Barbora Krejcikova thrissur l Sunday l july 14, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition Second Slam for Barbora Barbora Krejcikova delighted the Wimbledon crowd with an emphatic win on Saturday. A glance at her feat and Sunday’s big finals... Messi seeking final glory Having won the Copa America and World Cup titles for Argentina in the last few years, Lionel Messi has a chance to win another Copa against Colombia, possibly his last major trophy for the country. Can England end trophy drought? For 58 years, England men have faced nothing but heartbreaks at the global stage. WC to WC, Euro to Euro, the story has continued. They came close in the 2021 Euros, and on Sunday, the Three Lions will be up against a formidable Spain side. Can they? Could be a tasty contest. Krejcikova hands Paolini heartbreak Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic defeated Italy’s Jasmine Paolini to win the Wimbledon women’s title for her second Grand Slam singles triumph. Krejcikova, the 31st seed, won 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to add the 2024 All England Club crown to her 2021 French Open victory. Djokovic on brink Sunday could be huge for Novak Djokovic. The Serb has the chance to take his Major title count to 25, which will be an all-time high (men & women). 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 Two hours away from Paris, a German city apes Olympic host; attracts India’s finest Ind r anee l da s @ Chennai Trinamool Congress supporters celebrate after party candidate Madhuparna Thakur won the Bagda assembly by-election, in North 24 Parganas on Saturday | PTI Oppn picks up 10 of 13 bypoll seats, keeps momentum P r ee t ha N a i r @ New Delhi In a major boost to the Opposition in the first bypolls after the general elections, the INDIA bloc gained an upper hand over the NDA by winning 10 out of 13 assembly seats that were up for grabs across seven states. While the BJP managed to secure one seat each in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, an Independent candidate wrested Bihar’s Rupauli seat. The bypoll results were keenly watched as they are expected to set the tone for the upcoming elections to four states — J&K, Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand — scheduled for later this year. Coming on the heels of the Lok Sabha elections, the results are a setback to the BJP, which failed to secure a majority of its own to form the government at the Centre. While the Congress and the Trinamool Congress secured four seats each, the AAP and the DMK picked up one each. The bypolls were held on Wednesday in four seats in West Ahead of polls, govt strengthens J&K L-G Manoj Sinha’s powers M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi Ahead of the assembly elections in J&K, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs empowered the Lieutenant Governor in all matters of transfers and postings of all-India service officers and the police besides granting powers to accord prosecution sanction in various cases. It did so by notifying amendments to the Rules of business transactions under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019. Manoj Sinha has been J&K’s Lieutenant Governor since August 2020. These amendments, called the Transaction of Business of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir Government (Second Amendment) Rules, 2024, came into force on Friday after they were published in the Gazette. In the past, proposals concerning police, public order, all-India services and the Anti-Corruption Bureau required approval from J&K’s finance department before reaching the L-G. Under the revised rules, such proposals must now be presented to the L-G direct through the chief secretary . The Opposition criticised the Centre’s order, calling it a step towards disempowering the people of J&K. Political parties in J&K viewed the new order as an attempt to undermine the power of an elected government. Powers to appoint the AdvocateGeneral and other law officers to assist the Advocate-General in the court proceedings, too, have been vested in the L-G. Proposals for making such appointments shall be made through the chief secretary and the chief minister. Beng al, three in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttarakhand, and one each in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. In a direct contest with the BJP in West Bengal, the TMC swept all four seats. The contest was crucial for both the parties as three of the seats fell vacant after BJP MLAs jumped ship to TMC. Stakes were high in Himachal Pradesh for both the Congress and the BJP in the election to the three seats — Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh. While the Congress won both Dehra and Nalagarh, the BJP pocketed Hamirpur. The election was necessitated after three Independent MLAs joined the BJP. In Dehra, Congress’s Kamlesh Thakur, wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu won against the BJP’s Hoshiyar Singh, who had switched sides earlier. Dealing a blow to the BJP in Uttarakhand, the Congress won both Badrinath and Manglaur. In Tamil Nadu, DMK nominee Anniyur Siva emerged victorious in Vikravandi. PARIS: 48.86°N latitude; Saarbrucken: 49.23° N. They are in the same time zone, too. Paris is just about 1hr 48 minutes away from Saarbrucken on high speed train. Proximity to Paris, similar weather conditions and its setting has turned the cultural German city into an ideal destination for Paris-bound athletes to train ahead of the Olympics starting from July 26. The sprawling Sportcampus Saar, (as it is called) is spread over nine hectares with landscaping and greenery More than the salubrious . settings, it’s the training facilities that have attracted athletes from all over the world. There are about 400 athletes from 27 countries and five continents housed at the The sprawling Sportcampus, Saar, is hosting around 400 athletes right now Saar campus right now. marketing officer (COO and Among them are a bunch of CMO) of Sportcampus, Saar, Indians — double Olympic Johannes Kopkow, during a medallist PV Sindhu, Olvirtual interaction with ympic champion Neerthis daily, outlined the aj Chopra (was trainSunday nuances of his facilities ing until July 7), the Special and what they have table tennis and the managed to provide for boxing teams (both men Indians. and women) along with Kopkow felt the unique coaches and support staff. positioning of the city has addThe chief operating and ed to its demand. “It’s just 1hr Amid bribery row, CPM ousts Pramod Kottooli E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kozhikode CPM has ousted K V Pramod alias Pramod Kottooli — who is in the centre of allegations regarding PSC bribery controversy —from the party membership for ‘defaming the party and breaching discipline’. CPM district secretary P Mohanan, meanwhile, told reporters that no allegations regarding bribe for the PSC member post has come before the party . A press release issued after the district committee meeting said Pramod, a member of the Kozhikode Town Area Committee, has been removed from the primary membership of the party for ‘sullying the image of the party and for indulging in activities that are against party discipline’. But neither the release nor Mohanan clarified as to what are the anti-party activities Pramod did. Meanwhile, Pramod gave a shock to the CPM by openly challenging the party. He, along with his mother, staged a protest in front of the house of Sreejit, who reportedly complained that Pramod had taken `22 lakh after promising PSC member post for Sreejit’s wife who is working w i t h t h e Ay u s h department. Pramod, his mother Vishalakshi and son Visal carried a placard that read ‘who took the amount, when and where’. Pramod told reporters that he would spill the beans on who all conspired against him. “Someone might have misled the party I have become an object . of ridicule before the public. I need to convince at least my Worker goes missing in garbage-filled canal E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram A sanitation worker went missing while cleaning the Amayizhanchan canal near the Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station on Saturday. Despite hours-long search involving scuba divers, he could not be traced even late into the night. Joy 42, and three others were at , work on the canal stretch at Thampanoor, where a large quantity of garbage had accumulated, when he was caught in the strong currents around noon. Hailing from Marayamuttom in the state capital, Joy was hired by a contractor assigned with the canal cleaning. The huge deposits of garbage in the canal posed difficulty to the rescue operations. Fire and Rescue Services personnel and corporation workers removed large pile of garbage using nets to facilitate the search operation. Fellow workers said Joy was caught in the heavy current following rain. “Stormwater gushed through the canal and he lost con- Fire and rescue services personnel and scuba diving team search for the missing person in Amayizhanchan Canal in Thiruvananthapuram | Vincent Pulickal trol and fell into the water. Hearing his screams, we dropped a rope into the canal but in vain,” said a worker. The portion where Joy is suspected to be trapped is a tunnellike structure, inside which the lighting is poor. Also, the garbage impeded rescue workers’ move- ment. The scuba diving team could move only to about 30 metres into the tunnel. Now, the plan is to clear the waste completely to find him. Bandicoot, the robotic scavenger developed by Technoparkbased star tup Genrobotics, has also been pressed into opera● More on P5 tion.  inventorisation, conservation Puri Ratna Bhandar to be opened today D i ana Sahu @ Bhubaneswar AFTER a gap of 46 years, the inner chamber (Bhitar Bhandar) of Shri J a g a n n a t h t e m p l e ’s R a t n a Bhandar (gemstone treasury) at Puri will be opened on Sunday for inventorisation and conservation. The state government provided the standard operating procedure (SOP) for the process to the temple administration on Saturday evening. Speaking to this newspaper, retired Orissa High Court judge Biswanath Rath, who chairs the 48 min away from Paris. It’s the same time and climate zones. Though it’s quite rainy right now, which is pretty much uncommon this time, it’s still the same weather like Paris. It’s the Central European Time or the Middle (Central) European Climate Zone. This makes it easier for athletes coming from a long distance to acclimatise,” said Kopkow. Neeraj has been one of the first few high-profile visitors when he trained there in 2022. “He always needs more than one room because he has a German coach, a physio and also a manager. He has his own apartment in our house of the athletes, so that he can always step in and out as he would want.” And for the boxers, the centre has provided a separate kitchen where they can cook Indian food and also a sepaP11 rate area to eat. panel to supervise inventorisation and conservation of the treasury, said the SOP is for opening the Ratna Bhandar, shifting the ornaments and precious jewels to a designated room inside the temple and assessing the t re a s u r y ’s s t r u c t u r a l condition. A separate SOP for inventory of the valuables will be released later. At 10 am on Sunday, the high level panel led by Justice Rath, the temple managing committee and officials of the Archaeological Survey of India will meet to decide on the time and the number of people who will enter the treasury They . would most likely enter after 1 pm, he said. A medical team will be stationed inside the sanctum sanctorum in case of any emergency Similarly, . a snake helpline team will be put on standby Law minister Prithvi. raj Harichandan said the keys to the Ratna Bhandar will be handed over to the team on Sunday. “Efforts will be made to open the locks with the available keys but if that does not happen, the locks will be broken in the presence of the magistrate,” Harichandan said. mother and son that I am innocent,” he said. Pramod said he knows Sreejit, who is a businessman, but has never gone to his house. “I was active with charitable works under the banner of Yuvadhara Kottooli,” he said. Pramod also showed the documents to prove that he is a defaulter with bank for not properly repaying the housing loan he availed. “Such a person is branded as a link in the real estate mafia,” he said. Pramod’s mother said she is sure that her son has not committed any● More on P5 thing wrong. WITH THIS ISSUE The Canada Catastrophe PLUS 12 PAGES