MADURAI l friday l october 25, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION PAC meet postponed as SEBI chief Madhabi Buch doesn’t turn up The Sebi chairperson skipped a Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee meeting on Thursday, prompting panel head K C Venugopal to put it off Buch cites ‘exigencies’ to skip meeting Furore over jpc head Venugopal’s fiat Venugopal said the panel received a message from Buch at 9.30 am that she and her team wouldn’t be able to appear before it due to “exigencies”. The panel’s proceedings remained deadlocked even during its second sitting amid the NDA members’ demand that Venugopal allow a vote on agenda items like summoning heads of regulatory bodies, an idea opposed by Cong MPs ■ ■ BJP member Nishikant Dubey moved a motion to drop five of the 161 subjects picked by the panel for its annual agenda, and called for a vote With NDA members in majority, Venugopal didn’t allow the motion. BJP members accused him of not letting them air their views. They later met Speaker Om Birla to protest against Venugopal’s unilateral decisions Trai chairman Briefly Appeared before jpc but the meet was called off due to protests 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 Cyclone Dana landfall keeps Odisha govt on its toes B i j ay C h aki /A s i s h M e h ta @ Bhubaneswar Odisha braced for impact as severe cyclonic storm Dana, packing strong winds, headed towards the coast where it is likely to pelt heavy showers post landfall well past T hursday midnight. While the storm’s progress and landfall kept weather experts guessing, the state evacuated 3.5 lakh people to cyclone shelters. Dana was expected to cross the coast in the Paradip-Dhamra band, impacting three districts with wind speed hitting 120 km per hour. Though no major damage was registered till last reports came in, rain and strong wind uprooted trees in Kendrapara and Bhadrak districts. The NDRF, Odisha Fire and Emergency Service and other agencies quickly cleared the affected roads. Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialled Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and took stock of the preparedness of the government. Union home minister Amit Shah too discussed the state’s preparedness with the chief minister. He assured all help from the Centre. Earlier, Charan Majhi reviewed preparedness with collectors of various coastal districts. “Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts are likely to bear the maximum impact as predicted by the IMD,” he said. R A JESH K UM A R TH A K UR @ New Delhi Amid a spate of derailments, the Ministry of Railways has decided to involve its senior administrative grade (SAG) officers to conduct inspections to enhance safety . From now on, SAG officers will carry out two night inspections per month at roadside stations, level-crossing gates, or on footplates. This is in addition to regular daytime inspections of maintenance practices across all departments, which may include monitoring crew operations and visits to running rooms. They also have been tasked with conducting “ambush checks” at unmanned level crossings in collaboration with the police to check if safety measures are in place. The decision follows a safety review meeting on October 8, where a system was suggested for assigning officers for night inspections and to monitor the inspections carried out by other nominated officers. The ministry directed General Managers (GMs) and Divi- bus fares up PVT OPERATORS HIKE IT BY 20% Non-AC seater ticket prices have gone up across all routes and price of a ticket from Chennai to Coimbatore will be `1,800. Bus ticket cost from Chennai to Tirunelveli or Kanniyakumari will be `2,500 apiece | P4 sional Railway Managers (DRMs) to implement this system and ensure daily oversight of night inspections. “ number A of these accidents are avoidable as they are on account of failure of railway staff. It is essential that constant monitoring is done at all levels of the implementation of follow-up on laid down safety rules and procedures.” All SAG officers at the headquarters of the departments eligible to be posted as DRMs/ GMs may be utilised for inspections, the ministry said. 55 Total train accidents and Derailments based on a RTI reply 48 40 35 40 36 27 *2024-25 (Up to August) 25 22 18 17 *2024-25 S Jaishankar, EAM Sr rail officers on safety inspection 2023-24 International law should be adhered to and there should be zero tolerance for terrorism Expressing concern over the grave situation in West Asia, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that any approach that seeks to end the conflict has to be ‘fair and durable’, leading to a two-state solution. Speaking at the BRICS Outreach session representing India, Jaishankar said efforts must be made to resolve disputes and differences through dialogue and diplomacy so that they don’t lead to armed conflicts or full-fledged wars. Referring to the multi-front war Israel is locked in in West Asia—with Hamas in Palestine, with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the looming threat of a opening another front with Iran—he said the situation is quite serious. “Maritime trade has also been deeply affected. The human and material consequences of further escalation are truly serious,” he added. Jaishankar made these remarks while representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the outreach session hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan in Russia on the final day of the BRICS Summit. During his speech, Jaishankar reiterated Modi’s message of peace, that this is not an era of war. Suggesting ways to create a more equitable global order, Jaishankar said the distortions in global infrastructure, which he termed “a legacy of the colonial era”, must be set right, adding that corrections must be done with respect for territorial integrity . Lamenting that the benefits of globalisation has been ‘very uneven’, Jaishankar noted that the Global South has long suffered neglect at the cost of the Western nations. However, a new global order is taking shape and global institutions such as the UN must undergo reforms to deal with the new reality . “We face the paradox that even as forces of change have advanced, some long standing issues have only become more complex... BRICS itself is a statement of how profoundly the old order is changing,” he said. The deployment period of the VC fund in the space sector is planned to be up to five years from the actual date of start of the fund operations. The average deployment could be `150-250 crore per year 2022-23 Jaishankar interacted informally with the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Thailand. He also interacted with Egyptian prez Abdel Fattah El-Sisi M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi Deployment period of venture capital fund an estimated cost of `4,553 crore, and the construction of a new line between Errupalem and Namburu via Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, covering 57 km with an estimated cost of `2,245 crore, the minister said. The doubling of the rail line is expected to strengthen connectivity to Nepal, the Northeast and the border areas. The new Errupalem-Amaravati-Namburu rail line will traverse through NTR Vijayawada and Guntur districts of Andhra and Khammam district of Telangana. 2021-22 Informal interaction Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw briefs the media on Thursday | PTI In a big push for infrastructure development in the NDA-ruled Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved one mega Railway project with a total estimated cost of `6,798 crore. In another decision, the Cabinet approved the establishment of a Venture Capital Fund worth `1,000 crore for the space sector under the aegis of INSPACe to promote and oversee private sector participation in the sector. Briefing the media after the Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs met, Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, the two mega railway projects scheduled to be completed in five years will provide connectivity facilitate , ease of travel, minimise logistics costs, reduce oil imports and lower carbon emissions. The projects involve doubling the Narkatiaganj-RaxaulSitamarhi-Darbhanga and Sitamarhi-Muzaffarpur sections, covering 256 km in Bihar with 2020-21 Jaishankar says disputes and differences should be resolved through diplomacy MU K ESH R A NJ A N @ New Delhi 2019-20 EAM bats for fair, durable solution to W Asia mess Railway projects worth `6,798 cr gift-wrapped for NDA’s Bihar, AP e x p r e s s r ea d tn report to hc ‘Dikshitars sold 18 acres of land’ Chennai: The HR&CE department on Thursday informed the Madras HC that it has collected evidence for the sale of 18 acres of land belonging to the Chidambaram Natarajar Temple by the Podhu Dikshitars managing the temple. As per a report filed in the court, 12.5 acres of land was sold to Sri Ramulu Naidu and another 5.5 acres was sold to Annamalai University in 1974, 1985 and 1988 according documents registered with the local sub-registrar office | P2 TN parties to ec Avoid mismatch in electoral rolls Chennai: TN political parties on Thursday urged the Election Commission to avoid mismatch in electoral roll copies given to political parties and presiding officers in polling booths. They also raised issues like photo mismatch, double entries, deletion of genuine voters, and retention of names of dead voters in the rolls at a meeting called by the EC to discuss special summary revision of poll rolls, which is set to begin on October 29 in TN | P4