chennai l saturday l may 17, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION IPL RESUMES AFTER BREAK due to BORDER TENSIONS Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Kolkata Knight Riders in Bengaluru today. The league was temporarily suspended on May 8 RCB’s Virat Kohli during a practice session on Friday | Vinod Kumar T Matches in six venues, Final on June 3 Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Mumbai will host the remaining 12 matches, with venues for the play-offs yet to be decided ■ 17 DEPLETED SQUADS FOR SEVERAL TEAMS ■ Due to forecast of rains in Southern India, IPL decided against hosting matches in Chennai and Hyderabad, with Bengaluru hosting two matches | P15 ■ ■ Several IPL teams will have depleted squads in the home stretch because of important assignments like the WTC final. South African players, for example, will not feature in the playoffs However, sides have been allowed to name ‘temporary’ replacements to supplement their roster. Mumbai will be one of the hardest hit side NO OF REMAINING TIES (12 LEAGUE, FOUR PLAY-OFF FIXTURES & FINAL) 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 Teams to visit 40-50 countries, many of them Islamic, to expose Pak terror footprint Mega diplomatic push via multi-party teams rajnath: Pak using IMF money for terror P r ee t h a N a i r a n d r a jes h K um a r T h a ku r @ New Delhi Students of Everwin Matriculation school in Chennai jump in joy after the Class 10 results were declared on Friday | P jawahar 93.8% TN students clear Class X, Sivaganga tops list with 98% pass of 4,917 (roughly 40%) schools, including 1,867 government ones, recorded 100% pass. The pass percentage of Class Sivaganga (98.31%), Virud10 students in state board exam hunagar (97.45%), Thoothukusaw a notable jump of 2.25 per- di (96.76%), Kanniyakumari centage points, with 93.8% of (96.66%) and Tiruchy (96.61%) the 8.71 lakh stuwere the top five disdents clearing the 92% students tricts in pass percentpass Class XI age. Sivaganga also exam this year, as per the results an- Of 8.07 lakh students led in pass percentnounced on Friage among governwho appeared for day Last year, the . ment schools with Class 11 exams this pass percentage year, 7.43 lakh cleared 97.49%. Of the 12,290 was 91.55%. the exams, registering disabled students The increase in who wrote the exam, a pass percentage the pass percent11,409 (92.83%) have of 92.09 | P2 age can be attribcleared it. While girls uted to the performance of gov- continued to outperform boys ernment schools, which saw a with a pass percentage of 95.88, sharp increase of 3.36 percent- compared to 91.74 for boys, the age points from 87.1% in 2024 to margin between them nar91.26% this year. rowed to 4.14 percentage points Of the 12,485 schools, a total from 5.95 last year.  P7 E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Top performing districts 2 Sivaganga 2 Virudhunagar 3 5 1 Thoothukudi 4 Kanniyakumari 5 Tiruchy 96.61% 1 3 4 In TN category 98.31% 97.45% 96.76% 96.66% pass percentage 91.55 93.80 2024 2025 Govt schools 87.90 91.26 91.77  93.63 Private schools 97.43 97.99 Govt-aided TN to reach out to CMs, leaders of other states Voda’s SOS to govt: Need timely help on AGR dues, else will have to shut shop E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e RA K E S H K U M AR @ New Delhi Tamil Nadu will consult with chief ministers and leaders of other states on the issue of President Droupadi Murmu seeking the Supreme Court’s opinion on whether timelines could be imposed for governors and President on dealing with state bills, Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Friday . Speaking to reporters CM Stalin in the Nilgiris before leaving for Chennai on Friday after completing his fiveday visit to the hill station, Stalin accused the central government of demonstrating a dictatorial approach. Regarding the 2026 Assembly election, Stalin said, “Not only in the 2026 election, but also in 2031 and 2036 elections, a Dravidian model government will be voted to power in Tamil Nadu.” P7 Vodafone Idea (Vi) has said it will be forced to shut shop if the government doesn’t help. India’s third-largest telecom operator urged the Centre to waive its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, warning that it may not be able to continue operations beyond FY26. According to sources, the telecom company has sought the government’s intervention to meet AGR obligations and mitigate insolvency risk. Vi also warned that the value of the gover nment’s equity stake could fall to zero, resulting in no recovery on the `1.18 lakh crore of spectrum dues. Currently, Vi’s total liabilities are pegged at `2 lakh crore, including `1.19 lakh crore in spectrum usage charges and `83,400 crore in AGR dues. The company is required to pay `18,000 crore annually in AGR dues over the next six years. According to Vi, this figure exceeds its operating cash flows, which have averaged between `8,400 crore and `9,200 crore Prez reference @ Coimbatore over the past three years. The gover nment had in March converted `36,950 crore of the firm’s dues into equity, increasing its stake to 49%. Meanwhile, the beleaguered firm has filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking waiver of `30,000 crore in AGR dues, pertaining to interest, penalty and interest on penalty , components. Vi’s fresh petition comes in the wake of the SC’s ruling in February rejecting a batch of pleas by several telcos against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s formula to calculate AGR. The SC upheld the DoT’s calculation, which included telcos’ revenue from non-telecom businesses as well and not just core telecom operations. According to Vi, timely support from the Government of India is needed on AGR relief, otherwise the ongoing discussions with banks regarding funding will stall. If the situation leads to operational disruption, approximately 200 million users could be affected. D i l i p S i n g h K s h at r i ya With the Centre set to send nearly a dozen multi-party delegations to various important countries to exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, it was learnt that the lists of Opposition and ruling coalition’s MPs were prepared by the Prime Minister’s Office and conveyed to respective political parties. While MPs from various political parties were consulted by Union minister Kiran Rijiju, sources said the selection was done based on certain parameters, such as domain knowledge, articulation skills and representation of women and Muslims. The delegations will brief the hosts on Pakistan’s role in perpetrating cross-border terror in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor and the efforts by some countries to hyphenate India and Pakistan. “There will be a briefing by the MEA before we leave. We may also present dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks,” said an MP . The delegation may travel to 40-50 countries and are likely to start from May 22 or 23 for a period of 10 days. The focus will be more on Islamic countries, said an MP. The government is considering 7-8 eight delegations with 5-6 members each, said a source. The likely representatives from Congress will be Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid and Amar Singh, while DMK’s Kanimozhi, CPI (M)’s John Brittas and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi are likely to be part of the INDIA on Friday called upon the International Monetary Fund to reconsider its $1 billion assistance to Pakistan, stressing that Islamabad can use it for funding terror. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who arrived at the Bhuj Air Force station Friday morning to review the overall security situation, said India does not want funds it gives to the IMF to be used to create a terror infrastructure in Pakistan. “India would like the IMF to reconsider its assistance of $1 billion to Pakistan and refrain from g iv i n g a ny kind of assistance in future,” he said. He lauded Rajnath Singh the Air Force for spearheading the campaign against terrorism effectively . “The current ceasefire is not a peace agreement — it’s probation,” Singh declared. “If Pakistan’s behaviour improves, good. If not, the harshest punishment will follow ...” he said. Singh further said Pakistan has started rebuilding its destroyed terror infrastructure, and has collected taxes from its citizens to lend it to Masood Azhar, head of Jaish-e-Mohammed and a UN-designated terrorist. “Pakistan plans to divert public funds — roughly `14 crore — to Masood Azhar of JeM,” Singh said. Pakistan has announced financial aid to LeT and JeM in Muridke and Bahawalpur, he said. @ Ahmedabad Union home minister Amit Shah with others during the inauguration of an upgraded multi agency centre for intelligence sharing, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI delegations. While former Union minister Anurag Thakur, Aparajita Sarangi and Samik Bhattacharya and V Muralidharan are among the BJP MPs, TMC’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay , JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, BJD’s Sasmit Patra and NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule and J&K’s Ghulam Nabi Azad are also likely to be part of the delegations. Several Opposition parties welcomed the move. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Rijiju contacted party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on the matter, adding the latter will decide which MPs are to be sent. Such diplomatic initiatives have been taken in the past as well. In 1994, the then PM Narasimha Rao deputed a team comprising opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid, and India’s then ambassador to the UN, Hamid Ansari, to a UN session in Geneva to present India’s case on the Kashmir problem and to defeat a Pakistan resolution to censure New Delhi. After the Mumbai attack in 2008, PM Manmohan Singh sent a multi-party delegation to various countries with dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks. @ Chennai The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches in 10 places, including the house of S Visakan, Tasmac managing director, as part of its investigation into the alleged `1,000 crore scam in the government-owned liquor marketing company. According to sources, ED officials had found printouts of what seemed to be W h at s Ap p c o nve r s at i o n s strewn outside the officer’s house. Visakan was later taken to the ED office in Nungambakkam for questioning and let off after four hours, sources said. The ED began its searches around 8am at places linked to businessmen, government officials, and contractors who allegedly acted as conduits for laundering bribe money Apart . from Visakan’s home at Manapakkam in Chennai, ED officials also searched properties ED searched Tasmac MD Visakan’s house at Manapakkam | Martin Louis linked to film producer Akash Bhaskaran of Dawn Pictures and AP Keshav Selvi of KS Each multi-party group of 5-6 MPs from both the LS and RS is expected to leave by May 22-23 on its 10-day diplomatic mission. These teams will visit the US, UK, and several Islamic nations to share India’s stance on Pak-sponsored terror Official details expected today A senior government source said that the MPs will be thoroughly briefed and equipped with evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pahalgam terror attack. Official details on the mission are expected to ne announced on Saturday Owaisi may lead team to S Arabia Asaduddin Owaisi, who sharply condemned Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, is likely to lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In all, over 35 MPs are expected to participate in the diplomatic outreach Muttaqi-Jaishankar call fresh Taliban attempt to normalise ties with India J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Neeraj hits 90m mark Javelin ace Neeraj Chopra produced his best-ever throw in the Doha Diamond League on Friday. He threw 90.23m in his third effort to finish second | More on P15 ED searches 10 places, grills Tasmac MD in `1,000 crore ‘scam’ E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e 10-day mission by multiple teams Smart Solutions, a tech firm that had won contracts from several state departments. Properties linked to Ratheesh Velu, a Chennai resident who is said to be close to several top government officials, an executive of a bottling firm allegedly linked to Tasmac, and a few other contractors were among those searched. The ED has not issued an official statement on the operation. The searches were carried out to collect evidence for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case booked by the agency based on 41 FIRs registered in the past by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) regarding alleged corruption in Tasmac. The first set of searches was conducted in the first week of March at Tasmac’s office in Egmore and at the offices of various distilleries and bottling units that supply liquor to the government firm.  P7 THE Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is making a fresh push to normalise relations with India as part of its broader campaign for international legitimacy, sources familiar with the development said. Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s phone call with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday was the highest-level contact between New Delhi and Taliban since the group seized power in August 2021. “The phone call ahead of Muttaqi’s scheduled visits to Iran and China signals Kabul’s growing interest in re-engaging India on critical bilateral issues,” said a source. These include trade facilitation, visa processes, the repatriation of Afghan prisoners, and strengthening collaboration on the strategic Chabahar port — a key project that India has backed to enhance regional connectivity and helping landlocked Afghanistan get sea access bypassing Pakistan. “There is a consistent con- Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi versation between Indian and Taliban officials,” a source said. This includes a meeting between Muttaqi and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Dubai in January apart from a re, cent visit to Kabul by an Indian diplomat overseeing Afghanistan relations, shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack. Taliban officials strongly condemned the Pahalgam attack and dismissed Pakistani military reports alleging Indian missile strikes on Afghan soil as “baseless.” These efforts are part of a broader Taliban effort to distance itself from regional instability and present a more responsible image on the world stage. Beyond India, Muttaqi is expected to visit Tehran and Beijing in the coming weeks. Salman25 years in prison Rushdie assailant gets An American-Lebanese man was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday for trying to kill novelist Salman Rushdie with a knife at a New York cultural center in 2022 | P13