chennai l sunday l june 16, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l vellore EDITION Zelenskyy hopes peace meeting in swiss resort will make history Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the summit brought the focus back on the war. Joint efforts can stop it and establish peace 50 heads of state expected to attend Host has three items on the agenda Switzerland, which is hosting the peace summit, said more than 50 heads of state and government will join the meet at the B’rgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. Russia and China and a bunch of other nations will not participitate. The US has sent Vice President Kamala Harris to the event. An official from India will be attending the summit | P9 ■ Switzerland has three items on the peace summit agenda: nuclear safety of the Zaporizhzhia power plant; humanitarian assistance and exchange of PoWs; and food security, which has been disrupted because of war ■ Putin wants any peace deal to be built around Ukraine’s neutral status and limits on its armed forces, while delaying talks about Russia-occupied areas 100 delegates are attending the peace summit in the swiss resort 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 kuwait fire Victim families to get `8 lakh relief, wages for four years Ami d s e l f i e d i p l o m a c y India-Middle east corridor gets g7 shot E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi The founder of the company whose 49 employees died in an inferno at their residence in Kuwait three days ago, on Saturday offered a public apology . As many as 45 of the victims were Indians. K G Abraham, 70, the founder of the NBTC Group that hired them, hails from Pathanamthitta. He dismissed charges of overcrowding in the residential apartments or irregularities in the building permits. He said the company will protect the families of the victims, including providing educational support to students.”We are sorry We are so sorry I was . . crying at home hearing about the tragic accident. They are our people. They are like our families. Some of them had been working with us for 25-27 years,” Abraham said. “We believe this did not happen because of our mistake. But, still we will take the responsibility. They were working with us. They built our company They are our family . .” He said the company will give `8 lakh each to the families of the deceased. “Further, there is insurance coverage for all the employees. This will ensure that the families receive four years’ salaries of the victims. We will also provide jobs to the dependents of the victims’ families as per their educational qualifications,” he said. The NBTC Group is into construction, manufacturing, oil and natural gas, and retail. WITH THIS ISSUE Second Coming PLUS 12 PAGES AIADMK decides to stay off bypoll, blames DMK S KUMARESAN @ Chennai In a surprise move, the principal opposition party AIADMK, , has decided to boycott the Vikravandi bypoll scheduled for July 10. Explaining the reason for the decision to boycott the bypoll, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said the DMK will misuse government machinery and use its muscle and money power to prevent the byelection from being conducted in a free and fair manner. “The AIADMK would focus on the 2026 Assembly election and form the next government in the state,” EPS said. The decision to boycott the bypoll was taken at the 8 Maoists, 1 STF jawan killed in Chhattisgarh encounter e j a z k a i s e r @ Raipur Italian PM Giorgia Meloni takes a selfie with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the G7 summit in Italy | PTI Agencies If the Group of Seven summit in Italy was all about heavy-duty diplomacy it had , its moments of fun as well. Like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni taking a selfie video with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tagging it as Meloni and sharing it from her official X handle as well as her Instagram account. Her four words as caption — Hi friends, from #Melodi — broke the internet with 23 million views in 10 hours. Modi attended the summit at the invitation of host Meloni. As for the business end of the summit, the G7 industrialised nations committed themselves to promoting con- crete infrastructure initiatives such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) in their communique at the end of the meet, also attended by Modi. The communique also reiterated the commitment to a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ based on the rule of law. “We will further promote concrete G7 PGII (Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment) initiatives, flagship projects, and complementary initiatives to develop transformative economic corridors for quality infrastructure and investment, such as the deepening of our coordination and financing for the Lobito Corridor, the Luzon Corridor, the Middle Corridor, and the In- dia-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, also building on the EU Global Gateway, the Great Green Wall Initiative, and the Mattei Plan for Africa launched by Italy the ,” communique read. The IMEC envisages a vast road, railroad and shipping network among Saudi Arabia, India, the US and Europe to ensure integration among Asia, the Middle East and the West. It is also seen as an initiative by like-minded nations to gain strategic influence in the face of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has faced increasing criticism over lack of transparency and disregard for sovereignty of the nations. The IMEC was firmed up on the sidelines of the G20 summit in India last year. Eight fighters of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), including three women, and a jawan were killed in a gunfight at the forested terrain of Maad region of Narayanpur district, about 400 km south of Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Saturday . Besides the jawan, two other security officials sustained injuries, said Sunderraj P, Bastar’s Inspector General of Police. The injured jawans have been airlifted to a hospital in Raipur and are said to be out of danger. All three belonged to the Special Task Force (STF). 14 dead after tempo falls into alaknanda 26 tourists were travelling from Gurugram to Tungnath -Chopta in Uttarakhand. Ten injured, some seriously. They have been admitted to AIIMS Rishikesh | P8 `1K for women heads: Recipients to be tracked for eligibility B A n b u s e lv a n @ Chennai Similar to the practice under the old-age pension scheme, bank accounts and other transactions of Kalaingar Magalir Urimai Thogai (KMUT) beneficiaries too will be monitored digitally from June this year to check whether the beneficiaries continue to meet the eligibility criteria under the scheme. Around 1.15 crore female heads of eligible families, including those in rehabilitation party’s state-level functionaries’ meet held under EPS at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai on Saturday. DMK said the AIADMK’s decision exposed its clandestine ties with the BJP . In a statement, EPS expressed concern over the way byelections are being conducted under the DMK regime. He recalled that a similar decision to boycott polls was taken during the DMK regime between 2006-11 when former CM J Jayalalithaa was heading the AIADMK. She had boycotted the bypolls for Ilayangudi, Kambam, Thondamuthur, Bargur, and Srivaikundam seats in 2009, EPS said. P5 camps for Sri Lankan Tamils, receive monthly assistance of `1,000 under the scheme. The state government spends over `12,000 crore every year for the scheme. After the planned review, if there is improvement in the living condition of beneficiaries and if they fail to meet the eligibility criteria, they will be replaced with new set of eligible beneficiaries, sources said. Till now, under the KMUT scheme launched on Septem- ber 15 last year, only the names of deceased persons are being removed from the beneficiaries’ list before funds are transferred to their bank accounts every month. The digital surveillance system has not covered the beneficiaries so far for other aspects, sources from the social security scheme and special programme implementation departments told TNIE. Sources said after being enroled under the scheme, some beneficiaries’ family members may have joined government service, purchased cars or oth- 1.15 crore TN women receiving `1k per month To be eligible for Kalaingar Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme, families’ land holdings should not exceed five acres of wetland or 10 acres of dryland and annual income should be less than `2.5 lakh. There are also other criteria including limit on power consumption er heavy vehicles, or acquired new land, which would render them ineligible. To be eligible for the scheme, families’ land holdings should not exceed five acres of wetland or 10 acres of dryland and annual income should be less than `2.5 lakh. There are also other criteria including limit on power consumption. An official pointed out that living standards and financial status of the beneficiary families are dynamic and may change over time. P5 The deceased jawan was identified as Nitish Ekka. He is a resident of Jashpur district. Based on intelligence inputs about the presence of senior Maoist members, a joint operation was conducted by the District Reserved Guards, the STF, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Border Security Force on Saturday morning, Sunderraj said. The operation continued throughout the day along the Kutul, Farasbeda and Kodtameta jungles resulting in the death of the Maoists and jawan, he added. The bodies of the radi- tn may soon allow Culling of wild boars to save crops SV K r i s h n a CHAITANYA @ Chennai The Tamil Nadu government may soon allow ‘selective’ culling of wild boars that are venturing out of forest areas and damaging crops. At a meeting of the Farmers Conflict Resolution Committee held on Friday it was largely agreed that wild boars that are troubling farmers beyond 5 km from the forest boundary can be shot down. Besides, a number of other measures like creating bio-fences were also discussed to stop animals from raiding crops. While the minutes of the committee meeting are still confidential, official sources told TNIE that keeping ecological and predator-prey balance in mind, wild boars will not be disturbed within 0-1 km or 0-3 km from forest boundary. Though farmer representatives in the committee were insisting on eliminating wild boars beyond 1 km, forest officials Group discussion: Crash out in testing conditions THE day the 2024 T20 World Cup started, nobody would have imagined that halfway through the tour nament, amongst the four semi-finalists from the previous edition, only India would have confirmed their position in the Super 8. There were talks of sluggish pitches, weather disruptions, one-sided matches but in the end what mattered was results in the middle. And to be fair, teams that played well won. The tournament has truly turned global too. The likes of New Zealand and Pakistan, are already out of the World Cup, while the future of defending champions England is only partially in their hands (late night match on Saturday/Sunday). On the other hand, Afghanistan (ranked 10 in ICC T20I rankings) and the USA (ranked 17) have qualified for the Super 8 for the first time. The reasons these so-called big teams have struggled to make it to the Super 8 can be traced back to the conditions in the US. At the same time, the lower-ranked teams, especially from the associate nations, have raised the bar to a new level. Undoubtedly, there have been a handful of upsets, but there could have been more such results. For example, at one time during the chase of 136 against Papua New Guinea in the second fixture of the WC, West Indies were in trouble with 10 runs required per over. USA took it a step further with a super-over win against Pakistan, which knocked the 2022 runners-up out of contention for the Super 8. Afghanistan, who were so close to the semi-final spot in the ODI World Cup last year, surpassed all expectations to beat New Zealand comprehensively this time. On Saturday Nepal lost by just one , run against South Africa. The usual contenders like India, Australia and West Indies have remained unbeaten to confirm their spots, however, it is the unusual suspects that have made T20 WC more interesting. and scientists were against it. In the 3km-5km range, measures other than culling, like bio-fencing, would be considered. A final decision will be taken by Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy who will issue orders under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, after holding consultation with the state government. Sources said the culling will be selective and executed by the forest department. Local-level committees consisting of foresters, VAO, panchayat head, and a farmer representative will be formed to assess the wild boar population. Continued on P5 express read T20 World Cup k a lya n i m a n g a l e @ Chennai cals have been recovered but are yet to be identified. Security forces are continuing to comb the area. So far they have recovered INSAS rifles, .303 rifles, BGL launcher and shells, a huge cache of ammunition, besides items of daily use from the gunfight site. About 1,200 jawans are engaged in the antiMaoist joint operation for the first time in the Maad area, an insurgent stronghold. Since January, the forces have liquidated as many as 131 Maoists after various operations in Bastar. CM: Rahul’s sweet box shattered PM’s visits Coimbatore: “Rahul Gandhi’s one sweet box shattered PM Modi’s eight visits to Tamil Nadu. I can’t forget Rahul Gandhi’s affection ever,” CM M K Stalin told DMK workers on Saturday | P4 Leopard caught after 9-hour op from school United States of America are the only associate team to have qualified for Super 8 so far. Other qualified teams are India, Australia, Afghanistan, WI & South Africa Tirupattur: A leopard that strayed into the campus of a private school in Tirupattur on Friday was captured after a nine-hour-long struggle by the forest officials early on Saturday | P3
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.