COIMBATORE l saturday l september 13, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION sc: firecracker ban can’t be applicable for delhi-ncr only The Supreme Court on Thursday said if clean air was a right for “elite” residents of the capital, the same must extend to citizens across the country same rule should be used for pan-india eye on air quality commission report A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing pleas on regulation of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR. “If NCR is entitled for clean air, why not people of other cities?... I was in Amritsar last winter and pollution there was worse than in Delhi. If firecrackers are to be banned, they should be banned throughout India,” the CJI said ■ ■ The two-judge bench asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, to get a detailed report on the issue from the Commission for Air Quality Management The bench remarked that there would be status quo with regard to the cancellation of firecrackers’ licences by the authorities Sept 22 is when the matter will be heard next by the supreme court 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 Retired Supreme Court Chief Justice’s demand to dissolve Nepal’s parliament accepted Gen Z pick Sushila Karki sworn in as interim PM N epal has made history pose decades of corruption. once again. The counBorn on 7 June 1952 in Birattry’s first female Chief nagar, Karki is no stranger to Justice, Sushila Karki, challenges. She became Nepal’s has now become its first female Chief Justice in first female Prime Min- July 2016 and served until June ister. She was sworn in 2017. During her tenure, she by President Ram Chandra faced a no-confidence motion Poudyal at his office, Sheetal Ni- from the Nepali Congress but was, on Friday It followed the remained steadfast in her com. dissolution of the elected gov- m i t m e n t t o j u s t i c e a n d ernment headed by K transparency . P Sharma Oli. Throughout her caKarki and the Gen Z reer, she refused to protesters had made it bow to political presclear that she would sure or corruption — step in only after Para reputation that liament was dissolved made her the natural — a demand that has choice to lead the now been fulfilled. Namrata Sharma country through this Former PM Baburam transitional period. Senior journalist and Bhattarai and a clutch The Gen Z protest, women rights advocate. of diplomats, includwhich began on SepSharma can be reached at ing from India, China namrata1964@yahoo.com tember 8, quickly esand the US, attended calated into a nation@NamrataSharmaP the swearing-in event. wide uprising. Streets The first cabinet is exacross Nepal saw pected to meet later in the day . widespread vandalism, with September 12, the fifth day of both public and private propthe Gen Z protest, will be re- erty damaged. Daily life came membered as a defining mo- to a standstill, hitting daily ment in Nepal’s political his- wage ear ners particularly tory — a day when the youth, hard. In the process, the hidden united and resolute, toppled a wealth of top political leaders government, dissolved parlia- was exposed. Reports of sacks ment, and helped elevate a of cash found in the homes of woman known for her anti-cor- Nepali Congress president ruption crusade to the highest Sher Bahadur Deuba and Forexecutive office. eign Minister Arzoo Rana DeuThis unprecedented move- ba have shocked the nation. Enment inspired young people raged citizens — not just Gen Z globally, proving that when protesters — vandalised the youth unite, they can disman- residences of several accused tle entrenched regimes and ex- leaders.  Continued on: P9 Big crane runs amok, kills 2 in Kanniyakumari Express News Service @ Kanniyakumari A huge crane ran over a 19-year-old college student and a biker standing on the road, killing them on the spot, after the driver of the vehicle lost control of it due to a suspected brake failure in Kanniyakumari on Friday evening. The deceased, identified as A Sabari, a catering college first-year student, and N Mohamed Shan (37), a TVK functionary were mowed down by , the vehicle on the main road near the Kanniyakumari railway station around 5pm. According to sources, the crane was coming from the Vivekanandapuram-Kanniyakumari road when the driver lost control and it crashed through several vehicles and injured a few onlookers before crushing the two victims to death. It finally hit a compound wall and came to a halt. Crane driver C Ganapathy (49) of Pottayadi, who was also injured in the accident, has been arrested for negligence. His blood samples have been sent for test to find out if he was under the influence of alcohol, police said. Seeing the crane running over people, passersby informed cops.  Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel administers the oath of office to Sushila Karki as prime minister on Friday; and people celebrate outside the president’s residence | PTI/AP Snap polls in six months President Ramchandra Paudel said the new caretaker government is mandated to hold fresh parliamentary elections within six months Married a revolutionary Karki is the eldest of seven siblings She grew up in a simple farming family in Biratnagar Karki married Durga Prasad Subedi, an erstwhile popular leader of Nepali Congress. They had met during her days at the BHU Subedi was a youth revolutionary member of Nepali Congress during the 1970s * He was part of the group that hijacked a Royal Nepal Airlines aircraft to get INR 3 million to fund the party’s armed revolution against King Birendra Shah in 1973 The hijacked plane carrying Nepal Rastra Bank’s money landed at Forbesganj in India After retirement, Karki wrote two books, including ‘Nyay’, her biography Modi in Manipur today Yearning for justice, political solution on eve of PM’s visit @ Chennai Manipur’s Imphal and Churachandpur have been decked up with the posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit on Saturday—the PM’s first trip to the state since ethnic violence broke out two years ago. One of the posters put up overnight by the state government, captioned Viksit Bharat Viksit Manipur, says the PM will lay the foundation stone for development projects worth over `7,300 crore in Churachandpur and inaugurate projects of `1,200 crore in Imphal. Officials said the `8,500 crore worth of projects are for the entire state. On the ground, though, not many seem bothered about any development package. They are interested in other pressing issues — peace, normalcy, security, `71,850 crore worth and resettlement. projects in 5 states Ask anyone in ChurachApart from Manipur, the andpur and they will say the PM will also visit Mizoram, Kukis expect the PM to offer Assam, Bengal, and Bihar a political solution to their from Sept 13-15, and will problem — a separate adunveil projects worth a ministration in the form of total of `71,850 crore a Union Territory . “We don’t consider it (development package) as something important. Separate administration is the people’s voice. We hope that the PM delivers justice,” said Kenedy Haokip, a Churachandpur-based civil society leader. There is subdued excitement about the PM’s visit but it is more among Kukis than Meiteis. Reason: it’s after 4 decades that a PM is visiting the Kuki-dominated Churachandpur. “Our foremost expectation is peace and a clear roadmap for the restoration of normalcy,” said Sonny Chungkham, an Imphal-based independent policy analyst. Robert Singh, also an internally-displaced person, is relying on the PM for resettlement. “Modi ji, please take us to our village,” said Singh, who had a drinking water plant in Moreh. “My life’s savings have got exhausted,” he added. B ANBUSELVAN @ Chennai The Tamil Nadu government has approved the implementation of the centre’s vehicle scrapping policy, paving the way for the establishment of registered vehicle scrapping facilities (RVSF) across the state. The Commissionerate of T ranspor t and Road Safety has invited applications from companies and individuals to set up these centres, in line with the union government’s directive that mandates the deregistration and scrapping of government vehicles older than 15 years. The maximum age limit for private and commercial vehicles is yet to be determined, and vehicles with valid emis- sion certificates will be allowed to operate. The state government’s decision assumes significance as the union governm e n t h a s m a d e RV S F s mandatory for implementing its 2022 directive. As per the policy fitness cer, tificates (FC) for heavy vehicles over 15 years old must be issued only through autopress clusive mated testing stations (ATS). Heavy vehicles that fail the FC test at ATS are required to be scrapped at RVSFs. However, this directive is yet to be implemented in Tamil Nadu and several other states. The scrapping centres will serve as collection hubs for vehicles without valid fitness certificates.  P7 As per new norms, FCs for heavy vehicles over 15 years must be issued only through ATS Vehicle owners must apply for junking only via Vahan portal TN has six lakh trucks, 40,000 school and college buses, and 7,000 private buses, all HVs Chief Minister M K Stalin has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately withdraw the recent Office Memorandum (OM), issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), which exempts the requirement of public consultation for mining projects involving atomic and strategic minerals notified in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. The CM has also pointed out that the OM also directs that all such projects be henceforth be exclusively appraised at the central level, irrespective of the l e a s e a re a . “ T h e present OM, by dis- express news service @ Mumbai P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Imphal TN gives nod to set up CM flays centre’s mineral mining norm scrapping facilities to discard old vehicles Express News Service Major scare as plane loses rear wheel, lands safely pensing with public consultations, has gone for an impermissible executive amendment of a statute and is unsustainable,” he said. CM Stalin warned that dispensing with such consultations would deprive the coastal communities of their right to raise concerns over livelihood, displacement and ecological damage due to mining and weaken the overall democratic process.  P7 A SpiceJet Q400 aircraft carrying 75 passengers made a safe emergency landing in Mumbai on Friday after losing a wheel shortly after takeoff from Kandla airport in Gujarat. The aircraft landed at Mumbai airport’s Runway 27 at 3.51 pm with all passengers and crew safe, Mumbai airport operator MIAL said. Operations at the airport were briefly impacted. The flight departed at 2.38 pm against the scheduled time of 1.25 pm from Kandla and landed in Mumbai at 3.51 pm, as per information available on flight tracking website Flightradar24.com. “On September 12, an outer wheel of a SpiceJet Q400 aircraft operating from Kandla to Mumbai was found at the runway after take-off. The aircraft continued its journey to Mumbai and landed safely the air,” line said in a statement. There were 75 passengers onboard the Bombardier Q400 plane, which is used for operating regional flights, officials said. One of the officials said that one rear right wheel of the aircraft was missing. Only two months ago in July , a window frame of a SpiceJet aircraft to Pune from Goa came off mid-air. express read SL pirates attack 12 Nagai fishers mid-sea Nagapattinam: 12 fishers who set sail from Seruthur in three separate groups were attacked by suspected Lankan pirates. They alleged that they were held at knifepoint and robbed | P6 SC tells NTK leader to apologise to actress New Delhi: Supreme Court on Friday told NTK leader Seeman to apologise to an actress who lodged a case against him in 2011, alleging rape on the false promise of marriage India vs Pak At `12 L/10 secs, marquee tie tops advertisers’ bill Swa r o o p Swa m i n at h a n @ Bengaluru THE Indian cricketing economy continues to remain recession proof. Post the ban on real money gaming, it was looking at a hole but it’s on course to pass its first big test — ad rates for the group-stage encounter between India and Pakistan on Sunday as well as selling all available ad slots for the said game. Over the last few years, advertisements around live coverage of cricket’s marquee properties were fronted by real money gaming firms. But their exit hasn’t affected the market. Media planners have told this daily that the broadcaster, Sony India captain Suryakumar Yadav and Pakistan skipper Salman Agha | file pics Pictures Networks India (SPNI), have sold ‘all ad inventory for the India - Pakistan match’. Ad inventory is basically the total space made available by the broadcaster to the advertisers to purchase. It’s expected that ad rates for the Sunday encounter has been sold for well over `12 lakh for a 10 second slot. With there being the potential of two more matches between the rivals, the interest may only rise. It also kind of paints a picture as there has been calls of boycotting the game (some Indian brands did actively become part of this post the Pahalgam tragedy in April). But that hasn’t translated into reality “It’s all a . question of visibility,” says Prahlad Kakkar, an advertising guru whose commercials came to dominate the cricketing ad space in the nineties and naughts. “It’s worth to pay `20 lakh for a 10 second slot for a game between India and Pakistan because everybody is watching it,” he says. “Even your personal cabbie will take time off to watch it. People watch it because it becomes more than a game in their eyes.” Kakkar is of the opinion that this particular tie has become bigger than the game because ‘of the sentiment involved’.