TIRUCHY l tuesday l january 21, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION National Company Law Tribunal orders liquidation of Go First The budget carrier had stopped flying three years ago after being bogged down by financial woes and filed for a voluntary insolvency resolution Liquidator to probe financial affairs Airline once Had a fleet size of 54 jets The resolution process did not take off and the tribunal has now ordered liquidation of the airline on an application by the Committee of Creditors (CoC). Dinkar Tiruvannadapuram Venkatasubramanian is the liquidator, who will continue to probe the airline’s financial affairs. He will submit a preliminary report within 75 days from the date of start of liquidation ■ ■ The airline reported a loss of `1,800 cr, including `800 cr notional loss due to accounting standards in the financial year ended March 2023 At its peak, Go First operated a fleet of 54 aircraft. In May 2024, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation de-registered all planes and by December lessors repossessed 28 aircraft and moved out of India 17 years No. of years Go First, earlier known as Go Air, remained in service 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 trump 2.0 begins National emergency declared at U.S.-Mexico border A raft of executive orders expected The golden age of America begins right now... I will very simply put America first —Donald Trump, US President Donald Trump takes the oath of office during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, on Monday | ap Guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk at the inauguration ceremony | ap a f p @ Washington donald Trump was sworn in for a historic second term as president on Monday pledging , a blitz of immediate orders on immigration and the US culture wars as he caps his extraordinary comeback. With one hand raised in the air and the other on a Bible given to him by his mother, the 47th US president took the oath of office beneath the huge Rotunda of the US Capitol. Trump and outgoing president Joe Biden had earlier travelled by motorcade together to the Capitol, where the ceremony was being held indoors— and with a much smaller crowd—for the first time in bypoll 47 candidates to contest in erode After the final scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations, the number of contestants in Erode bypoll stood at 47 | P4 decades due to bitter cold. Earlier, they and their spouses met for a traditional tea at the White House. Trump, 78, was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president, but this time he is surrounded by the wealthy and powerful, including the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after claiming electoral fraud by the Democrat, this time Biden has been keen to restore the sense of tradition. Biden joined for mer presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush . and Bill Clinton at the Capitol. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were there but ex-first lady Michelle Obama stayed away . Unusually for an inauguration where foreign leaders are normally not invited, Argentina’s hard-right president Javier Milei was attending, alongwith Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The bitter cold weather has forced Trump’s inauguration indoors for the first time since Ronald Reagan’s in 1985, missing out on the customary massive crowds along the National Mall. Behind the pomp and ceremony, the billionaire is kickstarting his nationalist, rightwing agenda with a barrage of around 100 executive orders undoing Biden’s legacy . Trump will declare a nation- al emergency at the Mexico border, give the US military a key role on the frontier, and end birthright citizenship, as he seeks clamp down on undocumented migrants, an official from the incoming administration said. Trump has pledged to start immediate deportations of undocumented migrants. He will also sign an order for the US government to recognize only two biological sexes and seek to eliminate federal gover nment diversity programs as he takes office. The announcement of the hardline policies came a day after Trump had promised a “brand new day” and to end “four years of American decline.” Biden issues preemptive pardons Hours before Trump’s swearing-in, outgoing president Joe Biden on Monday issued pre-emptive pardons to Dr Anthony Fauci, retired Gen Mark Milley, and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol Putin congratulates Trump, signals thaw Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Donald Trump just before his swering in. “We hear Trump’s statements about restoring direct contacts with Russia, which were halted by the outgoing administration... We welcome the approach,” he said Lifer till death for RG Kar accused S u l a gn a S e ng u p ta @ Kolkata A Sealdah court on Monday sentenced Sanjay Roy the lone , accused in the horrific rapemurder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year, to life imprisonment till death. The court, however, rejected the prosecution’s demand for death penalty saying it was not a “rarest of the rare” crime. Additional District and Sessions Judge Anirban Das ordered Roy to pay `50,000 as penalty and directed the West Bengal government to give the victim’s family `17 lakh as compensation — `10 lakh for death and `7 lakh for rape while at work. But the victim’s father refused to accept it. He instead demanded capital punishment of the accused. The judge said, “I don’t think money can compensate for any death. It was the liability of state to protect your daughter as she was on duty (when the @ Chennai In a bid to unite the voices against two controversial draft regulations released recently by the University Grants Commission, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday wrote a letter to the CMs of all opposition-ruled states, urging them to pass a resolution in their respective Assemblies against the regulations. The letter was addressed to the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, and New Delhi. Citing the resolution recently passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly urging the centre to immediately repeal the guidelines, Stalin said he “strongly believed that it is essential for all states to take a similar stance”. Pointing out there were several issues in the draft regulations, including the restriction of state’s role in selecting vice-chancellors and introducing entrance examinations for UG and PG courses, he said, “These guidelines are a clear infringement on the rights of states and will have farreaching consequences on the autonomy of our universities. We must stand united against attempts to centralise power and under mine the country’s federal structure.” P5 The Uttarakhand Cabinet on Monday approved the Uniform Civil Code’s (UCC) regulations, close to a year after the legislation was passed by the state assembly Chief Min. ister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the date of its implementation will be announced soon. Sources suggested it could be notified on January 26, a day after the results of the January 23 municipal elections is announced. A mock drill of a UCC portal set up by the government will be held on Tuesday Govern. ment officials tasked with managing the portal have already been given ample training. Uttarakhand’s UCC encompasses various aspects of personal law, including marriage, divorce, maintenance, property rights, adoption and inheritance. “The code recognises live-in relationships, ensuring that children born from such unions are entitled to equal inheritance rights,” an official stated. The UCC aims to establish a uniform legal framework applicable to all individuals, regardless of their religion, caste or community . However, the state’s tribals are out of its ambit. 4 held in murder of activist sent to judicial custody TVK chief Vijay addressing protesting villagers of Ekanapuram and party cadre at Parandur in Kancheepuram on Monday | pti Parandur project: Vijay slams DMK B A N BUSELVA N @ Kancheepuram Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam president Vijay on Monday urged the union and state governments to review the proposal to build a greenfield airport at Parandur in Kancheepuram district and demanded that the airport be built at another location that would cause minimal damage to far mlands and waterbodies. He alleged that those in power have “hidden gains” beyond establishing the airport in Parandur, which the people are aware of. The actor-turned-politician also declared that the Monday meeting marked the beginning of his “field-level politics”. It can be recalled that Vijay has been attracting criticism from various quarters for not acting as a full-time politician. Vijay, along with his party cadre, visited Parandur amid tight security arrangements by the police and met the residents of Ekanapuram and abutting villages near a marriage hall to express solidarity with the villagers, who have been protesting against the project for over 900 days. He asked the state why it had opposed tungsten mining in Madurai district, but has taken a different stand with respect to Parandur. P5 Skywatch time as rare celestial show begins; 7 planets to align in March In a rare celestial event, seven planets of the Solar System will align by March this year. Six of them — Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — will begin to come into alignment on Tuesday (January 21), while Mercury will join in on February 28. Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye, but Uranus and Neptune will require a telescope to observe the alignment, which is called a ‘planetary parade’. Dr B R Guruprasad, Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, explained to this newspaper that a ‘planetary parade’ is a phenomenon in which multi- ple planets appear in the sky at the same time from the perspective of observers from Earth, more clearly visible in the evening/night sky . Highlighting its significance, Guruprasad said while a few planets align when they cross paths in their orbits, having as many as seven align at once is rare. horrific rape-murder happened). This is a statutory provision. If you take it, you can use it. I gave whatever I felt. You can move a higher court.” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was not happy with the verdict, and so did junior doctors at RG Kar. The victim’s colleagues cited unresolved questions and the absence of action against other potential suspects. They wanted a more thorough probe, including the motive and the involvement of others. However, the National Commission for Women welcomed the ruling. Roy was convicted by a special court on Saturday, nearly six months after his arrest. N ARE N DRA SET H I @ Dehradun planetary parade R i s h i ta Kh a nn a @ Bengaluru While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and junior doctors at RG Kar were unhappy with the verdict, the National Commission for Women welcomed it U’khand cabinet clears UCC rules Oppose UGC draft, CM appeals to other states Express News Service Different strokes Venus will be the brightest and the most eye-catching. Mars, with its red hue, will resemble a glowing bulb. Saturn will appear as a tiny dot in the western sky, while Jupiter will look similar, but positioned in the southern sky . Uranus and Neptune will appear like small bright dots, but not be visible to the naked eye. March 8 will mark the maximum elongation, with Mercury reaching its farthest point from the Sun. By March 12, Saturn will dip below the horizon for a while, but from February 28 to March 12, the planetary alignment will be at its peak. The alignment happens along the ecliptic, which is an imaginary line that marks a path that Earth and other planets follow while orbiting the Sun. The planets will not line up side by side in a straight line next to each other, but will appear at different points in the sky, all visible to the observer — Dr B R Guruprasad, Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium PUDUKKOTTAI: Four people, including a quarry owner, arrested on the charge of murdering anti-sand mining activist K Jagabar Ali in Pudukkottai on Friday, were remanded to judicial custody till February 3 on Monday . According to police, Ali died on the spot after a tipper lorry , suspected to have been used by the accused, ran over him when he was returning from a mosque in his bike on Friday afternoon. The Thirumayam judicial magistrate on Monday remanded R Rasu (54), owner of RR Sand Crushers, his son R Dinesh Kumar (25), and two other accomplices, S MuruganandK Jagabar Ali han (56) and Kasinathan (45), to custody . Opposition parties, including the AIADMK, BJP, PMK, and AMMK, on Monday condemned the murder of the social activist. The DMDK has announced a protest demonstration in Thirumayam on January 24 to condemn the incident. Meanwhile, Law Minister S Regupathy in a post on , X (formerly Twitter), said the suspects in the case were arrested within hours of the incident and assured that all those involved would be brought to justice.  ENS more reports on P4