tiruchy l Saturday l january 04, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION China plays down reports of flu outbreak, says it’s safe to visit China’s foreign ministry said there is no massive flu outbreak in the country and that its hospitals are not overwhelmed by the influx of flu patients ‘Respiratory infections less this year’ India alert, Closely monitoring situation “Respiratory infections tend to peak during the winter season in the northern hemisphere,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing in response to a question on the spread of Human Metapneumovirus and influenza A. “The diseases appear to be less severe and spread with a smaller scale compared to the previous year,” she said ■ ■ The National Centre for Disease Control under the Union health ministry said it is closely monitoring influenza cases in the country, and is in touch with international agencies in the wake of reports of an outbreak of the Human Metapneumovirus in China Officials said there is no substantial increase in flu infections in India HMPV is like any other respiratory virus which causes common cold 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 SBI research Rural poverty fell to record low of 4.86% in FY24: Report Express News Service @ Mumbai higher consumption in the lowest 0-5% decile and government support programmes have significantly brought down poverty in India — both rural and urban — an SBI research report released on Friday said. Rural poverty crashed to 4.86% in FY24 from a high level of 25.7% in 2011-12, while urban poverty dropped to 4.09% from 13.7% in the same period, the report noted. In FY23, rural and urban poverty rates were 7.2% and 4.6%, respectively . “The sharp decline in rural poverty ratio is on account of higher consumption growth in lowest 0-5 per cent decile with significant government support and such support is important as we also find that change in food prices has a significant impact on not just food expenditures, but overall expenditure in general,” the report said extrapolating the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. The survey showed that consumption inequality in both rural and urban areas declined during the August 2023-July 2024 period compared to a year ago. According to Soumyakanti Ghosh, group chief economic advisor at SBI, urban poverty could decline further. “At an aggregate level, we believe poverty rates in India could now be in the range of 4-4.5% with almost minimal existence of extreme poverty,” the report said. Govt notifies draft rules for digital privacy Children under 18 years will require parental consent to create social media accounts R a k e s h K u m a r @ New Delhi Draft rules mum on Penalties The draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules don’t mention penalties that were approved under the 2023 Act, which had a provision to impose a penalty of up to `250 crore on data fiduciaries in case of personal data breach Data of inactive users to be deleted If a company collects your data for a specific purpose but you don’t use it for a certain period, then it must delete your data. However, before deleting the data, the company must notify you 48 hours in advance CHILDREN under 18 will require parental consent to create social media accounts, according to the new draft regulations for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. If data fiduciaries—entities that process data— transfer Indians’ personal data abroad, they will have to strictly comply with some additional rules set by the Central government. The draft, titled Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2025 and released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) on Friday, provides for the government and its agencies to process Indians’ personal data to provide subsidies, benefits, services, certificates, licences, or permits. The draft, which outlines how companies and government agencies should handle digital personal data, is open for consultation till February 18. As per the draft rules, any company or organisation using personal data must seek the individual’s consent. They must clearly inform the individuals (data principals) about the purpose of data processing. Also, they need to provide a detailed description of the goods or services that will be offered. The draft norms say data fiduciaries must implement reasonable security measures to protect personal data, such as encryption, access control, monitoring for unauthorised access, and data backups. In the event of a data breach, the data fiduciary must promptly notify all affected individuals. Under the new regulation, children below 18 years will need their parents’ consent to create social media accounts on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. When collecting a child’s personal data, the data fiduciary must obtain verifiable consent from the child’s parent. To ensure this, the company must verify the parent’s identity and age using reliable sources, such as government-issued IDs or digital locker services. Creating counties in Ladakh unacceptable: India to China J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi New Delhi has lodged a “solemn protest” with Beijing against its creation of two new counties last month in Hotan prefecture, as parts these regions fall within the Union territory of Ladakh. New Delhi also conveyed its concerns to Beijing about China’s plan to build a massive hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo river, which flows into India. The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra as it exits Tibet and flows south into Arunachal Pradesh and Assam before entering Bangladesh. In a strong response, Exter- nal Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the creation of new counties will not affect India’s long-standing and consistent position on its sovereignty over the region, nor will it legitimise China’s “illegal and forcible” occupation of the area. “We have seen the announcement pertaining to the establishment of two new counties in Hotan Prefecture of China. Parts of jurisdiction of these so-called counties fall in India’s Union Territory of Ladakh,” he said, adding: “We have never accepted the illegal Chinese occupation of Indian territory in this area.” China’s state-owned media Xinhua reported on December 27 that the government of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region announced the establishment of two new counties in the region — He’an County and Hekang County. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the State Council approved them, it said. As for the dam, “The Chinese side has been urged to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed,” Jaiswal said. “We will continue to monitor and take necessary measures to protect our interests,” he added. ED searches Duraimurugan’s house, son’s college in Vellore E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Vellore Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at four locations in Vellore on Friday, including the Gandhi Nagar residence of Water Resources Minister and DMK General Secretary Duraimurugan. According to sources, the searches were carried out in relation to an Income Tax case regarding seizure of money in alleged bribing of voters in 2019. The minister’s house also serves as the official residence of his son, Vellore MP Kathir Anand. Other places searched were Kingston Engineering College, owned by Kathir Anand, and houses of local DMK functionary Pooncholai Srinivasan and his relative at Pallikuppam in Vellore district. Both Duraimurugan and his son were not in Vellore at the time of the search.Speaking to reporters at his residence in Chennai Kotturpuram, Duraimurugan said, “I don’t know what is happening at my residence. Only my two maids are there, and they are unaware of the situation.”  P5 express read Is there emergency in TN, asks state CPM secy Villupuram: K Balakrishnan, state secretary of CPI(M), a constituent of the DMK alliance, on Friday questioned Chief Minister M K Stalin as to “whether there is undeclared emergency in the state”. The Left party leader slammed the TN police for its alleged highhandedness in preventing opposition parties from holding protests in support of people’s issues | P4 One of the sites suggested to former PM Mammohan Singh’s family for his memorial | Parvez Sultan Govt awaits family’s word on memorial Site Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi Two adjoining sites measuring about 2,000 sq ft each within the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in the Capital await approval from former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s family to house his memorial. They are yet to pick one. After the visit of senior officials of the ministry of housing and urban affairs, the staff on Wednesday cleaned up the spots and pruned the grass there. According to the officials, an estimate of construction has been prepared and the allotment formalities will be initiated once they get word from Singh’s family . Spread over about 45 acres, the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal complex is sandwiched between Ring Road and Salimgarh bypass along the Yamuna bank. The two sites are next to the memorial of P V Narasimha Rao. They are surrounded by paved pathways and flanked by the memorials of former presidents and prime ministers Zail Singh, Shankar Dayal Sharma, R Venkataraman, K R Narayanan, Chandra Shekhar and I K Gujral. The 1 2 4 3 5 6 Spot the sites 1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s memorial 2. P V Narasimha Rao’s memorial 3. R Venkataraman Samadhi 4,5: Vacant sites suggested to Manmohan Singh’s family for building his memorial 6. I K Gujral’s memorial Sthal also has Sadaiv Atal, a memorial park where former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was cremated. The staff posted at the Sthal was expecting a visit by Singh’s family on Friday. However, no information was available about the visit till late evening. This newspaper had on Thursday reported that the government had decided to allocate land to a trust to be set up for the construction and maintenance of Singh’s memorial after receiving approval from his family . “The trust to be set up in Manmohan Singh’s name will build the memorial. The response of the family is awaited. The allotment formalities can only be initiated after the constitution of the trust. It may take about a week. This has been the practice. In the case of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a trust in his name had already existed. A senior official of the ministry was on Thursday entrusted with the task to inform the family about the possible location of Singh memorial,” said officials. The Cong ress veteran passed away on December 26 and his funeral took place three days later at Nigambodh Ghat. After Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge sought space for a memorial, the Union Cabinet set the ball rolling. In 2000, the then government had resolved not to allow separate memorials for dignitaries near Rajghat because of scarcity of space. 4-year-old girl dies after falling into school tank Vikravandi: A 4-year-old girl of a private school in Vikravandi suffocated to death after she fell into a septic tank on the school premises on Friday. The fully corroded iron lid of the tank cracked after the child stepped on it. The victim’s parents and locals staged a road blockade accusing the management . CM Stalin has announced a solatium of `3 lakh to P Liya Lakshmi’s family | P2 Fiery protest to Bhopal toxic waste A leaderless protest in Madhya Pradesh’s Pithampur town against the transport of Union Carbide’s toxic waste from Bhopal, became fiery as two protesters sustained burn injuries after attempting self-immolation | P8 Gas tanker topples, grips Kovai in fear Woman returning home Express news service @ Coimbatore clash of emotions Late on Day 1 of the final Test in Sydney, emotions took centre stage when Jasprit Bumrah was visibly upset with Australian opener Usman Khwaja for taking too much time to face the ball. Sam Konstas, at the non-striker’s end, got involved as tempers flared before Bumrah had Khwaja’s wicket off the last ball of the day | Ap | P11 Tension gripped Coimbatore on Friday morning after a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanker overturned on the old flyover on arterial Avinashi Road at Uppilipalayam, triggering 100kg of LPG leak. The breach was arrested after nearly six hours and the tanker was cleared from the spot after a 12hour operation. While nearly 40 schools in the vicinity were shut for the day, the accident threw traffic into disarray in the city. The incident comes just days after an LPG tanker collided with a truck on Jaipur-Ajmer highway in Rajasthan on December 28, triggering a fireball that killed The detached tanker with 18 metric tonnes of LPG in Coimbatore | Express at least 20 people. The tanker, carrying 18 metric tonnes of LPG from Kochi, got detached from the truck around 2.30am due to damage in the coupling plate when the vehicle took a turn on the roundabout of the flyover. The tanker fell from the trailer and landed on its side, causing gas leakage due to damage to its pressure cage. After nearly 12 hours, rescue teams managed to seal the breach and transfer the tanker to the BPCL bottling unit near Ganapathi with the help of huge cranes. Multiple fire-tenders were pressed into service and as a precautionary measure, public entry was restricted around 250-metre radius of the accident spot. All routes to the flyover were closed till afternoon and traffic was redirected at multiple places in the city Near. ly 40 schools located within 1km radius of the spot were asked to declare holiday for the day to ensure the safety of students.  Continued on p5 after work stabbed to death express news service @ Krishnagiri A 32-year-old woman returning home after work was stabbed 10 times near Uthangarai in Krishnagiri around 9pm on Thursday. She was taken to Uthangarai government hospital but she died on the way . Uthangarai police said, M Deepa, a widow from Kanjanur who was employed in a private company in Uthangarai, was returning home on her two-wheeler when she noticed two individuals following her. She immediately contacted her colleague Gowtham (22) and told him that she was feeling scared and asked him to rush to the spot. Gowtham told Deepa to keep moving and said he would come to her location. Later, when he tried to reach her on the phone to confirm her location, Deepa attended the call, but she could not speak. Gowtham heard screaming on the call briefly before the line got cut. Worried about her safety Gowtham , rushed to Deepa’s village located 5km away from Uthangarai only to find her lying on the ground with severe bleeding injuries on the outskirts of her village Kanjanur near a Murgan temple, police added. P5