BHUBANESWAR  THURSDAY  FEBRUARY 06, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION U.S. WILL ‘TAKE OVER’ GAZA STRIP, REDEVELOP IT: DONALD TRUMP US prez made these remarks on Tuesday during a joint press conference in the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GAZA BET WORTH PURSUING, SAYS NETANYAHU APPALLED U.S. ALLIES, FOES REJECT IDEA Trump said he envisions a redeveloped Gaza like “the Riviera of the Middle East.” “We’ll own it and dismantle all unexploded bombs ... level the site, create economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.” Netanyahu, when asked about the US taking over Gaza, said, “I think it’s something that could change history. it’s worth pursuing this avenue.” ■ ■ Egypt, Jordan and other American allies rejected Donald Trump’s idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza. Australia said it supports a two-state solution in the Middle East | P9 Democratic senator Chris Coons said, “This risks the world thinking we are an unreliable partner as our president makes insane proposals” 40 mins LENGTH OF THE PRESSER WHERE TRUMP GOT THE GAZA BRAINWAVE 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 largest Pollsters see BJP ‘Capital gain’ India is 2ndAltman AI market: P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi HOLY DIP Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Sangam during the Maha Kumbh Mela, in Prayagraj on Wednesday | PTI 18 non-Hindu TTD staff face stern action E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Tirumala THE Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has barred 18 employees practising non-Hindu rituals from all religious programmes and functions of the temple body until further orders. TTD Executive Officer J Shyamala Rao instructed department heads not to assign these employees to any temple or religious programme-related work. And TTD Chairman B R Naidu reaffirmed that non-Hindu employees will be transferred out to Andhra Pradesh government departments or offered voluntary retirement. The disciplinary action, sources said, is in line with TTD’s commitment to preserving the sanctity of its temples. “It has been proved that 18 TTD employees are practicing and participating in non-Hindu religious activities, though they have taken an oath that they will follow Hindu Dharma (religion) and traditions only,” said Syamala Rao in a memo. The 18 staff include professors, lecturers and nurses, working in colleges, hospitals and hostels run by TTD. In November 2024, the TTD Board said it would write to the N Chandrababu Naiduled NDA government for taking an appropriate decision on non-Hindus working in Tirumala. It had recommended the transfer of non-Hindu employees to other government departments. State IT and HRD minister Nara Lokesh supported the action against the TTD employees and said, “We stand by it.” WITH the high-stakes assembly election in Delhi coming to a close on Wednesday, several pollsters predicted the return of the BJP to power after 27 years, with a clear majority. Exit poll predictions often go awry but if they get it right this time around, it will be a huge setback for the ruling AAP, which is seeking a third consecutive term in office. As for the voter turnout, it stood at 60.42% as of 11 pm, creeping towards the 2020 figure of 62.59%. Seven of 10 exit polls predicted anywhere between 39 and 50 seats for the BJP and 20-25 for AAP Seven pollsters predicted . not more than three seats for the Congress, which is fighting for revival in Delhi. In the 70-member Delhi assembly, 36 is the majority mark. While People’s Pulse gave a sweeping 51-60 seats for t h e B J P - l e d N DA , Chanakya Strategies predicted 39-44 for it. The P-Marq exit poll predicted 39-49 seats for the BJP and its allies, 21-31 for AAP and 0-1 , for the Congress. However, two surveys — Wee Preside and Mind Brink — predicted a sweeping victory for the AAP According to WeePre. side, AAP is expected to get 4652 seats, restricting BJP to 18-23 seats. The Mind Brink survey predicted 44-49 seats for AAP and 21-25 for the saffron party . If most of the pollsters get it right, it will be a body blow for the Congress — which was hoping to rise like a Phoenix — after the reverses in Haryana and Maharashtra. The gloves were off as the Congress and the AAP both IN, DIA bloc allies, unleashed an all-out war against each other during the election campaign. However, most of the other constituents of the bloc, including the Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) extended support to the AAP They also endorsed TMC . chief Mamata Banerjee for the leadership of the bloc. For the Congress party it is a battle for , survival in the Capital city it ruled for 15 years in a row. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi People after casting votes during the Delhi Assembly elections, at Jamia Nagar in Okhla, New Delhi, on Wednesday | PTI EXIT POLL PREDICTIONS Source TOTAL SEATS 36 HALFWAY MARK BJP+ Cong 25-28 39-44 2-3 DV Research 70 AAP Chanakya Strategies 26-34 36-44 0-0 JVC 22-31 39-45 0-2 Matrize 32-37 35-40 0-1 Mind Brink 44-49 21-25 0-1 P-Marq 21-31 39-49 0-1 People’s Insight 25-29 40-44 0-2 Peoples Pulse 10-19 51-60 0-0 Poll Diary 18-25 42-50 0-2 WeePreside 46-52 18-23 0-1 POLL OF POLLS 30 39 1 TWO years after dismissing India’s AI potential as ‘hopeless’, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday acknowledged that India has grown to become the second biggest market for his firm’s flagship product, the ChatGPT, after the US. Altman, while discussing India’s progress in AI alongside Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at an event in Delhi, said Open AI has tripled its users in India in the past year. Praising India’s rapid optimisation of the new technology, he said: “The innovation that’s happening, what people are building [in India], it’s really incredible. We’re excited to do much, much more here, and I think it’s (the Indian AI program) a great plan.” During his earlier visit to India in June 2023, Altman had termed the country’s ability to develop a foundational model similar to ChatGPT “totally hopeless”, suggesting that India would be better off without FINMIN ASKS STAFF NOT TO USE AI APPS The finance ministry has directed its officers not to use AI tools/ apps such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek in office devices or computers, saying they pose confidentiality risks to data and documents. trying to create its own model. He later claimed his words were taken out of context. Altman now says training AI models is still expensive but it is becoming increasingly feasible, so India can take the lead in AI development. His shift in tone comes in the wake of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek creating a foundational model at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s offerings. The rise of DeepSeek has put pressure on OpenAI and other Western firms to lower prices to remain competitive. Registration must, false promises barred in draft Bill on coaching centre D I A N A S A H U @ Bhubaneswar A new Bill drafted by the Odisha government to regulate private coaching centres and hostels in the state proposes mandatory registration certificates for operation of such facilities. It also says the centres cannot make false promise of ranks to the students. With privately-run coaching centres mushrooming across the state, the Higher Education department has drafted the Odisha Coaching Centres and Private Hostels (Regulation and Control) Bill, 2025 which was released recently . It mandates that all new and old coaching centres (with or without hostel facilities) have to be registered under the Act and not make any misleading promises, or guarantee ranks or good marks to students for enrolling in them. Also, every coaching centre will have to open a website that provides information to 2ND JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BID TO END BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP Two weeks after federal judge John Coughenour held it unconstitutional, district judge Deborah Boardman has ordered a pause on Trump’s plan 19 women among 104 deportees in first batch from the US arrive H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh A US air force aircraft carrying 104 Indian immigrants from different states landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump dispensation as part of the crackdown against illegal immigration in that country . Of the deportees, 33 each are from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two Punjab minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from Chandigarh, sources said. The deportees include interacts with deportees | PTI 19 women and 13 minors. The US action comes just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington. The C-17 Globemaster landed at the Amritsar airport at 1.55 pm, where a posse of police personnel were deployed, flanked by some anxious relatives of those who were sent back. All deportees were questioned inside the airport by government agencies, including officials from Ministry of External Affairs and Home Affairs. Arrangements were being made to send all deportees to their homes following background checks, an official said. Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal, who met some deportees at the airport, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene on behalf of Indians facing deportation in the US. Jaspal Singh from Hardorawal in Gurdaspur reached home late in the evening and told local television channels that he had paid `30 lakh to an agent to reach the US, who took 5 months to send him there. “The agent told me he would send me legally but he used the donkey route,” he said. students on qualifications of tutors, courses offered, fees to be charged, exit and fee refund policy Most importantly, . the website must contain the exact number of students who undertook coaching and succeeded in getting admission in higher educational institutions. As per the draft bill, any person seeking to establish or run coaching institutes would be required to apply before the EXPRESS READ Bikashita Gaon, Bikashita Odisha will bridge the divide: CM Majhi Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Wednesday said that his government is working hard to bring transformative changes in the lives of rural people by bridging the gap between villages and towns. Launching the ‘Bikashita Gaon, Bikashita Odisha’ at Jankia in Khurda district, the CM said this initiative aims to end the divide in development between urban and rural areas | P3 district collector along with a registration fee of `5,000. It prohibits the coaching centres from engaging teachers of any government or aided college or university. Trained, nongovernment teachers or those who have retired with at least graduation as their qualification can be hired by the centres. Since infrastructure is the biggest concern in private coaching centres and hostels, the Bill has mandated that the coaching centre should have a minimum of one square metre ( sq mtr) area on an average for each student, and hostels should have a minimum of two sq mtr area per student in dormitories. Both the coaching centres and hostels should have fire safety certificates from the Fire services directorate and install fire safety equipment and CCTVs on the CONTINUED ON P5 premises. PROPOSED NORMS  Registration mandatory  No misleading ads on guarantee of good marks/ranks  Publicise faculty qualifications, refund policy  DEOs to accept complaints against centres