KALABURAGI  MONDAY  OCTOBER 21, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION FEMALE CHEETAH TO SOON GIVE BIRTH TO CUBS AT KUNO NATIONAL PARK Veera, one of the South African cheetahs at the park, is pregnant and is expected to deliver soon, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said BOOST FOR PROJECT CHEETAH, SAYS MP CM LOWEST SURVIVAL RATE AMONG FELINES “Happiness is coming to Kuno… A female cheetah is soon going to give birth to cubs at the KNP. This news is a symbol of the great achievement of the Cheetah Project. The project started under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi is proving to be continuously improving the ecological balance,” Yadav wrote in a post on social media platform X while sharing the information ■ ■ ■ In September 2022, the prime minister released five female and three male cheetahs brought from Namibia into the Kuno National Park In February 2023, 12 more cheetahs were translocated from South Africa According to wildlife literature, among all feline family cubs, cheetah cubs have the lowest survival rate with only 5% reaching adulthood |P8 17 NUMBER OF CUBS BORN IN THE KUNO PARK IN THE PAST TWO YEARS; 12 HAVE SURVIVED 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 Brinkmanship as Uddhav’s Sena, Cong bicker on 15 Both refuse to yield; Grand Old Party looks to contest from more if push comes to shove S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai as early as Monday . “The party leadership told us WHILE the BJP announced its that the Congress should prefirst list of 99 candidates for the pare to contest 150 to 160 seats assembly elections on Sunday, as a contingency plan if push politics of brinkmanship comes to shove. We were ready played out in the Opposition for 110-120 seats; now we have Maha Vikas Aghadi between to expand our horizon and look the Congress and the Uddhav for potential candidates. We Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, par- have started tapping Congress ticularly over 15 seats in the Vi- aspirants from other constitudarbha region and elsewhere. encies to get a sense of their Since the Congress winning potential,” the has a better strike rate RJD may go leader said, requesting it alone in anonymity. in Vidarbha, it does not want to yield. But Ud- Jharkhand Another Congress dhav is equally stub- With the rift in leader claimed that the born and the dispute Uddhav Sena neither the ruling has reached Delhi. has presence in these INDIA bloc After the Congress’ widening over 15 seats nor does it have refusal, Uddhav called candidates, yet it is adseat sharing, a meeting of his senior the RJD said it amant about them. “If party leaders to weigh may go alone the Uddhav Sena evenhis options and decide in the assembly tually contests from on the next steps. Earthese seats, all of them polls in lier in the day, his son Jharkhand. The would easily fall into Aditya and Anil Parab party wants to the ruling Mahayuti’s met former Union min- contest 18-20 pocket. The Sena (UBT) ister Sharad Pawar to seats but has should understand the find a middle ground to gravity of the situation been offered resolve the situation. and back off,” he said. just 4-5 | P7 A meeting of the However, a Sena Congress election and screen- (UBT) leader accused the Coning committee scheduled in gress of being a habitual ofDelhi on Sunday got cancelled fender in not giving space to its , due to the stalemate. But for the allies. impasse, the party was expect“It should learn lessons from ed to announce its first list of the Haryana debacle. We are excandidates after the meeting. pecting this issue would be reA senior Congress leader solved soon in the larger interfrom the state who is in Delhi est of the state,” he said. for the meeting, said they were Uddhav has also asked the advised not to return as the Congress not to stretch things next meeting could take place beyond the breaking point. MUDA: ED TAKES AWAY 800 PAGES OF PAPERS, HARD DISK EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Mysuru DIRECTORATE of Enforcement (ED) officials, probing the MUDA site allotment scam, involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi BM, concluded their two-day raid and took away 800 pages of documents and a hard disk from the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). The officers carried out searches till 2.30 am on Sunday and sought documents related to sites allotted under the 50:50 ratio. MUDA Commissioner AN Raghunandhan and other officers furnished all the correspondence related to 3 acres 18 guntas of land in Kesare owned by Parvathi and 24 sites allotted to her by MUDA in the upmarket Vijayanagar. The ED officials took both soft and hard copies and got them photocopied. The seized documents were packed Mysterious blast outside CRPF school in Delhi, multi-agency investigation on U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi A mysterious blast occurred near a CRPF school in Delhi’s Rohini area on Sunday morning, sparking a security alert in the national capital. The blast, which appeared to be triggered by a crude bomb, partially damaged the school’s wall and some cars parked nearby. Nobody was injured. Delhi Police personnel reached the spot soon after the explosion. The National Security Guard and National Investigative Agency also sent their teams to inspect the blast site. Investigators lifted fragments of some white powder from the spot, which indicated the usage of a crude bomb having chemical mixture of ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride. “As of now, we don’t think any improvised explosive device was used as no metal-like substances, shrapnel or ball bearings were found at the site,” a senior official told this newspaper. DCP (Rohini) Amit Goel said National Security Guard personnel inspect the blast site outside the CRPF school at Prashant Vihar in Rohini area of New Delhi on Sunday morning | PARVEEN NEGI the police was alerted about the blast at 7.50 am. He said the police personnel who rushed to the spot reported foul smell emanating from the area. “The EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @Mangaluru A policeman stands near the spot where stones were found on the railway track glasses of a nearby shop and some cars parked nearby were shattered. However, no one was injured,” the DCP said. A video of the incident, pos- sibly recorded by some locals, showed thick plumes of smoke billowing from the blast site. “A multi-agency probe is on. I am keeping a constant watch on the progress of the investigation and assure that the guilty will be brought to book. I appeal to all to maintain restrain and not indulge in fear mongering,” Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena said. Official sources said there was no intelligence input about any possible disruption. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi blamed the Centre for the blast. “The bomb blast exposes the deteriorating security situation in Delhi. The BJP-led Central government is responsible for law and order in the city However, they spend . their time obstructing the efforts of the elected Delhi government rather than fulfilling their responsibilities. This neglect has resulted in Delhi resembling the 1990s Mumbai underworld era, with shootings, extortion, and rising criminal confidence,” she said. 90 and counting as 25 more Indian flights get hoax bomb threats Stones on track trigger loud noise near Mangaluru STONES placed on railway tracks by some miscreants near Thokkottu overbridge triggered a loud sound and caused vibrations in surrounding areas after trains passed over the stones on Saturday night. Local residents informed Ullal and railway police about the incident after two trains between Kerala and Mangaluru passed over the track. Railway department sources said the incident occurred around 9 pm. After complaints from the local residents, the Railway Police conducted night patrolling and found crushed stones on the track. “We suspect that some children would have placed the stones while playing near the track. But the Railways has taken the incident seriously and we are investigating it from all angles. We will carry out arrests if any miscreants did it intentionally an official said. ,” Local residents said that stones had been placed on both the tracks and a few women had seen two strangers walking beside the track an hour before the incident, which is being verified by the authorities. and moved under police security . During the 41-hour raid, the ED officials camped in the MUDA office with round-the- clock protection from around 20 armed CRPF personnel along with local police. Raghunandan told reporters that MUDA officials completely cooperated with ED officials during the investigation. “MUDA will resume its normal operations from Monday ,” he said. The Lokayuktha police, meanwhile, who are also probing the MUDA site scam, interrogated for mer deputy commissioner and Raichur Kozhikode-Dammam in Saudi Arabia, Pune-Jodhpur, and HOAX bomb threats continued Goa-Ahmedabad sectors. to disrupt the aviation sector Akasa Air said six flights — for the seventh consecutive day Ahmedabad to Mumbai, Delhi on Sunday, grounding planes to Goa, Mumbai to Bagdogra, and unnerving passengers. Delhi to Hyderabad, Kochi to As many as 25 flights Mumbai and Lucknow across major carriers— to Mumbai — received IndiGo, Vistara, Air Insecurity alerts. “The dia and Akasa Air— Akasa Air Emergency were forced into Response teams were emergency security in touch with security measures after receivand regulatory authoriing hoax threats. Since ties,” said an airline X handle October 14, over 90 Inspokesperson. blocked dian flights have been Sources said six Air On Sunday, a af fected by similar India flights, too, faced handle on bomb scares. a similar situation social media Though these threats though its officials did turned out to be fake, platform X that not share the number. had issued the fallout is real: deThey, however, conlayed flights, disrupted bomb threats firmed that some flights schedules, and mount- to some flights were subject to security was blocked ing anxiety among pasthreats received on sosengers and airlines. cial media. “Following “We received security threats the laid down protocols, releon six of our flights,” a Vistara vant authorities were immedispokesperson said, listing major ately alerted, and all security international routes — Delhi to procedures strictly adhered to, Frankfurt, Singapore to Mum- as per guidance from the regubai, Bali to Delhi, Singapore to latory authorities and security Delhi, Singapore to Pune, and agencies,” said an official. Mumbai to Singapore. While the source of bomb Six of the affected IndiGo threats have largely been conflights included those on the fined to social media, their Delhi-Istanbul, Mumbai-Istan- growing number and frequency b u l , J e d d a h - M u m b a i , are a cause of concern. S H E K H A R S I N G H @ New Delhi SEER SAMMAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Kanchi Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati Swamigal at an event to inaugurate the RJ Sankara Eye Hospital, in Varanasi on Sunday. Run by the Kanchi Math, the hospital aims to cater to the needs of people in 20 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as those in the border areas of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh | PTI KSMSCL MD seeks report after TNIE exposes med supplies mismanagement steps will be taken in response to the complaint, including the investigation process and the A day after The New Indian Ex- measures that will be implepress published a report, ‘KSM- mented should the complaint SCL officials diverted medical be substantiated with stock posupplies elsewhere?’, Karnata- sition review, interviews and ka State Medical Supplies Cor- i n s p e c t i o n a n d d a t a poration Ltd Managing Direc- collection.” tor Srinivas on Sunday The KSMSCL MD has sought a report from ofsought a comprehensive ficials concerned. review of the current EXPRESS stock position at the In a press statement, IMPACT the health department Mysuru warehouse. Inand KSMSCL MD statventory records will be ed, “The issue raised is of audited and compared serious concern, and a thorwith physical stocks to ough investigation will be con- identify any discrepancies. The ducted to ensure the integrity warehouse will be inspected to and proper functioning of verify whether storage and warehouse operations. The stock management procedures EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Mysuru were followed, it stated. The MD said the data on stock transactions, shipments and receipt logs will be obtained from the warehouse management system. A timeline of stock movements and any reported issues will be created for analysis. The MD stated that if any irregularities are identified during the initial stock position review, corrective actions will be taken immediately Invento. ry management processes will be temporarily enhanced with increased supervision until the investigation is concluded. Strict disciplinary action will be taken against those responsible, he added. 3 K’taka flights, B’gavi airport receive hoax threats Two flights — one arriving at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and one departing — received hoax threat calls on Sunday, said sources. While one of them was an Alliance Air flight from Vidyanagar to KIA, the second one was an IndiGo flight taking off from KIA to Delhi. A bomb threat was also received for a flight from Mangaluru to Dubai (IX 383). Belagavi’s Sambra Airport, too, received a hoax bomb threat. P5 MP Kumar Naik, who had served in Mysuru and denotified the land in Kesare. The Lokayuktha police posed a series of questions to him on approving the conversion of agricultural land on Survey Number 464 in Kesare. They also sought details of the spot visit and asked Naik whether he had gone through the records submitted by Accused No. 4 Devaraj and also on the missing signature of the witness. TERROR STRIKE Doc, 6 migrant workers shot dead in J&K’s Ganderbal dist F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar IN the second targeted attack within three days in the Kashmir Valley, terrorists on Sunday shot dead a doctor and six migrant labourers working at a key infrastructure project in Gagangir of Sonmarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. A few others were injured in the terror attack. Sources said the terrorists fired from close range towards a group of migrant workers at Gagangir area of Sonamarg. The workers were part of a construction team working on key Z Morh tunnel, which connects Gaganeer to Sonamarg in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. Of the six workers who died, three were from Bihar, one from Madhya Pradesh, and one hailed from Jammu. The identity of one is yet to be established. The doctor was from Kashmir. Sources said the attack took place near the workers’ mess. Confirming the militant attack, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on X: “Very sad news of a dastardly & cowardly attack on non-local labourers at Gagangir in Sonamarg region. These people were working on a key infrastructure project in the area... I strongly condemn this attack on unarmed innocent people & send my condolences to their loved ones”. Immediately after the militant attack, a joint contingent of police, CRPF, and Army rushed to the area and launched a combing and search operation to track down the militants. This is the second targeted attack on migrant workers after the Omar Abdullah government assumed charge in the UT. On Thursday, a Bihar native was killed in a village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district. EXPRESS READ Cyclone Dana may hit N Odisha-Bengal coast Bhubaneswar: Cyclone Dana, the season’s first tropical storm, is likely to form over Bay of Bengal by October 23. It may take shape of a severe category storm and move in the northwest direction towards north Odisha and West Bengal coasts, IMD said Kiwis clinch historic Test win in India after 36 yrs Bengaluru: New Zealand recorded their first Test victory on Indian soil after 36 years, beating the hosts by eight wickets on the fifth and final day of the opening encounter in Bengaluru. The Black Caps now lead the three-Test series 1-0. Needing 107 to win on the final day, New Zealand’s Will Young (48 not out) and Rachin Ravindra (39 not out) added 75 runs for the third wicket to take the team to victory in 27.4 overs