NAGAPATTINAM l Thursday l January 02, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION Expect warmer January than normal in most parts of India: IMD Minimum and maximum temperatures are likely to be above normal in most parts of India, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said below normal winter rainfall in the north last year was warmest since 1901 Apart from some areas in eastern, northwest, and west-central regions, other parts of the country will see minimum and maximum temperatures above normal, the IMD said. States in north India are most likely to receive below-normal rainfall from January to March. This may affect the growth of rabi crops, which depend on winter rainfall ■ ■ Monthly rainfall over the country as a whole during January is most likely to be more than 118% above the long-period average, IMD said The meteorological department said 2024 was the warmest on record in India since 1901, with an annual mean temperature of 25.75 degrees Celsius, 0.65 degrees above the long-period average 31.250C was the average maximum temperature in 2024 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 Govt outreach to put fertiliser rates on leash Cabinet’s first decision of the new year on farmers; crop insurance schemes extended M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi At a time when farmers in Punjab are on the war path, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday allocated up to `3,850 crore for a one-time package to subsidise the di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser and approved a one-year extension of two crop insurance schemes. In a post on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “(Govt’s) first decision of the New Year is dedicated to crores of farmer brothers and sisters of our country. We have approved increasing the allocation for the crop insurance scheme. This will provide more security to farmers’ crops and will also mitigate their concerns about any damage.” The decision on DAP will ensure farmers get it at affordable prices, he added. The DAP subsidy aims to keep retail prices at `1,350 per bag of 50 kg, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said during a media briefing. Last year, the Centre announced a one-time special package on DAP at `3,500 per tonne, valid from April 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, with a financial implication of `2,625 crore. The package was over and above DAP subsidy `3,850 crore Kerala to spend `750-cr to rehabilitate Wayanad victims E x press N e w s S er v i c e @ T’Puram Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday unveiled the project plan to build two townships in Wayanad to rehabilitate the victims of the July 30, 2024 landslides. Estimated to cost `750 crore, the townships will come up on 58.5 hectares and 48.96 hectares of the Nedumbala Estate in Kottapadi village and Elstone Estate in Kalpetta village, respectively, in Wayanad. The cabinet decision comes five days after the Kerala High Court dismissed the pleas of Harrisons Malayalam Ltd and Elstone Tea Estates Ltd against land acquisition. According to the project plan, each family will get either five cents of land at Elstone Estate or 10 cents at Nedumbala Estate, calculated on the basis of the land value. Each house will have 1,000 sq ft built-up area. No timeline has been specified for the project but Pinarayi said the government would strive to complete it as early as ‘Write off debts’ Pinarayi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to convene a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority to consider the state’s request to write off debts of landslide victims Farmers to get DAP at `1,350 per bag of 50 kg Market rate of DAP is over `3,000 per bag of 50 kg Total fertiliser subsidy burden on govt T M uruganan d ham @ Chennai `11.90 lakh crore the nutrient-based subsidy fixed by the government on non-urea nutrients. Besides, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) have been extended to align it with the 15th Finance Commission period, Vaishnaw said. The outlay for PMFBY and RWBCI has been enhanced to `69,515.71 crore for 2021-22 to 2025-26, up from `66,550 crore for 2020-21 to 2024-25. For targeted infusion of technolog y in crop insurance schemes, the Cabinet also approved a separate fund with a corpus of `824.77 crore. new year rush at Ram temple A huge rush of devotees to offer prayers at the Ram Lalla Temple in Ayodhya on the first day of the New Year on Wednesday. This is the first New Year celebration at the Ayodhya shrine after its consecration early last year. According to local administration estimates, more than five lakh devotees paid homage to the deity of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on Wednesday | PTI A N U R A A G S I N G H @ Bhopal Reinforced container trucks transporting hazardous waste collected from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal to Pithampur Industrial Area, on Wednesday night cially designed trucks with leakproof, fire-resistant, and GPS-enabled containers are carrying the waste—toxic soil, pesticide residues, and chemicals. The process of collecting, packing, and loading of the marked as ‘no-go’ zone will also be rehabilitated, he said. A study done after the disaster had identified certain areas surrounding the affected places as landslide-prone and classified the houses as ‘no-go’ zone. Pinarayi said the beneficiaries will keep ownership of their land in the disaster-affected areas even after relocating to the township, and also get ownership of the respective properties in the township with a rider on the cut-off date for resale. Meanwhile, training guns on waste, which was lying at a sealed shed within the closed factory, had started on Sunday under the supervision of experts. Over 200 trained workers were deployed, each of them operating in short 30-minute shifts following strict safety measures, including wearing PPE kits. The entire process—unlocking the waste, its secure and safe packing, and loading on to the secured containers—was videofilmed and recorded. “The incineration process could take 3-9 months, depending on the speed (feed rate),” Swatantra Kumar Singh, director of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Directorate, told this newspaper. The move comes amid stiff protests from activists who claimed the incineration process would pollute the soil and ground water in the villages around Pithampur, a charge refuted by the authorities. Indore mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava, who is a BJP leader, has also voiced concern, saying the decision to destroy the waste should be reviewed. express read Tangedco worker dies in mishap 39kg ketamine seized in Chennai US truck-ramming attack kills 10 Tirunelveli: A 52-year-old Tangedco contract worker died on Tuesday night after falling from an electric pole. Alleging that no Tangedco official contacted them, the worker’s kin filed a plaint and refused to receive his body from Tirunelveli GH, demanding action against the officials and compensation, on Wednesday | P4 Chennai: One day after a drug bust of `17-crore worth methamphatamine from a house in Vadakarai and arrest of ten individuals, Greater Chennai Police have seized 39.1 kg of ketamine worth `3.8 crore and arrested three people with links to Myanmar. According to sources, ketamine is a psychotropic substance listed under the NDPS Act | P3 New Orleans: A man drove a pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year in Florida’s New Orleans’ on Wednesday, killing 10 people before being shot dead by police. The FBI is investigating the incident as an “act of terrorism”. Investigators were combing New Orleans’ French Quarter for potential explosive devices, an official said | p9 In a move that will have a significant impact on local governance in 28 districts, Tamil Nadu’s Municipal Administration Department has notified proposals for creating 13 new municipalities, extending the boundaries of 16 municipal corporations, merging village panchayats in 12 districts with 25 town panchayats, upgrading 25 village panchayats in 14 districts as town panchayats, and extending the boundaries of 41 municipalities. The 16 corporations that will have their boundaries expanded are Greater Chennai, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Erode, Karur, Hosur, Madurai, Salem, Tiruchy Tiruppur, Ava, bangladesh unrest Infiltrators coming to India to work in textile mills: sarma P rasanta M a z um d ar @ Guwahati Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday dropped a bombshell claim that a section of India’s textile industry is illegally “importing” cheap labourers from Bangladesh where the industry has taken a hard hit in the aftermath of the unrest that brought down the government of Sheikh Hasina. “The Assam Police are detecting 20 to 30 infiltrators every day and an equal number of people are seen in Tripura also. When we tried to understand why this is happening, we found the textile industry in Bangladesh has virtually collapsed after the unrest,” Sarma said. He alleged that many textile factory owners in India were making use of the situation and are incentivising textile workers there to come to India and work in facto- ries here with better pay. “We have to strike at those industrial houses that are incentivising people to come to India in the form of cheap labour,” Sarma said, adding the Centre is taking the issue seriously . He said he has discussed the matter with counterparts in the Northeast and West Bengal. “I have also discussed it with Home Minister Amit Shah in my last meeting,” Sarma said. However, industry representatives in Tamil Nadu denied Sarma’s claim. “After a similar alert in August, we verified the documents, including Aadhaar, of workers working in knitwear manufacturing units. The police are also actively investigating. However, no illegal entries were found,” K M Subramanian, president of Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, said. He added that units are not incentivising such workers either. g ps -tag g e d f o r jatay u co n s e rvat i o n Lone vulture flies 4,000km to reach TN from Maha S V K R I S H N A C H A I TA N YA @ Chennai The vulture is currently in Aranthangi at an abandoned agricultural plot | Express the BJP, Pinarayi said the Centre’s delay in declaring the landslides as a disaster of ‘severe nature’ deprived Kerala of the chance to avail funds from UN agencies and NGOs. “Though the Inter-Ministerial Central Team recommended the Home Ministry to declare the tragedy as a disaster of ‘severe nature’ within a month of the incident, no action was taken for two months. The inordinate delay denied us opportunity to secure additional assistance,” he charged. TN govt notifies proposals for 13 new municipalities One-time special package 40 yrs on, toxic Union Carbide waste exits Bhopal FOUR decades after the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy killed thousands of people, some 337 tonnes of toxic waste lying at the defunct Union Carbide factory were on Wednesday night moved to another site in Dhar district. The Madhya Pradesh government is shifting the hazardous waste out of Bhopal to comply with a MP High Court order, which on December 3 had directed it to shift the toxic waste within four weeks. The state government has to file compliance report before the next hearing on January 6. Officials said the toxic waste has been sent to Pithampur Industrial Area, 250 km from Bhopal, for disposal. A dedicated green corridor has been created to transport the hazardous material in one night. Twelve spe- possible. “Activities are ongoing so that the final list of disasteraffected families is released by January 25,” he said. Families that lived in houses A one-year-old captive-bred juvenile white-rumped vulture, listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, has flown from the Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra to Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu. The vulture was GPS-tagged and released in Tadoba-Andhari in July as part of the Jatayu conservation initiative. The Maharashtra forest department and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have GPS tagged 20 vultures (10 longbilled & 10 white-rumped), all brought from the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre in Pinjore, Haryana. While the long-billed vultures were released in the Pench Tiger Reserve, the white-rumped ones were released in Tadoba. Of these, one juvenile white- rumped vulture has been observed to be wandering alone and flying long distances. As per GPS data shared with TNIE, the vulture has so far covered 4,000km, making pit stops in different states in past five months. Data shows it even stopped in Chennai briefly . Currently, the vulture has been spotted in Aranthangi at an abandoned agricultural plot. For the past four days, the bird has been stationed in the same location. BNHS then asked S Bharathidasan, founder of Arulagam, an NGO focusing on conservation of vultures in the Nilgiris, to check on the bird since it stopped moving. Bharathidasan told TNIE, “The bird is not injured. Because it has travelled such a long distance, probably without sufficient intake of food, it is exhausted.”  P5 di, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Thoothukudi, and Sivakasi. The expansion will entail merging of four municipalities, five town panchayats, and 149 village panchayats with these corporations. The Greater Chenn a i C o r p o r at i o n w i l l b e extended by merging with Adayalampattu and Vanagaram village panchayats in Tir uvallur district. Another 147 village panchayats and a town panchayat will be merged to expand 41 municipalities. Additionally, 13 new municipalities of Sankagiri, Kothagiri, Avinashi, Perundurai, Gavunthapadi, Polur, Chengam, Kanniyakumari, Harur, Sulur, Mohanur, Naravarikuppam and Veppampatu will be created.  P5 GST kitty Dec mop-up rises 7.3% year-on-year Gross GST revenue of the Centre and states stood at `1.77 lakh crore in December 2024, up from `1.65 lakh crore recorded in the same month of 2023 | P10 4 arrested for sexual assault of TN woman e x press ne w s ser v i c e @ Ramanathapuram Four persons have been arrested by Ramanathapuram Town police for allegedly sexually assaulting a 38-year-old woman in an isolated location near Puthendhal village on Sunday night. All four accused were remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday . Police said the woman was returning to her village in an autorickshaw late on Sunday night. Along the way she made a stop , to attend nature’s call, and made her way behind some bushes alongside a railway track. At the time, the accused — identified as Bhuvanesh Kumar (27), Saran Murugan (37), Selva Kumar (27) and Kutty @ Munish Kannan (26) of Puthendhal — arrived there and allegedly sexually assaulted her. Subsequently, on Tuesday morning, the survivor filed a complaint with the Ramanathapuram Town police and was admitted to the Ramanathapuram Government Hospital for treatment. The Ramanathapuram All-Women Police Station registered a case and arrested all four accused on Wednesday. The accused were then produced before the Paramakudi Magistrate and remanded in judicial custody for 10 days.