dharmapuri l sunday l may 18, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 28 l city EDITION CBSE asks schools to set up ‘sugar boards’ to check intake The CBSE has directed affiliated schools to establish “sugar boards” to monitor and reduce sugar intake of children, according to officials move follows rise in type 2 diabetes in kids sugary snacks, processed foods culprits The move follows a significant increase in Type 2 diabetes among kids, a condition once primarily seen in adults, over the past decade. Several studies indicate that sugar constitutes 13 per cent of daily calorie intake for children aged four to 10 years, and 15 per cent for those aged 11 to 18 years, substantially exceeding the recommended limit of 5 per cent ■ “The proliferation of sugary snacks, beverages, and processed foods, often readily available in school environments, contributes significantly to this excessive intake,” CBSE said in a circular ■ The direction was issued after a nudge by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to ensure kids are safe from diabetes 13% of daily calorie intake among children comes from sugar 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 Guj minister’s son arrested in rural jobs scheme scam Tharoor on govt’s global India turns the outreach team, Cong sore screws on imports D i l i p S i ng h k s h at r i ya P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi @ Ahmedabad A `71-crore scam under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been unearthed in Gujarat, implicating the family of state panchayat and agriculture minister Bachu Khabad. His elder son, Balwant Khabad, has been arrested, while his younger son, Kiran Khabad, is under scrutiny . The scam surfaced after B M Patel, director of DRDA, flagged irregularities in project execution in Devgadh Baria and Dhanpur taluks. The scam involved fake infrastructure projects, with funds meant for tribal employment siphoned off to agencies linked to the minister’s sons through fabriGujarat minister cated invoices. Bachu Khabad An audit revealed that Raj Constr uction and Raj Traders, run by Balwant and Kiran Khabad, were involved in the fraud. Between 2021 and 2025, villages like Kuva, Redhana, and Simamoi were falsely marked as beneficiaries of completed MGNREGA projects. On the ground, there was little to no work—only forged completion reports and a trail of diverted payments. As the investigation widened, authorities uncovered that 35 material suppliers—28 from Devgadh Baria and seven from Dhanpur—were involved in routing fake claims with the help of complicit local officials. tit-for-tat diplomacy Wasn’t recommended by party; govt names 7 heads of delegations The rift between the Congress leadership and Shashi Tharoor deepened on Saturday after the Centre picked him to lead one of the seven multi-party delegations for its diplomatic outreach against Pakistan’s crossborder terror despite the party not recommending his name. Apart from Tharoor, BJP MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad and Baijayant Panda, JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, DMK’s Kanimozhi, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, and Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde will head the other delegations. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the party had submitted four names for the mission and was surprised to see ‘a different name’, Shashi Tharoor, in the official list. The party had suggested the names of Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi, Syed Naseer Hussain and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring for the delegations. Significantly, the party distanced itself from Tharoor’s comments endorsing the Modi government’s handling of the India-Pak conflict and US President Trump’s intervention in announcing the ceasefire. WITH THIS ISSUE Sultan of Subversion PLUS 12 PAGES ED raid continues: Tasmac MD questioned for 10 hours Express News Service @ Chennai The Enforcement Directorate’s search operation at 10 locations in Chennai in the alleged Rs 1,000 crore Tasmac bribery scam that began on Friday morning continued for the second day on Saturday . Tasmac Managing Director S Visakan was once again taken to the Enforcement Directorate’s office in Nungambakkam for questioning, where he was interrogated for at least 10 hours. Sources said that Deva, a prominent hotel owner, was also summoned to the agency’s office for questioning. ED is conducting the searches to collect evidence on alleged DVAC raids ex-min, AIADMK MLA houses Chennai: DVAC searched the properties of former AIADMK minister and party’s Arani MLA Sevoor S Ramachandran in Tiruvannamalai & former AIADMK MLA Neethipathi at Usilampatti in Madurai | P4 money laundering in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case registered by it. The agency has booked the case based on 41 FIRs registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) regarding corruption in the state-owned liquor marketing company  . P7 Will not be found wanting: Cong MP “I am honoured by the invitation to lead an all-party delegation to five key capitals, to present our nation’s point of view on recent events... When national interest is involved, and my services are required, I will not be found wanting. Jai Hind!” Tharoor said “We were asked for names. We expected that the names we had given would be included. But when we saw the press release of PIB, we were surprised. I cannot say what will happen now. Asking four names, giving four names, and announcing another name is dishonest on t h e g ove r n m e n t ’s p a r t , ” Ramesh told the media. “The government cannot include names of MPs in delegations without consulting the party he said. ,” This paper reported on Saturday that the PMO had prepared the list of names and conveyed them to the respective political parties. When asked about Tharoor’s inclusion as a representative of the Congress in the list, Ramesh said that ‘there is a difference between being in the Congress and being of the Congress’. “In a democratic system, when individual MPs are sent as part of an official delegation, MPs must seek the concurrence of the party. If the government wants to send him as part of a delegation, the MP should be asking the party, he said. “The ball is in the government’s court now,” he added. Accusing the government of being ‘dishonest’ in its approach, the leader asserted that the party would not change the four proposed names for the delegation. Ramesh added that Rahul Gandhi has written to Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju on this. P9 Court stays NEET result over power cut at exam centre E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai The Madras High Court has temporarily stayed release of the results of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET)-2025 for admission to the undergraduate (UG) courses in medicine. Justice V Lakshminarayanan passed the order on Friday while hearing a petition seeking reexamination. The petition, filed by 13 aggrieved students, claimed power outage at the exam centre which “deprived them of equal opportunity and a fair environment”. The 13 affected students had taken the exam at PM Shri Kendriya Vidyalaya CRPF School in Avadi on May 4, 2025. Directing the respondent authorities, including the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Testing Agency (NTA), to file reply to the petition by June 2, the judge, accordingly, adjourned the hearing. Advocate T Saikrishnan, representing the petitioners, submitted that 464 candidates appeared for the exam at the centre where the electricity supply was disconnected (approximately from 3 pm to 4.15 pm) due to gusty winds and heavy rain. The rainwater also entered the exam hall forcing them to be shifted to other halls, he said. The candidates suffered due to poor lighting facilities as the school did not have power backup or generator, causing them to take the crucial exam under extremely uncomfortable and distracting situations, thus affecting the performance of the petitioners and other candidates, the counsel said. P7 k o h l i t r i b ute Men in Whites dwarf Red and Gold G o m e s h S @ Bengaluru Fans wearing Virat Kohli jerseys at Chinnaswamy Stadium | Vinod kumar T IT had been brewing since Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Tests last Monday. What started as a social media campaign on Tuesday hours af, ter Kohli’s social media post, became a reality on Saturday as 1000s came dressed wearing Kohli’s replica Test jersey . “Kohli,” the back of the white jersey read “18”. There were some pockets with a lot of Red and Gold, something very common at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. But a lot of the ticketholders had turned a Red wall into a lot of White as they paid tribute to the man who has called this ground home for more than two months every year since 2008. In many ways, Saturday was significant even before Kohli’s announcement. For starters, it marked the resumption of the IPL after an eight-day break. For the fans, however, it was about giving their cricketing hero a fitting on-field tribute. It did not matter that this wasn’t even an international game. Some fans, when they realised they would not be getting the tickets, decided to shell out money from their own pockets to print white replica jerseys in the name of Kohli and sell them outside the ground.  P15 Punjab, Delhi play Two of the league’s form teams, Punjab and Gujarat have a chance of securing a spot in the latter stages on Sunday. While the Shreyas Iyer-led side face already out Rajasthan in Jaipur, the Titans face Delhi, who need a win. from Bangladesh d i pa k m o n d a l @ New Delhi IN what seems like another ‘retaliatory’ move, the Indian government has imposed restrictions on imports of certain goods from its eastern neighbour Bangladesh. In a directive issued on Saturday by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the import of all kinds of readymade gar ments from Bangladesh through land ports has been prohibited. These goods will only be allowed to be imported through the seaports of Nhava Sheva and Kolkata. A wider range of goods— including fruit and fruit-flavoured carbonated drinks, processed food items, cotton and cotton yarn waste, plastic and PVC finished goods (excluding essential industrial inputs such as pigments, dyes, plasticisers, and granules), and wooden furniture — will face more stringent port restrictions. These items will not be allowed entry through northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. The restriction also extends to Changrabandha and Fulbari in West Bengal. However, the DGFT clarified that these restrictions do not apply to essential imports such as fish, LPG, edible oil, and crushed stone. The DGFT notification clarified that these port restrictions would not be applicable to Bangladeshi goods transiting through India but destined for Nepal and Bhutan. Though the government has not disclosed the reasons for the move, it is likely that it came in the wake of Bangladesh restricting land imports of cotton yarn from India to protect local industries from cheaper imports. India’s total annual trade with Bangladesh is around $13 billion. vlogger from haryana held for spying Jyoti Malhotra, who runs a YouTube channel ‘Travel with JO’ was allegedly in contact with a Pakistani staffer working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi | P10