THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l saturday l june 29, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Deeply biased: India slams U.S. report on religious freedom External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the report cherry-picked incidents to push a preconceived narrative against India Driven by votebank considerations: MEA ‘Questions integrity of judicial verdicts’ “As in the past, the report is deeply biased, lacks an understanding of India’s social fabric and is visibly driven by votebank considerations and a prescriptive outlook,” Jaiswal said. “We therefore reject it. The exercise itself is a mix of imputations, misrepresentations, selective usage of facts, reliance on biased sources and a one-sided projection of issues,” he added ■ While releasing the report in Washington on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had flagged a ‘concerning increase’ in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, and demolition of homes and places of worship in India ■ The MEA spokesperson said the US State Department’s annual report appears to challenge the integrity of certain judgments by Indian courts 253 Churches were burned down in Manipur in 2023, says the U.S. report 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 Opposition stalls Record rain in 88 yrs brings Delhi to its knees Parliament to make NEET point Repeated disruptions force both Houses to be adjourned without conducting business PR E E THA N AIR & RA J E SH K U MAR THA K U R @ New Delhi CBI makes 2 more arrests CBI on Friday arrested the principal and vice principal of Oasis School in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh in the NEET-UG paper leak case. Officials said 5 more from district are being questioned Joint CSIRUGC-NET from July 25 to 27 Joint CSIRUGC-NET exam, which was scheduled for June 25-27 but was postponed, will be held from July 25 to 27, while the UGC NET June 2024 cycle will be held from August 21 to September 4, the NTA said BOTH Houses of Parliament witnessed dramatic scenes and multiple adjournments on Friday with Opposition parties led by the Congress pressing for a debate on alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG exam. In the Lok Sabha, Opposition members sought suspension of all other matters to discuss the NEET fiasco but Speaker Om Birla ruled that a discussion on the President’s address be taken first. In the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi demanded a ‘respectful’ discussion on the NEET issue to show solidarity with the students. “We wanted to give a joint message to the students of India, on behalf of the Opposition and government, that we consider this an important issue. So, we thought that to respect students we will have a discussion on NEET today a dedicated discussion,” he said. , The Opposition benches erupted in uproar when Rahul Gandhi claimed his microphone was switched off. In response, Birla said he had no control over microphones. “The discussion should be on the President’s address. Other matters will not be recorded,” the Speaker said. Noisy scenes unfolded in the Rajya Sabha as well. At one point, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge too entered the Well of the House to join the protest. This triggered a sharp comment from Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, who said it is for the first time that a person occupying the post has engaged in such a conduct. In the Upper House, the disruptions were marked by intense sloganeering, leading to the suspension of proceedings three times. The third adjournment came after DMK member Tiruchi Siva informed the House that Congress member Phulo Devi Netam had fainted. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed the Congress for disrupting parliamentary proceedings. Karuvannur scam ED attaches CPM office land, bank accounts E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kochi The CPM has landed in more trouble in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank money laundering case, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday temporarily attaching the party’s Porathissery office land and eight bank accounts in Thrissur district. ED had named CPM as a key accused in the case after a probe revealed that money involved in the scam was dive r t e d t o p a r t y b a n k accounts. The total value of attached properties is `29 crore. “The properties in- clude CPM Porathissery party office’s 5-cent land registered in the name of district secretary M M Varghese,” said a source. The registered value of the land is around `10 lakh. “This apart, the national agency has attached around `60 lakh spread across eight bank accounts. These include five bank accounts of the CPM in the Karuvannur Service Cooperative Bank, and two fixed deposit accounts of the CPM Thrissur district committee and a savings account of the party Irinjalakuda area committee in three other banks, the source said. ● More on P4 People (left) wade through a waterlogged road near Sarai Kale Khan; and parked vehicles damaged following the collapse of a canopy at Terminal 1 of the airport amid heavy rain, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI J i t end r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi After record heat, it poured like there was no tomorrow on the first day of monsoon in the national capital, drenching Delhi with the highest one-day rainfall in 88 years. It rained cats and dogs from about 4 am to 8.30 am and left major parts of Delhi and the adjoining national capital region flooded. Water entered homes, submerging vehicles and leading to massive traffic snarls that took hours to detangle. Thousands of commuters found themselves stranded. The Safdarjung Automatic Weather Station recorded a whopping 228.1 mm rainfall in 24 hours, the second highest since 1936 when the precipita- tion was 235 mm. The total rainfall recorded in June so far is 234.5 mm as against the normal of 74.1 mm. Friday’s downpour was more than one-third of the total normal monsoon rainfall from June to September at Safdarjung, which is around 640 mm. “Following a hot weather streak, the region got 148.5 mm, almost the double of June’s normal rain, in just 3 hours, and nearly the entire August rain in about 6 hours!” said Akshay Deoras, UK-based scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and Department of Meteorology Uni, versity of Reading. Explaining how global warming-induced climate change causes heavy downpours in a Zero-profit sale: Cancer drugs to get cheaper at Karunya pharmacies E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram In a major relief to patients, the state government has decided to sell expensive cancer drugs through Karunya community pharmacy without taking any profit. As many as 800 types of medicines, including drugs used after organ transplant surgeries, will be made available through ‘zero-profit’ sale at Karunya outlets, said Health Minister Veena George. The decision would further reduce the cost of medicines supplied through Karunya pharmacy which takes up to 12% profit in gen, eral. “The availability of cheaper medicines will help patients reduce treatment cost. The government is making a decisive intervention in the cancer drug market in the state,” said Veena. She said the project will start on July 15 at the main Karunya outlets in each district centre. These outlets will have separate profit-free counters and separate staff to operate the project. Currently 74 Karunya stores are selling 7,000 , types of medicines of various companies at a discounted price. The Kerala Medical Services Corporation (KMSCL), which procures medicines and supplies it through Karunya outlets, is charting out plans to implement the price cut. “At present, we provide medicines at discounts ranging from 38%to 93%. The profit percentage has come down from 12% to 8% under this government,” said an officer. ● More on P4 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express t20 wc final Bridge-tone: It’s all blue for now second T20 World Cup title (fifth if you want to include the OG version) A World Cup final in the last week of is South Africa, whose men’s team June? If Indian fans are looking for are in unchartered territory Man for . some signs from up above, this one is man, the Indian team come out on right there, staring you in top, especially in Caribthe face, front and centre. bean conditions where the June 25, 1983, was when strips have been low, slow India won it for the first with some grip. time (in one dayers), slayBut the final in Bridgeting the two-time and deown, Barbados, promises fending champions, West to be close for a variety of Indies. Forty-one years reasons. There are multiand a few days later, they ple similarities (a top-orRohit Sharma have the opportunity to der with an out of form end a decade-old drought opener, one batter who will for global gold. look to break open the powerplay, They came close to ending it in the one left-arm wrist-spinner, one fulonger formats last year but lost on ture Hall of Famer seamer, one deboth occasions to familiar foes, Aus- cent left-arm pacer...) but the biggest tralia. Standing between them and a factor is that the South African bats w a r o o p s w a m i n at h a n @ Chennai ters match up well to the Indian spinners. Zooming out, they are both units so driven by the idea of success for different reasons. For India, with multiple generational talents in various points of their career, they want to add a title to further embellish their body of work and to repay the faith their employers have in them. Individual records are great but the primary currency in sport is finishing first in big tournaments. India have let themselves down in this regard. For the Proteas, it’s to show the cricketing world this is the beginning of a new dawn, free of the baggage most of their teams have had since readmission. Live on Star Sports/Hotstar from 8 PM Rank Rainfall (In MM) Date 1 235.5 24.06.1936 Cabbie killed in canopy collapse at the airport 2 228.1 28.06.2024 U J WAL J ALALI @ New Delhi 3 191.6 30.06.1981 4 139.7 24.06.1933 Highest daily rainfall at Safdarjung observatory Monthly average rainfall for Safdarjung (JunE-SEPT) IN MM June 74.1 July 209.7 August 233.1 September 123.4 short span, he said, “The soil becomes dry and hard following a streak of hot weather. If rain falls in large amounts in a short span, the soil can repel water, increasing the risk of a flash flood.” One cabbie died while six others sustained injuries after a portion of the canopy at the Delhi Airport’s Terminal-1 collapsed amid heavy pre-dawn rains on Friday Deputy Commissioner of . Police (IGI-A) Usha Rangnani said the shed outside Terminal 1 of the domestic airport, from Departure Gate 1 to Gate 2, collapsed around 5 am with its beams crashing on parked cabs. The deceased was identified as Ramesh Kumar (45). Iron beams from the roof crashed on his parked cab with him inside. The injured were rushed to Medanta Hospital from where they were shifted to Safdarjung Hospital. “Around four vehicles were damaged and six persons were injured. All the injured persons are stable,” Rangnani said. The Delhi Police later registered a case of death due to negligence under the Indian Penal Code. New Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu took stock of the situation. His ministry ordered a probe, and directed the airport operator to do a thorough inspection.
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