The New Indian Express Wishes its readers a villupuram l thursday l october 31, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Buckingham Palace confirms TNIE report on Charles’ secret India visit The Buckingham Palace confirmed King Charles and Queen Camilla visited Bengaluru for wellness treatment before returning to the UK from Samoa Charles and Camilla during one of their previous visits for treatment | Source: SIHHC B’luru Stop was to break long trip to U.K. not connected to cancer treatment A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the stopover was to help break the long journey to the United Kingdom from Samoa. “Their Majesties had a short private stopover in India to help break the long journey back from Samoa,” the spokesperson said. They arrived on October 27 and stayed at Soukya International Holistic Health Centre located in Whitefield, Bengaluru ■ ■ ■ Charles is under treatment for cancer after being diagnosed with the disease earlier this year. Sources said the visit was not connected to the cancer treatment, which he will resume upon return to the UK He planted a Jacaranda sapling in the Soukya campus, an official said Charles and Camilla were on a 10-day official trip to Australia and Samoa Our offices and press will remain closed today and there will be no issue of the paper on Friday 75-yr-old King Charles’ last visit to soukya retreat was in 2019 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 Disengagement Canada minister says complete, troops he outed Shah identity to swap sweets Y eshi S e l i @ New Delhi India, China wrap up troop pullback from Demchok & Depsang; joint verification is on M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi Showers batter Chennai, rain alert for 15 dists E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chennai Parts of Chennai received a heavy spell of rain on Wednesday afternoon, dampening Deepavali festivities briefly in the city Anna Na. gar West recorded 11cm of rainfall, with around 10cm being received in an hour. Kolathur, Villivakkam, Korattur, Ambattur, Ambattur, Padi, KK Nagar, Thiru Vi Ka Nagar, Ashok Nagar and Valasaravakkam, too, recorded heavy downpour. “About 100mm in one hour of which 78mm recorded in just 30 minutes between 12.10 and 12.40pm was one of the heaviest spells in recent days. Even during the 213mm rainfall recorded on October 15, we did not see such consistently heavy showers,” said weather blogger K Srikanth. The Regional Meteorological Centre said that on Deepavali day on Thursday there , may be isolated heavy rain in 15 districts — Dindigul, Madurai, Tiruchy, Karur, Namakkal, Salem, Erode, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Tirupattur, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi, Ariyalur and Perambalur.  p5 TV 5 owner B R Naidu is the new TTD chairman D S urendra K umar @ Tirupati The Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday announced the new governing board of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), with TV5 owner Bollineni Rajagopal Naidu, popularly known as B R Naidu, as the chairman. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s selection, while widely anticipated, ends weeks of speculation surrounding the composition of the TTD board. With three MLAs from Andhra, five B R Naidu from Telangana, three from Karnataka, two from Tamil Nadu, and one each from Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Board includes a diverse group of people. Another member is likely to be appointed soon, with the nomination anticipated to come from the BJP an alli, ance partner. Former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi, former CJI H L Dattu and Bharat Biotech’s Suchitra Ella found seats on the board. Patrolling will soon begin at Demchok and Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh, as Indian and Chinese troops have completed disengagement at these friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), sources said on Wednesday To mark the de-esca. lation of tensions and improvement in the overall mood, the military personnel will celebrate Diwali by exchanging sweets at the traditional points along the 3,488-km long LAC. “The disengagement is complete and modalities for patrolling are being firmed up between ground commanders,” said an Army source. Troops from both sides have disengaged and shuffled back to their designated points as per the decision firmed up between the Corps Commanders of India and China. The disengagement process involves joint verification on the ground regarding the troop and equipment pullback to a mutually agreed distance from the face-off sites. Sources told this newspaper that the verification process is progressing and talks are currently on about the routes, schedule, and the patrolling size. Each patrolling unit will have a maximum of 20 personnel, who will be carrying their weapons. “The withdrawals are mutual and will proceed in phases. Patrolling may take time, depend- Sweet spots Troops will exchange sweets at traditional points — the five Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) huts on each side of the Line of Actual Control spread out in Eastern and Western Sectors ing on the removal of structures set up since the April 2020 clashes. Physical verification and surveillance are being conducted in these areas,” sources said. The current disengagement is only for Depsang and Demchok. Army sources said that talks regarding patrolling in other stand-off points in Eastern Ladakh will continue. Troops from both sides have already disengaged from five other friction points, which came up in May 2020 after the People’s Liberation Army moved in its personnel in these areas after the clashes at the Finger Four on the North bank of the Pangong Tso. The patrolling limits and buffer zones in areas found no mention in the agreement for Demchok and Depsang Plains. A Canadian minister admitted before a parliamentary panel that he outed Union home minister Amit Shah’s name to a US newspaper as having allegedly ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada. Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told members of the national security committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations in connection with the murder of Khalistani radical Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June last year. But Morrison did not share any proof of Shah’s alleged involvement in the case. “The journalist called me and asked if it was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee. Bilateral relations went into deeper freeze after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently alleged that the Indian government had a role in the killing Nijjar. Both sides expelled six diplomats each. While India accuses Canada of not even sharing a shread of evidence to support its theory, the latter claims it has ample proof. Nathalie Drouin, Trudeau’s national security adviser, told the committee that Canada has evidence the India gathered information on Indian nationals and Canadian citizens in Canada through diplomatic channels and proxies. The information was then passed to a gangster, Lawrence Bishnoi. Diwali fest on Parliament Hill off The annual Diwali celebration for the Indo-Canadian community at Parliament Hill was abruptly cancelled by Leader of the Opposition Pierre Poilievre. According to the organisers, the Overseas Friends of India Canada, this was communicated to them abruptly without any explanation. The festival had been celebrated there for the past 23 years New rules in place to grade threat to flights M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued new rules to deal with the recent avalanche of bomb threats to flights across the country. They include figuring out the press Intake Kannada actor gets interim bail in murder case | P5 CM pays floral tributes to Muthuramalinga Thevar | P4 pseudonymous or anonymous nature of the social media handle from where the threat emerges, geopolitical analysis and the presence of VIPs on board before determining the nature of the threat, officials said on Wednesday . If the threat is categorised as specific, it would trigger the whole range of established security protocols of diverting an aircraft, sending it to an isolation bay, and conducting fresh anti-sabotage checks of passengers and their belongings. But if it is determined a hoax, the flight will be allowed to proceed normally Hundreds . of hoax calls were categorised as non-specific ever since the new rules kicked in on October 19, avoiding all the hassle, sources said.