Alleged 9/11 mastermind reaches plea deal, avoids death penalty The alleged mastermind of the deadliest attacks ever on US soil Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other accused reached a plea deal with the US prosecutors, the Pentagon said on Thursday BHUBANESWAR l friday l august 02, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION Bridge rises but hope fades Bill to strengthen management of disasters creates Lok Sabha heat Seven more bodies recovered, toll touches 256; Army opens Bailey bridge to restore connectivity P r e e t h a n a i r @ New Delhi Days after deadly landslides hit Wayanad, the Centre on Thursday introduced Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in Lok Sabha to strengthen the national and state disaster management authorities. The Opposition parties including the Congress and Trinamool Congress questioned the constitutionality of the proposed legislation and said it will undermine the federal structure of the country . The government said it has become necessary to amend certain provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to bring more clarity and convergence regarding the roles of authorities and committees working in the field of disaster management. The 2005 Act has been reviewed in consultation with all stakeholders, including state governments, it said. The bill, which was introduced in Lok Sabha by the minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai, confers statutory status to certain organisations like the National Crisis Management Committee that existed before Act came into force. It will provide for the creation of a disaster database at the national and state levels, make provision for the constitution of an “Urban Disaster Management Authority” for the state capital and large cities having municipal corporations, and make provision for the constitution of “State Disaster Response Force” by the state government. Congress MP Manish Tewari said none of the entries in List 1 or List 2 of the Constitution dealing with the Central and state subjects deal with the issue of disaster management. He suggested the government should amend the concurrent list to have a proper entry to cover the issue of disaster management. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra crossing a make-shift bridge during their visit to Chooralmala in Wayanad on Thursday | EXPRESS T o b y A n t o n y @ Chooralmala (Wayanad) THE Army on Thursday evening opened the 190-ft-long Bailey bridge at Chooralmala that could help speed up the search operations at upstream Mundakkai and Punjirimattom villages but hopes of finding more survivors at the landslide-hit areas in Wayanad faded on Day 3 of rescue efforts. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who visited the affected areas on Thursday, said all survivors in Mundakkai have been rescued, indicating there is little hope of finding more people alive. During the day search teams sifted , through the rubble braving heavy rains and recovered seven more bodies, taking toll in the devastating tragedy to 256. Over 200 persons are still missing. The government tally, as given by Revenue Minister K Rajan, however, is 189. “The debris at Punjirimattom and Mundakkai has piled up like a mountain. Most houses have been completed destroyed. The search and restoration efforts will be daunting and time-consuming, which would take more than a week,” an official at the Control Room said. As per preliminary assessment, 348 houses were damaged in the landslides. The pace of search operations at Mundakkai and Punjirimattom, which were cut off following the collapse of the bridge at Chooralmala, was slow till now because excavators could not cross the river. With the construction of the Bailey bridge, now heavy trucks carrying excavators and other equipment can reach the affected areas. On Thursday four , excavators were deployed in Chooralmala, three at Mundakkai and three at Punjirimattom, which remained inaccessible till Wednesday . “Different batches of Army, Navy, NDRF and Fire Force officials are deployed at the affected areas. Besides, several volunteer groups are also active. Over 5,000 people are engaged in the search operation alone,” said an official. Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the landslideaffected areas at Chooralmala on Thursday They also visited a hospi. tal and community health centre in Meppadi. Calling the landslide a “national disaster”, Rahul said: “It is very difficult to speak to people in these circumstances because you really don’t know what to say to them. It’s been quite a difficult day for me, but we are going to try and help make sure that the survivors get what is due.” Legs chained, C’garh woman swept for 17 km in Mahanadi R a j K u m a r S h a r m a @ Jharsuguda Sarojini Chouhan after being rescued in Jharsuguda | express A 33-year-old woman of Chhattisgarh her legs chained and swept away in the swelling Mahanadi river - stayed afloat for an astounding 17 km before being saved by fisherfolks in bordering area of Odisha’s Jharsuguda district on Thursday morning, in what turned out to be a miraculous story of survival. Sarojini Chouhan, a native of Purat village under Sariya police station in Chhattisgarh’s Sarangarh-Bilaigarh district, was rescued during early hours of the day when one Ramesh Seth and his son Dani from Palsada village went out to the river for fishing. As they navigated the frothing Mahanadi, they heard cries of “bachao, bachao” (help, help) from the water. The father-son duo turned boat around and spotted Sarojini floating. They managed to pull her to safety with the help of fellow fishermen. By that time, she had managed to float for about 17 km. How she survived, with her legs in chains, remains unknown. Getting her on their boat, the fishermen promptly informed the Rengali police who arrived and rushed Sarojini to Lakhanpur community health centre for medical check-up.  Continued on P5 Summer Games Big-hitters gone, but Swapnil shoots for the stars A T the shooting ranges, Swap- pics. He was hearing the PA system nil Kusale recedes into but did not pay heed to where a cocoon and blocks he was positioned. The fiftyhimself off from the odd Indian supporters were noise. On Thursday, TNIE @ olympics cheering him on. “I did not pay when the shooting fiattention to what the MC was nal was on at the Chateauroux saying. But I could hear the Inshooting centre, Swapnil shut dian fans shouting and I shifted himself from the outside my attention to that. And I world. said I don’t want to disapIndraneel Das The competition was intense point them. I will have to Paris and Swapnil was see-sawing; win for them,” he said afsixth, fourth, third, second and ter the bronze. This is I n third in the 50 m rifle 3-position final. dia’s first 3-position medThere is no place for emotion in shoot- al in the Olympics. ing. The heart needs to keep still and A ticket collector that’s what Swapnil did while securing in Indian Railways, India one more bronze at the Olym- Swapnil had a hum- ble beginning. Hailing from a village 30 km away from the district of Kolhapur (Maharashtra), his journey took him from a nondescript village to global glory . Soon after Swapnil’s medal, though, heart-breaks followed. Three, in fact. Before the Games began, three of India’s biggest medal hopes were Sift Kumar Samra (women’s 50 m rifle 3-position), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles badminton), P V Sindhu (singles badminton) and Nikhat Zareen (women’s 50 kg boxing). All four failed to progress on a largely disP11 appointing day  . Swapnil Kusale Majority ruling By majority of 6:1, Supreme Court okays sub-classification of SCs by states Overrules 2004 judgment of five-judge bench in EV Chinnaiah case Points out historical and empirical evidence to establish that that SCs are socially heterogenous Says Article 14 permits subclassification of class which is not similarly situated To sub-classify, states must collect data on inadequacy of representation Wants exclusion of creamy layer from SCs too Dissenting judge says states cannot change Presidential List and tinker with Article 341 to provide reservation The three were tortured extensively by the CIA. Their case has been delayed over concerns that the evidence extracted through torture was admissible in court. A plea deal avoids this problem They have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence 2003 When Khalid Sheikh was captured in Pak. He spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving in Guantanamo in 2006. A trusted lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, it was Sheikh’s idea to use planes as weapons in the 9/11 attacks | P9 SC sub-classification by states valid: Top court S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi A seven-judge Supreme Court bench in a landmark ruling on Thursday empowered states to sub-classify groups within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) to uplift the more socially and economically backward among them for reservation benefits. The majority 6:1 verdict set aside a 2004 judgment by a fivejudge bench in the E V Chinnaiah case, which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes. But the 6:1 ruling said the SCs are heterogeneous. However, sub-classification can be done only on the basis of quantifiable and demonstrable data of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on whims or political expediency, the bench said. The verdict came on a batch of petitions against sub-classification laws in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, arguing they were not in sync with the Chinnaiah order. “Article 14 permits the subclassification,” the verdict authored by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud for himself and Justice Manoj Misra said. Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal and Satish Chandra Sharma wrote separate verdicts that concurred with the CJI. Justice Bela Trivedi was the lone dissenter. She said Parliament alone has the right to include or exclude castes in the SC list, adding states cannot tinker with it. The CJI said the state in exercise of its power under Articles 15 (non-discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth) and 16 (equality in public employment) of the Constitution is free to identify the different degrees of social backwardness and provide special provisions, such as quota. States can subclassify SCs if (a) there is a rational principle for differentiation; and (b) the rational principle has a nexus with the purpose of sub-classification. 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 ■ ■ e x p r e ss r e a d HC rejects plea on Krishna Janmabhoomi Lucknow: In a significant development, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected the applications from the Muslim side challenging the maintainability of suits filed by Hindu worshippers in connection with the dispute. The court upheld the maintainability of all 18 suits filed by Hindu petitioners, and all will be heard together | P8 Mohd Deif dead too. Iran mulls response The Israeli military said on Thursday that it has confirmed that the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza in July | P9