visakhapatnam l thursday l august 14, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Indian refinery ships diesel to China for first time since 2021 Indian refiner Nayara Energy, backed by Russian oil giant Rosneft, has shipped diesel to China amid European Union sanctions over its Russia link Cargo loaded from Vadinar, Gujarat India-China relations on the mend? According to reports, Nayara Energy loaded the cargo at Vadinar terminal on July 18 and the shipment departed hours before the European Union announced new restrictions on the refinery. The vessel was initially bound for Malaysia but made a U-turn in the Strait of Malacca and was anchored for 12 days. It has since updated its destination to Zhoushan, China ■ ■ After facing backlash from the US and European Union, India has taken various steps toward re-engagement with China. It has resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a five-year suspension, and is set to resume direct flights between the two countries soon For its part, China has eased curbs on urea shipments to India | P10 4,96,000 Barrels Of ultra-low sulfur diesel in Nayara’s cargo bound for China 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 100 STREET DOGS relocated: MCD The Municipal Corporation of Delhi said it has picked up 100 stray dogs so far and converted 20 animal birth control centres into shelters Amid pushback, spl bench to hear stray dogs issue Matter to be heard today; CJI B R Gavai acts after uproar against two-judge bench order S UCHITRA K ALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi CHIEF Justice of India B R Gavai on Wednesday evening constituted a special bench comprising justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta, and N V Anjaria to hear the stray dogs issue, after a two-judge bench’s order for blanket removal of stray dogs from Delhi-NCR led to a nationwide uproar. The larger, three-judge bench will hear the matter on Thursday . Earlier in the day the , CJI said he would look into it after a pending Special Leave Petition that also dealt with the stray dogs issue was mentioned before him by lawyer Nanita Sharma. Referring to a May 2024 order passed by an SC bench relegating petitions relating to stray dogs to the respective high courts, the lawyer said the stray dogs issue needs clarity because two benches of the apex court passed conflicting orders in the matter. “There is an earlier judgment of this court, of a bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Sanjay Karol, which says there cannot be indiscriminate 3 die in under construction highway crash G a u t h a m S e lv a r a j a n @ Chennai Three members of a family from Andhra Pradesh, including a nine-month-old infant, were killed and three others injured in a car crash at a roadwidening project site near Pallipattu in Tiruvallur district on Tuesday morning. Preliminary investigation by the police found that there was neither proper signage nor barricades at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) project site, which may have contributed to the tragedy . According to the Pallipattu police, the six-member group, hailing from Govindareddipalle village in Chittoor district, AP were on a pilgrimage , to the Tiruttani Murugan temp l e. S . C h i t t a m m a w a s traveling with her daughter Keerthi, infant grandson H. Saanvik, brother-in-law Vishwanatha Reddy his wife Rekha, , and Padma, the wife of Venkatasalu, police said. In an attempt to reach the temple quickly Reddy took the , Thachur-Chittoor highway, which is being widened to a P4 six-lane road by NHAI. The SUV’s damaged front end | express killing of canines and that compassion for all living beings has to be there,” Sharma, appearing for the Conference for Human Rights (India), told the CJI-led bench, also comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran. The lawyer brought to the court’s attention the overlapping nature of these matters and the possibility of conflicting directions. The recent order to permanently relocate all stray from streets to shelters was passed by a bench comprising Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan on August 11 on a suo-motu case. The order said dog shelters would have to be augmented over time and directed civic authorities in Delhi and NCR to start with creating shelters of around 5,000 canines within six to eight weeks. The two-judge bench also warned of strict action against individuals and organisations that may try to create any obstruction in the relocation drive. It said contempt proceedings would be initiated against those concerned, in case of any move to defy the order. commonwealth games set for india return ioa approves 2030 bid E x p r e ss n e w s s e r v i c e @ Chennai The 2026 Glasgow CWG is a scaled down Games because of circumstances. If we get 2030 CWG, it will be full fledged one just like we did in 2010 PT Usha, IOA president The Special General Meeting was short but very fruitful. Now that we have the go ahead of the General Body, we will be putting in the proposals R Iyer, IOA CEO Twenty years after 2010, India is set to host the Commonwealth Games in 2030. The Indian Olympic Association formally approved the bid during its Special General Meeting on Wednesday . With Canada, the other contender, backing out, the possibility of India hosting the event brightens. This will also help elevate its image as a capable host for multi-discipline events and improve its chances of hosting Olympic Games in 2036. The nod from the IOA general body was required because IOA is the governing body of the Commonwealth Games Association in India with IOA president PT Usha as its chief. As reported by this newspaper in March, the CGA president had sent a formal letter of intent showcasing India’s strong ancient cultural and historical heritage and technology-driven future to reimagine the Games for a new generation. The expression of interest was supported by letters from various ministries of the Gujarat government. Usha confirmed the news after the meeting at the IOA Bhavan in New Delhi and said that the house approved the bid unanimously at the SGM which met after the CEO’s appointment was ratified last month. However, unlike the letter of intent that said Ahmedabad would be the host city she said that there are , places like Bhubaneswar and Delhi. August 31 is another deadline by which India should submit various documents for bidding. The letter of intent submitted in March specified Ahmedabad as the host city and a delegation from the Commonwealth Sport had visited Gujarat last month where the IOA Chief Executive Officer too was present. If India gets to host the CWG, it will be bigger than the Glasgow Games next year. IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer said that SGM was very cordial and decision unanimous. Amid massive pushback, ICICI Bank on Wednesday reduced the minimum balance to `15,000 from `50,000 for new customers in urban areas | P10 Poll rolls can’t be static, says SC bench S UCHITRA K ALYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi T h e S u p re m e C o u r t o n Wednesday said the electoral rolls cannot be static and were bound to be revised periodically disagreeing with the sub, mission of a petitioner that it had no basis in law, while hearing challenges to the validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, in his submission, said the Election Commission of India (ECI) had surprisingly invented a new document requirement for eight crore voters. “Even if I’m in jail, I can’t be removed from the roll without due process. Here, 65 lakh removed voters Residual powers of ECI on special roll revision The bench pointed to the ECI’s residual power to conduct any exercise as it deemed fit. It referred to Section 21(3) of the RP Act, which says “the EC may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit.” were not disqualified on any such grounds. The ECI has carried out mass exclusions. Who gave the ECI the authority to do this?” he asked. A bench comprising justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, said, “But the electoral list cannot remain static. A one-time exercise is only for preparing the original list and it must be revised.” Sankaranarayanan added that the ECI has begun the process in West Bengal, too, without consultation. “I appear for the state and for main petitioner ADR. Four constitutional provisions on electoral rolls haven’t been addressed yet. The right to be on the roll is sacrosanct.” To this, the court observed that the expansion of the number of documents by the ECI is voter-friendly “Look at . the number of documents by which you can prove your citi- High Alert: IMD warns of very heavy rainfall today E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada A high alert has been issued in Andhra Pradesh due to heavy rains expected in various parts of the state under the influence of a low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), Meteorological Centre, Amaravati, has issued a orange alert for coastal districts, war ning of very heavy rain, thunderstorms, and lightning, and a yellow alert for Rayalaseema districts, warning of heavy rain, thunderstorms, and lightning. The IMD reported that the low-pressure area over the west-central and northwest Bay of Bengal, off the coasts of North Andhra Pradesh and South Odisha, persists as of 8:30 am IST today, with an associated cyclonic circulation extending up to 7.6 km a b ove s e a l e ve l , t i l t i n g southwards. The system is expected to intensify into a well-marked low ICICIdown minimum balance bank blinks scales zenship — up from seven to 11,” the bench said. The bench added that despite arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, it appeared the large number of documents was “actually inclusionary”. Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for a petitioner, alleged malafide intent on the part of the ECI, alleging it removed the searchable feature of draft rolls just a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on Karnataka elections. But the court refused to entertain it saying it was not aware of any such press conference. The arguments were inconclusive and would continue on Thursday . express read GoM seeks suggestions for dist rezig till Sept 2 Vijayawada: A Group of Ministers (GoM), led by Revenue Minister Anagani Satyaprasad, convened its first meeting at the Velagapudi Secretariat to discuss changes to district, mandal, and village names and boundaries in Andhra Pradesh. GoM seeking feed back from public. The deadline for submitting petitions is September 2, and people can submit suggestions to district collectors immediately | P3 Authorities lift 70 Prakasam Barrage gates amid rising Krishna River floodwater, 1st warning issued downstream. (R) Two TDP activists died in Vijayawada after falling into a manhole in the One Town area during Tuesday’s rain | Express / Prasant Madugula within 24 hours and move across North Coastal Andhra Pradesh (NCAP) and South Odisha within 48 hours. In rain-related incidents, two people died in Vijayawada on Tuesday night after falling into a manhole in the One Town area. The deceased were identified as TV Madhusudhan Rao and Md Murtuzza Ali, both TDP activists. In another incident, two fish- ermen from Seethanagaram and Tadepalli, identified as Kameswara Rao and Upendra, are feared drowned when their boat capsized in the river at Uddandarayunipalem of Thullur mandal in Guntur district. NDRF has launched search and rescue operations. Minister for Home and Disaster Management Vangalapudi Anitha held a review meeting with senior officials to ensure robust measures are in place. The IMD predicts extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in South Coastal Andhra Pradesh (SCAP) tonight, with heavy to very heavy rain in NCAP, Yanam, and Rayalaseema. Thunderstor ms with lightning and strong winds of 50-60 kmph are expected in NCAP and SCAP while Rayala, seema may see winds of 40-50 P4 kmph.  TG opens 26 NSP gates without notifying AP Hyderabad: A fresh dispute has erupted between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over the operation of the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) gates. AP alleges that Telangana’s gate operation is unplanned, posing a risk to downstream projects. However, Telangana officials refute this, stating that the operation of the NSP gates depends entirely on discharges from Srisailam | P5 Tammy Bruce, US Department of State Relationship with India, Pak unchanged: US JAYANTH JACO B @ New Delhi AMID its deepening strategic salience with Pakistan, the US on Wednesday said there is no change in its relationship with either India or Pakistan. “Our relationship with both nations remains unchanged, and our diplomats are committed to both countries,” said US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce while responding to questions about the growing US-Pakistan security engagement. The comments came in the wake of Pak Army chief Asim Munir’s recent visit to the US and concerns over his reported nuclear rhetoric during closed-door meetings. Munir’s trip—his second in less than two months—featured a series of high-level meetings with senior US military and political officials. It followed a private luncheon with President Donald Trump in June and reflects growing US-Pakistan security alignment, particularly in counterterrorism. Referring to the conflict between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack, the State Department spokesperson said: “We had an experience with Pakistan and India. When there was a conflict that could have developed into something quite horrible.” Bruce added it is good news for the world that the US is working with the two nuclear-armed nations. Global plastics treaty O India backs ‘weak’ plastic treaty draft with no cap on production n the eve of the penultimate day of negotiations for a legally binding global plastics treaty, talks are in deadlock — and India has thrown its weight behind the petrochemical-producing Like-Minded Countries (LMC), accepting a weakened draft text that drops production caps and chemical controls as merely a “starting point” for talks. “We have some serious concerns on the text proposed by you, as we see many fundamental elements (scope) missing from the text,” said Naresh Pal Gangwar, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), and head TNIE in Switzerland S V Krishna Chaitanya @ geneva of India’s delegation. “Having said this, we consider this as a good enough starting point to further our work… We also urge other member states to have trust in your leadership and express their concern during the consultation process.” The new draft, released by Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso, ahead of THE scheduled plenary on Wednesday retains voluntary measures , on product redesign, recycling, and waste management but deletes a previous article on production limits and omits all reference to chemicals of concern. The only nod to production appears in the preamble — a symbolic gesture far from the binding commitments sought by more than 100 countries. India’s alignment with the LMC, led by Kuwait and includ- ing Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Malaysia, places it firmly in the camp resisting upstream measures that target the root cause of plastic pollution — the sheer vo l u m e o f p l a s t i c b e i n g produced. The bloc has consistently opposed any global phaseout list, production caps, or trade restrictions on plastic products.