kochi l monday l february 10, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Trump says he spoke with Putin about ending war in Ukraine US President Donald Trump said he spoke to his Russian counterpart to try to negotiate an end to the war ahead of its third anniversary Donald Trump Vladimir Putin Putin wants to end conflict, says Don Trump told the New York Post he believes Vladimir Putin “does care” about battlefield deaths. “All those dead people. They’re like your kids, two million of them – and for no reason,” Trump said, adding Putin too wants to “see people stop dying”. Asked how many times he has spoken to Putin after taking office on January 20, Trump said he better not say Feb 24 Kremlin refuses to confirm or deny talks ■ ■ It is not clear when the two leaders spoke. The Kremlin has neither confirmed nor denied the talks were held. Last week, Russia said contacts with the US have “intensified” since Trump took office Trump campaigned on a promise to end the war. He said he has a concrete plan on how to do it. But it’s not clear if Russia is on board marks three years since Russian forces invaded ukraine in 2022 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 govt to be formed after PM returns from the US RA J ESH KUMAR T HAKUR Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh 31 Maoists, 2 cops resigns hours after meeting Shah killed in gunbattle Speaker Satyabrata Singh, minister Y Khemchand among front-runners to be the next CM @ New Delhi The BJP government in Delhi will be sworn in once Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from his visit to France and the United States. Modi will leave for France on Monday, and from there, he will travel to the US, where he is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump. Modi will return to India on Thursday. Sources indicated that the swearing-in ceremony will be a g rand event aimed at showcasing the unity within the BJPled National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The chief ministers of all BJP and NDA-ruled states are expected to attend. On Sunday BJP president J P , Nadda met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to expedite the government formation process. Speculation is rife regarding the next Delhi CM. Several names are being discussed, including Delhi MLA Parvesh Ver ma, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj, and party leaders such as Vijender Gupta, Rekha Gupta, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Satish Upadhyay, Manoj Tiwari, and Mohan Singh Bisht. Verma and Rekha Gupta are considered to be frontrunners. P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r & Rajesh Kumar Thakur @ Guwahati / New Delhi MANIPUR Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh resigned on Sunday a day before , the start of the crucial Assembly session in which he was to face a no-confidence motion. Singh submitted his resignation to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla in Imphal on Sunday evening, shortly after returning from Delhi where he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The governor asked him to continue in office till alternative arrangements are made, the Raj Bhavan said. The names of Assembly speaker T Satyabrata Singh and senior minister Y Khemchand are doing the rounds as Singh’s possible successor. According to sources, it is BJP’s internal politics that forced Biren Singh to resign nearly two years after the state Biren Singh hands over his resignation to Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, in the presence of BJP’s Northeast in-charge Sambit Patra and other leaders | ANI was torn by an ethnic conflict between Meiteis and Kukis that left over 250 people dead and 60,000 others displaced. Before his Delhi trip on Saturday evening, Singh had called a meeting with NDA MLAs. Only 20 of the 46 MLAs turned up. The 60-member House now has an effective strength of 59. Singh wanted to see how many MLAs were with him given that many of the BJP’s 37 legislators, including five who defected from JD(U), were demanding a leadership change. Two days ago, the Congress announced its plan to move a no-confidence motion against the government. The Congress, which has five MLAs, was hoping to get the support of the BJP rebels to take the number beyond 10 as required for the no-trust motion to stand. Sources said the BJP’s central leadership did not want to risk an embarrassing situation where the disgruntled MLAs might side with the Congress, and so it asked Singh to quit. The ‘leaked audio tapes’, in which a person taking credit for the ethnic violence, may also have worked against Singh as a forensic analysis showed a 93% probability that the voice samples were Singh’s. The matter is in the Supreme Court. The BJP was under tremendous pressure from the party’s Manipur MLAs to remove Singh. His resignation appears to be a calculated decision to avert further instability . Sources said the leadership was growing impatient with Singh as the ethnic violence had begun to tarnish Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reputation for good governance. express read Organ trade: Interpol red notice issued against kingpin of racket Kochi: Following the request of NIA, Interpol has issued a red-corner notice against Madhu Jayakumar, the kingpin behind trafficking people to Iran for illegally donating organs. With this, the NIA suspects that Madhu will likely surrender before the agencies. P5 10% tax cut insufficient, say bus operators Aero India 2025, Asia’s largest defence exhibition, starts today T’Puram: The 10% cut in road tax announced in the budget has evoked lukewarm response from stage carriage operators. While the FM emphasised that the cut was intended to promote public transportation, bus operators said it did little to address sector’s issues. P4 Bengaluru: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday termed Aero India a key platform to showcase India’s vision of becoming a self-reliant nation. The event will be held from February 10 to 14, and will showcase India’s latest aerospace advancements in Chhattisgarh E J AZ k a i s e r @ Raipur AT least 31 Maoists, including 11 women, were killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces in the Indravati National Park region of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh on Sunday. The encounter, which took place 450 km south of Raipur, resulted in the deaths of two security personnel and injured two others. Bastar range IG Sunderraj P said troops recovered 31 bodies, which are yet to identified. The injured personnel were airlifted to Raipur, where doctors reported signs of bullet injuries and fractures. Doctors said they’ll have to wait for 24 hours for further updates. The operation was launched based on specific intelligence inputs, with a joint team of security forces comprising the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Bastar Fighters, all units of the state police, tracking real-time locations of the Maoists for more than five days. Security forces crossed hilly terrain before launching a massive offensive from different directions, surrounding the Maoists in the Annapur forest in the core national park, some 90 km away from the Bijapur district headquarters, on Sunday . The forces recovered AK-47 rifles, self-loading rifles, INSAS reds neutralised this year in hotbed Date Jan 3 Jan 5 Jan 9 Jan 12 Place Casualties Gariaband 1 Narayanpur 5 Sukma 3 Bijapur 5 BijapurJan 16 Sukma border 12 Jan 21 Gariaband 16 Feb 1 Bijapur 8 Feb 9 Bijapur 31 assault rifles and grenade launchers from the encounter location. This year, 81 Maoists have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh. “In the last 13 months, 282 Maoists have been neutralised, 1,033 arrested and 925 have surrendered in Chhattisgarh”, said chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai. The series of encounters against left-wing extremists is a part of a renewed strategy to free Chhattisgarh from the clutch of Maoists. Shortly after the encounter, Union Home Minister Amit Shah took to X and announced, “...Before March 31, 2026, we will completely eradicate Naxalism from the country Shah .” also condoled the death of two security personnel. At R98 crore, SWIFT revenue more than doubles K r i s h n a K u m a r K E @ Kochi India captain Rohit Sharma celebrates his century during the 2nd ODI against England at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, Odisha, on Sunday | PTI KSRTC Swift Ltd (K-Swift), a sister concern of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation that operates long-distance buses, is having a good run, even as KSRTC continues to sputter along. KSRTC-Swift posted a total revenue of `98.07 crore in the 2023-24 financial year — an increase of 120.17% from `44.54 crore a year earlier. Net profit came in at `1.04 crore, up from `2.60 lakh in 2022-23, a budget document released by the state finance department showed. This comes even as KSRTC continued to incur losses. The corporation registered a net loss of `1,314.04 crore in 2023-24. While it recorded a total income of 3,185.54 KSRTC- YEAR 2021-22 2022-23* 2023-24* SWIFT: Revenue from operations 0.00 2,513.17 6,298 Profit & Other income 0.01 1,941.53 3,509.82 Loss (J in lakh) * Figures provisional Total income Total expenditure Net profit/loss after tax 0.01 4,454.70 9,807.82 20.69 1,873.11 4,329.15 -20.81 2.60 104.66 crore, total expenditure came in at `4,488.36 crore, said the document — titled ‘ Review of Public EnterA prises in Kerala 2023-24’. However, despite being on the rocks, KSRTC improved its performance by leaps and bounds, as total income rose by 46.99% from `2,167.13 crore in the previous fiscal. Consequently the corporation’s , net loss decreased by 11.85% to `1,314.05 crore from `1,490.67 crore a year earlier. In 2023-24, the company paid an amount of `10.97 crore as contribution to the central as well as state exchequer by way of taxes and duties, the report stated. KSRTC-Swift was incorporated on November 9, 2021, for providing necessary infrastructural, technical, managerial, operational support to the KSRTC for efficiently running its long-distance services. The company, which mainly operates super-fast services, employed 1,466 people in 2023-24. The KSRTC had a staff strength of 28,066 workers, including 24,579 permanent employees, as on March 2024. The report assumes added importance as Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar is reportedly planning the merger of KSRTC with Swift. “Both are functioning as separate entities. Since K-Swift is functioning efficiently, in my opinion, the merging of KSRTC and Swift, with the latter as the parent company, augurs well. However, the other way round will further burden management,” said Tomin J Thachankary, former KSRTC CMD. Booked in half-price Floodlight glitch stops 2nd ODI for 35 mins scam, retd judge says Adimali panchayat prez ‘weaves’ her ‘falsely implicated’ magic to sustain family, tradition Bamboo crafts G o m e s h S & Ta n m ay D a s @ Cuttack Rohit Sharma and Saqib Mahmood were in the middle of the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack along with the on-field umpires. The rest of the England team had already started walking off the field. For the second time in five minutes, one of the floodlights at the venue malfunctioned leading to a stoppage of play during the seventh over of India’s 305-run chase against England in the second ODI on Sunday . First, the lights went off from 6.15pm till 6.20pm, and just when Mahmood was about to bowl, the lights went off again. This time, it did not turn back on till 6.45pm, leading to cumulative stoppage of almost 35 minutes. It is understood that the generator that supplies power to the particular floodlight malfunctioned. “The generator attached to the floodlight malfunctioned, so the lights were off on that particular stand behind the clock tower. Now we have got the back-up generator on. It E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Malappuram The floodlight behind the clock tower at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack went off on Sunday | pti took time to change the connection from one generator to the other, which caused the delay said an OCA official. ,” The Barabati Stadium is one of the oldest in the country having been established in 1958. Once a Test venue, the stadium has lost its charm and is in need of renovation. Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, acting president of Odisha Cricket Association, had told this daily on Saturday that the association is in talks with the Odisha government for the stadium renovation. Full story: newindianexpress.com Rohit leads from front India skipper Rohit Sharma finally came good with the bat, scoring 119 off 90 balls to help India post a four-wicket win over England. Led by Rohit, India, who took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, chased down a target of 305 with 33 balls to spare. In a startling turn of events, Perinthalmanna police have registered a case against retired High Court judge Ramachandran Nair — who heads the Munambam Commission — in the the half-price scam that primarily revolved around promises of scooters at discounted rates. The case cites his alleged role as patron of the National NGO Confederation, founded by Anandhu Krishnan, the prime accused in the scam. Justice Ramachandran Nair refuted the charges, stating that the police filed the case without a preliminary investigation. He claimed the police acted on a false complaint, rendering the proceedings baseless. The former judge said he was merely an advisor to the NGO Confederation, and not a patron or someone in any position of authority . He also expressed suspicion that the case might be connected to individuals who had attempted to disrupt the activities of the Munambam Commission. The case was registered based on a complaint filed by Danimon, president of Kisan Service Society Angadipuram, which was re, sponsible for implementing the NGO Confederation’s schemes in Angadipuram.● More on P4 N e j m a S u l a i m a n @Idukki Being the president of Adimali panchayat in Idukki has not deterred Soumya Anil from continuing with her family occupation of bamboo weaving. Every day, after finishing her official duties, the 39-year-old returns home and gets on with weaving, transforming bamboo strips into baskets and other products. “Bamboo weaving has been one of the main livelihood options for the settlers of ST Colony in Adimali,” Soumya told TNIE. “Ever since the formation of the colony in 1974, the residents have been engaged in weaving, with an abundance of bamboo in the nearby reserve forest,” she said. She credited her parents for her knowledge of the art of weaving. “Since we couldn’t depend entirely on the income from selling bamboo products, I used to work at the anganwadi Soumya engaged in bamboo weaving at her house in ST Colony in Adimali in Plamalakkudi,” she said. Soumya, who won the local body election from ward 3 of Adimali panchayat, became its president with the support of the Congress. “To assume the presidential responsibilities, I had to take temporary leave from the anganwadi. However, bamboo weaving is still a source of income and an occupation for self-sustainability,” she said. Earlier, Soumya used to collect bamboo from the forest herself. However, due to time constraints, the raw material is now mainly sourced from middlemen. On working days, she spares at least four hours for bamboo weaving. She is fully occupied with weaving on holidays. “As soon as I get back home, I complete all household chores. From 7pm to 10.45pm, I engage myself in bamboo weaving. Though the settlers make various kinds of products, including, mats, rugs, baskets and storage items from bamboo, I mainly make bamboo scoop (winnowing tray) and baskets, which are usually sold to intermediaries for `120 each per ● More on P4 piece,” she said.