SOURCE: NASA HYDERABAD WEDNESDAY MARCH 20, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 16 LATE CITY EDITION ASTEROID BENNU HAS BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE, SAY SCIENTISTS Bennu’s sample show presence of glycine, the simplest amino acid, and a crucial ingredient of proteins, according to a report in Live Science WATER MINERALS FOUND IN THE SAMPLE DID EARTH GET WATER FROM OUTER SPACE? The sample also has other water-bearing minerals such as carbonates, sulphites, olivine and magnetite, leading to a tangible evidence that Bennu’s parent body witnessed multiple water-related episodes before fragments coalesced into the asteroid, the report says. Scientists also found a reservoir of magnesium phosphate, a rare find in astromaterials ■ ■ Scientists have found abundant water-altered compounds called phyllosilicates, which may have been the cradles for organics, water that scientists suspect were delivered to Earth early in its history Sample of Bennu was brought by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in a protected capsule in 2023 and kept in Houston where study is on 700 MN YEARS AGO BENNU COULD HAVE BROKEN OFF FROM A LARGER ASTEROID 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 SC gives govt 2 weeks to respond to petitions seeking stay on CAA rules Directs the Centre to file its reply by April 2; matter to come up before court again on April 9 S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy attends the Congress Working Committee meeting at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Senior leaders Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Veerappa Moily, Harish Rawat and others are also seen | PARVEEN NEGI Cong panel clears 8 more names, keeps five on hold EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad THE Central Election Committee of the Congress on Tuesday cleared the names of around 30 candidates for eight states, including for eight seats in Telangana. The CEC meeting was chaired by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and other members of the panel. Rahul Gandhi, who is also a member of the panel, was not present during the meeting. From Telangana, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy Deputy Chief Minister , Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy attended the meeting. According to sources, the party has cleared the names of G Ranjith Reddy from Chevella, A Praveen Reddy from Karimnagar, G Vamshi from Peddapalli, T Jeevan Reddy from Nizamabad, Pasunoori Dayakar from Warangal, Dan- am Nagender from Secunderabad, P Sunitha Mahender Reddy from Malkajgiri and Neelam Madhu from Medak. However, the Congress did not make any official announcement till the time this report was filed. The CEC reportedly deliberated the nominees for the remaining five constituencies. The sources said that no decision on these five constituencies was reached as the party was weighing its options very carefully Also, the . party is waiting for leaders from rival parties to jump ship to the Congress in some of these constituencies, the sources said. The sources said that the CEC has kept on hold candidates for Adilabad, Khammam, Nagarkurnool, Bhongir and Hyderabad constituencies. The CEC will again meet on Thursday to finalise candidates for the remaining constituencies. The party had earlier announced candidates for Nalgonda, Zaheerabad, Mahabubabad and Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituencies. THE Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules sought by a batch of petitioners, but directed the Centre to file its reply by April 2. “We are not expressing any prima facie view. We have to hear the petitioners, we have to hear the other side,” said the bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta initially sought four weeks time to reply and clarified that the law “does not take away citizenship of any person”. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Indian Union Muslim League, questioned the urgency to notify the rules four years after CAA was passed. The Act was passed in December 2021 but the rules giving effect to the law were notified only on March 11, 2024. “We are not expressing any prima facie view in the matter,” the bench said, while posted the matter to April 9. VOTING RIGHTS When senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for a Hindu immigrant from Balochistan, wondered how will anyone be affected or anyone’s rights be violated if his client is granted citizenship, senior advocate Indira Jaising said: “Because they will get the right to vote.” tioners, said the government should not grant any citizenship under the rules while the matter is pending before SC. Sibal concurred, saying that under international law, “once citizenship is granted, you cannot take it back”. Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, said Muslims left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be prejudiced. Mehta strongly objected to this, saying: “An effort was made earlier outside this court to mislead people that they will be ousted. The NRC is not an issue before this court.” Top BRS leader asked Praneeth Rao to tap phones of Revanth’s associates? I R E D DY S R I N I VAS R E D DY @ Hyderabad CP Radhakrishnan is in-charge Guv E N S @ Hyderabad PRESIDENT Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday issued orders giving Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan additional charge of Telangana following the resignation of Tamilisai Soundararajan from the post. In a communique, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that the President has directed Radhakrishnan to discharge the functions of the Governor of Telangana and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry in addiP4 tion to his own duties. DID a senior BRS leader order the tapping of phones of close associates of TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy when he was in the Opposition? The police appear to have found that the senior BRS leader was deeply involved in the illegal tapping of the phones of Revanth’s associates when the pink party was in power in the state. The police made the breakthrough during the investigation of the “destruction” of the hard disk and other material in the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) by suspended DSP D Praneeth Kumar, alias Praneeth Rao. The hard disk is understood to have contained data related to phone tapping. The police sources said that the BRS leader had asked Praneeth Rao to tap the phone numbers that he gave him to track how Congress moved money and how it was doing election management. “Praneeth Rao shared the numbers with a private news channel owner who is also a very close associate of the BRS leadership to tap the phones with interception equipment and maintain a server at his office/private place,” a police source said. Praneeth Rao is also suspected to have maintained another two servers, one in Sircilla and the other in Warangal. The police suspect that three inspectors from Warangal had helped him in tapping and destruction of evidence in the SIB officer. Police sources said that the three inspectors have already been identified and detained for preliminary questioning at a secret place. The three inspectors allegedly helped Praneeth Rao in tapping phones and destroying the hard CONTINUED ON P4 disks. BEING DENIED ACCESS TO RELATIVES, COUNSEL: PRANEETH RAO TO HC | P4 S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved managing director Acharya Balkrishna to appear before it during the next hearing as the company failed to file its reply to an earlier notice on violating an undertaking on misleading advertisements and hauling it up for contempt of court. Senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Patanjali and Ramdev, strongly objected to the observations and remarks by the bench. “How does Ramdev come into the picture in the case,” he asked. Rohatgi claimed that the violation of the law (by the contemnors) was not contempt of court and what was being relied on in open court has to be recorded in the order. But the two-judge bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah passed the order for personal appearance of Ramdev and Balkrishna in the next hearing, which could most likely be in April first week. “Having gone through the adverts issued by respondent 5 (Patanjali Ayurved) in the teeth of the undertaking given to this court on November 21, 2023 and on noticing that the said adverts reflect an endorsement thereof by Acharya Ramdev, it is deemed appropriate to issue notice to show cause as to why contempt of court proceedings be not initiated against him,” the order said. With funds not released for months, TS welfare hostels on the brink of closure Paras exits NDA, but BJP draws Sita Soren, ex-US envoy Sandhu EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad R A M A S H A N K A R A N D M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Patna/Jharkhand A day after announcing its seat-sharing formula for Bihar, the NDA lost an ally though it had already accommodated the rival faction. There were rumblings within the JD(U) as well as its as its general secretary put in his papers. Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Tuesday resigned from the Union ministry as the rival LJP led by Chirag Paswan was given five seats in the NDA, including the prestigious Hajipur, for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Bihar. Paras accused the BJP of doing injustice to his LJP faction by excluding it from the seat-sharing deal. Tej Pratap Yadav, elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, offered to accommodate Paras in the opposition alliance. “We will be the first to welcome him Pashupati Kumar Paras (Paras),” he said. Paras though was cautious. “We will seek the opinion of party workers before taking the call on a new pre-poll alliance,” he said. As for the JD(U), national general secretary Mohammad Ali Asaraf Fatmi resigned from all posts of the party He . is likely to join the RJD on Wednesday and could be fielded as candidate either from Madhabani or Darbhanga. In Jharkhand, Shibu Soren’s daughSita Soren ter-in-law Sita Soren resigned from the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and joined the BJP Sita represents Jama in the state assembly . . She alleged the at the JMM was isolating her and hatching a conspiracy against her family members. Sita is the widow of Durga Soren, the eldest son of Shibu Soren. The BJP’s acquisitions continued with former Indian ambassador to the United States, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, joining the party amid buzz on fielding him in the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar in Punjab. During the hearing, the petitioners sought a stay on the grant of citizenship under CAA to persons belonging minority communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, who came to India before December 31, 2014. The petitioners say CAA discriminates against Muslims and violates Article 14 of the Constitution. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, also appearing for the peti- Ramdev in SC cross-hairs as bench orders his presence NO CHILD’S PLAY Schoolchildren seen taking a ride home on an auto-trolley used for selling tomatoes, at Nampally in Hyderabad on Tuesday | SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN AROUND eight lakh students staying in welfare hostels in Telangana are in dire straits as the state government has failed to release the required funds for the last 10 months. Bills of contractors who supply essential commodities, vegetables, chicken, eggs, etc. have been pending for the last 10 months, as are mess charges for the students staying in 700 BC and 1,500 SC and ST hostels. Most of these hostels are located in rented buildings and the government has not released money for paying the rent. With this, the contractors are threatening officials that they will stop supplying essen- tial commodities to the hostels. Landowners are also demanding the hostels to vacate their buildings. Though the government is not clearing electricity bills, Discoms are continuing to supply power without interruption. Shockingly, in most cases, local officials are taking loans to meet the day-to-day expenses of the hostels. Due to the lack of facilities in hostels, the dropout rate is high, particularly in the erstwhile Adilabad district. Many of the hostels are closing down. B Rahul, a student union leader, said that the strength in the girls and boys hostels in Ichoda mandal has decreased and the hostel was shifted to Adilabad. Similarly the number , of students staying in the BC hostel in Bazarathnoor mandal is decreasing and the officials are planning to shift the hostel to some other place. Students are leaving due to lack of facilities in the hostels. If one hostel is closed, economicallybackward students would be badly affected, Rahul said. He added that once a hostel is closed, it’s not so easy to reopen it. Officials of welfare hostels in the erstwhile Medak district admitted that they are struggling as they have not received the required funds for the last several CONTINUED ON P4 months. NEW VERTICAL EXPRESS READ Zomato’s exclusive fleet to tap pure veg market Kavitha withdraws plea in SC on ED summons EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai ONLINE food delivery company Zomato on Tuesday announced the launch of a vegetarian-only delivery service to cater to those who prefer ordering from pure-veg restaurants. The Pure Veg Fleet will have green delivery boxes instead of the standard red ones. Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal cited feedback from customers as the reason for the launch of the new service. He said the new vertical is for customers who follow a 100% vegetarian diet. The pure veg vertical will handle orders from restaurants that serve only pure vegetarian food and will exclude those serving non-veg food items. “This means a veg meal served by a non-veg restaurant will never go inside the green delivery box,” said Goyal. Most online food delivery platforms including Zomato already have a filter to search ‘pure veg’ restaurants, from where customers can order veg food. However, there have been instances of wrongful delivery of non-veg food to vegetarian customers, embarrassing the online platforms. “Why did we need to separate the fleets? Because despite everyone’s best efforts, sometimes the food spills into the delivery boxes. In those cases, the smell of the previous order travels to the next order, and may lead to the next order smelling of the previous order. For this reason, we had to separate the fleet for veg orders,” Goyal said. While some users welcomed Zomato’s move, many others termed it casteist. Goyal said the veg fleet will not discriminate on the basis of the delivery partner’s religion or dietary choices. He said he would roll back the service if there are negative repercussions, such as residential societies allowing only the pure-veg fleet inside their premises. New Delhi: BRS MLC K Kavitha on Tuesday withdrew the plea she had filed in the Supreme Court against the Enforcement Directorate summons of 2023 in connection with the Delhi liquor scam. This was the plea that was pending in the apex court since last September as the court was examining whether the ED has the power to summon her in light of a July 2022 judgment. Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary, appearing for Kavitha, told the top court that his client would like to withdraw the petition, keeping in view the fact that she had been arrested on March 15 | P4
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