THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l monday l august 12, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION India develops 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient seed varieties The new seed varieties unveiled on Sunday span 61 crops and were developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ‘Good yield even in adverse weather’ Will boost farmers’ income: agri minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the seeds at three experimental agriculture plots at Delhi’s Pusa Campus in the presence of farmers. Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan said these seeds are climate-friendly and can bring good yield even in adverse weather. The government said the seeds are biofortified and will help combat malnutrition ■ ■ The field varieties include cereals, millets, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane and cotton. For horticulture, Modi released new varieties of fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, tubers and spices The agriculture minister said with the introduction of new seeds, the government hopes to enhance farm productivity and farmers’ income 34 field crops are among the 61 crops for which the new seed varieties have been developed 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 Hindenburg: Oppn seeks JPC probe against Sebi chief Buch had disclosed her investments, recused to avoid conflicts of interest, says regulator curities laws. The report further alleged that recent amendments to Reit Regulations, 2014 were A day after US short-seller made to benefit Blackstone, Hindenburg Research levelled al- where Buch’s husband Dhaval is legations against Sebi chairper- a senior advisor. son Madhabi Puri Buch, the OpSeveral other Opposition parposition parties demanded a ties including TMC and AAP also joint parliamentary committee demanded a probe into the matprobe against Buch and her res- ter. TMC MP Mahua Moitra ignation from the post. asked if Buch had disclosed her Congress MP Rahul Gandhi ownership stakes to Sebi when said the integrity of the market she was a whole-time member. regulator, which is entrusted AAP MP Sanjay Singh said the with safeguarding the SC should take note of do not wealth of small retail the fresh allegations by discredit investors, has been Hindenburg. India: BJP compromised by the alMeanwhile, Sebi has legations against its By endorsing the urged investors to rechair person. “Why Hindenburg report, main calm and do due hasn’t Sebi chairper- the Opposition is diligence before reactson Madhabi Puri Buch trying to “discredit ing to the Hindenburg resigned yet? If invesreport. It also cautioned the country’s tors lose their hard- financial watchdog investors that the US earned money who will , short-seller might be and create be held accountable— instability through holding short positions PM Modi, the Sebi wild allegations”, in the securities covChairperson, or Gau- BJP MP Sudhanshu ered in the report. tam Adani?” he said in Responding to allegaTrivedi alleged a post on X. tions of conflict of inIn its report released late on terest, the markets regulator Saturday night, the New York- said: “Sebi has adequate internal based company claimed that mechanisms for addressing isBuch and her husband had stakes sues relating to conflict of interin obscure offshore funds used in est, which include disclosure the alleged Adani money siphon- framework and provision for recing scandal. It alleged that Sebi usal... Relevant disclosures rehad failed to take action against quired in terms of holdings of the Adani group despite allega- securities and their transfers tions of financial irregularities have been made by the chairperand market fraud. It also ques- son from time to time. The chairtioned Sebi’s decision to issue a person has also recused herself show-cause notice to Hindenburg in matters involving potential P10 in June, alleging violations of se- conflicts of interest.”  PR E E T HA NAIR & B e n n K o c h u v ee d a n @ New Delhi / Mumbai (From left) India shooter, and one of the flagbearers for the closing ceremony, Manu Bhaker (L) with her coach and other members of the contingent on Sunday; Neeraj Chopra’s medal was the silver lining as India finished with six medals | PTI In the end, India’s campaign a case of glass half full T he lights are dimmed. The curtains are slowly drawing close. The show is over. Tales of valour, extraordinary human feats, moments of joy and ecstasy loss, es and despair are slowly being stored in the leaves of Olympic history Just like when a thea. tre gets over, the lights switch on in the hall, it’s time for the audience to wake up to reality and discuss the acts each athlete played. Paris soaked in the summer sun. There was a feeling of emptiness as the grandest sporting show on the planet ended on Sunday USA and Chi. na are firmly perched on the top. Somewhere in the bottom half was India, 71 with one silver and five bronze. For a country that won seven medals in Tokyo 2020 in 2021 including a gold, this seemed a case of one step backward. If one adds the six fourth finishes and Vinesh Phogat’s heartbreaking dis- qualification, then one can say that the primary objective it was just about alright. Noth- would be to save and protect ing to celebrate except for the them. “They are the future of medallists. our country and we need to The backdrop under which preserve them,” she said. the athletes competed too Chef de mission Gagan should be considered. The Narang, London Olympic Sports Authority of India said bronze medallist, said that it they had spent about `470 crore was a creditable performance. for the preparation of “There are 21 players the athletes in the last who medalled,” he said Olympic cycle. There alluding to the 16-memwas no lack of support TNIE @ olympics ber hockey team. He from SAI, national also felt that the athsports federations letes should be guided (NSFs) and some NGOs. well. “Wrap them in Perhaps that prompted cotton wool,” he said. India badminton team The sports adminisIndraneel Das coach Prakash Padutrators right from SAI Paris kone to say that the athto NSFs must go into a letes also should take huddle and find where some responsibility . they went wrong. They must Indian Olympic Association find a solution to India’s inabilpresident P T Usha, who had ity to reach the double-digit finished fourth at the 1984 mark. Or else the six here will Games, felt that we should count for nothing. For a nation think about the future. There that wants to bid for the 2036 are quite a few debutants Olympics, six medals definitely (about more than half of the won’t reflect the sporting supe117-strong contingent). She felt riority on the global stage. Staff crunch & workload Police seek creation of 15,075 new posts S h a n A S @ T’Puram Reeling under a severe manpower crunch that has created hurdles in effective policing, the state police have proposed the creation of 15,075 new posts in the law and order wing. The proposal in this regard was sent from the police headquarters to the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) recently . The law and order wing, which handles the day-to-day activities of police stations, currently has 21,842 personnel on its roll. The new proposal is to create additional posts so that the total strength of the wing increases to 36,917. As per the proposal, the department wants five additional posts of inspectors, 580 sub-inspectors, 1,819 assistant sub-inspectors, 6,195 senior civil police officers and 6,476 civil police officers or women civil police officers. According to police sources, if the proposal is implemented, the workload on cops would come down considerably “Eve. ryone knows that work pressure is the main reason that bogs down most of the police officers. It affects their professional and personal lives. Many officers go astray while some choose to end their lives owing to mental stress. If the man- Enhancing strength The law and order wing of the police currently has 21,842 personnel on its roll The new proposal is to create additional posts that will take the strength of the wing to 36,917 As per the proposal, the department wants five additional posts of Inspectors, 580 SIs, 1,819 ASIs, 6,195 senior civil police officers and 6,476 civil police officers or women civil police officers power is enhanced, the situation will improve,” said a police officer. The department has sought two inspector posts for Palakkad and one each for Thiruvananthapuram Rural, Kollam Rural and Kannur City . The most number of new posts were sought for Thiruvananthapuram Rural, which currently has a sanctioned strength of 1,485. The proposal seeks the creation an additional 1,350 posts for Thiruvananthapuram Rural police ● More on P4 district.  climate resilience tools need to be scaled up, say experts With climate change increasing the possibility of extreme precipitation, Kerala needs to adopt mitigation strategies that can reduce the impact of extreme events like landslides | P2 Statement attributed to Hasina fake, says her son Yes h i S e l i @ New Delhi a day after a section of media reported that former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina blamed the US for the crisis that led to the fall of her government, her son Sajeeb Wazed clarified on Sunday that her mother has not issued any such statement. “The recent resignation statement attributed to my mother published in a newspaper is completely false and fabricated. I have just confirmed with her that she did not make any statement either before or since leaving Dhaka,” Wazed posted on X. Media reports citing Hasina’s purported resignation letter quoted her as saying that she could have saved her government if she had agreed to hand over the strategically located St Martin Island to the US. St Martin Island is located 9 km south of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula. Protests continued in Bangladesh on Sunday even as the police force remained passive. “The policemen are sitting in civil clothes in their respective stations. They have a list of demands, which include setting up a separate ministry for them,’’ Professor Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, a political commentator in Dhaka told this newspaper. Gunshots were fired at protesters outside Ismali Bank in Dhaka where a scuffle broke out between the protesters and the bank officials. At least five persons were injured. BSF said it apprehended 11 Bangladesh nationals who were trying to infiltrate into India. Panic as Tungabhadra dam’s crest gate breaks K i ra n Ba l a n n a n ava r @ Koppal/Hosapete Panic gripped areas downstream of Tungabhadra reservoir in Karnataka after one of its crest gates got detached and washed away into the river early on Sunday. A large amount of water is gushing out of the gaping hole between the dam structure and the present water level. The reservoir, also called the Pampa Sagar Dam, reached its capacity of 162 ft recently . There are apprehensions that over 12 lakh hectares of farmlands in Ballari, Raichur, Koppal and Vijayanagara districts The Tungabhadra dam on Sunday | PTI of the state could be flooded. The Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority cautioned people living along the banks of Krishna river to keep vigil. Around 12.50 am on Sunday, the crest gate No 19 of the dam, once a vibrant community Queenie Hallegua passes away, Kerala’s ‘White’ Jews dwindle to one E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e  @Kochi Kerala’s once vibrant Jewish community has dwindled to just one person following the death of Queenie Hallegua, 89, on Sunday She passed away at . her residence in Mattanchery, Kochi. Queenie’s nephew Keith I Hallegua, 65, remains the sole representative of the Paradesi ‘White’ Jews of European or Middle-Eastern blood. The Jewish history in Kerala dates back to AD 68 and the community was thriving in the 1950s when Fort Kochi’s Jew Street and areas nearby had around 3,000 Jews despite many having emigrated to the Jewish homeland when Israel was cre- ated in 1948. Besides Paradesi Jews, Kerala also has the Malabari ‘Black’ Jews. About six families of Malabari Jews remain in the state, settled in Paravur and in Ernakulam. Queenie belongs to the wealthy Koder family and is the daughter of the late S S Koder. She used to live at the Koder House in Fort Kochi. The house has now been turned into a hotel. After the demise of the three sons and two daughters of Samuel Koder, Queenie Hallegua became the managing director of S Koder Private Limited since her first cousins had left for Israel. After she closed down the last Koder department store in 2011, a hundredyear legacy of real estate development, multiple business ventures and community service came to a planned closure. Queenie married Samuel Hallegua and has two children, both of whom are settled in the US. Her husband had passed away in 2009. Her daughter Fiona completed her studies at the St Teresa’s College, Ernakulam, and moved to the US, where her brother had already settled. Samuel and Queenie used to go to Israel and the US every year.  ● More on P4 which has 33 sluice gates, detached from the chain link and fell into the river. By evening, a total of 2 lakhplus cusecs of water had gushed out of the reservoir. Kar nataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar visited the site following the emergency. He said two contractor firms have been approached to repair the damaged gate of the dam. “We have informed two experienced contractors about it and provided them with designs. Their team too visited the place in the night. They are also trying to restore the gate of the dam,” he added. E X P RE S S REA D Landslides: 2,000 take part in combing op Kalpetta: Around 2,000 people, including volunteers, local residents, camp residents and people’s representatives, participated in a massive search held on Sunday for those missing following the Wayanad landslides. During the search, three body parts were found from Kanthanpara forest. P4 Flier arrested over casual ‘bomb’ remark Kochi: A 42-year-old man was arrested on Sunday after casually mentioning ‘bomb’ during a routine security check at the Kochi airport. “Is there any bomb in my bag,” Manoj Kumar, of Patna, asked an officer during a routine bag check. He was arrested by the police after being detained by the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad for making the alarming comment. P5 IUML leader Kutty Ahammed Kutty no more E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Malappuram Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader and former minister Kutty Ahammed Kutty K, 71, passed away at his residence in Tanur on Sunday He . had been under treatment for various ailments. Ahammed Kutty was the local self-government minister in the 200406 Oommen Chandy cabinet. While active in politics, he served as the intellectual face of the IUML. His speeches in the state legislative assembly were known for their depth and accuracy, earning the attentive respect of his fellow legislators. A well-read l e a d e r, Ahammed Kutty was elected to the assembly from Tanur in the 1992 byelection and later from Tirurangadi in 1996 and 2001. During the final years of his life, he held the post of the chairman of the IUML State Committee’s Environmental Protection Committee. He has also served as the state secretary and vice-president of the Muslim League and as chairman of the IUML’s local self-government board. His mortal remains were laid to rest at Tanur Vadakkepalli Juma Masjid. Meanwhile, the IUML has cancelled all par ty programmes until Tuesday to mourn the passing away of P4 Kutty Ahammed Kutty .