MADURAI l friday l august 30, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION U.K. univ to open first foreign campus in India under NEP 2020 The University of Southampton was on Thursday granted approval by the University Grants Commission to set up a branch campus in India Campus expected to come up in Gurugram One of UK’s top research universities External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan handed over the Letter of Intent to the UK university at an event in Delhi. The new campus is likely to be located in Gurugram, within the Delhi NCR. It will offer a wide range of undergraduate and post-graduate degree courses starting in July 2025 ■ ■ The University of Southampton is one of the UK’s top research institutions with one-third of its research rated as ‘world-leading’ The National Education Policy 2020 calls for internationalisation of education in India by inviting leading foreign universities to set up branch campuses here and collaborate with local institutions 80th rank for university of southampton in the latest QS world university ranking 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 We are not interfering with the marriages solemnised by Islamic rituals under thre Muslim Personnel Law at all. Our only condition is that Islam prohibited marriages will not be registered In the pre-Independence Act, There was scope of misuse by both authorised licensee as well as by citizens for underage/ minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without the consent of the parties Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister Jogen Mohan, revenue minister Registration of Muslim marriages mandatory New bill passed in Assam House to deter teenage pregnancy: CM P r a s anta M a z um d a r @ Guwahati Croc scare in flood-hit Vadodara A huge crocodile being rescued from a residential locality after flood water recede, in Vadodara on Thursday. “We have rescued 10 crocodiles in the last five days. Two have been released and eight are still with us. We will release them when the water level of the Vishwamitri river decreases,” an official said | PTI SC slams T’gana CM’s remarks on Kavitha bail Purported audio of RG Kar calls to family add to ire S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y Sula g na Sen g u p ta @ Kolkata @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday slammed Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for his inappropriate comments over the granting of bail to BRS leader K Kavitha and AAP leader Manish Sisodia in cases linked to the Delhi excise policy scam. During a media interaction, Reddy had wondered how Kavitha got bail in just five months, when Delhi deputy CM Sisodia got it only after spending 15 months in jail, while Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is yet to get relief. He hinted at a ‘deal’ between the BJP and BRS for securing bail for Kavitha. The statements did not go down well with the apex court, which expressed its strong disp l e a s u re. “ I s this a kind of statement which should be made by a CM? A constitutional functionary is speaking in this manner! Why should they drag the court in political rivalry? Do we pass orders after consulting political parties? We are not bothered by politicians or if anybody criticises our orders,” a three-judge bench headed by Justice B R Gavai said. The bench, also comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and K V Viswanathan, asked senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Reddy, how can a constitutional functionary speak like this. It said it is the duty of political parties to show respect to institutions. Relief to DKS IN DA CASE, hc JUNKS CBI PLEA Bengaluru: In a major relief for Karnataka deputy CM D K Shivakumar, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed the pleas by CBI and BJP MLA Basanagouda R Patil Yatnal, questioning the Siddaramaiah government’s decision to withdraw the previous BJP regime’s consent to the agency to prosecute Shivakumar in a disproportionate assets case. The HC also dismissed the plea challenging the state govt’s order referring the `74.93 crore DA case to the Lokayukta for probe Three purported audio recordings of phone calls allegedly made by RG Kar Medical College on August 9 to the parents of the rapemurder victim surfaced on Thursday indicating the in, stitution’s muddled approach and insensitivity while breaking the horrific news to the relatives. In the first call, the hospital authorities simply said their daughter was ‘a little ill’ and asked them to come immediately. Two minutes later, another call came saying she was very sick. In the third call, again after two minutes, the caller claimed their daughter had committed suicide. The victim’s family members said the hospital authorities deliberately mislead them, though they knew their daughter had been raped and murdered. The victim’s father said when they went into the hospital, they saw their daughter’s body wrapped in a green bedsheet. But media images later showed the body in a blue bedsheet. What prompted the hospital to change the bedsheet, he wondered. “There has been a deliberate attempt to suppress facts. We want the CBI to investigate why the Kolkata Police misled us.” he said and demanded a thorough investigation into the events leading to her murder. On August 10, authorities The Assam assembly on Thursday passed the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024, which makes it mandatory to register marriages with the government. Since the legal age of marriage of 18 years for girls and 21 years for boys cannot be contravened, it will act as a strict deterrent against teenage pregnancy and improve overall growth of girls, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The bill replaces the Britishera law, The Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935. “Today is a historic day in our effort to fight the social evil of child marriage. The #AssamLegislativeAssembly has passed the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024,” Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X. “I thank all the legislators who pledged their support to this Bill and Govt’s vision of preventing child marriage. This Bill is above party politics and is a means to give our girls Kazi cut out New law to help check polygamy, enforce maintenance rights All earlier registrations of marriages conducted by Kazis will remain valid, said Himanta Biswa Sarma 1 Only new marriages will come under the purview of the legislation where registration has to be done with govt 2 a life of dignity Sarma said. ,” Earlier in the day he told the , Assembly that the government’s aim was not only to abolish child marriages but also to replace the Kazi (religious official) system. He said all marriages would be registered as per an order of the Supreme Court. It emerged during the discussions in the Assembly that Assam has 90 Kazis, most of them government teachers. On August 22, revenue and disaster management minister Jogen Mohan had stated in the statement of Object and Reasons that The Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act was adopted by the British India government for the then Province of Assam for AMID growing chorus for the resignation of CPM MLA M Mukesh, Kerala police on Thursday booked the actorpolitician following the complaint of an actress from Kochi. However, Mukesh secured interim protection from arrest from a local court. Besides Mukesh, actor-producer Maniyanpilla Raju and actor Edavela Babu were charged with rape by the police in Kochi, while a case was filed against actor Jayasurya in Thiruvananthapuram for outraging the modesty of a Muslim religious and social arrangements. He said under it, the registration of marriages and divorces is not mandatory and the machinery of registration is informal. “There remains a scope of registering marriages of intended person below 21 years (in case of male) and 18 years (in case of female) and hardly any monitoring (is) made for (the) implementation of this Act throughout the state, which attracts and invites huge amount of litigation in the criminal/ civil court,” Mohan said. “There is a scope of misuse by both authorised licensee as well as by citizens for underage/minor marriages and forcefully arranged marriages without consent,” he stated. Binita Jaiswal & N Dhamotharan @ Chennai/ Coimbatore The Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Education University (TNTEU) changed the question paper for the fourth-semester Bachelor in Education (BEd) exam at the last minute on Thursday after the paper got leaked. After the authorities got information about the question paper leak for the subject, ‘creating an inclusive school’, on Wednesday evening, they sent another question paper online to all the exam centres and managed to conduct the exam as per schedule on Thursday . Meanwhile, the university issued a notification on Wednesday relieving N Ramakrishnan, who was registrar (in-charge) of the university, with effect from August 23. The exam centres got a circular from the controller of exam stating that they should download the new question paper only at 9.15am and print it. They were also instructed not to open the envelope containing the ‘leaked’ question paper sent by the university The in. cident brought to focus the issues face by the university which has been functioning without a vice-chancellor for the last two years. Around 700 colleges, including government, governmentaided, and private ones, are affiliated to the TNTEU. “The question paper leak speaks volumes about the issues at the university said K Sridhar, ,” a student.  P5 CM lands in US, to ink first deal with PayPal C Sh i v akuma r @ Chennai Women participate in a rally in Kolkata on Thursday | PTI arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer frequently seen at RG Kar, whose presence was captured on CCTV near the seminar hall where the body was first seen. A Bluetooth device found at the scene further implicated Roy Ac. cording to CBI sources, Roy confessed to the crime during interrogation. Meanwhile, the Kolkata Police arrested a woman, Renuka Singh (38), whose alleged stoning left police sergeant Debasish Chakraborty badly injured in an eye during the Nabanna Abhiyan rally a couple of days ago. The city police are also looking for other miscreants who indulged in large-scale violence during the rally that day . Digital payment solutions provider PayPal will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Guidance Tamil Nadu on the first day of Chief Minister MK Stalin’s visit to the United States on Thursday in San Francisco at 3pm Pacific Daylight Time (Friday 3.30am IST). PayPal will invest hundreds of crores to establish a state-ofthe-art advanced centre in Chennai focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to generate over 1,000 high-end jobs, official sources said. The MoU will be signed between Guidance Tamil Nadu Managing Director Vishnu Venugopal and Executive VicePresident and Chief Technology Officer of PayPal Srini Venkatesan and Head of International Government Relations of PayPal Zi-Yang David Fan in the presence of the CM. Earlier in the day, the CM, who landed in the US for a twoweek visit, received a warm CM Stalin being received at San Francisco airport by Consul General of India K Srikar Reddy and members of Tamil diaspora | pti pAYPAL PLANS advanced ai, ml centre in cHENNAI PayPal will invest hundreds of crores to establish a state-of-the-art advanced centre in Chennai focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to generate over 1,000 high-end jobs, official sources said. An MoU will be signed by the company with Guidance TN on Thursday 3 pm Pacific Daylight Time (Friday 3.30 am IST). welcome from the Tamil community. Stalin was greeted by the Consul General of India in San Francisco, K Srikar Reddy , along with Minister for Industries TRB Rajaa and members FIR against CPM MLA Mukesh in rape case E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kochi The Kazi system for registering Muslim marriages will end. Assam has 90 Kazis, most of them govt teachers 3 BEd test paper changed at 11th hour after leak; registrar ousted woman. In all, the police filed six cases in Kochi and one in Thiruvananthapuram on the day based on the complaint of an actress who worked in Malayalam and Tamil films. The case against Mukesh was registered under IPC Sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty), 452 (house trespass with the intent to hurt or assault someone), and 09 (insult the modesty of a woman by word, gestures or acts) . The complainant alleged Mukesh sexually harassed her at a villa at Maradu when she approached him for membership of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA). Mukesh was an office bearer of AMMA then. The complaint against Edavela Babu says that he called the actress to his apartment twice in 2009 in connection with AMMA membership; in the first instance, he made sexual advances towards the actor and the second time, he raped her. The charges against Maniyanpilla Raju include making sexual advances towards the actress while she was staying at a hotel in Kochi as part of a film shooting in 2009. Jayasurya allegedly sexually harassed the actress during a shooting in Thiruvananthapuram in 2008. Meanwhile, the CPM has decided to brazen it out by openly supporting Mukesh for now with senior party leaders E P Jayarajan, K K Shailaja, Veena George, and P K Sreemathi saying there is no need for him to quit until and unless the charges against him are proven. of the Tamil diaspora, including former Union Minister Napoleon. In his X post, Stalin said, “In the USA, the land of opportunities, seeking support for the prosperity of Tamil Nadu.” He also said he was moved by the welcome accorded by the Tamil community . The CM is targeting investments in the US to generate high-end jobs. In San Francisco, he will be attending an investment conclave, which is expected to generate several high-value investments. The MoU with PayPal will be signed at a meeting to be held before the investment conclave. Sources told TNIE that PayPal will expand its Chennai Development Centre to develop cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning innovations. PayPal announced its India operations in November 2017 after offering crossborder payments in the country for close to a decade. Sources said Tamil Nadu is vying to become the hub for artificial intelligence. “The aim is not to look at just the size of the investments but also to see how the investments will benefit the state and generate quality jobs for the youth,” an official said. express read HC gives conditional nod for F4 race in Chennai Chennai: The Madras HC on Thursday gave a conditional nod to hold Formula 4 Street Car Race in Chennai from August 31 to September 1. The event can be held only if FIA licence is obtained by 12 am on August 31, HC said | P2 Give timeline for AIIMS work: HC tells centre Champ at 101 Commander (retd) Vallabhajosyula Sriramulu, 101, wins gold at World Masters Athletics event | PTI Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the secretary of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to file a report setting out a time limit within which AIIMS Madurai will be completed | P4