The New Indian Express Wishes its readers villupuram l wednesday l december 25, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Champions Trophy: India and Pakistan clubbed in same group The ICC finally announces the schedule for the global 50-over competition that begins from February 19 in Karachi rival neighbours play in dubai on feb 23 Boxing day test: India hope for MCG heist India are clubbed with Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh in Group A. Group B comprises South Africa, Australia, Afghanistan and England. India vs Pakistan is on February 23. If India progress to semis, they will play in Dubai on March 4. If Pak advance, they play in 2nd semis in Lahore next day. If India enter final, it will be in Dubai or else in Lahore on March 9 ■ ■ The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch is expected to be seamer-friendly when India take on Australia in fourth Test on Thursday morning India are yet to decide on the final XI, but the Aussies have said they will hand 19-year-old Sam Konstas his debut. The visitors need a win to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Match live: 5 am | P11 1-1 The five-Test series is level at one a piece 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 Allu Arjun grilled for three hours, seeks bail C h i t h a lu r i R eva n t h @ Hyderabad Actor Allu Arjun, accused in the Sandhya Theatre stampede case, was on Tuesday grilled for more than three hours by the police. Parallelly a bail petition , was filed on his behalf in the Nampally court here. Arjun faces charges of culpable homicide as a woman was crushed to death in the stampede. And her son continues to be in a critical state in a hospital. Advocates appearing for the actor filed a bail petition in the Nampally court, which is expected to be heard in the next few days. The Nampally court has already granted bail to six persons in the case. Arjun reached the Chikkadpally police station at 11 am where a team of officials, led by Central Zone DCP Akshansh Yadav, questioned him. According to sources, the police posed over 20 questions regarding his visit to the theatre and the Dec 4 stampede. Some of the questions reportedly posed to Arjun were: Did the theatre management inform him about the denial of police permission? If they did, did they inform him or his team? “Did you, or your team, inform the theatre management about your arrival? Why did you come in a rally? While you were on the way to the theatre, why did you open the sunroof of your car and wave to the crowd? Were you made aware when you were inside the theatre that a person died due to that rally? Did the police inform you on that day about the death of a woman?” were reportedly among the questions the police asked Arjun. Sources said the police showed videos of the stampede. “Why did you hold a press meet? Do you stick by what you said at the press meet since the videos indicate otherwise?” were some of the other questions. Arif Mohd Khan R V Arlekar A K Bhalla Gen V K Singh H B Kambhampati Guv Appointments, shuffles Arif transferred to Bihar, Bhalla goes to Manipur Kerala governor shifted to NDA-ruled Bihar; former home secy gets to manage Manipur Rajesh Kumar Thakur @ New Delhi Strife-torn Manipur on Tuesday got a seasoned hand in former Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla as its new governor. The state is yet to emerge from the ethnic conflict between Meiteis and KukiZo groups that led to violence since May last year. Bhalla, the longest-serving Union Home Secretary, completed his five-year tenure on August 22 this year. He is known to be a tough administrator and a strategist. Bhalla is a retired 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. If he manages to help bring some stability to Manipur, it would be a job well done. Till now, Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya, who was holding additional charge of Manipur. Bhalla was among the five gubernatorial appointments/ transfers announced on Tuesday. The other big announcement was a swap between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and his Bihar counterpart Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. This newspaper had reported earlier that Arif would figure in the gubernatorial reshuffle this year. Khan’s appointment in Bihar is being seen as a strategic move ahead of assembly elections in the state in 2025 in which the BJP as a major ally of the Bihar NDA nurtures dreams of coming to power at its own. Khan is a liberal Muslim scholar who articulates the Centre’s policies upfront. He was forever on a collision course with Kerala LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Retired General V K Singh was appointed governor of Mizoram. The BJP had denied him a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls this year. Gen Singh replaces Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati, who has been transferred as governor of Odisha after incumbent Raghubar Das put in his papers citing personal reasons. Gen Singh’s name was doing the rounds for a gubernatorial assignment for long time and his appointment was expected to be either in J&K or Manipur but it went to Mizoram. Sources said many more gubernatorial appointments are on the cards for states like UP , J&K, Bengal and some UTs. Centre puts tungsten mining in TN on hold E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai The Ministry of Mines on Tuesday requested the Tamil Nadu government to keep the process of issuing the Letter of Intent (LoI) to the preferred bidder, Hindustan Zinc Limited, for mining of tungsten in Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block in Madurai on hold. It has cited objections relating to auctioning of the block over the existence of biodiversity heritage site within block area. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been asked to explore the possibility of redefining the block boundary by excluding the biodiversity site, a press statement issued by the ministry on Tuesday said. TNIE was the first to report about the plan to mine molybdenum and tungsten in Tamil Nadu. The ministry’s announcement has come two weeks after Tamil Nadu Assembly on December 9 unanimously adopted a resolution urging the centre to immediately cancel the tungsten mining rights given to Hindustan Zinc Limited and not to grant any mining licence in the future without the permission of the state government. Speaking in the Assembly, Chief Minister MK Stalin had declared that as long as he is the CM, the state government will never allow tungsten mining in Madurai district. The chief minister had also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cancel the award of tungsten mining rights. The mines ministry had earlier said that inputs were taken from the Tamil Nadu government before the auction of the tungsten block and no communication from any quarter, including from the state, regarding any opposition to the tender was received. The statement by the mines ministry on Tuesday also said that secretary of the ministry, in a letter dated December 6, 2023, sent to Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu requested details of three critical mineral blocks to be put up for auction including Nayakkarpatti.  P5 K S SREEJITH @ T’Puram A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the Christmas celebration hosted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in Delhi, a senior Orthodox Church Bishop in Kerala on Tuesday openly questioned the saffron party’s outreach to the Christian community . “There (in Delhi), they honour the bishops and revere cribs. Here (in Kerala), they destroy the cribs,” the metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church’s Thrissur Diocese, Yuhanon Mar Meletius, said in a Facebook post. The bishop’s sharp remarks come in the backdrop of the ar- rest of three VHP workers in Palakkad for trying to disrupt Christmas celebrations at a school and the destruction of a crib made by students of another school by unidentified persons. The two incidents sparked widespread protests in Kerala, where the state unit of the BJP had started its outreach programme in which leaders will visit church heads as well as 10 lakh Christian homes till December 30. According to sources, the central leadership of the BJP asked Union minister George Kurian and state BJP president K Surendran to openly condemn the act of the three VHP workers. However, the powerful Syro Malabar Church is also not convinced by the outreach bid. “This is part of a strategy to display dominance over the minority community,” said Fr Joby Kachappilly . Political analysts view the developments as an emerging paradox within the Sangh Parivar with re gard to ideology and political correctness. There (in Delhi), they honour the bishops and revere cribs. Here (in Kerala), they destroy the cribs Yuhanon Mar Meletius “Lately, RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat has been asking various Sangh Parivar outfits to put a stop to their claims over mosques,” said political analyst Ajith Sreenivasan. However, the call was challenged by several Sangh Parivar organisations with seer bodies like Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti even criticising Bhagwat, Sreenivasan pointed out. “The RSS now realises that there will be a huge law and order problem if courts agree to Hindu groups’ demand that mosques be inspected to check if they had been built over temples. They realise that the government might not survive if such a situation arises,” Sreenivasan said. Lokpal calls SL has nationalised Sebi chief for 365 TN boats worth oral hearing `150 cr in last 10 yrs for comparison Adieu, Shyam Babu The mortal remains of filmmaker Shyam Benegal being taken for the last rites, at a crematorium in Mumbai on Tuesday | ANI 1 . 5 y r s a f te r g o v t ta k e o v e r TN decides to outsource Childline 1098, calls bids The department of children welfare and special services (DCW&SS) has invited tenders to outsource operations of Childline 1098, the emergency helpline for children in distress. The move comes just 1.5 years after the government took direct control of operations. The helpline run under the Mission Vatsalya scheme, was taken over by the department on July 31, 2023, following directives from the central government. Currently, Child Helpline Olympics double medallist Manu Bhaker said “there has been a lapse” from her side while filing nominations for awards but says she is motivated to win medals | P11 jaffna consulate data mgr-modi aiadmk slams bjp S u ba s h i n i V i jaya k u m a r @ Chennai lapse yes but motivated BJP X’mas outreach hits Kerala wall M S T h a n a r a j @ Ramanathapuram Comparing MGR with Modi is like equating a mountain with a molehill, says AIADMK leader Jayakumar. MGR was a leader for all but BJP is a party that divides people on the basis of religion, he added | P4 manuspeak (CHL) services are being provided across 38 districts, 14 railway stations and one bus stand in Tamil Nadu. The social welfare and women empowerment department oversees the initiative at the state level, with technical support provided by the centre for development of advanced computing (CDAC). DCW&SS serves as the nodal agency, coordinating with district administrations to implement the scheme which is sponsored by the central government entirely . Until 2023, more than 75 NGOs, supported by Childline Express Illustration India Foundation, managed the helpline across Tamil Nadu. In March 2023, the union ministry of women and child development issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) mandating that helpline staff be engaged on a contractual or outsourced basis until the end of the 15th Finance Commission cycle (2025-26), subject to annual performance reviews. Following this directive, DCW&SS took over Childline operations and employed staff on a contractual basis. However, the department has now opted to engage an outsourcing agency to manage the helpline. Non-profit organisations registered under the Societies or Trust Act, with prior experience in helpline implementation and monitoring, are eligible to apply for the tender.  P5 Amid the unending saga of arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, it has come to light that during the last 10 years, as many as 365 TN fishing boats worth more than `150 crore had been nationalised by the island nation. According to RTI data received by TNIE from the Consulate General of India in Jaffna, the Lankan government had seized 558 Indian fishing boats for various violations from 2014 to August 2024. Of them, 365 boats (including 13 seized in 2024) had been nationalised by the government following court orders. Though 193 boats were released by the neighbouring country, 21 of them are still stuck in Sri Lanka after release as the salvage process, the legal and physical steps involved in bringing them back to India, is both timeconsuming and costly. The Around 21 boats stuck in SL even after release Though 193 boats were released by Sri Lanka, about 21 of them are still stuck there even after release as the legal and physical steps involved in bringing them back to India is time-consuming and costly salvage process for 12 boats is under way but permission , for a salvage crew from the Lankan authorities is delayed, sources said. The salvage process for the remaining boats has not been started yet by the Tamil Nadu’s fisheries department, the RTI report said. Boat owners in Rameswaram said that two decades ago there used to be over 870 fishing boats in the town, but the number has shrunk to 520 at present with one-third of the boats going out of business. The situation is the same in all the major fishing clusters along the Tamil Nadu coast, they said.  P5 Sri Lanka has seized about 558 Indian fishing boats in 10 years | file pic P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi TAKING cognizance of complaints of impropriety and conflict of interest filed by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and two others, anticorruption body Lokpal on Tuesday called Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch and the complainants for ‘oral hearing’ on January 28. The complaints were made on the basis of a report by USbased short-seller Hindenburg Research, according to an official order. In its report, Hindenbu r g a l l e g e d that Buch and her husband had stakes in obscure of fshore funds used in the alleged money siphoning scandal involving the Adani Group. The Lokpal had on November 8 sought Buch’s ‘explanation’ on the complaints filed by Moitra, a Lok Sabha member and two others. In its order, the Lokpal asked the Registry to issue notices to the RPS (respondent public s e r v a n t ) a s we l l a s t h e complainant(s) to avail of the opportunity of oral hearing on January 28. “It will be open to the RPS (respondent public servant) as well as the complainant to authorise an advocate to espouse their cause, if they so desire at the time of oral hearing,” the order said.