KOLLAM l Wednesday l January 08, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Powerful Tibet earthquake kills 126, injures nearly 200 The massive earthquake struck the high-altitude region on Tuesday morning, flattening over 1,000 houses and trapping several people under rubble Temblor jolts Nepal, Bhutan, North India Quake strikes at Shallow depth of 10 km The epicentre was in Tibet’s Tingri county, where India and Eurasia plates grind against each other. The China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake’s magnitude was 6.8, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) measured it as 7.1, striking at 9.05 am local time. Reports said the tremors were felt in Bihar and several parts of north India, Nepal, and also Bhutan ■ ■ Tingri, the epicentre, is home to 62,000 people, and is less developed than urban centres like Tibet’s capital Lhasa. Many of the fallen houses were built with stone, mud bricks and wooden beams | P9 According to USGS, the quake occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km. Shallow tremors are dangerous because they cause greater damage 6,900 people live in 27 villages within a 20-km radius of the epicentre 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 Delhi goes to polls on February 5 Mukesh Ranjan & Ashish Sr i v a s ta v a @ New Delhi  Rescue operations in progress at the mine in Dima Hasao, Assam | PTI Three dead, six trapped as Navy joins rescue ops P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati AT LEAST three of the nine miners trapped inside a coal mine near Umrangso in Assam’s Dima Hasao district were reported dead even as deep divers from the Indian Navy joined forces with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the Ar my to rescue the miners. State government officials in Assam confirmed that three bodies had been seen inside the mine. “The bodies are yet to be recovered,” an official said. T h e n i n e wo rke r s g o t trapped in the coal mine on Monday. The mine has a 20 ft radius and is about 300 ft deep. The water level inside it rose to more than 100 ft. It is yet to be ascertained what caused the flooding. Rescue operations got delayed due to the remote location of the mine. The Navy team is now spearheading the operation. Special DGP Harmeet Singh said that divers from Army’s special forces, NDRF and SDRF had recced the area and shared their findings with the Navy’s divers. “The Navy team came along with deep diving equipment. There are tunnels inside the mine and more equipment will be required to go there,” Singh said. Singh said prima facie, it appeared to be an illegal mine. Police have arrested Punish Nunisa for operating the illegal coal mine. The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced a single-phase polling for Delhi Assembly on February 5. The votes will be counted on February 8. With the announcement of the schedule, the model code of conduct is now in force in the national capital, Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar said in a press conference. The stakes are higher than ever, not just for the political future of the city but for the ambitions of the three most significant political forces — AAP BJP and Congress. , For AAP, the election is a fight to retain its relevance and a referendum on its ability to sustain its governance-focused model amidst allegations of corruption. The party’s first term was marked by a transformational approach to governance. Now, as it enters its third term, AAP faces the weight of anti-incumbency compounded , by scandals involving party leaders and governance lapses ranging from corruption in liquor policies to mismanagement of public funds. There is also an intense scrutiny on Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership. His admission that promises like cleaning the Yamuna and reducing air pollution have not been fulfilled has given fodder to the opposition. To counter growing disillusionment, AAP has adopted a soft Hindutva approach, suddenly introducing a monthly honorarium of `18,000 for Hindu Congress set for big-ticket shake-up P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Stung by the electoral setbacks in the assembly elections, the Congress is set for a major organisational shake-up in the coming months. It is in tune with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s announcement during the Congress Working Committee meeting in Belagavi that 2025 will be marked by efforts to implement the Udaipur Declaration and equipping the party with necessary skills to win polls from the booth to the central level. According to sources, the party will effect major changes in AICC, state units, general secretary/ secretary levels and state in-charges among others. It is finalising the process of restructuring, which is likely to be announced by early February said sources. , According to sources, there will be a major overhaul in states such as Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra will see major restructuring from top to bottom, said a party source. “The party faced huge em- barrassment after the defeat of senior leaders such as Prithviraj Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat. Many heads will roll in the state,” said a senior leader. In UP, the grand old party has already dissolved its state and district committees. The state will go to polls in 2027. AICC general secretary incharge of Chhattisgarh Kumari Selja, may also face the axe in the reshuffle, said sources. After the party’s debacle in Haryana, Selja had questioned the election management of the leadership in the polls. and Sikh priests. For the BJP, it’s a chance to prove that its urban appeal is not just limited to larger states but can extend to the national capital as well. Desperate to reclaim the city BJP’s strategy is , blunt and combative: attack AAP on corruption and inefficiency and position itself as the over-arching solution to Delhi’s urban woes. For Congress, the 2025 elections are perhaps the most critical, as the party struggles to stay relevant. After suffering straight defeats in the last two assembly elections, Congress is faced with an identity crisis. EXPRESS READ FY25 GDP growth may slip to 6.4% New Delhi: The Indian economy is slowing and is likely to post the weakest GDP growth numbers since 2021-22, according to the first advance estimate by the National Statistics Office (NSO). The NSO data, released on Tuesday, show that real GDP growth in FY25 is likely to have decelerated to 6.4% compared to 8.2% in the previous fiscal. NSO’s estimate for FY25 is lower than the 6.6% growth forecast by the RBI. Boby Chemmanur booked on Honey Rose’s complaint E x pr e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi The police on Tuesday registered a case against businessman Boby Chemmanur on a complaint filed by actor Honey Rose, accusing him of making obscene remarks against her. The case has been registered under BNS Section 75(1)(4) for making sexually coloured remarks and Section 67 of the IT Act for publishing and transmitting obscene material in electronic form. According to police sources, the actor filed the complaint on Monday, following which her statement was recorded and an FIR registered. “We will summon Boby for interrogation. After receiving the complaint, we sought legal opinion, which recommended registering a case. The incident related to the case took place at Alakode in Kannur in August last year when the complainant inaugurated Boby’s jewellery store,” a police ● More on P4 officer said.