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 ■ ■ bhubaneswar l saturday l june 15, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION SC notice to NTA, Centre on plea for CBI probe 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 sought responses from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre on a plea seeking CBI investigation into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the NEET-UG exam held across the country on May 5 this year. A two-judge vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought the responses within two weeks and tagged the cases with other petitions raising similar issues. The batch of pleas will now be heard on July 8, when the top court will start functioning after the summer vacation. The development comes a day after the NTA and the Centre told the SC that the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates in the NEET-UG exam will be cancelled. They will have the option to either take a re-test on June 23 or forgo the compensatory marks awarded for the loss of time, the court was told. The petitioners alleged cheating happened in the medical entrance exam. “Cheating in entrance exams undermines the principles of meritocracy and equal opportunities which are essential for fostering social mobility and ensuring fairness in society the plea said. ,” Responding to the submission for ordering a CBI probe, the bench said the reply of the NTA was necessary before an order could be passed. 2009 World T20 champs Pakistan crashed out after the game between USA and Ireland was abandoned Talks, diplomacy Delimitation hurdle for women quota path for Ukraine peace, says Modi P r e e tha Na i r @ New Delhi Holds talks with Zelenskyy; meets Biden and other leaders; invites Pope Francis 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 US President Joe Biden, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Pope Francis. “It’s always a pleasure to meet @POTUS @JoeBiden. India and USA will keep working together to further global good,” Modi said in a post on X along with photos of their interaction. In his talks with Zelenskyy, Modi assured him 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. 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 transport corridor, which makes it possible to in- PM Narendra Modi embraces Pope Francis at Italy’s Apulia on Friday | X crease 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 invited him to visit India,” Modi said in a post on X. Modi was seen in a lighthearted exchange with the 87-year-old head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He also held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is hosting the G7 Summit, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron. Modi also met Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. 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 assemblies will come into force after delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, scheduled for 2026. Several Opposition parties Would it politically help the govt at all? The question is whether the govt would go for delimitation after the BJP faced setbacks in states like UP. “In 2019, the BJP swept the Hindi heartland. Now the landscape has changed. Even if UP or Bihar get more seats after delimitation, it may not benefit the BJP,” Pronab Sen said 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. 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 condi- tion of anonymity told this pa, per that the party will not support delimitation as the state will lose Lok Sabha seats. Echoing the view, noted economist and former chief statistician Pronab Sen told this paper that 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 Souther n states as well as from Maharashtra and Gujarat,” said Sen, adding it can delink quota from the delimitation provision by amending the bill. Families of Kuwait blaze victims in SRINIVAS HEGDE, DIRECTOR shock, CM Majhi offers condolences OF CHANDRAYAAN-1, d i a n a s ahu @ Bhubaneswar AN eerie silence has gripped Karadapalli in Ganjam district and Ranajhalli village in Cuttack as they await the mortal remains of their two sons, who fell victim to the Kuwait blaze on Wednesday. The deceased - Santosh Kumar Gouda and Mohammad Jahur - are from the two villages respectively. An IAF aircraft carrying the mortal remains of 45 Indians landed in Kochi on Friday. They will be brought to Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Both the families were informed about the deaths by the Ministry of External Affairs after identification of the bodies on Thursday. Chief Minister Santosh Kumar Gouda Mohammad Jahur Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday condoled the deaths of Jahur and Santosh. Taking to X, the chief minister wrote, “Many people lost their lives in the terrible fire in Kuwait. The news of the death of two Odia sons Mohammad Zahoor and Satish Gowda is very sad. I offer my condolences to the bereaved families and pray to Lord Jagannath for the liberation of the immortal soul.” Santosh and Jahur were residing in the seven-storey apartment building in Mangaf at Southern Kuwait where the fire broke out early on Wednesday morning. While 38-year-old Santosh worked at a shopping mall of NBTC - one of the biggest construction companies of Kuwait - as a salesman since 2022 on a two-year contract, he had come to his home at Karadapalli in March and stayed back for a month for an open heart surgery of his father. He had decided to shift to Kuwait to earn more money to fend for his family of seven. He is survived by his wife and two minor sons, CONTINUED ON P5 parents. PASSES AWAY The former Isro scientist was the mission head of India’s first lunar mission that discovered water molecules on Moon. The 71-year-old was admitted in hospital after a heart attack | P5 express read Delhi L-G nod to prosecute Arundhati Roy under UAPA New Delhi: L-G VK Saxena gave his nod to prosecute author-activist Arundhati Roy and former professor of Central University of Kashmir Sheikh Showkat Hussain under the stringent UAPA in connection with a 2010 FIR, which accused the duo of delivering provocative speeches | P5
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