chennai l monday l march 03, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Britain, France to work with Ukraine to secure peace deal Starmer stresses restoring peace talks The European leaders are in London to discuss the ways to end the war. The meeting has been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy by US President Donald Trump, who shouted him down live TV on Friday. Starmer said he is now focused on being a bridge to restore peace talks, rather than “ramp up the rhetoric” The three countries will present the new ceasefire plan to the United States, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday ‘european force to be sent to ukraine’ ■ ■ Sunday’s summit is likely to include talks on establishing a European military force to be sent to Ukraine to underpin a ceasefire. Starmer said it would involve “a coalition of the willing” | P9 Next steps: Arming Ukrainians, including a European element to guarantee security, and providing a “US backstop” to check Putin €200 bn likely to be released by eu to fund ukraine’s efforts 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 boys Spl court orders FIR against Buch No rift among Cong 5sexual held for assault leaders in Kerala, near hosur Anti-Corruption Bureau told to book ex-Sebi chief, 5 others for alleged stock market fraud Su d h i r Su r ya w a n s h i & B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai A day after Madhabi Puri Buch demitted office as the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), a special court here directed registration of an FIR against her and five others in connection with alleged stock market fraud and regulatory violations. The order was passed by special judge Shashikant Eknathrao Bangar on Saturday on a petition filed by Thane-based jour nalist Sapan Shrivastava. Seeking a court-monitored investigation, the petitioner alleged large-scale financial fraud, corruption, and regulatory violations in the listing of a company . The court said prime-facie it shows there have been violations and there are documents to support the same; therefore, HC lets NHAI acquire land for promotion of road safety The complaint There is prima facie evidence of regulatory lapses and collusion, requiring a fair and impartial probe Special judge S E Bangar Sebi, BSE officials allegedly allowed listing of a firm that failed to meet regulatory norms, leading to market manipulation and loss for investors Court to monitor Court sees cognisable offence, to monitor the investigation & has sought status report within 30 days the Anti Corruption Bureau should file an FIR against the accused, it ordered. Apart from Buch, the officials against whom the court has ordered registration of the FIR are three whole-time members of Sebi—-Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G, and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney—BSE chief executive Sundararaman U’khand avalanche toll rises to 8, rescue act over NARENDRA SETHI @Dehradun E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Madurai Observing that advocating for road safety is also one of the statutory functions of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the same would fall under the category ‘public purpose’, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently set aside an order passed by a single judge quashing the land acquisition notification issued by NHAI for its ‘Road Safety Advocacy Project’ for a 30-km stretch between Madurai and Kanniyakumari in March 2018. A bench of justices G R Swaminathan and M Jothiraman passed the order on the appeals filed by the Union Highways Ministry and NHAI in 2021. The standing counsel for NHAI claimed that the highways authority is obliged to promote road safety since accidents are common on highways, which is why it conceived of such a project. He also added that compensation would be paid to land owners under the central act of 2013, he added. However, the petitioners’ counsel argued that the land acquisition notification could be issued only for the purpose of building, maintenance, management or operation of a national highway . “There is no provision in the National Highways Authority of India Act, 1988, to the effect that NHAI can undertake projects for spreading road safety awareness,” he added. Moreover, the two notifications issued for the project are differently worded and are vague, he alleged.  P5 Ramamurthy and former BSE chairman Pramod Agarwal. Responding to the court order, Sebi said it will challenge the it. In a statement issued on Sunday, the markets regulator said it was not given a chance to represent itself and that none of the officials named in the petition was in their current positions when the alleged misdeeds happened. Terming the complaint ‘frivolous’, Sebi alleged that the petitioner is known for filing such petitions in the past. “The applicant is known to be a frivolous and habitual litigant, with previous applications being dismissed by the Court, with imposition of costs in some cases,” it said. Echoing similar views, the BSE said: “The application is frivolous and vexatious in nature,” adding that the court has not issued any notice or granted any opportunity to place the facts on record. In a late-evening statement, the BSE said the company in question is Cals Refineries, listed in 1994, and the officials named in the application were not in their respective positions at the time of listing and were not connected with the company at all. “BSE is initiating necessary and appropriate legal steps in this regard,” it added. Rescuers on the job in Chamoli district on Sunday | Express Dhami condoles deaths Dehradun: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief at the death of eight workers in the avalanche in Chamoli district THE bodies of the last four trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, taking the death toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60hour rescue operation. Army doctors said 46 workers who were rescued on Saturday have been brought to the military hospital in Jyotirmath. Two of them have been refer red to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Three of the workers are in critical condition. The body of the last missing worker has also been retrieved, said Army PRO Lt Col Manish Shrivastava. The avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday burying , the 54 workers inside eight Unbeaten containers and a shed. Earlier, it was believed that the total number of trapped labourers was 55 but one of them was on unauthorised leave and had reached home safely . More than 200 personnel from the disaster management authority, ITBP, BRO, NDRF, SDRF, IAF, district administration, health department and fire brigade were engaged in the rescue operation. Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres. Among the deceased are four from Uttar Pradesh: Jitendra Singh, Manjeet Yadav, Alok Yadav, and Ashok Paswan; two from Himachal Pradesh: Mahender Pal and Ramesh Chand; and two from Uttarakhand: Anil Kumar and Arvind Kumar Singh. says Rahul Gandhi Express News Service @ New Delhi India march on Men in Blue beat New Zealand by 44 runs to finish on top of Group A on Sunday. A look... proteas face Black Caps test With the loss against India, New Zealand finished second in Group A. They will be flying to Pakistan, along with South Africa who topped the Group B, where the two teams play the second semifinal in Lahore on Wednesday | P11 India vs Australia, Dubai, Tuesday South Africa vs New Zealand, Lahore, Wednesday With the trial run of 22 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses across eight transport corporations yielding significant cost savings and enhanced mileage for the state transport undertakings (STUs), the transport department has decided to convert 1,000 diesel buses to CNG across the state. Tenders have been invited for this initiative, according to sources. The number of buses allocat- should remain operational for the next five to seven years. T Prabhushankar, managing director of Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services (PTCS), the technical arm of the transport department, told TNIE that this initiative aligns with the state government’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through programmes like the Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission. He highlighted that the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has already undertaken environment-friendly initiatives by planning to replace die- strengthening of the state organisation as its running theme. Sources said Gandhi asked leaders present at the meeting to be very careful and not to do or say anything that does not toe the party line. In the meeting, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge laid stress on discipline, ensuring unity and filling up vacant posts to strengthen the party’s Kerala unit. American private aerospace firm Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander carrying a drill, vacuum, and other experiments for NASA successfully landed on the moon Sunday | P9 1K more TN buses to take CNG route as trial run goes well ed for conversion for each transport undertaking has not been finalised yet. Buses aged six to seven years or those with a total running distance of less than eight lakh kilometres will be selected for conversion. The average cost for converting a diesel bus to CNG has been set at `7 lakh. While mofussil buses recover conversion expenses in nine to 10 months, town buses will require 12 to 13 months. As per official sources, buses undergoing conversion Days after his praise of the growth of Kerala’s startup ecosystem, Shashi Tharoor has taken a U-turn, saying the growth of startups should not remain “confined to paper” alone Over the moon go green B AN B U SELVAN @ Chennai Tharoor u-turn on Kerala story Pvt firm makes lunar landing in 1st attempt Semifinal line-up Varun Chakravarthy(L) celebrates a wicket on Sunday | AP Express News Service @ Krishnagiri Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sought to dispel the notion there is a rift among the party’s leaders in Kerala following its MP Shashi Tharoor’s recent remarks praising the achievements of CPM-led government in the state, saying they stand united. His comment came in the wake of a meeting between the Congress’ central leadership and the party’s leaders from Kerala at Indira Bhawan on Friday to discuss the strategy and the way forward ahead of next year’s assembly polls. Following Tharoor’s remarks, the Congress brass issued a warning that strong action will be taken against those making comments that go against the party’s interests. Posting a picture of the Kerala leaders’ interaction with the media after the meeting on Facebook, Rahul wrote: “They stand as one, united by the light of purpose ahead.” His post was accompanied by the hashtag Team Kerala. The three-hour meeting at the Congress’s Indira Bhawan headquarters on Friday had discipline, unity and the Varun takes fifer In what was his first game of the tournament, Varun Chakravarthy took five wickets for 42 runs and in the process helped India defend the target of 250. On the slowish Dubai surface, the spinner from TN rattled the New Zealand middle-order to ensure India remain unbeaten of 2 sisters on house terrace sel buses with 1,200 electric buses in the coming months. The CNG trial has proven not only cost-effective but also beneficial in increasing mileage. Prabhushankar added that, apart from CNG, one bus is also being operated on Compressed Biogas (CBG), which can be produced from solid waste. “CBG is much cheaper than CNG. Possibilities to introduce hydrogen buses — a fully-clean energy solution — will also be explored,” he said.  P5 Five minor boys aged between 13 and 15 were apprehended for allegedly sexually assaulting two sisters aged nine and 13 on the terrace of their home near Hosur on Saturday afternoon. According to police, among the five boys — all hailing from the same area in Hosur — three are studying in Class 8 and 9 in a government school, while the other two are dropouts. They often roam around the neighbourhood, collect leftover construction material and sell it to buy snacks. At times they also go seeking food from the houses in the area, police added. On Saturday afternoon, the group of boys had gone up to the terrace of a house in the neighbourhood. Hearing their racket, the two survivors — studying in Class 4 and 7 — who lived there and were home alone, went up to investigate. Upon spotting them, police said one of the boys grabbed the younger girl and covered her mouth with his hand to silence her. Later the boys allegedly stuffed cloth in her mouth. Her 13-year-old sister attempted to fend off the boys, but they allegedly tied her hands and gagged her mouth. Police said both girls fainted and the boys sexually assaulted them. “After a short while, a neighbour came up to her terrace, spotted the two girls lying unconscious on the adjoining balcony and informed their parents,” police said. At the time of the incident, one of their parents was at work and the other was out of station. On Saturday evening, the girls’ father went to Hosur town police station to file a complaint and was referred to the Hosur all-women’s police station. Upon receiving the complaint, police launched a search and secured three of the minors late on Saturday night, and the other two on Sunday  . P5 ECI allays concern over duplicate voter numbers M U KESH RAN J AN @ New Delhi THE Election Commission of India (ECI) has moved to calm concerns over duplicate voter ID numbers, clarifying that identical EPIC numbers don’t indicate fake voters. The matter came to light after several social media posts flagged the mistake and claimed that electors in different states were being assigned similar EPIC numbers. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also raised similar concerns. In its response, ECI said while some electors may share the same elector photo identity card (EPIC) number, their demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth , information differ, and that they can only cast their votes at their designated polling stations in their respective constituencies. The duplicate EPIC numbers were caused by a decentralized and manual mechanism used before the electoral roll database was shifted to the ERONET platform. “This resulted in certain State/UT CEO offices using the same EPIC alphanumeric series and leaving a scope for the possibility of duplicate EPIC numbers being allotted to electors in different constituencies in different states,” ECI said. To address this, the commission has said it will assign unique EPIC numbers to registered electors, ensuring that any cases of duplicate EPIC numbers are rectified. The ERONET 2.0 platform will be updated to facilitate this process, it said. express read ‘Earlier govts deprived fishers of Katchatheevu’ K’taka govt will uphold Kannada, says minister Ramanathapuram: Governor R N Ravi, in a post on X on Sunday, said, “The then governments in Delhi and Chennai committed a grave sin by depriving our fishermen of their fishing rights around Katchatheevu.” | P4 Shivamogga: Karnataka’s School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa on Sunday said while two-language policy is a technical issue, the government will take all measures to uphold Kannada in the state | P5