villupuram l thursday l november 21, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION U.S. to let Ukraine use landmines against advancing Russian forces President Joe Biden will allow Ukraine to use US-supplied anti-personnel landmines to help it slow down Russia’s battlefield progress They pose less risk to civilians: Austin US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US will supply non-persistent landmines that become unable to detonate over time. “We can control when they would self-activate... and that makes them far more safer eventually,” he said. Anti-personnel land mines have long been criticised because they present a lingering threat to civilians ■ 1.74L sq km U.S. embassy shut amid Russian attack fear ■ The latest policy shift comes days after Biden allowed Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles to strike inside Russia The US Embassy in Kyiv shut its doors on Wednesday after receiving a warning of a significant Russian attack on the city in response to Biden’s decision on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles | p9 of Ukrainian land is infested with landmines as per an estimate 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 Exit polls forecast close fight in Jharkhand with narrow edge for BJP No exit poll sees MVA win in Maharashtra Pollsters predict Maha advantage to ruling alliance PR E E THA N AIR @ New Delhi As the high stakes Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand came to a close on Wednesday, several pollsters gave the BJP-led alliance a clear edge in Maharashtra and a close fight in Jharkhand. An aggregate of exit polls projected that the ruling NDA may retain power in Maharashtra while four of the eight pollsters projected an NDA win in Jharkhand. Counting of votes will take place on November 23 Saturday for the single-phase Maharashtra election held on Wednesday and the two-phase voting in Jharkhand held on November 13 and 20. While the Matrize exit poll gave 150-170 seats for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra with a 48% vote share, it gave the MVA allies only 110-130 seats with a vote share of 42%. The pollster gave others 8 to 10 seats, with a vote share of 10%. In the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the BJP is contesting in 149 seats, Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena 81 and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress party 59. To retain power, the Mahayuti will need 145 seats to reach the majority mark. The First full draft on climate finance today S V Krishna Chaitanya EXPRESS IN BAKU W ith the clock ticking at COP29 in Azerbaijan, negotiators remain locked in intense discussions over the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, struggling to resolve disputes over the scale and structure of support needed to aid vulnerable nations in their fight against climate change. Developing countries are demanding $1.3 trillion annually to address loss and damage, adapt to climate impacts, and transition to clean energy systems. However, developed nations have so far offered proposals falling significantly short of this figure. The host presidency has promised to release the first full draft text on Thursday morning, but immediately clarified that it was not the final text but aiming to provide a starting point for resolution. Lead negotiator Yelchin Rafiyev expressed cautious optimism, describing the draft as a “clear step forward,” though substantial decisions remain unresolved. “There are still issues where all parties need to keep working to find a common ground and deliver a balanced outcome. I want to clarify that this text is not final. Based on the inputs from the parties, there would be elements in the final text which are not there in the draft,” he said and added that decisions taken in Baku will be essential to guide us from the first to the second decade of the Paris Agreement.  Continued on: P9 exit poll conducted by Peoples Pulse gave Mahayuti 175-195 seats; it showed that MVA will secure only 85-112 seats and 7-12 to others in Maharashtra. In the MVA alliance, the Congress has contested in 101 seats, Uddhav Thackarey’s Shiv Sena (UBT) 95 and Sharad Pawar’s NCP 86 seats. The high-pitched campaign in the state has seen the opposition and the ruling BJP locking horns over the latter’s slogans batenge to katenge and ek hai toh safe hai on religious lines. While the ruling Mahayuti centred its campaign around its flagship schemes for women, the MVA focused Polls 2024 on the government’s failure to address farmer’s distress, inflation, and reservation among others. In Jharkhand, Matrize predicted 42-47 seats for the NDA and 25-30 seats for the CongressJMM alliance. It gave 0-4 seats to others. Axis MyIndia and Electoral Edge predicted victory for the INDIA bloc. Dainik Bhaskar and P Marq have predicted a hung House. Jharkhand has seen highly polarised election campaigns with the BJP attacking the Hemant Soren government for the alleged illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Brisk polling in Jharkhand, Maha tepid E x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ Mumbai/Ranchi First-time voters after casting votes at a polling station in Nagpur on Wednesday | PTI Maharashtra seats 288, target 145 Source Chanakya Strategies Dainik Bhaskar Electoral Edge Lokshahi Marathi-Rudra Matrize P-Marq Peoples Pulse Poll Diary Times Now-JVC Poll of exit polls NDA 152-160 125-140 118 128-142 150-170 137-157 175-195 122-186 150-167 150 MVA 130-138 135-150 150 125-140 110-130 126-146 85-112 69-121 107-125 125 Jharkhand seats 81, target 41 Source Axis My India Chanakya Strategies Dainik Bhaskar Electoral Edge Matrize P-Marq Peoples Pulse Times Now-JVC Poll of exit polls NDA 17-27 45-50 37-40 32 42-47 31-40 44-53 40-44 39 INDIA 49-59 35-38 36-39 42 25-30 37-47 25-37 30-40 38 OTH 6-8 20-25 20 18-23 8-10 2-8 7-12 10-27 13-14 13 OTH 1-6 3-5 0-2 7 1-4 1-6 5-9 1-1 4 60% Voter turnout in Maharashtra as per provisional data. Only 51.41% voters in Mumbai city voted 68% Jharkhand voter turnout better than that in 2019. Maoist threat didn’t deter voters 1,185 Polling booths in high-rises in Maharashtra, but not many urban voters turned up THE high-voltage campaign in Maharashtra did not appear to have enthused voters to exercise their franchise as the provisional data released in the evening showed 60% turnout against 61.74% recorded in the 2019 Assembly elections, while Jharkhand witnessed brisk polling at 68%, surpassing 67.04% polled last time. Voting was largely peaceful in both states. In Maharashtra, the highest polling was recorded in Gadchiroli at 69.63% while Jharkhand’s Jamtara district topped the charts with 76.16% turnout. Like in past elections, Mumbai city disappointed with a dismal turnout of 51.41%. In Jharkhand, Bokaro district recorded the lowest polling at 60.97%, data showed. All 288 seats in Maharashtra went to polls on Wednesday in a single phase, Jharkhand voted for 38 seats in the second and final phase. The first phase of polling in Jharkhand was held on November 13 for 43 seats, registering 64.86% turnout. No major incidents of violence were reported from either state and Maoists had no effect even in their traditional strongholds. In Jharkhand, the Leftwing extremists were reduced to sticking posters at random places as security forces were deployed in full strength. Thanjai govt school teacher stabbed to death e x p r e ss ne ws s e r v i c e @ Thanjavur In a horrific incident, a 26year-old teacher was fatally stabbed allegedly by a 28-yearold man, whose marriage proposal her family had refused, on the Mallippattinam Government Higher Secondary School premises on Wednesday. The accused, S Madankumar, was booked for murder and arrested by the Sethubavachathiram police. Expressing shock over the incident, Chief Minister M K Stalin condoled the teacher’s death and announced a solatium of `5 lakh to her kin. According to police, the deceased, identified as M Ramani of Chinnamanai village, had been employed temporarily to teach Tamil for students of classes 6 to 9 at the school for the past five months. On Wednesday mor ning. Madankumar, hailing from the same village, met with Ramani outside the staff room at the school. Police said a heated ar- gument suddenly broke out between the two and Madankumar pulled out a knife and stabbed Ramani in the neck and stomach before fleeing the spot. However, he was nabbed by school staff and handed over to the Sethubavachathitam police, who were patrolling the area. A grievously injured Ramani was rushed to the Pattukottai Government Hospital in an ambulance, but doctors there declared her dead on arrival. P5 26-year-old M Ramani | Express counselling on mon Minister Poyyamozhi told reporters that counselling would be provided for the school’s students and teachers on Monday as they might be traumatised HC orders CBI probe into K’kurichi hooch tragedy that killed 67 R s i v a k u m a r @ Chennai The Madras High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that left 67 people dead, mostly from the downtrodden sections of society, exactly five months after the incident. A division bench of Justices D Krishnakumar and P B Balaji passed the order on Wednesday on a batch of public interest litigations seeking a CBI probe into the incident that rocked the state on June 20. The petitions were filed by AIADMK legal wing secretary I S Inbadurai, leader of Lawyers’ Forum for Social Justice K Balu, BJP’s A Mohandass, for mer DMDK MLA B Parthasarathy, and for mer MLA Dr A Sridharan. The bench directed the CBCID of the state police to hand over the case files to CBI within two weeks and ordered the latter to hold the probe in an expeditious manner and investigate all aspects of the tragedy. It noted that there is involve- adios, rafa Spanish tennis legend and 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal bid adieu to the sport as he lost in the singles tie against Netherlands in the Davis Cup | afp | P11 In what was seen as a ploy to block his deportation, Anmol Bishnoi, brother of notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, has applied for political asylum in the US following his arrest by immigration officers there last week. He was detained in California for entering the country using fake papers — based on information shared by India — and subsequently arrested. Anmol is currently in Iowa’s Pottawattamie County Jail. However, chances are he could have intentionally of- fered himself for detention by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of his strategy to seek asylum, sources said. For, the US legal system is inclined to grant bail in such cases, like it did to another gangster Goldie Brar, sources added. The Mumbai Police has already begun efforts to get Anmol extradited in connection with multiple cases, including the murder of NCP’s Baba Siddique. However, if the case takes a different trajectory, Anmol could first be handed over advocate hacked in hosur court complex e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e @ Krishnagiri An advocate was brutally hacked in broad daylight allegedly by a former clerk at the Hosur combined court complex premises on Wednesday afternoon. The victim is under treatment at a private hospital in Hosur. The former clerk and his wife, also an advocate, were booked by Hosur town police and remanded in judicial custody later in the day . Over 40 police personnel have been deployed at the court complex and near the hospital. Police said the victim, 30-year-old N Kannan of Hosur has been practising at the Hosur court for the past four years. He was at- N Kannan (30) tacked allegedly by G Ananda Kumar (39) of Hosur, a former clerk who had worked with several advocates. A case was booked based on the complaint of the victim’s brother N Viswanathan (32). According to the complainant, Kannan and Sathyavathi, Kumar’s wife, practised in the same court and discussed their cases.  P5 to the Canadian authorities in connection with the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. He is facing more than 32 criminal cases against him in India on charges of abduction, extortion and murder. Of them, at least 20 are registered in Rajasthan. He also managed Lawrence’s extortion cartel and invested the gang’s money in businesses outside India. An official in the Punjab Police said Anmol is the key operator of Lawrance’s global crime syndicate. He worked behind the scenes to manage the businesses and activities of the gang. legend’s visit Lionel Messi’s Argentina to play in Kerala next year E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram It’s been 13 years to date since Lionel Messi mesmerised Indian crowds at the historic and football crazy city of Kolkata. Next year, Kerala, the other football-obsessed part of the country would be watching the living legend dribble and shimmy past opponents wearing an Argentina jersey. The revered team is all set to play a couple of friendlies in Kerala. This was confirmed by Sports Minister V Abdurahiman on Wednesday He said that the Ar. gentine Football Association (AFA) will make an announcement after a delegation visits the state within two months. The opponents and schedule will be announced later. Kochi is being considered as the primary venue, said the minister during a press briefing in Thiruvananthapuram. “The official announcement will be made by a team comprising Kerala and Argentina officials when the AFA delegation visits. FIFA officials will be visiting Kochi to inspect the venue and the security aspects,” Abdurahiman said. Messi last played in India in 2011, when Argentina and Venezuela played an international friendly at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. Calling it a dream come true, Keral Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi- ment of accused persons from the border states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Union Territory of Puducherry. This prompted the court to ponder over whether CB-CID could effectively investigate the case and bring the offenders to book. The bench said it is indeed ‘jaw-dropping’ the contradictory statement of the district collector, who had denied reports of the hooch deaths on the very same day, and the suspension of the SP for failing to curb the sale of illicit arrack.  P5 attacker, wife jailed Anmol Bishnoi seeks asylum in US M U K E SH RA N J A N a n d H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ New Delhi/Chandigarh File photo jayan attributed the development to the state government’s consistent efforts. “This is something many believed to be impossible, but we have made it a reality for Kerala’s sports lovers. This will be a proud moment for Kerala as our name will resonate on the global sports map,” the chief minister wrote in his Facebook post. express read ‘File report every 90 days in fake NCC camp case’ Chennai: The Madras HC has directed the state government to file a report once in three months on progress of the probe into the sexual assault of students at fake NCC camps held in Krishnagiri and other districts. The court passed the orders on Wednesday while disposing of a PIL petition seeking a CBI probe into the matter | P2 India women win Asian Champions Trophy Rajgir (Bihar): Deepika continued her good form to ensure India women defended their Asian Champions Trophy hockey title, beating Olympic silver medallist China 1-0 in the summit clash. Deepika scored the winner for India from a penalty corner in the 31st minute to finish as the event’s highest goal-getter. CBSE Class 10, 12 exams to begin from Feb 15 New Delhi: The board exams for Class 10 and 12 will begin from February 15, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced on Wednesday. In a late night notification, the board announced that the Class 10 exams will conclude on March 18 while Class 12 exams will end on April 4, 2025