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 ■ ■ THRISSUR l friday l December 13, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Four school students killed as lorry overturns, falls on them Cement-laden lorry loses control after collision with truck Accident sparks protest E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Palakkad Four school students — all girls — were killed when a cement-laden lorry overturned and fell on them in Palakkad on Thursday The incident oc. curred around 3.45pm when the class-VIII students of Karimba Government Higher Secondary School were walking on the roadside at Panayampadam near Kalladikode on the Kozhikode-Palakkad highway . According to Mannarkad police, the trailer lorry carrying cement bags was proceeding from Palakkad to Kasaragod. Another truck coming from the opposite direction lost its control and reportedly hit the driver’s cabin of the lorry, causing the latter to swerve out of control and fall on the students who were walking on the roadside, the police said. It was drizzling when the incident occurred. The deceased have been identified as Irfana Sherin P A, Ridha Fathima, Nidha Fathima K M and Aysha A S. Another student had a lucky escape as she jumped away on seeing the lorry speeding towards them. Eyewitnesses said three died on the spot while the fourth girl was declared brought dead by the hospital. Irfana’s mother was at the spot when the accident happened. The incident triggered a massive protest by local residents who blocked the road. They al- Cabinet OKs ‘one poll’ bill, may go to JPC for vetting gukesh king of the 64 squares swaroop swaminathan @ Singapore ‘Accident-prone area’ The section of the Kozhikode-Palakkad national highway at Panayampadam, near Mannarkkad, is known to be accident-prone. An IIT study had recommended “urgent safety measures” on the stretch. These have only been partially implemented, allege residents. leged that though many people had lost their lives in road accidents on the stretch, the authorities failed to take taken any action. The protest came to an end after the police, peoples’ representatives, including Power Minister K Krishnankutty, MLA Rahul Mamkootathil and local body authorities, promised prompt action. The students were close friends and they were returning home after their exams Local residents blocked traffic on the stretch soon after the accident, alleging laxity on the part of authorities in taking up safety measures on a timely basis. P6 when the accident occurred. “When the out-of-control lorry sped towards the students, one of them managed to jump out of the way. But the other four could not escape in time, and the lorry overturned on top of them,” said Ashwajith P , a Keralassery resident, who witnessed the accident. The lorry driver, Mahendra Prasad, and his assistant, Varghese, both from Kasaragod, suffered ● More on P6 minor injuries.  The mangled remains of the lorry that toppled and fell on four students near Kalladikode in Palakkad on Thursday | Express Three of a family killed in accident near Kovai Pathanamthitta: Three members of a family from Tiruvalla, including a twomonth-old baby, were killed when the car in which they were travelling collided with a van on at Madukkarai in Coimbatore on Thursday. The deceased are Jacob Abraham, 60, wife Sheeba Jacob, 55, and their grandson Aaron Jacob Thomas. P7 Chess has a new king. The promised prince is here and he will be coronated on Friday evening. D Gukesh joined the most exclusive of Indian sporting clubs late on Thursday — only the second player and first since Viswanathan Anand to be crowned as world champ. With the scores level at 6.5 after 13 games and the 14th game meandering towards a draw, attention had already turned towards tie-breaks on Friday. However, Ding Liren blundered to give the Indian teen an opportunity to become the youngestever champion. As soon as he had realised what Liren had done, he welled up before basking in the afterglow of something he had wanted to achieve ever since he was a spectator at the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Anand in 2013. This continues the 18-year-old’s rapid rise over the last two-and-a-half years. In 2022, he stunned the world of chess when he won individual gold on board one at the Olympiad. Last year, he qualified for the Candidates before win- ning that eight-player tournament. In September, he again won individual gold from board one at Olympiad. Now, this. His next target? Getting Magnus Carlsen back to the World Championship cycle. “When Magnus won (in Chennai), I thought I really want to be the one to bring back the title to India.” As the lights were switched off and the people belatedly left the arena, one thought lingered. You are 18. Nobody younger than you has ever attempted this. You lose the first game. The person sitting opposite you has four-times your experience and is the world champion. You win the third game before eking out a string of draws. You miss a string of chances before winning game 11. Your opponent shows why he’s the boss as he wins game 12. You miss an opportunity to convert in game 13 and have Black with tie-breaks to follow. You don’t play too many Rapid and Blitz while your opponent is too good. What do you do? You go for the win in game 14. And you end up winning the most important match of your career. M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved two bills to implement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. Local body elections have not been bunched with Lok Sabha and state polls as of now. Sources said the draft legislations are likely to be introduced in the ongoing session of Parliament and could subsequently be referred to a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) for vetting. The prime minister, sources said, was keen on holding wider consultations on the ‘One Nation One Election’ (ONOE) scheme by involving speakers of state legislative assemblies as well through the JPC. The Cabinet’s decision comes nearly three months after it accepted the recommendations of the high-level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind on holding simultaneous polls. Of the two bills approved on Thursday one is on Consti, tutional amendments to conduct simultaneous polls. The second one is an ordinary bill to align elections for assemblies in the Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir, sources said. Sources said the two bills would not require ratification by at least 50% of the states.