HYDERABAD SATURDAY JUNE 15, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 16 LATE CITY EDITION CO-HOSTS USA IN SUPER 8s AFTER WASHOUT, PAKISTAN OUT OF WC 2009 World T20 champs crashed out after the game between USA and Ireland was abandoned. With an extra point, USA took unassailable lead APT END TO A DISAPPOINTING CAMPAIGN INDIA’S MATCH COULD ALSO BE RAINED OUT Unfortunately for Pakistan, this campaign finished even before it started. At some level, it’s apt. The 2022 finalists tried and failed to evolve in this format and can now do a major squad surgery. In the short-term, both their defeats, one to USA and the other to India, will rankle because they lost from winning positions. They will play Ireland in the last game on Sunday ■ With more rain predicted over the next 16 hours, India’s game against Canada could also be a washout. This has been a very wet start to the Hurricane Season in Florida | P11 ■ The identities of at least two of India’s opponents in the Super 8s are already known. They will face Afghanistan and Australia 1 THIS IS USA’S FIRST WORLD CUP APPEARANCE 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 Delimitation hurdle for women quota AZADI SPEECH Delhi L-G nod to prosecute Arundhati Roy under UAPA A S H I S H S R I V A S TA V A @ New Delhi DELHI Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Friday gave his nod to prosecute author-activist Arundhati Roy and Sheikh Showkat Hussain, former professor of the Central University of Kashmir, under the stringent UAPA in connection with a 2010 FIR, which accused the duo of “delivering provocative speeches in public”. Roy and Hussain had allegedly called for an independent Kashmir at a conference organised under the banner of ‘ zadi A — The Only Way’ on October 21, 2010 at LTG Auditorium in Delhi. The major topic of discussion was “separation of Kashmir from India”, Raj Niwas officials said on Friday . Arundhati Roy Last October, Saxena had granted prosecution of the duo in the same case under Section 196 of CrPC for commission of Sheikh Showkat offences punHussain ishable under different sections of IPC. The case against the two was registered after a police complaint lodged by a Kashmiri social activist Sushil Pandit. He also filed a complaint before the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi. An FIR was registered on November 29, 2010 in which Roy, Hussain, Kashmiri separatist leader Sayed Ali Shah Geelani, and former Delhi University professor Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani were booked for the offences of sedition, promoting enmity between dif ferent groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc with imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration. They were also charged with the act aimed at public mischief. However, Sayed Ali Shah Geelani and Abdul Rahman Geelani passed away during the pendency of the case. WOULD IT POLITICALLY HELP THE GOVT AT ALL? P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi embraces Pope Francis at Italy’s Apulia on Friday | X Talks, diplomacy path for Ukraine peace, says Modi Holds talks with Zelenskyy; meets Biden and other leaders; invites Pope Francis to India AGENCIES PRIME Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with world leaders at Italy’s Apulia on the sidelines of the G7 summit, but what caught the eye were his interactions with US President Joe Biden, Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pope Francis. , “It’s always a pleasure to meet @POTUS @JoeBiden. India and USA will keep working together to further global good,” Modi said in a post on X along with photos of their interaction. In his talks with Zelenskyy Modi assured , him that India would continue to do everything within its means to support a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war, adding the way to peace is through “dialogue and diplomacy”. He said India believes in a human-centric approach to the conflict. Modi described the meeting as very productive and said India is eager to further cement bilateral relations. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra were part of Modi’s delegation at the talks. The Ukranian readout said, “The president spoke about the functioning of the Black Sea transport corridor, which makes it possible to increase exports of sunflower oil to India and turnover of other categories of goods.” Later in the day, Modi met Pope Francis with a warm embrace at the Outreach session of the G7 Summit and invited him to visit India. “Met Pope Francis on the sidelines of the @G7 Summit. I admire his commitment to serve people and make our planet better. Also invited him to visit India,” Modi said in a post on X. Modi was seen in a lighthearted exchange with the 87-year-old head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He also held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is hosting the G7 Summit, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron. Modi also met Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. The question is whether the govt would go for delimitation after the BJP faced setbacks in states like UP. “In 2019, the BJP swept the Hindi heartland. Now the landscape has changed. Even if UP or Bihar get more seats after delimitation, it may not benefit the BJP,” Pronab Sen said WITH its Southern allies in play, the BJP-led NDA government may face roadblocks in implementing the Women’s Reservation Bill, which hinges on Census and delimitation. With the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the main ally of the NDA, calling for consensus on delimitation, the BJP may face huge challenges in implementing the bill passed during Modi 2.0. The 33% quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will come into force after delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, scheduled for 2026. Several Opposition parties from the South have raised concerns that the delimitation on the basis of population would lead to the states losing out in representation as they were successful in controlling population. To undertake the delimitation, the government must conduct the decadal Census, which has been indefinitely postponed since 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Speaking to this newspaper, senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore said the linkage with delimitation could delay the implementation of women’s reservation, adding the BJP is planning it for 2034. “The entire Opposition voted for the passage of the bill and we want it to be immediately implemented. But the government’s real intention is to delay it,” he said. A TDP leader, on the condi- ‘CM KCR’ IN TEXTBOOKS SCERT DIRECTOR SHUNTED OUT AFTER FOREWORD FIASCO EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad FOLLOWING the fiasco over the foreword in more than 25 lakh Telugu textbooks from Classes 1 to 10, as well as SSC workbooks, the state government on Friday shunted out M Radha Reddy director , of the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT). She was posted as assistant state project director (SPD) of Samagra Shiksha in the state. The transfer orders cited “administrative exigency”. Additional Director Ramesh, who was holding the Assistant SPD position, has been posted as SCERT director. The foreword had mentioned B R S s u p re m o K C h a n drasekhar Rao as the chief minister. The names of former education ministers P Sabitha Indra Reddy K Sri, hari and G Jagadish Reddy too were present in the foreword. Telangana Residential Educational Institutions Society (TREIS) Secretary Ch Ramana Kumar will succeed Additional Director S Srinivasa Chary as the Director of Government Text Book Press Services, Hyderabad. Srinivasa Chary will take charge as additional director of model schools. After becoming aware of the blunder, the School Education department on Thursday instructed the district educational officers to withdraw all the textbooks, both distributed and undistributed, in which the name of the for mer chief minister was p u bl i s h e d i n t h e foreword. In addition to the textbooks, the SCC A b hya s a D e e p i k a (workbooks) too mentioned Chandrasekhar Rao and Sabitha as the chief minister and education minister respectively The officials had . also taken these books back from the students. CUT-AND-PASTE JOB TO THE RESCUE (L): Foreword of a textbook that called BRS chief KCR the CM; A screengrab from a video sent to teachers on tearing forewords and pasting them in reverse The School Education department has decided not to print the Telugu textbooks afresh. Officials have sent an audiovisual clip to teachers on how to tear the foreword page and paste in it in reverse on the inner cover of the textbooks so that the names of KCR and former ministers are not visible to students. After the cut-andpaste job, the students will be able to see only the national anthem, national song and pledge. tion of anonymity told this pa, per that the party will not support delimitation as the state will lose Lok Sabha seats. Echoing the view, noted economist and former chief statistician Pronab Sen told this paper that the women’s quota will get stuck because delimitation and census have been written into the bill. “Why should the implementation of the Women’s bill be connected to delimitation? The government will face opposition from Souther n states as well as from Maharashtra and Gujarat,” said Sen, adding it can delink quota from the delimitation provision by amending the bill. EXPRESS READ Chandrayaan-1 mission director passes away Bengaluru: Former ISRO scientist and Mission Director for India’s first deep space mission — Chandrayaan-1 —Srinivas Hegde (71) passed away on Friday noon, at a private hospital here. Chandrayaan-1, the space mission headed by Hegde, played a crucial role in the discovery of water molecules on the Moon surface. Hegde had joined ISRO in 1978 and served the space agency for over 36 years before retiring in 2014. With a B.Tech from NIT, Surathkal, Hegde pursued his PG at IISc, Bengaluru | P5 HC stays ban on 25 ‘dangerous’ dog breeds Hyderabad: Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Friday granted an interim stay on a circular issued by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, which banned the rearing, import, breeding and selling of 25 dog breeds — including rottweilers and pitbull terriers — that were deemed ‘dangerous’. The circular, issued in March, also mandated the immediate sterilisation of any ‘dangerous dog’ already kept as a pet | P2 SC notice to NTA, Centre on plea for CBI probe Youth hacked to death in DHARANI public view in city, cops COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi REVENUE TRIBUNALS to address land-related issues, and integrate all laws related to land administration into one. Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy revealed the recommendations made by the panel | P4 THE Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre on a plea seeking CBI investigation into allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities in the NEET-UG exam held across the country on May 5 this year. A two-judge vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought the responses within two weeks and tagged the cases with other petitions raising similar issues. The batch of pleas will now be heard on July 8, when the top court will start functioning after the summer vacation. T he development comes a day after the NTA and the Centre told the SC that the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates in the NEET-UG exam will be cancelled. They will have the option to either take a re-test on June 23 or forgo the compensatory marks awarded for the loss of time, the court was told. The petitioners alleged cheating happened in the medical entrance exam. “Cheating in entrance exams undermines the principles of meritocracy and equal opportunities which are essential for fostering so- cial mobility and ensuring fairness in society the plea said. ,” Responding to the submission for ordering a CBI probe, the bench said the reply of the NTA was necessary before an order could be passed. As many as 67 students, including six from a centre in Haryana’s Faridabad, scored a perfect 720 in the test in which 24 lakh students appeared, raising suspicions about irregularities. Inter student run over by RTC bus while trying to get down is a private security guard and the sole breadwinner. Mehreen had just joined the CEC 1st AN intermediate student, who year at Masters Junior Colwas returning home after the lege, the same institute where first day of college, a sister is studylost her life while geting in the second ting down from an year. RTC bus and falling The sisters had under its wheels in been waiting at the Madhura Nagar the bus stop in police station limits front of their colhere on Friday . l e g e t o re t u r n Maseera Mehreen home when tragewas the third daughdy struck. ter in a family of five After Mehreen children. Her father Maseera Mehreen got on the bus, she P R I YA R AT H N A M @ Hyderabad noticed that her sister had not managed to board it. To join her sister, Mehreen tried to get off the bus just as it was taking a turn. Unfortunately, she lost her balance and came under the wheels of the bus, leading to her death on the spot. A case has been registered under Section 336 of the IPC and 174 of the CrPC by the Madhura Nagar police. Police said the bus driver, identified as Govind Reddy from the Kukatpally de pot, was not at fault. Would a door have saved her life? A J AY T O M A R @ Hyderabad AFTER the tragic death of Maseera Mehreen, the debate on whether TGSRTC city and metro express buses should have doors has surfaced again, especially after a steep rise in the number of commuters after the Mahalakshmi free bus travel scheme for women was introduced. Currently, the fleet of 2,800 fleet city, ordinary, and metro express buses operates without doors. Only the 25 green metro luxury and 25 e-metro express services, along with the 40 Pushpak buses that serve the RGI airport, have automatic doors handled by drivers. Sources in the department were of the view that if doors are fixed to the entire fleet, it will add to the running time of the buses, particularly during the rush hour. CONTINUED ON P5 suspect revenge killing EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad A 27-year-old man was brutally attacked in public view on a busy road in Asif Nagar police station limits in the Old City here late on Thursday He was . chased down by a group armed with knives and sticks, and relentlessly stabbed in the stomach, neck and chest. The man was taken to a hospital and died early on Friday . The deceased has been identified as Mohammad Qutbuddin, 27, a furniture polisher from Ganga Bowli. Police suspect that it was a revenge killing. Qutbuddin was allegedly involved in a murder case in 2023, which resulted in the death of one Syed Mujahid, and had been arrested. He was recently released on bail. Mujahid’s family could have planned the brutal retaliation, police sources said. After the attack, Qutbuddin managed to reach his elder brother Mohammad Abdul Raheem’s shop, only to collapse in a pool of blood. Locals rushed to help Abdul Raheem transport his brother to a nearby private hospital, but Qutbuddin’s injuries proved fatal. The attack was recorded by bystanders and went viral on social media. The assailants have been identified as Syed Imran, Taher and Aman and are said to be Mujahid’s relatives. Asif Nagar police have registered a case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after a complaint was filed by Qutbuddin’s brother. Police have formed teams to track down the assailants.
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.