U.S., France urge Israel, Lebanon to pause fight The US, France and other allies jointly called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire on Thursday to give room for negotiations to de-escalate tensions. Israel has rejected the truce proposal and vowed to continue fighting. The Indian Embassy in Beirut urged Indians to avoid travelling to Lebanon and advised those present there to leave at the earliest | PTI | P9 visakhapatnam l friday l september 27, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION 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 Anomalies in liquor 37 kids among 46 drowned ‘scam’ estimated to after holy dip across Bihar be `20,000 crore Jivitputrika fest is celebrated by mothers for the well-being of children P h a n i n d r a Pa pa s a n i @ Vijayawada Raids carried out at the offices of Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corporation Limited (APSBCL) concluded after four days on Thursday According to sources, as part of investigation into the . alleged multi-crore liquor scam, sleuths of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) under the State Crime Investigation Department (APCID) began inspections at the office of the Beverages Corporation in Vijayawada and other places across the State on Monday . Based on preliminary investigation, the State government has identified irregularities to the tune of `20,000 crore under the previous YSRC dispensation. Stating that the real work will start now, a senior official on the condition of Huge amount anonymity said, “We will use the help of of data seized in experts to ascertain the modus operandi CID searches of the fraud, administrative sanctions During the searches, on distilleries, quality measures, prices investigation officers of liquor and other factors that caused reportedly seized a huge loss to the exchequer. We will rope in examount of data, records, perts from all fields such as finance, inhard disks and other formation technology, auditing and fodocuments. The files will rensics. While the estimated loss is be sent for forensic and around `20,000 crore, we are expecting financial analysis, and that the figure may cross `25,000 crore. technical evaluation to Role of Vasudeva Reddy and others is beascertain the quantum ing probed thoroughly on the allegations of money swindled and of misconduct, causing pecuniary gains other administrative to selected persons, permissions to disirregularities tilleries and others.” During the investigation, officials reportedly noticed that top YSRC leaders floated benami distilleries and ensured that the Beverages Corporation purchased sub-standard liquor and beers from them. Following the instructions of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to probe into the alleged irregularities in allotment of distilleries, and sale of poor quality liquor, CID officials registered an FIR against former APSBCL managing director D Vasudeva Reddy and others for abusing official power and causing hefty revenue loss to the State. In June, CID officials had conducted raids at the Hyderabad residence of Vasudeva Reddy and seized various documents from his possession. R a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna As many as 46 people, including 37 children, drowned in the last 24 hours while taking a holy bath in rivers and ponds across Bihar as part of the three-day Jivitputrika festival celebrations, which began on Wednesday Four wom. en were among the 46 who lost their lives. Women observe fast for the well-being of their children to mark the occasion. The three-day festival began with nahay khay (fasting) when devotees take a holy dip in rivers and ponds. Wednesday’s deaths were reported from 15 districts of the state. “A total of 43 bodies have been recovered so far. Further search operations are underway the Bihar disaster manage,” People mourn on Thursday after their family members drowned in Aurangabad district of Bihar | PTI ment department said. People blamed the casualties on the lack of crowd management near water bodies. “There was no deployment of the state disaster response team at any of the water bodies in the district,” said Upendra Yadav, father of SC junks Guj govt plea to expunge critical remarks in Bilkis verdict S U C HI T RA K A LYAN M O HAN T Y @ New Delhi the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review plea filed by the Gujarat government seeking to expunge certain adverse remarks against it while quashing the premature release of the 11 men convicted of gangraping Bilkis Bano and murdering her family members in 2002. A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan also rejected the application for listing review petition in open court. “Having gone through the review petitions... we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record,” it said. The SC had on January 8 quashed the Gujarat government’s decision to grant remission to the 11 convicts. The court said Gujarat “usurped the powers” of the Maharashtra government because the case had been transferred there. eight-year-old Ankaj Kumar, a resident of Kusaha in Aurangabad district. Jaglal Rai, who lost his 14-yearold daughter Rikki Kumari, said his daughter had gone for taking bath in the village pond when tragedy struck. Rai, a resident of Olhanpur village in Saran district, said his daughter was part of a group of women and girls who had gone to the pond for a holy dip. Incidents of drowning were reported in East Champaran, West Champaran, Aurangabad, Nalanda, Kaimur, Buxar, Siwan, Rohtas, Saran, Patna, Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Gopalganj and Arwal districts. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia of `4 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased. Noose for man who sexually assaulted 21 minors A special POCSO court at Yupia in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday awarded death sentence to the former hostel warden of a government residential school for sexually assaulting 21 children, including 15 girls aged between 6 and 15 Sena, TMC spat at Waqf bill JPC’s Mumbai meet P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi A meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, in Mumbai on Thursday witnessed tumultuous scenes after a verbal spat between TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee and Shiv Sena (Shinde)’s Naresh Maske. The Opposition boycotted the meeting for half an hour after the ruckus. The meeting was attended by representatives from the Maharashtra government, Ministry of Minority Affairs, state Waqf Board, state Minority Commission, and various NGOs. Sources said Maske and Banerjee locked horns after the latter intervened during an NGO’s submission in support of the Waqf Bill. Speaking to this newspaper, an MP said the witness from the NGO spoke to the TMC leader in a disrespectful manner, which irked the Opposition. “Banerjee asked the Chairman to take action against the witness. But the Sena MP supported the person. Later, the Chairman asked the witness to apologise, which he didn’t. The Opposition then walked out,” he said. Maske alleged that Banerjee asked the representatives of the NGO to get out as they supported the bill.
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27-09-2024 of The New Indian Express-Vishakapatnam