KOZHIKODE l monday l December 30, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Constitution has stood every test of time, says prime minister MoDi The Constitution has stood every test of time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his monthly radio address Mann ki Baat on Sunday Calls the document ‘our guiding light’ “It is a matter of immense pride for all of us. The Constitution which its makers gave to us has stood every test of time. It is our guiding light,” the prime minister said, adding that he reached “this position in life” because of the document. He asked the people to visit www.constitution75.com and learn about India’s constitutional heritage and legacy ■ 80% Urges people to banish hate from society ■ He described the upcoming ‘Maha Kumbh’ as the ‘mahakumbh of unity’ and asked the people to resolve to banish hate from the society Modi also spoke about the growing global resonance of Ayurveda. He said in Paraguay, a large number of local people are reaching out to the Indian embassy where Ayurveda consultation is offered | P7 fall in number of malaria cases in india between 2015 and 2023: Modi 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 MLA Uma Thomas critically injured in 15-ft fall from JLN stadium dais K r i s h n a K u m a r K E @Kochi Uma Thomas, the Congress MLA representing Thrikkakara, suffered grave head and internal injuries after she fell from a 15-ft-high dais at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi where she had arrived to attend a mega dance programme on Sunday evening. She is currently on ventilator support, the doctors said. The incident took place around 6pm, when the MLA was proceeding towards the dais before the inauguration of the dance event that was attended by Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cherian. “The MLA was proceeding to sit at one side of the front row, when she suddenly greeted someone at the dais where Minister Saji Cherian and the dignitaries were sitting. As she began to move, there was only a small gap, around 1.5 ft, between the chairs at the dais and the ribbon marking its boundary She suddenly lost balance . and gripped the ribbon barri- Eyewitness account MLA Uma Thomas proceeds towards the dais at JLN Stadium around 6pm She greets someone at the dais where Minister Saji Cherian and dignitaries are sitting, loses balance She grips a ribbon ‘barricade’ for support, but it gives way, causing her to fall 15-ft below on a concrete portion Two crew members of Bangkok-Muan flight survive; landing gear glitch, bird hit suspected Narrow escape for passengers as Air Canada jet catches fire Age n c i e s Rescue team members carry the body of a passenger at the crash site at Muan International Airport, South Korea on Sunday | AP/Pti How it happened IN one of the worst aviation disasters in recent times, all but two of 181 people on board a passenger flight were killed after it skidded off the runway while landing at South Korean’s Muan international airport on Sunday and burst into flames. Horrific visuals of the accident showed the plane skidding across the airstrip at high speed after its landing gear failed to deploy, overshooting the runway, ramming a concrete wall, and exploding. The Korean transport ministry said the Jeju Air plane was a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet that had arrived from Bangkok and landed at Muan, 290 km south of Seoul, around 9 am. South Korean officials said the airport control tower had issued a bird strike warning to the plane shortly before it intended to land. The pilot reportedly sent out a distress signal shortly before the plane touched down without using its wheels or any other landing gear. The flight had 175 passengers The Boeing 737-800 with 181 people on board approached to land at South Korea’s Muan International Airport around 9 am local time Pilots aborted the first landing attempt due to bird strike, which reportedly damaged the jet’s landing gear Soon, the pilots issued a “mayday” call and tried to land the plane again, this time without the landing gear deployed Upon touchdown, the plane skidded down the runway and hit a concrete barrier before bursting into flames A bird strike is a collision between a bird and an aircraft in flight and six crew members on board. According to officials, 85 women, 84 men, and 10 others whose gender could not be immediately identified, died. Emergency workers rescued two crew members. Officials described their condition as ‘not life-threatening’. Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, said the plane was completely destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognisable among the wreckage. The two persons who survived the crash were rescued from the tail section. Lee said Kerala’s electoral gender ratio 2nd highest in India investigators were looking at various possibilities for the crash, including whether the plane was struck by birds. South Korean authorities deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the blaze. Over 1,500 firefighters, police officers, soldiers, and other officials were also rushed to the site to manage the situation. Footage of the crash aired by local television channels showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the plane, which was still engulfed in flames. Chief Electoral Office, Kerala bleeding in lungs; nasal bone and skull also fractured MLA in ICU, kept under 24-hour observation Another aviation tragedy was averted on Saturday night after an Air Canada flight suffered a suspected landing gear failure and a part of it caught fire as it skidded down the runway of Canada’s Halifax airport. All 73 passengers and crew members are safe, Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said. He added that there was a suspected landing gear issue as the plane arrived to land. A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which responded to the incident alongside paramedics, said some passengers suffered minor injuries. The people on board were evacuated, and then taken to a hangar to be checked out by paramedics, AP reported. A passenger told a local television channel she heard a loud noise when the plane landed. “We heard a pretty loud—what almost sounded like a crash— sound as the wing of the plane started to skid along the (runway), along with what I presume was the engine,” she said. She said the plane then skidded down the runway for a “decent” distance as the pilots worked to stop the plane. “The plane shook quite a bit and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane and smoke started coming in the windows,” she said. The Air Canada Express flight operated by Pal Airlines was arriving from St John’s, Newfoundland. Flight operations at the Halifax airport were temporarily suspended. Tax dept to tap Digi yatra data to go after evaders DIPA K MONDAL @ New Delhi If you are a frequent user of Digi Yatra app but don’t file income tax returns, don’t be surprised if you get a notice from the tax department. According to sources, the tax department has accessed the entire passenger data captured on the Digi Yatra app, and the same is being reconciled with tax filings to check for discrepancies in the declared income. The tax department would start issuing notices in 2025 based on the Digi Yatra data, said sources. Digi Yatra app is a civil aviation ministry-led initiative to make air traveller’s journey seamless and paperless. It uses facial recognition technology, and collects passengers ID, biometrics, and details of air tickets to give easy access at airports. It is, however, not mandatory for fliers to download or use the app. According to sources, the tax department will first go after those who don’t file tax returns, and then target those who under-report their income to avoid paying taxes. The department is perusing the data of both international and domestic air travellers. Frequent or high-value travel, particularly international trips, could flag individuals whose reported earnings do not justify such expenditures, prompting further scrutiny . “Data provided by Digi Yatra is inherently clean, relia- Globe trotters under the lens According to sources, the financial records of frequent international fliers could be subjected to scrutiny to check for any income suppression in their I-T returns ble, and verifiable, making it a robust source for government use in tax administration. Once integrated and reconciled with income tax filings, it can effectively identify non-filers, placing them at the forefront of scrutiny Sub. sequently taxpayers engaging , in income suppression or under-reporting could also be Kerala is now the state with the second-highest electoral gender ratio in India. At 1,43,36,133, women constitute 51.56% of Kerala’s electorate, showed the data set brought out by the Election Commission of India recently Among 36 . states and UTs in the data set, Puducherry has the highest share of women electors (53.03%). At 52.09%, Kerala was third in the percentage of votes polled by women over total votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, behind Puducherry (53.2%) and Arunachal Pradesh (52.22%). Though it recorded 71.86% turnout among women in the LS polls, Kerala was at 17th position in the data set. At the top was Lakshadweep (85.46%). The national average was 65.78%. Kerala ranked 14th in overall turnout (72.04%). The state’s ‘elector density’ was also second highest in India — the average number of electors per polling station in Kerala in the ● More on P4 2024 election was 1,102.  There is a different joy of being a mother. India’s Koneru Humpy had won the World Rapid Chess Championship on Saturday but when she spoke about the win a day later, she could not help but speak about her seven-year-old daughter. She was thousand miles away in Vijayawada. “My daughter won a gold medal in abacus yesterday , so she was having her own moment,” Humpy told this daily from New York on Sunday . For her daughter’s win, joy seems to be as big as her second World Rapid medal, a record she shares with China’s Ju Wenjun. The 37-year-old from Vijaya- wada last won the title in 2019. Sleep-deprived, missing her daughter while playing against some of the stalwarts of the game, yet she remained unflustered and finished the event with 8.5 out of 11 points. The year 2024 was not as she would have liked it to be. There was a time when she was mulling quitting the sport. The win was cathartic. “It was a rough year for me. I started with Candidates (tied for second) but then in Norway Chess and the Tata Steel Chess, my performance was very bad. I was feeling very low at that time. I even thought of quitting professional chess. That was my state of mind then. But I was not ready to accept the defeat and finish my career on a systematically targeted,” said a source. According to tax experts, Digi Yatra data holds immense potential as an alternative to the government’s earlier attempts to gather travel data through loyalty programmes of air travel companies—a move constrained by privacy concerns. “By leveraging such data, authorities can achieve greater transparency and precision in tracking high-risk taxpayers, provided that appropriate safeguards for data privacy and proportionality are in place,” says Rajat Mohan, seni o r p a r t n e r, AM R G & Associates. Questions sent to the tax department and Digi Yatra on the issue remained unanswered till the time of filing of this report. It must be recalled that air travellers have raised privacy concerns over the collection data on the app. However, the authorities have maintained that data is not stored in any central repository, and that it is stored locally in the phone of the passenger. Open contest set for thrilling climax Lyon, Boland stand firm After reducing Australia to 91/6 in the second innings, India had a real chance to bowl the hosts for cheap. However, Marnus Labuschagne and Pat Cummins survived some scares to add to their first innings lead of 105. To add to India’s woes, Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland added 55 runs for the last wicket, taking Australia to 228/9 and more importantly, putting them ahead by 333 runs Day Four of the ongoing Boxing Day Test in Melbourne was a gripping contest. Indian bowlers ripped through the Australia top-order before being frustrated by the tailenders. All three results are possible on Day 5. A look... Record attendance It began with a little over 87,000 fans on Day 1, but as the Test enters Day 5, it has already become the most-attended Boxing Day Test at the historic venue (2,99,329), surpassing 2017-18 Ashes (2,71,855) Milestone man Bumrah It’s been a happy series for Jasprit Bumrah, 29 wickets in eight innings at 13.24—12 more than Cummins. On Sunday, Bumrah became the first-ever bowler to take 200 wickets at a Test average of less than 20 Humpy captures second world rapid title in US a j ay t o m a r @ Hyderabad formed is insertion of a tube in the chest to drain the accumulating blood. She has also suffered fractures in the nasal bone and the skull,” said Dr Mishal Johny, neurosurgeon, Renai Medicity, where Uma is undergoing treatment. A bulletin from the hospital said a CT scan revealed Grade 2 Diffuse Axonal injury (a moderate traumatic brain injury). It said further information about the MLA’s condition could only be provided after a 24-hour obser● More on P4 vation period.  New intel g rand f i n i s h M S V i d ya n a n d a n @T’Puram The exceptional gender balance translates into robust female voter participation, with 52.09% of the total votes by women. The achievement reflects the success of sustained efforts through targeted campaigns Fractured ribs lead to Police personnel below the dais from where Thrikkakara MLA Uma Thomas fell at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Kaloor in Kochi | A Sanesh 179 killed as South Korean plane crash-lands, erupts into fireball AGENCIES Docs say: MLA on ventilator support, doesn’t need emergency surgery as of now cade for support, but it gave way said Martin, an employee ,” of Doordarshan who was at the spot. Though initial reports said the MLA fell from a height of 20 ft, the doctors said it was 15-ft fall. They said the MLA was on ventilator support, but her condition was stable. “The MLA doesn’t need any emergency surgery as of now. She has been ventilated. She has suffered fractures in the ribs, which has led to bleeding in the lungs. The only major procedure that needs to be per- Koneru Humpy bad note,” she said, adding that she spent the whole of November training for World’s Rapid and Blitz. Chess could not have asked for better end to the year. Men’s world champion in D Gukesh, Candidates, World Cup finalist, Chess Olympiad gold for men and women and now world rapid woman champ. “There were a lot of spectators cheering considering it was being organised in the Financial District of New York (at Wall Street). I was ranked 10th at the start and lost the first round. I finished the day with only 2.5 points in four games. I did not imagine then that I could win. I was only looking to fight back after the first game’s loss. On Day 2, I won all the four games that helped me to climb to the joint lead. But after Day 3 ended in draws, I was expecting tiebreaks. I did not know that I had won and was preparing for tiebreaks. It was only when the arbiter told me I realised. I was surprised.” Humpy will now start with the World Blitz event from December 30. EXPRESS READ Guv Arif Khan bids farewell to Kerala T’Puram: After a tumultuous tenure as Kerala Governor, Arif Mohammed Khan left the state on Sunday to take up charge as Governor of Bihar. Citing official mourning on account of ex-PM Manmohan Singh’s death, the government did not hold any farewell event for him | P4 Youth killed in wild jumbo attack in Idukki Idukki: A 22-year-old youth was killed in a wild elephant attack inside a teak plantation near his house at Amelthotti in Idukki on Sunday. The deceased is Amar Ilahi. The state government announced a compensation of J10 lakh to his family | P4