THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l Thursday l april 04, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l LATE city EDITION New textbooks for classes 3 & 6 to be out in April, May: NCERT For other classes, textbooks will only be updated and revised this year, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said Steps taken to ensure no gap in learning about 33 lakh textbooks printed Director of NCERT Dinesh Prasad Saklani said a 15-day foundation course for students of class 3 and a month-long bridge programme for those from class 6 have been prepared to ensure there is no gap in learning. The NECRT’s announcement comes days after the CBSE told affiliated schools to adopt new syllabi for classes 3 and 6 from the upcoming academic year ■ ■ Saklani said new texts are being adopted in classes 3, 6 as they mark the start of preparatory and middle stages of schooling, respectively About 33 lakh updated textbooks for classes 1, 2, 7, 8, 10 and 12 have been delivered to bookshops, Saklani said. New books for class 3 and updated books for classes 4, 5, 9 and 11 will be out this month 26 crore students enrolled in 14.86 lakh schools in India 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 Black stones, blades point to occultism link in trio’s death Taiwan shakes @ 7.4 S h an A S @T’Puram 9 people killed 70 coal miners trapped in Two quarries in Taiwan Strongest in 25 yrs A 7.4 magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit Taiwan in a quarter-century, damaged dozens of buildings and caused 24 landslides that blocked key roads leaving thousands isolated One of the buildings damaged by a powerful earthquake that shook Taiwan’s Hualien County on Wednesday morning | AP | P11 TTE’s tragic death ends his dreams of acting, caring for aged mother A n i l k u m a r T @Manjummel (Kochi) Having portrayed small roles on the silver screen, K Vinod dreamt of becoming a busy actor. He also moved into his new house at Manjummel less than two months ago, wanting to live the rest of his life there taking care of his mother. When a migrant worker from Odisha pushed the 48-year-old TTE to his death off a moving train on Tuesday , it also marked the untimely demise of Vinod’s modest dreams of becoming a reliable actor and live in his new house. Now, his widowed mother Lalitha is destined to mourn the death of her only son. “It was following his father’s demise that Vinod secured the job in the railway. Though a workaholic, he always found time to pursue his passion for acting,” said Bindu, a relative as she struggled but failed to fight back tears. A Thiruvananthapuram native, Vinod had acted in several movies, including Mohan- lal’s Pulimurugan and Joju George’s Joseph. “They were small roles, but Vinod was always content. He hoped of bagging bigger roles. Everything has now come to a sudden end,” she said. In February Vinod, a divor, cee with no children, moved to the new home he constructed at Manjummel with Lalitha. It marked a paradigm shift in the lives of the duo, who had until then lived in the railway quarters in Kochi. “He lived only for his aged mother. It was always his dream to build a good home for his mother and live with her there, as they had spent a major part of their lives in the railway quarters. Though Vinod got married nearly 10 years ago, the relationship ended within a year. Our efforts to find another girl ended in vain, as Vinod wanted to give more care to his mother. The tragedy has left her devastated. The bond they shared cannot be described in words,” said Aswathy Vinod’s niece.● More on P2 , Amid the mystery surrounding the death of three Keralites in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday, police have come across materials and statements strengthening doubts that the trio was into occultism. The bodies of couple Naveen Thomas, 39, and Devi Madhavan, 39, and their friend Arya Nair from Thiruvananthapuram were found with cut marks on their wrists at a hotel in Arunachal’s Hapoli. Arunachal police officials, who were alerted by their Kerala counterparts about the trio’s possible link to a cult, have recovered the women’s bracelets adorned with black stones, believed to be part of the paraphernalia used for occult activities, from the room. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kalpetta Treading cautiously senior , Congress leader Rahul Gandhi abandoned party flags of all UDF constituents as he took out a massive roadshow to the Wayanad district collectorate on Wednesday to submit his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha election. The extensive use of key ally Muslim League’s green flags during Rahul’s 2019 roadshow was played up by the BJP at the national level, with senior leaders like Amit Shah wondering whether he was seeking votes in Pakistan, crushing the hopes of the Congress in north India. Instead of flags, tricoloured balloons and hats along with placards were part of Wednesday’s roadshow. Rahul’s sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, UDF parliamentary constituency election committee chairman Panakkad Sayyid Abbas Ali Shihab Thangal and several other local UDF leaders and thousands of supporters accompanied him. Congress campaign com- mittee chair man Ramesh Chennithala, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, Congress interim state president M M Hassan, and IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty also joined Rahul in the open vehicle. The absence of flags has left many tongues wagging. Even Rahul’s 2019 loss in Amethi was attributed to the presence of Muslim League flags in his roadshow then. The Congress was in no mood to take any chances this time. Since it would have been counterpro- I will be with the people of Wayanad in their fight to resolve three major issues – human-wildlife conflict, night travel ban & establishment of medical college — Rahul Gandhi, Wayanad MP and UDF candidate ductive to avoid only the League flag, it was decided to abandon the use of flags altogether, including that of the Congress. “Flags are not important in elections. Rahul Gandhi and the hand symbol are our icons,” Kalpetta MLA Rahul Gandhi waving at the public during his roadshow in Kalpetta, Wayanad, on Wednesday | E Gokul Bengaluru: A 51-year-old litigant attempted suicide by slitting his throat with a surgical knife in front of a division bench of the High Court of Karnataka, comprising Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice Dr H B Prabhakara Sastry on Wednesday. Chinnam Srinivas from Vijayanagar in Mysuru slit his throat around 1.10pm, leaving the judges shocked | P6 Delhi HC reserves verdict on Kejriwal’s plea against arrest New Delhi: Claiming innocence in the excise policy scam, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday told the Delhi HC that his arrest right after enforcing the Model Code of Conduct, was meant to humiliate, insult and disable him and his party. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma reserved the verdict, which is expected by next week. Stingy salut! Malayalis prefer raising a toast to cheap liquor Inebriation on a budget, that too with entry-level brown spirits, seems to be the mantra of Malayalis, as they defy the national trend of increasing demand for premium liquor. A report by the International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI) says the share of premium liquor (priced over `1,000 per 750 ml) consumed in Kerala is a measly 4%, with inexpensive liquor dominating the scene with a staggering 96% share. In the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, BOOZING ON A BUDGET Total liquor sales, in % share State Premium Cheap* Kerala 4 96 Karnataka 6 94 Tamil Nadu 10 90 Uttar Pradesh 12 88 Rajasthan 12 88 West Bengal 20.5 79.5 Maharashtra 21 79 Odisha 22 78 Telangana 52 48 * including country liquor Source: International Spirits and Wines Association of India (ISWAI) T Siddique said. But Congress and the Muslim League will have to sweat it out to explain the action. There will be questions as to how the party will raise the issues of Muslims, when it finds even the presence of the League flag embarrassing. Speaking at the conclusion of the roadshow, Rahul said he will be with the people of Wayanad in their fight to resolve three major issues – humanwildlife conflict, night travel ban and establishment of med● More on P6 ical college. pollscape Annie Raja files nomination Kalpetta: Annie Raja, the LDF candidate for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, filed her nomination at the collectorate on Wednesday. Prior to this, Annie took out a roadshow from the co-operative bank premises to the SKMJ HSS premises in Kalpetta. Glady Vaiphei Hunjan, a Kuki-Zo community activist in Manipur, and others took part in the roadshow | P5 Cong digital media cell takes over pocket watch premiumisation (trend of consuming premium liquor) shares are notably higher at 6% and 10% respectively States . like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan boast a 12% share, with the proportion in poorer states such as West Bengal and Odisha even touching 20.5% and 22% respectively. Telangana leads with an impressive 52% share of premium liquor to total liquor sales among Indian states. Despite being prosperous, the alcohol beverages (alcobev) industry in Kerala faces challenges due to low levels of premiumisation, says Nita Kapoor, Three stainless steel razor blades used to make the cuts on the bodies have also been recovered. Use of separate blades has lent credence to the theory that the cuts were made as part of some occult ceremony . The statement by Arya’s family that Naveen prompted her Use of UDF ally IUML’s green flags in 2019 roadshow was played up by BJP Rahul files nomination from Wayanad K’taka CJ, judge shocked as man slits his throat in court hall Ra j e s h Ra v i @ Kochi T’Puram: The trio’s death has shocked the people who knew them as colleagues and friends. Devi taught German at a private school in the state capital and Arya was a French teacher in the school. Their ex-colleagues say both Devi and Arya were extremely good teachers and always active with their work to join a cult have also strengthened police’s doubts. Meanwhile, Kerala police have announced formation of special teams to probe the incident. At the same time, the Arunachal police have started scrutinising CCTV visuals from the hotel, where the three were staying, as well as from Ziro, a town two-and-a-half hours drive from Arunachal’s capital Itanagar. “The visuals are being checked to ascertain whether the duo had any local contacts. Prima facie, it doesn’t seem like they did. We are trying to identify the taxi driver, who dropped them off at the hotel, to check whether they communicated with anyone on the way,” Ziro SP Keni Bagra told ● More on P2 TNIE. No place for flags in Rahul’s roadshow E X P R E S S R EA D K Vinod’s mother Lalitha is inconsolable on seeing his body at their house in Manjummel, Ernakulam, on Wednesday | A Sanesh Death leaves former colleagues shocked chief executive officer of ISWAI. ISWAI guess-estimates IMFL volumes in Kerala at approximately 28 lakh cases per year, with beer accounting for 33%, brandy 35%, and rum 27%. Imported products make up a small fraction of the market, roughly around 4,000-5,000 cases per month. Nita noted that a significant 96% of the volume sold in the state consists of beer, brandy, and rum. “The entry-level prices are relatively modest, with beer starting at `110 (650 ml), and brandy and rum priced at `140 a nip (180 ml) and between `450-750 for the larger 750 ml bottle,” she said. She added that this behaviour is in sharp contrast to the state’s penchant for luxury cars and other items like big-screen televisions. Nita attributed this trend to high taxes, limited access to retail outlets and substandard retail infrastructure, resulting in a poor consumer experience. “Kerala has the lowest ratio of retail liquor outlets in the country at 0.8 per lakh of population. In comparison, Uttar Pradesh has 2.9 retail outlets p e r l a k h o f p o p u l at i o n , Tamil Nadu has 6.8 outlets, and Karnataka has seven,” she ● More on P6 said. T’Puram: The digital media cell of the state Congress has ramped up efforts to sideline the sycophantsendorsed pages promoting individual leaders and bring itself to the forefront of running the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign. However, unofficial social media groups have come as a blessing in disguise for the cashstrapped party. The cell, comprising more than 700 volunteers, is working round the clock to promote the UDF candidates | P5 SC to list pleas on VVPAT before Lok Sabha polls E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @New Delhi The Supreme Cour t on Wednesday said it will take up a batch of pleas related to EVM data cross-checking against voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) records the week after next. The petitions were supposed to come up on Wednesday but could not be listed because Justice Khanna was heading a special bench. The pleas seek a direction to the Election Commission to count all VVPAT slips as against the current practice of verifying only five randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency . On Wednesday senior advo, cate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before the special bench of Justices Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi, requesting that the pleas may be heard next Tuesday. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, also appearing in the matter, submitted before the bench that the elections are about to start and the pleas would become infructuous if the case is not heard urgently. Justice Khanna said the court is aware of the situation and wants to speed up the hearing. However, the matter can’t be listed next week due to roster issues. It will be listed the week after, he said. On Monday, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta had issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on another plea filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Agrawal seeking 100% verification of VVPAT slips. The norm of five randomly picked EVMs to undergo VVPAT physical verification was set in April 2019, following an SC direction. Before that, only one EVM underwent the process. VVPAT is an independent vote verification system which permits an elector to check if the vote she or he cast went to the intended candidate. 18 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express
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