tiruchy l Sunday l march 16, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l late city EDITION SpaceX Launches Crew to Rescue two Astronauts stuck in space SpaceX launches a crew to replace NASA’s stranded astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — paving way for their return after nine long months Crew to Overlap for smoother Handover The relief craft is expected to dock into the ISS by Saturday night (US time) NASA wants an overlap so they Suni and Butch can brief the newcomers on station operations. Their departure along with two others is planned for next week, with a splashdown off Florida, finally bringing an end to their unexpected nine-month mission in space 9 4 astronauts to spend six months in space ■ Four astronauts, including two military pilots, will spend six months aboard the ISS after freeing the stranded duo ■ SpaceX’s new capsule needed battery repairs, delaying the launch. To save time, it switched to a used capsule, moving Wilmore and Williams’ return to mid-March spacewalks made Williams the women’s record-holder 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 incentive of `349 per MT of cane Crop Insurance of `841 cr for 35L acres 1K CM’s Farmers Service Centres global exposure visits better income, organic thrust T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai The `45,661-crore farm budget presented by Agriculture Minister M R K Panneerselvam in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday laid thrust on food security, improving farmers’ income, crop diversification, organic farming and horticultural crops, mechanisation and imp rov i n g p a d dy a re a a n d foodgrain production in 29 nondelta districts. In five years, the total budgetary outlay for agriculture and allied sectors has gone up by nearly `10,000 crore from `34,221 crore in 2021-22 to `45,661 crore in 2025-26, the minister said. While the total g ross cropped area has increased from 146.77 lakh acres in 201920 to 151 lakh acres in 2023-24, the double-crop areas in the state have risen from 29.74 lakh acres in 2019-20 to 33.60 lakh acres in 2023-24, the budget stated. Tamil Nadu has also secured the first position in the country in ragi productivity, second position in maize, oilseed and sugarcane productivity, and third position in groundnut and minor mil- Punjab Police see Pak role in bomb attack on Amritsar temple H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh A bomb blast that took place outside Thakurdwara temple in Amritsar’s Khandwala area late Friday night rattled the local community, sparking fear and concern. The explosion, caused by a grenade thrown by two motorcycle-bor ne men, occurred around 12.35 am. While a section of the temple’s wall was damaged, no injuries were reported. Police said the temple priest and his family who were inside , at the time, had a narrow escape. The intensity of the blast was such that window panes of nearby buildings shattered. CCTV footage shows the suspects throwing the grenade at midnight. Senior police officials rushed to the scene, and an investigation is underway . Punjab Police suspect the involvement of Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence (ISI) in the attack. “This marks a shift in strategy by ISI handlers in Pakistan. So far, their targets have been police posts and politically connected individuals. Now, it seems they are trying to incite communal tensions,” said a senior officer. Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar assured swift action. “The nature of the explosive is yet to be verified...,” he said, adding “... Pakistan engages in such acts...” BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh accused the AAP government of failing to curb disruptive elements, calling the attack on a temple a serious attempt to stir communal unrest. WITH THIS ISSUE The New World Order PLUS 12 PAGES Focus areas of TN’s agriculture budget 2025-26 Total outlay `45,661 crore Minister M R K Panneerselvam calls on Chief Minister M K Stalin before presenting the exclusive agriculture budget in Chennai on Saturday | express let productivity. While allocations have been made for existing schemes, there is no dearth of new schemes in the budget tailored to the needs of the seven distinct agroclimatic zones and the diverse crops cultivated in these regions. The new schemes include plan to establish 1,000 CM’s Farmers Service Centres, Alter native Crop Cultivation Scheme to improve soil fertility and encourage cultivation of millets, a Village Outreach Campaign to provide techni- cal advice to farmers, Nutrition Farming Mission to increase farmers’ net income through higher production of horticultural crops, and hill farmers development scheme, among others. In one of the key announcements, the minister said that sugarcane far mers will be paid a special incentive of `349 per metric tonne of sugarcane for the 2024-25 crushing season. This is over and above the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed by the union government.  P5 Agroforestry Policy to promote growth of valuable trees such as sandal, red sanders, mahogany Special package for paddy cultivation in 29 non-delta districts Exclusive scheme for 63,000 farmers in hilly regions `10 crore for establishing Tamil Nadu Cashew Board `1,477 crore for cooperative credit societies `2 crore for taking 100 progressive farmers on international exposure visit to Japan, China and Vietnam Subsidised agriculture machinery and implements to be provided to 17,000 farmers at an outlay of `215.80 crore in 2025-26 High-level CEC meet on linking Aadhaar, voter ID P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Amid a row over voter lists, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has called a high-level meeting on Tuesday to discuss the linking of the voter identity card with the Aadhaar card. According to sources, the CEC will discuss the matter with the Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Legislative Department Secretary Rajiv Mani and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar on March 18. This is at variance with the EC’s earlier position. In September 2023, the EC told the Supreme Court that the submission of Aadhaar number is not mandatory under Rule 26-B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules 2022. The EC further said that it is not mandatory to provide Aadhaar numbers for linking with the electoral roll, and it is considering issuing ‘appropriate clarificatory changes’ in enrolment forms to reflect this. In 2022, the then Union law minister Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that linking Aadhaar with the Voter ID is voluntary adding electors without an , Aadhaar number could ‘provide other optional documents as provided in the Form 6B’. According to him, the Elec- E C st a n ce On March 2, EC said identical EPIC numbers or series were allotted to some electors from different states and UTs due to a “decentralised and manual mechanism” before shifting of the electoral roll database of all states to ERONET platform. In another statement, the EC said that since the allotment of the EPIC series in 2000, some Electoral Registration Officers did not use the correct series Allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series could not have been detected as the states/ UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases, EC said tion Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, allows Electoral Registration Officers to require the voter to provide their Aadhaar number for identification. However, this is voluntary he said. , The Tuesday meeting comes amid allegations of voter ID number duplication and fudging of electoral roll data levelled by the Opposition, including the TMC and the Congress. Several other parties have also demanded a discussion on the EPIC number duplication. Visa nixed for Palestine protest, Indian student self-deports from US J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi An Indian student at Columbia University Ranjani Srinivasan, , has self-deported from the US after her student visa was revoked for taking part in proPalestine protests. The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ranjani’s visa was revoked on March 5 due to her involvement in supporting Hamas, which is a “designated terrorist organisation” in the US. It went on to furnish video evidence of her using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) app to selfdeport on March 11. Self-deporting allows individuals to leave voluntarily before facing formal deportation, thereby avoiding the possibility of being forcibly removed, as has been the case with other deportees recently sent back to India who had come to the US as illegal immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared a video of Ranjani at the airport, stating that anyone “advocating for violence and terrorism should not be in the country”. “It is a privilege to be granted Videograb of Indian student Ranjani Srinivasan leaving the US on her own after her visa was revoked | PTI a visa to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence and terrorism, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country I . am glad to see one of the Columbia University terrorist sympathizers use the CBP Home app to self-deport,” she said in a post on X. Rajani holds a Bachelor’s Degree from CEPT University in Ahmedabad and a Master’s Degree from Harvard. mumbai WIN WPL TITLE AGAIN Mumbai Indian players celebrate a Delhi Capitals wicket in WPL final on Saturday. MI won the match by eight runs I Sportzpics express read States must achieve self-reliance, says CM 7,783 anganwadi posts to be filled in TN Sloth bear electrocuted in Coonoor honey hunt Chennai: Speaking at the Madras HC on the occasion of the 75th year of the adoption of the Indian Constitution, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday said states must achieve self-reliance to safeguard their rights, as federalism has been affected due to issues in fund allocation by the central government | P4 Chennai: The social welfare department has issued an order to fill 7,783 vacancies in anganwadi centres across TN through direct recruitment. According to data shared in Parliament, TN has 54,449 anganwadi centres, with 10,837 anganwadi worker vacancies and 10,651 for helpers | P4 Nilgiris: A five-year-old male sloth bear was electrocuted to death after it came in contact with an overhead power cable at a tea garden in Nonsuch near Coonoor on Thursday night. The animal got electrocuted and fell to the ground when it climbed an electric pole to reach out for a beehive, sources said | P4 TN to get 2 electronics clusters at `1.1K-cr cost E X PRE S S NEW S S ER V ICE @ Chennai In a significant push to bolster India’s electronics manufacturing sector, the union government has sanctioned `1,112 crore for setting up two new Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) in Tamil Nadu. The initiative is expected to boost local production and position the state as a key player in the global electronics supply chain. Union Minister for Electronics and Infor mation Technolo g y Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the decision on Saturday during the inauguration of Zetwerk Electronics’ seventh manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur. Vaishnaw underscored the centre’s commitment to expanding India’s electronics ecosystem and hailed Tamil Nadu’s proactive role in attracting investments in the sector. At full capacity, the new Zetwerk manufacturing facility will employ approximately 1,200 professionals. The two EMCs, to be established at Pillaipakkam and Manallur, were originally proposed by the Tamil Nadu government in 2022. The state had announced its intention to develop these clusters with financial assistance from the union government. “These will be large-scale electronics manufacturing clusters that will contribute significantly to the growth of Tamil Nadu and the country,” Vaishnaw said.  P5 inside edge Will continue to play as long as I have fun and enjoy it, says Kohli S w a r o o p S w a m i n at h a n @ Bengaluru DURING Virat Kohli’s fireside chat with Isa Guha, the former India captain raised his index and middle-fingers to form a ‘V’ sign — the universal peace symbol — before sporting a wide grin. “I’m pretty happy where I’m right now,” he said during an RCB event. More than that he spoke about retirement, the one topic everyone is interesting with right now. Twenty minutes either side of that moment, Kohli spoke on a wide variety of subjects ranging from retirement, leader- ship, family, social media and being in the present. On the subject of retirement and what motivates him these days, Kohli said: “I’m (very peaceful and calm),” he said. “Me playing is not for achievement. It’s for the joy enjoyment , and love for the game. As long as that is intact, I will continue to play I have to be honest about . that with myself... at this point of time in my life, I feel pretty happy. I still love playing the game.” He was also effusive in his praise for how women’s sport has developed in India. “In two seasons of the Women’s Pre- Former India captain Virat Kohli spoke during an event in Bengaluru on Saturday mier League, you see a completely different women’s game today,” he said. “And it’s going to keep growing, it’s so very important because you can’t just cater to looking at men. It has to be collective, sports culture influences everyone and women’s sport is a massive part of it. We have so much talent in women’s sports and not just cricket. We have great individual athletes in tennis, badminton, wrestling, boxing... it’s been amazing.” However, he firmly shut the door on the prospect of making an international comeback in the game’s shortest format to have a shot of playing the Olympics. “The Indian Premier League (IPL) has definitely played a big role in that as well, it has gotten us to a stage where it’s part of the Olympics. It’s a great opportunity for some of our guys.” But the 36-year-old, who doesn’t usually do public speaking events especially with the press corps present, had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he said ‘maybe if we are playing for the gold medal, I may just sneak in for one game (smile). But I think it’s a great thing. To be Olympic champions would be a magnificent feeling.”