kannur l Sunday l july 20, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition Monsoon mayhem: 18 dead in uttar pradesh, alert for kerala Rain-related incidents in UP claimed 18 lives on Saturday while IMD issued alerts for heavy rain in U’khand, Himachal Pradesh, Bengal and Kerala landslides in arunachal pradesh, sikkim red alerts for u’khand, parts of kerala While torrential rain caused a flood-like situation in parts of Rajasthan, heavy rainfall and landslides in some areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim affected normal life and disrupted traffic movement. In Uttar Pradesh, of the 18 people who died due to rain-related events, eight died of drowning, while two died of snakebites, officials said ■ ■ In Uttarakhand, a ‘red alert’ for heavy rain on Sunday in parts of the Kumaon region has been issued by the meteorological department In Kerala, IMD has issued a ‘red alert’ for rain in five northern districts — Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, and Kasaragod — where incessant rains lashed several areas, causing inundation 23.4 cm of rain was recorded in Nainwa of Bundi district in rajasthan 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 New road to Daulet Beg Oldie near LAC by next yr-end M AYAN K S I N G H @ New Delhi China Daulet Beg Oldie Saser Murgo Sasoma Ladakh Shyok Leh India Durbuk Map not to scale A new road to the strategically significant Depsang and Daulet Beg Oldie (DBO) near the Line of Actual Control along the China border in Ladakh is expected to become fully operational from November 2026. The new road, which runs almost parallel to the existing Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg-Oldie (DSDBO) road, follows the alignment of Sasoma-Saser LaSaser Brangsa-Gapshan-DBO. The under-construction road is Plans afoot to make it an all-weather road about 130 km long and has nine Plans are on to make it an all-weather road. The BRO is working on a bridges of 40 tonne capacity . At present, the DSDBO is the 8-km-long tunnel at Saser La. Currently it is at the detailed project report stage. It will take 4-5 years to complete the tunnel project only road link to DBO. But parts of the road are under the direct observation of Sources said, “We ber-November next year.” Sunday the Chinese forces. Behave completed everyFor the forces, the new road Special thing from Sasoma to will facilitate faster troop-arsides, it has around 37 bridges of various lengths Saser Brangsa and mament movement away from and widths, making it that ahead of it towards east- the enemy’s line of sight. “Almuch more vulnerable. The 255ward — Murgo and Gapshan. most all artillery weapons, inkm DSDBO road ends at DBO, Over 70% work is done. We are cluding Bofors howitzers, were which is about 20 km away from certain that the entire stretch moved on this axis till Saser the Karakoram Pass. will be operational from Octo- Brangsa to test its load carry- Worrying rise in violence against women; private university’s student blames teachers for death Miscreants set 15-yr-old girl on fire in Odisha Asis h M e h ta / R a j K u m a r M o h a n t y @ Bhubaneswar/Puri Accused won’t be spared: CM Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said stringent action will be initiated against perpetrators of the crime. “Her health condition is being monitored. If needed she will be airlifted to Delhi Criminals have become emboldened under this government and are not worried about punishment Naveen Patnaik, Former CM THE horror run of atrocities against women continued as Odisha woke up to the shocking attack on a 15-year-old girl who was set on fire by a group of miscreants in Puri district on Saturday morning. The minor girl, who suffered over 70 per cent burn injuries, was rescued by locals and shifted to AIIMS-Bhubaneswar. Preliminary investigations suggest the attack was premeditated. The girl was on her way to a friend’s house in a village under Balanga police station limits, 37 km from Bhubaneswar, when three youths gagged her with a handkerchief and abducted her on a bike, police said. They took her to the bank of Bhargavi river where she was doused with inflammable substances. In a bid to save her life, the girl ran towards nearby houses and cried for help, when a local resident came to her rescue and doused the flames before alerting police. The girl belonged to a minority community . The girl’s parents lodged an FIR with Balanga police station, police said, adding she was a Class 8 dropout and her father works at an automobile repair workshop. The incident comes close on the heels of the self-immolation by a 20-year-old student in Balasore. Executive director of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar Dr Ashutosh Biswas said the girl suffered 70 per cent burn injuries. “She is in ICU but without ventilator support... The next 72 hours are very crucial,” he said. Odisha Director General of Police Y B Khurania said special teams have been formed to nab the perpetrators. BDS student dies by suicide, faculty held N a mi ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow A second-year BDS student died by suicide due to alleged harassment by faculty members at Sharda University in Greater Noida on Friday . Soon after the university suspended two faculty members, both were arrested by police on Saturday since Jyoti Sharma, 21, had named them in her suicide note. The student from Gurugram took the extreme step in her hostel room inside the university . A suicide note was recovered from the scene in which the student accused her teachers, from PCP and Dental Materials department, of harassment and humiliation, and held them responsible for her extreme step. “If I die, Mahendra Sir and Sherry Mam will be responsible for my death. They tortured me mentally and humiliated me. I have been in depression because of their behaviour for a long time. I want them to suffer the same Kerala will soon become Muslim majority state: Vellappally The two teachers named by the student in her suicide note | PTI way as I am. …Sorry I cannot .. bear it anymore,” the student wrote in her note. Dr Ajit Kumar, director, PR, Sharda University, assured that the guilty would be punished. “Two teachers named by the victim have been suspended and a probe committee has been set up,” he said. The matter is currently under investigation, said Sudhir Kumar, additional DCP Great, er Noida. The student was found hanging by her roommates who alerted the hostel warden after receiving no response at her door, following which police were alerted. E X P R E S S R E AD Didn’t speak against Gandhi family: Tharoor Kochi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday attempted to justify his controversial article criticising the Emergency while clarifying that he “said nothing against the Gandhi family”. “What I have written now was just similar to my writings in 1997, and has said nothing against the Gandhi family,” he said. P5 E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @Kottayam Launching a sharp attack on the Muslim community SNDP , Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan on Saturday accused it of attempting to exert undue influence over administrative affairs of Kerala. Speaking at a state-level branch leadership meeting of various Yogam unions in Kottayam, Vellappally also asserted that a united Ezhava community could potentially determine the state’s chief minister. He also expressed concern that both the LDF and UDF were primarily catering to the interests of the Muslim community only . He warned that the Muslim population would soon become the majority in the state and said the current situation is such that the state government should just listen to Kanthapuram and govern. More on P5 ‘No AI tools for judicial verdicts’: HC issues landmark guidelines P R A M D A S @ Kochi Congress activists raise slogans after the girl’s suicide in Greater Noida | PTI ing capacity sources said. ,” The new road will also beef up the Siachen battlefield as it branches off from Sasoma in the Nubra Valley, which is on the route to the Siachen Base Camp from Leh. The route will converge with the DSDBO at Murgo, reducing the distance from Leh to DBO by 79 km — from 322 km via DSDBO road to 243 km via the new road. It will also reduce the travel time from two days to 11-12 hours. Taking note of the excessive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools by members of the District Judiciary, the Kerala High Court has issued guidelines stating that judges must not use AI tools to arrive at any findings, grant reliefs or issue orders or judgments under any circumstances. This is the first instance in the country where a High Court has framed specific guidelines for the use of AI tools in the District Judiciary . As per the policy, most AI tools, including ChatGPT and DeepSeek, are cloud-based technologies. In such platforms, any input provided by users may be accessed or used by the service providers to further their interests, including fine-tuning their models. Submitting information such as case facts, personal identifiers, privileged communications or uploading any other documents related to litigation to these AI tools may result in a serious breach of confidentiality, it stated. “Hence, the use of all cloudbased services should be avoided, except for approved AI tools,” the HC said. It stated that the increasing availability of and access to AI tools are making a profound impact on diverse fields, including law. While AI tools can be beneficial, their indiscriminate use might result in negative consequences, including violation of privacy rights, data security risks and erosion of trust in judicial decision-making. “Therefore, the judicial officers and the staff of the District Judiciary are advised to exercise extreme caution while using AI tools,” th ● More on P5 stated.  CM-Guv meeting today In what could put an end to the tussle over university affairs, CM Pinarayi Vijayan will meet Governor Rajendra Arlekar on Sunday evening WITH THIS ISSUE Holidays in Hell PLUS 12 P AGES Trump’s latest: ‘5 jets were shot down’ during India-Pak conflict J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi After again claiming he brokered peace between India and Pakistan during the four-day standoff following Operation Sindoor, a claim repeatedly denied by the Indian government, US President Donald Trump has now said that “five jets were shot down” during conflict in May . He, however, did not clarify whether the losses were suffered by one side or both. Speaking at a White House dinner for Republican senators on Friday, Trump said: “We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan that was going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually These are two serious . nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other.” Trump again claimed that the US defused the situation using trade leverage. “But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger, and we got it solved through trade.” New Delhi has consistently dismissed Trump’s repeated assertions, maintaining that the ceasefire on May 10 was achieved through direct communication between Indian and Pakistani military officials, without any foreign involvement. The brief conflict followed Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7 in response to a deadly terror attack in J&K’s Pahalgam. Since then, Trump has repeatedly said that his administration played a key role in ending the standoff and preventing further escalation. Hours later, he described the BRICS as a little group that wants to take over the “dominance of the dollar”. “And I said anybody that’s in the BRICS consortium of nations, we’re going to tariff you 10%,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Slowing NRI deposits reflects new investment trends R a h u l R @Kollam faith beckons A fresh batch of 6,365 pilgrims, including 1,499 women, leave the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for Amarnath, in Anantnag of Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday | PTI In an interesting trend, domestic bank deposits have been growing faster in Kerala compared to NRI deposits. From 2019 to 2024, domestic deposits grew by approximately 73% — from `3.03 lakh crore to `5.25 lakh crore — while NRI deposits increased by just 42.6%, from `1.90 lakh crore to `2.71 lakh crore. According to economists, the slower growth rate in NRI deposits reflects evolving migration patterns, global economic uncertainties and a growing preference for investments outside traditional bank deposits. Domestic deposits & NRI savings From 2014 to 2019, domestic bank deposits in Kerala grew from C1,85,772 cr to C3,03,507 cr — a growth rate of approximately 63.4% over the five-year period. During the period, NRI deposits rose from C93,883 cr to C1,90,055 cr - a growth of 102.4%. However, NRI deposits growth dropped to 42.6% between 2019 and 2024. “With the slowdown in the growth of NRI deposits in Kerala, it’s clear more people are looking for long-term investments in foreign countries. These include Western countries like Australia, the US, Canada, European countries and the Gulf,” said S Irudaya Rajan, former faculty at the Centre for Development Studies and Chairman of the International Institute for Migration and Development. “Student migration is a major reason for the dip in NRI deposits. Around 90% of students who go to the West for studies do not return. Their families are now choosing to invest abroad rather than in India or Kerala,” he said. Economist V Nagarajan Naidu, former head of the economics department at Government University College, also attributed the trend to the growing shift among NRIs towards Foreign Institutional Investments (FIIs) such as mutual funds, pension schemes, stock markets and bonds. “NRIs now prefer shares and bonds over fixed deposits in Kerala. The interest rate on NRI deposits is no longer attractive. Two decades ago, Kerala was a preferred location for NRI investments, but that trend has re● More on P5 versed,” he said.