here as they did in the past in our common and shared heritage. We owe it to our next generation,” Mirwaiz said 1990 When a large number of Kashmiri Pandits fled J&K due to militancy 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 Delimitation hurdle for women quota Talks, diplomacy path for Ukraine peace, says Modi P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi With its Southern allies in play, the BJP-led NDA government may face roadblocks in implementing the Women’s Reservation Bill, which hinges on Census and delimitation. With the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the main ally of the NDA, calling for consensus on delimitation, the BJP may face huge challenges in implementing the bill passed during Modi 2.0. The 33% quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state as- semblies will come into force after delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, scheduled for 2026. Several Opposition parties from the South have raised concerns that the delimitation on the basis of population would lead to the states losing out in representation as they were successful in controlling population. To undertake the delimitation, the government must conduct the decadal Census, which has been indefinitely postponed since 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. `1k/month for boys under ‘Tamil Pudhalvan’ from Aug Chief Minister M K Stalin felicitates students who scored centum in Tamil subject in public exams at a function organised by the School Education Department at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium in Chennai on Friday | Ashwin prasath Speaking to this newspaper, senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore said the linkage with delimitation could delay the implementation of women’s reservation, adding the BJP is planning it for 2034. “The entire Opposition voted for the passage of the bill and we want it to be immediately implemented. But the government’s real intention is to delay it,” he said. A TDP leader, on the condition of anonymity said the par, ty will not support delimitation as the state will lose LS seats. Echoing the view, noted economist and former chief statistician Pronab Sen said the women’s quota will get stuck because delimitation and census have been written into the bill. “Why should the implementation of the Women’s bill be connected to delimitation? The government will face opposition from Southern states , Maharashtra and Gujarat,” said Sen adding it can delink quota from delimitation provision by amending the bill. E X PRESS NEWS SER V ICE @ Chennai in government schools get a monthly aid of `1,000 received an overwhelmingly positive response. ‘Tamil Pudhalvan’ is a similar scheme for boys announced in this year’s budget. The school education department is marching towards a golden period under the ‘Dravidian model’ of government in the state,” Stalin said. He reiterated the gover nment’s commitment to develop the education sector despite financial challenges to nurture Tamil Nadu students to compete globally. “Study, study and keep studying. There should not be any slackness. Keep moving forward, and let there not be a full stop. Keep winning and make Tamil Nadu proud,” Stalin told the students. Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday announced that the beneficiaries of the new ‘Tamil Pudhalvan’ scheme will start receiving the monthly assistance of `1,000 from August. Speaking at the School Education Department’s ‘Aimperum Vizha’ organised to honour gover nment school headmasters who achieved 100% pass in Class 10 and 12 public exams in their schools and students who secured centum in Tamil paper in board exams, Stalin said he is always interested in taking part in school education department events. “Pudhumai Penn scheme, through which girl college students who studied Holds talks with Zelenskyy; meets Pope Francis, invites him to India Agencies Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with world leaders at Italy’s Apulia on the sidelines of the G7 summit, but what caught the eye were his interactions with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pope Francis. In his talks with Zelenskyy, Modi assured that India would continue to do everything within its means to support a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war, adding the way to peace is through “dialogue and diplomacy”. He said India believes in a human-centric approach to the conflict. The upcoming Swiss peace conference for Ukraine also figured in the talks. Modi described the meeting as very productive and said India is eager to further cement bilateral relations. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra were part of Modi’s delegation at the talks. The Ukranian readout said, “The president spoke about the functioning of the Black Sea Prime Minister Narendra Modi embraces Pope Francis at Italy’s Apulia on Friday | X transport corridor, which makes it possible to increase exports of sunflower oil to India and turnover of other categories of goods.” Later in the day Modi , met Pope Francis with a warm embrace at the Outreach session of the G7 Summit and invited him to visit India. “Met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the @G7 Summit. I admire his commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also in- vited him to visit India,” Modi said in a post on X. Modi and the BJP have made several overtures to the Christian community before the general elections. Modi was seen in a lighthearted exchange with the 87year-old head of the worldwide Catholic Church. “It is up to each of us to make good use of AI,” the Pope said in his address at the Outreach session on the topic of Artificial Intelligence, Energy Africa , and the Mediterranean.
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