TIRUCHY l sunday l july 27, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l LATE CITY EDITION mandatory safety audits of schools, mental health help The Ministry of Education on Saturday issued a fiat to all states and UTs to take urgent steps to ensure the safety and well-being of students ‘report any threat to kids within a day’ Mandatory safety audits of schools and child-related facilities as per national safety codes, providing psychosocial support through counselling and reporting any dangerous incident involving children within 24 hours to designated authorities are among the measures proposed. All schools used by children must undergo safety audits via national safety codes | P7 ■ 7 coordination from parents sought ■ The order also mandated training for staff and students to tackle emergencies, including evacuation drills, first aid and safety protocol The order called upon education departments, school boards and affiliated authorities to act without any delay in implementing the measures, through the help of parents, guardians and local bodies students were killed at a school in rajasthan , leading to the fiat 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 i n th o o thu k u d i Modi: Trade deal with UK shows world’s trust in us more than the funds given to the state under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) The Free Trade Agreement g ove r n m e n t . T h e n ew (FTA) signed between India projects underscored the and the United Kingdom NDA government’s commitwill make India the third ment towards Tamil Nadu’s largest economy, and the growth,” the PM said. trade pact showed the The projects inaugurated world’s trust in our country , included a new terminal Prime Minister building built at a Narendra Modi said cost of `450 crore at on Saturday . the Thoothukudi air“The FTA shows port and a cargo hanthe growing trust of The centre has dling facility at V O given `3 lakh the world and our crore for TN’s Chidambaranar Port. self-confidence. We development R a i lw ay p r o j e c t s will make Viksit (de- which is three launched by the PM veloped) Bharat and included electrificatimes more Viksit Tamil Nadu tion of the 90km than the with this self-confi- funds given to Madurai-Bodinaythe state dence,” the PM said akkanur line commisat an event held in under the UPA sioned at a cost of `99 government Thoothukudi. crore, and the `650 The PM inauguratcrore worth doubling PM Modi ed, dedicated to the of 21km Nagercoilnation, and laid foundation Kanniyakumari section. stones for various projects The PM dedicated to the worth `4,900 crore at the nation multiple rail and event. “The union govern- road projects worth over ment has given `3 lakh crore `3,600 crore, including two for Tamil Nadu’s develop- strategically significant ment which is three times highway projects.  P5 Express News Service @ Thoothukudi I n st e p Defence minister Rajnath Singh with Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, Army Vice Chief Lt General N S Raja Subramani, Navy Chief Adm Dinesh K Tripathi and Air Chief A P Singh as they march to pay tribute to the Kargil War martyrs at the National War Memorial (R) on the Kargil Vijay Diwas anniversary, in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI lawyer’s letter No timeline for completion of negotiations on bilateral trade deal Contempt action: Ex-judges ask HC bench to wait for CJI’s decision Express News Service @ Madurai Eight retired Madras High Court judges have appealed to a bench of Justices G R Swaminathan and K Rajasekar to drop the contempt action proposed against advocate S Vanchinathan for writing a letter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking an inquiry against Justice Swaminathan for allegedly demonstrating casteist and communal bias while discharging his judicial duties. A bench of Justices Swaminathan and Rajasekar had on Thursday summoned Vanchinathan to the court and said that his actions prima facie amounted to criminal contempt of court. It had also asked Vanchinathan whether he stood by his statement. Since Vanchinathan sought for a ‘written’ query from the bench, an order was passed directing him to reply to the above question in-person on Monday at 1.15 pm. In a letter on Saturday, the eight former judges — Justices K Chandru, D Hariparanthaman, C T Selvam, Akbar Ali, P Kalaiyarasan, S Vimala, K K Sasidharan and S S Sundar — appealed to the division bench not to initiate any action against the advocate at this stage.  P5 Trade talks with Major pushback US making fast against Trump’s progress: Goyal GM playbook E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi Talks on the India-US trade deal is progressing India is firm on its stance against importing fast, Minister of Commerce and Industries Piy- genetically modified (GM) crops from the US, ush Goyal said on Saturday Negotiations are at sources in the government said. It has been our . an advanced stage with Oman as well, while with stated position for long and it remains so, said a the European Union and US, they are making top government source. Import of GM crops has fast progress, he said. been a bone of contention between the two counGoyal, however, refused to tries during the trade negotiagive any timeline for the comtions. With the government pletion of the US deal even as now making its stance clear, the extended deadline (August the Trump playbook will find 1) for imposition of the reciprofull resistance on GM crops. cal tariff is less than a week The US is pressing India to away. According to commerce allow imports of GM crops ministry sources, a delegation such as soybean meal and disof US negotiators is likely to tillers dried grains with solucome to India in the second bles (DDGS) for animal feed. In future, when Kolhapuri sandals are half of August for talks on the Initially, the India did not exported, India will get Bilateral Trade Agreement strongly oppose the idea of credit. It will be exported (BTA). India faces a 26% recipsome tariff cuts on farm goods as India’s GI product rocal tariff if there is no trade or even selective GM imports. deal by August 1. However, after facing strong do—Piyush Goyal, minister Goyal said that the India-UK mestic resistance, India seems trade agreement serves as a to have hardened its position as doorway for India to engage with the developed far as GM imports are concerned. world. He said that unlike past FTAs under the A Niti Aayog report had suggested a “strategic UPA government, which were often signed with opening for US imports” for broader export gains. direct competitors like ASEAN nations, the Modi It proposed importing GM soybean seeds, crushgovernment has focused on FTAs with comple- ing them at coastal facilities, selling oil domestimentary economies like Mauritius, Australia, cally and exporting soymeal (with GM traits) to UAE, and the EFTA bloc (Switzerland, Norway, avoid domestic contamination. But experts Liechtenstein, Iceland). panned it citing weak regulatory oversight. “The business opportunities, the quality and Another major area of difference between the cost competitiveness of Indian goods and serv- two countries is imports of animals fed on aniices, the demographic dividend of our young and mal-derived feed — for example, butter from aspirational population, the rule of law, and the cows fed meat — due to deep religious sensitivistrength of our democracy all make India a pre- ties. India prohibits such animals and it considferred global partner,” he said. ers this policy non-negotiable. Bihar horror: Chirag raps The CM on ambulance rape Anteaters WITH THIS ISSUE PLUS 12 P AGES r a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna A 26-year-old woman with a dream to don the khaki appeared at a physical test for recruitment of Home Guards in Bihar’s Gaya but was allegedly gangraped in an ambulance after she fainted during the test on Thursday . The horrific incident drew widespread outrage as cracks appeared in the ruling NDA in Bihar when Union minister Chirag Paswan expressed “regret” over having to support the Nitish government, which he said had “surrendered” before criminals. The young woman, a resident of Imamganj in Gaya, narrated her ordeal to hospital authorities after regaining consciousness. Hospital authorities, in turn, informed police, following which an FIR was regis- tered. Gaya SSP Anand Kumar said two accused, Vinay Kumar (driver) and Ajit Kumar (technician), have already been arrested and produced in court, which remanded them in 14day judicial custody . The victim, in her statement, said she was gangraped by three-four individuals travelling in the ambulance arranged to transport her from the BMP-3 ground to the Magadh Medical College and Hospital. “Though I was in semiconscious state, I felt the pain in my ... abdomen,” she said. Chirag’s remarks came two days after he heaped praise on Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor for playing an ‘honest’ role in Bihar politics. Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav asked voters to vote the NDA out. “Bihar is under the rule of demons,” Yadav said. e x p r ess r e a d CM may be discharged from hospital today Chennai: CM Stalin is likely to be discharged on Sunday morning, as per sources. While there was no official statement from the hospital, sources from the CM’s office said that they have received information that he is likely to be discharged on Sunday before 4 pm. Stalin was admitted on Monday after experiencing giddiness during one of his regular morning walks | P4 Asia Cup: India to play Pakistan on Sept 14 TN Minister Thangam Thennarasu presented a replica of Chennai’s Valluvar Kottam to Prime Minister Modi in Thoothukudi on Saturday | V Karthik Alagu CHENNAI: The much-anticipated men’s Asia Cup schedule was announced on Saturday with India and Pakistan slotted in same group. They will play each other on September 14 in the tournament that is being held in the United Arab Emirates from September 9-28. The BCCI are the hosts but the tournament will be held in a neutral venue | P11 ADR rejoinder rebuts EC’s claim that it has right to verify citizenship in Bihar s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi RESPONDING to the Election Commission’s counter affidavit filed on July 21, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Saturday told the Supreme Court that the EC’s electoral roll verification goes against the SC’s past judgments, and was a “grave fraud” on voters. The ADR’s rejoinder came after the ECI had on July 21 submitted its reply defending the Bihar SIR (Special Intensive Revision) exercise and said it was done to restore public confidence and integrity of electoral rolls. The court will hear pleas challenging SIR on Monday . Odisha prepares to undertake SIR Amid the row over the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar, the Odisha government is gearing up to undertake the exercise soon. It will be conducted after a gap of over two decades. The ADR also questioned the refusal by the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar, Voter ID and ration card as valid “standalone” proof for inclusion in the electoral roll during the SIR, ad described it as “patently absurd”. It submitted that the ECI has given no valid reason for its decision. On July 10, a bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi, while refusing to stay SIR, asked the EC to consider Aadhaar, Voter ID, and ra- tion card for the exercise. But the EC argued that Aadhaar, voter cards and ration cards could easily be faked. The ADR said any of the 11 documents for SIR were equally prone to fraud. “SIR is being conducted in a manner that constitutes a grave fraud on the voters of Bihar,” the ADR said. It also alleged glaring discrepancies in SIR. “Media reports suggest how enumeration forms are being filled in the absence of voters,” the ADR said. 1 st r o u n d o f T N c o u n se l l i n g Tepid IT growth tilts scales, core engg courses get mojo back B i n i ta J a i s w a l @ Chennai Amid slowdown in software jobs and layoffs by tech majors, core engineering courses such as Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), Civil and Mechanical Engineering seem to be back in the reckoning in Tamil Nadu piggybacking on the boom in the semiconductor industry . ECE has become the secondmost-sought-after course this year in TN engineering counselling, surpassing Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (AI&DS) and Information Technology (IT). Last year, after the first round of counselling, only 3% of seats in civil and mechanical courses were filled, but this year the admission figures for the streams have doubled to 6%, an analyst said. The final allotment list after the first round of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) counselling released on Saturday revealed that out of the 39,145 students who took part in the counselling, 26,719 were allotted seats. As per the data, out of the total 36,748 ECE comes second, AI pushed to third File Photo seats available in Computer Science streams across the state, 7,526 seats have been taken, while ECE is placed second ECE has become the secondmost-sought-after course this year in TN engineering counselling, surpassing Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (AI&DS) and Information Technology (IT). Last year, AI&DS had taken the second spot and ECE had got the fourth spot with 4,534 of the available 25,864 seats being taken in the first round. In the AI&DS stream, of the total 22,767 seats, 3,208 have been filled. At the end of round one, 15.42% of seats have been filled, almost 5% higher than last year. This year, a total of 1.72 lakh seats were available for general counselling in 425 colleges. Notably, last year, following CSE, AI&DS had taken the second spot in the first round. In 2024, at the end of round one, 15.27% of CSE seats were filled, followed by AI&DS (13%) and IT (12.21%). ECE got the fourth spot with only 10.1% seats being filled in the first round last year.