BHUBANESWAR  WEDNESDAY  MARCH 26, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  JEYPORE EDITION U.S. EMBARRASSED AS SECRET PLAN TO ATTACK YEMEN LEAKED TO MEDIA ‘HIGHLY DAMAGING’ SITUATION BARELY AVOIDED The plan was leaked to The Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to a Signal app chat with top officials like VP J D Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The leak could have been highly damaging if the enemy somehow accessed to the plan A journalist was accidentally included in a group chat where top US officials were discussing upcoming strikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels ■ 2 days WHY WAS SIGNAL, A COMMERCIAL APP, USED? ■ Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X on Tuesday that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed” and “no classified material was sent” But top Democrats condemned the breach, saying it was illegal and calling for an investigation to find out why officials were using a commercially available app for sensitive discussions | P9 BEFORE THE ACTUAL AIRSTRIKE WAS WHEN GOLDBERG WAS ADDED 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 Speaker suspends 12 Congress MLAs for seven days for ‘unruly behaviour’ FROSTY TIES Intent, ability in India to interfere with polls: Canada J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi INDIA has the ‘intent and capability’ to interfere in Canadian communities and democratic processes, a media report said quoting Vanessa Lloyd, the deputy director of operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Lloyd claimed that China, Russia and Pakistan too could interfere in the federal election campaign. She was addressing a media briefing on Monday on efforts to protect the integrity of the general election, voting for which takes place on April 28. Lloyd added that “hostile state actors” were increasingly leveraging AI to meddle in the polls announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday . Under a federal protocol int ro d u c e d i n 2019, the news channel CTV News said, a panel of bureaucrats had the power to warn the public if it decided one or more incidents threaten Canada’s ability to hold a free and fair vote. Most threat actors ‘likely have adapted their tradecraft to conceal foreign interference activity, making it even more challenging to detect’, Lloyd mentioned, adding that it was ‘highly likely’ China would use social media to promote narratives favourable to its interests and target Chinese ethnic, cultural and religious communities in Canada using “clandestine and deceptive” means. The ministry of external affairs has so far not responded to these charges. But in January the nation rejected “insinu, ations” levelled by a Canadian commission report of interference in the 2022 election of Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative Party leader. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar Himachal Pradesh HC Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia, a member of the panel set up by the SC, arrives at Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence, in New Delhi on Tuesday | PTI SC panel begins ‘currency stash’ probe, visits site Committee inspects Justice Varma’s house where burnt cash was allegedly discovered allegations of corruption following the discovery of cash at his home following a fire inciTHE Supreme Court-appointed dent on the night of March 14. committee on Tuesday began Justice Varma, who has since its probe into the discovery of been de-rostered by the Delhi cash from the residence of Del- High Court, has denied the alhi High Court judge Yashwant legations against him terming Varma, even as the Allahabad the whole affair a conspiracy . High Court Bar Association The SC Collegium on Monstarted an indefinite strike in day confirmed that it had recprotest against the proposed ommended Justice Varma’s transfer of the tainted judge to transfer to the Allahabad HC, the Allahabad HC. triggering fiery proT he probe panel tests from the bar assomembers—Justice ciation, which urged Sheel Nagu, Chief Jus- There have been the Central gover ntice of the High Court ment not to clear the attempts to of Punjab and Harya- cover up... Until a Collegium’s decision. na; Justice G S SandhaBar association chief resolution is walia, Chief Justice of reached, we Anil Tiwari said the won’t resume the High Cour t of protest is not against Himachal Pradesh; and work, no matter any court but against consequences Anu Sivaraman, Judge those who betrayed the of the High Court of judicial system. Allahabad HC Karnataka—reached Meanwhile, Rajya Bar Association Justice Varma’s official Sabha Chairman Jagresidence at 30, Tughlak Cres- deep Dhankhar on Tuesday cent, in Delhi at 1 pm. They held a meeting of floor leaders spent around 45 minutes there to discuss judicial accountabiland examined the room where ity in the wake of the developthe stash of cash was allegedly ments. The meeting came a day found, sources said. after Dhankhar interacted with It was not immediately Leader of the House J P Nadda known whether Justice Varma and Leader of Opposition Malwas at his residence when the likarjun Kharge, and referred inquiry panel visited. to the mechanism for judicial The panel’s findings will be appointments after the passage crucial in deciding the fate of of the NJAC Act in 2014, which Justice Varma, who is facing the SC later struck down. S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y & N A M I TA B A J PA I @ New Delhi / Lucknow Will meet targets despite tax relief: FM E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi THE government could ‘realistically’ achieve personal income tax collection targets despite offering huge tax relief, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday while responding to the debate on Budget in the Lok Sabha. The House passed the Finance Bill 2025—the piece of legislation t h at g ive s l e g a l backing to the tax proposals and other fiscal measures announced in the Budg et—with 35 amendments. “The Finance Bill provides unprecedented tax relief to SAMSUNG SLAPPED WITH $601 MN TAX CLAIM The government has ordered Samsung and its executives to pay $601 million in back taxes and penalities for evading tariffs on imported telecom equipment. It is one of the biggest tax demands in recent years | P10 honour taxpayers. We have recognised their contribution,” Sitharaman said. In the FY26 Budget, the government increased the threshold for income tax rebate to `12 lakh per from `7 lakh earlier. For salaried taxpayers, this threshold jumped to `12.75 lakh per year after taking into account `75,000 standard deduction. The government also tweaked the tax slabs to benefit a large section of taxpayers. The changes would lead to loss of tax revenue of `1 lakh crore. However, the government has increased the personal income tax collection target for FY26 by 14.14%. “The projected tax collections for FY26 are based on solid data,” Sitharaman said. With the passage of the Finance Bill 2025, the Lok Sabha completed its part of the Budgetary approval process. The Budget process for FY26 will be complete after the Rajya Sabha also approves it. NEW INCOME TAX BILL IN MONSOON SESSION Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the new Income Tax Bill, which has been referred to a standing committee of Parliament, would most likely be taken up for discussion in the monsoon session of Parliament WITH no let up in the Assembly bedlam caused by Congress, Speaker Surama Padhy on Tuesday cracked the whip by suspending 12 party MLAs from the House on grounds of unruly conduct which has disrupted the proceedings for the last several days. This is for the first time in the history of Odisha Assembly that 12 MLAs of the Opposition have been suspended for not letting the House to function. The Congress MLAs were suspended during the afternoon session after an all-party meeting convened by the Speaker failed to resolve the deadlock. The party MLAs were unrelenting on their demand for setting up a House Leaders scuffle with cops near Assly, held Bhubaneswar: The suspension of MLAs from the House spilled onto the streets on Tuesday evening when Congress leaders and activists gave the police a slip and reached the entrance of the State Assembly where they had a scuffle with the cops. Senior Congress leaders including OPCC chief Bhakta Charan Das, former ministers Niranjan Patnaik, Narasingh Mishra, Jayadev Jena and Sarat Rout were later picked up by the police and removed from the restricted zone | P3 Cong MLAs stage protest in the well of House committee to probe into the alle ged incidents of crime against women in the state. The motion for suspension of the Congress members was moved by government chief whip Saroj Pradhan. The suspended Congress members are leader of the Congress legislature party (CLP) Rama Chandra Kadam, CS Rajan Ekka, Sofia Firdous, Ashok Kumar Das, Mangu Action against pharmacies for administering injections: Govt H E M A N T K U M A R R O U T @ Bhubaneswar CONCERNED over the rampant practice of administering injections to patients at medicine stores, the state government on Tuesday issued a directive warning the chemists and druggists of stringent action against such activities. The Health and Family Welfare department has asked all chief district medical officers (CDMOs) and the directorate of Drugs Control to monitor the activities of the medicine stores in this regard and report on the unethical practice. The directive came following allegations of unauthorised medical practices at pharmacies, which could pose serious health risks. In an official communication, the State health department emphasised that only trained healthcare professionals in properly equipped medical facilities should administer injections. A senior health official said this direction aims at ensuring patient safety by restricting injection administration to facilities equipped to handle adverse reactions. “The administration of injections requires medical expertise and monitoring to prevent adverse reactions. Patients receiving injections at unregulated set ups like medicine stores are at risk of complications that may not be managed in time,” he said. The government has directed all district health authorities to conduct inspections and take strict action against violators. Pharmacies have been advised to restrict their role to dispensing medicines as per prescriptions and to guide patients to licensed healthcare providers for injectable treatments. There were allegations that pharmacists and salesmen at the medicine stores without proper training and having facilities to manage adverse reactions had been administering injections at a price whenever CONTINUED ON P5 people request them. EXPRESS READ India, China firm up border management 3 Maoists killed in Dantewada encounter Russia, Ukraine to halt Black Sea strikes New Delhi: India and China have decided to strengthen diplomatic mechanisms to advance border management and examine modalities to resume cross-border cooperation, including on trans-border rivers and the Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra. Both neighbours are working to normalise their ties | P7 Raipur: Three male cadres of CPI (Maoist) were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces in strife-torn Dantewada district on Tuesday, Bastar police said. “So far, three bodies of male Maoists and weapons besides explosives have been recovered”, said Gaurav Rai, Dantewada police chief | P8 Washington: Russia and Ukraine agreed on Tuesday to halt military strikes in the Black Sea, achieving a tentative first step towards peace in talks with the United States held in Saudi Arabia. In parallel statements, the White House said that each country “agreed to ensure safe navigation and eliminate the use of force | P9 Khila, Dasarathi Gamango, Satyajit Gamango, Nilamadhab Hikaka, Sagar Das, Mangu Khila, Pabitra Saunta and Prafulla Pradhan. Two senior Congress legislators Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Ramesh Chandra Jena, however, escaped the disciplinary action by the Speaker as they were not present in the House when the decision was being announced. Bahinipati was ear- lier suspended for seven working days on similar grounds on March 11. The suspended MLAs, however, continued in the well even as the Speaker urged them to vacate the House. Though the Speaker asked the marshals to evict the agitating MLAs from the well, the MLAs held their positions, shouting slogans, beating gongs and blowing CONTINUED ON P5 whistles. FREE SPEECH FURY KAMRA DEFIES SUMMONS, REFUSES TO APOLOGISE S U D H I R S U R YAWA N S H I @ Mumbai THE Mumbai Police on Monday summoned stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for questioning the next day over a case registered against him for lampooning Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde during a recent performance in Mumbai. However, Kamra refused to appear immediately, citing death threats and concerns for his safety He reportedly . requested a week’s time to comply Kamra also took to so. cial media and said he had no reason to apologise since he had only repeated what deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar had already said. The police, investigating whether Kamra was compensated to mock Shinde, have registered a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and are examining his phone and call records. The controversy erupted after Kamra’s performance, in which he parodied the song Bholi Si Surat to call Shinde a gaddar (traitor), referencing his 2022 rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray. Following the video’s release, Shiv Sena workers vandalised a comedy club and demanded its closure. Eleven workers were arrested and later granted bail. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) also demolished part of the club. Kamra defended the comedy club, saying a venue is not responsible for a comedian’s words. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut defended Kunal Kamra saying he had not said anything new. “...Kamra has spoken and repeated the truth and fact only,” Raut said. I do not fear the mob. I wouldn’t go under my bed waiting for the controversy to die down Kunal Kamra KAMRA TROLLS BMC Addressing trolls, Kunal Kamra left a voicemail featuring his song, Hum Honge Kangaal (we shall be bankrupt) and mocked BMC by saying that his next show be held at place which needs to be razed