HYDERABAD l saturday l march 01, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE City EDITION India’s economy rebounds to 6.2% in December quarter Positive growth in the current fiscal and less than 7% growth expected in the next will keep India as the fastest-expanding major economy growth pegged at 6.5% for fiscal 2024-25 The 6.2% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) was higher than a revised reading of 5.6% expansion in the July-September 2024 period, according to data released by the Statistics Ministry on Friday. It was, however, lower than the RBI’s estimate of 6.8% for the period. For the full 2024-25 fiscal, the government pegs GDP growth at 6.5% ■ 4.6% urban demand still needs to make up ■ The recovery in October-December quarter was primarily driven by a revival in government expenditure due to buoyant construction sector, strong rural demand and bullish service exports | P10 However, the recovery remains uneven across sectors, with urban demand still showing signs of weakness despite festive season fillip by which output of 8 key infra sectors rose in January 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 o va l o f f i c e d r a m a Deal fails as Trump, Zelenskyy shout it out A g en c i e s Rescuers carry workers to safety on Friday. Search for the remaining 25 workers will continue on Saturday | PTI Avalanche buries camp in U’khand, 32 rescued 25 workers hired by contractor to widen highway remain trapped the Army PRO said. All 32 have been taken to the ITBP camp in Mana for treatment, the sourcAN avalanche that rolled down es said. early on Friday buried a BorMana, three kilometres from der Roads Organization (BRO) Badrinath, is the last village on camp in the high-altitude vil- the India-Tibet border at an allage of Mana in Uttarakhand’s titude of 3,200 metres. The avaChamoli district. Thirty-two lanche hit around 7.15 am, of the 57 workers trapped burying the workers inunder the avalanche side eight containers chamoli have been rescued, and one shed, the with concern over Army said. Swift rethe safety of the othsponse teams, comuttarakhand er 25 mounting as inprising more than c l e m e n t we a t h e r 100 people from the forced a pause in resIbex Brigade, especue operations. cially trained in high Multiple teams comprisaltitude rescue operations, ing the Army disaster response were immediately mobilised. forces battled through tough The teams included doctors ter rain and heavy snow and ambulances. through the day to reach the According to Disaster Manmen. They initially pulled out agement and Rehabilitation 10 workers and then the others, Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman, sources said. Four of those res- the situation is critical with the cued are in a critical condition, containers buried under six to n a r en d ra s e t h i & m aya n k s i n g h @ Dehradun/New Delhi All efforts are being taken to rescue the trapped personnel by utilising all available resources Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Army, itbp join rescue efforts The Indian Army and IndoTibetan Border Police (ITBP) are involved in the rescue efforts; however, the highway beyond Hanuman Chatti remains closed due to weather conditions. seven feet of snow. The bad weather continues. Teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRF left for the spot, about 300 km from Dehradun, amid continuing snowfall and rain. Home Minister Amit Shah said rescuing the trapped people is the government’s top priority . In a post on X, he said he spoke to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the chiefs of the ITBP and the NDRF. The trapped workers were employed by a company involved in highway widening along a 50 km stretch from Mana to Mana Pass. The BRO is overseeing this project through a contractor. District Magistrate Dr Sandeep Tiwarisaid officials have been directed to restore traffic on blocked roads and repair damaged power lines. (With agency inputs) SLBC tunnel rescuers `9L cr battle on against odds loss for investors as markets crash en s @ Hyderabad A two-storey building on fire at Narsingi in Hyderabad on Friday 2 women, girl killed in building fire E N S @ Hyderabad Three members of a family died in a fire in a two-storey building in Puppalaguda here on Friday With the assistance . of fire department officials, locals managed to rescue five persons from the blaze. The deceased have been identified as 30-year-old Sijira Khatoon, 65-year-old Jameela Khatoon, and four-year-old Sahana Khatoon, all of whom died due to asphyxiation. According to police, those who died were on the first floor of the building, while five others who were rescued were on the second floor when the fire broke out. T h e i n c i d e n t o c c u r re d around 5.45 pm in an independent house owned by a kirana shop owner in Pasha Colony, Puppalaguda, under Narsingi police station limits. Among those rescued, two sustained fracture injuries and are currently under treatment at the Osmania General Hospital. CONTINUED ON P5 The rescue operations in Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel to save the eight trapped workers continued on the seventh day on Friday. The officials were using the latest equipment, including a ground penetrating radar system, in their efforts to reach the trapped workers. Meanwhile, in the evening, reports surfaced on social media stating that the officials found five bodies in the tunnel. Nagarkurnool district collector B Santhosh termed them as fake. “The rescue operations are still going on, do not believe in fake news. We will confirm it if any such thing happens,” he said. “We are going forward as per the findings of the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI). But we cannot say anything about it now. There were reports that some ‘soft’ parts were found in the NGRI survey . But the officials did not confirm it,” the collector said, adding that desilting and dewatering were going on. According to officials, as Sensex and Nifty fell 2% on Friday, mirroring deep losses in global markets over trade war fears. The aggressive sell-off eroded investors’ wealth by `9 lakh crore | P10 The White House on Friday witnessed unprecedented drama as visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump exchanged angry words in public, turning their discussion to end the war into a shouting match. The last 10 minutes of the 45-minute engagement devolved into a tense back-and-forth between Zelenskyy Trump, and Vice , President JD Vance. Zelenskyy was in Washington to sign a revenue-sharing minerals agreement with the US. He left White House without signing the deal that Trump had demanded in return for US help to end the war and support Ukraine. A joint press conference that was planned after the meeting was also cancelled. During the talks, Trump shouted at Zelenskyy and berated him for “gambling with millions of lives” and accused him of trying to trigger World War III. The talks appeared to have gone sideways after the Ukrainian leader expressed skepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy citing Moscow’s record of bro, ken commitments. This evoked a sharp reaction from Vance, who said: “Mr President, with respect. It’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.” Zelenskyy tried to object. At this stage, Trump intervened. “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump said pointing his finger toward Zelenskyy. “With us you start having cards,” he said, adding: “You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. It’s not going to be pretty he added. ,” Soon, Trump and Zelenskyy were talking over each other. When Trump insisted Zelenskyy was losing the Ukraine war and that Ukrainian cities have been reduced to rubble by three years of war, the latter pushed back. Delimitation will be injustice to southern states, says Revanth E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Friday cautioned that southern states would face injustice if delimitation is carried out based solely on population. He accused the BJP of conspiring to remain in power permanently by weakening the southern states both economically and politically. Vowing to fight against the “conspiracy”, he accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of not giving any clarity on the impact of delimitation on southern states. “Shah said that the number of Lok Sabha seats will not decrease in southern states due to delimitation. But he did not say the seats would increase either,” Revanth Reddy remarked. Addressing a news conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, the chief minister also came down heavily on BJP state president and Union minister G Kishan Reddy for allegedly failing to cooperate with the state’s development efforts. “Kishan Reddy speaks as if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sending bundles of cash from Gujarat to Telangana by train. We are not asking for Modi’s or Kishan Reddy’s personal assets. We are demanding what is rightfully due to the state from the Centre,” he observed. continued on p4 Work for the poor: Meenakshi Hyderabad: AICC in-charge general secretary for Telangana, Meenakshi Natarajan, on Friday emphasised that the Congress government in the state must prioritise the welfare of the poor and strive to bring smiles to their faces. Speaking at the TPCC’s extended executive meeting at Gandhi Bhavan here, she praised the Congress cadre for their fighting spirit | p4 science matters E x p r e s s Re a d Centre gives nod for Mamnoor airport Braving adversities, rescuers continue to work their way in the SLBC tunnel many as 12 teams were constantly working to identify the trapped workers. Rat-hole miners, NDRF, Army and Navy were involved in the rescue operations. Besides, plasma cutters from South Central Railw ay s t o o we r e wo rk i n g tirelessly. They were cutting the damaged parts of tunnel boring machine, removing the iron parts and clearing the path to the accident spot. The officials were using sensors, special cameras and excavators.  CONTINUED ON P5 The Union government has approved the operationalisation of Mamnoor airport in Warangal. The Civil Aviation Ministry issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for its immediate development and advised the Telangana government to take necessary measures in this regard. The state government requested for permission on December 5, 2024, and allocated `205 crore for the airport’s reoperationalisation. A GO was issued for acquisition of 253 acres for the airport. Meanwhile, the Roads and Buildings department has asked AAI to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR). p2  Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has urged the youth to excel in frontier tech  Minister says India must lead in AI, transformative tech to stay strong in adverse situations  Exhibition featuring cutting-edge defence, aerospace tech will be open to public on Saturday and Sunday Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at the inauguration of Vignan Vaibhav 2025, being jointly organised by DRDO, Aeronautical Society of India and Kalam Institute of Youth Excellence in Hyderabad | Vinay Madapu Congress issues gag order on Kerala leaders P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi From left: Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, Shashi Tharoor and K Suresh | pti Amid the row over Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s TNIE column hailing the achievements of the CPM-led government in Kerala, the Congress leadership on Friday said those who don’t toe the party line would face action. Speaking at the meeting of the Congress brass with Kerala leaders, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi cautioned the leaders “not to go against party line and disrespect the people of Kerala”. With Tharoor by her side, Congress’ Kerala in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi said all leaders have to work in coordination, discipline, and unity to win the upcoming local body and Assembly elections in the state. “We have got clear indication from the high command that people are looking for a change, so we should not do anything that disrespects the people. If anyone says anything personally we will take strong ... action,” she said. According to sources, Rahul said he is emotionally connected to the state and the people. “People are yearning for a change and we should be careful about our strategies. We should not do anything wrong against the party line,” sources quoted him as saying. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said that no leaders have the right to make out-of- line statements in the media. At least three leaders, including M M Hassan, targeted Tharoor, saying his public comments damaged the party . When asked if the censure is directed at Tharoor, Dasmunshi said: “Why are you only pinpointing Tharoor? So many others made personal views. It has been told generally to everyone.” She also ruled out a leadership change in the state unit. It means K Sudhakaran will continue as the president.