HYDERABAD MONDAY OCTOBER 21, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 12 LATE CITY EDITION FEMALE CHEETAH TO SOON GIVE BIRTH TO CUBS AT KUNO NATIONAL PARK Veera, one of the South African cheetahs at the park, is pregnant and is expected to deliver soon, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said BOOST FOR PROJECT CHEETAH, SAYS MP CM LOWEST SURVIVAL RATE AMONG FELINES “Happiness is coming to Kuno… A female cheetah is soon going to give birth to cubs at the KNP. This news is a symbol of the great achievement of the Cheetah Project. The project started under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi is proving to be continuously improving the ecological balance,” Yadav wrote in a post on social media platform X while sharing the information ■ ■ ■ In September 2022, the prime minister released five female and three male cheetahs brought from Namibia into the Kuno National Park In February 2023, 12 more cheetahs were translocated from South Africa According to wildlife literature, among all feline family cubs, cheetah cubs have the lowest survival rate with only 5% reaching adulthood | P8 17 NUMBER OF CUBS BORN IN THE KUNO PARK IN THE PAST TWO YEARS; 12 HAVE SURVIVED 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 Brinkmanship as Uddhav’s Sena, Cong bicker on 15 Both refuse to yield; grand old party looks to contest from more if push comes to shove S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai as early as Monday . “The party leadership told us WHILE the BJP announced its that the Congress should prefirst list for 99 candidates for pare to contest 150 to 160 seats the assembly elections on Sun- as a contingency plan if push day, politics of brinkmanship comes to shove. We were ready played out in the Opposition for 110-120 seats; now we have Maha Vikas Aghadi between to expand our horizon and look the Congress and the Uddhav for potential candidates. We Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, par- have started tapping Congress ticularly over 15 seats in the Vi- aspirants from other constitudarbha region and elsewhere. encies to get a sense of their Since the Congress winning potential,” the has a better strike rate RJD may go leader said, requesting it alone in anonymity. in Vidarbha, it does not want to yield. But Ud- Jharkhand Another Congress dhav is equally stub- With the rift in leader claimed that the born and the dispute Uddhav Sena neither the ruling has reached Delhi. has presence in these INDIA bloc After the Congress’ widening over 15 seats nor does it have refusal, Uddhav called candidates, yet they are seat sharing, a meeting of his senior the RJD said it adamant about them. party leaders to weigh may go solo in “If the Uddhav Sena his options and decide eventually contests the assembly on the next steps. Earfrom these seats, all of polls in lier in the day, his son Jharkhand. The them would easily fall Aditya and Anil Parab party wants to into the ruling Mahaymet former Union min- contest 18-20 uti’s pocket. The Sena ister Sharad Pawar to seats but has (UBT) should underfind a middle ground to stand the gravity of the been offered resolve the situation. situation and back off,” just 4-5 | P7 A meeting of the he said. Congress election and screenHowever, a Sena (UBT) leader ing committee, scheduled in accused the Congress of being Delhi on Sunday got cancelled a habitual offender in not giv, due to the stalemate. But for the ing space to its allies. “It should impasse, the party was expect- learn lessons from the Haryana ed to announce its first list of debacle. We are expecting this candidates after the meeting. issue would be resolved soon in A senior Congress leader the larger interests of the from the state, who is in Delhi state,” he said. for the meeting, said they were Uddhav has also asked the advised not to return as the Congress not to stretch things next meeting could take place beyond the breaking point. P7 GROUP-I MAINS FROM TODAY: 31,383 VIE FOR 563 POSTS EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad AMID ongoing court cases, the Group-I mains examination will be conducted from Monday till October 27 for 563 posts in various government departments. A total of 31,383 candidates have qualified for the mains. This is the first t i m e t h e m u c h - aw a i t e d Group-I exams are being held in Telangana since its formation. The last time the exams were conducted was in 2011 in undivided Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana Public Serv- ice Commission (TGPSC) is conducting the examination at 46 centres under tight security across three districts: Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri. For the first time, biometric attendance is being introduced for the candidates. During the BRS regime, the Group-I exams were announced but were plagued by paper leaks and controversies, leading to the cancellation of the prelims in 2022 and 2023. This time, the candidates have been protesting against GO 29, demanding reschedul- ing of the examinations, alleging that SC, ST and BC students would suffer under its reservation provisions. A case has been filed in the CONTINUED ON P3 Work with govt for 2-3 yrs: CM to ISB students EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad ASSERTING that the students of the Indian School of Business (ISB) here are brand ambassadors of Hyderabad and Telangana, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy exhorted them to work with the state government for two to three years. Delivering the keynote address at the ISB Leadership Summit - 2024 on the theme “Leadership in New India” on Sunday he said, “At some point , in your life, even for two or three years, come and work for the government. I know we cannot offer the high salaries that the large corporate firms pay you. The Telangana government cannot afford to give that much. However, I will give great challenges and opportunities.” Stating that the government aims to make Telangana into a $1 trillion GSDP economy, the chief minister mentioned that Hyderabad would need to be transformed into a $600 billion city “We need your (students of . ISB) help in taking this vision Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy delivers the keynote address at the ISB Leadership Summit -2024 at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Gachibowli on Sunday to every part of the world. Wherever you go, speak to investors, businesspersons and common people about Hyderabad and Telangana. I want Hyderabad to compete with New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Seoul. It is difficult, but not impossible. No dream is too big for new India and Hyderabad,” he said. ‘Courage and sacrifice paramount’ Listing courage and willingness to sacrifice as necessary qualities to become a good leader, Revanth said, “The first feature any leader needs is courage. In life, one needs knowledge, skill, intelligence and a good attitude. However, to do great things, we need to take risks. No one can achieve g reatness without taking risks. Similarly, sacrifice is also important for leadership. Great Congress leaders sacrificed careers, money, comforts and lives for the sake of people.” He added that leaders should connect directly with people and society, meeting everyone f ro m t h e r i ch e s t t o t h e poorest. Revanth said the Congress has the “beautiful DNA” of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indira Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh and many others. ...I know we cannot offer the high salaries that the large corporate firms pay you. The Telangana government cannot afford to give that much. However, I will give great challenges and opportunities A Revanth Reddy, chief minister Mysterious blast outside CRPF school in Delhi, multi-agency probe on 25 more Indian flights get hoax bomb threats S H E K H A R S I N G H @ New Delhi HOAX bomb threats continued to disrupt the aviation sector for the seventh consecutive day on Sunday, grounding planes and unnerving passengers. As many as 25 flights across major carriers—IndiGo, Vistara, Air India and Akasa Air— were forced into emergency security measures after receiving hoax threats. Since October 14, over 90 Indian flights have been af fected by similar bomb scares. “We received security threats on six of our flights,” a Vistara spokesperson said, listing major international routes — Delhi to Frankfurt, Singapore to Mumbai, Bali to Delhi, Singapore to Delhi, Singapore to Pune, and Mumbai to Singapore. Six of the affected IndiGo flights included those on the Delhi-Istanbul, Mumbai-Istanbul, Jeddah-Mumbai, Kozhikode-Dammam in Saudi Arabia, Pune-Jodhpur, and GoaAhmedabad sectors. Akasa Air said six flights — Ahmedabad to Mumbai, Delhi to Goa, Mumbai to Bagdogra, Delhi to Hyderabad, Kochi to Mumbai and Lucknow to Mumbai — received security alerts. “The Akasa Air Emergency Response teams were in touch with security and regulatory authorities,” said an airline spokesperson. Sources said six Air India flights, too, faced a similar situation though its officials did not share the number. They, however, confirmed that some flights were subject to security threats received on social media. Police personnel take protesters into preventive custody at Ashoknagar in Hyderabad on Sunday Supreme Court regarding GO 29, and it is expected to be heard on Monday . Meanwhile, the Telangana High Court, which declined to postpone the Group-I mains, stated that the examination results would be subject to its final verdict scheduled to be pronounced on November 20. Recently, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, asserting that the government is fully prepared to conduct the exams from Monday, had accused opposition leaders of provoking aspirants to stage protests. U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi SEER SAMMAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Kanchi Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati Swamigal at an event to inaugurate the RJ Sankara Eye Hospital, in Varanasi on Sunday. Run by the Kanchi Math, the hospital aims to cater to the needs of people in 20 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as those in the border areas of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh | PTI | P8 MMTS to be extended till Yadagirigutta: Kishan E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad UNION Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy on Sunday announced that Multi-Modal Transport System (MMTS) services would be extended from Ghatkesar to Yadagirigutta. The construction works will commence soon, the BJP state president said after inspecting the ongoing works at the Cherlapally satellite railway station. Speaking to TNIE, a South Central Railway (SCR) official said, “MMTS services have already been extended up to Ghatkesar, and the next phase will extend it to Yada- girigutta. Tenders are being floated, and once the process is complete, we can determine when construction will begin.” Currently, the journey to Yadagirigutta is time-consuming for commuters, taking two to three hours and involving multiple modes of transport. Hundreds of devotees visit the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha S w a my Te m p l e i n Yadagirigutta daily es, pecially over weekends. Officials said the travel time will be reduced to under an hour once the MMTS services start. “The fare will also be significantly cheaper compared to the current costs,” the SCR official added. 98% of works at Cherlapally stn completed: Union minister Meanwhile, the Cherlapally terminal, being developed at a cost of `430 crore, will have the capacity to handle 25 pairs of trains, Kishan noted. A total of 10 new lines have been added, bringing the station’s capacity to 19 lines. He said that 98% of the works at Cherlapally are complete, with the remaining work expected to finish soon. The Cherlapally station is set to ease congestion at the Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Kacheguda stations, the Union minister CONTINUED ON P4 added. A mysterious blast occurred near a CRPF school in Delhi’s Rohini area on Sunday morning, sparking a security alert in the national capital. The blast, which appeared to be triggered by a crude bomb, partially damaged the school’s wall and some cars parked nearby. Nobody was injured. Delhi Police personnel reached the spot soon after the explosion. The National Security Guard and National Investigation Agency also sent their teams to inspect the blast site. Investigators lifted fragments of some white powder from the spot, which indicated the use of a crude bomb having chemical mixture of ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride. “As of now, we don’t think any improvised explosive device was used as no metal-like substances, shrapnel, or ball bearings were found at the site,” a senior official told this newspaper. DCP (Rohini) Amit Goel said the police was alerted about the blast at 7.50 am. He said the police personnel who rushed to the spot reported foul smell emanating from the area. “The glasses of a nearby shop and some cars parked nearby were shattered. However, no one was injured,” the DCP said. A video of the incident, possibly recorded by some locals, showed thick plumes of smoke billowing from the blast site. “A multi-agency probe is on. I am keeping a constant watch NSG personnel inspect the blast site outside the CRPF school in New Delhi on Sunday morning | PARVEEN NEGI on the progress of the investigation and assure that the guilty will be brought to book. I appeal to all to maintain restrain and not indulge in fear mongering,” Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena said. Official sources said there was no intelligence input about any possible disruption. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Atishi blamed the Centre for the blast. “The bomb blast exposes the deteriorating security situation in Delhi. The BJP-led Central government is responsible for law and order in the city. However, they spend their time obstructing the efforts of the elected Delhi government rather than fulfilling their responsibilities. This neglect has resulted in Delhi resembling the 1990s Mumbai underworld era, with shootings, extortion, and rising criminal confidence,” she said. AT A GLANCE Group-I mains to be held from October 21 to 27 at 46 centres across three districts from 2 pm to 5 pm Exam centres: 8 in Hyd, 11 in Rangareddy and 27 in Medchal-Malkajgiri CCTV cameras installed at all exam centres Last Group-I exams were held in 2011 in undivided AP 95% of qualified candidates downloaded their hall tickets as of Sunday TERROR STRIKE Doc, 6 migrant workers shot dead in J&K’s Ganderbal dist F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar IN a major terror attack, militants on Sunday evening shot dead a local doctor, identified as Dr Shahnawaz, and six migrant labourers working in a key infrastructure project at Gagangir area of Sonmarg in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. Seven others were injured in the terror attack. Sources said the terrorists fired indiscriminately from close range at a group of workers at Gagangir area of Sonamarg. “They also fired on a vehicle carrying migrant workers,” sources said. The workers were part of a construction team working on key Z Morh tunnel, which connects Gaganeer to Sonamarg in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. Of the six workers who were killed, three were from Bihar, one from Madhya Pradesh, and one hailed from Jammu. One is yet to be identitied. Confirming the militant attack, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on X: “Very sad news of a dastardly & cowardly attack on non-local labourers. These people were working on a key infrastructure project... I strongly condemn this attack”. Home Minister Amit Shah termed the attack on civilians a despicable act of cowardice. “Those involved in this heinous act won’t be spared and will face the harshest response from our security forces,” he wrote on X. After the attack, a joint contingent of police, CRPF, and Army launched a combing operation to trace the militants. This is the second targeted attack on migrant workers after the Omar Abdullah government assumed charge in the UT. On Thursday, a Bihar native was shot dead in Shopian district. EXPRESS READ Odisha, Bengal coasts bracing for cyclone Dana Bhubaneswar: Cyclone Dana, a cyclonic circulation over the North Andaman Sea, is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm and reach the Odisha-West Bengal coasts by October 24, bringing with it very heavy rainfall and gusty winds in both states, India Meteorological Department said on Sunday NZ beat SA by 32 runs to win first T20 World Cup Dubai: Amelia Kerr produced an all-round performance, 43 runs and three wickets, in the final to top off what has been a fairytale ride for the Kiwis to win the title for the first time in their history. New Zealand batted first and scored 158 while the Proteas ended their innings with 126 | P11
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